Blink issue 83 august29 2015

RIGHT (TO) WORK Two recent studies highlight the merits of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) p2 saturday, august 29, 2015

nature morte, new delhi & kukje gallery, seoul. the work is on loan from kukje gallery

It’s an exciting new season for the Indian art world, which is taking better risks and experimenting with greater confidence p9

Show and tell

RISING WATERS A photographer documents the flood-ravaged landscape of South West Bengal p12

THE SATIRE WIFE Twinkle Khanna flashes her intellect and wit in her riotous debut book p18

explore know

BL BL 222

saturday, august 29,29, 2015 saturday, august 2015

CREATURE FEATURE

Terns and conditions A neglected tern chick settles down for food and comfort in an adoptive nest

ambika kamath

A

t the beach a few weeks ago, as I closely related you are to someone, the more terns’ parental behaviour. Because terns nest scoured the sand for seashells, my likely you both are to have inherited the same in large colonies, a chick that leaves its own colleague Rachel Moon turned her DNA from your common ancestor. Therefore, nest is bound to find another nest quite soon. attention to a flock of terns sitting a the more closely related you are to someone, Upon doing so, the chick tries to infiltrate the little distance from the sea. Every now and the more invested you are in their survival and nest, to pass as one of the resident chicks. Surthen, a tern would take off, fly out to sea, and reproduction, because there’s a bigger chance prisingly, this subterfuge often works, and the eventually return with a silver-grey fish in its that they’ll pass on that shared DNA to their wanderer is accommodated into a new family. bright orange beak. Each arrival was accompa- own babies. But at the end of the day, you are On the face of it, tern adoptions make no nied by a chorus of raucous calls. As the birds most closely related to yourself, so evolution- sense. According to the relatedness paradigm, in the flock shuffled around to make room for ary theory says you’ll always put yourself first. caring for an unrelated chick at the expense of the returning hunter, the flock gradually grew Now consider a parent tern with several your own seems like all cost and no benefit. To quiet again. chicks. Because parents are equally related to understand how this cost-benefit equation But a few calls persisted even after the com- all of their offspring, they aren’t supposed to may even out, biologists have hunted for evimotion died down, and Rachel soon discov- pick favourites. But a chick shares all its DNA dence of the possible advantages of adoption ered their source. These piercing cries were with itself and only about half its DNA with its to the parents. So far, they’ve come up empty. being made by some terns, each of whom had siblings, so a chick would prefer But there is another possible exsingled out another tern from the flock and that its parents feed it instead of planation — adoption is an error had partially prostrated itself before its cho- its siblings. This asymmetry in that parent terns make to avoid a sen bird. Maintaining this flattened position, the preferences of the chicks much costlier mistake.

But despite parent the calling terns followed their targets around and the parents led to the interImagine you’re a tern parent terns’ best efforts at insistently. Rachel began to feel annoyed on action we saw. The chicks had that returns to the nest to find a fairness, sometimes behalf of the targeted terns, but the birds clearly grown up. They were big new chick in it. One option, of simply cannot Spade by spade Theplacid, Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Act (MGNREGA) isthey the world’s largest anti-poverty programme gnanavelmurugan themselves remained resolutely ignor-Ruralenough thatGuarantee their parents had course, is thatgthe new chick is an feed all their ing the irritants. decided they did not need to be interloper, in which case it chicks equally At first, we couldn’t figure out what was go- fed any longer; the chicks should be shooed away immediing on. Was this some sort of mating ritual? A begged to differ. ately. The other option is that you signal of submission from omega males toI suspect the chicks we were previously miscounted the numwards the alphas? Just as we were leaving the watching will be fine without ber of chicks in your nest. Evicbeach, it struck me that the prostrating birds being fed. Their perseverance in pestering ting one of your own chicks when you’re looked a little fluffier, a bit more unkempt, their parents will serve them well if applied to capable of caring for it is a big mistake, if your than the birds they were troubling, and then it catching fish. But despite parent terns’ best ef- goal is to ensure that your DNA is passed into suddenly all made sense — these were young forts at fairness, sometimes they simply can- the next generation. So biologists now think terns begging their parents for food! But we not feed all their chicks equally. Some baby that tern parents sometimes adopt others’ hadn’t recognised the interaction as such be- terns thus suffer parental neglect. Born in chicks only because they aren’t quite sure if cause none of these parents had actually fed times of scarcity, and often the youngest of the these strange wandering babies are their own their young. bunch, these neglected chicks are fed far less or not. Not exactly the uplifting self-sacrificial What we were watching — a pleading child than their siblings, and thus grow more slow- act that some may hope for, but when accidenand an unmoved parent — was an elegant bit ly. Chicks that grow slowly are unlikely to sur- tal acts of kindness emerge in creatures otherof evolutionary biology in action. Over the last vive to adulthood. So as soon as a neglected wise focused on themselves and their own, century or so, evolutionary biologists have de- chick can walk, it faces a decision — to stay or they’re worth celebrating. veloped a way of talking about how we expect to go? ambika studiesdon’t organismic evolutionary ourteen million people natural selection to work.

At the heartescaped of this fall- The lection, army of 450babies interviewers and 50 refate ofan the underfed that choose notkamath aware. They realise it’s their right to biology at Harvard University ing intoof poverty under world’s logic is the concept relatedness.

Thethe more andunexpected nearly 12,000 phone calls. to gosearchers, reveals an dimension to “If get work, which is a problem of awareness. largest anti-poverty programme, the you’re ever going to look at the effect of a proI think some of the decline was just due to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Em- gramme or programme participation, you’d the central government. Rajasthan, which is ployment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). In 10 want a ‘before’ and ‘after’ picture on the same the poster child, really shrunk down the work years of its existence, the scheme reduced pov- households as far as possible,” says the princi- they were doing. Political whims do influence erty by 32 per cent. Recent data also shows that pal author of the study, Sonalde Desai. how much emphasis MGNREGA gets. more women are drawing cash incomes, more BLink met with the IHDS survey authors SoOmkar Joshi (OJ): But participation rates children are going to school, and more people nalde Desai, Prem Vashishtha for women, SCs/STs are rising. are opening bank accounts. and Omkar Joshi to discuss The administration itself has Despite severe criticism — Prime Minister where the scheme has worked gone on record and stated that Narendra Modi called it a “living monument and where it hasn’t. Excerpts the perception last year was MGNREGA is a scheme of your [the Congress] failure to tackle poverty from the interview: that this [scheme] will be that is not targeted at in 60 years” — the Act, first rolled out in 2004scrapped, that the ministry is people holding a BPL 05, has provided employment to more than 27 More than half of the total rural not serious about it. The card but rather at crore people in 2.5 lakh gram panchayats in households don’t even seek job scheme may be working on the people who are 658 districts. Earlier this month, two reports cards. Participation numbers ground but it’s the uncertainty potentially poor on the programme were released. One was an are also declining. Why? that affects work allocation. The anthology of research, called Sameeksha, put Sonalde Desai (SD): We are talkministry admitted last year that together by the UNDP; and the other was a sur- ing of two things here. One is there was a sharp drop in the vey — titled ‘MGNREGA: A Catalyst for Rural that you are not in the income works allotted and number of Transformation’ — led by the Indian Human De- category where you want to do manual la- days. But that is no longer there, MGNREGA is velopment Survey (IHDS), National Council bour, like the households of schoolteachers. here to stay. for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and Or take Punjab, where daily wages are anyUniversity of Maryland. where between ₹250 and ₹400, people decid- Sixty per cent of the participating rural A Catalyst… is a unique study because it was ed to not work in MGNREGA, which is fine. So, households want to work more but are unable first held across 26,000 rural households in here things are available but the person is not to find work. There are gaps in wage 1,503 villages and 971 urban blocks in 2004-05 interested. We are happy about that. It’s not a payments and unemployment allowances. when the Act was not implemented, and then cause for worry. The second is where they What are the gaps in work rationing? again in 2011-12, with a 90 per cent “recontact could actually be helped by it, either they SD: There are many ways in which work-rarate”. This exercise took 15 months for data col- don’t see much work happening or they are tioning gaps arise. For example, in order to get

Q

R on Keep calm and carry MGNREGA

Two recent reports show that this social sector scheme has had a causal impact in improving lives, especially for women and children

F

Q R

ND-X _ A

Food matters Hungry, young terns pleading with parents rachel moon

3

BL

know

saturday, august 29, 2015

work you have to go to the gram sabha to express interest. Gram sabhas may be held only twice a year. Somewhere along the line you’re not able to register your interest. Then, even if people have registered, the gram panchayat has to prepare a work plan and send it to the block. It takes a long time. One of the things that Jugal Kishore Mohapatra, Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development, said is that at some level you don’t always have the money when the work is needed. So money may be there for the whole year, but it is not quite available when you need it.

OJ: That was one of the stories we found. For a statutory wage of X, workers are getting less than that in reality. The money should be available to the gram panchayat, if not then he [the pradhan] tries to arrange the money through informal sources of credit, like moneylenders.

He charges interest on that and passes it to workers. So the issues of timing and liquidity are very crucial for wage payments and unemployment allowances. Currently, just four per cent people get unemployment allowances.

One of the major findings of the survey was that poverty has declined by about 32 per cent since MGNREGA was implemented, that is, an estimated 14 million people didn’t fall into poverty. How effective has the scheme been?

Prem Vashishtha (PV): We have been able to identify those households which have participated in MGNREGA, so the 14 million people figure is from that. If you take away their MGNREGA income, they would go below the poverty line. It is in this sense that we are saying that the scheme could prevent them from falling into poverty.

SD: Participant households would have been poorer by 25-32 per cent, depending on the method, if MGNREGA was not there. We have used two different assumptions. The first is when we assume that MGNREGA workers are drawn from a cadre of under-employed people. So MGNREGA work is not replacing something else, it is adding income. A certain percentage of it would be devoted to consumption; the poorest would use 90 per cent.

We subtract that expenditure from what they are actually making and say that their expenditure has increased. That difference gives us about 32 per cent reduction in poverty rate.

The second method is you take households which are similar in background — education, land ownership etc, and you see the poverty decline. The poverty decline is a secular decline because of economic growth. For participating households and non-participating households of similar characteristics, we see that MGNREGA households have a sharper poverty decline. The difference between their neighbour’s poverty decline and their own poverty decline, that difference gives you the additional MGNREGA edge, which is about 25 per cent.

The report also talks about poverty and vulnerability. What is the difference and why is vulnerability a better measure?

SD: Vulnerability is very interesting. The country started out [post Independence] with a 50 per cent poverty rate, which has gone down to 21 per cent. So there’s been an overall decline.

When poverty rates were high, you were born in circumstances that kept you poor. As poverty falls, factors of birth become less important and factors of life — drought, illness, widowhood — become more important.

And what you have to recognise is that these are people who have a potential vulnerability to fall into poverty. Right now it’s fine, they have been pushed up the poverty line because of growth, but they are only one illness away from falling back into poverty. That becomes very difficult to identify a priori. You can’t give

Build together Implementation of MGNREGA has been successful even in states such as Tamil Nadu that rank high on social and economic indicators m moorthy

people a BPL card three years in advance.

Poverty is no longer a static factor. Forty per cent of the households that currently work in MGNREGA were not poor in our survey seven years ago. We called them transient poor. If we think of poverty as a dynamic phenomenon, then our safety net programmes can’t rely on our ability to identify the poor. MGNREGA is a scheme that is not targeted at people holding a BPL card but rather at people who are potentially poor.

have become super-empowered? No. Actually, in a sea of disempowerment, these are marginal improvements. But in the feminist advocacy for equal wages, this is one example where it just happened!

Looking at administrative data, there is an exogenous change in wages and employment impact. The question now is, if the employment has any other positive impact on their households. We see some indications of it but as sceptical empiricists, we will have to wait and see.

According to the survey, wages have The survey reports improvement in children’s improved, so has financial inclusion. Formal education. On the other hand, ASER has credit is also on the rise. However, these reported a decline in learning levels over the indicators have improved for non-MGNREGA last decade... households as well. To what extent is SD: Enrolment has been rising across the MGNREGA responsible?

SD: There is a general improvecountry but it is also bringing in ment as far as financial inclusion a lot of first-generation learners. is concerned. What MGNREGA This has had an impact on ASER’s seems to have done is hastened it report. We see reading and writfor participants. It led to bank acing skills declining marginally.

For these women, counts, so individuals don’t have MGNREGA might very That is the big story with to rely on moneylenders. Overall which we have no complaints. well be the first cash improvement is happening.

However, we were surprised to income opportunity That is why we have carefully see kids from MGNREGA housecalled it a ‘catalyst’. holds were doing better. With first-generation learners, learnOne of the success stories of ing levels ought to drop even for MGNREGA has been the participation of MGNREGA kids. But this is where we see a women. How much credit does the scheme slight improvement. deserve for this?

At first, we thought it might be because the SD: Here, I would give MGNREGA a causal role. parents now have money, they are able to give Forty five per cent of participating women their kids books, tuitions. The route for imwere not in wage employment in the previous provements, we thought, was higher expendiround, 24 per cent worked on their farms, 21 ture. But we don’t see that. MGNREGA families per cent were not working at all. For these are spending more on their children, but nonwomen, MGNREGA might very well be the first MGNREGA families are spending even more. cash income opportunity.

What is really happening is that MGNREGA children are spending more time in school-reIn 2004-05, only nine per cent women had lated activities — more hours in school, on bank accounts, now 49 per cent have them, 93 homework. Part of it is declining child labour per cent women now seek health services. [marginal improvement], but part of it is beDespite increase in participation, the report cause households are now able to substitute says that women still barely make one out of certain services, which children were forced four decisions that indicate empowerment — to provide, with the MGNREGA income. So whether to buy an expensive item, how many now you can buy fuel wood, rather than get children to have, what to do when children fall children to gather it. ill, and whom the child should marry.

SD: Are we saying that Indian rural women priyanka kotamraju

Q R

know takeaway

BL BL 204

saturday, august 29,29, 2015 saturday, august 2015

whether as a passive onlooker or whether they forwarded the messages themselves, remains hazy. “It is possible that some admins may have forwarded the text, but I spoke to at least one who was held only because he managed the group,” says Homkar.

Are the admins culpable in such situations?

“Not at all,” say internet experts, if the admin has had nothing to do with the fear-mongering texts. But if the admin has forwarded a potentially harmful message, he/she is accountable like anyone else. “It is then an act done knowingly,” says Prasanth Sugathan, counsel at the Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Centre. “The act of forwarding makes you accountable. The burden of truth is on you,” he adds. Chinmayi Arun, research director at Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University, Delhi, pitches in, “Just being an inactive administrator of a large group, who may not be able to vet all of its content, is very different from forwarding rumours. People who forward rumours should be responsible enough to at least highlight their doubtful veracity.”

However, if the admin is unconnected to the group activities, he cannot be held for merely starting the group, they say. “Unless, of course, you have started it for an illegal activity or to cause an offence,” says Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bengaluru-based The Centre for Internet and Society. The WhatsApp admin, they point out, is a mere intermediary.

One who isn’t vested with any power, except to Down memory lane It was while shopping in Penny Lane that Cynthia, John Lennon’s first wife, went into labour to give to son Julian photos byfrom zac o’yeah addbirth or remove members the group.

Twenty-three-year-old Hrishikesh, from Dhanbad, is currently admin in six groups. In TUMMY TRAVELS three, he is one among multiple admins. He hardly keeps tab on the goings-on in this space and is not acquainted with all members, he says. “A WhatsApp admin has no control, no facility to moderate or tweak a message,” The good word The best way to counter rumours on WhatsApp is by educating users, say experts bloomberg says Sugathan. Abraham trots out Section 79 of the IT Act. “It gives the admin immunity from liability that emerges from content posted by the members,” he says. The best way to track the original senders in such cases, he says, is to rope in the help of the telecom department, the other intermediary (in the case of WhatsApp, the owner Facebook) and blend it with some ‘old-fashioned’ detective work.

“Counter bad speech with good speech,” says Abraham, and that is often the best way to deal with rumour-mongering. Instances like h yeah’ was the only thought in orphanage gates, which today are covered in those at Solapur and Ahmedabad have been my mind as I stood outside John fan graffiti. Like all other fans I take a selfie. rare, he reasons. “Such stuff can be dealt better Lennon’s childhood home, MenThere’s something weird about it all. I never with education rather than regulation. All dips — a semi-detached Liver- met the guy. Yet he’s more real to me than any types of nuisance shouldn’t be regulated. The pool villa now owned by the National Trust memory I have of my own childhood friends. cost of implementing new laws and training (donated to them by Lennon’s second wife, The hours spent listening to cassettes and police personnel for it is not cheap. In these artist Yoko Ono). Limited numbers of tourists singing along — Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! — means I can cases, SMSes from the police could go to every are allowed inside. Of course, I wasn’t smart practically see him before me as I wander single mobile user in the district, telling them enough to book anSolapur advance ticket, butMahI’m about Neatlyhere slotting lives into groups of friends, the rumours are false.” n early August, in southeast in Liverpool. happy to gawkwas across the wall. been afear. fan work andBeatle family,spots it allows users to flit in and arashtra gripped by aI’ve strange Other include a traffic signal Sugathan concurs with this. Facebook, rasinceLike I was 10. Lennon was the most small towns, Solapur rarely out of interactions. fair amounthad of trouwhere But Paula McCartney a bi- dio and other mass media should be used by samemakes age when sat on that also springing the heheadlines except when ble-making iscycle puncture,upthe church the police to quell rumours, he says. porch strumming guitar. drought deepens. his That changed as alarmed from the app.where he first met Lennon in He points out that in the aftermath of Lennon’s majorallgrowing-up In Solapur,1957 the police villagers in almost of the district’s 11 tehsils (and tasked where a woman the 2011 London riots, although social In look the crammed trauma took place too. on the with putting named the rumours to Rigby an camped outdoors dayhere, and night, Eleanor lies burmedia was blamed for aggravating While toenemy. the opposite out forcrossing an unseen “In the bastisbasement (villag- concert end had visited bastis, ied), and narrowed Penny Lane — A itllwas the situation, there were ample warntypes of are murals side of Menlove Avenue, down by the suspected smartphone es), residents kept night vigils,his sittingroom around while shopping there thatnuisance Cynings against shutting it down during the mother Julia was mowed downjournalist, a fire,” Deepak Homkar, a local re-Beatles’ users and randomly checked thia, Lennon’s first wife, went in- be such times. “Blocking the medium is shouldn’t by a drunk-driving copflying without a — of original their WhatsApp messages.

“Webirth toregulated calls.

Rumours were thick theft, bassist to labour to give pop blocking an avenue for information.

Stuart Sutcliffe driver’s licence, who and mistook the kidnapping found these star rumours some,in 1963. It is a widespread looting possible Julianon Lennon One cannot arrest each and every peraccelerator for the brake pedal. of children. And all of it over WhatsApp, the in- not other [phones],” saysneighbourhood a police very quiet and, son. So educating people works betLennon mulled over loss scenes in 36 hours search, stant messaging app. his Similar were re- official. After except forofsome businesses that ter,” says Sugathan. Some like his mostfrom touching songs such as ported Ahmedabad a month earlier. 16 young men were held names under such as ‘Sgt. cash in with Abraham consider these hiccups inJulia and Mother. spreading alarm and fear in evitable in our evolving use of social media. A Rumours of dacoity and terrorist attacks IPC 505 1(B) for Peppers Bistro’, it doesn’t outThe Woolton suburb is dotted with many Pandharpur tehsil alone. It included those House spread panic in areas around Ahmedabad.

Ar- right scream Beatlemania. new technology is often considered of the rising sun Fans outside Lennon’ssacromore spotsmade relating to who his had song-writing. allegedly sentofthe message and several childhood rests were of those allegedly who Instead, much Beatlemania happened sanct and reliable. “From repeated exposure home Around the corner on texts, Beaconsfield the downtown ‘admins’ (those whoLiverpool. open andI visit manage the emerges critical understanding. It will take us sent fear-mongering but theRoad, damage in central the JacaStrawberry Field done. orphanage used to have randa had already been group (23 accounts).

After being questioned and another five years to know that Wikipedia is Slater Street), a low-key joint where events kids.

Strawberry Withfor over 800Lennon million,composed and growing, active they warned against repeating the men played in 1960 beforesuch they texts, got famous.

It by notthe theBeatles’ source original of truth.”bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, Fields Forever on the theme of childhood nos- was users worldwide, WhatsApp is popular among were let runoff.by their first manager. In the fellow art student at the college Lennon went p anima talgia the Beatles did a promo shoot attoo. the crammed The complicity the WhatsApp admin, to. the 160and million smartphone users in India basementofconcert room are murals One profile on the wall looks like Lennon’s

In the town where IThe wasnew born… tattler in town

Beatlemania in Liverpool, home of the Fab Four, has both highs and lows

zac o’yeah

‘O I

WhatsApp messages, and in particular ‘admins’ of WhatsApp groups come under pressure as rumourmongering catches the attention of the police

Q R

Q R

ND-X _ A

5

BL

know

saturday, august 29, 2015

Seeing red The thought of millions of shareholders losing their savings in the stock market crash must be giving the Communist Party nightmares of street protests afp/greg baker

AGENDA

Chinese whispers Will the Shanghai stock market collapse jeopardise the Communist Party regime in Beijing?

sambuddha mitra mustafi

T

his year the Communist Party in China entered its 66th year in power.

Only two other one-party regimes — the communist parties in erstwhile Soviet Union and the current North Korean regime — have survived longer. It took 74 years before the Soviet communists wilted, while in North Korea the regime has entered its 70th year in power.

All eyes this week have been on Shanghai’s stock market, whose dramatic 30-plus per cent collapse triggered a global selloff. But there is a much larger story that could be unfolding in Beijing: an existential threat to the Communist Party regime.

As China analyst Minxin Pei has pointed out, “social science research has shown that once per capita income crosses a certain threshold (about $4,000 in purchasing power parity, or PPP), authoritarian regimes in nonoil producing states face greater risks of fall.”

It happens because elite and middle-class taxpayers in such countries become unwilling to prop up a regime that does not allow participation or dissent. With per capita income at above $10,000, China is already an extreme outlier in that respect.

The Chinese top leadership is well aware that they have so far defied history and democratic gravity to stay in power. They know what keeps them in power is the elite consensus in the country, that the single-party regime has been a key driver of the impressive economic growth of the last two decades.

If the annual growth rate falls below five per cent, however — the Chinese whisper goes — dissent against the Party may spill over to the streets. In 1989, the Tiananmen Square student protests also happened in the backdrop of an economic downturn. And no one is more paranoid about losing power than the Party elite. Hence, at the slightest sign of economic

trouble, the country’s central bank and policy- from marching to Tiananmen Square though, makers go out of their way to ensure proactive remains to be seen. measures to boost economic confidence.

In a March essay for the Wall Street Journal, tiLook at the alacrity with which The People’s tled The Coming Chinese Crackup, veteran China Bank of China reacted to the market fall. This watcher David Shambaugh made the bold preweek it reduced lending and deposit interest diction that President Xi Jinping could well berates by 0.25 percentage points each and its re- come China’s Mikhail Gorbachev, presiding serve requirement ratio by 0.50 percentage over the collapse of communist regime. points. This is the fifth rate cut announced by Though he noted that Xi was very different China since November 2014. The Chinese au- from Gorbachev in his leadership style, the thorities have also often been accused of fudg- former’s strong-arm tactics are stalling the reing numbers to make their economic picture forms that China needs for further growth. seem rosier than it actually is.

“Mr Xi’s wave of repression today is meant to And therein lies the larger problem. Rather be the opposite of Mr Gorbachev’s perestroika than let the markets determine and glasnost,” wrote Shamtheir own prices, the governbaugh. “Until and unless China ment is caught in a vicious cycle relaxes its draconian political of giving booster shots to the controls, it will never become If the annual growth economy to ensure its own suran innovative society and a rate falls below five per vival, creating an unsustainable knowledge economy… If Mr Xi cent however — the credit bubble. The bubble now and party leaders don’t relax Chinese whisper goes seems to be bursting, and could their grip, they may be sum— dissent against the well take the Communist Party moning precisely the fate they Party may spill over to with it. hope to avoid.” the streets According to Bloomberg, 40 While many in India and othmillion new brokerage acer emerging economies had counts were opened in China looked up to the Chinese model between June 2014 and May of state-driven capitalism as an 2015, and many of them invested in stocks ideal during the heady decades of growth, the with borrowed money. The quality of share- limitations of such a system are now becomholders is also questionable: many of them ing obvious. If an economy and society moves are not educated, and most do not have an in- towards the market with competition and vesting background. The thought of millions substitutes, the political leadership cannot reof shareholders losing their savings in the main a monopoly. stock market crash must be giving the ComIf the ordinary Chinese consumer can go munist Party nightmares of street protests. out to the supermarket and have a choice of 10 In one of those ‘Only in China’ moments, different noodle soups, she will soon demand the Financial Times reported that students of similar choices for the country’s political Tsinghua University in Beijing were instructed leadership. to chant the slogan “Revive the A shares, benefit the people” at their graduation ceremony. sambuddha mitra mustafi is the founder of For how long such slogans will stop them The Political Indian tsome_buddha

Q R

read talk

BL BL 186

saturday, august 29,29, 2015 saturday, august 2015

The laddoo of the prom Profit = Philanthropy LIGHTHOUSE

With her straight-talking and no-nonsense ways, Twinkle Khanna wants to prove that she can be just like any other woman riding an autorickshaw The only sustainable way to make money is to help others

B

Mrs Funnybones Twinkle Khanna Penguin ₹299

eing an overweight child is probably the best thing that ever happened to Twinkle Khanna. Having a name like Twinkle comes a close second. The teasing and bullying left her no choice but to develop a quick-witted personality as a defence mechanism. “Who has heard of the prom queen after the prom? Nobody! Because she doesn’t develop anything... except maybe breasts,” says Khanna, explaining why she was better off likened to a laddoo. She makes a valid argument. At 41, she is one of the most widely read humour columnists in the country and has now turned author with the launch of her debut book, Mrs Funnybones. Her latest avatar as writer is in addition to her flourishing career as an interior decorator, and a less-successful one as an actress. “I’ve blocked out that part of my life,” she says of her film career, over a cup of black coffee at her store The White Window in Bandra, Mumbai.

It’s the beginning of a manic day for Khanna. After our conversation she has an online interaction with readers, and then an appointment at her son’s school. As she juggles all of this, her lunch remains untouched in a small bag. “I’ve been trying to catch up on my chil-

“N

ND-X _ A

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

ever talk to me about profit,” Jawaharlal Nehru once said to an industrialist friend of his.

“It is a dirty word.”

Nehru’s sentiments were understandable in those times. India had just rid itself of the British, who had come here ostensibly to do business and had left us impoverished. Nehru, who had played a notable role in the fight for freedom, had spent his formative years in England learning from the Fabian socialists, as well as from Harold Laski, the Marxist professor at LSE who, through students such as Nehru himself and VK Krishna Menon, arguably had a greater influence on modern India than Mahatma Gandhi . The Soviet Union seemed to be a model to admire, America itself vastly expanded the role of the state after the Great Depression, and the top-down command-and-control economy must have seemed incredibly attractive to Nehru. The centre had to hold. The profit motive was evil.

And those exploitative capitalists had to be kept in check.

It is not fair to judge Nehru in hindsight, and he was right about other things that mattered. But he was wrong about this. Profit is the secret behind all prosperity. And it is a distrust of the profit motive that has kept this country poor.

The fundamental fallacy that Nehru committed was of looking at the economy as a zero-sum game. By that thinking, if someone is winning, someone else must be losing. If the industrialist makes a profit, someone else is getting exploited. But this is not the way the

dren’s school work because I’ve missed out as much about me as it is about a normal this entire week. This junket has left me a little ity was caused bylives the in explosion of trade, ofis so woman who India. Our country brain-dead. It was my two-year-old daughter’s markets around world, ofmatter quickly proliferunique thatthe it doesn’t that your ecoshow-and-tell in school yesterday and I didn’t atingnomic ‘Double-Thank-You Moments’. backgrounds are different, because you know what to send, so I gave her my book,” she This prosperity correlated with eco- deexperience thewas same things in varying says, laughing at her ingenious solution. nomic freedom. year staff the Heritage Foungrees.

So if IEvery have four members who are Khanna has studiously kept away from the dation brings out an of Economic driving me mad, my Index accountant will have one media glare for years now, but her re-invenFreedom.

Goisonline and it she up, says. and you bai who driving herlook mad,” tion as Mrs Funnybones — a moniker she came will find economic freedom andwould wealthhave If that she had her way, Khanna up with for Twitter because her own name go hand in her hand.

The freer are, the wealthmade debut withyou a “sober book about a wasn’t available — has put her back in the foreier you tend to be.family”.

Also, the freer the pre-Partition But thenyou herare, publishers front. Her star husband, Akshay Kumar, who fasterconvinced you grow. her The data is conclusive. to extend her columns — viwas promoting his film Brothers recently told Forget thefrom data,her youlife say.which Capitalists are exgnettes she deftly ties up her with a giggle, “‘This is like Abhimaan. ploitative.

What about low wages paid by and with larger issues the of government policy They’re asking me more about you.’”

Walmart?

What about sweatshops run by she social taboos.

About two years back, when In many ways, Khanna seems like an aberralargestarted MNCs in third-world countries like Banwriting her column, Khanna admits tion in the society she was born in and margladesh, wherewas workers toil injuicy inhumane conher editor expecting material on the ried into. One would have expected her book ditions?

Isn’t the profit motive at work? world of that showbiz.

Though she found that topto resemble the fashion magazine covers she Yes, is. And I deeply to admire andoccaic ittoo uninspiring writeWalmart about, she graces occasionally. Or that she’d at least dole everysionally company that runs sweatshop a entertains withaher hilariousin insights out pointers on how to look ‘fab at 40’, or be poor a into country.

That isofbecause people who she the world societythe ladies.

A world fashionable mother of two. But she insisted on workfrequents in Walmart and in“There those are sweatshops do at times. some mandatoan illustration of her riding an autorickshaw, so because it isthat theevery best option to them. ry things society open lady has to do, like her mane flying wildly in the wind and her Theytheir are not Theyblow-dried, are choosing toare work hairfools. is always they always two children peeping out curiously. “I felt putwhere they do because theylove deem all other al- dewell-dressed, and they carrying these ting my face on the cover would take away ternatives be worse, and those evil capitalist signertobags.

I’m not like that.

But can I adjust from what the book was about. It is not really behemoths should actually be thanked forinto ac- that to that situation?

Of course.

I can slip tually providing anitoption is better role and slipthem out of just asthat easily,” she says. thanKhanna’s the bestintroduction option otherwise available to at the beginning of the them.

We condescend to those workers when book even states that she ‘narrowly escaped a we say they are tragedy being exploited.

(Indeed, it is to gruesome when Bollywood tried possible that we are exploiting them using bludgeon her brain to the size ofby a pea’. ufuk zivana/shutterstock them toHer feed our sanctimony.) straight-talking ways may be a new disThis doesn’t to slavery andfriends trafficking, covery forapply the public, but her seem acworld works. All trade is a positive-sum game; of course, for byto‘free I mean markets customed hermarkets’ quick wit.

At the launch of and indeed, it is not possible for one person where adultsher trade freely herconsenting book last week, friend andunder one-time alone to make a profit in a transaction. the rule of law.

Also, letdescribed us not conflate co-star Aamir Khan her as rentsomeone I am fond of illustrating this by citing what seeking and profit-seeking.

Many large com“who insults everybody”.

Khanna says her the writer John Stossel calls the ‘Double Thank- panies get tongue together with to put sharp was thegovernment bane, especially during You Moment’. When you place an order at, say, restrictions on markets so that their“At markether acting days. the time a Cafe Coffee Day, you say ‘thank you’ when you share is protected from competition.

Such prothere were a lot of dodgy are handed your cup of coffee. And the cashier protectionism hurts thefrom common consumer, and ducers the underworld says ‘thank you’ when you hand over your and amounts to Iahad redistribution wealth no clue. Onceofwhile doing a Who has heard of the money. This double ‘thank-you’ illustrates that from the poor at movie large toI came rich special-interest late to the set. So I prom queen after the both of you benefit from the groups.

Big companies are often screamed saying, ‘What will you prom? Nobody! transaction. Both of you profit. the biggest enemies of free do to me?

Will you stab marme? Will Because she doesn’t This is, simply put, the root kets,you and kill capitalism often unfairme?’ Everyone around develop anything... cause of prosperity. Every single ly gets badhorrified. name because it is meawas They probably maybe breasts Andexcept I deeply admire voluntary transaction that takes confused with‘Yes! crony capitalism thought, He will kill you!’”

Walmart and every place makes both parties better — or ‘crapitalism’ as some callthat it. her It’s no wonder then company that runs off, and increases the sum total Tocolumn sum up, the profit motive is goes through many a sweatshop in a of value in the world. Equally, evnot something nefarious,before but ismakrounds of proofing poor countrying it to print. ery impediment that anyone actually You sees can only prof-draft.

Hernoble. husband the first places on the ability of consentin a he freethinks market by improving On mostitdays she’s their in-house ing adults to trade freely with someonebut else’s the more Salman Rushdie, helife. has And made her remove each other reduces the notional youas profit, greater good words such ‘lotus’the and ‘penis’the from her covalue in the world, and is an impediment to you do, the “Just higher the value you acreate.

Profit, lumn. yesterday I had column on godgrowth. It stands to reason, then, that trade indeed, isand the purest of philanthropy. men I had toform remove an entire paragraph. should lead to prosperity, and that economic I must admit here the very It was really funny,” sheslight, rues.teeny-wee“But I’m okay freedom should be correlated with a nation’s ny possibility thatthing I am you being unjust to Nehru. with it. Next know, I’ll have a case on wealth. Does the data bear this out? You bet it Maybe heshe hadadds. a mischievous glint in his eye me,” does. when he wassomeone a ‘dirty word’.

I Yet,said shethat feelsprofit that for with a tendGo online and Google ‘The Hockey Stick of can imagine him sidling up tooff, Edwina Mountency to shoot her mouth writing is the perHuman Prosperity’, and you will come across batten a party, gently putting his warped,” hand on she fectatfit.

“My ideologies are not an astonishing chart. It shows world GDP her waist, and“But whispering her,Writing ‘Edwina, my me explains.

I talk tootofast. allows through the centuries, and right from 500BC dear,time would likethese to, ahem, profitso with me?’ to you refine thoughts, that I’m not to the 18th century, it’s a flat line, with hardly That hurting certainly could feelings have ledbut to am a double anyone’s getting my Stand apart any growth to speak of. And then it explodes thank-you point moment. across,” she says. If initial reactions to Twinkle Khanna upwards, almost vertically, like the head of a the book are to be believed, Mrs Funnybones can often appear hockey stick. This dramatic growth in prosperhas achieved precisely that. t@amitvarma an aberration in

Q Q R R

the glitz of Bollywood

mohini chaudhuri

7

BL

talk

saturday, august 29, 2015

UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

The devotion of Jitender Ch A small mosque in South Delhi becomes the stage for communal harmony

House of worship Nili (Blue) Masjid dates back to the Lodis, the dynasty that ruled Delhi Sultanate from mid-15th to the early 16th century ramesh sharma

T

Omair Ahmad is an author. His last book was on Bhutan

here is a small mosque near the apartment I live in in Delhi’s Gulmohar Park. I found it by accident. It is neither big, nor does it have a loud public address system, but once in a while, very early in the morning, I would hear a faint call for prayer. My wife and I grew curious about this mosque that we could rarely, and faintly, hear. As both of us enjoy walking, we explored the neighbourhood until we spotted it. It was about 200-300 yards from our apartment, and well worth the search. It is a small structure, by all accounts, with limited amenities. A new, multi-storey mosque has been around for the last few decades in nearby Green Park, but I still prefer this old one.

Part of its appeal is the age. The mosque — called Nili Masjid or Blue Mosque — is named after the delicate blue colour of the tilework that adorns it. There is little left, but that is no surprise. The building dates back to the preMughal Lodi dynasty, and would have been built sometime in the 15th or early 16th century. There is no real record — or at least I have not come across any — of who built this monument. Such small buildings, or ruins thereof, litter the neighbourhood around Hauz Khas, and much larger ones have little explanations attached to them; this one, with a main structure of barely 15ft by 3 , and an outer courtyard of maybe twice as much, hardly rates a mention. Maybe this is why it had become a dump until a maulvi took it upon himself to clean it.

With permission from the authorities and approval from the police — who did not like a place that had become a grotto of illicit activ-

ities and the subject of complaints — the Nili the cloth spread on the road, I was curiously Masjid has become a humble gathering place, pleased by the very clean khaki of the policeneat and tidy, an unobtrusive bit of Indian his- men’s trousers, perfect crease et al. I was tory happily in place in India’s capital city. dressed in new clothes for Eid, thanks to my The mosque has few regular attendees, and mother-in-law, and it pleased me that the pothe few times that I have dropped in for licemen were as well. prayers I have met maybe five or 10 people, or As they came to us, the policemen fanned during Friday prayers, all of 40-50. During out, standing just at the edge of the people Ramzan, of course, the attendance goes up. Ac- about to pray, and started directing the traffic cording to Islamic belief, Ramzan around us. Quietly, unobtrusiveis the lunar month in which the ly, they displayed their commitQuran was first revealed, and durment to the policeman’s duty to ing extended night prayers called protect fellow citizens. The Taraveeh, the whole of it is recitprayer was about to start, and as I When you prostrate ed. The Eid-ul-Fitr prayers, held rose to join in, my eyes fell on onfor sijda, you see the morning after the complely one policeman’s badge. It said, nothing. Completely tion of Ramzan, marking the end defenceless, with my ‘Jitender Ch’. of both fasting and extended head to the ground, I During prayer, your attention prayers, are fairly well-attended. I narrows, and when you prostrate heard the gravel found myself in Delhi that day. for sijda, your head to the crunch as cars Having taken a day off from ground, you see nothing. Compassed by work, I thought I would stroll pletely defenceless, with my down to Nili Masjid and offer head to the ground, I heard the short prayers as well. gravel crunch as cars passed by, By the time I reached, the the only thing keeping me alive mosque and the courtyard were full, and the as I closed myself to the world, was the devocrowd had spilled out onto the street. I found tion of Jitender Ch. I didn’t doubt my safety for myself at the edge, irritated at having arrived an instant. late. The road is public property, and enThe prayers got over a few minutes later. croaching on it, by three feet or so — the same Had I been in my hometown, or among area taken up by cars parked at the hospital on friends, we would have embraced, and said the other side of the road — is just not appro- “Eid Mubarak”. Here I knew nobody, and the priate, even if for an annual ritual that takes all only thing I said was to the policeman, “Thank of five-10 minutes. you.” He smiled, and waved me on home.

As I sat down to pray, I saw a group of policetOmairTAhmad men make their way to the crowd. Sitting on

Q R

work read

BL BL 16 8

saturday, august 29,29, 2015 saturday, august 2015

Still on the rack The very idea of Pakistan was highly ambiguous and complex and it continues to be a space rife with tensions furies consumed the rest of the nation.

In Sindh, the scope for forging cross-community identities was limited by demography.

Muslims tended to be rural and agrarian while Hindus were mostly urban and mercantile. And in the frontier, the populist charisma of Badshah Khan and his effort to reawaken a sense of Pashtu solidarity that transcended frontiers, kept the sectarian appeal of religion at bay.

Matters started snowballing towards a sepBeyond basic needs aration soon after Nehru rejected the Cabinet The countrywide Mission Plan of 1946. Jinnah’s callof for a day of network public distribution ‘direct action’ led to riots in Calcutta system and else(PDS) outlets presents where, claiming up to 10,000 victims.

That, as a bottom-of-theAyesha Jalal put in her landmark work on Parpyramid retail tition (The Sole Spokesman,opportunity 1985), “destroyed the India of Jinnah’s dreams”. reuters/amit dave Jaffrelot takes issue with this judgement since Jinnah could not, at that point, be said to have had a coherent plan for India’s political future. Further, in seeking to keep Bengal and Punjab united while insisting on separateness elsewhere, Jinnah was torn between irreconcilable principles, which resulted in “counterproductive decisions”.

“Highly ambiguous and complex” as Pakistan as an idea was, it left on its consummation a trail of bitter communal estrangement, large-scale violence and a war that led to the partition of Muslim-majority Kashmir. The deDetermined by history Pakistangrows is a nation defined alterity of itslonger origin, partly by volition s online shopping more pop-by themain open and sell more.but in large nial of Pakistan’s claim to Kashmir, which part by forceular of circumstances.

Students attend 68th Independence Day celebrations at the by the day, Kishore Biyani,thethe “It is an experiment, but themausoleum results sooffar seemed ironclad by all criteria — and Delhi’s its founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah afp/rizwan tabassum man who catapulted brick-and- have been encouraging,” says Biyani, referring rapprochement with Kabul — fuelled a sense mortar retail to new heights in In- to the five stores that have been launched in of insecurity and a lingering suspicion that Inor himself someonescouting who hasforworked many dia, found the next big Jaipur the ‘minority Muslims’ on a pilot basis. of the British Raj, ie, by dia intended to undo the new state. on modern India’s political his- the“This idea. Theyears founder and chief executive officer communal elite in provinces as Bomis a different market.

(Thesuch products) in Insecurity led the new state to embrace a tory, a scholarly to the es- these of Future Group has nowexcursus identified a new bay and the United stores will be Provinces. limited to Muslim just 250politiSKUs unitary structure, quite contrary to the federwestern neighbour was (stock frontier tranged to conquer — customers at Rajascal mobilisation herehewas keeping units),” adds.driven by two al principles on which the Pakistan campaign perhaps a logical step. Between Christophe Jaf- contrary than’s public distribution system (PDS) outimpulses: an attachment to the had run. The contest was referred to the Basic So rather than every kind of household frelot’s earlier volume on Pakistan, titled Na- item, lets.

This group of buyers includes those courtly from the days of grocery, Mughalperhe- Principles Committee — promptly absorbed theculture shops will initially stock tionalism Without Nation (2002), of to varithe sonal below poverty line aand beneficiaries gemony and an acute sense of vulnerability healthcare and homecare products. to into the popular imagination as the Bengali current he seemsofto the havestate maintained ous foodwork, programmes govern- modernising trends among Hindus, whichtoo, as- Punjabi Controversy — and became the seed Although other brands will be available the thesis nation defined ment.

All of Pakistan them getasaamonthly quota by of asured themofa the more crediblewill claim to sharing majority products belong to the from which a cataclysmic breakup occurred the alterity its origin, partly by volition but group’s sugar, wheatofand kerosene at subsidised rates. power within the Raj.as that will allow it to of- in 1971. own brands, founder CEO, Future in largewants part by force of circumstances.

Biyani to sell them deodorants, mosqui- ferThe ‘separatepricing but equal’ ideology that the Kishore competitive and drive volumes.

IndiaBiyani, inherited veryand similar issues, though Group times been fertilebesides for scholarto Recent repellents andhave floor cleaners, fair- Muslim League adopted notare, gain Margins on private labeldid goods onmuch aver- it had the advantage of geographical cohership creams on Pakistan, for reasons that its citizens traction within ness and noodles, at the Muslim age, aboutmajori10 per cent higher ence. The Congress, besides, may have of mixed feelingsacross about. Older pos- ty provinces. than hundreds PDS outlets Cross-communal those on similar branded people visitinghad politicalretail profile acrossthat the theamodern outlets tures about Pakistan’s emergence as a conse- alliances hadproducts. the state. remarkable suc- pass on the the Future group Retailers country, unlikethethe Muslim has. It gives group a betquence of sinister imperial “Consumer aspirations are ‘divide-and-rule’ ris- Consumer aspirations cess in severalbenefit of these of regions, higher margins to cus- ter critical mass League in Pakistan, which and can help it grow thewas busi-a Jaffrelot highlights how policies over the ing and have theybeen wantsupplanted to try new as inthey Punjab, where Nationtomersthe in the form of lower pric- ness more efficiently transplant the Muslim miand from profitably,” he adds. areyears rising and this assertion of Bengali by a focus You on the of rival commuproducts. canhigh sell politics a lot more al Unionist Party knitted toes.

So those using Rajasthan’s nority provinces of the Raj. And The group is also ready with the supply want to try new cultural-linguistic nal elitesfair during British turn, this You through pricethe shops,” saysRaj. Bi- In products. gether rural PDS elitesservices from both will now have ac- chain for the backend, then, as as Jalal pointed out, it ishas present in Rajascan sell identity was quashed by thesisexplaining has been challenged from differyani, the potential in-widely Hindu and Muslim faiths.

That cess to a wider range of products India inherited the bureaucratthan through its Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar a lot more through a local Muslim League ent perspectives Devji (Muslimfair Zion, herent in theby Faisal Annapurna bind that in Benprices are lower than formats. “We have ic and apparatheadministrative backend operations alpricecement shops couldatnot leadership associated 2013) andYojna, Venkat Dhulipala (Creating a New gal, where the Bhandar a public-private Muslims werebrands. those of national ofBiyani the Raj while Pakistan ready in place,”tus says with Mohammad Medina, 2015),(PPP) whichscheme argue forbean explicit eth- largely sharecroppers partnership bitterly “It is a good opportunity for had to create all afresh.

This new experiment, forit Biyani, is an atAli Jinnah no-nationalist motivation the creation of oppressed byboth tween the Rajasthan State in Food zamindars, Future largeGroup and the cus- tempt to ride Pakistan remains a country the storm of competition Pakistan. and Civil Supplies Corporation ly Hindu. Yettomers, a populist whocrossget much more va- whipped up by stretched on the rack in Jaffree-commerce players and corJaffrelot’s very substantial volume and Future Consumer Enterprise (FCEL).assem- riety communal mobilisation didBiyani is an porate giants lot’s on the shelves. Mr There such reading. as Reliance andare AV three Birla bles a numberhas of earlier writings Pakistan’s Rajasthan nearly 25,000onfair price experienced have fair success holding and he would group in the retail retailhere, entrepreneur kinds of tensions that define its sector.

If it succeeds, the Raemergence, its as tortured oscillation between shops.

As much 67 per cent of the state’s 6.8- be outable till the bitterthe end-days of the Raj forfor a unito select right merchandise this jasthan contemporary state: between nationgovernment might unitary invite bids to democracy and autocracy, andcrore, its continuing crore population, about 4.5 visit PDS segment,” fied Bengalsays province.

Arvind Singhal, chairman at bring hood more and competing tendencies; bePDS stores federal under the ambit of the inabilityat to negotiate Islam’s status within consultancy outlets least twice a month.

Jaffrelot highlights how this assertion of tie-up. firm Technopak. tween civic governance claims of Eventually, other and state the governments state ideology. with aopportunity descriptive Bengali That presentsItaconcludes huge business cultural-linguistic identity was are Devangshu Dutta, chief executive at retail Islam as state ideology; likely to follow suit. and between demochapter, rich in detail, of Pakistan’s current consultancy for Biyani’s Future Group. quashed by aThird local Muslim League Eyesight, says leadership the tie-up cratic forces and an hasreplicate usurpedthis the “That is what wearmy wantthat — to state of endemic sectarian violence.

Thewith na- gives To begin with, the company will tie up associated with Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Inter- model the company a phenomenally stronger nationalist mantle.

As Biyani it negotiates in other states,” says. a turbution’s PDS resilience, which turning earns mention in the 5,000 store owners, them into en- presence estingly, inthrough his recentthe working of iconoclastic additional outlets. lent present by the these contradicAnd when determined that happens, Indian retail title, is seen toCurrently, lie in the commitment some “They trepreneurs. these stores of operate historiography, Perry Andersonreach (The Indian Ide- sector get a vast geographic through tions, Pakistan’s will get tofuture chasetrajectory a new andremains bigger too opof itsmore ethnic groups, asdays others threaten to these not than six toeven seven a month, and ology, stores,” 2012) holds Jawaharlal Nehru responsib- portunity he says. complex for forecasts.

— easy this time, right at the bottom of break away. remain closed after the monthly ration has le The for doing precisely the is same with elements second advantage the access to a dif- the pyramid.

Pakistan’s origins, Jaffrelot points out, lay in ferent been distributed.

After the tie-up with Future, in the segment Congress,ofsuch as Sarat“The Chandra Bose, sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer customers. customers and researcher based in Gurgaon and Shimla pratap movement forwill political representation by coming the store owners have an incentive to rewho sought united Bengal while communal intoaPDS shops are different from the rashmi

Fast-moving at ration shops Soaps, noodles and even fairness creams jostle for space with subsidised wheat and kerosene, as Future Group takes its retail battle to fair price shops in Rajasthan

A F

The Pakistan Paradox Instability and Resilience Christophe Jaffrelot Random House ₹799

Q

Q

R

R

ND-X _ A

9

BL

cover

saturday, august 29, 2015

State of the art Fresh-off-the-boat artists, barter shows, photo festivals… Prominent galleries and museums are rolling out the welcome mat for a new season ripe with textures and colours, shapes and moods

S

tanding at the viewing end of the Mumbai, while Kolkata-based contemporary glass-top counter, whose refrigerated arts gallery Experimenter organised in July insides contained deep stainless-steel the fifth edition of its Curator’s Hub, a signifipockets of different flavours of quin- cant confluence of local and international cutessentially Indian ice-cream, I saw the sign rators. The group shows, a summer mainstay, that assured me that my four-month period of were held across galleries, but it was otherintense craving would at last be sated. I was at wise quiet, albeit punctuated with a radical Natural, Mumbai’s most beloved ice-cream number of discussions and provocations. The maker, which had recently set up a Delhi out- most distinctive of these, at the not-for-profit post. It was mid-August. Their freezers were fi- Mumbai Art Room, was a profound ‘exhibinally shelved with sitaphal flavour. tion in process’ titled ‘Len Den or Bartered ColIt had never occurred to me before that the lections’, a noble yet instigative enterprise beginning of the art world calendar so neatly initiated by artist couple Shreyas Karle and Hecoincided with the season of mali Bhuta. They invited 14 custard apples. It made perartists, whose work they fect sense, considering the nawould have liked to acquire ture of the plump, sinful fruit: had they the capital, to barter Subodh Gupta, 51, has been all burst, all seed, all profuwith them and each other. working tirelessly on a solo sion, the perfect textural deThe show, which opened on planned for February scription of the last two June 5, looked more like a 2016 at Hauser & Wirth’s weeks of harvest. Which is not storage zone than a convenyear-old bucolic to say the year-end spell of tional white-cube exhibition, space in Somerset melons and mangoes was and evoked numerous quesmarked by a lull. In fact the fetions about the category of cund introspection of the the collector, the significance months of March to July preof a collection, the arbitrary pared us for this more intricate ripeness. In relationship between price and value, and the June, itinerant arts lab Khanabadhosh suc- prevailing hierarchies that both mark and cessfully kicked off the first phase of its year- mar the Indian art world. Mid-August, the dislong collaborative project with the Zurich Uni- play was once again turned on its head in orversity, encompassing artist collectives from der to accommodate the new works that had nine ‘creative cities’ across the world. The in- been acquired by the fresh bunch of artists augural conference, titled ‘Draft’, was held in who’d been invited to barter. The show’s ex-

Q R

watch cover

saturday, august 29, 2015

BL

14 10

EXTRACT

Singing in the rain On a wet evening in South Mumbai, Madan Mohan’s bluesy Tum jo mil gaye ho weaves a collage of moods infused with the colours of an overcast sky and glistening citylights

tension, from the beginning of the monsoons until pre-winter September, establishes, in a sense, a continuum of thought and dialogue about the existing ecosystem of the art world.

Variety show (clockwise from below) A work by Oriya artist Mayadhara Sahu courtesy sakshi gallery; Ketaki Sheth’s photo at ‘Conversations in Colour’, Jhaveri Contemporary

Different strokes courtesy ketaki sheth and The art market, the target of Karle and Bhuta’s photoink; a Buddhadev curatorial critique, continues to function Mukherjee painting at across a specific median, mercifully embody‘Body As Site’ courtesy galerie ing none of the over-exuberant speculation of mirchandani + steinruecke; ‘Bunting’ is a tribute to the the early 2000s and all of the cautious optistaple ornament in most mism that set in post the 2008 crash. What festivities courtesy clark house changed during the intermediary years, I am initiative told, was that artists sought refuge in the integrity of their individual studio practice, where art was once again the unwitting consequence of an ideational and material pursuit rather than a product created for the convenient consumption of fly-by-night collectors.

Those who’d entered the ecosystem to cash in on the overnight profit had weeded themselves out. Indian galleries soon began to shift their focus to international fairs and to expanding their collector base while contemporary Indian artists themselves have begun Promise the air Young at onethan with the newly showinginabroad morelovers regularly ever be- arrived monsoon at Mumbai’s iconic Marine Drive vivek bendre; (below) Madan Mohan — serenading a soaked city fore. Perhaps inevitably, the more established ne rainy brings together of the lot have begunevening once more to take better miliar Madan Mohan mysin the interlude? It would be two strangers Bombay’s Marine tique. Yet, it is difficult to risks, to experiment within greater confidence, a very different song indeed andtranscendence.

Chowpatty. One is a rich believe this is the same perand to seekDrive material without its pièce de résisheir-turned-taxi-driver by choice son who composed ‘Unko Subodh Gupta, who opened a three-monthtance after the first antara, (Navin Nischol), and the otherretrospective is a woman (Prilong impressive mid-career at yeh shikayat hain’ (Adalat, where it picks up speed withya a high-society escort.

The song theRajvansh), National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in 1958). out warning and races along takes a cab ride through an evening of 2014, us is aon fine example of an artist rebelling In ‘Tum jo mil gaye ho’, Mathe rain-slick driveways of their courtship. against aesthetic complacency. Gupta, 51, has dan Mohan rolls the words south Bombay to an almost Theworking sequencetirelessly is built up series of events. been onasa asolo planned for jahaan and aasmaan to capsyncopated interlude score, It starts when lady, in&aWirth’s dilemma, boards a ture their vast expanse; the February 2016the at Hauser year-old buonly to halt just in time for taxi, hero, playing the chauffeur, colicwhere space,the spread over a disused farm, atin phrase ‘Mil gaye ho’ is given the sanchari ‘Tum kya jano tempts to croon ‘Tum mil gaye ho’.toThis is met Somerset.

Though hejocontinues dwell on an earthly cadence, undertum kya ho’ (During the comwith a curt response. However, after remainhis past preoccupation with everyday objects, lining the yearning, and the clusiveness, and self-awareness, rather than tion was the firstposition, theofdummy lyrics in a series interventions ing silentrecent for a while, heGupta’s starts crooning again. my most visit to studios in Gur- word stretched to are manifest in planned at Exhibit being ‘door’ led byismarket trends, for320 this sanchari were ‘Tum jo over the coming weeks Accompanying him conceived are fragile at notes Bhugaon, where works leaston five or express the metaphorical the upcoming programming of many Indian by PRACforum (Professionals dil me aaye the’).

The frenetic in Art and Curapinder guitar six yearsSingh’s ago weretwelve-string being steadilyBoeing realised, con- distance.

In fact, theDelhi-based song is galleries. The young gallery Exhib- tion), a year-old pace continues before a sudinformal umbrella organisaand Manohari Singh’s on for, thethat En- paced firmed what many had obbligato been hoping — from slugit 320 —out which couldthe be credited with officially tion of practisingden stop as we are led to the curators. glish flute, a combination that makes themovlady gish the superstar artist with Bihari roots was movement in the ringing in the new artmukhra seasonto— exemplified sea crashing the Located aangry few kilometres away,into Nature warm up new to the cabbie.

She lights a cigarette, ing into and exciting territory.

Gupta’s the gear after sanchari (a thistop mature spiritthe with ‘Phenomenology of Morte, one ofrocks.

The couple step out gallerof the Delhi’s most prestigious At its core, the tune and the Rain God, perhaps cognisance contemporary Jitish Kallat,taking who curated the concept alien to film muPerception’, anHindi exhibition taxiies, into the thunder squall. recently opened ‘Double carries the familiar of the lovers, obliges a soft drizzle. second edition of thewith Kochi-Muziris Biennale sic), the calm of the soliloquy that tobrings under one roof Then onea group hears exhibition the Lata ManTake’, of 17 Madan Mohan theacclaim, relaxed first mukhra and an unconto After critical has similarly stepped into by Lata.

This creates a collage three emerging female artistsof geshkar version of countries. the mukhra… artists from 12 Cumystique ventional humming, (which ends in constellaMa — also moods new-old domain by returning to the infused with subcontithe colours from the Indian The end result: jo mil gaye’ rated by ‘Tum Mumbai-based touching Teevra Madhyam — in the tion-like pattern that has recurred inprocess), many of of the overcast sky and the lights nent: Bangladeshi Yasmin JaIt begins like a BeseAmerican Diana Campbell Lee Mahn-Gil, a North is intoxicating. the orchestration gains urgency.

Bongo,on a flurhis visual motifs and focusing squarely the as glistenLahore-based over a rainhanthey Nupur, ries of paintings clouded by a tancourt, the show promised Korea-born migrant ry of woodwind, a surge the violin ensemautomaticity of its form. of Kallat’s new suite of soaked Bombay.

Nurjahan Akhlaq, and homemembrane,the which graduto “transform gallery into labourer, will supposedly misty ble — the change in pace is exhilarating as to is grown wind studies, which will soon be shipped KersiParul Lord’sGupta. symphonic goovalally Beforearrangement, the clears to reveal a riot of colours one a ‘fun house’ — or anlike attracoccupytoan couch sans the change the intensity rainfall.

This with Paris for hisin upcoming solo of at the Daniel Templon, Mohan’s that dressed wine Madan could be served, melody, before ensured would in see Haanstra’s award-winning tion that includes ‘various debackrest, a in Bert continues untilmeditative the frenziedincoda.

Mohd Rafi’s is beguilingly its process and ‘Tum jo mil gaye did justice to the rainy the electric buzz ho’ of conversa(1958), or Powell vicesGlass intended to in surprise, dramatic whitedocumentary bunny suit film, unconventional humming in this songIntuiwas, evening. stunningly luminous upon completion. tion could take over the galand Pressburger’s Red Shoes (1948). or Surroundfrighten, bewilder amuse”. probably, extrapolated to write thean melody tively sketched lines connecting arrayfor of lery, How the number sound ed by lashing rain, itsdifferent in-housewould researcher Chanda (Priya Rajvansh) Throughout the show, which the Lataare sololined ‘Raat with ujiyarian dil adhesive andhera hai’ circles andfrom set without, say, the ‘flute obbligato’, the uncon- and Somesh (Navin and curator, a fellow artist, both in the is onNischol), till October 3, anow North KoChaalbaaz, Madan Mohan’s last film, flames which ventional ablaze, the direction of the temporary of notes — introSa, Re, Komal Ga, Ko- front seat, drunk MeenakshisetThirukode in melody, zoom ahead in rea-born migrant labourer, was released any fanfarebehind in 1980… navigated bywithout the wind, leaving an en- mal Dha, Komal Re,audience Sa — thatAkansha follows Rastogi, the line their duced to an eager newfound relationship.

Lee Mahn-Gil, will supposedly occupy an oval The 1970s saw Madan Mohan reinvent him- ‘Ke doskeleton-like cluster of burnt jahaan mil gaya’.

Whata would it sound who proceeded to offer nourishing slicelike of couch sans backrest at the gallery, dressed in a bhattacharjee & balaji vittal are self.

Guitar, jazz, blues — he had created a new without incandescence. the complete all instru- anirudha her ongoing researchsuspension on India’sofexhibition dramatic white bunny suit, to simultaneously RD of Burman: Man, The Music, the authors avatar, so much so that for ‘Tum jo mil gaye ho’, ments ‘Ek bhatke huyetorahi ko, kaarvaan history.after It seemed poetic inaugurate the also reference theof idea sheerThe amusement as well won the Best Book on award at the 59th Madan Mohan conceived a blues scale based mil What lies beneath gaya’, or by theremembering hide-and-seekthe between the which bravely new interstitial as expose that which liesCinema buried under the surFilmexemplify Awards, 2011the show’s premise, to structure.

At its core, the tune interiority, carries the infa- rolling The growing impulse towards thunder and the faintly audible guitar National moments of a vibrant past.

Rastogi’s presentaface and

O

Gaata Rahe Mera Dil – 50 classic Hindi

film songs

Anirudha Bhattacharjee & Balaji Vittal HarperCollins ₹350

Q Q R R

ND-X _ A

BL

watch cover

saturday, august 29, 2015

Seasonal hues (clockwise from above) Velvet Roses

courtesy exhibit320 gallery & yasmin PICTURE THIS jahan nupur; ‘Kumartuli’ by Ram

‘Bunting’, signalling The Clark House Initiative’s welcome month-long takeover of Chemould Prescott Road, is rife with youthful energy, with work that adequately questions the conceptual as it builds itself around the notion of the bunting, a staple ornament in most festivities. The refusal of participating artists to embrace the authority of an individually-derived authorship, by not ascribing any work to a single artist in favour of promoting the spirit of the collective, has deep political undertones. And yet, Sumesh Sharma, the Initiative’s spokesperson, reminds us in his brief introductory text that most of the participating artists are in fact from Vidarbha, the Maharashtra region infamous for a shocking number of farmer suicides. “That very hinterland Vidarbha sends the largest contingent of students to the JJ School of Art, and formsbythe At home Protagonists Arun and Prabha (played Amol Palekar and Vidya SInha, largest inclusion here,” herespectively) writes. Thisare is a fact middle-class characters without families Mumbai a well articulated at ‘Rethinking the in Regional’, youtube landmark art historical survey show at the Mumbai branch of the NGMA, which is curatfilm is finely adaptedprofessor to its Indian setedThe

by Manisha Patil, current and forting. Dean When of Colonel Julius Nagendranath mer JJ School of Art, and Wilfred Singh (Ashok Kumar) Arun, it is contextualises the work of at trains least 170 artists in table and chess rather from thetennis various districts of thethan state.tennis. In both films, the art of winning at sport involves deliberately Frames apart distracting one’s competition.

The chopsticks the French menu as a Despite the factreplace that photography as a medirestaurant Thestep-sisterly art of wooing remains um is oftenhurdle. given the treatment crucial:the theartfirm handshake, andorthe even within world and economy, perhaps firmer hug are same, thoughhave spilling wine on account of it,the photo festivals begun to on a dress becomes dropping match mushroom across the country.aAtlighted last count, at on a sari. least six prominent ones had sprung up in a Butofthis no mere Chatterjee span justis five years.copy.

In October, the uses Delhia device Festival more common Indian films titled than Photo opens itsinthird edition, elsewhere: he Indira includes imaginary scenarios ‘Aspire’, at the Gandhi National Centre dreamt up by Arun, in which heto isbe a much for the Arts (IGNCA), promising biggersavin vier, smart-alecky version of himself.

The ordiscale and more ambitious in its programnary man’s dreams romance come via ming.

Early next year of Pondy Art, helmed by thoritative ordering at the (recently closed) Kasha popular cinema: watching a film at Eros, Vande, willwhile unveil its second edition.

In Samovar: “Chicken a la Poos, aur Peter se kehna September, Arun mentally and then theinserts NGMA Prabha will finally openhimthe Nagesh sahab ka order hain. Kya kahoge?” Infu- most-anticipated self into a Hemaretrospective Malini-Dharmendra song of the iconic riated by Nagesh literally driving away with Prabuddha (Jaaneman, Das jaaneman).

Other daydreams, too, Gupta, accompanied by a pubthe prize every morning, Arun decides to buy lication are deliberately more filmi than body the film we’re featuring his prescient of work. a scooter. In a hilariously deadpan scene, his Currently watching: on in view one are hilarious scene, Arun is 23 photographs by the local garage guys stage an elaborate ploy legendary proudly in and the dock for Nagesh’s murder, with eclectic late colour photograaround an ancient motorcycle, and Arun falls pher Prabha weepingSingh, copiously in the courtroom.

Raghubir so displayed as to be in for it. Next morning, Arun has a new biker dialogue CSB haswith other filmiother cameos, like comedian three photographers.

Tilook — sunglasses and flares — but the bike tled Rajendra Nath as a in fake guru, and Amitabh ‘Conversations Colour’, Singh’s work breaks down just as Prabha has climbed shares Bachchan as himself, arriving toRahman, seek the colospace with those of Ram Sooaboard, and Nagesh, of course, appears right ni nel’s advice on and income taxSheth, — fantastically, Taraporevala Ketaki the latter on cue. wearing his real costume from Zameer (1975). two of whom he had actively mentored.

There is the hint here of the race between Both wereDaji produced

by BR Chopra, and a Thefilms Dr Bhau Lad Museum in Mumbai the hare and the tortoise, which inspired Sai has Zameer poster aappears memorably above the mounted month-long show of vintage Paranjpe’s 1982 Katha, with Naseeruddin Shah photographs CSB bus stop:by playfulness, but alsothe some Bourne & Shepherd, olcompeting for Naval’s attentions with the tale- dest smart, free publicity? surviving photo studio in the world that computer-generated art isBut almost archaeologtelling Farooque Shaikh.

Chatterjee’s film hasCertain elements of same officename life are operated under the sincetrans1913. ical obsession with1960 digging intocomedy the lay- Shown was ina its remake of the British plantedinstraight from 1960 1975 collaboration withBritain Tasveer,tothese ers underneath the pixelated surface School for Scoundrels, where the raceofisdigital more cultural Bombay: artefacts people listening to a match radio, demonstrate the on studio’s images, the principal about thewhich statusisgames of mod- idea behind much-acclaimed andpicturesque the women’s of styleshushing of photog‘Thousand Kisses his ongoing solo at raphy. Almostour ern life. The 1960 Deep’, film started timid hero. ButinPalfrey simultaneously Delhi,is the Chatterjee & Lal. Henry Palfrey with the mousy boss; Arun onlyof rising IGNCA is displaying a grandisrange work In keeping with this focusfor on fresh talent, from the Mahatta arriving at Potter’s ‘School through theinranks.

What struck Studio a show titled ‘PicGalerie Mirchandani + SteinLifemanship’ just in time for me most is the fact that Arun’s turing a Century: Mahatta StuHaving deprived ruecke will soon host ‘Body as the guru’s opening lecture: office Jackson and Co dio —and theTolaram History of the protagonists of Site’, bound an “Whowhich then, isyou ask, to arebeyour —Photography plays a much greater role here in India 1915family, the film turns excellent considering opponents?show Everybody in the British original.

2015’.in Thethe event also includes a the office into The than ‘Bunting’, signalling the quirky of the world who practice is not you.

Andtwo the More setaninexhibition the office bookscenes releaseare and something like it Clark House Initiative’s featured Saumya, purpose artists: of yourVidha life must be to —ofincluding one that makes CSB their cameras. welcome month-long whom we first encountered be one-up on them, becauseas— theEarly rare next Hindiyear, filmthe to art acknowlworld takeover of Chemould one thewords gallery’s markofmy — heemployees who is not edge that tailing a in woman for will immerse itself the India Prescott Road, is rife and who proven to be proone-up ishas one-down.” days mighteighth countedition, as stalking.

AlArt Fair’s which with youthful energy digious in her with As Palfrey tellsskill Potter hisink sad romantic pre- so, Arun’s verypromises propensity for romance loto revamp into ais clasand pen and creating gen- to what turns cated in an office dicament, we in flash backwards the film sier ‘tradition’: affair to regain its opens edge. der-fluid full of personout to befigures the origin CSB’s Samovar scene: a with a comic visual history of the For the moment allJackson eyes areTolalality; and Buddhadev snooty restaurant where the waiter refers to aram bosses and how turned they wooed their wives. ready to Bangladesh Mukherjee, a printmaker whose suite of 101 for Palfrey as ‘Paltry’ and his bete noire Delauney It’s the almost as if, having deprived thehosted protagobi-annual Dhaka Art Summit, by watercolour works exhibited gains the upper hand because at he the can gallery’s read the the nistsSamdani of family,Art theFoundation, film turns the office which setinto its booth at themenu Indiaand Art Fair this an ef- standards Frenchified order theyear winewas by name somethingquite like it.

Forwith theseitsmigrants to the high rather riveting fortless demonstration of his humorous fixa- second rather than number. Delauney’s fancy sports city, theedition office isinhome.

2013. tion withAsrani’s a yellow kind scooter, of while reverse car inspired Pad’mello is a Delhi-based critic, trisha gupta is a writer and criticart based in writer Delhi anthropomorphosis, endowing a singular lekar’s motorbike stood in for Henry’s ram- rosalyn and editor t@chhotahazri male form with animal-like accoutrements. shackle ‘Swiftmobile’.

Working it out Rahman ©ram rahman, courtesy jhaveri contemporary; Lee MahnGil at ‘Double Take’ courtesy

kukje gallery, seoul and nature morte, new delhi; ‘Messes of the

Afternoon’ by Vidha Saumya

courtesy galerie mirchandani + steinruecke; ‘Employees, Morvi

Palace, Gujarat’ by Raghubir Singh ©2015 succession raghubir

singh, courtesy jhaveri contemporary; When’s another the last you saw a Hindi film unfold at a glimpsetime of ‘Bunting’ courtesy clark house initiative crowded bus stop? Forty years after it was made, Chhoti Si Baat’s romance remains a rare picture of everyday, rather than epic, urbanity

trisha gupta

B

asu Chatterjee’s Chhoti Si Baat (CSB, 1975) is still beloved as an icon of the so-called middle cinema: cinema about India’s middle class, made in a middle-of-the-road style that wasn’t either full-blown melodrama or so grimly realist that it let go of songs entirely. CSB was noteworthy for giving us one of the first middleclass heroines who goes out to work. And she’s not a rich man’s daughter who’s a lawyer or doctor or something grand, just a regular office worker, dealing with files and consignments, appointments and bosses. Vidya Sinha made her office-going seem so natural that I have never really paused earlier to think about how remarkable it actually was. In Bombay cinema, too, the office-going women of ’70s question “what arein theChatterjee’s powers, mechanisms, films, from Sinha own Rajniand sleights thatWahab affect in theGharonda way we gandha (1974),oftohand Zarina perceive worldinaround us?” a similar (1977), or the Ranjeeta Pati Patni AurInWoh (1978), vein, ‘The aCoriolis Effect’, a show opening on were still huge exception.

August 30 at CSB KHOJ, promises cross-continenWatching today, one isastruck by its cretal dialogue exploring the political, social,who and ation of young middle-class characters cultural relationships between India and men Africome without families attached.

Both ca from the 13th century; is the outcome and of a and women inhabit the it city completely, four-week-long residency. independently. international Arun and Prabha work in neighbouring South Bombay offices, and take Fresh notes the same bus route to work, with Arun walkMeanwhile, in Mumbai, famed ing besottedly behind galleries Prabha in orthe standing art district in SoBo (South Bombay, those tongue-tied next to her in the queue.for Much of who came inturns late) on arethe literally with acthe humour bus asabuzz metaphor.

As tivity. ubiquitous bell up that soon asThe Arun finally plucks thesignals couragethe to gateway bustling of the speak to between Prabha, athe rival arrives chaos to spirit her streets calm of the vast, away —and on the his contemplative scooter. The metaphor is then high-ceilinged interiors, is being rung irritamore taken to its logical conclusion: Palekar, often than usual during leave, working hours, tedly eyeing the scooter decides tomuch hail a to the of gallerists, most of taxi.

It’spleasant true: he surprise needs to make his move faster, whom have risked a fair amount vehicle of capital and and a speedier, more impressive seems faith in answer. featuring either fresh-off-the-boat like the But it’s not so easy to get outtalof ent, likethe thetaxi Oriya artist Mayadhara Sahu with the rut: gets taken by someone else. hisThe debut at Shastri Sakshi’,(Asor kababsolo mein‘Village haddi isTales Nagesh emerging experimental ones who aren’t rani in onebut of his finest roles).

A colleague of inherently ‘sellable’.

That includes MumbaiPrabha’s, Nagesh threatens to upstage Arun based French Charau,and whose with his table artist tennisFabien competitions au-

Q Q R R

ND-X _ A

11 15

shoot

saturday, august 29, 2015

BL

12

Water world The fields, once full of crops, are now submerged in water for as far as the eye can see

No land to stand Thousands are displaced by the rising waters in West Bengal

M

ost of us are unaware that Southwest Bengal is being ravaged by heavy rainfall and high tides triggered by Cyclone Komen. The release of freshwater from different barrages has only worsened the situation. While Komen made landfall in Bangladesh, rains continued to batter West Midnapore district. Houses have been razed to the ground, trees have been uprooted and fields have become marshes. The only landmarks that remain in this watery landscape are electric and telephone poles, which rise up in the horizon.

According to officials from the Disaster Management Authority, the flood has affected lakhs of people, damaged 7.43 lakh homes and destroyed acres of crops. Despite the efforts of the government, there are only 2,700 relief camps for the five lakh marooned villagers and the outbreak of epidemics seems imminent. While the cyclone passed more than three weeks ago, the situation remains grim because of the high tides and release of water from dams. Some locals say this is the worst flooding they have seen in 15 years. So far more than 100 deaths have been reported.

Too little, too late People have few options but to flee to the nearest relief camp as the rising waters engulf their homes. While the government tries to reach out to those in need, many remain marooned

subrata biswas is an independent visual storyteller and painter, who divides his time between Delhi and Kolkata

BL

shoot

saturday, august 29, 2015

Skeletal remains “We have lost everything,” says Niyati Bagh. She has just returned to Singapur village after spending six days in a relief camp with her son and daughter-in-law

Too much like Venice Roads have transformed into rivers, boats sail where cars once used to ply

Out of sight Houses and fields have simply vanished

Treasure hunt A family tries to salvage its belongings by moving them to a higher level.

Relief materials have been distributed but are too scarce to meet the demand

Searching for a ride With rickshaws and cycles rendered redundant by the water, boats are the only means of transport in the flood-affected areas of West Bengal

ND-X _ A

13

watch cover

saturday, august 29, 2015

BL

14 10

EXTRACT

Singing in the rain On a wet evening in South Mumbai, Madan Mohan’s bluesy Tum jo mil gaye ho weaves a collage of moods infused with the colours of an overcast sky and glistening citylights

tension, from the beginning of the monsoons until pre-winter September, establishes, in a sense, a continuum of thought and dialogue about the existing ecosystem of the art world.

Variety show (clockwise from below) A work by Oriya artist Mayadhara Sahu courtesy sakshi gallery; Ketaki Sheth’s photo at ‘Conversations in Colour’, Jhaveri Contemporary

Different strokes courtesy ketaki sheth and The art market, the target of Karle and Bhuta’s photoink; a Buddhadev curatorial critique, continues to function Mukherjee painting at across a specific median, mercifully embody‘Body As Site’ courtesy galerie ing none of the over-exuberant speculation of mirchandani + steinruecke; ‘Bunting’ is a tribute to the the early 2000s and all of the cautious optistaple ornament in most mism that set in post the 2008 crash. What festivities courtesy clark house changed during the intermediary years, I am initiative told, was that artists sought refuge in the integrity of their individual studio practice, where art was once again the unwitting consequence of an ideational and material pursuit rather than a product created for the convenient consumption of fly-by-night collectors.

Those who’d entered the ecosystem to cash in on the overnight profit had weeded themselves out. Indian galleries soon began to shift their focus to international fairs and to expanding their collector base while contemporary Indian artists themselves have begun Promise the air Young at onethan with the showinginabroad more lovers regularly evernewly be- arrived monsoon at Mumbai’s iconic Marine Drive vivek bendre; (below) Madan Mohan — serenading a soaked city fore. Perhaps inevitably, the more established ne begun rainy evening brings together of the lot have once more to take better miliar Madan Mohan mysin the interlude? It would be two strangers Bombay’s Marine tique. Yet, it is difficult to risks, to experiment with in greater confidence, a very different song indeed andtranscendence.

Chowpatty. One is a rich believe this is the same perand to seekDrive material without its pièce de résisheir-turned-taxi-driver by choice son who composed ‘Unko Subodh Gupta, who opened a three-monthtance after the first antara, (Navin Nischol), and the otherretrospective is a woman (Prilong impressive mid-career at yeh shikayat hain’ (Adalat, where it picks up speed withya a high-society escort.

The song theRajvansh), National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in 1958). out warning and races along takes usaon a cab ride through an evening of 2014, is fine example of an artist rebelling In ‘Tum jo mil gaye ho’, Mathe rain-slick driveways of their courtship. against aesthetic complacency. Gupta, 51, has dan Mohan rolls the words south Bombay to an almost Theworking sequence is built up series of events. been tirelessly onasa asolo planned for jahaan and aasmaan to capsyncopated interlude score, It starts when lady, in&aWirth’s dilemma, boards February 2016 the at Hauser year-old bu-a ture their vast expanse; the only to halt just in time for taxi, hero, over playing the chauffeur, colicwhere space,the spread a disused farm, atin phrase ‘Mil gaye ho’ is given the sanchari ‘Tum kya jano tempts to croon ‘Tum mil gaye ho’.toThis is met Somerset.

Though hejocontinues dwell on an earthly cadence, undertum kya ho’ (During the comwith a curt response. However, after remainhis past preoccupation with everyday objects, clusiveness, lining the yearning, and the and self-awareness, rather than tion was the firstposition, theofdummy lyrics in a series interventions ing silentrecent for a while, heGupta’s starts crooning again. my most visit to studios in Gur- being word ‘door’ stretched to are manifest in planned at Exhibit led byismarket trends, for320 this sanchari were ‘Tum jo over the coming weeks Accompanying him conceived are fragile at notes Bhugaon, where works leaston five or the express the metaphorical upcoming programming of many Indian by PRACforum (Professionals dil me aaye the’).

The frenetic in Art and Curapinder guitar six yearsSingh’s ago weretwelve-string being steadilyBoeing realised, con- galleries. distance. The In fact, theDelhi-based song is young gallery Exhib- tion), a year-old informal pace continues before a sudumbrella organisaand Manohari Singh’s on for, thethat En- it firmed what many had obbligato been hoping paced — from slug320 —out which couldthe be credited with officially tion of practisingden stop as we are led to the curators. glish flute, a combination that makes themovlady ringing the superstar artist with Bihari roots was gish movement in the in the new artmukhra seasonto— exemplified sea crashing the Located a angry few kilometres away,into Nature warm up new to the cabbie.

She lights a cigarette, ing into and exciting territory.

Gupta’s this the top gear after sanchari (a mature spiritthe with ‘Phenomenology of Morte, one ofrocks.

The couple step out gallerof the Delhi’s most prestigious At its core, the tune and the Rain God, perhaps cognisance contemporary Jitish Kallat,taking who curated the Perception’, concept alien to film muanHindi exhibition taxiies,into the thunder squall. recently opened ‘Double carries the familiar of the lovers, obliges a soft drizzle. second edition of thewith Kochi-Muziris Biennale that sic), tobrings the calm of the soliloquy under one roof Then onea group hears exhibition the Lata ManTake’, of 17 Madan Mohan theacclaim, relaxed first mukhra and an unconto After critical has similarly stepped into three

by Lata.

This creates a collage emerging female artistsof geshkar of countries. the mukhra… artistsversion from 12 Cumystique ventional humming, (which ends in constellaMa — also from new-old domain by returning to the moodsthe infused with subcontithe colours Indian The end result: jo mil gaye’ rated by ‘Tum Mumbai-based touching Teevra that Madhyam — in the tion-like pattern has recurred inprocess), many of nent: of the overcast sky and the lights Bangladeshi Yasmin JaIt begins like a BeseAmerican Diana Campbell Lee Mahn-Gil, a North is intoxicating. the orchestration gains urgency.

Bongo,on a flurhis visual motifs and focusing squarely the han as they glistenLahore-based over a rainNupur, ries of paintings clouded by a tancourt, the show promised Korea-born migrant ry of woodwind, a surge the violin ensemautomaticity of its form. of Kallat’s new suite of Nurjahan soaked Bombay.

Akhlaq, and homemembrane,the which graduto “transform gallery into labourer, will supposedly misty ble — studies, the change in pace is exhilarating as to is grown wind which will soon be shipped KersiParul Lord’s symphonic goovalally Gupta.

Beforearrangement, the clears to reveal a riot of colours one a ‘fun house’ — or anlike attracoccupytoan couch sans the the intensity the rainfall.

This wine Parischange for hisin upcoming solo of at Daniel Templon, with Madan that dressed could beMohan’s served, melody, before ensured wouldin see Haanstra’s award-winning tion that includes ‘various debackrest, a in Bert continues untilmeditative the frenziedincoda.

Mohd Rafi’s is beguilingly its process and the ‘Tumelectric jo mil gaye did justice to the rainy buzz ho’ of conversa(1958), or Powell vicesGlass intended to in surprise, dramatic whitedocumentary bunny suit film, unconventional humming in this songIntuiwas, tion stunningly luminous upon completion. evening. could take over the galand Pressburger’s Red Shoes (1948).or Surroundfrighten, bewilder amuse”. probably, extrapolated to write thean melody tively sketched lines connecting arrayfor of lery, How the number sound ed by lashing rain, its different in-housewould researcher Chanda the (Priya Rajvansh) Throughout show, which the Lataare sololined ‘Raat with ujiyarian dil adhesive andhera hai’ circles andfrom set and without, say, the ‘flute obbligato’, the uncon- and Somesh (Navin curator, a fellow artist, both in the is onNischol), till October 3, anow North KoChaalbaaz, Madan Mohan’s last film, flames which Meenakshi ablaze, the direction of the temporary ventional setThirukode of notes — introSa, Re, Komal Ga, Ko- front seat, drunk in melody, zoom labourer, ahead in rea-born migrant was released any fanfarebehind in 1980… navigated by without the wind, leaving an en- duced mal Dha, Komal Re,audience Sa — thatAkansha follows Rastogi, the line Lee to an eager theirMahn-Gil, newfound relationship. will supposedly occupy an oval The 1970s saw Madan Mohan reinvent him- who doskeleton-like cluster of burnt ‘Ke jahaan mil gaya’.

Whata would it sound proceeded to offer nourishing slicelike of couch sans backrest at the gallery, dressed in a bhattacharjee & to balaji vittal are self.

Guitar, jazz, blues — he had created a new her incandescence. without the complete all instru- anirudha ongoing researchsuspension on India’sofexhibition dramatic white bunny suit, simultaneously RD of Burman: Man, The Music, the authors avatar, so much so that for ‘Tum jo mil gaye ho’, history. ments after ‘Ek bhatke huyetorahi ko, kaarvaan It seemed poetic inaugurate the also reference the of idea sheerThe amusement as well won the Best Book on award at the 59th Madan Mohan conceived a blues scale based bravely What lies beneath mil gaya’, or by theremembering hide-and-seekthe between the which new interstitial as expose that which liesCinema buried under the surFilmexemplify Awards, 2011the show’s premise, to structure.

At its core, the tune interiority, carries the infa- moments The growing impulse towards rolling thunder and the faintly audible guitar National of a vibrant past.

Rastogi’s presentaface and

O

Gaata Rahe Mera Dil – 50 classic Hindi

film songs

Anirudha Bhattacharjee & Balaji Vittal HarperCollins ₹350

Q Q R R

ND-X _ A

BL

watch cover

saturday, august 29, 2015

Seasonal hues (clockwise from above) Velvet Roses

courtesy exhibit320 gallery & yasmin PICTURE THIS jahan nupur; ‘Kumartuli’ by Ram

‘Bunting’, signalling The Clark House Initiative’s welcome month-long takeover of Chemould Prescott Road, is rife with youthful energy, with work that adequately questions the conceptual as it builds itself around the notion of the bunting, a staple ornament in most festivities. The refusal of participating artists to embrace the authority of an individually-derived authorship, by not ascribing any work to a single artist in favour of promoting the spirit of the collective, has deep political undertones. And yet, Sumesh Sharma, the Initiative’s spokesperson, reminds us in his brief introductory text that most of the participating artists are in fact from Vidarbha, the Maharashtra region infamous for a shocking number of farmer suicides. “That very hinterland Vidarbha sends the largest contingent of students to the JJ School of Art, and forms At home Protagonists Arun and Prabha (played bythe Amol Palekar and Vidya SInha, are largest inclusion here,” herespectively) writes. This is a fact middle-class characters without families Mumbai a well articulated at ‘Rethinking theinRegional’, youtube landmark art historical survey show at the Mumbai branch of the NGMA, which is curatfilm is finely adaptedprofessor to its Indian setedThe

by Manisha Patil, current and forting. When Colonel Julius Nagendranath mer Dean of JJ School of Art, and Wilfred Singh (Ashok Kumar) Arun, it is contextualises the work of at trains least 170 artists in table and chess rather from thetennis various districts of thethan state.tennis. In both films, the art of winning at sport involves deliberately Frames apart distracting one’s competition.

The chopsticks the French menu as a Despite the factreplace that photography as a medirestaurant The step-sisterly art of wooing remains um is oftenhurdle. given the treatment crucial:the theartfirm handshake, andorthe even within world and economy, perhaps firmer hug are the same, thoughhave spilling wine on account of it, photo festivals begun to on a dress becomes dropping lighted match mushroom across the country.aAt last count, at on a sari. least six prominent ones had sprung up in a Butofthis is five no mere Chatterjee span just years.copy.

In October, theuses Delhia device Festival more common Indian films titled than Photo opens itsinthird edition, elsewhere: he Indira includes imaginary scenarios ‘Aspire’, at the Gandhi National Centre dreamt up by Arun, in which heto is be a much savfor the Arts (IGNCA), promising bigger in vier, smart-alecky version of himself.

The ordiscale and more ambitious in its programnary man’s dreams romance come via ming.

Early next yearofPondy Art, helmed by thoritative ordering at the (recently closed) Kasha popular cinema: watching a film at Eros, Vande, willwhile unveil its second edition.

In Samovar: “Chicken a la Poos, aur Peter se kehna September, Arun mentally and then theinserts NGMA Prabha will finally openhimthe Nagesh sahab ka order hain. Kya kahoge?” Infu- most-anticipated self into a Hemaretrospective Malini-Dharmendra song of the iconic riated by Nagesh literally driving away with Prabuddha (Jaaneman, jaaneman).

Other daydreams, too, Das Gupta, accompanied by a pubthe prize every morning, Arun decides to buy lication are deliberately more filmi than body the film we’re featuring his prescient of work. a scooter. In a hilariously deadpan scene, his Currently watching: on in view one are hilarious scene, Arun is 23 photographs by the local garage guys stage an elaborate ploy legendary proudly in and the dock for Nagesh’s murder, with eclectic late colour photograaround an ancient motorcycle, and Arun falls pher Prabha weepingSingh, copiously in the courtroom.

Raghubir so displayed as to be in for it. Next morning, Arun has a new biker dialogue CSB haswith other filmiother cameos, like comedian three photographers.

Tilook — sunglasses and flares — but the bike tled Rajendra Nath as a in fake guru, and Amitabh ‘Conversations Colour’, Singh’s work breaks down just as Prabha has climbed shares Bachchan as himself, arriving to Rahman, seek the colospace with those of Ram Sooaboard, and Nagesh, of course, appears right ni nel’s advice on and income taxSheth, — fantastically, Taraporevala Ketaki the latter on cue. wearing his real costume from Zameer (1975). two of whom he had actively mentored.

There is the hint here of the race between Both were Daji produced

by BR Chopra, and a Thefilms Dr Bhau Lad Museum in Mumbai the hare and the tortoise, which inspired Sai has Zameer poster aappears memorably above the mounted month-long show of vintage Paranjpe’s 1982 Katha, with Naseeruddin Shah photographs CSB bus stop:byplayfulness, but also the some Bourne & Shepherd, olcompeting for Naval’s attentions with the tale- dest smart, free publicity? surviving photo studio in the world that computer-generated art isBut almost archaeologtelling Farooque Shaikh.

Chatterjee’s film hasCertain elements of same officename life are operated under the sincetrans1913. ical obsession with1960 digging intocomedy the lay- Shown was ina its remake of the British planted instraight from 1960 1975 collaboration withBritain Tasveer,tothese ers underneath the pixelated surface School for Scoundrels, where the raceofisdigital more cultural Bombay: people listening to a match radio, artefacts demonstrate the on studio’s images, the principal about thewhich statusis games of mod- idea behind much-acclaimed andpicturesque the women’s shushing of style of photog‘Thousand his ongoing solo at raphy. Almostour ern life. TheKisses 1960 Deep’, film started timid hero. ButinPalfrey simultaneously Delhi,is the Chatterjee & Lal. Henry Palfrey with the mousy boss; Arun only of rising IGNCA is displaying a grandis range work In keeping with this focusforon fresh talent, from the Mahatta arriving at Potter’s ‘School through theinranks.

What struck Studio a show titled ‘PicGalerie Mirchandani + SteinLifemanship’ just in time for me most is the fact that Arun’s turing a Century: Mahatta StuHaving deprived ruecke will soon host ‘Body as the guru’s opening lecture: office Jackson and Co dio —and theTolaram History of the protagonists of Site’, bound an “Whowhich then, is you ask, to arebeyour —Photography plays a much greater role here in India 1915family, the film turns excellent considering opponents?show Everybody in the British original.a 2015’.in Thethe event also includes the office into The than ‘Bunting’, signalling the quirky of the world who practice is not you.

Andtwo the More setaninexhibition the office bookscenes releaseare and something like it Clark House Initiative’s featured artists: Saumya, purpose of yourVidha life must be to —ofincluding one that makes CSB their cameras. welcome month-long whom we first encountered be one-up on them, becauseas— theEarly rare Hindi filmthe to art acknowlnext year, world takeover of Chemould one thewords gallery’s markofmy — heemployees who is not edge that tailing a in woman for will immerse itself the India Prescott Road, is rife and who proven to be proone-up is has one-down.” days mighteighth countedition, as stalking.

AlArt Fair’s which with youthful energy digious in her with As Palfrey tellsskill Potter hisink sad romantic pre- so, Arun’s very promises propensity for romance loto revamp into aisclasand pen and creating gen- to what turns cated in an office dicament, we in flash backwards the film sier ‘tradition’: affair to regain its opens edge. der-fluid full of personout to befigures the origin CSB’s Samovar scene: a with a comic visual history of the For the moment allJackson eyes areTolalality; and Buddhadev snooty restaurant where the waiter refers to aram bosses and how they wooed their wives. ready turned to Bangladesh Mukherjee, a printmaker whose suite of 101 for Palfrey as ‘Paltry’ and his bete noire Delauney It’s the almost as if, having deprived thehosted protagobi-annual Dhaka Art Summit, by watercolour works exhibited at the gains the upper hand because he can gallery’s read the the nistsSamdani of family,Art theFoundation, film turns the office which setinto its booth at themenu Indiaand Art order Fair this an ef- standards Frenchified theyear winewas by name somethingquite like it.

Forwith theseitsmigrants to the high rather riveting fortless demonstration of his humorous fixa- second rather than number. Delauney’s fancy sports city, theedition office isin home.

2013. tion withAsrani’s a yellow kind scooter, of while reverse car inspired Pad’mello is a Delhi-based critic, trisha gupta is a writer and criticart based in writer Delhi anthropomorphosis, endowing a singular lekar’s motorbike stood in for Henry’s ram- rosalyn and editor t@chhotahazri male form with animal-like accoutrements. shackle ‘Swiftmobile’.

Working it out Rahman ©ram rahman, courtesy jhaveri contemporary; Lee MahnGil at ‘Double Take’ courtesy

kukje gallery, seoul and nature morte, new delhi; ‘Messes of the

Afternoon’ by Vidha Saumya

courtesy galerie mirchandani + steinruecke; ‘Employees, Morvi

Palace, Gujarat’ by Raghubir Singh ©2015 succession raghubir

singh, courtesy jhaveri contemporary; When’s another the last time you saw a Hindi film unfold at a glimpse of ‘Bunting’ courtesy clark house initiative crowded bus stop? Forty years after it was made, Chhoti Si Baat’s romance remains a rare picture of everyday, rather than epic, urbanity

trisha gupta

B

asu Chatterjee’s Chhoti Si Baat (CSB, 1975) is still beloved as an icon of the so-called middle cinema: cinema about India’s middle class, made in a middle-of-the-road style that wasn’t either full-blown melodrama or so grimly realist that it let go of songs entirely. CSB was noteworthy for giving us one of the first middleclass heroines who goes out to work. And she’s not a rich man’s daughter who’s a lawyer or doctor or something grand, just a regular office worker, dealing with files and consignments, appointments and bosses. Vidya Sinha made her office-going seem so natural that I have never really paused earlier to think about how remarkable it actually was. In Bombay cinema, too, the office-going women of ’70s question “what arein the powers, mechanisms, films, from Sinha Chatterjee’s own Rajniand sleights thatWahab affect in theGharonda way we gandha (1974),oftohand Zarina perceive worldinaround us?” a similar (1977), or the Ranjeeta Pati Patni AurInWoh (1978), vein, ‘TheaCoriolis Effect’, a show opening on were still huge exception.

August 30 at CSB KHOJ, promises cross-continenWatching today, one isastruck by its cretal dialogue exploring the political, social,who and ation of young middle-class characters cultural relationships between India and men Africome without families attached.

Both ca from the 13th century; is the outcome and of a and women inhabit the it city completely, four-week-long residency. independently. international Arun and Prabha work in neighbouring South Bombay offices, and take Fresh notes the same bus route to work, with Arun walkMeanwhile, in Mumbai, famed ing besottedly behind galleries Prabha in or the standing art district in SoBo (South Bombay, those tongue-tied next to her in the queue.for Much of who came inturns late) on arethe literally with acthe humour bus asabuzz metaphor.

As tivity. ubiquitous bell up that soon asThe Arun finally plucks thesignals couragethe to gateway bustling of her the speak to between Prabha, athe rival arrives chaos to spirit streets calm of the vast, away —and on the his contemplative scooter. The metaphor is then high-ceilinged interiors, is being rung irritamore taken to its logical conclusion: Palekar, often than usual during leave, working hours, tedly eyeing the scooter decides tomuch hail a to the surprise of gallerists, most of taxi.

It’spleasant true: he needs to make his move faster, whom have risked a fair amount vehicle of capital and and a speedier, more impressive seems faith in answer. featuring fresh-off-the-boat like the Buteither it’s not so easy to get outtalof ent, likethe thetaxi Oriya artist Mayadhara Sahu with the rut: gets taken by someone else. hisThe debut at Shastri Sakshi’,(Asor kababsolo mein‘Village haddi isTales Nagesh emerging experimental ones who aren’t rani in onebut of his finest roles).

A colleague of inherently ‘sellable’.

That includes MumbaiPrabha’s, Nagesh threatens to upstage Arun based French Charau,and whose with his table artist tennisFabien competitions au-

Q Q R R

ND-X _ A

11 15

work read

BL BL 168

saturday, august 29,29, 2015 saturday, august 2015

Still on the rack The very idea of Pakistan was highly ambiguous and complex and it continues to be a space rife with tensions furies consumed the rest of the nation.

In Sindh, the scope for forging cross-community identities was limited by demography.

Muslims tended to be rural and agrarian while Hindus were mostly urban and mercantile. And in the frontier, the populist charisma of Badshah Khan and his effort to reawaken a sense of Pashtu solidarity that transcended frontiers, kept the sectarian appeal of religion at bay.

Matters started snowballing towards a sepBeyond basic needs aration soon after Nehru rejected the Cabinet The countrywide Mission Plan of 1946. Jinnah’s call of forpublic a day of network distribution ‘direct action’ led to riots in Calcutta system and else(PDS) outlets That, presents where, claiming up to 10,000 victims. as a bottom-of-theAyesha Jalal put in her landmark work on Parpyramid retail tition (The Sole Spokesman,opportunity 1985), “destroyed the India of Jinnah’s dreams”. reuters/amit dave Jaffrelot takes issue with this judgement since Jinnah could not, at that point, be said to have had a coherent plan for India’s political future. Further, in seeking to keep Bengal and Punjab united while insisting on separateness elsewhere, Jinnah was torn between irreconcilable principles, which resulted in “counterproductive decisions”.

“Highly ambiguous and complex” as Pakistan as an idea was, it left on its consummation a trail of bitter communal estrangement, large-scale violence and a war that led to the partition of Muslim-majority Kashmir. The deDetermined by history Pakistan grows is a nation defined alterity of itslonger origin, partly by volition s online shopping more pop-by themain open and sell more.but in large nial of Pakistan’s claim to Kashmir, which part by forceular of circumstances. thethe 68th Independence Day celebrations at the by the day, Students Kishore attend Biyani, “It is an experiment, but themausoleum results sooffar seemed ironclad by all criteria — and Delhi’s its founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah afp/rizwan tabassum man who catapulted brick-and- have been encouraging,” says Biyani, referring rapprochement with Kabul — fuelled a sense mortar retail to new heights in In- to the five stores that have been launched in of insecurity and a lingering suspicion that Inor himself someonescouting who hasforworked many dia, found the next big the ‘minority Muslims’ Jaipur on a pilot basis. of the British Raj, ie, by dia intended to undo the new state. on modern India’s political his- the“This idea. Theyears founder and chief executive officer communal elite in provinces as Bomis a different market.

(Thesuch products) in Insecurity led the new state to embrace a tory, a scholarly excursus to the es- bay of Future Group has now identified a new the United theseand stores will be Provinces. limited to Muslim just 250politiSKUs unitary structure, quite contrary to the federwestern neighbour was cal frontier tranged to conquer — customers at Rajasmobilisation herehewas driven by two al principles on which the Pakistan campaign (stock keeping units),” adds. perhaps a logical step. Between Christophe Jaf- contrary than’s public distribution system (PDS) outimpulses: an attachment to the had run. The contest was referred to the Basic So rather than every kind of household frelot’s earlier volume on Pakistan, titled Na- courtly lets. This group of buyers includes those from the days of grocery, Mughalperhe- Principles Committee — promptly absorbed item, theculture shops will initially stock tionalism Without Nation (2002), of to varithe gemony below poverty line aand beneficiaries and an acute sense of vulnerability sonal healthcare and homecare products. to into the popular imagination as the Bengali current he seemsof to the havestate maintained ous foodwork, programmes govern- modernising trends among Hindus, whichtoo, as- Punjabi Controversy — and became the seed Although other brands will be available the thesis nation defined ment.

All of Pakistan them getasaa monthly quota by of sured themofa the more crediblewill claim to sharing a majority products belong to the from which a cataclysmic breakup occurred the alterity its origin, partly by volition but power sugar, wheatofand kerosene at subsidised rates. the Raj.as that will allow it to of- in 1971. group’swithin own brands, founder CEO, Future in largewants part by force of circumstances.

Biyani to sell them deodorants, mosqui- ferThe ‘separatepricing but equal’ that the Kishore competitive and ideology drive volumes.

IndiaBiyani, inherited veryand similar issues, though Group times have been fertile besides for scholarto Recent repellents and floor cleaners, fair- Muslim League adopted not are, gainonmuch Margins on private labeldid goods aver- it had the advantage of geographical cohership Pakistan, for reasons that its citizens traction within ness on creams and noodles, at the Muslim age, aboutmajori10 per cent higher ence. The Congress, besides, may have of mixed about. Older pos- ty provinces. than hundreds PDS feelings outlets across Cross-communal those on similar branded people visitinghad politicalretail profile acrossthat the theamodern outlets tures about Pakistan’s emergence as a conse- alliances hadproducts. the state. remarkable suc- pass on the the Future group Retailers country, unlikethethe Muslim has. It gives group a betquence of sinister imperial “Consumer aspirations are ‘divide-and-rule’ ris- Consumer aspirations cess in severalbenefit of these of regions, higher margins to cus- ter critical mass League in Pakistan, which and can help it grow thewas busi-a Jaffrelot highlights how policies over the ing andhave theybeen wantsupplanted to try new as inthey Punjab, where Nationtomersthe in the form of lower pric- ness more efficiently transplant the Muslim miandfrom profitably,” he adds. areyears rising and this assertion of Bengali by a focus on of rival commuproducts.

Youthe canhigh sell politics a lot more al Unionist Party knitted toes.

So those using Rajasthan’s nority provinces of the Raj. And The group is also ready with the supply want to try new cultural-linguistic nal elitesfair during British turn, this You through pricethe shops,” saysRaj. Bi- In products. gether rural PDS elitesservices from both will now have ac- chain for the backend, then, as as Jalal pointed out, it ishas present in Rajascan sell identity was quashed by thesis has been challenged from differyani, explaining the potential in-widely Hindu and Muslim faiths.

That cess to a wider range of products India inherited the bureaucratthan through its Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar a lot more through a local Muslim League ent perspectives Devji (Muslimfair Zion, herent in theby Faisal Annapurna bind that in Benprices are lower than formats. “We have ic and apparatheadministrative backend operations alpricecement shops couldatnot leadership associated 2013) andYojna, Venkata Dhulipala (Creating a New gal, where the Bhandar public-private Muslims werebrands. those of national tus ofBiyani the Raj while Pakistan ready in place,” says with Mohammad Medina, 2015),(PPP) whichscheme argue forbean explicit eth- largely sharecroppers partnership bitterly “It is a good opportunity for had to create afresh.

This new experiment, forit all Biyani, is an atAli Jinnah no-nationalist motivation the creation of oppressed by both tween the Rajasthan State in Food zamindars, FuturelargeGroup and the cus- tempt to ride Pakistan remains a country the storm of competition Pakistan. and Civil Supplies Corporation ly Hindu. Yettomers, a populist whocrossget much more va- whipped up by stretched on the rack in Jaffree-commerce players and corJaffrelot’s very substantial volume and Future Consumer Enterprise (FCEL).assem- communal mobilisation didBiyani is an porate giants lot’s riety on the shelves. Mr There such reading. as Reliance andare AV three Birla bles a numberhas of earlier writings on fair Pakistan’s Rajasthan nearly 25,000 price have fair success holding and he would group in the retail experienced retailhere, entrepreneur kinds of tensions that define its sector.

If it succeeds, the Raemergence, its as tortured oscillation between shops. As much 67 per cent of the state’s 6.8- out till the bitterthe end-days of the Raj forfor a unibe able to select right merchandise this contemporary state: between nationjasthan government might unitary invite bids to democracy and autocracy, andcrore, its continuing crore population, about 4.5 visit PDS fied Bengalsays province. segment,” Arvind Singhal, chairman at hood tendencies; bebring and morecompeting PDS stores federal under the ambit of the inability negotiate Islam’s status within consultancy outlets at to least twice a month.

Jaffrelot highlights how this assertion of tween firm Technopak. governance claims of tie-up. civic Eventually, other and state the governments state ideology. with aopportunity descriptive Bengali That presentsIt aconcludes huge business cultural-linguistic identity was Islam Devangshu Dutta, chief executive at retail as state ideology; are likely to follow suit. and between demochapter, rich in detail, of Pakistan’s current quashed for Biyani’s Future Group. by a Third local Muslim League consultancy Eyesight, says leadership the tie-up cratic forces and an hasreplicate usurpedthis the “That is what wearmy wantthat — to state of endemic sectarian violence.

Thewith na- associated To begin with, the company will tie up with Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Inter- nationalist gives the company a phenomenally stronger mantle.

As Biyani it negotiates model in other states,” says. a turbution’s resilience, which earns mention in the 5,000 PDS store owners, turning them into en- estingly, his recentthe working of iconoclastic presenceinthrough additional outlets. lent present by the these contradicAnd when determined that happens, Indian retail title, is seen toCurrently, lie in the commitment some historiography, trepreneurs. these stores of operate Perry Andersonreach (The Indian Ide- tions, “They get a vast geographic through sectorPakistan’s will get tofuture chasetrajectory a new andremains bigger too opof ethnic groups, asdays others threaten to ology, notitsmore than six toeven seven a month, and 2012) holds Jawaharlal Nehru responsib- complex these stores,” he says. forecasts. portunityfor — easy this time, right at the bottom of break away. remain closed after the monthly ration has le for precisely the is same with elements Thedoing second advantage the access to a dif- the pyramid.

Pakistan’s origins, Jaffrelot points out, lay in in been distributed.

After the tie-up with Future, the segment Congress,ofsuch as Sarat“The Chandra Bose, sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer ferent customers. customers researcher based in Gurgaon and Shimla rashmi pratap the movement forwill political representation by who store owners have an incentive to resought united Bengal while communal coming intoaPDS shops are different from the and

Fast-moving at ration shops Soaps, noodles and even fairness creams jostle for space with subsidised wheat and kerosene, as Future Group takes its retail battle to fair price shops in Rajasthan

A F

The Pakistan Paradox Instability and Resilience Christophe Jaffrelot Random House ₹799

Q

Q

R

R

ND-X _ A

State of the art Fresh-off-the-boat artists, barter shows, photo festivals… Prominent galleries and PAPERWALLAH museums are rolling out the welcome mat for a new season ripe with textures and colours, shapes and moods Books, though bearers of stories, are surrounded by stories too. They document relationships, place and time

Archive of our loves & lives janice pariat

T

his month, my books and I are re- about the lives of books and the meanings young, reckless, foolhardy) who thought it united. they gather as they move from person to per- ‘cool’. I place it guiltily out of sight.

We’ve been apart four years. Me, son, house to house. They have a term for it in Here is Orwell’s Burmese Days found in a café studying and living in the UK; they, art history: “the cultural biography of ob- in Hampi, left behind by another itinerant stacked dutifully in my parents’ house in Shil- jects.” The wonderful idea that things, like us, traveller. There, Ted Hughes’ Crow picked up long, patiently awaiting my return. When they also have lives. That they change through their for a pound somewhere in Kent. A battered arrived at my flat in Delhi, I felt I was welcom- existence as we do, and hence cannot be fully Great Gatsby bought by R____, a college boying home old friends, albeit slightly dustier comprehended merely at a single point. Proc- friend, from Priya Complex’s outdoor (now de(and mustier) than when we last met. They esses and cycles of production, exchange and funct?) KK Bookshop. In black spidery letters, tanding the viewing end of the Mumbai, were familiar andatstrange all at once. while contemporary consumption allKolkata-based count and must be looked at his dedication reads: “through broken drum whose refrigerated And Iglass-top sat on thecounter, floor, cardboard boxes scat- arts gallery Books, Experimenter organised in July beats/smoke filled bars/that black and white as a whole. though bearers of stories, insides contained stainless-steel tered around me, getting todeep know them again. the fifth editionby of stories its Curator’s Hub, a signifi- feel/dancing shoes with no hours/to my own are surrounded too. They document pockets ofBruce different flavours quin- cant There was errant Chatwin, theofplayful confluence of local andThey international cu- formless music/to my jazz.” We broke up evenrelationships.

Place.

Time. are material tessentially Indian I saw the sign tumble of Calvin andice-cream, Hobbes, stiff-backed Phi- rators. group shows, a summer mainstay, archiveThe of our loves and lives.

Weighed down tually (that old enemy, distance), but while we that assured that my four-month period of were lip Larkin, theme spring garden display of Virginheldbyacross galleries, not only their pages but but by it was otherwere together he gifted me lots of intense ia Woolf.craving would at last be sated. I was at wise albeit punctuated their quiet, accumulated histories. I with a radical books. A gorgeously gold-enNatural, most beloved ice-cream ‘WhereMumbai’s did I pick you up?’

I wondered, leaf- number of discussions and provocations. The think about the relationship graved hardback of Lewis Carroll’s maker, whichAnaïs had recently set up a Delhi outing through Nin’s A Spy in the House of most distinctive of these, the not-for-profit between my books and I.at Becollected works, Miguel de CerThe cultural post.

It wasI mid-August. freezers were fi- Mumbai Love. Then rememberedTheir I hadn’t.

It had been Room, profound ‘exhibitween myArt books andwas all atheir biography of objects: vantes’ Don Quixote with the iconnally with flavour. in London. tion giftedshelved

by F____, ansitaphal old boyfriend in process’ titledThe ‘Len bookDen or Bartered Colprevious owners. ic Picasso sketch, all of Ray’s the wonderful idea had never occurred towhich, me before that the lections’, HeItread The Independent, at the time, noblethey’ve yet instigative enterprise shops at awhich been Feluda, a tattered ₹5 copy of Douthat things, like us, beginning of be thehanding art world so neatly happened to outcalendar free classics with initiated artist couple displayed.byThe cities theyShreyas once Karle and glas Adams’ The Long Dark Tea-Time alsoHehave lives coincided with the season of the weekend paper.

Nin, Vladimir Nabokov’s lived in. The printing mali Bhuta.

They invited 14 presses of the Soul, that served as a Valencustard apples.

It made per- Animal Farm. I from where they’d Lolita, and George Orwell’s artists, sprung. whose work they tine’s day present (from a bookfect sense, thepresented nalooked forconsidering the book he’d to me be- How they had all would have liked to acquire happened — stall in Kamla Nagar; we were ture plump, fore of wethe parted.

Thesinful Epic fruit: of Gilgamesh, a Meso- like a miracle — had they the capital, to barter to congregate students, we were broke.)

Subodh Gupta, 51, has been all burst, all seed, all profupotamian poem dated circa 2100 BC, one of here with me. with them and each other.

I wonder now if people treasure the books I working tirelessly on a solo sion, the perfect de- “You are all my the oldest stories textural in existence. show, openedtrio, on have gifted them. If they remember the spirit There, in the The corner, laywhich my Tolkien planned for February scription thehislast two literatures”ofreads dedication, scrawled in massive and magical, June 5, looked more illustrated by thelike won-a in which I did so, if my inscriptions inside still 2016 at Hauser & Wirth’s weeks of harvest. Which is not blue ink. storagebyzone than a decades conven- resonate. How many books are placed on, and drous Alan Lee. Found my mother year-old bucolic to Next, say the year-end hardback spell of edition of Vir- ago at a tiny booktional a minimalist fair inwhite-cube Shillong forexhibition, a princely leave our hands? For Melanesians, who inhabspace in Somerset melons and mangoes gil’s The Aeneid.

This wasn’twas even mine. It once ₹1,000. My grubby and evoked numerous ques- it the islands in Oceania, objects are viewed as edition of Arthur Koestler’s marked bytoa alull.

In factin the fe- Along with Ed- Darkness at Noon, belonged flatmate Delhi. tions about the category of the detached parts of people, circulating which I (embarrassingly) cund of the na St introspection Millay’s Renascence and Other Poems sobbed over in the theLondon collector, the significance tube.

A cheap pa- through the vast complex social network of months of March to July pre-reminded me of perback of Orwell’s whose bright yellow cover of a1984 collection, the arbitrary that I remember read- the world. People, in this way, are also distribpared us fortrees thisblooming more intricate ripeness. the amaltas along our street In in relationship between price value, and the ing (for no good reason I canand think of now) on uted, found in one place and spread over June, itinerant arts lab evenings Khanabadhosh Pamposh Enclave.

In the we’d sitsucout prevailing that both mark winand many. I line up my books in no particular orthe steps athierarchies Piccadilly Circus, on a snowy cessfully kickedsipping off theour first phasetalking. of its yearon the terrace, drinks, Did mar the Indian art world. Mid-August, the dis- der. Eventually, like me, they will disperse. For ter night. long collaborative project the Zurich Uni- play he lend them to me?

Whywith hadn’t I returned onstolen. its head in or- now, my bookshelf is a gathering.

Onwas my once shelf again I find aturned book I’d versity, artist collectives from derSylvia them? I encompassing suppose they were mine now, tangled to accommodate the works that had Plath’s The Bell Jar.new While I was at uninine ‘creative across Ithe world. The in- been with my othercities’ belongings. wondered where by the fresh of artists versity,acquired at the World Book Fairbunch in Delhi’s Praga- janice pariat is the author of Seahorse augural conference, titledthem ‘Draft’, held in who’d he’d found them. Picked up.was I thought been pressurised invited to barter.

The show’s ti Maidan, by peers (all of exus t@janicepariat

S

Q

Q R

R

ND-X _ A

cover read

saturday, august 29,29, 2015 saturday, august 2015

matthew cole/shutterstock

9 17BL BL

read talk

BL BL 186

saturday, august 29,29, 2015 saturday, august 2015

The laddoo of the prom Profit = Philanthropy LIGHTHOUSE

With her straight-talking and no-nonsense ways, Twinkle Khanna wants to prove that she can be just like any other woman riding an autorickshaw The only sustainable way to make money is to help others

B

Mrs Funnybones Twinkle Khanna Penguin ₹299

eing an overweight child is probably the best thing that ever happened to Twinkle Khanna. Having a name like Twinkle comes a close second. The teasing and bullying left her no choice but to develop a quick-witted personality as a defence mechanism. “Who has heard of the prom queen after the prom? Nobody! Because she doesn’t develop anything... except maybe breasts,” says Khanna, explaining why she was better off likened to a laddoo. She makes a valid argument. At 41, she is one of the most widely read humour columnists in the country and has now turned author with the launch of her debut book, Mrs Funnybones. Her latest avatar as writer is in addition to her flourishing career as an interior decorator, and a less-successful one as an actress. “I’ve blocked out that part of my life,” she says of her film career, over a cup of black coffee at her store The White Window in Bandra, Mumbai.

It’s the beginning of a manic day for Khanna. After our conversation she has an online interaction with readers, and then an appointment at her son’s school. As she juggles all of this, her lunch remains untouched in a small bag. “I’ve been trying to catch up on my chil-

“N

ND-X _ A

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

ever talk to me about profit,” Jawaharlal Nehru once said to an industrialist friend of his.

“It is a dirty word.”

Nehru’s sentiments were understandable in those times. India had just rid itself of the British, who had come here ostensibly to do business and had left us impoverished. Nehru, who had played a notable role in the fight for freedom, had spent his formative years in England learning from the Fabian socialists, as well as from Harold Laski, the Marxist professor at LSE who, through students such as Nehru himself and VK Krishna Menon, arguably had a greater influence on modern India than Mahatma Gandhi . The Soviet Union seemed to be a model to admire, America itself vastly expanded the role of the state after the Great Depression, and the top-down command-and-control economy must have seemed incredibly attractive to Nehru. The centre had to hold. The profit motive was evil.

And those exploitative capitalists had to be kept in check.

It is not fair to judge Nehru in hindsight, and he was right about other things that mattered. But he was wrong about this. Profit is the secret behind all prosperity. And it is a distrust of the profit motive that has kept this country poor.

The fundamental fallacy that Nehru committed was of looking at the economy as a zero-sum game. By that thinking, if someone is winning, someone else must be losing. If the industrialist makes a profit, someone else is getting exploited. But this is not the way the

dren’s school work because I’ve missed out as much about me as it is about a normal this entire week. This junket has left me a little ity was caused bylives the in explosion of trade, of is so woman who India. Our country brain-dead. It was my two-year-old daughter’s markets around world, ofmatter quickly proliferunique thatthe it doesn’t that your ecoshow-and-tell in school yesterday and I didn’t atingnomic ‘Double-Thank-You backgrounds Moments’. are different, because you know what to send, so I gave her my book,” she This prosperity correlated with eco- deexperience thewas same things in varying says, laughing at her ingenious solution. nomic freedom. year the Foungrees.

So if IEvery have four staffHeritage members who are Khanna has studiously kept away from the dation brings of Economic driving me out mad,an my Index accountant will have one media glare for years now, but her re-invenFreedom.

Goisonline and it she up, says. and you bai who driving herlook mad,” tion as Mrs Funnybones — a moniker she came will find economic freedom andwould wealthhave If that she had her way, Khanna up with for Twitter because her own name go hand in hand.

The freer are, the wealthmade her debut withyou a “sober book about a wasn’t available — has put her back in the foreier you tend to be.family”.

Also, the freer you the pre-Partition But then herare, publishers front. Her star husband, Akshay Kumar, who fasterconvinced you grow. her The data is conclusive. to extend her columns — viwas promoting his film Brothers recently told Forget thefrom data,her youlife say.which Capitalists are exgnettes she deftly ties up her with a giggle, “‘This is like Abhimaan. ploitative.

What about low wages paid by and with larger issues the of government policy They’re asking me more about you.’”

Walmart?

What about sweatshops runwhen by she social taboos.

About two years back, In many ways, Khanna seems like an aberralargestarted MNCs in third-world countries like Banwriting her column, Khanna admits tion in the society she was born in and margladesh, wherewas workers toil injuicy inhumane conher editor expecting material on the ried into. One would have expected her book ditions?

Isn’t the profit motive at work? world of that showbiz.

Though she found that topto resemble the fashion magazine covers she Yes, is. And I deeply to admire andoccaic ittoo uninspiring writeWalmart about, she graces occasionally. Or that she’d at least dole everysionally company that runs sweatshop a entertains withaher hilariousin insights out pointers on how to look ‘fab at 40’, or be poor a into country.

That isofbecause people who she the world societythe ladies.

A world fashionable mother of two. But she insisted on workfrequents in Walmart and in“There those sweatshops do at times. are some mandatoan illustration of her riding an autorickshaw, so because it isthat theevery best option to them. ry things societyopen lady has to do, like her mane flying wildly in the wind and her Theytheir are not Theyblow-dried, are choosing toare work hairfools. is always they always two children peeping out curiously. “I felt putwhere they do because theylove deem all other al- dewell-dressed, and they carrying these ting my face on the cover would take away ternatives be worse, and those evil capitalist signertobags.

I’m not like that.

But can I adjust from what the book was about. It is not really behemoths should actually be thanked forinto ac- that to that situation?

Of course.

I can slip tuallyrole providing anitoption is better and slipthem out of just asthat easily,” she says. thanKhanna’s the best introduction option otherwise available toof the at the beginning them.

We condescend to those workers when book even states that she ‘narrowly escaped a we say they are tragedy being exploited.

(Indeed, ittried is to gruesome when Bollywood possible that we arebrain exploiting them using bludgeon her to the size ofby a pea’. ufuk zivana/shutterstock them toHer feed our sanctimony.) straight-talking ways may be a new disThis doesn’t to slavery andfriends trafficking, covery forapply the public, but her seem acworld works. All trade is a positive-sum game; of course, for byto ‘free I mean markets customed hermarkets’ quick wit.

At the launch of and indeed, it is not possible for one person where adultsher trade freely herconsenting book last week, friend andunder one-time alone to make a profit in a transaction. the rule of law.

Also, let described us not conflate co-star Aamir Khan her as rentsomeone I am fond of illustrating this by citing what seeking andinsults profit-seeking.

Many large com“who everybody”.

Khanna says her the writer John Stossel calls the ‘Double Thank- panies get tongue together with to put sharp was thegovernment bane, especially during You Moment’. When you place an order at, say, restrictions on markets so that their“At markether acting days. the time a Cafe Coffee Day, you say ‘thank you’ when you share is protected from competition.

Such prothere were a lot of dodgy are handed your cup of coffee. And the cashier protectionism hurts thefrom common consumer, and ducers the underworld says ‘thank you’ when you hand over your and amounts to Iahad redistribution wealth no clue. Onceofwhile doing a Who has heard of the money. This double ‘thank-you’ illustrates that from the poor at large rich special-interest movietoI came late to the set. So I prom queen after the both of you benefit from the groups.

Big companies are often screamed saying, ‘What will you prom? Nobody! transaction. Both of you profit. the biggest enemies of free do to me?

Will you stabmarme? Will Because she doesn’t This is, simply put, the root kets,you and capitalism often unfairkill me?’ Everyone around develop anything... cause of prosperity. Every single ly gets badhorrified. name because it is meawas They probably maybe breasts Andexcept I deeply admire voluntary transaction that takes confused with‘Yes! crony capitalism thought, He will kill you!’”

Walmart and every place makes both parties better — or ‘crapitalism’ as some callthat it. her It’s no wonder then company that runs off, and increases the sum total Tocolumn sum up, the profit motive is goes through many a sweatshop in a of value in the world. Equally, evnot something nefarious,before but ismakrounds of proofing poor countrying it to print. ery impediment that anyone actually You can prof-draft.

Hernoble. husband seesonly the first places on the ability of consentin a free marketshe’s by improving On mostitdays he thinks their in-house ing adults to trade freely with someonebut else’s the more Salman Rushdie, helife. has And made her remove each other reduces the notional youas profit, greater good words such ‘lotus’the and ‘penis’the from her covalue in the world, and is an impediment to you do, the “Just higher the valueI had you acreate.

Profit, lumn. yesterday column on godgrowth. It stands to reason, then, that trade indeed, is and the purest of philanthropy. men I had toform remove an entire paragraph. should lead to prosperity, and that economic I must admit here the very It was really funny,” sheslight, rues.teeny-wee“But I’m okay freedom should be correlated with a nation’s ny possibility thatthing I am you being unjust Nehru. with it. Next know, I’ll to have a case on wealth. Does the data bear this out? You bet it Maybe heshe hadadds. a mischievous glint in his eye me,” does. when he wassomeone a ‘dirty word’.

Yet,said shethat feelsprofit that for with a ItendGo online and Google ‘The Hockey Stick of can imagine him sidling up tooff, Edwina Mountency to shoot her mouth writing is the perHuman Prosperity’, and you will come across batten a party, gently putting his warped,” hand on she fectatfit.

“My ideologies are not an astonishing chart. It shows world GDP her waist, and“But whispering her,Writing ‘Edwina, my me explains.

I talk tootofast. allows through the centuries, and right from 500BC dear,time would likethese to, ahem, profitso with me?’ to you refine thoughts, that I’m not to the 18th century, it’s a flat line, with hardly That hurting certainly could feelings have ledbut to am a double anyone’s getting my Stand apart any growth to speak of. And then it explodes thank-you point moment. across,” she says. If initial reactions to Twinkle Khanna upwards, almost vertically, like the head of a the book are to be believed, Mrs Funnybones can often appear hockey stick. This dramatic growth in prosperhas achieved precisely that. t@amitvarma an aberration in

Q Q R R

the glitz of Bollywood

mohini chaudhuri

talk takeaway

saturday, august 29,29, 2015 saturday, august 2015

Active interest The devotion of Jitender Ch UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

A dreamy town in Canada’s Coast Mountains, Whistler is all about love for the outdoors

‘W

is bear country. skateboarders weaved for their communal way around a harmony an almost luminescent blue from glacial silt.

A small mosquehistler in South DelhiPlace becomes the stage garbage in bear-proof con- handful of pedestrians. Slick mountain bikes Under a graffiti-covered bridge, past picnick-

Travel Log Getting there

Fly from Delhi or Mumbai to Vancouver with British Airways.

Whistler is a two-hour drive north via the scenic Sea to Sky Highway.

Stay

The Four Seasons at the foot of the Blackcomb Mountain is a rustic, chalet-style property, beautifully designed in timber and stone.

Tip

Get outdoors. Cycle along the mountain trails, swim in the lakes, or opt for an easy hike through the forest.

tainers.’ Under this rather whizzed past. Toddlers, who barely reached up ing families, and gradually uphill I went until I welcoming sign at the to my knees and not quite steady on their feet emerged onto the hillside. Cedar forests covTown Plaza stood firmly padlocked garbage yet, glided along on little skateboards. Their ered the inclines. The uphill slope was steeper bins. Locals may be used to furry friends am- older counterparts headed out to the Skate than I anticipated. Out of breath but exhilaratbling through the shopping complex, but I Park in hordes, skateboards slung low across ed, I pedalled on higher, diverging onto the couldn’t resist a nervous glance into the shad- their backs. At the base of the mountain bike Lost Lake loop. It was a bright day, but the narows. Throughout my visit, I was regaled with park, I watched cyclists hurtle down the slopes row avenue I was on was dark, shaded by the stories of black bears wandering into hotel on unpaved trails, jump off ramps, spin mid- thick canopy of tall coniferous trees. Speckled gardens or sniffing around people’s back- air, and land nimbly on two sunlight formed patterns on the yards. Nature is serious business west of the wheels. At the ‘training’ Flo Park carpet of fallen maple leaves — Rockies, here in Canada’s Coast Mountains. for children, toddlers cycled up komorebi is what the Japanese Whistler in British Columbia may be just a baby-size ramps, jumping off call this interplay of light and two-hour drive from Vancouver, but it’s a fearlessly. It ain’t Whistler if it shade. Gusts of wind brought a Not cars, but world apart from the shiny steel-and-glass me- isn’t extreme. shower of autumnal leaves down skateboarders tropolis. I visited in October, when the air was A large open-air market was on me. It was magic. weaved their way crisp and warranted a jacket. The trees were crammed with all kinds of ski The path to the Lost Lake diaround a handful of up in flames — in the colours of fall — maple and snowboard gear in preparaverged downhill. The voices of pedestrians leaves in burnt orange and crimson carpeted tion for the winter. It seemed evmy companions drowned out as the streets. Gabled chalets and half-timbered eryone around me was heading they fell behind, replaced by the houses stood at the foot of the Whistler-Black- off to conquer some unparallelloud whistling of the wind. “Maycomb Mountains. The town’s Alpine, bohe- ed feat. be that’s where the town gets its mian vibe was distinct.

I wanted to get in on this action. name from,” I thought to myself. The forest Developed as a ski resort for the 2010 OlymThere was no snow to be had in October parted to reveal a glassy expanse of water at pic and Paralympic Winter Games, Whistler though, so I hopped over to Salomon’s and the foot of a hill. The lake mirrored the trees today is among North America’s premier ad- rented a nifty little mountain bike and hel- on the hillside in their shades of green, red venture destinations, drawing skiers, snow- met. I’d heard lots and caught glimpses of the and brown. A young family lay on the grass, boarders and adventure enthusiasts from gorgeous forested trails and lakes. The 40-km throwing a ball into the water, while an eager around the world. In warmer months, cyclists Valley Trail seemed like a promising option — a Golden Retriever repeatedly swam in to fetch flock to the town’s well-known mountain bike partly paved trail winding through the moun- it, wet and happy. I wasn’t the only one who’d park for its heart-stopping trails. tains, cutting through forests, and linking five found the Lost Lake.

Walking through the cobbled streets, I of Whistler’s lakes. found myself jumping out of the way of I started on a narrow rock-strewn path, past malavika bhattacharya is a Delhi-based freelance travel16th journalist speeding traffic ever so often.

Not cars, but the Fitzsimmons Creek.

Its glacier-fed water House of worship Nili (Blue) Masjid dates back to the Lodis, the dynasty that ruled Delhi Sultanate from mid-15th toisthe early century ramesh sharma

Q R

T

Omair Ahmad is an author. His last malavika book wasbhattacharya on Bhutan

here is a small mosque near the apartment I live in in Delhi’s Gulmohar Park. I found it by accident. It is neither big, nor does it have a loud public address system, but once in a while, very early in the morning, I would hear a faint call for prayer. My wife and I grew curious about this mosque that we could rarely, and faintly, hear. As both of us enjoy walking, we explored the neighbourhood until we spotted it. It was about 200-300 yards from our apartment, and well worth the search. It is a small structure, by all accounts, with limited amenities. A new, multi-storey mosque has been around for the last few decades in nearby Green Park, but I still prefer this old one.

Part of its appeal is the age. The mosque — called Nili Masjid or Blue Mosque — is named after the delicate blue colour of the tilework that adorns it. There is little left, but that is no surprise. The building dates back to the preMughal Lodi dynasty, and would have been built sometime in the 15th or early 16th century. There is no real record — or at least I have not come across any — of who built this monument. Such small buildings, or ruins thereof, litter the neighbourhood around Hauz Khas, and much larger ones have little explanations attached to them; this one, with a main structure of barely 15ft by 3 , and an outer courtyard of maybe twice as much, hardly rates a mention. Maybe this is why it had become a dump until a maulvi took it upon himself to clean it.

With permission from the authorities and approval from the police — who did not like a place that had become a grotto of illicit activ-

ities and the subject of complaints — the Nili the cloth spread on the road, I was curiously Masjid has become a humble gathering place, pleased by the very clean khaki of the policeneat and tidy, an unobtrusive bit of Indian his- men’s trousers, perfect crease et al. I was tory happily in place in India’s capital city. dressed in new clothes for Eid, thanks to my The mosque has few regular attendees, and mother-in-law, and it pleased me that the pothe few times that I have dropped in for licemen were as well. prayers I have met maybe five or 10 people, or As they came to us, the policemen fanned during Friday prayers, all of 40-50. During out, standing just at the edge of the people Ramzan, of course, the attendance goes up. Ac- about to pray, and started directing the traffic cording to Islamic belief, Ramzan around us. Quietly, unobtrusiveis the lunar month in which the ly, they displayed their commitQuran was first revealed, and durment to the policeman’s duty to ing extended night prayers called protect fellow citizens. The Taraveeh, the whole of it is recitprayer was about to start, and as I When you prostrate ed. The Eid-ul-Fitr prayers, held rose to join in, my eyes fell on onfor sijda, you see the morning after the complely one policeman’s badge. It said, nothing. Completely tion of Ramzan, marking the end defenceless, with my ‘Jitender Ch’. of both fasting and extended head to the ground, I During prayer, your attention prayers, are fairly well-attended. I narrows, and when you prostrate heard the gravel found myself in Delhi that day. for sijda, your head to the crunch as cars Having taken a day off from ground, you see nothing. Compassed by work, I thought I would stroll pletely defenceless, with my down to Nili Masjid and offer head to the ground, I heard the short prayers as well. gravel crunch as cars passed by, By the time I reached, the the only thing keeping me alive mosque and the courtyard were full, and the as I closed myself to the world, was the devocrowd had spilled out onto the street. I found tion of Jitender Ch. I didn’t doubt my safety for myself at the edge, irritated at having arrived an instant. late. The road is public property, and enThe prayers got over a few minutes later. croaching on it, by three feet or so — the same Had I been in my hometown, or among area taken up by cars parked at the hospital on friends, we would have embraced, and said the other side of the road — is just not appro- “Eid Mubarak”. Here I knew nobody, and the priate, even if for an annual ritual that takes all only thing I said was to the policeman, “Thank of five-10 minutes. you.” He smiled, and waved me on home.

As I sat down to pray, I saw a group of policetOmairTAhmad men make their way to the crowd. Sitting on

Q R

ND-X _ A

7 19BL BL

know takeaway

BL BL 20 4

saturday, august 29,29, 2015 saturday, august 2015

whether as a passive onlooker or whether they forwarded the messages themselves, remains hazy. “It is possible that some admins may have forwarded the text, but I spoke to at least one who was held only because he managed the group,” says Homkar.

Are the admins culpable in such situations?

“Not at all,” say internet experts, if the admin has had nothing to do with the fear-mongering texts. But if the admin has forwarded a potentially harmful message, he/she is accountable like anyone else. “It is then an act done knowingly,” says Prasanth Sugathan, counsel at the Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Centre. “The act of forwarding makes you accountable. The burden of truth is on you,” he adds. Chinmayi Arun, research director at Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University, Delhi, pitches in, “Just being an inactive administrator of a large group, who may not be able to vet all of its content, is very different from forwarding rumours. People who forward rumours should be responsible enough to at least highlight their doubtful veracity.”

However, if the admin is unconnected to the group activities, he cannot be held for merely starting the group, they say. “Unless, of course, you have started it for an illegal activity or to cause an offence,” says Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bengaluru-based The Centre for Internet and Society. The WhatsApp admin, they point out, is a mere intermediary.

One who isn’t vested with any power, except to Down memory lane It was while shopping in Penny Lane that Cynthia, John Lennon’s first wife, went into labour to give to son Julian photos byfrom zac o’yeah addbirth or remove members the group.

Twenty-three-year-old Hrishikesh, from Dhanbad, is currently admin in six groups. In TUMMY TRAVELS three, he is one among multiple admins. He hardly keeps tab on the goings-on in this space and is not acquainted with all members, he says. “A WhatsApp admin has no control, no facility to moderate or tweak a message,” The good word The best way to counter rumours on WhatsApp is by educating users, say experts bloomberg says Sugathan. Abraham trots out Section 79 of the IT Act. “It gives the admin immunity from liability that emerges from content posted by the members,” he says. The best way to track the original senders in such cases, he says, is to rope in the help of the telecom department, the other intermediary (in the case of WhatsApp, the owner Facebook) and blend it with some ‘old-fashioned’ detective work.

“Counter bad speech with good speech,” says Abraham, and that is often the best way to deal with rumour-mongering. Instances like h yeah’ was the only thought in orphanage gates, which today are covered in those at Solapur and Ahmedabad have been my mind as I stood outside John fan graffiti. Like all other fans I take a selfie. rare, he reasons. “Such stuff can be dealt better Lennon’s childhood home, MenThere’s something weird about it all. I never with education rather than regulation. All dips — a semi-detached Liver- met the guy. Yet he’s more real to me than any types of nuisance shouldn’t be regulated. The pool villa now owned by the National Trust memory I have of my own childhood friends. cost of implementing new laws and training (donated to them by Lennon’s second wife, The hours spent listening to cassettes and police personnel for it is not cheap. In these artist Yoko Ono). Limited numbers of tourists singing along — Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! — means I can cases, SMSes from the police could go to every are allowed inside. Of course, I wasn’t smart practically see him before me as I wander single mobile user in the district, telling them enough to book anSolapur advance ticket, butMahI’m Neatly slotting lives into groups of friends, the rumours are false.” n early August, in southeast about here in Liverpool. happy to gawkwas across the wall. been afear. fan work andBeatle family,spots it allows users to flit in and arashtra gripped by aI’ve strange Other include a traffic signal Sugathan concurs with this. Facebook, rasinceLike I was 10. Lennon was the most small towns, Solapur rarely out of interactions. fair amounthad of trouwhere But Paula McCartney a bi- dio and other mass media should be used by samemakes age when sat on that also springing the heheadlines except when ble-making iscycle puncture,up the church the police to quell rumours, he says. porch strumming guitar. drought deepens. his That changed as alarmed from the app.where he first met Lennon in He points out that in the aftermath of Lennon’s majorallgrowing-up In Solapur,1957 the police villagers in almost of the district’s 11 tehsils (and tasked where a woman the 2011 London riots, although social Inlook the crammed trauma outdoors took place too. on the with putting named the rumours to an camped dayhere, and night, Eleanor Rigby lies burmedia was blamed for aggravating While toenemy. the opposite out for crossing an unseen “In the bastisbasement (villag- concert end had visited bastis, ied), and narrowed Penny Lane — A itllwas the situation, there were ample warntypes of are murals by suspected sideresidents of Menlove Avenue, down the smartphone es), kept night vigils,his sittingroom around while shopping there thatnuisance Cynings against shutting it down during the Julia was mowed downjournalist, amother fire,” Deepak Homkar, a local re-Beatles’ users and randomly checked thia, Lennon’s first wife, went in- be such times. “Blocking the medium is shouldn’t by a drunk-driving copflying without a — of original their WhatsApp messages.

“Webirth toregulated calls.

Rumours were thick theft, bassist to labour to give pop blocking an avenue for information.

Stuart Sutcliffe driver’s licence, who and mistook the kidnapping found these rumours some,in 1963. It is a widespread looting possible star Julianon Lennon One cannot arrest each and every peraccelerator for the pedal. of children. And all ofbrake it over WhatsApp, the in- not other [phones],” saysneighbourhood a police very quiet and, son. So educating people works betLennon mulled over loss scenes in 36 hours search, stant messaging app. his Similar were re- official. After except forofsome businesses that ter,” says Sugathan. Some like his mostfrom touching songs such as ported Ahmedabad a month earlier. 16 young men were held names under such as ‘Sgt. cash in with Abraham consider these hiccups inJulia and Mother. spreading alarm and fearoutin evitable in our evolving use of social media. A Rumours of dacoity and terrorist attacks IPC 505 1(B) for Peppers Bistro’, it doesn’t The Woolton suburb is dotted with many tehsil alone. It included those new spread panic in areas around Ahmedabad.

Ar- Pandharpur right scream Beatlemania. considered Housetechnology of the rising is sunoften Fans outside Lennon’ssacromore were spots relating to who his had song-writing. allegedly sentofthe message and several sanct rests made of those allegedly who Instead, much Beatlemania happened andhome reliable. “From repeated exposure childhood Around the corner ontexts, Beaconsfield the ‘admins’ (those who Liverpool. open andI visit manage the emerges critical understanding. It will take us sent fear-mongering but theRoad, damage downtown in central the JacaStrawberry Field done. orphanage used to have group had already been accounts).

After being questioned and another five years to know that Wikipedia is randa (23 Slater Street), a low-key joint where events kids.

Strawberry Withfor over 800Lennon million,composed and growing, active warned against repeating the men they played in 1960 beforesuch they texts, got famous.

It not by the theBeatles’ source original of truth.”bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, Fields worldwide, Forever on the theme of childhood nos- were users WhatsApp is popular among was let runoff.by their first manager. In the fellow art student at the college Lennon went talgia the Beatles did a promo shoot attoo. the crammed The complicity the WhatsApp the 160and million smartphone users in India basementofconcert room are admin, murals pto.anima One profile on the wall looks like Lennon’s

In the town where I wasnew born…

The tattler in town

Beatlemania in Liverpool, home of the Fab Four, has both highs and lows

zac o’yeah

‘O I

WhatsApp messages, and in particular ‘admins’ of WhatsApp groups come under pressure as rumourmongering catches the attention of the police

Q R

Q R

ND-X _ A

know takeaway

saturday, august 29,29, 2015 saturday, august 2015

Seeing red The thought of millions of shareholders losing their savings in the stock market crash must be giving the Communist Party nightmares of street protests afp/greg baker Here, there, everywhere Inside Jacaranda Bar, a low-key joint where the Beatles performed before they became famous zac o’yeah

AGENDA

Chinese whispers

face. Selfie? I’d like to think it is him.

Pubs like Jacaranda bring me closer to the Beatles than the official Beatlemania tourism industry does — the Magical Mystery bus tour, the Yellow Submarine harbour cruise, the Cavern Walks shopping mall with Beatles memorabilia made in China, the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds café supposedly built on the actual location of the demolished Cavern Club’s stage (where Beatlemania started after the his year the Communist Party ChiBeatles performed there 292 times), the in reconna entered 66th year in power. structed Cavern Clubits nearby (where BeatleOnly two other one-party regimes — the communist parties in erstwhile Soviet Union and the current North Korean regime — have survived longer. It took 74 years before the Soviet communists wilted, while in North Korea the regime has entered its 70th year in power.

All eyes this week have been on Shanghai’s stock market, whose dramatic 30-plus per cent collapse triggered a global selloff. But there is a much larger story that could be unfolding in Beijing: an existential threat to the Communist Party regime.

As China analyst Minxin Pei has pointed out, “social science research has shown that once per capita income crosses a certain threshold (about $4,000 in purchasing power parity, or PPP), authoritarian regimes in nonoil producing states face greater risks of fall.”

It happens because elite and middle-class taxpayers in such countries become unwilling to prop up a regime that does not allow participation or dissent. With per capita income at above $10,000, China is already an extreme outlier in that respect.

The Chinese top leadership is well aware that they have so far defied history and democratic gravity to stay in power. They know what keeps them in power is the elite consensus in the country, that the single-party regime has been a key driver of the impressive economic growth of the last two decades.

If the annual growth rate falls below five per cent, however — the Chinese whisper goes — dissent against the Party may spill over to the streets. In 1989, the Tiananmen Square student protests also happened in the backdrop of an economic downturn. And no one is more paranoid about losing power than the Party elite. Hence, at the slightest sign of economic

mania obviously didn’t start but where Stuart at 3 Gambier Terrace (a five-minute McCartney recorded a concert DVD in 1999) walk away). Lennon, on another unrelated ocand Lennon’s Pub, Abbey Road House, Rubber casion, puked his brains out in a corner here.

Soul Oyster Bar, the Hard Day’s Night Hotel That’s the kind of reputation this pub has and, to top it all, the amazingly tacky Beatles- among Beatles-aficionados. inspired public art.

A blind drunkard accosts me. “So you’ve I suspect all of this would have weirded Len- come to do the Beatles things?” non out. Until the 1970s, the Beatles were just “Yes, sir.” It obviously didn’t take a seeing another band that had originated in the city, man to see that, so there’s nothing to do but but after Lennon’s assassination in 1980, Liver- admit it. pool started capitalising on their — for from trouble, the country’s central banknames and policyHe marching moves closer on the bench.

“I’m athough, record to Tiananmen Square example, thetoairport Len- collector.” makers goby outrenaming of their way ensure after proactive remains to be seen. non.

McCartney says, in a bonus interview on measures to boost economic confidence.

“What records dofor you In a March essay thecollect?”

Wall Street Journal, titheLook abovementioned DVD,which that when he’s in tled at the alacrity with The People’s “Ah variousCrackup, artistes.veteran I know China Paul,” Thedifferent, Coming Chinese Liverpool he sometimes his limousine Bank of China reacted to stops the market fall. This he says, David swiftlyShambaugh changing the subject.

Hepreapwatcher made the bold outside his childhood home a museum) week it reduced lending and(also deposit interest pears tothat lookPresident around the room, despite being diction Xi Jinping could well bebut never felt like stepping rateshas by 0.25 percentage points each and its re- come China’sostensibly Mikhail blind.

Gorbachev, presiding in, ‘I can’t face it.’ ratio by 0.50 percentage over the collapse serve requirement I startof to wonder if I’mregime. dreamcommunist I visitThis all is the points. thepubs fifththat rate have cut announced by Though he noted ing. “Oh really?” that Xi was very different the slightest connection to the China since November 2014.

The Chinese au- from Gorbachev “Actually his brother style, Mike and in his leadership the band.

Grapes Mathew Streetaccused is They thorities havein also often been of fudgI are tight buddies.

Mike McCarttactics are stalling the reweren’tformer’s into finestrong-arm where they would havetheir pintseconomic being numbers to make picture ney. We’re like this tight,”growth. he says formsjam that China needs for further dining but loved fore to the Cavern Club seemheading rosier than it actually is. slams his fists together.

“Mr Xi’s waveand of repression today is meant to butties (jam-butter to And do their shows, because therein lies the larger the problem.

Rather be abruptness of perestroika the violent theand oppositeThe of Mr Gorbachev’s sandwiches), fish Cavern serve booze.

Blue chips, and curries out gesture than letdidn’t the markets determine makes me wrote spill some ale and glasnost,” ShamAngel, in Seel Street,the where they their own prices, governand I back off aand bit. unless But I’veChina read baugh.

“Until of packets auditioned for in their first cycle tour. ment is caught a vicious about Mike he was relaxes its McCartney; draconian political The Pilgrimbooster in Pilgrim Street, faof giving shots to the involved the become McCartcontrols,initturning will never If the annual growth mous for to some Beatle thingsuror economy ensure its own ney into a museum an home innovative society and andhisa rate falls below five per the other.

And so vival, creating anon. unsustainable ex-wife Angieeconomy… and Cynthia Lenknowledge If Mr Xi cent however — the I eat bubble. whateverThe they mightnow have eaten — they non ran a bed-and-breakfast credit bubble together in Wales and party leaders don’t relax Chinese whisper goes weren’t fine dining but loved jam butties after their respective seems tointo be bursting, and could divorces. their grip, they may be sum— dissent against the (jam-butter and chips, and well take thesandwiches), Communistfish Party “Nah, wouldn’t hurtprecisely a fly,” the blind moning the fate man they Party may spill over to curries with it. out of packets. When they flew to India continues. “I’mhope a peaceful sort.” to avoid.” the streets to According meditate, to Ringo Starr famously brought Bloomberg, 40 “So what’s Mike up tomany these in days?” reWhile IndiaI ask andtoothwith him anew suitcase full of tinned million brokerage ac- baked beans. sume the conversation. er emerging economies had So at thewere Philharmonic counts opened in(Hope ChinaStreet), one of “Collects records, he?

He andmodel I, we lookeddoesn’t up to the Chinese the snazziest pubs among between June 2014 and Beatles May hangouts, I do.” of state-driven capitalism as an order a typical dishinvested called, somewhat 2015, and manyBritish of them in stocks ideal “What kind?” during the heady decades of growth, the weirdly, Toad-in-the-Hole. basically sau- limitations with borrowed money. TheIt’s quality of share“Various artists. a dime are for anow friend?” of suchGot a system becomsages baked in egg batter, something holders is also questionable: many between of them ingI dig out enough to buy him anothermoves pint, obvious.

If an economy and society an and aand Yorkshire areomelette not educated, most dopudding. not haveRich. an in-I but whenthe I hand over with the money a coin slips towards market competition and rinse it down with £17.50 worth ofof draft beer, and vesting background.

The thought millions rolls down the floor.

With remarkable substitutes, the political leadership cannot reand then visit thelosing urinals, which mustinhave of shareholders their savings the speed, blind geezer bends and catches it main a the monopoly. been the Fab Four stockutilised market by crash must be more givingthan the once.

Com- before vanishes under theconsumer benches. can And go in If theit ordinary Chinese Another day I ease myself down on the my munist Party nightmares of street protests.

Lennon’s as blind out mind to theechoes supermarket andsong, have“He’s a choice of 10 wooden in ‘Only Ye Cracke on Rice Street, as In onebench of those in China’ moments, he can noodle be… Just sees what he wants to see… different soups, she will soon demand next to Lennon’s artreported school. This where he the Financial Times that is students of Nowhere Man canfor youthe see me at all?” political similar choices country’s and Cynthia met. It was the first time she had leadership.

Tsinghua University in Beijing were instructed stepped intoslogan the pub.

By the of thebeneeve- zac o’yeah is a Bengaluru-based author, travel writer to chant the “Revive theend A shares, sambuddha mitra mustafinovel is theisfounder of a literary critic.

His upcoming titled Hari ning and Lennon found themselves in bed and fit theshe people” at their graduation ceremony.

The Political for HireIndian tsome_buddha with eachlong other, in the flat he with Hero For how such slogans willshared stop them

Will the Shanghai stock market collapse jeopardise the Communist Party regime in Beijing?

sambuddha mitra mustafi

T

Q

Q R R

ND-X _ A

5 BL 21 BL

explore know

BL BL 222

saturday, august 29,29, 2015 saturday, august 2015

CREATURE FEATURE

Terns and conditions A neglected tern chick settles down for food and comfort in an adoptive nest

ambika kamath

A

t the beach a few weeks ago, as I closely related you are to someone, the more terns’ parental behaviour. Because terns nest scoured the sand for seashells, my likely you both are to have inherited the same in large colonies, a chick that leaves its own colleague Rachel Moon turned her DNA from your common ancestor. Therefore, nest is bound to find another nest quite soon. attention to a flock of terns sitting a the more closely related you are to someone, Upon doing so, the chick tries to infiltrate the little distance from the sea. Every now and the more invested you are in their survival and nest, to pass as one of the resident chicks. Surthen, a tern would take off, fly out to sea, and reproduction, because there’s a bigger chance prisingly, this subterfuge often works, and the eventually return with a silver-grey fish in its that they’ll pass on that shared DNA to their wanderer is accommodated into a new family. bright orange beak. Each arrival was accompa- own babies. But at the end of the day, you are On the face of it, tern adoptions make no nied by a chorus of raucous calls. As the birds most closely related to yourself, so evolution- sense. According to the relatedness paradigm, in the flock shuffled around to make room for ary theory says you’ll always put yourself first. caring for an unrelated chick at the expense of the returning hunter, the flock gradually grew Now consider a parent tern with several your own seems like all cost and no benefit. To quiet again. chicks. Because parents are equally related to understand how this cost-benefit equation But a few calls persisted even after the com- all of their offspring, they aren’t supposed to may even out, biologists have hunted for evimotion died down, and Rachel soon discov- pick favourites. But a chick shares all its DNA dence of the possible advantages of adoption ered their source. These piercing cries were with itself and only about half its DNA with its to the parents. So far, they’ve come up empty. being made by some terns, each of whom had siblings, so a chick would prefer But there is another possible exsingled out another tern from the flock and that its parents feed it instead of planation — adoption is an error had partially prostrated itself before its cho- its siblings. This asymmetry in that parent terns make to avoid a sen bird. Maintaining this flattened position, the preferences of the chicks much costlier mistake.

But despite parent the calling terns followed their targets around and the parents led to the interImagine you’re a tern parent terns’ best efforts at insistently. Rachel began to feel annoyed on action we saw. The chicks had that returns to the nest to find a fairness, sometimes behalf of the targeted terns, but the birds clearly grown up. They were big new chick in it. One option, of simply cannot Spade by spade Theplacid, Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Act (MGNREGA) isthey the world’s largest anti-poverty programme themselves remained resolutely ignor-Ruralenough thatGuarantee their parents had course, is thatg gnanavelmurugan the new chick is an feed all their ing the irritants. decided they did not need to be interloper, in which case it chicks equally At first, we couldn’t figure out what was go- fed any longer; the chicks should be shooed away immediing on. Was this some sort of mating ritual? A begged to differ. ately. The other option is that you signal of submission from omega males toI suspect the chicks we were previously miscounted the numwards the alphas? Just as we were leaving the watching will be fine without ber of chicks in your nest. Evicbeach, it struck me that the prostrating birds being fed. Their perseverance in pestering ting one of your own chicks when you’re looked a little fluffier, a bit more unkempt, their parents will serve them well if applied to capable of caring for it is a big mistake, if your than the birds they were troubling, and then it catching fish. But despite parent terns’ best ef- goal is to ensure that your DNA is passed into suddenly all made sense — these were young forts at fairness, sometimes they simply can- the next generation. So biologists now think terns begging their parents for food! But we not feed all their chicks equally. Some baby that tern parents sometimes adopt others’ hadn’t recognised the interaction as such be- terns thus suffer parental neglect. Born in chicks only because they aren’t quite sure if cause none of these parents had actually fed times of scarcity, and often the youngest of the these strange wandering babies are their own their young. bunch, these neglected chicks are fed far less or not. Not exactly the uplifting self-sacrificial What we were watching — a pleading child than their siblings, and thus grow more slow- act that some may hope for, but when accidenand an unmoved parent — was an elegant bit ly. Chicks that grow slowly are unlikely to sur- tal acts of kindness emerge in creatures otherof evolutionary biology in action. Over the last vive to adulthood. So as soon as a neglected wise focused on themselves and their own, century or so, evolutionary biologists have de- chick can walk, it faces a decision — to stay or they’re worth celebrating. veloped a way of talking about how we expect to go? studies organismic evolutionary ourteen million people escaped natural selection to work.

At the heart of this fall- The lection, army of 450babies interviewers and 50 re-ambika fate ofan the underfed that choose notkamath aware. They don’t realise it’s their right to at work, Harvardwhich University ing intoofpoverty under the world’sto go logic is the concept relatedness.

The more searchers, andunexpected nearly 12,000 phone calls. reveals an dimension to “Ifbiology get is a problem of awareness. largest anti-poverty programme, the you’re ever going to look at the effect of a proI think some of the decline was just due to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Em- gramme or programme participation, you’d the central government. Rajasthan, which is ployment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). In 10 want a ‘before’ and ‘after’ picture on the same the poster child, really shrunk down the work years of its existence, the scheme reduced pov- households as far as possible,” says the princi- they were doing. Political whims do influence erty by 32 per cent. Recent data also shows that pal author of the study, Sonalde Desai. how much emphasis MGNREGA gets. more women are drawing cash incomes, more BLink met with the IHDS survey authors SoOmkar Joshi (OJ): But participation rates children are going to school, and more people nalde Desai, Prem Vashishtha for women, SCs/STs are rising. are opening bank accounts. and Omkar Joshi to discuss The administration itself has Despite severe criticism — Prime Minister where the scheme has worked gone on record and stated that Narendra Modi called it a “living monument and where it hasn’t. Excerpts the perception last year was MGNREGA is a scheme of your [the Congress] failure to tackle poverty from the interview: that this [scheme] will be that is not targeted at in 60 years” — the Act, first rolled out in 2004scrapped, that the ministry is people holding a BPL 05, has provided employment to more than 27 More than half of the total rural not serious about it. The card but rather at crore people in 2.5 lakh gram panchayats in households don’t even seek job scheme may be working on the people who are 658 districts. Earlier this month, two reports cards. Participation numbers ground but it’s the uncertainty potentially poor on the programme were released. One was an are also declining. Why? that affects work allocation. The anthology of research, called Sameeksha, put Sonalde Desai (SD): We are talkministry admitted last year that together by the UNDP; and the other was a sur- ing of two things here. One is there was a sharp drop in the vey — titled ‘MGNREGA: A Catalyst for Rural that you are not in the income works allotted and number of Transformation’ — led by the Indian Human De- category where you want to do manual la- days. But that is no longer there, MGNREGA is velopment Survey (IHDS), National Council bour, like the households of schoolteachers. here to stay. for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and Or take Punjab, where daily wages are anyUniversity of Maryland. where between ₹250 and ₹400, people decid- Sixty per cent of the participating rural A Catalyst… is a unique study because it was ed to not work in MGNREGA, which is fine. So, households want to work more but are unable first held across 26,000 rural households in here things are available but the person is not to find work. There are gaps in wage 1,503 villages and 971 urban blocks in 2004-05 interested. We are happy about that. It’s not a payments and unemployment allowances. when the Act was not implemented, and then cause for worry. The second is where they What are the gaps in work rationing? again in 2011-12, with a 90 per cent “recontact could actually be helped by it, either they SD: There are many ways in which work-rarate”. This exercise took 15 months for data col- don’t see much work happening or they are tioning gaps arise. For example, in order to get

Q

R on Keep calm and carry MGNREGA

Two recent reports show that this social sector scheme has had a causal impact in improving lives, especially for women and children

F

Q R

ND-X _ A

Food matters Hungry, young terns pleading with parents rachel moon

know scan

saturday, august 29,29, 2015 saturday, august 2015

Trapped

work you have to go to the gram sabha to express interest. Gram sabhas may be held only twice a year. Somewhere along the line you’re not able to register your interest. Then, even if people have registered, the gram panchayat has to prepare a work plan and send it to the block. It takes a long time. One of the things that Jugal Kishore Mohapatra, Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development, said is that at some level you don’t always have the money when the work is needed. So money may be there for the whole year, but it is not quite available when you need it.

OJ: That was one of the stories we found. For a statutory wage of X, workers are getting less than that in reality. The money should be available to the gram panchayat, if not then he [the pradhan] tries to arrange the money through informal sources of credit, like moneylenders.

He charges interest on that and passes it to workers. So the issues of timing and liquidity are very crucial for wage payments and unemployment allowances. Currently, just four per cent people get unemployment allowances.

A high-level committee to probe what went wrong with Amit Shah’s lift

What’s in a number?

One of the major findings of the survey was thatstuck poverty by about 32 per cent ast week, BJP president Amit Shah got in ahas liftdeclined in since MGNREGA was implemented, that is, an Patna for 35 minutes. Was it a joke, a political conspiracy million or a divine sign on the upcoming Biharestimated elections?14 Ever the people didn’t fall into ow much can you love a person? You could love them to death, or to the moon and back. Or, poverty.

Howoff effective like they do in Uttar Pradesh, you could love them enough to give them a VIP mobile phone humorist, RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav shrugged the has the scheme been?

Prem Vashishtha able to According number. to newsImplementation reports, in the city of Bareilly alone, moreeven than people signed incident, saying “a man as fat as Amit Shah shouldn’t have(PV): We have been Build together of MGNREGA has been successful in 36,000 states such as Tamil Nadu that rank identify those households which haveup particifor an auction, fought for economic very special numbers, and shelled out extra moolah. Love-struck souls entered the lift.” While the BJP is not ruling out a conspiracy, m moorthy high on social and indicators pated Shishir in MGNREGA, people now spending days and nights in bidding wars for favourite birth dates, car registration, and principal secretary of cabinet coordination Sinha so the 14 millionare figure into is from that. If you take away their house numbers. Apparently, birth dates are going for ₹11,000, and phone numbers ending with the has already launched a high-level investigation the incibecomenumber super-empowered?

No. Actually, MGNREGA the 786 people a BPL card years inisadvance. sequence for ₹18,000.

But three the top draw the one with thehave maximum of zeroes, going dent. Consider the evidence: The elevator’s capacityincome, was for they would go below poverty line.

It iscolin this sense that wefor are₹40,000! sayPoverty is no longer a static factor. Forty per in a sea of disempowerment, these are marLove’s complicated.

340kg and five persons. Shah got into the lift with three ing that And the scheme leagues, and a “couple of security personnel”. where could prevent them from cent of the households that currently work in ginal improvements. But in the feminist advopoverty.

MGNREGA were not poor in our survey seven cacy for equal wages, this is one example was he going? From the ground floorfalling of theinto state guesSD:the Participant thouse to the first floor. Perhaps it’s time for BJP to talk households would have years ago. We called them transient poor. If we where it just happened! been poorer by 25-32 per cent, depending on think of poverty as a dynamic phenomenon, Looking at administrative data, there is an about weight, not chest size. the method, if MGNREGA was not there. We then our safety net programmes can’t rely on exogenous change in wages and employment have used two different assumptions. The first our ability to identify the poor. MGNREGA is a impact. The question now is, if the employis when we assume that MGNREGA workers scheme that is not targeted at people holding ment has any other positive impact on their are drawn from a cadre of under-employed a BPL card but rather at people who are poten- households. We see some indications of it but people. So MGNREGA work is not replacing tially poor. as sceptical empiricists, we will have to wait something else, it is adding income. A certain and see. percentage of it would be devoted to con- According to the survey, wages have hirty vacancies. 75,000 applications (70,000 of sumption; the poorest would use 90 per cent. improved, so has financial inclusion. Formal Thebeen survey reports improvement in children’s which have submitted online). ChhattisWe subtract that expenditure from what they credit is also on the rise. However, these education.

On the other hand, ASER has garh government’s directorate of economics and are actually making and say that their expen- indicators have improved for non-MGNREGA reportedby a decline in learning levels over the statistics is stumped the interest shown in bediture has that increased. last decade... ou know the definition of ‘awesome’?

A sheep goes That difference gives us households as well. To what extent iscoming peons.

Fetching tea for the sarkari babus is SD: Enrolment has job, beenwhich risingpays across the about perof cent reduction in poverty rate. into hiding during shearing season.

The32fear shears one of the main duties in the MGNREGA responsible? but it isare alsoengibringing in The second kept Shrek the Sheep on the run, not for one, or two,method but six is you take households SD: There is a general improve- ₹14,000 a month. Amongcountry the applicants a lot of first-generation which similar in background — education, ment as far as financial inclusion neers and management graduates, long years. His bangs grew into his eyes, the are wool exploded which only goeslearners.

This hadmatter an impact on ASER’s ownership etc, and you see the poverty is concerned. What MGNREGA to show that a government around him till he became as mobile as aland sumo wrestler walkjobhas — no which report.one.

We see reading and writdecline. poverty ing in three feet of snow. But all good things mustThe come to an decline is a secular de- seems to have done is hastened it rank and office — is still a prized ing skills declining marginally. cline because of economic growth. For partici- for participants. It led to bank acend. His rebellion ended when the razor was brought to For these women, That is the big story with households and non-participating counts, so individuals don’t have MGNREGA might very his flank. According to reports, by thepating time Shrek was which we have no complaints. households sheared he had upon him enough wool toof similar characteristics, we see to rely on moneylenders. Overall well be the first cash However, we were surprised to that MGNREGA households have a sharper improvement is happening. make 20 men’s suits. Hopefully, Shrek is income opportunity see kids from MGNREGA housedecline. The difference between their That is why we have carefully feeling the lighter for poverty it. holds were doing better. With neighbour’s poverty decline and their own called it a ‘catalyst’. first-generation learners, learnpoverty decline, that difference gives you the ing levels ought to drop even for additional MGNREGA edge, which is about 25 One of the success stories of MGNREGA has been the participation of MGNREGA kids. But this is where we see a per cent. women. How much credit does the scheme slight improvement. deserve for this?

At first, we thought it might be because the The report also talks about poverty and SD: Here, I would give MGNREGA a causal role. parents now have money, they are able to give vulnerability. What is the difference and why Forty five per cent of participating women their kids books, tuitions. The route for imis vulnerability a better measure?

SD: Vulnerability isarapan, very interesting. were notall in wage employment in the previous provements, we thought, was higher expendia residentThe of counOhio, will travel try started out [post Independence] with a 50 round, 24 per cent worked on their farms, 21 ture. But we don’t see that. MGNREGA families the way to Indonesia next month.

His speper cent poverty whichMating has gone down to of per centSuwere not working at all. For these are spending more on their children, but noncialrate, mission? with some the 100 21 per cent. Somatran there’s rhinos been anleft overall women, MGNREGA might very well be the first MGNREGA families are spending even more. in thedecline. world. Harapan, who When povertywas rates wereinhigh, were born cashone income born Ohio,you Cincinnati, and was of opportunity.

What is really happening is that MGNREGA in circumstances that kept you poor.

As poverthe three Sumatran rhinos to be born in captivchildren are spending more time in school-rety falls, factorsity, of birth becomein less In 2004-05, is following hisimportant brother Andalas’ hoof-only nine per cent women had lated activities — more hours in school, on and factors ofsteps. life —Andalas, drought,now illness, widowbank accounts, now 49 per cent have them, 93 13, went to Indonesia on a homework. Part of it is declining child labour hood — become more mission important. per cent women now seek health services. similar in 2007 and successfully fa[marginal improvement], but part of it is beAnd what you have atoson. recognise is lives that these Despite in participation, the report thered He now there with threeincrease of cause households are now able to substitute are people who a potential vulnerability says that women still barely make one out of hishave favourite females.

Here’s hoping Harapan certain services, which children were forced to fall into poverty. now and it’s fine, they the fourgoods. decisions that indicate empowerment — too willRight get going erm, deliver to provide, with the MGNREGA income. So have been pushed up the poverty line because whether to buy an expensive item, how many now you can buy fuel wood, rather than get of growth, but they are only one illness away children to have, what to do when children fall children to gather it. from falling back into poverty. That becomes ill, and whom the child should marry. very difficult to identify a priori. You can’t give SD: Are we saying that Indian rural women priyanka kotamraju

In Uttar Pradesh, it is a symbol of love

L

H

It’s the cup of tea

Chhattisgarh govt gets 75,000 applications for peon’s jobs

Shear fear

T

Why was Shrek the Sheep on the run?

Y

Love me, rhino

Harapan will travel across seas for a suitable mate

H

Q R

ND-X _ A

3 23BL BL

hang

saturday, august 29, 2015

BL

24

in-faq by joy bhattacharjya Prodigies

I

t’s Michael Jackson’s 57th birth anniversary, a man who started performing professionally with his family at the age of nine. This quiz is appropriately about teen and child prodigies.

here,there & elsewhere

Painful pleasures T

he original idea of camping out in the open for one night has mutated into an open-ended road trip. Birk knows people who own a farm in Vermont. He suggests that we go visit them and spend some time on the farm.

It takes about six hours to get there from Elsewhere but we’re in no hurry.

No bosses await our return, no jobs are in jeopardy. All three of us are living off tiny nest eggs in one form or another.

We’re not rich, but we can afford a modest excursion so long as we pool our resources and share double rooms in small motels.

We run out of our original stock of sandwiches, beer, fruit and tortilla chips by the end of the first day. The ready-made salads and cold meats we buy from grocery stores in the small towns we pass through sustain us on the road and we share everything we eat with Punky. But by evening every day, Birk begins talking about his hungry Viking ancestors while clutching his belly. So we get takeaway pizzas every night until the thought of yet another slab of garlic-scented gloop from a small-town eatery has us clutching our bellies.

Things are looking bleak by the end of our fifth day on the road. We have just pulled into our motel for the night when Bins notices that in the

cornerstone

nearby strip-mall there’s a restaurant called The Nut-Raja. Its logo looks like a Taj Mahal with a peeled onion for its central dome and cutlery in place of the minarets. “Maybe they will serve Indian food?” he says. Sure enough: the moment we push open the outer door, spicy fragrances leap out and embrace us like a litter of steamy puppies.

Bins practically bursts into flame with excitement. “Mmmmhhhhhhh!” he inhales, waving his long sensitive nose in the air. “Rasam! Sambar! Chutney! Ahhahaha. We will never leave this town,”

1 he declares. “We will stay here forever!”

The restaurant serves not merely Indian, but specifically South Indian food including non-vegetarian specialties from Chettinad. Birk is curious and a little nervous. He’s eaten Indian food before but only the zero-watt versions that most restaurants in the West serve. “We Vikings aren’t used to chillies,” he says, bravely, “but we’re willing to try!”

It’s a self-service joint, so we pile our plates, choose a booth in the main dining hall and settle down. The paper place-mats have a graphic of all 43 US Presidents on it. There’s obviously a large population of South Asians in the area because the place is packed with ladies in nylon saris and children with oil-slicked hair. There are quite a few non-South Asians too. The atmosphere is mildly festive, even though it’s just an ordinary day. Bins shows Birk how to use his fingers to eat idlis and soon all three of us are glowing with interior heat. “I’m in pain,” says Birk, as tears mingle with the sweat on his cheeks, “but in a good way!” Bins nods with his eyes closed. Too happy to speak. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

Marjorie Gerstring competed for the US in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and at 13 years and 268 days became the youngest person to win an Olympic Gold medal. In which sport did she participate?

2

Which brilliant Hungarian-born computer scientist and mathematician, who mastered calculus by the age of eight and published papers on number theory in his teens, is regarded as the father of the Cold War doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction, where peace was the best option when both Cold War blocs had the nuclear arsenal to obliterate each other?

3

This scientist graduated summa cum laude from college at the age of 14 and was a visiting professor in his teens at the University of Heidelberg. He is believed to have an IQ of 187, spoke Finnish, Persian, Arabic and Klingon and had restraining orders from his heroes Leonard Nimoy and Stan Lee. Identify him.

4 5

Who made a directorial debut with the 1991 film Little Man Tate, about the struggles of the child prodigy Fred Tate?

Which great scientist first caught the public eye by solving a doctoral level problem for admission at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa in 1918 while he was still a teenager?

6 7

Who won an Oscar as a 10-year-old in 1973, starring alongside her father in the film Paper Moon?

Which 2013 book, co-written by a teenager and Christina Lamb, has sold over a million copies and has already been translated into Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi?

8

Which successful Grammy-winning solo artiste and former super group member was an organist for the Ron Atkinson Band at age eight and played keyboard for the Spencer Davis Group before joining Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce for a single album?

9

Even in the software industry, known for teenage prodigies, Justin Frankel was regarded as one of the brightest. In 1996, at age 18, he dropped out of college to write which bestselling programme, distributed free by his software studio, Nullsoft?

10

Who famously said “I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.”

Answers

1. Diving. She won the three-metre springboard diving event 2. John von Neumann, who was that rarity, a scientist who was a dedicated party animal. His wife once said that he could count anything but calories 3. Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory 4. Jodie Foster. She also played Fred Tate’s mother in the film 5. Enrico Fermi, he won first place as well 6. Ryan O’Neal’s daughter, Tatum O’Neal 7. I Am Malala, written by Malala Yousafzai. It also won a Grammy for Best Children’s album in 2015 8. Steve Winwood, who also fronted the group Traffic and won a Grammy for ‘Higher Love’ in the ’80s 9. Winamp, the staple music player for Windows machines in the late ’90s 10. Shirley Temple. Interestingly, the child star had a fairly distinguished career in her later years as a diplomat and UN ambassador

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

ND-X _ A

Reach us at blink@thehindu.co.in. Follow us on t@Ink_BL and facebook.com/hbl.blink or log on to thehindubusinessline.com/blink