Blink issue 87 september26 2015

WHEN PLATES SHIFT As the Patidar agitation moves to smaller towns, the rift between the BJP and its powerful Patel backers widens p2 saturday, september 26, 2015

Pall hangs over Life beyond the prison walls is alien to many long-term inmates lakshmiarun

For those leaving prison after serving a long sentence, rehabilitation is a lonesome and uphill task, as they have little support from society or the state p9

Life 2.0

THROUGH A LENS DARKLY Glimpse Prabuddha Dasgupta’s genius at an ongoing exhibition p12

FIRMLY IN FAIRYLAND Rushdie is clever in his latest novel, but no longer capable of subtlety p17

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Green divide The gum acacia (left) is the backbone of the thorn-scrub forest in Kutch, Gujarat. The sweetgum rules the temperate hardwood in Florida ambika kamath; (inset) An artist’s reconstruction of ‘Hallucinochrysa’ ja

peñas, proceedings of the national academy of sciences

CREATURE FEATURE

Sticky notes Kitchen politics Women from the Patidar community took to the streets when their ‘hero’ Hardik Patel was detained by the police ap/ajitsolanki How gum from tree trunks has given us the most telling fossils

ambika kamath

IUp in arms, thalis and belans

magine yourself walking into a forest.

What does it feel like? Do your eyes need to adjust to the darkness under the forest canopy, or do you need to squint to keep the sun’s glare out? Can you feel the wind blow your hair into your eyes, or does sweat collect your hair into slick clumps? Do dry leaves crunch under your feet as you step forward, or do your shoes sink into moist ground? Forests that occupy different climates can feel dramatically different from each other, and many of these differences stem from ansingle source: the the afternoon of trees.

September 19, a I’ve spentSaturday, quite a bitAhmedabad’s of time in twoNational types of forests: tropical thorn-scrub and an temperate Highway 8 witnessed unusual hardwood. sight.

On theTraffic face of it,atthe two forests was a standstill as could not feel more different. trees that thousands of women marched,The many of them form the backbone of thebelans thorn-scrub barefoot, banging their (rollingforest pins) in Kutchthalis are the gum acacias.

In air thewas summer against (steel plates).

The filled months the The monsoon with thebefore clanging. womenshowers, belongedthe to gum acaciascommunity, lose all their leaves.

The thornthe Patidar and they were angry. scrub is thus coloured by the‘hero’ yelEarlierlandscape that morning, their reservation lows and greys the detained gum acacia barkpolice and Hardik Patel hadofbeen by the bare thorny prohibitory branches, matched by the for defying orders with hisyellowSuratbrown sand and to-Ahmedabad Ektadark Yatra.grey volcanic rock.

Growing this substrate and rock, Similaron scenes played outofinsand other Patidarthe gum acacias a cautious distance dominated partsmaintain of the city.

Thali-belan brifrom another, a slight buffer gadesone took to the forming streets inonly Bapunagar, Narol against the strong breezespread sweeping across the and Vastral.

The protests across smaller landscape. sun beatsMorbi, down Unjha, oppressively, towns too, The in Bagasara, Visnathe trees offer minimal gar, leafless Mehsana, and Kamrej.

Womenshade, turnedand out your sweatinevaporates inHardik seconds. in droves response to Patel’s August that patch of tem31 The call trees to join theruled causeover withmy their ‘weapons’, perate hardwood Florida are called sweetthe steel plate andin rolling pin. gums, andthe instate, manythese ways,unlikely sweetgums are the Across foot soldiers opposite of gum acacias.

They hangof onthe to their have targeted many public events state leaves through thehave summer, casting a dark, government.

They disrupted speeches of cool shadow on the chief ground below.AnandiTheir ministers, including minister thornlessness makes thecue forest seem ben Patel. Taking their from theinviting.

22-yearBut find yourself stewold within Patidarminutes, Anamatyou’ll Andolan Samiti (PAAS) ing in still, moist summer air. and clear. First, leader, their message is loud Stepping away from the immediate experijustice for the victims of police atrocities on ence of these two forests and taking a longer, August 25, and next, reservations.

Fearing the broader view of gum acaciasleaders and sweetgums, thali-belan brigade, political are said to some similarities between the two trees come be avoiding public events altogether. into focus.

For example, bothbetween groups of trees The September 14 meeting Anandihave interesting distributions across the ben Patel and Patidar leaders was inconclu-

globe. Acacias are found today in Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas, and over the last 50 million years, these trees have moved many times between the continents. Of course, thanks to the ever-changing landscape of the Earth’s surface, the continents them- glimpse of what lived alongside gummy trees selves were not in the same place 50 million many aeons ago. And the best fossils show years ago. So we don’t quite know where these more than just what the creatures were — they wanderers originated. show us how they lived.

Like the acacias, sweetgums are also spread My very favourite fossil is of an insect that across many different parts of the world. Their was locked into amber more than a hundred current distribution, however, is oddly discon- million years ago. This curious beast, with metinuous — they’re found in East and Southeast sive. While the state government asked for 10 nacing and5,000 long, finely-branched, spinedown. jaws Nearly people have been reand (butup not Central Asia), Hardik, and in like days’West timeAsia to come with a proposal, projections all diamond over its industry body, certainly trenched from the in less eastern America.

But fossils and pollen who hasNorth resurfaced after mysteriously disap- looks, firstwhile glance, an alien ofsmall-unit the imagthan aatyear, inlike Morbi, many grains that more sweetgums pearing,suggest is planning rallies. were once ination.

Even the scientists who discovered it owners are closing their shutters or operating widespread across Asia and15EuThe Patidars’ (they form per cent of the at reduced capacity. thought so, naming it Hallucinorope. then didfight they for endreservation up state’sHow population) under chrysa that (think Analysts explain the ‘hallucination’).

‘Gujarat Model’ in thesequota disconnected fragthe OBC started on July 6 with a relative- has not created But enough the insect wasn’t theopporonly employment ments? most likely culprits Since then, tunities. “Youthing ly smallThe gathering in Mehsana. fossilise in the amber; havetobig industries setting up The best show are cycles glaciation many Gujarat, Hardik Patelofhas travelled across heldfossils the gum trapped a clue asbut to shop in the state withalso mega investments, thousands of years ago, up which 127 rallies, and drummed supportmore fromthan ur- just whytothe insect looked this way.for A thatwhat has failed generate employment eliminated ban centres —sweetgums Surat, Rajkot,from Meh- the creatures were — ‘trash packet’, bits of the youth.

Thecomprising latest reservation they show us how parts the world that sana, of Ahmedabad; and became smaller fern, was found has enmeshed demand of Patidars the pothey lived too cold. — Florida, however,Amreli acted pockets Gir-Somnath, among the projections, and sud-a tential to lead the state towards as safe haven forthe thetepid sweetanda Morbi.

Despite redenly everything made sense.

Becaste-war,” says the noted social gum, theGurjars region of mansponsebecause from the Ra- The biggest fallout of ing covered in fern must have let scientist Achyut Yagnik. aged to stay warm in the jasthan, and the Jatseven and Kurmis creature to hide its true, tasty According Yagnik, the agitathe movement is the this face of glaciers covering large partswidening of North riftself of Haryana, the Patidar agitation from anything that might wantpattern to eat it, tion follows the same as between America. today’s hotterButtemperatures, has foundInlegs in Gujarat. andits the projections on its body helped pinfrom the the Patidar migration the BJP and sweetgums spread andpowerful west- fern the biggest have fallout of thenorthward movejacket in place. this north Gujarat to Exactly Saurashtra, Patelcamouflage ward mentagain. is the widening rift bestrategy — covering yourself in plant matter to then from Saurashtra to south backers But ofthe course the most fascinating similari- avoid being seen tween BJP and its powerful — is Believed present intomodern-day Gujarat. be the dety between gum acacias and sweetgums is — relatives of Hallucinochrysa, Patel backers. that scendants of Lordimplying Rama’s sons, you guessed it —their gum. Gum starts out as a this behaviour hasand proven beneficial to insects Luv Kush, respectively, the liquid fromistree trunks, and quickly for a staggeringly Whoseexuded reservation it anyway? time. trans-epochLeuvalong Patels areThis mainly found in coagulates intoPatidar pure stickiness, nearly impos- al When senior community members completely overshadows the thesimilarity south Gujarat region of Surat, and the Kadsible to get your fingers if you touch it. transcontinental gathered on off September 13 at Shahibaug, in Ahdifference between my va Patels in the north Gujarat areas of MehsaGum protects trees from herbivores, has patches medabad, to understand the growingand unrest of thorn-scrub and hardwood forest, na and Sabarkantha. been harvested by humans for centuries to or In among Patel youth, high-end automobiles thethe global of gumthe acacias’ and northsimilarity Gujarat rallies, protesters turn into glue,leaders and furniture varpacked themedicines, venue. Patidar had come to sweetgums’ geographic distributions. were mainly odd farmers and unemployed youth nish. gum hasinone purpose more im- Contemplating rage But for tree reservation Audis, BMWs, Mercs, how gum-producing trees with little education.

The second leg of thelive agportant any other — it fossilises into at Porschesthan and Rolls-Royces. the heart of this vast difference and vaster itation in Saurashtra saw the participation of amber.

If anthis unsuspecting animal fact happens to similarities Contrast with the sobering that the stretches my brainPatels. to the Their fullest.dethe more prosperous Kadva get stuck in someSurat gum and as it’s hardening, then Patel-dominated Morbi — which are mand was for the removal of reservation, not studies millions of years later, might turn into a fos- ambika prominent clusters ofitdiamond and ceramic for one kamath under the OBCorganismic quota. evolutionary at Harvard University t@ambikamath sil.

Fossils — found in amber let us catch a biology industries are facing an economic slow“Reservation would suppress entrepreneur-

The Patidar agitation has moved from urban centres to smaller pockets of Gujarat, but it is now a pitched battle between the community and the BJP

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Grit in the stone Patel-dominated Surat and Morbi — which are prominent clusters of diamond and ceramic industries — are facing an economic slowdown afp/sam panthaky

ship,” says 33-year-old Saket Akola, who hails from a family of entrepreneurs in Rajkot, Saurashtra. Akola has a Bachelor’s degree in business administration from a private college, but has never considered taking a government job. Having spent 15 years building his water pump business, he plans a similar future for his child. “I always wanted to set up my own factory. Reservation would have killed my enterprising spirit,” he says.

Nimesh Patel, 31, believes education is the problem. “I didn’t want to go for medical or engineering (studies). But my daughters needn’t feel the same. Education is the area where the maximum heartburn happens because of reservation,” says this employee of a private firm in Ahmedabad who believes in merit-based competition and not protection through reservation.

However, in Surat — home to Patidar youth who migrated from Saurashtra — diamond workers facing lay-offs and a sluggish economy are vociferously demanding reservation.

Political leaders too feel that the current agitation is an outcome of injustice rather than a demand for benefits under reservation. “Lack of education is one problem. But there are cases where they are educated but find no jobs,” says Surendra Patel (Kaka), a former Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat and a BJP veteran.

The state government’s recruitment drive for talati (tehsildar) and class II/III grade under the State Public Service Commission came after a decade. Employment opportunities in

the private sector have also fallen. “The government took out a massive recruitment drive for various posts only after many years. Many Patidar youth had passed the age limit for these jobs, but those in the reserved categories made it. There has to be equitable distribution among all classes,” Kaka adds.

The Patidar agitation is also taking a new form, no longer limited to rallies and protest marches. Across Gujarat, Patidars have decided to take up economic non-cooperation as part of their agitation. Farmers, small traders, and housewives who have financial assets with cooperative banks owned by BJP leaders have started mass withdrawals. “In a single Party with a distance day, there was a transaction of about ₹30 lakh.

The relationship between the BJP and the Pati- This is unusual for our branch in a lean period dar community goes back a long way, from like this,” says an official of the Sabarkantha the time the party first came to power in 1995, District Central Co-operative Bank Ltd in with Keshubhai Patel as chief minister. The Pa- north Gujarat. tidars have ensured that the BJP Mass resignations are also in has had a strong footing in Gujthe offing at several credit cooperarat, where it has held power atives and dairy cooperatives, a for 17 years continuously. The significant move against the BJP. Political leaders too community, in turn, has been a Prime Minister Narendra Mofeel that the current primary beneficiary of the ‘Gujdi’s US visit is also being targeted. agitation is more an arat Model’. This symbiotic relaThe US Patidars, among the richoutcome of injustice tionship had started to show est NRIs, are expected to show solsigns of strain. With the Patidar rather than a demand idarity with their community for benefits under agitation, the rift between back home. A protest march in reservation them, as well as within the BJP New York to greet PM Modi has is widening. been announced. The Sardar Patel While top leaders like state Group USA-Canada, according to BJP chief RC Faldu, a Patel leadits social media posts, plans to orer from Saurashtra, have mainganise a rally at the United Natained their distance from the issue, several tions headquarters to demand “the removal of others have announced their support “under caste-based reservation that is causing injuspressure from Patidar youth”. Dipsinh Rath- tice. And seek justice for those who lost their od, an MP from north Gujarat, however had to lives in police firing and women who were vicbacktrack after openly declaring support to tims of police atrocities in Gujarat.” the Patidar women.

Back home in Gujarat, Patidars have started putting up banners outside their societies and residential buildings, restricting the entry of leaders from across the political spectrum.

One banner outside Vihar village in Gandhingar district reads, “Those who say no to reservation for Patidars will not get votes here. The entire Patidar community in this village has supported the agitation. And we boycott all upcoming elections. It is a request to all political parties, including the BJP and Congress, to not enter this village. Villagers will not be responsible for your safety.”

If Hardik Patel’s claim that he has 27 crore supporters, including Patidars, Gurjars, Jats, Kurmis and Reddys across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh is to be believed, the BJP is in for a fight in these states and at the Centre. The Patidar protest for reservation has now become a volatile protest against the BJP.

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Daggers drawn The recent meeting between Anandiben Patel (vivek bendre) and Hardik Patel (vijay soneji) was inconclusive

rutam vora

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Whispers down the alley Venice is bright and posh, but also dark and brooding; and it’s not hard to see why writers are fascinated by its potential for the macabre

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e’re in the middle of a Vene- in Donna Leon’s bestselling detective series. most Venetians resent the tourists who are tian traffic jam. In front of us And Edgar Allen Poe’s narrator hears a chilling turning their city into a “theme park,” and are is a man with a teensy-weensy cry at midnight as he paddles along the not particularly forthcoming with help and dog and an outsized box of drowsing Grand Canal. Where the devious directions. pizza. To either side are looming buildings, Countess Narona murders her husband and So we’re relieved when we finally fetch up in crumbling balconies and shuttered windows. hides his severed head in Wilkie Collins’ The a bustling piazza filled with bakeries and bouAnd above us is a narrow slice of evening sky.

Haunted Hotel. And cholera stalks its victims tiques. The unease that’s been nipping at my Carefully, all seven of us manoeuvre around amidst marble and frescoes in Thomas Mann’s ankles for the last 10 minutes disperses. My man and dog and pizza, and hurry to the Death in Venice. daughters buy a long, pink rope of marshmalmouth of the dim alley. This leads onto a tiny It’s easy to understand why writers are fasci- low from a redolent patisserie. I examine a stone bridge and a deserted square flanked by nated by this improbable city of goggle-eyed owl of Murano a silent church and handsome, medieval fairytale bridges and mysterious glass. We find not just our restauhouses. My daughters pull out cameras and canals; crumbling palazzos and rant but also a supermarket — iPods.

Our friends exclaim that every corner of cobblestoned streets.

We’ve though you would never associMoment of shaming A leisurely stroll amid recurrent chants of slogans against Prime Minister Viktor Orban markedus thiswaits protest against Hungary’s crackdown on migrants All around Venice is Sunday postcard-perfect.

But husband done our research know ate exotic Venice with something anna wojcik on a recent afternoon near themy Elisabeth Bridge connecting the two halves ofand capital Budapestthe alluring labyrinth, looks around with furrowed brows. At least that Venice is made up of 118 isquite so mundane. And as we in which so many three more alleys radiate from the square, and lands linked by 400 bridges. But pile our basket with breakfast fictional it’s impossible to know if any will take us to the reality is both more picturrolls stuffed with sweet cream acquaintances have the restaurant we’re seeking. esque and more unsettling than and wobbles of fresh mozzarella, lost their way and Perhaps it’s the sense of being in a bewilder- we had imagined. There are no those shades of murderous their lives ing maze. Or perhaps it’s the sinister, glitter- cars, no buses, no motorcycles. dukes and star-crossed lovers are ing green water of the canal. But suddenly, I’m The rare traffic light blinks at the banished for the moment. transported to another Venice — the dank, intersection of canals rather Over the next two days, we linhaunted city that we encounter so often in than roads. Glittering carnival ger over lemon and cherry gelabooks. The place that Henry James describes masks with vacant eyes and sly expressions tos, wander through piazzas full of American as the most melancholy of cities because it is gaze out from every tourist trap. The alleys fol- tourists, munch strawberries in the Rialto “the most beautiful of tombs”. low their own whims and fancies — curving, Market and watch as elegant Nonnas shop for This is a Venice of death and broken hearts. twisting and looping like a tangle of spaghet- octopus and orchids. Of course, we also see the The backdrop for gothic romances about cruel ti. Little wonder that travel books and blogs al- sights. “The stone bridge of the Rialto, the counts, passionate beauties and eerie cata- ways list “Getting lost in Venice” as a “must wooden bridge at the Accademia, the great, combs. Where Commissario Guido Brunetti do”. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s going to happen grey dome of the Salute, the columns and bellansodden unusually warm Sunday afternoon fishest is out bodies from watery graves whether much of you thislike endeavour protest, and how tower it or not.isEspecially because political climate.

Notthe that weand aren’t deeply of San Marco, pink white conin Budapest, close to 30°C. Most locals much political opportunism. critical of our government, I tell Anna. The opseem to be celebrating the weather while The crowd moves, falling into the rhythm of ed columns can be scathing. But our criticism I curse the unexpected tropical assault. a stroll. The energy levels are in tandem with a is blunted by sophisticated language. Verbal Seems like the Chennai heat has arrived here Sunday afternoon. “There are many old peo- expression, especially in a protest, is relatively with me. “Perfect day for a protest,” remarks ple,” Anna observes, adding that in her home crude, but direct and bolder.

Anna, the friend I am walking with. A few hun- country, Poland, the younger population I am not sure this protest is giving off quite dreds have assembled close to Elisabeth would have been the obvious majority at a that impression though.

Bridge, a miniature likeness of the Golden protest like this. Here it is a mixed crowd, with “Are protests frequent here?” I ask Kristof, Gate, which connects the two halves of Hun- a surprising number of older people. Anna who is from Budapest. “Oh, of course! There is gary’s capital — Buda and Pest — over the Da- and I soon find ourselves discussing the vari- one every other month… Usually in opposinube. Despite the blinding sun we can spot ous factors that spur people’s participation in tion to some new policy or announcement by hordes of heads in the distance. As we inch a protest. Most people are likely to be indiffer- the government.” This perhaps explains the closer, I see people holding placards, or wav- ent to any cause that does not afprotest’s defining character — ing EU and Hungarian flags. Others are busy fect them directly, I say. Selfish, dull and ceremonial, the words on their smartphones. perhaps, but justified too. Espealmost rhetorical. Like a sad culPrime Minister Viktor Orban’s hardline cially for certain sections of sotural remnant of a once highly stance on immigration has attracted sharp ciety that are busy making ends political, spirited Europe. “It is a “Are protests criticism across the continent. And some of meet to think beyond the busimiddle-class routine,” Kristof frequent here?” I ask the voices of dissent are coming from the 52- ness of life... Some consciously adds, “like a Sunday lunch.”

Kristof, who is from year-old leader’s own people. The strong mea- refuse to be politically active, to In the days that followed, HunBudapest. “Oh, of sures to curb the inflow of migrants into Eu- engage with what is an intellecgary brought in new, stricter course! There is one rope — including the use of teargas and water tual and moral burden at the laws on migration. It criminalisevery other month… cannons by Hungarian riot police at the Ser- end of the day. es those who cross the border, as Usually in opposition bian border — have been roundly condemned.

As social science students, we the government turns a deaf ear to some new policy” The protest we are at is certainly not the first delude ourselves that we have to the many pleas for asylum. on the issue. There was another just the day an understanding of society and Perhaps there will be another before. At best, it looks like restrained dissent, people, making us feel both noprotest the following week. And almost dignified in approach. ble and important. the week after that.

I am curious to know what the placards say.

The Danube is gleaming on our left, and the This one, my first in a new country, seemed A fellow protester translates for me. ‘Shame on cityfolk who are here to do nothing more than like a rather long walk. “How long was that you, Viktor Orban’, says one. Another has more lounge around the river on a Sunday end up stretch,” I ask, as the protest comes to an end. signs and letters than words: ; ‘OV =/ Hungary’, gawking at the protesters. Some instinctively One, maybe two kilometres, someone shouts namely, ‘the government is not representative take pictures. out. Is that all? It’s fine, I guess. The protest has of the people’s views’. There are also banners At strategic points are what appear to be tel- been tweeted, instagrammed, relayed on teleemblazoned with ‘Egyutt (Together 2014)’, the evision crews with fancier cameras. We feel vision. And as graduate students of a universiname of an opposition liberal party. I soon like celebrities, important and momentous. ty, we’ve shared notes on the subject. learn from a journalist that the party’s leader As we walk under the Chain Bridge, a chant risThe ritual is complete. has organised this protest. He will give a es in Hungarian: ‘Shame on you, Viktor Orspeech, followed by one from a poet-activist. ban’. I wonder if back in India, a protest with niharika mallimadugula is a freelance writer in Budapest baburkina Behind thoseinempty eyes Glittering carnival masks eyes and sly expressions gaze out every touristcurrently trap shutterstock/anna The cynic me is already weighing howwith vacant such cries would pass muster in from the current

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As Hungarians shame their government’s tough anti-immigration stand, an Indian in Budapest studies the moods and moments of a Sunday march

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AGENDA

Silicon fakes Narendra Modi may embrace the innovation and modernity of Silicon Valley, but his government still runs on jugaad and obscurantism

sambuddha mitra mustafi

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he Narendra Modi globetrotting juggernaut hits Silicon Valley this weekend. The prime minister will visit the headquarters of some of the world’s most creative companies — Tesla, Google and Facebook. The valley, in itself, is a global brand name for innovation: a mystical land of moonshot ideas that auto-magically turn into real products, which then become so indispensible to our daily lives that we wonder how humans lived without them for so long. And it always starts with one mad geek and his world-changing fantasies.

Take, for example, Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX. He is the rockstar entrepreneur and mad scientist who is creating electric cars and batteries that will make the internal combustion engine obsolete, building his own space rockets to colonise Mars and bringing artificial intelligence ever closer to the everyday.

The futuristic vision and scalability of Silicon Valley contrasts quite starkly at times with the Narendra Modi government’s ham-handed, jugaad approach to India’s future. Recently, none other than RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan called out this jugaad approach to policymaking. Speaking earlier this month at the CK Prahalad Memorial Lecture in Mumbai, he asked for “discipline to stick to our strategy of building the necessary institutions and creating a new path of sustainable growth where jugaad is no longer needed.”

This government’s jugaad approach was most visible in the way it tried to amend the Land Acquisition Bill through an unsustainable ordinance. Rather than take the long route of building support across parties for the bill, it chose the ordinance jugaad, which ultimately collapsed, as most jugaad contraptions eventually do.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been blaming the opposition for stalling the Goods and Services Tax, another reformist piece of legislation. He seems to have forgotten that he led the BJP’s opposition against the same bill when the party was sitting on the other side of the aisle in Parliament till May 2014.

On August 26, 2012, he had said outside Parliament, “there are occasions when obstruction in Parliament brings greater benefits to the country.”

Once again, it is an unprincipled jugaad strategy at work from both our main parties, which will brazenly stall reforms and economic growth when in opposition, but look to slyly push them through when in power. They forget (or don’t care) that if both parties take the same stance, what you have is a dysfunctional Parliament and a democracy that is unable to bring about the changes needed by its citizens. Not once have either the BJP or Congress shown the conciliation, generosity or giveand-take that comes with an ambitious, longterm vision.

In Silicon Valley, salesman Modi will undoubtedly make his pitch for global tech giants to make in India and sell in India. He will rally NRI crowds with big talk of how his government has restored national pride, eased business conditions and visa procedures. His

Quick fix Narendra Modi will have to choose between Tesla’s electric cars and the overloaded jugaad vehicles of rural India afp/prakash singh

photo-ops with Zuckerberg, Musk, Google’s proud to think it needs help from the outside Sergey Brin & Co will go viral on social media, world, or of a modern, outward-looking naas will his live-streamed town hall Q&A at the tion of young people even more tech-savvy Facebook headquarters. His supporters will than he is.” lap up this global ambassador who is at home The misplaced pride that ‘nationalist’ forces with the gods of hi-tech and entrepreneurship have in our ancient practices and jugaad conin the paradise of modernity. traptions is a serious impediment to real, scalAt home though, his governable innovation in India. The ment still shuns modernity for government’s paternalistic deobscurantism. His Culture Minsire for control over informaister believes women should not tion, food and religious choices, go out at night; BJP state governis alarming and dangerous. Till The misplaced pride ments are encroaching on our that ‘nationalist’ forces this Indian government, led by food choices with random meat the prime minister himself, have in our ancient bans; the government’s draft grows out of this cocoon, it will practices and jugaad policies on net neutrality and not be able to embrace the true contraptions is a encryption shows a bureaucraserious impediment to spirit of Silicon Valley. cy stuck in the dark ages of inforModi and India will have to real, scalable mation control; ‘godman’ choose between Tesla’s electric innovation in India Ramdev is tying up with Indian cars and the overloaded jugaad Institutes of Technology and the vehicles of rural India. We will Defence Research and Develophave to choose between a susment Organisation, while ratiotainable, long-term vision and nalists are being killed allegedly by extremist opportunistic politics geared to win elections.

Hindutva groups. These are not the signs of a We will have to choose between science and cosmopolitan and scientific society, which fraud. We must choose wisely between Elon leads to a free flow of ideas and innovation.

Musk and Baba Ramdev.

As a Financial Times article warned, “Modi may have to decide whether he wants to be sambuddha mitra mustafi is the founder of leader of an ancient Hindu civilisation too The Political Indian t@some_buddha

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PRESENT IMPERFECT

Let’s face it. 40 is not 30 No dreams. No ambitions. Just the doorway to a 50 sans illusion and delusion

The end of days

there is pretty much no chance of you being ‘the youngest person’ to accomplish anything.

At 40, instead of dreaming of winning an Oscar or a Booker, you are reduced to wondering Deep impact what you were doing Bollywood when someone dreams, won an Oscar or a Booker. At con 40, jobs, you gangland have been alive for too many things wars, too distant in the past ugly skyscrapers, crippling poverty... that when people talk about having read Bombay an Emergency something in a book — aboutis the or the Berlin wall — overpowering you have to bite your presence in the Ravan tongue from saying you weretrilogy around, actually & Eddie physically around, when ‘history’ was being reuters/danish siddiqui made. At 40, you are too tied in to who you are and what you have made and what you know you’ll never make.

In the months since I’ve returned from Spain, I’ve been simmering in these injustices of ageing, the new silver strands that are routinely popping up at my temples, of having to stretch my arm and hold my phone far in order to read a text message and the absolute inability to remember and use ‘swag’ properly in a sentence.

In Kiran Nagarkar’s latest — the third Ravan & Eddie book — death becomes a downward route towards salvation

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y the time I get home from the dentist’s I s he got older, the British novelist the edge” and “feel like a bird in the skies”, as- have receivedhandle news athat myclerk’s brother hasbody to properly court dead Kingsley Amis began to equate liter- suring him that they won’t die, since, as he just become thethe father of a baby girl.

I share is bound for crematorium, for example, ary flair and intellectual depth in says, “I’ve done this before”, are we to take him this with daughter, person who is so ex- the funnymy only for a bit.aUntil, that is, we recall novels of a certain kind with preten- at his word, just as Eddie did while they both citedwords to turnof10the next month she hasson, spent old man’sthat grieving Anant: tious hokum. We have his son Martin’s word leaped “into the unknown”? Did they, through the last days talking about SheTB, immedi“My200 father’s very light.

He it. had you know.” that Kingsley once semi-facetiously resolved some miraculous sleight of hand, survive the atelyHearing does thethis, mathEddie and tells me, “Can beresponds withyou “dramatic never to read novels that didn’t begin with the fall? Or indeed, did they manage to dodge the lieveoverkill”; that when the Ravan, baby becomes age, I while the moremy introspective phrase, “A shot rang out”. Kiran Nagarkar’s lat- bullets from the semi-automatic that Three will be 20! two And—she’ll all her I of the who,tell by the way,friends has alsothat attemptest offering, Rest in Peace — the third Ravan and Point One — nom de guerre of a big-time local am her hero.” once (remember his words to Eddie ed suicide Eddie book that completes and, by the looks of mobster, Bashir Akhtar — fires at them in the “And whatjumping would you upbuilding: to when you’re before off be the “I’ve done it, concludes the trilogy — doesn’t quite begin concluding paragraph?

20?” this I ask.before”) — tells Anant, pointing at the with this phrase, but the narrative does seem “Of course I would be training be a chef Well, we don’t know the ancorpse, that his to “father’s rottinto lead up to it (not to mention the many swers to these questions, but the and going to veterinary college inworse the eveg…and stinking than a equivalents of the phrase that are strewn prospects of survival for our two nings and actingdead in musicals on the weekrat.” about all through the dizzying span of these heroes, who have spent the latends,” she said.

But perhaps the author would 300-plus pages).

It is then that I am thenegation dentist’s of a ter half of the novel running a Is it really happening? tellreminded you that of this “A gun went off,” on page 337; “the bullets successful cremation service Are theywords.

Perhaps I compassionate don’t entirely have the free- that viewpoint really dying?

Pilgrim’s Walking alone along the ancient Caminothe de Santiago, Spain veena venugopal These are andprogress hand grenades zinging around,” onroute pageof the(again dom to be foolish, at 40 I certainly have morbid leitmotif), hisbut characters sometimes exhibit questions 229; “the bullets were not merely criss-cross- seem thin. So it may be time to freedom from myisown ambitions.

ThereNagarkar’s is no precisely his point. not restricted merely de Santiago. hadmost spentpopular nine days on the trail, hat’s that and…” said myand dening but...exploding,” on page 359; yes, fito rush through anything, bid the Itwo charBombay — a cityit’s of already scoundrels to theneed reader’s trekking of 25km a day, pastimagination back nally, “a tist, shot stepping rang out,” on and pagesnap226. The too late. Any accomplishment from on is actersa inminimum Indian literature goodwho either live inhere intimidating woodland andtohighland, villages and a bonus. Forty, I suppose, hislooms surgical shadow ofping death overgloves Rest in away, Peace. The is the reward for carbye. And mumbleancient under our skyscrapers or suffocating smallbreaths, cities. On the with 10th the day,author, after 15km of a rying the burden chawls “you now have the freedom to but book’s title, of course, is an obvious tipoff, of dreams along — isand a expectations proper dystopia. steadily walk, it was whenfareI stood on a for a really long time. be foolish.”

He as had just extracted the lastthe two mortality a theme is woven into narrathe uphill hallowed words of final Here, poverty inures us to the and spotted of mytive wisdom teeth and neither cliff-like in subtler waysI was thancertain the trigger-happy Where would I be,ofI life, wonder, well:mountain rest in peace. harsher realities and symthe Atlantic Ocean shimmering the procedure nor the jokelanguage was new cited to him. and ordnance-heavy above my niece 10 and We pay our respects, but in Nagarkar’s novel pathy is when a privilege not turns granted evenmy to the in the that I comedy, realYet, aswould I got off theto chair and tottered around a blue and seem indicate. daughter 20? novel Sittingand down, suphishorizon style of black there’s scarcely rich. Is this what this theI previous ised any it was actually my birth-The French philoso- two much-acclaimed bit, theThe ideastory of being to beatfoolish sounditselffree begins the very end. “Falpose, not having to catch room for sympathy. instalments to my the RaThere is no need day. pher The and walk was Henri entirely ed like a terribly fun thing. therewords is — ling…falling…falling,” theSurely first three breath, reading a book maybe theorist Bergson argued that van and Eddie series are trying to tell us? to rush through downhill from there.

By the to comedy and that nothing more go of also the lastliberating three — arethan usedletting as a refrain, recurnot having to worry if it’s compassion is antithetical Novels,and however, are not written totoo convey anything, it’s already timesympathy I reached the hamcaution, Andreturning even though I the ringlogic everyand fewreason? pages and us to in the day toSo pour glass of canseaside hamper a good laugh. But the messagesearly or worldviews. theaworld of Ratoo late. Any let ofrebuttal Cee, my for theory the had gone to the dentist feeling the miserable original image of our protagonist duo, R&E or lit-be — to home Bergson’s of comedy, ac- van and wine Eddieto is go justwith whatit.itWriting happensa to accomplishment from night, the thought thatliterary I was 40critic James Wood, replete with pangs of yet another attempt by my ageing E&R, plummeting from a Bombay skyscraper tle, I Bollywood imagine, not for a deadline, cording to the dreams and con jobs here on is a bonus was pounding soform heavily bodytototheir let me down, I walked out of there deaths.

How did things come to this but forwars. the sheer it brings.

It came in the of in themy modern novel. In his and gangland It’s a joy novelist’s offering: headbook that Iofhad worked myself with pass? a distinct, misplaced, sense of Ravan triumph.

Well,ifyou can always trust and Edcome of it, liberating essays, entitled The Irresponsible Self: take it oris, leave it. to It’sthink a world where the sound into aOn brutal rage.and the Novel, Wood draws a dis- of laughter die to concoct a fiasco so immense that it surto think of 40 as the to Laughter can sometimes bedoorway a little jarring, n June this year, traumatically, I turned 40.

I was infuriated at a “laughing universe at” and “laughing where a 50, passes their previous misadventures. illusion nor tinction between jokewhere is oftenneither a response to adversity, that would force me, despite my fabulousness, Although been expecting this for dyIs it I’d really happening?

Aretravesty they really delusion has much of abecomes place. Noaambition.

Noroute with” someone, characterising the latter as and where death downward to be“comedy 40. It wasofunfair, I thought, surelyWood I de- beat least couple years, and planing?a These areofquestions notactively restricted merely pressure.

It’s not the Technicolor production forgiveness”, which, — falling, falling, falling — towards salvation. ning to forthe the day forimagination; about six months, served better.

Yes, everyone around meofwas al- exreader’s even thewhen author is one expects life to the be. comedy But it has lieves, is something that the best novels And whenever getsthe toolived-in dark, and a my birthday didwith roll them. along INagarkar’s was aghast.final I had wayscel reassuring me that ‘40 is the new 30’. comfort grappling words reality. for the average taste, there is, in. tad of unfunny That is foolish.

Thirty has thekind hint of hope.

For-is the thank goodness, this recurring bullet shot decided to spend in Spain, walking alone in his novel, itafter the dramatic postscript The more subsidiary comedy tveenavenugopal ty, truly, the beginning of the end. At 40, along“THE the ancient pilgrim route thereader’s CaminosentiEND”, are an echo of of the ha-haisvariety of unfeeling slapstick that a nov- that rings out loud and clear. ment: “You’ve got to be kidding.” el like Rest in Peace feeds on. The shtick involvSo when Ravan convinces Eddie to “go over ing Ravan and Eddie and their comic inability vineet gill is a journalist with The Sunday Guardian

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Rest in Peace Kiran Nagarkar Fourth Estate Fiction ₹599

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BAWDY LINE

Caste away How brahmins used Shivaji Bhonsale to call themselves the masters of every ruler’s destiny

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Ambarish Satwik is a Delhi-based vascular surgeon and writer

udra and I finished the martial epic Shivaji – the Great Maratha (3-in-1, Amar Chitra Katha), in two-and-ahalf hours on the day BM Purandare, at the age of 93, was awarded the Maharashtra Bhushan for taking the history of Shivaji Bhonsale to the masses.

Like any eight-year-old, my son particularly enjoyed the part where Shivaji claws out Afzal Khan’s gizzards, bringing on the ectoplasmic holler bubble ‘Ya Allah’. This is followed by swift decapitation by one of Shivaji’s deputies as the wounded Khan staggers out. The cinematic white heat of Pratap Mulick’s illustrations from the Amar Chitra Katha of my childhood was still there but now it seemed more like a syncopated Ravi Varma rendition of a Rip Kirby comic strip. I remembered my grandfather telling me that the killing of Adil Shah’s general, Afzal Khan, had inspired the first known ballad of Marathi literature. The other early source for this is the Shivabharata, a worshipful account of Shivaji’s life, composed by his court poet Paramanand (1674), which, in Cantos 17-21, gives an account of the slaying. In it, this is Shivaji reflecting on his opponent, the desecrator of the shrine of Tuljapur: This dark soul / Kills cows everyday/ And desires to overturn / The holy law completely!

Mother Earth is surely supported by dharma She is, in turn, held up by the Gods, And the Gods are supported by brahmans.

Therefore are these brahmans The root of all people, And should zealously and always be Protected and given worship.

Taking birth in age after age Verily, do I protect Gods, brahmans and cows (Translation by Bahulkar and Laine, 2001) Kshatriyakulawatamsa (ornament of the Kshatriyas) Shriraja Shivachhatrapati (the great King Shiva, Lord of the Umbrella) was how Shivaji Bhonsale would sign off on his official letters, post coronation. Purandare, in his writings, introduced the handle Gobrahmanpratipalaka (protector of cows and brahmins) into that appellation cluster. And that raised more Bahujan and Marxist hackles than he could shake a stick at.

Balwant Moreshwar Purandare is a deshastha brahman who calls himself Shiv Shahir (Shivaji’s bard). He has been writing on Shivaji for nearly 70 years and it wouldn’t be impolitic to say that (on account of the enormous popularity of his novels and plays), his rendering of Shivaji’s life and times has led to the making of popular Maratha historical memory and is taken as the general truth about Shivaji’s history. Sambhaji Brigade (SB), the fanatical antibrahmin outfit that calls itself a social organisation, in the run-up to the award, led violent protests against the decision to honour Purandare. The brigade, in 2004, had vandalised the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune in the wake of protests against James Laine’s book on Shivaji. SB’s agitator-in-chief, Shrimant Kokate has been going around for a few years now addressing large rallies across

the same. Kokate alleges a brahmin conspiracy, the conscious foregrounding of an invented brahminical influence on the juvenile Shivaji; the iteration, in the absence of any historical evidence, that Shivaji’s administrative tutoring could have happened only at the hands of a brahmin. It is the displacement of the real, subaltern memory of Shivaji Bhonsale with an engineered, ‘official’ memory.

Which allows Konddeo to be carried into textbooks for children as Shivaji’s guru, and the setting up of a tableau of statues in Lal Mahal, Pune, showing Konddeo, Jijabai and Shivaji as one happy family.

Purandare does for Konddeo what his predecessor Mahadev Govind Ranade did for the brahmin saint Ramdas — the same gerrymandering of the narrative to make Ramdas Shivaji’s spiritual advisor. Ramdas, now, is inseparably yoked to the social memory of Shivaji and his project of swarajya (this, when all historical evidence on the matter suggests that they first met in 1672, when swarajya had Maharashtra saying Purandare was the real been, in a way, already installed). He’s on calenJames Laine, as all innuendos and references dars, as the chief force of Maratha freedom, about Shivaji’s ‘guardian’ Dadoji Konddeo be- showing the way to the obedient Shivaji, asking his biological father come from Purandare. ing him to propagate the dharma of MahaHe ends these speeches by exhorting the gov- rashtra. The dharma being a clump of ernment to publicly hang Purandare and other brahminical values and prescriptive behabrahmin historians, or else they would happily viour. According to Kokate, the only utility of do it themselves.

Shivaji to brahmins is to create and advance So what is the charge against Purandare? Ac- the trope that no matter how prodigious and/ cording to Kokate et al, there are 17 paragraphs or proficient the ruler, brahmins superintendin Purandare’s book Raja Shivachhatrapati ed social and political destinies. which are ‘objectionable and utterly defamatoWhy is it, asks Kokate, that even today the ry to Shivaji’s life’ and as a starting point they name Shivaji is commonplace amongst Dhanwant these expunged. Now, Kogars, Mahars, Khatiks, Malis, but kate, verily, looks the part of the one doesn’t come across a single lumpen demagogue and isn’t the Shivaji Kulkarni/ Deshpande/ sort of bloke you’d expect to inParanjpe/Joshi? voke and quote Antonio GramSo, is Kokate a rabble-rouser or In desperation, sci’s theory of cultural hegemony the true ideological descendant Shivaji had to get a in primetime television debates. of Jyotirao Phule? Well, Phule manufactured But that’s exactly what he does in was considered a rabble-rouser Sisodiya lineage engaging with his opponents. On in 1869 when he wrote his ‘socialfrom Mewar more than one occasion I have ly disintegrative’ ballad on Shivseen news anchors being stung aji. In it Shivaji was a Kunbi, a into silence by the force of Kopeasant-warrior whom the brahkate’s rhetorical flourish. mins refused to coronate.

The most exceptionable part (according to There isn’t any ‘historical evidence’ for Kokate) from Purandare’s texts is on the brah- Phule’s autonomous retelling either. What is min character Dadoji Konddeo. He was an em- certain is that Shivaji needed brahmins to be a ployee of Shivaji’s father Shahji, a sort of Chhatrapati (the umbrella a sign of royalty manager-cum-subadar, appointed to adminis- and divinity). In desperation, he had to get a ter Shahji’s jagir in Pune pargana, of which only manufactured Sisodiya lineage from Mewar a small portion was assigned to the fledgling and a bhade-ka-brahmin, Gagabhatt, from Shivaji. All we have on the man in terms of ma- Kashi, to officiate at his coronation when all terial historical evidence are four executive others refused. That his principal seal was in documents suggesting that Shivaji held him in Sanskrit and not in Modhi-Marathi. That his great respect and ratified whatever had been prime minister was a brahmin. And his only decreed by Konddeo. Yet, Purandare’s prose official biography was in Sanskrit, written by gives Konddeo more than a walk-on part. He is Paramanand, a brahmin. shown as Shivaji’s intellectual guru-preceptor What is also known is that the only battleand caretaker, who fills in as a sustained locum wound Shivaji received in his life was a gash for his absentee father. By extension, it is insin- on the forehead in the scrimmage with Afzal uated that Konddeo might have also been a Khan. From Khan’s deputy Krishnaji Bhaskar connubial locum for Shahji as regards Jijabai. Kulkarni, a brahmin.

Purandare writes (and this is abhorrent to the asatwik@gmail.com SB) that the gotra of Konddeo and Shivaji was

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EXTRACT

The voice of the so-called witches A tribal woman in Assam has been tirelessly crusading against witch-hunts and helped frame stringent laws against them

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irubala Rabha is barely literate, in her mid-sixties, and has for several years been crusading tirelessly against witch-hunting. This plain-speaking tribal woman, with the dust of country roads on Move on, her feet, her hair tied back in a tight bun and already When hands calloused by years of hard labour, courawill the ‘Indian Novel’ be more geously takes on anyone who tries to violate the than tigers, spices dignity of women. Today, she has become one of and elephants No wrong turn the prime architects of the country’s most strinshutterstock/elena Birubala Rabha, a tribal nayashkova gent laws against witch-hunting, which were woman from recently enacted by Assam.

Thakurbhila in western PAPERWALLAH On that moonlit night, surrounded by a Assam’s Goalpara ring of hostile faces, Birubala held Sunila district, has succeeded against her breast and began to speak. “Shame in persuading fellow villagers to break free on you!” she cried, pointing a finger. “Can you from the stranglehold see her now? If she is a witch, why does she of wily medicine-men bleed? Why has she lost her senses? You fool, who prey on their Sunila is one of you. She feels the hunger that fears; (inset) author you do. She feels the cold, the heat, sadness, Indrani Raimedhi and joy. Look at her clothes. Are they not shabby like yours? Look at her house… you turned it to ashes. But what was it? A hut of cane and ment. It seems that the boy had married a body with sharp sticks. He screams and cries long ago, andshe I indulged straw, with ot a mud floor.a friend Why did not use fairy and memory,” I muttered “Aboutofplacwho was going to befeebly. the mother his in these concerns, dismantle, explicate, quesagony, but thetovillagers want him or her to in a better weekend marathon.

A child. her power for life?movie Why did she not go ing theAssearch forthe beauty the born, centrethe of husoon as babyatwas oja name tion, condemn.

ButVery my often, grouse is to with the the evil one. just escape to a better Wes placeAnderson instead ofmovie beingmarathon. poor and warned, man existence.”

Dharmeswar’s life on earth would these ‘West’ attacks, that givesthe itself far person too much credit.

The poor utters someWeDid were very it. end. hungry here? the ojamethodical tell you sheabout is a daiYes,Dharmeswar I’ve read Roland Barthes.

I know au- one’s would live for justthe three (ex) Empire continues but that name, calling himtoorwrite her aback, witch.”

Beginning Rushmore (1998)that and he moving ni?

Do youwith believe everything tells more thor isdays. claimed interpretive authorThedead, littleand household waited for doesn’t it can’t doesn’t occupy itself What mean happens then?or“The woman named as on to Then The Royal (2001), The Life Aq- ity now death, you? youTenenbaums are no better than lies squarely the hands the awith alreadyin grieving forofpoor anything apart to from colonial experiwitch will beelse ordered appear before the uatic (2004), Darjeeling Limited (2007), readers, but Dharmeswar. sheep.

Use yourThe reason.” this kind of Days interpretation, came andI whole ence. The ‘West’ allows for imaginative village.

Herthat crime is related to her and Moonrise Kingdom (2012; myA favourite) and think, is symptom The crowd melted away. of aand deeper As the she went, the malaise. boy remained freedom onlychased to its away own or (dare I say,inWhite) is either trapped a net eventually, hisforward most recent, woman came with The Grand Budap- rejection letters trickled in (yes, such life), I and alive. Birubala’s fearisturned writers.

And bybyextension, other tortured proddingitswith thecreative sharp Hotel aest bowl of(2014). water to wash Sunoticed a few recurring concerns.

And, annoy- point to relief and then, indignapractitioners.

For them, justa woman as it always has of a spear.

When such is killed, “I wish,” I declared, at the end of it all, “I ed as I might have been, nila’s wounds.

Her husthemdare to denounce tion.forHow the oja her been, theisworld is theirs for and the taking. body hacked to pieces buried Anderin sepcould and writechild like Wes Anderson.” band came to style, character, plot,make it wassuch far worse catch arate wrongtopredicson’s movies occupy an imaginative places to prevent her rebirth...‘nowherethe land Admittedly, wasn't quite the reaction my the underlying implication her, weeping.it Birubala that Seahorse was and tions? With her innate ness’other that’sassets accessible onlyfrom to the privileged. are seized them.

Family friend was expecting. gathered her shawl not quite an ‘Indian novel’. sense of justice and fair- members The ones are for often whomtoo artistic identitytoisn’t alterror-struck object, Mostlyher people around and claim beganthey a love the filmmakOver the summer,play, a friend I was visiting all in Birubala realized ready For whom history be casepredefined. they meet with the same fate.” can Witcher’s cinematic — playful, vintage, beauti- the way in Italy, wasthat long trek to thestyle village. facing a simiother villagers, her hunting shrugged offbelightly.

For whom the cannot just dismissed as a social fully quirky — or intrepid Hailing from a poor fam-subject matter. His lar problem. He’d community, been rejected needed to be evil in a backward gaze of the audience, critics,violaand region.

It is a flagrant carefully ily, wife ofcurated a farmersoundtracks. in remote His penchant by an Italian publisher taught because about the impor- tion of human sponsors isn’t already narrowed by rights. for symmetry. visual patterns Thakurvila ofForGoalpara dis- and bursts of his novella — featuring expat reasonable, tance of anbeing preconceptions andforexpectations.

Life has come a long way Birubala. In Are we doomed colour. trict, bordering Meghalaya, little Indian livingshedding in Rome, rootlessly, superstitions, and 2005, theWorse, artists and writers from her forNortheast Network nominated to be forever “Do Birubala’s you want earlier to writelife movie about ex- scripts like irreverently breaking wandering an-the strangle- for the Nobel freeits from mer Peace colonies that aresame mostly Prize.

That year,celeshe postcolonial? him?” my friend asked tentatively. plained her emergence as a gutcient streets hold — didofnot deal with wily medicine-men who was felicitated bratedby inReliance the WestIndustries are the ones that Limited I was well speaking of middle something else. The ‘Indian’ themes. sy No. crusader beyond He too was exaspreyed on their fears, ignorance, in Mumbai bestunder fit these customised suits.of Real their third edition freedom to claim space. You are noperated. age.

Orphaned at imaginative the age of six, hell did that andthe helplessness.

In light of this, I’d like to claimserfor Heroes — ordinary people, extraordinary better What Which doesn’t meandomestic I’m not freethan to write Birubala tackled mean, we complained over our Inheriting a love for social myself (and everyone else facing simvice — and she has found mention in Switzersheep. Use your what I wish to. Or am being censored chores and homework with directly her aperitivos? Dusty villages work from her facing motherdrought?

Sagarba- land’s ilarly worded rejection Jason 1,000 Women Peaceletters) Project,what which has reason in any way. But let me but explain.

One of the first Mangoes? The trademark diligence could in New India? be- honoured la,City Birubala formed theCaught ThakurviHill, professor of female philosophy at workers the College of 1,000 peace from rejection letters I received, study only up to Class V. for She,foreign rights tween the ancient and the modern? la Mahila Samiti.

It wasWrestling from this ISO Liberal Art and Socialthe Sciences countries around world.at DePaul Unifor my novel Seahorse, wasup from however, more than made for a kindly Brit- with economic change?

Else, were we forever platform that she raised public versity, callsof“the to forget where one is In spite all right the honour and adulation ish publisher explaining why the relegated to writing that with herwho, skillsbefore in cooking, about (shudder) the Im- heaped awareness against witch-huntfrom.” He suggests self-transformation on this feisty that woman, her life remains novel was notweaving, for him, took the trouble de- ing embroidery, poultry rearing,toand migrant Experience?

TheThen splitting of our lives and other social ills. she became the simple, only truly springs embracing forgetfuleven harsh.from Birubala, of course, is too scribeuseful why he thoughtByitthe was an she ambitious other activities. time was 16, secretary between the EastGreater and theBorjhara West. TheMahila splitting of proud of the Samness, that attachment is what makes and difficult to open up about her needs, the work.

Hesetting begins:up “Its engagement with Indian iti. she was her new life with husband ourIn tongues between English and insert name 1999, she became a member of the As- stories the resocialisation of selfremain and values warrantof her privation cloaked in sipostcolonialism is and apparent Chandreswar Rabha quicklythroughout.” became the sam of quaint, almost extinct, regional lence.

Mahilapreferably Samata Society. ed by this process. what’s more important Rather than But being disheartened by her “No,” I shouted loud, he continued re- language. mother of threeout sons andbut a daughter.

Life was Or tripping (that indefinable, What is the point whenintangible a simple poverty, is that this of selftoisdream acknowledged by sheerasure continues of her pet gardless forthey an extended paragraph.

It’s appartough and had just enough to keep body villager term) ‘poverty’? we doomed be forever becomesAre a source of evil, to a witch?

“Ev- project, others. That our ‘belonging’— and everything a shelter home for victims of witchent, soul he stated, theeven reclaimed and together.inThe tenor ofBritish their ery postcolonial? village has an oja, a medicine-man and as- hunts, that entails isn’t persistently pinned us where— doctors would help themon cope memorial North Delhi. Inwhen (rather quiet lives in was interrupted themystifyeldest trologer.

I’m not implying thatone we ignore we our live with He is the who that reads over and again. Destroying attempt truthe trauma of torture, any a place whereatthey ingly)Dharmeswar, the location then of the15, “other” son, beganintomembers change. fortunes,” in a decidedly skewed world whose inequalibegins Birubala earnestly.

“And if would ly ‘decolonising’ the future taught by forever viewing be safe, fed, clothed, a trade, givof the oppositetosex.

Even the mere mention of he He muttered himself, stayed away from tiesmentions were shaped

by Europe’s horrendous im- en someone as a witch, everybody others as pasttocolonised Remember, the courage fight back,selves. and reclaim a digAlexander’s impact on imaginary Indian/Buddhist art believes home for days, feared foes, and perial ambitions, oranother the insidiousness of nified him. There is way people find peoplelife. have the right to forget. and its was viewed as a out even hitsubsequent his mother.hybridity In desperation, his father contemporary colonisations, about a witch.

If a villagerand fallsthe ill capitaland no janice pariat is theisauthor of Seahorse raimedhi the author of My Half of provocative “But this is a medicine visited an ojapostcolonial for help. Themove. oja had an explanaistic powerseems structures theyhe support.

In nofrom way indrani to work, is covered t@janicepariat Sky; Women’s Feature Service novelthat about fluidity of Dharmeswar’s time and gender tion wasthe stranger than ail- head am I dismissing attempts toprod counter to toe withliterary a net. People then his the

Not an ‘Indian’ writer

As authors we must have the freedom to claim imaginative spaces and a ‘nowhereness’

janice pariat

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My Half of the Sky Indrani Raimedhi Sage Publications ₹495 (hardback)

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Everything was new

Caught in the bars While in jail, inmates remain trapped in a different time and reality afp/manpreet romana

Life for those who have served long prison sentences is one of challenges, adjustments and a fraught reconciliation with an outside world which they barely recognise

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In 2006, Jadhav was convicted. When he left n March 1 last year, Hari Jadhav* knocked on the door of his house. prison last year, he emerged into an alien He had last been home in 2010, world. His children, six months and three when he’d come out on parole years old, respectively, when he was arrested, from Yerwada jail in Pune. As he waited expec- couldn’t recognise him, acquaintances viewed him with suspicion, and tantly, his younger son opened the door, failed to recognise him he himself could barely recognise his village, now that it had a and asked who he was looking new road. for. Jadhav’s wife then came to the In the first few weeks he strugdoor and nearly collapsed on seeIt’s always on your gled to grasp the changed value ing him. mind. Are people Jadhav, 37, was returning home of money. Misal pavs for ₹5 were looking at you as an to Vadner village in Pune district ex-prisoner? Should now ₹40. Neighbours who’d had after 11 years of incarceration. He I approach someone cycles were zipping around in cars and bikes. This thing called had been acquitted by the Bomto talk to them? — the internet was most mystebay High Court three days before.

Nigel Akkara rious. “Everything was new,” he “I thought I would show up sudsays. “I had to make an effort to denly and surprise them,” he says, chuckling at the memory, understand it all.”

Jadhav looks older than his 37 when we meet at the high court.

At the age of 25 Jadhav was jailed for the years. He speaks softly and slowly. His only murder of the village sarpanch. That was in wish now is to beat back time and live afresh.

For those set free, whether after completing 2003 — a year before Facebook was born, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister and In- their jail terms or getting acquitted on appeal, dia had finished runners-up at the South Afri- readjusting to the world outside is not just a ca cricket world cup. challenge. It is a massive leap into another re-

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Ballads for the homeland ality. From social to financial to familial — there are a series of adjustments to make and few solutions on offer.

Nigel Akkara, 35, spent those first few years dealing with the stigma of being a former prisoner. Incarcerated when he was 21 on charges of kidnapping, and acquitted nine years later in 2009, he found it hard at first to get a job, to engage with society, to readjust to life with family. “It’s always on your mind,” he says, over the phone from Kolkata. “Are people looking at you as an ex-prisoner? Should I approach someone to talk to them?”

Addled by anxieties, he lived alone the first year after his release from a Kolkata prison. He sustained himself on the ₹4,500 a month he earned from his job at a

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A world unto itself Tihar Jail in Delhi is the largest prison complex in south Asia, known for both overcrowding and vocational training of inmates ap/

They sing of gunpowder in the air and of revolt in the streets. Young musicians from the Northeast are strumming their guitars to tell of life in the troubled region

saurabh das

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n the Northeast, it’s not unusual to find help but draw reality writing a was released in 2011. “Technology had filmfrom roles after when a director saw Makeover Hitesh Shah youngsters with a guitar in their hands. song. As a child, saw “protests the streets himheperforming inon a dance dra- changed. People’s ways of thinking had spent 19 years in prison Music in theiran DNA. Not surprising every time ama person supposedly as went part missing, of a therapy pro- changed,” says Shah. During the first three before is he became then thatpaul thenoronha guitar is being used to re- picked up gramme advocate by the Indian Army.” young months after his release, he stayed with a introduced in As theaprison. flect the angst of the young, and to sing about man living inItManipur he says nothing has takennow, Akkara several years friend he’d met in Nashik jail and survived on peace, talk about politics, and to register pro- has changed.

“Just thehimself other day, had to zip to reorient to a Ichanged re- his jail earnings of ₹12,000. test. These musicians may not have fame or home because curfew had have been clamped. ality. aRelationships For Shah, the bonds made in fan-following, but in a small, albeit impressive What else can I think of then?” he asks. to be repaired or nurprison ran deep. After all, life in Act two Nigel Akkara manner have for been making music that Hope, however, nottovanished, tured has back health. not as yet. prison is pegged on the hope wasthey imprisoned nine years beforethey live in. Songs are the Chingangbam represents the times working native tongue “Itistakes timeon for“A your that the next court date, or the becoming an actor musical postcards they send out to let the called peace,”family a set ofand songs for harmony.

The society to next bail application or appeal, Technology had world know of life in a region where blood- project, funded by complete an Assam-based will people’s have faith NGO, will come through. The men changed, shed is common. have Chingangbam creating music resi-of thinking in you,” he says.

“It with spoke of tearful family meetings, ways Their songs smell the “gunpowder in the dents of a children’s home Imphal. Thehad chil-changed — has to take its in time.” befriending fellow prisoners, air”, highlightorganisation, ethnic clashes fuelled by mili- dren belong toInthe non-profit warring of some cases,ethnic fam- groupsHitesh and sustaining those bonds even Shah tant groups, talk about the widows of those Manipur. In limiting himself to one themight coming months, the children ilies not be willafter release. Shah’s brothers rewho to the bullets of masked mealfell a day to save money.

“But men, hold up will alsoing collaborate with big bands like Soulto take back the former main distant, but society and to scrutiny excesses in he I didn’t wantstate to leave Kolkata,” mateor and Indian Ocean. prisoners, the individuals some friends have wholeheartedzero Digital Suicide theShah the Forces and it was here may be hamstrung says. guise “It was of hereArmed I was accused, Digital Suicide, four-member Inspiration ground by guilt aover ly accepted him.

Nowand49, all-woman Maniac (above) sing of life as it is now in (Special Act,name.” and unI wantedPowers) to clear my band from Haflong, town making their loved ones suffer.aAt the in ageturof the hasNortheast. remarried and Akhu has been practising as an (below) Chingangbam is working derline the heavy He struggled to presence find workofdespiteWe having a most moil the Assam-Nagaland 23, convicted by along the Mumbai sessions court with advocate forafour years.home He completed dekids from children’s for “A native two tongue are like men uniform in the region.

BCominand a Master’s degree.

He went on to set border, is getting noticed for its pofor the murder of a relative, Hitesh Shah grees while in prison and, inspired by a lawyer special arrangement called peace.” young people in the They also talk of a generation up his own manpower services firm, Kolkata litical lyrics.

The1992, members insist stepped into prison.

It was Mumbai was named S Kudle he had met in prison, he set up world today, angry lost to drugs, and of “No state Facilities Management, and hasand since July their music is beyond genres, and Deforestation still Bombay, and communal tensions had not ment. his own practice. and unplanned construcsad to see things no frustratingly 2010rest”, helpedthe 54 former prisoners happening find jobs asaround that they are only looking for “a tions are changing the of Shah Haflong,” flared up yet.

His wife left him.

He was a broEleven years after helandscape was jailed, had us long-drawn protests and guards or cleaners. platform air opinions” on events says. These thoughts ‘Haflong’, an ken man. He spent 19toyears in jail, serving a life he stepped outside for the led firsttotime in 2003. which are wrong bandhs for in statehood.

Akkara, the meantime, managed to bag term, before happening around them. and Daniel to their hometown.

At the ongoing his sentence was remitted he ode Emerging from his time capsule, he spentZiro the Listen to Akhu Ronid ChinLangthasa, vocalist, says, “We are Festival of Music in Arunachal Pradesh, Digital gangbam of Imphal Talkies. like most young people in the Suicide will sing ‘Haflong’ along with their Strumming his guitar, playing world today, angry and sad to see popular number ‘Mur town.’ So too ‘No state the mouth organ, he croons in subdued an- things happening around us, which are no rest,’ which has lines like “…my hero is ger: wrong.” Though they sing about life as they dead, his killers are rulers…” “…Don’t you have brothers? see it, families and friends do not approve.

Recently, Maniac, an all-woman band from Don’t you have commanders?

And it upsets Langthasa. “They want us to keep Manipur, sang about the gender bias in ManiDon’t you have captors? quiet and not ‘offend’ authority; and that puri society. Its latest number, ‘Rock and Roll,’ …the air smells of gunpowder bothers us more,” he says. “prods girls to show their worth to the society From my window I can only see widows Growing up in Haflong, says Langthasa, was without fear.” Acki, the band’s manager says, My mama doesn’t want me to sing sad fun. “Everyone knew everyone. Then, instigat- “As they say, a written work of art always mirsongs ed by militant groups, ethnic clashes started. rors the time in which it was written. After all, A.F.S.P.A It has left people afraid of each other. Illegal music can influence people, can create opinWhy don’t you f*** yourself…” immigration, a corrupt government and the ions and add new colour to society.”

Imphal-based Chingangbam says he can’t district council have deepened unemployPeople in the Northeast are more ready to accept such songs now, believes Lokesh Heishnam of Eastern Dead. In 1997, when the group sang ‘Monkey Lies’, protesters in Manipur burnt copies of the song. “The song in Meiteilon language was based on a Manipuri folk tale. It prodded people to follow their musical roots, which angered those with vested interests,” he recalls. Eastern Dead had to lie low for some years, two members quit, and it had to return with a new name — Eastern Dark. “But we stuck to such songs because we believed in them,” he says. Now Heishnam is credited for bringing Meiteilon to Manipur’s rock music scene. Of similar vintage is Tapta. The balladeer’s wide oeuvre has a song for almost every issue and these are also discussed in Manipur’s educational institutions. Clearly, the young people of the Northeast have found that art is political.

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sangeeta barooah pisharoty is a freelance writer based in Delhi A new chapter Released from Coimbatore Central Prison, five former life convicts walk out into a changed world m periasamy

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first few days of his parole crying in sheer exPICTURE THIS citement. During subsequent paroles he visited relatives in an attempt to show them he had changed and was not “criminal-minded”.

Parole is usually granted for special reasons — such as an emergency — based on an application, while a furlough is an annual leave entitlement for every prisoner. These measures are meant to ensure that prisoners have some contact with the world they have left behind.

However, those eligible for parole are often unable to use it because there is no one to stand surety for them. And even when they do come out, their interaction with the world is limited. “They remain with their families, so they are cut off from the larger reality,” says K ing Arati seem like she’s putting the lipstick what brings them together. In place of the ofhere’s a crucial scene in Satyajit Srinivasan,Ray’s formersublime additionalfilm director general on herself. Also, the original black and white is fice peon in the story, in the film it is Arati who Mahanagar of police, Karnataka.

(1963), in which the Bengali, middle- thrown into relief by making the lipstick (and visits Edith’s house. This allows Ray to have In manyclass, cases,sari-clad the families are hit hardMafi- Arati’s lips) scarlet. heroine Arati Arati witness Edith’s domestic circumstances, nancially as their main earning zumdar (Madhabi Mukherjee) is member urged by has her But that’s another story. The point of my and be able to vouch for her illness. Arati’s clibeen incarcerated.

Naresh colleague Kale* returned Anglo-Indian skirt-wearing Edith long rendition is simpler: that this scene be- mactic quarrel with her boss Mr Mukherjee — home aftertosix whenlipstick. he was acquitted in tween Edith and Arati, which became one of over his unfair treatment of Edith — thus beSimmons tryyears on some The two are Stuck in black-and-white Prisoners are produced often caught in comes a time warp, whereby skills they once had or learnt in ainmurder case. A farmer withwhere a smallthey patch of the the women’s restroom, have film’s most well-known — and more believable. jail may be irrelevant when they come out the hindu archives; (below) kk mustafah land in Kolhapur district, Kale’s family with had perhaps the most vivid visual encapsulation just conducted a funny little exchange There are other transformations I haven’t suffered tremendous in of Mahanagar’s themes — did not exist in the touched upon, such as Ray’s elaboration of their salaries — five of monetary Arati’s crispsetbacks new notes his yieldsofhad fallencrumpled, by 75 per auto for absence; the samefarm number Edith’s harness original story.plant employing prison labour. Subrata’s father, a patriarch, into a weakcent, he desperately needed find an addi- “Some dirty so ones.

Clearly touched byto Arati’s unhesistates have brought in goodAbotaronika, practices,” willed, embarrassing old man. The retired Narendranath Mitra’s story tional of income.to her somewhat chil- says tating source sweet response Lalli, “But these are piecemeal efforts.” in schoolmaster starts visiting his former stuwhich Ray adapted, was first published Now his main goal is toher earnthe enough to put dish desire, Edith offers lipstick.

It’s Anandabazar Jail authorities are clear their Patrika’s Pujawhere edition of respon1949. It dents, begging for monetary help. This arc his through school and college. sibilities new,two shechildren says, I haven’t used it (as if it matches the appearedend. in “There Englishis no in assigned 2014, as role ‘Thefor Procompletes the family’s financial humiliation.

“I am also consideringof a poultry business,” he government the fresh-minted-ness Arati’s notes). after aThat prisoner’s says PK logue’, in 14 Stories Inspiredrelease,” SaIn another instance of Ray’s tweaksays, overwho a cuphas of chai.

I kept think- Shukla, Arati, until“That’s then all been speaking superintendent Sultanpur Jail, in tyajit Ray, translated of by ing, the East Bengal connecing of when I was English, in prison.”

Heswitches has spentawkthe Uttar Bangla to Edith’s now Pradesh.

He said they paid the fare for Bhaskar Chattopadhyay. tion between Subrata and first month of hisshaking freedomher gorging onembarhome- prisoners wardly to Hindi, head in to travel Abotaronika does home con- after release, but the Mukherjee is deepened cooked food, says lawyer Abhay Kumar rassment.

“Woh le ke hum kya karega (WhatApte, will involvement ended there. tain an Anglo-Indian by the particularity of as a withered, Kaleexclaims smiles gently.

I do with it)?” white-haired “Use it, stupid!”

Edith, officemate Another drawback called is this: due to their incarplace: “Pabna”. But who has suddenly gone from being childish to ceration, prisoners Edith, but she is are often caught in a time the gulf between Role of the states the more experienced one. “What’s wrong warp, the skills they once had or ‘Mrs. whereby Simmons’, them is also The justice system is put intended to learnt withcriminal using a little lipstick?

You red here, in jail may become irrelevant. Prisoners and introduced strengthened — both punish offenders and reform them be- should red here, why not here?” continues Edith, be helped with a great deal to acquire relevant skills,

by Mukherjee’s fore they return society, rehabilitapointing first to to Arati’s hairmaking parting, then her says moreSrinivasan. presum-For instance, instead of handexplicit referenction an essential aspect the process. forehead, then her lips.ofArati agrees: silently, loom weaving or carpet weaving, prisoners ption and malice es to his well-conIndia more than threeanlakh people be- could but withhas dancing eyes and impish smile, be the taught other marketable skills. than in film: nectedness, and hind bars; largefrom proportion locking theadoor inside. of this are un- she is “probably a by a sequence dertrials.

Management and face, supervision of The That vision of Madhabi’s eyes lifted barsofhaven’t lifted couple years olwhere he drops jails continue to be substandard.

Repatriation nervously upwards as Edith carefully applies According to thebut latest national crime statisder” than Arati, Arati home in his of clearly a priority. theprisoners colour toisher lips not — became one of Maha- tics, per cent of the 37.9 lakh arrests made “the 7.8 way she dressed car, while describing The 2003 draft of the Model as a lobby card and made in nagar’s iconic stills, originally repeat offenders, welfare officers, so follow-up up2014 her involved face difficultabout after his wife’sis“mania” Prison Manual, prepared bywhen a restored made herindicating and then as a poster.

By 2013, that thousands were re- release,” says Father look much Sebastian germs, and Vadakumpahis “guilt” the Bureau of Police print was released onResearch the film’s 50th anniver- younger,” Mitra verting to crime even after serving dan, national coordinator writes.

“Edith for Prison Ministry about pedestrians. and (BPRD), sary, Development Edith had been neatly decropped out, mak- generouslyjail time.lipstick, “If society applied Ed- and family India, a group working with prisoners across Mitra’s original narrative conIf society and family votes an entire chapter to afdon’t there is a tend- jails. “Non-profit ith painted heraccept nails,them, Edith groups can film’s play a eventual big role tained all the don’t accept them, ter-care and rehabilitation. It encyskirts.” to fall back into crime,” says and do good work,” wore beautiful he adds. conflicts.

I don’t mean only the The cinematicInArati to authorial recommends follow-up and li- there is a tendency Dr Sanjay Kumawat, This judgement is a psychiatrist Mumbai,ones Prayas, the Tata youunder first notice — Institute between neverof justifies her Sciences, — followed, aising with welfare officers, fall back into crime and former member-secretary quickly in Mitra’s stoof Social with undertrials.

ReAratiworks and Subrata, and Arati and friendliness Edith. a former Dr Sanjay Kumawat help in finding a job, assimithe Maharashtra Mental with ry, by a warning from Arati’sState ny George, convict, runs Prison Subrata’s parents — but alsoFelbeunderstands herBengaluru lating into the community, Health Authority, who hasShe dealt ex- lowship husband, Subrata: “Be careful! help individuals a tweento Mukherjee and build Edith, and assistance with temporatensively with girls.” prisoners.English, “Formerbut responds Don’t mingle with such life after incarceration. and Mukherjee and Arati. None comfortably Bangla ry housing, among other prisoners is face a lot of problems, in- inWhat Arati’s clarification immediformer carry are with them isin a ofprisoners these conflicts softened things. This document, howcluding“mingle issues of identity, insom- certain mellowness, ate. She doesn’t with a sense that they must Yet do the film and yet Mahanagar. ever, has not been finalised. nia, and theshe after-effects of abuse whatever theyitcan her”,depression she says. In fact, tries to recover and live as is much moretime optimistic.

An even older report on prison reforms — in “toprison.” keep our conversations to a fully as possible.Abotaronika Jadhav spends allwith his time ended Subthe Mulla Committee report of 1983 — had sug- courteous Lawyers speak of clients losing theirinsisting grip on with minimum”, even while his children, having missed muchimof rata offering only a nasty crack at his wife’s gested a slew of similar rehabilitation mea- reality, or ofmust beingdeal unable complete simple their that Edith withtoArati’s half-baked childhood, in trying find abeing new pulsive decision and to resign overtoEdith sures, which found voice again in a 2007 actions crossing a road.

Some former pris- routine.

Englishlike because “[a]ll these years, we have “Right now I am would less than nothing,” fired. “The actual culprit have started national policy draft that was forwarded to oners become insecure, especially when he tried to speak very in your accent and tolerated says. is going todangling be a struggle. office by“And now,I know with aitcigarette from the ministry of home affairs. However, it they across policemen, fearful of getting So yourcome broken Bengali.” am lips. trying evennot harder to alwaysBengali do the herI red She’s a sentimental hasn’t been implemented. arrested all over Suma Sebastian, Ray does awayagain. with Sister the mutual suspicion. right thing,” adds. woman afterheall.”

Mahanagar’s Subrata does “Rehabilitation remains a neglected area,” who works with thenever Human Rights Net- not The cinematic Arati justifies herLaw friendliSimilarly, Hitesh Shah is Anglo-Indian painfully self-concast aspersions on the charsays Upneet Lalli, deputy director of Chandi- work, recalls the She caseunderstands of a man whoher tried to re- scious ness with Edith.

English, about histells identity a former prisoner. acter. In fact, he Aratias she has stood up for garh’s Institute of Correctional Administra- turn to prison by committing but responds comfortably in another Bangla. crime, While “People undergone life sentences live injusticewho’ve in a way he couldn’t have done. Arati tion, which trains prison personnel and because he felt rejected by—the and very keeping some things intact suchworld as Edith’s carefully in the world outside,” he says. vocally seeks support from her husband, and police. “In most states it is not under the pris- could find refuge behind spiritedness in only pushing herbars.

Bengali col- “I’m conscious by that people shouldn’t thinkacof he, chastened her open-faced honesty, on department and there is lack of coordina- leagues “It is atodifficult for people—who demandtransition their commissions Ray my past.” tually responds. The niggling prejudice and tion between prison authorities and the social don’t support,” says Shukla. makes have Edith family unmarried and younger than cynicism But while the universe might havea of Mitra’s world outside becomes, in Ray’s, welfare department on this issue.”

“Many prisoners have been inside for while, changed Arati. Despite linguistic, religious anda ethnic for those locked(Arati’s up forBangla) years, some cultural self-confidence that Each state has its own prison manual and have formedthe bonds prison Arati and don’t have things differences, film in suggests, empathisof the first films rejects are the timeless. parochial“One (Mukherjee) while em-I Bajrangi Bhaiways of dealing with prisoners. Several have resources outside, wouldgrand preferprincito re- watched es with Edith.

Not so outthey of some cameegalitarian home was future bracing awhen new, Ijust, (where says Kale.

Salman grown olvocational skilling courses, therapy initiatives main inside if they could.” but simply, with jaan,” pled embrace of otherness, husband and wife“Sure, will both havehas jobs).

Butan Salman is still right?” and even jail-based recruitments. In Himachal Ray-style humanism, as another woman striv- der.

Like old coat, RaySalman, had made the story his (*Names of aout fewsome recently released Pradesh, for instance, the authorities have al- Looking ahead ing to earn an honest living and fulfil similar own, ironing creases andprisoners refitting changedbits. to help them reintegrate lowed prisoners to work outside during the Though there may notfilm be uniform dreams — Edith in the is savinglarge-scale up money have somebeen badly-worn He had made it new. inday and return to prison at night. A Tamil Na- programmes, several to be able to marry hernon-profits boyfriend. and volun- to society.) du prison launched a bakery unit in 2012 teer groups been in working with former trisha gupta is a writer and critic based in Delhi Class, also have expressed the ramshackleness dore is a Mumbai-based journalist t@chhotahazri while, in Delhi, Tihar Jail last year opened an inmates in various states. arebevery of both their homes, thus “There seems to partfew of bhavya

Adaptation par excellence

How Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar (1963) reworked Narendranath Mitra’s original Bangla short story in a manner both fine-grained and sweeping

trisha gupta

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Master class A 2014 book that contains an English translation of Abotaronika, the story that Ray adapted for Mahanagar; (right) Madhabi Mukherjee as Arati Mazumdar in the film

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Photographic memory Glimpses of ‘Prabuddha Dasgupta: A Journey’ at Delhi’s National Gallery of Modern Art

For Vogue India, 200

For Elle India, 2008

Far east in the Chan n

Women 19, 1993

Sand dune in the Ch h

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n ngthang, Ladakh, 1996

h hangthang, Ladakh, 1996

A2, Dabchick, Hodal, 1982

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t’s an unwinding caress with the eye of the camera. As if the dark skin, the red lipstick, and the cream of the sensuous fabric, the faded wall as backdrop, the streets unfolding into shut windows in a shadowy Italian by-lane, they, together, are compelled to make a silent symphony with the female nude, often without faces. Their bodies move out of the frame and the architecture, as lucid and languid as a lazy sunlit afternoon trickling inside a wine bottle on a table covered with a white cloth.

‘Prabuddha Dasgupta: A Journey’ deserves this return journey to the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in Delhi not only because this iconic, non-conformist photographer spent his childhood on the grounds (his father was a director here), but also because he travelled zigzag, not following the straight line of clichéd commercial photography, proving his own genius and the ephemeral beauty of the sublime texture and tangibility of his images. Even when the image is that of a nude, angular back of a woman, trapped in lazy reprieve.

You can travel with him inside Paul Braganza’s residence in Goa (2005), with a glass of ‘Honey Bee’ in the bartender’s hand, to the aching series called ‘Longing’, with oldfashioned surrealism marking the empty space with half-eaten food, like an exotic installation, a pack of Marlboro and a lighter. The absence of human beings, often, is only an uncanny reminder of their presence.

Yes, except when he enters nature, as in ‘Ladakh’, with the waters flowing through white peaks etched like Paul Klee’s geometric lines, not always in synthesis with sanddunes, flatlands, landscapes, mappings. And, yet, etched with horizontal and vertical lines, the stoic peasant woman’s face in Ladakh (1995) becomes a landmark. Indeed, in her glazed eyes lies his camera.

(This photo exhibition is on till November 22, except on Mondays and national holidays) text by amit sengupta, associate professor, English journalism at IIMC, New Delhi; photos courtesy National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi

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Ballads for the homeland ality. From social to financial to familial — there are a series of adjustments to make and few solutions on offer.

Nigel Akkara, 35, spent those first few years dealing with the stigma of being a former prisoner. Incarcerated when he was 21 on charges of kidnapping, and acquitted nine years later in 2009, he found it hard at first to get a job, to engage with society, to readjust to life with family. “It’s always on your mind,” he says, over the phone from Kolkata. “Are people looking at you as an ex-prisoner? Should I approach someone to talk to them?”

Addled by anxieties, he lived alone the first year after his release from a Kolkata prison. He sustained himself on the ₹4,500 a month he earned from his job at a

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A world unto itself Tihar Jail in Delhi is the largest prison complex in south Asia, known for both overcrowding and vocational training of inmates ap/

They sing of gunpowder in the air and of revolt in the streets. Young musicians from the Northeast are strumming their guitars to tell of life in the troubled region

saurabh das

I

n the Northeast, it’s not unusual to find help but draw writing filmfrom rolesreality after when a director sawa was released in 2011. “Technology had Makeover Hitesh Shah youngsters with a guitar in their hands. song. As a child, saw “protests the streets himheperforming in on a dance dra- changed. People’s ways of thinking had spent 19 years in prison Music in their every time ama person supposedly as went part missing, of a therapy pro- changed,” says Shah. During the first three before is he became an DNA. Not surprising then thatpaul thenoronha guitar is being used to re- picked up gramme advocate by the Indian Army.” young months after his release, he stayed with a introduced in As theaprison. flect the angst of the young, and to sing about man living inItManipur he says nothing has takennow, Akkara several years friend he’d met in Nashik jail and survived on peace, talk about politics, and to register pro- has changed.

“Just thehimself other day, had to zip to reorient to a Ichanged re- his jail earnings of ₹12,000. test. These musicians may not have fame or home because curfew had have been clamped. ality. aRelationships For Shah, the bonds made in fan-following, but in a small, albeit impressive What else can I think of then?” he asks. to be repaired or nurprison ran deep. After all, life in Act two Nigel Akkara manner have for been making music that Hope, however, nottovanished, tured has back health. not as yet. prison is pegged on the hope wasthey imprisoned nine years before they live in. Songs are the Chingangbam represents the times working native tongue “Itistakes timeon for“A your that the next court date, or the becoming an actor musical postcards they send out to let the called peace,”family a set ofand songs for harmony.

The society to next bail application or appeal, Technology had world know of life in a region where blood- project, funded by complete an Assam-based will people’s have faith NGO, will come through. The men changed, shed is common. have Chingangbam music resi-of thinking in you,”creating he says.

“It with spoke of tearful family meetings, ways Their songs smell the “gunpowder in the dents of a children’s home Imphal. Thehad chil-changed — has to take its in time.” befriending fellow prisoners, air”, highlightorganisation, ethnic clashes fuelled by mili- dren belong to non-profit warring of Inthe some cases,ethnic fam- groupsHitesh and sustaining those bonds even Shah tant groups, talk about the widows of those Manipur. In limiting himself to one themight coming months, the children ilies not be willafter release. Shah’s brothers rewho to the bullets of masked mealfell a day to save money.

“But men, hold up will alsoing collaborate with big bands like Soulto take back the former main distant, but society and to scrutiny excesses in he I didn’t wantstate to leave Kolkata,” mateorand Indian Ocean. prisoners, the individuals some friends have wholeheartedzero Digital Suicide theShah the Forces and it was here may be hamstrung says. guise “It was of hereArmed I was accused, Digital by Suicide, four-member Inspiration ground guilt aover ly accepted him.

Nowand 49, all-woman Maniac (above) sing of life as it is now in (Special Act,name.” and unI wantedPowers) to clear my band from Haflong, town making their loved ones suffer.aAt the in ageturof the hasNortheast. remarried and Akhu has been practising as an (below) Chingangbam is working derline the heavy He struggled to presence find workofdespiteWe having a most moil the Assam-Nagaland 23, convicted by along the Mumbai sessions court with advocate forafour years.home He completed dekids from children’s for “A native two tongue are like men uniform in the region.

BCominand a Master’s degree.

He went on to set border, is getting noticed for its pofor the murder of a relative, Hitesh Shah grees while in prison and, inspired by a lawyer special arrangement called peace.” young people in the They talk of a generation up hisalso own manpower services firm, Kolkata litical lyrics.

The1992, members stepped into prison.

It was Mumbaiinsist was named S Kudle he had met in prison, he set up world today, angry lost to drugs, and of “No state Facilities Management, and hasand since July their music is beyond genres, and Deforestation still Bombay, and communal tensions had not ment. his own practice. and unplanned construcsad to see things no frustratingly 2010 rest”, helpedthe 54 former prisoners happening find jobs asaround that they are only looking for “a tions are changing the of Shah Haflong,” flared up yet.

His wife left him.

He was a broEleven years after helandscape was jailed, had us long-drawn protests and guards or cleaners. platform air opinions” on events says. These ‘Haflong’, an ken man. He spent 19to years in jail, serving a life he stepped outsidethoughts for the led firsttotime in 2003. which are wrong bandhs for in statehood.

Akkara, the meantime, managed to bag term, before happening around them. and Daniel to their hometown.

At the ongoing his sentence was remitted he ode Emerging from his time capsule, he spentZiro the Listen to Akhu Ronid ChinLangthasa, vocalist, says, “We are Festival of Music in Arunachal Pradesh, Digital gangbam of Imphal Talkies. like most young people in the Suicide will sing ‘Haflong’ along with their Strumming his guitar, playing world today, angry and sad to see popular number ‘Mur town.’ So too ‘No state the mouth organ, he croons in subdued an- things happening around us, which are no rest,’ which has lines like “…my hero is ger: wrong.” Though they sing about life as they dead, his killers are rulers…” “…Don’t you have brothers? see it, families and friends do not approve.

Recently, Maniac, an all-woman band from Don’t you have commanders?

And it upsets Langthasa. “They want us to keep Manipur, sang about the gender bias in ManiDon’t you have captors? quiet and not ‘offend’ authority; and that puri society. Its latest number, ‘Rock and Roll,’ …the air smells of gunpowder bothers us more,” he says. “prods girls to show their worth to the society From my window I can only see widows Growing up in Haflong, says Langthasa, was without fear.” Acki, the band’s manager says, My mama doesn’t want me to sing sad fun. “Everyone knew everyone. Then, instigat- “As they say, a written work of art always mirsongs ed by militant groups, ethnic clashes started. rors the time in which it was written. After all, A.F.S.P.A It has left people afraid of each other. Illegal music can influence people, can create opinWhy don’t you f*** yourself…” immigration, a corrupt government and the ions and add new colour to society.”

Imphal-based Chingangbam says he can’t district council have deepened unemployPeople in the Northeast are more ready to accept such songs now, believes Lokesh Heishnam of Eastern Dead. In 1997, when the group sang ‘Monkey Lies’, protesters in Manipur burnt copies of the song. “The song in Meiteilon language was based on a Manipuri folk tale. It prodded people to follow their musical roots, which angered those with vested interests,” he recalls. Eastern Dead had to lie low for some years, two members quit, and it had to return with a new name — Eastern Dark. “But we stuck to such songs because we believed in them,” he says. Now Heishnam is credited for bringing Meiteilon to Manipur’s rock music scene. Of similar vintage is Tapta. The balladeer’s wide oeuvre has a song for almost every issue and these are also discussed in Manipur’s educational institutions. Clearly, the young people of the Northeast have found that art is political.

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sangeeta barooah pisharoty is a freelance writer based in Delhi A new chapter Released from Coimbatore Central Prison, five former life convicts walk out into a changed world m periasamy

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first few days of his parole crying in sheer exPICTURE THIS citement. During subsequent paroles he visited relatives in an attempt to show them he had changed and was not “criminal-minded”.

Parole is usually granted for special reasons — such as an emergency — based on an application, while a furlough is an annual leave entitlement for every prisoner. These measures are meant to ensure that prisoners have some contact with the world they have left behind.

However, those eligible for parole are often unable to use it because there is no one to stand surety for them. And even when they do come out, their interaction with the world is limited. “They remain with their families, so they are cut off from the larger reality,” says K ing Arati seem like she’s putting the lipstick what brings them together. In place of the ofhere’s a crucial scene in Satyajit Srinivasan,Ray’s formersublime additional director general on herself. Also, the original black and white is fice peon in the story, in the film it is Arati who film Mahanagar of police, Karnataka.

(1963), in which the Bengali, middle- thrown into relief by making the lipstick (and visits Edith’s house. This allows Ray to have In manyclass, cases,sari-clad the families are hit hardMafi- Arati’s lips) scarlet. heroine Arati Arati witness Edith’s domestic circumstances, nancially as their main earning member zumdar (Madhabi Mukherjee) is urged by has her But that’s another story. The point of my and be able to vouch for her illness. Arati’s clibeen incarcerated.

Naresh colleague Kale* returned Anglo-Indian skirt-wearing Edith long rendition is simpler: that this scene be- mactic quarrel with her boss Mr Mukherjee — home aftertosix whenlipstick. he was acquitted in tween Edith and Arati, which became one of over his unfair treatment of Edith — thus beSimmons tryyears on some The two are Stuck in black-and-white Prisoners are produced often caught in comes a time warp, whereby skills they once had or learnt in ainmurder case. A farmer withwhere a small patch of the the women’s restroom, they have film’s most well-known — and more believable. jail may be irrelevant when they come out the hindu archives; (below) kk mustafah land in Kolhapur district, Kale’s family with had perhaps the most vivid visual encapsulation just conducted a funny little exchange There are other transformations I haven’t suffered tremendous monetary in of Mahanagar’s themes — did not exist in the touched upon, such as Ray’s elaboration of their salaries — five of Arati’s crispsetbacks new notes his yieldsofhad fallencrumpled, by 75 per auto for absence; the samefarm number Edith’s harness original story.plant employing prison labour. Subrata’s father, a patriarch, into a weakcent, he desperately needed find an addi- “Some dirty so ones.

Clearly touched byto Arati’s unhesistates have brought in good practices,” willed, embarrassing old man. The retired Narendranath Mitra’s story Abotaronika, tional of income.to her somewhat chil- says tating source sweet response Lalli, “But these are piecemeal efforts.” in schoolmaster starts visiting his former stuwhich Ray adapted, was first published Now his main goal is toher earnthe enough to put dish desire, Edith offers lipstick.

It’s Anandabazar Jail authorities are clear their Patrika’s Pujawhere edition of respon1949. It dents, begging for monetary help. This arc his through school college. sibilities new,two shechildren says, I haven’t used it (as ifand it matches no assigned the appearedend. in “There Englishis in 2014, as role ‘Thefor Procompletes the family’s financial humiliation.

“I am also consideringof a poultry business,” he government the fresh-minted-ness Arati’s notes). after aThat prisoner’s says PK logue’, in 14 Stories Inspiredrelease,” SaIn another instance of Ray’s tweaksays, overwho a cuphas of chai. all I kept think- Shukla, Arati, until“That’s then been speaking superintendent Sultanpur Jail, in tyajit Ray, translated ofby ing, the East Bengal connecing of when I was English, in prison.”

Heswitches has spentawkthe Uttar Bangla to Edith’s now Pradesh.

He said they paid the fare for Bhaskar Chattopadhyay. tion between Subrata and first month of hisshaking freedomher gorging onembarhome- prisoners wardly to Hindi, head in to travel Abotaronika does home con- after release, but the Mukherjee is deepened cooked food, says lawyer Abhay Kumar rassment.

“Woh le ke hum kya karega (WhatApte, will involvement ended there. tain an Anglo-Indian by the particularity of as a withered, Kale smiles gently.

I do with it)?” white-haired “Use it, stupid!” exclaims Edith, officemate Another drawback called is this: due to their incarplace: “Pabna”. But who has suddenly gone from being childish to ceration, prisoners Edith, but she is are often caught in a time the gulf between Role of the states the more experienced one. “What’s wrong warp, the skills they once had or ‘Mrs. whereby Simmons’, them is also The justice system is put intended to learnt with criminal using a little lipstick?

You red here, in jail may become irrelevant. Prisoners and introduced strengthened — both punish offenders and continues reform them be- should red here, why not here?”

Edith, be helped with a great deal to acquire relevant skills,

by Mukherjee’s fore they first return society, pointing to to Arati’s hairmaking parting,rehabilitathen her says moreSrinivasan. presum-For instance, instead of handexplicit referenction an essential aspect the process. forehead, then her lips.ofArati agrees: silently, loom weaving or carpet weaving, prisoners ption and malice es to his well-conIndia more than threeanlakh people be- could but withhas dancing eyes and impish smile, bethe taught other marketable skills. than in film: nectedness, and hind bars; largefrom proportion locking theadoor inside. of this are un- she is “probably a by a sequence dertrials.

Management and face, supervision of The That vision of Madhabi’s eyes lifted barsofhaven’t lifted couple years olwhere he drops jails continue to be substandard.

Repatriation nervously upwards as Edith carefully applies According to thebut latest national crime statisder” than Arati, Arati home in his of clearly a priority. theprisoners colour toisher lips not — became one of Maha- tics, cent of the 37.9 lakh arrests made “the 7.8 wayper she dressed car, while describing The 2003 draft of the Model as a lobby card and made in nagar’s iconic stills, originally repeat offenders, welfare officers, so follow-up up2014 her involved face difficultabout after his wife’sis“mania” Prison Manual, prepared and then as a poster.

By 2013,bywhen a restored made herindicating that thousands were re- release,” says Father look much Sebastian germs, and Vadakumpahis “guilt” the Bureau of Police print was released onResearch the film’s 50th anniver- younger,” Mitra verting to crime even after serving dan, national coordinator writes.

“Edith for Prison Ministry about pedestrians. and sary, Development Edith had been(BPRD), neatly decropped out, mak- generouslyjail time.lipstick, “If society applied Ed- and family India, a group working with prisoners across Mitra’s original narrative conIf society and ith family votes an entire chapter to afdon’t painted heraccept nails,them, Ediththere is a tend- jails. “Non-profit groups can film’s play a eventual big role tained all the don’t accept them, ter-care and rehabilitation. It encyskirts.” to fall back into crime,” says and do good work,” wore beautiful he adds. conflicts.

I don’t mean only the The cinematicInArati toauthorial recommends follow-up and li- there is a tendency Dr Sanjay Kumawat, This judgement is a psychiatrist Mumbai,ones Prayas, the Tata youunder first notice — Institute between neverof justifies her Sciences, — followed, aising with welfare officers, fall back into crime and former member-secretary quickly in Mitra’s stoof Social with undertrials.

ReAratiworks and Subrata, and Arati and friendliness Edith. a former Dr Sanjay Kumawat help in finding a job, assimithe Maharashtra Mental with ry, by a warning from Arati’sState ny George, convict, runs Prison Subrata’s parents — but also Felbeunderstands herBengaluru lating into the community, Health Authority, who hasShe dealt ex- lowship husband, Subrata: “Be careful! help individuals tweento Mukherjee and build Edith,a and assistance with temporatensively with girls.” prisoners.English, “Formerbut responds Don’t mingle with such life after incarceration. and Mukherjee and Arati. None comfortably Bangla ry housing, among other prisonersis face a lot of problems, in- in What Arati’s clarification immediformer carryare with them isina ofprisoners these conflicts softened things. This document, howcluding“mingle issues of identity, insom- certain mellowness, ate. She doesn’t with a sense that they must Yet do the film and yet Mahanagar. ever, has not been finalised. nia, theshe after-effects of abuse whatever theyitcan her”,depression she says. Inand fact, tries to recover and live as is much more time optimistic.

An even older report on prison reforms — in “toprison.” keep our conversations to a fully as possible.Abotaronika Jadhav spends allwith his time ended Subthe Mulla Committee report of 1983 — had sug- courteous Lawyers speak of clients losing theirinsisting grip on with minimum”, even while his children, having missed muchimof rata offering only a nasty crack at his wife’s gested a slew of similar rehabilitation mea- reality, or ofmust beingdeal unable complete simple their that Edith withtoArati’s half-baked childhood, in trying find abeing new pulsive decision and to resign overtoEdith sures, which found voice again in a 2007 actions crossing a road.

Some former pris- routine.

English like because “[a]ll these years, we have “Right now I am would less than nothing,” fired. “The actual culprit have started national policy draft that was forwarded to oners become insecure, when he tried to speak very in your accentespecially and tolerated says. is going to be a struggle. office by“And now,I know with aitcigarette dangling from the ministry of home affairs. However, it they across policemen, fearful of getting So your come broken Bengali.” am lips. trying even harder to alwaysBengali do the herI red She’s not a sentimental hasn’t been implemented. arrested all over Sister Suma suspicion.

Sebastian, right Ray does awayagain. with the mutual thing,” adds. woman afterhe all.”

Mahanagar’s Subrata does “Rehabilitation remains a neglected area,” who works with thenever Human Rights Net- not The cinematic Arati justifies herLaw friendliSimilarly, Hitesh Shah painfully self-concast aspersions on theisAnglo-Indian charsays Upneet Lalli, deputy director of Chandi- work, recalls the She caseunderstands of a man whoher tried to re- scious ness with Edith.

English, histells identity a former prisoner. acter. Inabout fact, he Aratias she has stood up for garh’s Institute of Correctional Administra- turn to prison comfortably by committing but responds in another Bangla. crime, While “People undergone life sentences live injusticewho’ve in a way he couldn’t have done. Arati tion, which trains prison personnel and because he felt rejected by— the and very keeping some things intact suchworld as Edith’s carefully in the world outside,” he says. vocally seeks support from her husband, and police. “In most states it is not under the pris- could find refuge behind spiritedness in only pushing herbars.

Bengali col- “I’m conscious by that people shouldn’t thinkacof he, chastened her open-faced honesty, on department and there is lack of coordina- leagues “It is atodifficult for people—who demandtransition their commissions Ray my past.” tually responds. The niggling prejudice and tion between prison authorities and the social don’t support,” says Shukla. makes have Edith family unmarried and younger than cynicism But while the universe might havea of Mitra’s world outside becomes, in Ray’s, welfare department on this issue.”

“Many prisoners have been inside for while, changed Arati. Despite linguistic, religious anda ethnic for those locked(Arati’s up forBangla) years, some cultural self-confidence that Each state has its own prison manual and have formedthe bonds prison Arati and don’t have things differences, film in suggests, empathisof the first films rejects are the timeless. parochial“One (Mukherjee) while em-I Bajrangi Bhaiways of dealing with prisoners. Several have resources outside, wouldgrand preferprincito re- watched es with Edith.

Not so outthey of some cameegalitarian home was future bracing awhen new, Ijust, (where says Kale.

Salman grown olvocational skilling courses, therapy initiatives main inside if they could.” but simply, with jaan,” pled embrace of otherness, husband and wife“Sure, will both havehas jobs).

Butan Salman is still right?” and even jail-based recruitments. In Himachal Ray-style humanism, as another woman striv- der.

Like old coat, RaySalman, had made the story his (*Names of aout fewsome recently released Pradesh, for instance, the authorities have al- Looking ahead ing to earn an honest living and fulfil similar own, ironing creases and prisoners refitting changedbits. to help them reintegrate lowed prisoners to work outside during the Though there notfilm be uniform dreams — Edithmay in the is savinglarge-scale up money have somebeen badly-worn He had made it new. inday and return to prison at night. A Tamil Na- programmes, several to be able to marry hernon-profits boyfriend. and volun- to society.) du prison launched a bakery unit in 2012 teer groups been in working with former trisha gupta is a writer and critic based in Delhi Class, also have expressed the ramshackleness dore is a Mumbai-based journalist t@chhotahazri while, in Delhi, Tihar Jail last year opened an inmates in various states. arebevery of both their homes, thus “There seems to partfew of bhavya

Adaptation par excellence

How Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar (1963) reworked Narendranath Mitra’s original Bangla short story in a manner both fine-grained and sweeping

trisha gupta

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Master class A 2014 book that contains an English translation of Abotaronika, the story that Ray adapted for Mahanagar; (right) Madhabi Mukherjee as Arati Mazumdar in the film

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EXTRACT

The voice of the so-called witches A tribal woman in Assam has been tirelessly crusading against witch-hunts and helped frame stringent laws against them

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irubala Rabha is barely literate, in her mid-sixties, and has for several years been crusading tirelessly against witch-hunting. This plain-speaking tribal woman, with the dust of country roads on Move on, her feet, her hair tied back in a tight bun and already When hands calloused by years of hard labour, courawill the ‘Indian Novel’ be more geously takes on anyone who tries to violate the than tigers, spices dignity of women. Today, she has become one of and elephants No wrong turn the prime architects of the country’s most strinshutterstock/elena Birubala Rabha, a tribal nayashkova gent laws against witch-hunting, which were woman from recently enacted by Assam.

Thakurbhila in western PAPERWALLAH On that moonlit night, surrounded by a Assam’s Goalpara ring of hostile faces, Birubala held Sunila district, has succeeded against her breast and began to speak. “Shame in persuading fellow villagers to break free on you!” she cried, pointing a finger. “Can you from the stranglehold see her now? If she is a witch, why does she of wily medicine-men bleed? Why has she lost her senses? You fool, who prey on their Sunila is one of you. She feels the hunger that fears; (inset) author you do. She feels the cold, the heat, sadness, Indrani Raimedhi and joy. Look at her clothes. Are they not shabby like yours? Look at her house… you turned it to ashes. But what was it? A hut of cane and ment. It seems that the boy had married a body with sharp sticks. He screams and cries long ago, andshe I indulged straw, withot a mud floor.a friend Why did not use and muttered “Aboutofplacfairymemory,” who was Igoing to befeebly. the mother his these concerns, dismantle, explicate, quesin agony, but thetovillagers want him or her to in a better weekend marathon.

A ing her power for life?movie Why did she not go theAssearch beauty the born, centrethe of huchild. soon for as the babyatwas oja tion, ButVery my often, grouse is to with the namecondemn. the evil one. just escape to a better Wes placeAnderson instead ofmovie beingmarathon. poor and man existence.” warned, Dharmeswar’s life on earth would ‘West’ givesthe itself far person too much credit.

The these that attacks, poor utters someWeDid were very it. end. hungry here? the ojamethodical tell you sheabout is a daiYes,Dharmeswar I’ve read Roland Barthes.

I know au- (ex) would live for justthe three but that one’sEmpire name, continues calling himtoorwrite her aback, witch.”

Beginning Rushmore (1998) that and moving ni? Do youwith believe everything he tells thor claimed interpretive authormoreisdays.

Thedead, littleand household waited for doesn’t it can’t doesn’t occupy itself What mean happens then?or“The woman named as on to Then The Royal (2001), The Life Aq- ity now death, you? youTenenbaums are no better than lies squarely the hands the with alreadyin grieving forofpoor anything apart to from colonial experia witch will beelse ordered appear before the uatic Darjeeling Limited (2007), readers, but Dharmeswar. sheep.(2004), Use yourThe reason.” this kind of Days interpretation, came andI ence.

‘West’ allows for imaginative wholeThe village.

Herthat crime is related to her and Moonrise Kingdom (2012; myA favourite) and think, is symptom The crowd melted away. of aand deeper As the freedom went, the malaise. boy remained onlychased to its away own or (dare I say,inWhite) she is either trapped a net eventually, his forward most recent, woman came with The Grand Budap- rejection letters trickled in (yes, such life), I writers. alive. Birubala’s fearisturned And bybyextension, other and tortured proddingitswith thecreative sharp est Hotelof(2014). a bowl water to wash Sunoticed a few recurring concerns.

And,indignaannoy- practitioners. to relief and then, For them, justa woman as it always has point of a spear.

When such is killed, “I wish,” I declared, at the end of it all, “I ed as I might have been, nila’s wounds.

Her husthemdare to denounce tion.forHow the oja been, theis world is theirs for the her body hacked to pieces andtaking. buried Anderin sepcould writechild like Wes Anderson.” band and came to style, character, plot,make it wassuch far worse catch son’s wrongtopredicoccupy an imaginative arate movies places to prevent her rebirth...‘nowherethe land Admittedly, wasn't quite the reaction my the underlying implication her, weeping.it Birubala was ness’ tions? that WithSeahorse her innate that’sassets accessible onlyfrom to the privileged. and other are seized them.

Family friend was expecting. gathered her shawl not quite an ‘Indian novel’. sense of justice and fair- The ones are for often whomtoo artistic identitytoisn’t almembers terror-struck object, Mostlyher people around and claim beganthey a love the filmmakOver the summer, play, a friend I was visiting all ready Birubala realized For whom history be in casepredefined. they meet with the same fate.” can Witcher’s — playful, vintage, beauti- the way in Italy, wasthat longcinematic trek to thestyle village. facing a simiother villagers, her hunting shrugged offbelightly.

For whom the cannot just dismissed as a social fully quirky — or intrepid Hailing from a poor fam-subject matter. His lar problem. He’d community, been rejected needed to be evil in a backward gaze of the audience, critics,violaand region.

It is a flagrant carefully ily, wife ofcurated a farmersoundtracks. in remote His penchant by an Italian publisher taught because about the impor- tion of human sponsors isn’t already narrowed by rights. for symmetry. visual patterns Thakurvila ofForGoalpara dis- and bursts of his novella — featuring expat reasonable, tance of anbeing preconceptions andforexpectations.

Life has come a long way Birubala. In Are we doomed colour. trict, bordering Meghalaya, little Indian livingshedding in Rome, rootlessly, superstitions, and 2005, theWorse, artists and writers from forNortheast Network nominated her to be forever “Do Birubala’s you want to writelife movie about earlier ex- scripts like irreverently breaking wandering an-the strangle- for the Nobel freeits from mer colonies that aresame mostly Peace Prize.

That year,celeshe postcolonial? him?” friend asked tentatively. plainedmy her emergence as a gutcient streets hold — didofnot deal with wily medicine-men who was felicitated bratedby inReliance the WestIndustries are the ones that Limited I was well speaking of middle something else. The ‘Indian’ themes. sy No. crusader beyond He too was exaspreyed on their fears, ignorance, in Mumbai bestunder fit these customised suits.of Real their third edition freedom to claim space. You are noperated. age. Orphaned at imaginative the age of six, hell did that andthe helplessness.

In light of this, I’d like to claimserfor Heroes — ordinary people, extraordinary better What Which doesn’t meandomestic I’m not freethan to write Birubala tackled mean, we complained over our Inheriting a love for social myself (and everyone else facing simvice — and she has found mention in Switzersheep. Use your what to. Or am being censored choresI wish and homework withdirectly her aperitivos? Dusty villages work from her facing motherdrought?

Sagarba- ilarly rejection Jason land’s worded 1,000 Women Peaceletters) Project,what which has reason in any way. But let me but explain.

One of the first Mangoes? The trademark diligence could in New India? be- Hill, la,City Birubala formed theCaught Thakurviprofessor of female philosophy at workers the College of honoured 1,000 peace from rejection letters I received, study only up to Class V. for She,foreign rights tween the ancient and the modern? la Mahila Samiti.

It wasWrestling from this Liberal Art and Socialthe Sciences ISO countries around world.at DePaul Unifor my novel Seahorse, wasup from however, more than made for a kindly Brit- with economic change?that Else,she were we forever platform raised public versity, callsof“the to forgetand where one is In spite all right the honour adulation ish explaining why the relegated to writing thatpublisher with herwho, skillsbefore in cooking, about (shudder) the Im- from.” awareness against witch-huntsuggests self-transformation heapedHe on this feisty that woman, her life remains novel was notweaving, for him, took the trouble de- migrant embroidery, poultry rearing,toand Experience?

TheThen splitting of our lives ing and other social ills. she became the only truly springs embracing forgetfulsimple, even harsh.from Birubala, of course, is too scribe why he thoughtByitthe was an she ambitious other useful activities. time was 16, between EastGreater and theBorjhara West. TheMahila splitting of ness, secretarythe of the Samattachment is what makes difficult proudthat to open up about her needs, and the work.

Hesetting begins:up “Its engagement with Indian our she was her new life with husband tongues between English and insert name iti. In 1999, she became a member of the As- the resocialisation of selfremain and values warrantstories of her privation cloaked in sipostcolonialism is and apparent Chandreswar Rabha quicklythroughout.” became the of quaint, almost extinct, regional ed sam Mahilapreferably Samata Society. by this process. what’s more important lence.

Rather thanBut being disheartened by her “No,” I shouted loud, he continued re- language. mother of threeout sons andbut a daughter.

Life was Or tripping (that indefinable, What is the point whenintangible a simple is that this of selftoisdream acknowledged by poverty, sheerasure continues of her pet gardless forthey an extended It’s appartough and had just paragraph. enough to keep body term) ‘poverty’? we doomed be forever villager becomesAre a source of evil, to a witch?

“Ev- others. our ‘belonging’— and everything project,That a shelter home for victims of witchent, he stated, theeven reclaimed and soul together.in The tenor ofBritish their postcolonial? ery village has an oja, a medicine-man and as- that entails isn’t persistently pinned us hunts, where— doctors would help themon cope memorial North Delhi. Inwhen (rather quiet livesin was interrupted themystifyeldest trologer.

I’m not implying thatone we ignore we our live over He is the who that reads again. Destroying attempt atthey truwith and the trauma of torture, any a place where ingly) the location then of the15, “other” son, Dharmeswar, beganintomembers change. in a decidedly skewed worldearnestly. whose inequalifortunes,” begins Birubala “And if ly ‘decolonising’ the future taught by forever viewing would be safe, fed, clothed, a trade, givof oppositetosex.

Even the mere mention of ties Hethe muttered himself, stayed away from were shaped

by Europe’s horrendous im- others he mentions someone as a witch, everybody as pasttocolonised Remember, en the courage fight back,selves. and reclaim a digAlexander’s impact on imaginary Indian/Buddhist art perial home for days, feared foes, and oranother the insidiousness of people believesambitions, him. There is way people find have the right to forget. nified life. and was viewed as a contemporary evenits hitsubsequent his mother.hybridity In desperation, his father colonisations, out about a witch.

If a villagerand fallsthe ill capitaland no is theisauthor of Seahorse indranipariat raimedhi the author of My Half of provocative “But this is a istic visited an ojapostcolonial for help. Themove. oja had an explanapowerseems structures theyhe support.

In nofrom way janice medicine to work, is covered the Sky; Women’s Feature Service novel about fluidity of Dharmeswar’s time and gender tion that wasthe stranger than ail- am attempts toprod counter headI dismissing to toe withliterary a net. People then his t@janicepariat

Not an ‘Indian’ writer

As authors we must have the freedom to claim imaginative spaces and a ‘nowhereness’

janice pariat

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My Half of the Sky Indrani Raimedhi Sage Publications ₹495 (hardback)

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saturday, september 26,26, 2015 saturday, september 2015

Everything T was new Smoke without fire

Salman Rushdie’s latest book leaves one asking how seriously can one take the battle between the forces of reason and faith?

Two Years, Eight Months and TwentyEight Nights A Novel Salman Rushdie Penguin Random House ₹599

he frontispiece of Salman Rushdie’s it. The two make dozens of babies together un- something to do with this being a “time of twelfth and latest novel, Two Years til, 1,001 days and nights after he was sent into great upheaval” but the upshot is that there is Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights exile, Ibn Rushd finds himself back in favour to be a war of the worlds. (adding up to the 1,001 nights over at the court and flees Dunia and domestic reThis being a novel by Rushdie, plot sumwhich Scheherazade beguiled her husband sponsibility. What Ibn Rushd doesn’t know, mary is for the foolhardy. Dunia and Ibn and would-be executioner with stories), is an and cannot imagine because of his rational Rushd’s descendants, the Duniazat, are a motetching from Francisco de Goya’s 80-part se- nature, is that Dunia is a jinn, a grand princess ley crew of misfits brought together by the acries excoriating the vanities, superstitions and of the jiniri, as female jinns are collectively cident of birth to save the world: there’s a malevolent caprice of late-18th century Span- known. Made of “fireless smoke”, the jiniri, levitating gardener; a graphic novelist/acish society. “Fantasy abandoned by reason,” like their male counterparts, appear to have countant whose comic creation Natraj Hero the caption reads, “produces comes to life, all windmilling impossible monsters; united hands, heads, and third eye with her, she is the mother of “looking straight into your pidthe arts and the origin of their dling soul”; a baby in whose marvels.” The etching shows presence the corrupt and disthe artist asleep at his desk, honest break out into fleshwhile above him swirl fearful melting sores; a spurned misbats and owls, creatures from a tress who kills her financier nightmare. “We are such stuff,” lover by flashing lightning Shakespeare wrote in The Temfrom her fingertips. There’s pest, in a passage also referred more, of course. Much, much to in Two Years..., “[a]s dreams more. are made on.” Rushdie has alTwo Years... is told from furways written in the interstices ther into the future, when the between reason and fantasy, bewar of the worlds has been retween dreaming and waking. solved and humans have been His novels have always brought able to put away such childish our monsters to life. And so things as faith in God. The price once more he summons his of peace, prosperity and reatroops to battle, this time arraysonableness is the loss of imaging the forces of reason against ination. Art, as Goya and those of irrationality in an esRushdie know, needs both the chatological war. rational and the irrational. But Here, reason is represented Rushdie’s interest in the irratioby the descendants of Ibn nal does not extend beyond the Rushd, rationalist, champion of special effect, the levitating and Aristotle and wavering believer the lightning bolts. What does in a liberal but distant God. The it all amount to, Rushdie’s linopposition comprises those guistic exuberance, his insatiawho follow Ghazali, standardble appetite for puns and bearer of faith. Ibn Rushd and allusions both high and pueGhazali are historical figures, rile, his plots teeming with peomedieval philosophers (the latple and incident? In Two Years...

Caught the bars inmates remain trapped in a different time and reality afp/manpreet romana ter diedin about 15While yearsin jail, before the answer is, sadly, nothing vethe birth of the former) of lastry much. It’s as if the lesson ing if markedly different influRushdie learned from Scheheence. In Rushdie’s version, razade is that storytelling is a In 2006, Jadhav was When of heperleft n March 1 last year, Hari Jadhav* which is the popular if debataform of convicted. prestidigitation, knocked on the door of his house. prison last year, he emerged intoHow an alien ble reading, Ghazali’s doctripetual distraction. serisix can months and three He had last been home in 2010, world. His children, naire Islam held sway, resulting ously then the reader take Monsters of the mind Art,when as Goyahe’d and Rushdie both the rational and respectively, come know, out needs on parole years old, he was in centuries of scientific regresthe battlewhen between the arrested, forces of the irrational wikicommons him, from Yerwada jail in Pune. As he waited expec- couldn’t recognise sion and of hostility towards reason and faith?acquaintances viewed him with tantly, his younger son opened those who would ask questions Ghazali’s jinns,suspicion, the giantand Zuthe door,only failed to recognise him with them murrud Shah he and himself could barely of God. powers so as to wreak havoc his cronies Ra’im recogBlood his village, that it had askedmen. who he was looking It is no secret which side Rushdie is on; his and on mortal Drinker andnise Shining Ruby now (borrowed froma new road.

Jadhav’s wife then came to theis sincere in the Hamzanama), family name was chosen by his father to pay for.Dunia, unlike any other jinn, choose the land of A as their In the he strugandfor nearly collapsed on for seehomage to Ibn Rushd and Rushdie has written door her love human beings, base.

It’sfirst runfew byweeks a “murderous It’s always on your gled the changed value about the parallels in their lives, not least their ing Ibn him.

Rushd. So sincere, indeed, gangto of grasp ignoramuses who called mind. Are people Jadhav, wasafter returning home of money.

Misal pavs for ₹5 were disagreements with Iranian clerics. Two Years... that 800 37, years she gives themselves the Swots, as if the looking at you as an now Neighbours Vadner village in Pune begins with Ibn Rushd “formally discredited to birth to his children shedistrict still mere₹40. word would earnwho’d themhad the ex-prisoner?

Should This being a novel by of incarceration.

He I approach someone cycles were around in and disgraced on account of his liberal ideas, after feels 11 a years maternal connection to status of truezipping scholars”.

As usual, Rushdie, plot cars and is bikes.

This been acquitted by the Bomwhich were unacceptable to the increasingly had her descendants.

In present-day Rushdie clever butthing who called needs to talk to them?

— summary is for the the most mystedays before. powerful Berber fanatics who were spreading bay NewHigh York,Court she three has occasion to to beinternet told thatwas the Taliban are igNigel Akkara foolhardy rious.

“Everything was new,” he “I thoughtthese I would descendants, show up sudlike a pestilence across Arab Spain.” meet noramuses?

What about the dansays.

“I had by to make an effort to surprise he Exiled, Ibn Rushd, the “philosopher who denly markedand by their lack ofthem,” earlobes, ger posed the arrogance of at the memory, understand it all.” was no longer permitted to expound his phi- says, as shechuckling tries to prepare them for a self-appointed guardians of reaJadhav looks oldermurder than hisand 37 we meet at the dark high court. losophy, all of whose writing had been banned when war with Ghazali’s jinns, son?

What about Hethat speaks softly andand slowly.

His only of Ifrit 25 Jadhav was Shah. jailedThe for slits the years. and his books burned,” finds solace in the ledAtbythe theage Grand Zumurrud brutality is sanctioned supported by nowRushdie is to beathas back and of thePeristan, village sarpanch.

That was in wish company of an orphaned, sylph-like 16-year- murder that connect the fairyland of the reason? tootime little tolive sayafresh. about Forperhaps those set free, whether afteracompleting yearworld, beforesealed Facebook was born,have Atal this, old girl named Dunia. Turned on by Ibn 2003 jinns,—toaour for centuries, because it requires subtlety of Vajpayee the Prime Minister and In- their or getting acquitted on appeal, Rushd’s stories, Dunia describes him as the an- Bihari become porouswas again, like the Mexico-USA whichjail heterms is no longer capable. had afinished runners-up the South why Afri- readjusting to the world outside is not just a ti-Scheherazade, a man whose stories didn’t dia border, character observes. at The reasons shougat dasgupta is a Delhi-based writer worldopened cup.

It is a massive leap into another redefy death so much as brought him closer to ca thecricket slits have up again are vague, challenge.

Life for those who have served long prison sentences is one of challenges, adjustments and a fraught reconciliation with an outside world which they barely recognise

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saturday, september 26,26, 2015 saturday, september 2015

PRESENT IMPERFECT

Let’s face it. 40 is not 30 No dreams. No ambitions. Just the doorway to a 50 sans illusion and delusion

The end of days

there is pretty much no chance of you being ‘the youngest person’ to accomplish anything.

At 40, instead of dreaming of winning an Oscar or a Booker, you are reduced to wondering Deep impact what you were doing Bollywood when someone dreams, won an Oscar or a Booker. At 40, you gangland have been alive con jobs, for too many things wars, too distant in the past ugly skyscrapers, crippling poverty... that when people talk about having read Bombay an Emergency something in a book — aboutisthe or the Berlin wall — overpowering you have to bite your presence in the Ravan tongue from saying you weretrilogy around, actually & Eddie physically around, when ‘history’ was being reuters/danish siddiqui made. At 40, you are too tied in to who you are and what you have made and what you know you’ll never make.

In the months since I’ve returned from Spain, I’ve been simmering in these injustices of ageing, the new silver strands that are routinely popping up at my temples, of having to stretch my arm and hold my phone far in order to read a text message and the absolute inability to remember and use ‘swag’ properly in a sentence.

In Kiran Nagarkar’s latest — the third Ravan & Eddie book — death becomes a downward route towards salvation

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y the time I get home from the dentist’s I s he got older, the British novelist the edge” and “feel like a bird in the skies”, as- have receivedhandle news athat myclerk’s brother hasbody to properly court dead Kingsley Amis began to equate liter- suring him that they won’t die, since, as he just become thethe father of a baby girl.

I share is bound for crematorium, for example, ary flair and intellectual depth in says, “I’ve done this before”, are we to take him this with daughter, person who is so ex- the funnymy only for a bit.aUntil, that is, we recall novels of a certain kind with preten- at his word, just as Eddie did while they both citedwords to turnof10the next month she hasson, spent old man’sthat grieving Anant: tious hokum. We have his son Martin’s word leaped “into the unknown”? Did they, through the last days talking about SheTB, immedi“My200 father’s very light.

He it. had you know.” that Kingsley once semi-facetiously resolved some miraculous sleight of hand, survive the atelyHearing does thethis, mathEddie and tells me, “Can beresponds withyou “dramatic never to read novels that didn’t begin with the fall? Or indeed, did they manage to dodge the lieveoverkill”; that when the Ravan, baby becomes age, I while the moremy introspective phrase, “A shot rang out”. Kiran Nagarkar’s lat- bullets from the semi-automatic that Three will be 20! two And—she’ll all her I of the who,tell by the way,friends has alsothat attemptest offering, Rest in Peace — the third Ravan and Point One — nom de guerre of a big-time local am her hero.” once (remember his words to Eddie ed suicide Eddie book that completes and, by the looks of mobster, Bashir Akhtar — fires at them in the “And whatjumping would you upbuilding: to when you’re before offbe the “I’ve done it, concludes the trilogy — doesn’t quite begin concluding paragraph?

20?” this I ask.before”) — tells Anant, pointing at the with this phrase, but the narrative does seem “Of course I would be training be a chef Well, we don’t know the ancorpse, that his to “father’s rottinto lead up to it (not to mention the many swers to these questions, but the and going to veterinary college inworse the eveg…and stinking than a equivalents of the phrase that are strewn prospects of survival for our two nings and actingdead in musicals on the weekrat.” about all through the dizzying span of these heroes, who have spent the latends,” she said.

But perhaps the author would 300-plus pages).

It is then that I am thenegation dentist’s of a ter half of the novel running a Is it really happening? tellreminded you that of this “A gun went off,” on page 337; “the bullets successful cremation service Are theywords.

Perhaps I don’t entirely have the free- that compassionate viewpoint really dying?

Pilgrim’s Walking alone along the ancient Camino the de Santiago, Spain veena venugopal These are andprogress hand grenades zinging around,” onroute pageof the(again dom to be foolish, at 40 I certainly have morbid leitmotif), hisbut characters sometimes exhibit questions 229; “the bullets were not merely criss-cross- seem thin. So it may be time to freedom from myisown ambitions.

ThereNagarkar’s is no precisely his point. not restricted merely de Santiago. hadmost spentpopular nine days on the trail, hat’s that and…” said myand dening but...exploding,” on page 359; yes, fineed to rush through anything, bid the Itwo charBombay — a cityit’s of already scoundrels to the reader’s trekking minimum of 25km a day, pastimagination back nally, “a tist, shot stepping rang out,” on and pagesnap226. The too late. Any accomplishment frominhere on is actersa in Indian literature goodwho either live intimidating woodland andto highland, villages and a bonus. Forty, I suppose, hislooms surgical shadow ofping death overgloves Rest in away, Peace. The is the reward carbye. And mumbleancient under our skyscrapers or for suffocating smallbreaths, cities. On the with 10th the day, author, after 15km of a rying the burden chawls “you now have the freedom to but book’s title, of course, is an obvious tipoff, of dreams and along — is a expectations proper dystopia. steadily walk, it was whenfareI stood on a for a really long time. be foolish.”

He as had just extracted the lastthe two mortality a theme is woven into narrathe uphill hallowed words of final Here, poverty inures us to the and spotted of mytive wisdom teeth and neither cliff-like in subtler waysI was thancertain the trigger-happy Where would I be,ofI life, wonder, well:mountain rest in peace. harsher realities and symthe Atlantic Ocean shimmering the procedure nor the jokelanguage was new to him.above and ordnance-heavy cited my niece 10 and We pay our respects, but in Nagarkar’s novel pathy is when a privilege not turns granted evenmy to the in the that I comedy, realYet, aswould I got off theto chair and tottered around a blue and seem indicate. daughter 20? Sitting down, hishorizon style of black there’s scarcely rich. Is this what this novel and theI supprevious ised any it was actually my birth-The French philoso- two much-acclaimed bit, the The ideastory of being to beatfoolish sounditselffree begins the very end. “Falpose, not having to catch room for sympathy. instalments to my the RaThere is no need day. pher The and walktheorist was Henri entirely ed like a terribly fun thing. therewords is — ling…falling…falling,” theSurely first three breath, reading a book maybe Bergson argued that van and Eddie series are trying to tell us? to rush through downhill from there.

By the to comedy and that nothing go ofrecuralso more the lastliberating three — arethan usedletting as a refrain, not having to worry if it’s compassion is antithetical Novels,and however, are not written totoo convey anything, it’s already time sympathy I reached the hamcaution, Andreturning even though I the ringlogic everyand fewreason? pages and us to in the day toSo pour glass of canseaside hamper a good laugh. But the messagesearly or worldviews. theaworld of Ratoo late. Any let ofrebuttal Cee, my for theory the had gone to the dentist feeling the miserable original image of our protagonist duo, R&E or a litto home Bergson’s of comedy, ac- van and wine Eddieto is go justwith whatit.itWriting happens to be — accomplishment from night, the thought thatliterary I was 40critic James Wood, replete with pangsE&R, of yet another attempt by my ageing plummeting from a Bombay skyscraper tle, I Bollywood imagine, not for a deadline, cording to the dreams and con jobs here on is a bonus was pounding so form heavily bodytototheir let me down, I walked out of there deaths.

How did things come to this but forwars. the sheer it brings.

It came in the of in themy modern novel. In his and gangland It’s a joy novelist’s offering: headbook that Iofhad worked myself with pass? a distinct, misplaced, sense of triumph.

Well,ifyou can always trust Ravan and Edcome of it, liberating essays, entitled The Irresponsible Self: take it oris, leave it. to It’sthink a world where the sound into aOn brutal rage.and the Novel, Wood draws a dis- of laughter die to concoct a fiasco so immense that it surto think of 40 as the to Laughter can sometimes bedoorway a little jarring, n June this year, traumatically, I turned 40.

I was infuriated at a “laughing universe at” and “laughing where a 50, passes their previous misadventures. illusion nor tinction between jokewhere is oftenneither a response to adversity, that would me, despite my fabulousness, Although been expecting this for dyIs it I’d really happening?

Aretravesty they really delusion has much of abecomes place. Noaambition.

Noroute with” force someone, characterising the latter as and where death downward to be“comedy 40. It wasofunfair, I thought, surelyWood I de- beat least couple years, and planing?a These areofquestions notactively restricted merely pressure.

It’s not the Technicolor production forgiveness”, which, — falling, falling, falling — towards salvation. ning to forthe the day forimagination; about six months, served better.

Yes, everyone around meofwas al- exreader’s even thewhen author is one expects life to the be. comedy But it has the lieves, is something that the best novels And whenever gets toolived-in dark, and a my birthday didwith roll them. along INagarkar’s was aghast.final I had wayscel reassuring me that ‘40 is the new 30’. comfort grappling words reality. for the average taste, there is, in. tad of unfunny That is foolish.

Thirty has the kind hint of For-is the thank goodness, this recurring bullet shot decided to spend in Spain, walking alone in his novel, itafter the dramatic postscript The more subsidiary of hope. comedy tveenavenugopal ty, truly, isvariety the beginning of the end. At 40,a nov- that rings out loud and clear. along“THE the ancient pilgrim route thereader’s CaminosentiEND”, are an echo of of the ha-ha of unfeeling slapstick that ment: “You’ve got to be kidding.” el like Rest in Peace feeds on. The shtick involvSo when Ravan convinces Eddie to “go over ing Ravan and Eddie and their comic inability vineet gill is a journalist with The Sunday Guardian

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Rest in Peace Kiran Nagarkar Fourth Estate Fiction ₹599

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Veena Venugopal is editor BLink and author of The Mother-in-Law

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saturday, september 26,26, 2015 saturday, september 2015

TUMMY TRAVELS

In the Tiger’s lair Caste away BAWDY LINE

A heritage walk through Tipu Sultan’s fort at Devanahalli, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, is How brahmins used Shivaji Bhonsale to call themselves the masters of every ruler’s destiny incomplete without a discussion on his eating habits

zac o’yeah

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udra and I finished the martial epic tury British before they colonised the same.

Kokategraveyard alleges a—brahmin conspirShivaji – the Great Maratha (3-in-1, Bengaluru’s theofBritish garrison acy, the consciouscantonment, foregrounding an inventAmar Chitra Katha), in two-and-awas at Sultanpet.

A littleon ahead a dirt track ed brahminical influence theonjuvenile half hours on the day BM Purandare, wethe come to theinsteps leadingoftoany thehisNandi Shivaji; iteration, the absence at the age of 93, was awarded the Maharashtra Hills’ summit.

Here, by theadministrative track, we find the torical evidence, that Shivaji’s Bhushan for taking the history of Shivaji small,could now-dilapidated mosque built in tutoring have happened onlyTipu at the Bhonsale to the masses. the Obviously, thisdisplacement area remainedofclose hands of1780s. a brahmin.

It is the Like any eight-year-old, my son particularly to Tipu’s heart —memory in fact, his lodge still the real, subaltern of hunting Shivaji Bhonenjoyed the part where Shivaji claws out Afzal atop the hill, and it turns out to be a sale stands with an engineered, ‘official’ memory.

Khan’s gizzards, bringing on the ectoplasmic surprisingly humble structure.

All the while, Which allows Konddeo to be carried into textholler bubble ‘Ya Allah’. This is followed by Ahmed and Rajaasregale us with stories of manbooks for children Shivaji’s guru, and the swift decapitation by one of Shivaji’s deputies eating and forgotten setting up oftigers a tableau of statuesgoldmines. in Lal Mahal, as the wounded Khan staggers out. The cineLunch isKonddeo, served atJijabai the home a local Pune, showing and of Shivaji as coumatic white heat of Pratap Mulick’s illustraple. A wholesome vegetarian spread — sambar one happy family. tions from the Amar Chitra Katha of my with three types greens inwhat it, rasam and rice, Purandare does forofKonddeo his predchildhood was still there but now it seemed andMahadev two potato dishes.

Interestingly, potato, ecessor Govind Ranade did for the more like a syncopated Ravi Varma rendition brahmin saint Ramdas — the same gerrymanof a Rip Kirby comic strip. I remembered my dering of the narrative to make Ramdas Shivgrandfather telling me that the killing of Adil aji’s spiritual advisor. Ramdas, now, is Shah’s general, Afzal Khan, had inspired the inseparably yoked to the social memory of first known ballad of Marathi literature. The Shivaji and his project of swarajya (this, when other early source for this is the Shivabharata, a all historical evidence on the matter suggests worshipful account of Shivaji’s life, composed that they first met in 1672, when swarajya had by his court poet Paramanand (1674), which, in Maharashtra saying Purandare was the real been, in a way, already installed). He’s on calenCantos 17-21, gives an account of the slaying. In James Laine, as all innuendos and references dars, as the chief force of Maratha freedom, it, this is Shivaji reflecting on his opponent, about Shivaji’s ‘guardian’ Dadoji Konddeo be- showing the way to the obedient Shivaji, askthe desecrator of the shrine of Tuljapur: ing his biological father come from Purandare. ing him to propagate the dharma of MahaSultan’s birthplace the outThis dark soulipu / Kills cows everyday/ And on desires He ends these speeches by exhorting the gov- rashtra. The dharma being a clump of of completely!

Bengaluru is marked byernment a to overturn / Theskirts holy law to publicly hang Purandare and other brahminical values and prescriptive behaDown memory lanethey would happily viour. According to Kokate, the only utility of imposing fort. save for the Mother Earth most is surely supported byYet, dharma brahmin historians, or else Hyder Ali settled in the crew that makes use She is, in turn,occasional held up by film the Gods, do it themselves.

Shivaji to brahmins is to create and advance oval Devanahalli Fort itsGods majestic ramparts,byitbrahmans. is hardly visited —So what is the charge against Purandare? Ac- the trope that no matter how prodigious and/ Andofthe are supported in 1749; (right) his son while the international Therefore are these brahmansairport, a mere four cording toTipu Kokate et al,outside there are 17 paragraphs or proficient the ruler, brahmins superintendwas born away, clocks some 15 million travThekilometres root of all people, in Purandare’s book ed social and political destinies. the fort walls twoRaja Shivachhatrapati later zac o’yeahand utterly defamatoannually.

Andellers should zealously and always be which areyears ‘objectionable Why is it, asks Kokate, that even today the Thankfully, new heritage walk group, Protected and givena worship. ry to Shivaji’s life’ and as a starting point they name Shivaji is commonplace amongst Dhanwww.bengalurubyfoot.com, has put together Taking birth in age after age in 1749 Now, HyderKoAli, Tipu’s father, set- which isgars, want kings, these until expunged. so popular India (aMalis, southbut Indian Mahars,inKhatiks, visits Devanahalli Fort and other places asVerily, do to I protect tled inlooks it. In 1760, whenofTipu kate, verily, the part the was nine, the fort dosa would rathercome thin without isn’t naonebe doesn’t across a it), single sociated withand Tipu Sultan, tracing the footGods, brahmans cows wasdemagogue reinforced and withisn’t stone and masonry, mak- tive to the lumpen the country but introduced by the EnShivaji Kulkarni/ Deshpande/ steps of the Tiger of Mysore (Translation byillustrious Bahulkar and Laine, 2001) all the it into whatexpect we seetotoday. sort ofing bloke you’d in- Inside the walls glishmenParanjpe/Joshi? once they came and conquered. The way to the top of Nandi Hills, the popular Kshatriyakulawatamsa (ornament of the temples and people say that first potatoes voke are andseveral quote older Antonio GramKarnataka were actually So, is in Kokate a rabble-rouser or In desperation, weekend getaway just outside (the town.

I didn’t Kshatriyas) Shriraja Shivachhatrapati great the house in which Hyder and Tipu lived is stillto get sci’s theory of cultural hegemony planted on of ideological Nandi Hills.descendant So had Tipu not thetop true Shivaji had a to sign the inaugural tour. in primetime King hesitate Shiva, Lord of up thefor Umbrella) was how standing,television somewhere in there. Though if you lost the war debates. against the British, the Phule table may of Jyotirao Phule?

Well, manufactured A vintage would Land Rover, driven byofficial the affable Shivaji Bhonsale sign off on his ask the villagers, don’t But that’s exactly whatthey he does inknow. Sisodiya lineage have missed some delicious dishes. And of was considered a rabble-rouser Land Rover-collector Kaiser, picks me up letters, post coronation. Omar Purandare, in his Anyway, Tipu may haveOn spent engaging with his opponents. course, raiseshis the‘socialpoint that in 1869 whenthis he wrote from Mewar just after dawn atthe a hectic stretch of the road writings, introduced handle Gobrahmanearly eatingIidlis more his than oneyears occasion havehere, Tipu would not have ly disintegrative’ ballad onever Shiv-eaten leading(protector to the airport.

Enand route a handful seen of news pratipalaka of cows brahmins) beforeanchors Hyder shifted capital being his stung potatoes well, unlessa his aji. In it Shivaji— was a Kunbi, fellow heritage-buffs are And collected, including into that appellation cluster. that raised to the fortified islandofofKoSriraninto silence by the force French allieswhom servedthe him French peasant-warrior brahHad Tipu not lost the guide and Ameen Ahmed, a PR than man-turnedmoreour Bahujan Marxist hackles he kate’sgapatnam (to which Ahmed orrhetorical flourish. (finger chips). minsfries refused to coronate. war against the and heritage lover. WeTheganises couldwildlife shake a enthusiast stick at. tours). most exceptionable part (according to third heritage guide joins There isn’t any A‘historical evidence’ for us British, the table may kickstart the day with some idli-vada at a busy Balwant Moreshwar Purandare is a deshasdrive on to Sultanpet vil-the brah- Phule’s autonomous Kokate) We from Purandare’s texts is on at lunch, foodie Mansoor retelling either.

WhatAli, is and have missed some roadside who joint calls and Ihimself speculate whether tha brahman Shiv Shahir Tipu lage, named after Tipu, toHe visit min character Dadoji Konddeo. was an em- certain is that Shivaji we needed discuss brahmins Tipu’s eating to behabits. a delicious dishes might have idlis and sambar in his (Shivaji’s bard).

Heeaten has been writing on Shivaji Bhoganandeeswara SwaployeetheofSriShivaji’s father Shahji, a sort of Chhatrapati (the Ali and Ahmed speculate that Tiumbrella a sign of royalty childhood.

Heand may have,be Ahmed says, itmanager-cum-subadar, is my temple, whichappointed for nearly 70 years it well wouldn’t impolitic dates to to ADadminis- and divinity). In desperation, pu may havehe eaten vegetarhadpure to get a foodaccount hereabouts. to saystaple that (on of the enormous pop- ter Shahji’s 810 and where one has a jagirfrom in Pune pargana, of which only manufactured Sisodiya ian once a year on Mewar Muharram lineage from A short drive takes us to the just off the ularity of his novels and plays), his fort, rendering great view of Nandi Hills.to A local a small portion was assigned the fledgling and a bhade-ka-brahmin, day, whichGagabhatt, is the tradition, from but highway, in the bucolic village. of Shivaji’s life and times has ledDevanahalli to the making history Raja explain Shivaji.

All webuff, haveSiddharth on the man injoins termsusoftomamostly preferred non-veg biryani withall horseKashi, to officiate at his coronation when We first stop at ahistorical small memorial which marks of popular Maratha memory and is complexity of the which terial the historical evidence arebattle four during executive gram curry.That his principal seal was in others refused. of Tipu’s birth in 1751.

Oddlyhisenough takenthe as place the general truth about Shivaji’s Lord Cornwallis, to redeem himself documents suggesting eager that Shivaji held him in afthe of the day theThat Land SanskritTowards and not inend Modhi-Marathi. hisRover he was born outside thethe fort walls, maybe tory. Sambhaji Brigade (SB), fanatical anti- behaving lost the British American colonies great ter respect and ratified whatever had been has a minorwas breakdown.

The steep hill road prime minister a brahmin.

And his only causeoutfit the village midwife a hut here? decreed brahmin that calls itself had a social organito by George Washington, conquered Tipu’s Konddeo.

Yet, Purandare’s prose hasn’t been too kind to it; the written fuel tanks official biography was in Sanskrit, by leak Thetheoval fort to has semicircular sation, in run-up thehuge award, led violent basstronghold on Nandi in 1791.

(Cornwallis gives Konddeo more than aHills walk-on part.

He is Paramanand, and haveaemptied. brahmin.That is the charm with vintions, whichthe wedecision climb up a viewPuranof the surprotests against tofor honour took theintellectual Devanahalli Fort at the same What shownalso as Shivaji’s guru-preceptor tageiscars, guess. Kaiser it inbattlehis stride; also Iknown is that takes the only countryside the highway to caretaker, dare.rounding The brigade, in 2004, had—vandalised the and time.) Before Tipuinlost village locum to the Britwho fills as athis sustained he has a canister handy, wound Shivaji received in hisenough life wastoa take gashus to Hyderabad is within sight, allInstitute that traffic Bhandarkar Oriental Research inpasshe would have the well-preserved for hisish, absentee father.

Byvisited extension, it is insin- on the theforehead next petrol pump.

Which iswith a suitably in the scrimmage Afzal adfort! ItJames was origiPuneing in by thewithout wake ofnoticing proteststhe against which has hundreds exquisite uatedtemple, that Konddeo might have of also been acarvfinale to a Krishnaji day spentBhaskar getting to Khan.venturous From Khan’s deputy nally built mud inSB’s theagitator-in-chief, early 1500s by a local Laine’s book onofShivaji. ings. My favourite is of aasjolly chap with a huge connubial locum for Shahji regards Jijabai. knowaTipu Sultan a little better.

Kulkarni, brahmin. chieftain, Malla from the Shrimant Kokate hasBaire been Gowda, going around fornearby a Purandare umbrella who shapes fingers into writes (and this his is abhorrent toan the‘okay’ asatwik@gmail.com author, travel writer village of addressing Avati. Subsequently, theacross fort kept few years now large rallies sign. anofumbrella you’re bound zac o’yeah is a Bengaluru-based SB) that theWith gotra Konddeothat andbig Shivaji was and literary critic. His new novel is titled Hari a Hero for changing hands between the attacking Ma- to be okay even if it pours. rathas and the counter-attacking Mysore Up the road is an abandoned early 19th-cen- Hire zacnet@email.com

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Whispers down the alley Venice is bright and posh, but also dark and brooding; and it’s not hard to see why writers are fascinated by its potential for the macabre

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e’re in the middle of a Vene- in Donna Leon’s bestselling detective series. most Venetians resent the tourists who are tian traffic jam. In front of us And Edgar Allen Poe’s narrator hears a chilling turning their city into a “theme park,” and are is a man with a teensy-weensy cry at midnight as he paddles along the not particularly forthcoming with help and dog and an outsized box of drowsing Grand Canal. Where the devious directions. pizza. To either side are looming buildings, Countess Narona murders her husband and So we’re relieved when we finally fetch up in crumbling balconies and shuttered windows. hides his severed head in Wilkie Collins’ The a bustling piazza filled with bakeries and bouAnd above us is a narrow slice of evening sky.

Haunted Hotel. And cholera stalks its victims tiques. The unease that’s been nipping at my Carefully, all seven of us manoeuvre around amidst marble and frescoes in Thomas Mann’s ankles for the last 10 minutes disperses. My man and dog and pizza, and hurry to the Death in Venice. daughters buy a long, pink rope of marshmalmouth of the dim alley. This leads onto a tiny It’s easy to understand why writers are fasci- low from a redolent patisserie. I examine a stone bridge and a deserted square flanked by nated by this improbable city of goggle-eyed owl of Murano a silent church and handsome, medieval fairytale bridges and mysterious glass. We find not just our restauhouses. My daughters pull out cameras and canals; crumbling palazzos and rant but also a supermarket — iPods.

Our friends exclaim that every corner of cobblestoned streets.

We’ve though you crackdown would never associMoment of shaming A leisurely stroll amid recurrent chants of slogans against Prime Minister Viktor Orban markedus thiswaits protest against Hungary’s on migrants All around Venice is Sunday postcard-perfect.

But husband done our research know ate exotic Venice with something anna wojcik on a recent afternoon near the my Elisabeth Bridge connecting the two halves ofand capital Budapestthe alluring labyrinth, looks around with furrowed brows. At least that Venice is made up of 118 isquite so mundane. And as we in which so many three more alleys radiate from the square, and lands linked by 400 bridges. But pile our basket with breakfast fictional it’s impossible to know if any will take us to the reality is both more picturrolls stuffed with sweet cream acquaintances have the restaurant we’re seeking. esque and more unsettling than and wobbles of fresh mozzarella, lost their way and Perhaps it’s the sense of being in a bewilder- we had imagined. There are no those shades of murderous their lives ing maze. Or perhaps it’s the sinister, glitter- cars, no buses, no motorcycles. dukes and star-crossed lovers are ing green water of the canal. But suddenly, I’m The rare traffic light blinks at the banished for the moment. transported to another Venice — the dank, intersection of canals rather Over the next two days, we linhaunted city that we encounter so often in than roads. Glittering carnival ger over lemon and cherry gelabooks. The place that Henry James describes masks with vacant eyes and sly expressions tos, wander through piazzas full of American as the most melancholy of cities because it is gaze out from every tourist trap. The alleys fol- tourists, munch strawberries in the Rialto “the most beautiful of tombs”. low their own whims and fancies — curving, Market and watch as elegant Nonnas shop for This is a Venice of death and broken hearts. twisting and looping like a tangle of spaghet- octopus and orchids. Of course, we also see the The backdrop for gothic romances about cruel ti. Little wonder that travel books and blogs al- sights. “The stone bridge of the Rialto, the counts, passionate beauties and eerie cata- ways list “Getting lost in Venice” as a “must wooden bridge at the Accademia, the great, combs. Where Commissario Guido Brunetti do”. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s going to happen grey dome of the Salute, the columns and bellansodden unusually warm Sunday afternoon fishest is out bodies from watery graves much of you thislike endeavour protest, and how political whether it or not.isEspecially because Notthe that weand aren’t deeply tower of climate.

San Marco, pink white conin Budapest, close to 30°C. Most locals much political opportunism. critical of our government, I tell Anna. The opseem to be celebrating the weather while The crowd moves, falling into the rhythm of ed columns can be scathing. But our criticism I curse the unexpected tropical assault. a stroll. The energy levels are in tandem with a is blunted by sophisticated language. Verbal Seems like the Chennai heat has arrived here Sunday afternoon. “There are many old peo- expression, especially in a protest, is relatively with me. “Perfect day for a protest,” remarks ple,” Anna observes, adding that in her home crude, but direct and bolder.

Anna, the friend I am walking with. A few hun- country, Poland, the younger population I am not sure this protest is giving off quite dreds have assembled close to Elisabeth would have been the obvious majority at a that impression though.

Bridge, a miniature likeness of the Golden protest like this. Here it is a mixed crowd, with “Are protests frequent here?” I ask Kristof, Gate, which connects the two halves of Hun- a surprising number of older people. Anna who is from Budapest. “Oh, of course! There is gary’s capital — Buda and Pest — over the Da- and I soon find ourselves discussing the vari- one every other month… Usually in opposinube. Despite the blinding sun we can spot ous factors that spur people’s participation in tion to some new policy or announcement by hordes of heads in the distance. As we inch a protest. Most people are likely to be indiffer- the government.” This perhaps explains the closer, I see people holding placards, or wav- ent to any cause that does not afprotest’s defining character — ing EU and Hungarian flags. Others are busy fect them directly, I say. Selfish, dull and ceremonial, the words on their smartphones. perhaps, but justified too. Espealmost rhetorical. Like a sad culPrime Minister Viktor Orban’s hardline cially for certain sections of sotural remnant of a once highly stance on immigration has attracted sharp ciety that are busy making ends political, spirited Europe. “It is a “Are protests criticism across the continent. And some of meet to think beyond the busimiddle-class routine,” Kristof frequent here?” I ask the voices of dissent are coming from the 52- ness of life... Some consciously adds, “like a Sunday lunch.”

Kristof, who is from year-old leader’s own people. The strong mea- refuse to be politically active, to In the days that followed, HunBudapest. “Oh, of sures to curb the inflow of migrants into Eu- engage with what is an intellecgary brought in new, stricter course! There is one rope — including the use of teargas and water tual and moral burden at the laws on migration. It criminalisevery other month… cannons by Hungarian riot police at the Ser- end of the day. es those who cross the border, as Usually in opposition bian border — have been roundly condemned.

As social science students, we the government turns a deaf ear to some new policy” The protest we are at is certainly not the first delude ourselves that we have to the many pleas for asylum. on the issue. There was another just the day an understanding of society and Perhaps there will be another before. At best, it looks like restrained dissent, people, making us feel both noprotest the following week. And almost dignified in approach. ble and important. the week after that.

I am curious to know what the placards say.

The Danube is gleaming on our left, and the This one, my first in a new country, seemed A fellow protester translates for me. ‘Shame on cityfolk who are here to do nothing more than like a rather long walk. “How long was that you, Viktor Orban’, says one. Another has more lounge around the river on a Sunday end up stretch,” I ask, as the protest comes to an end. signs and letters than words: ; ‘OV =/ Hungary’, gawking at the protesters. Some instinctively One, maybe two kilometres, someone shouts namely, ‘the government is not representative take pictures. out. Is that all? It’s fine, I guess. The protest has of the people’s views’. There are also banners At strategic points are what appear to be tel- been tweeted, instagrammed, relayed on teleemblazoned with ‘Egyutt (Together 2014)’, the evision crews with fancier cameras. We feel vision. And as graduate students of a universiname of an opposition liberal party. I soon like celebrities, important and momentous. ty, we’ve shared notes on the subject. learn from a journalist that the party’s leader As we walk under the Chain Bridge, a chant risThe ritual is complete. has organised this protest. He will give a es in Hungarian: ‘Shame on you, Viktor Orspeech, followed by one from a poet-activist. ban’. I wonder if back in India, a protest with niharika mallimadugula is a freelance writer in Budapest baburkina Behind thoseinempty eyes Glittering carnival masks eyes and sly expressions gaze out fromcurrent every touristcurrently trap shutterstock/anna The cynic me is already weighing howwith vacant such cries would pass muster in the

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As Hungarians shame their government’s tough anti-immigration stand, an Indian in Budapest studies the moods and moments of a Sunday march

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AGENDA

Silicon fakes Narendra Modi may embrace the innovation and modernity of Silicon Valley, but his government still runs on jugaad and obscurantism

sambuddha mitra mustafi

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he Narendra Modi globetrotting juggernaut hits Silicon Valley this weekend. The prime minister will visit the headquarters of some of the world’s most creative companies — Tesla, Google and Facebook. The valley, in itself, is a global brand name for innovation: a mystical land of moonshot ideas that auto-magically turn into real products, which then become so indispensible to our daily lives that we wonder how humans lived without them for so long. And it always starts with one mad geek and his world-changing fantasies.

Take, for example, Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX. He is the rockstar entrepreneur and mad scientist who is creating electric cars and batteries that will make the internal combustion engine obsolete, building his own space rockets to colonise Mars and bringing artificial intelligence ever closer to The lure of Venice The city of fairytale bridges and mysterious canals, crumbling palazzos and cobblestoned streets has an eerie quality too shutterstock/kavalenkava volha the everyday.

The futuristic vision and scalability of Silicon Valley contrasts quite starkly at times with fection of the Doge’s Place pass overham-handus or by us old palazzo overlooks the Frari Church and the Narendra Modi government’s one after the other; and all so future. luxuriously, so the State Archives with its firmly shuttered ed, jugaad approach to India’s Recentpredictably, so than languidly, so swiftly,Raghuram so aston- windows. At night, the moon casts a pale glow ly, none other RBI Governor Getting there ishingly thatout there is jugaad something aboutto it polithat over the ancient spire and grey square. NeiRajan called this approach You can fly into Venice from Delhi is disturbing, almostearlier gluttonous,” wrote cymaking.

Speaking this month at Vikthe ther the rustle of trees nor the roar of traffic or Mumbai on Turkish Airways, Equal Music, andinwe follow his ram Seth in An CK Prahalad Memorial Lecture Mumbai, he relieves the deep silence. And all around us Lufthansa or Swissair. Remember literary trail. asked for “discipline to stick to our strategy of waits the alluring labyrinth, in which so many that you will land on the mainland But there moments when I slipand from the fictional acquaintances have lost their way building theare necessary institutions creatand then take a bus to the island bright, expensive of pizzerias andwhere shoe and their lives. ing a new path ofVenice sustainable growth city. After which you will have to shops into that dark, decaying For example, Mary and Colin take a wrong jugaadand is notiramisu longer needed.” fix drag your luggage toQuick the hotel—as city of the imagination.jugaad Our apartment an turn in The Comfort of Strangers, that creepy This government’s approachinwas Narendra Modi will Venice is car-free. So travel light. most visible in the way it tried to amend the masterpiece by Ian McEwan. Lost and exasperhave to choose between Tesla’s Land Acquisition Bill through an unsustaina- ated by this holiday misadventure, they acStay electric cars and ble ordinance. Rather than take the long route cept help and hospitality from the dapper, The city is geared for tourists and the overloaded of building support across parties for the bill, talkative Robert and stupidly wander into a dotted with delightful apartments jugaad vehicles of it chose the ordinance jugaad, which ultimate- web of perversion and horror. and palazzo-hotels. Choose rural India afp/prakash singh As do John and Laura in a chilling short stoly collapsed, as most jugaad contraptions something away from the touristry by Daphne du Maurier called ‘Don’t Look eventually do. infested San Marco area.

The incident at the heartMusk, of theGoogle’s story is proud to think it needs help from the outside Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been Now.’ photo-ops with Zuckerberg, utterly credible that plays my head ev- world, orTip blaming the opposition for stalling the Goods so Sergey Brin & Co will goitviral oninsocial media, of a modern, outward-looking naEat gelatos, themore markets and night we set out forhall dinner and Services Tax, another reformist piece of ery as will hiswhen live-streamed town Q&Ainatthat the tion of young peoplevisit even tech-savvy anorexic alleys. legislation. He seems to have forgotten that he crisscross Facebook of headquarters.

His supporters will than he is.” churches and enjoy a ride down so many Johnwho and isLaura are led the BJP’s opposition against the same bill lapLike up this globaltourists, ambassador at home The misplaced pride thatin‘nationalist’ forces the Grand Canal a vaporetto. restaurant.

The husband believes he have in our ancient practices and jugaad conwhen the party was sitting on the other side of seeking with theagods of hi-tech and entrepreneurship has mastered of navigating Venice. The traptions is a serious impediment to real, scalthe aisle in Parliament till May 2014. in the paradisethe of art modernity. jumpy.

Neither realises that with every On August 26, 2012, he had said outside Par- wife At ishome though, his governable innovation in India. The narrow boats government’s moored to the paternalistic slippery stepsdeof heading towardsfor their doom: liament, “there are occasions when obstruc- step mentthey stillare shuns modernity looked coffins.

There were two tion in Parliament brings greater benefits to obscurantism.

His canals Cultureahead, Min- one bearing cellar entrancessire for like control over informa‘I swear I don’t this bridge,’ said right, the other left, with narrow the country.” ister believes women should not streets beside tion,remember food and religious choices, hesitated.

Which one was itThe theymisplaced had Laura, pausing,isand holdingand on to the rail, ‘and Once again, it is an unprincipled jugaad them. go outJohn at night; BJP state governalarming dangerous.

TillI pride beside the day before? the look of that alleyway strategy at work from both our main parties, walked ments are encroaching on our that ‘nationalist’ forces don’t this like Indian government, led by ‘You see,’ protested Laura, 'we beyond.’ which will brazenly stall reforms and econom- food choices with random meat the prime minister himself, have in our ancient Seconds they hear the cry lost,government’s just as I said.’ draft ic growth when in opposition, but look to slyly shall bans;bethe grows outlater of this cocoon, it will practices and jugaad that will seal their fate.

'Nonsense,’ replied John firmly. push them through when in power. They for- policies on net neutrality and not be able to embrace the true contraptions a This is a Veniceisof We’veofallSilicon takenValley. a wrong turn in the left-hand one, remember serious impediment to get (or don’t care) that if both parties take the ‘It’s encryption shows a Ibureaucraspirit death and broken a strange wondered little in bridge.’ same stance, what you have is a dysfunctional the cy stuck the dark ages of inforModi city. andWe’ve Indiaall will have to real, scalable hearts.

The backdrop ifchoose our hotel is haunted.

Butelectric some The canal was narrow, the Parliament and a democracy that is unable to mation control; ‘godman’ between Tesla’s innovation in India for gothic romances how Venice — especiallyjugaad if you sidewith seemed to bring about the changes needed by its citi- houses Ramdevon is either tying up Indian carsinand the overloaded about cruel counts, are a paperback aficionado it’s in upon it, and in the zens. Not once have either the BJP or Congress close Institutes of Technology anddaythe vehicles of rural India. We—will passionate beauties easy toto believe that a wrongaturn withResearch the sun’sand reflection on shown the conciliation, generosity or give- time, Defence Develophave choose between susand eerie catacombs can lead to long-term the lair of avision killer. Or water and the windows of the and-take that comes with an ambitious, long- the ment Organisation, while ratiotainable, anda hotel hides evilelections. secrets. houses open, bedding the by extremist opportunisticswish term vision. nalists are being killed upon allegedly politics geared to win is bothbetween the magic and malaa canaryThese singing In Silicon Valley, salesman Modi will un- balconies, Hindutva groups. are in nota the signs of a We will haveThat to choose science and dy atchoose the heart of this beautiful, there hadand beenscientific an impresdoubtedly make his pitch for global tech gi- cage, cosmopolitan society, which fraud. We must wisely between Elon of secluded Now, almost declining ants to make in India and sell in India. He will sion leadsoftowarmth, a free flow of ideasshelter. and innovation.

Musk and city.

Baba Ramdev. darkness, the windows of the houses“Modi shutrally NRI crowds with big talk of how his gov- in As a Financial Times article warned, sambuddha mitra mustafi is theand founder ofof minwalla is a journalist author the water dank,whether the scenehe appeared altoernment has restored national pride, eased tered, may have to decide wants to be shabnam Political Indian t@some_buddha Spellmakers of Dorabji Street neglected, poor, and the long business conditions and visa procedures. His gether leader different, of an ancient Hindu civilisation too The Six

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Green divide The gum acacia (left) is the backbone of the thorn-scrub forest in Kutch, Gujarat. The sweetgum rules the temperate hardwood in Florida ambika kamath; (inset) An artist’s reconstruction of ‘Hallucinochrysa’ ja

peñas, proceedings of the national academy of sciences

CREATURE FEATURE

Sticky notes Kitchen politics Women from the Patidar community took to the streets when their ‘hero’ Hardik Patel was detained by the police ap/ajitsolanki How gum from tree trunks has given us the most telling fossils

ambika kamath

IUp in arms, thalis and belans

magine yourself walking into a forest.

What does it feel like? Do your eyes need to adjust to the darkness under the forest canopy, or do you need to squint to keep the sun’s glare out? Can you feel the wind blow your hair into your eyes, or does sweat collect your hair into slick clumps? Do dry leaves crunch under your feet as you step forward, or do your shoes sink into moist ground? Forests that occupy different climates can feel dramatically different from each other, and many of these differences stem from ansingle source: the trees. the afternoon of September 19, a I’ve spentSaturday, quite a bitAhmedabad’s of time in twoNational types of forests: tropical thorn-scrub andan temperate Highway 8 witnessed unusual hardwood. sight.

On the face of two forests Traffic wasit,atthe a standstill as could not feel more different. trees that thousands of women marched, The many of them form the backbone of the thorn-scrub barefoot, banging their belans (rolling forest pins) in Kutchthalis are the gum acacias.

Inair thewas summer against (steel plates).

The filled months theThe monsoon with the before clanging. womenshowers, belongedthe to gum acaciascommunity, lose all their The thornthe Patidar andleaves. they were angry. scrub is thus coloured by the yelEarlierlandscape that morning, their reservation ‘hero’ lows and greys the detained gum acacia bark and Hardik Patel hadofbeen by the police bare thornyprohibitory branches, matched by the for defying orders with hisyellowSuratbrown sand and to-Ahmedabad Ektadark Yatra.grey volcanic rock.

Growing this played substrate rock, Similaron scenes outofinsand otherand Patidarthe gum acacias a cautious distance dominated partsmaintain of the city.

Thali-belan brifrom another, forming a slight buffer gadesone took to the streets inonly Bapunagar, Narol against the strong breezespread sweeping across the and Vastral.

The protests across smaller landscape. sun beatsMorbi, down Unjha, oppressively, towns too, The in Bagasara, Visnathe leafless trees offer minimal gar, Mehsana, and Kamrej.

Womenshade, turnedand out your sweatinevaporates inHardik seconds. in droves response to Patel’s August that patch of tem31 The call trees to join theruled causeover withmy their ‘weapons’, perate hardwood Florida the steel plate andin rolling pin.are called sweetgums, and instate, manythese ways, sweetgums are the Across the unlikely foot soldiers opposite of gum acacias.

They hangofonthe to their have targeted many public events state leaves through thehave summer, casting a dark, government.

They disrupted speeches of cool shadow on thechief ground below.AnandiTheir ministers, including minister thornlessness makes thecue forest seem ben Patel. Taking their from theinviting.

22-yearBut find Samiti yourself(PAAS) stewold within Patidarminutes, Anamat you’ll Andolan ing in still, moist summer air. and clear. First, leader, their message is loud Stepping away from of thepolice immediate experijustice for the victims atrocities on ence of 25, these forests and taking a longer, August andtwo next, reservations.

Fearing the broader view of gum acaciasleaders and sweetgums, thali-belan brigade, political are said to some similarities the two trees come be avoiding publicbetween events altogether. into focus.

For example, bothbetween groups Anandiof trees The September 14 meeting have interesting distributions the ben Patel and Patidar leaders wasacross inconclu-

globe. Acacias are found today in Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas, and over the last 50 million years, these trees have moved many times between the continents. Of course, thanks to the ever-changing landscape of the Earth’s surface, the continents them- glimpse of what lived alongside gummy trees selves were not in the same place 50 million many aeons ago. And the best fossils show years ago. So we don’t quite know where these more than just what the creatures were — they wanderers originated. show us how they lived.

Like the acacias, sweetgums are also spread My very favourite fossil is of an insect that across many different parts of the world. Their was locked into amber more than a hundred current distribution, however, is oddly discon- million years ago. This curious beast, with metinuous — they’re found in East and Southeast sive. While the state government asked for 10 down. nacing jaws and5,000 long, people finely-branched, spineNearly have been reand (butup not Central Asia),Hardik, and in trenched days’West time Asia to come with a proposal, like projections alldiamond over its industry body, certainly from the in less eastern America.

But fossils and pollen who hasNorth resurfaced after mysteriously disap- than looks,aatyear, firstwhile glance, an alien the imaginlike Morbi, manyofsmall-unit grains thatmore sweetgums pearing,suggest is planning rallies. were once owners ination.are Even the scientists who discovered it closing their shutters or operating widespread across Asia and15EuThe Patidars’ (they form per cent of the at reduced capacity. thought so, naming it Hallucinorope. then didfight theyfor end up state’sHow population) reservation under chrysa that (think Analysts explain the ‘hallucination’).

‘Gujarat Model’ in these disconnected fragthe OBC quota started on July 6 with a relative- has not created But enough the insect wasn’t theopporonly employment ments? most likely culprits Since then, tunities. “Youthing ly smallThe gathering in Mehsana. in the amber; have to bigfossilise industries setting up The best show are cycles many Gujarat, Hardik Patelofhasglaciation travelled across heldfossils the gum trapped a clue asbut to shop in the state withalso mega investments, thousands of years ago, up which 127 rallies, and drummed supportmore from than ur- just whytothe insect looked this way.for A thatwhat has failed generate employment eliminated ban centres —sweetgums Surat, Rajkot, from Meh- the creatures were — the ‘trash packet’, bits of youth.

Thecomprising latest reservation they show us how parts the world that sana, of Ahmedabad; and became smaller fern, was found has enmeshed demand of Patidars the pothey lived too cold.—Florida, however,Amreli acted pockets Gir-Somnath, amongto the projections, and sud-a tential lead the state towards as safe haven forthe thetepid sweetanda Morbi.

Despite redenly everything made sense.

Becaste-war,” says the noted social gum, theGurjars region ofmansponsebecause from the Ra- The biggest fallout of scientist ing covered in fern must have let Achyut Yagnik. aged to and staythe warm in the jasthan, Jats even and Kurmis this creatureto hide its true, tasty According Yagnik, the agitathe movement is the face of glaciers covering large partswidening of Northriftself of Haryana, the Patidar agitation from anything that might wantpattern to eat as it, tion follows the same between America. hotterButtemperatures, has foundInlegstoday’s in Gujarat. andits the projections on its body helped pin the the Patidar migration from the BJP and sweetgums spread andpowerful west- fern the biggest have fallout of thenorthward movein place. this northjacket Gujarat to Exactly Saurashtra, Patelcamouflage ward ment again. is the widening rift bestrategy — covering yourself in plant matter to then from Saurashtra to south backers But of course the its most fascinating similari- avoid being seen tween the BJP and powerful — is Believed present in Gujarat. tomodern-day be the dety between gum acacias and sweetgums is — relatives of scendants Patel backers.

Hallucinochrysa, that of Lordimplying Rama’s sons, you guessed it —their gum. Gum starts out as a this behaviour hasand proven beneficial to insects Luv Kush, respectively, the liquid fromistree trunks, and quickly for a staggeringly Whoseexuded reservation it anyway? time. trans-epochLeuvalong Patels areThis mainly found in coagulates intoPatidar pure stickiness, nearly impos- the When senior community members al similarity completely overshadows the south Gujarat region of Surat, and the Kadsible to get off your fingers if you touch it. va gathered on September 13 at Shahibaug, in Ahtranscontinental difference between my Patels in the north Gujarat areas of MehsaGum protects trees from herbivores, has na medabad, to understand the growingand unrest patches of thorn-scrub and hardwood forest, and Sabarkantha. been harvested by humans for automobiles centuries to orIn among Patel youth, high-end the global of gumthe acacias’ and the northsimilarity Gujarat rallies, protesters turn into glue,leaders and furniture varpacked themedicines, venue. Patidar had come to were sweetgums’ odd geographic distributions. mainly farmers and unemployed youth nish.

But reservation tree gum hasinone purpose more im- with rage for Audis, BMWs, Mercs, Contemplating how gum-producing trees little education.

The second leg of thelive agportant any other — it fossilises into itation Porschesthan and Rolls-Royces. at the heart of this vast and vaster in Saurashtra sawdifference the participation of amber.

If anthis unsuspecting animalfact happens to the Contrast with the sobering that the similarities stretches my brainPatels. to theTheir fullest. more prosperous Kadva deget stuck in someSurat gumand as it’s hardening, Patel-dominated Morbi — whichthen are mand was for the removal of reservation, not kamath studies millions of years later, might turn a fos- ambika prominent clusters of itdiamond andinto ceramic for one under the OBCorganismic quota. evolutionary at Harvard University t@ambikamath sil.

Fossils —found in amber let us catch industries are facing an economic slow-a biology “Reservation would suppress entrepreneur-

The Patidar agitation has moved from urban centres to smaller pockets of Gujarat, but it is now a pitched battle between the community and the BJP

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Tea party

Gang uses brew to give fake land writs a vintage look

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Who is a ‘Handsome Weeping Boy’?

Pontifex’s historic US visit gets emojis

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Grit in the stone Patel-dominated Surat and Morbi — which are prominent clusters of diamond and ceramic industries — are facing an economic slowdown afp/sam panthaky

t is a truth universally acknowledged that more often thanship,” not says 33-year-old Saket Akola, who hails the private sector have also fallen. “The gov-n September 23, thousands The Patidar agitation gathis also taking a new office sucks. There will be from tan- a family of entrepreneurs in Rajkot, Sau- ernment took out a massive recruitment driveeredform, in Washington DC to get a no longer limited to rallies and protest Akola has a Bachelor’s degree in busi- for various posts only after many years. fleeting Many —marches. trums, blood pressure will rashtra. rise, 12 minutes to Gujarat, be precise — Across Patidars have decidness administration from a private college, Patidar youth had passed the age limit for of tears will cascade. At such times glimpse pope ever. edthe to most take popular up economic non-cooperation as but has never considered taking a govern- these jobs, but those in the reserved categowhat could a distraught employee Lucky commuters that the small traders, part of theirtweeted agitation.

Farmers, need? A coffee, a time out or ment sim- job. Having spent 15 years building his ries made it. There has to be equitable distripope hadand blessed the usually housewives whoclogged have financial assets water pump business, he plans a similar fu- bution among all classes,” Kaka adds. streets ofwith ply a ‘weeping boy’? Japan — makDC. Thirteen high-fiving nuns by BJP leaders cooperative banks owned ture for his child. “I always wanted to set up er of all things unique — has come have baked 1,00,000 wahave started communion mass withdrawals.

“In a single my own factory. Reservation would have killed Party with a distance up with Ikemeso Danshi, meaning fers. Yes, Pope Francis’s US visit day, there was ahistoric transaction of about ₹30 lakh. my enterprising spirit,” he says. ea (in certain colours and consumed The relationship between the BJP and theisPati‘Handsome Weeping Boys’. Book quite the If in a lean period Thisemotional is unusualrollercoaster. for our branch Nimesh Patel, 31, believes education is the isdar in moderation) good for health. community goes back a long way,words from faillike them online on the day to this,” express your joy, try of thethe Sabarkantha says an official problem. “I didn’t want toTurns go for outmedical it is alsoorgoodthe fortime wealth.

Haza-first came to power inpope-themed theAparty 1995, District you know your PPT is emojis — #PopeInUs or Bank Ltd in Central Co-operative engineering (studies). But mygang daughters ribagh used the brew to give forged with Keshubhai Patel as chief minister. The Pa- northor going to suck, and #PopeInPhilly #PopeInDC. The pope Gujarat. needn’t feel the same. Education is the area royal writs from the days of have the Raj a vin- that the BJP tidars ensured the boss is going to emojis were created toMass add fun to the resignations are also in where the maximum heartburn happens be- these tage colour, so that offfooting as hascould had apass strong in Gujyell, and lo and bepapal proceedings, said Twitteraton its credit cooperthe offing several cause of reservation,” sayshukumnamas, this employeewhich of a the family arat,royal where it hasofheld power hold, a Japanese blog. #PopeIsAwesome. atives and dairy cooperatives, a private firm in Ahmedabad who believes Ramgarh issued toingift for prime loyal17 land yearstocontinuously.

The man will be at significant move against the BJP. Political leaders too merit-based competition and not gang protection ists. The of five used the fake tea-tintcommunity, in turn, has been a your service.

Prime Minister Narendra Mofeel that the current through reservation. ed writs to grab land in Hazaribagh, primary beneficiary of the ‘GujBringing with him di’s US visit is also being targeted. agitation is more an However, in Surat — home to Patidar youth It arat Bokaro and Giridih. wasModel’. all going Thiswell symbiotic relahandkerchiefs, emThe US Patidars, among the richoutcome of injustice who migrated from Saurashtra — Sunday, diamond until last whentionship the police nabbed had started to show pathy, even a est NRIs, are expected to show solworkers facing lay-offs and sluggish econoallafive culprits and sentsigns them jail. With the Patidar rather than a demand idarity with their community ofto strain. toothbrush... for benefits under my are vociferously demanding reservation. agitation, the rift between back home. A protest march in reservation Political leaders too feel that the current ag- them, as well as within the BJP New York to greet PM Modi has itation is an outcome of injustice rather than a is widening. been announced. The Sardar Patel demand for benefits under reservation. “Lack While top leaders like state Group USA-Canada, according to of education is one problem. But there are BJP chief RC Faldu, a Patel leadits social media posts, plans to orcases where they are educated but find no er from Saurashtra, have mainganise a rally at the United Najobs,” says Surendra Patel (Kaka), a former Ra- tained their distance from the issue, several tions headquarters to demand “the removal of jya Sabha MP from Gujarat and a BJP veteran. others have announced their support “under caste-based reservation that is causing injusn Teacher’s day this year, Radha Kantgovernment’s Baruah Higherrecruitment Secondary School Assam re-from Patidar youth”. Dipsinh Rath- tice. And seek justice for those who lost their The state drive inpressure talatia former (tehsildar) and Mukul class II/III grade unherever you go, Before you firing work yourself ceived a pleasant surprise student Hazarika, who now forfrom od, lives an MPinfrom north Gujarat, however hadI’m tothere. lives in police and women who were vicder the State Commission came the into a romantic you, atrocities this companLondon. Two shiny TT tables arrived, alongPublic with aService greeting card. But before children after openly declaring backtrack support tizzy, to we timswarn of police in Gujarat.” after A cloud could even say ping pong, the Na-a decade. Employment opportunities in the Patidar women.ion is sort of microbial in nature.

Back homeofinbacteria, Gujarat,folPatidars have started lows you wherever you go. They are so theytheir societies and tional Investigation Agency (NIA) putting upunique bannersthat outside can actually be traced back toresidential you, quite like fingerprints. swooped in, convinced that the buildings, restricting the entry of We leave behind some of these microbes, a recent gift was sent by ULFA leader Abhijit leaders from says across the political spectrum. study published in Peer J. ApparAsom, a suspect in a case. But is HaOne banner outside Vihar village in Gandhinently, all it takes is four gar district reads, “Those who say no to reserzarika, the son of a former headhours of analysis to tag master of the school, the same vation for Patidars will not get votes here. The bacteria to person. Beperson as Asom? ULFA has denied entire Patidar community in this village has fore long, we may be it. The school has no clue. The chilsupported the agitation. And we boycott all cracking crimes on dren want to play. But the agency is upcoming elections. It is a request to all politithe basis of bactecertain. Is the NIA making another cal parties, including the BJP and Congress, to rial evidence! blunder, as it did with other terror not enter this village. Villagers will not be reprobes? More Johnny English than sponsible for your safety.”

James Bond, NIA? If Hardik Patel’s claim that he has 27 crore supporters, including Patidars, Gurjars, Jats, Kurmis and Reddys across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh is to be believed, the BJP is in for a fight in these states and at the Centre. The Patidar protest for reservation has now become a volatile protest against the BJP.

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Terror suspect: Ping Pong table A gift arrives at a school, brings the NIA with it

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Microbes for mates

A cloud of bacteria ensures you are never alone

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Daggers drawn The recent meeting between Anandiben Patel (vivek bendre) and Hardik Patel (vijay soneji) was inconclusive

rutam vora

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saturday, september 26, 2015

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

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n September 26, 1888, TS Eliot was born. This quiz is on poems and poets. In honour of the first manned spacecraft on the moon, Apollo XI, we have decided to have 11 questions this week.

here,there & elsewhere

A quiz on poems

Bear necessities

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irk’s friends Peter and Grace Hart live on their own 40-acre farm in Vermont. Birk has been telling us about them all the way from Elsewhere. This is his first visit. “College friends,” he says.

“Grew up in the city. Got fed up with urban life and decided to live close to the Earth.” He’s not quite sure how they support themselves, though he figures they must be okay since they’ve raised three children, two girls and a boy. “They must be doing something right!” he says.

Bins is driving and says, “By those standards the whole of India is doing something right — the population is growing every three seconds!” Birk snorts. “Oh sure, if you ignore the skewed sex ratio... ” I change the topic before they can start one of their endless arguments. I point outside — “Look! Deer!” Actually there are all kinds of animals on view. Aside from the lone wanderer of the night before, we’ve seen tranquil herds of cows sitting out on rich green carpets of grass. Most are standard issue black and white, but there are exotic ones too, with shaggy orange coats and enormous horns. A couple of farms have horses as well as llamas, with their long necks and slightly supercilious expressions.

We spend the night in the capital city of Vermont, Montpelier, in a small motel and are now driving the final hour-and-a-

cornerstone

half to the small town closest to Hart’s farm. The scenery is so continuously picturesque that one almost grows tired of it. Emerald green pastures are fenced off from the road, slope-roofed houses made of wood and tile pose in the middle distance, with stands of trees off to the side. Further back, the low hills are furred deep green with forests while overhead, freshly laundered clouds drift like white galleons against the rich blue sky... unreal!

We are passing yet another scene of this type when Birk says, “Stop! Stop!”

His voice is hushed and urgent as he points. Bins quickly swings to the

1 gravelly shoulder and stops. “Look,” says Birk, “on the back porch of that house ... do you see it?” There’s a dark shape, rounded and unthreatening, moving slowly along the wooden porch. “Black bear,” says Birk with quiet authority.

He’s unbuckling himself and getting out of the car. “Wait! Where are you going?” I ask, amazed at his daring. “To warn the owners,” says Birk. “People leave bird-seed out on their porches in hanging feeders. Bears are attracted to them: they’re opportunists after all.

They’ll eat anything! But if the owners don’t know they’ve got a visitor they’ll wander out by mistake and then — wham! Some poor animal gets blamed for being a nuisance.”

Bins and I watch as Birk lumbers towards the front of the house. He reaches the front door, knocks, explains himself and after a few moments, walks unhurriedly back to the car. All the while the bear has been feeding contentedly. As we drive away, we see him tip the feeder into his mouth. “Can’t say I blame him,” says Birk, sympathetically. “This was his land before we humans took it.” manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

These are the first lines of the last chapter of which classic work of literature? The poem spells the person to whom the book is dedicated in an acrostic.

A boat, beneath a sunny sky Lingering onward dreamily In an evening of July …

2

Which perfectly innocent-sounding nursery rhyme is believed to owe its origin to an English queen who was known for prosecuting Protestants? The rhyme refers to the growing number of graveyards for her Protestant victims.

3

‘Singhasan khaali karo ke janata aati hai’ became the rallying call of the anti-Emergency movement after Jayaprakash Narayan quoted it at a rally at Ramlila Maidan. Who wrote the poem which featured this line?

4

Which famous poet and songwriter worked for All India Radio in the late ’30s and ’40s, and was also the music director for the film adaptation of Tagore’s novel Gora?

5

‘Ajj akhan Waris Shah nu,’ is probably Amrita Pritam’s most famous work on the Partition where the poet wants to question Waris Shah about the madness around her. For which classic work of Punjabi literature is Waris Shah remembered?

6

Which talented poet and polymath started off as the court poet of the Raja of Ettayapuram in 1901, and later taught in a school in Madurai before a short but memorable career in poetry, social reform and the freedom struggle?

7 8

Joel and Ethan Coen’s classic comedy O Brother Where Art Thou is loosely structured on which epic poem?

Which classic poem was written after poet William Henley’s leg was saved from amputation by the distinguished scientist Joseph Lister?

9 10

If it was Maya Angelou in 1997, Miller Williams in 2009 and Elizabeth Alexander in 2013, who was it in 1961?

The 1994 Italian film Il Postino featured which real-life poet in its story and had translations of his poems set to music on the soundtrack?

11

The Ogden Nash poem ‘Reflections on Ice-Breaking’ is one of the few poems where the title has just five letters less than the actual poem. The poem?

Answers

1. Through the Looking Glass; they spell out the name Alice Pleasance Liddell 2. ‘Mary, Mary Quite Contrary’ 3. Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ 4. Kazi Nazrul Islam, the national poet of Bangladesh 5. He is regarded the author of the legend of Heer Ranjha 6. Chinnaswami Subramania Bharati 7. Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’ 8. ‘Invictus’. The last lines, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul,” were inspiration to the likes of Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi 9. Robert Frost. They all read their poems at Presidential inaugurals. Frost read his poem ‘The Gift Outright’ when John F Kennedy was sworn in as President 10. Pablo Neruda 11. Candy is Dandy, But Liquor is Quicker. Nash later added a third line in the ’70s — ‘pot is not’

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

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