Blink issue 92 october31 2015

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BEYOND THE FIELD

Out of order When the choice of candidates for the FIFA presidency comes down to one between contracting the plague and catching cholera

Day of rage Thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets of Bahrain in March 2011, carrying banners that read: “The Saudi army came to protect the illegitimate government, not the aggrieved, legitimate nation” ap/hasan jamali

T suhrith parthasarathy

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his past May, FIFA, world football’s governing body, plunged into what looked like the worst crisis in its beleaguered history. The Swiss police made a series of arrests after the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of 14 people, nine of whom were current or former FIFA executives, on varying charges, which included racketeering, wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracies. Given the extent of the irregularities that have pervaded FIFA’s operations, especially since the Brazilian João Havelange assumed its presidency in 1974, the news of these arrests appeared to represent a watershed.

A month later, when FIFA’s embattled president Sepp Blatter — who succeeded Havelange in 1998 — announced that he would step down once a successor was elected the following year, it seemed like we had finally arrived at a game-changer, a perfect opportunity for reform. But more recent developments suggest that transformation at FIFA requires measures that go beyond the ouster of a few.

After Blatter announced his decision, the choice of his replacement appeared obvious to many.

Michel Platini, the former French footballing great and head of Europe’s governing body UEFA, enjoyed the backing of many federations. But in early October, Platini, along with Blatter, was suspended from FIFA for 90 days, pending enquiry. The alleged offence: an unauthorised payment of $2 million made by FIFA to Platini.

The suspension, unless lifted, bars Platini from contesting the presidential elections next year. Ordinarily, given the nature of the charges, you’d have thought: good riddance!

After all, the latest allegations appeared to vindicate the former Manchester United legend Eric Cantona, who, only last year, described choosing between Platini and Blatter as akin to a choice between contracting the plague and catching cholera. But, bizarrely, it appears, it could get even worse for FIFA. On Monday, Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin

Ebrahim al-Khalifa, the head of the Asian Foot- the aftermath of this repression, the Bahraini ball Confederation, submitted his candidature government established a special committee to be the new president of FIFA. He had previ- to identify the protesters, which included ously backed Platini to replace Blatter as presi- many athletes, before systematically overseedent. The renewed allegations against Platini, ing a campaign of imprisonment, torture, and though, have pushed Sheikh al-Khalifa into denial of medical treatment. throwing his name into the veritable ring.

According to reports in The Guardian, a doc“A growing number of senior football admin- ument on the Bahrain News Agency’s website istrators, FIFA members and personalities of recounts the specific involvement of Sheikh alpublic life,” Sheikh al-Khalifa said last week, had Khalifa, who was general secretary of youth been urging him to run for the presidency. If it and sport and head of the Bahrain Football Aswere indeed true that Sheikh al-Khalifa boasted sociation at the time, in this committee. such backing, and were he to come to power, FISince 2011, when Sheikh al-Khalifa’s involveFA, which is already mired in filth and greed, ment in the crackdown first surfaced, FIFA has could take a potentially fatal step towards an ir- refused to investigate the allegations. Accordredeemable degeneration. ing to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and DeAs a member of Bahrain’s royal family, ac- mocracy, it had written in 2013 to the then cording to several reports, Sheikh chairman of the FIFA ethics al-Khalifa has been at the forefront committee, Michael Garcia of thwarting democratic protest in that at least six footballers Bahrain, by using the most insidifrom the Bahrain national ous means, including torture and football team were arrested, mass incarcerations. “In 2013, our defamed and tortured. Their Transformation at organisation wrote to FIFA presiidentification and subseFIFA requires dent, Mr Joseph Blatter, expressing quent incarceration were, the measures that go our deep concern over allegations organisation said, at the behbeyond the ouster of unethical behaviour conducted est of Sheikh al-Khalifa. of a few

by FIFA committee member and Although there are other president of the Asian Football Concandidates in the fray, includfederation, Sheikh al-Khalifa,” a leting UEFA’s general secretary ter to FIFA from the Americans for Gianni Infantino, who will Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrun with Europe’s backing, rain said. “…As we explained in our Sheikh al-Khalifa is likely to previous communications, there is credible evi- draw substantial support from South America, dence that Sheikh al-Khalifa aided and abetted Africa, and his home continent Asia. In the abcrimes against humanity while he was presi- sence of a sufficient backlash to his nominadent of the [Bahrain Football Association]. In tion, Sheikh al-Khalifa could be seen at the light of news that Sheikh al-Khalifa is seeking helm of FIFA. election as president of FIFA, we write now to As Nicholas McGeehan, a researcher at Huurge you to terminate his candidacy for this po- man Rights Watch, put it: “If a member of Bahsition in the emergency meeting of the FIFA ex- rain’s royal family is the cleanest pair of hands ecutive committee.” that FIFA can find, then the organisation In February 2011, Bahrain launched a violent would appear to have the shallowest and least attack against the nearly 6,000 protesters who ethical pool of talent in world sport.” had taken part in demonstrations across the country to demand political reforms, including suhrith parthasarathy is a Chennai-based lawyer the establishment of a democratic rule of law. In and writer t@suhrith

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RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE Nine years after a landmark law empowered forest communities, tribals struggle to regain their rights p4 saturday, october 31, 2015

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Alternative methods of communication are allowing those with disabilities to express themselves, thereby returning agency to them p9

Speech enabled

DESERT BEATS The ninth edition of the Jodhpur RIFF brought to stage the folk and the contemporary p14

XXL DREAM A ringside view of a sumo tournament in Tokyo is just what this fan of the sport needed p19

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Lost in the woods Nine years after a landmark law empowering local communities, thousands of forest villages across India struggle to regain their traditional rights over resources and livelihoods

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been using for decades. Building poles and un- ment and conservation of forests. “Individual finished tin roofs lie abandoned on a patch of rights are important, but on their own they are a defensive measure to stop harassment. It land, which leads to a forest in the distance.

Ignoring the clamour, Rabha finally pulls is community rights that really offer the poout the weapon in his folder — a tential of a more democratic, more effective and just method copy of the Forest Rights Act, of forest management,” says 2006 (FRA). This legislation gives scheduled tribes and other tradiShankar Gopalakrishnan, secretional forest-dwellers the right to tary, Campaign for Survival and forestland and resource use, Community rights can Dignity, a national platform of ensure that forest tribal and forest dwellers’ which they had been denied unmanagement is organisations. der old forest laws. The FRA was democratic The FRA was meant to defuse intended to alter the fundamenflashpoints like the one in Shaltal structure of forest management in India, to end the Forest kumar. But thousands of forest villages across India — encomDepartment’s absolute control passing at least 40 million hecover it. Apart from individual rights, the law gives the gram sabha commu- tares of forestland and 150 million people, nity forest rights — to oversee the manage- including 90 million tribals — continue to struggle for their community rights.

When the FRA was enacted, conservationists had feared it would lead to destruction of forests. On the contrary, villages in the Duars area of north Bengal (Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts), the floodplains of eastern Himalayas bordering Bhutan, are beginning to assert their customary rights and Centre stage Temples in Himalayan villages are great places for meeting people and picking up local gossip ; (below) a house in Garhwal with a traditional slate roof shutterstock conserve large tracts of remaining forests.

This was at play in Shalkumar.

Rabha, who lives in neighbouring Kurmai village, campaigns for the implementation of FRA through a coalition of 250 forest villages called Uttar Bango Bon-Jon Shromojivi Manch or UBBJSM (North Bengal Forest Workers). He points out key clauses in the FRA to forest ranger Joydeb Burman. Section 5 gives the gram sabha of any area with forest-dwellers the power to protect forests, biodiversity, wildlife and the “cultural and natural heritage of forest-dwellers”. SN Basunia, sub-inspector of re you here to see the Shiva temThe Sumo stopped at Panuwanaula, thanks somewhat wistfully, before she’d got married. police, takes a look and agrees.

Burman refusples, then? Or on a holiday?” a to the passenger who’d been travelling from es Atoyoung man sitting near a window acknowledge the existence of thesaid law he in man on the front seat turned Bareilly almost non-stop since the previous was studying The child the state and theology scoffs at in theVaranasi. “conservation” of around to ask us. day. He had to have his tea. We had time. These on lap, villagers: who was prone car-sickness, was thehis forest “Right,towe will see where We were in a Sumo, a means of public trans- vehicles stop for practically anyone, or any- his heare was on five his way home village the niece; jungles after years.”

Butto thea results port in these parts, heading out of Almora to thing. If we’d told the driver we’d wanted him near Jageshwar. already speak for themselves in more than a Jageshwar, a temple town about 100km from to wait a bit while we selected and bought a dozen Religion wasinalmost livingdistrict. here, an everyvillages Alipurduar Kathgodam, the nearest railway station, in Ut- box of sweets, he’d have not only agreed, but day thing intertwined in the affairs of people tarakhand. It was about three or four hours by also suggested which shop was the best. And in a way not seen in a city. A Hindi newspaBands ofI’d protectors bus to Almora from Kathgodam. I looked at he’d have railed at us gently for not telling per here had some time ago carried photoShalkumar gram sabha submitted its commuthe familiar road; we were now almost direct- him we wanted to buy sweets in Almora, be- graphs of the castclaim fromfour the years 1980s’ago, television nity forest rights but to ly below the animal rescue centre housing sul- cause there was a better shop there. series Ramayana; one of thegrew actorsthese was visiting no avail.

“Our ancestors forests len, gargantuan man-eating leopards. I’d be On another similar ride from Munsiyari, the story was featured yearsarea ago.and We this are people of this forest,promias are sullen and gargantuan too, if I were holed up two women had wanted to stop nently in theThis newspaper, toour hens, cattle and goats. is the life we in a cage and fed buffalo meat daily. at a temple and pray; the driver gether with40. images of the actors know,” says Ram Rabha, Eighteen months “She likes the temples,” said my husband. stopped for a good 20 minutes from the serial, complete ago, the 72 families in Shalkumar beganwith pa“Holiday,” I said simultaneously. or half-hour while they got fake than gold crowns. trolling the more 2,000 hectares of forThe man nodded, finding nothing contrary down, and maybe tied a prayer here, ourin.pace slowed, to est their villageAnd is nestled Divided into Religion waseight almost in our answers. “It’s a powerful god,” he said. on a piece of paper, while the in time with everyone groups, move each group walks several kiloeveryday “Powerful.” men from Delhi grumbled in living here, anmetres else’s.

One was pine and jots down in areason register thethe wildlife thing intertwined We smiled. It was only a little subterfuge; the backseat. They tied written trees across you looked at when you speciesinthey come and their location, the affairs of peopleguarding it’d have been rather strange to say we were prayers and bells at this temple got into a bus, or the view of a besides against illegal logging and in a way I’d not seen extraction. going because the day was clear, and if we in Chitai; I’d seen one such tied brown or horizon with firewood In purple Alipurduar district, in a city were still in the mood for it by the time we re- petition where a student asked mountains Another was these patrolling villagers in areit.protecting the ached, we’d climb up to Vriddh Jageshwar and that his family move to their the people.

For last of the standing forests ininstance, a patchy there landsee the Himalayas spread out at 180 degrees, new home soon, that they proswas our razor-blade, vegetables scape fragmented by tea gardens and forestry from Garhwal to Nepal; or, failing that, see if per and that he should do well andpatchwork tomato ketchup man.

We’d plantations. This of forests has bewe could find a familiar face and just talk. in studies. Also, that he should gone critical to buy as razor blades,corriand come increasingly elephant To say we were travelling for this, and be- play for Manchester United one day. the exactly have whatand we dorsshopkeeper to stave didn’t off elephant attacks cause I liked to hear strangers’ conversations The woman sitting next to me asked if we’d were lookingoffor.

“I’ve got a pack,” he said slowdestruction crops. in these vehicles, would have been disconcert- been to Kausani. I said we had. ly, Sonteshwar and broughtRabha, it out. 48, “Butofit’sKurmai not thevillage same ing to own up to. People visit Jageshwar mainSo had she; she’d stayed there for a while brand you’re looking for.” It was also opened. walks through an adjoining old forest within ly for its 9-13th century temples, located and done a course on Gandhian thought at an He “You National try it on your If it doesn’t thesaid, Jaldapara Park.razor.

His ancestors had against the backdrop of a sacred grove.localsashram there.

But it wasalllong ago, she said fit, I’ll take back.” He then spread out his Living legacy A villager patrols Kurmaideodar forest, which have tended for generations images by padmaparna ghosh planted anditwalked these very forests since undar Singh Rabha always carries a certain file folder. He holds it against himself in a hot tin car as it jangles along forest roads towards village Shalkumar, in a northern corner of West Bengal. His phone rings without respite. Every few minutes, he relays his location on the phone.

Suddenly we are there. Rabha, 28, flings open the door to an agitated crowd sprinkled with khaki — cops and forest rangers. I follow Rabha’s file through the crowd. The local police and forest officers are seated on one side and the village on the other. The conflict was over the land on which a church was being constructed by the gram sabha of this forest village. The Forest Department was incensed at not being “asked for permission”. The gram sabha was irritated because it had a right over the “community land” that the village has

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Talking god and real estate

Of all things about exploring the Himalayas, you’ll cherish the many conversations — with fellow passengers in a crowded SUV, a priest or a woodcutter with rooms to let

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Felled by officialdom Bipin Rabha, 27, of Khoirbari is fighting to save his village’s trees and forest rights

the mid-19th century. Most villagers here belong to Rabha, a scheduled tribe, which traditionally practised shifting cultivation but was “settled” by the British into plantation labour.

The sunlight cools as it leaks through the canopy. Sonteshwar points out different species of native trees, their phenology, and what their fruits are worth to animals and them. He understands how the forest is linked to life outside it. “Back in the ’80s, hardly any elephants left the forest for our fields. We didn’t have this much conflict. Why now? Because they also have to eat. We can’t live without a fistful of rice in the morning. Then they need it too. Elephants had a lot of fodder in the natural forest. Everything now is teak, thanks to the Forest Department. Nothing grows under it. Plantations are sterile. The elephants are forced to come to the fields,” says Sonteshwar.

Before human activity intruded, much of this landscape was grasslands and forests of cane — excellent for elephants. “Given the high value of this region’s timber, all natural grassland was converted to sal and teak plantations. When the sal plantations were not regenerating, the British brought in labour,” says Soumitra Ghosh, national committee member of the National Forum of Forest Peoples and Forest Workers (NFFPFW).

Nearly half the area now has teak plantation, which means little to those who depend on the forest for grazing fodder, food, and other non-timber forest produce. In West Bengal, almost 10 million people directly depend on the forest (0.6 million ha), according to a state report, and a majority of them are poor.

As we emerge from the cool natural forest into a teak plantation, the forest falls silent, there is very little undergrowth and the air is warmer. Except for a fern called Dhikia, which the tribals sometimes eat, no other vegetation survives in a teak plantation. As Lal Singh Bhujel, convenor of UBBJSM, says, “Sure, teak has a high price in the market, but what is its value in a forest?”

But in spite of its “uselessness”, the 75 families of Kurmai patrol and protect it. Last year, they halted illegal logging activities and handed over the seized logs to the Forest Department. Bhujel says, “We want to end the teak plantations and grow native trees, but we don’t want the Forest Department to decide that. When we, the gram sabha, get the rights, we will decide how to manage and what to plant. If it is up to the Forest Department, this whole land will be teak.”

Timber conundrum Forest-dwellers look upon the jungle differently from the Forest Department and this is often in conflict. From colonial times, the area has been used for timber extraction. The an-

cestors of these forest villagers (Rabhas, Nepa- from the forest. Maybe our generation would lis and other scheduled tribes) planted and survive but what about the next,” says the managed the British administration’s timber sprightly young man, who has been fighting operations. Post-independence, the villages for his village’s forest rights for three years. continued to work for free for the Forest Department and were “permitted” to live within Community matters the forests under the “begar system”. This con- Last year they prevented felling in a part of tinued until as late as the 1960s, when a strong their forest. In a first instance of its kind in the rebellion forced the Forest Department to pay area, the Forest Department later asked for the nominal wages. gram sabha’s permission to go ahead with the For almost two centuries, authorities have logging. “I can’t say if this means that better seen the area solely as a resource for wood. times are coming, but at least it is recognition “The Forest Department was constituted for of a gram sabha’s role,” says Bhujel. the purpose of timber management, and its The fight for community forest rights is an institutional structure still sees the forest that ongoing one across the country. way (to this day, its working plans are primarPaldel Sherpa, additional district magistily concerned with timber). If not timber, one rate of Alipurduar says implementation of species (such as tigers) becomes the focus of FRA has been poor. “I agree that villagers have management. More fundamentally, the de- to be included in decision-making over forpartment is primarily a landholding and land- ests, but if the land is important to the governcontrolling agency, and that is how foresters ment then I don’t think the gram sabha can be see their job — to control and police large ar- allowed to decide.” eas of land. Communities have diverse ways of Mendha Lekha, a village in Maharashtra, looking at the forest, but the comwas the first to get its community mon thread is that they don’t see rights three years ago. Since then it as some kind of property. They there have been sporadic approvsee it as an area that needs to be als in Odisha but none in north managed for their own use and Bengal. “Community forest rights Sure, teak has a high are hardly being recognised. For potentially for the use of others,” price in the market, says Gopalakrishnan. During the the first four years, there were but what is its value none recognised. It is still only beShalkumar faceoff, the ranger in a forest? had insisted that “the Forest Deing implemented in pockets, partment is the final word and though more frequently in the the village should listen to the ellast three years,” says Gopalakder brother”. rishnan. Even though the gram This attitude has defined the sabha has been deemed the govrelationship between the department and the erning institution under FRA, Narayan Biswas, forest-dwellers, but for the latter the jungles tribal development officer at Alipurduar, says are not a one-way street. “The jungle is every- he cannot do anything until he hears from the one’s but we cannot take everything. We have Forest Department. to use this resource in a manner that it lasts “But the FRA has given the gram sabha a for a long, long time,” says Debendra Rabha, voice, a power. Without it we were even more 27, secretary of Baniya Village Gram Sabha. It helpless. At least there is some dignity and solwas only after several meetings that he was idarity now,” says Sundar Singh Rabha. able to get villagers to sign up for the patrollThe Rabha tribe has folk songs about the foring. The visible thinning of their forests finally est and the planting season. “These are songs convinced them to assert their rights and our elders sang when they planted all of this,” fight against regular logging, known as coupe says Rabha. felling, by the Forest Department. Baniya and Sitting on a pastureland surrounded by a 11 other villages have refused to allow such log- forest, Sonteshwar is egged by his friends to ging for the past year and a half. Each village sing an old Rabha song. He sings about the manages 2,000-3,000 hectares of forest. month of Phalgun and the sound of rain on Khoirbari village in Jaldapara National Park new leaves when Rabha says, “It isn’t just for us is encircled by two rivers and forests. “We were but also the world. Forests have such value. never able to see tea gardens from our village. But the world outside is different. Perhaps you But now we can,” says Bipin Rabha, 27, mem- can help us with a good education and we will ber of the village’s Forest Rights Committee. protect the forests for you.”

“Year after year the Forest Department was felling hectares of forest. We get everything padmaparna ghosh is a Delhi-based writer

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Green sentinels A forest village in Buxa, Alipurduar district, a region pockmarked by tea and other plantations

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Downward, On the mind slowly and surely ON THE SHELF

miserably, scoring 239 runs in 12 innings at an average of 19.91. His Delhi teammate Gautam Gambhir’s performance was equally dismal: 283 runs in 14 innings at an average of 20.21.

However, matters peaked during that ill-fated Australian summer when it became evident that all was not well between Dhoni and Sehwag, and perhaps even Gambhir.

During the 2012 tri-series involving hosts Australia, India and Sri Lanka, it appeared Dhoni was not pleased with Sehwag’s fielding.

There was also a touch of unrest when Sehwag ental” dismissing it as “mumbo-jumbo.” So dered.

A muscle cheek sparked.

The captained India inina my match against the Lankwhen the road to recovery leads to a Vipassana darkness that had seemed deserted was full of ans during that competition.

The tension was meditation retreat, it really is a Damascus life.

Goblins.

Havoc.” obvious when off-spinner Ravichandran Ashmoment.

Only Martin Lahiru Amis (in his memoir Experi-a but was no mug with the horizontal bat shots. win mankaded Thirimanne, without ence) up comes close to waxing first time hethe closes his eyes andof surHisThe success rate in second innings a Test warning, for backing too far.

It was only afveys his a‘inner is a revelalyrical on that pain and illwas not patchlandscape’ on his firstitinnings’ contribu- ter Tendulkar’s so intervention Sehwag tion. is also, basically, “itmost was mem- agreed to withdraw ness: teeth are to Amis tions,Itbut he set up someMordor: of India’s thehis appeal.

During the penis to as if I were surrounded a large ex-effort the closing stages of thatwhat orable victories with hisby mammoth game,the which Indiaiswent Parks. Get writer on to panse, though I couldn’t see it.ofI was first time around.

For most his career, he on to lose, Dhoni observed theaproceedings alone in a strange, brooding land- version of from the boundary ropes theanxiously. subject India of their was more successful in the longer did scape; under a lowwas sky,contradictory I thought, bodily ailments the game, which to his ag- not make the finals ofown the tournament; Sehdamp hills perhaps, anda you’ll be65 there forin a gressive style of play. but invisiwag managed measly runs ble…”

ThenSehwag the pain long as theyof scale At times, wasstarts: much more five matches at time, an average 13.

“The of off-spinner. my the heights andto plumb than abacks part-time His fiveHowever, Dhoni continued be in hands the Sehwag depths who of itsfell myswicket haulsmoulagainst the Australians charge. It was by tery and meaning. Amis during a Test match in Delhi in the wayside soon after.

Dhoni continued is another grumpy, acerbic 2008, and a couple of crucial wickAlthough he donned Indian colto be in charge. It individual — and both writers ets against the same opposition earours every now and then after that was Sehwag who are more tour than Down well-aware of the lier in the year at the WACA, Perth, disastrous Under, fell by the ridiculousness their own are two examples which stand out. writing was on ofthe wall.

Hecomwas wayside I found myself pulsions.

Parksplayer scours the After book-a It would probably be fair to say never the same again. soon after gripped and problems started in shelves other prostate sufferers: that Sehwag’s stringfor of indifferent performances, fascinated by Montaigne, Cole2005 as a result of Ganguly and SehwagRousseau, played hisand lastmaybe Test during this book ridge and Beckett?

He tour is fascinated Team India’s turbulent ride with Australia’s return of India by in how muchinofthe Gandhi’s Greg Chappell, who was at the helm 2012-13 secondwriting match is of takthe enseries up with the chronicling of his till 2007. If one is to go by the acin Hyderabad.

Incidentally, bodily functions.the “Every illness a counts of Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh, Seh- the Indians whitewashed Aussies 4-0,isrenarrative,” declares, — pace wag was among the senior players who the deeming the loss theyhe had sufferedand 12 months Susan — sets about telling then India coach Chappell wanted dropped back. Earlier thatSontag year, Sehwag was dropped it, or rather in order seto from the side. from the one-day teamretelling during ait,bilateral discover howin it ends.

The storm eventually blew ries against Pakistan which India played There areresult few books so brilliantly deover and the dashing Indian hosts.

The was 2-1that in favour of the viswhat it is actually like to meditate, to opener — the ‘Nawab of Najaf- scribe itors, and Sehwag was never picked for an ODI your body inside’ as it were, to garh’ — led the team in five feel featuring Team‘from India the again. the attention those dark (out of a total of 12) ODIs, way send Interestingly, thetolast ODIapparently that Gambhir unknown our physical selves — before Mahendra Singh Dho- and played for hiscorners countryofwas in January 2013. the backs to the racing ni was considered as skipper. to There seemsoftothe be knees, a pattern to spleen, Gambhir and veinsloss andof nerves, the tongue restIn 2011, Duncan Fletcher along Sehwag’s form.toIsfeel there something ing in thewhat mouth, to become the replaced Gary Kir- more than meets the eye?aware One of might teeth, eachSingh, sittingthe in its individual sten as India add that Yuvraj hero of India’spock2011 of gum. continues to be out of coach, follow- World Cupettriumph, I never wanted to read a ing which the Dhoni’s favour. Cancer played its part, but so Parks, and team lost all did Dhoni, if one is book to gobybyTim father Yograj yettheI Indian found skipper myself eight of their Singh’s outburst against gripped and fascinataway Tests earlier this year. byafter thisKirsten’s book. against EnWas there a rift in theed team Teach Us to gland and departure in 2011 or was the arrival of Fletcher Sitabout Still Australia. seen as an opportunity by some to bring turns Sehwag a change at the top? outbeen to fared Whatever the case, the damage had be far done, at least as far as Sehwag was concerned. more than a medical miudayan nag is a Delhi-based sports writer sery-mystery memoir. It is about the realisation that what stands in the way of our true wellness is our ability to express it in words, to describe it in language. It seems impossible — and yet imperative — to master the paradox, to ‘empty the mind’ and think of nothing. “We have become cerebral vampires,” as Parks puts it, “preying on our own life-blood.” His painfully revealing book is an invitation to put it aside, to stop reading, unhunch our shoulders, let slip the gaze, rest the eyes, and allow ourselves the unhurried, unmediated luxury of inhabiting our own skin — for a while, at least, for a while.

Despite Teach Us to Sit Still’s obsession with the nether regions, there are few books that so brilliantly describe what it is actually like to meditate, to feel your body ‘from the inside’ Virender Sehwag recently announced his retirement from obody warns you about this: not international cricket. What explains the decline of his career? the cover, not the blurb, not the ti-

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tle, not the review puffs. With its disingenuous title and irender Sehwag seldom took acrossbacklegged yoga person the cover, really ward steponduring histhere’s 14-year-long nothing tocareer. let youBut know advance that did in being caught onTim the Parks’ hard-to-classify medical memoir, Teach wrong foot at an inopportune juncUs to lead Sit Still — mainly — about his penis. ture to is this downward spiral?

No that’sofnot it isgreats, also about his Like—many thefair: game’s Sehwag’s sphincter (or rather, sphincters entry into international cricket was—anplural), anticlibowels, and pelvic floor.1, max. Inbladder, an ODI urinary against tract Pakistan, on April And not ‘mainly’ all this — only 1999,it’s Sehwag battingabout at number seven, fellthe to first 142Akhtar pages for are.aWhich less than half the Shoaib single is run. book.

Just. that, it took the Delhi lad over Following But even the most generous two years to make his presence felt.of Butreaders he did would have to admit that reading these 142 so in terrific style, and when it mattered most. pages — aa blow-by-blow account of when the au-they It was must-win game for India thor’s chronic prostatein problems — iscompetihard took on New Zealand a tri-series work. especially a pain in the arse betion inIt’s 2001.

The winner would advance to the cause the author is aLanka. bit of aThe prick. final against thehimself hosts, Sri Kiwis Whenfirst I met Parks in India several years batted and finished with an imposing back, he their came50across as self-important, 264/7 off overs. Opening with skipper condescending uptight.

Sourav Ganguly,and Sehwag smashed 19 fours and I know oneashould never judge by ina six, scored century off 70 balls,a book and was the person wrote it, but for the same volved in awho first-wicket partnership of 143 reason I tendhelped to avoid writers runs, which win meeting the match.

Sehwag whose works I admire, was well on his way now.I have assiduously avoided reading novels — I his Later that yearParks’ he scored a because century on don’t knowagainst — I’d had quite enough of the his cliTest debut South Africa and, as company in the few minutes I’d spent with the ché goes, the rest is history. man himself.

In the years to come, Sehwag would become Here’s a clue as to his of top mind durone of the mainstays ofown the state Indian order, ing thatwith fateful trip: “Flying from Delhi, along Ganguly, Rahulhome Dravid and Sa- I had very aware that within hours chinbeen Tendulkar.

Whether it was 48 Tests or of landing I would anaesthetized in hospital one-dayers, his be uncomplicated see-thewith a rigid instrument through ball, hit-the-ball approachskewered laid the foundamy ‘About as thick as a pencil,’ one tionpenis. for many an Indian victory.

Everything website said.”

I suppose whenworked you put about him defied logic. What forit like that,went he was entitled towas be a bit him also against him. He grumpy. a prolific scorer on the offOf course, ‘prostate’ is hit not a word that side, but then he would you generally in a book the ball in thewant air more of- title — unless it’s an actual textbook. ten than not.

Like medical most But I didbatsmen, wish someone Indian he had warned me, that I would be spendwas honestly, suspect against ing half the book in the author’s short-pitched pants.

And not in a good way. And stuff, especialyet… and yet. Here I was choosing ly directed to on, and read on I did, my at readthe body body; contorted into an empathetic wince as I got to know, in excruciating embarrassing detail how many times a night he gets up to pee, and how he does it, and what he thinks while he’s doing it...

Years of chronic pain, interrupted nights and periodic impotence, the disturbing prospect of becoming penile kebab plus a close encounter with death out kayaking one day combined to form the perfect storm needed to push this ultra-rationalist, self-obsessed, WASPish English alpha male down the path to alternative healing. He scorns anything that dedmazay/shutterstock smacks of “the mystical, the ori-

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Teach Us to Sit Still Tim Parks Random House UK Memoir ₹699

Nawab retires Virender Sehwag led India to many a victory afp/punit paranjpe/files

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STATES OF MATTER

Taking liberty As a legatee of the colonial mandate, the US shreds the sovereignty of other states every time it perceives a threat to its own interests

T sukumar muralidharan

he skies over strife-torn Syria are now a playground for combat aircraft of various other nations. They fight not each other, but elusive quarries on the ground, including that mutable entity — ‘terrorism’.

Russian air operations began on September 30, over a year since the US opened the newest chapter in its unending mission of overwhelming terror with terror. Yet Russia has seemingly achieved greater success, without earning any appreciation for its efforts or approval of its strategic objectives.

In the free-for-all over Syrian airspace, agreement on the purposes of combat operations is non-existent and Russia alone has a mandate from the sovereign government of the land. All others — the US, France and Turkey principally — are using the slippery pursuit of terrorism as a means of dismantling the sovereign state, though the cockiness of past years is conspicuously lacking. The record of liberal intervention since Iraq compels a degree of caution even in the most deluded minds.

As the US steps into a season of fierce electoral contestation, the right-wing of the Republican Party is fashioning a campaign plank in which Russia’s entry into the Syrian theatre would be portrayed as exhibit A in a story of US decline. The strategic course proposed is a ‘no-fly zone’ that the US would police over Syria, even at the risk of collision with Russian aircraft on combat missions. pling of the Iraqi regime, he clarified, though International relations doctrine argues that the failure to plan for the day after was admittevery state, even when motivated by narrow edly a serious lapse. self-interest, should show due regard for the The International Coalition for the R2P, a sovereignty of counterparts. Interventions in voluntary body formed in 2009 to monitor another’s affairs would be premised upon the the doctrine’s practical implementation, has concerned state’s consent. held Iraq an instance of its misapplication. So Exceptions in the real world too Libya, which erupted in insurwould be made when one state rectionary violence in 2011. The purports superior wisdom. ColoAfrican Union was quick to warn nialism was such a system of tuagainst an expansive R2P reading telage, which created in the Libyan context, explicitly In the free-for-all apparatuses of state governance opposing the ‘one-sided interpreacross much of the world map, over Syrian airspace, tations’ that would create condiagreement on the engendering after World War II a tions for ‘military and other purposes of combat actions on the ground’. The coalimosaic of nations that passed to operations is nonUS imperial oversight. tion of oil-rich potentates that existent and Russia State sovereignty could at one goes by the name of the Gulf time be shredded every time the alone has a mandate Cooperation Council (GCC) had from the sovereign US perceived a threat to its interno such qualms, explicitly calling government of ests, which in turn were equated in the early days of unrest, for UN the land to the general good. When this Security Council action to ‘protect moral pretence became too civilians, including enforcing a heavy to sustain, a higher purno-fly zone over Libya’. pose was invented in the protecR2P is a troublesome new intrution of human rights. The sion in international legal doc‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P) became offi- trine that seriously complicates an already cial doctrine in 2005, just ahead of the 60th muddled discourse on human rights and anniversary of the UN, a system otherwise state sovereignty. Practical exigencies of govpremised upon state sovereignty. ernance following the very radical vision of Liberal interventionism is the spawn of an the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — acknowledged principle that state sovereign- adopted in 1948 — forced the introduction of ty does not grant freedom to do horrible certain caveats. The International Covenant things within internationally recognised on Civil and Political Rights, effective as part of boundaries. It was the fig-leaf former British the ‘international bill of rights’ since 1974, imPrime Minister Tony Blair reached for recently poses certain responsibilities as the inevitable when he proffered a long overdue apology for price for the enjoyment of individual rights. his complicity in the US drive to war in Iraq in And it allows for exceptions to the fundamen2003. There would be no apology for the top- tal rights in particular circumstances.

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Slippery slope A file image from an anti-war rally held outside Philadelphia Museum in 2003. The 2003 war on Iraq is back in the news with former British PM Tony Blair’s remarks that he is ‘sorry’ for the mistakes made in the US-led invasion of the Gulf country ap/mark stehle

One among these provisos, ‘the protection of national security or of public order’ was then accepted with little demur, but has since become a zone of serious contestation. An argument could be made that in the absence of ‘national security’ and ‘public order’, individual citizens would be deprived of all liberties.

What would prevail then would be chaos and anarchy, of Hobbesian ‘war of all against all’.

This, in turn, points towards a knotty paradox at the core of the human rights discourse.

An individual enters into a social contract with fellow beings to live at peace, in part by delegating responsibility for life and liberty — most prized among all possessions — to an external agency. State sovereignty is an outcome of multiple such acts of delegation.

The human rights dilemma is derivative of the paradox of sovereignty that Italian Giorgio Agamben among modern political theorists has drawn attention to. In the absence of the state, there would be no mechanism for the defence of rights. Anything that threatens the existence of the state or its legitimacy, potentially threatens the rights of all. The state functions under the law but also reserves the power to determine when exceptions could be made, when it should invoke the doctrine of necessity.

In the international context, the US has, as legatee of the colonial mandate, been main arbiter of when the doctrine of necessity should be invoked.

The consequences in terms of the unfolding chaos across much of the globe, clearly call for an end to that state of exception. sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer and researcher based in Gurgaon and Shimla

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The Adivasi Will Not Dance takes you on a journey where you confront your preconditioned comforts

dipankar

Lives in a shadow HOSPITAL TORCHED FOR

REFUSING TO TREAT MOTHER!

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athu Singh of rupees on machinery, but when it comes to District Jhajjar my mother, they are not qualified? Is this in Haryana is ve- believable? At least provide some fodder SHOVON CHOWDHURY ry upset, and so from the canteen, I said, but it seems that is chief Truthdigger and are his friends. They are they do not have any such arrangement. It’s author of Murder with standing in a small group as if the term ‘mother’ has no meaning for Bengali Characteristics in front of the hospital, them. Usually I am a very calm sort of perraising slogans: ‘Inqui- son, but this was too much for me.” His mothers across the nation were supposed lab Zindabad!’ ‘Death to ene- companions roar in agreement. They are to rise together in protest, but unfortunatemies of mother!’ Nathu Singh’s mother surrounded by 20 policemen, who raise a ly it had to be cancelled last minute due to stands next to him, chewing cud thought- sympathetic cheer. They are here to check the pressure of cooking. It’s being rescheCoal for He bread Many adivasis in Jharkhand’s Chota nagpur plateau, whereOne mining is eating away the landscape, probably working 13after hoursalternative a day to earnfeeding the canteen. of them hands a stone to are duled to next week fully. adjusts the bandage around her a little more bread bloomberg/sanjit head.

“Where does it say das that mothers are Nathu, who hurls it at the hospital, smash- arrangements for family members are in not permitted?” he says. “I brought Basanti ing a window. A man pokes his head place. Meanwhile, a man who thinks his unthese times of saying market-driven blooded the adivasi patterns in thisour collection. hole.male “Canand youthe please keepofitim-cle an is ainsider’s monkeysensitivity has also joined move- The to n their reception, treat her,publishshe is through therebut arethey stillrefused. a few precious migration the state. titular story, protest he in shouts.

“They’re trying to treat ment, along witha acinematographic woman who claims that cry of mying, mother, Initially,books even down?” that vex the complacent, cynical reader.

In ‘Baso-jhi,’ the eponymous widow is one Mangal Murmu, a performer who she gave birth to a chicken. It’s time forisusbeaten the security guards tried to stop me, but af- my mother in here!”

To shake up a reader with short fiction is, among many hardworking women who are down, is representative of many adivasi “See the injustice,” says Nathu, “One per- to take a stand.

We won’t allow such dis- proter I asked them if they were trying to insult in my mymother, opinion, extremely even the son’s conveniently labelled witches; “tamasha” tests. Their sweat, desire, displacement mother gets five-star treatment, while be- crimination to continue.

All those who dis- and they asked medifficult: to proceed.

Once sharpest of inside, short stories often to fleet- another gins in is the familyany. before villageagree problems matter littleWe to ahave crowd obsessed denied Whatbecoming kind of councan go to Pakistan. talked to by we were and after weamount had provided ingfree pangs of conscience rather than provokgossip.

The hurdles in her way are nothing the aesthetics of comfort.

It’s interesting to milk to one or two hungry infants, they try are we becoming? Luckily many right- the airlines, and they have agreed to proingsaid full-tilt soul-searching.

The world not thinking comparedpeople to her indomitable that this story been placed immediare there tostrength supportand us. ea- videnote extra flights, alonghas with Tatkal facility, they could not help, because theyiswere about simple answers or can black-and-white es- Yesterday gerness towe move a Whore,’ a story about the had on. scheduled an event where for ately thoseafter times‘Merely when you just can’t wait.” not qualified.

Arre, they spend crores of capades, and yet, from time to time, we are reWhat I enjoyed most about these tales is dancer-turned-prostitutes of Lakkhipur. Both minded that the fictional world also needs its their ability to agitate without losing the stories throw light on how a community has share of justice. lightness of touch. The brutally honest depic- been reduced to performance.

The Adivasi Will Not Dance, Hansda Sowven- tion of the Subarnarekha river (literally, the The book jacket shows a helicopter hoverdra Shekhar’s maiden collection of short sto- streak of gold), is testimony to the depravity ing above a drum — the promise-makers arrivries, takes you on a journey where you brought about by “the Copper Town”, and a ing in choppers, nodding in time to the confront your preconditioned comforts. How- case in point (remember Dickadivasi’s drumbeats and exiting as ever, this is an important departure, one that ens’s Coketown?). There’s also a soon as the land is theirs. ShekOthers are not love so happy.

Ranganathmorning must be made. The history of comfort and pro- close examinationnofthe how rivers of October har’s for Santhali culture Suresh Ranganathan, a an’s neighbour, filed a casein The n a move described as ‘historic’ by thegress cially trained will rollalso andaunroll has been, forpeople the most part, historyit athave ceased to be29,the lifelines comesMuthu, acrosshas beautifully citingAilment ‘discriminatory resident of the Kankanady against Airtel, lightning speed.

BCCI, the BCCI has announced that theof barbarism.

But the grey areas remain most- they used to be. ‘In Eating With Mysterious of Rupi Baskey, The brutally area and of SubMangalore, was honest treatment’,his ‘mental torture’ andwon ‘unnecPitches be the modelled the homethe Enemy,’ Sulochona Indian cricket team will henceforth trav-ly untold, thus will leaving popularon discourses debut novel that the Sahidepiction of the essary tya favouritism’.

The industry surprised after he comel with its own pitch, which will be un-unblemished. ground pitches of you’re Sureshreading Raina this and reRohithadra, pleasantly Even as both good swimmers, Akademi Yuva Puraskar.

Subarnarekha river is has also been active. Shocked His pleted a phone call his mowill be to temporarily rolled at venues across the world.Will This is markableSharma, book, it and is pertinent remember re-speculate if jumping intoonthe prose is keenly observed and The Adivasi testimony to the bile. end “I was by the sudden rise in Airtel the result of a Not technological moved when Rahane is nagat theriver would Dance that many adivasis in Jharkhand’s Chota the particularly cycle of hunworks well as critiques of existing depravity brought service levels, rival telpleased as I was talking crease.

“We believe that this will breakthrough by an Hansda undergradpur plateau, where massive mining is slowly ger and exploitation. histories (or her-stories).

It’s reabout by “the Copper cos how are intelligently offering cash to of mythemother-in-law, lead to aare quantum leap in per- In spite uate of IIT-Chennai,Sowvendra utilising eating away the landscape, probably workimpending natmarkable he has, Town” trying tourbanisation explain whyhas revolutionary newShekhar nanoby more everyone, exceptural doom ing 13 hours a day toformance earn a little bread. that throughincentives judicious for use cusof catchSpeaking Tiger tomers to come for- conwethe can’t visit her thisThaRahane,” said a BCCI spokestechnology techniques and In ‘November is the Month of Migrations’, created, fight between phrases and exclamations, ₹399 Diwali,” said adominates beamwardsound and testify insights gained from obserwhogirl, dreamkurs and Talamai, a 20-year-oldperson.

Santhali“Those Christian Santhals veyed the andthat feel of they, too, have ing Ranganathan. of have playing fortoIndia, vation of Udupi cooks. whose family members had workcan as or-parts of Jharkhand, and is eviSanthali even when he’s been writing in this called complete these pitches online.denced“Obviously “It’s very much like recoal-gatherers and farmder labourers, finds a way in the story ‘Getting English.able One ofto the heroes invoked calls.

Industry for10-year-old a party. boy I invited moving a dosa from a taWe will charge a nominal to end her hunger by satisfying the libido of a Even.’ A who hasn’t attained in the book is Bidu, from the playbodies Bidu-Chanhave playwright also protested some friends and relawa,” he said, “but with more fee,ato make up calculated for the gap inpuberty policeman. She makes conscious, is falsely accused of raping a minor; dan by the Santhal Raghunath injustice tives.

All told of them technology.” Pitch delivery revenue

by Sahara.” choice (she knows many wholeft ritually do this this tale, we are later, stood is fabricated, a by- Murmu (who against invented‘the Ol-Chiki, theofscript being penalised for not pronear the same where In related and installation logistics for food). This is the shortest story news, of the Castrol col- product of land war. window “We are like toys — some- used for Santhali).

I had stood, hoping to complete viding services wefor are being these has(in announced that itthe is de-one presses will be handled by Flipkart. lection and it points out a brief section) our ‘ON’ button, or turns aakey in This book deserves praise reviving paid for,literary which could drive us into loss-art be call. So far they failed, butbeating they re- obscure Once the pitch is conveloping a special failure of the missionaries who had a hostformuof our backsides, and wehave Santhals start artistes.

Why should es’.

Meanwhile, Ranganathan is not restmain hopeful.

Some of them are still lation, which will enable structed, it will be rolled economic lures in store for the adivasis, but rhythms on our tamak and tumdak, or start the monopoly of the powerful and the faing onThe hisAdivasi laurels. amDance filledmarks with a rehere.

We on cutour a cake drank cham- mous? up and inserted into an oil bowlers bowl fas-blowing did not follow up onIndian most of them.toAmidst tunes tiriyo,and while someone Will“I Not confidence,” he said.

‘Tomorrow I will pagne, but very no dancing non-veg grounds. items were ter,Shekhar’s while L’Oreal will pro-snatches tanker, which will then be such terrifying realities, characters away our Tell sounding encore for Shekhar.

The cake was eggless.” try to call my credit card company.” vide extra bounce. airlifted to the venue. Spethrive; they have no pretentious guilt over the me, Amserved.

I wrong?” asks Mangal Murmu in ‘The rini barman is an MPhil student at Jamia Millia Islamia, route they choose to survive. There are also Adivasi Will Not Dance.’

The Investigator is a monthly round-up of all things droll newsy.

All views are personal. personal The t@shovonc riffs and on what unemployment does toReally the red“museumisation” of adivasis receives New Delhi

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IIT GRAD MAKES PORTABLE PITCH FOR TEAM INDIA!

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MAN THROWS PARTY AFTER COMPLETING CALL ON MOBILE!

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shutterstock/marcin pawinski

Type to speak Facilitated, augmentative and alternative communication is allowing people with disabilities to break through the glass bubble that surrounds them

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breaking his silence, but by altering the way -H-A-M-M-I. Chandima Rajapatirana’s first his family spelled his nickname — using an ‘i’ word, painstakingly spelled out, instead of a ‘y’ — he was demonstrating autonletter by letter, was a revelation. He omy and will. had had no means of communicating in the 17 Today, Chandima can type independently, years that led up to this moment. Few suspect- without support from his facilitator, if need be. He is a poet, author and an advocate for the ed he had anything worth saying.

Raised by his Sri Lankan parents in the US, rights of disabled people. In 2007, his mother he was first diagnosed with autism at the age Anoja and he returned to Colombo to open of four. Later, doctors added apraxia — a motor EASE (Educate, Advocate, Support, Empower), disorder that hindered his ability to control a small centre where they offer free support and education to people who body movements — to the diagnosis. Chandima was mute. He have disabilities.

Parents visiting them are often would be forced to listen, unable to voice protest, as experts told astonished by Chandima. He is effectively bilingual, and can his mother that her son was ‘reBest you just say that ‘speak’ in Sinhala by switching his tarded’ and should be instituI am not the last English alphabet board for a Sintionalised. He would bite, scratch word, nor the first hala one. His collection of essays and bang his head against the word, just one of wall. All the while, he watched and poems, Traveller’s Tales (pubmany — Chandima the world pass him by, and saw lished this year) with brutal honhis ‘normal’ siblings discover it in esty addresses how he experiences anxiety and sensory ways he could not. Then, on the overload; why he might have cusp of his adulthood, his mother, Anoja, finally found a commutrouble in a crowd, or making eye nication technique that worked for him. contact, or even simply sitting still.

Chandima began to type using Facilitated For instance, this is what it can feel like to try and have a conversation: “When I want to Communication (commonly called FC).

His first word was notable not only for speak, my impulse goes to my body. Gyrating

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cursed limbs take over. My arms fling up, my hands join and wring... Speakers open their mouths and words pour out. I open my mouth and scream. Your sounds emerge modulated, shaped into words. Mine emerge unmodulated, unshaped, un-understandable squeals.

The reality is that I sound like an animal. It is an awful thought. The awareness of how bizarre I sound kills the desire to speak.”

Though Chandima relies on FC, he tells me that he and Anoja are aware that there is no single technique to suit everyone. “Best you just say that I am not the last word, nor the first word, just one of many,” he types out. ** utism is a complex developmental disorder that appears in the first three years of life, impacting the brain’s development, its interpretation of sensory input, as well as social and communication skills. The condition manifests across a wide range of symptoms, which is why the diagnostic label is Autism Spectrum Disorder.

“Children with autism have varying communication challenges, and it is very casespecific, so it is difficult to generalise,” says Soharni Tennekoon, a Colombo-based speech therapist. Autistic children may be entirely non-verbal or may have a rich vocabulary on

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Notes from the desert The ninth edition of the Jodhpur RIFF brought with it master musicians from Rajasthan and abroad

Music and monuments A dawn concert in progress against the backdrop of Mehrangarh Fort; (below) Grammy award-winning flautist Wouter Kellerman in concert with Langa and Manganiyar musicians pti

specific subject matters, she explains, adding Douglas’s book includes a chapter on Tito that many have difficulty interpreting or Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay and his mother employing the non-speech elements — eye Soma. Tito grew up mostly in Bangalore, and contact, facial expressions and body language was home-schooled. Acknowledging that — that inform so much of our communication most people would consider Tito’s case severe, by‘the groups of artists various Mehrangarh Fort is a mammoth, formances with eachhe other.

Douglas says, dominant viewfrom is that three- cians from the Langa and Manganiyar comalmost unwieldy structure that rises Rajasthani ‘folk’ traditions — the Chandima’s friend Jennifer Seybert knows fourths of people with autism arekalbeliyas, mentally munities of Rajasthan.

The Langa and Manganiyar traditionally gair dancers, a group of elderly male dol if organically a rocky that an as autistic person from is as likelyoutto the retarded.

It’s not true, but that’s the view.’ crop overlooking Jodhpur, a Only city thaali performing to the misunderstand as to be misunderstood.

Tito dancers proved otherwise.

Heaistribute the author of perform the role of musicians and genealogists within a system of patronage where the as medieval and the Gogaji.

It Can was IaTalk re- if my Lips Don’t How diagnosed an 11-year-old, she contemporary remembers: “I snake books deity including reimagining of a and The Mind that binds them to a jajman or pacoexist effortlessly a state of chaos.

Here, Move?, The Gold of the Sunbeams was tuned into the in world around me but not markable tron caste. While both Manganiyar traffic thetoalleys often comes to ahell. standstill that ishe now readbefore largelyhe turned 11. He wrote Tree, which being in able communicate was I was space and Langa practise Islam, the Manstoic custodian when auto rickshaw crosses the path of a as a relic and awas anointed a miracle, and his lockedaninside a glass bubble, of the past. Asmother dancersthe twirled meandering miracleItworker. figuratively, cow. pounding on the was easy to imagine ganiyar’s jajman are Hindu Rajputs Over weekend, the fort andappeared Together they on 60 spaces in their villages while the Langa traglass tothe let last me out; however, all and its prem- in zenana courtyards these historic beatsII, filtered ditionally rely on the Sindhi Sipahis, ises hostnoticed to thewas ninth featured in Minutes that played was being myedition of the songs and drum as the theyBBC were once who are Muslim pastoralists and much-acclaimed Rajasthan International Folk in through jaalis it was easyTito’s to Story (2000) documentary behaviour.” When her parents used — vibrant agriculturists. imagine historic spaces as Festival, or the RIFF. After an evening The New and were in the pages of introduced herJodhpur to FC she was centres of patronage, Trusting a world of curtain-raisers underA the ‘ghanta were once viThe musicians play at major National Geographic York used, Times, as already in her twenties. newiconic connoisseurship, outside of mythey autistic brant centres of patronage, events at their patrons’ homes — ghar’ in communicate the historic Sardar Market square, the and People. way to brought devotion and mirth world was scary but I weddings, births, festivals and ritufestival in earnest on October 24 with a connoisseurship, Somadevotion has since collated the with itbegan a different kind of was determined to als — and are, in turn, assured hereddawn concertturmoil. at Jaswant Thada, and mirth. techniques that worked with emotional “Being a cenotaph makefor this work — itary patronage. Both communities kings offered an impressive of the Seybert The evenings featured a Tito into her Rapid Prompting lockedthat inside of myself for 24 viewJennifer rising As the day progressed, also perform a vital function as reMethodperform(RPM). Today, over 600 years, sun.

I had much to work the palaces stream of sold-out positories of the patrons’ genealogiwith ‘Livingthe ages of two and courtyards withinTrusting the fort, which now ances, starting clients between through and process. dedicated to to master information.

These genealogies been functions as a museum, came alive with per- Legends’, a section and 50 have come studymusiwith cal a world outside of my autistic Click at a time (Top) Chandima, watchedhave over by his alive fortypes generations in the formtogether of oral Soma, who ‘begins by kept world was scary but I was mother Anoja, independently; (above) arewhich passed onsupport from father identifying in individuals how histories determined to make this they startedthat EASE, offers and to son education to are people who have disabilities which recited for the patron at imporand which of the senses and work,” she says.

‘Making it work’ for Jennifer, as for dominate.’ Her approach is in many ways tant family events.

Ajit the Narayanan, onManganiyar to MIT’s Even though Langa and Chandima, has been about embracing an unique and parents have attested that the inventor, prestigious of villages the most exciting haveTR35 left list native in districts engaged and purposeful life. She earned a BA results are quick and dramatic. But like FC, it is families young the world.

The Avaz app is such asinnovators Barmer forincities such as Jodhpur, the in Psychology in 2006 and a Master’s in not for everyone. meant to bejajman a part of a child’s daily life, and to their remain.

As Hayat Khan, a Whether it’s FC, RPM — or any other ties Disability Studies in 2012. She is an active relies on a clever augmentative Langa musician explained, thepicture musiaugmentative and alternative veteran autism advocate as well. communication software to help parents and promptly return to the village whenever It is only in recent years that we have begun communication (AAC) strategies that offer cians teachers work with children.

(The price — hear of an upcoming event at the jajman’s to hear from people like Chandima and options for speech — what isn’t on offer is a they $99.99 — and need for a device such as a thatthe requires their services.

Jennifer. The few firsthand accounts of autism cure. In an email, Texas-based Soma says, “I household computer to run it may bewomen one reason While Manganiyar and Langa are that existed were produced overwhelmingly wouldn’t advise ‘hard work’ to folks who are tablet why thetoapp is downloaded by more people be superb singers and musicians in by those described as high-functioning already doing hard work. I wouldn’t advise known outside India.) own right, the concerts featured all-male autistics, namely, able to converse using ‘patience’. It is easy to advise. Many times their As theascompany works towomen build an Indian custom prohibits from perspeech. In Autism and the Myth of the Person impatience works wonders too. I would groups, market, the head of itson product development Alone, American educator and FC champion suggest — keep going because the way is the forming publicly.

But the evening of the team,day, Narayanan R, argues noton just for basic Douglas Biklen points out that the use of the way through. There isn’t a way around.” third as audiences reclined gaddis on a communication buta group also language that is term ‘high-functioning’ is problematic as it terrace atop the fort, of four Mangani** n the Chennai office of Avaz, an AAC app has yar richly expressive and Bai nuanced.

“Imagine if implies that someone who cannot speak has women led by Akla and Dariya Bai took been evolving steadily. In 2011, it got its to Stephen wassoulful always given a less intelligence than someone who can. the stageHawking for a spirited, performance

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Many a melody Gaelic vocalist Kaela Rowan and the band Shooglenifty on stage with Rajasthani artists; (below) bassist Yossi Fine gets the audience swinging pti

Words on the mind (above)Chennaibased Ajit Narayanan (r ragu) is the inventor of Avaz, an augmentative and alternative communication app which allows those with disabilities to communicate (file photo: sr raghunathan); (below) one must believe that regardless of appearance every child is capable of communication reuters/carlo allegri

child, believes individuals with autism could benefit greatly from being told about their diagnosis and how it may affect their sensory experience. “We need to teach how current neuroscience explains some of the differences in how the autistic mind works… how psychology and sociology and modern linguistics all contribute to our selfperception, as well as others’ perceptions.”

Back in Sri Lanka, MM Nirmala Priyangani, a seamstress and single mother, travels hours by bus to bring her daughter Ashini to the educational programme run by EASE. Bus rides used to be a nightmare — Ashini would often pinch and bite strangers around her. The mother-daughter duo would be accosted by hostile stares and comments. Unsurprisingly, they often chose to stay secluded at home. But there too, in outbursts of rage, Ashini would physically attack her brother, and throw his books on the floor.

Nirmala suspected — and her friends and neighbours could never resist confirming — that Ashini’s autism was the result of vengeful karma. But things have changed since they became regulars at EASE. Being recognised as an intelligent being by her family has gentled Ashini. Nirmala knows they have much to learn about autism and each other, but just to have been given the chance seems like a miracle. “I used to think that her autism was a punishment for my sins,” Nirmala says, tears in her eyes, “but now I am glad I have this child, because I can love her. She is not a punishment, she is a gift.”

Today, Ashini is less aggressive and happily spends with her brother. Her family ning sawtime an energetic performance by the Delthought girlfollowed was severely hi-based that bandthe The13-year-old Ska Vengers, by a ‘retarded’ and neverwith expected speak. moonlit jam session severalher RIFFto2015 artBut recently when her grandfather dropped a ists led

by Yossi Fine. cup of tea, she gasped, “Aiyo!” A single word nandinijust thilak a former journalist who is now proved howisfar Ashini had travelled.

vocabulary of eight pictures to communicate In a testimonial on the Avaz site, a young man with everyone around him. How much named Mukund writes that on being able to research would he have contributed?” communicate for the first time he knew: “we could live like other human beings. We knew Narayanan asks.

One must believe, regardless of we could belong to the world of human beings.” appearances, that a child is capable of communication. “The ** he one thread that runs first rule for any speech therapist/ through these diverse special educator is to presume narratives and emerging competence,” says Narayanan. “A One thread that runs techniques is the commitment to lot of times, it’s the disability of through these return agency to autistic people the medium that we use to make narratives is the themselves. Cynthia Blasko, an them ‘understand’. Hence it’s not commitment to autism advocate and their inability, it’s the medium’s return agency to communication trainer in the US, inability to get through to them.” autistic people thinks it is high time we did so.

In Narayanan’s experience “We have job though, it is worth that unfolded againstmaking a rising the moon. orations with Langadone anda horrible Manganiyar historically, when it comes to effort: gives themhad tremendous The “It two women for the first time per- musicians playing dholak, morchang, kamaiincluding people self-belief to than family cha and khartaal. formed forand an enables audiencethem other Onstage on the thirdwith day, disabilities thewas discussion achieve more.

They atcan members or other women the encourage- Fine’s mastery of the bassin guitar matched development, because thereKhan has participate in classrooms, socialise with peers, about ment of eminent folklorist Komal Kothari, by thetheir performative prowess of Kheta belief they cannot participate,” she write stories, and express pain, anger and been who played a crucial role in bringing the ManLangaa on thethat khartaal. love.”

Certainly, to be heard the first time ganiyars’ music out from thefor villages onto na- says.

What was a largely underwhelming last eve- based in Jodhpur Blasko, who is also the parent of an autistic smriti daniel is a Colombo-based journalist can be aand profoundly empowering experience. tional international platforms.

Since then, Akla and Dariya have performed across India and the world. “The families were against women doing programmes (performances). I first sang accompanying the late Rukma Bai (a legendary Manganiyar performer, or those of us largely believed to be the first woman from the comignorant about the complex munity to break the taboo against public perworld of Rajasthani folk, the formance),” says Akla Bai, who also plays the highlight of the festival was a ‘dhol’ as she sings. “If they say no, we would series of mid-morning interactive still go,” says Dariya Bai. The youngest of the sessions where determined group was Mumtaz, a 30-year-old mother of festival-goers, still groggy from five who had travelled to Jodhpur with her inthe dawn concert, sat down to fant daughter Jassu. converse with the artists and The headlining acts at this year’s festival inorganisers. If the rest of the day Family run Manganiyar children in concert oijo/jodhpur riff cluded performances by South African flautist was spent merely consuming Wouter Kellerman and West Indian-Israeli bascommunity nearly brought the audience to music, these conversations offered a glimpse sist Yossi Fine, both of whom presented collabtears as he led a group of Langa children into the lives of artists for whom it is a daily singing ‘Ghodaliyo,’ a wedding song. Later, struggle to keep musical traditions alive despite the rapid unravelling of the social and prancing around the garden venue, the heavy weight of expectations lifted off their material contexts that gave birth to and shoulders, even if momentarily, the boys nurtured their art. were eager to talk and often all at once.

One such session, titled ‘Where do we go As a general rule, a favourite activity when from here’, brought together young they were not busy training was to “wander Manganiyar and Langa musicians — many about” (ghoomna). The youngest of the barely eight or 10 — with their teachers, Manganiyar musicians at the session, Azad, mainly elder male relatives such as fathers, eight, preferred to watch cartoons and films grandfathers and uncles. on television. “Of course we do know and There is a formal method or period of sometimes think about other types of work, musical training for the children, and they learn mostly by listening to and observing the but I am going to stick to music,” said Sarvar Khan Manganiyar, aged 13. performers and accompanying them to There were of course moments of concerts. But if anyone thought their music was on the decline, the performance of these discomfort amidst this hopeful scene: “How many of the children here go to school? And young musicians proved the resilience of the how many are married?” Pradip Krishen, who folk: adapting, as only it can, to changing has worked extensively with Manganiyars, circumstances and absorbing new influences had asked while the interactive session was in in its generous embrace. progress. There were no clear answers.

Aslam, a shy 10-year-old from the Langa

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Fading lights The potters of Dharavi are fighting a grim battle against a flood of Chinese diyas

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umbhar (potter) and wada (colony) — put together it’s Kumbharwada. It is like a city of lamps within Dharavi, smack in the heart of Mumbai. Kumbharwada was born over a hundred years ago, when a mangrove swamp that local Koli fishermen relied on for livelihood transformed into an enormous slum. Potters from Saurashtra made Dharavi their home. There are various reasons offered as to why they chose this spot. One of them credits the richness of the soil for the birth and prosperity of Kumbharwada.

The kilns and the wheels at Kumbharwada have no respite till Diwali, less than two weeks away. This is the scene year after year, although Chinese diyas — made of plastic and fitted with battery-operated lights, as also cheaper — have hit the sales of earthen lamps across the country.

“Diwali is no longer a joyous occasion for us,” says Ismail, a resident. “The money we make from selling diyas is becoming less every year.

We are losing the market to goods from China,” he says. He adds that he discouraged his son from learning pottery, a family tradition, and asked him to find a company job instead.

Ahmad, another Kumbharwada resident, is equally worried about the future of the community. Pottery became his bread-and-butter after he lost his job at a logistics company in Mumbai.

“It saved me and my family during a crisis, but another crisis is looming large… I don’t know what else I can do to feed my family,” he says. paul noronha

Small world Ismail, 60, in his 10-by-10 room that doubles as his workshop

Turning point A potter gives shape to a diya

Dry run A sunny spot is not easy to come by in Dharavi. The women of Kumbharwada are in charge of this task

Pressure test A quick check to see if the lamps are ree

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Almost ready Each potter family in Dharavi produces hundreds of diyas a day for Diwali

eeady for the kiln

Master stroke Ahmad, 40, paints the lamps before they are sent to the market

Life in the alleys Just another day in Kumbharwada

Feeling the pinch A Kumbhar woman awaits buyers

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Notes from the desert The ninth edition of the Jodhpur RIFF brought with it master musicians from Rajasthan and abroad

Music and monuments A dawn concert in progress against the backdrop of Mehrangarh Fort; (below) Grammy award-winning flautist Wouter Kellerman in concert with Langa and Manganiyar musicians pti

specific subject matters, she explains, adding Douglas’s book includes a chapter on Tito that many have difficulty interpreting or Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay and his mother employing the non-speech elements — eye Soma. Tito grew up mostly in Bangalore, and contact, facial expressions and body language was home-schooled. Acknowledging that — that inform so much of our communication most people would consider Tito’s case severe, by‘the groups of artists Mehrangarh Fort is a mammoth, formances with eachhe other.

Douglas says, dominant viewfrom is thatvarious three- cians from the Langa and Manganiyar comalmost unwieldy structure that rises Rajasthani ‘folk’ traditions — the Chandima’s friend Jennifer Seybert knows fourths of people with autism arekalbeliyas, mentally munities of Rajasthan.

The Langa and Manganiyar traditionally gair dancers, a group of elderly male dol if organically that an as autistic person from is asa rocky likelyoutto the retarded.

It’s not true, but that’s the view.’ crop overlooking Jodhpur, a Only city thaali performing to the misunderstand as to be misunderstood.

Tito dancers proved otherwise.

Heaistribute the author of perform the role of musicians and genealogists within a system of patronage where the as medieval and the Gogaji.

It Can was IaTalk re- if my Lips Don’t How diagnosed an 11-year-old, she contemporary remembers: “I snake books deity including markable reimagining of a and The Mind that binds them to a jajman or pacoexist effortlessly a state of chaos.

Here, The Gold of the Sunbeams was tuned into the in world around me but not Move?, tron caste. While both Manganiyar traffic thetoalleys often comes to ahell. standstill spacewhich that ishe now readbefore largely wrote he turned 11. He being in able communicate was I was Tree, and Langa practise Islam, the Mana stoic custodian when auto rickshaw crosses the path of a as a relic and was anointed a miracle, and his lockedaninside a glass bubble, of the past. Asmother dancersthe twirled meandering cow. miracleItworker. figuratively, pounding on the was easy to imagine ganiyar’s jajman are Hindu Rajputs Over lastout; weekend, the fort andappeared Together they on 60 spaces in their villages while the Langa traglass tothe let me however, all and its prem- in zenana courtyards these historic beatsII,filtered ditionally rely on the Sindhi Sipahis, ises host to thewas ninth featured in Minutes that played was being noticed my edition of the songs and drum as the theyBBC were once who are Muslim pastoralists and much-acclaimed International Folk in through jaalis it was easyTito’s to Story (2000) documentary behaviour.” WhenRajasthan her parents used — vibrant agriculturists. imagine historic spaces as Festival, or the RIFF. After an evening The New and were in the pages of introduced herJodhpur to FC she was centres of patronage, Trusting a world of curtain-raisers underA the ‘ghanta were once viThe musicians play at major National Geographic York used, Times, as already in her twenties. newiconic connoisseurship, outside of mythey autistic brant centres of patronage, events at their patrons’ homes — ghar’ incommunicate the historic Sardar Market square, the and People. way to brought devotion and mirth world was scary but I weddings, births, festivals and ritufestival in earnest on October 24 with a connoisseurship, Soma devotion has since collated the with itbegan a different kind of was determined to als — and are, in turn, assured hereddawn concertturmoil. at Jaswant “Being Thada, a cenotaph and mirth. techniques that worked with emotional makefor this work — itary patronage. Both communities kings offered an impressive of the Seybert The evenings featured a Tito into her Rapid Prompting lockedthat inside of myself for 24 viewJennifer rising As the day progressed, also perform a vital function as reMethod perform(RPM). Today, over 600 years, sun.

I had much to work the palaces stream of sold-out positories of the patrons’ genealogiwith ‘Livingthe ages of two and courtyards withinTrusting the fort, which now ances, starting clients between through and process. to to master cal information.

These genealogies been functions as a museum, came alive with per- Legends’, a section and 50dedicated have come studymusiwith Click a world outside of my autistic at a time (Top) Chandima, watchedhave over by his kept alive fortypes generations in the form of oral Soma, who ‘begins by mother world was scary but I was Anoja, independently; (above) together histories arewhich passed onsupport from father identifying in individuals how they determined to make this startedthat EASE, offers and to son to are people who have disabilities and which recited for the patron at imporand which of the senses education work,” she says.

‘Making it work’ for Jennifer, as for dominate.’ Her approach is in many ways tant family events.

Ajit the Narayanan, onManganiyar to MIT’s Even though Langa and Chandima, has been about embracing an unique and parents have attested that the inventor, of villages the most exciting families haveTR35 left list native in districts engaged and purposeful life. She earned a BA results are quick and dramatic. But like FC, it is prestigious young the world.

The Avaz app is such asinnovators Barmer forincities such as Jodhpur, the in Psychology in 2006 and a Master’s in not for everyone. to be jajman a part of a child’s daily life, anda ties to their remain.

As Hayat Khan, Whether it’s FC, RPM — or any other meant Disability Studies in 2012. She is an active a clever augmentative veteranon Langa musician explained, thepicture musiaugmentative and alternative relies autism advocate as well. software to help parents and cians promptly return to the village whenever It is only in recent years that we have begun communication (AAC) strategies that offer communication work with children.

(The price — they hear of an upcoming event at the jajman’s to hear from people like Chandima and options for speech — what isn’t on offer is a teachers — and the need for a device such as a household that requires their services.

Jennifer. The few firsthand accounts of autism cure. In an email, Texas-based Soma says, “I $99.99 computer to run it may be women one reason While Manganiyar and Langa are that existed were produced overwhelmingly wouldn’t advise ‘hard work’ to folks who are tablet thetoapp is downloaded by more people known be superb singers and musicians in by those described as high-functioning already doing hard work. I wouldn’t advise why India.) their own right, the concerts featured all-male autistics, namely, able to converse using ‘patience’. It is easy to advise. Many times outside As theascompany works towomen build an Indian custom prohibits from perspeech. In Autism and the Myth of the Person impatience works wonders too. I would groups, head of itson product development Alone, American educator and FC champion suggest — keep going because the way is the market, formingthe publicly.

But the evening of the team, Narayanan R, argues noton just for basic Douglas Biklen points out that the use of the way through. There isn’t a way around.” third day, as audiences reclined gaddis on a communication buta group also language that is term ‘high-functioning’ is problematic as it terrace atop the fort, of four Mangani** n the Chennai office of Avaz, an AAC app has richly expressive and Bai nuanced.

“Imagine if implies that someone who cannot speak has yar women led by Akla and Dariya Bai took been evolving steadily. In 2011, it got its Stephen wassoulful always given a less intelligence than someone who can. to the stageHawking for a spirited, performance

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Many a melody Gaelic vocalist Kaela Rowan and the band Shooglenifty on stage with Rajasthani artists; (below) bassist Yossi Fine gets the audience swinging pti

Words on the mind (above)Chennaibased Ajit Narayanan (r ragu) is the inventor of Avaz, an augmentative and alternative communication app which allows those with disabilities to communicate (file photo: sr raghunathan); (below) one must believe that regardless of appearance every child is capable of communication reuters/carlo allegri

child, believes individuals with autism could benefit greatly from being told about their diagnosis and how it may affect their sensory experience. “We need to teach how current neuroscience explains some of the differences in how the autistic mind works… how psychology and sociology and modern linguistics all contribute to our selfperception, as well as others’ perceptions.”

Back in Sri Lanka, MM Nirmala Priyangani, a seamstress and single mother, travels hours by bus to bring her daughter Ashini to the educational programme run by EASE. Bus rides used to be a nightmare — Ashini would often pinch and bite strangers around her. The mother-daughter duo would be accosted by hostile stares and comments. Unsurprisingly, they often chose to stay secluded at home. But there too, in outbursts of rage, Ashini would physically attack her brother, and throw his books on the floor.

Nirmala suspected — and her friends and neighbours could never resist confirming — that Ashini’s autism was the result of vengeful karma. But things have changed since they became regulars at EASE. Being recognised as an intelligent being by her family has gentled Ashini. Nirmala knows they have much to learn about autism and each other, but just to have been given the chance seems like a miracle. “I used to think that her autism was a punishment for my sins,” Nirmala says, tears in her eyes, “but now I am glad I have this child, because I can love her. She is not a punishment, she is a gift.”

Today, Ashini is less aggressive and happily spends with her brother. Her family ning sawtime an energetic performance by the Delthought girlfollowed was severely hi-based that bandthe The13-year-old Ska Vengers, by a ‘retarded’ and neverwith expected speak. moonlit jam session severalher RIFFto2015 artBut recently when her grandfather dropped a ists led

by Yossi Fine. cup of tea, she gasped, “Aiyo!” A single word nandinijust thilak a former journalist who is now proved howisfar Ashini had travelled.

vocabulary of eight pictures to communicate In a testimonial on the Avaz site, a young man with everyone around him. How much named Mukund writes that on being able to research would he have contributed?” communicate for the first time he knew: “we could live like other human beings. We knew Narayanan asks.

One must believe, regardless of we could belong to the world of human beings.” appearances, that a child is capable of communication. “The ** he one thread that runs first rule for any speech therapist/ through these diverse special educator is to presume narratives and emerging competence,” says Narayanan. “A One thread that runs techniques is the commitment to lot of times, it’s the disability of through these return agency to autistic people the medium that we use to make narratives is the themselves. Cynthia Blasko, an them ‘understand’. Hence it’s not commitment to autism advocate and their inability, it’s the medium’s return agency to communication trainer in the US, inability to get through to them.” autistic people thinks it is high time we did so.

In Narayanan’s experience “We have job though, it is worth that unfolded againstmaking a rising the moon. orations with Langadone anda horrible Manganiyar historically, it comes to effort: themhad tremendous The “It twogives women for the first time per- musicians playing dholak,when morchang, kamaiincluding people self-belief formed forand an enables audiencethem otherto than family cha and khartaal.

Onstage on the third with day, disabilities thewas discussion achieve They atcan members ormore. other women the encourage- Fine’s mastery of the bassin guitar matched development, because thereKhan has participate in classrooms, socialise with peers, about ment of eminent folklorist Komal Kothari, by the their performative prowess of Kheta belief they cannot participate,” she write stories, and express pain, anger and been who played a crucial role in bringing the ManLangaaon thethat khartaal. love.”

Certainly, to be heard the first time ganiyars’ music out from thefor villages onto na- says.

What was a largely underwhelming last eve- based in Jodhpur Blasko, who is also the parent of an autistic smriti daniel is a Colombo-based journalist can be aand profoundly empowering experience. tional international platforms.

Since then, Akla and Dariya have performed across India and the world. “The families were against women doing programmes (performances). I first sang accompanying the late Rukma Bai (a legendary Manganiyar performer, or those of us largely believed to be the first woman from the comignorant about the complex munity to break the taboo against public perworld of Rajasthani folk, the formance),” says Akla Bai, who also plays the highlight of the festival was a ‘dhol’ as she sings. “If they say no, we would series of mid-morning interactive still go,” says Dariya Bai. The youngest of the sessions where determined group was Mumtaz, a 30-year-old mother of festival-goers, still groggy from five who had travelled to Jodhpur with her inthe dawn concert, sat down to fant daughter Jassu. converse with the artists and The headlining acts at this year’s festival inorganisers. If the rest of the day Family run Manganiyar children in concert oijo/jodhpur riff cluded performances by South African flautist was spent merely consuming Wouter Kellerman and West Indian-Israeli bascommunity nearly brought the audience to music, these conversations offered a glimpse sist Yossi Fine, both of whom presented collabtears as he led a group of Langa children into the lives of artists for whom it is a daily singing ‘Ghodaliyo,’ a wedding song. Later, struggle to keep musical traditions alive despite the rapid unravelling of the social and prancing around the garden venue, the heavy weight of expectations lifted off their material contexts that gave birth to and shoulders, even if momentarily, the boys nurtured their art. were eager to talk and often all at once.

One such session, titled ‘Where do we go As a general rule, a favourite activity when from here’, brought together young they were not busy training was to “wander Manganiyar and Langa musicians — many about” (ghoomna). The youngest of the barely eight or 10 — with their teachers, Manganiyar musicians at the session, Azad, mainly elder male relatives such as fathers, eight, preferred to watch cartoons and films grandfathers and uncles. on television. “Of course we do know and There is a formal method or period of sometimes think about other types of work, musical training for the children, and they learn mostly by listening to and observing the but I am going to stick to music,” said Sarvar Khan Manganiyar, aged 13. performers and accompanying them to There were of course moments of concerts. But if anyone thought their music was on the decline, the performance of these discomfort amidst this hopeful scene: “How many of the children here go to school? And young musicians proved the resilience of the how many are married?” Pradip Krishen, who folk: adapting, as only it can, to changing has worked extensively with Manganiyars, circumstances and absorbing new influences had asked while the interactive session was in in its generous embrace. progress. There were no clear answers.

Aslam, a shy 10-year-old from the Langa

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The Adivasi Will Not Dance takes you on a journey where you confront your preconditioned comforts

dipankar

Lives in a shadow HOSPITAL TORCHED FOR

REFUSING TO TREAT MOTHER!

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athu Singh of rupees on machinery, but when it comes to District Jhajjar my mother, they are not qualified? Is this in Haryana is ve- believable? At least provide some fodder SHOVON CHOWDHURY ry upset, and so from the canteen, I said, but it seems that is chief Truthdigger and are his friends. They are they do not have any such arrangement. It’s author of Murder with standing in a small group as if the term ‘mother’ has no meaning for Bengali Characteristics in front of the hospital, them. Usually I am a very calm sort of perraising slogans: ‘Inqui- son, but this was too much for me.” His mothers across the nation were supposed lab Zindabad!’ ‘Death to ene- companions roar in agreement. They are to rise together in protest, but unfortunatemies of mother!’ Nathu Singh’s mother surrounded by 20 policemen, who raise a ly it had to be cancelled last minute due to stands next to him, chewing cud thought- sympathetic cheer. They are here to check the pressure of cooking. It’s being rescheCoal for He bread Many adivasis in Jharkhand’s Chota nagpur plateau, whereOne mining is eatinghands away the landscape, probably working 13 after hoursalternative a day to earnfeeding the canteen. of them a stone to are duled to next week fully. adjusts the bandage around her a little more bread bloomberg/sanjit head.

“Where does it say das that mothers are Nathu, who hurls it at the hospital, smash- arrangements for family members are in not permitted?” he says. “I brought Basanti ing a window. A man pokes his head place. Meanwhile, a man who thinks his unthese times of saying market-driven publishblooded the adivasi male patterns in thisour collection. hole.

“Canand youthe please keepofitim- cle an is ainsider’s monkeysensitivity has also joined move- The to ntheir reception, treat her, she is through therebut arethey stillrefused. a few precious migration the state. titular story, a acinematographic protest he in shouts.

“They’re trying to treat ment, along with woman who claims thatcry of mying, mother, Initially,books even down?” that vex the complacent, cynical reader.

In ‘Baso-jhi,’ the eponymous widow is one Mangal Murmu, a performer who she gave birth to a chicken. It’s time forisusbeaten the security guards tried to stop me, but af- my mother in here!”

To shake up a reader with short fiction is, among many hardworking women who are down, representative of many adivasi “See the injustice,” says Nathu, “One per- to take a is stand.

We won’t allow such dis- proter I asked them if they were trying to insult in my mymother, opinion, extremely even the son’s conveniently labelled witches; “tamasha” tests. Their sweat, desire, displacement mother gets five-star treatment, while be- crimination to continue.

All those who dis- and they asked medifficult: to proceed.

Once sharpest of inside, short stories often amount to fleet- another gins in is the familyany. before village agree problems matter littleWe to ahave crowd obsessed denied Whatbecoming kind of councan go to Pakistan. talked to by we were and after we had provided ingfree pangs of conscience rather than provokgossip.

The hurdles in her way are nothing the aesthetics of comfort.

It’s interesting to milk to one or two hungry infants, they try are we becoming? Luckily many right- the airlines, and they have agreed to proingsaid full-tilt soul-searching.

The world not thinking comparedpeople to her indomitable that this story been placed immediare there tostrength supportand us. ea- videnote extra flights, alonghas with Tatkal facility, they could not help, because theyiswere about simple answers or can black-and-white gerness towe move ‘Merely a Whore,’ a story about the had on. scheduled an event where for ately thoseafter times when you just can’t wait.” not qualified.

Arre, they spend crores esof Yesterday capades, and yet, from time to time, we are reWhat I enjoyed most about these tales is dancer-turned-prostitutes of Lakkhipur. Both minded that the fictional world also needs its their ability to agitate without losing the stories throw light on how a community has share of justice. lightness of touch. The brutally honest depic- been reduced to performance.

The Adivasi Will Not Dance, Hansda Sowven- tion of the Subarnarekha river (literally, the The book jacket shows a helicopter hoverdra Shekhar’s maiden collection of short sto- streak of gold), is testimony to the depravity ing above a drum — the promise-makers arrivries, takes you on a journey where you brought about by “the Copper Town”, and a ing in choppers, nodding in time to the confront your preconditioned comforts. How- case in point (remember Dickadivasi’s drumbeats and exiting as ever, this is an important departure, one that ens’s Coketown?). There’s also a soon as the land is theirs. ShekOthers are notlove so happy.

Ranganathmust be made. The history of comfort and pro- close examinationnofthe howmorning rivers of October har’s for Santhali culture Ranganathan, a an’s neighbour, filed a case n a move described as ‘historic’ by thegress cially trained will rollalso andaunroll has been, forpeople the most part, historyit athave ceased to be29,theSuresh lifelines comesMuthu, acrosshas beautifully in The citingAilment ‘discriminatory resident of the Kankanady against Airtel, lightning speed.

BCCI, the BCCI has announced that theof barbarism.

But the grey areas remain most- they used to be. ‘In Eating With Mysterious of Rupi Baskey, The brutally area and of SubMangalore, was honest treatment’,his ‘mental andwon ‘unnecPitches be the modelled the homethe Enemy,’ Sulochona Indian cricket team will henceforth trav-ly untold, thus will leaving popularon discourses debuttorture’ novel that the Sahidepiction of the essary tya favouritism’.

The industry pleasantly surprised after he comel with its own pitch, which will be un-unblemished. ground pitches ofyou’re Sureshreading Raina this and reRohithadra, both good swimmers, Even as Akademi Yuva Puraskar.

Subarnarekha river is has also been active. Shocked His pleted a phone call his mowill be totemporarily rolled at venues across world.Will This is markableSharma, book, it and is pertinent remember re-speculate if jumping intoonthe prose is keenly observed and Thethe Adivasi testimony to the bile. end “I was particularly by the sudden rise in Airtel the result of a Not technological moved when Rahane is nagat theriver would Dance that many adivasis in Jharkhand’s Chota the cycle of hunworks well as critiques of existing depravity brought service levels, rival telpleased as I was talking crease.

“We believe that this will breakthrough by anHansda undergradpur plateau, where massive mining is slowly ger and exploitation. histories (or her-stories).

It’s reabout by “the Copper cos how are intelligently offering cash to of mythemother-in-law, lead to aare quantum leap in per- In spite uate of IIT-Chennai,Sowvendra utilising eating away the landscape, probably workimpending natmarkable he has, Town” cus-catchtrying explain whyhas revolutionary newShekhar nanoby more everyone, exceptural doom ing 13 hours a day toformance earn a little bread. thattourbanisation throughincentives judicious for use of Speaking Tiger tomers to come for- conwethe can’t visit her thisThaRahane,” said a BCCI spokestechnology techniques and In ‘November is the Month of Migrations’, created, fight between phrases and exclamations, ₹399 Diwali,” said adominates beamwardsound and testify insights gained from obserwhogirl, dreamkurs and Talamai, a 20-year-oldperson.

Santhali“Those Christian Santhals veyed the andthat feel of they, too, have ing Ranganathan. of have playing fortoIndia, vation of Udupi cooks. whose family members had workcan as or-parts of Jharkhand, and is eviSanthali even when he’s been writing in this called complete these pitches online.denced“Obviously “It’s very much like recoal-gatherers and farmder labourers, finds a way in the story ‘Getting English.able One ofto the heroes invoked calls.

Industry for10-year-old a party. boy I invited moving a dosa from a taWe will charge a nominal to end her hunger by satisfying the libido of a Even.’ A who hasn’t attained in the book is Bidu, from the playbodies Bidu-Chanhave playwright also protested some friends and relawa,” he said, “but with more fee,ato make up calculated for the gap inpuberty policeman. She makes conscious, is falsely accused of raping a minor; dan by the Santhal Raghunath injustice tives.

All told of them stood technology.” Pitch delivery revenue

by Sahara.” choice (she knows many wholeft ritually do this this tale, we are later, is fabricated, a by- Murmu (who against invented‘the Ol-Chiki, theofscript being penalised for not pronear the same window where In related and installation logistics for food). This is the shortest story news, of the Castrol col- product of land war. “We are like toys — some- used for Santhali).

I had our stood, hoping to or complete viding services wefor are beingthese has(in announced that itthe is de-one presses will be handled by Flipkart. lection and it points out a brief section) ‘ON’ button, turns a akey in This book deserves praise reviving paid for,literary which could drive us into loss-art be call. So far they failed, butbeating they re- obscure Once the pitch is conveloping a special failure of the missionaries who had a hostformuof our backsides, and wehave Santhals start artistes.

Why should es’.

Meanwhile, Ranganathan is not restmain hopeful.

Some of them are still lation, which will enable structed, it will be rolled economic lures in store for the adivasis, but rhythms on our tamak and tumdak, or start the monopoly of the powerful and the faing onThe hisAdivasi laurels. amDance filledmarks with a rehere.

Weon cutour a cake drank cham- mous? up and inserted into an oil bowlers bowl fas-blowing did not follow up onIndian most of them.toAmidst tunes tiriyo,and while someone Will“I Not confidence,” he for said.

‘Tomorrow I will pagne, but very no dancing non-veg grounds. items were ter,Shekhar’s while L’Oreal will pro-snatches tanker, which will then be such terrifying realities, characters away our Tell sounding encore Shekhar.

The asks cake Mangal was eggless.” try to call my credit card company.” vide extra bounce. airlifted to the venue. Spethrive; they have no pretentious guilt over the me, Amserved.

I wrong?”

Murmu in ‘The rini barman is an MPhil student at Jamia Millia Islamia, route they choose to survive. There are also Adivasi Will Not Dance.’

The Investigator is a monthly round-up of all things droll newsy.

All views are personal. personalThe t@shovonc riffs and on what unemployment does toReally the red“museumisation” of adivasis receives New Delhi

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IIT GRAD MAKES PORTABLE PITCH FOR TEAM INDIA!

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MAN THROWS PARTY AFTER COMPLETING CALL ON MOBILE!

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Fit for the comics The continuation of the Millennium Trilogy lampoons Stieg Larsson’s work by providing endless, blubbering pages devoid of action

Yawn! The strangely likeable misfit Lisbeth Salander has been turned into a total bore in this latest book

T Type to speak

shutterstock/marcin pawinski

he text on the cover promises that The few scenes that could have had us biting ‘the girl with the dragon tattoo is our nails, such as the assassination of a scienback’ and so out of curiosity I picked tist in his villa on the outskirts of Stockholm, up a copy — only to find that the are so dull and hazily written that we barely strangely likeable misfit Lisbeth Salander has hear the bullet exit the muzzle of the gun. Oh, been turned into a total bore. maybe the killer used a silencer? That explains My reasons for buying the novel were pure- it. Subsequently Blomkvist and Salander, who ly nostalgic: I wanted to reconnect with the in- have grown estranged, must team up once teresting characters in Stieg Larsson’s again — this time to fight a rogue computer ‘Millennium Trilogy’ — Mikael Blomkvist and crime mafia personified by a mysterious beauhis two love interests, Salander and Erika Berg- ty queen, a deformed junkie-cum-hacker-cumer. Reconnect we do. They’re all here, appar- burglar, and a Russian ex-elite soldier-turnedently doing the same things they did in the mercenary who has trouble killing children. breaking his silence, but by alteringspies the way -H-A-M-M-I. previous books.

Not to forget the various American hoChandima Rajapatirana’s first his family spelled his nickname — using an ‘i’ But the scale of Larsson’s original books is vering in the background. word,absent. painstakingly he was demonstrating conspicuously He was aspelled out, instead of a ‘y’ —Unfortunately, too muchautonof the letter by keen letter,on was a revelation. He omy and will.story takes place in and around crime fiction lover creathad had no means communicating in the 17 Today, Chandima can and typewe’re independently, ing complex plots, of whose threads cyberspace treated to from his facilitator, if need years leddirections, up to this moment. ran inthat many only to beFew suspect- without support never-ending descriptions of be. He is a poet, author and an advocate for the ed had saying. tiedheup at anything the end inworth the most ascomputer security.

Characters Characters spend Raised by his Sri Besides, Lankan parents the US, can rights of disabled people.

Inupon 2007,page his mother tonishing manner. there in can spend page sitting page pageand he Anoja Colombo to open he diagnosed with autism ageupon waswas anfirst intense chemistry be- at the inreturned front of to a laptop.

Then they a of four. Later, doctors apraxia — sitting a motorin front EASEof (Educate, Advocate, Empower), tween Salander andadded Blomkvist have endlessSupport, discussions about they centre a small whereattacks. they offerOrfreeadvanced support disorder thatthe hindered his ability control Then throughout three novels — to laptop. hacker have endless and educationor to peopleintelliwho body movements — to Tattoo, the diagThe Girl With the Dragon The mathematics artificial discussions about nosis.

Chandima wasFire mute.

He have disabilities.

Girl Who Played With and The gence.

Blunt, in-your-face diahacker attacks Parentsare visiting themto are often would be Kicked forced the to listen, unable Girl Who Hornets’ Nest. logues made carry to as experts told astonished

by Chandima.

He isFlat efThevoice pair protest, often found themselves back-breaking info dumps. fectively bilingual, can his mother — that herSalander son waseven ‘rein jeopardy with cartoon figures shuffle and about meBest you just say that ‘speak’ in Sinhala by switching his tarded’ and should bethe institugetting herself shot in head chanically, like mindless robots.

I am not the last English alphabet board for aclose Sintionalised. bite, scratch and buriedHe atwould one point, only to Whenever the story comes word, nor the first hala one. Hispotentially collectiondramatic, of essays and bang his the dig herself outhead fromagainst her grave. to anything word, just one of wall.

All the while, watched and away poems, Traveller’s Talesthe (pubEven though Larssonhedied in 2004 — before the author shies from describing acmany — Chandima the first world pass by, and—saw lished this year) brutal title washim published the three books tion that thriller readers lookwith for. At timeshonthe his it in esty addresses how he sold‘normal’ over 80siblings million discover copies and were made in- build-up to potential action leads to an irritaexperiences anxiety and sensory ways he could not. Then, on the to several blockbuster movies. ting jump-cut to its aftermath, followed by overload; The whysharpness he might cusp his adulthood, his mothTheofcurrent author, David Lagercrantz, has lengthy explanations. of have Larser, Anoja,together finally found a commutrouble in a crowd, or making eye cobbled something that could pass son’s no-nonsense prose is missing in this farcontact, or eventext. simply sitting still. nication technique for him. too-blubbering off as a 15-page storythat in aworked comic magazine Chandima beganaretoreferred type using For instance, thisanything is what itgood can feel likethe to (Marvel comics to asFacilitated a model Okay, so is there about try and have a conversation: “When to Communication more than once (commonly in this new called novel),FC). but this book?

Well, maybe.

On page 235 thereIiswant a bit of speak, my impulse goes to my body.

His first wordour was notable not pages. only for stuff hardly warrants interest for 432 happening when Salander leavesGyrating her lap-

ap/ sony, columbia pictures, merrick morton

top for a trip out into the real world. Then around page 300 comes a twist — contrived, but fun in an Agatha Christie kind of way. The last 15 pages are entertainingly soap operatic, because the author finally seems to make up his mind that the book must end, so he quickly squeezes out whatever juice the story might have held. That’s about it.

To be fair, this isn’t the worst thriller I’ve ever read. But one expected more. This could have been an important book had it been written by someone of Larsson’s calibre — after all, cyber-surveillance has taken on a menacing cursed limbsdays takewhen over. government My arms fling up, my nature these agencies, hands joininand open their especially thewring...

US, spySpeakers on individuals and mouths and words pour out.the I open my mouth other governments around planet. and Your soundsThe emerge Atscream. a modest estimate, Girl inmodulated, the Spider’s shaped intosell, words. emerge unmodulatWeb might say,Mine 20 million copies, which ed, unshaped, un-understandable means that the author gets one of thesqueals. fattest The reality is that sound like history. an animal.

It is royalty cheques inIpublishing Considan awful of how biering that,thought. he couldThe haveawareness done a better job. Inzarre sound kills the desire to speak.” stead,Ihe lampoons Larsson’s work.

Though Chandima relies on FC, he tells mea Bottom line is — this is not a novel, it is that he and Anoja are aware that there is no product manufactured to take advantage of single technique to suit everyone.

“Best Larsson’s global popularity, and a sad wayyou to just say ‘Millennium that I am not the lastBut word, nor the end the Trilogy’. it is likely to first word, just oneeven of many,” out. sell nevertheless: beforeheittypes was publish** been sold for some ed, translation rights had utism is The a current complex developmental 45 languages. instalment is suffidisorder that appears the‘Millennium first three ciently open-ended to allowinthe years life,intoimpacting the brain’s Trilogy’ of to turn an endless ghost-written development, its interpretation of sensory soap opera disguised as a thriller series. input, as well askind social communication I suppose this of and franchising in literaskills. condition manifests across ainduswide ture isThe inevitable when the publishing range of symptoms, the try is in crisis and needs towhich cash inison why whatever diagnostic label is Autism Spectrum Disorder. products and brands are available, but when a “Children withas characterless autism have ‘thriller’ becomes as avarying burger communication challenges, meal, I start to have doubts. and it is very casespecific, so it is difficult to generalise,” says Soharni Tennekoon, a Colombo-based zac o’ yeah is a Bengaluru-based author, travelspeech writer therapist.

Autistic children beforentirely and literary critic.

His new novel, Hari,may a Hero Hire non-verbal was published or thismay monthhave a rich vocabulary on

Facilitated, augmentative and alternative communication is allowing people with disabilities to break through the glass bubble that surrounds them

The Girl in the Spider’s Web David Lagercrantz (writing as Stieg Larsson) (Translated from Swedish by George Goulding) MacLehose Press Fiction ₹599

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Downward, On the mind slowly and surely ON THE SHELF

miserably, scoring 239 runs in 12 innings at an average of 19.91. His Delhi teammate Gautam Gambhir’s performance was equally dismal: 283 runs in 14 innings at an average of 20.21.

However, matters peaked during that ill-fated Australian summer when it became evident that all was not well between Dhoni and Sehwag, and perhaps even Gambhir.

During the 2012 tri-series involving hosts Australia, India and Sri Lanka, it appeared Dhoni was not pleased with Sehwag’s fielding.

There was also a touch of unrest when Sehwag ental” dismissing it as “mumbo-jumbo.” So dered.

A muscle my cheek sparked.

The captained India inina match against the Lankwhen the road to recovery leads to a Vipassana darkness that had seemed deserted was full of ans during that competition.

The tension was meditation retreat, it really is a Damascus life.

Goblins.

Havoc.” obvious when off-spinner Ravichandran Ashmoment.

Only Martin Lahiru Amis (in his memoir Experi-a but was no mug with the horizontal bat shots. win mankaded Thirimanne, without ence) up comes close to waxing first time hethe closes his eyes andof surHisThe success rate in second innings a Test warning, for backing too far.

It was only afveys his a‘inner is a revelalyrical on that pain Sehwag and illwas not patchlandscape’ on his firstitinnings’ contribu- ter Tendulkar’s so intervention tion. is also, basically, “itmost was mem- agreed to withdraw ness: teeth are to Amis tions,Itbut he set up someMordor: of India’s thehis appeal.

During the penis to as if I were surrounded a large ex-effort the closing stages of thatwhat orable victories with hisby mammoth game,the which Indiaiswent Parks. Get writer on to panse, though I couldn’t see it.ofI was first time around.

For most his career, he on to lose, Dhoni observed the aproceedings alone in a strange, brooding land- version of from the boundary ropes theanxiously. subject India of their was more successful in the longer did scape; under a lowwas sky,contradictory I thought, bodily ailments the game, which to his ag- not make the finals ofown the tournament; Sehdamp hills perhaps, anda you’ll be65 there forina gressive style of play. but invisiwag managed measly runs ble…”

ThenSehwag the pain long as theyof scale At times, wasstarts: much more five matches at time, an average 13.

“The of off-spinner. my the heights andto plumb than abacks part-time His fiveHowever, Dhoni continued be in hands theSehwag depths who of itsfell myswicket haulsmoulagainst the Australians charge. It was by tery and meaning. Amis during a Test match in Delhi in the wayside soon after.

Dhoni continued is another grumpy, acerbic 2008, and a couple of crucial wickAlthough he donned Indian colto be in charge. It individual — and both writers ets against the same opposition earours every now and then after that was Sehwag who are more tour than Down well-aware of the lier in the year at the WACA, Perth, disastrous Under, fell by the ridiculousness their own are two examples which stand out. writing was on of the wall.

Hecomwas wayside I found myself pulsions.

Parksplayer scours the After book-a It would probably be fair to say never the same again. soon after gripped and problems started in shelves other prostate sufferers: that Sehwag’s stringfor of indifferent performances, fascinated by Montaigne, Cole2005 as a result of Ganguly and SehwagRousseau, played hisand lastmaybe Test during this book ridge and Beckett?

He tour is fascinated Team India’s turbulent ride with Australia’s return of India by in how muchinofthe Gandhi’s is takGreg Chappell, who was at the helm 2012-13 secondwriting match of the enseries up with the chronicling of his till 2007. If one is to go by the acin Hyderabad.

Incidentally, bodily functions.the “Every illness counts of Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh, Seh- the Indians whitewashed Aussies 4-0,isre-a narrative,” — pace wag was among the senior players who the deeming the loss they he haddeclares, sufferedand 12 months Susan — sets about telling then India coach Chappell wanted dropped back. Earlier thatSontag year, Sehwag was dropped it, or rather in order seto from the side. from the one-day teamretelling during ait,bilateral discover howin it ends.

The storm eventually blew ries against Pakistan which India played There areresult few books so brilliantly deover and the dashing Indian hosts.

The was 2-1that in favour of the viswhat it is actually like to meditate, to opener — the ‘Nawab of Najaf- scribe itors, and Sehwag was never picked for an ODI your body the inside’ as it were, to garh’ — led the team in five feel featuring Team‘from India again. the attention those dark (out of a total of 12) ODIs, way send Interestingly, thetolast ODIapparently that Gambhir unknown our physical selves — before Mahendra Singh Dho- and played for hiscorners countryofwas in January 2013. the backs to the racing ni was considered as skipper. to There seemsoftothe be knees, a pattern to spleen, Gambhir and veinsloss andof nerves, the tongue restIn 2011, Duncan Fletcher along Sehwag’s form.toIsfeel there something ing in thewhat mouth, to become of the replaced Gary Kir- more than meets the eye?aware One might teeth, eachSingh, sittingthe in hero its individual sten as India add that Yuvraj of India’spock2011 of gum. continues to be out of coach, follow- World Cupettriumph, I never wanted to read ing which the Dhoni’s favour. Cancer played its part, but soa Parks, and team lost all did Dhoni, if one is book to gobybyTim father Yograj yettheI Indian found skipper myself eight of their Singh’s outburst against gripped and fascinataway Tests earlier this year. byafter thisKirsten’s book. against EnWas there a rift in theed team Teach Us to gland and departure in 2011 or was the arrival of Fletcher Sitabout Still Australia. seen as an opportunity by some to bring turns Sehwag a change at the top? outbeen to fared Whatever the case, the damage had be far done, at least as far as Sehwag was concerned. more than a medical miudayan nag is a Delhi-based sports writer sery-mystery memoir. It is about the realisation that what stands in the way of our true wellness is our ability to express it in words, to describe it in language. It seems impossible — and yet imperative — to master the paradox, to ‘empty the mind’ and think of nothing. “We have become cerebral vampires,” as Parks puts it, “preying on our own life-blood.” His painfully revealing book is an invitation to put it aside, to stop reading, unhunch our shoulders, let slip the gaze, rest the eyes, and allow ourselves the unhurried, unmediated luxury of inhabiting our own skin — for a while, at least, for a while.

Despite Teach Us to Sit Still’s obsession with the nether regions, there are few books that so brilliantly describe what it is actually like to meditate, to feel your body ‘from the inside’ Virender Sehwag recently announced his retirement from obody warns you about this: not international cricket. What explains the decline of his career? the cover, not the blurb, not the ti-

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tle, not the review puffs. With its disingenuous title and irender Sehwag seldom took acrossbacklegged yoga person the cover, really ward steponduring his there’s 14-year-long nothing tocareer. let youBut know in advance that did being caught onTim the Parks’ hard-to-classify medical memoir, Teach wrong foot at an inopportune juncUs tolead Sit Still — mainly — about his penis. ture to is this downward spiral?

No that’sofnot it isgreats, also about his Like—many thefair: game’s Sehwag’s sphincter (or rather, sphincters entry into international cricket was—anplural), anticlibowels, and pelvic floor. max. In bladder, an ODI urinary against tract Pakistan, on April 1, And not ‘mainly’ all this — only 1999,it’s Sehwag battingabout at number seven, fellthe to first 142Akhtar pages for are.aWhich is less than half the Shoaib single run. book.

Just. that, it took the Delhi lad over Following But even the most generous two years to make his presence felt.of Butreaders he did would have to admit that reading these 142 so in terrific style, and when it mattered most. pages — a blow-by-blow account of when the au-they It was must-win game for India thor’s chronic prostatein problems — iscompetihard took on New Zealand a tri-series work. especially a pain in the arse betion inIt’s 2001.

The winner would advance to the cause the author is aLanka. bit of aThe prick. final against thehimself hosts, Sri Kiwis Whenfirst I met Parks in India several years batted and finished with an imposing back, he their came50across as self-important, 264/7 off overs. Opening with skipper condescending uptight.

Sourav Ganguly,and Sehwag smashed 19 fours and I know oneashould judge bookwas by ina six, scored centurynever off 70 balls,a and the person wrote it, but for the same volved in awho first-wicket partnership of 143 reason I tend to avoid writers runs, which helped win meeting the match.

Sehwag whose works was well on hisI admire, way now.I have assiduously avoided reading novels because on — I his Later that yearParks’ he scored a century don’t knowagainst — I’d had quite enough of the his cliTest debut South Africa and, as company in the few minutes I’d spent with the ché goes, the rest is history. man himself.

In the years to come, Sehwag would become Here’s a clue as to his of top mind durone of the mainstays ofown the state Indian order, ing that fateful trip: “Flying from Delhi, along with Ganguly, Rahulhome Dravid and Sa- I had very aware that within hours chinbeen Tendulkar.

Whether it was 48 Tests or of landing I would anaesthetized in hospital one-dayers, his be uncomplicated see-thewith a rigid instrument through ball, hit-the-ball approachskewered laid the foundamy ‘About as thick as a pencil,’ one tionpenis. for many an Indian victory.

Everything website said.”

I suppose whenworked you put about him defied logic. What forit like that,went he against was entitled towas be a bit him also him. He grumpy. a prolific scorer on the offOf but course, ishit not a word that side, then‘prostate’ he would you generally in a ofbook title — unthe ball in thewant air more less it’s an actual textbook. ten than not.

Like medical most But I didbatsmen, wish someone Indian he had warned me, that I would be spendwas honestly, suspect against ing half the book in the author’s short-pitched pants.

And not in a good way. And stuff, especialyet… and yet. Here I was choosing ly directed to on, and read on I did, my at readthe body body; contorted into an empathetic wince as I got to know, in excruciating embarrassing detail how many times a night he gets up to pee, and how he does it, and what he thinks while he’s doing it...

Years of chronic pain, interrupted nights and periodic impotence, the disturbing prospect of becoming penile kebab plus a close encounter with death out kayaking one day combined to form the perfect storm needed to push this ultra-rationalist, self-obsessed, WASPish English alpha male down the path to alternative healing. He scorns anything that dedmazay/shutterstock smacks of “the mystical, the ori-

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Teach Us to Sit Still Tim Parks Random House UK Memoir ₹699

Nawab retires Virender Sehwag led India to many a victory afp/punit paranjpe/files

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anita roy is a writer, editor and publisher; www.anitaroy.net

know takeaway

saturday, october 31,31, 2015 saturday, october 2015

The gaijin goes to sumo Taking liberty STATES OF MATTER

A lifetime’s obsession with Japan’s giantofwrestlers leadsmandate, the US shreds the sovereignty of other states every As a legatee the colonial to a ringside viewaof a to its own interests time it perceives threat tournament in Tokyo

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sukumar muralidharan

he skies over strife-torn Syria are now a playground for combat airong before I visited Japan I fell in love craftsumo. of various other nations.

They with A kid and I used to play at not each other, butboy elusive itfight in school.

He was a fat with quarries shorts on the hitched ground, up including mutato just that under his ble entity — ‘terrorism’. moobs.

I was a shrimplet with no discernible Russian airwaiting operations on September waist.

While for began our carpools in the 30, overhours a yearof since the USafternoon, opened the newest drowsy a Madras we’d face chapter in and its squat, unending mission of overeach other smack our thighs, prewhelming terror with terror.

Yet Russia has tend to throw salt around…

I don’t remember seemingly achieved happening. greater success, any actual wrestling It waswithout the ritearning any appreciation its efforts or apual we enjoyed.

Bizarre, for I know.

Especially proval its strategic objectives. since I of can’t remember ever having watched the on free-for-all Syrian airspace, theInsport TV. In fact,over I have no memory of agreement onI witnessed the purposes combat operthe first time two of overweight men ations is non-existent andimpossibly Russia alone has a in fringed diapers with hairless mandate from the lunge sovereign government of skin and topknots at each other. Some the land. the US, France and Turweeks ago,Allinothers Tokyo,—I attended my first sumo key principally are to using the slippery purtournament.

I’d—like underplay the event suit terrorism as a that means of dismantling hereof and say, merely, it was just a cool the sovereign state, theiscockiness thing to be doing.

Butthough the truth that even of to Slippery slopein A file past yearsrandom is conspicuously lacking.

Thehave re- Big moment Yokozunas or grand sumos during a play-off match at a recently-concluded the most of passers-by, it must tournament Tokyo image from an anti-war cord of liberal intervention com- afp/jiji press japan out been evident that I was on thesince vergeIraq of realisrally held outside pels a degree caution eveneverywhere in the most ing one of my of dreams.

I was at Philadelphia Museum deluded once: theminds. memorabilia shop and the museum, lean, the aerodynamic — iPhones, runway in 2003. The 2003 war As the US steps a season of fierce electo- models, skyscrapers. So to suddenly see all this checking out theinto crowds (highly organised), on Iraq is back in the ral contestation, the right-wing of the Repub- oomph on display is exhilarating and downstalking the hallways in the hope of encounnews with former lican a campaign in right anarchic. But there’s also largeness of teringParty one is of fashioning the great men amblingplank around Getting there British PM Tony Blair’s remarks that he is which Russia’s into the Syrian in kimonos andentry wooden sandals.

I’dtheatre heard spectacle. Taiko drums booming. Referees Japan Airlines,‘sorry’ All Nippon for the mistakes would be portrayed exhibit A in a story of that could give Mylapore mamis a run for their that sumo wrestlersaswere incredibly charisAirways and Air India operate made in the US-led US decline. strategictocourse proposed is a money with their extravagant silk robes. The matic and The amenable posing for photoof thetoGulf direct flights invasion from Delhi ‘no-fly would over Sy- shrill Kabuki voice of the announcer piercing graphs.zone’ But that I hadthetoUS settle forpolice second best: Tokyo. Othercountry metrosap/mark can stehle ria, even at the riskone of collision with Russian dilly-dallying with of the cutout figures your eardrums, while two sweepers clear the connect with Cathay Pacific, aircraft missions. outside on thecombat stadium, trying not to look too pling of the the ring Iraqiin regime, clarified, though sand of perfecthe synchronicity.

And One among these provisos, ‘the protection Korean Air or Thai Airways.

International pleased.

I failed. relations doctrine argues that the failure to plan for the day after was admittwrestlers themselves, who emerge from of national security or of public order’ was every state, narrow Shame is aeven thingwhen that amotivated sports fanby can’t have edly serious lapse. theirarespective wings in their elaborate loin- then accepted with little demur, but has since Stay self-interest, should show duein regard the cloths any truck with.

You’re either it, or for you’re The (mawashi), International the R2P,ana become a zone of serious contestation. An arandCoalition who seemfor to inhabit Just a 10-minute taxi ride sovereignty counterparts. in voluntary body not. At least, of this is what I toldInterventions my formed in 2009 tosetting monitor eternally panoramic in gument could be made that in the absence of from Kokugikan stadium, another’s would premised upon the the doctrine’s husband, affairs whom I’d bedragged implementation, thepractical viewfinder.

These guys arehas no ‘national security’ and ‘public order’,and individwithin strolling distance the concerned state’s along, despite theconsent. fact that tinheld Iraq an blobs instance of its They’re misapplication.

So ual citizens would be deprived of allof though. strong and liberties.

Imperial Palace, the Shangri-La Exceptions in presumably the real world gles of pleasure did too Libya, able whichto erupted insur- What would prevail then would be chaos and flexible, squat,in stand, (www.shangri-la.com/tokyo/ would made state not runbeup and when down one his spine rectionary violence 2011. legs The anarchy, of Hobbesian squat, stand, swingintheir ‘war of all against all’. shangrila/) a perfect TokyoparaUnlike other manpurports superiortwo wisdom.

Colowhen he watched panda-bear African Union to warn sideways andwas upquick above their This, in turn, points istowards a knotty base. bashing sports like nialism was suchto a give system ofothtusized men trying each against an expansive heads, stomp, swing R2P andreading smack. dox at the core of the human rights discourse. telage, which created er wedgies. “Park me at the near- boxing, there are no in the Libyan explicitly Besides which,context, they’ve got mega- An individual enters into a social contract In the free-for-all categories in opposing apparatuses of state governance est Ramen bar,” is what he might weight the ‘one-sided interpre- with fellow Tip watts of attitude. beings to live at peace, in part by Syrian airspace, Six Grand Sumo sumo.

So you could tations’ across much to of say. the But world have wanted he map, stuck over would createbegins, condi- delegating responsibility Beforethat any fighting for tournaments life and liberty — agreement on the held all every year in Japan. have a veritable engendering after Worldperhaps, War II a with me, out of curiosity tions for pre-fight ‘militaryantics, and which other most prizedare there are among possessions — to an exofagainst combata actions Moby Dick ForState timings and tickets, to mosaic of nations that to purposes or to ensure I didn’t dopassed a runner the ground’.

The coali- ternal agency. can be on almost as entertaining. sovereignty is ango outcome operations is nonpuny sardine www.buysumotickets.com US imperial oversight. with a yokozuna. tion potentatesstarethat of multiple such Thinkofof oil-rich it as an Alpha-male acts of delegation.

State sovereigntystadium could atisone The Kokugikan ar- existent and Russia goes nameFirst of they the Gulf downby on the steroids. clap The human rights dilemma is derivative of time bein shredded the alone has a mandate Cooperation ranged tiers. Ourevery seatstime are midhad the paradox of sovereignty that Italian Giortheir hands toCouncil wake up(GCC) the gods, from the sovereign US a threat to its interwayperceived between nosebleed and no such qualms, explicitly calling then they sip water to purify their gio thighs, backward body drops, leg grips, Agamben among modern political theogovernment of ests, which in turn were equated threat-of-squashing-by-flying-suin the early unrest, forfeet UN rists bodies, thendays theyofstomp their thrust-downs, and twists, of absence which the has drawntrips attention to. In the of the land to general good.

When mothe section, closer to the ring.this It’s Security Council actionSalt-throwto ‘protect the to ward off evil spirits. classiest, far, would is the okuritsuriotoshi or rearstate,by there be no mechanism for moral tooGrand Sumo ing, mysterious the firstpretence day of thebecame September civilians, including enforcing armpit wiping and slap-slap-a the lift body slam.

The rules are quite simple: first defence of rights.

Anything that threatens heavy to sustain, a higher pur- kind of ex- ping body parts Tournament, and there’s a twitchy no-fly is zone all over part Libya’. of the warm-up the person out of of thethe ring is out; first person who existence state or its legitimacy, popose was invented thethousand protec- people are routine. My favourite citement in the air.inTen R2P is a move troublesome new intru- tentially being the upward touches any part ofthe hisrights body (other thanstate the threatens of all. The tion of but human The everything stomach slapsion filing in, becauserights. this is Japan, in international legal doc- functions — a wave-like motion that scoops soles of hisunder feet) inthe thelaw ring, is also out. No ponytailbut reserves the ‘responsibility protect’ became offi- trine feels contained,toand smells(R2P) of baby powder. an already up thethat fat ofseriously the belly,complicates setting the whole thing power pulling,topunching, choking, and certainly no determine when exceptions could cial doctrine in 2005, just ahead of elaborate the 60th muddled Below us, Japanese families spread discourse human rights and a-ripple and a-wobble.onWhen the wrestlers fi- be messing the made,with when it crotch. should invoke the doctrine anniversary of the UN, a Beside systemus, otherwise picnics on floor cushions. another state of govnally sovereignty. come to thePractical centre ofexigencies the ring to face of For three hours we watch in a kind of stupenecessity. premised uponfiddle state sovereignty. gaijin couple with their rented radio ernance following the has verybeen radical vision of fied each other, personality clearly estabTwo by two, the wrestlers come, Inagitation. the international context, the US has, as the spawn of an the set,Liberal tryinginterventionism to tune into theisEnglish channel.

Universal Human Rightsin— legatee lished and theDeclaration crowd, withoftheir cheering, and youof think, ‘Won’t itmandate, ever get boring?’

Butarit the colonial been main acknowledged principle that state sovereignWe are opting more for the hands-free, lost-in- adopted in they’re 1948 — rooting forced the dicate who for.introduction of biter doesn’t.

At least, not for me.

When the last of when the doctrine of necessity should ty does notexperience. grant freedom to do horrible certain translation The International Unlikecaveats. other man-bashing sportsCovenant like box- be bout is over and the winner has been declared, invoked. things within internationally recognised I’m never going to be able to describe the on and Rights, effective partSo of theThe ing,Civil there arePolitical no weight categories in as sumo. crowds fling their into the consequences infloor termscushions of the unfolding boundaries.

It was the former feeling of watching myfig-leaf first bout, butBritish try to the bill of rights’ 1974, im-a chaos you‘international could have a veritable Mobysince Dick against ring and we seep out any elbowing or across much ofwithout the globe, clearly call for Prime Minister Tony Blair reached forsuspendrecently poses imagine a 180kg man momentarily as theis inevitable puny certain sardine.responsibilities The thrilling thing that it’s an trampling, andstate the city absorbs us effortlessly end to that of exception. when he proffered a longtooverdue apology for price ed in air before falling the ground.

Largefortwo thefat enjoyment of to individual rights. not just guys trying upturn the oth- into her myriad streets. his theofUScourse. drive toContemporary war in Iraq in And nesscomplicity is part ofinit, it allows exceptions to the wrestler fundamener. There are for 82 ways for a sumo to sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer researcher based in Gurgaon and Shimla tishani doshi is a poet and novelist based in Chennai 2003.

There would be no apology for the topaesthetic perspectives steer us towards the tal rights inhis particular circumstances. destabilise opponent — slap-downs, hook and

Travel Log

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Say cheese The author poses with a cutout outside Kokugikan stadium carlo pizzati

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Lost in the woods Nine years after a landmark law empowering local communities, thousands of forest villages across India struggle to regain their traditional rights over resources and livelihoods

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been using for decades. Building poles and un- ment and conservation of forests. “Individual finished tin roofs lie abandoned on a patch of rights are important, but on their own they are a defensive measure to stop harassment. It land, which leads to a forest in the distance.

Ignoring the clamour, Rabha finally pulls is community rights that really offer the poout the weapon in his folder — a tential of a more democratic, more effective and just method copy of the Forest Rights Act, of forest management,” says 2006 (FRA). This legislation gives scheduled tribes and other tradiShankar Gopalakrishnan, secretional forest-dwellers the right to tary, Campaign for Survival and forestland and resource use, Community rights can Dignity, a national platform of ensure that forest tribal and forest dwellers’ which they had been denied unmanagement is organisations. der old forest laws. The FRA was democratic The FRA was meant to defuse intended to alter the fundamenflashpoints like the one in Shaltal structure of forest management in India, to end the Forest kumar. But thousands of forest villages across India — encomDepartment’s absolute control passing at least 40 million hecover it. Apart from individual rights, the law gives the gram sabha commu- tares of forestland and 150 million people, nity forest rights — to oversee the manage- including 90 million tribals — continue to struggle for their community rights.

When the FRA was enacted, conservationists had feared it would lead to destruction of forests. On the contrary, villages in the Duars area of north Bengal (Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts), the floodplains of eastern Himalayas bordering Bhutan, are beginning to assert their customary rights and Centre stage Temples in Himalayan villages are great places for meeting people and picking up local gossip ; (below) a house in Garhwal with a traditional slate roof shutterstock conserve large tracts of remaining forests.

This was at play in Shalkumar.

Rabha, who lives in neighbouring Kurmai village, campaigns for the implementation of FRA through a coalition of 250 forest villages called Uttar Bango Bon-Jon Shromojivi Manch or UBBJSM (North Bengal Forest Workers). He points out key clauses in the FRA to forest ranger Joydeb Burman. Section 5 gives the gram sabha of any area with forest-dwellers the power to protect forests, biodiversity, wildlife and the “cultural and natural heritage of forest-dwellers”. SN Basunia, sub-inspector of re you here to see the Shiva temThe Sumo stopped at Panuwanaula, thanks police, somewhat wistfully, before she’d got married. takes a look and agrees.

Burman refusples, then? Or on a holiday?” a to the passenger who’d been travelling from es Atoyoung man sitting near a window acknowledge the existence of thesaid law he in man on the front seat turned Bareilly almost non-stop since the previous the was state studying in Varanasi.

The child and theology scoffs at the “conservation” of around to ask us. day. He had to have his tea. We had time. These the on his lap, villagers: who was prone car-sickness, was forest “Right,towe will see where We were in a Sumo, a means of public trans- vehicles stop for practically anyone, or any- the his niece; heare was on five his way home village jungles after years.”

But to thea results port in these parts, heading out of Almora to thing. If we’d told the driver we’d wanted him already near Jageshwar. speak for themselves in more than a Jageshwar, a temple town about 100km from to wait a bit while we selected and bought a dozen Religion wasinalmost livingdistrict. here, an everyvillages Alipurduar Kathgodam, the nearest railway station, in Ut- box of sweets, he’d have not only agreed, but day thing intertwined in the affairs of people tarakhand. It was about three or four hours by also suggested which shop was the best. And Bands in a way not seen in a city. A Hindi newspaofI’d protectors bus to Almora from Kathgodam. I looked at he’d have railed at us gently for not telling Shalkumar per here had some time ago carried photogram sabha submitted its commuthe familiar road; we were now almost direct- him we wanted to buy sweets in Almora, be- nity graphs of the castclaim fromfour the years 1980s’ago, television forest rights but to ly below the animal rescue centre housing sul- cause there was a better shop there. series Ramayana; one of thegrew actorsthese was visiting no avail.

“Our ancestors forests len, gargantuan man-eating leopards. I’d be On another similar ride from Munsiyari, years the area story was featured ago.and We this are people of this forest,promias are sullen and gargantuan too, if I were holed up two women had wanted to stop nently in theThis newspaper, toour hens, cattle and goats. is the life we in a cage and fed buffalo meat daily. at a temple and pray; the driver gether with40. images of the actors know,” says Ram Rabha, Eighteen months “She likes the temples,” said my husband. stopped for a good 20 minutes from the serial, complete ago, the 72 families in Shalkumar beganwith pa“Holiday,” I said simultaneously. or half-hour while they got fake than gold crowns. trolling the more 2,000 hectares of forThe man nodded, finding nothing contrary down, and maybe tied a prayer here, ourin.pace slowed, to est their villageAnd is nestled Divided into Religion waseight almost in our answers. “It’s a powerful god,” he said. on a piece of paper, while the in time with everyone groups, move each group walks several kiloeveryday “Powerful.” men from Delhi grumbled in living here, anmetres else’s. was pine and jots downOne in areason register thethe wildlife thing intertwined We smiled. It was only a little subterfuge; the backseat. They tied written trees across you looked at when you speciesinthey come and their location, the affairs of peopleguarding it’d have been rather strange to say we were prayers and bells at this temple got into a bus, or the view of besides against illegal logging anda in a way I’d not seen extraction. going because the day was clear, and if we in Chitai; I’d seen one such tied brown or horizon with firewood In purple Alipurduar district, in a city were still in the mood for it by the time we re- petition where a student asked mountains Another was these patrolling villagers in areit.protecting the ached, we’d climb up to Vriddh Jageshwar and that his family move to their the people.

For last of the standing forests ininstance, a patchy there landsee the Himalayas spread out at 180 degrees, new home soon, that they proswas our razor-blade, vegetables scape fragmented by tea gardens and forestry from Garhwal to Nepal; or, failing that, see if per and that he should do well andpatchwork tomato ketchup man.

We’d plantations. This of forests has bewe could find a familiar face and just talk. in studies. Also, that he should gone critical to buy as razor blades,corriand come increasingly elephant To say we were travelling for this, and be- play for Manchester United one day. the shopkeeper exactly have whatand we dors to stave didn’t off elephant attacks cause I liked to hear strangers’ conversations The woman sitting next to me asked if we’d destruction were lookingoffor.

“I’ve got a pack,” he said slowcrops. in these vehicles, would have been disconcert- been to Kausani. I said we had. ly, Sonteshwar and broughtRabha, it out. 48, “Butofit’sKurmai not thevillage same ing to own up to. People visit Jageshwar mainSo had she; she’d stayed there for a while walks brand through you’re looking for.” It was also opened. an adjoining old forest within ly for its 9-13th century temples, located and done a course on Gandhian thought at an the He said, “You National try it on your If it doesn’t Jaldapara Park. razor.

His ancestors had against the backdrop of a sacred grove.localsashram there.

But it wasalllong ago, she said fit, I’ll take back.” He then spread out his Living legacy A villager patrols Kurmaideodar forest, which have tended for generations images by padmaparna ghosh planted anditwalked these very forests since undar Singh Rabha always carries a certain file folder. He holds it against himself in a hot tin car as it jangles along forest roads towards village Shalkumar, in a northern corner of West Bengal. His phone rings without respite. Every few minutes, he relays his location on the phone.

Suddenly we are there. Rabha, 28, flings open the door to an agitated crowd sprinkled with khaki — cops and forest rangers. I follow Rabha’s file through the crowd. The local police and forest officers are seated on one side and the village on the other. The conflict was over the land on which a church was being constructed by the gram sabha of this forest village. The Forest Department was incensed at not being “asked for permission”. The gram sabha was irritated because it had a right over the “community land” that the village has

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Talking god and real estate

Of all things about exploring the Himalayas, you’ll cherish the many conversations — with fellow passengers in a crowded SUV, a priest or a woodcutter with rooms to let

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Felled by officialdom Bipin Rabha, 27, of Khoirbari is fighting to save his village’s trees and forest rights

House of worship Ancient temples at Jageshwar, a holy town in Uttarakhand the hindu

the mid-19th century. Most villagers here belong to Rabha, a scheduled tribe, which traditionally practised shifting cultivation but was “settled” by the British into plantation labour.

The sunlight cools as it leaks through the canopy. Sonteshwar points out different species of native theirand phenology, and what palms like atrees, conjurer looked at us over the theiroffruits are worth“Mamla to animals and them. He open hain.” top his spectacles. understands the forest is linked life By the timehow we reached Artola, it wastolater outside “Back inand the the ’80s,day hardly any elethan weit.expected, had become phants the forest for our fields.

We didn’t hot.

Weleft decided to abandon the Vriddh Jahave this plan; muchwe’d conflict.

Because geshwar just Why walk now? to Jageshwar, they also to eat. away, We can’t live without three or sohave kilometres hang around, anda fistfulback of rice in the morning. start later in the day. Then they need it too.

Elephants lot of fodder inamaranth, the natuLunch, then,had wasathe inevitable ral forest. now is teak, to thick ringsEverything of cucumber, chapatti, dalthanks and rice.

Forest Nothing grows Ithe eyed the Department. water and asked the cook if under it had it. Plantations are sterile.

Thea elephants are been filtered. They did have filter, he said forced to come the fields,” says Sonteshwar. cautiously, afterto a moment.

Beforehad human activity intruded, of We’d this conversation before,much though thisalmost landscape was grasslands forests I’d forgotten it. So I said and yes, but wasof it cane — excellent elephants.

“Given working?

No, hefor said scrupulously, it the washigh not value of this timber, allNever natural grass-I working.

Butregion’s they did have it. mind, land do was converted to sal teak plantasaid, you have Bisleri?

No.and But he offered to tions.

When theshop sal and plantations not run down to the get it. See were if you can regenerating, in labour,” get me a Pepsithe too,British I got upbrought to tell him, but he says halfway Soumitra Ghosh, national was down the road by now.committee member of near the National Forum of Forest We went the temple to pick up thePeolatplesgossip, and Forest (NFFPFW). est see Workers if the priest, who always did Nearly halfcost the analysis area now teak plantacomparative of has property prices tion, which means little to those who depend in Mumbai and Haldwani, was anywhere on the forest for grazing fodder,tofood, otharound and could be tempted takeand a break er non-timber forest produce.

Bengal, from his temple duties for a cupInofWest tea with us. almost He was. 10 million people directly depend on theThe forest million ha), according to a state cost(0.6 analysis started out this time with report, andpriest, a majority of them are poor. the young a rhododendron tucked beAs his we ear, emerge from theland coolprices natural forest hind asking what were like into in a teak plantation, falls silent, now Mumbai, say, perthe acre.forest We told him one there isofvery little undergrowth and feet, the air is talked Mumbai prices in square and warmer.

Excepteither. for a fern Dhikia, which not for land, He called was astonished, he the tribals sometimes eat, no other vegetation said.

Square feet? Thousands of rupees for a survivesfoot! in a teak plantation.

As Lal Singh Bhusquare Suppose the building collapsed? jel, convenorwas of UBBJSM, “Sure,his teakhands has a Jageshwar better, says, he said, high pricetowards in the market, but what its squat value sweeping the temples andisthe in a forest?” houses, and the old deodars. He distrusted toBut inbuildings. spite of its “uselessness”, the 75 famwering ilies of Kurmai patrol and protect it. Last year, It had clouded over now.

Otherwise the view they halted logging activities handfrom Vriddhillegal Jageshwar would haveand been fine ed over the seized logs to theusForest Departtoday.

The priest remembered coming back ment.such Bhujel says,before, “We want end the teak from a walk whentowe had stayed plantations and native but we here, looking forgrow a house fortrees, a couple of don’t want Forest Department to and decide months; ourthe mortgage had been paid, we that. When we, the gram get rights, decided to take a gap year.sabha, Or two orthe three.

We we willfound decidea how to here, manage what to hadn’t house butand we liked plant. back If it iswhenever up to the we Forest Department, this come could.

In the Vriddh whole landtemple will be teak.”

Jageshwar compound, several empty quart-sized bottles, imprinted with stylised Timberwere conundrum roses, thrown behind a knee-high wall.

Forest-dwellers theofjungle differThey may have look beenupon bottles rose water, ently from the Forest Department is which is commonly used in worship.and Butthis there oftenfar in conflict.

From colonial area were too many of them; the times, bottlesthe had all has been used for timber extraction. The ancontained liquor.

cestors of these villagers from thewith forest.

Maybe our generation would The day had forest been clear, and(Rabhas, the viewNepahad vehicles lumpy, sliding seats in the first lis and other scheduled tribes) planted and place. surviveMaybe but what about next,”one saysquite the stunned us into silence, the mountains ablaze I’d never hearthe another managed the British administration’s timber sprightly young man, who has been fighting and splendid as we gazed at them from be- like it again. operations.

Post-independence, the villages his village’s rights three years. hind trees that fringed patchwork fields and forWe’d been onforest our way to afor market, and the continued towalk workup forhad freebeen for the Forest De- vehicle picked up a cheerful, almost collegevillages.

The a little gruelpartment and were “permitted” livestopped within age Community matters ling; downhill was always better.toWe girl. theunwrap forests under the “begaraloo system”.

Thisnear con- Last they prevented felling and in a started part of to cold, rock-hard parathas Sheyear whipped out her phone tinued untillow as late as the 1960s, strong their forest. instance of itsthe kind in the someone’s boundary wall,when and atore at making callsInina first rapid succession, converrebellion forced We the had Forest Department pay sations area, thegoing Forestsomething Department them, starving. almost reachedtolevel likelater this:asked for the nominalwhen wages. sabha’sYes, permission to say go ahead with She the ground a woodcutter, who was also part gram “I passed.

I called to I PASSED.” twogang, centuries, authorities logging. can’t casting say if this means thatlook better of For the almost roadworks waylaid us in the have gen- raised her“Ivoice, a fulminating at seen possible the areamanner. solely as a resource for wood. the times areofcoming, but at leastwho it is did recognition tlest back the driver’s head, nothing “The Department was constituted of tone a gram sabha’s role,” says Bhujel.

He Forest had heard us ask someone for a placefor to to down the piped music. the purpose management, and its The fight for community forest rights an stay, and saidofhetimber had a room for “You remember that isgirl institutional structure the forest that ongoing one across country. a baby, and rent.

“It’s here,” he said,still hissees manwhothe delivered waya(to this its working plans are primarPaldel Sherpa, additional district magistner mix of day, deference and deterwhose in-laws... yes, she, she’s ily concerned with timber).

If not timber, one rate of Alipurduar says of mination.

“Just here, away from failed.

Gotimplementation left behind by a few species (such asshould tigers) see becomes “I agreeSir that villagers the crowd.

You it.” It the focus of FRA has been poor. numbers. asked her tohave get management. More fundamentally, the de- to be included her in decision-making forwas a Kumaoni house, ochre paper rechecked.over Sir himTiny, delicate cacti and partment landholding and land- ests, but if the land important wood overis aprimarily cement abase.

Tiny, selfisasked her.” to the governsucculents overflowed controlling agency, that is how foresters ment then I don’t think sabha can be delicate cacti andand succulents “Yes, the yes,gram I got through. from tins and plastic see their jobfrom — totins control police large ar- allowed to decide.” overflowed and and plastic Can’t hear anything. I’ll get jars in his garden eas of havethe diverse ways of Mendha Lekha, a village in Maharashtra, jars inland. Communities his garden. The room home and call you... poor looking at thewanted forest, but the comwasgirl... the first getpeople its community woodcutter to rent out last to year, had realmonpictures thread isand thatpaintings they don’tand see rights three yearsSeven, ago. Since then had ly odd marks. nine...” it as some covering kind of property. They there “Yes, haveIbeen approvsketches the walls, wish sporadic sir had asked me see it asdisintegrating an area that needs be als to in get Odisha but none in north some over tothe my paper rechecked last managedmat. for their and Bengal. foresta rights dirt-dark Thereown was ause pervayear “Community — I’d have saved year...

Sure, teak has a high are no, potentially use of others,” hardly For sive smell for thatthewouldn’t leave notbeing her recognised.

— poor thing, price in the what’ll market,she get sayslungs Gopalakrishnan. During the theby first four her years, there were our long after we left. Weed. getting paper checked but what is again? its value Shalkumar faceoff, none is still beWe enquired aboutthe him.ranger She got justrecognised. It one mark... yes, let’sonly talk latin a forest? had insisted “the Forest De“He’s foundthat some tourists,” said the priest, er, please.” ing implemented in pockets, partment is “Let’s the final wordlong andthey stay.” thoughabout more the dismissively. see how Of all the things thefrequently Himalayas,inapart theAfter village should the ellastofthree says Gopalaka while we listen got up,toreluctantly. from the views quiet,years,” magnificent peaks in derThe brother”. rishnan. Even though the gram vehicle that dropped us to the bus stand the sun, I remember the conversations; all I This attitude themonosyllab- want to do issabha hasinto been govwas, sadly, emptyhas anddefined the driver, get back onedeemed of thosethe Sumos, relationship thefalse department erning institution under Narayan Biswas, ic.

We gave upbetween after a few starts. and the and ride.

Never mind theFRA, destination. forest-dwellers, for conversation the latter thethat jungles I thought backbut to the had tribal development officer at Alipurduar, says is a Mumbai-based copy editor are me nothooked a one-way street. “The is every- suhasini he cannotkamble do anything until he hears from the got to travelling in jungle uncomfortable one’s but we cannot take everything. We have Forest Department. to use this resource in a manner that it lasts “But the FRA has given the gram sabha a for a long, long time,” says Debendra Rabha, voice, a power. Without it we were even more 27, secretary of Baniya Village Gram Sabha. It helpless. At least there is some dignity and solwas only after several meetings that he was idarity now,” says Sundar Singh Rabha. able to get villagers to sign up for the patrollThe Rabha tribe has folk songs about the foring. The visible thinning of their forests finally est and the planting season. “These are songs convinced them to assert their rights and our elders sang when they planted all of this,” fight against regular logging, known as coupe says Rabha. felling, by the Forest Department. Baniya and Sitting on a pastureland surrounded by a 11 other villages have refused to allow such log- forest, Sonteshwar is egged by his friends to ging for the past year and a half. Each village sing an old Rabha song. He sings about the manages 2,000-3,000 hectares of forest. month of Phalgun and the sound of rain on Khoirbari village in Jaldapara National Park new leaves when Rabha says, “It isn’t just for us is encircled by two rivers and forests. “We were but also the world. Forests have such value. never able to see tea gardens from our village. But the world outside is different. Perhaps you But now we can,” says Bipin Rabha, 27, mem- can help us with a good education and we will ber of the village’s Forest Rights Committee. protect the forests for you.”

“Year after year the Forest Department was felling hectares of forest. We get everything padmaparna ghosh is a Delhi-based writer

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Green sentinels A forest village in Buxa, Alipurduar district, a region pockmarked by tea and other plantations

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BEYOND THE FIELD

Out of order When the choice of candidates for the FIFA presidency comes down to one between contracting the plague and catching cholera

Day of rage Thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets of Bahrain in March 2011, carrying banners that read: “The Saudi army came to protect the illegitimate government, not the aggrieved, legitimate nation” ap/hasan jamali

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his past May, FIFA, world football’s governing body, plunged into what looked like the worst crisis in its beleaguered history. The Swiss police made a series of arrests after the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of 14 people, nine of whom were current or former FIFA executives, on varying charges, which included racketeering, wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracies. Given the extent of the irregularities that have pervaded FIFA’s operations, especially since the Brazilian João Havelange assumed its presidency in 1974, the news of these arrests appeared to represent a watershed.

A month later, when FIFA’s embattled president Sepp Blatter — who succeeded Havelange in 1998 — announced that he would step down once a successor was elected the following year, it seemed like we had finally arrived at a game-changer, a perfect opportunity for reform. But more recent developments suggest that transformation at FIFA requires measures that go beyond the ouster of a few.

After Blatter announced his decision, the choice of his replacement appeared obvious to many.

Michel Platini, the former French footballing great and head of Europe’s governing body UEFA, enjoyed the backing of many federations. But in early October, Platini, along with Blatter, was suspended from FIFA for 90 days, pending enquiry. The alleged offence: an unauthorised payment of $2 million made by FIFA to Platini.

The suspension, unless lifted, bars Platini from contesting the presidential elections next year. Ordinarily, given the nature of the charges, you’d have thought: good riddance!

After all, the latest allegations appeared to vindicate the former Manchester United legend Eric Cantona, who, only last year, described choosing between Platini and Blatter as akin to a choice between contracting the plague and catching cholera. But, bizarrely, it appears, it could get even worse for FIFA. On Monday, Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin

Ebrahim al-Khalifa, the head of the Asian Foot- the aftermath of this repression, the Bahraini ball Confederation, submitted his candidature government established a special committee to be the new president of FIFA. He had previ- to identify the protesters, which included ously backed Platini to replace Blatter as presi- many athletes, before systematically overseedent. The renewed allegations against Platini, ing a campaign of imprisonment, torture, and though, have pushed Sheikh al-Khalifa into denial of medical treatment. throwing his name into the veritable ring.

According to reports in The Guardian, a doc“A growing number of senior football admin- ument on the Bahrain News Agency’s website istrators, FIFA members and personalities of recounts the specific involvement of Sheikh alpublic life,” Sheikh al-Khalifa said last week, had Khalifa, who was general secretary of youth been urging him to run for the presidency. If it and sport and head of the Bahrain Football Aswere indeed true that Sheikh al-Khalifa boasted sociation at the time, in this committee. such backing, and were he to come to power, FISince 2011, when Sheikh al-Khalifa’s involveFA, which is already mired in filth and greed, ment in the crackdown first surfaced, FIFA has could take a potentially fatal step towards an ir- refused to investigate the allegations. Accordredeemable degeneration. ing to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and DeAs a member of Bahrain’s royal family, ac- mocracy, it had written in 2013 to the then cording to several reports, Sheikh chairman of the FIFA ethics al-Khalifa has been at the forefront committee, Michael Garcia of thwarting democratic protest in that at least six footballers Bahrain, by using the most insidifrom the Bahrain national ous means, including torture and football team were arrested, mass incarcerations. “In 2013, our defamed and tortured. Their Transformation at organisation wrote to FIFA presiidentification and subseFIFA requires dent, Mr Joseph Blatter, expressing quent incarceration were, the measures that go our deep concern over allegations organisation said, at the behbeyond the ouster of unethical behaviour conducted est of Sheikh al-Khalifa. of a few

by FIFA committee member and Although there are other president of the Asian Football Concandidates in the fray, includfederation, Sheikh al-Khalifa,” a leting UEFA’s general secretary ter to FIFA from the Americans for Gianni Infantino, who will Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrun with Europe’s backing, rain said. “…As we explained in our Sheikh al-Khalifa is likely to previous communications, there is credible evi- draw substantial support from South America, dence that Sheikh al-Khalifa aided and abetted Africa, and his home continent Asia. In the abcrimes against humanity while he was presi- sence of a sufficient backlash to his nominadent of the [Bahrain Football Association]. In tion, Sheikh al-Khalifa could be seen at the light of news that Sheikh al-Khalifa is seeking helm of FIFA. election as president of FIFA, we write now to As Nicholas McGeehan, a researcher at Huurge you to terminate his candidacy for this po- man Rights Watch, put it: “If a member of Bahsition in the emergency meeting of the FIFA ex- rain’s royal family is the cleanest pair of hands ecutive committee.” that FIFA can find, then the organisation In February 2011, Bahrain launched a violent would appear to have the shallowest and least attack against the nearly 6,000 protesters who ethical pool of talent in world sport.” had taken part in demonstrations across the country to demand political reforms, including suhrith parthasarathy is a Chennai-based lawyer the establishment of a democratic rule of law. In and writer t@suhrith

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For your safety All things nice

A memo that details dos and don’ts if and when you encounter a yeti

Dads of daughters are betters CEOs

RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE scan Nine years after a landmark law empowered forest communities, tribals struggle to regain their rights p4 saturday, october 31, 2015

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he US government, as we all know, has a plan for just about every contingency. Last year, we heard that the Defence Department even has a response for the eventuality of a zombie attack.

But now it is learned that the American Embassy in Kathmandu issued a memo back in 1959 detailing “Regulations Governing Mountain Climbing Expeditions in Nepal — Relating to Yeti.” The yeti is that mythical creature that no one has seen, but everyone believes exists — just like a happy marriage.

The regulations include “News and reports throwing light on the actual existence of the creature must be submitted to the Government of Nepal as soon as they are available.” Well... we are still waiting!

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he nursery rhyme — “What are little boys made of? / Frogs and snails / And puppydogs’ tails / What are little girls made of? / Sugar and spice? / And everything nice,” is all too common. Everyone likes to think of girls as bundles of joy and cuteness. But now research has proved that dads of daughters are the coolest CEOs on the block. The recent issue of Harvard Business Review tells us that CEOs who have daughters get roughly 12 per cent higher ratings for being socially responsible than those who have sons. It would appear that having a daughter in the house makes bosses more willing to give back to society.

Well, cheers to that.

Smooth sailing International Space Station is cleaner than your loo

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hat does the International Space Station smell of? A mix of antiseptic and garbage, said an astronaut. A sealed capsule floating in space and smelling like that may not rank very high on the sanitation scale.

However, a recent study by astrobiologists has found that the ISS is not so yucky after all.

After studying two bags of dust from the ISS vacuum cleaner, and another from a filter, the team found more bacteria in the station than in the clean room on earth. Not surprising, they say, as the station is the astronaut’s home for months. In case it makes you smug, take this — ‘It’s many, many times cleaner than your bathroom at home.’ sudowoodo/shutterstock

Alternative methods of communication are allowing Hangar or bicycle those with disabilities to express themselves, thereby stand?

Spooked! returning agency to them p9

Patna airport is choc-a-bloc with choppers

Speech enabled Here’s a Google tool for the coolest Halloween costume

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irates. Darth Vader. Jedi. Luke Skywalker.

Clown. Owl… Anything but Harley Quinn. If you’re still looking for a Halloween costume for tonight, take pointers from Frightgeist, a handy Google Trends tool. It shows a list of the most ‘googled’ costumes and it also tells us which ones are the most unpopular. A preview: Boston’s most googled costume is the pirate. In Lincoln, it’s the pumpkin. Austin loves the dinosaur. Hippies are ruling Colorado. And superheroes hold sway in New York.

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o what does the Patna airport hangar look like these days? Worse than a bicycle stand, if officials are to be believed. With the election pitch rising, and leaders counting rallies, choppers are the machines of choice.

The small hangar in Patna now has 28 choppers parked; 17 are used by the BJP, and others mainly by Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar. Officials have already lost enough sleep on finding parking space for each of these choppers.

DESERT BEATS The ninth If any more machines come in, the distraught of the Jodhpur RIFF officials say, the political parties wouldedition have to find the parking for them. Enough ofbrought turnto stage the folk ing the hangar into a bicycle stand, theyand add. the contemporary p14

XXL DREAM A ringside view of a sumo tournament in Tokyo is just what this fan of the sport needed p19

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

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was watching the 2007 film Jab We Met, and discovered that the small town featured in it, Ratlam, exists in Madhya Pradesh. This week’s quiz is all about small towns from around the world.

here,there & elsewhere

Wild sighting T

he farm is bounded on the east by a stand of tall conifers. Beyond the trees, hidden from view is a level path that defines the property-line. It was once a narrow-gauge railway line, which is why it’s so level. I like going for long flat walks, so this path is ideal for me.

It’s got medium-dense forest on either side of it and feels satisfyingly wild.

Bins comes along sometimes. He keeps his eyes peeled for antiques: he’s already filled his pockets with blackened, misshapen iron bolts, belonging to the old railway. “Can’t get these anywhere now,” he says. “Made by hand, not machine.” He’s enjoying Vermont more than he expected, he says. A little further down the path, he sees a movement. “Look, look — someone is climbing up that tree!” He always says ‘someone’ when speaking of animals.

It’s a sleepy, slow-moving porcupine.

We’ve never seen one in this vertical position before, hanging onto the side of the tree like a giant, warm-blooded pincushion.

New World porkies climb trees while their Old World cousins don’t.

There’s no reason! That’s just the way it is. Bins goes up to take a closer look but comes away unimpressed.

“Pooh. Not as pretty as our Indian ones.” I laugh at him. “You’re SO competitive!” I say, which makes him

cornerstone

bristle of course, exactly like a porcupine. We continue arguing until the path we’re on wanders out of the woods, follows the road and ends at a sturdy barbwire fence. On the other side of the fence is a very large bird.

So large that it can look us in the face with an amused, worldly-wise expression in its beautiful orange eyes.

Bins and I are so astonished that we stare slack-jawed at the creature. It stares right back at us. Several of its buddies come over to join the stare-fest.

They have shaggy necks, bodies like mounds of straw and long, muscular

No small matter mauve-grey legs. “Bongggg!” says the first one, with its beak shut tight. Its friends solemnly agree: “Bongggg!” Their call is so strange and soft it’s more like telepathy than normal sound.

It turns out the birds are emus. Some farmers in the area raise them for their meat, leather and foot-long sea-green eggs. These birds however belong to a reclusive lady who likes them for their own sake. Alas she does not permit visitors to enter the farm so, like the railway track, the story ends at the fence. Nevertheless, I walk over as often as I can, just to share a few friendly bonggggs with these friendly flightless giants.

One day, I am alone on the railway track, returning from the emus, when there’s a rustle and crash. A black, low-slung shape bursts from cover, jumps across the path and vanishes.

All I see is the long bushy tail and a flash of ochre-yellow. Then it’s gone.

Back at the house, Grace and I look at her book of local wildlife. Only one animal has that distinctive yellow stripe across the hips: a wolverine.

Yow! Close encounter with North American Carnivore! Major thrill. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

1

A Small Town in Germany is a bestselling espionage novel by British author John le Carré. Which was the ‘small town’ mentioned in the novel?

2 3

According to the Government of India, what is the minimum population required for a place to be classified as a town?

A small town in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh was the birthplace of Abdul Karim Khan in 1872. Over the next century, the name of the town became a byword in Indian classical music. Which town did Khan put on the world music map?

4

In 1879, which town was created by Quaker businessmen George and Richard in the small hamlet of Bournbrook Hall, about four miles south of Birmingham? The brothers’ surname and the name of the town have become international brand names.

5

In which writer’s works would you come across the fictional town of Castle Rock in Maine? It features in at least three of his works and got its name from a mountain fort in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.

6

Los Santos, with neighbourhoods like Idlewood, Willowfield, Santa Maria beach and Vinewood Sign, which are suspiciously similar to suburbs in Los Angeles, is the fictional setting for which hugely popular computer game?

7

Duffel bags get their name from a small town of the same name, renowned for the hardy and thick Duffel cloth produced there. In which country is the town of Duffel?

8 9

In 1997, which element was named after a town in Russia that had been a centre for research in physics for over 30 years?

The Iowan town of Riverside prides itself for something that is scheduled to happen 213 years later, in AD 2228. What momentous event is supposed to take place that year in Riverside? Fiction.

10

On June 18, 1991, which town in Kerala became the first in the country to have 100 per cent literacy?

Answers 1. Bonn, the capital of West Germany during the Cold War, where it seemed former Nazis were slowly taking control again 2. A population of at least 5,000. Also, at least 75 per cent of the male working population should be engaged in non-agricultural pursuits 3. Kirana, the home of the Kirana gharana, one of the illustrious schools of Indian classical music.

Well-known exponents of the gharana include Bhimsen Joshi, Ustad Amir Khan and Gangubai Hangal 4. Bournville; it was the Cadbury brothers who set up their factory and township 5. Stephen King, who also created the towns of Derry and Jerusalem’s Lot for his novels 6. Grand Theft Auto 7. Belgium; Duffel coats also get their name from the same town 8. Dubnium, named after the town of Dubna; it is the 117th element in the periodic table 9. Captain Kirk of the starship USS Enterprise is supposed to be born there that year. Not surprisingly, it’s already on the must visit list of hardcore Trekkies 10. Kottayam. Ernakulam became the second town in February the next year

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

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