TROUBLED WATERS The father of a six-dayold baby recounts his harrowing experience of the Chennai ood. While goodwill was plenty, greed was not far behind p2 saturday, december 12, 2015
ingrid therwath
The French correction
A month after the attacks, France is at risk of losing its joie de vivre and transforming into a police State. What does this mean for the ordinary Parisian? p9
RUNNING ON EMPTY As essential supplies remain blocked at the border, Nepal improvises to survive p5
KIMKI AT KAIRALI Once again, the International Film Festival of Kerala was manna for the cinephile p14
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Go kabbadi, girls A quiet revolution is rippling through the shanties of Govandi in Mumbai, as its teens are getting that rare thing: a chance to play
Marooned! There were 650 waterbodies in Chennai 10 years ago, just when the real estate boom was attaining mammoth proportions. Today, the city has fewer than 30 lakes, ponds and other waterbodies. It looked like the rising waters bore a message of revolt afp
Yellow lights of deluge A six-day-old premature baby in hand, they braved the rains and got home, only to watch water inundate it. A first-hand account of surviving over 40 hours in the Chennai floods
Gripping action A Sunday evening of kabbadi keeps girls from Govandi, one of Mumbai’s poorest wards, engrossed bhavya dore
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t was 5pm on a Sunday. A group of women, some clad in burqas, clapped and uddenly, thefrom bedroom looked On xancheered softly the sidelines. a thous. It of wasground Tuesday, December 1. A dusty patch in front of them, veil ofschool dirtybuilding, yellow light fell of ongirls the at a worn-out a bunch wall and on the bed where Amal was was robustly chasing each other. sleeping. He was born just six dayshissed ago, more “Kabbadi… kabbadi… kabbadi,” one than month earlier than he was of theagirls as she forayed across theexpected. line into Theopposing premature arrival had made him vulnerathe team’s territory. There were loud ble toand infections. The doctors had givenenerhim cries a semi-circle of players moved antibiotics before he hadher. tasted mother’s getically in awell formation near milk. We on hada returned home the of hospiSeated plastic chair byfrom the side the tal the previous day. TheBegum injection marksher on makeshift field, Sainad watched his arm looked as iftournahe had daughter play inlike thisgoosebumps, friendly kabbadi just woken from a nightmare. ment. She was here to support her daughter. Ourhusband nightmares were approve,” only starting. was “My doesn’t she Itsaid. morning. My parents and Sangeeth, “Many people don’t approve. They saymy theelder girls son,grown were up, playing in the hall sky are they shouldn’t be when sent tothe play.” painted a sullen portrait. Theyoung sun had gone beBut that has not stopped girls in the hind thefrom clouds and delivered an eerie locality turning out to play everyglow, week.a slicenearly of which on the the cheeks of our For a yearsettled now, through Parivartan newborn. He run looked yellow. Radhika, programme by pale the and non-profit Internamy wife, said for he had not been feedingand propertional Centre Research on Women Aply sinceamorning. Worried,has we been examined his nalaya, quiet revolution rippling hands and belly. They were a yelthrough the shanties and pale, slumstoo, of with Govandi. low tint.Mumbai’s It could be poorest baby jaundice. was the not Among wards,He with exposedhuman to enough sun and theindices, doctors and had worst development said he prejudice would need phototherapy lower the where and economic to constraints high opportunities bilirubin levels. checked his eyes and limit forWe girls, teenagers are gettheythat wererare yellow too.a chance to play. ting thing: Darkweek,” and deep were enveloping “All saidclouds Mariyam Shaikh, 15, justVelabechery, where we began, lived. And minutes it was fore the session “Wein keep waiting for pouring.evening, For a moment, Amal opened Sunday when we can comehis outeyes to and tried cry, in vain. Wein wanted to take him play.” It is to a cherished slot the weekly calento a and doctor immediately emerdar, at least 100 girls, and agedtried 12-17,the show up gencyweek number at Apollo Cradle, Karappakam, every at different times. where he was born17,after an emergency C-secReshma Ansari, sitting beside Mariyam, tion.waiting The hospital likere-a was for theexecutive others tosounded arrive, and panicked and said it was pouring outflected on cuckoo the unequal opportunities for boys
and girls. “Girls should also get to play,” she don’t have a problem, then what right do othsaid. “Otherwise we feel frustrated, bored.” ers have to say this?” side roads leading located Theand programme wasto setthe uphospital, in January this that if he wassome not exposed decent soon, Although parents to may havesun been renearly 12 will km from home,with werea waterlogged. It luctant year, and culminate tournament in his bilirubin levels could go up. We must keep at first to send their daughters out of wasNew a risk to take the baby out in our small car the the Year. himhouse, underand vigil, doctor tothe play, of allsaid. things, in what is — The or ingirls anyare vehicle, forinto thatgroups, matter.each We stayed divided men- often Thedescribed ambulance rushed intothose the lobby as driver an unsafe locality, rescalm by anda young dialledwoman away numbers. Muted re- ervations tored from the communito give ushave morelargely bad news. roads, he“Once said, beenThe overcome. sponses and annoying beeps followed. du- girls ty. “We felt we had to do something inThe sports wereturn alarmingly waterlogged it was 11 or 12 years old, theyand don’t leaverisky the ty doctor at Apollo Cradle’s emergency desk for empowerment,” said Shweta Bankar, a house to venture out.said ButMeraj we had to go back as my much,” Qureshi, 21, a young advised usspecialist to get Amal’s blood samples tested woman technical for Parivartan. parents from and Sangeeth would get worried.asAfthe community appointed a to“The see ifgirls his jaundice needed urgent attention. mentor. can claim a space for themselves ter much cajoling pleading, the be driver “Parents areand scared they may haI contacted three they popular nearby, in the community, gainlabs an ability to but ne- rassed agreed.on The vehicle moved with a roar, parting the streets.” none offor them were ableand to send gotiate themselves theyanyone to col- the wavy waters embracing the road. Some girls drop outmain of school lectbuild the blood of the newborn. can theirsamples confidence.” The water was flowing furiouslyconstraints but it seemed due to financial or In Muslim-dominated Govanto reach nowhere. vehicle’s soundother The reasons. Evenengine those who do Tumultuous ride di, about 77 per cent is slum poped like an aged the time we have reacgo asthmatic to schoolbyeither don’t After many attempts to call an hed ulation, the average agewe of managed death playgrounds or playtime slots. Watching myour street. ambulance from a nearby hospital and it ar- play,Unrelenting is 39 years (compared to 52 years rains bathed I carried “If there is no Amal place,as where will daughter I am rived an hour. We infant drapedmorAmal in a also creamyfor theincity) and the into thethey house, walking through play?” asked Fatma chestKhaable tohim enjoy greenish a hood that tality rate towel is 66.47with for every 1,000 deep mixed sludge toon, water the mother of awith player. She myself resembled a hornbill’s live births, compared to 34.75nest. for and sewage. Asnot we be dried smiled. “I may ablethe to baby play, Heavy lashedto the emergenthe city,rains according data from inside, I saw water furiouslyplay, gush-I but watching my daughter cy vehicle as we got of in; driving the Tata Institute Social ing into our porch. Someone had am also able to enjoy myself.” She Rationality is not a through knee-deep water, the amSciences. told my father that go a few lakes continued, “If they forward great weapon in bulance the where hospital in life istimes Againstreached these odds, daily an on-of deluge. nearby their banks. freely, only then canhad theybreached move ahead.” about 30 minutes. On the way we going struggle, kabbadi continues to offer I didn’t believe him as there had Aside from the kabbadi slot, the girls have a Plain, vain hope is saw signs of trouble. Water was hope. been no warnings. Nomodules flood alerts, weekly slot where they are taught reencroaching “Who said it isupon a boy’spavements game?” asked one exu- lated to gender, megaphone announcements or life skills and health. The goal, and shops in low-lying Peo- “Anyone said Bankar,radio berant player after the areas. tournament. hadpersonal come ourdevelopway. We is toalerts foster ple play.” were rushing home. The air can knew and ourbroader rentedsocial double-storey ment, confidence skills. smelled of worry. For a couple of hours a week, scores of girls house stood on land that the once wasshowed a big lake. At the kabbadi ground girls no The doctor ordered more blood As we gather to engage in the rough andtests. tumble of signs According to the National Institute of Disaster of self-consciousness, throwing themwaited impatiently, thedressed city outside looked the game. Some arrive in salwar ka- selves Management, there were waterbodies in enthusiastically into650 the game and boislike a still from a disaster flick. Heavy meez, some with headscarves, which rains, they terously Chennaiberating 10 years ago, when the real estate eachjust other. hurrying menhours and women, scared birds and shed for a few and throw themselves inboom was we attaining proportions. “Earlier might mammoth have felt scared about animals, and field. confused traffic. The blood re- speaking,” to the playing Today, the city fewer than 30we lakes, saidhas Mariyam. “Now are ponds more sults came an people hour later and the said doctor said confident. “Sometimes comment,” Chandand other And waterbodies. It looked like the riswe feel good physically.” Amal stood thesay, edge of can danger. Which ni Ansari, 17. on “They ‘How parents let ing waters bore a message of revolt. dore is awater Mumbai-based meant could go back. alsoparents meant bhavya her outwe of the house?’ But Which when my In minutes, enteredjournalist our compound.
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In an hour, it reached the door like an unexpected visitor. We knew it was impossible to get out with the newborn. All we could do was join the family on the first floor. We grabbed the essentials: food, medicines, water bottles, blankets, medical reports and moved upstairs. As we climbed the stairs we could see water seeping through the front door. It looked eerily lustrous in the flashlight of my cellphone. From the first floor, it looked like our houses had just floated onto a lake and soon they would drift back to wherever they had come from. I could not sleep. The air felt heavy and smelled of mud and crickets. The walls of the house looked drunk and swollen. I dozed off for a while, and dreamt of dry lands and blooming fields and the peach orchard in Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams. I was jolted out of my reverie when Radhika shook me to say Amal was breathing heavily. He was wheezing. His chest went up and down in wild spasms, in a motion too hard for his fragile limbs to take. I tried to call friends and the paediatrician, but the network was down. We tried to burp him; placed him on my shoulder and shook him; patted him in ways we thought would soothe his lungs. Nothing worked. His wheezing merged with the patter of rains and his frightened eyes begged for help. We held onto each other in helpless suffering. In a minute, he appeared better. An alarm I had set sometime ago on my phone buzzed at 4am, Wednesday. It was still dark and I waited for a while before going down to check on my house, expecting to get help from people outside. My father followed me. The water outside had risen several notches overnight. I knew water had entered my house and most of my valuables would have been lost. Still I decided to go in. I was a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will, I told my father, with a failing grin. Of course, he didn’t get it; Gramsci was not ideal for times of deluge. At that time we didn’t know the rain was changing the lives of over three million people in India’s fifth-largest city. I tried to gather hope and confidence and moved into the
house by sliding along the wall towards the first-floor flat like the young Florentines who main door. As I reached it, a lightning bolt of gathered at the Basilica di Santa Maria Novelpain shot through my body. I shrieked in hor- la, telling each other stories in their vain atror and, within seconds, I realised that a patch tempt to escape the Black Death pandemic. of ferocious ants, which were safely en- Outside, my car almost sank, and on the street, sconced on the walls, had breached my skin. I leaked petrol from vehicles parked nearby parted my mundu and saw a bunch of leeches formed patches of forlorn rainbows. merrily sucking blood from my thigh. The There were a couple of private boats rescuants, in turn, had attacked the leeches. Many ing people. Whenever I saw them I shouted to of them fell into the water thanks to my adre- them to come back and rescue us or inform nalin-induced histrionics. the police about us. They would nod and go Clearing the rest of the intruders, I went in- back and never return. Sangeeth, like any inside the house, only to be greeted by floating nocent five-year-old, believed a superhero vessels and books. My shelf had more than would rescue us. All you have to do is ask 400 kg of books I had collected over the years, Ben10 to get in touch with Howl’s Moving Casmostly during my stint in Delhi. I had ferried tle and you will get help, he said. I told him them via the Railways with much difficulty that we had asked the government for help, when I moved to Chennai in December 2013. but no one had turned up. “Superheroes are The shelf was half-sunk in the water. Cots, not like India (the government, he meant), chairs, tables, were all under water. The kitch- achcha,” he said. “They are on time and they never give up.” en was devastated, groceries and vegetables were strewn all over. Superhero to the rescue The bed where Amal was sleeping yesterday was now wet and swol- One of the men I had That night we reversed roles. He told me stories of superheroes len, like a big, rotten sardine. met in the morning who rescue stranded people. I My father and I grabbed whathad come back with really longed for one and cursed ever we could and threw it all onto a small wooden the day I decided to be an athethe berth next to the ceiling where boat. Rescue! ist. Rationality is not a great the inverter sat. As we did that, weapon in times of deluge. more water gushed into the Plain, vain hope is. It had been house. Soon, water would be more than 40 hours since we got chest-deep. It was then that I noticed the scorpions and snakes. And they were stuck inside this room and we were yet to hear in plenty. The snakes were not long or big, but from rescue personnel. Early Thursday morning I walked out and, small and agile. The scorpions moved with the flow in wondrous oblivion while the snakes dangerously wading through water, got on to danced against the wave. I splashed water on the compound wall. Fortunately, I knew all the some of them to make way for us and swiftly poles and holes on the road. I stood on a wall and spoke to whoever went our way, pleading, moved up the stairs. We saw people swimming their way out. I begging, offering money. There were two shouted to them to send help. None returned. brave souls who were going out to get food for We were running short of water. Our hosts, a their families. They assured me they would get young couple, had no groceries. All they had a rescue boat. I stood on the wall, shivering, was a few packets of noodles. We were not sure looking at the apartments, which resembled if we would survive as the water was rising wet matchboxes placed in designed disorder. Hours went by. Then I heard a hoot. One of again. As hours went by, as our phones conked off and my tweets and short messages paused the men I had met in the morning had come in thin air, as repeated attempts at getting back with a small wooden boat. Rescue! Never help vanished, we sat inside the hall of the in my life had a piece of wood looked so beautiful and promising. It was painted in blue and red and had broken edges. The next few minutes went by in a hurry. They broke open the gate and took the boat closer to the first-floor staircase. We grabbed medicines and clothes. I stepped on to the boat and took the baby, wrapped in warm clothes and plastic sheets. I saw some snakes nearby. So did a rower, but we both knew that if we sounded an alert others would panic and the boat would capsize. On the boat Sangeeth sat scared, but I knew he was secretly enjoying the adventure. He managed to get his face closer to mine and asked, “Dad, can I sing ‘Row Row Row Your Boat’”? I asked him not to. I knew he was singing it aloud in his head. ‘Merrily merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream...’ The boat stopped near the main road, amidst the debris of a wreckage. There were many people but no government officials or volunteers. As we got out of the boat a bevy of men came with their cellphones to click our photos. Some wanted selfies. We were still in the floods and could not believe that hell was gone for now. The sky was still overcast and most roads were still blocked. On the horizon, I could still see the yellow lights of deluge. I didn’t want to see them again. As we approached the bus stand, one fellow played an FM channel on his phone. It sang, “Yei vai raja vai indha vaazhkai oru poi” (Life is but a lie). We couldn’t agree more.
Sailors all Water kept inching up through the day, but rescue came in the form of a small wooden boat. Residents of Velachery being rescued kv sinivasan
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Flood of opportunism As Chennai grappled with the catastrophic rains, many tales of greed, callousness and apathy went unreported of profiteering. It wasn’t just the airlines that charged exorbitant sums for nearby destinations (such as Bengaluru) or hotels that hiked room rates as demands spiked. A bunch of racketeers resold milk at anything up to ₹150 a litre and drinking water at similarly inflated rates. On a small, dry patch at the busy intersection of Eldams Road and TTK Road, a man at the back of a tempo was besieged by people looking to buy milk. He had no compunctions charging ₹75 for a half-litre packet, and no one complained as they jockeyed to get closer to the truck. One of them said philosophically, “What choice do we have? It’s a seller’s market.” As shops downed shutters and essential goods became scarce, the Tamil Nadu government did a splendid job in keeping one service Good times The countryside — usually a village by a river or ringed by hills — scores well as the family picnic destination v raju open — the sale of alcohol, the State’s biggest revenue earner. Outlets of TASMAC, the government liquor retailer, were open in many parts of the city, including some on roads where every other establishment was shut. Outside a wine shop on the arterial Anna Salai, bystanders helped push-start a massive SUV stuck in the water. Three inebriated men in colourful lungis soon joined in. Job done, the drunk men forcefully demanded money from the SUV owner, chartered accountant K Vanchinathan, who later said, “I had to part The other side of the story In some places, volunteers were manhandled as they distributed food packets with ₹500. I am sure the money found its way and other essentials among the affected r ravindran to TASMAC.” Most taxis and auto rickshaws stayed off the roads and the few that plied fleeced hapless hennai is the only place where As Pillai and Lakshmi climbed into the boat, commuters. Suhashini Madan, a Besant Nagar he shimul (‘semal’ Hindi) treesthan are were there are moreinvolunteers served alrummage fresco, dish afterthe dish. As an they saw them around house. “I turns, we came outout next to a times football fieldthan borresident, shelled three more beginning buda and theshared koels added victims’ to read widely incentive came them,” the promise of a“They bon- dered couldn’t help noticing said Pillai. by ausually narrowpays road,towith high gates the what she get home fromon Anna (cuckoos) are was going berserk in tweet that attributed to the fire, ready tostacked a patch cleared pretended be parton of the rescueofteam but other side.was lucky. Others paid even more. Salai. She trees, a nip in flooded the air. PerIndian Army. Asand thethere’s city became by ground and waiting darkness. The caretakwere actually tryingfor to filch my possessions.” The resort was behind one of thosesector high opportunism of the transport fect picnicrain weather. Every year Kolkata gets it- er torrential and water released from overtold us that there was anpump old temple nearby, Taking shelter at a petrol after the res- gates. It had a blue withboat a green roof was most visible in gazebo the private services self together, a Saturday Sunday and so flowing lakes,finds scores of warm,orfuzzy stories more enthusiastic the and cuethe boat dropped them offskipped on a dry across spot, Pillai Donald Duck cavorting thatMickey ferried Mouse peopleand from severely waterlogged heads out—for that opening comfortably emerged people theirdistant, houses notand fields, an occasional tohe look said hedodging can survey the damagecycle-van only after re- on one side. The main boasted whata areas like Velachery. Thebuilding going rate was ₹600 too-familiar spot,bands usually kitchens to picnic strangers, of somewhere volunteers at the home old terracotta half-ruins with an elderly you turns when the water recedes. would describe in fashion circles as athe viperson, a very tidy amount considering across the Parganas or the closer at priest rushing to24 affected areas, anddistricts tales of heroism attendance. darkness the brant Not in very far away,When Karuna Sekar, afell, slumeggplant purple façade dry withspot, sculpted ride was only till the nearest after hand like Midnapore or Hooghly. Places that bonfire and communal harmony. roared high, a table was dragged out nymphs dweller and watchman at a middle-class housinrescued floating were draperies. were muwhich the left toInside fend for themmost seldombrought get to see. Yes,tourists this disaster out the best in and piled withchose pakoras, also rickshaws to selves or justrals ing complex, threeasauto horses wait of for wild further help. streaming There’s But an art the perfect pic- teapots Chennai. as to theplanning media chased feel-good whiskytwo bottles rubshelter and his wife, children across walls over very Morethe volunteers thanthe victims? nic, as Iand discovered. It begins with a group toof bing stories the city celebrated a newfound shoulders. and three members of his sisplush was obviously More couches. than oneItvolunteer was a like-minded people sitting and wrangetherness in the face of together a catastrophe that ter’s Doing a post-mortem family. Parked in a later, line one-of-a-kind resort and I wanvictim. Some examples were realgling over where to go. Should itclass be a baganbarecognised neither economic nor reli- my friends and I cameRoad, to the along Venkatnarayana aldered for ly closearound to home.it,A waiting BusinessLine When darkness fell, bunch of racketeers ri (garden house) in the Parganas, or should gious denomination, it 24 ignored a darker side. conclusion that so in T Nagar, theBarasat vehicleshad be- A the breakfast be manhandled served, so thatbyI journalist towas bonfire roared resold milkwas at it a resort? The first one I went to was held been Ofbe exploitation. Profiteering. And callousness. predictable, long to a friend. the expected could appreciateasthe thing some teenagers shewhole was taking high, a table anythingout up and to ₹150 a even in Take a garden house in Barasat, with a mango Dhanraj Pillai. On December 2, the oras- country party. The Rollinghouse up the tarps tothing, catch dragged piled better — the cook and his supplies to slum-dwellers on Kolitrepakoras, and drinking with as also chard a cookofand his helpers thrown in. we sistantand manager a nationalised bank was agreed, wasair toinside find athe place some light and auhelpers had arrived with their dambakkam High Road. The water at similarly teapots and That meant a formal of the mewatching the news atconsideration 7pm in the comfort of where no one before, to, Sekar said had he been first sought pots andofpans and spices in anbrother another BusinessLine inflatedbottles rates whisky nus that we wereEven offered, ticking of his living room. as healistened to choices reports or where people didn’t go, shelter at most his place of work. other van to shop picked in the journalist hadsethisupwallet and then sitting back anticipation. We took a “I of the lashing rain, hein saw rainwater creeping private kind of serendipity was told we were too many kitchen space. Across thepackets. football while distributing food that picnic easily, since itWithin was all organised, no that in around his chair. an hour, his we could savour selfishly. and was promptly turned away,” field was a snake park, contraso the “Humanity is a crazy running around for competitive quotes. ground-floor apartment in T Nagar, smackThe in Sekar Thesaid. second stumbled “Wetime alsowe tried to take whole gently diction,” saidkinky the experience American drive was down roads was that flooded. had been made the middle of Chennai, Alone at upon resort near sheltera technicolour in the garages of neighcould be rounded in comfort stand-up comedianoff Colin Quinn. straight, little industrial, giving wayintohis a few home at athe time, he sought refuge 70- Badu, slightly beyondbut the met Kolkata bouring apartments, withAirport refusallimev- as you watched man enter out a cage full ofover poiThis was a truthathat played over and small villages, one-horse towns along the way its, year-old cousin’s first-floor apartment. that had erywhere,” he been added.recommended by a film sonous snakes. was diluted with some again during theThis catastrophe. Compassion coand then, many briefly,inthat wild blue yonder feeling friend Unlike colonies such as Velachery, from Tollywood (the about name comes from gentle Sekar’s wife was worried the unavailfootball and food, foodwent and existedgames with of callousness, generosity as we went through the wall which remained without helpthat and separated rescue ef- Tollygunge, the and Kolkata neighbourhood ability of milk drinking water. “We syngot more food. hand-in-hand with greed, and courage was the fromPillai the neighbourhood. fortsestate for days, was lucky. A boat arrived onymous film from studios). some foodwith packets volunteers and near- undermined Crisp, piping kachoris as with potato curry byhot cowardice Chennai grapwas the extra ingredient thrown into byThe theMusic next morning to escort his cousin Lakshmi luxury bus belting outgoBollywood re- and temples, but where do we to get someon the side for breakfast. Pulao pledomelette with something it hadn’t experienced in the pot toBut complement the shade of mixes andmelting him to safety. wait. Alongside the voljolted us out the city and down a se- rich thing to drink?” sheof asked. in long cashew nuts, daal and fine threads of a long, time. the treeswere in thea orchard and the tranquil tank ries unteers couple of people with suspiof narrow don’tdistribution look remotely Side by sideroads with that the free of crisp-fried potatoes for lunch with fish or swathi moorthy that ciousreflected looks. the stirring of the leaves. Meals picnicky. Afterflourished two or three abrupt jack-knife food packets an organised system chicken and the smoky sweetness of notun gur.
For the love of picnics
A garden house, a tacky resort, a river cruise in the Sundarbans — the perfect day out has many avatars. But it almost always starts with a bit of wrangling over the destination and ends with food-induced sloth
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Nepal runs on an empty tank
month-old Facebook group ‘Carpool Kathmandu’ has over 1.1 lakh members. Users can post requests and offers for free rides. Traffic rules, including a ban on rooftop bus travel and two-wheelers with three riders, have been relaxed temporarily. The government is rationing sale of fuel including petrol, diesel and kerosene. Currently state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation allows only up to 20 litres of fuel for buses, 15 litres for minibuses, 10 litres for micro-buses and taxis, and five litres for motorcycles. Even this is available only on select days, and motorists wait in miles-long queues. Many prefer to buy from the black market at nearly thrice the normal price. In border towns unaffected by the blockade, visitors report increased road activity, with locals using motorcycles and jeeps to ferry petrol from the Indian side. “Despite a number of army checkpoints, these vehicles pass easily,” says Dambar Krishna Shrestha, a journalist who recently visited Thori village in Parsa district, bordering Bikhana in India. “As much as two lakh litres of petrol are transferred between towns on a daily basis,” he says. The going rate for petrol ranges from 350 Nepali rupees (thrice the normal rate) to NPR 500 per litre in the illegal markets in the hilltowns. Similarly, an LPG (cooking gas) cylinder, also in short supply, is available in the black market for NPR 6,500 to NPR 10,000 (almost 10 times higher). Meanwhile the government has started selling firewood through its depots, but that’s hardly a solution for a city of over eight million people. The requirement for citizenship card to buy fuelwood is again driving buyers to the black market.
As fuel and medical supplies are blocked at the Indian border, the Himalayan nation comes up with solutions ranging from carpools to ‘blockade’ menus at eateries
Cooking up a crisis Nepal Electricity Authority’s decision to increase daily power cuts to nine hours is bound to increase hardship for those using inductration: “We have a list of medicines that are tion stoves. Some neighbourhoods have expemost needed, and plan to airlift them rienced 72-hour power outages too. immediately.” In April, Nepal was hit by a 7.8-magnitude More than 90 per cent of Nepal’s medicines earthquake that killed over 9,000 and deare imported from India. Although the Hima- stroyed six lakh homes, mostly in far-flung villayan nation manufactures over 45 types of lages outside Kathmandu. Whatever little important drugs, fuel shortage has affected reconstruction work was on in the quake-ravproduction at factories, most of which are aged districts has come to a grinding halt due based in the southern plains. to the fuel crisis. “Supplies related to health, Since September, Nepal’s southern Terai re- nutrition and education have been stranded gion has been gripped by protests over the on the other side of the border,” says Unicef country’s new constitution. The protesting Nepal representative Tomoo Hozumi. To enMadhesis, an ethnic group native to the re- sure essential supplies for children, they are gion, say the charter is not inclurerouting consignments and sive enough. They have blocked mobilising in-country emergenseveral border posts with India cy medical supplies, he said. to press Kathmandu to address But despite the emergency-like The going rate for their demands. The result is a situation, residents of Kathmanpetrol ranges from humanitarian crisis in this nadu are showing the same level of ₹218 to ₹312 per litre tion of 29 million people. resilience they displayed after “I have been waiting since the earthquake. 5am to buy kerosene,” says KalAlmost all eateries in the Valley pana Lama, a daily-wage labourhave hiked prices. Smaller reser who lost a day’s earning to stand in queue. taurants have switched to firewood, while othHundreds like her waited outside storefronts ers have adopted briquettes and induction this week to buy the rationed three litres of stoves. “We recently purchased NPR 2 lakh kerosene. “The rich can afford to cook on elec- worth of firewood, so we are not worried tric stoves, but for us it is either this or fire- about shortages for a couple of months,” says wood,” says 64-year-old Chirandevi Tamang. a restaurant manager in Lalitpur, a small town Before the oil deal signed between Nepal and south of Kathmandu. China last month, India had a monopoly over And those caught without foresight are reNepal’s fuel market, which means the block- sorting to innovative after-thought. There are ade has hit fuel supply the hardest. restaurants that now offer ‘blockade’ menus, a limited set of items that usually includes food Thirsty vehicles that can be cooked in a short time. Shortage of fuel has crippled public transportation services, leading to long waits and over- tsering dolker gurung is a Kathmandu-based crowded rides. Cycling and carpooling are journalist, and the Associate Editor of Nepali Times, a suddenly popular in Kathmandu. The two- news weekly published by Himal Media
Dry state Petrol is sold in limited quantities on select days, leading to miles-long queues and a thriving black market gopen rai
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his week, one of Kathmandu’s busiest health facilities, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital announced it would close down blood collection services, the latest in a series of measures taken amid crippling shortages of fuel and medical supplies caused by a twomonth border blockade with India. Hospital administrator Chandra Mani Bhandari worries that if the government doesn’t find a solution soon, the facility will be forced to close down all services. “We are currently running low on disinfectants for surgical instruments, and supplies for sterilisation of operation theatres,” says Bhandari. There is a shortage of medicines, including life-saving drugs, in pharmacies. In another part of the city, the Paropkar Maternity Hospital is running on supplies that were donated after the April earthquake. The staff at this non-profit health centre say supplies are stuck at the Birganj border, the main entry point for trade with India. “Although we haven’t cut services yet, we have fewer patients from outside Kathmandu,” says hospital director Dr Jageshwar Gautam. The scenario is similar in medical centres across town. Flying medicines While a few private drug companies have begun using air routes to fetch supplies, the government is yet to find an alternative source. Health Minister Ram Janam Chaudhary told the local press the government was working out ways to import medicines from a third country and supply would resume soon. Says Narayan Prasad Dhakal, information officer at the Department of Drugs Adminis-
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APPROACHING EYE LEVEL
Life inside the world of flu The stories that get you through life are so hidden, real life needs to be first obscured by steam inhalation for them to emerge
Special games Indian goalkeeper Varadaraj dives across the goal during the football match between India and France at the 1948 London Olympic Games the hindu archives
A story of what-ifs The history of Indian sport, writes Ronojoy Sen, is not only about problems that have plagued it, but rather a larger system that has failed it
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ometime in the 1980s, Ashwini Kumar, culture.” But much of sports’ place in modern- who were equally enamoured of the sport, India’s then representative to the In- day India is a product of the British rule, and it though, did substantially more to contribute shutterstock ternational Olympic Committee, be- is in locating the authority of the colonial rul- towards its progress in India. It was their early moaned: “Sport is against our Indian ers in this development that Sen is at his fin- patronage that ultimately resulted in cricket ave you been ill? I have. And everyethos, our entire cultural tradition.” His stategraph-like and more free-hand drawing than dingturning est. Britain’s influence, though, was incidental is hers.into And if Sen youdescribes are really, what as areally “national one I know. Someathave ment stood vindicated the asthma time by atIndia’s you ever realised. So why get up? is there rather than intentional. “ForWhat the better part of unlucky, there is a cold moment when you reobsession”. tacks which they last hadAfter when dreadful record in the Olympics. all, we to getthe up 19th for? century, with some notable excepalise that the mancricket you married 10 years Even while is integral to anyago historiwere 10. Beijing One man blacked Bin- Ohtions had to they wait till 2008 for Abhinav the comfort knowing thatand other peo- has persuaded like the of public schools missionary take all yourSen savings andthere cal analysisyou onto Indian sport, writes, out. One woman went upindividual to Spiti onOlympic holiday gold dra to win our first ple lost track of their stories“the too British when they institutions,” Sen writes, were not invest them in strange of his own is life beyond cricketventures in India. Part of the thesis and medal. then took bus in Sen a semi-comatose But,the as Ronojoy writes, in clinical, werereally sick. Oh the comfort of suddenly interested in extending theirrealissports to and you are not sure what thatusmeans any- He of Nation atso Play is to show this world. stateeffervescent to get hospitalised in his Delhi. not denprose, in newIt’s book, Nation at ing what are the The stories you tell yourself. For “a the Indians. English clubs represented more. Thethis, plotnot has that you does by always offeringseemed dreary details, but by gue. Play: It’s not anything difficult to pronounce. A History of Sport in India, Kumar’s statethat alone it’s worth beinglife ill and stuck under sanctuary of English in an alien environmarried someone risk-taking in trifocusing on thewho’s greatest stories ofand Indian It’s just that old flu that once rea- by ments are flu. no Adifferent frommeant thoseamade a blanket andwhere just a little too far away from ment,” one bit European team played yourumph, fifties you be taking defeat foreigntoo, cruises and,will on occasions, which in sonably pleasant from school. Lord Thomasbreak Babington Macaulay on the Benthe plug-point. The stories that against another and then amicably. Unlike nervous conjunction tell us soyour much about IndiThegali horrible about being ill asorganisaan get you male’s thing physique. “The physical through over life aredinner so hidfraternised deposit parents. Inside the anfixed society. adulttion is that new you with a new It’s said, of it’s thethe Bengali,” Macaulay hadflu. once den, and real drinks.” life needs to be first obworld of flu, though, the plot The tales from the 1948 London the flu what to do His withpursuits ex- scured Sen “isdoctors feeble don’t even know to effeminacy… by steam pointsinhalation out that itfor could be— that he is anindependent evil rat Olympics the first that Even while cricket is cept to Dolo re Dolo Dolo. And it’s the you aresing sedentary, his relimbs delicate, his movethemwas to emerge. through individuals who’s going to leave you hightold. competed in — are rousingly Oh the comfort integral to any of India that you don’t know what to do with. ments languid.” The I just drive historical — story rathermay thanbe: any specific and dry, penniless and cruiseless. There is a great pathos, for instance, in knowing that other analysis on Yesterday got out of bed, all of us, and alongpolicy Both we Kumar’s and Macaulay’s statements in oneoflane a predictable theat colonial govAnd probably has a second wife the story of the country’s football team, people lost track of Indian sport, Sen askedwere, eachatother, was efforts it?” And we medium their “How core, lazy at then stereotyping speed,— doing one writes, ernment that no sport in Gandhinagar. Youitsare con- still the majority of players their stories when with theretoo is life told each other (first sheepishly and then withThey the average Indian’s sporting ability. any harm please no oneinhit came and to implant itself vincedbarefoot, of it at three in 1-2 thetomornplaying losing France in they were sick beyond cricket increasing I didn’t want get out of enseek torelief): pigeonhole India as atonon-sporting me. Or the storyconsciousness. may be: I have India’s ing. But it is three in the morning the first round. The result, as Sen writes, in India bed. tity, No, no, think Iproduce could get out of the and,I didn’t in so doing, precisely got away with a lot of crap and if British educators and misand have because you slept all day you could been quite different had the bed. It felt of likemischief it’s all over. like this is how kind thatItisfelt symptomatic of such I don’t keep paddling under the sionaries believed that can’t team sleepnot all missed night. two And penalties you Indian it’s going to be fromThey now on. How neither could I go categorisation. provide the riwatersports at topwere speed they find vital to will the Inhave live with this plot. and nottoconceded the new winner just secback gour to work? I’m not capable work. of historical analysis,ofnor a proper explaout I’m a big fraud.particularly Or the story may be: Shit, dian people, The worstonds thingbefore insidethe the final worldwhistle. of the flu is in Even This was the story were ourselves nation as to whywe India, astelling a nation, has fared so everything seems princes, to be going and everyto the young whocool inculcated with Enthe terrifying realisation that had youmade have quite told an defeat, though, the team under the blankets, next to poorly in sports.inIt the isn’twoolly withinsocks, Sen’s gamut thingglish will continue to be cool, yes, let’smoral have and ideals, could find theoh physical, yourself these pleasant tales to throughfrom impression, and received anget invitation to theexplicate debris ofthese lozenges and The Littlehis Steam reasons. Instead book exan ice-cream, because why not. intellectual strength to rule their subjects. life, just you used in to the count the last few FIFA like to participate 1950 football World Inhaler Thathow Could andbecame ‘lots ofsofluids’ and plores sports critical to the And somehow when you sick as an adult, stepsCup One such teacher wasare Chester Macnaghten, home to make the walk India bearable. How parin Brazil. Ultimately, wouldn’t books that made our heads and lap- the country’s attitude and hurt polity. Bythe tracing the story that getsofyou throughCollege life loses the principal Rajkumar in its Rajkot, couldticipate you beinsothe foolish, you ask owing yourself tournament, to at a pertops evolution that we were too in tired to get up at to Play re- not of sport India, Nation hold.one Instead, quote Jaaved Jafrey, there of thetofirst schools established for the threeceived am? How a little lackabout of funds. It’srealism? difficult to imagine charge and the metallic sheen of strips of pills that only illuminates the manifold problems comes a situation of Macnaghten same plot, different bunprinces. It was who introduced And then luckily comes morning it what participation inathe Worldwhen Cup might the first doctor gave you. story we toldofourhave plagued the The development Indian galow. All events to become Ranjitsinhji cricket.mapped to a differ- is toohave gross to stay in bed. Youfuture sort ofinclean the done to football’s India, but it selvessports, was that wasbusts all maya so far, engineered this delu- by butitalso the myths ent blueprint. If youasare lucky,natural, the blueprint And cricket, is only occupies house. a certainly You throw all the socks in the machine. represents yet another case of an adsion administrators of steady progression life anywhere and career who willinlook but at lookssubstantial excellent and youinare like: maybe I really Ranplace this book. However, And ministration you think nogrossly more of realism becauseIn so bereft of vision. and health to a thinner, richer, better you. The don’tji’s themselves for excuses. care that myon mother is making me wear influence the growth of cricket in India, that’smany a literary nothe oneclassic needs.story of Indian ways,genre this is truth isNation a vague back that something at pain Play isinayour storylower told in a predominridiculous for my wedding. Beas Sen writes, was rather limited. His autocrasport: quixotic and riddled with ‘what-ifs’. t@chasingiamb no one canlinear help. manner. And yourSen lifebegins is looking less with antly his tale causecy,clearly the man is mine andthrone, the wedand loyalty to the British meant the Mahabharata, which, he tells us, “has a spe- that he was more of a great cricketer than a suhrith parthasarathy is a Chennai-based lawyer cial place in and has greatly influenced Indian great Indian cricketer. Several other princes and writer
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Nation at Play: A History of Sport in India Ronojoy Sen Penguin Viking ₹599
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Nisha Susan is a writer and editor of the feminist website The Ladies Finger
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LIGHTHOUSE
Looking beyond left and right
don’t care much for free speech or other personal freedoms. Parties on the left tend to oppose economic freedom. They do so stating noble reasons, but all infringements of economic freedom amount to a redistribution of wealth from poor consumers to a rich interest group, so they’re either hypocrites or delusional. They also tend to favour big government, which means more taxation, and therefore more coercion. If you believe, as I do, that coercion is wrong, then it won’t make a difference whether you look left or right, you’ll see coercion everywhere. A classical liberal opposes both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, both Prakash Karat and Mohan Bhagwat. (I would give credit to those guys for at least stating their positions clearly, though. Politicians down the ostensible middle, slaves to special interests as they mostly are, tend to be equally coercive and far more hypocritical.) Looking at the political marketplace, you will find that the options available to you aren’t all that different from each other. And why should they be? Even when they cater to different segments of the population, they’re still reacting to the same inevitably corrupting incentives at work in the political economy. Here’s the funny thing about India in particular. We have conveniently classified the BJP as a right-wing party and the Congress as a leftwing party — but they’re practically the same. In terms of economics, both are left-wing, and oppose economic freedom. It might surprise you to hear me say this about the BJP, but forget their campaign rhetoric and consider their actual policies: Modi I is basically UPA III. Modi has the same top-down way of looking at the economy as any Congress leader before him, and he’s trigger-happy when it comes to imposing new taxes and cesses. Equally, on social issues, the Congress was as right-wing as the BJP allegedly is. They have a stellar record when it comes to banning books, and it was a Congress government that effectively banned The Satanic Verses. Censorship flourished under their watch, as did attempts at social engineering, which weren’t Mirror moment Are these men identical twins? rv moorthy restricted to the Emergency: odious policies on sterilisation still exist, decades after the ne of the things that most exasper- through a classical liberal (or libertarian, if emergency was called off. Even in terms of atates me about Indian political dis- you will) prism, and my liberalism boils down tacking other communities, the Congress set course these days is that we often to a respect for individual freedom. On moral the standards: more people died in the 1984 speak in terms of ‘left-wing’ and grounds alone, if we come from first princi- riots than in the 2002 ones. My friend, the po‘right-wing’. This is wrong for two reasons. ples, we should respect individual freedom litical commentator Nitin Pai, once coined a Firstly, this is not how politicians themselves above all else. From a consequentialist per- term that describes this jostling between the actually speak (unless they’re humouring the spective, also, we should defend freedom, for parties perfectly: ‘Competitive Intolerance’. English-speaking media). Voters in India vote economic freedom leads to maThis is the kind of competition for a myriad of reasons, mostly local, and they terial prosperity, and personal that makes the poor ol’ freedon’t frame issues in terms of left or right. freedoms, such as freedom of marketer in me cringe! Therefore, neither do politicians when they speech, enrich our culture. To sum it up, India’s political India’s political parties speak to their constituencies, or when they Like a true liberal, I see no difparties tend to be left-wing on oppose freedom in strategise among each other. There is, thus, a ference between economic and economics and right-wing on every sphere disconnect between politics and political dis- social freedom. As I am fond of social issues. In other words, course. Many political commentators, unable saying, once we accept that two they oppose freedom in every or unwilling to engage with the complexities consenting adults may do whatsphere. I would be no more disof the political economy, insist on imposing ever they want with each other heartened by this than India’s simplistic narratives. provided they infringe the freedom fighters were in the This would not matter if a left-right prism rights of no one else, it should not matter first half of the last century, when they gazed was useful in evaluating the desirability of pol- whether they are f****** in a bedroom or trad- up at the monolithic British empire. They griticies, or provided a compass to gauge the mor- ing in a marketplace. Interfering with either is ted their teeth, and hurled themselves into the al or instrumental value of the actions of wrong. And here’s the thing: parties on both battle for our political freedom. politicians. But it does not, which brings me to the left and right sides of the political specLikewise, we must keep fighting till we win my second reason, which is not a local one. trum support infringements on individual these other freedoms, and emerge as a free Across the world, framing issues in terms of freedom all the time. country at last. Not a left country, or a right left or right misses the central principle at Parties on the right tend to want to impose country, but a free country. stake in any modern society: that of individual their cultural values on others, and are suspit@amitvarma rights, and of freedom. I view the world cious of those they view as ‘outsiders’. They
If you believe coercion is wrong, it doesn’t matter where you look. You’ll see coercion everywhere
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Amit Varma is a novelist. He blogs at indiauncut.com
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OTT and loving it The fifth edition of the Delhi Comic Con brought with it fans, TV stars, socially-conscientious comics and plenty of good vibes Seeds of discontent Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita visits the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako after a raid by armed attackers left over 20 dead. A thread has emerged connecting the latest siege to that of an Algerian refinery in 2013 afp/habibou kouyate
STATES OF MATTER
New world disorder Non-state actors are playing out the global danse macabre of terrorism
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Bigger and better Visitors pose for photographs; Irish actor Kristian Nairn, known for his role as Hodor in Game of Thrones, was the cynosure of all eyes photos afp/sajjad hussain
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unich hosts a showpiece annual conference where security officials and experts gather from sunny winter weekend, plenty of around the world. Since its start excited (and painted) faces, and a in 1963, the event has witnessed its fair share zone full of superheroes: Comic of discord. But with the world supposedly Con India returned to the Capital graduating out of bitter bipolarity in 1991, with a bang and left fans wanting more. The concord has been the rule. NSIC exhibition ground in Okhla buzzed with The promise of a ‘new world order’ came action last weekend. Fathers carried their todfrom a US president who, in 1991, vanquished a dlers dressed as superheroes, teenagers truculent Arab regime in Iraq that sought to pranced about as Hogwarts witches and a redefine national identities in defiance of somewhat lanky, albeit enthusiastic Spiderlines drawn after World War I. As the year wore man posed generously for every fan. on, the Soviet Union, the opposite pole in the Founded in 2011 by Jatin Varma as an experiworld order created by World War II, passed inment, Comic Con India has grown with every to history. successive edition: this one had more than In the feast of concord that followed, the 250 exhibitors. “Comics and most things nerFebruary 2003 fracas in Munich — when US Dedy have been a part of my life since I was a fence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was frontalchild. I’ve grown up reading what everyone ly abused over his unseemly lust to wage war else has — Tinkle, Asterix, Tintin, MAD, DC & in Iraq — was a rare occurrence. Marvel — and later went on to lap up every loEarly this year, security apparatchiks gathcal and international indie comic I could find. ered in Munich in a state of gloom at the “colThere are so many favourites, but if I were to lapse of the world order”. An official report pick one it’d be Superman,” says Varma. remarked in some despair that the guardians The first edition, held in Delhi, was free and of the world order were proving reluctant to saw more than 10,000 visitors over that weekrebuild the props that were systematically beend. The footfall has grown massively since ing knocked out of it. and keeps increasing each year. The resurgence of Russian militarism in UkComic Con now attracts more than 35,000 raine was a worry, when there was a smug exvisitors a day, with an average ticket price of pectation after the Soviet collapse and the ₹300 at each show. wars that followed in the Balkans, that the US agenda would encounter no barrier in its Celeb showstopper march through Eastern Europe. Northern Irish actor and DJ Kristian Nairn The state of meltdown in the Arab world (who portrays the character of Hodor in the was a deeper concern. And the tidal wave of blockbuster television series Game of Thrones) refugees washing up on European shores was stole the show with a jam-packed session on a challenge to the humanitarian pretences of day two of the festival. With season six a few the western liberal order, straining its rapidly months away, it was clever of the organisers to diminishing capacities. have one of the GOT characters make an apWhen reason fails, theology is the fallback pearance for fans in India, where the audience option. Once a favoured term of comic books for content-focused television has grown phepandering to the Manichean sensibility, ‘monnomenally in the past two years. ster’ has now become accepted currency in For the uninitiated, Hodor is a friendly githe global security dialogue. It was a term that ant, one of the nicest characters on the show, British Prime Minister David Cameron reacwhose defining characteristic is that he can hed for while recently demanding parliamenonly speak a single word — Hodor. Fans tary authority to join the aerial bombing queued up to catch a glimpse of Nairn as he
fiesta over Syria, which already involves some 40. A week afterwards, an upscale hotel in Ba60 countries. mako, capital of the African republic of Mali, The ‘monster’, as the French political theo- was raided by armed marauders who took politely dismissed all questions about the be getting depressed because of so much rist Michel Foucault put it, is violation incar- hostages and held them for four days, killing forthcoming season, and refused to reveal if wrong happening in the world. Our aim is to nate. It is a breach of both the laws of nature over 20. Jon Snow was alive or dead. He humbly admit- spread positive vibes and encourage people to and society. It “combines the impossible and Neither of these attacks registered in global ted to not having read any of the books, but become happier and more optimistic,” says the forbidden” and is that extreme point at consciousness the way Paris did. The disparihoped that George RR Martin keeps his char- Nikhil Sharma, one of the founders. which “the law is overturned”. ties were so stark that even a magazine of acter alive till the very end. Cameron secured his mandate, though con- hardened cynicism such as The Economist Nairn agreed that he wasn’t particularly im- Books etcetera siderable scepticism shrouds his eagerness could take note of the “empathy gap” and try pressed about being offered the role of Hodor. Graphic literature has never really received for war, except the perverse gratification that to quantify it using internet search numbers “The guy only said one word ‘Hodor’, which the attention it deserves: not in the past and comes from a purposeless exercise of military as proxy variable. didn’t make any sense. It was crazy,” he said especially not now, when people prefer to power. The bellicosity and escalation of miliAmid conflicting claims of responsibility and added it was his mother who convinced watch a comics-based film or TV show over tary operations comes even as documents for the Mali attack, a thread emerged connecthim to take it up. It was only gradually that he reading the original book. Batman, Superemerge suggesting a 1957 plan by Britain and ing it to a hostage siege in an Algerian refinery started falling in love with the character. “The man, Green Lantern, The Flash, Iron Man, The the US to stage a series of border provocations in 2013. French forces had been deployed in only way to play a part like Hodor is to have Hulk and Jessica Jones: these characters were in Syria as a pretext for invasion Mali to put down a revolt by Isthat connect. You can’t preborn in the pages of Marvel and DC and regime change. Then ruled lamic tribesmen spilling over tend: it has to be real. And comics. But perhaps it’s less time-conby the compliant and easily malfrom the turmoil in Libya. The Alapart from the size, we had a suming to watch TV than to read the leable Hashemite dynasty, Iraq gerian hostage siege was an eflot in common. I think I am of a book. When reason fails, pages was to be staging post for the fort to compel their withdrawal. The Comic Con had just as nice as he is,” said an This year, along with the usual fare, theology is the military adventure. Credible information is now something for the amused Nairn. there were also some books that feaoption The consequences were disas- tastes fallback available that Al Mourabitoun, of every kind tured serious socio-political themes. trous. Syria walked into a politi- of reader: from the group believed to be behind First-timers Cartoonist Sumit Kumar’s book Amar cal union with Egypt to form theAmerican superhero both incidents, is an asset of the Comic Con provides a platBari Tomar Bari Naxalbari, which was United Arab Republic. Iraq wit- comics to political Algerian intelligence agency, the form for creators and puboriginally published as a webcomic, nessed a violent insurrection and the liquidaDRS. It was assembled from fragments of the graphic novels lishers to showcase their traces the dark history of the Naxaltion of the puppet monarchy. And in Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which fought a stories and characters. But bari uprising and the Maoist conflict desperation at the threat to a friendly regime brutal civil war with the Algerian military rewhile the hero-villain duo of in central India. Ram Devineni’s Priya in Lebanon, the US had to intervene militarily gime through the 1990s. Since the war on terBatman and The Joker, Shakti features a superhero who is alto contain the spreading unrest. ror became official policy in 2001, the DRS has made more popular than so a rape survivor. Malik Sajad’s MunThe shock waves subsided when they were used Al Mourabitoun to bid for a role as underever before thanks to Christopher Nolan’s nu: A Boy from Kashmir is an autobiographical absorbed into the polarities of the Cold War. study of US and French intelligence, with sole films, take centre-stage every time, this year’s book that mixes history with personal recolToday’s spiralling chaos is unlikely to ebb enforcement rights in North Africa. edition saw other interesting ideas as well. lections to give an insider’s view of the Kashwithout fuelling a fresh new polarisation in It is an arrangement rife with conflict and Sharing space with established comics stars mir conflict and how it shapes the psyche of a the world order. The mindless recourse to mil- discord, which none of the parties involved was a superhero called Shabash, who came all young boy. itary force ensures that the new configura- can get out of. Ultimately, that is a distinctive the way from Bangladesh with the Dhaka So the Comic Con had something for every tions of power will take shape in perilous feature of the “non-state actors” playing out Comic Con team. The Dhaka team was in the taste of every reader: from the rippling musproximity to armed conflagration. the global danse macabre of terrorism ramCapital with their ‘Beyond Borders’ theme. The cles of American superhero comics to the gritThe decision to double down with military pant. None of them would really exist, far less aim was to join forces with the rest of the com- ty realism of political graphic novels. force comes with a proclivity to ignore the flourish, except as instrumentalities for offiics world. Founded by Saadi Rahman in 2012, The real challenge, however, is to boost comtrail of havoc caused in countries designated cial, though concealed, policies of state actors. Dhaka Comic Con is Bangladesh’s first-ever of- ics sales throughout the year, and it will take as recipients of imperial ministrations. State And the threads that control them run a conficial comic book convention. They’re all set to several successful Comic Cons to pull that off. structures are collapsing and multiple armed voluted course but usually end in the hands of kick off their fourth edition later this week. But we spotted one diehard reader spending groups emerging to stake territorial claims. western and allied intelligence services. Standing out among the crowd was the ₹50,000 at a single stall. May his tribe increase On November 12, just a day before the lethal ‘Share Good Vibes’ stall that sold merchandise and flourish. attacks in Paris that drew global condemna- sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer with quotes on peace. “There is so much negation, two bomb blasts in Beirut killed close to and researcher based in Gurgaon and Shimla tivity around us these days. Everyone seems to arunima mazumdar is a Delhi-based journalist
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In memoriam The sites of attacks became makeshift shrines filled with candles and tributes
all photos: ingrid therwath
Paris, year zero A month after the Paris attacks, the bigger question remains what the ‘state of emergency’ means for ordinary citizens
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aris is at its quietest in August, when most of the businesses are shut for an annual summer holiday and Parisians have left for more bucolic locations. Paris in December is the opposite, with streets bustling with activity, people busy with their Christmas shopping, and restaurants filled with locals and tourists. This year however, things are amiss. According to the Paris Chamber of Commerce, hotel bookings have dropped by 20 per cent, tour operators have cancelled group trips, over 80 per cent of shops are expecting a decrease in sales and shows at concert halls are being cancelled. Policemen heavily armed with assault weapons and life jackets, along with soldiers, guard important hubs. Most department stores and theatres have contracted private security companies to check bags and occasionally even frisk customers. And so, ordinary Parisians are constantly reminded, while going about their
daily routines, that the country is under a Terror without fear state of emergency. Few people remember As the magnitude of the events dawned upon and fewer still experienced the state of emer- the world, President François Hollande degency in 1955. That was the first time the clared the state of emergency on national teleFrench government had imposed it, in order vision barely a few hours after the attacks had to curb the growing anti-colonial started. He also announced insurrection brewing in Algeria. three days of national mournAlgerian freedom fighters were ing and a minute of silence to be placed under house arrest and observed nationwide the followmany opponents were detained ing Monday. But the first emerHow do you explain in newly-opened prison camps. gency that many people, and terrorism to small Algeria was a ‘département’, a especially many Parisians, had children without constitutive part of France. But to attend to was children. terrorising them these ‘events’ — as the uprising in How do you explain terrorism Algeria was then called — did not to young children without terdirectly impact the capital of the rorising them? Some parents country. shared their feelings openly and Sixty years later, Parisians, barely over the most adults tried to shield children from teleshock and grief of the Charlie Hebdo and the vised news. Others just could not find the kosher supermarket attacks in January 2015, words and looked to the schools and publicawere about to experience firsthand this excep- tions aimed at the six to 10 age bracket for tional provision of the French Constitution. guidance. Le Petit Quotidien (literally the Small
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Daily), which is the most circulated news publication for this age group, ran several consecutive issues on the attacks, Islamic State and terrorism. It also opened its pages to six young Muslim readers so that they could express and share their fears and hopes. Bruno Quattrone, its deputy chief editor, told me “our job is to inform, not to reassure or instil fear. We aim at accuracy. In a way we complement the schools, we help children understand the world better.” Most Parisian children attend governmentrun schools. The Minister of Education had formally requested all teachers to stand with their class in silence for a minute, to discuss recent events with pupils and teach them the values of secularism and equality that form the basis of the French Republic. This was to avoid what had happened after the Charlie Hebdo attacks last January: children justifying the deaths of satirical journalists in the name of religious outrage. Caroline Bourgeteau lives close to the 11th district of Paris, the scene of one of the attacks.
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She added, “there was a lot of confusion. This mother of two teaches nine-year-olds at a nearby government school. Like many of her Some children said that Muslims are terrorcolleagues, she was rattled by the events and ists. Some of my students are Muslim. One boy dreaded returning to work on Monday, No- told me, ‘Ma’am, I don’t understand, I am a vember 15. “As it happened, we did not work Muslim and I am not like that’. The boy felt remuch that day. The students were impatient ally sad, he told the class about brotherhood in Islam. I had to make sure the to talk about the attacks. As soon rest of the class understood that as they entered the class and put terrorism and Islam are separate their satchels down, they started issues. Some other Muslim stuasking questions,” she recalled One boy told me, dents had also been told by their with a faint smile. “They were ea‘Ma’am, I don’t parents to not make any comger to say where they were and understand, I am a ment, afraid that they would be what they were doing at the Muslim and I am not picked on by other kids.” After time of the events. Out of my 27 like that’ spending the morning discussstudents, five were attending ing these issues, Bourgeteau the game at the Stade de France, asked her students to team up to where three suicide bombers create large drawings. Hoping to blew themselves up. They also wanted to talk about the people who live in diffuse the tension, she instructed them not to these areas. They were afraid that the killers draw guns and blood but to focus on positive could come into their school, their homes. It’s things instead. Bourgeteau talks with pride about her stua collective fear. They kept saying, ‘Killers can come to get us, our doors are open’. The talk in dents. These children managed what many adults could not: use speech for catharsis. class lasted nearly an hour”.
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An eerie silence I spoke to half a dozen doctors and nurses who Movie mela In Thiruvananthapuram thousands of people are collectively stricken with a chronic case of movie madness early December hadintreated victimss gopakumar in the ER. They have first-
hand knowledge of what constitutes an emergency and have witnessed how this concept can be used for political reasons through the ‘state of emergency’. But they all refused to be formally interviewed or quoted by name. As a coping mechanism, they chose not to talk about the attacks with friends and colleagues. Sana T — who did not want her last name mentioned — was one of the rare few who was willing to talk. This nurse attended to several wounded survivors of the Bataclan massacre and café shootings. She remarked that “at the hospital, we don’t really talk about the events. We only discuss our work processhere is a chaya kada (tea shop) made my own money, but I am too ashamed to talk evil es. It’s just share ourpig. feelbystrange spillingbut the we guts of don’t a black guinea of thatched palm fronds and split about the budget. It’s that tiny.” Mamiroo won ings. know some of my colleagues have lost TheI audience, displaying severe symptoms bamboo stems, its glass cabinets the prestigious New Currents Award at the Bu- — dear onesvision, that day but I realise that none of us bleary fidgety feet and mild palpitastacked with pazhampori (banana san International Film Festival. But even be- tions talkedregarding to them about it.” an available seat for the next fritters). Tea streams out of a long cloth strain- fore that win, Mohaghegh had sent the film film In — theraces weeks that theand November 13 out of followed Videophilia heads for er into frothy milk: ₹7 for a glass. There is a terrorist attacks, a sense of collective mournfor the International Competition of IFFK. Hsiao-Hsien Hou’s Assassin. The Taiwanese Many Frances Mourad, an Arab vendor in the market, is tired of defending his French credentials faux well, its rim glistens with beautiful phoing and griefwon enveloped City of Lights. “In my country, IFFK is an important film film director the Bestthe Director award at ney red laterite. A bullock-less cart is mounted festival,” says Mohaghegh. “Two years ago, my Cannes Flowers,for messages, andwhich candles were placed at his movie, is as languid and with posters of Neelakkuyil, the iconic Malaya- compatriot Majid Behrouzian’s Parviz won the as allvisually the sitesglorious of the attacks, and along the Place as a slow-moving stack of lam movie of 1954, with Sathyan gazing at a award for the best film here. It was an impor- classical de la République, a square where demonstraChinese paintings. shy Miss Kumari (the actor with the beguiling, tant indie film in Iran, and that win resonated tions are held. Dheepan, which won the Palme d’Or and Jusdoubly virginal screen name). A kolambi (the greatly with me.” The first film that young Ha- tinDay after new day, passers-by pay their tribute to Kurzel’s Macbeth, are part of IFFK’s list, loudspeaker that resembles a traditional spit- di saw, as a six- or seven-year-old, was Amitabh but the dead their commitment to the it is and the pledge indie movies that set it apart. toon) spits out a Malayalam song from the Bachchan’s Andha Kanoon. But his movie has a There valuesisofNir liberty, fraternity and equality. Bergman’s Yona, about one of the 1970s: “Ponveyil manikacha azhinju veenu/ Swar- different visual vocabAs weeksHebrew went by,poets, a sense of Wallach; unease pregreatest Yona the na peethambaram ulanju veenu (The golden ulary. And it received a vailed overTangerine, the city. about The state of emergency electric transgender peodrape of sunshine has fallen off/ The yellow full house in a corner was for three months by both pleprolonged on the streets of Los Angeles, shot the enwrap has unfurled on its own).” senate national assembly, giving the of Kerala. tirelyand on the iPhone 5s; and Chaayam Poosiya Nostalgia. You are drenched in its cloudthebyfreedom search warIn Thiruvananthap- It is around the world police Veedu, Santosh to and Satishwithout Babusenan, in 35 movies, since rants, burst as you enter the main venue of the Inter- uram, thousands of detain, interrogate anybody which was denied even and an ‘A’place certificate by you get to watch a under national Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in people are collectively without seeking approval the house Centralarrest Board of Film Certification, maximum of five from Thiruvananthapuram. And yet, thankfully, stricken with a chronic a judge. This curb onrefused freedom since the filmmakers toand cutjustice three films a day this nostalgia is incongruous with the shows case of movie madness in nude the name of security fundamenscenes. But thedisregards movie made it to the that run at the 20th IFFK. It has little to do with and grave cinephilia, talcompetition rights. section, as IFFK doesn’t ask for the contemporaneity, the sheer edginess, of for a week in DecemThe state of emergency is not only detricensor certificates. films, especially the indie ones, that hold your ber. It begins with a mental to the state of the law, it isn’t even efFans in and fandom gaze. This IFFK is indie territory: it is a festival twitch in the legs that fective the ‘war against terrorism’ that the of the young and the restless. FrenchIFFI government proclaimed, which drives them, at 9.30 on a Monday morning, to Unlike in Goa last has month, which drew just Hadi Mohaghegh, a 37-year-old from Iran, watch the debut film of a Peruvian: Juan Da- 3,700 has distinct GW Bush of those delegates from overtones. across the Most country, IFFK has come with Mamiroo, a film of astonishing niel F Molero’s Videophilia (and Other Viral Syn- has detained the name of the up state of emergenaboutin12,000 delegates, from 9,000 in visual splendour that takes a stark look at life dromes). The hall is packed when I reach. 2014. cy areItnot potential terrorists orthat religious funis this feverish audience gives IFFK and death. Set against the chalky hills of the People are sitting in the aisle; a few are stand- its damentalists, character. but ecological activists who Iranian province of Kuh-Gilu-Boir-Ahmad, ing by the door. could havefrom disrupted the COP21, the UN sumA nurse Kozhikode has taken a week’s which is also Mohaghegh’s home, Mamiroo is mit on climate by France and where “IFFK is like the Rotterdam of the tropics,” leave and come hosted down with her banker husabout an old man who wants to die and his says Molero. “This place is swarming with cin- band François international stature“This and andHollande’s daughter to watch the festival. grandson who longs for life. It has less than ephiles.” He won the Hivos Tiger Award for has possible in 2017 are at stake. beenre-election our ritual for eight years,” says Usha five minutes of dialogue, but it creates a narra- new talent at the International Film Festival Devi. People not allowed to demonstrate on “It isarearound the world in 35 movies, tive out of gleaming images. “It is largely auto- Rotterdam this year. His psychedelic movie since the street because of themore state than of emergency. it is tough to watch five films biographical,” says Mohaghegh about his tracks the youngsters of Lima, caught be- aNot toPraveen be cowed down,Pratap, Parisians day.” Chandra a cop,gathered is manlow-budget film. He speaks in Farsi, translated tween tradition and technology: they make ning thousands of shoes at Place de latheatre. République the festival crowd at Kairali He is Cosmopolitan city Marché d’Aligre is the only daily open market in the city Catholic Britons work it alongside Chinese and using people Google from North Africa into English bywhere an interpreter. “I made with Jews, on the eve of COP21 to symbolise their prohibamateur porn Glass and ward off looking forward to the next morning, his day
Rotterdam of the tropics
The film festival in Kerala is a celebration of the contemporary, and a carnival of the young and the restless
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Student power Caroline Bourgeteau felt proud at how her students talked about the attacks
Colours of patriotism Along with his sons, his nephew and his employee, Remy Costaz a seller of fruits and vegetables, displayed the flag at his stall in Marché d’Aligre to pay a tribute to the victims
Kimki fans Unlike IFFI climate in Goa lastchange. month, which drew just 3,700 delegates from across the country, IFFK 2015 has about 12,000 delegates s gopakumar ited march against marks — which consider some peoples’ deaths ligre, Remy Costaz felt the request was justiThe morning was eerily silent as more and as inevitable, and therefore acceptable — view fied and he wanted to use it to pay a tribute to more people lined up pairs of shoes, some- the state of emergency as a necessary evil. the victims. Together with his wife, two adult off, when he canabemessage, a spectator rather times including on the wetthan pave-a short-film dreams. and friend Achuthanandan wondered if they sons, and a nephew, Costaz sells fruits and vegpatriotism strain of cinephilia — for should place an ad in the newspapers: Is Anywarden. “For thewho pastknows six years, came here ment. Anybody theIFrench and as thea Uneasy This particular etables. He went to the local bazaar, owned by delegate. This time, I amwill on duty. But every al- On Place de la République understand how world cinema, 27, art-house adventures — seeped Willing to Sponsor Us forbut IFFK? In 2013, SuNovember the French government or- aone Chinese immigrant family, they had run ternate day watch he says with a ganised unusual thisI can silence is. movies,” All the proclamations into Malayalis when filmmaker Adoor Gopadevan’s first feature film, CR. No. 89, had its a remembrance ceremony for the vic- out of flags. moment, when it came out aoflarge nogrin. The 46-year-old even harbours a short of resistance, our ‘joie de vivre’, our culture of tims lakrishnan began the Society and urged all Chitralekha citizens to Film display the starburst A day later, he could finally purchase where to win NETPAC for the BestI film under hissuddenly creaseless uniform: wine and love seemed odd.on P Pad- national in 1965 and international movies to the flagtook and even post selfies with the na- tricolour and the display it onAward his stand. “Yes, Malayalam Film. 2015, he but was there on theare screenmarajan, Kerala’s finest filmmakers. It tional Later inone the of day, a group of masked youngfar corners and of theThis state. Later, wanted colours oncolleges social media. request to put upInthe flag, very choose movies for the interis astonishing howand many people at IFFK sters threw stones even candles thatcarry had made aroundmany 1984,French the maverick John Abraham ing committee squirm, as fewtoof us who did. Mourad, the competition. That also is has the been placed in memory of the victims, at the they formed havethean Odessa uneasy Collective relation- and went national neighbouring vendor, indie at IFFK. heavily armed police, who in turn used tear ship around Kerala, with their collecting flag, whichfunds is, infrom the pub- mind-bending one. Youarc know, he’s an Arab, at gas and force to remove them. A few ecologists collective lic for his movies. Malayalis, with this Only dramatmemory, as much the same time he’s really more a minority oftwenty Hitting tried in vain to protect the candles and flowers linked ic affliction their brain and blood, to thegrowing French in Revolution French than all of us: his wife is voices pointed to the out ofhis the teens, as ittoturns 20, lying around the main statue of the Republic and crowded it travelled to Thiru- But asofIFFK gets WWIItoasIFFI to whenever colonialism and French, kids go school transformation it needs to here, evolve. SajinMourad Baabu, and were in turn treated like criminals. That xenophobic vananthapuram, back in its nomadic days. groups. heFilmmaker speaks French.” France into a Vare wonhisthe whose Asthamayam evening, only a minority of voices pointed to Sincefew 1994, whenacross IFFK began, Very people the citythe audience’s (unwilling to use lastRajatha name) police State Award)when last year, it the transformation of France into a police chose yearlyto ritual inthis the official dark —show at once collective Chakoram (Audience follow just shrugged he says heard the festival. “We smiles. get to see State while 70 per cent of the population said of andpatriotism. individual — Onhas thecontinued Marché their under- is time to redesign this. We exchanged Hea who they approved of the state of emergency. standing the of cinema. They open fell for Kieslowski lot of good movies, d’Aligre, only market felt tiredwhich havingistogreat, provebut himself, movies?” asks the 29-year-old, As many men and women from all political daily and Kiarostami; theyaknew their Bunuel from watches ourhe in the city and landmark explained later, while concedwhothat wandered for the first time into IFFK 10 leanings told me, “This time around, unlike where Bergman; they applauded Almodovar and An- ing Catholic Britons work alongside Jews, Costaz was right. agoyou andknow,” saw hisCostaz life andadded, understanding what happened in January, it’s not only jour- Chinese tonioni; and cherished the Makhmalbafs, andthey people originally from North years “But, “people of movies HeI’ve saved every nalists and Jews who were targeted by terror- Africa, father Mohsen andmerchants daughter Samira. scarce few chose to put up don’t talk intransform. the market. never seenpenny it like and before. sold hisIcar to make first feature. ists, so it affects us more. Steps have to be theFor Malayalis, the celebrated Korean film- this flag. don’t know his whether it’s because “IFFK, are sadly, does not have a taken”. People who make these chilling re- maker Kim Ki-duk is “Kimki”. A fifth-generation salesmanKimat Marché d’A- most of the merchants Arabs and Muslims place on the worldabout map this. of fes-I ki is a Malayali, much like the and they feel awkward talking tivals,” says. The Busan fesColombian writer Gabriel Garcia don’t know. I hope it’shejust because they feel tival began 20 years ago, along Marquez. Malayalis lean across bus awkward, not because they don’t care or Kimki is a Malayali, IFFK. “While has windows to wave at “Kimki” when worse. stayed at my standBusan the whole much like theIf I hadwith grown leaps and bounds he is spotted on the street. When time, I wouldn’t havein even known about and the Colombian writer is promoting Korean movies, he is not here, like this year, they it’s strange.” Gabrielattacks. Garcia This silence, IFFK doesn’t ishave a cluethe about scream “Kim Ki-duk Ki Jai!” thrice The French government dreading inMarquez the market.” IFFKNational, needs a paralbefore his latest movie, Stop, is evitable ascension of the Front a xescreened. In a guerrilla style of lel film market thatthat will have nophobic extreme-right party won filmmaking, he has turned direcdistributors, one-third of thebuyers, vote share in the firsttelevision round of tor, scriptwriter, prop-maker, cinecompaniesThe and representatives the regional elections. final round is matographer and editor for this movie, which scheduled of other festivals. “Also, the state government tomorrow, two days after the end of has almost no background music. It is a minor COP21. shouldAnd give the a subsidy about ₹25 lakh toofperFront of National, accused hifilm in his repertoire, but his eco outrage jacking haps 10the good Malayalam movies.” That is national symbols for too long, against the Fukushima power plant found ar- expected when the to festival willitsbecome achieve highestmore scorethan ever,a dent support in Kerala, where many have since screening of wonderful its creation in 1972.films to a crowd of cramarched against the Kudankulam nuclear zyHollande cineastes.has tried to use the attacks for his power plant. As political the festival wrapsbyup, about 12,000 peoown benefit prohibiting demonStrangely, this year, “Kimki” and Jafar Pana- strations ple sink into withdrawal symptoms. Therethe is against COP21 and by replacing hi have turned indie. Panahi’s Taxi is here. ‘esprit no filmcritique’ to wakewith up to. There is nopatriotism known cure the shallow of Banned from making movies by the Iranian flag for this. There be a year-long bearers andwill anthem singers. wait before government, Panahi mounted a camera on theThis next indie December. the interim, year started with a In terrorist assaultone on the dashboard of a yellow cab, drove around the will freedom make do of with MohanlalItfilms, Ajithtoflicks expression. is likely end The eyes will Tehran, spoke to and filmed passengers, and with in Tamil and curb Bollywood a legal on alltamasha. individual freedoms. crave, the and legs more will twitch — forfor a cup of tea2015 and created a movie about the other side of the For Paris, generally France, 35year movies. city — it is film as confession, it is film as revolt. is zero. IFFK pulls into its fold everyone who sees is a Paris-based journalist working charmytherwath harikrishnan is a Thiruvananthapuramthe world in 24 frames per second. A few years ingrid Indie byte Hadi Mohaghegh’s film Mamiroo is visually splendid; Jafar Panahi’s Taxi is film as confession, with news weekly Courrier International basedthe journalist film as revolt Defying the ban The Place de la Republique is covered in pairs of shoes as part of a symbolic rally at the start of UN climate talks afp/miguel medina in Palakkad, Sudevan ago, sitting in a village
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Through the winding snow paths of Monbiel Tucked in a corner of Switzerland, this village personiďŹ es all that is charming about long winters
Lofty truths A view of a Silvretta peak from a Monbiel street. The rangee
Make way, please Shovelling snow is a way of life in Monbiel
Snow queen A thick carpet of snow covers Monbiel and its neighbourin n
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witzerland’s largest canton (an administrative subdivision), Graubünden is spread across the border with Italy and Austria. National parks, gorges and waterfalls, alpine meadows, high mountain passes, hiking trails… Graubünden’s raw natural beauty comes in many forms. While Davos, a town known for its ski slopes and the annual World Economic Forum, and St Moritz, with its Winter Olympics rink and a clutch of upscale resorts, are the canton’s most illustrious names, there are many smaller towns and villages that are equally stunning. One such is Monbiel. A tiny dot that comes under the municipality of Klosters-Serneus, Monbiel, along with Platz, Dorf, Selfranga, and Äuja, makes up the last village in the picturesque valley of Prättigau. The valley is watched over by the Silvretta
Alps, a range that is dotted with glaciers. Unlike many other villages in the region, Monbiel is inhabited all year round. Despite its proximity to Davos and Klosters — the latter is the village where Prince Charles and his sons are said to have learnt to ski — Monbiel is unsullied by package-tour visitors. A walk through Monbiel explains why its residents are outdoorsy. In winters, its log cabins are covered in snow. Icicles form patterns on the sloping roofs. And as far as the eye can see, Monbiel is a white spread. Biking, hiking, skiing or the simple pleasure of making snowballs — there is no dull winter moment in Monbiel. At Restaurant Höhwald, there’s hot chocolate and juicy steaks to keep you warm. vaibhav mehta is a freelance travel writer and photographer Drink up A Graubünden girl in local attire at a cafe
e finds place in Ernest Hemingway’s short stories
Under the winter sun Just another afternoon at a Monbiel café popular with tourists and locals alike
n ng villages from November to March
Off to the mountains A woman and her dog ready for a walk in the Silvretta range
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Daily), which is the most circulated news publication for this age group, ran several consecutive issues on the attacks, Islamic State and terrorism. It also opened its pages to six young Muslim readers so that they could express and share their fears and hopes. Bruno Quattrone, its deputy chief editor, told me “our job is to inform, not to reassure or instil fear. We aim at accuracy. In a way we complement the schools, we help children understand the world better.” Most Parisian children attend governmentrun schools. The Minister of Education had formally requested all teachers to stand with their class in silence for a minute, to discuss recent events with pupils and teach them the values of secularism and equality that form the basis of the French Republic. This was to avoid what had happened after the Charlie Hebdo attacks last January: children justifying the deaths of satirical journalists in the name of religious outrage. Caroline Bourgeteau lives close to the 11th district of Paris, the scene of one of the attacks.
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She added, “there was a lot of confusion. This mother of two teaches nine-year-olds at a nearby government school. Like many of her Some children said that Muslims are terrorcolleagues, she was rattled by the events and ists. Some of my students are Muslim. One boy dreaded returning to work on Monday, No- told me, ‘Ma’am, I don’t understand, I am a vember 15. “As it happened, we did not work Muslim and I am not like that’. The boy felt remuch that day. The students were impatient ally sad, he told the class about brotherhood in Islam. I had to make sure the to talk about the attacks. As soon rest of the class understood that as they entered the class and put terrorism and Islam are separate their satchels down, they started issues. Some other Muslim stuasking questions,” she recalled One boy told me, dents had also been told by their with a faint smile. “They were ea‘Ma’am, I don’t parents to not make any comger to say where they were and understand, I am a ment, afraid that they would be what they were doing at the Muslim and I am not picked on by other kids.” After time of the events. Out of my 27 like that’ spending the morning discussstudents, five were attending ing these issues, Bourgeteau the game at the Stade de France, asked her students to team up to where three suicide bombers create large drawings. Hoping to blew themselves up. They also wanted to talk about the people who live in diffuse the tension, she instructed them not to these areas. They were afraid that the killers draw guns and blood but to focus on positive could come into their school, their homes. It’s things instead. Bourgeteau talks with pride about her stua collective fear. They kept saying, ‘Killers can come to get us, our doors are open’. The talk in dents. These children managed what many adults could not: use speech for catharsis. class lasted nearly an hour”.
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An eerie silence I spoke to half a dozen doctors and nurses who Movie mela In Thiruvananthapuram thousands of people are collectively stricken with a chronic case of movie madness early December hadintreated victimss gopakumar in the ER. They have first-
hand knowledge of what constitutes an emergency and have witnessed how this concept can be used for political reasons through the ‘state of emergency’. But they all refused to be formally interviewed or quoted by name. As a coping mechanism, they chose not to talk about the attacks with friends and colleagues. Sana T — who did not want her last name mentioned — was one of the rare few who was willing to talk. This nurse attended to several wounded survivors of the Bataclan massacre and café shootings. She remarked that “at the hospital, we don’t really talk about the events. We only discuss our work processhere is a chaya kada (tea shop) made my own money, but I am too ashamed to talk es. just share ourpig. feelevilIt’s bystrange spillingbut thewe guts of don’t a black guinea of thatched palm fronds and split about the budget. It’s that tiny.” Mamiroo won ings. know some of my colleagues have lost TheI audience, displaying severe symptoms bamboo stems, its glass cabinets the prestigious New Currents Award at the Bu- dear onesvision, that day but I realise that none of us — bleary fidgety feet and mild palpitastacked with pazhampori (banana san International Film Festival. But even be- talked to them about it.” tions regarding an available seat for the next fritters). Tea streams out of a long cloth strain- fore that win, Mohaghegh had sent the film film In the weeks that theand November 13 — races out of followed Videophilia heads for er into frothy milk: ₹7 for a glass. There is a terrorist attacks, a sense of collective mournfor the International Competition of IFFK. Hsiao-Hsien Hou’s Assassin. The Taiwanese Many Frances Mourad, an Arab vendor in the market, is tired of defending his French credentials faux well, its rim glistens with beautiful phoing and griefwon enveloped City ofaward Lights. “In my country, IFFK is an important film film director the Bestthe Director at ney red laterite. A bullock-less cart is mounted festival,” says Mohaghegh. “Two years ago, my Cannes Flowers,for messages, andwhich candles were placed at his movie, is as languid and with posters of Neelakkuyil, the iconic Malaya- compatriot Majid Behrouzian’s Parviz won the as all visually the sitesglorious of the attacks, and along the Place as a slow-moving stack of lam movie of 1954, with Sathyan gazing at a award for the best film here. It was an impor- classical de la République, a square where demonstraChinese paintings. shy Miss Kumari (the actor with the beguiling, tant indie film in Iran, and that win resonated tions are held. Dheepan, which won the Palme d’Or and Jusdoubly virginal screen name). A kolambi (the greatly with me.” The first film that young Ha- tinDay after new day, passers-by pay their tributelist, to Kurzel’s Macbeth, are part of IFFK’s loudspeaker that resembles a traditional spit- di saw, as a six- or seven-year-old, was Amitabh but the dead their commitment to the it is and the pledge indie movies that set it apart. toon) spits out a Malayalam song from the Bachchan’s Andha Kanoon. But his movie has a There valuesisofNir liberty, fraternity and equality. Bergman’s Yona, about one of the 1970s: “Ponveyil manikacha azhinju veenu/ Swar- different visual vocabAs weeksHebrew went by,poets, a sense of Wallach; unease pregreatest Yona the na peethambaram ulanju veenu (The golden ulary. And it received a vailed overTangerine, the city. The state of emergency electric about transgender peodrape of sunshine has fallen off/ The yellow full house in a corner was prolonged for three months by both ple on the streets of Los Angeles, shot the enwrap has unfurled on its own).” senate national assembly, giving the of Kerala. tirelyand on the iPhone 5s; and Chaayam Poosiya Nostalgia. You are drenched in its cloudthebyfreedom search warIn Thiruvananthap- It is around the world police Veedu, Santosh to and Satishwithout Babusenan, in 35 movies, since rants, burst as you enter the main venue of the Inter- uram, thousands of detain, interrogate anybody which was denied even and an ‘A’place certificate by you get to watch a under national Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in people are collectively arrest without seeking approval the house Central Board of Film Certification, maximum of five from Thiruvananthapuram. And yet, thankfully, stricken with a chronic a judge. This curb onrefused freedomtoand since the filmmakers cutjustice three films a day this nostalgia is incongruous with the shows case of movie madness in nude the name of security fundamenscenes. But thedisregards movie made it to the that run at the 20th IFFK. It has little to do with and grave cinephilia, talcompetition rights. section, as IFFK doesn’t ask for the contemporaneity, the sheer edginess, of for a week in DecemThe state of emergency is not only detricensor certificates. films, especially the indie ones, that hold your ber. It begins with a mental to the state of the law, it isn’t even efFansin and fandom gaze. This IFFK is indie territory: it is a festival twitch in the legs that fective the ‘war against terrorism’ that the of the young and the restless. government proclaimed, which drives them, at 9.30 on a Monday morning, to French Unlike IFFI in Goa last has month, which drew just Hadi Mohaghegh, a 37-year-old from Iran, watch the debut film of a Peruvian: Juan Da- has distinct GW Bush of those 3,700 delegates from overtones. across the Most country, IFFK has come with Mamiroo, a film of astonishing niel F Molero’s Videophilia (and Other Viral Syn- detained the name of the up state of emergenhas aboutin12,000 delegates, from 9,000 in visual splendour that takes a stark look at life dromes). The hall is packed when I reach. cy areItnot potential terrorists orthat religious fun2014. is this feverish audience gives IFFK and death. Set against the chalky hills of the People are sitting in the aisle; a few are stand- damentalists, its character. but ecological activists who Iranian province of Kuh-Gilu-Boir-Ahmad, ing by the door. could havefrom disrupted the COP21, the UN sumA nurse Kozhikode has taken a week’s which is also Mohaghegh’s home, Mamiroo is climate by France and where “IFFK is like the Rotterdam of the tropics,” mit leaveonand comehosted down with her banker husabout an old man who wants to die and his says Molero. “This place is swarming with cin- François international stature“This and band andHollande’s daughter to watch the festival. grandson who longs for life. It has less than ephiles.” He won the Hivos Tiger Award for possible in 2017 are at stake. has beenre-election our ritual for eight years,” says Usha five minutes of dialogue, but it creates a narra- new talent at the International Film Festival Devi. People arearound not allowed to demonstrate on “It is the world in 35 movies, tive out of gleaming images. “It is largely auto- Rotterdam this year. His psychedelic movie the because of the more state than of emergency. sincestreet it is tough to watch five films biographical,” says Mohaghegh about his tracks the youngsters of Lima, caught be- Not toPraveen be cowed down,Pratap, Parisians gathered a day.” Chandra a cop, is manlow-budget film. He speaks in Farsi, translated tween tradition and technology: they make thousands of shoes at Place de latheatre. République ning the festival crowd at Kairali He is Cosmopolitan city Marché d’Aligre is the only daily open market in the city Catholic Britons work it alongside Chinese and people from North Africa into English bywhere an interpreter. “I made with Jews, the eve of COP21 to symbolise their prohibamateur porn using Google Glass and ward off on looking forward to the next morning, his day
Rotterdam of the tropics
The film festival in Kerala is a celebration of the contemporary, and a carnival of the young and the restless
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Student power Caroline Bourgeteau felt proud at how her students talked about the attacks
Colours of patriotism Along with his sons, his nephew and his employee, Remy Costaz a seller of fruits and vegetables, displayed the flag at his stall in Marché d’Aligre to pay a tribute to the victims
Kimkimarch fans Unlike IFFI climate in Goa lastchange. month, which drew just 3,700 delegates from across the country, IFFK 2015 has about 12,000 delegates s gopakumar ited against marks — which consider some peoples’ deaths ligre, Remy Costaz felt the request was justiThe morning was eerily silent as more and as inevitable, and therefore acceptable — view fied and he wanted to use it to pay a tribute to more people lined up pairs of shoes, some- the state of emergency as a necessary evil. the victims. Together with his wife, two adult off, when he can abemessage, a spectator rather times including on the wetthan pave-a short-film dreams. and friend Achuthanandan wondered if they sons, and a nephew, Costaz sells fruits and vegpatriotism strain of cinephilia — for should place an ad in the newspapers: Is Anywarden. “For thewho pastknows six years, came here ment. Anybody theIFrench and as thea Uneasy This particular etables. He went to the local bazaar, owned by delegate. This time, I amwill on duty. But every al- On Place de la République understand how world cinema, 27, art-house adventures — seeped Willing to Sponsorfamily, Us forbut IFFK? In 2013, SuNovember the French government or- aone Chinese immigrant they had run ternate day watch he says with a ganised unusual thisI can silence is. movies,” All the proclamations into Malayalis when filmmaker Adoor Gopadevan’s first feature film, CR. No. 89, had its a remembrance ceremony for the vic- out of flags. moment, when it came out aoflarge nogrin. The 46-year-old harbours a short of resistance, our ‘joie even de vivre’, our culture of tims lakrishnan began the Society and urged all Chitralekha citizens to Film display the starburst A day later, he could finally purchase where to win NETPAC for the BestI film under hissuddenly creaseless uniform: wine and love seemed odd.on P Pad- national in 1965 and international movies to the flagtook and even post selfies with the na- tricolour and the display it onAward his stand. “Yes, Malayalam Film. 2015, he but was there on theare screenmarajan, Kerala’s finest filmmakers. It tional Later inone theof day, a group of masked youngfar corners andoncolleges of the This state.request Later, wanted colours social media. to put upInthe flag, very choose movies the interis astonishing howand many people at IFFK sters threw stones even candles thatcarry had made aroundmany 1984,French the maverick John Abraham ing committee squirm, as fewtoof us who did. for Mourad, the competition. That is has the been placed in memory of the victims, at the they formed havethean Odessa uneasy Collective relation- and went national neighbouring vendor, also indie at IFFK. heavily armed police, who in turn used tear ship around Kerala, funds with theircollecting flag, which is, infrom the pub- mind-bending one. Youarc know, he’s an Arab, at gas and force to remove them. A few ecologists collective lic for his movies. Malayalis, with this Only dramatmemory, as much the same time he’s really more a minority oftwenty Hitting tried in vain to protect the candles and flowers linked ic affliction their brain and blood, to thegrowing French in Revolution French than all of us: his wife is voices pointed to the out of his the teens, as ittoturns 20, lying around the main statue of the Republic and crowded it travelled to Thiru- But asofIFFK gets WWIItoasIFFI to whenever colonialism and French, kids go school transformation it needs to evolve. SajinMourad Baabu, and were in turn treated like criminals. That xenophobic vananthapuram, back in its nomadic days. groups. here, heFilmmaker speaks French.” France into a Vare wonhisthe whose Asthamayam evening, only a minority of voices pointed to Sincefew 1994, whenacross IFFK began, Very people the citythe audience’s (unwilling to use lastRajatha name) police State Award)when last year, it the transformation of France into a police chose yearly to ritual inthis the official dark —show at once collective Chakoram (Audience follow just shrugged he says heard the festival. “We smiles. get to see State while 70 per cent of the population said of andpatriotism. individual — continued Onhas the Marché their under- is time to redesign this. We exchanged Hea who they approved of the state of emergency. standing the of cinema. They open fell for Kieslowski lot of good movies, d’Aligre, only market felt tiredwhich havingistogreat, provebut himself, movies?” asks the 29-year-old, As many men and women from all political daily and Kiarostami; theyaknew their Bunuel from watches ourhe in the city and landmark explained later, while concedwhothat wandered for the first time into IFFK 10 leanings told me, “This time around, unlike where Bergman; they applauded Almodovar and An- ing Catholic Britons work alongside Jews, Costaz was right. agoyou andknow,” saw hisCostaz life andadded, understanding what happened in January, it’s not only jour- Chinese tonioni; and cherished the Makhmalbafs, andthey people originally from North years “But, “people of movies HeI’ve saved every nalists and Jews who were targeted by terror- Africa, father Mohsen andmerchants daughter Samira. scarce few chose to put up don’t talk intransform. the market. never seenpenny it like and sold hisIcar to make first feature. ists, so it affects us more. Steps have to be theFor Malayalis, the celebrated Korean film- this flag. before. don’t knowhis whether it’s because “IFFK, are sadly, does not have a taken”. People who make these chilling re- maker Kim Ki-duk is “Kimki”. A fifth-generation salesmanKimat Marché d’A- most of the merchants Arabs and Muslims on the worldabout map of fes-I ki is a Malayali, much like the and they feel place awkward talking this. tivals,” says. The Busan fesColombian writer Gabriel Garcia don’t know. I hope it’shejust because they feel beganthey 20 years ago, along Marquez. Malayalis lean across bus because don’t care or Kimki is aawkward, Malayali, nottival IFFK. “While has windows to wave at “Kimki” when worse. stayed at my standBusan the whole much like the If I hadwith grown leaps and bounds he is spotted on the street. When time, I wouldn’t haveineven known about and the Colombian writer is promoting Korean movies, he is not here, like this year, they it’s strange.” Gabrielattacks. Garcia This silence, IFFK doesn’t ishave a clue the about scream “Kim Ki-duk Ki Jai!” thrice The French government dreading inMarquez the market.” IFFKNational, needs a paralbefore his latest movie, Stop, is evitable ascension of the Front a xescreened. In a guerrilla style of lel film market thatthat will have nophobic extreme-right party won filmmaking, he has turned direcdistributors, one-third of thebuyers, vote share in the firsttelevision round of tor, scriptwriter, prop-maker, cinecompaniesThe and representatives the regional elections. final round is matographer and editor for this movie, which scheduled of other festivals. “Also, the state government tomorrow, two days after the end of has almost no background music. It is a minor COP21. should And give the a subsidy about ₹25 lakh toofperFront of National, accused hifilm in his repertoire, but his eco outrage jacking haps 10the good Malayalam movies.” That is national symbols for too long, against the Fukushima power plant found ar- expected when the to festival willitsbecome achieve highestmore scorethan ever,a dent support in Kerala, where many have since screening of wonderful its creation in 1972.films to a crowd of cramarched against the Kudankulam nuclear zyHollande cineastes.has tried to use the attacks for his power plant. As political the festival wrapsbyup, about 12,000 peoown benefit prohibiting demonStrangely, this year, “Kimki” and Jafar Pana- strations ple sink into withdrawal symptoms. Therethe is against COP21 and by replacing hi have turned indie. Panahi’s Taxi is here. ‘esprit no filmcritique’ to wakewith up to. There is nopatriotism known cure the shallow of Banned from making movies by the Iranian flag for this. There be a year-long bearers andwill anthem singers. wait before government, Panahi mounted a camera on theThis next indie December. the interim, year started with a In terrorist assaultone on the dashboard of a yellow cab, drove around the will freedom make do of with MohanlalItfilms, Ajithtoflicks expression. is likely end The eyes will Tehran, spoke to and filmed passengers, and with in Tamil and curb Bollywood a legal on alltamasha. individual freedoms. crave, the and legs will twitch — for for a cup of tea2015 and created a movie about the other side of the For Paris, more generally France, 35year movies. city — it is film as confession, it is film as revolt. is zero. IFFK pulls into its fold everyone who sees is a Paris-based journalist working charmytherwath harikrishnan is a Thiruvananthapuramthe world in 24 frames per second. A few years ingrid Indie byte Hadi Mohaghegh’s film Mamiroo is visually splendid; Jafar Panahi’s Taxi is film as confession, with news weekly Courrier International basedthe journalist film as revolt Defying the ban The Place de la Republique is covered in pairs of shoes as part of a symbolic rally at the start of UN climate talks afp/miguel medina in Palakkad, Sudevan ago, sitting in a village
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OTT and loving it The fifth edition of the Delhi Comic Con brought with it fans, TV stars, socially-conscientious comics and plenty of good vibes Seeds of discontent Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita visits the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako after a raid by armed attackers left over 20 dead. A thread has emerged connecting the latest siege to that of an Algerian refinery in 2013 afp/habibou kouyate
STATES OF MATTER
New world disorder Non-state actors are playing out the global danse macabre of terrorism
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Bigger and better Visitors pose for photographs; Irish actor Kristian Nairn, known for his role as Hodor in Game of Thrones, was the cynosure of all eyes photos afp/sajjad hussain
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unich hosts a showpiece annual conference where security officials and experts gather from sunny winter weekend, plenty of around the world. Since its start excited (and painted) faces, and a in 1963, the event has witnessed its fair share zone full of superheroes: Comic of discord. But with the world supposedly Con India returned to the Capital graduating out of bitter bipolarity in 1991, with a bang and left fans wanting more. The concord has been the rule. NSIC exhibition ground in Okhla buzzed with The promise of a ‘new world order’ came action last weekend. Fathers carried their todfrom a US president who, in 1991, vanquished a dlers dressed as superheroes, teenagers truculent Arab regime in Iraq that sought to pranced about as Hogwarts witches and a redefine national identities in defiance of somewhat lanky, albeit enthusiastic Spiderlines drawn after World War I. As the year wore man posed generously for every fan. on, the Soviet Union, the opposite pole in the Founded in 2011 by Jatin Varma as an experiworld order created by World War II, passed inment, Comic Con India has grown with every to history. successive edition: this one had more than In the feast of concord that followed, the 250 exhibitors. “Comics and most things nerFebruary 2003 fracas in Munich — when US Dedy have been a part of my life since I was a fence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was frontalchild. I’ve grown up reading what everyone ly abused over his unseemly lust to wage war else has — Tinkle, Asterix, Tintin, MAD, DC & in Iraq — was a rare occurrence. Marvel — and later went on to lap up every loEarly this year, security apparatchiks gathcal and international indie comic I could find. ered in Munich in a state of gloom at the “colThere are so many favourites, but if I were to lapse of the world order”. An official report pick one it’d be Superman,” says Varma. remarked in some despair that the guardians The first edition, held in Delhi, was free and of the world order were proving reluctant to saw more than 10,000 visitors over that weekrebuild the props that were systematically beend. The footfall has grown massively since ing knocked out of it. and keeps increasing each year. The resurgence of Russian militarism in UkComic Con now attracts more than 35,000 raine was a worry, when there was a smug exvisitors a day, with an average ticket price of pectation after the Soviet collapse and the ₹300 at each show. wars that followed in the Balkans, that the US agenda would encounter no barrier in its Celeb showstopper march through Eastern Europe. Northern Irish actor and DJ Kristian Nairn The state of meltdown in the Arab world (who portrays the character of Hodor in the was a deeper concern. And the tidal wave of blockbuster television series Game of Thrones) refugees washing up on European shores was stole the show with a jam-packed session on a challenge to the humanitarian pretences of day two of the festival. With season six a few the western liberal order, straining its rapidly months away, it was clever of the organisers to diminishing capacities. have one of the GOT characters make an apWhen reason fails, theology is the fallback pearance for fans in India, where the audience option. Once a favoured term of comic books for content-focused television has grown phepandering to the Manichean sensibility, ‘monnomenally in the past two years. ster’ has now become accepted currency in For the uninitiated, Hodor is a friendly githe global security dialogue. It was a term that ant, one of the nicest characters on the show, British Prime Minister David Cameron reacwhose defining characteristic is that he can hed for while recently demanding parliamenonly speak a single word — Hodor. Fans tary authority to join the aerial bombing queued up to catch a glimpse of Nairn as he
fiesta over Syria, which already involves some 40. A week afterwards, an upscale hotel in Ba60 countries. mako, capital of the African republic of Mali, The ‘monster’, as the French political theo- was raided by armed marauders who took politely dismissed all questions about the be getting depressed because of so much rist Michel Foucault put it, is violation incar- hostages and held them for four days, killing forthcoming season, and refused to reveal if wrong happening in the world. Our aim is to nate. It is a breach of both the laws of nature over 20. Jon Snow was alive or dead. He humbly admit- spread positive vibes and encourage people to and society. It “combines the impossible and Neither of these attacks registered in global ted to not having read any of the books, but become happier and more optimistic,” says the forbidden” and is that extreme point at consciousness the way Paris did. The disparihoped that George RR Martin keeps his char- Nikhil Sharma, one of the founders. which “the law is overturned”. ties were so stark that even a magazine of acter alive till the very end. Cameron secured his mandate, though con- Books hardened cynicism such as The Economist etcetera Nairn agreed that he wasn’t particularly imsiderable scepticism shrouds his eagerness could take note of the “empathy gap” and try pressed about being offered the role of Hodor. Graphic literature has never really received for war, except the perverse gratification that to quantify it using internet search numbers “The guy only said one word ‘Hodor’, which the attention it deserves: not in the past and comes from a purposeless exercise of military as proxy variable. didn’t make any sense. It was crazy,” he said especially not now, when people prefer to power. The bellicosity and escalation of miliAmid conflicting claims of responsibility and added it was his mother who convinced watch a comics-based film or TV show over tary operations comes even as documents for the Mali attack, a thread emerged connecthim to take it up. It was only gradually that he reading the original book. Batman, Superemerge suggesting a 1957 plan by Britain and ing it to a hostage siege in an Algerian refinery started falling in love with the character. “The man, Green Lantern, The Flash, Iron Man, The the US to stage a series of border provocations in 2013. French forces had been deployed in only way to play a part like Hodor is to have Hulk and Jessica Jones: these characters were in Syria as a pretext for invasion Mali to put down a revolt by Isthat connect. You can’t preborn in the pages of Marvel and DC and regime change. Then ruled lamic tribesmen spilling over tend: it has to be real. And comics. But perhaps it’s less time-conby the compliant and easily malfrom the turmoil in Libya. The Alapart from the size, we had a suming to watch TV than to read the leable Hashemite dynasty, Iraq gerian hostage siege was an eflot in common. I think I am of a book. When reason fails, pages was to be staging post for the fort to compel their withdrawal. The Comic Con had just as nice as he is,” said an This year, along with the usual fare, theology is the military adventure. Credible information is now something for the amused Nairn. there were also some books that feaoption The consequences were disas-tastes fallback available that Al Mourabitoun, of every kind tured serious socio-political themes. trous. Syria walked into a politi- of reader: from the group believed to be behind First-timers Cartoonist Sumit Kumar’s book Amar cal union with Egypt to form theAmerican superhero both incidents, is an asset of the Comic Con provides a platBari Tomar Bari Naxalbari, which was United Arab Republic. Iraq wit- comics to political Algerian intelligence agency, the form for creators and puboriginally published as a webcomic, nessed a violent insurrection and the liquidaDRS. It was assembled from fragments of the graphic novels lishers to showcase their traces the dark history of the Naxaltion of the puppet monarchy. And in Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which fought a stories and characters. But bari uprising and the Maoist conflict desperation at the threat to a friendly regime brutal civil war with the Algerian military rewhile the hero-villain duo of in central India. Ram Devineni’s Priya in Lebanon, the US had to intervene militarily gime through the 1990s. Since the war on terBatman and The Joker, Shakti features a superhero who is alto contain the spreading unrest. ror became official policy in 2001, the DRS has made more popular than so a rape survivor. Malik Sajad’s MunThe shock waves subsided when they were used Al Mourabitoun to bid for a role as underever before thanks to Christopher Nolan’s nu: A Boy from Kashmir is an autobiographical absorbed into the polarities of the Cold War. study of US and French intelligence, with sole films, take centre-stage every time, this year’s book that mixes history with personal recolToday’s spiralling chaos is unlikely to ebb enforcement rights in North Africa. edition saw other interesting ideas as well. lections to give an insider’s view of the Kashwithout fuelling a fresh new polarisation in It is an arrangement rife with conflict and Sharing space with established comics stars mir conflict and how it shapes the psyche of a the world order. The mindless recourse to mil- discord, which none of the parties involved was a superhero called Shabash, who came all young boy. itary force ensures that the new configura- can get out of. Ultimately, that is a distinctive the way from Bangladesh with the Dhaka So the Comic Con had something for every tions of power will take shape in perilous feature of the “non-state actors” playing out Comic Con team. The Dhaka team was in the taste of every reader: from the rippling musproximity to armed conflagration. the global danse macabre of terrorism ramCapital with their ‘Beyond Borders’ theme. The cles of American superhero comics to the gritThe decision to double down with military pant. None of them would really exist, far less aim was to join forces with the rest of the com- ty realism of political graphic novels. force comes with a proclivity to ignore the flourish, except as instrumentalities for offiics world. Founded by Saadi Rahman in 2012, The real challenge, however, is to boost comtrail of havoc caused in countries designated cial, though concealed, policies of state actors. Dhaka Comic Con is Bangladesh’s first-ever of- ics sales throughout the year, and it will take as recipients of imperial ministrations. State And the threads that control them run a conficial comic book convention. They’re all set to several successful Comic Cons to pull that off. structures are collapsing and multiple armed voluted course but usually end in the hands of kick off their fourth edition later this week. But we spotted one diehard reader spending groups emerging to stake territorial claims. western and allied intelligence services. Standing out among the crowd was the ₹50,000 at a single stall. May his tribe increase On November 12, just a day before the lethal ‘Share Good Vibes’ stall that sold merchandise and flourish. attacks in Paris that drew global condemna- sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer with quotes on peace. “There is so much negation, two bomb blasts in Beirut killed close to and researcher based in Gurgaon and Shimla tivity around us these days. Everyone seems to arunima mazumdar is a Delhi-based journalist
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The returning reader
In memoriam The sites of attacks became makeshift shrines filled with candles and tributes
all photos: ingrid therwath
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Rereading of a book is also an act of reassessment of oneself; of one’s growth as a reader, and person; of one’s loss of innocence
janice pariat
here isn’t a doubt that reading is book about it. Howards End is on the Landing ry sources were. Perhaps the miracle (with a good for you. documents a year-long voyage through her li- good book) is that despite seeing the strings Yet although we may be readers, brary in order to get to know her own (vast) being pulled from behind the scenes, you still how many of us are re-readers? collection again. “I wanted to repossess my enjoy the show. One of the main reasons for our aversion to books,” she writes, “to explore what I had accuFor a friend, who reads Harper Lee’s To Kill a rereading books is most obvious (and perhaps mulated over a lifetime of reading…” Apart Mockingbird every spring, the act is one of essuperficial?): Time. Easy enough as children or from “repossession” she also mentions — in tablishing a sense of certainty. Amidst all the young adults to indulge in rereading binges her rereadings of Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, changes a year can bring, the book becomes a over long vacations, but now, juggling job, Dickens — a noticeable deepening of under- still, comforting centre. It serves, he says, as a family, household, seems to leave little or no standing. Possibly why Nabokov was prompt- reminder of his first encounter with the novel, opportunity to do the same. Our ‘To-Read’ lists ed to say (in Lectures on Literature) that “a good which was a good, happy time. The reason, may stretch from here to China. Unread books reader, a major reader, an active and creative though, that I might make 2016 my year of repile up on bedside tables, constantly replen- reader is a rereader.” reading is that it’s also an act of reassessment ished by visits to bookshops and book fairs, a When we read for the first time, we are occu- of oneself. Of one’s growth as a reader, and fabulous online sale, or generous friends. We pied by plot and character and structure. And person. Of one’s loss of innocence. Rebecca may be traumatised by the notion that we the very process of learning, in Mead, for example, writer at The won’t have time to read all the books we want terms of time and space, what New Yorker, first encountered Geto before we die. (I am; it’s a horrible thought.) the book is about, stands beorge Eliot’s Middlemarch at 17. Terror without fear aris at itsnew quietest in August, We flitisfrom author to new when author, new daily routines, country is underThe a problem, tween usthat and the artistic appreciaSince then, she has reread it evI think, most thebook, businesses are shut for an conbook toofnew voracious butterflies, state of emergency. As the magnitude thefive events dawned tion. Nabokov Few goespeople on to remember say with rereading years, “[her]upon emotional is that ofery annualseeking summerfresh holiday and adventures. Pari- and fewer stantly literary experienced state of emer-it reminds the world, President François Hollande de-each rethatstill “[t]he element ofthe time does response to it evolving at us of sians have left for more bucolic locaNothing quite beats that first-time experience gency not in 1955. time the clared the state of emergency on national telereallyThat enterwas in a the first first contact visiting.” In each chapter of her where we’ve been tions. Paris December is whole the opposite, with Frenchwith — thein thrill of seeing new arrangements government had imposed it, in visionwe barely a few hours after the attacks hadmoving a painting. In reading a order own life — leaving home, and where cannot streetsof bustling people busy with wordswith on aactivity, page, of following characters to curbbook, the growing anti-colonial started. He alsobecoming announced we must have time to acto America, a mother go again their Christmas shopping, andnext restaurants not knowing what the chapter filholdsinsurrection for quaintbrewing in Algeria. three —days ofresonated national differently. mourn- She ourselves with it. We it has led with localsthe and tourists.delight of coming across them, absolute Algerian freedom fighters were(as we ing and a minute of silence to be have no physical organ has found herself being drawn to This an year however, things areoramiss. Accordexquisite paragraph phrase or idea. placedhave under observed nationwide the followthehouse eye inarrest regardand to paintdifferent characters, of growing ing to theHaving Paris Chamber of though, Commerce, said this, in hotel all honesty many opponents were ing Monday. But the first ing) that takes indetained the whole picto understand someemershe didn’t How do you explain bookings have dropped by 20 perI’ve cent, tour there have been times that tried. Yet pickin newly-opened prison gency thatwith many people, ture and then can camps. enjoy its details. But at quite empathise in the past. and As author terrorism toasmall operators trips, in over ing have up JDcancelled Salinger’sgroup The Catcher the 80 Rye years Algeriasecond, was a or‘département’, especially manywrote Parisians, had third, or fourtha reading we do, without in a Hephzibah Anderson in “Rereading: children per cent of shops are expecting a decrease infeeling after first reading it in college, left me constitutive of France. to attend to was children. for the BBC, sense, part behave towardsBut a book terrorising as we do toGuilty Pleasure?” themThe Ultimate sales and shows concertAshalls are being can- these oddly lessatmoved. did Scott Fitzgerald’s The ‘events’ as the uprising How do you terrorism wards a—painting.” Yet is in a reread (or several if “though the words onexplain the page stay the same, celled. Great Policemen heavily armed with assault Gatsby. The problem, I think, with Algeria re- you’re was then called an — did not to young children without Nabokov) opportunity only for us to our readings of them change.” We tercome to a weapons and life jackets, along with soldiers, reading is that it reminds us of where we’ve directlygather impact the capital of the meanings? rorising them? parents a text’s subterranean book we’ve already read Some with the weight of all guard important hubs. we cannot go again. Some been and where country. For some, rereads are essential to reveal the experiences shared their feelings andall the we’ve had openly since, and Mostdoors department stores They and theatres have to beSixtycraft. have closed. were meant yearsTolater, barelySeltzer, over the shield children from tele- We resee aParisians, book, as Sarah editormost of adults other tried bookstowe’ve thence encountered. contracted private security companies to Butshock walked through once, and once only. is and grief ofsays, the Charlie Hebdo and the vised news. Others just could not find us. theRereadFlavorwire, as a “false creation”. view them as much as they review check that bags always and occasionally even friskI sought cus- out true? Unconvinced, kosher supermarket in January words ings and looked to the schools and publicaRereads are attacks the space within 2015, which you reveal old selves, and new. tomers.the And so, ordinary are con- were about rereaders amongParisians us. to experience this exceptions aimed at the six to 10 age bracket for may dwell not onlyfirsthand on the fictional characters janice pariat is the author of Seahorse stantly reminded, going their tional provision Susan Hill,while author of about the marvellously the French Constitution. guidance. Le Petit Quotidien (literally the Small but on theofauthor herself — how she accomspine-chilling Woman in Black has written a plished her tone, what her personal and litera- t@janicepariat
A month after the Paris attacks, the bigger question remains what the ‘state of emergency’ means for ordinary citizens
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APPROACHING EYE LEVEL
Life inside the world of flu The stories that get you through life are so hidden, real life needs to be first obscured by steam inhalation for them to emerge
Special games Indian goalkeeper Varadaraj dives across the goal during the football match between India and France at the 1948 London Olympic Games the hindu archives
A story of what-ifs The history of Indian sport, writes Ronojoy Sen, is not only about problems that have plagued it, but rather a larger system that has failed it
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ometime in the 1980s, Ashwini Kumar, culture.” But much of sports’ place in modern- who were equally enamoured of the sport, India’s then representative to the In- day India is a product of the British rule, and it though, did substantially more to contribute shutterstock ternational Olympic Committee, be- is in locating the authority of the colonial rul- towards its progress in India. It was their early moaned: “Sport is against our Indian ers in this development that Sen is at his fin- patronage that ultimately resulted in cricket ave you been ill? I have. And everyethos, our entire cultural tradition.” His stategraph-like and more free-hand drawing than dingturning est. Britain’s influence, though, was incidental is hers.into And if Sen youdescribes are really, what as areally “national one I know. Someathave ment stood vindicated the asthma time by atIndia’s you ever realised. So why get up? is there rather than intentional. “ForWhat the better part of unlucky, there is a cold moment when you reobsession”. tacks which they last hadAfter when dreadful record in the Olympics. all, we to getthe up 19th for? century, with some notable excepalise that the mancricket you married 10 years Even while is integral to anyago histori10. Beijing One man blacked Bin- Ohtions had tothey wait were till 2008 for Abhinav the comfort knowing thatand other peo- has persuaded like the of public schools missionary you take all yourSen savings andthere cal analysis ontoIndian sport, writes, out. One woman went upindividual to Spiti onOlympic holiday gold dra to win our first ple lost track of their stories“the too British when they institutions,” Sen writes, were not invest them in strange of his own is life beyond cricketventures in India. Part of the thesis and then bus in aSen semi-comatose medal.took But,the as Ronojoy writes, in clinical, werereally sick. Oh the comfort of suddenly interested in extending theirrealissports to and you are not sure thatusmeans any- He of Nation atso Play is what to show this world. state effervescent to get hospitalised in his Delhi. not denprose, in newIt’s book, Nation at ing what are the The stories you tell yourself. For “a the Indians. English clubs represented more. Thethis, plotnot has that you does byalways offeringseemed dreary details, but by gue. It’s anything difficult to pronounce. Play:not A History of Sport in India, Kumar’s statethat alone it’s worth beinglife ill and stuck under sanctuary of English in an alien environmarried someone risk-taking in trifocusing on thewho’s greatest stories ofand Indian It’s just that old flu that once rea- by ments are flu. no Adifferent frommeant thoseamade a blanket andwhere just a little too far away from ment,” one bit European team played yourumph, fifties you be taking defeat foreigntoo, cruises and,will on occasions, which in sonably pleasant from school. Lord Thomasbreak Babington Macaulay on the Benthe plug-point. The stories that against another and then amicably. Unlike nervous conjunction tell us soyour much about IndiThegali horrible about being ill asorganisaan get you male’s thing physique. “The physical through life so hidfraternised overaredinner deposit parents. Inside the anfixed society. adulttion is that new you with a new It’s said, of it’s thethe Bengali,” Macaulay hadflu. once den, and real drinks.” life needs to be first obworld of flu, though, the plot The tales from the 1948 London the flu what to do with ex- scured Sen “isdoctors feeble don’t even know to effeminacy… His pursuits by steam for pointsinhalation out that it could be— that he is anindependent evil rat Olympics the first that Even while cricket is cept to Dolo re Dolo Dolo. And it’s the you aresing sedentary, hisrelimbs delicate, his movethemwas to emerge. through individuals who’s going to leave you hightold. competed in — are rousingly Oh the comfort integral to any of India that you don’t know what to do with. ments languid.” The I just drive historical — story rathermay thanbe: any specific and dry, penniless and cruiseless. There is a great pathos, for instance, in knowing that other analysis on Yesterday got out of bed, all of us, and alongpolicy Both we Kumar’s and Macaulay’s statements in oneoflane a predictable theat colonial govAnd probably has a second wifeteam, the story of the country’s football people lost track of Indian sport, Sen askedwere, eachatother, was efforts it?” And we medium their“How core, lazy at then stereotyping speed,— doing one their ernment that no sport in Gandhinagar. Youitsare con- still the majority of players stories when with writes, theretoo is life told each other (first sheepishly and then with They the average Indian’s sporting ability. any harm please no oneinhit came and to implant itself vincedbarefoot, of it at three in 1-2 thetomornplaying losing France in they were sick beyond cricket increasing I didn’t want get out of enseek torelief): pigeonhole India as atonon-sporting me. Or the storyconsciousness. may be: I have India’s ing. But it is three in the morning the first round. The result, as Sen writes, in India bed. tity, No, no, think Iproduce could get out of the and,I didn’t in so doing, precisely got away with a lot of crap and if British educators and misand because you slept all day you could have been quite different had the bed. It felt of likemischief it’s all over. felt like this is how kind thatItis symptomatic of such I don’t keep paddling under the sionaries believed that can’t team sleep not all missed night. two And penalties you Indian it’s going to be from They now on. How neither could I go categorisation. provide the riwatersports at topwere speed they find vital to will the Inhave live with this plot.just secand nottoconceded the new winner back gour to work? I’m not capable work. of historical analysis,ofnor a proper explaout I’m a big fraud.particularly Or the story may be: Shit, dian people, The worstonds thingbefore insidethe the world of the fluEven is in final whistle. This was the story were ourselves nation as to whywe India, astelling a nation, has fared so everything seems princes, to be going and everyto the young whocool inculcated with Enthe terrifying realisation that had you made have told defeat, though, the team quite an under the blankets, next to poorly in sports.inItthe isn’twoolly withinsocks, Sen’s gamut thingglish will continue to be cool, yes, let’smoral have and ideals, could find theoh physical, yourself these pleasant tales toanget throughfrom impression, and received invitation to theexplicate debris ofthese lozenges and The Littlehis Steam reasons. Instead book exan ice-cream, because why not. intellectual strength to rule their subjects. life, just you used in to the count the last few FIFA like to participate 1950 football World Inhaler Thathow Could andbecame ‘lots ofsofluids’ and plores sports critical to the And somehow when you sick as an adult, stepsCup One such teacher wasare Chester Macnaghten, home to make the walk India bearable. How parin Brazil. Ultimately, wouldn’t bookscountry’s that made our heads and lap- the attitude and hurt polity. Bythe tracing the story that getsofyou throughCollege life loses the principal Rajkumar in its Rajkot, couldticipate you beinsothe foolish, you ask owing yourself tournament, to at a pertops evolution that we were too in tired to get up at to Play re- not of sport India, Nation hold.one Instead, quote Jaaved Jafrey, there of thetofirst schools established for the threeceived am? How a little lackabout of funds. It’srealism? difficult to imagine charge andilluminates the metallic sheen of strips of pills that only the manifold problems comes a situation of Macnaghten same plot, different bunprinces. It was who introduced And thenparticipation luckily comes morning it what inathe Worldwhen Cup might the first doctor gave you. story we toldofourhave plagued the The development Indian galow. All events to become Ranjitsinhji cricket.mapped to a differ- is toohave grossdone to stay bed. Youfuture sort ofinclean thebut it to in football’s India, selvessports, was that wasbusts all maya so far, engineered this delu- by butitalso the myths ent blueprint. If youasare the blueprint And cricket, is lucky, only natural, occupies house. a certainly You throw all the socks in the machine. represents yet another case of an adsion administrators of steady progression life anywhere and careerbut at who willinlook lookssubstantial excellent and youinare like: maybe I really Ranplace this book. However, And ministration you think nogrossly more of realism becauseIn so bereft of vision. and health to a thinner, richer, better you. The don’tji’s themselves for excuses. care that myon mother is making me wear influence the growth of cricket in India, that’smany a literary nothe oneclassic needs.story of Indian ways,genre this is truth isNation a vague back that something at pain Play isinayour storylower told in a predominridiculous for mylimited. wedding. Beas Sen writes, was rather His autocrasport: quixotic and riddled with ‘what-ifs’. t@chasingiamb no one canlinear help. manner. And yourSen lifebegins is looking less with antly his tale causecy,clearly the man andthrone, the wedand loyalty to is themine British meant the Mahabharata, which, he tells us, “has a spe- that he was more of a great cricketer than a suhrith parthasarathy is a Chennai-based lawyer cial place in and has greatly influenced Indian great Indian cricketer. Several other princes and writer
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Nation at Play: A History of Sport in India Ronojoy Sen Penguin Viking ₹599
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Nisha Susan is a writer and editor of the feminist website The Ladies Finger
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MEAL TICKET
Shelling out Looking beyond left and right LIGHTHOUSE
don’t care much for free speech or other personal freedoms. Parties on the left tend to oppose economic freedom. They do so stating noble reasons, but all infringements of economic freedom amount to a redistribution of wealth from poor consumers to a rich interest group, so they’re either hypocrites or delusional. They also tend to favour big government, which means more taxation, and therefore more coercion. If you believe, as I do, that coercion is wrong, then it won’t make a difference whether you look left or right, you’ll see coercion everywhere. A classical liberal opposes both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, both Prakash Karat and Mohan Bhagwat. (I would give credit to those guys for at least stating their positions clearly, though. Politicians down the ostensible middle, slaves to special interests as they mostly are, tend to be equally coercive and far more hypocritical.) Looking at the political marketplace, you will find that the options available to you aren’t all that different from each other. And why should they be? Even when they cater to different segments of the population, they’re still reacting to the same inevitably corrupting incentives at work in the political economy. Here’s the funny thing about India in particular. We have conveniently classified the BJP as a right-wing party and the Congress as a leftwing party — but they’re practically the same. In terms of economics, both are left-wing, and oppose economic freedom. It might surprise you to hear me say this about the BJP, but forhen does an oyster die?” one brought out the previous night’s leftover drank campaign up the brine. get their rhetoric and consider I was at Le Mary Celes- white wine and champagne, and suddenly, it The policies: prized Olérons raisedUPA in III. ponds their actual Modi I isare basically te, a hipster oyster bar, became the most luxe breakfast ever: cold, with a special mixway of salt and fresh Modialong has the same top-down of looking at wawhen this morbid ques- salty, plump, and perfect in the morning sun.the economy ter, and algae; Verneuils areleader delicate deep-sea as any Congress before tion arose. “Are they… alive?” I hissed, pausing And now that it was oyster season again,him, I oysters. Olérons were a little fattier, and he’sThe trigger-happy when it comes to but before my plate of fresh-shucked bivalves, glis- wasn’t about to let academic inquiries into that was theand difference imposing newall taxes cesses. I could discern betening on a bed of ice, with a two-pronged fork the meaning and length of a mollusc’s life Equally, tweenon them. nextthe ones got thewas benefit socialThe issues, Congress as of atop them like a murder weapon. “Don’t they stop me from enjoying dinner. the spicy, Tabasco-licked, right-wing as the BJP allegedlyAsian-inspired is. They have amigdie out of water?” asked my friend. Le Mary Celeste is named for a mysterious nonette sauce, which made everything simulstellar record when it comes to banning Google revealed that if stored properly, oys- brigantine ship whose crew vanished into taneously fatty and fiery,government fleshy and acidic. books, and it was a Congress that ters can survive out of water for days. thin air. It looks like a Pinterest board for ‘urI thought my first timeCensoreating oyseffectively bannedabout The Satanic Verses. “They’re alive when you shuck them,” said ban oyster bar’, the spare nautical theme refour years ago in Paris, at as thedid Cabane ship ters, flourished under their watch, at- à my companion, also ontwins? Google. “But flected in whitewashed brick, Huitres. The which bare-bones oyster tempts at social engineering, weren’t Mirror moment Are thesenow men identical rv moorthy without a beating heart, it’s hard to know rope, a white chevron parquet has no menu, and they restricted to the ‘cabin’ Emergency: odious policies when it, er, stops beating.” ceiling, and the hipster-pirate don’t ask decades what youafter wantthe — just on sterilisation still exist, the things exasperDeadneorofalive, oystersthat aremost enjoying a revival; through a classical liberal (or libertarian, if emergency was called beards of the clientele. how many. “Two dozen,of oratfour?” off. Even in terms We finished the other night communities, atesmagazines me about Indian political them dis- for blogs and are applauding you will) prism, andwere my liberalism boils down Today they serving two said the brawny man behind tacking the Congress set the with those, each one more these days mineral-rich is that we often being course raw, sustainable, protein to a respect foroysters individual freedom. kinds of from the Ma-On moral counter. Hedied linedin upthe 24 Arcachon the standards: people 1984 like theriots slickthan wash speak infilter terms ‘left-wing’ and grounds sources, which theofsea they live in. alone, if we—come from first rennes-Oléron Pousses en princioysters, along with brown bread, in the 2002 ones. My friend, the poof the sea ‘right-wing’. This has is wrong for twoFrance, reasons. The buzz even reached where ples, Claire we should individual °3 andrespect Speciales de Claire freedom litical commentator wedges lemon, a bottle NitinofPai, onceand coined a of Firstly, this isnever not how politicians themselves people stopped eating the little bivalves above°3 all else. Special From a Verneuils consequentialist per- term that describes — and °3s, icythis white wine.between They smelt jostling the unactually speak humouring the and at all, and(unless wherethey’re buzzwords like ‘raw’ spective, we shouldWe defend freedom, for parties perfectly:mistakably fromalso, Normandy. ordered as ifIntolerance’. they’d just left ‘Competitive English-speaking Voters in India(and vote such ‘low-carb’ aremedia). amusing Anglicisms economic freedom maour first round,leads and atoMuskadig sea,kind spilling over with natuThisthe is the of competition for a myriad of reasons, mostly local, they American notions as rinsing, orand worse — pasterialBreizh, prosperity, andwhite personal a natural wine, to go with them. ral brine. Despite having ‘oysters’ that makes theGoogled poor ol’ free- the don’tteurising frame issues terms of left or right. freedoms, — are in offensive). as freedom Mostsuch oysters today in of France are the tear- entire afternoon, I was shocked at their succumarketer in me cringe! Therefore, neitherpoor do politicians whenoysters they are Originally people’s fare, speech, enrich our culture. shaped Pacific rock kind, as the native belons lence, and atTo just how oceanic they tasted. sum it up, India’s political political speaknot to considered their constituencies, they ex- Like a rare treator or when a glamorous true liberal, no dif-less India’s oraOstrea edulisI see become and less com- parties Back at parties the Mary Celeste, my oysteron gratin tend to beasleft-wing oppose in strategise amongin each other. is, man thus,stands a ference travagance; winter anThere oyster between economic andaccording mon. They are classified to freedom size, arrived, I economics thought of the rhyme, ‘Ion prefer andsilly right-wing spheremy oysters disconnect between politics and political dis-street opening them for passers-by at most socialfrom freedom. As I am of delicateevery the huge °00sfond to the °6s, and fried/issues. That way know the oyster’s social In I other words, course. Many They’re politicaleaten commentators, corners. here (over unable 1.8 billion saying, a how once we accept that twoin the claires, or salt died’. These long they are ripened Creuses from Brittanyinhad risen to they oppose freedom every or unwilling to engage complexities year) as they alwayswith havethe been — on the street, consenting may do and whatponds. adults Their texture flavour are affected new, cheesy-salty baked till the sphere. Iheights, would be no more dis-edges of the economy, insist on onpolitical the seaside, at Christmas, at imposing parties, or asever a by they want with each other salinity, temper- of the mollusc the minerals, sediments, began to curl, a toasty heartened by this than in India’s simplistic narratives. light lunch, washed down with white wine. provided theytides infringe the they lounge in, brown-butter-hollandaise ature and of the water freedom fighterssauce, were spiked in thewith This would not matter if a to left-right prism Last November, I went a birthday party in rightsnot oftono one else, it plankton should not mention their andmatter algae bedjalapeños, sprinkled with scalfirst half of theand lastgenerously century, when they gazed was useful in evaluating the desirability pol- had the countryside, where two of the of guests whether theyOyster are f****** a bedroom trad- over fellows. fansincan argue fororhours and coriander. up atlions the monolithic British empire. They griticies,driven or provided to gauge thebuckets mor- of downa compass from Brittany with ing inwhether a marketplace. Interfering with either is ted their the Arcachon huitres, first babied But thenand I ordered plate of the the raw teeth, hurledanother themselves into al oroysters. instrumental value after, of theweactions of find The morning awoke to wrong. And here’s the thing: parties both into among terracotta tiles and then on pushed because wefreedom. were both thinking about battleones, for our political politicians. But it does which brings mewellies, to the left them outside the not, kitchen door in their sides of thetopolitical spectheand deepright Arcachon Bay fatten, are better Likewise, those single bursts luscioustillflavour, we must keepoffighting we winwhat my second which not a local chirpilyreason, shucking the is molluscs into one. a flowertrumthan support infringements individual the flinty, metallic on belons grown in Fisher calls theand oyster’s “strange theseMFK other freedoms, emerge as a cold free sucAcross the world, framing inhung termsover of and pot while everyone elseissues looked freedom all thewater, time. or whether the dark-rimmed brackish culence.” finished the night those, country at last.We Not a left country, or with a right left or right misses clustered aroundthe thecentral coffee. Iprinciple went out, at in coat Parties on the right tend to want impose country, Marennes-Oléron trumps themto all. eachbut onea like slick wash of the sea, concenfree the country. stakeand in any modernand society: of individual pyjamas, wasthat given a craggy halftheir cultural values on others, suspiIgnoring Google, I took and one are of the gnarly, trated, then quickly gone. t@amitvarma rights, andof of view the shell, thefreedom. plat type Icommon to world Brittany. cious It green-spattered of those they view as ‘outsiders’. Olérons, detached They the little was my first time eating them really ‘au natu- hinge muscle with my fork, slid the succulent, naintara maya oberoi is a food writer based in rel’, without even a squeeze of lemon. Some- mineral-ly little thing into my mouth, and Paris t@naintaramaya
Oysters, dead or alive, are having a revival everywhere
If you believe coercion is wrong, it doesn’t matter where you look. You’ll see coercion everywhere
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naintara maya oberoi
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Amit Varma is a novelist. He blogs at indiauncut.com
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Flood of opportunism As Chennai grappled with the catastrophic rains, many tales of greed, callousness and apathy went unreported of profiteering. It wasn’t just the airlines that charged exorbitant sums for nearby destinations (such as Bengaluru) or hotels that hiked room rates as demands spiked. A bunch of racketeers resold milk at anything up to ₹150 a litre and drinking water at similarly inflated rates. On a small, dry patch at the busy intersection of Eldams Road and TTK Road, a man at the back of a tempo was besieged by people looking to buy milk. He had no compunctions charging ₹75 for a half-litre packet, and no one complained as they jockeyed to get closer to the truck. One of them said philosophically, “What choice do we have? It’s a seller’s market.” As shops downed shutters and essential goods became scarce, the Tamil Nadu government did a splendid job in keeping one service Good times The countryside — usually a village by a river or ringed by hills — scores well as the family picnic destination v raju open — the sale of alcohol, the State’s biggest revenue earner. Outlets of TASMAC, the government liquor retailer, were open in many parts of the city, including some on roads where every other establishment was shut. Outside a wine shop on the arterial Anna Salai, bystanders helped push-start a massive SUV stuck in the water. Three inebriated men in colourful lungis soon joined in. Job done, the drunk men forcefully demanded money from the SUV owner, chartered accountant K Vanchinathan, who later said, “I had to part The other side of the story In some places, volunteers were manhandled as they distributed food packets with ₹500. I am sure the money found its way and other essentials among the affected r ravindran to TASMAC.” Most taxis and auto rickshaws stayed off the roads and the few that plied fleeced hapless hennai is the only place where As Pillai and Lakshmi climbed into the boat, commuters. Suhashini Madan, a Besant Nagar he shimul (‘semal’ Hindi) trees are they there are moreinvolunteers than weresaw served alrummage fresco, dish afterthe dish. As an them around house. “I resident, turns, we shelled came out next to a times football fieldthan borout three more beginning buda widely and theshared koels couldn’t victims’ to read added incentive camethem,” the promise of a“They bon- what help noticing said Pillai. deredshe by ausually narrowpays road,towith high gates the get home fromon Anna (cuckoos) are was going berserk in tweet that attributed to the pretended fire, ready tostacked a patch cleared be parton of the rescueofteam but Salai. otherShe side.was lucky. Others paid even more. trees, a nip in flooded the air. PerIndian Army. Asand thethere’s city became by were ground and waiting darkness. The caretakactually trying for to filch my possessions.” was behind of thosesector high The resort opportunism of theone transport fect picnicrain weather. Every year Kolkata it- Taking torrential and water released fromgets overer told us that there was anpump old temple nearby, shelter at a petrol after the res- was gates. It had a blue withboat a green roof most visible in gazebo the private services self together, a Saturday Sunday and cue flowing lakes,finds scores of warm,orfuzzy stories so the more enthusiastic the that boat dropped them offskipped on a dry across spot, Pillai and Mickey Donald Duck cavorting ferried Mouse peopleand from severely waterlogged heads out—for that opening comfortably emerged people theirdistant, houses notand said fields, an the occasional look hedodging can survey damagecycle-van only aftertohe re- areas on one side. The main boasted whata like Velachery. Thebuilding going rate was ₹600 too-familiar spot,bands usually kitchens to picnic strangers, of somewhere volunteers turns at the home old terracotta half-ruins with an elderly person, when the water recedes. you would describe in fashion circles as athe via very tidy amount considering across the Parganas or the closer at priest rushing to24 affected areas, anddistricts tales of heroism attendance. darkness the ride Not in very far away, When Karuna Sekar, afell, slumbrantwas eggplant purple façade dry withspot, sculpted only till the nearest after handcommunal like Midnapore or Hooghly. Places that dweller and harmony. bonfire and roared high, a table was dragged out which watchman at a middle-class housnymphs inrescued floatingwere draperies. were muthe left toInside fend for themmost seldombrought get to see. Yes,tourists this disaster out the best in ing and complex, piled withchose pakoras, also rickshaws to selves or just rals threeasauto wild horses wait of for further help. streaming There’s But an art to planning the perfect pic- shelter Chennai. as the media chased feel-good teapots and whisky bottles rubhis wife, two children across walls over very Morethe volunteers thanthe victims? nic, as Iand discovered. It begins with a grouptoof and stories the city celebrated a newfound bing three shoulders. members of his sisplush than couches. was obviously More oneItvolunteer was a like-mindedin people sitting and wrangetherness the face of together a catastrophe that ter’s Doing a post-mortem family. Parked in a later, line one-of-a-kind resort and I wanvictim. Some examples were realgling over where to go. Should itclass be a baganbarecognised neither economic nor reli- along my friends and I came to the Venkatnarayana Road, aldered for ly closearound to home.it,A waiting BusinessLine When darkness fell, bunch of racketeers ri (garden house) in the Parganas, or should gious denomination, it 24 ignored a darker side. so conclusion that in T Nagar, theBarasat vehicles had be- A the breakfast towas be manhandled served, so thatbyI journalist bonfire roared resold milkwas at it be a resort? The first one I went to was held long Of exploitation. Profiteering. And callousness. been to predictable, a friend. the expected couldteenagers appreciateasthe thing some shewhole was taking high, a table anythingout up to ₹150 a supplies in Take a garden house in Barasat, with a mango Dhanraj Pillai. On December 2, the oras- country party. The Rollinghouse up the tarps to thing, catch dragged and piled even better — the cook and his to slum-dwellers on Kolitrepakoras, and drinking with as also chard and a cookofand his helpers thrown in. some sistant manager a nationalised bank was we agreed, wasair toinside find athe place light and auhelpers had arrived with their dambakkam High Road. The water at similarly teapots and That meant a formal of the mewatching the news atconsideration 7pm in the comfort of to, where no one before, Sekar said had he been first sought pots andofpans and spices in anbrother another BusinessLine inflatedbottles rates whisky nusliving that we wereEven offered, ticking of his room. as healistened to choices reports shelter or where people didn’t go, at most his place of work. other van had to set shop picked in the journalist hisupwallet and then sitting back anticipation. We took a “I of the lashing rain, hein saw rainwater creeping private kind of serendipity was told we were too many kitchen space. Across thepackets. football while distributing food thataround picnic easily, since itWithin was all an organised, no and in his chair. hour, his thatwas we could savour selfishly. promptly turned away,” field was a snake park, contraso the “Humanity is a crazy running around for competitive quotes. ground-floor apartment in T Nagar, smackThe in Sekar Thesaid. second stumbled “Wetime alsowe tried to take whole gently diction,” saidkinky the experience American drive was down roads was that flooded. had been made the middle of Chennai, Alone at shelter upon a technicolour near in the garagesresort of neighcould be rounded in comfort stand-up comedianoff Colin Quinn. straight, little industrial, giving wayintohis a few home at athe time, he sought refuge 70- bouring Badu, slightly beyondbut the met Kolkata apartments, withAirport refusallimev- This as you watched man enterout a cage ofover poiwas a truth athat played overfull and small villages, one-horse towns along the way erywhere,” year-old cousin’s first-floor apartment. its, that had he been added.recommended by a film again sonous snakes. was diluted with some during theThis catastrophe. Compassion coand then, many briefly,inthat wild blue feeling friend Unlike colonies suchyonder as Velachery, from Tollywood (the about name comes from existed Sekar’s wife was worried the unavailgentle games football and food, foodwent and with of callousness, generosity as we went through the wall which remained without help that and separated rescue ef- ability Tollygunge, the and Kolkata neighbourhood of milk drinking water. “We syngot hand-in-hand more food. with greed, and courage was the estate fromPillai the neighbourhood. forts for days, was lucky. A boat arrived some onymous film from studios). foodwith packets volunteers and near- undermined Crisp, piping kachoris as with potato curry byhot cowardice Chennai grapwas the extra ingredient thrown into byThe theMusic next morning to escort his cousin Lakshmi luxury bus belting outgoBollywood re- pled temples, but where do we to get someand omelette on the side for breakfast. Pulao with something it hadn’t experienced in the melting pot toBut complement the shade of thing and him to safety. wait. Alongside the volmixesto jolted us out the city and down a se- arich drink?” sheof asked. in long cashew nuts, daal and fine threads of long, time. the treeswere in thea orchard and the tranquil tank ries unteers couple of people with suspiof narrow don’tdistribution look remotely Side by sideroads with that the free of crisp-fried potatoes for lunch with fish or that reflected cious looks. the stirring of the leaves. Meals food picnicky. Afterflourished two or three abrupt jack-knife packets an organised system swathi chickenmoorthy and the smoky sweetness of notun gur.
For the love of picnics
A garden house, a tacky resort, a river cruise in the Sundarbans — the perfect day out has many avatars. But it almost always starts with a bit of wrangling over the destination and ends with food-induced sloth
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Nepal runs on an empty tank
month-old Facebook group ‘Carpool Kathmandu’ has over 1.1 lakh members. Users can post requests and offers for free rides. Traffic rules, including a ban on rooftop bus travel and two-wheelers with three riders, have been relaxed temporarily. The government is rationing sale of fuel including petrol, diesel and kerosene. Currently state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation allows only up to 20 litres of fuel for buses, 15 litres for minibuses, 10 litres for micro-buses and taxis, and five litres for motorcycles. Even this is available only on select days, and motorists wait in miles-long queues. Many prefer to buy from the black market at nearly thrice the normal price. In border towns unaffected by the blockade, visitors report increased road activity, with loP leasure island cals using motorcycles andSmall jeeps to ferry fishing boatspetdot the Matlaa river in of rol from the Indian side. “Despite number Sundarbans, army checkpoints, these vehicles passa World easily,” Heritage Site in West says Dambar Krishna Shrestha, a journalist Bengal parth sanyal; who recently visited Thori (below) village tea in Parsa and district, bordering Bikhana inpakoras, India. “As much as a picnic staple shutterstock two lakh litres of petrol are transferred between towns on a daily basis,” he says. The going rate for petrol ranges from 350 The kids, stuffed and entertained, ran by they whizzed by. Most of West Bengal, it nic, a peaceful sail from Outramrate) Ghattodown Nepali rupees (thrice the normal NPR clutching balls and skipping ropes while the seemed, was picnicking. the at a jute mill’s sahib 500Hooghly per litre to indock the illegal markets in thebunhilladults droned in a buzz of conversation. SunAfter the usual 10am picnic breakfast, fol- galow rest andan recreation on a manicured towns.for Similarly, LPG (cooking gas) cylinset brought tea and packing and, when the lowed very quickly by lunch, we started out or- green lawn, a wild trip to Sundarbans, der, also in but short supply, is the available in the wind began to blow cooler, a run for the bus. ganising cycle-vans before too much good something which I thought took two or three black market for NPR 6,500 to NPR 10,000 (alI discovered Deulti, famous for a house be- food slowed us into slumber. You can normal- days mostof 10cruising. times higher). longing to novelist Sarat Chandra Chattopad- ly pile six people on those precarious-looking “Impossible,” friends andhas family gasped, Meanwhile themy government started sellhyay, during another February. The author of planks, three balanced on either side to make “you just can’t through do it!” and a whilebut I had my ing firewood itsfor depots, that’s Devdas was a much-housed man, but the one sure the cycle-van bowls steadily down the doubts it for buta the hardly aabout solution city picnic of overorganisers eight milat Deulti was known for its Burmese architec- roads. I found my Levis sticking out halfway seemed sure The that requirement one day would work, so I left lion people. for citizenship ture. Confident in the knowledge that there across and kept jerking my legs back every it to them. card to buy fuelwood is again driving buyers was a resort nearby, my friends and I set out in time a car approached, but nothing alarmYes, it did start early, setting out eventualto the black market. a Tata Sumo, armed with tiffin carriers and or- ing really happened except for the ly at seven in the morning for a Cooking up a crisis ders for local confectionery to be picked up local children laughing their drive to Basanti, some 88km Dry state sold in limited select days,guts leadingout. to miles-long queues and a thriving black along thePetrol way. isDeulti, in the quantities Hooghlyon district, Chattopadhyay’s wheredecision the boattowas Nepal Electricity away, Authority’s ingopenannual rai market an holds Sarat Chandra festival with house was a low, red-brick moored. A hours drive is through crease daily power cuts to nine bound books on sale, staged scenes from his novels building with a river haze, to increase hardshipthe forearly thosemorning using induchis lucky, week, aone of Kathmandu’s busiPa- winding and, if you’re showing of Devdas or away the of medicines that are tion stoves. Some neighbourhoods with trees inhave soft focus tration: “We haveina list expethehealth evening. The road was packed facilities, Tribhuvan Uni- distance rineeta in est — when and it wasplan to airlift them rienced 72-hour power outages arching too. gracefully most needed, with cheering lorry-loads, women in bright sa- built, versity Teaching Hospital the river was just over roads. And immediately.” In April, Nepal was hit by the a 7.8-magnitude ris and children in frillyitfrocks waving us as beyond announced would closeatdown the wall, More than 90 perbut cent of Nepal’s medicines earthquake that killedthen over the 9,000boat and and deblood collection services, the latest in a series time and soft from soil had the slow are imported India. Although the Hima- stroyed six lakh homes, breakfast mostly inand far-flung vilof measures taken amid crippling shortages sent further away. unfolding of the wide layan itnation manufactures over 45 types of lages outside Kathmandu. Whatever little of fuel and medical supplies caused by a two- The rooms drugs, were full river important fuelofshortage has affected reconstruction work was on with in themangroves quake-ravmonth border blockade with India. books and the ontoeither side.halt There production atmemories factories, most of which are aged districts has come a grinding due Hospital administrator Chandra Mani of revolutionaries were heated based in the southern who plains. to the fuel crisis. “Supplies relateddiscussions to health, Tidestranded coming Bhandari worries that if the government came and went. Chattopadon The Hungry Since September, Nepal’s southern Terai re- nutrition and education have been fromofboth sides of the in doesn’t find a solution soon, the facility will be hyay wrote three novelsbythere gion has been gripped protests over the on the other side the border,” saysdeck Unicef betweenTomoo glimpses forced to close down all services. before he moved to Kolkata in country’s new constitution. The protesting Nepal representative Hozumi.ofTo the enHamiltonthey Sahib “We are currently running low on disinfec- his old agean— ethnic the names Madhesis, groupwere native to the re- sure essential church suppliesthat for children, are built in consignments Gosaba. The light tants for surgical instruments, and supplies written stone by the gate. gion, sayinthe charter is not inclurerouting and There were heated changed, kingfishers fluttered for sterilisation of operation theatres,” says sive The thick walls kept it enough. Theywhich have blocked mobilising in-country emergendiscussions on The into the air and I dreamt of Bhandari. There is a shortage of medicines, in- cool in summer gavewith the place several border posts India cy medical supplies, he said. Hungry Tide coming spotting tigers camouflaged cluding life-saving drugs, in pharmacies. an extra winter chill, backed by to press Kathmandu to address But despite the emergency-like Theboth goingsides rate of forthe from amongstresidents the orange greenIn another part of the city, the Paropkar Ma- the afternoon light. is Wea theirfalling demands. The result situation, ofand Kathmanpetrol from deck ranges in between heti leaves. Dreams fronded ternity Hospital is running on supplies that piled ourselvescrisis back on our pahumanitarian in this na- glimpses du are showing the same level of ₹218 to ₹312 perchurch litre of the punctuated by descents into iswere donated after the April earthquake. The tiently waiting tion of 29 millioncycle-vans people. and resilience they displayed after that Hamilton Sahib lands, climbs up watchtowers, staff at this non-profit health centre say sup- returned the waiting resort tosince be “I have tobeen the earthquake. built in Gosaba sandand food,allthe expected delights plies are stuck at the Birganj border, the main greeted by ginger tea and 5am to buy kerosene,” says KalAlmost eateries in the Valley agreed that all it needed of so many less-adventurous entry point for trade with India. “Although we esh. panaWe Lama, a daily-wage labourhave hiked prices. Smaller resanlost intense picnics adding their richness to haven’t cut services yet, we have fewer pa- was er who a day’sliterary earningadda, to stand in queue. taurants have switched to firewood, while othside rundowns of theoutside way storefronts ers have adopted the experience. darkness tients from outside Kathmandu,” says hospi- with Hundreds like her waited briquettes And andasinduction Bollywood Saratchandra, to make it fell, there were storiespurchased of tigers prowling on tal director Dr Jageshwar Gautam. this week totreated buy the rationed three litres of stoves. “We recently NPR 2 lakh we made brave resolves toon return topofdeck of boatssowhile the not sailors shivThe scenario is similar in medical centres complete; kerosene. “The rich can afford to cook elec- the worth firewood, we are worried and check out deck for praying thatof‘uncle’, since tiacross town. tric stoves, butthe forannual us it isfestival. either this or fire- ered aboutbelow shortages a couple months,” says I had asays theory that sinceChirandevi new highways were gers were notmanager to be named, wouldago home. wood,” 64-year-old Tamang. a restaurant in Lalitpur, small town Flying medicines springing over the place, we Nepal shouldand be south I came home the same night though, yes, it Before the up oil all deal signed between of Kathmandu. picnic somewhere away, over like was a long Longwithout picnics foresight were possible, While a few private drug companies have be- able Chinatolast month, India hadfurther a monopoly And thoseday. caught are re-I for example, thethe weekend edited versions of gun using air routes to fetch supplies, the gov- Santiniketan Nepal’s fuel market, whichdoing means block- thought sorting totriumphantly, innovative after-thought. There are a single no one paid attention weekend breaks which would be perfect fora ernment is yet to find an alternative source. in ade has hitday. fuelBut supply thereally hardest. restaurants that now offer ‘blockade’ menus, time that crunch. Nowincludes I have to sit Health Minister Ram Janam Chaudhary told to those theories; it would mean getting up people limited with set ofaitems usually food Thirsty vehicles early, which would spoil the idle pleasures back andbestart planning for time. those cool holithe local press the government was working too that can cooked in a short the true picnic represented, blah blah. I days, Mandarmoni during the monsoons, out ways to import medicines from a third that Shortage of fuel has crippled public transportsering dolker a Kathmandu-based persisted in a faint fashion but without any re- Bokkhali in late gurung autumn,isPanighata... country and supply would resume soon. tation services, leading to long waits and overhope until theCycling river picnic up from Says Narayan Prasad Dhakal, information al crowded rides. andpopped carpooling are journalist, and the Associate Editor of Nepali Times, a news weekly published by Himal Media basu is a Kolkata-based writer not just the ordinary The rivertwopic- anjana officer at the Department of Drugs Adminis- nowhere. suddenly And popular in Kathmandu.
As fuel and medical supplies are blocked at the Indian border, the Himalayan nation comes up with solutions ranging from carpools to ‘blockade’ menus at eateries
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Go kabbadi, girls A quiet revolution is rippling through the shanties of Govandi in Mumbai, as its teens are getting that rare thing: a chance to play
Marooned! There were 650 waterbodies in Chennai 10 years ago, just when the real estate boom was attaining mammoth proportions. Today, the city has fewer than 30 lakes, ponds and other waterbodies. It looked like the rising waters bore a message of revolt afp
Yellow lights of deluge A six-day-old premature baby in hand, they braved the rains and got home, only to watch water inundate it. A first-hand account of surviving over 40 hours in the Chennai floods
Gripping action A Sunday evening of kabbadi keeps girls from Govandi, one of Mumbai’s poorest wards, engrossed bhavya dore
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t was 5pm on a Sunday. A group of women, some clad in burqas, clapped and uddenly, thefrom bedroom looked On xan-a cheered softly the sidelines. thous. It was Tuesday, 1. A dusty patch of ground in December front of them, veil ofschool dirty building, yellow light fell on the at a worn-out a bunch of girls wall and on the bed where Amal was was robustly chasing each other. sleeping. He was born just six dayshissed ago, more “Kabbadi… kabbadi… kabbadi,” one than month earlier thanacross he was of theagirls as she forayed theexpected. line into Theopposing premature arrival had made him vulnerathe team’s territory. There were loud ble toand infections. The doctors had givenenerhim cries a semi-circle of players moved antibiotics before he hadher. tasted mother’s getically in well a formation near milk. We had home the hospiSeated on areturned plastic chair byfrom the side of the tal the previous TheBegum injection marksher on makeshift field, day. Sainad watched his arm looked as if tournahe had daughter play inlike thisgoosebumps, friendly kabbadi just woken from a nightmare. ment. She was here to support her daughter. Ourhusband nightmares were approve,” only starting. was “My doesn’t sheItsaid. morning. My parents and Sangeeth, “Many people don’t approve. They saymy theelder girls son,grown were up, playing in the hall sky are they shouldn’t bewhen sent tothe play.” painted a sullen portrait. Theyoung sun had gone beBut that has not stopped girls in the hind thefrom clouds and delivered an eerie locality turning out to play everyglow, week.a slicenearly of which on the cheeks of our For a yearsettled now, through the Parivartan newborn. He run looked yellow. Radhika, programme bypale the and non-profit Internamy wife, said he not been feeding and propertional Centre forhad Research on Women Aply since amorning. Worried,has we been examined his nalaya, quiet revolution rippling hands and belly. They were too, a yelthrough the shanties and pale, slums ofwith Govandi. low tint. Mumbai’s It could be baby jaundice. was not Among poorest wards,Hewith the exposedhuman to enough sun and theindices, doctors and had worst development said he would needand phototherapy lower the where prejudice economic to constraints high bilirubin levels. We checked his eyes limit opportunities for girls, teenagers are and getthey that wererare yellow too.a chance to play. ting thing: Darkweek,” and deep were enveloping “All saidclouds Mariyam Shaikh, 15, justVelabechery,the where we began, lived. And minutes it was fore session “Weinkeep waiting for pouring.evening, For a moment, opened eyes Sunday when Amal we can comehis out to and tried cry, in vain.slot Wein wanted to take him play.” It isto a cherished the weekly calento a and doctor immediately emerdar, at least 100 girls,and agedtried 12-17,the show up gencyweek number at Apollotimes. Cradle, Karappakam, every at different where he was born17,after an emergency C-secReshma Ansari, sitting beside Mariyam, tion.waiting The hospital likere-a was for theexecutive others tosounded arrive, and panicked and said it was pouring outflected oncuckoo the unequal opportunities for boys
and girls. “Girls should also get to play,” she don’t have a problem, then what right do othsaid. “Otherwise we feel frustrated, bored.” ers have to say this?” side and roads leading the located The programme wastoset uphospital, in January this that if he wassome not exposed decent soon, Although parentsto may havesun been renearly 12 km home,with werea waterlogged. It luctant year, and willfrom culminate tournament in his bilirubin levels could go up. We mustout keep at first to send their daughters of wasNew a riskYear. to take the baby out in our small car the the himhouse, under and vigil,tothe doctor play, of allsaid. things, in what is — or any are vehicle, for into that groups, matter. each We stayed Theingirls divided men- often Thedescribed ambulance rushed into those the lobby asdriver an unsafe locality, rescalm and dialledwoman away numbers. Muted re- ervations tored by a young from the communito give us have morelargely bad news. roads, he“Once said, beenThe overcome. sponses andwe annoying beeps followed. du- girls ty. “We felt had to do something inThe sports wereturn alarmingly waterlogged it was risky 11 or 12 years old, theyand don’t leave the ty doctor at Apollo Cradle’s emergency deska house for empowerment,” said Shweta Bankar, to venture out.said ButMeraj we had to go back as my much,” Qureshi, 21, a young advised usspecialist to get Amal’s blood samples tested woman technical for Parivartan. parents from and Sangeeth would get worried.asAf-a the community appointed to “The see ifgirls his jaundice needed urgent attention. mentor. can claim a space for themselves ter much“Parents cajolingareand pleading, the be driver scared they may haI contacted three popular nearby,to but in the community, they gainlabs an ability ne- rassed agreed.on The vehicle moved with a roar, parting the streets.” none of for them were ableand to send gotiate themselves theyanyone to col- the wavy waters embracing theout main road. Some girls drop of school lect build the blood of the newborn. can theirsamples confidence.” The water wasdue flowing furiouslyconstraints but it seemed to financial or In Muslim-dominated Govanto reach nowhere. vehicle’s soundotherThe reasons. Evenengine those who do Tumultuous ride di, about 77 per cent is slum poped like an aged the time we reacgoasthmatic to schoolbyeither don’t have After many attempts weofmanaged to call an hed ulation, the average age death playgrounds or playtime slots. Watching myour street. ambulance from a nearby hospital and it ar- play,Unrelenting is 39 years (compared to 52 years rains bathed I carried “If there is noAmal place,as where will daughter I am rived incity) an hour. We draped Amal in a creamyfor the and the infant morinto thethey house, walking through play?” asked FatmachestKhaalso able tohim enjoy greenish with a hood that tality ratetowel is 66.47 for every 1,000 deep mixedof with sludge toon, water the mother a player. She myself resembled a hornbill’s live births, compared to 34.75nest. for and sewage. As not we dried the smiled. “I may be able tobaby play, Heavy lashed to thedata emergenthe city,rains according from inside, I saw water furiously play, gush-I but watching my daughter cy vehicle we got of in; driving the Tata as Institute Social ing into our porch. Someone had am also able to enjoy myself.” She Rationality is not a through knee-deep water, the amSciences. told my father that agofew lakes continued, “If they forward great weapon in bulance the where hospital in life istimes Againstreached these odds, daily an on-of deluge. nearby their banks. freely, only then canhad theybreached move ahead.” about 30 minutes.kabbadi On the way we going struggle, continues to offer I didn’t believe him as there hada Aside from the kabbadi slot, the girls have Plain, vain hope is saw signs of trouble. Water was hope. been no warnings. No modules flood alerts, weekly slot where they are taught reencroaching upon “Who said it is a boy’spavements game?” asked one exu- lated to gender, megaphone announcements or life skills and health. The goal, and shops in low-lying Peoberant player after theareas. tournament. “Anyone said Bankar,radio hadpersonal come ourdevelopway. We is toalerts foster ple play.” were rushing home. The air can knew and ourbroader rented social double-storey ment, confidence skills. smelled of worry. For a couple of hours a week, scores of girls house stood on land that the oncegirls wasshowed a big lake. At the kabbadi ground no The doctor ordered more blood As we gather to engage in the rough andtests. tumble of signs According to the National Institute of Disaster of self-consciousness, throwing themwaited impatiently, thedressed city outside looked the game. Some arrive in salwar ka- selves Management, there were in enthusiastically into650 the waterbodies game and boislike a still from a disaster flick. Heavy meez, some with headscarves, which rains, they terously Chennai berating 10 years ago, when the real estate eachjust other. hurrying and women, scared birds and shed for a men few hours and throw themselves in- boom was we attaining proportions. “Earlier might mammoth have felt scared about animals, and confused traffic. The blood re- speaking,” to the playing field. Today, the city fewer than 30we lakes, saidhas Mariyam. “Now areponds more sults came an hour later and the said doctor said confident. “Sometimes people comment,” Chandand other And waterbodies. It looked like the riswe feel good physically.” Amal stood thesay, edge of can danger. Which ni Ansari, 17. on “They ‘How parents let ing waters bore a message of revolt. dore is water a Mumbai-based meant go back. alsoparents meant bhavya her outwe of could the house?’ ButWhich when my In minutes, enteredjournalist our compound.
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In an hour, it reached the door like an unexpected visitor. We knew it was impossible to get out with the newborn. All we could do was join the family on the first floor. We grabbed the essentials: food, medicines, water bottles, blankets, medical reports and moved upstairs. As we climbed the stairs we could see water seeping through the front door. It looked eerily lustrous in the flashlight of my cellphone. From the first floor, it looked like our houses had just floated onto a lake and soon they would drift back to wherever they had come from. I could not sleep. The air felt heavy and smelled of mud and crickets. The walls of the house looked drunk and swollen. I dozed off for a while, and dreamt of dry lands and blooming fields and the peach orchard in Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams. I was jolted out of my reverie when Radhika shook me to say Amal was breathing heavily. He was wheezing. His chest went up and down in wild spasms, in a motion too hard for his fragile limbs to take. I tried to call friends and the paediatrician, but the network was down. We tried to burp him; placed him on my shoulder and shook him; patted him in ways we thought would soothe his lungs. Nothing worked. His wheezing merged with the patter of rains and his frightened eyes begged for help. We held onto each t’s a jump that saved 10 lives in all. A pregnant sowin helpless suffering. In a minute, he apother in California was headed to the slaughterhouse, peared better. when drivers on Highway 50 reported seeing An heralarm I had set sometime ago on my break free from her flimsy metal cage and jump off buzzed at 4am, Wednesday. It was still phone the truck. Miraculously, she landed safely on dark grass,and I waited for a while before going and was soon captured by animal control officers. At to check on my house, expecting to get down the dog and cat shelter where she was taken to, the help from people outside. My father followed leaper gave birth to 14 piglets, and nine of them surme. The water outside had risen several notchvived. Now christened Rita, the happy mother is es overnight. I knew water had entered my spending her days on a sanctuary run by Animalhouse Place and most of my valuables would have at Grass Valley, California. been lost. Still I decided to go in. I was a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will, I told my father, with a failing grin. Of course, he didn’t get it; Gramsci was not ideal for times of deluge. At that time we didn’t know the rain was changing the lives of over three million people in India’s fifth-largest city. I tried to gather hope and confidence and moved into the
house by sliding along the wall towards the first-floor flat like the young Florentines who main door. As I reached it, a lightning bolt of gathered at the Basilica di Santa Maria Novelpain shot through my body. I shrieked in hor- la, telling each other stories in their vain atror and, within seconds, I realised that a patch tempt to escape the Black Death pandemic. of ferocious ants, which were safely en- Outside, my car almost sank, and on the street, sconced on the walls, had breached my skin. I leaked petrol from vehicles parked nearby parted my mundu and saw a bunch of leeches formed patches of forlorn rainbows. merrily sucking blood from my thigh. The There were a couple of private boats rescuants, in turn, had attacked the leeches. Many ing people. Whenever I saw them I shouted to train wasadreheld upthem for attoleast 10 back minutes Deptford staof them fell into the water thanks to my come andatrescue us or inform tion, Southeast London, after panic-stricken passengers nalin-induced histrionics. the police about us. They would nod and go thought aI man’s umbrella samurai sword. like To be Clearing the rest of the intruders, went inback was and really never areturn. Sangeeth, any inthe handle of the umbrella held by 22-year-old RayaBrown side the house, only to be fair, greeted by floating nocent five-year-old, believed superhero didhad resemble hilt of a samurai sword. Half a dozen policevessels and books. My shelf more the than would rescue us. All you have to do is ask men over stormed the trainBen10 and examined the umbrella “fiveMoving or six Cas400 kg of books I had collected the years, to get in touch with Howl’s However, they him go him mostly during my stint in times”, Delhi. I according had ferriedto Brown’s tle andtweets. you will get help, he let said. I told after they realised it was a mix-up. There’s lesson for you: when them via the Railways with much difficulty that we had askeda the government for help, public conveyance, carry anything that can be are when I moved to Chennaiusing in December 2013. buttry nonot onetohad turned up. “Superheroes mistaken for aCots, medieval weapon of mass The shelf was half-sunk in the water. not like India (thedestruction. government, he meant), chairs, tables, were all under water. The kitch- achcha,” he said. “They are on time and they never give up.” en was devastated, groceries and vegetables were strewn all over. Superhero to the rescue The bed where Amal was sleeping yesterday was now wet and swol- One of the men I had That night we reversed roles. He told me stories of superheroes len, like a big, rotten sardine. met in the morning who rescue stranded people. I My father and I grabbed whathad come back with really longed for one and cursed ever we could and threw it all onto a small wooden the day I decided to be an athethe berth next to the ceiling where boat. Rescue! ist. Rationality is not a great the inverter sat. As we did that, weapon in times of deluge. more water gushed into the Plain, vain hope is. It had been house. Soon, water would be more than 40 hours since we got chest-deep. It was then that I noticed the scorpions and snakes. And they were stuck inside this room and we were yet to hear in plenty. The snakes were not long or big, but from rescue personnel. Early Thursday morning I walked out and, small and agile. The scorpions moved with the flow in wondrous oblivion while the snakes dangerously wading through water, got on to danced against the wave. I splashed water on the compound wall. Fortunately, I knew all the some of them to make way for us and swiftly poles and holes on the road. I stood on a wall and spoke to whoever went our way, pleading, moved up the stairs. We saw people swimming their way out. I begging, offering money. There were two shouted to them to send help. None returned. brave souls who were going out to get food for We were running short of water. Our hosts, a their families. They assured me they would get young couple, had no groceries. All they had a rescue boat. I stood on the wall, shivering, was a few packets of noodles. We were not sure looking at the apartments, which resembled if we would survive as the water was rising wet matchboxes placed in designed disorder. Hours went by. Then I heard a hoot. One of again. As hours went by, as our phones conked off and my tweets and short messages paused the men I had met in the morning had come in thin air, as repeated attempts at getting back with a small wooden boat. Rescue! Never help vanished, we sat inside the hall of the in my life had a piece of wood looked so beautiful and promising. It was painted in blue and red and had broken edges. The next few minhis Delhi High Court twobroke judgesopen the utesjudgment went by inbrought a hurry.the They who delivered it gate someand blushes. A patent took the boat battle closerbetween to the first-floor burglar in Palm Bay, Florida, gave the cops pharma companies Fstaircase. Hoffman-La Roche and Cipla ended We grabbed medicines and clothes. I the slip — only to land between the crushing up garnering a lot of stepped attentionon from Apparentto IPR the experts. boat and took the baby, jaws of a giant crocodile. Matthew Riggins, 22, ly, the judges had infringed a few rightsand when theysheets. I wrappedupon in warm clothes plastic chose a lake as refuge from cops and the dog drafted the judgment. Lawyer FB saw someEashan snakes Ghosh nearby.posted So didon a rower, but squad on his tail. No one knows exactly when that paragraphs fourwe to both 37 of knew the judgement were a verbathat if we sounded an alert othhe became food for the fierce reptile. The tim reproduction of aers piece he co-wrote anboat internationwould panic andfor the would capsize. burglar was reported missing by his family al journal. To their credit, theboat judges promptly accepted On the Sangeeth sat scared, but I knew when he didn’t return home for days. More their mistake, apologised andsecretly even expunged thethe said parahe was enjoying adventure. He than a week later, the police found his body graphs. However, they did not to forget to blame the intern managed get his face closer to mine and floating in the lake and the killer gator for the oversight. asked, “Dad, can I sing ‘Row Row Row Your guarding its lunch. Boat’”? I asked him not to. I knew he was singing it aloud in his head. ‘Merrily merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream...’ The boat stopped near the main road, amidst the debris of a wreckage. There were many people but no government officials or volunteers. As we got out of the boat a bevy of men came with their cellphones to click our photos. Some wanted selfies. We were still in the floods and could not believe that hell was s if keeping track of the ballooning list of socially acgone for now. The sky was still overcast and ceptable SMS acronyms wasn’t hard enough, a new most roads were still blocked. On the horizon, study now shows that ending texts with a period is perI could still see the yellow lights of deluge. I ceived as impolite. Celia Klin and her team of researchers at didn’t want to see them again. As we apthe Binghamton University (New York) recruited a group of proached the bus stand, one fellow played an 126 undergraduates for this study. The students were made FM channel on his phone. It sang, “Yei vai raja vai indha vaazhkai oru poi” (Life is but a lie). to read a total of 16 messages. A period at the end of the We couldn’t agree more. message was thought to be insincere while an exclamation mark was seen as sign of genuine behaviour. jinoy jose p Sailors all Water kept inching up through the day, but rescue came in the form of a small wooden boat. Residents of Velachery being rescued kv sinivasan
’Brolly terrorism
Londoners mistake umbrella for samurai sword
A
Q
Sow time!
Pregnant pig escapes slaughter truck, gives birth
R
I
Lake unplacid
Giant croc feasts on burglaron-the-run
Blame the intern
Delhi HC owns up to plagiarism gaffe
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A
Punctuation Nazis
Ending texts with period? Bad idea
A
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hang
saturday, december 12, 2015
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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya
T
he past few weeks have been marred by violence and catastrophe, first the Paris attacks and now the Chennai floods. When it is glum and grey all over, nothing works better than hope. This quiz is all about hope.
here,there & elsewhere
Twilight zone
The better morrow
1
Why does the first woman on earth, created from water and earth by the Greek god Hephaestus and who owns a beautiful jar, deserve to be the first question?
2
“How wrong Emily Dickinson was! Hope is not ‘the thing with feathers.’ The thing with feathers has turned out to be my nephew. I must take him to a specialist in Zurich.” The quote also inspired the title of a book of writings by which film legend?
3
In 1984, his father named him Michael Mohammed, hoping he would be as famous and light-footed as the two gentlemen in question. Two decades on, the lad figured out that MJ and Ali were not the stellar names they used to be and changed his name to Mahaakshay. Identify his more illustrious father.
4
In July 1923, his Laugh-O-Gram studio based in Kansas had to file for bankruptcy. He had just enough money for a one-way ticket to LA. In October the same year, he founded a company that reported $42 billion in revenue in 2013. Identify this gentleman.
5 6
One of the thoughts on the origin of this phrase is with the familiar operatic role of Brunhilde in Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle. In 982 AD, Erik the Red convinced more than 1,000 Icelanders to join him in an expedition to settle in a new land, primarily on the basis of the name he had given the place. It might have been an exaggeration given that the average temperature there ranged between minus 8 and 7 °C, and 80 per cent of the land was covered in ice. Identify this place, which still bears the name given in the 10th century?
7
King John II of Portugal named this place the ‘Cape of Good Hope.’ Given the treacherous sea in this area, what far more appropriate name was given by Bartolomeu Dias, the first European to reach there in 1488?
8
ins and I go to Middletown, to visit the giant retail store from which B home owners can find every kind of tool, building material or piece of equipment for fixing and decorating their homes. Entering the store with the cheery bright orange logo always makes me feel like a tiny mouse creeping into an airplane hangar to search for a crumb of cheese. But it’s a great place: a Museum of Raw Desire, where the dreams of a gazillion consumers are distilled down into all manner of enticingly colour-coded, packaged and branded products. I am looking for some plain white glazed tiles to use for an art project and I already know, from the internet, that this store stocks exactly what I wanted. It is late in the evening. When I can’t find the size of tile I want, the friendly but tired sales attendant suggests ordering them. “Fine,” I say, “I’ll pick them up from the store.” On the invoice however, he enters: HOME DELIVERY. Bins and I are also sleep-walking because neither of us notices this fact. Bins is ogling a set of shiny new pliers, I am dazzled by the sheer variety of merchandise on offer. Bins uses his card to pay and never once glances at the $3 extra that’s been added for shipping.
A week passes and now it’s the 3rd. I have stuck a bright orange Post-It on the invoice to remind me to go collect the tiles. I ask Muriel for a ride, because I realise that 10 glazed tiles might be a little too heavy for my shoulder-bag. But at the store the front desk attendant takes one look at my invoice and says “Oh — but it went out for delivery. By UPS.” Confusion! So we all look at the invoice again. Aha! There’s only a partial address: no apartment number. So the man calls UPS to add the number. The lady at the other end says “Okay, but it’ll be
delivered tomorrow, not today.” Fine. I stay in all day Friday, no delivery. The next day, still no delivery. Ditto Sunday. Then on Monday, I see a postcard in my mailbox dated December 1. “Delivery failed” it says, due to “incomplete address”. Uh-oh! Now the final date for collection is tomorrow, the eighth, from the UPS facility in Warwick. Bins jumps into the pick-up truck belonging to Jiggs our neighbour and we race off to Warwick, half an hour away. At UPS there’s a serpentine queue with a pretty-but-grumpy woman at the counter. I show her my postcard. She looks up the order history. “Address adjustment on the third,” she says. “And the package was delivered. On the fourth.” Oh no! Now we’re in the Twilight Zone. We race home. “I’ll try upstairs,” says Bins, and runs up. Sure enough, there’s the package! And it’s got our apartment number on it! But also, for no earthly reason, the name of the upstairs tenant. Fortunately, she’s been out all weekend and hadn’t seen the package yet. So we tip-toe downstairs and verify the contents. Twilight Zone. No explanations. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column
cornerstone
Three Africa-born cricketers were referred to as the ‘Great White Hope’ of English cricket. The first two were Robin Smith and Alan Lamb, both of whom made significant contributions. Name the third, whose staggering 136 centuries in first-class cricket never translated into big numbers in Test cricket for England.
9
In the 1991 general elections, Kaka Joginder Singh Dharti Pakad had among the highest security detachments, comparable to Rajiv Gandhi and prime minister Chandrashekhar. What was the reason for his high-security status?
10
In a triumph of hope over experience, who had the words ‘Winona Forever’ tattooed on his arm, and later had to change it to ‘Wino Forever’ after their split in 1993?
Answers 1. She was Pandora, and when she opened the jar (mistranslated as a box later) all the evils of the world flew out, leaving only Hope 2. Woody Allen 3. Mithun Chakraborty 4. Walt Disney 5. It’s Not Over Till the Fat Lady Sings 6. Greenland 7. Cape of Storms 8. Graeme Hick from Zimbabwe 9. He was contesting from 57 Lok Sabha seats; his death would mean a fresh vote in all constituencies 10. Johnny Depp ND-X _ A
joy bhattacharjya is a quizmaster and Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup t@joybhattacharj
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