Blink issue 99 december19 2015

DARTH DAYS AHEAD The Capital’s toxic air could do with some stylish combat. A graphic look at the variety of masks the choking Dilliwalla could choose from p3 saturday, december 19, 2015

dipankar

Christmas in Kolkata has repackaged itself for a different city, shed its exclusivity, and drawn in a new crowd. It is now an eat-drink-make-merry day unlike any other Bengali festival p9

No ghost of Christmas past

RANIS TO RICHES A coffee-table book brings to light the private lives of India’s erstwhile queens p12

KAAPI FROM KODAGU Braving a ride in a jungle bus because the perfect brew awaits at the end of it p19

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CREATURE FEATURE

Lizard, lizard on the wall

Size matters The behaviour of lizards varies according to the size of the island (Cyclades archipelago in the picture) they live on; (below) Podarcis, commonly known as the wall lizard colin donihue

By building walls, humans have unwittingly precipitated changes in something as fundamental as how these reptiles find their food

You’ve arrived The 1874-built Northbrook Gate, or Gateway to Assam, as it was a few years ago, prior to restoration efforts courtesy intach

At Assam’s entrance

ambika kamath

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icture a scene of the Mediterranean wall-less, Donihue found that the Podarcis liz- mans’ ecological roles, not only in bringing countryside, with winding roads, ol- ards “were sprinting between bushes all day about these changes but also in discovering ive trees, perhaps a grazing cow or long, looking for their prey,” instead of wait- them, raises an interesting question: How do two — does your imagined scene in- ing for the prey to come to them. By building we ecologists think about our own role in the clude any lizards? Mine probably wouldn’t walls, humans have unwittingly precipitated parts of the natural world we are studying? have, but after talking to Colin Donihue, a PhD changes in something as fundamental as how Most of us consider ourselves distant obcandidate at the Yale School of Forestry and these lizards find their food. servers of, not active participants in, the ecoEnvironmental Studies, I now know better. In But another sort of interaction between hu- systems we work in. “I like to think of myself as n 1903, of India Lord mans particular, I’vewhen learntthe thatViceroy if my scene contains to see things as they thethreeway and Cultural Heritage) to begin pre- trying and lizards led Donihue to work studyon Podarwater around it. We will alsounfold, removeinthe got offfrom a ship and had hisrocks first cis a wallCurzon constructed loosely piled they should be unfolding I weren’t serving the gate.

While agreed in the first place.

OnATDC his first trip to to prothe that foot-deep cemented modern iffoundation. glimpsethen of northeast was standand stones, there’s aIndia, goodhe chance that Greek Donihue But hiscompany observations vide the funding, INTACH took charge of there,” islands, he noticed an interesting differSome 50 years explains. ago, a private was ingisathome the Northbrook Gate — an edifice ence the wall to a large number of lizards Podarcis have begun to shift views supervising theislands repairs.of different sizes. “On of between hired by the Assam Governor’s officehis to restore built alongside the Brahmaputra to small belonging to the genus Podarcis. Theriver lizards’ towards paying greater to The islands, state government became lizards are reportedly not very scared of slightly, the structure.

It used cement on attention some of the mark thename first visit to the region byunimagia British you,” common is a hint — somewhat interactions withthat ecosystems. involved after the ASIand refused list the site for human he explained, this to makes catching walls… We are removing too,” says This Borviceroy, Podarcis Lord Northbrook, 29 years earlier. natively, are also known as ‘wall liz- them really signal a change asthis much astoo, an preservation inway 2008. easy. “The we would catch them is to doesn’t thakur. He admits using cement time Both viceroys took the waterway from Calcut- dangle ards’.

Consequently, while studying Podarcis Donihue’s view of nature: “I’m The work ismealworm nearing completion, says Manik a little on a string.

They will expansion “but only toofbrace the walls.

It will be removed ta, the headquarters of the British- literally lizards on small islands in erstwhile Greece, Donihue driven bydone. the desire toto understand the Sarma, ATDC managing director.

Ofand thegrab allo- really come jumping out of bushes once the job is We had do something India colonial has spent a lot government. of time looking at walls. things.” tilted about 45 cated ₹28 lakh, and INTACH has just received the mealworm, you can plop ₹20 themlakh in- connections immediately,between as the structure Years later, afterhuman the British left Inde- already. INTACH’s Walls are ashortly decidedly It’s creatures like wall lizards whichtocan chief supervisor for the proto buckets.”

In contrast, on centimetres on its west, posing a danger the pendent India, Chief Minister, ject is Rathin larger creation — the Assam’s islands first themus that to really understand the natBorthakur, an architectural engi- convince islands, “they’re much many modern structures nearby.”

Gopinath goton into a ferry from that neer with experience selves, andBordoloi, the lizards them, we need to includeispeople these in hesitant. restoringYou several more skittish, have ural Anworld, ASI-permitted chemical beingin used to gatemuch — onolder the Sukreshwar Ghat are than the walls.

So— to immerse connections too.

Ahom structures and the Kamakhya temple. to stalk them a little bit.” bind the walls.

“It is an adhesive and also waThey will literally Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes in theinBrahmaputra. at some point in their history, Heout points thelistening Indo-Islamic structureI While to Donihue, terproof, ideal for the structure. We are also come jumping of out that kamath studies organismic and evolutionary It wasera natural for Bordoloi to pick location “the of Greek mythology, of thisbushes was made at a time when were ambika was struck by how hebricks described doing grouting, which is injection of liquid and grab the of bricks biology at Harvard University — long before roadOdysseus and airports, Homer,” railways Donihue or even not manufactured in Assam. himself catching lizards in concrete to fill the gaps and mealworm, and you ways madePodarcis their appearance in thiscan region, suggested, lizards en“The bricks were much the procured same way that we ecol- ambikamath@gmail.com thereby connect the pre-cast conjust plop them this was thewalls gateway Assam. countered fortothe first through various The a predator ogistssources. might describe crete,” he adds. into buckets ButBut overnow, the decades, thiswalls historic structure walls were made time. “these rock of lime-surki catching prey. Unsurprisingly, ATDC says it will beautify the That beautification fell into ruin as Guwahati was caught in a fren- mortar. Surkithe have been there for hundreds of is a difference granular brick between effort islandsharmed the monument this time too, “but zy of and haphazard urbanisation. years have been built the Few citizens powder. Theinstructure has response 10 structure the lizards’ to hu- more than it scientifically”. Sarma doesn’t even bothered actively engage with the gothic spires, same way for tothousands of eight mans couldtemplebe traced to helped... whether The water elaborate on the details, only saymightySoriver surging their As highyears.” just like they past would havecity. adjusted to or shaped pillars, eight not these lizards hadornamento deal with predators ing, “We have already submitted from the river has risesplants sprouted all around it, theenvironment, gate was re- like new or animals in their tal pediments a semi-arched snakes andand birds and cats — predators areharmed the a ₹15-lakh proposal to the state already duced tolizards a ghostly Few re- prevalent Podarcis haveshadow adjustedoftoitself. the presence circular middle.” construcon largerThe islands, and absent from government.

The approval façade membered that it once heralded a viceroy’s smaller of walls. tion style was said to be borislands.

By unintentionally mimickshould take not more than three arrival to announce the unification of the five ing To someone who spends a lot of time lookrowed from King’s College an important member of its ecological to four months.” districts of Larger under the adminising for lizards, this Assam association between these community, Chapel in Cambridge, consida human could discover someATDC’s aim is clearly to steer tration of a Chief with Guwareptiles and walls Commissioner, is not surprising.

Think of thing ered one of the best instances of biology. important about a lizard’s the state’s rising number of tourhati as geckos, capital. for example — where do you house perpendicular gothic English architecture.

Donihue is studying the ecological and ists towards the monument and add it to the Strong a turbulent usually seewinds themfrom sitting?

DonihueBrahmapuhad inter- evolutionary It turns outconsequences that the ATDC of had, some years list of must-see places in and around Guwahathese tra had sunk building by a few feet and tilt- dramatic nalised this the expectation too: “I was always ago, madeshifts a clumsy at lizrestoring the ti. The restoration of the gate, however, holds in theattempt Podarcis ed it a few metreson towards thewalls river,and setting it ard’s finding [Podarcis] the rock didn’t gate. An ugly pond withabout a largeby concrete tor- much more promise. It can serve as an opporlifestyle, brought on a slow to death. allobserhope the really thinkmarch very much of it.”Just Butwhen careful toise, built close to the structure, absence of predators and the is proof of tunity for residents to become more conseemed lost, came serious conclusion: efforts to save vation led him to ansome unexpected “I presence this. As isofthe coatAdapting of white-and-brick paint, scious about preserving their city’s built walls. this important marker colonial history. realised that lizards on of the walls were behav- to and a cemented these shifts canfoundation lead to ring around the heritage, as also engage more with the mighty yeardifferently ago, Assam Tourism Development ingAvery from lizards off the walls.” changes gate — again a clumsy attempt to stop it from Brahmaputra. This river, after all, is the first to in what these Corporation (ATDC), lizards which owns the on lizards On walls, Podarcis tend to sitland in one tilting further. look like, how announce to any visitor that he/she has arwhichbasking the gateinstands, joined hands with the fast“That place, the sun and surveying their they beautification run, and how effort harmed the rived in Guwahati.

Assam Archaeology Department, thetoArchaeosurroundings, waiting for an insect pass by hard structure it helped. We will remove theymore bite,than among logical quickly Survey ofdarting India (ASI) and the before to catch andstate eat chapit. In other the pond.

The water from the river has already sangeeta barooah pisharoty is a Delhi-based things.

The intertter of INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art wining contrast, in parts of the islands that remained harmedofthelizards’ façade;and we don’t hu- need any more freelance writer

After nearly crumbling into oblivion, the 19th-century Northbrook Gate — an important marker of colonial history in the North-East — is receiving a timely facelift

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The Mug Mask Fall-Winter collection Delhi’s toxic air could do with some stylish combat. The time is ripe for a face mask for every occasion

priya kurian is a Delhi-based artist

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Travel log Getting there

Fly to Cairns from Delhi or Mumbai via Singapore with Singapore Airlines.

Stay

In Cairns, check in to the ShangriLa (www.shangri-la.com/cairns/ shangrila/), situated right on the water’s edge. Silky Oaks Lodge (www.silkyoakslodge.com.au) is a beautiful eco property in the heart of the Daintree region.

Do

shutterstock

Rage against Hire a car for three days and the drive machine Members of from Cairns to Cape Tribulation a women’s through acres of organisation sugarcane at a 2012 plantations, gentlerally hills, miles of in Kolkata demanding coastline and dense forests.anStop along the way forunconditional an early apology from West Bengal CM morning balloon-ride with Hot Air Mamata Banerjee for Cairns, a bungee her jump or Minjin remarks on Swing at AJ Hackett, andJordan jungle pti/ Suzette monojit kumar saha surfing at Cape Tribulation.

Suzette Jordan’s victory Airborne in Queensland Tip

Watch out for the large Cassowary bird, commonly found in these parts.

Now that three of her rapists have been sentenced, it’s worth remembering Suzette Jordan’s fight for justice, not just for herself, but for every woman failed by an apathetic system

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nly a few days after Salman Khan

employers would have nothing to do with her,

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ordan did not live to see three of the rapists,

Adventure sportsofiskilling the other for this sunny, vibrant Australian was acquitted a home- name Rumanstate Khan, Naser Khan and Sumit Bajaj and whispers followed her wherever she went.

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less man in a long-drawn hit-andrun case, the headlines have alawoken 3.30 the am narrative and driven, amidst ready’dmoved on.atNow is back to torrential downpour, two reporting: hours from the usual business of Bollywood roCairns up to the Atheron Tablelands in mantic entanglements and upcoming birthQueensland, OnAustralia.

As that lightning day celebrations. the same day Khan slashed the inky skies, I deliberated the idea of was cleared of the charges against him, three aofhot ride on aSuzette day theJordan locals were theair fiveballoon men who raped touting as of thetheir rainiest in June 73Suzette years. Jorconvicted crime.

Lookinup The balloon operators at Hot Air linking Cairns dan and you’ll still find news articles were a short dry spell Jordanunperturbed. to a label sheDuring abhorred and fought unaround 6am, a motley group of enthusiasts til the end: 'Park Street rape victim’. watched bright yellow kangaroo-embossed Thereina lies a crisis in how we remember. A balloon being inflatedJordan’s with 45,000 cubic feet closer look at Suzette story will reveal of propane.

Twenty people the how she exposed this crisis,from and around how much world and too many were packed she was punished forselfie it. Onsticks the evening of Febin four5,compartments of the velvet-lined basruary 2012, Jordan, like many other Kolkaket, Shaunon stood the gas tans,while wentour to apilot nightclub Park with Street.

Later, cylinders in aoffered tiny central a man who her a chamber. lift back home and As of wehisgently drifted up, and the gang-raped rising sun four friends assaulted bathed the threw Lego-like below a Jordan, and her landscape onto a street earlyinthe golden light. The heat from fire propelling next morning.

Bruised and the in pain, she found the andThree the rays the sun her balloon way home. daysoflater, she warmed went to our faces and rain-soaked hair. Kangaroos the police. bounded sparse brown below and Insteadinoftheregistering herbush complaint relittle creeks through theasked flatspectfully, themeandered police officer-in-charge topped hills.

The tablelands wereraped traditionally how many positions she’d been in, and coffeeand tobacco-growing andhave vast whether there was a chanceregions, he could farmlands withInstead the odd drinks withpunctuated her that night. of house being looked surreal from the air. scheduled immediately, her medical examinWe was floated at a until height of 1,000 feet, the at the ation delayed eight days after atmercy of the gentle winds.her, But aChief few hundred tack. Instead of believing Minister feet to the west, ominous apMamata Banerjee brandeddark her rainclouds a liar who was proached. had Banerjee’s to outrun government. the fast-aptrying to We defame proaching soufflé.

Sports minister Madan Mitra wanted to know “It’sa going be a bumpy why single to mother wouldlanding. want toThe be basat a ket is goingTrinamool to tip over,”Congress said Shaun. nightclub. leader Kakoli As weDastidar fast lostsaid altitude, hustled us Ghosh whathe happened to into her ‘brace position’ knees bent,between back firmly wasn’t rape, but a—‘transaction’ a sex against walls.that Before wewrong’. knew it,Anwe worker the andbasket her client ‘went were bumping along an open field. Thumpgry mobs gathered at her door, landlords and

being convicted; she died of multi-organ failhere is no doubt that Jordan suffered im- ure after contracting meningo-encephalitis in mensely because these March 2015. no conclusive link can thump-thump… and of then thecircumstances. basket tipped resulting in aAlthough rush of blood to the head and a But no matter how much she suffered, re- never-before-seen be established between the hounding and haover.

Amidst laughter and joyful shrieksshe we lay perspective of the forest.

A fused toat letthe thesky, narrative ofto suffering take over rassment illness, we cannot staring waiting be pulled out of third zip Ishe did faced in theand yogaher camel pose. her life.

In doing flew sticks in the strewn face of rule it out either.

Anybody who has suffered the basket, hats so, andsheselfie There was something primeval about this what ourItsociety expectedlanding a woman had forest, acute stress will be species intimately familiar with around. was a standard onwho a windy with its 1,800 of plant life, some gonebut through violence and do.ad- dating the effect it has the body. Even if Jordan’s illday, for us sexual first-time flyers,to it be was truly back toon the dinosaur-era, its wet air, After meeting the mother balloon of a college stu- million ness hadinsect nothing to do how she Just was venturous.

The undignified landing sounds, andwith fresh smells. dentthe who was and murdered in the vil- being treated,there she was let downflying at every level: was final inraped a series of airborne adventures was still enlivening; through lage of Kamduni, not far from Kolkata, Jordan the from the was highest political office in the state, to in tropical Queensland. trees an added bonus. decided to waive the right to anonymity. She the management at a restaurant called Ginger Monkey refused business to be ashamed of her attackers’ Free-falling who wouldn’t let her enter because they reccrimes.

In an interview theDaintree BBC, she rainsaid, On ognised whoback she was.

A few days earlier, in thewith ancient the drive to Cairns from Cape Tribula“I am dating Suzetteback Jordan, I don’t want years, to be tion, It isI stopped important toatremember forest to a and hundred million over AJ HackettJordan Bungy in the longer the victim of Calcutta's right way.ofThis means Mountain remembering that two Iknown swungany through theascanopy on seven ziplines. foothills the Saddle for more verParkDaintree Street rape.”

She told oftigo-testing the rapists,activities.

Qadir Khan and The is among theactor olKnown Aamircontinuously Khan on his talk-show SaMd Ali, are absconding.

That dest living rainacross thestill world for their buntyamev in Jayate, “I am not victim the policeAJofficer whoinseems forests the world, rarea in the geeonly jumps, Hackett, Ausor a survivor. a person, I had totralia, have offers shownthe anyunique sensitivity tofact that it isI am a Unesco World Minjin It is important to On the Minjin Swing, wards a life, andSite I want back.”of her, and who cracked the Heritage on my thelife fringes Swing experience.

Strapped inthatown youremember control your Jordan’s wasn’tReef. just Mamata Damayanti — was another, theresponse Great Barrier to a— harness and Sen suspended Banerjee has I case One firm tug, and about her own life; it was collec- fall. transferred toina alower post beJungle surfing at Cape Tribulahorizontally mid-air plank, still not apologised to was hurtling towards cause tive. In stark contrast the she went against the offition involved runningtoin a ridihuI rose up along a cable that Jordan’s family cule and blame directed at her, government line. man-sized hamster wheel to the ground at 120 km/hr cial stretched from ground level up she was vociferously progresimportant to remember propel lift-off, and then zipping toIt aisheight of 45 metres.

I dansive. This typified in between her reacthat Banerjee has still more thanis350 metres gledMamata far above the treetops at tionwooden to tree-platforms.

Ghosh Dastidar’s not to Jordan’s famsix theapologised highest point, the release statement, which shethe defends the rights of cable ily. That in almost all Minjin her interviews, Jordan Standingin high above forest floor, amidst in hand.

On the Swing, you consex workers the same breath shered stands urged us own to see her as firm a human being, not as the gnarled,infern-covered gum as and oak trol your fall.

One tug, and I was hurup forIherself: they call a prosti‘Park towards Street’. Itthe is ground our collective responsibility trees, looked “How belowdare to a carpet ofme green with tling at a breakneck speed tute? Evenfan if I palms were one, I get raped?

A of to 120 remember howsheer everymomentum, single mechanism unfurling andshould moss-covered rocks. km/hr. With I swung prostitute earns for stretched her family.

She is into not like thatawas meant to support Jordan,a failed her.

Above me, branches endlessly human pendulum, forming parabolic standing you to rape her,” shesunrays said in arc Sheeach changed India inQueensland a fundamental the skies,there only for occasionally allowing time. Tropical spreadway, out anfilter interview. forcedbeneath us to look culpability stretches to through. From the highest platform at miles me,atahow tangle of neon-green forJordan became women’s activist, wellrushing beyondout the of sexual 19.5 metres, I spiedathe blue of rights the Great Bar- est to perpetrators meet the distant blue of viothe working a helpline against domestic and Great lence.Barrier For this, andFrom for many other things, rier Reef with in the distance.

No two zips were Reef. this height I could Jorsee sexualThe violence called Survivors for Victims of and dan appreciate will never be forgotten. alike. instructors once stopped me midit all.

Social this work zip, so Injustice.

I dangledShe for asustained few moments abovedea is a Delhi-based shreya ilabhattacharya anasuya is a Delhi-based writerfreelance spite frequent court during boulder-studded stream,appearances, its rushing loud in malavika writer and activist which she was routinely my ears.

On another zip, humiliated.

I went upside down, travel

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Tarsem Lal Saini, president of the Rice Mill Association of Punjab.

“Over 300 rice mills have shut down due to losses, even as paddy worth over ₹10,000 crore has been sold to distilleries after rotting.

The only reason we continue to work under the 20-year-old rates is because we earn from the by-products,” he adds.

The day the CAG report was presented in Parliament, the Central government put out a statement that milling charges were decided after taking into account the prices of by-products of paddy. It however conceded that rates had not been revised since 2005 and a study by the Tariff Commission in 2012 had not made any recommendations owing to a lack of data.

As the government continues to turn a blind eye, the rot is eating into the country’s food security. Over the last 5 years, the subsidy bill of the Central Government has almost doubled, while the amount of rice procured Cereal offenders? Mill owners counter that they are operating at 20-year-old rates kk mustafah has reduced.

In Punjab, irregular expenditure on transportation cost the exchequer ₹164 crore; ricemill owners pocketed more than ₹475 crore by supplying inferior quality rice, and another windfall gain of ₹160 crore from waiver of penal interest on delayed deliveries, according to the CAG report..

Dubious claims of transportation charges led to a loss of ₹210 crore. More than 97 per cent of the registration numbers of vehicles that were allegedly used to transport paddy did not match the computerised data of the State Transport Authority. Those that did were found to be motorcycles, cars, taxis or buses.

Some of the highest figures came from Andhra Pradesh — the release of VAT (value added tax) gave millers here an additional benefit of ₹1,024 crore, even as rice worth ₹1,195 crore was retained by them for undue profit.

In Chhattisgarh, improper storage of paddy uch like rice spilling out of a tear ceed ₹40,000 crore. An all-India estimate is ex- led to loss of ₹180 crore. The State government in the sack, the country’s food pected to show double the losses under all admitted to the charge that for the last four procurement system has been heads. To calculate the actual (and expectedly years it had purchased rice without any qualileaking crores of rupees every higher) loss to the exchequer, the CAG has rec- ty checks. “It is not clear how the State governyear and impoverishing the government. ommended a thorough probe. ment ensured the minimum quality Last week, in a report presented to ParliaThis story of plunder is as much about cor- standard,” said the CAG report. ment the Comptroller & Auditor General ruption as it is about a few good men fighting “Chhattisgarh has had such a huge growth (CAG) has attempted to calculate the si- the system for years and bringing this infor- in rice production in the last 10 years that the phoned-off amount, although this was based mation into the public domain. system to check it has not kept pace,” Saini on incomplete data.

From rural Orissa, Gouri Shankar Jain has says. A demand from Punjab in 1998 for an exThe report concluded that delays in price re- been working to expose this loot and bring to tra one per cent ‘driage’ (compensation for visions, as also poor control (by State and Cen- account those responsible. The stacks of sup- loss of moisture) was converted into a countral governments) had over the years led to porting documents he has secured through trywide policy without any expert consulta“undue gains for rice millers” and, more im- the Right to Information (RTI) Act prove that a tion, leading to a payment of ₹952 crore from portantly, non-delivery of paddy and rice to problem exists. His relentless the exchequer. the national food stock. pursuit of the matter at the “On every 37kg bag of paddy Based on the conservative and incomplete highest levels forced the Prime that we get, we lose up to one figures given by the CAG, the total losses ex- Minister’s Office (PMO) to forkilogram to drying,” maintains This issue is close to ward the case to the CAG for an the hearts of 70 crore Saini. According to a Central govaudit early this year. ernment directive, this ‘driage’ is farmers in India Jain has also forwarded the taken into account when comproof to the Central Bureau of puting that 67kg of rice is proInvestigation (CBI), which is duced from 100kg of paddy. now investigating the matter.

Most importantly, about During rice milling, husk, bran and broken ₹17,985 crore was released as MSP (minimum rice emerge as by-products and these are sold support price) to farmers, but the recipients by the millers. In the last decade, the rates for could not be verified as there were no identity each of these items have increased, as have the documents in support. “This raises a doubt as profits for millers. to whether the benefit of MSP did actually acSuccessive governments have ignored this crue to farmers,” the report states cautiously. revenue and failed to tax it. Based on partial “This is an issue that is close to the hearts of data from four states over a two-year period, 70 crore farmers in India. I am fighting for which covers just 15 per cent of the rice pro- them, this is just the beginning,” says Jain. cured, the CAG pegs the loss at ₹3,743 crore.

Now that the information has been released When extended to the countrywide procure- to the people’s representatives, it remains to ment, the loss could cross ₹23,000 crore. be seen whether they show the willingness to “The government has not revised milling wage the long battle needed to return this charges for over 20 years; we are paid up to money to the public and penalise the guilty. ₹25 for every quintal of rice, when we spend about ₹200 on milling and supplying it,” says saurabh yadav

Millstone around food security

A CAG report has laid bare the fact that rice millers have for decades reaped undue gains even as they failed to replenish the national food stock

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

Who’s the bigger criminal?

The have-nots of India who elect people who will ‘keep them poor’ or the ‘betters’ who feel virtuous about paying taxes and not voting?

Listen! Listen! Until The Lions gives voice to some of the Mahabharata’s as-yet voiceless female characters shiv kumar pushpakar

Read it aloud A fascinating tribute to the Mahabharata that hits all the right notes

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Until The Lions Karthika Naïr HarperCollins Poetry ₹799

Omair Ahmad is the South Asia Editor ND-X _ A

for the Third Pole, reporting on water issues in the Himalayas

Loyalty club Voters in Muzaffarpur wait in torians, the history of the hunt will always gloqueues during the rify the hunter.’ He spoke ofofhow fourth phase the history, as a narrative writtenrecently-concluded by the victorious, is often pti Bihar elections distorted in its telling.

Naïr writes in the same

t used to be every poet’s ambition to habharata. And the credit for bringing such write a Ramayana or a Mahabhara- themes to light goes to poets and novelists, ta,” AK Ramanujan once wrote. He rather than to theologians, who have for the wasn’t referring to poets of antiqui- most part tended to glorify these texts and ty, some of whom, galvanised by a sense of ri- safeguard them from critical scrutiny. vein in one of the sections of her book: ‘…the valry or literary envy, must have spent their Until The Lions draws on our literary past, bards will sing/ only victors’ odes — psalms on n Delhi,and where I live, I often find myself in nights days dreaming of creating someciallyand thethe indirect taxes ontradition productsitthey buy, Naïr rich critical inheres. themthe have inside, who have delosttheir deaddrivers don’t greet spring.’ the company of people who lament the valthing as readable, complex and culturally whether it is petrol or soap.

These taxesuntold are in-tales re-presents to her readers those cided that instead of paying the price for a But in all truthfulness, it’s unfair to quote political of the while, escapable. uable as leadership the Ramayana orcountry, the Mahabharata.

TheyMahabharata are also regressive, in thataround a parking from the that revolve slot, they illegally parkason anything from will Naïr’s book, just it isthe unfair at the same time, blaming vast hin- the Instead, Ramanujan wantedthe to highlight desperately poor person ‘forced pays as liaisons’ much asand a ve-‘sanchate, manipulation, flyover andoutwait, jeopardising to cut separate segmentsboth from thema painting terland — thewith rural,which barelymodern educatedIndian popularespect poets, ry rich person for 100 grams of salt. tioned rapes’, giving voice to some of the epselves and anybody approaching the airport. and present those as an example of an artist’s tion of their included, imagination — for electingour these himself always regarded mytho- These taxes voiceless are what characters. are used to build the ic’s as-yet Ontalent. the way to words the international airport Naïr’s have to be read in their people.

Before the His 2014point general election, I wasmodlogical epics. being that every nation The — the roads we walk, or drive on; thereright book begins withcycle the voice of Satyavati is nocontext, flyover, not andleast because of the because of danger her emphaat theern house of one of my friends workstoatwrite poet’s ambition was notwho so much the uniforms weaponry of our (Ved Vyas’and mother, according to soldiers; legend) on of a terrorist attacks, the approach roads are sis on, and experiments with, myriad poetic Microsoft, and heard again this as to rewrite theseyet great texts asconversaan act of literthe bridges over ourdeclamatory rivers, our nuclear plants powerful and note that is suswell-patrolled.

The international also the forms in this book: forms like airport the canzone, tion roll about how the uneducated, easily- and rockets ary on, tribute. carrying payloads space.

All first tained throughout.

‘Listen. into Listen,’ are the has one of the parking in Delhi, landay, the best Spanish glosa spaces and concrete poetry corruptible masses were destroyingnew thebook, coun- Until Karthika Naïr’s fascinating of these are built from taxes words we hear.

After paid, which we are flung among others. with six AllLions, except of are In floors.

Until The thetwo words try by and criminal political Thevoting Lions —casteist a critical retelling of the Mahabhaand yet it is often see who straight, as aeasy poettoonce said, into the heart of actually seen thosedancing floors ofon the parking the page. space leaders power.

I mentioned it is benefits ratatofrom theWhen points-of-view of that its marginal, the primordial. most from these.

In a Satyavati saying, things We hear are proficiency, usually empty, and the Technical however, isn’treaby any India’s rural population that has always and mostly female, characters — is a voted fulfilment country less than 10hate per bil- These taxes are ‘hatewhere rises, hate blazes, son means is simple: paying the instead sine quaof non of poetry. the most, andstill-persisting displayed their commitment to beof that writerly ambition, cent of thefrom population owns cars, lows battlefields./ Hate ar-inescapable. They are the In small fact, price it can for alsoparking weigh a — poem democracy far better than the educated sides being an important addition elite, to a subthererives are almost bicycle lanes.

— nosearing rivers, also regressive, in much less than price of the the down.

This the happens when all I received a blank stare. that is founded genre ofwas Indian literature I wasshrivelling told by a friendly offi- de- thatRight plains, road reaping certainly of far aless than performthat equivalent dance a desperately at the outset, flight, Such conversations have inrevisionthe cial that upon the principles of re-emerged mythological I had a motorcycle acsertsifon its path...’ flashy cars, an ance on new the cars page— the becomes poor person pays as ofof the we’re made aware wakeism; of the Bihar after the cident Merely one thatelections, continuesespecially to flourish. on a flyover in Delhi, two lines into I the mucha as of themact, fitted with acrobatic and theblue poetorstarts a very richnot many poetic voice apparent resurrection Lalu Prasad With this book —ofcomposed of aYadav’s series of incouldbook, not claim insurance as the and we can already senseperson, linelines up atlike the Naïr arrival composing someforworth 100 grams only reading red beacons, political career. “Why is it,” people “that poterconnected, though formallyask, diverse, flyovers are technically forover the power of Naïr’s not words and just wait. the vi-Lines does in This this isbook. of salt but also worth areatimes the poor keep two-wheelers. ems of — India Naïr elect finds people herselfwho in will distinguished whosense exactly is imus. We canSoeven how sionlike: that our richest,would most privi‘…words nictitate listening to themcompany. poor?” orThere’s some such homily. While can- colMahasweta Devi’s Ishort this infrastructure if not portant words for, are to her, the in their leged Indiansdream…’; present to‘…winsome those through not aspire explain Indian electolectiontooffully stories Afterthe Kurukshetra, which is vast majority of people who pay and varying shades of meanings arriving from around the world: as honey…noisome as hell...’; rate, about I do sometimes wonder about people the surviving widows ofthe those who fell for it?even in their almost-tangible a triple-lane mess of people, in-‘...toand, my personal favourite, who victim ask these questions.

I wonder how they to the legendary war between the Pan- Maybe nothing makes me ask this presence, their appearance, on question considerately, illegally blocking gether and they rudely were an infrangible can think their fellow-citizens as second-Then, davas ofand Kauravas in Kurukshetra. as much as when I amfor onnothing my waythat to, or the page.

It’s not thefrom, word ‘arthe way of everyone inconel bolt…’ else, just so that they can class there citizens who should votebeautiful as their ‘betters’ is Arun Kolatkar’s long poem, the airport.

Air travel — carbon emissions be rives’ appears next to its near-mirror image cheat the statewords, — theirshedding fellow-citizens — of the These no light on the feel they should. few times thatcalled I have hilarious and The poignant by turns, ‘Sarpa damned — areinone thequoted badgesabove. of theSowell‘searing’ theof line right at smallworld amount theyare areall charged around, sound,for andparking. while we’re askedSatra’ why —people think theyinterpretation are better, they another critical of a mitravelled Indian,we’re especially it is internationthe outset, madeifaware of a poetic voice And able it is to these people who then hearvery them, their effect is lostlecture on us. This immediately cite from the fact they pay their nor episode the that Mahabharata involving al travel.

On the way to the domestic internot only worth reading but alsoand worth listenanybody they talk about how theJames rural, had was that precisely whatto,the critic Clive taxes.a Itritual is well-known a small perperformedthat by only the emperor Janamanational Delhi, you get a wonderful ing airports to — theindistinction being all that sepauneducated Indians us continue elect the coronce cautioned against.to“For a poet to be all centage Indians generally those in midjeya,ofaiming to—exterminate ‘the Nagas, or the glimpse how our most privileged fellow-ci- rupt sound,” ratesofminor versifiers from real poets. and theJames criminal.

If only they as looked infor a wrote, “is nearly bad as dle-class who to cannot it — paydeath Snakejobs People’ avengeavoid his father’s tizens behave. approach theplanning last flyover A pieceAs ofyou advice to those to get the mirror would realiseBut whoeven exactly the bepainterthey to be all paint.” so, look income tax, and many mistake this obligation to thethis from a snakebite. domestic airport, you find thatout theloud. lane corrupt book: try reading the words and thetechnical criminalfrills, are. listen a little more yond the as a virtue.

They like somehow forget that every In- on yourUntil Themes hostility, revenge, oppression leftThe is Lions blocked vehicles, getswith its title from ansomeinterview closely, and you’ll hear Until The Lions hitting t@OmairTAhmad dian of pays of some kind or violence another, and espe-injusthetax weak, unrestrained timesthe forNigerian as much novelist as 200-300 metres.

All ofonce all the right notes.

Chinua Achebe tice — all culminating in a senseless genocidal gave to the Paris Review. Here, Achebe quoted a war — are some of the central motifs of the Ma- proverb: ‘…until the lions have their own his- vineet gill is a journalist with The Sunday Guardian

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COSMOPOLIS

Bigotry can’t be a principle Across the globe an alarming trend is raising its ugly head: the resentful and angry repudiation of liberal pluralism likely to play a large role in the 2017 presidential election.

Admirably, the French government has kept its cool and insisted that it will still receive thousands of Syrian refugees; it recognises that blaming the collective of Muslims for the crimes of a minuscule few is playing right into the hands of the so-called Islamic State.

And yet the temptation to turn on migrants and minorities and summon the demon of nativism remains perilously strong. The recent events in India have been well documented in these pages and elsewhere. But I find instructive the remarks of BJP supporter and internet activist Devang Dave, speaking on NDTV’s ‘The Big Fight’.

He defended the BJP’s army of vituperative online warriors. “Social media has only given a way for the majority to speak up,” he said, “which the [mainstream] media has neglected for a long time.” The journalist Saba Naqvi asked Dave why that “speaking up” was so hateful, sexist and communal. He shrugged her concerns away. “You can say whatever you want, but the reality is the reality.”

Loons on the fringe Supporters of the PEGIDA movement, or ‘Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamification The reality is that majoritarian forces are on of the Occident’, take out a rally in eastern Germany afp/jens schlueter the march. Fatigue and displeasure with the establishment is being expressed in cultural his past autumn, as Europe was and angry repudiation of liberal pluralism. terms. Populist ‘outsiders’ deride multicultucoming to grips with the Syrian refTrump has been widely denounced for his ralism and pluralism as the preserve of the ugee crisis, Polish football fans in comments on Latinos and Muslims, but it elite, as petty political correctness, as the snooseveral stadiums unfurled banners hasn’t hurt his standing among Republican ty inclinations of coastal intelligentsia in with an absurd message: “Stop the Islamisa- voters. A recent Washington Post poll found America, or the cynical concoction of technotion of Poland.” The Islamisation of Poland? that nearly 60 per cent of Republican voters fa- crats in Brussels and aristocrats in Lutyens’ Never mind that few refugees want to go to Po- voured banning Muslims from entering the Delhi. In this way, Devang Dave could describe land. Never mind that Polish authorities have US. Trump argues that his proposal to block the bile of online trolls as the authentic voice said there isn’t a terrorist threat to the country Muslims is a common sense response to radi- of a nation, long suppressed, finding in the wake of the Paris attacks. Never mind cal Islamist terror (like that visited upon utterance. that of a population of nearly 40 million peo- southern California earlier this month), and It most certainly is not (does any nation ple, Poland’s 31,000 Muslims barely register as that those who think otherwise are bowing to have a single authentic voice?), but the cause drops in the ocean, or that Poland is a country milquetoast “political correctof multiculturalism feels beleaof emigrants, having sent waves of exiles and ness.” But it is a nonsensical polguered everywhere. Why is it so workers all over the world. No, sadly, these Pol- icy that would only play into the hard to defend pluralism from ish football fans looked upon the desperation hands of extremists. those who cavalierly claim to repThe reality is that of the refugees and could muster only hate.

The truth is that Trump — like resent the ‘majority’? majoritarian forces I am always struck by the false courage of a other majoritarian politicians in The trouble is that while pluare on the march political stand like “Stop the Islamisation of Europe and India — is less interralism is at once inescapable and Poland.” It is bigotry masquerading as princi- ested in actual policy than in abstract — a lived reality as much ple, the bravado of the mob veiled as the brav- dredging up the public’s reseras it is an ethical principle — it is ery of conviction. voir of fear, bigotry, and bile for not an easy political platform. It This empty, noxious politics is visible in his own advantage. There are now daily re- fails to lend itself to populist politics, which almany ostensibly liberal societies. In Europe, ports of attacks against Muslims in the US, ways require a clear enemy — a foreign colonithe rampage of IS-allied terrorists in Paris has from incidents of verbal abuse to outright al power, for example, or an oppressive elite or further inflamed xenophobic and racist senti- physical violence. a religious or ethnic ‘other’. A slogan like “Stop ments that were already stirred against the In Europe, mainstream politicians and far- the Islamisation of Poland” makes no empiriSyrian refugees. In the US, the celebrity-mogul- right activists alike have described the Syrian cal sense, but it can draw a crowd. turned-presidential-hopeful Donald Trump refugees as a “swarm,” a “dirt-pack,” and as People in India, the US, and Europe who are has turned his blunt vitriol against Muslims, “animals.” Hooligans burnt down asylum committed to pluralism need to find a politiurging that they be banned from coming into shelters in Germany. The anti-Muslim PEGIDA cal language to better communicate its virthe country. And in recent times in India, reli- movement has spread from Germany to En- tues. Their societies pioneered the experiment gious symbols like the cow have been used to gland. A regional government in northwest- of heterogeneous, liberal democracy in the provoke ugly passions and even uglier deeds. ern Italy banned the burqa and veil in 20th century. It is up to them to see it survive These episodes are separate and have their response to the Paris terrorist attacks (as if the growing collisions of the 21st century. own regional and national contexts. But they cloth could kill). Once skulking in France’s lut@kanishktharoor are united by an alarming trend: the resentful natic fringe, the far-right National Front is

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Kanishk Tharoor is the author of Swimmer Among the Stars: Stories, a forthcoming collection of short fiction

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Serve me right

are several small mohallah (neighbourhood) groups across Jaipur and each one has a representative who goes door-to-door motivating women to participate in the monthly meetings. This group essentially serves as the domestic worker’s support system, a place where they can talk freely.

Apart from problem-solving, the forum spreads awareness regarding various social schemes and how to procure key government documents like a ration card or Above/Below Poverty Line (APL/BPL) cards, which are crucial to the survival of this largely migrant workforce. Tackling employer and police harassment, too, is spoken about in great detail.

Bali, who works in Jaipur’s Devinagar area, says, “When we come from another state we have no local identity proof or ration card.

That in itself stops us from accessing subsidised food grains, opening a bank account or getting admission for our children in a nearby school. The slums where we manage to hire a small, airless room are extremely dirty and most of us don’t even have access to toilets.

But no government paid any attention to our needs till we built our own collective. Suddenly, we had an identity.”

“I understood that my employer cannot hit Past forward The crux of the story is the fall of the Athenian ‘tyrants’ courtesy democracy me. So the next time she tried to raise her hand, I told her that I would go to the police.

She was appalled at my outspoken behaviour and I eventually lost that job but I am happy that I spoke up for myself. Nowadays, whenevUnited we stand Being part of a group has enabled women domestic workers to share their experiences and er someone abuses one of us we stand togethbrainstorm for solutions wfs/auradha shukla; (below) Mewa Bharti has brought together over 12,000 women domestic workers in Jaipur wfs/rakesh kumar er. Consequently, the employers have started treating us better,” says Geeta, who works in eprivation has been an integral part ill-treated she is ready and willing to speak up Jaipur’s Randev Nagar. of Savita’s life from the beginning. on their behalf.

Of course, for the roughly eight lakh domesHer parents moved from a small vilLike Savita, there are over 12,000 women do- tic workers in India (ILO estimates) there is filage in Cooch Behar district of West mestic workers in the Pink City who have nally some reason to hope — the Government Bengal to Jaipur in Rajasthan, in search of em- come together as part of the Rajasthan Mahila of India has prepared a national policy that ployment. To bolster the meagre family in- Kamgaar Union (RMKU) to demand their promises to protect their interests. The draft or thestarted last decade or so, sequential art rights come, Savita doing domestic work also work thetheir shadows, using faith as a ‘National andbehind establish identity as workers. illustrations for children’s books in the 1930s.

Policy for Domestic Workers’, pre— cartoons, graphic illusalong with her mother at thenovels, age of even 13. She of- The conduit. brainchild of Jaipur-based social activist pared Withbymost period projects like Democracy, the Director General Labour Welfare, trated reportage — has been athours the eye ten worked, without complaint, for 10 a Mewa At the beginning of the we are introBharti, this group hasbook, become a force to in onecompliance of the things thatthe creators typically aspire with provisions of the ILO ofhope many political storms, we’re reckon day, in the that fortunes wouldand change. duced with. to Leander (from the ancient “Women domestic workersGreek in In- convention to is to prove point about contemporary ona domestic workers, recomtalking just about of Prophet dia “Beingnot a servant cancaricatures be very humiliating. mythare of highly Leanderoverworked and Hero) and Thersippus, underpaid. mends times. This foreshadowing particularly a minimum monthlyiswage for unMohammad here. I was forbidden to sit on a Moreover, When I was small two friends and who are skilled, they arebrothers-in-arms often subjected to sexual strong here.

In Hippias, Hipparchus and their semi-skilled, skilled and highly-skilled Joe in Sacco been relentless his indictchair my has employer’s home orineven eat in and marching to violence meet thebecause Persians in battle.

One categories physical their workplace army of Scythian mercenaries, see the beof domestic workers,we besides proviment of America’s and foreign poli- constitutes the plates that theydomestic used regularly.

And using day, Thersippus hashomes a nightmare aboutthere the sions private and as such ginnings of modern-day polifor compulsory paidMachiavellian leave, a mandatory cies, as wellwas as Israel’s handling Gaza their toilet forbidden even ifof itthe was an are goddess Athena leadingtothe Greeks intointerbat- contribution no laws or policies protect their tics. Through the pragmatic fromHero, the employer towards situation. Guy DeLisle has slyly cultivated an ests,” emergency.

Ill-treatment was ‘normal’ and for tle: not as Bharti. herself, but as her monstrous Gor- their says prophet-in-training, we see the point that Masocial security and a proper grievance reexterior of self-deprecating humour,up. one that gon every little mistake I was beaten Those persona,involving filled awith an insatiable An incident 15-year-old domestic dressal hatma mechanism.

Gandhi was making when he said: softens the blows he lands in histhis darkly comic days, I used to dream of leaving work and worker blood-lust.

After compelled Leander calms in Jaipur Bharti “Those whoBharti say that religion has While and her vociftravelogues fromand places like Shenzhen, Jerusagoing to school playing like others my to Thersippus down, he tells work towards changing thehis lives nothing to do are with politics do erous group glad that dolem and Alison Bechdel has been of age,” saysPyongyang.

Savita. friend his“After personal contheseabout women. the teenagnot know what religion By mestic workers haveis.”the whisked away bookshelves, banned At 29, little hasfrom changed for her, other than er nection with by Athena and how was raped her employer she the end of the book, the reader is attention of the political powNothe government By end of thepaid fromfact college awarded a MacArthur the thatsyllabi she isand now married.

She still became these visions became a part pregnant.

When sheofap- book, at that optimal juncture of wisers, they advise caution. anythe attention our readerto is at ‘geniusasgrant’.

In India, like works domestic helpgraphic in sevennovels homes inDelJai- proached his life. them for help she was that tingedstill with profound “There’s a along way tosadgo needs till we built our dom optimal juncture hi Calm the explosive tomeevery Mun- publicly pur, andand despite labouringKashmir for 12 hours The crux of the story is the fall disgraced.

I came to know ness: the kind of melancholy before the National Policy own collective of wisdom tinged nu have grabbed the bull by the horns.

Clearly, day, earns a meagre ₹3,500 per month.

She of this the Athenian a word case from‘tyrants’: another domestic that comes comes intowith force.realising Till then,that our with a profound these are exciting times if you comics cre- helper. continues to be mistreated byare hera employers, that began with that a very I ensured shedifferent had a safe wefocus are all doomed to repeat our will continue to remain sadness atorstandard unafraid of to living make ahas political statement. her scarcely improved. delivery connotation from I what weforare and then fought jusmistakes ad nauseam. on solving wage disputes, resthisSavita charged atmosphere steps DemocYet,Into today has the confidence to not just tice usedfor toher. now.

In police the name of conThe did not coopThe book ends with a series of cuing child domestic workers racy, a up recent graphic novel about Athensand circa stand for her rights as an individual a erate sensus,initially tyrantsand would onlymanipuafter I sought the and combating smart historical notes the violence faced by about domestic 500 BC that of parworker but investigates also ensure the thatbeginning unlike her, her support late councilmen, and bribe them of women’s groups in the city did workers,” shecharacters.

Importantly, these says. liamentary democracy. its rather daughter gets educatedDespite and breaks out ofselfthe they with just about under the long sun. By do- notes register a anything case. It took three years the places whereface the came creators The reveal perils all domestic workers to conscious posturing as a piece of faction (fact but circle of disempowerment. ing we this,were theyable were to the formatocontributing force the culprit to pay for the havefore embellished fact with demarrecently, when twofiction: Nepali this women doplus fiction), that accelerating literary genre, the tioneducation of an and oligarchy upkeepwith of thedemocratic child. As I mestic cation isworkers, not entirely according to rapednecessary, and abused by their Bit by bit Democracy is a richly rewarding experience. pretensions.

The tyrants Hippias Hipparworked on this case I realised thatand I wanted to diplomat this writer,employer, but it is welcome all thefrom same. were rescued a GurThe book Pa- do Being partwas of conceptualised a small group by of Alecos domestic chus are drawn beautifully Papadatos.

They gaon more to safeguard theby position of these It’s house. interesting the acknowledgement Geeta,that a domestic help in Delhi, padatos.

Papadatos co-wrote theastory with women,” workers in her area has made difference play the classic ‘good-cop, bad-cop’ routine to says, she says. section includes a heartfelt for the “This is not the first timeshout-out it has happened. writertoand researcher Abraham Kawa, who al- perfection.

Savita’s attitude.

She now recognises Hipparchus Hippias Risk Bharti knew that theseduces key to while empowering film Network, by itsconstant protagonist of sexualmade abusefamous is real and and so wrote the final Papadatos also illusherself as script. a ‘domestic worker’ — a these uses lethal force whenever necessary. workers would be to bring them Leanon a one Howard Beale’s “I’m as mad hell and I’m not has to remain very alert.asSadly, the law ontrated themember book while thecountry’s colouring wasunordone common of the large der’s father Promachus, a good falls prey ly platform where theyman, could braingonna any more” rant. Perhaps is helpstake theithigh and mighty.”

Bhartithat adds,

by Annie DiDonna.

Papadatos ganised labour force.and HerDiDonna aware- storm to the machinations of their their problems. petty politics. for solutions to SheThe ex- “Most the parting Papadatos and Kawaand inoftennote the that influential go scot-free had previously teamed up for the 2008 book plains ness has increased scene where he is support assassinated drawn—inthe an the that with fromisJagori tended for woman the conscientious in abused is left alonereader: to pickthat up the Logicomix, citedtremendously, as one of the classic graphic and she now Delhi-based intense, cinematic style. women’s resource centre work- pieces. the faceBut of as a decadent polity, Howard Beale is the once voiceless, faceless womnovels of recent times. knows how to access gov- ingDiDonna thewomen woodcut on issuesemploys of migrant andcolouring informal en theof ideal thecitizen.

RMKU have proven, even the most The Athens of Democracy is a place that has women ernment welfare style to bring outover the the horror the moment: workers pastofseveral years — disadvantaged All of us ought to becan madchange as hell the at what group oddswe if grown complacent inschemes. its idea of civilisation.

When she gets they the colours, etched fromofacollective black backhave realised theout power ac- they havestand allowed by democracy each other.”to become.

The citizens are extremely wary dictatorto know of aoffellow do- tion, ground, reminiscent of American evenare though the journey is not thatwoodeasy. aditya mani jha (© Women’s Feature Service) shukla ship, but have yet to realise how tyranny can cutRMKU mestic worker being maestro Ward’smanner: numerous functionsLynd in a simple there anuradha

Domestic workers in Jaipur are realising that strength arises from numbers and coming together

A faction onto itself

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A richly rewarding graphic novel that reminds us we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes again and again

Democracy Alecos Papadatos, Abraham Kawa and Annie DiDonna Bloomsbury India Graphic novel ₹599

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Red alert Outside New Market in Kolkata, a plastic Santa Claus is a sure sign that Christmas is coming to town photos sandip roy

Cotton-wool X’mas in Kolkata A celebration dripping with mellow nostalgia for a colonial past has repackaged itself for a changed city, shedding its exclusivity and drawing in a new crowd with its eatdrink-make-merry spirit.

That perhaps is the last miracle of Christmas

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he year my aunt came visiting from dolf the red-nosed reindeer and Santa’s elves.

London, I realised there was no San- But Christmas, for us in middle-class Bengali ta Claus. I already suspected as homes in Calcutta, always required some level much. Homes in Calof wilful suspension of disbelief. cutta did not come with a chimWe knew that underneath the ney for Santa Claus to shimmy askew white beards and postbox down and I did not think he red outfits, the Santa Clauses That rich came swinging in via the neem cosmopolitan past had were cheap pink plastic dolls tree outside our bedroom winthat we would not deign to buy faded. Only the rich dow. But when my aunt visited any other time of the year. We plum cake remained my doubts were confirmed. sang Christmas carols in our Those gifts piled at the foot of missionary school with gusto, my bed that Christmas morning though few had seen a ‘winter were just too different from wonderland’ or had any hope of their humbler predecessors from years past. It ever building Frosty the snowman. In our could have been a devastating revelation for a heart of hearts we knew that our celebration naïve boy who devoured fanciful tales of Ru- of Christmas was as make-believe as the snow

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The life of the canvas made out of torn cotton-wool from my mother’s first-aid box.

But we still went to old New Market to pick out a spindly artificial bottle-brush of a Christmas tree, decorated it with little silver bells that left a trail of silver crumbs all over our sweaters, and topped it all off with a shiny star.

It was not our festival in any religious sense but it was tradition and there was comfort in its ritual. Christmas was once peak nostalgia time for the English in Calcutta, dreaming of a white Christmas back home. But with the sahibs and memsahibs largely gone, perhaps we were just nostalgic for the nostalgia. The chrysanthemums and dahlias were blooming at the Horticultural Society. Our mothers sat in the verandahs in the hazy December sun, knitting chequered vests. It was a perfect time to bask in nostalgia, as mellow as the amber notun gur in the Bengali sweetshops.

The nostalgia, in part, was for another far more glamorous city. That rich cosmopolitan past had faded. Only the rich plum cake remained and we dutifully queued up for it at Flurys on Park Street or Nahoum’s Jewish bakery in New Market. If there was irony in the city’s only kosher Jewish bakery making most of its business from selling Christmas cakes and Easter eggs, it was lost on us. Years later when I was nostalgic for Calcutta

fruitcake while spending Christmas in balmy of being stuck in the city for Durga Puja with California, my American friends were dumb- its sweaty crowds, deafening noise and tacky founded. A Christmas fruitcake was the punch excess. “Oh, I am never in town for Durga Puja. line of a joke there, the indestructible offering Haven’t been for the last 11 years,” we would re-gifted from home to home, something that say with almost a touch of pride. With many no one wanted to be saddled with. In Calcutta, offices shut for 10 days and schools closed, it however, it remains a gourmet delight, worth was the perfect time for a Puja vacation. standing in line for.

Christmas, on the other hand, was the seaLast year I wandered into a dingy Dicken- son for homecoming. That’s when the NRI misian building in a little lane in central Calcutta gratory birds came flocking home, as also the where Montoo baked his famous Christmas children who had fled to Bengaluru and Mumcakes. Customers from all over the city, of all bai and New Delhi. It was like yesterday once religious persuasions, still came with their more — Christmas lunch at Calcutta Club with family recipes, flour, eggs, slabs of Amul but- the same geriatric waiters, a swim at Tolly and ter, candied fruit and bottles of Old Monk and devilled crab and whisky sours at Mocambo. brandy. Bakers worked round the clock, There was a nip in the air, parties every other churning out batch after batch of fruitcake, night, boozy alumni reunions and Christmas sleeping in shifts on bunk beds. The ovens are carnivals for the children, with stockings and rented not by the hour, but by the kilo of sug- crackers. Flurys was open all night, with lines ar. A neighbourhood tough staggered in, stretching round the block clamouring for drunk and belligerent, and plum cake and mince pies and raised a ruckus, until he was Dundee cakes. Christmas was mollified with cake. At hole-inhow Calcutta got its groove back. the-wall Kanchan bakery in the But now we worry, that like evThe ovens were twisting bylanes of Taltala, a erything else, Christmas too is booked solid, all banner strung across the lane losing its charm. For the malls baking fruitcake. promised “Traditional procit’s just another excuse to have “What?” the woman ess is still following. Book- grumbled. “Shall I eat sales like Puja sales and Bengali ing will start from 1 New Year sales. The only differonly cake now?”

December. Cake baking ence is Jingle Bells on endless will start from 15th Decemloop. The doormen look uncomber.” A woman came to buy fortable in ill-fitting Santa suits biscuits and was told to with cardboard box bellies. My come back in the New Year. The ovens cell phone spams me with offers for Santa text were booked solid, all baking fruitcake. messages at ₹3 each. We splurge overpriced Warm on hues Paresh Maity is adry master of turoil “What?” the woman grumbled. “Shall I eat banquets at five-star hotels with roast canvas; (left)mulled only cake now?” key and chestnut stuffing,onindifferent ‘Reflection of Passion’, Why not? There was a lot we did not have wine and carol muzak and then pop some Pu2015; (below) in Calcutta when I was growing up — indus- din Hara pills for digestion.

‘Wedding Bell’, 2013 try, jobs, malls, multiplexes, opportunity, During Christmas week, Park Street beelectricity. But if we could not have bread, let comes impassable, as crowds jostle and shove tially startedcake.out with Christmas watercolours, us eat (plum) A Calcutta cake Kolkata and village.

This city isgarish a paradise to look at themy lights, at the rather manmesmerised byby works of British baked perhaps Muslim bakers,landscapist in a Jewish for thepark. crowded streets and squalgerartists. displayEven in the The government-sancTurner, turned to customers, installationpeace art? “Iand do goodit all. or, bakery, for Hindu can be inspiringfair for an artist, at least it is for tioned Christmas sells mincemeat pies, Life journey.

Youmouthful. learn something new ev- me,” will is inaevery chewy he says. and France are the favouother Yule logs and Venice that evergreen Christmas eryItday and pretentiously evolve. I followcolonial this philosophy.” seems but Christ- places he loves biryani. to visit ‘just for painting’. rite — chicken Newspapers do yet anmas was our season, even more than Durga other storyThe textures of Kolkata and his vilof the quaintness of Anglo-Indians Long journey Puja. Durga Puja was the time to leave Calcutta celebrating an lage come through in hisin bright “authentic” Christmas Bow Now 50, Maity’s journey from a middle-class Barracks, but what in droves.

People like us, upper and used vibrant colours on the to be a homespun humble village in shuddered Tamluk, at the prospect community affair canvas. and cosmopolitan, says,scrum “Nature is is now aHe tourist with Medinipur district of abundant with colours; I West Bengal, to an artist just try to catch some of in the international areit. Nature is my inspirana has been a long one. tion, my muse. I also While his father wanted consider Indian folk art him to take up medicine more contemporary or engineering, he prethan the contemporary ferred to mould clay modart of today. It’s simple, els of gods and goddesses unique and powerful.” and sell them at the village Over the years, Maity has market. The Rupnarayan river, been working on bigger and bigwhich flowed near his village, ger canvases. His 800-ft mural, ensured a ready supply of clay. on view at the Indira Gandhi InYou learn something While school didn’t interest him ternational Airport, Delhi, is said new every day and much, an enthusiastic teacher to be one of the longest in the evolve introduced him to art. He realworld. But Maity enjoys working ised art was his calling and left on both large and small canvases home to become an artist. and says that he uses the same While studying at the Governstyle irrespective of scale. He is ment College of Arts and Crafts, Kolkata, he finicky about his materials and imports his couldn’t afford a hostel and would travel paper from France and Italy. hours by train to attend class. His means were Like a Renaissance man, he dabbles in pholimited and he sustained himself on awards tography and filmmaking, but gets little time and scholarships. to pursue them. He carries with him a sense of But like many talented people, before and flamboyance and creativity. Don’t the strife after him, he eventually found recognition. An and conflicts around affect him? “Of course, opportunity to exhibit some of his watercol- they do. But I look for joy in other spaces, I look ours in Delhi proved lucky. He got noticed and for the positive in this world. Why should I redecided to settle down in the Capital; if, that is, peat only the negative?” he asks. ‘settling down’ is a term that can be applied to (‘Sounds of Silence’ runs at CIMA Gallery, Kolkahis restless soul. His artist-wife Jayasri Burman ta till January 16, 2016.) holds the anchor at home.

“For inspiration I return again and again to ranjita biswas is a Kolkata-based journalist

Paresh Maity brings his procession of ants and thousands of bells to his largest exhibition in the country till date

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hat do you think of the age 40? Is it time to slow down or a time to start the next phase of life with renewed vigour?

Renowned contemporary artist Paresh Maity belongs to the latter category. His works completed over the last 40 years — drawings, paintings, sculptures, installations — are on display at an exhibition, ‘Sounds of Silence’, in Kolkata. “This is the first time that I am holding an exhibition of this scale anywhere in India,” says the Padma Shri awardee. He directs his team to adjust the halogen light to illuminate the face and parts of the huge bull in ‘The Force,’ which immediately reminds one of Picasso’s signature works. Maity admits that the great artist as well as cubism have had a “huge influence” on him.

With a smile he says, “And I love the bull. I am a Taurean, after all.”

I ask him about the title of the exhibition. “There is a silence in nature. You can feel it. An artist can perform a praan pratishtha — giving life through creative expressions.” He points to ‘Mystic Abode,’ a room-like structure made of hundreds of bells, which weighs more than 2,500kg. He introduces soft music through an audio system and the entire structure comes alive.

In ‘Procession’, the fuel tanks and headlights of motorbikes are assembled together to reAll things bright semble ants crawling up a wall.

Park Street becomes The work forces a double take a jumble of shiny from the viewer, as it is striking lights and jostling both in conception and execucrowds during the Christmas week tion. So, has the artist who ini-

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Life in the shadows The story of the film is drawn from the autobiography of Vidya, a Chennai-based NGO worker and theatre activist

FILM FATALE

She, he, them and us Sanchari Vijay’s sensitive performance as a transgender in the uplifting Naanu Avanalla…Avalu ought to be seen by mainstream audiences outside Karnataka

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he audience breaks into applause as quence dealing with the unhygienic are a rare sight in the mainstream. Shabnam the central figure on screen snubs a conditions in which castrations are conduct- Mausi being elected to the Madhya Pradesh self-righteous stranger on a train. ed underground, this is a truly uplifting film. Legislative Assembly for 1998-2003, dancer-acThe actor in question is Vijay, but What makes it even more so is the realisation, tor-activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi appearing not that Vijay whose face is plastered all over in its closing moments, that Naanu Avanal- on the reality show Sacch Ka Saamna in 2009 to Tamil Nadu. The character in question is the la…Avalu is drawn from a true story, the auto- dispel myths about hijras, and the Supreme film’s lead, yet not the now-cinematically- biographical I Am Vidya: A Transgender’s Court’s landmark 2014 ruling recognising cliched Angry Young Man for whom such wolf- Journey by Chennai-based NGO worker and transgenders as the “third gender” have all whistle-worthy dialogues are usually written theatre activist Vidya aka Living Smile Vidya. been uncommon developments. in India. As she dispenses her lines to an antagNaanu Avanalla…Avalu earned two National Over the years, mainstream cinema has onistic fellow though, viewers cheer the way Awards this summer: Best Actor for Kannada lampooned anyone who does not conform to they usually do for mega-starrers filled with theatre artiste Sanchari Vijay’s restrained per- traditionally accepted notions of gender or at song ‘n’ dance, melodrama and bombast. formance as Madesha/Vidya, far removed best has treated such persons as a source of I look around me, pleasantly surprised by from the caricaturish portrayals of transgen- comedy and little else. Films like Mahesh this reception for the Kannada film Naanu Ava- ders in Indian mainstream cineBhatt’s Tamanna (1997), with acnalla…Avalu (I Am Not He…She) in a large hall ma; and Best Make-up. The film tor Paresh Rawal playing a pivat the International Film Festival of Kerala in was also screened at the Indian otal character who is a hijra, Thiruvananthapuram. Although festival Film Festival of Melbourne in have been unusual. crowds are often morefrom open-minded than the International Vijay’s National Award for Jingle economy (Clockwise top left) Kanchan bakeryAugust in Taltalaand announces bookings for fruitcakes; ovens in central work round the clock, churning As Montoo’s he grows older, he Kolkata out endless batches of fruitcake; long waitofoutside Nahoum’s bakeryofin India, New Market; seller who up every outside New Market; shopping for most, I was expecting someadegree conserFilmJewish Festival Goa,the inturkeybegins Avanalla…Avalu has come toshows feel like a yearNaanu Christmas decorations and knick-knacks; workers packs cakesafor deliverythevatism and discomfort in responsean toassembly this filmline ofNovember.

It got limited in a year in which the media has woman trapped in a about a transgender called Madesha/Vidya. atrical release in Karnataka on reported other significant mileman’s body television vans.

“No, Ithe don’t want here to tell you cakes” and even up special Quite to the contrary, audience reacts are not cheap.

Few of uselecthave September 25. Itsetought to becake counters ₹400 a kilo they stones: Madhu Kinnar was about my favourite Christmas cake recipe,” an on thebystreet to meet the holiday with positivity and plaudits. to roastfirst the birds.

But we seen mainstream Indian au- rush. The fes- ovens big enough ed India’s transgender elderly aunty a flowered dress scolds me. tival hasoutside becomeKarnataka a fad and everyone is cashing gather around, Director BSinLingadevaru’s Naanu AvanalgawkinatChhattisgarh’s them and takeRaigarh videos diences too. mayor “Every year youstory all come and askborn the asame Nextpublic year, I tends tell myself, I will steer clear of on mobile phones. la…Avalu is the of Madesha, boy in.The “Is itCorporation a foreign chicken?” to assume Municipal this Jathing at Karnataka. this time.”He I am chagrined, Streetwith during Christmas. in rural is asuitably bright student but Park one the man.

“No, it’s anCourt Austhat films such subjects would be boring, nuary, and lastasks month, Madras High firmly putare intoo mybusy place.

Later she It’s heavy Yet that is uncharitable.

Christhis peers mocking hisrelents. effeminate ostrich,” says hisYashini friend and/or hard to watch.

In truth, the last- paved the waytralian for Chennai’s K Prithika chhena cake Christmas, all. Try thehis pure could have remained pickled demeanourafter to appreciate classroom acu- mas the complete certainty oning memory from Naanu Avanalla…Avalu is of to become thewith country’s first transgender pofrom sheolder advises me.becomes It’s special. sepia-tinted Calcutta Club for the first lice sub-inspector. men. JN AsBarua’s, he grows and more in ly Calcuttans can muster when Madesha’s smile when he realises For the most part though, It is, of but it is alsohebitter-sweet, forlike theaAnglonostalgia, aware himself, begins to feel wom- Christmas clueless.remain The fatanman in of bright time there arelunch others like him out there, Aand India’s transgenders object ridihomespun Indians are in fading away from The haunted the ghostsspirit of Christan trapped a man’s body.

In aCalcutta. journey that pink pants, sittingor, onatathe folding of Vidya’sby compassion, and fire. communitycule, contempt, discrimination very affair is Christmas that his remains up Pune as a mases instead it has retakes him from villageistopropped Bengaluru, Suchpast. as theBut scene mentioned in the opening now a tourist scrum least, apathy. chair, selling the birds shares tourist attraction.

A part earns of mean resents this packaged itself a different city, temper she and Cuddappah, Madesha MA degree cooking advice.among “You can grill it. paragraph, thatfor flash of controlled Even the well-intentioned us usually new Christmas.

I stare in dismay at the shed its exclusivity, and drawn in tryst with sweep away such and blingy joins the hijra community living on Roast it.” displays on a train during her brief issues into rarely-visited jam-packed streets outsideultimately New Market, a amendicancy, new crowd.when It is aan eat-drinkshadowy margins of society, assertHe had it last night, he says. passenger dismisses her nooks and crannies of our minds where they claustrophobic crushcomplete of people,with andwomen’s wonder make-merry festival now ing a female identity cook it? I ask. or as being uneducated andunlike too lazy to work are unlikely toHow givedid us ayou pang of conscience why so many them are wearing San- any Bengali festival.

That perhaps is the an“Curried,” clothes, the ofname Vidya and idiotic castration he human says with a paan-stained hardother for a living like everyone else.

Vidya openattack of basic decency.

Naanu Avata hats and taking selfies.

It feels like Christmiracle of Christmas.

Thethat plum (termed “nirvana” in her circles).

Sheathen ex- last “I only like curry.” ly challenges him, pointing out shecakes is, in smile. nalla…Avalu drags every discomfiting quesmas of wide-eyed gaping tourists, not always come Nahoum’s any- tion periences discrimination in her yokels quest even, for a might Calcutta like fact, a postgraduate whofrom society is unwilling out of Christmas those dark might cornersfeel intomore the light, wrapped up in neon-coloured fluffy woollens more but Christmas keeps marching on, more Kolkata mainstream profession.

Christmas these days, but what’s in a to employ. compelling us to confront them and our own as if they areisinabout Darjeeling.

This new Christmas than midnight mass.

The film Vidya’s refusal to let this fruitcake The snow is just cotton-wool either These are scenes so commonplace in parts name? role in perpetuating prejudice by, if nothing feels, think snootily, just tooa crass, com- of Right outside New Market shows up way. socialI bigotry force her into life oftoo begging it’s still Christmas.

India that we barely noticea—man hijras seeking else, But turning a blind eye to it. mon, toowork. commercial.

Theher local middle-class every to barging sell turkeys. ungainly and sex It is about determination alms, year hijras intoThe weddings toblacksing, roy is the author ofauthor Don’t Let HimAdventures Know. anna mm vetticad is the of The bakery chains, outlets all over the waddle and shuffle, not to allow thewith chauvinism of others to city, dic- and-white dance andbirds demand money, hijras clamber blessing sandip lives in Kolkata of an Intrepid Film Critic t@annavetticad have come up withExcept theirfor own Xmas trash cans and try to Yet, open the lid. At He tate her life choices. one“rich difficult se- onto newly-weds and newborns. transgenders

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Maharani Gayatri Devi, Rajmata of Jaipur, nee Princess Ayesha of Cooch Behar derek adkins, 1951

Begum Jahanara of Palanpur, nee Joan Falkiner from Australia hamilton studios, bombay, 1940

Maharani Swaroop Kunwarba of Bansda eos photographic company, bombay, 1890

Majestic portraits A new coffee-table book throws the spotlight on leading ladies from erstwhile royal families of India

T Maharanis

Women of Royal India

Edited by Abhishek Poddar & Nathaniel Gaskell Mapin|Tasveer Coffee-table book ₹3,950

he maharaja or nawab has long dominated the tales of princely India, while the lives of female royals have remained largely unexplored.

The only windows to the andarmahal (inner chambers of the palace) have been a handful of biographies, novels and period films. Maharanis: Women of Royal India is a photographic exploration of the shifting landscape of gender politics and monarchy from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. The 148 photos have been obtained from the archives of ‘royal’ photographers and families — from Travancore to Jammu & Kashmir; from Tripura to Rajasthan.

Apart from portraits of some of the most celebrated royal names in India’s modern history — Gayatri Devi, Maharani of Jaipur; Sita Devi, Rani of Kapurthala; and Vijaya Raje Scin-

dia, Rajmata of Gwalior — lesser-known women, from places like Dhrol and Katesar, also feature in the book.

Formal portraits show them in ways they wished to be seen, but there are candid ones too — snatched from holidays and sidelines of public functions. The book has many women, featured in Vogue’s lists of style icons, in their chiffon saris and exquisite jewellery. It also shows some of them engaged in ‘manly sports’ such as hunting. Interestingly, some portraits have been taken from behind screens, without the photographer actually seeing the subjects.

(All images from Maharanis: Women of Royal India, ed. by Abhishek Poddar and Nathaniel Gaskell, and published by Mapin Publishing, in association with Tasveer, and The Museum of Art and Photography, Bangalore)

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Maharani Chimnabai II of Baroda, nee Shrimant Gajrabai Ghatge of Dewas Sr lala deen dayal, 1891

Maharani Kusum Kunwarba of Chhota Udepur, formerly of Rajpipla wilson studios, bombay, 1930

Nawab Shah Jahan Begum, GCSI, of Bhopal bourne & shepherd, 1872

Maharajkumari Heman Kanwarji Sahiba of Dungarpur, later Maharani of Danta al syed, 1937-1939

Nawab Begum Sajida Sultan of Bhopal, also Begum of Pataudi kl syed & co, 1938-1940

Maharani Sita Devi of Baroda henri cartier-bresson, 1948

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The life of the canvas made out of torn cotton-wool from my mother’s first-aid box.

But we still went to old New Market to pick out a spindly artificial bottle-brush of a Christmas tree, decorated it with little silver bells that left a trail of silver crumbs all over our sweaters, and topped it all off with a shiny star.

It was not our festival in any religious sense but it was tradition and there was comfort in its ritual. Christmas was once peak nostalgia time for the English in Calcutta, dreaming of a white Christmas back home. But with the sahibs and memsahibs largely gone, perhaps we were just nostalgic for the nostalgia. The chrysanthemums and dahlias were blooming at the Horticultural Society. Our mothers sat in the verandahs in the hazy December sun, knitting chequered vests. It was a perfect time to bask in nostalgia, as mellow as the amber notun gur in the Bengali sweetshops.

The nostalgia, in part, was for another far more glamorous city. That rich cosmopolitan past had faded. Only the rich plum cake remained and we dutifully queued up for it at Flurys on Park Street or Nahoum’s Jewish bakery in New Market. If there was irony in the city’s only kosher Jewish bakery making most of its business from selling Christmas cakes and Easter eggs, it was lost on us. Years later when I was nostalgic for Calcutta

fruitcake while spending Christmas in balmy of being stuck in the city for Durga Puja with California, my American friends were dumb- its sweaty crowds, deafening noise and tacky founded. A Christmas fruitcake was the punch excess. “Oh, I am never in town for Durga Puja. line of a joke there, the indestructible offering Haven’t been for the last 11 years,” we would re-gifted from home to home, something that say with almost a touch of pride. With many no one wanted to be saddled with. In Calcutta, offices shut for 10 days and schools closed, it however, it remains a gourmet delight, worth was the perfect time for a Puja vacation. standing in line for.

Christmas, on the other hand, was the seaLast year I wandered into a dingy Dicken- son for homecoming. That’s when the NRI misian building in a little lane in central Calcutta gratory birds came flocking home, as also the where Montoo baked his famous Christmas children who had fled to Bengaluru and Mumcakes. Customers from all over the city, of all bai and New Delhi. It was like yesterday once religious persuasions, still came with their more — Christmas lunch at Calcutta Club with family recipes, flour, eggs, slabs of Amul but- the same geriatric waiters, a swim at Tolly and ter, candied fruit and bottles of Old Monk and devilled crab and whisky sours at Mocambo. brandy. Bakers worked round the clock, There was a nip in the air, parties every other churning out batch after batch of fruitcake, night, boozy alumni reunions and Christmas sleeping in shifts on bunk beds. The ovens are carnivals for the children, with stockings and rented not by the hour, but by the kilo of sug- crackers. Flurys was open all night, with lines ar. A neighbourhood tough staggered in, stretching round the block clamouring for drunk and belligerent, and plum cake and mince pies and raised a ruckus, until he was Dundee cakes. Christmas was mollified with cake. At hole-inhow Calcutta got its groove back. the-wall Kanchan bakery in the But now we worry, that like evThe ovens were twisting bylanes of Taltala, a erything else, Christmas too is booked solid, all banner strung across the lane losing its charm. For the malls baking fruitcake. promised “Traditional procit’s just another excuse to have “What?” the woman ess is still following. Book- grumbled. “Shall I eat sales like Puja sales and Bengali ing will start from 1 New Year sales. The only differonly cake now?”

December. Cake baking ence is Jingle Bells on endless will start from 15th Decemloop. The doormen look uncomber.” A woman came to buy fortable in ill-fitting Santa suits biscuits and was told to with cardboard box bellies. My come back in the New Year. The ovens cell phone spams me with offers for Santa text were booked solid, all baking fruitcake. messages at ₹3 each. We splurge overpriced Warm on hues Paresh a master ofturoil “What?” the woman grumbled. “Shall I eat banquets at five-star hotelsMaity withis dry roast canvas; (left)mulled only cake now?” key and chestnut stuffing,onindifferent ‘Reflection of Passion’, Why not? There was a lot we did not have wine and carol muzak and then pop some Pu2015; (below) in Calcutta when I was growing up — indus- din Hara pills for digestion.

‘Wedding Bell’, 2013 try, jobs, malls, multiplexes, opportunity, During Christmas week, Park Street beelectricity. But if we could not have bread, let comes impassable, as crowds jostle and shove tially startedcake.out with Christmas watercolours, us eat (plum) A Calcutta cake Kolkata and village.

This city isgarish a paradise to look at themy lights, at the rather manmesmerised byby works of British baked perhaps Muslim bakers, landscapist in a Jewish for thepark. crowded streets and squalgerartists. displayEven in the The government-sancTurner, turned to customers, installationpeace art? “Iand do goodit all. or, bakery, for Hindu can be inspiringfair for an artist, at least it is for tioned Christmas sells mincemeat pies, Life journey.

Youmouthful. learn something new ev- me,” will is inaevery chewy he says. and France are thefavouother Yule logs and Venice that evergreen Christmas eryItday andpretentiously evolve. I followcolonial this philosophy.” seems but Christ- places he lovesbiryani. to visit ‘just for painting’. rite — chicken Newspapers do yet anmas was our season, even more than Durga other storyThe textures of Kolkata and his vilof the quaintness of Anglo-Indians Long journey Puja. Durga Puja was the time to leave Calcutta celebrating an lage come through in hisin bright “authentic” Christmas Bow Now 50, Maity’s journey from a middle-class Barracks, but what in droves.

People like us, upper and used vibrant colours on the to be a homespun humble village in shuddered Tamluk, at the prospect community affair canvas. and cosmopolitan, says,scrum “Nature is is now aHe tourist with Medinipur district of abundant with colours; I West Bengal, to an artist just try to catch some of in the international areit. Nature is my inspirana has been a long one. tion, my muse. I also While his father wanted consider Indian folk art him to take up medicine more contemporary or engineering, he prethan the contemporary ferred to mould clay modart of today. It’s simple, els of gods and goddesses unique and powerful.” and sell them at the village Over the years, Maity has market. The Rupnarayan river, been working on bigger and bigwhich flowed near his village, ger canvases. His 800-ft mural, ensured a ready supply of clay. on view at the Indira Gandhi InYou learn something While school didn’t interest him ternational Airport, Delhi, is said new every day and much, an enthusiastic teacher to be one of the longest in the evolve introduced him to art. He realworld. But Maity enjoys working ised art was his calling and left on both large and small canvases home to become an artist. and says that he uses the same While studying at the Governstyle irrespective of scale. He is ment College of Arts and Crafts, Kolkata, he finicky about his materials and imports his couldn’t afford a hostel and would travel paper from France and Italy. hours by train to attend class. His means were Like a Renaissance man, he dabbles in pholimited and he sustained himself on awards tography and filmmaking, but gets little time and scholarships. to pursue them. He carries with him a sense of But like many talented people, before and flamboyance and creativity. Don’t the strife after him, he eventually found recognition. An and conflicts around affect him? “Of course, opportunity to exhibit some of his watercol- they do. But I look for joy in other spaces, I look ours in Delhi proved lucky. He got noticed and for the positive in this world. Why should I redecided to settle down in the Capital; if, that is, peat only the negative?” he asks. ‘settling down’ is a term that can be applied to (‘Sounds of Silence’ runs at CIMA Gallery, Kolkahis restless soul. His artist-wife Jayasri Burman ta till January 16, 2016.) holds the anchor at home.

“For inspiration I return again and again to ranjita biswas is a Kolkata-based journalist

Paresh Maity brings his procession of ants and thousands of bells to his largest exhibition in the country till date

W

ND-X _ A

hat do you think of the age 40? Is it time to slow down or a time to start the next phase of life with renewed vigour?

Renowned contemporary artist Paresh Maity belongs to the latter category. His works completed over the last 40 years — drawings, paintings, sculptures, installations — are on display at an exhibition, ‘Sounds of Silence’, in Kolkata. “This is the first time that I am holding an exhibition of this scale anywhere in India,” says the Padma Shri awardee. He directs his team to adjust the halogen light to illuminate the face and parts of the huge bull in ‘The Force,’ which immediately reminds one of Picasso’s signature works. Maity admits that the great artist as well as cubism have had a “huge influence” on him.

With a smile he says, “And I love the bull. I am a Taurean, after all.”

I ask him about the title of the exhibition. “There is a silence in nature. You can feel it. An artist can perform a praan pratishtha — giving life through creative expressions.” He points to ‘Mystic Abode,’ a room-like structure made of hundreds of bells, which weighs more than 2,500kg. He introduces soft music through an audio system and the entire structure comes alive.

In ‘Procession’, the fuel tanks and headlights of motorbikes are assembled together to reAll things bright semble ants crawling up a wall.

Park Street becomes The work forces a double take a jumble of shiny from the viewer, as it is striking lights and jostling both in conception and execucrowds during the Christmas week tion. So, has the artist who ini-

Q R

Q R

BL

watch cover

saturday, december 19, 2015

Life in the shadows The story of the film is drawn from the autobiography of Vidya, a Chennai-based NGO worker and theatre activist

FILM FATALE

She, he, them and us Sanchari Vijay’s sensitive performance as a transgender in the uplifting Naanu Avanalla…Avalu ought to be seen by mainstream audiences outside Karnataka

anna mm vetticad

T

he audience breaks into applause as quence dealing with the unhygienic are a rare sight in the mainstream. Shabnam the central figure on screen snubs a conditions in which castrations are conduct- Mausi being elected to the Madhya Pradesh self-righteous stranger on a train. ed underground, this is a truly uplifting film. Legislative Assembly for 1998-2003, dancer-acThe actor in question is Vijay, but What makes it even more so is the realisation, tor-activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi appearing not that Vijay whose face is plastered all over in its closing moments, that Naanu Avanal- on the reality show Sacch Ka Saamna in 2009 to Tamil Nadu. The character in question is the la…Avalu is drawn from a true story, the auto- dispel myths about hijras, and the Supreme film’s lead, yet not the now-cinematically- biographical I Am Vidya: A Transgender’s Court’s landmark 2014 ruling recognising cliched Angry Young Man for whom such wolf- Journey by Chennai-based NGO worker and transgenders as the “third gender” have all whistle-worthy dialogues are usually written theatre activist Vidya aka Living Smile Vidya. been uncommon developments. in India. As she dispenses her lines to an antagNaanu Avanalla…Avalu earned two National Over the years, mainstream cinema has onistic fellow though, viewers cheer the way Awards this summer: Best Actor for Kannada lampooned anyone who does not conform to they usually do for mega-starrers filled with theatre artiste Sanchari Vijay’s restrained per- traditionally accepted notions of gender or at song ‘n’ dance, melodrama and bombast. formance as Madesha/Vidya, far removed best has treated such persons as a source of I look around me, pleasantly surprised by from the caricaturish portrayals of transgen- comedy and little else. Films like Mahesh this reception for the Kannada film Naanu Ava- ders in Indian mainstream cineBhatt’s Tamanna (1997), with acnalla…Avalu (I Am Not He…She) in a large hall ma; and Best Make-up. The film tor Paresh Rawal playing a pivat the International Film Festival of Kerala in was also screened at the Indian otal character who is a hijra, Thiruvananthapuram. Although festival Film Festival of Melbourne in have been unusual. crowds are often morefrom open-minded than the International Vijay’s National Award for Jingle economy (Clockwise top left) Kanchan bakeryAugust in Taltalaand announces bookings for fruitcakes; ovens in central work round the clock, churning As Montoo’s he grows older, he Kolkata out endless batches of fruitcake; long waitofoutside Nahoum’s bakery New Market; seller who up every outside New Market; shopping for most, I was expecting someadegree conserFilmJewish Festival ofin India, Goa, the in turkeybegins Naanu Avanalla…Avalu has come toshows feel like a year Christmas decorations and in knick-knacks; workers packs cakesafor deliverythevatism and discomfort responsean toassembly this filmline ofNovember.

It got limited in a year in which the media has woman trapped in a about a transgender called Madesha/Vidya. atrical release in Karnataka on reported other significant mileman’s body television vans.

“No, the I don’t want here to tell you cakes” and even up special Quite to the contrary, audience reacts are not cheap.

Few of uselecthave September 25. Itsetought to becake counters ₹400 a kilo they stones: Madhu Kinnar was about my favourite Christmas cake recipe,” an on thebystreet to meet the holiday with positivity and plaudits. to roastfirst the birds.

But we seen mainstream Indian au- rush. The fes- ovens big enough ed India’s transgender elderly aunty a flowered dress scolds me. tival hasoutside becomeKarnataka a fad and everyone is cashing gather around, Director BSinLingadevaru’s Naanu AvanalgawkinatChhattisgarh’s them and takeRaigarh videos diences too. mayor “Every year youstory all come and askborn the asame Nextpublic year, Itends tell myself, I will steer clear of on mobile phones. la…Avalu is the of Madesha, boy in.The “Is itCorporation a foreign chicken?” to assume Municipal this Jathing atKarnataka. this time.”He I am chagrined, Streetwith during in rural is asuitably bright student but Park one the man.

“No, it’s anCourt Austhat films suchChristmas. subjects would be boring, nuary, and lastasks month, Madras High firmly putare intoo mybusy place.

Later she It’s heavy Yet that is uncharitable.

Christhis peers mocking his relents. effeminate ostrich,” says hisYashini friend and/or hard to watch.

In truth, the last- paved the waytralian for Chennai’s K Prithika chhena cake Christmas, all. Try thehis pure could have remained pickled demeanourafter to appreciate classroom acu- mas the complete certainty oning memory from Naanu Avanalla…Avalu is of to become thewith country’s first transgender pofrom sheolder advises me.

It’s special. sepia-tinted Calcutta Club for the first lice sub-inspector. men. JN AsBarua’s, he grows and becomes more in ly Calcuttans can muster when Madesha’s smile when he realises For the most part though, It is,of but it is also forlike theaAnglonostalgia, aware himself, hebitter-sweet, begins to feel wom- Christmas clueless.

The fat in of bright time there arelunch others like him out there, A and India’s transgenders remain anman object ridihomespun Indians areinfading away from The haunted the ghostsspirit of Christan trapped a man’s body.

In aCalcutta. journey that pink pants, sittingor, onatathe folding of Vidya’sby compassion, and fire. communitycule, contempt, discrimination very affair is Christmas that his remains upPune as a mases instead it has retakes him from villageistopropped Bengaluru, Suchpast. as theBut scene mentioned in the opening now a tourist scrum least, apathy. chair, selling the birds shares tourist attraction.

A part earns of meanresents this packaged a different city, temper she and Cuddappah, Madesha MA degree cooking advice.

“You can grill it. paragraph,itself thatfor flash of controlled Even the well-intentioned among us usually new blingythe Christmas.

I stare in dismay at the shed its exclusivity, and drawn in tryst with sweep away such and joins hijra community living on Roast issues it.” displays on a train during her brief into rarely-visited jam-packed streets outsideultimately New Market, new crowd.when It is aan eat-drinkshadowy margins of society, assert-a amendicancy, He had it last night, he says. passenger dismisses her nooks and crannies of our minds where they claustrophobic crushcomplete of people,with andwomen’s wonder make-merry festival now ing a female identity cook it? I ask. or as being uneducated andunlike too lazy to work are unlikely toHow give did us ayou pang of conscience why so many them are wearing San- any Bengali festival.

That perhaps is the an“Curried,” clothes, the ofname Vidya and idiotic castration he human says with a paan-stained hardother for a living like everyone else.

Vidya openattack of basic decency.

Naanu Avata hats and taking selfies.

It feels like Christmiracle of Christmas.

Thethat plum (termed “nirvana” in her circles).

She athen ex- last “I only drags like curry.” ly challenges him, pointing out shecakes is, in smile. nalla…Avalu every discomfiting quesmas of wide-eyed gaping tourists, not always come Nahoum’s any- tion periences discrimination in her yokels quest even, for a might Calcutta Christmas might feel like fact, a postgraduate whofrom society is unwilling out of those dark corners intomore the light, wrapped up profession. in neon-coloured fluffy woollens more but Christmas keeps marching on, more Kolkata mainstream Christmas these days, but what’s in a to employ. compelling us to confront them and our own as The if they areisinabout Darjeeling. new Christmas than midnight mass. film Vidya’sThis refusal to let this fruitcake The snow is prejudice just cotton-wool either These are scenes so commonplace in parts name? role in perpetuating by, if nothing feels, think snootily, just tooa crass, com- of Right outside New Market shows up way. socialIbigotry force her into life of too begging it’s still Christmas.

India that we barely noticea—man hijras seeking else, But turning a blind eye to it. mon, toowork. commercial.

Theher local middle-class every to barging sell turkeys. ungainly and sex It is about determination alms, year hijras intoThe weddings toblacksing, roy is the author ofauthor Don’t Let HimAdventures Know. anna mm vetticad is the of The bakery chains, outlets all over the waddle and shuffle, clamber sandip not to allow thewith chauvinism of others to city, dic- and-white dance andbirds demand money, hijras blessing lives in Kolkata of an Intrepid Film Critic t@annavetticad have come up withExcept theirfor own Xmas trash cans and try to Yet, open the lid. At He tate her life choices. one“rich difficult se- onto newly-weds and newborns. transgenders

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Serve me right

are several small mohallah (neighbourhood) groups across Jaipur and each one has a representative who goes door-to-door motivating women to participate in the monthly meetings. This group essentially serves as the domestic worker’s support system, a place where they can talk freely.

Apart from problem-solving, the forum spreads awareness regarding various social schemes and how to procure key government documents like a ration card or Above/Below Poverty Line (APL/BPL) cards, which are crucial to the survival of this largely migrant workforce. Tackling employer and police harassment, too, is spoken about in great detail.

Bali, who works in Jaipur’s Devinagar area, says, “When we come from another state we have no local identity proof or ration card.

That in itself stops us from accessing subsidised food grains, opening a bank account or getting admission for our children in a nearby school. The slums where we manage to hire a small, airless room are extremely dirty and most of us don’t even have access to toilets.

But no government paid any attention to our needs till we built our own collective. Suddenly, we had an identity.”

“I understood that my employer cannot hit Past forward The crux of the story is the fall of the Athenian ‘tyrants’ courtesy democracy me. So the next time she tried to raise her hand, I told her that I would go to the police.

She was appalled at my outspoken behaviour and I eventually lost that job but I am happy that I spoke up for myself. Nowadays, whenevUnited we stand Being part of a group has enabled women domestic workers to share their experiences and er someone abuses one of us we stand togethbrainstorm for solutions wfs/auradha shukla; (below) Mewa Bharti has brought together over 12,000 women domestic workers in Jaipur wfs/rakesh kumar er. Consequently, the employers have started treating us better,” says Geeta, who works in eprivation has been an integral part ill-treated she is ready and willing to speak up Jaipur’s Randev Nagar. of Savita’s life from the beginning. on their behalf.

Of course, for the roughly eight lakh domesHer parents moved from a small vilLike Savita, there are over 12,000 women do- tic workers in India (ILO estimates) there is filage in Cooch Behar district of West mestic workers in the Pink City who have nally some reason to hope — the Government Bengal to Jaipur in Rajasthan, in search of em- come together as part of the Rajasthan Mahila of India has prepared a national policy that ployment. To bolster the meagre family in- Kamgaar Union (RMKU) to demand their promises to protect their interests. The draft or thestarted last decade or so, sequential art also come, Savita doing domestic work work thetheir shadows, using as a illustrations rights andbehind establish identity as faith workers. for children’s books in the 1930s.

‘National Policy for Domestic Workers’, pre— cartoons, graphic illusalong with her mother at thenovels, age ofeven 13. She of- conduit.

The brainchild of Jaipur-based social activist pared Withbymost period projects like Democracy, the Director General Labour Welfare, trated reportage — has been athours the eyea Mewa ten worked, without complaint, for 10 At the beginning of the we are introBharti, this group hasbook, become a force to one of the things thatthe creators typically aspire in compliance with provisions of the ILO ofhope manythat political storms, we’re duced day, in the fortunes wouldand change.

Leander (from the ancient reckon to with.

“Women domestic workersGreek in In- to is to prove point about contemporary convention ona domestic workers, recomtalking just about of Prophet myth “Beingnot a servant cancaricatures be very humiliating. of highly Leanderoverworked and Hero) and Thersippus, dia are underpaid. times. foreshadowing particularly mends This a minimum monthlyiswage for unMohammad here. I was forbidden to sit on a two When I was small friends and who are strong Moreover, they arebrothers-in-arms often subjected to sexual In Hippias, Hipparchus and their skilled,here. semi-skilled, skilled and highly-skilled Joe in Sacco been relentless his indictchair my has employer’s home orineven eat in marching to violence meet thebecause Persians in battle.

One army and physical their workplace of Scythian mercenaries, see the becategories of domestic workers,we besides proviment of America’s and foreign poli- day, the plates that theydomestic used regularly.

And using Thersippus hashomes a nightmare aboutthere the ginnings constitutes private and as such of modern-day polisions for compulsory paidMachiavellian leave, a mandatory cies, wellwas as Israel’s handling of itthe Gaza their as toilet forbidden even if was an goddess Athena leadingtothe Greeks intointerbat- tics. are no laws or policies protect their Through the pragmatic contribution fromHero, the employer towards situation.

DeLisle has slyly cultivated an tle: emergency.Guy Ill-treatment was ‘normal’ and for not as Bharti. herself, but as her monstrous Gor- prophet-in-training, ests,” says we see the point that Matheir social security and a proper grievance reexterior of self-deprecating humour,up. oneThose that gon every little mistake I was beaten persona,involving filled awith an insatiable An incident 15-year-old domestic hatma Gandhi was making when he said: dressal mechanism. softens the blows he lands in histhis darkly comic days, I used to dream of leaving work and blood-lust.

After compelled Leander calms worker in Jaipur Bharti “Those whoBharti say that religion has While and her vociftravelogues from and places like Shenzhen, Jerusagoing to school playing like others my Thersippus down, he tells to work towards changing thehis lives nothing to do are withglad politics do erous group that dolem Alison Bechdel has been friend age,”and saysPyongyang.

Savita. his“After personal conof theseabout women. the teenagnot know what religion By mestic workers haveis.”the whisked away bookshelves, banned At 29, little hasfrom changed for her, other than nection with by Athena and howshe er was raped her employer the end of the book, the reader is attention of the political powNothe government By end of thepaid from college awarded a MacArthur the fact thatsyllabi she isand now married.

She still these visions became a part became pregnant.

When sheofap- book, at that optimal juncture of wisers, they advise caution. anythe attention our reader to is at ‘genius In India, like works asgrant’. domestic helpgraphic in sevennovels homes inDelJai- his life. them for help she was that proached tingedstill with profound “There’s a along way tosadgo needs till we built our dom optimal juncture hi Calm the explosive Kashmir tomeevery Mun- publicly pur, andand despite labouring for 12 hours The crux of the story is the fall disgraced.

I came to know ness: the kind of melancholy before the National Policy own collective of wisdom tinged nu grabbed the bull by the horns.

Clearly, day,have earns a meagre ₹3,500 per month.

She of this the Athenian a word case from‘tyrants’: another domestic that comes comes intowith force.realising Till then,that our with a profound these are exciting times if you comics cre- that continues to be mistreated byare hera employers, began with that a very helper.

I ensured shedifferent had a safe wefocus are all doomed to repeat our will continue to remain sadness ator unafraid of to make political statement. her standard living ahas scarcely improved. connotation from Iwhat wefor are delivery and then fought jusmistakes ad nauseam. on solving wage disputes, resthisSavita charged atmosphere steps DemocYet,Into today has the confidence to not just used toher. now.The In police the name of contice for did not coopThe book ends with a series of cuing child domestic workers racy, recent graphic novel about Athensand circaa sensus, standa up for her rights as an individual tyrantsand would erate initially onlymanipuafter I sought the and combating smart historical notes the violence faced by about domestic 500 BC that of parworker but investigates also ensure the thatbeginning unlike her, her late councilmen, and bribe them support of women’s groups in the city did workers,” shecharacters.

Importantly, these says. liamentary democracy. its rather daughter gets educatedDespite and breaks out ofselfthe with about under the long sun. By do- notes they just register a anything case. It took three years the places whereface the came creators The reveal perils all domestic workers to conscious posturing as a piece of faction (fact ing circle of disempowerment. theyable were to the formabut this, we were tocontributing force the culprit to pay for have embellished fact with demarthe fore recently, when twofiction: Nepali this women doplus fiction), that accelerating literary genre, tion of an and oligarchy the education upkeepwith of thedemocratic child. As I cation not entirely according to mestic isworkers, rapednecessary, and abused by their Bit by bit Democracy is a richly rewarding experience. pretensions.

Thecase tyrants Hippias Hipparworked on this I realised thatand I wanted to this writer,employer, but it is welcome all thefrom same. diplomat were rescued a GurThe book Pa- chus Being partwas of conceptualised a small group by of Alecos domestic are drawn beautifully Papadatos.

They gaon do more to safeguard theby position of these It’s house. interesting that the acknowledgement Geeta, a domestic help in Delhi, padatos.

Papadatos co-wrote theastory with play workers in her area has made difference the classic ‘good-cop, bad-cop’ routine to section women,” she says. includes a heartfelt for the says, “This is not the first timeshout-out it has happened. writertoand researcher Abraham Kawa, who al- perfection.

Savita’s attitude.

She now recognises Hipparchus Hippias film Bharti knew that theseduces key to while empowering by itsconstant protagonist Risk Network, of sexualmade abusefamous is real and and so wrote the final Papadatos also illusherself as script. a ‘domestic worker’ — a uses force whenever necessary. theselethal workers would be to bring them Leanon a Howard Beale’s “I’m as mad hell and I’m not one has to remain very alert.asSadly, the law ontrated themember book while thecountry’s colouring was unordone der’s of the large fatherplatform Promachus, a good fallsbrainprey gonna common where theyman, could any more” rant. Perhaps is ly helpstake theithigh and mighty.”

Bhartithat adds,

by Annie DiDonna.

Papadatos and DiDonna ganised labour force.

Her aware- to the machinations of their their problems. petty politics. storm for solutions to SheThe ex- the parting Papadatos and Kawaand in“Most oftennote the that influential go scot-free had previously teamed up for the 2008 book scene ness has increased he is support assassinated drawn—inthe an tended plainswhere that with fromisJagori for woman the conscientious in the abused is left alonereader: to pickthat up the Logicomix, citedtremendously, as one of the classic graphic and she now intense, cinematic style.resource centre work- the Delhi-based women’s faceBut of as a decadent polity, Howard Beale is pieces. the once voiceless, faceless womnovels of recent times. knows how to access gov- ingDiDonna thewomen woodcut on issuesemploys of migrant andcolouring informal the ideal en of thecitizen.

RMKU have proven, even the most The Athens of Democracy is a place that has style ernment welfare to bring outover the the horror the moment: women workers pastofseveral years — disadvantaged All of us ought to becan madchange as hell the at what group oddswe if grown complacent inschemes. its idea of civilisation.

When she gets the etched fromofacollective black backtheycolours, have realised theout power ac- have allowed they stand by democracy each other.”to become.

The citizens are extremely wary dictatorto know of aoffellow do- ground, reminiscent of American tion, evenare though the journey is not thatwoodeasy. mani jha (© Women’s Feature Service) anuradha shukla ship, but have yet to realise how tyranny can cutRMKU mestic worker being maestro Ward’smanner: numerous functionsLynd in a simple there aditya

Domestic workers in Jaipur are realising that strength arises from numbers and coming together

A faction onto itself

D F

A richly rewarding graphic novel that reminds us we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes again and again

Democracy Alecos Papadatos, Abraham Kawa and Annie DiDonna Bloomsbury India Graphic novel ₹599

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Between modernity and tradition Devotees throw offerings of turmeric powder on the occasion of Somavati Amavasya at the Jejuri temple in Pune pti/ poonam shinde

HOME SPUN

Life in the liminal city Pune is an almost-metropolis, a veritable chameleon among cities. A lifelong wanderer writes about finding home in a place whose loyalties are impossible to pin down

gaurav parab

W

hat do you call your book? thing changes every few years in Shivajinagar be everything to everyone. Pune is that aboveHow do you find the right bal- and in Kothrud. average student who comfortably clears the ance between seducing the A city difficult to pin down, claiming the exam and does not bother to make a run for reader and honestly indicat- charm of an old cantonment town but deck- first place. An IT hub but not quite Bengaluru, ing what’s between the covers? You need the ing up like a drunk modern metropolis. A spiritual but no Varanasi, a cultural capital – promise, the soul, the everything of a few place where, if not careful, you will step into a but not the capital. A Western city that hosts years’ work reduced to a few words. A bloody college campus teeming with Che Guevara t- the Southern Command of the Indian Army. good name. shirts. And yet, a city sluggishly starting each There and thereabouts. A chameleon that This question arrived while wrapping up day with ageing pensioners on their morning keeps growing and adding new colours. And my first book. What defines it? The two protag- walks in the University, reminding you of ev- as it changes, on a long enough timeline, Pune Red alert New Market Kolkata, a plastic a sure sign that Christmas is coming to town photos sandip roy every Punekar become the spicy misal onists — Outside Rustom and the inStoryteller — orSanta is Claus ery issingle zombie apocalypse movie ever makes there someone or something else that needs made. available in its ancient alleys. Every ingredient to be acknowledged in the title? Perhaps it is One moment it is high culture, with all the crushed fine enough to be indistinguishable what makes the people in the story who they peths and ancient temples seeped in sepia- from the other, but retaining its own taste. are, or is it what changes them? toned history and the next it is a traffic jam of So yes, Pune reluctantly gave up the answer.

I remember that moment: the deep breath, chrome and diesel manufactured in the vehi- And so I understood that day, looking at the the dramatic glance at the gently rolling hill cle factories of Pimpri and Chinchwad. Poona hill outside, thinking of an apt name for my outside my writing desk in Pune. And break- one moment, Pune the next. book. It’s not only the people around us who ing into a small smile when my home relucA city where MBA-advised franchises open make us who we are or the experiences that tantly gave up an answer. store after store, praying to attract crowds we go through, but also the places that host Pune is the city I have come to call home, from Vohuman, Vaishali and a dozen other our little dramas in life. Even if some are as reeven though I occasionally try sounding exot- world-famous-in-Pune kattas. luctant as Pune to create a finic by whispering Amboli when asked where I While these iconic hangouts ished product. am from. It is a question I get a lot since my stick their tongues out, stubWhere am I from? A man Marathi is poor, in spite of having an excellent, bornly refusing to expand and from Pune, a man from everyAt the risk of making high-scoring Marathi name. It is a question I proudly displaying the ‘We have this sound like an Invest where. Who not long ago was a cannot answer well since, like all nomadic Ar- no other branches’ boards like a boy from nowhere. in Pune brochure, its he where year my aunt came visiting from dolf the red-nosed and Santa’s elves. my brats, my childhood involved the manda- medal. Pune a traditional I reindeer understood.

Rustom, greatest victory is to be I realised there no San- toBut Christmas,whom for us in middle-class Bengali tory dozen school tour of duty from Port Blair dhol tashaLondon, player has to wear a was I created, was himself everything everyone ta United Claus. orI Arsenal alreadyt- suspected as homes in Calcutta, always to Shimla.

Manchester because of required Mumbai.some And level who much. Homes in kurCalofhewilful suspension of disbelief.

Where are you from? You speak in tongues, shirt underneath his or her became was as much due to did not Weancient, knew that underneathStothe drop Solan Whisky references in teetotaller cutta ta, because hecome or shewith has ato.chimthe beer-guzzling for yet Santa Clausup toits shimmy askew white andtopostbox Navsari, and indulge in Kolkata-styled debates ney A city to make mind. ryteller as itbeards was due the Hidown and I did mixer not think he not the giant red outfits, Santa on Goa's sandy beaches. Where are you from?

A homegrown grinder, malayas. Naturally, I had tothe come with Clauses a name That rich came swinging in viapot thethat neem weretocheap pink plastic dolls Eh…Pune? gold-tinted melting largecosmopolitan cities be- that was a tribute the mountains. past had outside that we would not deign to buy Pune changes you. No matter how stubborn tree come.

Pune isour thebedroom maker of wina consistent mixThat, fact that the missus is from Alfaded.

Only the richand the Butmen when my aunt visited any other time of the year.

We you are, it takes you in, breaks you down in un- dow. ture of and women from everyplum clichéd mora.

Trust me, it’s not the worst idea in the cake remained doubts were confirmed.

Christmas our noticeable ways and then reshapes you into my national integration poster. The place that the world to writesang a book with yourcarols wife’sin homeThose gifts piled at the foot missionary school with gusto, another version. Unlike the large factory that north Indian neighbours sayofis as south as town in the name.

Christmas morning though few authors had seen a ‘winter is Mumbai, where you go in one moment and my theybed canthat possibly go. The place that friends (In this monthly column, chronicle the just South too different wonderland’ or had any hope of come out years later: mass produced to last, to were from down find to befrom the last line of de- cities they call home.) from years past. It ever building Frosty the snowman. In our survive, and to either succeed or die trying, their fensehumbler from the predecessors loud North. Middle earth. gaurav the author Rustom the Last have been a devastating revelation ofparab heartsiswe knew of that our and celebration Pune is that makeshift workshop assembling could At the risk of making this sound like anfor ‘In-a heart Storyteller of Almora who devoured fanciful victory tales ofisRuChristmas was as make-believe as the snow people, so they can change again. Like every- naïve vest inboy Pune’ brochure, its greatest to of

Cotton-wool X’mas in Kolkata Q A celebration dripping with mellow nostalgia for a colonial past has repackaged itself for a changed city, shedding its exclusivity and drawing in a new crowd with its eatdrink-make-merry spirit.

That perhaps is the last miracle of Christmas

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

Who’s the bigger criminal?

The have-nots of India who elect people who will ‘keep them poor’ or the ‘betters’ who feel virtuous about paying taxes and not voting?

Listen! Listen! Until The Lions gives voice to some of the Mahabharata’s as-yet voiceless female characters shiv kumar pushpakar

Read it aloud A fascinating tribute to the Mahabharata that hits all the right notes

“I I

Until The Lions Karthika Naïr HarperCollins Poetry ₹799

Omair Ahmad is the South Asia Editor ND-X _ A

for the Third Pole, reporting on water issues in the Himalayas

Loyalty club Voters in Muzaffarpur wait in torians, the history of the hunt queues during thewill always glorify the hunter.’ He spoke ofofhow fourth phase the history, as a narrative writtenrecently-concluded by the victorious, is often pti Bihar elections distorted in its telling.

Naïr writes in the same

t used to be every poet’s ambition to habharata. And the credit for bringing such write a Ramayana or a Mahabhara- themes to light goes to poets and novelists, ta,” AK Ramanujan once wrote. He rather than to theologians, who have for the wasn’t referring to poets of antiqui- most part tended to glorify these texts and ty, some of whom, galvanised by a sense of ri- safeguard them from critical scrutiny. vein in one of the sections of her book: ‘…the valry or literary envy, must have spent their Until The Lions draws on our literary past, bards will sing/ only victors’ odes — psalms on n Delhi,and where I live, I often find myself insomenights days dreaming of creating ciallyand the the indirect taxes ontradition productsitthey buy, Naïr rich critical inheres. themthe have inside, who have delosttheir deaddrivers don’t greet spring.’ the company of people who lament the valthing as readable, complex and culturally whether it is petrol or soap.

These taxesuntold are in-tales re-presents to her readers those cided that instead of paying the price for a But in all truthfulness, it’s unfair to quote political of theorcountry, while, escapable. uable as leadership the Ramayana the Mahabharata.

TheyMahabharata are also regressive, in thataround a parking from the that revolve slot, they illegally parkason anything fromwill Naïr’s book, just it isthe unfair at the same time, blaming vast hin- the Instead, Ramanujan wantedthe to highlight desperately poor person pays as liaisons’ much asand a ve-‘sanchate, manipulation, ‘forced flyover andoutwait, jeopardising to cut separate segmentsboth from thema painting terland — thewith rural,which barelymodern educatedIndian popula-poets, respect ry rich person for 100 grams of salt. tioned rapes’, giving voice to some of the epselves andpresent anybody approaching the airport. and those as an example of an artist’s tion of their imagination — for electingour these himself included, always regarded mytho- These taxes voiceless are what characters. are used to build the ic’s as-yet Ontalent. the way to words the international airport Naïr’s have to be read in their people.

Before the His 2014point general election, I wasmodlogical epics. being that every nation The — the roads we walk, or drive on; thereright book begins withcycle the voice of Satyavati is nocontext, flyover, not andleast because of the because of danger her emphaat theern house of one of my friends workstoatwrite poet’s ambition was notwho so much the uniforms weaponry of our (Ved Vyas’and mother, according to soldiers; legend) on of a terrorist attacks, the approach roads are sis on, and experiments with, myriad poetic Microsoft, and heard yet again this as to rewrite these great texts asconversaan act of literthe bridges over ourdeclamatory rivers, our nuclear plants powerful and note that is suswell-patrolled.

The international also the forms in this book: forms like airport the canzone, tion roll about how the uneducated, easily- and rockets ary on, tribute. carrying payloads space.

All first tained throughout.

‘Listen.into Listen,’ are the has one of the parking in Delhi, landay, the best Spanish glosaspaces and concrete poetry corruptible masses were destroyingnew the book, coun- Until Karthika Naïr’s fascinating of these are built from taxes words we hear.

After paid, which we are flung among others. with six AllLions, except of are In floors.

Until The thetwo words try by and criminal political Thevoting Lions —casteist a critical retelling of the Mahabhaand yet it is often see who straight, as aeasy poettoonce said, into the heart of actually seen thosedancing floors ofon the parking the page. space leaders power.

I mentioned it is benefits ratatofrom theWhen points-of-view of that its marginal, the most from these.

In a Satyavati saying, things primordial.

We hear are proficiency, usually empty, and the Technical however, isn’treaby any India’s rural population that has always and mostly female, characters — is a voted fulfilment country 10 hate per bil- These taxes are ‘hatewhere rises, less hatethan blazes, son means is simple: paying the instead sine quaof non of poetry. the most, andstill-persisting displayed their commitment to beof that writerly ambition, cent of thefrom population owns cars, lows battlefields./ Hate ar-inescapable. They are the In small fact, price it can for alsoparking weigh a — poem democracy far better than the educated sides being an important addition elite, to a subthererives are almost bicycle lanes.

— nosearing rivers, also regressive, in much less than price of the the down.

This the happens when all I received a blank stare. that is founded genre ofwas Indian literature I wasshrivelling told by a friendly offi- de- thatRight plains,road reaping certainly far than performthat equivalent of aless dance a desperately at the outset, flight, Such conversations have inrevisionthe cial that upon the principles of re-emerged mythological I had a motorcycle acsertsifon its path...’ flashy cars, an ance on new the cars page— the becomes poor person pays as ofof the we’re made aware wakeism; of the Bihar especially after the cident Merely one thatelections, continues to flourish. on a flyover in Delhi, two lines into I the mucha as of themact, fitted with acrobatic and theblue poetorstarts a very richnot many poetic voice apparent resurrection Lalu Prasad With this book —ofcomposed of aYadav’s series of incouldbook, not claim insurance as the and we can already senseperson, linelines up atlike the arrival composing Naïr someforworth 100 grams only reading red beacons, political career. “Why is it,” people “that poterconnected, though formallyask, diverse, flyovers technically forover the are power of Naïr’s not words and just wait. the vi-Lines does in This this isbook. of salt but also worth areatimes the poor keep two-wheelers. ems of — India Naïr elect findspeople herselfwho in will distinguished whosense exactly is imus. We canSoeven how sionlike: that our richest,would most privi‘…words nictitate listening to themcompany. poor?” orThere’s some such homily. While can- colMahasweta Devi’sIshort this infrastructure if not portant words for, are to her, the in their leged Indiansdream…’; present to‘…winsome those through not aspire explain Indian electolectiontooffully stories Afterthe Kurukshetra, which is vast majority of people who pay and varying shades of meanings arriving from around the world: as honey…noisome as hell...’; rate, Iabout do sometimes wonder aboutofthe people the surviving widows those who fell for it?even in their almost-tangible a triple-lane mess of people, in-‘...toand, my personal favourite, who victim ask these questions.

I wonder how they to the legendary war between the Pan- Maybe nothing makes me ask this presence, their appearance, onquestion considerately, illegally blocking gether and theyrudely were an infrangible can think their fellow-citizens as second-Then, davas ofand Kauravas in Kurukshetra. as much as when I amfor onnothing my waythat to, or the page.

It’s not thefrom, word ‘arthe way of everyone inconel bolt…’ else, just so that they can class there citizens who should votebeautiful as their ‘betters’ is Arun Kolatkar’s long poem, the airport.

Air travel — carbon emissions be rives’ appears next to its near-mirror image cheat the statewords, — theirshedding fellow-citizens — of the These no light on the feel they should. few times thatcalled I have hilarious andThe poignant by turns, ‘Sarpa damned — areinone thequoted badgesabove. of theSowell‘searing’ theofline right at smallworld amount they are areall charged around, sound,for andparking. while we’re askedSatra’ why —people think theyinterpretation are better, they another critical of a mitravelled Indian,we’re especially it is internationthe outset, madeifaware of a poetic voice And able it is to these people who then hearvery them, their effect is lostlecture on us. This immediately cite from the fact they pay their nor episode thethat Mahabharata involving al travel. way to the domestic internot On onlythe worth reading but alsoand worth listenanybody they talk to,the about how theJames rural, had was that precisely what critic Clive taxes.a Itritual is well-known a small perperformedthat by only the emperor Janamanational Delhi, you get a wonderful ing airports to — theindistinction being all that sepauneducated Indians us continue elect the coronce cautioned against.to“For a poet to be all centage Indians generally those in midjeya,ofaiming to—exterminate ‘the Nagas, or the glimpse how our most privileged fellow-ci- rupt sound,” ratesofminor versifiers from real poets. and theJames criminal.

If only they looked infor a wrote, “is nearly as bad as dle-class who to cannot avoid it — paydeath Snakejobs People’ avenge his father’s tizens behave. approach theplanning last flyover A pieceAs ofyou advice to those to get the mirror would realiseBut whoeven exactly the bepainterthey to be all paint.” so, look income tax, and many mistake this obligation to thethis from a snakebite. domestic airport, youthe find thatout the loud. lane corrupt book: try reading words and thetechnical criminalfrills, are. listen a little more yond the as a virtue.

They like somehow forget that every In- on yourUntil Themes hostility, revenge, oppression leftThe is Lions blocked vehicles, getswith its title from ansomeinterview closely, and you’ll hear Until The Lions hitting t@OmairTAhmad dian of pays of some kind or violence another, and espe-injusthetax weak, unrestrained timesthe forNigerian as much novelist as 200-300 metres.

All ofonce all the right notes.

Chinua Achebe tice — all culminating in a senseless genocidal gave to the Paris Review. Here, Achebe quoted a war — are some of the central motifs of the Ma- proverb: ‘…until the lions have their own his- vineet gill is a journalist with The Sunday Guardian

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saturday, december 19,19, 2015 saturday, december 2015

COSMOPOLIS

Bigotry can’t be a principle Across the globe an alarming trend is raising its ugly head: the resentful and angry repudiation of liberal pluralism likely to play a large role in the 2017 presidential election.

Admirably, the French government has kept its cool and insisted that it will still receive thousands of Syrian refugees; it recognises that blaming the collective of Muslims for the crimes of a minuscule few is playing into Full ofright beans A the hands of the so-called Islamic State. farmer rakes coffee berries for dry And yet the temptation to turn on migrants outside and minorities and summon theprocessing demon of na- his home in Coorg tivism remains perilously strong.

The recent bloomberg/prashanth vishwanathan events in India have been well documented in these pages and elsewhere. But I find instructive the remarks of BJP supporter and internet TUMMY TRAVELS activist Devang Dave, speaking on NDTV’s ‘The Big Fight’.

He defended the BJP’s army of vituperative online warriors. “Social media has only given a way for the majority to speak up,” he said, “which the [mainstream] media has neglected for a long time.” The journalist Saba Naqvi asked Dave why that “speaking up” was so hateful, sexist and communal. He shrugged her concerns away. “You can say whatever you want, but the reality is the reality.”

Loons on the fringe Supporters of the PEGIDA movement, or ‘Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamification f I have a hunch take it seriously.

Alspices, bakery products and fried snacks, to The myself). only word I catchforces yelledare frequentreality The is that majoritarian on afp/jens schlueter of the Occident’, take out a rally inIeastern Germany though my Kannada skills are somewhat homemade pickles, poultry and vegetables, ly is ‘politician’.

Mondays in Somwarpet can be the march.

Fatigue and displeasure with the limited, I figure that Somwarpet, the plus things like detergents, clocks, rechargeaquite a ball.is being expressed in cultural establishment his past Europe was name of a autumn, tiny town as in Karnataka’s Coorg and angry repudiation of liberal ble torches, and even clothespluralism. sold in big piles.

After this‘outsiders’ sublime,deride leisurely lunch, it is terms. Populist multicultuto grips market’. with theSo Syrian hills, coming means ‘Monday beingrefa bit of Trump has been widely denounced One section is devoted to dried fishfor andhis there’s shopping time. A couple coffee mills uphill ralism and pluralism as the of preserve of the ugee crisis, Polish decide footballtofans in on a shopaholic, I naturally go there comments on Latinos and butwalking it elite,from a pungent smell in theMuslims, air — like thepolitical bus station beckon. One is surroundas petty correctness, as the snooseveral stadiums unfurled banners hasn’t a Monday. hurt his among Republican ty inclinations around in astanding huge kitchen. ed by a heady of roasting coffee. of fragrance coastal intelligentsia in At with anAsabsurd message: Islamisathe bus rattles “Stop alongthe winding jungle voters. For A recent Post foundis husuch aWashington small town, thepoll market the tiny Someshwara Coffee Works, the proAmerica, or the cynical concoction of technotion of Poland.”

The Islamisation of Poland? roads and occasionally through vast coffee that nearly 60 per cent of Republican voters fa-lanes, mongous and I stroll in its crowded Mr Kumar is busy running both the cratsprietor in Brussels and aristocrats in Lutyens’ Neverplantations, mind that few refugees wantand to goon to Popast villages, narrow voured banning thetown. rapt.

I seem Muslims to be thefrom onlyentering tourist in ovenDevang and the grinder at the same Delhi.roasting In this way, Dave could describe land.bridges Never mind that Polish authorities have across rivers flowing rather lazily,US. I Trump argues that hisheads, proposal toand block Small girls turn their point giggle.the bile time, shirt-front from coffee powdof his online trolls asbrown the authentic voice said there a terrorist threat to the country worryisn’t a little.

The only guidebook I found that Muslims is a common sense response to radiWatching the food on display makes me ravlearn that his family has had finding the mill for of aer. Ination, long suppressed, in thementioned wake of the Paris attacks. mindGazetSomwarpet was Never the 1870s’ cal Islamist terror (like that visited upona few enous. I go up the main street and spot 50 years and they have a plantation where utterance. that of a population of nearly million peo- fulteer of Coorg, according to40 which, “Though southern California this month),joint, and and It they veg and non-vegearlier eateries, a biriyani only Arabica. mostgrow certainly is not (does any nation ple, Poland’s Muslims barely register as the ly alive31,000 to their material interests, that those who think otherwise are bowing to bunancient seedy bars housed in ramshackle While other millsvoice?), offer you blends of Robushave a single authentic but the cause dropstown-people in the ocean,have or that Poland a country little desireis for or perhaps milquetoast “political galows. But I needcorrectsomething ta and Arabica (and of multiculturalism feelschicory), belea- Kuof emigrants, having sent waves of European exiles and fashlittle faith in education after ness.”more But it is a nonsensical pol- bar substantial than mareverywhere. deals exclusively Coorg guered Why is in it so workers overseem the world. sadly, these with Pol- the ion.all They to be No, quite content icy that would only playquite into the snacks, and I don’t want to I request 2kg pure. hardArabica. to defend pluralism fromAs he ish football fans looked upon the desperationEvery knowledge of their bazaar-routine. hands of extremists. wolf down my grub at a shared half of itclaim ‘nice’,tomeaning who cavalierly repI pull outisa that thousand-thosegrinds reality of theMonday refugeesthere and could muster only hate. is a market, hence the name of Thecanteen truth istable that Trump like the Therupee either, —while fine ground, I pull out a thouresent the ‘majority’? note thinking majoritarian forces I am by the courage of a othernext thealways place.”struck But that wasfalse when the population majoritarian customerpoliticians waits for in me to sand-rupee thinking The trouble is note that while plu- that that this is going to are on the march political like “Stop the grown Islamisation was stand 953, which has now to 7,218,ofandEurope I vacate and India — is so lessI intermy seat; turn and this isonce going to cost aand bomb, is at inescapable cost a bomb, when ralism Poland.” is bigotry masquerading as the princihaveItno way of knowing whether Monday estedhead in actual policy thantowards in downhill instead, when suddenly turns and abstract — aKumar lived reality as much Kumar suddenly turns ple, the bravado of the has mobbeen veiled as the brav- and market tradition discontinued dredging up the public’s reserthe Madikeri Road. After a three“520.” Then he changes is an ethical principle — it is his and says, “520.” as it says, ery ofreplaced conviction. by modern supermarkets. The one voir of fear, bigotry, and bileHotel for Saminute walk, I discover mind 500.” not an easy—“Give political platform. It This empty, in his own thing I donoxious know is politics that it’sisa visible major Arabica There are now phaliadvantage.

Family Restaurant adja- daily re- fails to lend itself to populist I find it politics, hard towhich believe al- that manygrowing ostensibly liberal societies.

In according Europe, to region of India (at least portscent of attacks againstplantation.

Muslims in to a coconut It the US, ways require a clear quality coffee can come as cheap enemy — a foreign colonithe rampage of IS-allied in Parislover has is from Wikipedia), which terrorists for any coffee a appears incidents abuse to outright al power, for example, to of be verbal the only proper as ₹250 a kg.

But the elite scent, or an oppressive orpowfurther inflamed and that racist senti- physical good enoughxenophobic reason to head way. violence. restaurant hereabouts — meaning it has menu erful and rich, ‘other’. is promising and indeed, a religious or ethnic A slogan like “Stop the ments that already stirred against the with In cards The were bus gets impossibly crowded, Europe, politicians and far- the Islamisation andmainstream clean restrooms. coffee, onceofI brew myself a no mug at home, Poland” makes empiriSyrian refugees.

In the US, the more people piling in celebrity-mogulthe closer we get to right activists alikedisappoint. have described the Syrianpork It does not The Coorg-style turnsbut outittocan be the best I’ve tasted. Sipping, I’m cal sense, draw a crowd. turned-presidential-hopeful Donald Somwarpet. An exasperated dadTrump offloads refugees a fry (₹100) as a “swarm,” andmanner as is cookedain“dirt-pack,” a very homely totally blissedthe out. the next couple People in India, US,Over and Europe who are of has turned blunt vitriol Muslims, clutch his of toddlers into against my lap and for about “animals.”

Hooligans burnt down asylum and a chicken masala with a stack of Kerala weeks, to it rattles my brain awake the morncommitted pluralism need to find in a politiurging they be banned from coming anthat hour I have the poopers crawlinginto all over shelters in Germany. anti-Muslim parathas comes The at ₹140, plus onePEGIDA can have cal a language ings; the sheer fragrance jumpstarts to better communicate itsme. vir-I realthe country.

And in recentthere timesisina India, reli- the me. Luckily, before stampede, movement hasofspread Germany to Enbig bottle chilledfrom beer for ₹100. Don’t let the I will have topioneered keep returning to Somwarpet tues.ise Their societies the experiment giousbus symbols like cow have been used to gland. reaches itsthe destination.

A regional government in it northwestlocal drunks put you off, for simply seems whenever my stock runs out. No matter of heterogeneous, liberal democracy in thethat I provokeThe ugly passions small townand sitseven on auglier ridge deeds. surrounded ern the Italydone banned burqa and toveil in tipthingthe in Somwarpet begin to spend hours in a jungle with ran20thhave century.

It is up to them to see itbus survive These episodes arehills. separate and have their response by scenic, green Its handful of criss-crossParis if And plingto bythe noon — atterrorist least onattacks market (as days. dom toddlers on my lap.21st It’s worth it. the growing collisions of the century. own ing regional andis national contexts.

But they streets lined with tiny shops and old clothwhat couldbetter kill). way Oncetoskulking France’s lu-sharstart the in week than by t@kanishktharoor zac o’yeah is a Bengaluru-based travel writer, literary are united by an alarming the resentful bungalows.

The large,trend: partially covered marnaticing fringe, thewith far-right National Front is a bottle mates?

I hear the increasingket dominates the centre. Here one gets pretty ly boisterous banter from the booths critic and author of Hari, A Hero for Hire, a comic much everything from fresh produce and surrounding the dining hall (which I have to thriller zacnet@email.com

Coffee break in Somwarpet

It is a nerve-jangling bus ride to this Coorg town, named for its ‘Monday market’, but there’s a headily fragrant perfect cup at the end of it

zac o’yeah

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Kanishk Tharoor is the author of Swimmer Among the Stars: Stories, a forthcoming collection of short fiction

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saturday, december 19,19, 2015 saturday, december 2015

Travel log Getting there

Fly to Cairns from Delhi or Mumbai via Singapore with Singapore Airlines.

Stay

In Cairns, check in to the ShangriLa (www.shangri-la.com/cairns/ shangrila/), situated right on the water’s edge. Silky Oaks Lodge (www.silkyoakslodge.com.au) is a beautiful eco property in the heart of the Daintree region.

Do

shutterstock

Ragedays against Hire a car for three and the drive machine Members of from Cairns to Cape Tribulation a women’s through acres of organisation sugarcane at a 2012 plantations, gentlerally hills, miles of in Kolkata demanding coastline and dense forests.anStop along the way forunconditional an early apology from West Bengal CM morning balloon-ride with Hot Air Mamata Banerjee for Cairns, a bungee her jump or Minjin remarks on Swing at AJ Hackett, and jungle pti/ Suzette Jordan monojit kumar saha surfing at Cape Tribulation.

Suzette Jordan’s victory Airborne in Queensland Tip

Watch out for the large Cassowary bird, commonly found in these parts.

Now that three of her rapists have been sentenced, it’s worth remembering Suzette Jordan’s fight for justice, not just for herself, but for every woman failed by an apathetic system

O I

nly a few days after Salman Khan

employers would have nothing to do with her,

J

ordan did not live to see three of the rapists,

Adventure sportsofiskilling the other for this sunny, vibrant Australian was acquitted a home- name Rumanstate Khan, Naser Khan and Sumit Bajaj and whispers followed her wherever she went.

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less man in a long-drawn hit-andrun case, the headlines have alawoken 3.30 the am narrative and driven, amidst ready’dmoved on.atNow is back to torrential downpour, tworeporting: hours from the usual business of Bollywood roCairns up to the Atheron Tablelands in mantic entanglements and upcoming birthQueensland, OnAustralia.

As that lightning day celebrations. the same day Khan slashed the inky skies, I deliberated the idea of was cleared of the charges against him, three a hot ride on aSuzette day theJordan locals were of theair fiveballoon men who raped touting as of thetheir rainiest in June years. Jorconvicted crime.

Lookin up73Suzette The balloon operators at Hot Air linking Cairns dan and you’ll still find news articles were unperturbed. a short dry spell Jordan to a label sheDuring abhorred and fought unaround 6am, a motley group of enthusiasts til the end: 'Park Street rape victim’. watched bright yellow kangaroo-embossed Thereina lies a crisis in how we remember. A balloon being inflated with 45,000 cubic feet closer look at Suzette Jordan’s story will reveal of propane.

Twenty people the how she exposed this crisis,from and around how much world too many were packed she wasand punished for selfie it. On sticks the evening of Febin four5,compartments of the velvet-lined basruary 2012, Jordan, like many other Kolkaket, while Shaunonstood the gas tans, went our to a pilot nightclub Park with Street.

Later, in aoffered tiny central acylinders man who her a chamber. lift back home and As ofwehisgently up, and the gang-raped rising sun four friendsdrifted assaulted bathed and the threw Lego-like below Jordan, her landscape onto a street earlyinthea golden light. The heat from fire propelling next morning.

Bruised and the in pain, she found the balloon andThree the rays the sun her way home. daysoflater, she warmed went to our police. faces and rain-soaked hair. Kangaroos the bounded sparse brown below and Insteadinoftheregistering herbush complaint relittle creeks through theasked flatspectfully, themeandered police officer-in-charge topped hills.

The tablelands wereraped traditionally how many positions she’d been in, and coffee- and tobacco-growing andhave vast whether there was a chanceregions, he could farmlands withInstead the odd drinks withpunctuated her that night. of house being looked surreal from the air. scheduled immediately, her medical examinWe was floated at a until height of 1,000 feet, the at the ation delayed eight days after atmercyInstead of the gentle winds.her, But Chief a few hundred tack. of believing Minister feet to the west, ominous apMamata Banerjee brandeddark her arainclouds liar who was proached. had Banerjee’s to outrun government. the fast-aptrying to We defame proaching soufflé.

Sports minister Madan Mitra wanted to know “It’s be a bumpy bas-a why a going single to mother wouldlanding. want toThe be at ket is goingTrinamool to tip over,”Congress said Shaun. nightclub. leader Kakoli As weDastidar fast lostsaid altitude, hustled us Ghosh whathe happened to into her ‘brace rape, position’ knees bent,between back firmly wasn’t but a—‘transaction’ a sex against the walls.that Before wewrong’. knew it,Anwe worker andbasket her client ‘went weremobs bumping along an door, open landlords field. Thumpgry gathered at her and

being convicted; she died of multi-organ failhere is no doubt that Jordan suffered im- ure after contracting meningo-encephalitis in mensely because these 2015. no conclusive link cana thump-thump… and of then thecircumstances. basket tipped March resulting in aAlthough rush of blood to the head and But matter how much she suffered, re- be established between the hounding and haover.no Amidst laughter and joyful shrieksshe we lay never-before-seen perspective of the forest.

A fused toat letthe thesky, narrative of to suffering take over her illness, we cannot staring waiting be pulled out of rassment third zip Ishe didfaced in theand yoga camel pose. her In doing flew sticks in the face of rule it out either.

Anybody who has suffered the life. basket, hats so, andsheselfie strewn There was something primeval about this what ourItsociety expectedlanding a woman had acute will be species intimately familiar with around. was a standard onwho a windy forest,stress with its 1,800 of plant life, some gone through violence and do.ad- the effect it has thedinosaur-era, body. Even if Jordan’s illday, but for us sexual first-time flyers,toitbe was truly dating back toon the its wet air, After meeting the mother balloon of a college stu- ness hadinsect nothing to do with how she was venturous.

The undignified landing million sounds, and fresh smells.

Just dent who wasinraped and murderedadventures in the vil- treated, she was let downflying at every level: was the final a series of airborne being there was still enlivening; through lage of Kamduni, not far from Kolkata, Jordan from the highest political office in the state, to in tropical Queensland. the trees was an added bonus. decided to waive the right to anonymity. She the management at a restaurant called Ginger Monkey business Free-falling refused to be ashamed of her attackers’ who wouldn’t let her enter because they reccrimes.

In an interview the Daintree BBC, she rainsaid, ognised whoback she was.

A few days earlier, in thewith ancient On the drive to Cairns from Cape Tribula“I am dating Suzetteback Jordan, I don’t want years, to be tion, It isI stopped important toatremember forest to a and hundred million over AJ HackettJordan Bungy in in the known longer the victim of Calcutta's way.ofThis remembering that two I swungany through theascanopy on seven ziplines. right foothills the means Saddle Mountain for more verPark Street rape.”

She told oftigo-testing the rapists,activities.

Qadir Khan and The Daintree is among theactor olKnown Aamir Khan on his talk-show SaMd Ali, are absconding.

That dest continuously living rainacross thestill world for their buntyamev Jayate, “I am not victim the only policeAJofficer whoin seems forests in the world, rarea in the gee jumps, Hackett, Ausor a person, I had totralia, have shown anyunique sensitivity tofacta survivor. that it isI am a Unesco World offers the Minjin It is important to On the Minjin Swing, wards aHeritage life, andSite I want back.”of her, and who cracked the on my thelife fringes Swing experience.

Strapped inthatown youremember control your Jordan’s wasn’tReef. just Mamata case — Damayanti Sen — was another, theresponse Great Barrier to a harness and suspended Banerjee has I One firm tug, and about own life; it was collec- fall. toina alower post beJungleher surfing at Cape Tribulahorizontally mid-air plank, still not apologised to transferred was hurtling towards tive. stark contrast the cause she went against the offition In involved runningtoin a ridihuI rose up along a cable that Jordan’s family cule and blame directed at her, government man-sized hamster wheel to the ground at 120 km/hr cial stretched from line. ground level up she was vociferously progresIt aisheight important to remember propel lift-off, and then zipping to of 45 metres.

I dansive. typified in between her reacthat Banerjee has still moreThis thanis350 metres gledMamata far above the treetops at tion to tree-platforms.

Ghosh Dastidar’s not to Jordan’s famsix wooden theapologised highest point, the release statement, which shethe defends the rights of ily.

That in almost all Minjin her interviews, Jordan Standingin high above forest floor, amidst cable in hand.

On the Swing, you consex the same breath shered stands us own to see her as firm a human being, not as the workers gnarled,infern-covered gum as and oak urged trol your fall.

One tug, and I was hurup forIherself: call a prostiStreet’. Itthe is ground our collective responsibility trees, looked “How belowdare to a they carpet ofme green with ‘Park tling towards at a breakneck speed tute?

Evenfan if I were I get raped?

A to remember howsheer everymomentum, single mechanism unfurling palmsone, andshould moss-covered rocks. of 120 km/hr. With I swung prostitute earns for stretched her family.

She is into not that meant to support Jordan,afailed her.

Above me, branches endlessly like awas human pendulum, forming parabolic standing you to rape her,” shesunrays said in She changed India inQueensland a fundamental the skies,there only for occasionally allowing arc each time. Tropical spreadway, out an interview. us to look culpability stretches to filter through. From the highest platform at forced miles beneath me,atahow tangle of neon-green forJordan became women’s activist, beyondout the of sexual 19.5 metres, I spiedathe blue ofrights the Great Bar- well est rushing to perpetrators meet the distant blue of viothe working a helpline against domestic and lence.

For this,Reef. andFrom for many other things, rier Reefwith in the distance.

No two zips were Great Barrier this height I couldJorsee sexual violence called Survivors for Victims of dan never be forgotten. alike. The instructors once stopped me midand will appreciate it all.

Social this work zip, so Injustice.

I dangledShe for sustained a few moments abovede-a malavika is a Delhi-based ilabhattacharya anasuya is a Delhi-based writerfreelance spite frequent court appearances, during boulder-studded stream, its rushing loud in shreya travel writer activist which sheOn was routinely my ears. another zip,humiliated.

I went upside down, and

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saturday, december 19,19, 2015 saturday, december 2015

Dublin for the herbivores

Tarsem Lal Saini, president of the Rice Mill Association of Punjab.

“Over 300 rice mills have shut down due to losses, even as paddy worth over ₹10,000 crore has been sold to distilleries after rotting.

The only reason we continue to work under the 20-year-old rates is because we earn from the by-products,” he adds.

The day the CAG report was presented in Parliament, the Central government put out a statement that milling charges were decided after taking into account the prices of by-products of paddy. It however conceded that rates Getting there had not been revised since 2005 and a study Fly Etihad/British Airways by the Tariff Commission in 2012 had not from Mumbai or Delhi via made any recommendations owing to a lack Abu Dhabi/London. of data.

Stay continues to turn a As the government Fitzwilliam Hotel blind eye, the rot The is eating into the country’s food security. Over(www.fitzwilliamhotel the last 5 years, the subsidy dublin.com) has has one almost of bill of the Central Government the best locations, right doubled, while the amount of rice procured Cereal offenders? Mill owners counter that they are operating at 20-year-old rates kk mustafah opposite St Stephen’s has reduced.

Greenexpenditure and close toon thetransIn Punjab, irregular portation cost thepedestrians-only exchequer ₹164 shopping crore; ricedistrict of Grafton Street. mill owners pocketed more than ₹475 crore by supplying inferior Tip quality rice, and another windfall gain of ₹160 crore from is waiver Central Dublin small of penal interest on delayed deliveries, enough to exploreaccording on foot to the CAG report..and create your own food Dubious claimswalk. of transportation Another smartcharges led to a loss of ₹210 crore.

More 97On per option is to buythan a Hop cent of the registration numbers of vehicles Hop Off bus ticket for that were allegedly used to transport paddy €16.50, which is valid for did not match the computerised data of the two days.

State Transport Authority. Those that did were Hunger strikes Inside Sheridan’s Cheesemongers; (below) teatime goodies at Pepper Pot Café charukesi ramadurai found to be motorcycles, cars, taxis or buses.

Some of the highest figures came from Andhra Pradesh — the release of VAT (value added hen I leave for the food walk, courtyard. But that in no way means an un- tax) But to millers go backhere to the this has gave an morning. additionalIfbenefit of I’m convinced all I’m getting comfortable space. It is cheery and festive, been so far, then the Mecca ₹1,024a food crore,pilgrimage even as rice worth ₹1,195 crore is potatoes. With meat. And with bright tablecloth and brighter smiles. surely is Blazing Salads. believeprofit.

Coyle when was retained by them forIundue I’m not interested in it, seek- With its fresh organic produce and quirky sheInsays that even improper diehard carnivores Chhattisgarh, storage of swoon paddy uch like rice spilling of a tear combinations ing better things despite being aout vegetarian ceed ₹40,000 crore. all-India estimate is ex- at (how An about a roast pear, bacon dished out ledthe to salads loss of and ₹180vegetarian crore. The curries State government the sack, the country’s food and (gasp!) on theinstreets of Dublin.

But Eveleen pected to show double the underit all cheddar sandwich?), thislosses café makes to by the Fitzmaurice sistersthat here. up admitted to the charge forThey theshook last four procurement has beenI every Coyle from Fab Food Trailssystem has promised heads.list To calculate thebest actual (and expectedly of Dublin’s culinary experienc- meat-loving Dublin more a decade ago years it had purchased ricethan without any qualileaking of rupees won’t go hungry on crores this tasting trail.every So I es. higher) the sandwich, exchequer,with the CAG rec- with I haveloss theto same crisphas mushtheir“It strict vegan, vegetarian, no-whitety checks. is not clear how the State governyear and the government. might as impoverishing well give it a shot. ommended a thorough probe. room in place of the bacon. products approach.the Instead, they usequality ingrement ensured minimum Last week, inby a report ParliaCoyle begins talkingpresented about the to great poThis story plunder is as at much There is a of quick pit stop The about Swan corBar, dients like spelt flour, quinoa, standard,” said the CAG report.agave syrup and mentfamine the Comptroller Auditor tato — no surprise &there — but General goes on which ruptiondates as it back is about a fewAlthough good men fighting to 1723. it exists in brown rice syruphas to flavour their food.growth Going “Chhattisgarh had such a huge (CAG) has Irish attempted thepast si- its to say that cuisinetohascalculate come way thepresent systemavatar for years bringing onlyand since 1897, it isthis oneinforof 12 by the production long queuesinat nobody is in rice thelunchtime, last 10 years that the phoned-off amount, although thishave was based that dependence on the tuber. “We an ex- original mation into the public Victorian barsdomain. in the complaining. even our Saini long system to check it has notAnd kept pace,” on incomplete data.now in Dublin,” she says city. citing food scene From Jain has says. A demand The rural idea isOrissa, to takeGouri a swigShankar of wait for aPunjab taste of from inmiso 1998 soup for anand exThea report concluded delays in price re- Jameson, with meaningful smilethat in my direction. been working to expose this loot and bring to tra one per green while the bartender salad is (compensation totally worth it. for cent ‘driage’ visions, as also at poor control (by State and Cen- takes We kick-off Sheridan’s Cheesemongers, account those responsible.

The us to the ‘snug’ to regale usstacks of sup- loss of moisture) After that green goodness, wasallconverted into a countral what governments) over athe years to with and better wayhad to start meal thanled with porting documents he haswere securedIf through stories of how women it iswithout time forany a bit of indulgence trywide expert consultathis has been a foodpolicy “undue forsmooth rice millers” and, more im- not bits andgains bites of cheese?

Irish cheese the Right to Information Act prove that a tion, allowed inside pubs(RTI) until boutique Cocoa Atelier. pilgrimage so far, leading at to the a payment of ₹952 crore fromI portantly, non-delivery to the has been making wavesof in paddy the lastand fewrice years, problem middleexists. of theHis 20threlentless century, then the Mecca surely ignore the siren song of the the exchequer. is Blazing Salads the national stock. with artisanalfood brands like Cashel Blue, Coolee- and pursuit theonly matter at the evenof then, into these tigooey “On macaroons every 37kg in bagthe ofdisplay paddy Based on the conservative and incomplete ney and Milleens.

And this store in the heart of ny highest levels forced the Prime enclosures. window, and we bitelose into that we get, upatospicyone figures is given by the CAG, theplace total to losses ex- Minister’s Dublin considered the best sample (PMO) at to forNo suchOffice limitation the sweet chilli chocolate instead.

I kilogram to drying,” maintains This issue is close to and buy cheese to bring back home. Sheri- Guinness ward the case to the CAG for anI the hearts of 70 crore take Storehouse, which piquanttotheme forward Saini.this According a Central govdan’s sources cheeses directly from producers visit auditlater earlyinthis theyear. day. Believe it or later at Butler’s Chocolate Café, ernment directive, this ‘driage’ is farmers in India across the country and the friendly staff is not, Jain also forwarded thehas Guinness Storehousethe is Ireland’s big- with a chilli taken hot chocolate, the perfect antiinto account when comhappy to talk about the vintage and source of gest prooftourist to theattraction, Central Bureau taking of in over 10 lakh dote to this cold, coldthat day.67kg of rice is proputing every single cheese in that busy store.

Investigation (CBI), which is visitors every year.

I join the hordes for a tour But my true moment discovery — and deduced fromof100kg of paddy.

As Coyle keeps up a steady flow of informa- across now investigating matter. history, adver- light — comes at seven floorsthe of Guinness Lolly and Cooks (really,about how Most importantly, tion about the history of Irish food, we head to tising, During rice milling, husk, bran and broken memorabilia and brewing process.

Af- can youcrore resistwas a name like that) nestled inside ₹17,985 released as MSP (minimum The Pepper Pot Café, located inside a beauti- ter ricelearning emerge to as pull by-products andpint these areI have sold Dublin’s the perfect (and oldest to shopping therecipients George’s support price) farmers,centre, but the ful period building. The café is a dozen- abycertificate the millers.

In the it), lastI zip decade, for Street to prove up tothe therates Gravity Arcade.

After a creamy girl at could not be verified as therequiche, were nothe identity odd tables squeezed into a narrow Bar eachon ofthe these increased, as have topitems floor,have where I find 360° viewsthe of the counterin hands me “This a sliceraises of brown cake documents support. a doubt as passageway overlooking the central Dublin profits for millers. along with a tall and refreshing glass saying, “Guess!” to whether the benefit of MSP did actually acgovernments ignored this crue of Successive the beverage that keeps have Ireland hydrated Chocolate, of course, rich, darkcautiously. chocolate. to farmers,” the report states revenue and failed to tax it. Based on partial Mingled and happy. it, anthat unfamiliar, though not un“This iswith an issue is close to the hearts of data from four states over a two-year period, As it happens, I also manage to combine the pleasant It turns out toI be 70 crore taste. farmers in India. amaubergine. fighting for which coversDublin just 15isper cent of pro- them, two things known for:the itsrice writers That’s when I know why Dublin is my this is just the beginning,” says Jain.kind cured, the CAG pegs Beckett, the loss Oscar at ₹3,743 crore.

(James Joyce, Samuel Wilde, Ol- of Now place: anythe city that can feed diehard that information hasme, beena released When extendedand to the countrywide procureiver Goldsmith) its tipple (think about the vegetarian, nonstop, and end theitbinge withtoa to the people’s representatives, remains ment, the over loss could cross ₹23,000 crore. fact it has a thousand pubs). On the Liter- divine chocolate cake, has be seendark whether they and showaubergine the willingness to government has notI revised milling to ary“The Pub Crawl in the evening, take in Dublin’s be. the long battle needed to return this wage charges for over years; are paid up to money to the public and penalise the guilty. best-known pubs,20 even as Iwe drink in (among ₹25 for every trivia quintal of rice, whenrich we spend other things) about the city’s litera- charukesi ramadurai is a Bengaluru-based saurabhwriter-photographer yadav about ₹200 onits milling and supplying it,” says freelance ry history and writers.

Vegetarian offerings in the meat-obsessed Irish capital go beyond greasy potatoes

Travel log

Millstone around food security

A CAG report has laid bare the fact that rice millers have for decades reaped undue gains even as they failed to replenish the national food stock

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CREATURE FEATURE

Lizard, lizard on the wall

Size matters The behaviour of lizards varies according to the size of the island (Cyclades archipelago in the picture) they live on; (below) Podarcis, commonly known as the wall lizard colin donihue

By building walls, humans have unwittingly precipitated changes in something as fundamental as how these reptiles find their food

You’ve arrived The 1874-built Northbrook Gate, or Gateway to Assam, as it was a few years ago, prior to restoration efforts courtesy intach

At Assam’s entrance

ambika kamath

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icture a scene of the Mediterranean wall-less, Donihue found that the Podarcis liz- mans’ ecological roles, not only in bringing countryside, with winding roads, ol- ards “were sprinting between bushes all day about these changes but also in discovering ive trees, perhaps a grazing cow or long, looking for their prey,” instead of wait- them, raises an interesting question: How do two — does your imagined scene in- ing for the prey to come to them. By building we ecologists think about our own role in the clude any lizards? Mine probably wouldn’t walls, humans have unwittingly precipitated parts of the natural world we are studying? have, but after talking to Colin Donihue, a PhD changes in something as fundamental as how Most of us consider ourselves distant obcandidate at the Yale School of Forestry and these lizards find their food. servers of, not active participants in, the ecoEnvironmental Studies, I now know better. In But another sort of interaction between hu- systems we work in. “I like to think of myself as n 1903, Viceroy of India Lord mans particular, I’vewhen learntthe that if my scene contains to see things as they the way and Cultural Heritage) to begin pre- trying and lizards led Donihue towork studyon Podarwater around it. We will alsounfold, removein the threegot offfrom a ship and had hisrocks first cis a wallCurzon constructed loosely piled they should be unfolding I weren’t serving thefirst gate.

While agreed in the place.

OnATDC his first tripto toprothe that foot-deep cemented modern if foundation. glimpsethen of northeast was standand stones, there’s aIndia, goodhe chance that Greek Donihue explains.

But hiscompany observations vide the funding, INTACH took charge of there,” islands, he noticed an interesting differSome 50 years ago, a private was ing is athome the Northbrook Gate — an edifice ence the wall to a large number of lizards Podarcis have Governor’s begun to shift views supervising theislands repairs.of different sizes. “On of between hired by the Assam officehis to restore built alongside Brahmaputra to small belonging to the the genus Podarcis. Theriver lizards’ towards paying greater to The islands, state government became lizards are reportedly not very scared of slightly, the structure.

It used cement on attention some of the mark the name first visit to the region by unimagia British you,” common is a hint — somewhat interactions withthat ecosystems. involved the ASIand refused list the site for human he after explained, this to makes catching walls… We are removing too,” says This Borviceroy, Lord Northbrook, 29 years earlier. natively, Podarcis are also known as ‘wall liz- them really signal a change much an preservation in way 2008. easy. “The we would catch them is to doesn’t thakur. He admits using cementasthis timeastoo, Both viceroys took the waterway fromPodarcis Calcut- dangle ards’.

Consequently, while studying Donihue’s view of nature: “I’m The work is nearing completion, says Manik a little mealworm on a string.

They will expansion “but only toofbrace the walls.

It will be removed ta, the headquarters of the British- literally lizards on small islands in erstwhile Greece, Donihue driven the desire toto understand the Sarma, ATDC director.

Of and the grab allo- really comemanaging jumping out of bushes once the job isbydone.

We had do something India colonial has spent a lotgovernment. of time looking at walls. things.” tilted about 45 cated ₹28 lakh, INTACH lakh the mealworm, and you has can received just plop₹20 them in- connections immediately,between as the structure Years later, afterhuman the British left Inde- already. INTACH’s Walls are ashortly decidedly It’s creatures wall lizards whichto can chief supervisor for the proto buckets.”

In contrast, on centimetres on itslike west, posing a danger the pendent India, Chief Minister, ject is Rathin Borthakur, creation — theAssam’s islands first themus that to really nearby.” understand the natan architectural engi- convince larger islands, “they’re much many modern structures Gopinath goton into a ferry from that neer with experience selves, andBordoloi, the lizards them, we need to includeispeople these in hesitant. restoringYou several more skittish, have ural Anworld, ASI-permitted chemical being in used to gatemuch — on older the Sukreshwar GhatSo— to immerse are than the walls. connections too.

Ahom structures and the Kamakhya temple. to stalk them a little bit.” bind the walls.

“It is an adhesive and also waThey will literally Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes in theinBrahmaputra. at some point in their history, He out points thelistening Indo-Islamic structureI terproof, ideal for the structure. We are also While to Donihue, come jumping of out that kamath studies organismic and evolutionary It wasera natural for Bordoloi to pick locationand was “the of Greek mythology, of thisbushes at a time whenhebricks were ambika was struck by how described doing grouting, which is injection of liquid grabmade the of bricks biology at Harvard University — long before roadOdysseus and airports, Homer,” railways Donihueor even not manufactured in Assam. himself catching lizards in concrete to fill the gaps and mealworm, and you ways made Podarcis their appearance in thiscan region, suggested, lizards enwere much theprocured same way that we ecol- ambikamath@gmail.com thereby connect the pre-cast conjust plop “The them bricks this was the walls gateway Assam. countered forto the first through various The a predator ogistssources. might describe crete,” he adds. into buckets ButBut overnow, the decades, thiswalls historic structure walls were made time. “these rock of lime-surki catching prey. Unsurprisingly, ATDC says it will beautify the That beautification fell into ruin as Guwahati was caught in a fren- mortar. Surki the have been there for hundreds of is a granular differencebrick betweeneffort islands monument this time too, “but harmed the zy of and haphazard urbanisation. years have been built the Few citizens powder. The instructure has response 10 structure the lizards’ to hu-more than it scientifically”. Sarma doesn’t even bothered actively engage with the gothic spires, same way for tothousands of eight mans couldtemplebe traced tohelped... whether The water elaborate on the details, only saymightySo river their city.

As highyears.” just surging like theypast would have adjusted to or shaped pillars, eight not these lizards hadornamento deal with predators ing, “We have already submitted from the river has rises plants sprouted all around it, theenvironment, gate was re- like new or animals in their tal pediments a semi-arched snakes andand birds and cats — predators areharmed the a ₹15-lakh proposal to the state already duced tolizards a ghostly Few re- prevalent Podarcis haveshadow adjustedoftoitself. the presence circular middle.”

The construcon larger islands, and absent from government.

The approval façade membered that it once heralded a viceroy’s smaller of walls. tion style was said to be borislands.

By unintentionally mimickshould take not more than three arrival to announce the unification of thelookfive ing To someone who spends a lot of time rowed from King’s College an important member of its ecological to four months.” districts of Larger underbetween the adminising for lizards, thisAssam association these community, Chapel in Cambridge, consida human could discover someATDC’s aim is clearly to steer tration of a Chief with Guwareptiles and walls Commissioner, is not surprising.

Think of thing ered one of the best instances of biology. important about a lizard’s the state’s rising number of tourhati as capital. house geckos, for example — where do you perpendicular gothic English architecture.

Donihue is studying the ecological and ists towards the monument and add it to the Strongsee winds a turbulent usually themfrom sitting?

DonihueBrahmapuhad inter- evolutionary It turns outconsequences that the ATDC of had,these some years list of must-see places in and around Guwahatra had sunk building by a few tilt- dramatic nalised this the expectation too: “I feet wasand always ago, madeshifts a clumsy attempt at restoring the ti. The restoration of the gate, however, holds in the Podarcis lized it a few metres on towards thewalls river,and setting it ard’s finding [Podarcis] the rock didn’t gate. An ugly pond with about a largeby concrete tor- much more promise. It can serve as an opporlifestyle, brought on a slow march to death. allobserhope the really think very much of it.”Just Butwhen careful toise, built close to the structure, absence of predators and the is proof of tunity for residents to become more conseemedled lost, came serious efforts to save vation him to ansome unexpected conclusion: “I presence this. As isofthe coatAdapting of white-and-brick paint, scious about preserving their city’s built walls. this important marker colonial history. realised that lizards onofthe walls were behav- to andthese a cemented foundation shifts can lead to ring around the heritage, as also engage more with the mighty yeardifferently ago, Assam Tourism ingAvery from lizards Development off the walls.” changes gate — again a clumsy attempt to stop it from Brahmaputra. This river, after all, is the first to in what these Corporation (ATDC), which thesitland on lizards On walls, Podarcis lizardsowns tend to in one tilting further. look like, how announce to any visitor that he/she has arwhich basking the gatein stands, joined hands withtheir the fast place, the sun and surveying “That they beautification run, and how effort harmed the rived in Guwahati.

Assam Archaeology Department, thetoArchaeosurroundings, waiting for an insect pass by hard structure it helped. We will remove theymore bite,than among logical Survey India (ASI) and the state before quicklyofdarting to catch and eatchapit. In other the pond.

The water from the river has already sangeeta barooah pisharoty is a Delhi-based things.

The intertter of INTACH (Indian Trust for Art wining contrast, in parts of the National islands that remained harmed of thelizards’ façade;and we don’t hu- need any more freelance writer

After nearly crumbling into oblivion, the 19th-century Northbrook Gate — an important marker of colonial history in the North-East — is receiving a timely facelift

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The Mug Mask collection So furFall-Winter so good Delhi’s toxic air could do with someCoats stylishtocombat.

The time is ripe for a face mask for every occasion keep refugees warm

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Where have the laddus gone?

ur coats worth £5,000 — some made from Chinchillas fur going for even £9,000 — are keeping refugees in Syria as well as a shanty camp in Calais warm this winter. PeTA has sent at least 100 coats and dozens of sturdy leather shoes to The Jungle 2, the migrant camp in Calais that is now home to around 7,000 people from Syria, Eritrea and Afghanistan. The animal welfare group thinks it’s the best way to use the ‘cruelly produced’ items collected from people’s wardrobes across many countries.

Kaiya’s days alone

Temple employee sells 20,000 Tirupati laddus elsewhere

Netanyahu’s dog quarantined for biting guests

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iety, of course, is apparent. If another reason for splurging on the Tirupati deity was the temptation of free laddus, and if nothing came your way in the past three months, here’s why. Your quota has been making its way into someone else’s platter.

Though the temple issues six to 20 laddus free of cost to devotees who have donated over one lakh rupees to the shrine, an employee at the donor cell has been quietly rerouting it. After being caught red-handed, he confessed to selling at least 20,000 laddus outside. But do sit back and relax, your rightful laddu will soon find its way to you.

Man jailed for Gollum jibe

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eing the Prime Minister’s dog doesn’t give you immunity from law in Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu’s adopted 10-year-old rescue dog, Kaiya, didn’t think much of it when she playfully jumped up and bit two of her master’s guests. It didn’t help that she chose to bite the husband of Israel’s deputy foreign minister and a lawmaker. Of course, law had to take its course, and Netnyahu announced last week that Kaiya has been quarantined. Netanyahu has now vowed to change the country’s flawed canine custody laws.

Court orders ‘character study’

Sucking up the sun

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US town votes against solar farm

Turkish man called Belgin Ciftci was jailed earlier this month after he uploaded a picture on Twitter that showed the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan striking poses similar to those struck by Gollum, a character from JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. A judge has now ordered a character study of Gollum to determine whether the comparison amounted to an insult: the judge admitted he had not seen the entire series. Insulting the President is a punishable offence in Turkey, a country that ranks poorly when it comes to freedom of the press.

priya kurian is a Delhi-based artist

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t’s a lesson in science that the Strata Solar Company has never been taught before.

The Woodland Town Council in North Carolina recently voted to deny clearance for the fourth solar farm being built by the firm in their town.

Local resident Jane Mann questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her that solar panels didn’t cause cancer.

But the cherry on the cake came from Bobby Mann, who feared that “the solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun” and keep businesses out of the town.

“There are no toxic materials on site,” Brent Niemann, engineer from Solar Strata tried to reason, “This is a tried and true technology.” It was all in vain, the Town Council rejected the sunny overture three-one and then voted for a complete moratorium on solar farms.

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

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had a different topic for this week’s quiz but the questions didn’t pan out. And so, this quiz is on second choices.

here,there & elsewhere

Stand-in success

Toaster alarm

1

There have been players who have done well in the FIFA World Cup after starting on the substitutes’ bench. But there has been only one case where a player who was a second choice for the opening match ended up with the Golden Ball award. Give his name, and the World Cup in question.

2 3

Which ’90s film was originally called Black Mask, after the director’s favourite comic of the ’20s?

This novel has sold more than eight million copies since its release in 1943. It probably wouldn’t have been as big a hit had it been published with its original title, Second-Hand Lives. Give the new title and the author.

4

In the 1980 NBA finals, the dominant centre of the Los Angeles Lakers, Kareem AbdulJabbar had a severely sprained ankle and was unfit for the sixth and deciding game. Who took his place, and led the Lakers to an improbable victory over the Philadelphia 76ers?

5

The first Indian team to play a Test match was captained by the great CK Nayudu. However, Nayudu was a last-minute replacement. Who was the original captain?

6

Eric Stoltz was the hero of a popular ’80s film, and almost half the film had been shot when the director reluctantly admitted that his leading man was not working, and started shooting with a new hero. Who was the new star, and which film was it?

7

Which established star was the first choice of filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra for the role of Lalita in Parineeta before director Pradeep Sarkar convinced him to cast Vidya Balan?

8

In 1949, who reluctantly turned down a fairly lucrative offer to play baseball for the New York Giants and turned to his second love, politics? The rest, they say, is history.

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He went to Paris to study law in 1887 and returned to start work as a law firm clerk. An emergency appendicitis operation forced him to bed and his mother brought him some paints to pass the time. He never went back to his law firm. Name the artist.

ecember means that the mornings are darker than usual. I am still D asleep when the phone rings. Bins gets it before me. I hear him talking to Adonis, our local Greek god who just happens to be the Landlady’s son. “Fire Department? Coming today? Okay!

We’ll be ready.” Bins is unaffected by morning and is always looking for excuses to force me awake ahead of time. So of course, the moment he puts the phone down he turns on all the lights while yodelling, “Get up, get up! The firemen are coming!”

As I crawl out from under the cave of cushions and blankets in which I hibernate each night, I ask, “But when are they coming?” Bins says, excitedly, “Adonis said, ‘today’! That could mean any moment! Maybe they’re already here, just waiting outside the door!”

He can never bear it that I am not instantly awake. He considers it to be one of my million defects. “Come on!

Or they will think that all Indians are sleepy sloths!” I want to tell him that at least one of us IS a sleepy sloth, but talking requires being awake so I say nothing. I squint short-sightedly at the clock-radio: it’s barely 8am.

Aaaargh. But I’m up by now and brushing my teeth.

Meanwhile Bins is rampaging about like a squirrel on speed. “We must

offer them tea. That way they will not think we’re terrorists,” he says. “Why should they EVER think that?” I ask.

“Because we’re brown,” says Bins, who is NOT. But he identifies so completely with being Indian that he’s adopted the ever-present paranoia. “Do we have any homemade cookies? Terrorists never offer cookies,” he says. “They’re firemen, not Navy Seals!” I yell over the shrieking of the whistling kettle. “They’re only coming to check if the alarms are working!”

“Why’re you wasting time? We must finish breakfast before they get here,” says Bins. He’s popped two slices of

bread in the toaster-oven and he’s got three eggs boiling in a pan of water.

“I’m sure terrorists don’t eat boiled eggs on toast,” I say, “so don’t start till the firemen are hammering at the door!” “How do YOU know what terrorists eat or don’t eat?” Bins demands. “Maybe they eat eggs all day long! Just to prove they are normal people, like the rest of us —” The toast begins to burn. The fire alarm goes off. The only way to silence it is for a tall man to stand on tiptoe while fanning the smoke away.

Someone’s hammering at the door.

It’s Jiggs, our Indian pizza-guy neighbour. “Are you burning?” he wants to know. “Luckily the firemen are coming. They will put it out.” But because the door’s open, the smoke flies out and now the alarm in the hallway starts blaring. “It’s only toast!” screams Bins, flapping mightily, with both arms. The boiled eggs run dry and explode with soft popping sounds.

The upstairs tenants run down in their skimpy nighties, yelling “FIRE!” “You ARE a terrorist,” I say to Bins, as I run outside, offering everyone cups of tea. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

cornerstone

10

The Mexican Wave, one of sport’s enduring traditions, almost never came to be. Mexico had hosted a World Cup final in 1970, and had no chance of getting another tournament just 16 years later. But when the South American country to which it had been assigned withdrew, Mexico stepped in. To which country was the 1986 World Cup originally awarded?

Answers 1. Salvatore Salvatore Schillaci; Italia ’90 2. Pulp Fiction 3. Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It was made into a film starring Gary Cooper in 1949 4. Magic Johnson, who normally played in the point guard position 5. The Maharaja of Porbandar. He scored two runs in the four tour matches he played 6. Michael J Fox as Marty McFly in the film Back to the Future 7. Aishwarya Rai 8. Fidel Castro — apparently the Giants were very surprised that he refused the offer, which included a $5,000 signing bonus 9. Henri Matisse 10. Colombia. The country was going through a financial crunch ND-X _ A

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

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