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Chennai
Tuesday, May 24, 2016

ART

DECOR

TWO ADOLESCENTS GIVE A

PEEK INTO THEIR WORLD
THROUGH ARTP2

HOW TO BUILD OR D-I-Y

A COOL BEDROOM
FOR YOUR KIDS P3

Admit two

SPECTRUM
RAPPER DIVINE
ON THE CHANGING
MUSIC SCENE P6

Talking style
with Kajal

Case of colour

Adopt a pup

Art Houz presents a solo

show of London-based
artist Tatiana de Stempel
titled What colour would
you choose?, curated by
art critic Manoj Nair.
Date: May 27 to 28
Address: Kasturi Rangan
Road, Alwarpet
Tel: 2499 2173

The Blue Cross of India

holds an adoption drive of
Indian puppies, kittens and
pedigree adult dogs free of
cost.
Date : May 29
Time : 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Address: 72, Velachery
Main Road, Guindy
Tel: 98402 97942

Silk route
Hastashilpi organises Silk
India exhibition, featuring
tassar, eri, mulberry and
muga silk saris and more,
today.
Venue: Valluvarkottam
Hall, Nungambakkam
Tel: 98844 46747

Food walk
Taste food items at five
famous outlets in Mylapore
as part of the The
Mylapore Chapter Walk.
Date and Time: May 28,
4.30 a.m.
Starting point: Leo Coffee
Tel: 90032 22077

shirt, are extremely important. A nice denim jacket or

throw is essential, especially
when Im travelling I tend
to feel very cold on ights!
Apart from that, a sexy black
dress, and a really good pair
of stilettos, hopefully in all
colours. Because who can
ever have enough shoes,
right? she laughs. Its good
to know that stars are not
above such base desires for
all the footwear in the world!
Kajal takes a very handson approach to the look of all
her on-screen characters.
The
costumes
can
make or break the
character. And
Im extremely involved with my stylists and designers
and I work very
closely
with
them.
We try
and stick
to the brief
and the guidelines of the character as
much as possible. After a
pause, she adds, Not just
as much as possible, we truly stick to it! Im as involved
with my costumes as I am
with my acting and
expressions.
Her latest lm Brahmotsavam is currently in theatres. I have another release
coming up on June 10,
called Do Lafzon Ki Kahani, she says. In the movie
directed by Deepak Tijori,
Kajal plays a visually challenged girl. She rubbishes
rumours that co-star Randeep Hooda spontaneously kissed her during the
shooting of the lm. Were
all professionals, and everything is scripted, spoken
about and planned. Nothing
like that can happen without
talking about it beforehand.
Shes also working on a
couple of lms in Kollywood: I am currently working on Kavalai Vendam with
Jiiva. And, Im going to be
starting my next Tamil lm
with Vikram very soon, she
signs off.

Style sensibility, comfortable fashion,

Miranda Kerractress
Kajal Aggarwal indulges in a
freewheeling chat with
SUSANNA MYRTLE LAZARUS

ctor. Entrepreneur. CoFounder of

Marsala.
Dreamer. Traveller. Foodie. reads Kajal Aggarwals
bio on her brand new Twitter account, started earlier
this month. In person, one
can add down-to-earth and
effortlessly stylish to the
list.
Walking into the launch
of Gaps rst store in Chennai at Phoenix MarketCity,
as OMIs Cheerleader
played in the background,
she looks the part: short blue
romper dress, faded denim
jacket and white sneakers,
paired with light candy pink
lips and hair in beachy
waves. The crowd goes wild,
hooting and cheering while
trying to get a good photo of
her for bragging rights. After
a long-ish wait, thats how us
journalists know that she
has arrived. But shes sweet,
greeting everyone and telling one of the girls present
that her asymmetrical haircut is very cool and edgy.
Clearly, Kajal is at ease in

I love my denims. A
well fitted pair of
jeans is everything
for me

casuals even at a public

event. Her real-life style is
closer to the one she sported
as Nisha in Thuppaki. Im
all about casual, chic, style
and comfort, much like the
brand Im representing. I
believe that fashion should
rst be comfortable; you
should wear it like your own
skin and be comfortable in
whatever youre wearing.
Only then can you carry it
off really well, she says.
This is reected in her
style icons as well. While she
cant pick one particular
person, there are quite a few
things she likes about certain people. I like Cara Delevingne for her spunk and
spontaneity and dont-givea-damn attitude. She wears
her style very condently. I
like Miranda Kerr; I think
she is stunning and has a
great sense of style. She
pairs up her clothes really
well and I love the way she
uses denims.
When it comes to my
style sensibility, its more
about dressing for the occasion. But generally, I love my
denims. Casual chic with
sneakers on: just how you
see me right now. A welltted pair of jeans is everything for me. Perhaps thats
why it tops the list of favourite pieces from her wardrobe. Staples, like a white
CASUAL CHIC Kajal Agarwal
PHOTO: R. RAVINDRAN

Out goes the plastic

The waza from the Valley

In a bid to promote sustainability, Ashvita Bistro and Nirvana now welcome

visitors with glass bottles and jugs

Bashir Ahmad
Concha on how to
dish out the
traditional multicourse and meatrich Kashmiri
wazwan

PRIYADARSHINI PAITANDY

The freezer at Ashvita Bistro

looks stark. All the packaged
water bottles are gone. What
remains are a few cans of beverage. They were PET bottles, they had to go, says
Ashvin Rajagopalan who
started Ashvita in 2002.
As part of a new drive, his
cafes Ashvita Bistro and Nirvana will not stock or serve
water in plastic bottles. Instead, clients will be offered
glass bottles and jugs with
water lled from bubble tops
and RO systems. On an average, my cafes sold about 150
bottles a day. But now, no
more of that. My bottled water vendor doesnt look happy about it, though, he adds.
Climate change, global
warming and environmental
depletion are staring us in the
face. For some in Chennai, it
took the December rains to
drive home the point. When
the skies opened up last
week, parts of the city ooded. The resulting panic and
his desire to add to sustainability efforts saw Ashvin do
away with all the plastic water bottles.
I checked for ooding and
leakages at my cafes, and

On an average, my
cafes sold about 150
bottles a day. But
now, no more of
that

CM
YK

RAVEENA JOSEPH

GREEN DRIVE Ashvin Rajagopalan PHOTO: R. RAVINDRAN

then put up a status message

on Facebook informing everybody about our plan. Im
hoping this picks up as a
trend everywhere, he says.
Ashvin and his wife Shruti
Harihara Subramaniam have,
for a while now, been trying
out sustainable alternatives.
They have a roof top garden
from where they source their
vegetables and greens, and
they are into composting and
upcycling. That explains all
the glass bottles in the cafe.

Bottles that once held olives,

spreads and other products
are used as milkshake and
juice glasses or just hold water or straws. Yes, we are
even planning to get rid of
plastic straws and get paper
ones, adds Ashvin.
As someone who had been
in the recycling business,
Ashvin speaks of the enormous amount of energy consumed while recycling PET
bottles. First, the bottles go
to a recycling plant where

water and chemicals are used

to clean them. Then, they go
through machines where
they are melted and reformed. Its not a sustainable
process, he shakes his head.
Ashvin has initiated what
can possibly turn into a plastic-free drive.
Like the town of Bundanoon in Australia or San
Francisco in the U.S., among
the rst cities to ban plastic
bottles, Chennai too can,
hopefully, follow suit.

Ask most visiting chefs about

their tryst with South Indian
avours and theyd wax eloquent about their love for
the crunch of a crispy dosa.
But not waza (traditional
Kashmiri chef) Bashir Ahmad Choncha. Hes more
likely to scowl and say, The
avours are too unfamiliar.
For, compared to our uffy
idlis, rich coconut chutney
and spicy sambar, his familiar food the spicy and salty
lahbi kebab, rich curd-based
nadru yakhni and melt-inthe-mouth minced mutton
ball in creamy gushtaba
feels decidedly different.
Yet, the wazwan is a treat for
anyone curious about the
possibilities
of
the
unfamiliar.
The wazwan, considered
the pride of Kashmiri cuisine, is rich, to say the least.
It is made during special occasions, and traditionally
served in a large plate thats
shared by four. Most dishes
are curd-based and all of
them are made with liberal
amounts of ghee. To top it
off, the spread is meatheavy. Mutton, mostly, as
most Kashmiri Muslims prefer that. The chefs favourite
is the tabak maaz, a mutton
appetiser thats deep fried in
ghee. What can I say? Most

Kashmir speial A spread from the valley Photo: R. Ravindran

people in Kashmir are rich

and they want to eat rich
food too, laughs waza
Bashir, even as he insists
that the ghee will only make
one strong, not fat.

Wazwan is made
during special
occasions, and
traditionally served
in a large plate
thats shared by four

The most challenging dishes to make, he says, are

the light and spicy rista and
the heavy yogurt-based
gushtaba, for which the
meat needs to be pounded
by hand for half an hour.
The vegetables have a distinct avour, as do the spices from the region. It is for
this reason that the waza
says he brought 400 kg of
ingredients for the ten-day
Kashmiri Wazwan food festival at Spice Haat, Hyatt
Regency.
Waza Bashir learnt his
culinary air from his father, chef Noor Mohammad
Choncha, by watching him

cook eversince he was eight

years old. My father would
have never allowed me to
become a waza if he were
alive. He never wanted me
to come into the family
business. But when his father passed away, Bashir
took over the kitchen at 25.
For the last 20 years, he has
been at the helm of things
at Concha Foods, a restaurant in Srinagar and also, a
manufacturing outt that
packages and exports spices
from the valley. Theres a
big market for Kashmiri
cuisine. Every month, 1,000
kg of tin-packed rista and
gushtaba are exported to
places around India, the
United States and Gulf
countries.
His fame in the packaged
food business soon saw him
plate up avours from the
valley at food festivals in
Bangalore, Pune, Chandigarh and other places.
However, he says, wazas
taking the road is rare. Even
though his father had close
to a thousand students,
most of them have set up
their own restaurants in
Kashmir. The wazwan is a
big business in Kashmir. A
typical Kashmiri indulges in
the wazwan about once a
week. One plate is priced at
Rs. 2,500 even in a small
shop. Its a very exotic
spread. So its very rare that
people leave the valley to
make wazwan.
Kashmiri Food Festival
at Spice Haat is open for
dinner tillMay 29. The buffet is priced at Rs. 1,550,
vegetarian thali at Rs. 1,000
and non-vegetarian thali at
Rs. 1,200, (exclusive of taxes). For details, call
61001234.
CH-CH

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METROPLUS

POTPOURRI

CHENNAI

THE HINDU Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Confessions of an adolescent
Two teenagers from the American International School give us a peek into their world through art

NAVEENA VIJAYAN

Effortless
travel chic
Here are some tips to stay stylish
during your vacation
with a pair of trousers or
leggings.
Its holiday time and everyA couple of jackets in case
one is making travel plans. the weather is cold. If youre
So how does one stay well heading to a cold place, redressed and stylish even on member to layer yourself so
vacation? Here are some that you can remove the layers as it gets warmer.
tips:
SHRIVYSHNAVI ANNUSH

PAINTED THOUGHTS
Artists Jisu and Seungyeon,
and their artwork

NAVEENA VIJAYAN

o adolescent
ever wants to
be understood,
which is why
they complain about being
misunderstood all the time
Stephen Fry wrote that in
his autobiography Moab Is
My Washpot. It probably
rang true for many. But not
for youngsters: Seungyeon
Ha and Jisu Yang, students
at the American International School. They desperately want to be understood.
Through their works, they
want to tell the world that
academic pressure is too
much to handle, so is the
pressure from society to act
a certain way.
Explaining about one of
her works, Jisu, who will be
leaving in a month to pursue
art in Rhode Island School of
Design, U.S., says, This

frame was done when I was

preparing for SAT (Scholastic
Aptitude Test). There was
just so much to study that I
couldnt handle it beyond a
point. So I tore pages of the
books, and crafted them into
tiny pyramids and made an
artwork out of it! The pieces
have been neatly pasted
around a frame which has a
painting of a girl free-falling,
who happens to be Jisu herself. So did it help ease her

Through their works,

they want to tell the
world that academic
and societal
pressures are too
much to handle

frustration? No, it worsened. But I was happy with

the painting, she smiles.
Other works of Jisu, displayed at the InKo Centre,
feature childrens obsession
with the materialistic world.
One of the sculptures shows
what looks like a child wrapped in a coil of toys; one can
spot a duck or two on the
sides. As a child, I was left

with just toys for company,

as both my parents were
working. So for most part of
the day, I found myself playing with the yellow ducks
these are what I have represented in my works, she
says. A few interesting installations by the artist also
dwell on child labour and
abuse. Seungyeons works
talk about the societal pres-

sure on teenagers. When I

came from Korea to India
ve years ago, I thought my
world will expand, but on the
contrary, here I felt it had
shrunk. In the sense, since
we are part of the small Korean Expatriate Community,
everybody
knows
everybody else. So, even if I
wear shorts and walk out,
somebody will go tell my

Role play

VIRTUAL MONEY Paying the bills through online shopping portals PHOTO: K. MURALI KUMAR

The wages of shopping online

Online shopping has given birth to a whole new breed of earners and learners
tioned for the look. If the
look and styling is original
Online shopping is just one and a buyer selects all the
aspect of e-commerce. As we products used, then the stylswipe, buy, sell, return, com- ist gets a little award, which
plain, review and go ga-ga maybe good enough to buy a
over new additions and the shirt, explains Meetesh Kulatest collections, a breed of mar, an e-commerce analyst.
online window shoppers are He adds, The online space
becoming fashionistas in the is all about engagement. Domaking. But, how can one be
hooked on to e-commerce These kinds of
sites without actually shopping? Turns out that there are activities with a
many ways to keep one en- prize or an incentive
gaged.
will make a nonFor one, you could become
a stylist. Many online sites buyer turn into a
selling apparel and accesso- repeat visitor to the
ries allow visitors to create a
look. Creating looks is all site
about mixing and matching
the garments with accessories and waiting to see if any
buyer picks all that is menPRABALIKA M BORAH

CM
YK

ing business is most desirable when one isnt ready to

shop. These kinds of activities with a prize or an incentive
will
make
a
non-buyer turn into a repeat
visitor.
The more creative ones
work on blog designs. Wordpress and other platforms
suggest blog page layouts,
and when a new blogger
picks a layout without customising it, its a win-win
situation for the designer.
The designer is probably
paid for his creation and also
recommended again.
Another parallel e-commerce trend is another form
of business blogging to
track online trends. Who
benets from this? Both
traders and writers. The former gets business, the latter

remuneration and publicity,

says Raashi M, a freelance
writer.
Women are mostly accused of being hooked on to
online sites; does that mean
men arent shopping online
at all? Says who? I do a lot
of price research online.
While price isnt a huge
yardstick to move to the
payment gateway, the style
and colour have an edge. Did
you know that buying
genuine car parts online is
cheaper than buying from
dealers? says Shravan Kumar, a tax consultant.
He shares his expertise on
online shopping with many
of his friends and cousins
and loves showing off because they dont know where
I get my knowledge from,
he laughs.

parents, she says. Her

sketches include that of a
child being pointed ngers
at, and another of a girl
whose emotions are controlled by a set of strings.
They convey the idea of stied freedom.
While thats at a personal
level, Seongyeon has also
spent much thought on
events at a global level. One
that deeply impacted her
was the sinking of MV Sewol,
which had over 300 high
school students on board, in
2014, in South Korea. I was
in India when the tragedy
happened. Most of those
who died were students like
me. What angers me is that it
was the captains mistake,
and not the students. Its so
unfair, she says. She sculpted 100 ceramic Korean
school uniform shoes and arranged them in a heap, with a
pile of ash at its base, to convey the tragic loss.
Jisus and Seungyeons
works are on display at the
exhibition titled Beyond the
red line, at The Gallery, Inko
Centre, Adyar Club Gate
Road, till May 31. For details,
call 2436 1224.

For the flight

Footwear

Wear a pair of comfortable jeans or trousers with a

loose-tting shirt. Pack a
hoodie in the hand luggage
in case it gets uncomfortably cold.
Wear ballet ats and pack
a pair of socks that you can
slip on. The ballet ats can
double up as dressy footwear too.
A few other vital things to
pack in the hand luggage are
a neutral-coloured cashmere scarf, hydrating rose water,
lip
balm
and
moisturiser. Rose water
helps combat the dryness
on the ight.

If youre going to walk a

lot, pack a pair of comfortable boots or a neutral-coloured pair of sneakers.
Black or grey are the best
choices as they will go well
with most clothes.

Accessories
Pack a couple of statement necklaces and a pair of
earrings that you can wear
throughout the trip. Mix
and match to get a new look
every day.
It doesnt take much effort to stay fashionable during your vacation. So go
ahead, pick your stuff carefully and have fun.

Clothes
Carry a few pairs of jeans
and a few shirts in neutral
colours. A pair of black jeans
is a must because you can
dress it up for the night.
Take a couple of well-tting dresses and a jumpsuit
in case youre heading to a
nightclub or restaurant.
If youre more conservative in your style, there are
many Indo western options
available that you can wear

Mix and match a

couple of statement
necklaces and a
pair of earrings to
get a new look
every day

All about Love

Actress Swara Bhaskar,

who is currently riding high
on the success of her latest
release Nil Battey Sannata,
says she will be seen in a never-before-seen avatar in her
upcoming lm Anaarkali
Aaraahwaali.
I think this one may be yet
another departure from expected lines. Anaarkali Aaraahwaali,
(literally
Anarkali of Aaraah, a town in
Bihar) is a lm where I portray the role of a foulmouthed, feisty and ery orchestra party singer from the
volatile town of Aaraah in Bihar, said Swara.
The actress shares that the
lm revolves around the journey of a woman famous for
performing on explicit numbers. Its the journey of a
woman who is popular for the
lewd and sexually explicit
songs she sings and performs,
her travails as an artist in a
very openly masculine and
feudal world, she added.
The Tanu Weds Manu star
says she is excited for the lm.
It has been directed by debutant journalist turned lmmaker Avinash Das and
produced by Sandiip Kapoor.
- IANS

Royal Flush Productions presented its rst show Love, This, That, Etc, a collection of ve
Indianised short plays about everything to do with matters of the heart. The stories, tinted
with humour, offered a light take on relationships, break-ups and make-ups. Directed by Amit
Singh, the collection of short plays starred Sarvesh Sridhar, Sabnam Gafoor, Shravan
Ramakrishnan, Akshay Yesodharan, Najla Padiyath, Monisha Prakash, Jayanth Kumar and
Amit.PHOTO: YASH SUDA

Kesha gets a standing

ovation
Singer Kesha received a
standing ovation following
her emotional rendition of
Bob Dylans It aint me babe
at the Billboard Music
Awards 2016.
The 29-year-old who was
refused permission to sing at
the ceremony because of her
ongoing dispute with Dr Luke
sang Dylans 1964 hit along
with a violinist and pianist
and was applauded by the
thrilled audience, reports fe-

malerst.co.uk.
Following her performance, Kesha took to her
Instagram to thank fans and
said, Im so grateful for
tonight and for the Billboard Music Awards for
allowing me to sing. Its my
form of prayer. It is my
therapy. It literally reaches
the untouched corners of
my soul. Thank you for
having me.
- IANS
CH-CH

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METROPLUS

SPECTRUM

CHENNAI

THE HINDU Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Build your child a dream bedroom

Buy or DIY, we inspire mums and dads out there to build an awesome room for your little one
fairy tale

ANDRE RODRIGUES

Similar in thought to the

camp-out, but very different
in execution. The entrance to
the room can be disguised by
a cupboard with the back cut
out. There can be forest wallpaper around the room. If you
can, find small fallen branches, sandpaper and varnish
them to mount them on the
walls. You can also fashion
the bed into a Fairy Godmothers carriage or an enchanted carriage with various
Victorian elements.

hen its time to

give your kids
their own room,
you cant just
put in a bed and a bunch of
cupboards for their toys or
buy some cheap decals off
Amazon. Wheres the fun in
that?

The theme
This is the most fun part of
doing up your kids room.
With a little bit of hard work
and creativity, you can save
thousands of rupees. But remember, as parents, you cant
get carried away and project
your preferences onto your
kids. Try and find the middle
ground.
The possibilities are endless: A tree-house theme from
Frozen, the Harry Potter series or something straight out
of the pages of an Enid Blyton
novel.
However, stay in the zone
so your children can learn to
think creatively or methodically, which will set the foundation as they grow into
adults. For instance, if you
want to do a theme on Star
Wars, focus on the droids like
R2-D2 or the spaceships rather than the battle elements.
Your theme does not have to
encompass the entire room,
instead, just bring in small
elements. If nothing else, you
can use or make your own
chalkboard paint in any colour and paint the walls, so
your kids and you can have
fun drawing on the walls.
Those without the luxury
of an extra room can have fun
too. All you need to do is designate a corner of the room
for your kids bed. With a mini
theme, by day its a nook and
by night its a fun bed.

Plan
You may have seen videos
of super dads with some insane skills, building treehouses and converting rooms
into actual enchanted forests.

The space explorer

Repurpose all that old
technology and invest in
some LED lights. Youve got a
funky console on your hands.
In case youve left behind the
past, you can also use wood or
cardboard. Perhaps have a
built-in speaker with a tablet
embedded so you can video
and voice call from another
room to make-believe fly to
distant planets and go where
no kid has gone before. To
bring in the stars, use a starlight night light projector.

The playground
SPOILT FOR CHOICE: The most essential in a kids room is the bed. Youll also need cupboards (kid-friendly ones so they dont jam their fingers) and a few drawers for storage but cubby holes
and hiding places are a must. Kids love a cosy place to curl up in and play, and its a great place for them to go sulk too. PHOTOS: URBAN LADDER, THINKTERIOR AND GABRIEL BUILDERS

If youre a do-it-yourself type,

then building something is
easy. The rest of us will need
to get a little creative.
The most essential in a
kids room is the bed. Youll
also need cupboards (kidfriendly ones so they dont
jam their fingers) and a few

As parents, you
cant get carried
away and project
your preferences
onto
your kids

drawers for storage; but cubby holes and hiding places are
a must. Kids love a cosy place
to curl up and play in, and its
a great place for them to go
sulk.
In addition, kids love physical activities. So incorporate
elements that will encourage
it. For young ones, slides and
climbing ropes will be great.
For older children, you can
have loft beds with ladders
and a slide. You can also have
cushioned floors and climbing pegs on the walls.
Every idea should be adequately buffered with safety
and your kids should always
have something to do to burn
that energy. Also, if you created a fun, controlled environment for mischief, then

leaves out of cut cloth. Perhaps fake flowers and potted

plants can complete the effect. At night, use a small star
The pirate room
projector to put constellaThis is a tricky one which tions on the ceiling. Your
will require a lot of custom child can choose to sleep in
furniture or additions to ex- the tent or out in the open
isting furniture.
looking at the stars. The tent
You can start by adding a can be a tepee, igloo or even a
ship-like hull and body to an normal tent with a sleeping
existing bed.
bag .
Then hang ropes with
climbing knots, and cushion The princess castle
Palaces are always perfect
the floors. Perhaps you can
have a rope bridge thrown in for little princesses. Use DIY
methods like plaster of Paris
for extra fun.
or cardboard to build little
The camp-out
steeples. Or use cloth-draped
All you need to do is clad well to give an illusion of a
the room with bright wood- castle over her bed.
land wallpaper and a carpet
that looks like grass.Make The enchanted forest

they wont even think of makes your theme a bit easier seating is preferred.
Here are a few quick
climbing on to your kitchen to plan.
ideas to replicate
counters!

The bed
Getting down to the nittygritty: the most important
part of the room is the bed,
and that should be attractive
to your child. It has to be exciting, but also a place for him
or her to feel safe, and sleep.
So one strategy is to buy or
place the bed first and build
the room around it.
Urban Ladder has some
pretty good readymade beds
one with a superb slide
called the Olaf Midsleeper.
Its a bed with a little built-in
study and cubbyhole. You also get beds in the shape of
cars, boats and more, which

The study/play area

A table and chair in this
case will suffice; however,
some beds come with attached study tables. Those
with space constraints can
have a bunk bed, but instead
of the lower bunk, you have a
neat study nook. Some parents may want to completely
omit the study area from the
room, and would rather keep
the space as a play area or
reading nook. Instead, you
can have the study area in the
living room or on a kitchen
table, under supervision.
That play area can be good,
but can also get messy, so
good storage disguised as

A great activity-based
home with slides. Perhaps a
part of the room can be filled
with soft plastic balls to mimic a sandpit. Keep the bed
slightly elevated, with a
climbing jungle gym around
the room. This ensures your
kid is active all the time.

The tree house

Build it indoors if you dont
have a yard. Get an elevated
bed fashioned into a house.
You cant find a tree stump,
fashion one out of wood or
metal with a plaster of Paris
exterior. If using a found tree
trunk, make sure you treat it
for termites and varnish it.
Then add in fake leaves and,
voil, you have your very own
tree house. Perhaps with a little balcony, and a rope bridge.
The best part is the floor area
is free for the kid to run
around and play.

Of birds, beasts and conservation

As the countrys foremost institution of ornithology and natural history, SACON has played a
crucial role in conservation and awareness. K. JESHI speaks to its director on its silver jubilee

he Salim Ali Centre

for Ornithology &
Natural
History
(SACON), Coimbatore, located at a 55-acre campus at Anaikatti in the
foothills of the Nilgiri Biosphere, is the vision of Indias
birdman Dr. Slim Ali. He
wanted to have an institute to
study
nature
primarily
through birds, as there was no
significant data on Indian
birds.
SACON was established on
June 5, 1990, four years after
his death. It was initiated by
the Bombay Natural History
Society and the Ministry of
Environment, Government
of India. This year it celebrates its 25th anniversary.
The institute has created
hundreds of young bird
watchers and nature lovers in
the schools in Coimbatore
through Salim Ali Naturalist
Forum. The Childrens Ecology Congress is a special annual event unique to SACON.
Dr. K. Sankar who
worked with Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun,
(1986-2016) as Scientist and
Senior Professor is its current director. He is known for
his work with Asiatic elephants, deer, primates and tigers. He has also coordinated
the tiger census in southern
India. In this interview, Dr.
Sankar shares his thoughts on
the plans ahead for SACON.
Excerpts:
What are the plans for
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the silver jubilee year?

We are having SACONs
first-ever alumni meet since
its inception. We are expecting 80 people. Some did their
dissertations with us, or
PhDs, others worked as research fellows.
We will explore possibilities of SACON collaborating
with alumni who are now
working with the Government of India, the forest department,
NGOs
and
universities. They can help
us, especially in conservation
work, individually or extend
programmes and support us
through their organisations.
As part of the silver jubilee
celebrations, we also have an
Annual Research Seminar on
May 25.
What are the upcoming
research projects?
We are planning to assess
the status, distribution and
conservation importance of
peafowl, our national bird.
There have been only a few
isolated studies.
In many places, farmers do

People are aware of

conservation issues.
NGOs are vocal now
and are involved in
conservation in a big
way.
K. Sankar, Director of SACON PHOTOS: M. PERIASAMY

not like peafowl, as they are a

menace to their crops. We are
planning to conduct a study
in Tamil Nadu first and then
subsequently across the
country to assess population,
status, and distribution. We
will have workshops, bring in
partners to conduct a conservation census and then come
up with possible recommendations for mitigating problems associated with peafowl
in select areas.
Tell us about the project
on the endangered Saras
Cranes?
We are planning a countrywide status, distribution and
population estimation of Saras Cranes. The first data was
collected 20 years ago; the
last assessment was done 10
years ago. This is the third
cycle.
It is the need of the hour, as
the population is going down.
The Saras cranes nest in
fields. We want to study the
habitat and find out if use of
environmental
contaminants, especially the pesticides and herbicides, cause a
toll on the population.
When the birds try to
hatch, the eggs break or collapse. We are going to include
this component to try to find
out reasons for their reproductive rate failure.
Any specific projects on
man-animal conflict, especially in the Western
Ghats?
For the Tamil Nadu Forest

Milestones
Seminal Publications: BirdDispersed Plants for Afforestation,
Wetlands of India and Atlas of
Wetlands. More than 800 research
papers have been published in national
and international peer-reviewed
journals and technical reports.
Research/Projects:
The
Ornithology Division has undertaken
ecological studies and status surveys
on rare, endemic, and threatened birds
of the Western Ghats and the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Conservation plans for threatened
birds including Lesser Florican,
Narcondam Hornbill, and Andaman
Teal, have been developed.
The findings by landscape ecology
division on plant-bird interactions in
the Western and Eastern Ghats
carried out with the collaboration of
the Tamil Nadu Forest Department is
used in the restoration of degraded
forest ecosystems.
The ecotoxicology division has
assessed the impact of environmental
contaminants on wetlands of 14 states

and 44 rivers in Kerala using fish as an

indicator.
The conservation ecology division
has worked on the conservation of the
Edible-nest swiftlet, the endemic
Narcondam Hornbill and Andaman
Serpent eagle.
Delisting of the Edible-nest Swiftlet
from Schedule-I of Wildlife Protection
Act, 1972, is one initiative.
SACON has completed 250
projects successfully. Research
programmes have covered Andaman
& Nicobar Islands and the Western

Ghats.
Extension and outreach:
The Nature Education division
inculcates love for Nature and
conservation among the younger
generation through its annual Slim
Ali Memorial Lecture delivered by
eminent personalities.
As a member of the International
Association for Exchange of Students
for Technical Experience, it has hosted
students from Brazil, Germany,
Taiwan, Cambodia, Philippines and
Vietnam.

Department, we will work on

human-wildlife conflict mitigation issues. The threat
could be from tigers, leopards, macaques, elephants,
pigs or peafowl.
The TN govt is keen to address these issues. We can
take up studies at individual
species level, especially the
conflict between large carnivores and humans, elephanthuman conflict, peafowl-human conflict, primate-human
conflict and the wild pigs-human conflict.
We have to study and identify areas that have conflicts.
Conflict arises with humans

when animals are pushed out

of their protected areas by
other dominant animals.
When elephants start looking
for food, people chase them in
order to protect their fields.
There are no-conflict, lessconflict and high-conflict
zones. We have to identify
them and act accordingly.
Translocation of problemcreating individuals to new
habitats is the best way to
mitigate these issues. In some
cases, conflict issues may be
seasonal too. We have to approach it holistically
Tell us about SACONs
role in spreading aware-

ness
on
conservation
among the general public?
Wildlife enthusiasts have
benefited from our training
programmes on ornithology
and natural history. Several
colleges, schools, and NGOs
in and around Coimbatore
have closely associated with
SACON and have been a part
of bird watching trips, and nature awareness programmes.
People are aware of conservation issues. NGOs are vocal
now and are involved in conservation in a big way. It is no
longer so easy to cut a tree in
the name of road-widening
programme or development.
CH-CH

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METROPLUS

CHENNAI

THE HINDU Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Ages
just a
number
Actress Jennifer
Lawrence is happy to
decay
Actress Jennifer Lawrence says she
doesnt worry about ageing, accepting that there are certain things one
cannot change. The 25-year-old has
come to terms with the fact that she
cant stop crows feet and is happy
to decay like everyone else, reports
femalefirst.co.uk.
I cant change my gender and I
cant stop crows feet, so Im just
going to move on and decay like everyone else, the Vogue magazine
quoted Lawrence as saying.
She added: If you are worried
about wanting to look younger when
youre not, youre not going to be a
very happy person. You just have to
find other things to make you happy
that are much more important.
However, the actress had previously confessed that she was conscious of her body and always feels
like the fattest one among her fellow actresses.
IANS

CM
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CH-CH

p5

METROPLUS

CARTOONS

CHENNAI

THE HINDU Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Six Chix

Peanuts

Hagar The Horrible

Calvin And Hobbes

Tiger

Rose Is Rose

Bottom Liners

THE GUARDIAN QUICK CROSSWORD-12149

"Lethargy may be our problem, but

I'd like to discuss that later."
6

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Across
1 Short wire used as jumper
Pb (4)
3 Athlete who gets to grips
with an opponent? (8)
8 Petty row (4)
9 Board game with tiles (8)
11 Female squeeze (10)
14 Surgery stitch (6)
15 Speaks (6)
17 5 down (anag) (10)
20 Hidden scandal (in a
cupboard?) (8)
21 Confined space for animals (4)
22 Person recording the
weight of goods shipped (8)
23 Without additions or
modifications (4)
Down
1 Final moment (4,4)
2 Cheerful willingness (8)
4 (As a firearm) spring back (6)
5 Failure to develop (10)
6 Grease (abbr) (4)
7 Film spool (4)
10 Gall (10)
12 Treat with pills, drugs etc (8)

13 In a manner of speaking
(2,2,4)
16 Small Indian fried turnover
(6)
18 Noise used to attract
someones attention
privately (4)
19 Fine drilled hole (4)

Solution will appear in MetroPlus

dated May 25, 2016.
Solution No. 12148

CH-CH

p6

METROPLUS

SPECTRUM

CHENNAI

THE HINDU

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Investigation by podcast,
one episode at a time

In the lanes of
Hip Hop

Trial by Error, produced by film collective Jamun for Saavn and Arre.co.in, looks at the circumstances that
led to one of the most sensationalised investigations in recent times

Rap artist Divine stands out among his

contemporaries for his powerful lyrics and
energetic stage presence

PHALGUNI DESAI

ver heard a rumour

about
yourself? asks
journalist Nishita Jha at the start of the new
podcast Trial by Error: The Aarushi Files. Its the perfect
question to start long-form reportage on a case that has been
discussed in every public forum
possible: the nightly news,
neighbourhood
tea-stalls,
schools, kitty parties, your favourite dive bar, the local train,
endless newspaper columns.
For a while, talk about the double murder that took place in
NOIDA on the night of 15 May
2008, and the ensuing investigation was inescapable.
Now, eight years and two
convictions later, Trial by Error, produced by the New Delhi-based film collective Jamun
for Saavn and Arre.co.in, attempts to look at the conditions
and circumstances that led to
one of the most sensationalised
investigations in recent times.
For those living under a rock
for the last decade or so, heres
what happened: on a fated midMay morning, Nupur Talwar
found her not-quite-14-yearold daughter Aarushi murdered
in her bedroom. The NOIDA
police were called, and suspicion immediately fell onto the
Talwars live-in help Hemraj
Banjade, who was nowhere to
be found. Only, the next day, the
investigators found Hemrajs
body on the terrace of the
house, decomposing in the NCR
heat. The case suddenly became
a locked room mystery according to police, who in an inordinately short time began
suggesting
characterless
teenager was killed by equally
characterless parents. In the
early days of 24/7 coverage and
opinion TV, the idea of a teen-

The Trial by Error Crew: Udayan Baijal, Avirook Sen, Nishita Jha and Ayesha Sood

ager and a house-help killed by

her parents for getting close
to said household help promoted by the NOIDA police and
the CBI despite conflicting evidentiary findings and strong
possibilities of other plausible
suspects took hold in the nations imagination. In November 2013, a special CBI court

Trial by Error
continues to look into
the case, telling us
what happened with
multiple voices who
feel like they are
speaking directly to
you

found Rajesh and Nupur Talwar guilty of the two murders.

In a country where mythologising, hyperbole and a touch
of salacious govern storytelling,
even if the story youre telling is
true, and perhaps not as potboiler as you think, its hard to
imagine a true crime story being told any other way. Every
night, thousands of families
across India turn to their TV
sets to watch Crime Patrol, a
show with possibly the hammiest true crime retelling ever.
Crime Patrol isnt alone in
this kind of story-telling. At the
Wheeler and Co outlets on train
platforms across the country,
youll find hundreds of locally
published true-crime potboilers, bordering on lascivious
and often violently stereotypical and outdated. So we
shouldnt be surprised how we
as a society we looked to the
NOIDA double murders to give

us something sensational fitting with our regressive, repressive,

entertainment-seeking
outlook.
Even as the case unfolded,
the once popular TV soap Kahaan Ghar Ghar Ki included an
inspired version (which the
Talwars unsuccessfully tried
stopping). In the last year, Bollywood gave us Rahasya and
Talvar, both based on the murders. The latter, written by
Vishal Bhardwaj and Meghana
Gulzar, followed the confused
investigative process closely,
and brought out the incompetent handling of the case by investigat`ng officers. Around the
same time, journalist Avirook
Sen released his book, Aarushi,
again detailing an investigative
process that serves more as an
indictment of the ham-handed
police (in) action in the wake of
the bodies being found.
Inspired by the book (which

Sound standards

RGVs take on
Veerappan

Sound engineer Vishnu Govind and his team are set to recreate
their magic in Telugu films
Y.SUNITA CHOWDHARY

Sound engineer Vishnu Govind

makes his debut in Telugu with
A..Aa and Premam, marking
around 30 films in his career, six of
them in Malayalam and the rest in
Tamil. He is quick to acknowledge
that his friend Sree Sankar works
with him as a team.
The publicity shy duo is good
friends of Premam director Alphonse Putharen and music director Rajesh Muregesan. Keen on
making a movie beautiful and perfect, they do few films; they reveal
they dont have the luxury of improvising their work during postproduction when the producers fix
the release date.
Now, they feel they are breaking
barriers and language doesnt matter. What is important is only the
pattern and genre, says Vishnu,
who studied sound recording at the
Film Institute, Adyar. We always
had cinema in mind and shared a
passion for music as we saw ourselves working in a studio some
day. Music needs basic learning
and I would compose jingles but
was not satisfied as most of the
tunes were inspirations from others songs. I wasnt happy with what
I was doing. Later, when Alphonse
came up with Neram, we started
designing. We created sounds for a
short film and won appreciation,
that gave us much more satisfaction than what we got for music. So,
we gradually felt that this might
work more for us.
Are they giving Aa..Aa and Premam a similar treatment? A..Aa is
in final mix stage and Premam is in
the last leg of shoot. Ill visit the
places and record the ambience
and strive for a change in those
films. We have to support the different identity the directors gave to
the film. The sound or music
should be in sync with the visuals;
these suggestions can be given by
the music director and how much
to fill the scene with sound and
music is our job. We have to play
with the frequencies and make sure
lift the scene, not kill it. As you hear
the sound of birds and cricket, you
will also appreciate the beauty of
silence. However, it depends on the
genre, sounds sometimes are mostly realistic than background
music.
Five years ago, when sound was
underplayed and music dominated,
Vishnu and Sree Sankar showed
how a scene could look rich without
music. Devi Sri Prasad understood
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YK

was supported by the Talwars),

Trial by Error continues to look
into the case, telling us what
happened with multiple voices
who feel like theyre speaking
directly to you. Its an almost
inside-your-head kind of experience, producer and co-writer
Ayesha Sood tells us via e-mail.
It allows for a more intimate,
honest exchange, as people
tend to have some sort of mask
on when you have lights and
cameras in the room. Theyre
more comfortable with an unobtrusive microphone.
Perhaps it is that, or perhaps
it is the eight years in between
but the comfort is discernible.
So what do you want to know?
asks an interviewee, before Jha
begins her questions. Amongst
all the people she speaks to
including Aarushis classmates,
Rajesh Talwars driver Umesh,
Delhi Police ex-commissioner
Neeraj Kumar, or Andrei Semikhodskii, a UK based DNA expert the Talwars reached out to
who concludes that he doesnt
know who could have committed the murder, but he does believe the evidentiary process
was compromised sound like
theyre having a phone conversation with the listener.
Trial by Error is in some ways
an indictment of all of us who
added to the noise. Who took
sides, who exchanged notes on
the rumours theyd heard. A
few months ago, NDTV Hindi
anchor Ravish Kumar presented his show with a black screen,
without visuals, without the
frothing faces of opinion makers, only to make the nightly
news cycle audience realise
how theyve been had from the
start. Trial by Error intends to
do this over eight episodes, each
looking at the various aspects of
the case, feeding in to our need
to be detectives but somewhat
responsibly.

Director Ram Gopal Verma

describes upcoming film Veerappan as a reinvention for
him in many ways. That is
primarily because of a very different way I had to develop a
cinematic structure to do justice to the complexities of the
subject matter, said director
Ram Gopal Verma, as he gears
up for the release of the film.
As a final word, I feel enriched as a cinema connoisseur from my experience of
making Veerappan because I
had the opportunity to dwell
into the most dangerous
minds I have ever known and I
am not talking about Veerappan and his gang. They actually belong to the people who
killed him. Right from my debut film Shiva, I was always
interested in larger-than-life,
rebellious characters, he
added.

DRIVEN BY HOPE Vivian Fernandez

AATIKA SINGH

His cheery countenance is what sets

him apart from other rappers as does
his songs inspired by life. He is Vivian
Fernandez or Divine, rapper and hiphop artist from Mumbai.
Born and brought up in the streets
of Mumbai, he is known as the voice
of the streets, narrating tales of the
people he grew up observing and paying homage to his city. Representing
the changing face of the music scene
in India, Divine says he owes his
name to gospel rap he started writing
when he would visit church. I wanted to write songs about God and how
he can save us. For him every song
has a premise and every word a deep
rooted meaning. No wonder Sony
Music signed him in 2015 to present
global urban culture through music
by lifestyle and attitude represented
by the singer.
The singer has a special relationship with rap. Referring to it as intrinsic, he says that he grew up on Hip
Hop, with the music reminding him
of many like him on the streets. The
raw zeal and powerful message characterising his songs combine elements
of
human
emotions
ambition, deceit, success, struggle,
hard work and so on. While his videos
are celebrated for their flickering visual appeal, it is the lyrics like hope is
the vehicle of the poor, I was raised
in the gutter, and only truth I will
seek that win the hearts of listeners.
Divines 2015 hit Meri Gully Mein

Jungli Sher is a song

shot at 43 locations in
Mumbai using an iPhone
6s

was honoured as the best video of

2015 by Rolling Stone India, establishing him as one of the premier Hip
Hop artistes drawing an international audience. He was declared as the
best new artist by Apple Music in
India while BBC Asian Network
marked him as one of the top artists
to watch out in 2016.
Divine started rapping in college
in English but soon moved to Hindi,
breaking the language barrier. His
first song Yeh Mera Bombay, released in 2013 was followed by Meri
Gully Main and now he has come up
with Jungli Sher narrating the story
of the ghetto he grew up in, and the
hardships he faced. The first two
videos were DIY but Jungli Sher
has been directed by Vandana Kataria, the production designer of films
such as Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy. The
song was shot at 43 locations in
Mumbai, over four days and nights,
using an iPhone 6s, and has gone
viral. Explaining the use of iPhone
6s, he said that the smaller film gear
made shoots faster while allowing
shooting in smaller locations.
Recalling his struggle, Divine says,
My journey has been full of ups and
downs. Earlier a maximum of five
people used to be present in my
concerts, now I have performed live
in front of an international crowd.
My schedule these days is fully tied
up with constant releases, music
shows, performances and foreign
tours.
Asked about the difference in music scene in Delhi and Mumbai, he
replies: In Delhi, Punjabi music is
preferred; however, on the flip side, I
think the scenario in Mumbai is
fresher and I connect with the audience better.
Divine credits his mother Nathaline with supporting and encouraging him, and signs off saying, Hip
Hop is here to stay.

Vishnu Govind and Sree Sankar

their point and muted most of the

instruments in an action sequence
in Puli. They are not against music
but stress that a balancing act is a
must.
Why do sound effects differ from
single screen to multiplex? He explains that it is due to lack of standardisation.
They should sound the same. A
sound mixing studio is designed
like a theatre but with more precision and perfect calibration. Since
theatres are not calibrated well we
are not able to mix in a standard
level. In a multiplex if you cross 120
dbspl you get a headache, it is the

As you hear the sound

of birds and cricket, you
will also appreciate the
beauty of silence

threshold of pain; thelimit is 100

dbspl. Actually every movie should
sound like it sounds in a sound mixing studio. We can make it happen
only 80 per cent of the time. We are
forced to mix in a loud manner as
theatres do not use the same volume as a studio. We mix differently
for different films. For action films,
if you mix softly, it sounds even
softer in theatres; the film will fail.
The technician says the Malayalam film industry has made a huge
leap by using sync sound though it
is a bit expensive.
In Premam, they used plug-ins to
make the dubbed track sound like
sync sound tracks. Except dialogues, we captured sounds from
exact location. Everything is real. If
you capture the dialogue from the
location, you can capture 100 per
cent emotion. We sit with directors
during dubbing and have noticed
that they get angry with artistes
after the third or fourth take. It is
difficult for an actor to recreate a
scene.
CH-CH