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SEPTEMBER 14, 2019

SATURDAY
LOUNGE
How to make a
boutique ‘paara’
Lounge brings you the inside story
of how Hindustan Park, an elegant
south Kolkata neighbourhood, has
become a hub of designer studios
and modish cafés

FIRST
The Indus Valley Civilization
and zombie myths
RUSH
How Gujarat’s Patan is
nurturing women’s football
THINK
The East India Company and the
making of a corporate leviathan
SPECIAL REPORT
Kashmir: Emergency
calls only
02 SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI FIRST
How we’re
feeling this
What is dead may never die
Mood Tracing the trauma
week

Two years after it was published in India,

Remnants Of A Separation by Aanchal
Malhotra continues to win accolades.
Revisiting Partition through material
remains, the book (published in the UK as The
Remnants Of A Partition) was shortlisted this week
for the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize, which recognizes
works that promote an understanding of cultures
and global dialogue. “I am particularly proud to
have been nominated for a work as personal and
intimate as Remnants, which attempts to create as
inclusive and borderless a space as possible for us
to untangle the memory and trauma of Partition,”
says Malhotra.—SG

ISTOCKPHOTO

Millennial madness The skeleton of the Harappan in Rakhigarhi whose DNA was sampled for the study of the ancient Harappan genome. COURTESY CELL

Union finance minister Nirmala

Sitharaman recently claimed that
the “mindsets of millennials” were
behind the slowdown of the Indian
automobiles and components industry,
ostensibly because they prefer to use ride-
hailing apps like Ola and Uber instead of
taking on EMIs to PRADEEP GAUR/MINT
buy cars. This is not
the first time
millennials have
The genomic data on who the most present-day Indians. The study finds no trace of the steppe pas-
toralists in the Harappan DNA.
Harappans were is now robust, but Simply put, this means that the people of the IVC were not genetically
related to the steppe pastoralists. The latter did migrate to the subconti-
will that stop the culture wars? nent carrying Indo-European languages, but that happened after the
waning of the IVC, around 2000 BC. So the IVC has nothing to do with
the culture of the Indo-European languages—the “Vedic” culture of the
Bibek Bhattacharya so-called Aryans. We now have a plausible model of Indo-European lan-
Breach of trust bibek.b@htlive.com guage speakers migrating in waves to northern India after the decline
of the mature-phase IVC. The DNA findings support that hypothesis.

been blamed for
killing an industry: In
the American
media, they have
been accused of
killing everything
from breakfast
cereals, casual
dining and cable TV
to golf and canned
tuna. As ever, millennials have struck back
with their weapons of choice: irony, hashtags
and memes, making #BoycottMillennials
trend for days. One comment goes, “LIC is
struggling because all the millennials are
dead from inside.”—SL
Nadal’s win caps remarkable decade
When Rafael Nadal won the US Open on 9
September, he reacted with tears of joy.
Later, he jokingly remarked that this may
have been because he was growing old. His
opponents might be forgiven for wondering what kind
of old age this is. Nadal is now at 19 Slams, only one
behind Roger Federer’s all-time record. The Spaniard
has dominated the year—with an Australian Open
final, a Wimbledon semi-final, and French and US
Open wins—and has had a remarkable decade, adding
13 Slams to his tally (Novak Djokovic added 15, Federer
5). Debates on GOAT(Greatest Of All Time) will con-
tinue into the next decade, but as far as tennis rival-
ries go, the Rafa-Roger one is unmatched.—UB
Maya, an Indian women’s health
tracker owned (ironically enough)
by women-only jobs and
community platform Sheroes, was
flagged by Privacy International for sharing
sensitive user data regarding menstrual and
sexual health with social media behemoth
Facebook, which has itself been in the cross
hairs for data and privacy breaches. It is
disappointing to see Indian app developers
being so callous about privacy, especially
with sensitive information. Whether
deliberate or an oversight, such data leaks
are a violation of user trust and eminently
preventable. —SB
D
ana Nuccitelli is an environment scientist who is
famous for debunking the myths peddled by climate
change deniers. Five years ago, in his column in The
Guardian, Nuccitelli wrote about “zombie myths”.
Simply put, these are denials of conclusive climate sci-
ence that refuse to die no matter how many times they are debunked.
Such examples are legion: “Scientists are falsifying data”; “last winter
was so cold, how can the planet be warming?”; “if the climate is chang-
ing, it can also change back”. These are often peddled by people who
preface their “folksy” wisdom with variations of the phrase, “I’m not
a scientist, but…”
I was reminded of zombie myths while reading two landmark studies
on genetics that were published on 6 September. These papers, one pub-
lished in Science and the other in Cell, tell a complementary tale. The Sci-
ence paper is titled The Formation Of Human Populations Of South And
Central Asia, by Vagheesh M. Narasimhan and others. It’s a study of the
genomic make-up of the ancient DNA of 523 individuals spanning 8,000
years, primarily from Central Asia and northernmost South Asia, and
provides a detailed and robust overview of ancient population move-
ments across large parts of Asia. One of the paper’s findings, of particular
interest to India and South Asia, is that pastoralists from the Central
Asian steppes—in other words, the “Aryans”—did indeed spread to the
subcontinent, but that migration began only in the second millennium
BC, i.e. between 1500-2000 BC.
The other paper, published in Cell, focuses on the ancient DNA of one
particular skeleton, over 4,000 years old and probably a woman’s,
found in a Harappan cemetery from the mature Indus Valley Civiliza-
tion (IVC) site of Rakhigarhi in Haryana and correlates it with that of 11
other skeletons from IVC-adjacent areas sampled in the Science study.
Titled An Ancient Harappan Genome Lacks Ancestry From Steppe Pastor-
alists Or Iranian Farmers, the paper shares many of the same authors,
including Vasant Shinde, head of the department of archaeology at
Pune’s Deccan College, Narasimhan from the department of genetics,
Harvard Medical School, and David Reich of the Howard Hughes Medi-
cal Institute, Harvard Medical School. The ancient genomic sequence
that this study discusses establishes that Harappan DNA is present in
In a 9 September interview to The Economic Times, Reich spells this
out clearly: “For the first time, we have a genetic model that fits statisti-
cally for most present-day South Asians: mixture of IVC-like people, and
other (smaller contributions) from other populations for which we have
genetic data,” he says. It’s quite unambiguous; most Indians have a large
amount of Harappan DNA, mixed with a varying amount of steppe pas-
toralist (Aryan) DNA that came in later. Reich says this latter number
“ranges from 0-30%. People with this ancestry almost certainly spread
into South Asia from the north 4,000-3,500 years ago.”
This is where the zombie myths come in. Like climate science, the ori-
gin of Indians is a politicized subject, and this makes even a purely scien-
tific finding politically fraught. Let’s look at some of the myths that have
been peddled by Hindu nationalist historiography and its proponents.
The main one is that a Vedic cultural civilization originated in South
Asia, predating the IVC, and later moved to Central Asia and Europe. The
corollary to this theory is that India has always been “Hindu”—the Har-
appans were Vedic Aryans. This Out of India (OOI) thesis allows culture
warriors on the right to make claims about an “eternal Hindu civiliza-
tion” forever tied to the subcontinent. Any attempt to fix the scientific
fact that the ancestors of the Vedic pastoralists were themselves “outsid-
ers”, like many others, and that too of fairly recent vintage, basically
debunks this thesis. The Cell paper says that the genetic results have “lin-
guistic implications” and very clearly states, “(However) a natural route
for Indo-European languages to have spread to South Asia is through
Eastern Europe via Central Asia in the first half of the 2nd millennium
BCE, a chain of transmission that did occur as has been documented in
detail with ancient DNA.”
But zombie myths are bound to rear their heads again, sooner or later.
Although the papers are barely a week old, media pieces have already
misrepresented the Cell paper to proclaim that the “Aryan Invasion The-
ory” has been debunked. That isn’t true, because the theory no longer
exists in scholarship. But the genetic data does support what could be
called the “Aryan Migration Theory”. While revealing the full bouquet
of India’s genetic and cultural inheritance remains a work in progress,
the fact that this inheritance is multifaceted, is indisputable. However,
that is unlikely to stop people from muttering, “I’m not a scientist, but…”

Write to the Lounge team lounge@livemint.com @mint_lounge @livemintlounge Write to the Lounge editor anindita.g@livemint.com @aninditaghose

happiness
DOC OF PATHANS AND PRIESTS IN TRAVANCORE
ments. He received Bartolomeo, for Kerala and Tamil Nadu descend on
instance, dressed in long robes of Per- his capital every few years for mass
MEDIUM sian style, and just as the prince was
surprised by the Christian padre’s
recitation of the Vedas. It was with
considerable foreign talent and tech-
RARE knowledge of Malayalam, the latter nology that Travancore was created—
too was startled to find that the maha- but that did not spark any contradic-
MANU S raja spoke English “exceedingly well”. tion in the minds of its rulers in defin-
PILLAI Indeed, during a subsequent visit in ing the state in the most Brahminical
1784, the father would carry for Dhar- sense of a Hindu state.
marajah a Malayalam-Portuguese- Perhaps it was in the justness of
n 1780, a Carmelite monk called English dictionary, much to the lat- things, then, that this willingness to

I Fra Bartolomeo obtained an

No matter who we are, we can all bloom.
A weekly visual column by Sukriti Vadhera Kohli,
founder, @docofhappiness
ON THE COVER: PHOTOGRAPH BY ANKIT DATTA
audience with the maharaja of
Travancore to deliver a message from
Pope Clement XIV. The pope, having
heard much about the power of the
ruler, had declared him protector of
all Christians on the Malabar Coast.
And while the document had arrived
six years earlier, nobody had both-
ered to actually carry it to its official
addressee.
But the delay itself did not cause
any offence—on the contrary, when
Bartolomeo finally handed over the
apostolical letter, the maharaja
received it with great solemnity, and,
raising it up in his hands, “held it to
his forehead as a token of respect for
His Holiness”. Simultaneously, a gun
salute was fired to commemorate the
moment, before the middle-aged
king proceeded to quiz the monk for
the latest updates in the ongoing
naval contest between the English
and the French.
Rama Varma, better known as
Dharmarajah after he gave sanctuary
to Brahmins and princes fleeing
Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan’s invading
armies, was the ruler of a self-con-
sciously Brahminical state. But as the
visiting Carmelite father found, the
influences surrounding the maha-
raja’s daily existence were a mix of
local as well as patently foreign ele-
ter’s delight, while in the previous
year it was the maharaja who had flat-
tered his Christian guest by sending
him special dishes and allowing him
to observe a Saraswati festival and the
attendant Hindu rites and rituals.
The capital of the maharaja was
itself a reflection of the sophisticated
marriage the ruler made between
multiple cultural strands. Padmanab-
hapuram—now in Tamil Nadu’s Kan-
yakumari district—houses a pile of
palaces. One structure, known as the
Uparika Malika (derived from the
Hindustani “upar” for upstairs), is a
three-storey tower. The ground floor
held the king’s treasure, while the
middle section served as the maha-
raja’s personal chambers. Lord Pad-
manabhaswamy, the state deity, was
believed to reside on the topmost
floor—an ornate canopy bed is still
maintained for him, flanked by two
“eternal lamps”.
Meanwhile, within eyesight of the
sanctified space of the Upparika Mal-
ika, with its Brahmin servants and
Sanskritic rites, stands Indra Vilasam.
Built in European style, with airy
rooms and high ceilings, this was the
allocated space for the Western ele-
ment in the maharaja’s court. It had its
own access to the street, and all the
conveniences that foreigners like
Bartolomeo would expect.
Travancore’s Thirunal Rama Varma (1724-98) was known as Dharmarajah.
Blending heterodox practices into
daily routines even while staunchly
preserving a Brahminical sense of self
was not particularly new in Travan-
core. But it did cause angst to Bartolo-
meo, who saw the world in black and
white. As the monk wondered with
genuine surprise, how could an “affa-
ble, polite, contented, prudent and
friendly” ruler who had no qualms
protecting Christians still not “per-
ceive the value of the Christian reli-
gion”? How, despite possessing so
many charming qualities, could
Dharmarajah stay “so zealously
attached to idolatry”?
But even as these questions exer-
cised the visitor’s mind, the prince’s
imagination was more than capable
of reconciling such supposed anoma-
lies. The nawab of Arcot to whom
Travancore paid tribute, for instance,
sent him a band of Pathans who
played shehnais, swarbats and other
north Indian instruments. They were
graciously accepted and settled.
Thereafter, the Pathans became a fix-
ALAMY
ture in royal processions, otherwise
replete with Malayali Hindu ele-
ments. After British suzerainty was
accepted, the Union Jack too made its
way into state ceremonials.
Indeed, Travancore itself was a
blend of older Sanskritic traditions
with modern dynamics of admittedly
foreign vintage. Dharmarajah’s uncle,
Martanda Varma, forged the king-
dom with great difficulty, conquering
half of the Kerala coast. But this new
Malayali principality was built with
the aid of Tamil mercenaries trained
by a Dutchman, and soldiers who
held arms supplied by the English
East India Company.
Indeed, on his deathbed, one of
Martanda Varma’s last words of
advice to Dharmarajah was to always
stay in the good books of the colonial
English state. And yet, this very king
also simultaneously launched mag-
nificent temple projects, opened
feeding-houses to attract Brahmins to
his capital, and launched new festi-
vals that saw the twice-born from
accept the best of foreign ideas and to
fit them into a local mould would
come to serve Travancore well in cri-
sis. After Dharmarajah died in 1798,
following a long and glorious reign,
his successor nearly squandered
everything. Then came to the throne
a princess, who, like her wiser for-
bears, recognized that the survival of
her Hindu house depended on the
favour of an English corporation.
While to her people she remained
their orthodox sovereign, she
appointed the British resident her
minister and gave him actual control:
He attached temple properties, pro-
moted missionaries and otherwise
“modernized” Travancore, but he
also saved it from annexation by his
own bosses. The Hindu state, too, left
its mark on him. When the princess
gave birth to a male heir in 1813, it was
this British colonel who went to the
abode of Lord Padmanabhaswamy.
And there, the evangelical donated to
the “pagan” deity a bejewelled
umbrella to celebrate the arrival of a
new prince in idolatrous Travancore.
Medium Rare is a column on society,
politics and history. Manu S. Pillai is
the author of The Ivory Throne (2015)
and Rebel Sultans (2018).
@UnamPillai

The making of a corporate leviathan
William Dalrymple’s
new book ‘The
Anarchy’ traces the
rise of the East India
Company and
corporate violence
Avinash M. Tripathi
T
he broad outline of the
story will be familiar to
most Indian readers. The
last great Mughal emperor,
Aurangzeb—a capable
general and dogmatic ruler—died on 20
February 1707. His death created a power
vacuum in the subcontinent. A number of
local rulers started asserting their auton-
omy by delaying or refusing outright to
pay imperial taxes. A series of rapacious
adventurers raided the capital, Delhi, to
plunder its fabled riches, depleting the
imperial treasury.
Tragically, even as the Mughal emperor
steadily lost his military prowess and fiscal
resources, his value as a nominal figure-
head kept increasing. As the conferrer of
izzat and iqbal (honour and legitimacy)—
hard to define yet twin essential attributes
of Indian statecraft—his edicts were cov-
eted by a number of shrewd and ambi-
tious politicians, from Mahadji Scindia to
Robert Clive. The upshot was that during
the next few decades, a number of con-
tenders jostled for the Mughal legacy
while remaining nominally subservient to
the emperor.
In this age of treacherous and shifting
alliances, the East India Company (EIC)
consolidated its power through a combi-
nation of fortuitous coincidences and
hard-won conquests. The Anarchy, by the
celebrated historian William Dalrymple,
is essentially a story of this power grab.
Khair-ud-Din, a contemporary chroni-
cler, describes those turbulent times in
the following words: “Disorder and cor-
ruption no longer sought to hide them-
selves and the once peaceful realm of
India has become the abode of anarchy.”
The Anarchy would be far less interest-
ing, at least to an economist, if it were
Hand-coloured woodcut of Mughal emperor Shah Alam II, reviewing troops of the British East India Company 1781.
merely a chronicle of the ways the EIC
vanquished its rivals and became a politi-
cal hegemon. Rather, it is a story of the
EIC becoming a corporate leviathan. As
Dalrymple notes: “The Company’s con-
quest of India remains the supreme act of
corporate violence in world history.”
The idea of a joint stock company—an
artificial entity with perpetual corporate
existence—was culturally alien during the
Mughal period. For example, Mir Jafar,
the short-lived Bengal nawab, imagined
the EIC to be an individual and expressed
an “earnest desire” to meet him in person.
It is certainly true that the EIC was a pio-
neer in many scandals that would be
instantly recognizable to students of cor-
porate governance. In what must count as
among the oldest examples of insider trad-
ing, when Clive landed in India and got to
know the outcome of the Buxar war—
FIRST
which would later confer on the EIC the
tax collection rights in three rich states of
Bihar, Bengal and Orissa—the first thing
he did was to instruct his agent in London
to pledge all his property and buy as many
shares of the EIC as possible. A key mana-
gerial personnel trading on insider infor-
mation today would face criminal charges
and probably end up in jail.
Another striking detail pointed out by
Dalrymple is the association of the EIC
with Indian finance. A family of Oswal
Jains, who were conferred the hereditary
title of Jagat Seths due to their extensive
banking network, was among the earliest
financiers of the EIC’s military ventures.
Was it the support of domestic finance
that actually made the EIC a winner, or
were domestic bankers merely betting on
the horse most likely to win the race? Like
most social science issues, the causality is
ALAMY
fiendishly difficult to establish. Much
more research may be needed to answer
this vexed question.
One of the most interesting parts of the
book—and central to its narrative—is the
impeachment of the first governor of the
presidency of Fort William, Warren Has-
tings, for corruption and misdemeanour.
Dalrymple treats it symbolically as a trial
of the EIC itself, not merely the trial of an
erring official. “It was the nearest thing
the British ever got to putting the Com-
pany’s Indian empire on trial,” he writes.
Edmund Burke, the rising Whig politi-
cian and an orator par excellence, opened
the charge against Hastings and argued for
four days in favour of his impeachment.
His eloquence was astounding. Hastings,
Burke said, was guilty of practising a “geo-
graphical morality...as if when you have
crossed the equatorial, all virtue dies”.
SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
The Anarchy:
By William Dalrymple,
Bloomsbury,
576 pages, ₹699.
Burke’s invocation of universal “natural
rights” will have strong resonance today.
The only problem was that the impeach-
ment was botched and vitiated. The
charge sheet was drawn by Philip Francis,
who had a personal axe to grind. Rather
than specific allegations, the impeach-
ment was based on sweeping charges and
the arguments were dominated by politi-
cal rhetoric. The proceedings were also
marred by factual inaccuracies. Rather
than appealing to reason and evidence,
the prosecution appealed to the ignorance
of the House on issues related to India.
Eventually, the trial ended up indicting
the wrong person. While Hastings was no
saint, he was certainly not “a doctor (and)
a professor upon the subject of crime”, as
Burke made him out to be. Dalrymple
notes: “He (Hastings) unified currency
systems, ordered the codification of
Hindu laws and digests of Muslim law
books, reformed the tax and custom sys-
tem, fixed land revenue and stopped the
worst oppression being carried out on
behalf of private traders by the local
agents.” He was instrumental in the for-
mation of the Asiatic Society and wrote
the introduction to the first English trans-
lation of the Bhagavad Gita.
A different conclusion on the Hastings
impeachment saga is possible to imagine.
In the absence of rigorous legal scrutiny,
however, pious invocations of universal
MUMBAI 03
principles could be hijacked by personal
agendas. Yet, more than the Hastings
impeachment, the choice of his successor
turned out to be the most consequential
decision the British parliament ever
made. Let me explain.
Economists such as Daron Acemoğlu
have established a strong link between
colonial rule and present levels of devel-
opment. They point out that colonial
institutional arrangements were contin-
gent on whether the colonists wanted to
settle in a country permanently or not. If
they decided to settle permanently, their
institutional arrangement would impose
strong checks and balances on the gov-
ernment of the day.
In contrast, in countries where they
decided not to settle, the institutions were
designed to be extractive and the power of
the government was absolute. Since post-
colonial successors too had strong incen-
tives to perpetuate these arrangements,
such institutions ended up having an
enormous influence on current levels of
development.
It is interesting to note that Hastings’
successor, Lord Cornwallis, was responsi-
ble for the far-reaching decision on the
settlement of Europeans in India. Follow-
ing his American experience of losing the
country to settlers, he was determined not
to let a permanent colony of Britishers
emerge in India. He put his policy into
effect by imposing a number of restric-
tions on the Anglo-Indian community.
Curiously, he was also responsible for
enacting the land tenancy laws in the EIC’s
dominion. His permanent settlement sys-
tem essentially auctioned off parcels of
landholdings. It was exactly the kind of
extractive law which, according to Acemo-
glu et al, would have been enacted in a
country Europeans decided not to settle in.
Eric Hobsbawm, arguably one of the
greatest historians, taught us that the only
result of a horse race historians can tell us
about with absolute confidence is one that
has already been run. Still, when we let
history speak on its own terms, the com-
plexities, nuances, insights and even iro-
nies of the past start illuminating the
present.
Avinash M. Tripathi is an associate
research fellow (economics) at Takshashila
Institution, Bengaluru.
04 SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
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dramatic, and while this is a meticulously calibrated performance, there is a
WORK READY touch of self-consciousness, as if he is trying hard not to be funny. This is not a
Origin One’s ‘Office Basics’ stationery box fault of performance but of character. Despite his extraordinary feats, the
For those who are about to start a new job or are just character is straightforward, committed and largely free of conflict. All this
fascinated with stationery, Origin One’s stationery box— agent yearns for is a faraway wife, whom he muses on whenever reaching for
available in four sizes—has a set of minimally designed his butter dish.
objects. Available at OriginOne.in; starting from ₹1,000 Despite the hero’s arc refusing to bend, the show grips hard. Gideon Raff—
creator of Israeli series Prisoners Of War (adapted as hit US thriller Homeland)
—forgoes hysterics and keeps this finite series dry and fascinating. The
cinematography is starkly desaturated, like washed-up old videotape, or
looking through air oppressively heavy with dust. I was unfamiliar with this
political intrigue but got hooked early. The lines are loaded, with talk of
brown-skinned Jews treated like Arab outsiders, or dead Syrian soldiers
dressed in Israeli uniforms. It is an alarming time. Civilians are offered up for a
guest to shoot. Presidents are executed in their pyjamas.
The Spy feels closer to John le Carré than it does to Ian Fleming, but there is

F
rom duck shami kebab to a dessert version of the
ultimate comfort-food combination of dal, chawal,
papad, achaar—the new menu at Omya, the Indian
speciality restaurant at The Oberoi, New Delhi, offers an
innovative spin on familiar flavours. The selection has been
designed by Alfred Prasad, the restaurant’s mentor chef.
Prasad has been working in London since 1999—he became
the executive chef of Tamarind of Mayfair in 2002. And under
his leadership, the restaurant held on to the Michelin star for 13 years. “I am at The Oberoi every
quarter and do a menu change based on seasonal regional produce. This is in sync with my
personal culinary philosophy of health, heritage and happiness,” he says. The additions to the
menu take into account the forthcoming festivities. He is interested in seeing how his version
of the duck shami kebab—with hung curd and spiced filling, an amaranth crust, served with
rhododendron chutney—fares. For vegetarians, there is an innovative take on the kofta with a
smoked pepper and tomato-based sauce. “For dessert, we have done an innovative Dal Chawal
Achaar Papad, featuring a lentil payasam with coconut and jaggery, rice kheer gelato, ragi crisp
for a salt element, and finished with a mango murabba.” —AB
an ease with which Cohen bites into his expense account, as he buys
unforgivably expensive wine on yachts and wears suits cut so well they make
generals envious. He throws lavish shindigs on command and, as we all know,
a truly successful party is nothing short of a coup.
This is a one-man story, and while it brings to light the extraordinary story
of Mossad’s Eli Cohen, The Spy belongs to this other Cohen. There is
something mesmerizing about a performer who allows people to tell him
things they aren’t supposed to. Something that makes us trust him. The man
who once attempted to talk a confession out of former American football
player O.J. Simpson—and came shockingly close (Who Is America?, season 1,
episode 7)—is clearly good at winning people over. It’s all about the bond.
Stream of Stories is a column on what to watch online. Raja Sen is a film critic
and the author of The Best Baker In The World (2017), a children’s adaptation
of The Godfather.
@rajasen

CENTRE STAGE
Jewels just for you FLASH SALE

Elements of style Cult classics

F
ashion jewellery brand Isharya recently
unveiled its second store at Palladium in
Mumbai—its first outlet is in Bandra. Its EQUAL, a biennial cultural

L
highlight is the N.O.W. Bar, a space which lets you ifestyle store Clove has just launched
customize your jewellery. Customers can choose Elements, a range of classic items of
from a range of ornaments, such as necklaces, traditional art and crafts, reinterpreted
earrings or rings, which can be encrusted with through a modern and contemporary lens in
materials such as abalone, mother of pearl, collaboration with Gunjan Gupta’s design label
howlite, wood, coloured resin, gold-plated studs, Ikkis and fashion designer duo Abraham and
charms and pearl tops, etched with initials. Thakore. While Gupta’s reimagined kulhads,
Alongside, it also launched another collection, buckets and lamps will be showcased in India for
Demi Goddess, which comprises hand-cut polki the first time, Abraham and Thakore will be
mirrors set with abalone. presenting 12 limited-edition garments crafted
Isharya’s second store is at Palladium, Lower from hand-spun and handwoven Khadi into
Parel, Mumbai.—SL kurtas, tunics, shirts, etc. with graphic textures.
Clove’s ‘Elements’ edit was launched on
13 September and will be available through the
Curated by Shubham Ladha. festive season.—SL
festival from Bengaluru’s
theatre space Ranga
Shankara, is back with
plays, spoken-word, live
music performances and
panel discussions. It will feature plays like Naseeruddin Shah’s
Aurat! Aurat! Aurat!, Nerves by the Nachom Arts Foundation, Man-
ipur, and Chennai-based director A. Mangai’s Freedom Begum, a
play set in Bengaluru that explores the theme of gentrification
(pictured). Each day will end with mehfils by musicians like dhru-
pad singer Pelva Naik and Carnatic vocalist T.M. Krishna.
EQUAL will be held at Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar, Bengaluru,
from 13-15 September.—SB
 THINK SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI 05

How#MeToo changed mourning

The needle of suspicion cannot simply be wished away or ignored—it has to be confronted.
The events of last year force us to reckon with the harder question of #WhatNext?

the ones who wore their self- Does that make one person “good”
entitlement like expensive cologne. It and the other person “bad”? No. And
CULT was easy when it was about people
whose politics we abhorred, whose
that is hard to grasp in a culture where
we all want to claim the moral high
FRICTION power we resented, who might have ground. We want the rules laid down in
once snubbed us. But what the #MeToo black and white because that is easier
SANDIP campaign made blindingly clear is that than living with ambivalence. Those
ROY no one is immune. Even the strongest women who went to interview
take-no-prisoners woman might have Nagarkar came back shaken. One said
been a #MeToo victim. Even the nicest, he tried to convince her to Skype with

A
good friend always says she
never wants to meet the authors
of books she loves. She is afraid
they will ruin the books for her.
Kiran Nagarkar was my exception to
her rule. I was blown away when I first
read Cuckold. I loved the bawdiness of
Ravan And Eddie. And when I met
Nagarkar at literature festivals, he
turned out to be gracious, friendly,
approachable, a man of substance and
dignity, yet without airs. “Hi, I am
Kiran,” he would say, happily
introducing himself to others when he
needed no introduction. He was self-
deprecating and caustically funny on
stage and unabashedly passionate in his
convictions, whether talking about
books or democracy or Hindu
nationalism. He was a writer I could
admire both on the page and off the
page. I even got his autograph.
And then #MeToo happened. When
the allegations against Nagarkar
surfaced in 2018, I remember thinking,
“No, no. Please not Kiran!” It was as if we
were now the cuckolds.
I wondered what I would do when our
paths crossed again, at some literature
festival somewhere. Would it be
awkward? Would we just pretend
nothing had changed? Would we
address the elephant in the room? I
honestly didn’t know the answer. And
now it’s moot. But the questions remain
unresolved in my head—more so now
that he is gone. They muddy my
mourning, raise questions on how or if I
should grieve. My sense of loss, though
undeniable, is now clouded with doubt,
also undeniable.
#MeToo was easier when the known
jerks were in its cross hairs, the ones
puffed up with braggadocio, the bullies,
most “woke” guy might have had a
predatory moment or three.
In my heart of hearts, I do know that
just because Nagarkar wrote beautiful
books, just because I never saw him
treat anyone with anything but grace, it
does not mean the accusations were
unfounded. We are all fallible, we are all
made of clay—though those who love
us, especially those who love us as fans,
would like to believe we are made of
stardust. It also does not mean all
accusations are true. But the needle of
suspicion cannot simply be wished away
or ignored—it has to be confronted.
Even Nagarkar understood that.
When Penguin Random House
cancelled his book contract for The
Arsonist, he had told Lounge in June, “I
have said this categorically, I am
incapable of doing that.” But as he also
admitted, “You are entirely free to think
that I am lying.” In another statement,
he declared, “All my novels and plays
are witness to my intense concern for
the plight of women in today’s times.”
There is something terribly sad about a
writer summoning up his fictional
creations as character witnesses for his
own character.
The accusations against Nagarkar
were stoutly denied by him but they
were never disproved. Or proved, for
that matter. They just lingered, defying
any attempt at closure. Deprived of
definitive judgement, we are each left
with what each of us chooses to believe.
But beliefs are slippery and
subjective. I wish I could be as
unshakeable in my faith as a Scarlett
Johansson, who says: “I love Woody
(Allen). I believe him and I would work
with him any time.” Or if I could have
the conviction of a Mira Sorvino when
she says: “Even if you love someone, if
you learn they may have committed
these despicable acts, they must be
exposed and condemned, and this
exposure must have consequences. I
will never work with him again.”
Unfortunately, most of us fall
uncomfortably in between.
The #MeToo movement is not about
one Nagarkar or a Rajendra Pachauri. It
laid bare not a few rotten apples but the
bitter harvest of a toxic culture. Now it
forces us to reckon with the harder
question of #WhatNext?
If a Kiran Nagarkar did what he
allegedly did, what price should he have
paid? The women who bravely shared
their stories often did so without
demands for punishment or
retribution. But society wants
punishment and we have no way to
determine what would have sufficed. A
cancelled book contract? To never be
published again? Or would he have
Kiran Nagarkar at his residence
in Worli, Mumbai, in May.
ANIRUDDHA CHOWDHURY/MINT
The accusations against
Nagarkar were stoutly denied
by him but they were never
disproved. Or proved, for that
matter. They just lingered,
defying any attempt at closure
been allowed to do so after 14 years of
literary vanvaas (exile)?
These questions are knotty and at
times feel absurd—we witness so many
of the supposedly “disgraced” men
quietly revive their careers and
fortunes. But this isn’t just about the
accusers and the accused as we might
have thought at first. We cannot let
ourselves off the hook from the burden
of making our own decisions, of meting
out our own personal (albeit small)
punishments—be it to people we know
personally or to our cultural icons.
And we have to do it without any
certified rulebook or guideline. I may
never want to watch another Woody
Allen film, but still be unable to let go of
a Nagarkar novel. It could easily be the
other way around for someone else. The
horror of Pablo Neruda raping a maid in
Sri Lanka may forever destroy the
poems for one person, but they may still
remain precious to another.
him “especially at night” and forced her
into a hug, his hand lingering on her bra
strap. Poorva Joshi said he sat too close
and insisted on hugging her. A third,
Shilpi Guha, said she froze when he put
his arm around her and touched her
inappropriately. Yet there are many
accounts about his graciousness. Rohini
Nair at Firstpost remembers how he
raised his hand to her and her partner,
“encompassing us in a gesture that felt
like a benediction”. Writer Jerry Pinto
remembers how he encouraged him as
a budding author in love with Raavan
And Eddie, saying he was waiting for his
book, that it would be a Bombay book
too, and there was room for another.
Journalist Pooja Pillai tweeted that she
would never forget the kindness he
showed her when she went to interview
him for her college magazine as an
awkward 21-year-old fan, even as she
could not forget the women who
accused him of sexual harassment.
And we can believe all of them.
Perhaps someday, someone will write
the great #MeToo novel that explores
this moral quandary with honesty and
sensitivity. But it will not be Kiran
Nagarkar. Nagarkar is gone and there
will be many who will miss his voice
deeply, who will continue to find solace
in his words and yet also believe the
women who raised their voice against
him. Both can be true even if there
seems to exist a yawning chasm
between them.
All we can do is learn to mind the gap.
Cult Friction is a fortnightly column on
issues we keep rubbing up against. Sandip
Roy is a writer, journalist and radio host.
@sandipr

Himalayas - The Offbeat Adventure on LF

Host and storyteller Ranveer Brar showcases stories filled with excitement, discoveries and exhilarating experiences

L
F the premium food
Brar introduces LF’s
and lifestyle channel
co-voyagers to life in
from the Essel Group the Himalayas
is launching yet anoth-
er remarkable show
titled ‘Himalayas – The Offbeat
Adventure.’ The show sees host
and storyteller Ranveer Brar
taking viewers through a
Himalayan journey that discov-
ers the untold stories and cui-
sines of a region few seem to
really know.
A self-discovery as much as
a discovery of the Himalayan
range, Brar holds the viewers’
attention as he explores the
three Himalayan states of
Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and
Uttarakhand. The storyteller in
Brar brings out the visual dis- Aryan women in Malana in their traditional attire
tinction of each place through
scenery, topography, cultures Brand LF has
and most importantly the become
people. He sets out on a visual synonymous with high
journey that introduces LF’s
co-voyagers to life in the quality originals and
Himalayas with excitement with delivering a
translating through his adren- premium experience to
aline-filled adventure. Viewers
see Brar in a never-seen-before our consumers. With
avatar where he opens his heart houses and locals, the show is ecosystem, Brar jumps into roads being blocked or the into 12 unique episodes for ‘Himalayas’, we raise
to take in everything the hills fascinating to say the least. adrenaline-rushing activitiesin importance the climate Gods everyone to watch. This jour- our bar higher to
have to offer. Brar also meets with Tenzin treacherous terrain where he play in the toughest terrains, ney hasbeen exhilarating while
Fascinatedand influenced by Tsundue(poet,writerandactiv- finds and curates never-seen- this show also talks about the humbling. I take with me mem-
deliver a journey that
theuniquekindofterrainlocals ist) at his humble abode in beforerecipesusinglocalingre- hardships of life. Bowing to the ories, learning and relation- should inspire a trip
live in, to the food that they Dharamshala. What follows is dients. Brar’s passage also leads matriarchalsystem,Brarbreaks ships from this new show!” and go offbeat while at
grow, is an eye-opener for a narration of poems over some him to unearthing cannabis in stereotypes and acknowledges Having been leaders in the it. It is a pioneering
many. The beauty Turkish black tea Malana, the fact that there were the mental and physical lifestyle category for over three
oftheshowisinthe and a deep dive missing tourists in Kasol, and strength of the women who years LF’s amazing line up of show with revelations
people through
whom the narra-
tive is told - the
mint into a room full of
photos, articles
and sketches
the fascinating discovery of
keeda jadi, a rare and very
expensive fungus, which isn’t
make the region what it is. As
he puts it, “Interacting with the
locals from various walks of life
shows offer discerning viewers
a visual treat with compelling
stories that link cultures, cui-
and life stories bound
to touch our viewers.
stories shared and which document easy to gather, that claims to who would first only share sines and the people of notable
We are also making the
LF show available to
the emotions felt. Tsundue’s nerve- have aphrodisiac properties! directionsto now sharingexpe- and some not so heard about
Each person has a story so wracking encounters with the Unfolding the magnificence riences and then actually cook- places in India and across the stream for the first time
unique that it was difficult to law depicting the truth behind thattheHimalayashavetooffer, ing the food, has taught me so globe through travel.
to cater to our digital
put the entire experience into Tibet and its current state. ‘Himalayas – The Offbeat many new things. I cannot wait Channel: LF, Date: 17
just 12 episodes. From pash- Crossingpathswithunexplored Adventure’ displays the mighty to share the many events from September on LF SD & HD, viewers on the website
mina rearers who never use communities, this show brings mountain range as an abode of their daily lives that we tend to AiringTime:EveryTuesday–8 Amit Nair, Business Head, LF With the master
pashmina because it is the forth the strength of a society excellence offering a variety of take for granted. From pm | Repeat Telecast: Every weaver of Kullu
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the Aryan community in Discovering heroes from the palate. Discovering methods of the life in these mountains, it You can also stream on living-
Malana with protected sacred s t u n n i n g y e t f r a g i l e food transportation despite was exciting to encapsulate it foodz.com/himalayas Created by Mint Brand Cell
06 SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI
Patan’s got talent
Blazing heat, punctured balls and a lack of coaches have not stopped the girls
of a school in northern Gujarat from leading the state’s football revolution
Nevin Thomas
eat. Camels tied to small
H
and migraines.
trees. Bare-chested men
sleeping next to brown
bushes. Barren roads and
mirages. Squinting eyes
Nothing typifies this part of northern
Gujarat better than the scorching heat
that engulfs the region for most of the
year. It is relentless and unforgiving.
Yet 14-year-old Janki Thakor is
unfazed. Her big toe is bandaged with a
piece of cloth to protect a blister. Neither
she nor the other 20-odd girls—all former
or current students of the Mahadevpura
Primary School in the village of Sampra—
who are chasing a worn-out ball on the
burning ground have anything on their
mind other than football.
They are all members of the “Patan
Girls”—a group of talented footballers
who have taken the sport by storm in Guj-
arat. They have been part of Patan teams
that are currently champions in all three
categories in the inter-district football
championships (sub-junior, junior and
senior) and were an integral part of the
Gujarat Under-16 and Under-14 sides that
reached the semi-finals of this year’s
National Championships.
OPENING PLAY
“These girls are so physically fit because
they work on their farms throughout the
day. They are willing to play all day long as
we give them the football,” explains Ran-
gatji Thakor, the schoolteacher responsi-
ble for Patan’s rise as a football nursery.
It all started in 2010, when Rangatji
learnt that the sport would be part of the
inaugural edition of the Khel Maha-
kumbh—a sports festival started by then
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
Five sailors in a catamaran
A competition touted as
the F1 of sailing promises
viewers high speeds and
immersive access
Nitin Sreedhar
nitin.s@htlive.com
T
hough it is a busy stretch of water
near the harbour of Southampton,
UK, the vast expanse of the Solent
strait is ideal for sailing. One can imagine
people perched on their sail boats, cradled
in life-jackets, cruising through the waters
here on a sunny weekend.
But on an overcast afternoon in August,
our RIBs (rigid inflatable boats) are slicing
through the salty air, chasing the Great
Britain and Japan teams’ F50 catamarans.
The two teams are going through the final
training runs before the Cowes leg races of
the inaugural SailGP Championship. Just
a few hours before this practice run, the
British team broke a new speed record
with the F50, clocking 50 knots (92.6
kmph) during a training session.
If that wasn’t fast enough by sailing
standards, team Australia, with Olympic
gold medallist and America’s Cup winner
Tom Slingsby at the helm, became the first
crew to breach the 50-knot speed barrier
in sail racing. They did so while crossing
the finish line during the first race of the
Cowes leg. It was a dominating perform-
“I had a football that was given to me by
a member of the Gujarat Police. I gave
that ball to the kids and they learnt the
sport on their own. We won the district-
level competition that year itself and then
went on to take part in the Khel Maha-
kumbh with no proper kit or shoes. We
didn’t win but the officials who saw us
play asked me to keep supporting these
girls and that’s how football in Sampra
began,” says Rangatji.
The girls didn’t take much time to grow
into the game. In the 2013-14 edition of the
Khel Mahakumbh, teams from Patan won
the Under-13 and Under-17 categories
while finishing third in the open category.
More girls from the village, which has a
population of around 7,000, began taking
up the sport as Rangatji and his colleague
Virambhai Thakor began a daily training
schedule from 5-7pm. The rapid rise in the
number of footballers meant that the
ground in front of the primary school was
no longer enough. Rangatji identified a
piece of land adjacent to the school, with
overgrown cacti and bushes. He used his
own money to level the surface into a play-
ing ground.
“It is not the perfect ground though.
The shrubs and plants in the area mean
our balls keep getting punctured. But
these girls know how to stitch a puncture
also now,” he says with a smile.
TALENTED AND HOMESICK
“This year, we organized three girls cham-
pionships in the state and all three were
won by the Patan girls,” says Gulab Chau-
han, secretary of the Gujarat State Foot-
ball Association (GSFA), at his office at
TransStadia, the plush-looking multipur-
pose stadium in Ahmedabad. He was busy
with the preparations for the final of the
Intercontinental Cup—a four-nation foot-
ball tournament that was held at Trans-
ance from the Australians, who made a
clean sweep of all three races in the leg.
Since February, six teams (the US, Great
Britain, China, Japan, France and Austra-
lia) have been competing for the SailGP
Championship, which will culminate in
the final leg and a grand finale race—a $1
million winner-takes-all match—sched-
uled to be held in Marseille, France, from
20-22 September.
The RIB speedboats chasing the F50
catamarans clock around 38-40 knots at
top speed. Every wave makes the ride
bumpier. The experience is somewhat
similar, if not faster, on the F50s, which
are powered by 24m wingsails and fly
above the water on hydrofoils. These
wing-like foils—made of carbon fibre—are
placed under the boat’s hull and when the
boats go faster, the hydrofoils lift the hull
above the water. The result is a boat with
a sailing weight of 2.4 tons, or 2,400kg,
that sails parallel to the water’s surface,
quite literally flying in the air, thanks to
the reduced wetted area (the immersed
hull area), which results in decreased drag
and higher speeds.
The F50 also follows a strict one-de-
sign, development-class rule, which
means every boat in the championship has
exactly the same design and specifica-
tions. The boats have two parallel hulls of
equal size. These are connected with cross
beams and a trampoline platform, which
allows the sailors to move from one sec-
tion to another during a race.
The high-speed catamarans are not the
RUSH
Stadia from 7-19 July. The tournament—
involving the men’s teams of India, North
Korea, Tajikistan and Syria—witnessed a
healthy turnout, with Gujarat defying the
popular perception that it was a cricket-
only state.
“It has been a great year for football in
the state. Our girls reached the semi-finals
in two categories of the National Champi-
onships—a first for Gujarat. And with the
success of the Intercontinental Cup, the
whole country knows our football is grow-
ing,” he says.
Sampra has been at the forefront of this
mini football revolution. Given its success,
the GSFA shifted 21 of Sampra’s talented
players to the Sports Authority of Gujarat
(SAG) facilities for girls in Himatnagar,
started in 2017. But the girls found it diffi-
cult to adjust and slowly started dropping
out to return to their village.
“These are girls whose parents are
competition’s only highlight. Each boat is
equipped with almost 800 sensors that
send back approximately 1,200 pieces of
data to the team coaches and data analysts
on shore through the Oracle Cloud.
According to the competition’s official
website, all the information and data is
streamed to a base on shore from each of
the six boats and made available to teams,
fans and umpires within 200 millisec-
onds. Viewers can watch the races on the
SailGP app or through a live host broad-
cast on Facebook.
The boats also have a water-proof,
32-inch screen dashboard that displays
data to the flight controller. On-board
cameras and microphones let the viewers
watch and listen to every tactical call.
The data from the boats does not give
anyone an advantage despite the fact that
every team has access to the performance
data of the other teams. Instead, this
makes the race more competitive. A team
can use the data to optimize its perform-
ance and manoeuvres. “The technology is
there as a constant reference but it’s
almost like we are still using the normal
sensory skills to do a lot of the sailing,” says
Chris Draper, the wing trimmer for the
Great Britain team. Every team races with
five sailors: a wing trimmer, two grinders,
a flight controller and a helmsman.
Scott Babbage, a data analyst with
SailGP, says the key is to compare your
performance with the better-performing
team in a race, identifying the differences
in real time and communicating them to
VINAY VERMA
NEVIN THOMAS
Patan’s Patola, or double Ikat
woven silk saris, and the
mighty Rani ki Vav stepwell
have taken a back seat to
their footballers
Teams from the US, France, Britain, Japan, Australia and China compete in the Cowes leg of the SailGP.
the boats. “In a race scenario, you are look-
ing at (things like) speed, wind and wind
angles. Then you start to dig down and
look at boat set-up, or trim…you are look-
ing at rudder and dagger-board move-
ment, angle through the water. You can
also look at how the teams have config-
ured their boats—what settings they are
using or how fast their boats might move.
The teams often converge quite quickly
on a setting based on what the best team is
doing,” adds Babbage.
The intersection of technology and
sport has thrown up interesting possibili-
ties in recent years. In most of the leading
Twenty20 cricket leagues, it is common-
place to see Hawk-Eye’s ball-tracking
technology tracking the trajectory of a
delivery from the moment it leaves a
(clockwise, from left) Gujarat’s Under-14 team at the National Championships in Odisha
earlier this year; a training session at the Mahadevpura school ground; and Rangatji
Thakor (on bike) with girls from the school.
farmers. Yes, there is a good school and
top facilities available at Himatnagar but
they were always wondering who will be
there to help their parents. So they finally
went back,” explains Chauhan.
Shilpa Thakor, a player who had moved
to the SAG campus, says: “We want to live
closer to our families. The facilities in
Himatnagar were very good but we want
something like that in Patan so that all of
us can play football together.”
According to Chauhan, the GSFA has
plans for a football academy in Patan dis-
trict, but both Rangatji and his fellow
coach Virambhai would rather get a quali-
fied coach.
“Neither of us are trained coaches.
Whatever little we know is through
watching TV. The senior girls who go to
these camps come back to the academy
and then teach the younger ones. They
take care of themselves. Both of us just
stand and watch every evening. But it
would be great if they (the GSFA) can
arrange for a qualified coach in the region.
That will definitely improve the stan-
dards,” says Virambhai.
BINDING A COMMUNITY
“When I joined as a teacher here in 2005,
there were only 17 students in class VII.
There were very few girls and they were
never encouraged to study further. But
ever since Rangatji introduced football in
the school, the number of students has
steadily increased,” says Paradhiya Var-
shaben, a social sciences teacher at the
Mahadevpura school.
“Now the conditions for girls have
changed and at the school we have more
girls than boys. Earlier, the girl students
were reluctant to even join class VIII but
due to football, they are going to colleges
too,” she adds proudly.
The community has played a key role in
harnessing the girls’ talent, with parents
from a conservative society supporting
their children’s development. This has to
do with the trust everyone has in Rangatji,
who also hails from the village.
“I moved to Mahadevpura in 2006. I
remember how Rangatji used to give
cricket training to children back then.
Everyone here loves and trusts him. That
is why parents have had no problems
sending their girl children with him to
bowler’s hand. In the contact sport of
kabaddi, data and immersive graphics are
used to show a particular skill move exe-
cuted by a player, or simply to show the
distance between a retreating raider and
the mid-line as he is pulled back by a pack
of defenders during a raid.
Similarly, viewers watching a SailGP
broadcast can see, among other statistics,
the speeds at which the teams are sailing,
through real-time graphics. “If you were
watching a race, you will see all the graph-
ics and stats coming up in real time. The
on-board cameras allow a picture-in-pic-
ture format where you can see the sailors
on the boat. So, that experience of feeling
like you are part of a race has made sailing
more accessible to the general public,”
says Neil Sholay, vice-president of digital
VIRAMBHAI THAKOR
play football. We know he is like a parent
and a teacher to them,” says Dasharthji
Thakor, Rangatji’s elder brother. His
daughter studied till class VII in the Maha-
devpura school and was an active part of
the football team.
Football has changed Sampra. The suc-
cess of the girls has united the village and
made it aware of the potential of the game.
“We are what we are because of the girls,”
say the villagers, starting with the school’s
teachers. According to them, Patan’s Pat-
ola (double Ikat woven silk saris) and the
mighty Rani ki Vav stepwell have taken a
back seat to their footballers. “We have
not even seen an aerodrome in our lives
but our girls got an opportunity to fly from
Ahmedabad to Mumbai in a flight. For our
village, that is a big deal,” adds Dasharthji,
who also teaches at the school.
Mahadevpura’s footballing tale is an
example of how community-driven sports
initiatives are key in a country that is so
culturally diverse. Local leaders such as
Rangatji, who understand the demogra-
phy, continue to play a huge role in identi-
fying and nurturing talent—be it for a
Hima Das in Assam or a Mariyappan
Thangavelu in Tamil Nadu.
But the girls’ stint at the Himatnagar
SAG academy and their unwillingness to
be away from their families is also indica-
tive of the fact that building academies
isn’t everything.
Thirty-five girls from the Mahadevpura
school have, till date, been part of the state
team in the National Championship in
various age categories. Ten of them have
represented the state seven times. Shilpa,
a former student of the school, was a
stand-by for the Indian national team.
So the talent is there. But the federation
may have to go to the villages.
There are many things you notice as
you make your way to Sampra. Dry, barren
fields, patches of land with cacti. And the
overwhelming feeling that the desert isn’t
too far away.
And the heat. That dry, relentless heat.
But the village is no longer known for its
heat. Their girls are their stars, and foot-
ball has well and truly taken over.
Nevin Thomas is a sports journalist who
also works closely with grass-roots football
academies across the country.
COURTESY SAILGP
and innovation for Oracle, Emea.
Russell Coutts, the former Olympian
who founded the competition in 2018
along with Oracle’s Larry Ellison, says sail-
ing was once a difficult sport to under-
stand. He believes the data is accelerating
the learning curve for teams and making
the sport more exciting for non-sailors.
Coutts says there are plans to expand
the competition, with one new team to be
added next year. “Currently, there are six
national teams competing against each
other. There are some of the more tradi-
tional sailing nations like Denmark, Spain,
Italy and the Netherlands that are inter-
ested,” he adds.
The writer was in Southampton, UK, at
the invitation of Oracle.

Now take a walk through
Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’
Avantika Bhuyan
avantika.bhuyan@htlive.com
he Mauritshuis in the
T Netherlands, home to mas-
terpieces from the Dutch
golden age of painting, is
offering a rather unique
perspective on Rembrandt van Rijn. To
accompany its exhibition—on show till 15
September —of 18 masterpieces by or ever
attributed to the artist, including the
famous The Anatomy Lesson Of Dr. Nicol-
aes Tulp, the museum has launched the
Rembrandt Reality app, which uses aug-
mented reality (AR) to create virtual holo-
graphic projections with the camera of an
Apple or Android device. Virtual objects
are projected on to the physical space,
allowing the viewer to immerse herself in
the artwork.
“To replicate The Anatomy Lesson Of Dr.
Nicolaes Tulp as realistically as possible,
lookalikes of the main figures in the paint-
ing dressed up in 17th century outfits were
scanned with a 3D scanner, made up of
600 reflex cameras. The original theatre
in the Waag where Dr Tulp gave his anat-
omy lesson in 1632 was then captured with
the 3D scanner. These scans were then
combined, after which 3D modellers gave
the figures and the space the correct col-
ours, textures and light,” mentions a note
by The Mauritshuis. Art historians worked
closely with the app developers to allow
the user to enter an authentic version of
the anatomical theatre through the app,
available free of charge.
Today, AR, mixed reality and virtual
reality are being used by museums, galler-
ies and artist collectives to change the way
we experience art—whether it is in the
white cube space, on the street or at home.
An example of this is the new digital exhi-
bition at the Atelier des Lumières, Paris,
which immerses the visitor in the paint-
ings of Vincent van Gogh. Think of walk-
ing through landscapes and nightscapes
Lounge Loves | Some great podcasts to enrich your mind
Podcast central
From music to science,
here are five great
podcasts to listen to
through the day
Bibek Bhattacharya
bibek.b@htlive.com
T
he podcast turned 15 this year. Back
in 2004, when broadcaster Adam
Curry’s Daily Source Code became
a hit, the idea of the podcast was
intriguing—radio for the digital age, as it
were. But as formats and business models
have stabilized, the podcast is today a
booming business. According to a 2018
study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the
industry generated business worth $479.1
million (around ₹3,440 crore now) in the
US, and this is slated to grow to about $1
billion by 2021. Podcasts are great busi-
ness, but that’s primarily because of their
varied and excellent content. I have been
a late adopter, but these five great pod-
casts on subjects as varied as science,
music, football and climate change have
me hooked. Check them out, and free your
mind:
WARM REGARDS
There are plenty of great
podcasts on the subject of
climate change, but Warm
Regards is the best. Prima-
rily hosted by scientist Jacquelyn Gill, a
paleoecologist, and journalist Andy Rev-
kin, Warm Regards tackles various issues
such as Starry Night, imagined so beauti-
fully by the artist, which are now projected
on the walls and surfaces of the Atelier. On
view till 31 December, the experience fea-
tures visual and musical work produced
by Culturespaces and directed by Gian-
franco Iannuzzi, Renato Gatto and Massi-
miliano Siccardi.
One interesting use of AR in India can
be seen in the comic-book Priya’s Shakti,
which uses the technology to address
issues of gender-based violence. Ram
Devineni, who created the series in collab-
oration with artist Dan Goldman and vari-
ous writers, first thought of AR while visit-
ing the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Each
fresco told a different story but came
together with the others to illuminate a
wider experience. “That’s when I thought
of the idea of using AR as a way to experi-
ence the real world without being
removed from it. Moreover, the technol-
ogy compels you to interact with your sur-
roundings and gives an additional layer of
information and a new perspective on
what you see around you,” he says.
While he was interviewing rape and
acid attack survivors for the book, he felt
it was critical to embed video interviews
into it. “AR allowed me to do that.
Through this, readers can experience a
deeper level of storytelling and meet the
women whose lives inspired the series,”
says Devineni. He started using AR in 2013
and is now looking at pushing the technol-
ogy to the next level in the succeeding
chapter of the comic-book series Priya
And The Lost Girls, about sex trafficking. It
will be launched on 30 November.
Today, technology allows you to imag-
ine and experience art differently in your
own home. For instance, Eikowa, a
curated online art gallery and bespoke art
advisory, uses mixed reality as its visuali-
zation tool. The feature enables you to see
how a particular work will look on the
walls of your home. Eikowa was started
four years ago by Vaishnavi Murali, a
related to climate change in great depth
and with great variety. From episodes on
how to counter climate deniers to those on
using faith to raise climate awareness, the
hosts and their specialist guests take us
deep into the science but keep it fairly
simple for the layperson. The easy conver-
sational tone complements the gravitas of
the subject well. Each episode also gives
you a wealth of bibliography and links on
the subject under discussion.
Available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and
Soundcloud
TINY DESK CONCERTS
NPR (National Public
Radio) Music’s Tiny Desk
Concerts is an institution.
The format is pretty sim-
ple: Musicians from across genres play live
15-20 minute sets in front of a small audi-
ence in the NPR office. You can watch the
videos online, but I prefer the audio pod-
cast of the shows. Here, you can hear
musicians of the calibre of Wilco, Big Boi,
George Clinton and Adele play cracking
sets with a minimum of fuss. It’s a great
way to discover new music as well. It
makes for the perfect soundtrack to your
work commute.
Available on Google Podcasts, Apple Pod-
casts and Pocket Casts
THINK AGAIN
Think Again is the multi-
media web portal Big
Think’s podcast. In keep-
ing with the portal’s modus
operandi of deep, thoughtful and analyti-
cal content, Think Again confronts some
of the world’s brightest intellectuals with
LEFT BRAIN
(left) The visualization tool on the Eikowa website; and visitors at the press preview of the ‘Van Gogh, Starry Night’ exhibition in Paris in February.
hobby artist and an alumna of the Indian
School of Business, to take affordable art
to an audience beyond the metros. She
started with a roster of 40 artists, which
has increased to 150, and includes a vari-
ety of mediums.
“We then thought that people should
be able to see the work that the artist has
spent so much time creating. Each work
has such texture and style that maybe just
a thumbnail won’t do it justice,” says
Murali. Also, people would often What-
sApp images of their home and ask if the
work would look good in a particular
space. So, the Eikowa team started super-
One interesting use of AR in
India can be seen in the
comic-book ‘Priya’s Shakti’,
which uses the technology
to address issues of
gender-based violence
Podcasts have varied and excellent content.
deep questions on time, mortality, author-
itarianism, the homeostatic imperative
and a host of other subjects. The engaging
Jason Gots hosts the show, and these
roughly hour-long episodes feature inter-
views with authors like Salman Rushdie,
Margaret Atwood, Robert Macfarlane,
Neil Gaiman and a veritable who’s who of
people who like to think deeply. An abso-
lute delight.
Available on Google Podcasts, Apple Pod-
casts and Stitcher
INVISIBILIA
Another NPR show—yes,
NPR has brilliant pod-
casts—Invisibilia is one of
the most intriguing sci-
ence podcasts out there. In fact, it’s more
than just science, it’s narrative storytelling
at its finest. It talks about subjects as varied
as empathy, mental illness or the daily
uncertainty faced by meteorologists. In
every episode, the show takes a personal
story to elucidate on the subject, jumping
in and out of recordings, ambient sound,
change in formats to keep the listening
experience a riveting one. The show is an
imposing artworks on the photographed
spaces and sending them back. “Every sin-
gle customer loved it. The whole point of
visualization is to give clarity and to help
narrow down the choices. So we thought
why not take this further and give the cus-
tomer the power to do this on their own,
without even having to ask us,” says
Murali.
She thought of taking the AR route but
realized it had many challenges. For one,
it could only be used as an app. Second, it
needed some sort of markers on the walls.
So she decided to use mixed with features
of VR (virtual reality) and AR integrated
with the website.
Launched a little more than a month
ago, the visualization tool allows the cus-
tomer to choose a piece of art from the
inventory. The user then needs to upload
an image of the space where he or she
wants to display the work. “It allows you to
see whether the work matches the colour
of the walls, is in sync with the theme of
the decor, and, importantly, what it looks
like in real time,” says Murali. “This is just
another way of using technology to ease
the life of an art enthusiast.”
ISTOCKPHOTO
endlessly self-referential and meta analy-
sis of the “invisible” forces that affect
human behaviour, things that we never
really stop to think about. Invisibilia is a
classic.
Available on Google Podcasts, Apple Pod-
casts and Spotify
FOOTBALL WEEKLY
The Guardian’s Football
Weekly is one of the best
football podcasts out there.
Each episode is about an
hour long and features the very simple but
effective format of a bunch of football
writers from The Guardian sitting around
in the studio and discussing the week’s
football news. The show mostly deals with
English football, but there are digressions
to other European leagues and the occa-
sional deeply informed chat about classic
games and players. The warm conviviality
of the presenters gives listeners the dis-
tinct feeling that they are in a room with
fellow fans of the game. Can’t get better
than that!
Available on Apple Podcasts, Google Pod-
casts, Stitcher, Spotify and Soundcloud
SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI 07
Augmented and mixed reality are
being used by museums, galleries
and entrepreneurs to change the
way we experience art—both in
the gallery space and at home
GETTY IMAGES
Put your text
messages in order
A new app from Microsoft helps users organize
their SMSes and sort them into four categories
Nitin Sreedhar
nitin.s@htlive.com
W
ith instant messaging apps now handling most of our personal and offi-
cial conversations, the traditional SMS app has been pushed into the
background. But it’s still useful, be it for that important one-time pass-
word or for a quick look at your bank balance after a financial transaction.
The SMS inbox, however, can get messy, with the numerous alerts, offers and
services from different sources you have subscribed to for updates.
A new Android app from the Microsoft Garage project, the company’s innova-
tion wing, can now help you filter your SMSes, making it easy for you to navigate
your inbox. In order to use SMS Organizer, developed by an eight-member team
from Hyderabad, users first need to set it as their default SMS app. During the
set-up, the app scours your messages and sorts them into four main categories:
personal, transactions, promotions and starred. The “personal” tab is where you
will find all your conversations. This makes
it simpler for you to find a particular conver-
sation and not scroll through promotional
messages. Under the “transactions” tab, you
will find all the SMSes related to financial
transactions—bank alerts, unpaid bills, and
so on. The “promotions” tab saves all the
commercial and promotional messages
from your inbox.
When you open the app you will also
notice three tabs on the top for “reminders”,
“finance” and “offers”. The app uses a smart
reminders system to jog your memory about
bill payments, movies and forthcoming
travel, using information from SMSes.
Reminder cards can be found under the
“reminders” tab. You can even set a new
reminder and attach a corresponding SMS
with it under this tab. For example, if your
DTH recharge is due a day later, you can set
a reminder and attach an SMS received from
the DTH operator to it.
The “finance” tab keeps track of all
recent activity on your debit and credit cards and payment wallets. The app
developers clearly mention that the app is built to function perfectly offline,
without an internet connection. That means all the classification and reminder
setting happens on the device. No personal or financial information is uploaded
on to the cloud.
The “offers” tab is the one section that might not appeal to many since it classi-
fies and shows promotional offers from your SMSes. The app also collates offers
and discount coupons from the web—for travel, shopping, food, bills, etc. It may
be best to go into the app’s settings and hide the offers tab to avoid clutter.
SMS Organizer also offers different colour schemes and themes to personalize
the app.
SMS Organizer is available free of cost on the Android Play Store.
08 SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI TASTE

Flavours
ISTOCKPHOTO

News, views and what’s fresh in the culinary world this season

HOW THE ‘DHOLL PURI’

TRAVELLED TO MAURITIUS TEA NANNY
A popular Mauritian street food is linked to the shared history of two nations
All that goes
Street food into a bag of tea
for the soul Aravinda Anantharaman

Vineet Bhatia’s sampler for

in and around Port Louis
u Try dholl puri at the Flic en Flac
central market. The other popular
eats at the shopping village are
doodh falooda and gateaux piment
(a kind of dal-chilli vada).
u The stalls on the coastal road of
Grand Bay and the stalls around the
port at Port Louis.
u Dewa & Sons at Bagatelle Mall is a
must-try for dholl puri.
tian cuisine use maida.
Chef Vineet Bhatia has had close ties with
Nandita Iyer Mauritius since 1992. His restaurant Amari at
Lux Belle Mare resort in Quatre Cocos village
I
t was the best of teas, it was the worst of teas, it was intended
well, it suffered in reputation, it finds many takers and as
many critics, and some will go so far as to say it’s the worst
thing that has happened to tea in the last century.
The tea bag is one of those things that we can only view in
black or white. For consumers, its remarkable convenience
outstrips every other flaw. But is that a price worth paying?
The short history lesson with tea bags lies somewhere
between these two stories—that Thomas Sullivan, an Ameri-
can tea supplier, began sending his tea samples to buyers in
silk pouches in 1908. His buyers apparently chose to dunk the
entire pouch in hot water, setting off a new trend. The other
story is about two American women, Roberta C. Lawson and
Mary Molaren, who filed a patent in 1903 for a “tea leaf holder”
that would carry enough tea leaves for a single cup, hold the
leaves together so that the drinker didn’t end up with leaves
in their mouth, and was made from a mesh fabric to allow
water to circulate through the leaves. Eventually, it was
adopted by tea brands and spread steadily across the world.
The material of the tea bag has changed variously from silk
and gauze to nylon and muslin. Alongside this, the contents
of the bag also changed, from whole leaves to tea-bag teas—

A
n iconic street food from Mauri-
tius has deep connections with
India, evident from its name
dholl puri. The underlying story
of this dish is a poignant
reminder of the indentured labourers who
went from India to Mauritius in the 1800s.
Former Mrs Indian Pacific Universe 2016
Venisha Gooriah is an expert on Mauritian cul-
ture and cuisine. We got talking about Mauri-
tian street food and the popular dholl puri
came up.
Here is Gooriah’s story on how this dish
came to be. The indentured labourers were
given fixed rations of food and fresh water for
a week or so. Given that fresh water was a pre-
cious resource, their families would use the
water in which it was cooked to bind the
dough. Some of the dal would invariably get
mixed into the dough, so it ended up as a flat-
bread with some dal in it. The present-day
dholl puri is a paratha stuffed with a crumbled
chana dal mixture.
Even though it is called puri, this flatbread
is not deep-fried—it is cooked on a tava, or
griddle. A pair of these pliable breads are used
as a carrier for a curry with toppings. In his
book The Literature Of The Indian Diaspora:
Theorizing The Diasporic Imaginary (2007),
Vijay Mishra writes about a Trinidadian ver-
sion of the same dish, which goes by the name
buss-up-shot (burst-up-shirt) because the tex-
ture resembles rags. If you ever eat a dholl puri,
you will realize how accurate this description
(above) ‘Dholl puri’ is a ubiquitous item of Mauritian street food; and Dewa & Sons is renowned
for its version of the dish.
is. Among Indian dishes, the Maharashtrian
puran poli resembles a sweet version of the
dholl puri, bearing more similarities to it than
a dal paratha.
Gooriah also shared why maida (refined
flour) is used to prepare this flatbread. Wheat
flour, or atta, was sent via ships from India
but it would often get spoilt. Maida, which
has a longer shelf life, survived the journey
better. This is probably why, even now,
almost all the Indian-origin dishes in Mauri-
PHOTOGRAPHS BY NANDITA IYER
Among Indian dishes, the
Maharashtrian ‘puran poli’
resembles a sweet version
of the ‘dholl puri’, bearing
more similarities to it than
a ‘dal paratha’
showcases Indian cuisine in a luxury setting.
Bhatia explains that it is not easy to eat a dholl
puri by itself because it’s extremely dry, has a
crumbly texture and minimal flavouring—
just salt, turmeric and roasted cumin powder.
“This is one street food that totally depends
on accompaniments such as achard (a kind of
pickle), made using pineapple or carrot, a
rougaille (tomato-based curry) or a butter
bean curry that makes the dish more palata-
ble and easier to eat without sticking to the
throat,” he says. The locals also eat it with
kheer (rice pudding).
Home cooks in Mauritius add their own cre-
ative touches to the dish, like onions, chillies
or coriander to the filling to add flavour. It is
not unusual to buy a bunch of dholl puris from
the nearest vendor and bring them home to
eat with home-made curries and pickles.
Bhatia has featured a modern take on dholl
puri in Amari’s menu, prepared in the form of
an Afghani naan with a salan (a Hyderabadi
chilli curry with a peanut-sesame-tamarind
base) served over it, in a bite-sized course.
You will find that the taste of this street food
is consistent through the island country.
There are hardly any variations of this price-
sensitive dish, sold at roadside shacks or in
glass boxes hauled on bikes.
It is indeed the one dish you must try when
you visit Mauritius.
Nandita Iyer is a food blogger and the author
of The Everyday Healthy Vegetarian.
broken leaves or CTC (crush, tear, curl) that can release the
flavours quickly. But with mass production came the question
of what dubious additives it included. Tea bags lost out in
character because nobody knew what they stood for. You can
liken it to the pav bhaji, a mishmash of yesterday’s curry, its
ingredients unrecognizable though it has been rendered more
palatable. But then again, one can argue that you can make
your tea bags, and choose the tea that goes into them.
However, even if you customize your tea bag, its very design
doesn’t allow for the best interaction with water, the very step
that results in a good cup of tea. Tea brewing is affected
because the bag introduces another layer against the water,
and the material of the bag will impact this further. Dunking
the tea bag to agitate the water by moving it up and down is not
the solution.
With one point in favour and one against, we need a decider.
A few years ago, tea expert Nigel Melican’s research showed
that the tea bag’s carbon footprint is 10 times more than that
of loose leaf tea. All that extra packing and wrapping and bits
and bobs attached to it are the culprits.
In short, the tea bag has been around for a hundred years or
so—it isn’t likely to disappear soon, and some of its noisiest
critics may well call you a philistine if you choose to use it.
Indeed, why use it when you have great alternatives, and por-
table ones at that?
TEA TAKES
Choose from portable tea makers like the Compact Tea Maker
from Teabox or the Octavius Green Tea Bottle.
Tea Nanny is a weekly series steeped in the world of tea. Ara-
vinda Anantharaman is a Bengaluru-based tea blogger and
writer who reports on the tea industry.

Monsoon catch A different kind of fandom

Know Your Fish and InSeason Fish can help A new Bengaluru hoppers on the menu, but along with the
regular Ceylon chicken curry, they are
you choose your seafood during the rainy restaurant carves out also served with an asparagus and water
season, wisely and sustainably a food-led identity chestnut curry and stir-fried mocha
(banana flowers). In the large plates sec-
instead of taking the tion, pulled jackfruit burgers, Kashmiri

E
ating fish in the monsoon is either taboo or shrouded in myth, for most morels (featuring wild mushrooms and
fish is assumed to be breeding during the season and the fish that is microbrewery route sticky rice in a guchchi broth), and classic
available is presumed to be from older stocks and, therefore, of a softshell crabs are interesting choices.
poorer quality. While there is no reason to boycott all fish in the rainy Shrabonti Bagchi The cocktails—club classics and house
months, it is essential to know which varieties are fit for consumption. Know shrabonti.b@livemint.com cocktails like the East Indian (rum, Indian
Your Fish (KYF) and InSeason Fish, two India-based initiatives, are spread- black plum, basil pineapple juice) and

W
ing awareness about seasonal and sustainable seafood consumption. They alking into Punkah House, the
publish monthly calendars of which fish should be eaten and which should new “it” restaurant in Benga-
be avoided, based on breeding seasons and catch sustainability. luru’s thriving (and despite the
KYF’s co-founder Pooja Rathod potholes, still occasionally charming)
says, “Many fish species do breed neighbourhood of Indiranagar, on a rainy
during the monsoon, but those such evening is calculated to make you feel like
as Indian salmon, tuna and more can you have walked into a plantation house in
be eaten since they don’t. The seas the tropics. It is by no means a subtle
are rough during this season as well, effort—lush green palms peep from every
and because of the fishing ban on corner, colonial-style rattan furniture and
fisheries with large trawlers, only bamboo chiks (blinds) abound, and pol-
certain species are available.” ished wood and leather dominate the din-
It’s also important to diversify the ing areas of the two-storey restaurant.
seafood being consumed. InSeason Despite the occasional heavy-handed-
Fish’s co-founder Divya Karnad says: for ness, however, the effect is not without its
on Fish’s fish calendar
“The traditional variety of seafood has InSeas charm—it’s tough not to be a sucker for
ber .
been forgotten.... Only a maximum of Septem the Raj’s trappings.
10 varieties of fish are being consumed, but fisheries are catching more than It is this imagined nostalgia for some-
a hundred varieties, which are rich in micronutrients, but are lesser known.” thing few of us have actually experienced
that the people behind Punkah House are
SEPTEMBER PICKS betting on, both with their décor and food.
Blacktip sea catfish, Indian mackerel, Indian salmon, barramundi, etc. The latter is inspired by colonial-era
Find out more on KnowYourFish.org.in and InSeasonFish.com. favourites from India, “Ceylon” and
“Burma” (the use of the old names in their
—Shubham Ladha menu and food descriptions is telling).
The inspiration is quite loose, though—
New Republic (jasmine and tulsi tea
infused vodka, orange juice)—comple-
ment the food and décor.
“Bangaloreans are foodies and the vibe
of the city—with its love of old bungalows
and clubs—goes well with the vibe at
Punkah House,” says Shikha Nath, brand
director of Charcoal Concepts, which runs
(above) Polished wood and leather the Punkah House and Bombay Brasserie
dominate Punkah House’s décor; restaurants, on their decision to launch
and an arugula salad with ‘chakotra’ the brand in Bengaluru.
(Indian pomelo) and tender coconut. The food identity of the restaurant isn’t
beholden to one chef’s vision—the entire
because Punkah House has developed a team of chefs at the F&B company worked
menu full of experimental dishes that take for months to curate a menu that would be
off from ingredients, techniques or fla- experimental, says Nath. “We take inspi-
vours of classic dishes but reinvent them ration from the indigenous food heritage
quite thoroughly, such as the surprisingly as well as international influence—it’s a
delicious wine-aged drumsticks with goat happy hybrid of identities, both East and
cheese, or marinated jolpai (olives mari- West and old and new, all coming
nated in lime, fennel and berries). Or take together on your plate,” says Nath.
the Kashmiri harissa chicken liver pâté—
imagine a pâté spiced with garam masala, Punkah House is open from 6.30pm-
and you may wonder why anyone would midnight on weekdays and noon-midnight
ever have a regular chicken liver pâté on weekends. A meal for two is around
again. There are Sri Lankan-style string ₹2,500.

Dystopia comes calling home
Margaret Atwood’s
new novel, ‘The
Testaments’, offers a
dire reality check the
world needs
Somak Ghoshal
somak.g@livemint.com
t’s hard to recall any literary fic-
I tion title in recent memory that
has sparked as much public inter-
est as Margaret Atwood’s The Tes-
taments. On 10 September, as the
novel was released globally, legions of fans
flocked to book stores, hungry to lay their
hands on a copy.
Inspired by the popular TV series
based on The Handmaid’s Tale (Atwood’s
1985 novel, of which The Testaments is the
sequel), women dressed as “handmaids”
were in attendance at the London launch.
That the book is already on the Man
Booker Prize shortlist before it was offi-
cially published may have fuelled the
public’s enthusiasm. The last time people
were this excited by a book was probably
a new George R.R. Martin novel or a fresh
instalment of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter
series.
The inordinate craze is also because The
Testaments is being pitched as a fable for
our times. If The Handmaid’s Tale was a
dire warning against succumbing to totali-
tarianism, its sequel is a clarion call to
defeat oppressive regimes. While Atwood
is too sophisticated to insinuate any obvi-
ous parallels, the world she creates is
plagued by the dangers that beset our
post-truth societies: misogyny, religious
intolerance, xenophobia, the closing of
borders and the erecting of walls. As she
said in an interview with the BBC, The Tes-
taments is “a lot closer to reality” than its
predecessor.
Set roughly 15 years from the moment
The Handmaid’s Tale ended, it unfolds
mostly in Gilead, a dystopian double of
the US, with some detours into Canada.
Such is the tyranny of the theonomy that
controls Gilead (its rulers proclaim it to
be “God’s kingdom on earth”) that the
The 360-degree sweep of philanthropy
How lessons from being
a first-generation
entrepreneur have
helped Ronnie Screwvala
transform rural life in
Raigad through his
Swades Foundation
Sanjukta Sharma
A
t 56, seven years after he divested
his media and movies conglomer-
ate UTV Software Communica-
tions to Disney for an enterprise value of
$1.4 billion (around ₹10,000 crore now),
Ronnie Screwvala is one of the few Indian
philanthropists who has created his own
not-for-profit, 360-degree model of rural
development that can have a multiplier
effect. The Swades Foundation has been
working in more than 2,000 villages in
Maharashtra’s Raigad district since 2013.
Screwvala doesn’t live or talk like a bil-
lionaire and doesn’t like the word “phi-
lanthropist”, he says, when we meet at his
office an unassuming sprawl built around
basics, in Worli, Mumbai. “Philanthropist
sounds ponderous. It seems to mean you
have to mature, above 50, with a fat bank
balance to give. I believe you don’t need
to necessarily have a lot to give. We
started very young, in our 20s,” he says.
By we, he means his family: wife Zarina
Screwvala, co-founder and managing
trustee of the foundation, and daughter
Trishya Screwvala, who is also a social
entrepreneur.
The office is home to Swades Founda-
tion, his online education venture
upGrad, sports company U Sports, private
equity label Unilazer Ventures and movies
and digital content company RSVP, which
produced, among other films, the year’s
very successful Hindi film Uri: The Surgi-
cal Strike. The office also belongs to the
seven-member team of The Lighthouse
Project, a non-profit mentor-mentee pro-
gramme of 700 mentors and 700 mentees
that Trishya founded and runs.
Both Ronnie and Zarina come from
middle-class households, which, he says,
has something to do with their interest in
giving back to society. “The first 18 years of
my life were in Grant Road, in a building
which was like a long community room.
When you come from there, there’s a cer-
Margaret Atwood at a press conference following the release of her new book, ‘The Testaments’, in London on 10 September.
country has “an alarmingly high emigra-
tion rate”.
Women suffer a life of indignity,
stripped of every right, with no access to
money. They have no autonomy over
their bodies. Classified according to their
worth, they assume specific roles.
The Aunts, unmarried and chaste, are
the custodians of female morality; the
Wives are attached to the Commanders
and elite professionals; the Econowives
are wedded to the working classes; the
Marthas are domestic helps; and the
Handmaids are fertile women, tasked with
providing progeny to a mostly barren pop-
ulation. In the pecking order, the Hand-
maids are treated the worst, used as scape-
goats for crimes and abused as “sluts”.
The contours of this system are familiar
tain grounding that you have. I think your
background has strong connections to
why you may have a sense of empathy and
sense of awareness of people around you,”
says Ronnie. The Parsi genes too, he adds.
Rather than focusing on just one issue,
the Swades Foundation works on every
aspect—water, sanitation, health, educa-
tion and livelihood. A 360-degree sweep
is an uncommon model for a non-profit.
But the foundation works in a concentric
geography of about 3,200 sq. km, cover-
ing 2,200 villages and a little over half a
million people, in over seven blocks of
Raigad. It has a team of about 300 full-
time employees and about 1,000 part-tim-
ers. In the last five years, the total outlay of
Swades Foundation’s work has been
around ₹450 crore, of which ₹225 crore
has come from donors. Zarina, who
spends 100% of her time on the founda-
tion, says she simply executes her hus-
band’s vision for rural development, and
that’s her full-time job.
Swades works on solutions that leave a
permanent impact so that people are
empowered and do not need its interven-
tion five-seven years down the line (after
five years, they go to new villages). Its
approach doesn’t have precedents. “A
benchmark is always very limiting,” Ron-
nie says. So they train teachers, set up new
classrooms, get water taps in each house-
hold, set up sanitation facilities and
upgrade irrigation facilities. He says les-
sons learnt from being a first-generation
entrepreneur helped him think non-lin-
ear, and take the risk of abandoning a nar-
row focus for their work.
“Non-linear is my operative approach
to everything I do. The word ‘disruptive’ is
passé. In the rural and social space too, we
take risks. Precedents are mostly irrele-
vant; lessons learnt are good, but even
they need a new context. So I am a firm
believer that if we want to bring change to
rural India and to the not-for-profit sector,
we need to think non-linear,” he says.
They wanted Swades to be an execution
foundation from Day 1. “We were not cut-
ting a cheque to anyone. We wanted to
build a team, execute on our own,” he says.
In 1990, after pioneering cable televi-
sion in India with the company United,
Screwvala founded UTV (United Televi-
sion) with Zarina Mehta and Deven
Khote. It produced a quiz show for Door-
darshan called Mashoor Mahal, for which
Ronnie was also assistant director. In
non-fiction programming, he created,
directed and produced the game shows
THINK
The world she creates is
plagued by the dangers that
beset our post-truth
societies: misogyny, religious
intolerance, xenophobia, the
closing of borders and the
erecting of walls
Zarina (centre) and Ronnie Screwvala interacting with the Gokulwada village community, which received drinking water at their homes
for the first time with the support of the Swades Foundation.
Snakes & Ladders and The Mathemagic
Show, the medical drama Lifeline, the
quiz show Contact, in which Ronnie him-
self was the quiz master, and Hip Hip
Hurray, a show for teens. In the early days
of UTV, they started Share, an old-age
crèche and orphanage on the premises of
their office.
Ronnie recalls, “As first-generation
entrepreneurs, we had to work with very
little. There was no concept of private
equity or capital or bank loans at that time.
Because we were a small team, the com-
pany represented a system of core values
of the founders. Instinctively, in the early
years itself, we decided that 10% of what
we made, we would give to charity.
“It was a very symbolic gesture at that
time because we were not making any-
thing, we had not raised any money. We
had to live up to that statement from Day
1. We had a 10,000 sq. ft office, and we
allocated 1,000 sq. ft to Share. It was a cul-
ture-setting thing for the organization. It
had nothing to do with UTV, it was my
personal foundation.” Like UTV, Share
too grew in scale.
The first employee they hired specifi-
cally for Share guided them to the next
step—rural India. The rationale was that
although there are numerous problems in
urban India, there are also many people
GETTY IMAGES
to readers of The Handmaid’s Tale and to
those who have seen the television series.
Extreme as these classifications may
appear, these are not mere figments of the
writer’s imagination. In many societies
around the world, women are still not
treated any better.
The administrative philosophy of Gilead
also resonates widely with our contempo-
rary realities. Gilead was conceived by
Atwood while she was travelling in Europe
in the 1980s, especially in Germany, before
the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her encounter
with police states gave substance to the
dystopia which, over the years, has come
perilously close to reflecting the times
through which we are passing.
Fake news is pervasive across the world
now. In Gilead, too, lies are all pervasive.
solving them. Zarina and her team trav-
elled across India and Bangladesh and
realized, as they spoke to not-for-profits,
that most issue-specific work was stuck
because they could not control other areas
of development. If you have a water prob-
lem, you are not going to get girls to attend
school. Everything was interconnected, so
they decided to solve the overall problem.
“Our entrepreneurial experience came
into use because as entrepreneurs you are
used to solving a problem holistically,”
says Ronnie.
‘
We were not cutting a
cheque to anyone. We
wanted to build a team,
execute on our own.
RONNIE SCREWVALA
Co-founder, Swades Foundation
SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
The Testaments:
By Margaret Atwood,
Penguin Random House,
432 pages, ₹799.
But lying is not only a means to an end; it
is a fine art. The need to perpetuate
untruths is integral to Gilead’s statecraft,
as is the imperative to close all access to
news from beyond its boundaries. The
intellectual insulation of Gilead is supe-
rior to that of Kim Jong-un’s North Korea,
since its women are destined to remain
unlettered.
Only the Aunts are allowed any educa-
tion, though they can’t read anything they
wish. From Jane Eyre to Anna Karenina,
Tess Of The d’Urbervilles to Paradise Lost,
the list of proscribed books is long. Even
parts of the Bible are censored, as are chil-
dren’s books from an earlier era. It is part
of the duty of the Supplicants—young girls
training to become Aunts—to cover up fig-
ures in picture books in suitably modest
attires. The debates over rewriting history
to suit political agendas has never stopped.
In spite of the gravitas of its themes, the
pace of The Testaments never lets up. Its
plot is more sharply focused than The
Handmaid’s Tale, probably because the
scene has already been laid out in the lat-
ter. Narrated by three voices, the story
connects several dots to the past. Those
who are familiar with the original would
be better able to appreciate these linkages,
though The Testaments can also be read as
a stand-alone work.
The testament of Aunt Lydia, the
supreme leader of all the women of Gil-
ead, is the pivot on which the other testi-
COURTESY SWADES FOUNDATION
Most rural migrants leave for cities not
only owing to the lack of basic amenities
and livelihood, but also natural factors like
droughts. Many migrants in Maharashtra
are climate refugees. Raigad, for instance,
is in the Deccan plateau. Even if there is
rain for five months of the year, it all dries
up two months later.
Swades’ success, and the reverse migra-
tion it has resulted in, proves that if basics
like water, sanitation, education and live-
lihood are in place, villagers would stay in
their homes. “We couldn’t be looking at
stopping migration because that’s what is
supposed to build aspiration. But the truth
is, only in countries where there are devel-
oped cities is it aspirational. We don’t have
developed cities. Our cities don’t have the
infrastructure to handle large-scale
migration. Rural migrants aren’t happy
here, but going back to the village is like
admitting defeat. It took us time to change
this perception,” Ronnie says.
When Swades started, 30-35% of the
houses in the villages were locked. For
four years, the foundation has been host-
ing community meetings in Mumbai with
migrants from these villages, updating
them about developments in the village.
“Building trust with the community is
very important. You can’t go thinking I am
doing social work and everyone will wel-
MUMBAI 09
monies, by Witness 369A and Witness
369B respectively, are balanced. Identi-
fied as Agnes Jemima and Daisy, the two
witnesses discover they share a bond
potent enough to shake the foundations of
Gilead. In The Handmaid’s Tale, attempts
to overthrow the regime were systemati-
cally thwarted. In contrast, The Testaments
is optimistic about the possibility of end-
ing the misrule of the Sons of Jacob, the
leaders of Gilead.
Yet, while The Testaments chronicles
the destruction of a reign of terror, it does
not set up easy binaries. Aunt Lydia, a fig-
ure of sheer evil in The Handmaid’s Tale,
is much transformed. No less cruel and
formidable, she is given a chance to
recount her life story—describing her
metamorphosis from a well-heeled judge
to a dispenser of wild justice.
Improbable though it may sound,
Atwood manages to elicit a flickering of
sympathy for Aunt Lydia, even as it is
impossible to ignore her monstrosities.
But could there be any moral compass in
a world where the idea of justice is so
warped that it fails to distinguish between
the innocent and the guilty? “Innocent
men denying their guilt sound exactly like
guilty men, as I am sure you have noticed,
my reader,” Aunt Lydia tells us at a chilling
moment. “Listeners are inclined to believe
neither.”
A discomfort with fixed ideologies and
the intolerance of absolutes are at the
heart of Atwood’s fiction, which resists
being labelled as unqualifiedly “feminist”.
“Is The Handmaid’s Tale a ‘feminist’
novel?” she asked in a New York Times
article in 2017. “If you mean an ideological
tract in which all women are angels and/or
so victimized they are incapable of moral
choice, no.” When the #MeToo move-
ment was at its peak, Atwood expressed
her reservations about the way in which it
was unfolding. Power, she repeatedly
proves, is a double-edged sword: If it
empowers one, it disempowers others.
In the figure of Aunt Lydia, Atwood
gives us a uniquely complex character
who defies easy templates. When asked to
kill her fellow captives to prove her fealty
to the regime, Aunt Lydia obeys. She even
gobbles up an egg sandwich after witness-
ing a public execution of other women.
But without this exterior of steel, she
would never have had the last laugh.
come me with open arms. Not at all. The
trigger for people to come back is either
strong school education, which they have
seen after our intervention, livelihood
options in agriculture and dairy, and jobs,”
Ronnie says. Water has become the big
catalyst for reverse migration, as each
household in these villages now has one-
two water taps, with 200 litres allocated
for each household for everyday use.
On Republic Day, the Swades Founda-
tion signed a memorandum of under-
standing (MoU) with the Maharashtra
government to identify 650 villages in
Raigad district that can be turned into
“dream villages” in terms of livelihood—
this would include large swathes of the
Adivasi population. The signing of the
MoU is a culmination of their work since
2012, when Share became Swades, a name
change prompted by the film Swades
(2004), which Ronnie produced at UTV.
Ronnie recalls: “When we finally exited
UTV, we had some sense of liquidity. Till
then, I was functioning on borrowed
money. During that period of transition,
Zarina did a Teach For India course, came
back and said, ‘I am joining Teach For
India.’ We hadn’t worked apart from each
other ever, but she said she wanted to cre-
ate some impact here and now. I think as
a retention strategy for my wife, I uttered
a larger vision statement: Why don’t we
look at lifting a million people out of pov-
erty every five-seven years? At that point,
we didn’t know much about the social sec-
tor, but we were clear that we weren’t
going to just cut a cheque no matter how
much we scale up. We had to create a not-
for-profit model that if we got right, others
can replicate.”
Over the past two years, Swades has
worked closely with the government—to
solve the problem of anaemia among rural
women, conduct workshops for school-
teachers, and create sustainable liveli-
hoods. “The trust element with the gov-
ernment is low from the community. And
in many ways, we have been a catalyst to
build the trust. I have got two water taps
for every household. But in seven years
that mountain spring may go dry. You
have to work with the government to keep
your mountain spring going well. So I
think while you can’t have any expecta-
tions from the government, a collabora-
tive effort works. More so at the ground
than at the policy level,” he says.
Sanjukta Sharma is a Mumbai-based
writer and critic.
10 SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI
How to make a
BOUTIQUE ‘PAAR
A conscious revival of
Kolkata’s Hindustan Park
combines its legacy as a
planned residential area
dating from the 1930s
with designer studios
and modish cafés
Sohini Chattopadhyay
W
hen you walk down Gariahat
Road, where the pavement
eateries force you into the
path of other pedestrians,
autorickshaws, minibuses,
trams, the odd hand-pulled rickshaw rattling per-
sistently behind, and, occasionally, unhurried sheep
and goats, the slender, leafy lanes of Hindustan Park
nearby feel like the cool cloister of a seashell. The
discreet quarter in south Kolkata, where India’s
longest-serving chief minister Jyoti Basu once lived,
sees a different kind of traffic.
Sunil Subba, a parking attendant on contract with
the Kolkata municipal corporation (KMC), thinks he
saw a Jaguar the other day. “I checked on my phone
and it was a Jaguar. Audis are common. The other
day, one of my colleagues said there was a Porsche,
but it was not. It was some other fancy car. I am
learning the makes and names now,” he says.
Much of this deluxe fleet is headed for the Roast-
ery Coffee House, a coffee-speciality all-day restau-
rant that opened recently in Kolkata—its second
outlet, after Hyderabad. The elegant 60-cover res-
taurant has leased the ground floor and grounds of
the Calcutta South India Club, founded by C.V.
Raman and S. Radhakrishnan, among others, in
1926. The building itself will turn 100 next year,
according to Unnikrishnan Nayar, general secretary
of the club. The café has added a chequerboard floor
for outdoor seating and retained the laal mejhe (red
oxide flooring) and mosaic, both typical of old Kolk-
ata, inside. The elegant French windows are lined
with potted plants and Ikat drapes.
“We saw properties on Park Street, Camac Street,
Alipore, Lake Road, but I immediately knew I
wanted a place in Hindustan Park when I saw it. It is
residential, it is green, it still has graceful old homes
like in Banjara Hills (Hyderabad), where we have our
first café,” says Roastery founder Nishant Sinha. “I
like places where you can see old people living,
because older guests are more loyal. If they like your
place, they will bring their children and grandchil-
dren. And I got this vibe here that it is a place where
people still live, so it won’t be trashed like districts
where people come just to eat and shop. I myself love
walking around here; even the smallest, cheapest
café has such good service.”
The Roastery is the sixth, largest and most popular
café in the area. A seventh has opened, while num-
bers 8 and 9 are being built. There are at least a
dozen apparel and crafts boutiques, the most well-
known of them Byloom—which stocks the textile
label Bailou—all within five lanes connected to each
other. Most of these boutiques and cafés are
hybrids—they sell handloom apparel as well as natu-
ral foods sourced and packaged locally by coopera-
tives, giving the Hindustan Park paara (neighbour-
hood) a crafts village identity, distinct from the many
café- and restaurant-lined streets of south Kolkata.
The majority of these, say 80%, have set up shop
in just the past three years. The first store here was
Fabindia, in the early 2000s; Byloom opened in
2011. Since 2016, Hindustan Park seems to be under-
going something akin to the transformation of Hauz
Khas Village (HKV) in Delhi in the 1990s, when it
became a hub for boutiques and niche eateries.
Malavika Banerjee, one of the founding partners
of the Byloom store, says she first noticed the beauty
of Hindustan Park when she came to shop at Fabin-
dia. “I always say happenstance. My husband (Jeet
Banerjee, a co-founder) and I started thinking of
doing something here, we weren’t sure what exactly.
We were lucky to be able to buy the three-storeyed
house in 2010, lucky the textile designers Bappad-
itya and Ruma Biswas—the brains behind the label
Bailou—were looking for a space to retail from. One
thing led to another. And I myself always wanted a
boutique with a café, like the beautiful Barefoot bou-
(above) The shopfront of the
Sienna store and café; and the
distinctive vibe of Hindustan
Park comes mostly from its
architecture.
Conservation architect Kamalika
Bose doesn’t see the term
gentrification as fully encompassing
what is happening in Hindustan
Park—for gentrification refers to an
area, historic or not, which has seen
an economic decline, opening up
to a new segment that boosts its
economy and aesthetics
tique store in Sri Lanka. We started in 2011, and I am
glad we have so much company now.”
The proximity of Gariahat Road, south Kolkata’s
maddening commercial thoroughfare, helps. If you
look at the city map, Hindustan Park is one of the
quadrants off Gariahat Road, the others being Hin-
dustan Road, Ekdalia and Dover Lane. In 2007,
when builder Soumyajit Gupta first started working
in the neighbourhood, the residential realty rate was
about ₹4,500 per sq. ft. “Now it is ₹10,000-plus for
residential, and ₹14,000 and above for commercial
properties. This is similar to other areas around
Gariahat but I get a lot of queries for studio and bou-
tique businesses here,” says Gupta of the architec-
ture firm SGA Projects & Ventures.
The growth of Hindustan Park, and indeed south
Kolkata’s café and hospitality segments, has coin-
cided with the change in Bengal’s political regime.
Byloom opened in April 2011 and on 13 May that year,
Mamata Banerjee defeated the Left Front, which had
been in power in Bengal for 34 years. The going was
good, the economy was cruising, though state gov-
ernment policies did little to encourage the shift
from a clump of drab umbrella businesses, stodgy
sari stores and unchanging biryani and Chinese out-
lets that made up south Kolkata to a hip downtown
where people shop with craft paper bags and eat in
cafés that serve more salad than cooked food.
*****
COVER
Products at Byloom, one of the first boutiques in Hi
The Kolkata gu
handloom, eati
Sienna is Sulagna Ghosh’s contribution to
Hindustan Park, an extension of her
mother’s Santiniketan pottery brand Con-
fetti. The natural fabrics and wholesome
food store-café is a slice of hipsterdom
featuring dresses with clean lines and chic
motifs in natural fabrics priced at
₹1,800-5,000. My favourite, though, is the
line of Ikat motif ties.
The apparel is designed by Sulagna. The
Confetti brand of pottery is by the senior
Ghosh, Shanta, and her sculptor partner
Prabhash Sen.
The store also retails bags from The Bur-
lap People, ethnic footwear from Vraj-
bhoomi, and incense and essential oils from
the Auroville ashram. The café at the back
uses Shanta’s home recipes and does the
term hipster café justice—with avocado,
microgreens, frittatas, gluten-free treats,
and pumpkin soup on the menu. And they
serve in their signature Confetti ceramics.
Made in Bengal, Miranda Chatterjee’s
store next to Sienna, showcases the memo-
ries of Bengal she carried with her as a
probashi (non-resident)—natural-dye
scarves printed with the face of Baantul the
Great (a Bengali cartoon character), hand-
loom saris made by select weavers from six
districts of the state, dresses with motifs of
fish, owls and Batik prints native to the
region, magnets with images of the Ita-
chuna Rajbari (Sonakshi Sinha’s zamindari
home in the Hindi film Lootera) and ghee
and boris (dal fritters) made by a brand
called Home-Made, embroidery frames of
the sort Charulata spent her afternoons on,
and taal misri (palm candy lozenges). The
floor above has Kaarkhana, Chatterjee’s
workshop and tailoring outfit, where you
can get fabrics tailored after a consultation,
or do a block-printing session where you
make your own natural-dye printed shirt or
scarf. Chatterjee’s business also has an
online presence (Madeinbengal.in).
Bhumisuta, close by, stocks a refrigerator
full of popsicles made of natural fruit pulp
and no added sugar—I can personally
vouch for the daab (green coconut) and
watermelon. Other seasonal favourites are
aam panna (raw mango cooler), jamun
(Java plum) and custard apple. There are
also unusual Bengali flavours like bael
 STORY
RA’
industan Park.
uide to buying
ing natural
(wood apple). There’s a superb aam shotto
(mango bar) made and packaged in Malda,
Bengal’s main mango district, with a wholly
non-synthetic mango and jaggery flavour.
The store also stocks handloom saris from
various districts of Bengal and Varanasi,
cotton clutch bags, costume jewellery, and
a whole range of natural food products
from districts all over the state, including
cornflakes and oatmeal.
Attire Zone, a 5-minute walk from Bhumis-
uta, has a line of satchel-like sling bags
made of printed fabric designed by owner
Suparna Purkayastha. Purkayastha is one
half of the couple that runs Kolkata’s oldest
south Indian non-vegetarian restaurant,
Tamarind. She also retails handloom saris in
cotton, linen and silk from Bengal, Andhra
Pradesh and Varanasi, scarves, kurtas, tops
and costume jewellery—some of them are
designed by Purkayastha herself. There is
also a small range of woodwork, ceramics
and dokra ware.
Shunyaa is run by Sharbari Datta, who is
known for her pioneering work in men-
swear. The store stocks designs both for
men and women, and marks Hindustan Park
as a serious fashion destination where you
buy clothes by appointment. The store
itself is done up in her signature ornate
style, evoking the European baroque and
rococo styles, as well as the extravagance of
Bengal’s rajbaris.
Byloom is perhaps among the most talked
about handloom stores of the past 10 years,
yet its fabric room is still worth a visit. Artsy
cats, solemn owls, campy yellow cabs, blue
mobile phones and formidable oxen are
among the block prints that adorn the rolls
of Bailou’s fabrics. They also have the more
conventional flowers and paisley prints, but
the tongue-in-cheek motifs invoke the
famous Kolkata irreverence. They also stock
a wide range of handloom saris, costume
jewellery, ethnic footwear, scarves and
ready-made shirts.
Whether you buy anything or not, defi-
nitely head to the Canteen café for mutton
chop or prawn cutlets, or a full-fledged
meal of mangsho or maach bhaat. Their
food, like their apparel, is unpretentious
and satisfying.
Although Kolkata has a reputation for chaos,
many parts of it are “severely planned”, writes Par-
tho Datta in his book Planning The City (2012). In
1911-12, the British administration set up the Calcutta
Improvement Trust to make the city more beautiful
and “sanitary”. This was meant to prevent epidemics
like the plague outbreak of 1898, and wrest back
some control from the then Calcutta municipal cor-
poration (which had increasing Indian representa-
tion), Datta writes. Hindustan Park, and indeed
much of south Kolkata around the Rabindra Sarovar
lake, is part of that planned, beautified city. The lake
was created in the 1920s, and the most expensive
real estate areas were those that came up around it.
The Hindustan Park area, which developed in the
1930s, was close to the lake but not right next to it.
Doctors, lawyers, engineers, college lecturers—
the professionals of the 20th century—bought plots
here, which explains the affluence, beauty and archi-
tectural style of the neighbourhood. The homes in
Hindustan Park, and in several neighbourhoods
extending from the historic Bhowanipore area to the
lake, were built by British engineering firms com-
missioned by the residents.
In some ways, Hindustan Park today is reminis-
cent of Singapore’s Tiong Bahru neighbourhood—
public housing built by the British-administered
Singapore Improvement Trust in the art deco style
in the 1930s and 1940s. Today, it is Singapore’s most
hipster neighbourhood, with craft breweries, cafés
and a superb book store. Kolkata’s story is much
more of its people though, since the houses were not
built by the government.
The south Kolkata architectural idiom is stereo-
typed as art deco. But in fact these houses just por-
tray certain features of the style—the typically
rounded edges of balconies, and window grilles with
vertical designs. But many do not have the geometric
windows seen in the classic art deco form of Ameri-
can institutional buildings; most, in fact, have the
slatted windows that have been the city’s signature
look ever since film-maker Satyajit Ray’s Charulata
(1964). The writer Amit Chaudhuri has coined the
phrase “Calcutta architectural legacy” to describe
this unique hybrid style.
“The old joke is that residents of south Kolkata are
so poor that they have to go to work every day to earn
a salary,” says Jawhar Sircar, chairman of the Centre
for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, a former
Prasar Bharati CEO and a writer. “North Kolkata is
where the obscenely rich lived, the zamindars who
did business with the British and became carica-
tures, babus who threw feasts for the weddings of
their cats. You see this in the architecture: the rajba-
ris of north Kolkata have Corinthian columns,
arches, stucco, all these European features, and the
majestic thakur dalaans (ceremonial platforms) that
are a more Bengali feature. They are grand, while the
houses of south Kolkata have a compact form; the art
deco movement is inspired by the opulence of lux-
ury liners, and the general impression is compact
but aesthetically pleasing houses built by salary-
earning professionals.”
“Although we are so close to Gariahat, these lanes
were so quiet that we could play cricket whenever
we liked,” says Nayar, who has been coming to Hin-
dustan Park since 1970, when the club purchased the
building. “The only car that entered these lanes was
chief minister Jyoti Basu’s (who lived there from the
1940s to 1977). A couple of times, our ball hit his car
too. But he never responded, neither smiled, nor
reacted in anger.” Basu’s father Nishikanta Basu was
a doctor, in keeping with the profile of the paara.
The educated, upper-middle class residents of
Hindustan Park and other south Kolkata neighbour-
hoods had it good in the post-independence dec-
ades. They were unaffected by the privations of the
zamindari abolition Act. They thrived in the 1960s
when Kolkata was the city of professionals. Many
Tamil Brahmins who left Tamil Nadu after the anti-
Brahmin movement came to work in the city. And
they held on through the turbulence of the Naxalite
movement in the 1970s, the influx of four million ref-
ugees after the 1971 war and the long Communist
rule that led to a flight of capital from the state.
Most of the generation that stepped into adult-
hood around liberalization in the 1990s, however,
left the city—as other metropolises appeared to offer
better opportunities. But the owners of several of
these houses held on to their homes because of their
relative affluence. Equally, the city did not see the
kind of stratospheric realty escalation that visited
Delhi and Mumbai, giving them little incentive to
sell. If Kolkata retains more “character” today, it is
because of this, rather than an awareness of its
unique “architectural legacy”.
*****
How do you give a neighbourhood with burgeon-
ing retail prospects, like much of south Kolkata, a
distinct identity? Architect Abin Chaudhuri’s firm
Abin Design Studio (which also handles community
works under the aegis of the Kolkata Architecture
Foundation), located in Hindustan Park, has pro-
posed the trendy neighbourhood be turned into
something of a crafts paara. “There are lovely old
trees here. My team has suggested that we put up the
names of the trees, set up guards around the tree
trunks to prevent them from falling, and these
guards can double up as modular seating areas.
There are some famous roll, phuchka and muri
hawkers in south Kolkata who have a dedicated cli-
entele. What if we invite them, and insist on waste
disposal and hygiene? Then, small visual things like
marking the corners with road graffiti, with the
materials used for painting zebra crossings, little
things that invite people to have a relationship with
the trees and the area here.” The KMC has approved
The team that worked on hawker pushcarts designed by Abin Chaudhuri’s Kolkata Architecture Foundation.
SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANKIT DATTA/MINT
the ₹25 crore plan and the firm is in the process of
organizing funding. “We will scale down if we fall
short of the sum,” says Chaudhuri, who hopes to tap
corporate entities, the government and residents.
Chaudhuri lives in the area, and speaks with the
sense of investment that comes from belonging. He
wants this to be a good place to live and do business
in—distinct from the norm of a clear demarcation of
business districts and suburban areas.
“Our urban design courses are shaped by the
West,” says Sohomdeep Sinha Roy, an architect in
Chaudhuri’s practice. “If we look at Indian towns like
Raipur, even today the main bazaar, which has the
shops, is also a residential area. People live above
their shops, they have shop-houses.”
A three-and-a-half-minute walk from Chaud-
huri’s office is Art Rickshaw, an art school which has
upscaled the old Bengali tradition of art lessons with
gym-style packages for skills like sketching, pottery
and fine arts. For two years, Devanshi Rungta, the
creative head of the business, has been organizing a
day-long art festival in the cooler months of January-
February, inviting local businesses to set up kiosks
and pop-ups and inviting residents to participate in
sketching contests and drawing alpona (rangoli) pat-
terns on the road—the equivalent of a college fest for
a paara. “We went door-to-door to more than 100
families. Some residents did draw, but many came
down and sat and chatted,” says Rungta.
From the design point of view, there is a reason
why cafés and boutique businesses like to set up in
Hindustan Park, says Chaudhuri. The typical plot is
deep but has a narrow frontage. This means rooms
MUMBAI 11
(clockwise, from left) Devanshi
Rungta of Art Rickshaw (from
left) and Sulagna Ghosh of
Sienna with Nishant Sinha of the
Roastery Coffee House; the
interiors of Sienna; and the
display at Shunyaa.
lead into one another, perfect for clothes studios
and restaurants which can utilize different rooms
for different purposes—a coffee bar in one room,
two rooms of stand-alone tables, a pantry and a
kitchen. A developer would have to pool four-five
such plots to build a low-rise block with flats, given
present-day municipality norms that necessitate
leaving space around buildings, which isn’t ideal for
construction.
The Kolkata-born, Mumbai-based conservation
architect Kamalika Bose doesn’t see the term gen-
trification as fully encompassing what is happening
in Hindustan Park—for gentrification refers to an
area, historic or not, which has seen an economic
decline, opening up to a new segment that boosts
its economy and aesthetics and makes the area
desirable and trendy again. “Additionally, I would
attribute it to a socio-economic need, with migra-
tion and ageing citizens living in large homes built
for joint families. They have not entirely aban-
doned the place but are exploring ways to monetize
their built assets. As a conservationist, (I think) this
is a good thing because the money helps revive and
retrofit an ageing building. But the other side is also
true—it does tend to drive out original residents as
values rise.”
“Certainly, there is a lot of interest in Hindustan
Park, both for residential properties and busi-
nesses,” says Gupta. “Of late, mishti (sweet) busi-
nesses are keen on an outlet here, a ground-floor
store. They offer in the range of ₹1.5 lakh a month,
which is a decent income if you are a retired person.
Clients tell me they have seen houses where lights
are switched on only on one floor, and few people
appear to stay. Prospective clients, who want to rent
or buy, appear to have done good recces of the area.
I prefer not to approach directly, because residents
in these paaras often have deep emotional ties with
their homes, built by their parents or grandparents.”
The neighbourhood presswalla, one source of
information, is easy to spot. Yogindar, who didn’t
want to divulge his full name, also works as a night
watchman in a low-rise. I ask him whether his
income is rising. “Not really,” he says, “none of the
shops give me any linen.”
What about brokers who ask you for information?
“Fifty people will stop and ask me for information on
any given day. How would I know if they are brokers
or what?” he responds curtly.
People gather—drivers and domestic staff who
hang around the lanes. The conversation is over.
I wonder if his agitation was a performance, a code
to ask for money. As a journalist, it is against the rules
to pay for information, but I can see where Yogindar
is coming from. In a neighbourhood with prospects,
everyone has a stake and everything has a price.
Sohini Chattopadhyay is a Kolkata-based writer
and journalist.
12 SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI
A HOME UNDER LOCKDOWN
Asmita Bakshi
asmita.bakshi@htlive.com
L
andlines are working in
Buchpora, but we have to
dial 10-15 times as it says
‘sorry it’s not connecting’,”
reads a message on the
Gyawun Group, on the instant messaging
app Telegram. “Hi guys I am not a Kash-
miri but I’m here on this group because
my boyfriend is Kashmiri. For already 25
days no contact with him and his family.
Thank god two days ago one of his neigh-
bours came to Delhi and called me to say
they are alive,” reads another. Yet another
member asks desperately if anyone has
managed to contact someone in Soura,
where his family lives and where protests
have reportedly been taking place over
the last month.
This group, which now has over 3,700
members, was set up on 5 August, in the
face of a complete communication shut-
down in the Kashmir valley after the
Union government’s move to revoke the
application of provisions of Article 370 of
the Constitution, which granted the state
of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) its special
status. The state will also be bifurcated
into two Union territories—J&K and
Ladakh.
Gyawun has been created by Manan
Mushtaq, 32, a Kashmiri who works as a
marketing professional in Delhi and runs
a website by the same name. The group
reads like a catalogue of pleas and updates
from Kashmiris outside the valley who
have been unable to able to reach their
families and friends. For, initially, noth-
ing was working in the valley—be it land-
lines, mobile phones or internet and data
services.
It includes videos and voice notes, con-
veying the ground reality, notes from
those who have visited their homes in
Kashmir. There are also messages
requesting those travelling to Kashmir to
relay news of deceased relatives, medici-
nes, fee requests and more.
“There was an incident where a fire
broke out in Delhi’s Zakir Nagar and a
Kashmiri woman died. Her family
couldn’t know or be informed because of
the communication blackout. So we
shared it in the group and someone got
EMERGENCY CALLS ONLY
Amidst conflicting reports and a breakdown in communication, Kashmiris outside
the valley are raising their voices on social media, helping each other and letting
the world know what it is being unable to access—their own truth
the information across,” says Mushtaq’s
wife Talia Asmi, 30, a lawyer in Delhi.
“Then, there was one girl whose mother
was in Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai,
and her father had just gone to Kashmir to
organize financial help. He couldn’t be
told that his wife had been shifted to the
ventilator because there was no commu-
nication. She was in need of money, we
arranged things. Then, via the group, we
got someone to visit his place in Kashmir
and convey the information.”
As they speak to me over glasses of cold
coffee in Delhi, they continue coordinat-
ing these efforts—though they them-
selves have had trouble contacting their
families in Srinagar. “If someone manages
to connect to anyone back home, they
record the call and post the voice note on
the group, so that people feel some sense
of relief on hearing a voice from the valley
at least,” says Mushtaq. Asmi adds, “Imag-
ine, in 2019 we are still relying on one
audio note which is being shared by some
stranger and people are saying ‘we are
fine’. It’s horrible.”
On 4 August, in Srinagar, 25-year-old
social activist and photographer Nawal Ali
posted a barrage of “Insta-stories” on her
Instagram page, @peaceandpyjamas.
Panic had gripped the valley—tourists and
students were being evacuated, troops in
tens of thousands were being deployed,
mainstream leaders had been detained
and there were rumours of an imminent
threat at the border. Ali was posting the
information she received from journalist
friends and credible sources—news of
cross-fire in villages along the Line of
Control, pictures of the paramilitary tak-
ing over the high court premises.
And then, for 20 days thereafter, the
stories stopped.
“At around 9.30pm, my mobile inter-
net was shut. When I woke up, my phone
said ‘emergency calls only’. Police vehi-
cles were doing the rounds outside our
house, announcing a complete curfew,”
she told me on the phone after she left the
valley for a few weeks on 24 August. “The
build-up was terrifying, we knew some-
thing was happening, but we had no idea
what.”
When she watched the news unravel on
TV on the morning of 5 August, she found
the government’s move so surreal that she
SPECIAL REPORT
(top) A Kashmiri family in Srinagar talks to relatives on a landline phone on 17 August; and Kashmiri students break down during an
Eid-ul-Adha event in Delhi on 12 August.
‘
In 2019 we are still relying
on one audio note which
is being shared by some
stranger and people
are saying ‘we are fine’.
It’s horrible.
TALIA ASMI
LAWYER
couldn’t help but laugh. “These guys did
it so smoothly, it was like a comedy of
errors.” For her, frustration and anger
became the foundations for dark humour.
She watched the mainstream TV channels
talk about the valley in a manner that was
so different from the ground reality (“they
were showing traffic on a street in Jammu
and passing it off as Srinagar”), but there
was nothing she could do about it.
She spent the next few weeks furiously
noting down her thoughts on her phone,
so she could share them later. “Whatever
was on my mind, my opinions, my rants,
the facts—there were so many facts that
the media was lying through their teeth
about—I was saving them on my phone. It
was so frustrating,” she says.
Ali, who has now returned to Kashmir,
had a ticket booked for Hyderabad and
Uzbekistan before the shutdown took
place, so she left the valley and spent the
HINDUSTAN TIMES
next three weeks trying to give an accurate
picture through her Instagram handle. “I
only posted my first story 4 or 5 hours after
I landed in Hyderabad,” she says. “Because
when I landed, I started receiving messa-
ges from people. And I started crying in
the plane itself.”
The Gyawun Group and Ali’s Instagram
account are two significant examples of
ways in which Kashmiris outside the val-
ley are using their social media plat-
forms—to help each other, relieve anxie-
ties and challenge the mainstream media’s
Kashmir narrative.
BATTLE OF NARRATIVES
The city from where no news can come / Is
now so visible in its curfewed nights / that
the worst is precise, wrote Agha Shahid Ali
in his poem I See Kashmir From New Delhi
At Midnight (1997). These lines ring as
true today.
AFP
For over a month, Kashmir has been a
communication blackhole. According to
a 10 September report in the Hindustan
Times, most shops and businesses remain
shut as a sign of protest. Attendance in
schools is thin. Kashmiris say that even
though some landlines in the valley were
restored last week, getting through
entails multiple attempts—with a pre-re-
corded message saying, “The number you
have dialled does not exist, please check
it and redial.”
There are some who are prepared to be
hopeful. Amitabh Mattoo, professor of
disarmament studies at Delhi’s Jawaharlal
Nehru University, told Mint in an inter-
view published on 12 August: “We are at a
tipping point. This could lead to a new
Kashmir which will demonstrate the tre-
mendous reservoir of strengths that India
and the Indian society has to offer or we
could succumb to a situation where it
becomes a permanent source, much,
much bigger source of grief.” He added,
“Ultimately, we are a democracy that val-
ues the opinions of our people, that wants
stakeholders to take responsibility.”
Several Kashmiris, however, remain
unconvinced. Across social media, they
are expressing a sense of disenfranchise-
ment, and exclusion. Those on the inter-
net who are announcing plans to purchase
land in the valley, or making misogynistic
remarks about marrying Kashmiri
women, have only hardened these feel-
ings of betrayal.
Another result of the restrictions has
been that reportage from Indian and for-
eign media outlets is providing conflicting
“truths”. While several Indian news out-
lets suggest peace and “normalcy” in
Kashmir, digital and foreign portals are
reporting a very grim, and different, real-
ity—that of human rights violations,
unease and violence. The international
press has also reported on a number of
issues largely passed over by the national
media—a doctor detained for speaking out
about a shortage of medicines, hospitals
admitting victims of clashes between pro-
testers and the forces, more than 4,000
arrests, even custodial torture and noctur-
nal raids.
“If you look at the past two years of
reportage in the Indian television media,
you will see they worked at creating a con-

sensus across India on the revocation of
Article 370,” says Manisha Pande, execu-
tive editor, Newslaundry, a news media
outlet. “You had prime time after prime
time questioning why Kashmir should get
to have this special status, they even went
on to say we should not care about collat-
eral damage or that this needs to be han-
dled with a strict hand. So TV has worked
to help the government go through with
this, create a consensus in the country.
And also dehumanize Kashmiris and dele-
gitimize mainstream leaders there,” she
adds. Pande says language papers have
also reported this from the perspective of
the government, “instead of acquainting
their readers with the Kashmiri voice”.
While the Union government and J&K
administration maintain there have been
no casualties, and no bullets fired by the
forces, visuals from the BBC, Al Jazeera
and some Indian portals show bloodied
faces, blinded men and weeping mothers.
A video released by the BBC on 9
August showed a large-scale protest in
Soura. In the background, one can hear
live rounds being fired. The government
initially rejected this report as being fabri-
cated but on 13 August, the official Twitter
account of the Union ministry of home
affairs spokesperson (@PIBHomeAffairs)
tweeted that “miscreants...resorted to
unprovoked stone pelting against law
enforcement forces to cause widespread
unrest”, while reiterating the official stand
that no bullets were fired.
In the midst of all this, Kashmiris out-
side the valley are trying to let the world
know what is happening on the ground.
So whether it is diaspora voices who man-
age the organization Stand With Kashmir
across platforms (with over 41,000 follow-
ers on Facebook) or With Kashmir, run by
people from the valley living across India
(with more than 85,000 followers on
Instagram), many groups are working to
post verified information.
“Internet shutdowns are a pan-India
problem but are the most severe in Kash-
mir in their frequency, length and extent.
They completely disrupt life and this goes
much beyond streaming YouTube videos
to core areas of human life such as health-
care,” says Apar Gupta, a lawyer and exec-
utive director of the Internet Freedom
Foundation (IFF). “It has a psychological
impact; a fear psychosis is developing
among family members and friends who
are not even being able to organize help in
a proper manner. The internet plays a
huge emotive role in terms of calming
anxiety and ensuring people are safe.”
RAISING THEIR VOICE
It was on 24 August, after she landed in
Hyderabad, that Ali began posting what
she observed in Kashmir during the lead
up to, and after, 5 August. She also used
her Instagram account to write explainers
on reservations in Kashmir and the J&K
Public Safety Act, which forms the basis
for several arrests. She highlighted articles
from news platforms she trusts, battled
the “all Kashmiris want Pakistan” narra-
tive, and provided a historical and con-
temporary insight into Kashmiri politics,
human rights violations, corruption and
insurgency. Ali even patiently addressed
a live Q&A on Article 370 on her friend’s
Instagram page, navigating abuse, per-
sonal attacks and trolls to answer politi-
cally and historically relevant questions
on the special status. Interspersed with
expressions of rage, a cry for freedom and
jibes about “making a joke of (the coun-
try’s) own ‘sacred’ Constitution”, her
efforts were directed at countering com-
monly peddled myths about her home.
Other handles like @withkashmir have
also been tirelessly posting what they
believe to be trusted reports, mostly from
international news outlets or certain
Indian media portals. Since most of the
reports of deaths, medical-related difficul-
ties and protests come from digital plat-
forms, the reach of this information
remains limited.
“There is a bombardment of statist nar-
ratives that—just like the Hutu journalism
of genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda,
or Goebbels’ propaganda in Nazi Ger-
many—enables the hatred against Kash-
miris,” the With Kashmir team, whose
members wanted to remain anonymous,
told me on email. “There’s an echo cham-
ber that does not believe in anything other
than what the state and its allies are talking
about. We do not have any resources
except that we have access to the internet
and a voice.”
Stand With Kashmir’s website was
started in February after the Pulwama
attack, largely by people based in the US.
Since 5 August, they have been coordinat-
ing protests in New York, Washington,
DC, Los Angeles, Atlanta and elsewhere in
the US, hosting film screenings and get-
ting their members to speak on panels, so
that more voices on Kashmir emerge.
“The impact of the page was to spread
awareness about Kashmir, keep people in
the loop, share resources, share calls to
action. And it has been really incredible to
see that we went from 300 followers on
our Facebook page on 4 August to beyond
38,000 now,” says New Jersey-based
Hafsa Kanjwal, assistant professor of
South Asian history at Lafayette College,
and a volunteer with Stand With Kashmir,
which is “demanding the right to self-de-
termination for the princely state of
Jammu and Kashmir”.
While these handles spread awareness
and question the dominant narrative, they
are often faced with questions about their
own credibility and verification processes.
“A lot of us have worked on Kashmir, been
to Kashmir, we only follow reputable peo-
ple. Our position is one of ending the
occupation and standing for the right of
self-determination. So what we sift
through is things that represent that,” says
Kanjwal. She provides an example—the
page would not, for instance, share posts
SPECIAL REPORT
‘
My work itself is a statement
right now. They are saying
everything is fine, but if I have
to send basic medicines
from Delhi, that means
nothing is all right.
JAVID PARSA
RESTAURATEUR
’’
HINDUSTAN TIMES
by Jammu and Kashmir People’s Move-
ment (JKPM) members Shehla Rashid or
Shah Faesal, even though they might
speak out about what’s going on in Kash-
mir and against the Union government’s
actions, because they believe the JKPM’s
political position doesn’t go far enough.
Ali says Kashmiris posting on social
media are now more careful of what they
put out there, making sure their sources
are verified, and actively combating
rumour-mongering. “One thing I have
noticed this time around is that a lot of
people are doing a fact-check before
posting,” she says. “As for me, I never
used to post so many articles, I just used
to post what I heard from the local source.
But now I am also posting reports and
using them as source material. A lot of the
stuff I get from local sources is later con-
firmed by reports in certain sections of
the press.”
However, Kashmiris say there is a very
real risk to them and their families. Take
SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
HINDUSTAN TIMES
the example of a photojournalist from the
valley who is presently in the National
Capital Region. He runs the Instagram
handle @hashmography. He posts pic-
tures of clashes, injured Kashmiris,
updates on restrictions and curbs on the
religious freedom of both the Shia and
Sunni communities, as well as other infor-
mation given by visiting journalist friends
from Kashmir.
He tells me he received a warning call
from a friend back home. “My friend told
me not to say or post anything that could
land them in trouble there. My father also
said not to say anything outside for which
they may have to bear the brunt back
home. In Kashmir, journalists never really
have any real freedom to report, we are
always worried about getting arrested,
threatened or having our photographs
deleted or being thrashed by mobs. And
now here, I have been getting calls from
random numbers, threatening me and
asking me to go to Pakistan.”
This is also why the team of With Kash-
mir prefers anonymity. “We have been
censored, slandered and continuously
subjected to threats and abuse. Anonym-
ity allows us to protect our friends and
family from retribution,” they say.
Apart from this kind of intimidation,
Gupta of the IFF says that censorship is
also a result of digital policies and data pri-
vacy issues. “The terms of service of large
internet platforms and the way they are
implemented do suffer from a transpar-
ency and accountability problem,” he
says. “People who utilize them quite often
for what is called social justice are facing
high degrees of censorship.”
Annual reports of big social media orga-
nizations reveal that countries make two
types of requests—one asking them to
take down information and the other to
provide user information. In those areas,
India ranks very high. And this is as per the
reports of Google, Facebook and Twitter,
adds Gupta.
Some pages run by Kashmiris have also
had their accounts suspended as a result of
platform policies. Stand With Kashmir, for
instance, had its page blocked by Insta-
gram. “Our Instagram was frozen and
blocked in the initial days. We knew this
was because these pages are getting heav-
ily reported by Indians or Indian Ameri-
cans who aren’t happy with what we are
saying,” says Kanjwal.
GETTY IMAGES
MUMBAI 13
(from left) Photographs of the
families and friends of Kashmiri
students at an “Eid Away from
Home” event at Jantar Mantar,
Delhi, on 12 August; Kashmiris
at the event; and a Kashmiri
youth speaking at the event.
HELPING HANDLES
It is in this atmosphere that Javid Parsa, 31,
a restaurateur from Bandipora in north
Kashmir, is working overtime to use his
follower count of over 26,000 on Insta-
gram to help Kashmiris who are away
from home. When we meet at the Delhi
outlet of his eponymous restaurant chain
Parsa’s, he is constantly distracted by
requests for coordinating delivery of med-
icines, documents, messages, connecting
Hajis or students to their relatives in Kash-
mir via conference on his phone. He posts
updates and calls for help on Instagram,
Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag
#KashmirSOS.
“My work itself is a statement right now.
They are saying everything is fine, but if I
have to send basic medicines from Delhi,
that means nothing is all right. I am put-
ting it up on the internet and people are
watching,” he says. So far, Parsa has con-
nected 600-700 Hajis who were in Saudi
Arabia with their families. “Most impor-
tant was the medical help. I have a small
fridge in my hotel in which I keep medici-
nes which need to be frozen and sent
over,” he says.
After the news of landlines being acti-
vated started coming in, Parsa crowd-
sourced four lists of functional phones in
different parts of the valley for those out-
side to reach their loved ones, and posted
them on his social media accounts. He also
helped raise funds for a family whose
home reportedly burnt down in Alochi-
bagh, a village in south Kashmir, because
they couldn’t call the fire department
owing to the communication shutdown.
So far, the contributions are nearing ₹5
lakh.
Similarly, actor Ashwath Bhatt is pro-
viding monetary and emotional support
to Kashmiri students who may not be able
to pay their hostel or examination fees
since they have no way of reaching their
parents. Through his trust—the Theatre
Garage Project—he has helped get exten-
sions for students on payments, trans-
ferred funds after verifying their ID cards
and other details, and helped rehabilitate
those who have been asked to leave their
hostels. Bhatt, who is a Kashmiri Pandit, a
community that was forced to leave Kash-
mir in large numbers amidst threats and
violence in 1990, says his identity has
been weaponized to justify the human
rights violations of Kashmiri Muslims in
the valley.
“I haven’t forgotten the pain, our strug-
gle, the brutal massacres. My house was
burnt on 19 September 1990. And com-
pletely looted. But today, does it make me
happy if someone is brutally killed in
Kashmir? I have suffered violence. Aaj bhi
rooh kaapti hai jab 1990 ki violence yaad
aati hai (Remembering the violence we
faced in 1990 still shatters my soul). You
think I will propagate the same violence
against someone else? Absolutely not,” he
says.
Bhatt believes it is important for people
to come together right now and help
Kashmiri students who have no access to
their homes and loved ones. “They are not
actually poor kids, this isn’t charity, they
feel humiliated even asking for financial
support, but I say to them I am one of their
own and I have also seen difficult times.
And no one came to help then.”
Besides medical and monetary help,
Kashmiris across India are also providing
safe spaces for young people to talk to
each other and express themselves.
Parsa’s space in New Friends Colony has
been serving as one such place. “This
place has acted as an important hub for
Kashmiris to connect. They are missing
home right now, so they come here, they
get to talk in Kashmiri, they meet fellow
students. They build a community and
help each other,” says Parsa. “A lot of stu-
dents have told me stories, they were
almost crying in front of me.”
*****
Already one of the most militarized
zones in the world, Kashmir has now seen
three decades of militancy. It has wit-
nessed elections being rigged, it has lived
through the exodus of an entire commu-
nity, it has endured uprisings and curfews,
and seen civilian deaths reduced to a sta-
tistic.
This time around, it’s even worse. The
death of teenager Asrar Ahmad Khan is
being deployed in the battle of percep-
tion. Security officials say he died because
of a stone thrown by protesters, while
some foreign outlets have reported that
the hospital certificate cites the cause of
death as injuries from pellets and a tear-
gas shell.
For now, the struggle to cut through the
smokescreens and provide clarity contin-
ues. Earlier this week, Ali returned to
Kashmir. “While I am there, I will try my
best to document the ground situation in
Srinagar, if the circumstances allow,” read
her post on 9 September. “I’ll try to gather
and send as many messages as possible.
And any urgent delivery!” she wrote in her
last post, before there was silence once
again from @peaceandpyjamas.
14 SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI BOOKS

The beginning of an end foretold

Prelude To A Riot:
By Annie Zaidi,
Aleph Book Company,
192 pages, ₹499.
hovers over both stories. In Tamas, the
public’s discontent is triggered by a
shocking revelation. The carcass of a pig is
left on the steps of the local mosque one
morning in a small town in Punjab, in the
wake of Partition. Soon, a whisper cam-
paign about the possible perpetrators of
this unholy act begins to fan a wildfire of
anger among the Muslims. Inevitably, the
Hindus rise to the bait too. And before the
day is out, groups have consolidated,
swearing revenge and bloodshed.
In Prelude To A Riot, there is a compara-
ble scene of desecration as well, when Far-
Somak Ghoshal turous in its craft. But fiction, as Prelude To eeda, a young Muslim girl, is unknowingly
This sharp and somak.g@livemint.com A Riot shows, can be a more poignant vehi-
Annie Zaidi’s book
draws a portrait of coaxed into eating pork by her mischie-
succinct novel cle for truth-telling than journalism, espe- the country’s vous school friends. Her family, who live
scholarly bent of mind, is filled with trepi-
dation about the fate awaiting his family,
his neighbours, Saju and Vinny, keep stok-
ing the embers of rage against Muslim
businessmen like Kadir. But Abu is unable
to convince his grandfather to move to the
city, where he studies at the university.
The older man is reluctant to leave his
ancestral dwelling or to believe that the
people he has coexisted with for decades
could cause any harm to his family. Sick-
ened by his failure to persuade his Dada to
change his mind, Abu lashes out against
the “disease” that he believes afflicts his
family. “This household is infected by
denial,” he says in despair.
Denial, in this context, is not analogous
to an ostrich-like refusal to face the truth.
Rather, it is a form of resilience, a resist-
ance against what seems obvious. It
involves keeping a flickering flame of
hope alive, the belief that maybe good-
ness, at the end of the day, will prevail over
evil. Yet evil is perhaps too blunt a
reproach, which does not quite capture
the historical and social complexities that
have brought this community to its heels.
As Zaidi shows, the tragedy is precipi-
tated as much by years of misinformation,
silence and conspiracy theories as by petty
envies and avarice, rather than unbridgea-
ble ideological divides. As Abu’s friend
Devaki, who marries out of her caste in
defiance of her family’s wishes, puts it viv-
idly, “Three hundred years’ worth of sto-
ries, clogging up the arteries of our men.
Sitting around their hearts, slimy and
thick with half-truths.”
In the figure of Garuda, the history

F
or a nation that is passing
portrays the changing through a sustained period
of social, political and eco-
dynamics of an Indian nomic crises, India is yet to
boast of recent works of fic-
town poisoned by tion that capture the mood of the moment.
Annie Zaidi’s latest novel, Prelude To A
communal tensions Riot, strives to fill this gap with its sharp
and succinct portrait of the country’s frac-
tious present.
Writers in the Anglophone world are
already making bold strides into this
emerging form of the novel, where fiction
grazes against the grain of reality. Ali
Smith’s seasonal quartet—of which
Autumn, Winter and Spring have been
published so far—written in real time in
response to the upheavals caused by the
Brexit referendum in the UK, is one exam-
ple of fiction holding up a mirror to the
vicissitudes of politics. Zaidi’s novel, in
contrast, is set against a more contained
canvas, and is certainly much less adven-
cially in a climate where there have been
challenges to freedom of speech.
Set in an unnamed town in south India,
Prelude To A Riot tells a story of our time,
pithily narrated through the voices of
multiple characters, whose lives are inter-
twined and teetering on the edge of vio-
lence. With every turn of the page, their
collective anxieties and frustrations
threaten to erupt into full-fledged car-
nage. But, as the title insinuates, the plot is
only a dress rehearsal for the implosion
that would most likely follow. And
although Zaidi ends her story on twin
notes of hope—with the cry of the azaan
floating out of a newly-built mosque in the
neighbourhood and birdsong—the
moment feels too precarious, too fleeting,
to be cherished as a harbinger of healing.
The overwhelming tenor of Prelude To
A Riot may remind many of Bhisham
Sahni’s classic Hindi novel from 1974,
Tamas (Darkness). A fog of conspiracy
fractious present.
HINDUSTAN TIMES
As Zaidi shows, the tragedy
is precipitated as much by
years of misinformation,
silence and conspiracy
theories as by petty
envies and avarice
by liberal values, decide not to make too
much of it. But the air of menace contin-
ues to thicken. Like most women in the
novel, 15-year-old Fareeda shows remark-
able perspicacity in her muted reaction.
She demonstrates a quality of restraint
that eludes the bulk of the men around
her. But any self-control and goodwill,
especially from women like Miriam and
Bavna, appear impotent in the face of the
testosterone-driven hostility brewing
among the close-knit community.
Prelude To A Riot is as much a novel
about escalating communal tensions as
about the insoluble differences between
men and women when confronted with
the prospect of murderous destruction. If
Zaidi is keenly perceptive to the inner
lives and dilemmas of the women, who are
more rounded characters than the men,
her depiction of the latter is laced with
irony and pathos.
While Abu, a liberal Muslim with a
teacher at the local school named after the
mythical creature who symbolizes life, we
hear a counterpoint to the vitiated narra-
tive circulated by the locals. But he is
sacked by the authorities, ostensibly for
drinking on the school’s premises, but
more likely because he digresses from
textbook accounts prescribed in the sylla-
bus by government-approved historians.
“A syllabus is ‘set’ for you. You under-
stand?” he tells his students. “It is ‘set’ by
people whose job it is to limit your knowl-
edge. I am against syllabuses.” In Garuda’s
droll rants, we hear the ire of a crusader
against forces destroying the edifice of lib-
eral democracy, the voice that does not
hesitate to militate even when it is
drowned by the cacophony of a mob. “No
big colonial sword needs to come down
and slash the fabric of the nation,” he ends
his last lecture with a bitter flourish. “Mus-
cle by muscle, atom by atom, we are being
torn from within. We are our own bomb.”

HINDUSTAN TIMES

Twentieth century women

GETTY IMAGES

Marlene Dietrich, Leni ined over the space of a chapter. As I ran

into one obtuse word after another, I real-
Riefenstahl and Anna ized with delight that Koe’s prose had
May Wong come alive in taken on the qualities of Benjamin’s fussy
language (“he found himself unwilling to
this sparkling novel verbalize to her how the extemporaneous
interpolation of various spheres of her
being…”). Later, a winding sentence
Uday Bhatia describing Sternberg’s travels in Asia has
uday.b@htlive.com the same exotic detailing as the director’s
films. Smog at Mahim in Mumbai in January.

A
manda Lee Koe’s novel takes its In a 2017 interview, Koe said that shut-
title from a line in a Roland Barthes tling between her native Singapore and

essay, in which he describes the
radiation from a photograph touching the
viewer “like the delayed rays of a star”. In
this case, the light emanating is from a
publicity still of Leni Riefenstahl, Anna
May Wong and Marlene Dietrich, taken by
Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1928 in Berlin. Koe
follows this diffused beam across time,
expertly using it to illuminate little cor-
ners of the 20th century.
Though the two Germans would soon
eclipse her fame, Wong was the biggest
star in the photograph, having played
Tiger Lily in Peter Pan and starred oppo-
site Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bag-
dad. Riefenstahl was then an actor, known
for her nature films; she would soon catch
A CLIMATE
New York felt like “a split existence”. “I
guess when you’re away you always see
the other thing more clearly. So it is inter-
esting to have that dual perspective as
well.” Whether by design or not, Delayed
Rays abounds in dualities. Dietrich—Ger-
man but also American; lover of men and
women—is described by Sternberg (him-
CHANGE YARN
self suspended between American and
faux-Continental) as having a “lust for A new novel invites younger readers to get
bothness”. Wong is American, but in the
eyes of Hollywood she’s Chinese, forced to involved in the struggle against climate change
adopt Oriental clichés. Riefenstahl’s big-
gest supporter is Hitler and her funder the
Nazi government, but she thinks of herself Bibek Bhattacharya
as an apolitical artist, pure (hearing this bibek.b@htlive.com
last descriptor from Hitler’s mouth is

the eye of Hitler and turn to film direction.
And Dietrich wasn’t a star at all, still two
years away from Josef von Sternberg
unleashing her distinct brand of smoky
sexuality in The Blue Angel.
With the photograph as a jumping-off
point, Koe proceeds to make dizzying
leaps across time and space. After starting
in Berlin, we’re suddenly in Paris, with
Dietrich as a cantankerous, elderly
recluse; next we’re in China, following the
journey of her maid, Bébé. In one stun-
ning chapter, we follow a wolf from a for-
est in Czechoslovakia to the Leipzig zoo to
the sets of a film Riefenstahl is shooting in
the Bavarian Alps. Sternberg is moved to
tears by a noh performance in a Tokyo
monastery. A Smiths fan attends a Joy
Division gig in London and serves David
Bowie drinks in a Paris bar.
Despite its expansive canvas, Delayed
Rays trips lightly and confidently from
incident to incident, character to charac-
ter. Much of what happens in the book is
anchored in fact, but the embellishments
are Koe’s. A meeting between Wong and
German critic Walter Benjamin is imag-
chilling).
Though Delayed Rays is mostly con-
cerned with fame in the first half of the
20th century, several of the issues it grap-
ples with are bracingly modern. Riefen-
stahl practically begs us to separate the art
from the artist, to call her a genius for
Olympia (completely deserved) but gloss
over Triumph of the Will’s deification of
Hitler. She also corrects a reporter who
calls her the first female film-maker, say-
ing she’s just a film-maker. Then there’s
the matter of representative casting in
Hollywood. More than half a century
before Scarlett Johansson became a
meme, the part of O-Lan in the adaptation
of Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth went to
a white woman. Wong, for whom the part
seems tailor-made, is deemed “too Chi-
nese to play a Chinese” by the studio.
Koe writes beautifully about cinema
and its effects. If you haven’t seen Shang-
hai Express, I would recommend watch-
ing two isolated scenes from the film, both
of which are on YouTube. The first is a
comic one, with Dietrich putting down a
supercilious woman, and Wong joining in
(from left) Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong and Leni Riefenstahl in Berlin in 1928.
with the punchline. The second is even
more thrilling, an action scene with an
erotic charge. Koe imagines how these
must have unfolded on set, with the auto-
cratic Sternberg (Dietrich’s lover) and the
two stars, also lovers once (in the book at
least). Elsewhere, Sternberg tells Riefen-
stahl that cinema is “time on the axis of
sight”, a description so perfect that it
sounds like it came from the real Stern-
berg, though it’s probably Koe writing in
Sternberg’s voice.
When Riefenstahl is called by Hitler for
a final meeting, he asks her for a favour.
She’s surprised to learn that even with
defeat imminent, he’s concerned about
the unreliability of film stock and would
like her to work on a more durable mate-
rial after the war. That Koe finds a way to
make Hitler a film preservationist is the
sort of unexpected delight this book regu-
Delayed Rays Of A larly passes on from writer to reader. Style
Star: By Amanda Lee never hesitates, we’re told at one point.
Koe, Bloomsbury, Style necessitates. Koe finds her style from
400 pages, ₹499. the start, and never looks back.
A
s we get closer to 2021, the year when the sixth assessment report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be released, cli-
mate-related protests are intensifying
across the world. The most visible one is led by
a teenager, Greta Thunberg, and the thousands
of children who have responded with great
enthusiasm to her call for a school strike to
force the hand of dithering adults.
To this end, Bijal Vachharajani’s sparkling
novel for young adults, A Cloud Called Bhura,
is a great introduction to both climate change
and the importance of collective action to force
recalcitrant governments to act on global
warming. Set in Mumbai, the novel opens with
a toxic brown cloud made up of particulate
matter and carbon emissions colonizing the
city’s sky. As temperatures rise, floods devas-
tate the countryside, crops fail and the air gets
more lethal, four young friends decide to find A Cloud Called Bhura—
out what’s happening. Climate Champions To
What they learn horrifies them, and, with the The Rescue: By Bijal
help of a scientist and a lawyer, they go about Vachharajani, Talking Cub,
trying to get rid of the cloud by putting political 248 pages, ₹399.
and legal pressure on the government. In this
inspiring tale that’s also a great read, Vachharajani manages to weave in other
strands of progressive politics, from queer rights to Ambedkarite politics, into the
narrative without any of it feeling forced. A must-read.

The enigmatic opera
(above) Children usually get filler roles in Gauri performances; and portraits of
performers shot by Waswo at his studio in Varda, on the outskirts of Udaipur.
A new book by
Waswo X. Waswo
documents the
little-known world of
Gauri performers
Avantika Bhuyan
avantika.bhuyan@htlive.com
T
here is an element of the
fantastical in the book
Gauri Dancers by artist
Waswo X. Waswo. One can
see photographs of young
men, often cross-dressed and with
make-up, posing against elaborately
painted sets, some featuring the local
flora, others the majestic forts of Mewar.
It’s not every day that one comes across
material on Gauri performers. This
unique performance style, practised in the
interiors of southern Rajasthan, has been
largely undocumented. The little written
on it is academic, in Hindi or another
Indian language.
In fact, Gauri Dancers, launched on 8
September in Udaipur by Mapin Publish-
ing, is the only English-language book on
the style, also known as Gavri or Gavari. It
features portraits of performers, mostly
farmers by profession, who transform into
actors for 40 days just after Raksha Ban-
dhan. There is a certain theatrical touch to
the photographs, with the performers
having been whisked away from the tradi-
tional setting of village squares and town
roundabouts, and plonked in the middle
of Waswo’s studio in the village of Varda,
on the outskirts of Udaipur. There,
dressed in their elaborate attire, against
vibrant backdrops, they seem to act out a
performance of another kind.
“Does Waswo’s bringing of the chaos of
Gavri into a studio setting, with its shift
from the kinetic to the formally posed,
give nod to his own devious intervention?
And what of the backdrop paintings and
Rajesh Soni’s hand-colouring, that fur-
ther highlight the idiosyncrasies of the
scenes unfolding?” writes Pramod Kumar
K.G., co-founder, Eka Archiving Services,
in the preface to the book. He says the
sense of unreal posturing and imperma-
nence captured by the photographs of
Waswo and the colouring by Rajesh are a
befitting filter.
The one-man jam band on an endless loop
FIRST
B E AT
SANJOY
N A R AYA N
O
n Mantra, a song from his 2015
album Vape, Keller Williams
begins by chanting “Om” three
times before launching into a song that
seems, at first, to be an ode to medita-
tion but quickly becomes a parody that
depicts a man having lost his mantra
and being unable to focus. It’s an
uptempo song with guitar riffs reverb-
ing and echoing as Williams in his tenor
sings the words in a laidback and char-
acteristically soothing manner that
envelops the listener in a mist of well-
being: Your mind will wander like it does
and it will, your mind will wander like it
does/ Your mind will wander like it does
and it will/ No nag champa, I forgot my
mantra...I forgot my mantra.
At last count, Williams had 25
albums—most of them studio record-
ings, a handful that are live ones, and
nearly all of them what you could call
“solo” efforts. But “solo” in the 49-year-
old American singer, songwriter and
multi-instrumentalist’s lexicon means
something more literal than it usually
Till three years ago, Waswo, a US-born
and Udaipur-based artist, had only seen
Gauri performed in villages. Not many
from outside southern Rajasthan were
even aware of the style. “It was in 2010 that
I made my first photo of a Gauri dancer as
part of my regular Studio In Rajasthan
series, for which we had been photo-
graphing different kind of people from the
Udaipur area,” says Waswo on the phone.
He is showing some of the photographs
from the book at the City Palace, Udaipur,
till 22 September. A year after the first
photograph was taken, the artist came
across a man on the streets of Udaipur sell-
ing papier-mâché masks worn by Gauri
dancers. An illustrated short story on this
interaction has found its way into the book
too.
“So, I looked at the photos taken earlier
and realized this could be a book,” he says.
It was about the same time, around
three years ago, that the state government
and some non-governmental organiza-
tions started promoting Gauri as a tourist
event. In doing so, they shrunk a days-
long performance into an hour-long
event. “I became worried that Gauri might
get corrupted, much like Kathakali got
condensed into a small packaged thing.
The original tradition might fade away
soon,” says Waswo. So he started photo-
graphing Gauri dancers. But he did so in
his trademark studio portraiture style,
shot like a miniature painting and hand-
coloured by Rajesh. “Instead of shooting
a live performance, I wanted to focus on
the characters and the people,” he says.
There are many conflicting stories
about the origin of the style, even its name
is up for dispute. “In the village, the per-
formers call it Gauri, some say Gavri, aca-
demics tend to call it Gavari. The intention
of the book is to open up the conversa-
tion—this is what we know, this is the
information we have access to, and more.
So we hope the book will act as a spring-
board for further investigations on the
style,” says Waswo.
According to Sonika Soni, a Pune-based
art historian who grew up watching Gauri
performances and has written an essay in
the book, the style is practised by the men
of three nomadic tribes—Bhils, Gametis
and Meenas. “For 40 days, these perform-
ers fast, eating only once a day, enacting
stories about Shiva, Bhasmasur, Mohini
and Parvati, and believing that through
some divine intervention they are con-
nected with God for that period,” says Son-
ika. The two leading female characters,
Keller Williams performing in the US in 2005.
does. The incredibly prolific musician,
who has been releasing albums and per-
forming live since the mid-1990s, is a
one-man band—he plays all the instru-
ments that feature on his recordings.
Armed with a digital electronic
looper, Williams creates samples of
sound in real time on a 10-string guitar,
and, using delays and other techniques,
produces a soundscape that astonish-
ingly seems as if he is being backed by
multiple musicians. His live shows,
which can be captivating, feature him
alone at the microphone with his guitar
while he sings and makes his unique
blend of music. His is a genre-defying
THE SCOOP
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY WASWO X WASWO (WITH RAJESH SONI) /MAPIN PUBLISHING
Gauri Dancers:
By Waswo X. Waswo,
Mapin Publishing,
136 pages, ₹1,850.
called rais, are always Parvati and Mohini;
the husband is called rai budhiya. “He is
the only character who gets to wear a mask,
the design of which is specific to each com-
munity from the region,” she says.
These masks are kept in the temples of
the kul devi (family goddess) and taken out
only for the performance. The rai budhiya
is a free-flowing character, defying the few
rules that bind the performance. “If the
rest are dancing in a circular motion, he
will go anti-clockwise. Also, since his basic
GETTY IMAGES
brand of music, which traverses styles
as disparate as bluegrass, reggae, funk,
rock, jazz and folk.
Williams has released records with
such a high frequency that there have
been years when he has recorded and
released more than one full-length
album. When he began his career, he
collaborated with other bands, includ-
ing the Colorado-based String Cheese
Incident (SCI), who make music that has
elements of folk, country, bluegrass and
rock all wrapped up in psychedelia.
Williams has often played with SCI and
his style complements that band’s
sound with its distinctive use of electric
identity is hidden behind a mask, he gets
to play the evil character as well as Shiva,”
says Sonika.
The oral tradition has been passed
down generations. The children in the
community are entrusted with filler roles,
and learn from watching the elders per-
form. The dialogue is often impromptu,
peppered with jokes about politics or cur-
rent issues.
Though there are other performing
styles, such as Bihar’s natua naach, which
are performed only by the men of a com-
munity, Gauri is perhaps the only dance
about which so little is known. “It is tribe-
based, practised in the interiors. More-
over, it is performed only out of devotion
and not commercially. They don’t charge
a single rupee,” says Sonika.
Waswo was initially hesitant about the
book, concerned that calling attention to
Gauri could lead to intervention in a style
that is so natural.
“These boys work in villages. But then
(the time for) Gauri comes and they are
putting on saris and make-up and taking
on the roles of women—they really get
into the spirit of things. They are not pro-
fessional actors by any means. I was afraid
of changing all that. So part of what we
wanted to do in the book is to keep it a lit-
tle mysterious,” says Waswo, who is look-
ing forward to the Delhi and Ahmedabad
launch events.
THE LOUNGE
LIST
Five songs by Keller Williams
to bookend your week
1. ‘Freeker By The Speaker’ from
‘Laugh’
2. ‘High And Mighty’ from ‘Vape’
3. ‘Mantra’ from ‘Vape’
4. ‘All I Want’ from ‘Add’
5. ‘Doobie In My Pocket’ from ‘Odd’
violins, mandolins and slide guitars, and
lyrics that tell witty stories.
But Williams on his own is where it is
really at. His albums are always quirky.
And they unfailingly have one-word
titles that attempt to describe the mood
or theme of the songs on them. Such as
Vape, which has swirling vapours on its
cover—the songs, including Mantra, all
touch subjects related to meditation,
spiritual highs, and enhanced states of
the mind. His first album, released in
1994, was called Freek. His subsequent
albums have had titles such as Breathe,
Buzz, Laugh, Dance, Odd and Spun. In
2004, when he decided to release a
SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI 15
COURTESY ARTIST; MAURINE TRIC (PHOTOGRAPHER); CITÉ INTERNATIONALE DES ARTS, PARIS AND PROJECT 88
‘They agreed to eat biscuits and European bread, but our regiment refused’
(performance, 2019).
Art with a critical
point of view
In a new show, Baptist Coelho demystifies the
romanticized figures of the Armed Forces
through artworks, images and performances
Avantika Bhuyan
avantika.bhuyan@htlive.com
A
t the Jindal School of Liberal Arts & Humanities (JSLH), located within the
O P Jindal Global University in Sonipat, Haryana, one can see a cluster of
537 white gauze bandages lying in a pile. Created in 2007 by Mumbai-
based artist Baptist Coelho, this assemblage was, and continues to be, an entreaty
for peace—a call to end the conflict, on since 1984, between India and Pakistan
for control of the Siachen glacier.
This is one of the first works that the artist created while marking his shift from
being a graphic designer to the realm of visual arts. “As an artist, things around
you start speaking to you in a different manner. You start having a critical point
of view. It was while making this shift that I came across a call for a Peace Project
by the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Colorado, USA. I chose to respond
to that by interpreting an online satellite view of the Siachen glacier through ban-
dages,” says the Mumbai-based artist, who has won several awards including the
prestigious Sovereign Asian Art Prize in 2016. He has also performed and exhib-
ited his works worldwide such as at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, Pump House
Gallery, London, and so on.
The ongoing show, Body-Automaton, curated by Premjish Achari, showcases
Coelho’s evolution as an artist, juxtaposing early works such as 537 with photo-
graphs, sculptures, mixed-media work and videos of his later performances, such
as What have we done for you? (2018). The latter was inspired by a photograph from
World War I, in which an Indian prisoner-of-war is seen washing his feet in Wüns-
dorf, Germany. In the exhibition, he has combined archival research, interviews
and field notes to demystify the romanticized figures of the Armed Forces.
He has approached the subject through a variety of work, some of which can
be seen at this exhibition: For instance, there is a work from the 2009 series, “I
long to see some colour…” (collection of the Devi Art Foundation), featuring a Sia-
chen soldier’s nylon rucksack and 70 photo frames to explore the effects of hallu-
cinations caused by extreme weather conditions and illustrate the colour-scape
of the soldiers’ memories of the glacier. “Then, I did work on how fabric and army
clothing plays an important role on the glacier. The third series looked at the his-
tory of the glacier before it became a conflict zone and how the British explorers
and the military were mapping the area. The fourth explores the stories of Ladakhi
porters in Siachen,” says Coelho.
There is a particularly poignant photograph, Tsering Puntsog & Stanzin Padma
#1 (2019), which examines the camaraderie between a father and son, both Sia-
chen porters. “Technically, they are not part of the military. But they are part of
this conflict because they hail from the region. I look at how their stories inter-
twine with those of the Siachen conflict,” he says.
Stories from Siachen share space with those of Indian soldiers fighting for the
colonial force during the two world wars. For instance, one can see a video of a
2019 performance, They agreed to eat biscuits and European bread, but our regi-
ment refused, which focuses on the eating habits of Indian soldiers during WWI.
“Through performances and mixed-media works, I want to explore their experi-
ences of fighting a war that was not of their own making,” says Coelho.
One wonders how he chooses a medium for a particular story. Coelho maintains
that the medium comes at the end. Eighty per cent of his time goes into gathering
materials and stories, accessing archives and conducting interviews. Once that
is done, it is an organic decision to use a medium that will best tell the story.
Body-Automaton is on view till 30 September at the JSLH Art Gallery by prior
appointment with faculty coordinator Achia Anzi.
double album of live music, he called it unexpected directions. He is a regular
Stage. And when he experimented with at gigs on the US jam band concert cir-
the piano, playing a bunch of Grateful
Dead covers in 2013, he called the
cuit, sometimes jamming as a guest
with other musicians (he has played
album that emerged from those with the guitar virtuoso Sanjay Mishra),
endeavours Keys. but more often billed as a one-man
This summer, Williams released his jam band.
25th album, Add. It comprises nine Even if you haven’t seen Williams
songs, all tunes that were unrecorded live, you can get a flavour of his per-
till now but with vocals added to them. formances on a DVD, which he released
But it also has Williams’ version of songs in 2005. The footage is from a two-day
by Joni Mitchell (All I Want); and the concert he played in 2003 and has
American alternative rock band fIRE- mainly original songs, but also covers of
HOSE (Brave Captain). Williams’ inter- other bands’ tunes. Typical to form, the
pretation of those two songs adds his DVD is titled Sight.
wacky take on life—which he refresh- It is a bit of a pity that Williams has
ingly doesn’t take too seriously—and remained underrated on the contempo-
additional verses that showcase his pen- rary music scene, particularly so
chant for improvisation. On Add, he is because he has such a massive discogra-
unpredictable and innovative, experi- phy. Yet his albums have a way of hook-
menting with beats, sounds and sam- ing you to his fascinating technique and
ples to deliver seamless songs which can process of making music. Rarely does a
seem like aural doodles that he obvi- single musician sound as impressive as
ously enjoys creating, simultaneously Williams does, using only his Gibson
ensuring that the listener has as much echoplex looping unit and a guitar but
fun as he is having. sounding as if he has a talented group of
Williams’ live performances attract musicians backing him. The talent, of
throngs, mostly of jam band fans who course, is all his own. If you have heard
show a cult-like loyalty to his music. Williams once, chances are that you will
Like most jam bands, which follow in seek out his albums and hear him a lot
the tradition of early pioneers of the more thereafter.
genre (the Grateful Dead and the All-
man Brothers, to name just two), Willi- First Beat is a column on what’s new
ams improvises spontaneously and his and groovy in the world of music.
tunes, especially when performed live,
can be extended ones that travel in @sanjoynarayan
16 SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI
Carving out fragments
OF MEMORY
Sudarshan Shetty’s
ongoing show at
GallerySKE allows the
viewer to make
personal connections
with the carved
objects on display
Avantika Bhuyan
avantika.bhuyan@htlive.com
motley assortment of
A
objects greets the eye as
you enter Delhi’s Gal-
lerySKE. An old rotary tele-
phone shares space on a
table with a mortar and pestle and a vinyl
record player. Another corner of the table
has a bulky Cathode ray tube television
and a typewriter. Crafted painstakingly in
reclaimed teak wood, the objects seem
imprints of the past. Imbued with a cer-
tain graininess, the golden-brown sheen
of the wood gives them a sepia-tinted
glow.
Every viewer reacts differently to the
objects. Some linger near the record
player, discussing songs that their parents
would hum while listening to a vinyl. Oth-
ers are fascinated by the mini bulb horn
that used to be a common fixture on cars
and buses in the 1960s-70s.
Each object evokes a memory, leav-
ing the work open to interpretation. And
this is exactly what artist Sudarshan
Shetty set out to do in his ongoing exhibi-
tion, pieces earth left behind. “Usually, a lot
of effort goes into meaning, making and
taking the conversation into a conver-
gence of about a certain idea. I am trying
to do the reverse by opening up the work
for different kinds of stories to emerge out
of it,” says Shetty. This is why he has used
Drawn from the theatre of life
A new exhibition looks
at the play of texture
and form in Jogen
Chowdhury’s pictorial
universe
Avantika Bhuyan
avantika.bhuyan@htlive.com
N
early 150 of Jogen Chowdhury’s
works are in the process of being
assembled at Emami Art, located
within the Kolkata Centre for Creativity.
One can see the range and depth of the
artist’s oeuvre from the clusters on dis-
play, whether it is his early botanical and
architectural drawings, moving studies of
refugees pouring into the Sealdah station
in the 1950s, or the textured, almost three-
dimensional renditions of men, women,
flora and fauna inhabiting his pictorial
universe.
As art historian R. Siva Kumar writes in
his 2013 essay, published on the Critical
Collective website, “Jogen’s paintings
present an intimate theatre—of forms
melting, of forms disintegrating, forms
kneaded into soft tactility, forms slumping
like soft sculptures or inflated into tumes-
cent shapes, forms tantalizingly enig-
COURTESY SUDARSHAN SHETTY/GALLERYSKE
reclaimed teak wood to carve these repli-
cas. Sourced from dismantled structures
in and around Mumbai, the wood carries
within it stories of homes and families.
“Using the wood is a way of bringing in
those stories to trigger one’s imagination.
It can also represent our collective idea of
matic, of forms buoyant enough to levitate
or rest weightlessly….”
The forthcoming exhibition, Reverie
And Reality, curated by Ranjit Hoskote,
presents these varied arcs of expression,
which are arranged in clusters of themes.
In a phone interview, Hoskote discusses
the curation and Chowdhury’s practice
with Lounge. Edited excerpts:
It’s not every day that one comes
across early works by Chowdhury.
How does the show present differ-
ent facets of his practice?
Jogen’s work is very well known. But
through this show we wanted people to be
able to view it from different and more
nuanced perspectives. I have always been
fascinated by the early phase of his work,
from 1955-65. It marks a cusp between an
autobiographical drive and a preparatory
practice as an art student. I am thinking of
the drawings of East Bengal refugees, liv-
ing in and around Sealdah railway station,
that he and his friend (also a fellow stu-
dent) Sunil Das would make. As you know,
Jogen’s own family had to move to Kolkata
from Faridpur after the Partition. So, he
felt a deep empathy for his subjects there,
and yet brought artistic distance to bear
on the representation. Jogen’s early work
captured the trauma of the Partition that
Bengal, especially Kolkata’s urban fabric,
THE SCOOP
Shetty has been
working with
objects
collected from
Mumbai’s flea
markets since his
student days.
a past,” says Shetty.
The artist has been working with
objects collected over the years from flea
markets in Mumbai. In fact, he has been
going to the Chor Bazaar since his student
days in the early 1980s. This long-term
engagement with discarded objects has
(above) ‘Representative From Hell’, oil on canvas, 1965; and ‘Self Portrait’, 1960.
has never really recovered from.
What makes these early works rele-
vant even today?
The Partition narrative in India tends to
be heavily focused on the north-west. The
Bengal narrative tends to be eclipsed. But,
even then, you will find it present in some
way in literature, art and cinema, particu-
larly in Ritwik Ghatak’s films. The havoc
resulted in several exhibitions in the past.
For a 2004 one, Shift, held in Mumbai,
Shetty collaborated with architects Shan-
tanu Poredi and Manisha Agarwal. The
team designed a collapsible building in
which the empty shell fell to reveal a giant
footprint covered with representations of
everyday objects, evoking memories of a
flea market. Another series from the show
Leaving Home, featuring models of human
organs and objects, carved in marble and
wood and cast in bronze, was shown at
Art Basel Miami Beach in 2008.
“This is an exercise in recalling
things that are lost or are on the way to
being lost,” he says. Shetty also brings
an element of theatre to his work. For
instance, he bought vases, broke them,
mapped the cracks and completed them
with wood. “I create these situations in the
studio and then present it as something
that refers to the real. It’s actually the play-
ing out of a story or theatre in that sense,”
he says.
These works are also a quip or a joke on
the idea of the art object and its function.
In this show, the objects have been
removed from their functional context
and symbolic meaning and reused as
props for a performance of our everyday
lives. “These opposite notions exist within
the same space. Also, these have been
carved with a lot of effort. But the way
these have been displayed plays against
their ‘preciousness’,” he says.
When one comes across representa-
tions of a worn-out pair of sneakers or an
old set of skates, one wonders who might
have owned them. But by leaving out the
answers, Shetty leaves the stories to one’s
imagination. “Thus, these become every-
body’s stories. The object, or the memory
associated with it, is not any one person’s
alone. The work allows you to get out of
that proprietorial space—the story is as
much mine as it’s yours,” he says.
Pieces earth left behind is on view at
GallerySKE till 5 October.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY EMAMI ART
wreaked by the Partition in East and West
Bengal, Tripura and Assam resonates at a
time when we are about to recreate a simi-
lar human crisis in India—a postcolonial,
independent, sovereign nation is all set to
make millions of people stateless and
homeless once again. It is not a trauma
that goes away. It is for these reasons that
it is important to look at this body of art,
Artist Pallavi Paul at her residence in Delhi. RAMESH PATHANIA/MINT
Mrs Gandhi’s double
and other stories
A Delhi-based video artist is working on a
documentary film that explores the experiences
of policewomen during the Emergency
Anandi Mishra
anandi.mishra@htlive.com
I
t’s the late 1970s, post-Emergency Delhi. The police are trying to help a lost
child. But the only thing she is able to tell them is that the family’s pet is a blind
rabbit.
Delhi-based contemporary video artist Pallavi Paul got the working title for her
second documentary on the Emergency, The Blind Rabbit, from this tale narrated
by a retired policewoman. The documentary is based on the life of Delhi’s police-
women during that period.
Paul has been showing as an artist working with visuals and the moving image
since 2014. Her works have been exhibited at Mumbai’s Bhau Daji Lad Museum,
Films Division, Delhi, and at the Mumbai International Film Festival.
Her latest documentary is being made with the help of a grant from the India
Foundation for the Arts. She says she chose the topic because she wanted to initi-
ate a dialogue about the power of the police and “their role as psycho-geogra-
phers”. “We have always heard and understood these stories from the outside,
never from the inside. I want to think about the inner life of power,” says the
31-year-old. The documentary will look at the intersection of power, gender, and
narrativization of memory. “It is challenging to look at under-documented
moments that do not have archived traces,” says Paul. Through the film, she wants
to examine “how power can be thought of outside the binaries of repression or
rebellion”. One of her earlier films—Long Hair, Short Ideas (2017)—dealt with the
idea of the Emergency through the life of the revolutionary poet Vidrohi’s wife.
At present, Paul is busy talking to over 50 former policewomen, aged 60-80,
who now live in different parts of the country, such as Saharanpur, Lucknow,
Ghaziabad, Goa and Dehradun. The film will use a range of material—Paul is still
working towards a visual language for the kind of material she is accessing.
Paul felt drawn to the theme because of the relationship these women had with
the city and the absence of a record of the instructions given to them. According
to one anecdote, for instance, when then prime minister Indira Gandhi’s security
staff was told about a threat to her life, they started using body doubles from the
police force. In essence, says Paul, “the leader was made visible and invisible at
the same time”.
With the 50-minute film, Paul hopes to create space for interaction, conversa-
tion and exchange on the idea of “power” within the audience. An admirer of Ger-
man film-maker and author Harun Farocki, she says she explores the themes of
fantasy, resistance, politics and history through her work. Some of Paul’s inde-
pendent video works, like Nayi Kheti and Shabdkosh, were shown at the Tate Mod-
ern Gallery, London, in 2013.
With The Blind Rabbit, Paul hopes to reach the heart of the question of collec-
tive violence. “It is imperative that we ask the correct questions. Especially in the
current climate, we need to understand the idea of violence not in the form of one
person from here and there, but as a collective,” says Paul, who is working on a
film-related project based on similar ideas as part of a fellowship at 5 Million Inci-
dents, Max Mueller Bhavan, Delhi. 5 Million Incidents, on till December, is a
project co-curated by Max Mueller Bhavan and the Raqs Media Collective to bring
together Indian artists and create engagement.
When asked how this film will be different from films that have dealt with police
stories in the past, Paul says, “While these films are more about the idea of the
individual juxtaposed against power, my film will take the conversation forward
by trying to open the idea and expose its intricacies to the audience.”
a fair amount of time in conversation with
him, I have come to admire his imagina-
tion and cultural vision, which is so capa-
cious. The influence of the toy-making
tradition, the Durga icon images, or his
version of the prana-pratishtha rituals, he
integrates all these into a language which
is decisively modern, ironic, playful, satiri-
cal and compassionate by turns.
In his work, one never sees a com-
plete portrait. Chowdhury focuses
on one aspect of the face or a part of
the posture, thereby creating a dra-
matic effect. Could you describe his
use of this cinematic trope?
Yes, he sometimes shows an individual
or a couple in mid-ground, or in close-up,
and at times further away. He is actually
able to move across a range of focal points
when approaching the figure. If you see
the close-ups, they are incredibly textured.
not only as evidence of work done in the There was a particular phase during the
late 1950s by a young art student but also 1990s when the skin of his subjects could
why it remains powerfully relevant. have belonged to a fruit, vegetable or
When talking about the influence human. Some artists suggest unity with
of historic moments and Bengali nature in a mystical or transcendental way.
folk idiom on his work, Chowdhury But Jogen humanizes nature and mate-
has often told interviewers that his rial—whether it’s mineral, vegetal, animal
background is relevant. How does or human. His great achievement is often
this inform his visual vocabulary? overlooked. If you look closely at the very
Where Jogen comes from has a strong material rendering, whether through ink,
influence on his work as he engaged with pastel or pigment, the surface of the body
local points of reference such as Patta- indicates that everything in nature is one—
chitra and toy-making. However, his edu- complex and mutable, but unified by pre-
cation at The École Nationale Supérieure dicaments, potentialities and destinies .
des Beaux-Arts, Paris, also gave him a 360-
degree awareness of global modernisms, Reverie And Reality can be viewed at
in the plural. Having known Jogen for 30 Emami Art, Kolkata, from 20 September-7
years, having travelled with him and spent December.

Where does the world’s
longest river originate?
Uganda, Tanzania
or Rwanda? A writer
travels to a town on
the shore of Lake
Victoria to find out
Prathap Nair
iscovering the source of
D the Nile became a colonial
obsession as soon as Euro-
peans arrived in mainland
Africa. The river cut
across 11 countries during its course from
central-east to north Africa, making
everything it touched fecund with its rich
black silt and freshwater, propelling the
Egyptian civilization into becoming one of
the richest. Where did it originate? Many
a Victorian explorer attempted to solve
that enduring mystery.
English explorer John Hanning
Speke—with a piercing stare and a lus-
cious beard—was one of them. Despite
three failed expeditions in east Africa, he
managed to reach the shores of Lake Vic-
toria, a massive waterbody that straddles
Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, near a dusty
town called Jinja, on a sunny July day in
1862. Standing on its banks near a roaring
waterfall (which he christened Ripon
Falls), Speke had a hunch that he had
finally traced the river’s source.
Despite Speke’s claims, numerous the-
ories persisted about the Nile’s origins,
and still do. And the allure of discovering
the river’s source has never lost its sheen.
Recording his observations that July
day in his journal, Speke wrote: “the roar
of the waters, the thousands of passenger-
fish leaping at the falls with all their might;
the Wasoga and Waganda fishermen
coming out in boats and taking post on all
the rocks with rod and hook, hippopotami
Taiwan’s many curve balls
Taipei and Taichung are
full of surprises, from a
temple that has all the
answers to a village
saved by a paintbrush
Sejal Mehta
ight had settled in by the time the
N cab reached my hotel in Tai-
chung’s Xitun district. But the
markets and music clubs were buzzing.
As I tried to count the money, the cur-
rency still unfamiliar after just two days in
Taiwan, the cabbie reached out, offering
to help. That’s when I noticed his long
nails—painted a sparkling gold with blue
and white waves. For 20 minutes, he had
driven me in silence, his outfit staid and
ordinary. And then came this funky curve-
ball out of nowhere.
Taiwan serves up many such surprises.
For those who like the outdoors, there are
treks and cycling tracks in its national
parks and along the coastline. The cities
have historical monuments, storied tem-
ples and busy night markets with afforda-
ble shopping. This list contains sugges-
tions for the capital, Taipei, and Taichung,
the country’s second largest city.
TOWERING TAIPEI 101
This skyscraper in Xinyi district governs
the skyline in photographs of Taipei. The
high-speed elevator travels to the Obser-
vation Deck on the 89th floor in just 37
seconds, its ceiling transformed into a gor-
geous display of the night sky.
and crocodiles lying sleepily on the
water…”
More than a century later, standing on
the shores of Lake Victoria in Jinja on a
sunny afternoon in July, what I saw was
nothing as momentous. Present-day
Jinja is a far cry from Speke’s time. Ripon
Falls is now only a memory; it disap-
peared when a dam was built down-
stream in 1947. A smattering of shops
selling garments, wooden knick-knacks
and rolex—a Ugandan street-food star
comprising omelette rolled in chapati—
welcome the visitor on both sides of the
tumble-down arrangement of concrete
steps that descend to the lake’s bank. The
jet-black coat of a piapiac (an African
ground crow) glistens in the afternoon
sun as it skitters by, chasing an insect. At
a distance of about 500m from the shore,
beside the grassy knoll of an island, a blue
and white sign reads “The source of
R.Nile, Jinja.”
Standing in the shade of tropical trees,
near a concrete bust of Mahatma Gandhi
unveiled in 1997 by then Indian prime
minister I. K. Gujral—commemorating
the time in 1948 when Gandhi’s ashes
were scattered in the Nile—I consider my
options. Realizing, after some mental cal-
culation, that a 40-minute ride to the
island with the blue and white sign in
boatman Paul’s creaky motorboat would
cost me upwards of $50 (about ₹3,600), I
wonder whether the ride is worth it. But it
is one thing to avoid a boat ride because it
is touristy and quite another to pass up an
opportunity to visit one of the sources of
the Nile itself. I decide to hire Paul. Some
pleasures are perhaps worth giving in to,
despite how eye-wateringly expensive
they are.
The swelling, untamed water of Lake
Victoria is still an awe-inspiring sight.
Today, Western tourists in twill shorts,
straw hats and sunglasses arrive in hordes.
I had driven 2 hours east from the capital
city of Kampala, on impossibly undulating
The views are stunning but what lies
within is equally spectacular. Like its con-
temporaries, the Petronas Twin Towers in
Kuala Lumpur and New York’s Citigroup
Centre, Taipei 101 holds a 728-tonne
sphere at the foundation that protects the
building from winds and seismic activity.
Visitors can travel to the base to watch the
globe in action.
Don’t miss eating at the ground-floor
outlet of the popular Din Tai Fung restau-
rant chain, an essential tourist experience
(though not so great for vegetarians).
READ ALL NIGHT LONG
Taipei has relief for insomniacs. A 24-hour
book store in Dunnan, owned by the
book-store chain Eslite, is alive even at
2am, with tourists and locals reading in its
nooks and corners. There are multiple
sections, display mounts, language com-
TRAVEL
I had driven 2 hours east
from the capital city of
Kampala, on impossibly
undulating roads fringed
by tea, sweet potato and
sugar-cane plantations
ISTOCKPHOTO
partments, and a gift store. The book
store, which has a café, wine cellar and res-
taurant, allows people to sit and read
undisturbed for as long as they like with-
out purchasing a book.
SACRED TEMPLE
Since it was built in 1738, Taipei’s Lung-
shan Temple has been brought down
many times by earthquakes, and even a
World War II bombing. Each time, locals
rebuilt it with donations and government
aid.
This temple in Wanhua district is held
sacred by multiple religions—Taoism,
Buddhism, Confucianism—and the Japa-
nese and Chinese architectural influences
reflect the change in the country’s politi-
cal regime. Colourful, fierce statues of
dragons, a traditionally Chinese symbol,
stand guard on the roof.
PRATHAP NAIR
roads fringed by tea, sweet potato and sug-
ar-cane plantations. Jinja welcomed me
with the sight of the hulking fermenting
tanks of a beer brewery at the town’s
entrance, belonging to the much loved
and ubiquitous Ugandan beer brand Nile.
On the boat, I trail my hand in the water,
which is neither cold nor warm. As we bob
along, I see a middle-aged man cradling
his ageing guitar sitting on a plastic chair
on a raised concrete lookout and watching
me from behind his sunglasses. His gaze is
suggestive of mid-afternoon languor. The
July sunshine falling on the water bounces
back like fireworks in the daylight. I raise
my phone to click a picture, wondering if
I am breaching this private moment by
(left) Tourists in Rainbow Village; and the Chiang Kai-shek National Memorial Hall.
Visit during the prayer congregation
when devotees gather to sing and read
from religious texts. Locals believe the
temple has answers to every question.
Throw two crescent-shaped red “moon
blocks” (jiaobei) up in the air and their
landing positions reveal the answer.
A DIVISIVE FIGURE
Located in a large courtyard, the National
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei’s
Zhongzheng district is dedicated to Tai-
wan’s first president. An elaborate chang-
ing of the guard ceremony takes place
below the statue within the 76m-high,
octagon-shaped memorial hall. While
there are conflicting feelings within Tai-
wan about Chiang Kai-shek’s rule, the
memorial is a key part of the country’s
past. The large courtyard is full of activity:
I saw older people strolling, students prac-
tising music and dance, and social activists
running awareness programmes.
A VILLAGE IN COLOUR
Taichung’s Rainbow Village is the story of
a man who saved a military settlement in
SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
(clockwise, from above) The blue and white sign indicating the source of the Nile at Jinja;
white-bellied cormorants at an island off Jinja; and a memorial with a list of countries in
the Nile’s path greets visitors at the entrance to Lake Victoria.
violating it for an Instagram picture, and
decide to let it go.
In 2012, British travel show Top Gear
and its goofball hosts (Jeremy Clarkson,
Richard Hammond and James May)
embarked on a modern-day expedition to
locate the source of the Nile, complete
with a camera crew, and claimed to have
traced it to Tanzania. In 2006, three
explorers, Neil McGrigor, Cam McLeay
and Garth MacIntyre, claimed to have
tracked the Nile’s origins deep in
Rwanda’s Nyungwe Forest.
The fact that Lake Victoria is fed by
numerous water sources—particularly the
Kagera on the Tanzanian side, the Ruvyu-
ronza on the Burundi side and the Nyabar-
ongo on the Rwandan side—makes it diffi-
cult to ascertain the source of the Nile.
Technically, the origins of these rivers can
also be termed the origins of the Nile. Nev-
ertheless, Jinja marks perhaps the more
accessible of the Nile’s sources.
By now the lower-Equatorial sun has
descended on us but the breeze still feels
comforting. The caramelized smell of the
roasted bananas I had bought earlier from
a hawker rises to fill the boat. An open-
billed stork pokes around on the bank,
looking for crab. Long-tailed cormorants
and pied kingfishers with a smattering of
black polka dots on their white feathers
dive headlong into the waters to fish. A
TAIWAN TOURISM BUREAU
Nantun district armed with a paintbrush.
The 1,200-odd houses for veterans of the
Chinese Civil War were being razed in the
1980s to make room for modern build-
ings. Refusing to leave his home, Huang
Yung-Fu started painting the houses in
bold hues and motifs like leaping tigers,
birds and grinning cats. The resulting
attention discouraged demolition. Visi-
tors often volunteer to paint with Grandpa
Rainbow, who still lives there. Entry is
free, but visitors are encouraged to leave
with souvenirs from the gift shop.
EVERYDAY DESIGN
Taichung has cafés themed around ice
cream, Hollywood and books, with design
elements built into the architecture. My
favourite was the Miyahara building in
Central district, which was the largest
ophthalmology clinic in Taichung in the
1920s. After that closed, the building was
abandoned until Dawn Cakes, a bakery
known for its pineapple cakes, gave it a
delightful new avatar.
The sidewalk has a drawing of ants
marching purposefully towards the sweet
MUMBAI 17
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM ALAMY
huge monitor lizard slithers into the
water.
The boat struggles against the current
towards the island. On reaching the grassy
knoll, I am greeted by a shop selling the
same paraphernalia as the shops on the
shore. Another rocky island nearby looks
whitewashed with bird excrement.
When I finally walk up to the signboard
announcing the source of the Nile, I am
struck by the ordinariness of it all. At the
edge of the island, a shipwrecked boat
provides photo-ops for tourists. I take off
my sandals and sit on the ground, dipping
my feet in the water. Lake Victoria’s
waters fill the horizon as far as the eye can
see, before being interrupted by the
greenery of Ugandan mountains.
Jinja has certainly lost its charm with
expeditioners since you can practically
drive up to Lake Victoria’s bank now. In
the larger scheme of things, Jinja remains
one of the many sources of the Nile. But
since I am only on an expedition-lite ver-
sion of Nile exploration, it doesn’t feel
anticlimactic. Nevertheless, what is
remarkable is that in the era of untram-
melled exposure to every nook of the
planet, some mysteries like the source of
the Nile persist.
Prathap Nair is an independent journal-
ist based in Frankfurt, Germany.
bakes. Its quirkiness still does not prepare
you for the astounding Harry Potter-like
design inside. This is a “Hogwarts meets
Weasleys’ joke shop meets cake” vibe with
wooden shelves, a spiral staircase and a
high ceiling. Tea is sold in illustrated
record covers, cakes boxes come in vin-
tage colours and wooden owls watch from
the corners.
INSPIRED BY NATURE
Envisioned by Japanese architect Toyo
Ito, in collaboration with Sri Lankan-Brit-
ish designer Cecil Balmond, the National
Taichung Theater in Xitun district is a
marvel. Built over 11 years at a cost of
almost $135 million (around ₹959 crore
now), it uses 58 individual curved-wall
units with steel-reinforced bars to create
a 3D effect. The result is a building
inspired by nature, using curves and sky-
high ceilings to create a primitive feel.
Colour is used unabashedly, from whites
and greys to bright aqua and yellow,
accentuated by natural lighting. There are
three theatre spaces for different audience
sizes, and a rooftop garden.
VIBRANT MARKETS
Shopping is an essential Taiwanese experi-
ence and an affordable one, with 1 New Tai-
wanese dollar approximately equalling
₹2.30. The best of Japanese, Korean, Chi-
nese and local brands are available at mar-
ket streets thronging with shoppers. In
Taipei, visit Dadaocheng/Dihua street dur-
ing the day and the Ximending night mar-
ket in the evening. In Taichung, don’t miss
the Feng Chia Night Market. The markets
are wondrous mazes, one tiny vibrant
street merging into another. The street
food is a delight: Try the meat congee, rice
noodle soup, egg crepes and sticky rolls.
Sejal Mehta is a Mumbai-based travel
and wildlife writer. She travelled at the
invitation of Taiwan Tourism Bureau.
18 SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI SATURDAY INTERVIEW
FOOD
NIGELLA
LAWSON
‘To get complex flavours, you
don’t need fancy techniques’
SUMMARY
IN CONVERSATION WITH
Nigella Lawson, British cooking show host and
author of cookbooks such as How To Eat: The
Pleasures And Principles Of Good Food.
Diya Kohli
diya.k@livemint.com
N
igella Lawson is a British food writer
and television personality who has
taught women across the world to be
proud of the food they cook at home.
Her first book, How To Eat: The
Pleasures And Principles Of Good
I think one’s Food, published in 1998, offered recipes and hacks
for weekday cooking, and became an instant best-
approach to food seller. She followed this up with her first cooking
changes show, Nigella Bites, in 1999 which became an even
greater success. With her simple no-fuss cooking,
Lawson brought back attention to everyday food
constantly... and infused it with some joie de vivre. Lawson will be
I have learnt in Mumbai and Delhi to curate two special dinners
for the 2019 edition of The World Series presented
about food and by American Express, in association with Evolve
Luxury Marketing and Special Events. In keeping
techniques with Nigella’s cooking style, this will be a menu
showcasing complex flavours and innovative dishes,
through the all wrung out of a simple bunch of ingredients.
For Lawson, cooking was and continues to be a
mistakes I have pleasurable pastime, and eating represents a cele-
made
bration with family and friends. This idea has per-
sisted through her three decade-long career in
which she has written 12 cookbooks, hosted several
cooking shows on TV and judged reality shows such
as MasterChef Australia. Separating cooking from
other domestic chores, Lawson created a new idiom
for home cooks. Even as the world celebrates the rise
of female chefs, she still stands out as a champion for
The difficulty female empowerment in the non-professional
realm. Edited excerpts from an interview:
about reality TV is How did your background as a publisher and
journalist fit in with your career in food writ-
that in order to ing and television?
I started off as a book reviewer for the Sunday
make everything Times but was also doing other things. I think, we all
do many things at the same time, and it is a very male
have drama, they point of view to say categorically that “you read
have to go on books” or “you do cooking” or “you have an interest
in current events”. In fact, I think that it is natural
about how that they all merge. While it may be somewhat odd
that I started writing about food, one of the impulses
complicated behind was the literary challenge it offered. When
you write about food, you are writing about some-
everything is and thing that exists in the practical realm, and yet sensa-
tion and taste is always best described through meta-
mythologize it phor. To write about food well, you are not actually
just describing the food, you are also describing how
it makes you feel, what it makes you think of, what
associations one has with it. I started off simply
because I was interested in food. I suppose it was a
slight escape from the job that I was doing and, then,
it somehow became the main thing I was doing.
From your first book, How To Eat, home
cooking has remained your focus. What has
changed in your approach to food over the
years?
TALKING POINTS
The importance of cooking at home and navigating
culinary achievements in a non-professional
space.
When I started out, nearly all the books that
existed seemed to be about how to run a top restau-
rant at home with that sort of ridiculous plating up.
I think my first book was simple and the food in that
book was what I had been cooking all my life. It’s not
false modesty and, although I have picked up many
things over the years, I don’t really know techniques,
my knife skills are non-existent and there are certain
dishes that I just wouldn’t attempt.
The reality is that cooking at home is about wel-
coming people into your house. It is about flavour
and you don’t need fancy techniques to get complex
flavours. And, I felt that it was quite mad that people
feel that they are not entitled to cook unless they
have got the right qualifications. The rhythms of a
home cook can be exhausting at a certain stage in
your life, and when my children were little, I had to
concentrate on dishes that were quicker and didn’t
have so many ingredients. Now that they are grown
up, I can spend an entire Saturday afternoon potter-
ing about making a fruit pie, which I might not have
had the time to do earlier.
I think one’s approach to food changes constantly,
depending on where you are in your life. I have
learnt about food and techniques through the mis-
takes I have made. Cooking for me has to be reward-
ing, and to turn it into something frightening is
pointless because so much of life is frightening.
Thinking of cooking as a series of challenges that
you have to overcome would ruin it for me.
How did you enter the world of food?
I came from a food obsessed family, who loved
talking about food. My mother was something of a
snob who believed that people who cooked from
recipes didn’t quite understand cooking. My grand-
mother, on the other hand, loved collecting recipes,
and this sharing and swapping of recipes would be
our way of communication. I did that when I was
young and, yet, I never imagined that this would be
my career or would be something I would do profes-
sionally. I didn’t know that there was a world of food
outside my home. My mother and my two grand-
mothers cooked in different ways and that made me
realize that the food you cook is an expression of
your personality and there isn’t really one way of
doing things. You have to find the right accommoda-
tion between you and the food.
Do you think the idea of a domestic goddess
is at odds with a larger idea of female
empowerment?
It was meant to be a joke. The title came from a
piece I did for Vogue, called “How to feel like a
domestic goddess”, and it was meant to be funny and
not about actually being one. And, although I some-
times find the title a bit embarrassing, I realize irony
doesn’t translate onto the printed page, and I can see
how it can be seen as something that says that a
woman’s place is in the kitchen. I don’t believe it is
and, at the same time, there is a huge satisfaction to
be gained from cooking.
On a more serious note, I think a lot of women felt
ANIRUDDHA CHOWDHURY/MINT
NEWS POINT
Lawson is in India as part of the 2019 edition of The
World Series where she will curate multi-course
dinners In Delhi and Mumbai.
uncomfortable enjoying cooking because it made
them lesser. That hadn’t occurred to me. I didn’t
think that your IQ was going to drop simply if you
put a cake in the oven. I have a lot of girlfriends who
didn’t cook because they felt that their mothers had
gotten trapped in that life. Whether you are male or
female, to be able to feed yourself is an important
skill. I find it anti-feminist to disparage cooking just
because it has traditionally been a female activity. I CHEAT SHEET
think there is a huge difference between cooking
because it gives you pleasure to feed people, and
cooking as an act of service or duty. I’d rather cook
than do an awful lot around the house. Back home in
my age group now, men cook as much, if not more
than women, and in my children’s generation there
300,000
is no distinction between men and women cooking.
You have been an icon for your body positive Number of copies of
image, as well as a symbol of glamour and
style. How do you straddle these different How To Eat sold in the UK
things?
When you do television, people think of you as
someone they look at. When I do television I am not
scripted and I just talk. So, for me, its about commu-
nication and I don’t see myself in that image. I think
it’s interesting that just by being someone who is not
a model, you are seen as a symbol of something. But
there are plenty of women like me around the world
(although they are not on American television for
£7 million
sure).
How have reality cooking shows changed Value of Lawson’s Living
food programming for television?
You could take that argument two ways. The neg- Kitchen cookware range
ative is that it makes people feel that every time they
cook, they are in a competition, where they have to
constantly prove themselves. This means that invit-
ing your friends over can be quite fraught, if you
think that they are judging you. While it depends on
the programme, there are positives as well. I do Mas-
terChef Australia and I think it concentrates on the
good things about food and cooking. It is quite fasci-
nating to see what people cook and how they think
in these competitions. TV does cut both ways. It can
encourage people to cook, but it can also become a
spectator sport. When I do TV, I try and show people
how simple something is and demystify it. The diffi-
culty about reality TV is that in order to make every-
thing have drama, they have to go on about how
complicated everything is and mythologize it.
Food wastage has become one of the biggest
concerns of the food industry. How does this
feed into how you cook?
I never waste. I’m lucky enough to buy good food,
but I never waste anything. The difficulty is that I
feel that I spend so much time not wasting, that I
have more stock in my freezer than I can use. If I have
eaten anything with a bone I’m going to make stock
out of it. I keep peels of carrots and other vegetables
in a bag to turn them into vegetable stock as well.
Another big thing is repurposing leftovers. I believe
cooks come into their own when they are fiddling
with leftovers.
 SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI 19

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20 SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI
Fund crunch
likely for
states as
growth slows
FROM PAGE 22
facturing output almost came
to a standstill, growing at just
0.6%. India’s automobile sec-
tor contracted for the 10th
consecutive month in August,
signalling a deeper problem in
demand conditions.
When asked about his
assessment of the current
macro-economic situation,
Singh said: “The government
is acting with alacrity which is
appropriate to address the sit-
uation. There is no lack of
either intent or determination
in implementing measures.”
On whether the govern-
ment can announce a fiscal
stimulus package, Singh said:
“Where is the fiscal space?”
Asked whether the govern-
ment can invoke the so-called
“escape clause” available in the
Fiscal Responsibility and Bud-
get Management Act, as origi-
nally recommended by a com-
mittee headed by him, Singh
said the Centre will have to
take a call.
The escape clause allows the
government deviation of up to
0.5 percentage points of GDP,
based on triggers that include
far-reaching structural
reforms in the economy hav-
ing unanticipated fiscal impli-
cations, acts of war, and farm
distress.
The FFC has to submit its
report by end-November.
However, Singh said it is yet to
receive the reference from the
President on the change in the
status of Jammu and Kashmir
after its bifurcation last month.
J&K and Ladakh will become
two separate Union territories
from 31 October. Asked how
much time he will get to factor
in the change to J&K’s status,
Singh said: “There will be zero
window. The reference can
come to us only in the first
week of November. They can’t
make a reference to us on a
non-existent territory.”
Increase in flexi-staff hiring
may eat into IT sector margins
FROM PAGE 22
temporary workers strategi-
cally is one of the key
approaches to addressing the
talent needs of today. “As
enterprises progress in their
digital journeys, the winners
will be those who utilize multi-
ple hiring sources and reskill
workers in a culture of lifelong
learning,” UB Pravin Rao,
chief operating officer, Info-
sys, said in the report.
The Internet of Things (IoT)
and AI-based applications will
create over 2.8 million jobs in
rural India over the next 8-10
years generating ₹60,000
crore every year, according to
industry body Broadband
India Forum. Hence, the sud-
den rise in job opportunities
and shortage of immediate tal-
ent supply will lead to more
demand for contractual staff-
ing.
“With emerging technolo-
gies such as AI and big data,
new skill requirements are in
demand. Flexi staffing is a
solution to find out the right
skills, based on project
requirement,” said Rituparna
Chakraborty, president, ISF
and co-founder, Teamlease.
Corroborating the views on
the skills gap, Sivaram S,
engagement manager, con-
sulting firm Zinnov, said: “The
focus on flexi-staffing is to
quickly deploy talent for new-
age areas such as AI, Machine
Learning, and IoT, and drive
velocity/agility in transforma-
tive engagements. It can be
viewed as a means to augment
existing digital engineering
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NEWS
JSW Steel moves NCLAT Drought is brought
centre stage in New
over Bhushan Power bid Delhi Declaration
Srishti Choudhary
srishti.c@livemint.com
Move to address concerns over immunity from alleged fraud by BPSL’s promoters NEW DELHI
A
fter 12 days of talks, the
Tanya Thomas 14th Conference of
tanya.t@livemint.com Parties (COP14) of the
MUMBAI United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification
J
SW Steel Ltd has appealed (UNCCD) ended on Friday,
before the National Com- Lost your with 196 countries and the
mobile
pany Law Appellate Tribunal phone?
European Union adopting the
(NCLAT), contesting the Govt will “New Delhi Declaration”.
takeover conditions for help you to The participating countries
bankrupt Bhushan Power find it agreed that land degradation is UNCCD executive secretary
through this
and Steel Ltd (BPSL). The NCLAT is new portal
a major economic, social and Ibrahim Thiaw. AFP
expected to hear the matter on environmental problem, and
bit.ly/2md3YK
Monday. p
welcomed strengthening of communities are not deprived
In a filing with the stock the adoption of voluntary of land rights. We need to put
exchanges, JSW Steel said: “In con- “land degradation neutrality” ‘people’ first—women, chil-
tinuation of our earlier disclosure targets that include restora- dren, health of people and cre-
dated 6 September, 2019, and pur- tion of degraded land by 2030. ate conditions of peace and
suant to the provisions of Regula- “It’s a powerful document. prosperity,” he said.
tion 30 of the LODR (listing obliga- Parties have finally woken up All countries recognized
tions and disclosure requirements) to the challenge of droughts that desertification under-
regulations, we hereby inform you which are set to become more mines health, development
that on detailed examination of the frequent and more intense in and prosperity in all regions,
terms and conditions of the NCLT coming years,” said UNCCD and were deeply concerned
order approving the resolution executive secretary Ibrahim that the impacts would be felt
plan, it has come to our notice that Thiaw, adding that signatories most keenly by vulnerable
the approval contains certain mod- to the declaration endorsed 35 people.
ifications.” decisions, including commit- They were also convinced
“Further, certain important A file photo of a JSW Steel plant in Bellary, Karnataka. The company has offered an upfront cash payment of ments to combat that participation
reliefs sought by the company have ₹19,700 crore to BPSL’s lenders. BLOOMBERG land degradation, While the from civil society
also not been granted. The com- desertification declaration is a organizations,
pany has therefore appealed fraud and siphoning off of money among the company’s financial and ing Act, and for the operating prof- and drought. statement of local govern-
against the said order dated 5 Sep- by its erstwhile promoters. The operational creditors. JSW, how- its to remain within the company. While the New consensus, the 35 ments and the
tember, 2019 before the relevant allegations are being investigated ever, said these profits were part of Over the past week, Bhushan Delhi Declaration private sector
decisions are
judicial forum,” it added. by the Central Bureau of Investiga- the company’s assets and should Power and Steel’s financial credit- is a statement of would be crucial
On 5 September, Mint was the tion. stay with Bhushan Power and Steel. ors, led by the State Bank of India, consensus, the 35 legally binding on to achieving the
first to report that JSW Steel was The Delhi bench of the NCLT, One person aware of JSW Steel’s Punjab National Bank and Bank of decisions are all the signatories objectives of
unhappy with the condi- India, held a series of meet- legally binding on UNCCD.
tions for taking over THE CASE SO FAR ings with top JSW manage- each the 197 sig- The document
Bhushan Power and Steel ment to try and discourage natories. Activities would be laid special emphasis on com-
under the Insolvency and NCLT had ruled that JSW, however, said BPSL’S creditors met THE resolution them from challenging the carried out over the next two munity-driven transformative
Bankruptcy Code. operating profits of profits were part of top JSW management process for BPSL has NCLT decision. years and monitored by India, projects that are gender-sensi-
BPSL should be the firm’s assets and to discourage them lasted for over 800
JSW Steel, which has distributed among should stay with from challenging days, against 330- Mint reported on 11 Sep- which has the presidency of tive at local, national and
offered an upfront cash the creditors BPSL NCLT decision day deadline by IBC tember that Bhushan COP till 2021. regional levels to drive imple-
payment of ₹19,700 crore Power and Steel’s commit- Highlighting the key points mentation.
to BPSL’s lenders, was the tee of creditors preferred to of the conference, Thiaw said Thiaw said all decisions
highest bidder for the stressed steel which passed the order approving appeal before the NCLAT said it finalize the terms of a takeover that countries have found clear involved lengthy delibera-
plant. the sale of Bhushan Power and was to address two key concerns— were agreeable to all parties rather links between land restora- tions, as each country had dif-
However, it had approached the Steel’s assets to JSW Steel, had also seeking immunity from the alleged than run the risk of further litiga- tion, biodiversity and climate ferent expectations. “How-
NCLT seeking protection from ruled that the operating profits that fraud by Bhushan Power and Steel tion. The resolution process for change. ever, land tenure and drought
future litigation, considering that a Bhushan Power and Steel earned promoters, considering that an BPSL has already lasted for over “The business case has been were the most difficult deci-
forensic audit of the company’s during its two-year-long resolution investigation is underway under 800 days, against the 330-day made very clear, that we need sions, which were pending till
finances had revealed potential period should be distributed the Prevention of Money Launder- deadline mandated by the IBC. to manage land restoration, so the last day,” he added.
FILM REVIEW DREAM GIRL India to be a big focus
post politics: Trump Jr
panies too,” said Pai. FROM PAGE 22 2022.
However, flexi hiring comes Trump Jr said there was no
at a cost to these companies slowdown,” Trump Jr said. dearth of potential deals in
that have to shell out 15-20% India is among one of the India and the Trump brand
more for employees with these largest markets for the Trump has not suffered from an ongo-
skills, thus increasing the pres- Organization outside the US. ing US investigation into the
sure on margins—at least in The company, which entered company over potential tax
the short term. India in 2013, works with local evasion and fraud in its home
According to Nomura developers through brand country.
research, subcontractor costs licensing agreements, but “If I want to do deals in India
as a percentage of revenues does not make any equity and, if we hadn’t given up, we
stood at 7.5%, 8.2%, and 15.3% investments. could do 20 deals
for Infosys, TCS, and Wipro, So far, it has The company this month itself.
respectively, and have signed partner- entered India in But we chose not
increased by 50-160 bps over ships with five 2013 and works to do that because
the past two years. Uday Bhatia director Raaj Shaandilyaa have much to realty companies that would be the
with local
The sector’s flexi workforce is One bps or basis point is uday.b@livemint.com say about the act of phone sex (or friend- —Lodha Devel- right thing to do,”
developers via
expected to grow to 720,000 one-hundredth of a percent- ship). Karam has a revelation early on opers Pvt. Ltd in he added.
brand licensing
D
by 2021 from half a million in age point. esperate to repay his single father’s about how lonely all his callers seem. A Mumbai, Pune- Trump Jr said
2018. MINT “Subcontractors are typi- debts, Karam (Ayushmann Khur- platonic client might have added some based Panchshil agreements the company will
cally 15-20% (more) expensive rana) glimpses a flyer promising depth, but none of the callers is just seek- Realty, M3M and also look at
workforce in an organization, than employees and are a mar- employment at ₹70,000 a month. ing a friendly ear; they’re all in love with Ireo in Guru- expanding its
as there are challenges associ- gin headwind going into It turns out to be a “friendship call cen- Pooja. gram, and Unimark Group in hotel business in India. “We
ated with hiring for specific FY20F… Sub-contracting tre”, which pairs lonely men with seduc- The setting of Gokul, Mathura is nicely Kolkata. would definitely look at hospi-
skillsets.” expenses are also rising at tive female voices. Karam, whose cooing used; unlike some recent Hindi films, this It currently has three under- tality. Our hotel business is
Flexi staff can be deployed Infosys and TCS given higher falsetto has landed him in stage produc- doesn’t feel like a big city script relocated construction Trump Tower doing great and we look to
quickly, as opposed to perma- visa rejections and limited tions as Radhas and Sitas since child- to a small town. Shaandilyaa has a way projects—one each in Guru- expand that internationally.
nent hires where there is a availability of talent onsite hood, senses an opportunity. He with flowery comic phrasing— gram, Kolkata and Mumbai. We don’t have a hotel in India.
long onboarding process, say especially for the digital skills,” answers the phone, improvises there’s a droll bit where Annu While the Mumbai and Kolk- Our New York hotel continues
industry experts. Nomura stated in
The reason for Flexi staff can be a research report
a coquettish character named
Pooja, and, by the end of the Annu Kapoor, playing Karam’s
father, becomes an Urdu
ata projects are set to be deliv- to be great business for us and
ered next year, the Gurugram we would love to expand that
the proliferation deployed quickly, dated 27 August. day, has a strange, if well- Kapoor and Ayushmann speaker overnight. complex will be completed by business to India in time.”
of project-based as opposed to Increase in paying, job. Khurrana also acted Karam, dressed in a sari,
work, as opposed together in 2012’s
permanent hires sub-contracting Soon, Pooja has attracted a
‘Vic ky Do nor ’ repeats the “people are
to long-term con- resulted from a host of admirers: A cop (Vijay lonely” line towards the end, CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS
where there is a
tracts is the global combination of Raaz), an ardent teenager (Raj a moment with none of the sub-
slowdown that is long onboarding surge in demand Bhansali), a misandrist editor (Nidhi versive force it should have had. Mint welcomes comments, suggestions or complaints about errors.
leading compa- process and staffing chal- Bisht) and a buffalo-rearing virgin Dream Girl’s moralizing is unearned—it
nies to hire for lenges on account (Abhishek Banerjee). upbraids the call centre’s proprietor for Readers can alert the newsroom to any errors in the paper by
one-off projects of tech supply Their conversations make for a lot of not respecting his employees, but doesn’t emailing us, with your full name and address to
feedback@livemint.com.
so that they can easily let peo- crunch, said Apurva Prasad, low comedy, and though Khurrana sells bother giving the women distinct person-
ple off when there is no Research Analyst (IT), HDFC everything that’s saleable, the hit rate isn’t alities. This is a film about female imper- It is our policy to promptly respond to all complaints. Readers
requirement, said Siddharth Securities. high enough to keep scenes from drag- sonation with no sympathy for its one dissatisfied with the response or concerned about Mint’s journalistic
Pai, IT consultant and venture He added: “TCS and Infosys’ ging. queer character, which talks about loneli- integrity may write directly to the editor by sending an email to
capitalist. sub-contracting expense Dream Girl has little to say about the ness but brushes off a suicide attempt. asktheeditor@livemint.com
“The trend that began with surged by 26% and 40% effect of female impersonation on men Like Pooja, it speaks in two voices, one of
Mint’s journalistic Code of Conduct that governs our newsroom is
large non-Indian firms is now respectively over the past who specialize in it. Neither does writer- which is fake. available at www.livemint.com
being adopted by Indian com- year.”
 NEWS SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2019
MUMBAI 21

Kejriwal brings back odd-even

rule to control pollution levels
Govt to implement the scheme from 4-15 November as part of a seven-point agenda to combat pollution
Pretika Khanna cial provisions for 12 pollution hot-
pretika.k@livemint.com spots across the city.
NEW DELHI “As per the Supreme Court’s The traditional snacks maker has been eyeing startups in the
direction, we want the residents of packaged consumer goods segment as well as tech brands. MINT

T
he Delhi government Delhi to not burn crackers. Delhi
will implement its car
rationing or odd-even
scheme during 4-15
government will organize a laser
show on Chhoti Diwali so that the
city can together celebrate the fes-
UNIQLO’s
first India
store set for
4 October
Haldiram’s in talks to
November to tackle ris- tival,” Kejriwal said. launch
ing pollution levels during winters.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said
studies have shown that the
While the odd-even scheme and
the Diwali restrictions will end, the
remaining five points in the agenda
bit.ly/2meXgD
N
invest in milkshake
scheme helps to reduce air pollu-
tion.
However, Union minister Nitin
will form the winter action plan of
the government.
Speaking on the Motor Vehicle
brand Frozen Bottle
Gadkari countered the claim, say- Act, Kejriwal said the implementa-
ing the step was not needed. “There tion of the new rules have led to
is no reason for odd-even. The new improvements in traffic and people Salman S.H. chise format. It also sells its
ring road has reduced pollution in are now following the law. Even as salman.h@livemint.com products on food delivery plat-
the national capital. The steps that other states are working to reduce BENGALURU forms such as Swiggy and
we are taking, I am sure that Delhi’s fines, the Delhi government said it Zomato.

pollution problem will be fixed in
two years,” Gadkari said in Nagpur.
Kejriwal on Friday announced a
seven-point agenda as a precau-
tionary measure to tackle air pollu-
tion, which peaks in November due
to crop burning in neighbouring
states. Along with the odd-even
scheme, the government is also
procuring face masks, which will be
distributed free.
Delhi had implemented the
scheme earlier, but people remain
divided on its efficacy. This will be
the third time the Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP)-led Delhi government will
enforce the scheme, wherein cars
with odd and even number plates
will ply on alternate days.
Kejriwal told a press conference,
“4-15 November odd-even
(scheme) to be applied. The studies
m SHORT TAKES
HMSI launches BS-VI compliant
two-wheeler Activa in India
New Delhi: Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd
I
has no plans to do so. “So far the ndian snacks and sweets Haldiram’s entered the ven-
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said studies have shown that the scheme helps to reduce air pollution. HT experience has been good. I have major Haldiram Snacks Pvt. ture capital business in April
spoken to a lot of people and every- Ltd is in advanced discus- this year with a strategic
around this have shown that pollu- the scheme will be finalized based gestions. It also claimed that pollu- one wants the traffic to improve. sions to invest in Bengaluru- investment into startup incu-
tion levels fall. Odd and even is an on the pollution levels in the tion levels have declined by 25% We are taking a look at it. We are a based Frozen Bottle, a quick bation platform Venture Cata-
emergency measure. It cannot be national capital. The scheme will over the last four years. very sensitive government and service restaurant (QSR) chain lysts.
implemented for too long. Details not be implemented over the The government will also pro- don’t want people to be troubled. If that sells milkshakes and des- Back then, the co-founder
will be clarified in the next few weekend and women drivers will cure five to six million pollution there is a certain fine or provision serts, said three people aware of Venture Catalysts, Anuj Gol-
days.” He said studies have that is troubling people, of the development, request- echa, said in a statement that it
shown that it leads to a PLAN OF ACTION and if we have the power ing anonymity. plans to co-invest in up to 10-15
10-13% fall in pollution to make changes, we will Haldiram’s, which was startups in the consumer
levels in the city. THIS will be the third THE scheme will not GOVT will also DELHI will continue do that,” he added. founded in 1937 and largely goods space over the next two
Kejriwal said Delhi will time that the Aam
Aadmi Party-led
be implemented
over the weekend
procure 5-6 million
pollution masks,
to work with Punjab,
Haryana and UP to
“We suggest that the remained in the mass retail years.
continue to work with Delhi government and will likely exempt besides starting a tree find an alternative to government considers space, is looking to invest Haldiram Group’s head of
neighbouring Haryana, implements the rule women drivers planting challenge stubble burning plying restrictions on pre- between $8 million and $10 family office investments, Pra-
Punjab and Uttar Pradesh 2010 vehicles, especially million into Frozen Bottle, said kash Iyer, did not respond to
to find an alternative to commercial vehicles and the first person mentioned Mint’s queries till press time.
stubble burning, which is a key rea- likely be exempt. masks, besides starting a tree plant- ensuring high occupancy car rider- above. Multiple calls and texts to Fro-
son for the spike in pollution levels Last week, the government had ing challenge to increase green ship during periods of air pollution “Haldiram’s proposed zen Bottle’s Yadav did not
in November. invited suggestions from residents cover. It will distribute plants, emergency,” Sumit Sharma, investment into Frozen Bottle elicit any response.
Senior officials of the state gov- to tackle rising levels of pollution in deploy volunteers to control wood director, earth science and climate will be structured via their Frozen Bottle competes
ernment said that closer to the day, Delhi. It received over 1,200 sug- burning during winters, with spe- change at Teri said. family office fund and will with Delhi-based Keventer
involve equity with a strategic Agro Ltd, which operates over
investment approach,” the 250 stores serving milkshakes
second person added. and desserts. It also sells pouch
The traditional milk under the
snacks maker, Haldiram’s, which Metro Daily
Fresh measures to boost economy likely today which reportedly was founded
breached ₹5,000 in 1937, is looking
crore mark in rev- to funnel
brand.
Hyderabad-
based Thick
enues in 2018, has Shake Factory,
Gireesh Chandra Prasad the news agency ANI, having access to credit for businesses, also been eyeing
$8-10 million into w h i c h was
gireesh.p@livemint.com broken the news, later tweeted liberal foreign ownership startups in the Bengaluru-based founded in 2013,
NEW DELHI that it was cancelled. A gov- norms and more capital for packaged con- Frozen Bottle also operates
ernment official, however, state-run banks. sumer goods seg- QSR stores in

T
(HMSI) on Wednesday launched the Bharat Stage-VI variant of he Centre is likely to
the popular Activa—the first two-wheeler featuring a BS-VI announce more meas-
engine in India. The new 125cc scooter will be available for ures on Saturday to
₹67,490-74,490, or at a 10% premium to BS-IV models. Accord- arrest the economic slowdown
ing to the company, it will have 13% better mileage. that has plagued the Narendra
The launch comes at a time when two-wheeler sales in India Modi administration’s second
have been on a decline for almost a year now due to rise in owner- term.
ship cost. “With the new Activa 125 BS-VI, we have taken a leap Finance minister Nirmala
ahead in the industry leading the next revolution powered by Sitharaman is tentatively
superior technology. Honda is making advanced transition to scheduled to address a news
BS-VI norms inspired by our global commitment,” said Minoru conference to outline fresh
Kato, president and chief executive of HMSI. MALYABAN GHOSH measures for growth, said a
government official privy to
the plans, requesting anonym-
Imran Khan hits out at India ity. Sitharaman will also share
the feedback she has received
over curbs in Kashmir on the measures taken in
REUTERS
recent weeks to lift business
confidence and liquidity, the
official added.
While the government on
Friday made no announce-
ment on the press conference,
told Mint that the presser was
tentatively scheduled for Sat-
urday.
Sitharaman is expected to
announce sector-specific solu-
tions and targets, said the offi-
cial. The Centre has been
working on measures to boost
growth in the housing and real
estate sector, a major job creat-
ing industry, which has been
grappling with record unsold
inventory and poor sales.
The Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) has cut interest rates four
times since January to 5.4% by
August, to help boost loan
growth.
A slowing domestic econ-
omy, amid adverse external
headwinds such as the
US-China trade war and fears
of a global recession, has made
Finance minister Nirmala
Sitharaman is expected to
announce sector-specific
solutions and targets. PTI
it that much more difficult for
the government to buck the
trend.
In recent weeks, the Centre
has announced a slew of meas-
ures, including front-loading
of public expenditure, a mas-
sive ₹100-trillion investment
into infrastructure, improved
The economic downturn
has become a sticky political
issue ahead of assembly elec-
tions in Maharashtra, Haryana
and Jharkhand. Former prime
minister and senior Congress
leader Manmohan Singh has
criticised the National Demo-
cratic Alliance (NDA) govern-
ment for what he called the
“man-made blunders of
demonetization and a hastily
implemented GST”.
India’s economy reported
its weakest growth in more
than six years at 5% in the June
quarter.
The Reserve Bank of India
has projected gross domestic
product to expand 6.9% in
2019-20, while most analysts
and financial institutions have
estimated 6.5-7% growth.
ment, as well as a Andhra Pradesh,
bunch of technology brands, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and
the first person said. Telangana.
Frozen Bottle was founded Apart from Halidiram’s, tra-
in early 2017 by Pranshul ditional brands such as Hindu-
Yadav and Arun Suvarna. stan Unilever Ltd (HUL), have
According to a report by also been looking at the
web portal YourStory last startup segment closely to
month, Frozen Bottle had break into the new-age con-
crossed ₹40 crore in annual sumer goods space.
revenue and currently oper- Grocery delivery startup
ates 140 stores across 18 cities, Milkbasket had secured multi-
including Bengaluru, Mum- ple tranches of funding from
bai, Chennai, Delhi, Pune, Uniliver Ventures over the
Surat, Manipal, Kochi and past two years, while Hindu-
Coimbatore. stan Unilever, in partnership
The report said Yadav and with Amazon, has been co-de-
Suvarna had jointly invested veloping a range of men’s
₹37 lakh to start the business. grooming brands targeted at
Initially, the company oper- new-age consumers.
ated as a proprietary brand, Deepti Chaudhary contrib-
but later moved to the fran- uted to this story.

Small towns to star in multiplex growth story

New Delhi: Pakistan PM Imran Khan on Friday launched
a tirade against India for not lifting the month-long curbs FROM PAGE 22
in Kashmir, saying that New Delhi’s “oppression” of the
people will drive them toward extremism. Pakistan has and Jabalpur will be followed
been very critical of the curbs imposed days ahead of the 5 by those in Jamnagar, Farida-
August decision to revoke the special status given to Jammu bad, Hathras, Ratlam, Dahanu
and Kashmir under Article 370, and bifurcating the state and Chhindwara, said Sanjeev
into two Union territories. Kumar Bijli, joint managing
At a rally in Muzaffarabad, in PoK, Khan pledged to stand director of PVR Ltd.
by Kashmiris and raise their cause at every available inter- “We have 16 properties in
national fora, including at the UN General Assembly. the pipeline over the next 12-18
ELIZABETH ROCHE months with a ₹5-6 crore
investment per property. Cin-
ema watching is a form of
ED slaps over ₹230 crore FEMA entertainment that is universal
in our country, we’re trying to
show-cause penalty on PwC address that gap,” Bijli said.
The idea is to select places
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has slapped an where there is a strategic ben-
over ₹230 crore FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) vio- efit to be derived from entry.
lation show-cause penalty notice against multinational account- First, the town should have a
ing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and others, officials said population of at least
on Friday. They said the notice was issued under FEMA after 300,000-400,000. Second,
REUTERS completion of a probe by the adju- companies such as PVR use
dicating authority, which is the their distribution experience
special director (eastern region) of to gauge the potential for busi-
the ED. ness in specific locations and
Officials said the company the genre of films that works
along with the others received there. While the imposition of
investments from Pricewater- the goods and services tax has
houseCoopers Services BV by mostly ensured a level playing
“falsely” showing them as “grants” field as far as entertainment
so as to avoid attracting provisions tax goes, some states still
of FEMA, which require approval impose local and municipal
of the government or to say the taxes. Further, the idea is to
Reserve Bank of India. PTI find a central location within
Most companies aim to
reduce prices of movie tickets
for small towns. HT
the city with good retail, food
and beverage options so that it
becomes an entertainment
hub.
The other goal is to go to
areas where people from
nearby villages and small
catchments can travel to eas-
ily, said Jagdeep Oberoi, CEO
of Carnival Realty Pvt. Ltd.
Carnival aims to come up with
two-screen properties in about
100 sites over the next two
years. This would include
states such as Madhya Pra-
desh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala,
Telangana, Tamil Nadu,
Rajasthan and Gujarat. The top 20 cities in the last 10-15
company has allocated ₹300 years where people are com-
crore for this. fortable with an average ticket
Most companies aim to price and a certain level of food
reduce prices of tickets for spend at the cinemas, Gian-
these small towns to at least chandani said.
half of what a metro com- “We believe this habit crea-
mands. A ticket price range of tion will also take place in the
₹100-150 ensures value add- smaller towns over the next
ed-services at a suitable cost, three-five years. As a result of
compared to ₹250-plus tickets stable government policies, we
in big cities. see more prosperity in smaller
“When determining the pri- towns and when that lift in dis-
ces, we take into cretionary con-
consideration the For operators, the sumption starts
location, cost idea is to find a to take place, we
structure of the central location want to be well
project and, most within the city poised to grasp
importantly, the the opportunity,”
that has good
paying propensity he said.
of the catchment. retail, food and Film trade and
This is a common beverage options exhibition expert
formula for all our Girish Johar said
markets and geo- the fact that
graphies and, therefore, you national multiplex chains are
may find variance in small looking at mass audiences reit-
towns as opposed to urban cit- erates the age-old concept of
ies. We make sure that we do India living in its villages, or, in
not outprice ourselves,” said this case, its small towns. “That
Alok Tandon, CEO, Inox Lei- is the way to go. This kind of
sure. Next on the cards for Inox mass consumption should
is Gorakhpur with an invest- help not just the film exhibi-
ment of ₹2.5-3 crore. tion business, but also distri-
There has been a rise in dis- bution and production,” said
cretionary expenditure in the Johar.
 MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, BENGALURU, KOLKATA, CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE* VOL. 2 NO. 221 Rs10.00 22 PAGES

ODD-EVEN SCHEME BACK IN NIGELLA LAWSON ON COOKING

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
LIVEMINT.COM
DELHI FROM 4 NOVEMBER uP21 AND FEMINISM uP18

m MINT GRAPHITI
DON’T MISS
Fund crunch likely for Exports decline 6% in Aug
India’s merchandise exports contracted 6.05% in August—the
second time in the current fiscal year. Merchandise imports,
meanwhile, shrank 13.45%, narrowing the trade deficit to

states as growth slows $13.45 billion during the month.

30
25
20
Exports Imports (Year-on-year in %)

15
10
5.17 -6.05
Low growth assumption by FFC may lead to smaller share of tax revenues 5
0
4.6

RAMESH PATHANIA/MINT -5
Asit Ranjan Mishra m MINT GRAPHITI -10
PRIYANKA PARASHAR/MINT
asit.m@livemint.com A FISCAL HEALTH CHECK -15
-13.45
REDISCOVERING GANDHI: A larger- NEW DELHI Trade deficit (in $ bn)
15th Finance Commission chairman N.K. Singh, who met its advisory council on Friday, said evidence 20
than-life statue of Gandhi at the entrance suggesting nominal GDP growth may be lower than assumed has emerged after the budget. 13.72 13.45

S
to Gandhi Smriti in New Delhi. Mint is tate governments 15
running a Twitter photo series to mark the Govt mulls may be staring at a 10
selling stake
150th year of the Mahatma’s birth. in BPCL to
serious resource
5
overseas oil crunch in the five
company: years beginning 0
To fight desertification, nations report 2020-21, as the current eco- Apr Aug
adopt New Delhi Declaration 2018 2019
bit.ly/2kJ4vn2 nomic downturn may force
Source: Commerce ministry
After 12 days of talks, the 14th Conference of the 15th Finance Commission
SANTOSH SHARMA/MINT
Parties of the United Nations convention to (FFC) to assume low nominal
combat desertification ended Friday with GDP growth, which would
196 countries and the EU adopting the ‘New
mean a smaller share of tax
Delhi Declaration’. See Page 20
revenues for states.
However, since the Centre
Haldiram’s in talks to invest in
milkshake brand Frozen Bottle
has the power to impose cess,
it may have more legroom to
deal with the situation than
THE FINANCE Commission
has to submit its report to
THE BIFURCATION and
change in status of Jammu
A FURTHER delay in
submitting the report
SFBs need minimum
the government by and Kashmir has put the could impact the Centre’s
Indian snacks and sweets major Haldiram
Snacks Pvt. Ltd is in advanced discussions to
invest in Bengaluru-based Frozen Bottle, a
quick service restaurant chain that sells
the states.
Nominal GDP is real GDP
calculated at market prices,
30 November commission in a fix

Government likely to announce fresh economic measures today

budget preparation

taking inflation into account.
milkshakes and desserts. See Page 21
Since inflation has been within
the Reserve Bank of India’s
comfort level of 3-4%, lower
JSW moves NCLAT over takeover real GDP growth will bring
conditions for Bhushan Power down the overall nominal GDP
Unhappy with the terms for taking over number.
Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd, JSW Steel has India’s nominal GDP
approached the National Company Law growth in the June quarter
Appellate Tribunal, which is expected to hear
See Page 21
₹200 crore capital in
government on 30 November, orandum, or as contained in
FFC chairman N.K. Singh said the medium-term fiscal policy
cit and debt-to-GDP ratios for
the Centre and states, both of
on-tap licence regime
post-budget, evidence has statement. The commission is them may not have enough
emerged sug- duty-bound resources to meet their com-
gesting that nom- India’s nominal under the consti- mitted expenditures. “In such Gopika Gopakumar could exit from the bank, after
inal GDP may be Q1 GDP growth tution to arrive at a case, they have to squeeze gopika.g@livemint.com completing the lock-in period
lower t h a n stood at a meagre its own judge- their expenditure, which may MUMBAI of five years, would depend on
assumed. ment. How we not be ideal at a time the econ- the RBI’s regulatory and
8% while the

T
stood at a meagre 8%—the “Nominal GDP
budget assumes exercise that is
omy is slowing,” he added. he Reserve Bank of India supervisory comfort/discom-
the matter on Monday. See Page 20
lowest in the current GDP growth looks entirely up to us,” India’s economy is currently on Friday allowed pay- fort and SEBI regulations in
series—while the budget for problematic. The nominal GDP he added. undergoing its worst phase in ments banks to apply for this regard,” said RBI.
the current fiscal assumes commission is growth at 11.5% N.R. Bhanu- more than six years, and many small finance bank The central bank main-
Film review: ‘Dream Girl’ has nominal GDP growth at 11.5%. not obliged to murthy, professor economists believe it is a struc- (SFB) licences, provided tained that SFBs should be
nothing much to convey After meeting the FFC’s accept the num- at the National tural slowdown. While real they meet the criteria. Accord- listed within three years of
‘Dream Girl’ has little to say about the effect advisory council comprising bers of nominal GDP as sub- Institute of Public Finance and GDP in Q1 grew by 5%, manu- ing to the new draft guidelines reaching a net worth of ₹500
of female impersonation on men who leading economists, ahead of mitted to the commission by Policy, said unless the com- for on-tap licencing of private crore.
specialize in it. Neither does writer-director submitting his report to the the central government mem- mission reviews the fiscal defi- TURN TO PAGE 20 sector SFBs, the promoter of a Earlier, the RBI had denied
Raaj Shaandilyaa have much to say about
payments bank is eligible to set reverse-merger proposals at
the act of phone sex. See Page 20
up an SFB, provided both Equitas and Ujjivan, insisting
banks come under the non- that Equitas Small Finance
operating financial holding Bank and Ujjivan Small
company (NOFHC) structure. Finance should be listed sepa-

Rising flexi-staff hires India to be big focus post politics: Trump Jr Existing rules do not allow rately as per the licencing
payments banks
to lend and
agreement. The
central bank

projected to eat into Bidya Sapam been at the helm of Trump crore.
deposits are
capped at ₹1 lakh
per customer. A
recently turned
down a proposal
by Equitas Hold-
bidya.s@livemint.com Organization since his father New York-based Trump small finance ings seeking an
IT industry’s margins MUMBAI took office in 2017, said in a Organization has not signed
telephone interview. any fresh deals in overseas
bank licence will
give such entities
SFBs should be
listed within
extension of the
listing deadline

T
he Trump Organiza- This week, Trump Organi- markets, including India, in access to more three years of for its subsidiary
tion, which controls zation’s Indian partner, the last two years. However, deposits and reaching a net Equitas Small
Ayushman Baruah toward contract hires has the Trump brand of Tribeca, flew around 100 it has continued to promote boost their profit- worth of ₹500 cr Finance Bank.
ayushman.b@livemint.com been a trend across indus- luxury properties across the Indian home- its ongoing pro- ability, which is The RBI also
BENGALURU tries, but it has become more globe, will look at new buyers to New If I want to do jects across the currently under allowed primary
visible in IT of late because of branding and licencing deals York. deals in India and, world. pressure. urban cooperative banks to

A
move toward project- a rise in project-based work. in India—possibly even The initiative if we hadn’t given “While the The central bank also convert into SFBs, provided
based work is prompt- In tune with global IT hotels—once US President was a follow-up up, we could do (Indian real revised the minimum paid-up they comply with the on-tap
ing Indian informa- spending, which is expected Donald Trump demits office, to a campaign estate) market capital requirement for SFBs licencing guidelines. The min-
20 deals this
tion technology (IT) services to remain flattish this year, his son has said. conducted by has suffered, we to ₹200 crore instead of ₹100 imum net worth of such SFBs
companies to adopt the flexi clients are increasingly mov- “India is a market that we Donald Trump Jr says Trump Tribeca in Feb- month itself, have done dis- crore earlier. It said the pro- will be ₹100 crore and has to be
or contractual staff model ing to project-based work would be very interested Organization is dominating ruary 2018, says Trump Jr proportion- moter should hold a minimum increased to ₹200 crore within
while hiring professionals in instead of long-term con- post politics,” Donald Trump the Indian realty market. PTI offering poten- ately well rela- of 40% of the paid-up voting five years from commence-
high-tech areas, spelling ris- tracts, wherever possible. Jr, the eldest son of the Presi- tial homebuy- tive to other equity capital for five years. If ment of business.
ing costs for companies. However, this is a double- dent, told Mint. kets. But that (India) would ers of the new Trump Tower high-end projects. We have the initial promoter share- SFBs offer basic banking
According to the latest tal- edged sword as it also impacts “We have voluntarily be a big focus of mine. at Gurugram, near New carved a unique niche for holding is above 40%, it should services, accepting deposits
ent market research by Info- the margins in the short-term given up the ability to do new Frankly, it would be easier Delhi, a chance to “have din- ourselves. Our sales continue be brought down to 40% and lending to unserved and
sys, called Talent Radar 2019, due to the higher costs. deals internationally while for me to get going in India ner” with Trump Jr, 41. to be strong. We continue to within a period of five years, underserved sections, includ-
the top five technical skills in At Mindtree Ltd, now a Lar- my father is in office. After because of the relationships Apartments at the upcoming dominate despite a general 30% within 10 years, and 15% ing small businesses, small and
demand in digital projects sen & Toubro (L&T) unit, the politics, we would certainly we have built up in the last 47-storey luxury tower cost in 15 years. marginal farmers, micro and
are: analytics, user experi- average subcontracting/flexi look at India and other mar- decade,” Trump Jr, who has between ₹5 crore and ₹10 TURN TO PAGE 20 “Whether a promoter small industries, and the unor-
ence, automation, IT archi- hiring ranges from 10-15% of ceases to be a promoter or ganized sector.
tecture and artifi- its overall work-
cial intelligence. The IT-ITeS sector force.
Companies tops flexi-staff “The first
like Tata Con- adoption with 12 advantage of flexi
sultancy Services out of every 100 hiring is that
Ltd, Infosys Ltd,
Wipro Ltd, HCL
Technologies
employees being demand can be
contractual or
fulfilled faster.
For example, in
SMALL TOWNS SET TO STAR IN MULTIPLEX GROWTH STORY
Ltd and Tech flexi staff IT services REUTERS

Mahindra Ltd industry like Lata Jha behind countries such as the of screen density, with eight rated and the next level of
have adopted this ours, we fulfil lata.j@livemint.com US and China, leaving enough screens per million popula- expansion will have to come
model in varying degrees. such demand in 15-30 days as NEW DELHI room for multiplex operators tion, versus 16 in China and 125 from the tier-II and III mar-
The IT-ITeS (IT-enabled opposed to lateral hiring, to make deeper inroads into in the US. kets. We believe that in the

M
services) sector tops flexi-staff wherein the average varies ultiplex chain opera- the country. India has less than “The Indian market is a bit next three-five years, this is
adoption with around 12 out from 30-75 days. Secondly, tors in India are look- 25% of the screens in China or of a paradox. There are some where the bulk of growth for
of every 100 employees being for requirements that are ing at places such as the US, despite producing the locations that are the multiplex sec-
contractual or flexi staff, short term, it makes business Jamnagar, Gorakhpur and most number of films in the oversaturated India’s screen tor will come
according to the Indian Staff- sense to leverage the subcon- Hathras as people in these world, said a Ficci-EY report and have multiple count is far lower from,” he said.
ing Federation (ISF), the apex tracting/flexi hiring models small towns seek better enter- on media and entertainment multiplexes of than nations such PVR has a pres-
body of the domestic flexi without increasing the head- tainment avenues with rising industry, released in March. various opera- as US and China, ence in 65-70 cit-
staffing industry. count,” said Pankaj Khanna, purchasing power. Last month, PVR Cinemas tors, while there ies, including
The sector’s flexi workforce vice president, talent acquisi-
giving operators small towns such
Operators plan to add as launched its first three-screen are pockets that
is expected to grow to tion, Mindtree. many as 7,000 screens over property in Madhya Pradesh’s are virgin territo- room to make as Ranchi and
720,000 by 2021 from half a Similarly, the Infosys report the next 10 years, many of Satna under the sub-brand India has around 3,000 multiplex screens. Operators now plan to ries, where there deep inroads Kota, whereas a
million in 2018, according to cited above said, engaging them in smaller towns, to cover PVR Utsav—an offering for add 7,000 more over the next 10 years, mostly in small towns. is absolutely no film releases in
ISF. about 70% of the country, tier-II and tier-III cities to entertainment 400-450 towns
To be sure, the move TURN TO PAGE 20 according to exhibition indus- address the growing aspiration announced the opening of 30 population of 50,000-99,000, infrastructure,” said Kamal across India, Gianchandani
try experts. India’s multiplex for cinema across markets. screens across Jammu and while tier-III and tier-IV towns Gianchandani, chief executive said. This means there is scope
NOTE TO READERS The content on page 5 was screen count is around 3,000, Inox Leisure Ltd followed suit Kashmir and five more in the are those with populations of officer (CEO), PVR Pictures. to expand to about 300 towns.
produced by Mint Brand Cell in collaboration with LF as part of with an average of about five- with new properties in Luc- Ladakh region. 20,000-49,999 and 10,000 “We expect this to become a The Utsav properties in Satna
our customer connect initiative. The news and editorial teams of six screens per theatre. know and Jalandhar, while The 2001 Census defines -19,999, respectively. big growth piece for PVR. The
Mint had no role in its creation. India’s screen count lags far Carnival Cinemas has tier-II towns as those with a India is also behind in terms top 20 cities are already satu- TURN TO PAGE 21