SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2014
Notes from the Highland
Looking for signs in Glasgow and Edinburgh, ahead of
the independence referendum in Scotland
Tech
Is the Xiaomi Redmi 1S worth buying? PAGE 3
In the preface to your memoir (And
Then One Day, Hamish Hamilton), you
mention how the book began almost
like a memory game, a challenge to
test how much you remember.
That’s how it started. As long as it was fun
to write about, I carried on. Then I’d pack it
up and put it away — for a year at times —
and not look at it. Later, I would remember
something and I’d say, wow, I have to write
about it.
So, now having written the book, are
you nervous that people are going to
read it?
No, I wasn’t nervous about people reading
it. I just thought that nobody would read it
(laughs). I didn’t write it with an audience
in mind at all. I don’t live too much in the
past, but this was a good excuse to indulge
myself. I just thought I’d try to recall as
much as I could and record it as accurately
and objectively as I could, without giving
in to my usual habit of getting over-
wrought about things. And that’s what I
am particularly proud of having achieved.
I have never been able to talk about my
complicated relationship with Heeba (his
daughter from his first marriage) in inter-
views, but I could write about it at length
in the book. My relationship with my fa-
ther still troubles me because it never got
resolved and there was no closure. There
was a lot of bitterness, but having written
about it, I found that I was able to over-
come that bitterness and look at the rela-
tionship anew.
In the book, you mention that you had
your first‘conversation’with your
father after he passed away.There
seemd to be a sense of closure, but
now you say that you haven’t had that
closure in life.
To some extent, yes. But it still comes back
and bothers the hell out of me. Ever since I
have had my own children, I realised the
tremendous amount that we both missed
out on. It was not done to put your arms
around your dad’s shoulders
and things like that then. In COURTESY: HAMISH HAMILTON
fact, he used to address his own
father as ‘sarkar’ and he had to
seek an appointment to meet
him. So, from his perspective,
he was a very chilled-out guy, I
suppose. The same way that I
think I am. But I realise that I
have made quite a few of the
same mistakes with my kids
that my dad made. Not so much
in trying to determine their
lives for them, but in terms of
trying to discipline them. Those
were blunders.
Your father must have been
quite a dreamer too.You
write that he wanted to open
a restaurant in England.
I think he was, but he kept it to
himself. As Ratna (Pathak Shah,
wife) was pointing out the
other day, he lost out on the op-
portunity to be loved because
of his idea of how a father
should be. I didn’t know him. As
I get older, I begin to under-
stand him better and I think
that he was actually quite a
simple guy to understand. But I
was too much of a kid and the
distance became unbridgeable
after a point. I really drove him
up the wall.
Of course, there was this LOOK BACK IN REMEMBRANCE (from top) Shah at his
whole idea of what it meant Mumbai residence; with his mother and brothers; with Om Puri
to be a man at that time. One
had to be of a certain kind to be should have become actors. My nana- nani career turned out?
considered masculine. (maternal grandparents), mamus — they
My mamus (maternal uncles) were my he-
roes. They were everything that I thought
a man should be. Bandook vandook (guns),
girlfriend, leather jackets, jeans, dark
glasses, cigarette, tractor, ghoda (horses).
That is the kind of atmosphere I grew up in
— skinning black bucks and cocking guns
and discussions that went ‘aam ka baag
itne mein bika (the mango orchard sold for
this much).’ It was unreal.
How did you move away from that?
No, I think I still carry a lot of it.
How?
In the irrational way I respond to things
T H E S U N DAY E X P R E S S M AG A Z I N E
sometimes (laughs). The-easy-to-take-of-
fence attitude. Settling matters with your
fists, that kind of thing.
You do that?
I did. Not any longer.
Was anyone else in your family
interested in acting?
There are a lot of people in my family who
Luck is a combination of factors. I consider
were tremendous actors (laughs). The
voices they had, you could hear them from
one end of Sardhana (near Meerut in UP,
where they lived) to the other. And the
passion with which they lived. Of course,
they were great story-tellers. They were
great characters, all of them. My dad’s side
also had a highly eccentric bunch of peo-
ple. But, of course, it was unthinkable to be
actors — bhandelagiri karoge? Nautanki
karoge (Will you perform, be an actor?)?
My dad had a very hard time digesting
that. He belonged to the provincial civil
service, equivalent to the IAS. You know,
the reason I say it is unresolved is because
he didn’t live to see what I was capable of.
Tell Me a Story
WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM The Kolkata musician whose song features in a
Mohsen Makhmalbaf film
Down in Jungleland
Traffic lessons from the animal kingdom Digital Native
PAGE 2 Why Fappening is not happening PAGE 4
AMITCHAKRAVARTY
Those one or two, I think, are the ones who
manage to be in the right place. And being
in the right place again, is not entirely a
An Actor,
matter of luck. NSD mein mujhe yeh soojha
ki agar roti kamani hai toh filmon se hi ka-
mani hogi. Toh yeh kaise hoga (I used to
think that if I have to earn money, I would
Prepared
have to do so through acting. How will
that happen)? Alright, even if I get a role as
an inspector, I’ll do that.
Look at Om Puri. Even if he had not
come to the film institute (Film and Televi-
sion Institute of India, Pune), Govind Niha-
lani zameen khod ke nikal laata Om ko
(Govind Nihalani would have dug Om out
of nowhere). As an actor, you have got to
In a freewheeling conversation with one of his learn your job as thoroughly as you can. If
you know your job, then there’s nothing
favourite screen idols Naseeruddin Shah, that can stop you. Because the bottomline
writer-director-actor Rajat Kapoor finds out about is that only good actors will get work.
Shah’s complicated relationship with his father and But actors like Nawazuddin
(Siddiqui) have been around for 20
how he came to write his memoir years and nobody seemd to care, but
now, suddenly, everybody seems to
want to cast him. It happened to
Irrfan Khan too.
In those 20 years, both these guys really
worked on themselves. Otherwise, they
would not have been able to deliver
when the time came. I have tremendous
regard for them, not only for their perse-
verance but for the fact that they did not
let it get them down. Chhote chhote role
kar kar ke ab yeh sab (They acted in small
roles to get here). They didn’t let it break
their spirit.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
When you write about the first 20
years of your life, it seems textured;
you write about what comes later
rather matter-of-factly. Does it have
anything to do with our emotional
response to our childhood?
It could be because those recent events are
so close that I didn’t want to get swayed by
my emotions. It is safer to talk about
events that are far away. Possibly, that’s
the reason. Also, it is not in my
nature to be unemotional.
I suppose I feel very deeply
about those things from which I
am far away. I feel safe in reveal-
ing them. There are many
events in the latter part that I
haven’t revealed. I didn’t want
to offend anybody. I haven’t
cared much about it in the past.
But I thought this is the thing
that is going to last, so, let’s not.
It’s okay to ruffle a few feathers,
but not to puncture anybody.
Agar kuchh achcha kehne ko
nahin hai, toh kuchh mat kaho (If
you have nothing good to say,
then don’t say anything).
But you were honest about
yourself. It takes courage to
tell the world this is who I
am, this is who I was.
But wouldn’t you do that, if
you were writing about your
life? Isn’t it what the reader
deserves?
You have dedicated the
book to your sons Imaad
and Vivaan, the only two
family members who do not
feature in it.What has been
their reaction to the book?
They have not bothered to read
it. And I don’t think they will for
at least another 10 years.
Do you think luck had any
role to play in how your
myself to have been extremely lucky. But
then I kind of foresaw the kind of films
that were going to be made and realised
that an actor like me would be needed in
those films. When I saw Bhuvan Shome
(1969), Sara Akash (1969) — I was in the
National School of Drama (NSD) then —
Teesri Kasam (1966), and then Ankur
(1974), mujhe laga ki mujhe toh inn filmon
mein kaam milega hi (I will definitely get
work in such films). Let me try to be there.
There is skill and there is
perseverance, but out of 100 people
with the same skill and tenacity, only a
few will make a mark.
 T H E S U N DAY E X P R E S S M AGA Z I N E
WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
point of view 2
SEPTEMBER 14, 2014

CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

An Actor, Prepared AMITCHAKRAVARTY

down in jungleland
RANJIT LAL
ranjitlal55@gmail.com

CATCH THE SIGNAL

for). Watch swarms of insects, say lo-
custs or white ants, take to the air like
swirls of smoke — never a collision —
and they should be dropping like, um
Traffic lessons from the animal planet flies! Imagine trying to be an air traffic
THINKSTOCK controller at a beehive that’s just been
disturbed. They hum and roar and pour
out furiously, but they don’t crash into
each other and fall down.
Even flocks of birds: watch rosy
starlings or sandpipers swirl synchro-
nously in the sky, turning from black to
silver to black. It’s thought that each
bird keeps track of the ones flying clos-
est to it and catches tiny directional
cues which sets off something akin to
a Mexican wave. And all that weaving
and swerving has a purpose: to con-
fuse predators like the mighty falcon
that screams down towards them at
300+ kmph. Imagine us trying to do
that? Beggars belief. We have had sev-
eral mid-air collisions between air-
ROLE PLAY Rajat Kapoor with Naseeruddin Shah during the interview craft, which is quite astounding really
considering the size of the sky.

My point is there must be many
others as skilled and as talented...
I wish there were, but there aren’t people
with that kind of faith in themselves. Peo-
ple make wrong choices.
But you made wrong choices too.
I made many wrong choices, in serious
films as well. But I did not limit myself to
any one category — that I’ll only do leading
roles, which is a mistake some actors
make. You shouldn’t define yourself in
your mind that you are this.
I used to wonder that if I ever became a
star, what kind of a star would I be. Na toh
main gaane ga sakta, na toh main itna tagda
hoon — Dharmendra-waale role bhi nahin
kar sakta (I can’t sing songs, neither am I so
strong that I can carry off roles such as
Dharmendra’s). I used to think that I
would probably manage to get the role of a
prime minister in historicals. I would tell
myself, let me prepare for this too. So that
if the time ever comes, I would be ready.
I remember watching your debut film
Nishant as a teenager.You made such
an impression with the way you
stammered and played your part.
Except for the film industry, everybody
noticed it. It is probably the only film I
watched in a theatre as I was excited
about it. And the audience was respond-
ing to the character.
I went a bit far with the stammering. I
did the same in Sazaye Maut (1981, di-
rected by Vidhu Vinod Chopra) and
Aakrosh (1980, directed by Govind Niha-
lani). At that time, I was deeply affected by
Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate and
wanted to emulate him.
How do directors of commercial films
deal with you knowing that you don’t
hold such forms in high esteem?
They don’t know what to do with me.
Since I am not the one who generates the
finance, I don’t get the plum parts. I fit
into the roles that either no one will do
or can’t do.
But these (commercial offers) keep
coming to you.
It could be because they think adiyal
aaadmi hai, par acting achhi kar lega (He’s
an obstinate man, but he will act well).
Are you going to write about the last
two decades of your career later?
I don’t know. It will become drier and
drier. It will mostly be descriptions of
films or plays. I may write a fictional
book about these years. I did consider
writing this book in the third person,
but then I abandoned that idea. I also
thought of writing about the acting ex-
ercises which I have developed over the
years. But then I discarded that idea too
as that would become too technical.
A
NTS LOVE speeding. They whiz
up and down insanely narrow
stalks and stems, or careen
along the ground recklessly, and yet,
have you ever encountered an ant with
its head smashed in and stuffed up the
backside of the ant ahead of it, just be-
cause the latter braked suddenly and
the tailgater was talking on its mobile?
Ants don’t have road accidents. In
fact, traffic managers are now studying
those marching columns of army ants
that blitz across the forest floor to see
how they do it. Okay, you shrug, but ants
are light — even if they bang into each
other they can’t possibly get badly hurt.
Right, let’s take those goofy wilde-
beest then: herds rushing pell-mell to-
wards a steeply banked river. They all
jump down steep muddy narrow
paths and crumbling cliff faces, one af-
ter the other — and then swim into the
grinning maws of crocs. Unwise, but
they don’t run over or trample each
other to death. If they did, there’d be so
much less work for the crocs. As for us?
One person in a procession slips and
falls, panic flares like gunpowder ig-
niting, and within seconds, 1,000 peo-
ple are trampled to death, most of
them children, women or the old. If we
emulated wildebeest, god forbid, it
would be carnage. And we’re the ones
with the big, clever brains, remember.
Those great lumbering herds of bi-
son, thundering across the prairies —
get in their way and you’re mince-
meat, but the point is — they don’t run
over each other. They may bump and
jostle but they don’t trample each
other en masse.
And have you seen NASCAR racers
spinning round and round the racetrack
in similar fashion? One car weaves or
wavers and there’s mayhem (which is
basically what the audience is waiting
Underwater, it’s the same story with
shoals of (especially) small fish. There
ought to be underwater collisions ga-
lore but there aren’t.
The “lesser” beings are much better
sorted out in managing traffic. Okay,
maybe we’ve lost our instinctive re-
flexes to avoid crashes, but sensibly,
we’ve made laws to help us out. What’s
stupefying is that we sneer at them and
so the Indian death toll is the staggering
equivalent of 240 plus Airbus A380s
crashing each year.
Watch ants enter and exit an ant
hole. Watch people enter and exit a
Metro coach. Remember the moron’s
bathroom and the two reminders on it?
“Undressing: First shoes, then trousers.
Dressing: first trousers, then shoes.”
Got it? Duh! Go ask an ant.
Ranjit Lal is an author, environmentalist
and bird watcher

mind games in the stars BY PETERVIDAL BIRTHDAYS

SEPTEMBER 14
Your restricted planetary pattern
The declarer should always try to have more gives way to something more
than one string to his bow. Just playing for a par- ARIES TAURUS GEMINI
flexible. That should give you the
ticular to be located favourably is not the right MAR 21 - APR 20 APR 21 - MAY 21 MAY 22 - JUN 21
approach. That is the last resort play not the only leeway to break out of a tight spot
available play. The case in point was the problem and begin to consider your future
posed to you last week: The week opens with a Be prepared for happy Unless you persuade oth- options. Positive lunar alignments
sensible and serious family events and suc- ers that you are right, you at the end of the week will offer you
planetary combination, cessful domestic ven- may have to wait for your the extra impetus.
that favours enhanced tures. Don’t expect an- chance to return. En-
NORTH romantic hopes. Artistic nouncements yet though, hanced financial SEPTEMBER 15
♠:65
❤ : K J 10 5
Arians may expect re- as it may be another three prospects offer some Optimism is your greatest strength.
♦ :A654 wards. Keep yourself or four weeks before compensation. Romantic You have the edge over the coming
♣ : KQ4 busy with a hobby after plans are finalised. Mone- developments focus weeks, and may not be in much of a
Thursday, especially if tary matters will become around mid-week, and mood to compromise. But there’s
SOUTH
also a chance that friends come to
♠ : K7 you’re learning some- increasingly important as there is every chance of a
❤:AQ 76 43 you with important offers, so don’t
thing new. the week progresses. very important meeting. blow it and don’t begrudge them the
♦ :K83
♣ :A2
CROSSWORD 1973 CANCER LEO VIRGO
assistance that only you can give.

The bidding: QUICK CLUES 5. All those bit of colour giving you the picture (6)
JUN 22 - JULY 23 JULY 24 - AUG 23 AUG 24 - SEP 23 SEPTEMBER 16
ACROSS 9. Where they eat barbecued fish, cake and lamb It’s an extraordinarily lively
SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST
pass pass
1. Apprehension about what is going to happen (8) stew (8) Mercury is steaming Fresh choices are coming Think long and deep moment, although you may
1❤ 2 NT (1)
5. Show good manners; conduct oneself well (6) 10. For example, I’m to accept the queen and her
3 ❤ (3) pass 4 ♦ (3) pass through a curious and your way, but why not be- about what is the best sometimes have trouble keeping up.
pass pass 9. City in Kashmir (8) form of government (6)
4 NT (4) 5 ❤ (5) colourful region of your gin where you left off at thing to do. You want to Your greatest asset is your ability to
pass pass 10. Make up your mind (6) 12. Bound to have lines in the circuit (6)
6❤
12. Stormy __: a person who causes or likes trou- 13. Is joking about the guard (8) chart. The result, in an- the end of last week, with help others without be- have a go at almost anything, but
ble or strife (6) 15. Motive for carrying on not making sense (6, 6) other two weeks, your stars in a position so ing exploited and fulfill your weakness is a tendency to
1: Jacoby 2NT; 2: Better than minimum with 6 13. Positive? No, just the opposite! (8) 18. Ladies-in-waiting? (4, 8) spread yourself too thin. You need to
cards; 3: Cue bid showing the A; 4: RKCB; 5: 15. Something devoutly wished for (6, 6) 23. Assassin said to be a winter-sports should be a radical shift perfect as to be almost your own dreams with-
enjoy life to the fullest.
Two without the Q 18. “Heard hilltop” anagram for a notorious enthusiast (8) of the odds in your unbelievable? If you play out being overwhelmed
dictator (6, 6) 24. Top style of musical party (4, 2) favour. Home life could your cards right, you’ll be by illusions and fan-
Opening lead Jack of clubs. Plan the play.
23. Clearing away or cleaning with a brushing 26. Joined, yet somehow untied (6) SEPTEMBER 17
There are 11 sure tricks six hearts, two dia-
movement (8) 27. A taxi not making a charge (8)
become a little tense, set up for life. A little tasies. Keep your feet on
monds and three clubs. Where will the 12th
but the results could be shopping and a few treats the ground at the begin- Your stars are generally harmonious
24. Our Lady of ____: Portuguese shrine (6) 28. “Stiffens,” he interpolate (6)
trick come from — you need to combine your and peaceful. There’ll be ups and
26. Abolish, abrogate or call off (6) 29. Merrymaking jokers who’re tangled in surf as desired. should lift your morale. ning of the week.
chances. Win the club lead and draw trumps. downs, but you’ll deal with them in
27. Playful repartee (8) nets (8)
Cash two more clubs discarding a diamond.
28. Ranges or extents (6) DOWN an assured manner. The key to
Cash DK and DA and ruff a diamond. Cross
29. Without identity or lacking character (8) 1. Cut it and keep quiet (6) LIBRA SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS success is to remain calm. If you act
back to dummy and if the diamonds split 3-3
DOWN 2. Pin down in the ship — they’re carrying SEP 24 - OCT 23 OCT 24 - NOV 22 NOV 23 - DEC 22
discard a spade on the 13th diamond, if not in haste you may repent at leisure.
1. Make it ____: hurry, colloquially speaking? (6) shells (6)
play a spade towards the king.
2. Film maker __ Samanta, alas, no more (6) 3. Be-bop wildly about a half hour for top
Your problem for the week: 3. Superlative, excessive or drastic (7) gagman (3, 4) You may still be able to Don’t forget the impor- Yet again your planetary SEPTEMBER 18
4. Close tightly, in a way (4) 4. Quereus-like beginners in outrageously ab- benefit from travel, as ad- tance of maintaining a formations are perfect. Adventurous stars are shining, and
6. Raise, lift up or exalt (7) horrent killings yesterday (4)
venturous social stars are grip on family chores and All we can say is that if this is such a perfect moment to
NORTH 7. From the start __ in Latin (2, 6) 6. Old way of saying “Never again” (3-4)
8. ___ Scrooge: Dickensian miser? (8) 7. A detective squad at cricket match to make at their strongest. Contact domestic responsibili- you don't manage to travel that it’s difficult to see what’s
♠:AJ42
❤:AK 11. Mass per volume (7) thorough check? (4, 4) with foreign countries ties, but without squash- make the most of your keeping you at home. Perhaps, a
♦ : A 10 7 6 5 14. Getting the back up, as angry cats do (7) 8. Applauding man in church band (8) and distant parts could ing people you live with. life and talents, the fault family member from distant parts
♣ : 32 16. Searches thoroughly (8) 11. Distemper flat needed put on with will arrive at your doorstep.
17. ___ ___ one’s own: receive the recognition difficulty (4, 3) broaden your horizons, Over the rest of the year, lies with you. Family af-
that a person’s abilities merit (4, 4) 14. Anxious row over dangerous ride (7) especially if you’re try to lay down deep fairs have been compli-
SOUTH
♠: K Q 10 8 7 6 3 19. Tahitian seaport (7) 16. Collisions push mass all over (5-3) searching out new emo- foundations. Romantic cated, but there should
SEPTEMBER 19
❤:7 20. Look over carefully (7) 17. It carries the current most active Surprising news is about to arrive
♦ :KJ3 21. Long, usually angry speech (6) member (4, 4)
tional links or consider- considerations should be now be a light at the end
♣ :AQ ing family changes. on the back burner. of the tunnel. from an unexpected source.When it
22. Plies, ranks or rows; strata (6) 19. Division has F.B.I agents put outside (7)
25. Idi Amin’s title (4) 20. Dinner trousers get sodden at drinks (3, 4) does, you’ll see that what once
CRYPTIC CLUES 21. I use credit for the holiday of a lifetime (6) appeared normal is now outrageous,
CAPRICORN AQUARIUS PISCES
ACROSS 22. Ammunition turns (6) and what once seemed beyond the
The bidding: 1. Chef goes outside, as a pencil is needed for 25. Graduate beginning to know university in an DEC 23 - JAN 20 JAN 21 - FEB 19 FEB 20 - MAR 20 pale, is now quite acceptable.This is
business record (8) Asian capital (4)
NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST a perfect moment for tackling
— — 2♠ pass Now that Venus is begin- Unattached Aquarians You should find much to outstanding practical tasks.
2 NT (1)
5 ♦ (3)
pass
pass
pass
4 ❤ (2)
6 ♣ (4)
pass
pass
pass
SOLUTIONTO CROSSWORD 1972 ning to behave itself once
again, the balance of
will be feeling the pull of
permanent relationships.
comfort and console you
in the recent planetary SEPTEMBER 20
6❤ (5) 7♠
pass pass QUICK CLUES power in one particular What an ideal time to get line-up, even if you feel a Short-term choices could have
ACROSS: 1 Head in the sand, 8 Special, 9 Ragweed, 11 Rotate, 13 Scuttles, 15 Adorn, 16 Opposes, 18 partnership will shift hitched! All partnerships, little overworked. Your amazing long-term results, and
Residue, 19 Aside, 21 Insisted, 23 Behest, 25 Gardens, 26 Red card, 28 Dead and buried.
very subtly. You’ll be wise whether personal or pro- creative talents and self- serious options could produce wild
DOWN: 2 Electro, 3 DCI, 4 Nile, 5 Hard copies, 6 Sight, 7 Needles, 8 Serialising, 10 Disaffected, 12 Tangs, 14
1: Jacoby 2NT; 2: Splinter, better than minimum;
Cold season, 17 Stale, 18 Reserve, 20 Iterate, 22 Speed, 24 Grab, 27 Der. indeed to listen to good fessional, are ripe for re- less virtues are in fine consequences. Your first priority is
3: Cue bid showing the A; 4: Cue bid showing the A for more security, but it looks as if
5: Cue showing the A
CRYPTIC CLUES advice because if you suscitation. At work, working order. The way in
ACROSS: 1 Preoccupation, 8 Shocker, 9 Raw meat, 11 Therms, 13 Dead keen, 15 Inset, 16 Notches, 18 you’re heading towards greater
don’t, you will sink into make an extra effort to which you approach pro-
Lashing, 19 Rowdy, 21 Occupied, 23 Monica, 25 Miranda, 26 Inwards, 28 Dead reckoning. personal freedom and self-reliance.
Opening lead: Queen of hearts. Plan the play. complacency while oth- keep an employer sweet fessional difficulties will
DOWN: 2 Reopens, 3 Oak, 4 Curb, 5 Percentage, 6 Towed, 7 Openers, 8 Sitting room, 10 Tender years, 12
Mates, 14 Incinerate, 17 Harpo, 18 Lucerne, 20 Waitron, 22 Pined, 24 Kink, 27 Win. ers make the running. at the end of the week. soon be proved right.

AS SCOTLAND PREPARES FOR THE INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM ON SEPTEMBER 18, SHIVANI NAIK LOOKS FOR SIGNS IN THE STREETS OF GLASGOW
AND EDINBURGH THAT COULD POINT TO THE SCOTS’ POSSIBLE FUTURE
A Notes from the
BRIGHTLY LIT room at Glas-
gow’s Kelvingrove Gallery
and Museum is flanked by
the best work of Scotland’s
portrait specialist Henry Reburn, and
Salvador Dali’s stunning Christ of St John
of the Cross. Amidst this dazzling bril-
liance, spotlights are trained on a bru-
tally honest self-appraisal of Scotland’s
dark colonial past.
Alongside a craggy mug of one Sir
Colin Campbell is a vast hollow sepia
frame of a picture captioned: “The
British left the Indian corpses to rot.” It is
of an open field in Lucknow, where In-
dian soldiers had rebelled against their
British Army commanders in 1857. The
Highland unit which marched into Luc-
know to end the rebellion was led by the
Glaswegian Sir Campbell. “I have long
been amused by the romanticised and
misplaced sense of modern Scottish na-
tionalism. It comes as no surprise to me
that Scottish officers were in the van-
guard of putting down the rebellion.
Scots as an oppressed nation? Don’t
make me laugh,” says Raj Pal, Oxford-
shire County Heritage and Arts officer.
On September 18, as the Scots vote in a
referendum for or against independence
from the rest of United Kingdom (com-
prising England, Wales and Northern Ire-
land), this is a tiny reality check of their
own past as oppressors in the heart of
Glasgow’s renowned museum. Perspec-
tive is a wretched little wrench.
In 1707, Scotland and England were
forged (or “forced”, depending on who
you talk to) into a union and have since
been indistinguishable from each other as
the British Empire for the rest of the world.
After over 300 years of a mostly peaceful
co-existence and despite the relentless
jibes that both the English and Scottish
keep hurling at each other, it remains to be
seen if Scotland will vote for a culmination
of what some see as a centuries’ old strug-
gle for a separate identity (a ‘Yes’ vote) or
keep their faith in a continuing Union (a
‘No’ vote) and lean towards the similari-
ties shared rather than the differences.
Opinion polls predict a very close race, as
both sides issue desperate last-minute
pleas to woo voters.
“I won’t vote ‘Yes’, because I’m British
— doesn’t matter Scottish or English!”
says Sam Rother (name changed), a vol-
unteer at the recently-concluded Com-
monwealth Games, who was born south
of the border, and has lived all his life in
Scotland after his parents moved up
north. “As British as someone from Man-
chester,” he adds. He’s pat with his fig-
ures. Glasgow makes ships for the Royal
Navy and 16,000 jobs could be gone in a
blink in case of Yes, he moans. Close to 7
lakh people will need to be displaced —
movement from north-south and vice
TECH
WHATYOU
PAYISWHAT
YOUGET
MIHIR PATKAR
P
HONES SHOULD be judged by
their price. At its low price of
around Rs 6,000, the Xiaomi
Redmi 1S has a spec sheet that blows its
competitors away. This appears to be the
best budget phone you can buy, but it’s
not without some flaws.
DESIGN
It’s sad that the Redmi 1S looks and feels
like a budget smartphone. It’s heavy, it
has big bezels that are a put-off, the
screen is prone to fingerprint smudges,
and the overall build quality feels cheap.
But perhaps, the biggest problem is the
capacitive buttons under the screen. They
aren’t backlit, making them nearly im-
T H E S U N DAY E X P R E S S M AGA Z I N E
WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
HIGHLAND
SPACE FOR ALL (clockwise from top left) a wall sporting a Scottish independence referendum sign; KelvingroveArt Gallery,Glasgow; the Edinburgh cathedral; and a view of Edinburgh
versa. Two years ago, it was 80-20 in
favour of ‘No’ in official polls, now it’s 60-
40 and could get tight.
At the Games, several English volun-
teers struggled to comprehend the Glas-
gwegian chatter — fast, sing-song, ab-
breviated, brusque — almost like English
spoken by a hurried Russian. “Not all
British are same. London’s different from
Manchester, and Glasgow’s different
from Edinburgh which is different from
Inverness (up towards the Highlands).
Do we all break free of each other after so
many years together?” asks Rother, who
has many African friends from college
XIAOMI REDMI 1S
SPECS
4.7-INCH IPS HD touchscreen
(1280x720 pixels, 312ppi)
with Dragontrail Scratch-
resistant Glass
1.6GHZ quad core Qualcomm
Snapdragon 400 processor
1GB RAM
8GB internal memory,
microSD card up to 32GB
3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4, GPS
DUAL-SIM (GSM+GSM)
8MP rear camera with LED
flash and 1080P FullHD video
recording
1.6MP front camera with
720p HD video recording
2000mAh battery
ANDROID 4.3 Jelly Bean
with MIUI v5
possible to spot and use in a dark room.
SCREEN
The 4.7-inch HD screen is, without a
who tell him, “I know nothing about
fighting and dying for independence, be-
cause I’m lucky to vote peacefully for it.”
The sentiment to assert their own
unique cultural identity has always ex-
isted north of England. The Scottish strug-
gle for independence has its keywords:
NO ONE BELIEVES THEYARE LIVING IN A REAL OPPRESSIVE STATE,
WHICH USUALLY PRODUCES REVOLUTIONARY LITERATURE,BUTA
CERTAIN BUZZ FOLLOWS EVERYWORD UTTERED BY LITERARY
FIGURES ON THAT MATTER OF REFERENDUM
doubt, the best you get at this price. Plus,
it has Dragontrail protection to keep
away scratches on the glass. Sunlight
legibility isn’t the best we have seen, but
Bonnie Prince Charlie, Mary Queen of
Scots, 1707, banning of the Highland dress
and playing the pipe, Jacobite Risings, The
Forty-Five, Robert the Bruce, Culloden,
Bannockburn. It’s a rich, tragic history,
though these days they make jokes about
how those who vote a ‘No’ are in line for
PRICE
` 5,999
in this price range, it’s good enough.
PERFORMANCE
The Redmi 1S is a satisfying experience,
knighthood, by pleasing the Londoners.
The Scots have their own set of boasts
to berate the English which have found
their way on Glen Appin art-work on
posters. “What’s like us? Damn Few And
They’re A’ Deid,” it says. It proceeds to
rub in how the Englishman likes mar-
malade (invented by Mrs Keiller of
Dundee) at breakfast, wears a raincoat
(patented by Charles Macintosh from
Glasgow), walks to office along an Eng-
lish lane surfaced with tarmac (invented
by John Loudon MacAdam of Ayr), has
his cars fitted with Pneumatic tyres
(patented by John Boyd Dunlop of
but not an excellent one. You’ll be able to
play most games, but not at their highest
graphics settings. You can multi-task be-
tween apps, but once in a while, they
crash. None of it is a deal-breaker when
you consider the price. But it can be a lit-
tle frustrating at times.
CAMERA
For the first time, here’s a budget phone
with a camera that won’t make you
cringe. Yes, you can safely use it in most
situations and even low-lit environ-
ments. For comparison, the photos are as
good as what you would get on the Sam-
sung Galaxy Nexus or the iPhone 4.
MEMORY
Unlike other sub-10k phones, Redmi 1S
has made no compromises with the
8GB internal memory. App installa-
tions aren’t a problem, and the mi-
croSD card can take care of all your ex-
tra space requirements.
INTERFACE
Xiaomi’s custom Android interface,
called MIUI, customises the operating
system so it doesn’t really look like
Android. Nonetheless, it’s easy to use
and works well. Considering that this
low-cost phone might be ideal for
those new to Android, Xiaomi has also
made a “Lite Mode” for the MIUI. This
travel 3
SEPTEMBER 14, 2014
IMAGES: THINKSTOCK
Dreghorn), dines on his favourite tradi-
tional roast beef from Aberdeen Angus,
raised in Aberdeenshire.
“Frustrated rockstars make wonder-
ful crime writers,” says detective-fiction
writer Ian Rankin in a documentary on
himself. Rankin, who has mapped out
Edinburgh like no other for his crime-
fiction readers, stays on Merchston
Street and has JK Rowling and Alexander
McCall Smith for neighbours in his tony,
leafy lane. His first-ever John Rebus
novel (based on the iconic brooding de-
tective) was meant to be a hat-tip to RL
Stevenson’s Jekyll-Hyde, with the quib-
ble that the author of the psycho-thriller,
despite being born in Edinburgh, based
the novel in London. In the same docu-
mentary, Rankin explains how “Rebus is
a conservative with a small C, hates
change, so he’ll vote ‘No’.” Siobhan
Clarke, the younger woman detective he
created, would probably say ‘Yes’.
His neighbour Rowling, and musician
James MacMillan have openly sided with
‘No’, inviting staunch criticism. Stuart
Kelly, who recently did a radio programme
for the BBC about the referendum debate
called “How Did Scotland’s Artists Turn
Nationalist?”, delves into the reasons why
those like writer Irving Welsh will weigh
in with an ‘Yes’, while others enjoying the
‘cultural confidence’ that artistes, writers,
poets in Scotland are benefitting from,
might side with a ‘No’. “Culture has filled
what has been a political vacuum in Scot-
land. In the absence of a functioning legis-
lature, people often looked to novelists
and poets to ventilate issues of the day,”
the radio programme says.
As such, artists like and welcome
change, but contemporary Scottish liter-
ary and art figures “have followed in the
footsteps of the titan of 20th century lit-
erature, poet Hugh MacDiarmid”, says
Kelly. With Anglophobia as one of his
recreations, and frontier spirit breathing
through every word he wrote, the poet
has many following his works. “Many
Scots see the later Thatcher-era through
his lines,” says Kelly. A cultural-resist-
ance to high-Thatcherism might have a
part to play in the polls.
No one believes they are living in a
real oppressive state, which usually pro-
duces revolutionary literature, but a cer-
tain buzz follows every word uttered by
literary figures on that matter of referen-
dum. David Greige, famous playwright
likens the September 18 vote to the
world offering the central character of a
play (the hero) with a choice. “It’s not an
easy choice,” he told Kelly in the BBC ra-
dio show, “but if it was easy, the hero will
simply make it. If there was no pressure
of time, the hero would simply defer
making the choice forever. This is Scot-
land revealing its character.”
simplifies Android by turning oft-used
apps into large tiles, adding a “Quick
Contacts” pane, and increasing the
font. It’s the kind of stuff that would
make Android easy for those who are
new to smartphones.
BATTERY
Its 2000mAh battery lasts for about 14
hours on a single charge, which is not
bad, but not excellent either. It’ll go for a
little over 5 hours of pure video play-
back, which is good enough. But the
phone takes 2.5 hours to reach full
charge and that’s far too long.
SPECIAL MENTION
Xiaomi’s flash sale model means that the
Redmi 1S has the same problem as the
Xiaomi Mi3. It’s the best phone you can
buy at this price, but buying it from Flip-
kart — its only retailer — requires a com-
bination of patience and luck. It should-
n’t be this hard to buy a phone.
VERDICT
Despite the slow-charging battery, app
crashes and the design flaws, the Xi-
aomi Redmi 1S is still the best phone
you can buy at this price. The problems
are not deal-breakers and, importantly,
Redmi 1S gets it right in the things that
matter: screen quality, overall battery
life, and camera.
 T H E S U N DAY E X P R E S S M AGA Z I N E
WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
music 4
SEPTEMBER 14, 2014

COURTESY: RAMANUJ DAS

Tell Me a
Story
RELEASED LASTAUGUST,
JUNAID’S DEBUTALBUM IS AN
INTIMATE SELF-PORTRAITAND
EACH SONG IS A STORY FROM HIS
LIFE.‘I WANTED TO USE SILENCE
IN THE SONGS,SO THATTHE
LISTENER CAN REFLECT ON
HIS/HER OWN STORY’
Kolkata-based naid asked himself if this had to be his
multi-instrumentalist last album, what was it that he would
want to say.
Tajdar Junaid’s music Released last August, What Colour is
will now be heard in Your Raindrop is an intimate self-por-
trait and each song is a story from Ju-
Iranian filmmaker naid’s life. “I wanted to tell stories with-
Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s out using words much, they can
become a crutch. I wanted to use si-
latest offering lence in the songs, so that the listener
can reflect on his/her own story. Differ-
ent songs were born out of different ex-
periences and I wanted to bring to-
gether all the people and the sounds
that have shaped me,” he says.
Prelude to Poland, another song
picked up for Sold, is a tribute to Frederic
Chopin. “He is one of my favourite com-
posers and I arranged the first half of the
song as I imagined he would have,” says
Junaid. It begins tentatively, delicately,
slowly swimming in memory and nos-
talgia. The second half is discordant and
tumultuous; Junaid wanted to bring
alive the turmoil the Polish composer
and pianist felt upon leaving his country
at the age of 20 when war broke out in
the November uprising of 1830.
Eighteen musicians feature in the 10-
track album, including former band
mate Vishal Nayak, Cognac’s ex-drum-
mer, Anusheh Anadil from Bangladesh
who provides the vocal harmonies on
Ekta Golpo, as well as Kiwi singer Greg
emy Award-winning director my music and I feel that the uni- In 2010, after playing guitar for differ- Johnson, who recorded the vocals for
ANUSHREE MAJUMDAR Jeffrey Brown for Sold, a verse is conspiring to make things ent bands in the city for almost a decade, Mockingbird in his studio in Los Angeles.
film on sex trafficking in happen,” says Junaid. he decided to stop performing live; an His family finds mention, too: Aamna

T
HE charango is a stringed in-
strument from South Amer-
ica, a small member of the lute
family and the star of Tajdar
Junaid’s Dastaan, the third track on his
whimsically-titled debut album, What
Colour is Your Raindrop. “I first heard the
instrument while listening to the sound-
track of The Motorcycle Diaries by Gus-
tavo Santaolalla. I’d been playing the
guitar for years, I was bored of it. I’d
taught myself the mandolin and the
ukulele,” says the 33-year-old multi-in-
strumentalist from Kolkata, who then
procured the 10-stringed instrument all
the way from Bolivia.
In Dastaan, the Urdu and Persian
word for story, Junaid uses the charango
to great effect, letting the notes rise and
fall and navigate the silences that linger
between them; as the sarangi joins the
charango, stories are told through every
movement of the instrumental track.
Last year, the song was picked by Acad-
the subcontinent and this
month, one can hear it play
in Iranian filmmaker
Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s lat-
est offering, The President.
Last year, Junaid wrote a
note to Makhmalbaf. “I was
watching a lot of cinema, es-
pecially Iranian films, and fell
in love with their way of story-
telling, and the way they make
great cinema against all odds. I
wrote to him out of respect and
shared links of my music, say-
ing that I would love to con-
nect,” he says. “I didn’t think
anything would come of my
message but Makhmalbaf wrote
back to say that he had heard my
music and had liked it,” says Ju-
naid. In March, the filmmaker recon-
nected and asked whether he could use
Dastaan for The President, which he was
shooting in Georgia. “I am just out to play
SING, MEMORY Junaid performs at
NH7 2013 in Kolkata (top); the album
cover features a photograph of him taken
by his father in Esplanade when he was
three years old
Born and raised in Kolkata,
Junaid first began playing the
guitar after his higher second-
ary exams ended. “My elder
brother Shandar played guitar
and after my exams, I began
looking for teachers. I met
Amyt Datta; that meeting
transformed my life,” he says.
Datta is something of a legend
in the country’s independent
music scene. The 53-year-old
guitarist for bands such as
Skinny Alley and Pink Noise
is one of the most innovative
and experimental musi-
cians in India, and has men-
tored several young artistes.
“Five of us from his class formed a band,
Cognac, and we hit the festival and tour
scene. When Cognac broke up, I joined
Span and played with them for a while,”
says Junaid, whose family has been very
supportive of his music career.
unshakeable weariness had set in. “I was
completely exhausted of the covers
scene. It’s a great tool to expand your
musical vocabulary, the money is good,
but I was frustrated of being a photocopy
machine, playing other people’s songs,”
says Junaid.
With his days opening up, and with
time on his side, he began listening to
different music genres, including Indian
classical music. “I began to listen to Us-
tad Ali Akbar Khan, in particular. His
music expanded the way I was ap-
proaching my own music. I began to
think that my compositions should look
deeper into who I am, and what I am
about,” he says.
Although he never held a full-time
job, Junaid didn’t seek corporate funding
for his debut album, What Colour is Your
Raindrop. “I have been teaching guitar
for many years and I used my savings
from years of gigging,” he says.
While conceptualising the album, Ju-
was written for his little niece. “I wrote it
as a lullaby for her, she turns three this De-
cember and recognises it as her song,” he
says. He also brought in his father, Junaid
Ahmad, a retired sailor, to recite for one of
the most original tracks on the album,
Yaadon ki Pari. “My father has always writ-
ten for himself but he was caught up with
providing for the family. I wanted to draw
him out and use his poetry,” says Junaid.
The song begins with his father reciting
his verse, the voice crackles as though a
long-forgotten vinyl is playing till Junaid
brings in his electric guitar and Nayak’s
drums to steer the track into a chaotic, yet
controlled, descent.
Junaid is now working on his second
album. “I’m not really doing anything,
though, just putting ideas aside. I’ve
recorded one tune so far, Devotion. It’s
close to The First Year in the first album.
That album came together like pieces of
a jigsaw puzzle, perhaps this one will,
too,” he says.

THINKSTOCK

FAPPENING IS A CASE OF
digitalnative SECURITY,OF ILLEGAL
WPOSSESSION AND OF CONTINUED
NISHANT SHAH FETISHISATION AND SEXUALISATION
digitalnative@expressindia.com
OFTHE FEMALE BODY,ONLINE

Not Happening able is often misplaced on to the bodies of

those who need to be protected rather than
those who are committing the treacherous
The online world has just found another way to exploit acts of invasion.
women’s privacy It is also, perhaps, time to stop calling Fap-
pening a scandal. Painting it as scandalous,
implicitly feeds into the rape cultures of slut
HE LAST couple of weeks would whole world is united in its quest for the shaming that have become so matter-of-fact

T have been bad for you, if you are a

woman, online. While we already
know that the internet is a hostile play-
ground, we have been reminded yet again,
and rather forcefully, that despite all our
promises of equality and freedom, the inter-
net is not a very good place for women. The
latest in the continued exploitation of
women’s privacy and bodies is what has
been called “Fappening” in popular parlance
and picked up by other media. Fappening is a
new word that refers to people touching
themselves sexually, while looking at pri-
vate pictures of famous women, online.
And unless you have been hiding under a
rock, you have probably heard about the infa-
mous hack into Apple’s idrive, and illegal
downloading and distribution of a handful of
naked or sexual pictures of famous Holly-
wood celebrities that have gone viral. Come
to think of it, given the almost obscene spike
in Google’s search results, registering that the
smutty, you, like me, have probably even
searched for and ogled at the authentic nu-
dity of your favourite movie heartthrob.
While I do not have a moral high horse here —
we are all bound together in our collective
perversity — there are a few things that need
to be, perhaps, talked about in the light of dif-
ferent responses to Fappening.
First thing first, the women whose photos
have been stolen from their phones, do not
have to give either an apology or an explana-
tion about anything. While these women are
famous celebrities and, hence, will have a
public relations team working to either sub-
due or strategically respond to this entire
phenomenon, the expectation that these
women (yes, celebrities, but still women)
owe us, the spectating society, any explana-
tion, is shameful. Within the myriad worlds of
the internet, there has been a prevalent trend
to first leak and expose people’s private lives,
and then force them to speak for it. This hap-
pens even more if you are a woman, and it
leads to some really scary instances of cyber
bullying that have resulted in young people
leaving heart-rending note-card videos nar-
rating their own pain and in some cases,
killing themselves. While the internet is a
space for transparency and accountability,
the onus of being transparent and account-
in social media worlds. This is a case of secu-
rity, of illegal possession and of continued
fetishisation and sexualisation of the female
body, which is celebrated by bro and lad cul-
tures online. This crime, of invading privacy
and exposing somebody to make them vul-
nerable, is not a scandal about the women
who are in those pictures. If anything, it is a
scandal about how one of the most tight-
lipped, closed, and opaque computation com-
panies has allowed for such security breaches
and not bothered to offer an apology or an an-
swer to those who put their trust in their
glossily branded services.
Social media has become a hunting
ground, where those who can be are often put
into spotlights of shame. By either condoning
it, participating in it, or not fighting against it,
we become complicit in acts like Fappening.
Nishant Shah is director, research,
The Centre for Internet and Society