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THE N SIVE MOO
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FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
I
n May 2014, when Narendra Modi was elected prime minister with a clear
www.indiatoday.in majority, the nation cheered. People waited with bated breath for ‘achhe
din’ to arrive. In our Mood of the Nation (MOTN) survey in August that
Editor-in-Chief: Aroon Purie
Group Chief Executive Officer: Ashish Bagga year, the government’s numbers soared. The findings suggested that the BJP
Group Editorial Director: Raj Chengappa would increase its tally from 282 to 314 if the Lok Sabha elections were held
Editors: Kaveree Bamzai (Special Projects), Ajit Kumar Jha (Research) again, and the ruling NDA would rise from 336 to a staggering 354 seats.
Group Creative Editor: Nilanjan Das; Group Photo Editor: Bandeep Singh
Managing Editors: Kai Jabir Friese, Rajesh Jha The big concerns at the time were price rise, corruption, getting the econo-
Executive Editors: Damayanti Datta, Kunal Pradhan,
S. Sahaya Ranjit, Sandeep Unnithan
my back on track to boost jobs, and there was hope that Modi would finally
Deputy Editors: Prachi Bhuchar, Uday Mahurkar, Manisha Saroop pull India out of the quagmire.
Mumbai: MG Arun Hyderabad: Amarnath K. Menon Chandigarh: Asit Jolly
Senior Editors: Shweta Punj, Sasi Nair, Jaipur: Rohit Parihar Over the next 18 months, as some problems remained, our biannual
Senior Associate Editors: Kaushik Deka
Mumbai: Suhani Singh, Kiran Dinkar Tare; patna: Amitabh Srivastava
MOTN surveys suggested that the government’s numbers were on a down-
Associate Editors: Shougat Dasgupta, Chinki Sinha ward trend. But at the halfway mark of his five-year term, Modi is bouncing
Kolkata: Romita Sengupta; Bhopal: Rahul Noronha;
Thiruvananthapuram: Jeemon Jacob; BeiJing: Ananth Krishnan back strongly by showing a resolve for governance. For a country that was
Assistant Editor: pune: Aditi S. Pai
Chief Copy Editor: Anindita Satpathi
longing for big-ticket reforms, the GST Bill ushers in a major economic shift
Photo Department: Vikram Sharma (Deputy Photo Editor), by restructuring the tax code. Despite all the criticism of his overseas trips, his
Rajwant Singh Rawat (Principal Photographer), Yashbant Singh Negi
(Senior Staff Photographer), Kekhriezhazo Miachie-O
foreign policy initiative gets a big thumbs up in the survey. In his Independence
(Senior Photographer), Chandra Deep Kumar (Photographer);
Mumbai: Mandar Suresh Deodhar (Chief Photographer),
Day speech, Modi stressed on ‘surajya’ (good governance) as the next step
Danesh Adil Jassawala (Photographer); ahmedabad: Shailesh B Raval after ‘swaraj’ (self-governance), and since he has a penchant for pithy slogans,
(Principal Photographer); Kolkata: Subir Halder (Principal
Photographer); Chennai: N G Jaison (Senior Photographer) he coined a new motto for his government: Reform, Perform and Transform.
Photo Researchers: Prabhakar Tiwari (Chief Photo Researcher),
Shubhrojit Brahma (Assistant Photo Researcher)
Twenty-four per cent of the respondents still think he is all talk and no
Chief of Graphics: Tanmoy Chakraborty action—something for the prime minister to ponder about. Nevertheless, if
Art Department: Sanjay Piplani (Senior Art Director);
Jyoti K Singh, Anirban Ghosh (Art Director),
elections were held today, the survey says, the BJP would win 259 seats, less
Vikas Verma, Rahul Sharma, Vipin Gupta (Associate Art Director); than the 282 it got in the 2014 polls, but significantly higher than the 234 seats
Bhoomesh Dutt Sharma (Senior Designer)
Production Department: Harish Agarwal (Chief of Production),
projected six months ago. The NDA would claw back to a comfortable 304
Naveen Gupta (Chief Coordinator),
Vijay Kumar Sharma (Senior Coordinator)
seats from 286 in February, while the UPA would slump from 110 to 94.
Yet there are still major problems for the government in key areas.
Publishing Director: Manoj Sharma
Associate Publisher: Anil Fernandes (Impact) Though it has been able to stem corruption at the top, 35 per cent of the
IMPACT TEAM respondents feel corruption has increased under the NDA. I believe this is
Senior General Manager: Jitender Lad (West)
General Manager: Mayur Rastogi (North), because the government has not downsized the bloated bureaucracy, with
Upendra Singh (Bangalore), Velu Subramaniam (Chennai)
Deputy General Manager: Kaushiky Chakraborty which the public interacts. Price rise has been controlled to some extent, but
Sales and Operations: D.V.S. Rama Rao, Chief General Manager
Deepak Bhatt, General Manager (National Sales)
the common man is still reeling from food inflation—a whopping 67 per cent
Vipin Bagga, Deputy General Manager (Operations) feel the prices of essential commodities have risen under Modi. However, his
Manish Kumar Srivastava, Regional Sales Manager (North)
Rajeev Gandhi, Regional Sales Manager (West) biggest problem is the creation of jobs, where 61 per cent now believe the sit-
Arokia Raj L., Regional Sales Manager (South)
uation has become worse in the past two years as compared with 47 per cent
who believed so in our February survey. This is in spite of major programmes
such as Make in India, Skill India, Start-Up India and Digital India. Though
the government is spending on infrastructure at a furious rate, private invest-
ment remains sluggish and public sector banks are swamped with NPAs.
Volume XLI Number 35; For the week
August 23-29, 2016, published on every Friday But there is a paradox. In spite of all these problems, Modi’s personal
l Editorial Office Living Media India Ltd., India Today Group Mediaplex, popularity continues to rise. This could mean that the TINA (There is no
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state elections, adds to the difficulty. Midway through his tenure, Modi has
18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana)
and at A-9, Industrial Complex, Maraimalai Nagar, District
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the nation believes he is moving in the right direction and that he is the man
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for the job. That is why India still has faith in him. He must not betray that.
All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of
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(Aroon Purie)
AUGUST 29, 2016 u INDIA TODAY 10
COVER STORY
INSIDE OPINION POLL
Man of the
10 Moment
Modi’s personal popularity remains
intact, according to the August
2016 Mood of the Nation poll
NATION 6 UPFRONT
VIDARBHA’S WIDOWS
7
40
GLASS HOUSE
The Twice
Cursed 44 TEXTILE STORY
Shattered by the suicides of their
husbands, and forsaken by their in-laws, 54 GLOSSARY
these women have nowhere to go and
nobody to turn to
56 EYECATCHERS
Cover by NILANJAN DAS
SPECIAL STORY Page: 66-67

E-COMMERCE
36 After the
BIG STORY
ISIS SLEEPER CELLS
Boom
32 The Veiled
Threat
Seeking to stall the spate of conversions
A downturn in investor sentiment,
new government norms and
overseas rivals are forcing
homegrown online retailers to
to radical Islam, security agencies are seek newer ways to stay afloat
cracking down on evangelical outfits
02 INDIA TODAY u AUGUST 29, 2016

MAIL
Gujarot
AUGUST 15, 2016
The BJP’s crisis intensifies after Anandiben’s exit. Can Modi save his home state?
The apparent ‘crisis’ in Gujarat is

nothing but fond imagination on
the part of the media. Goondas
like Hardik will be taken care of
and the Patels will patch up.
IRFAN , via web
Guj turns Bad One of the foremost rules of

Your striking cover image Badal Thunders business management edu-
(Gujarat Model in Danger) Punjab deputy chief minister cation is applicable to Modi
is effectively a wake-up call Sukhbir Singh Badal has clearly not and his Gujarat: the real
for the BJP. The party minced any words in his interview to test of a great manager is
needs to realise that India your magazine (If comedy is key, all how his company functions
is a secular country that jokers will be CMs’). He is forthright, in his absence.
does not elect its leaders honest and brimming with confidence. Badal rightly says that KRISHAN KALRA, via e-mail
just on the basis of religion. Kejriwal is an anarchist to the core, something the AAP chief him-
Linguistic, community, self had admitted to in the initial days of protesting for India The situation in Gujarat
caste and regional affilia- Against Corruption. Badal’s observations on Sidhu and Amarinder was so out-of-hand that
tions matter as much as Singh are also spot on. Modi was compelled to give
development issues, an- B.R. SANT, Hyderabad a free hand to Shah, who
ti-incumbency and a host selected his protege
of other local factors. For, if Rupani. But, it’s unreason-
religion were the only de- being placed at the helm The BJP has only itself to able to expect that a
ciding factor, wouldn’t the of Gujarat’s affairs. In this, blame for the rot that has change of guard will be
BJP have been in power he superseded Nitin Patel, set in Gujarat. Modi seems enough to cause the BJP’s
since Independence? who was considered a to be losing his shine just troubles to subside in
LT COL A.E. CHARLES (RETD), frontrunner for the Gujarat two years after he left Gujarat. The leadership is
Coimbatore CM post till the very last. Gujarat. He is making the now faced with the pros-
SUBHASH C. AGARWAL, Delhi same mistakes that are pect of containing the
Modi need hardly concern proving to be the undoing Patels and Dalits.
himself with the loss of The recent case of atroci- of the Congress—not nur- N.C. SREEDHARAN, Kerala
Gujarat since the blame ties against Dalits and turing state-level leaders
lies squarely with Anandiben’s inability to lest they challenge his GST Gist
Anandiben Patel, who was contain the resultant furor omnipresence. His decision After both NDA and UPA
not able to handle either left the BJP with no choice to sideline veteran leaders played obstructionist roles
the Patel agitation or the but to execute immediate on the pretext of advanced in the implementation of
aftermath of the flogging of course correction and has- age (above 75) was one the Goods and Services Tax
Dalits in Una. And Vijay ten her imminent exit. such exercise, leaving the since it was first proposed
Rupani proved to be a Master strategist that he is, BJP to make a choice from in 2005, the bill is finally
great rabbit that Amit Shah party president Amit Shah among second-rung lead- getting a chance to see the
pulled out of the hat at the is in control of the state ers. Modi would do well to light of day (GST:
last minute. again and can now prevent heed American writer Tom Everything you wanted to
A. SRIKANTAIAH, Bengaluru its slipping out of the par- Peters quote: “Leaders know but were too foxed to
ty’s hands in the forthcom- don’t create followers, they ask). A decade of temporis-
Factionalism within the ing state assembly election. create more leaders.” ing is over, and the meas-
party led to Vijay Rupani HARSH DUBEY, via e-mail KRISHNA BALRAJ SAHAY, Patna ure has achieved a fragile

FROM THE
MAIL ARCHIVES
political consensus at the with smaller components NDA on a Slide
Centre and is to get a final like Swachh Bharat and With the emergence of a
nod from the states. Its Krishi Kalyan cess will be fiercely competitive bipolar
complex procedural re- a blessing to tax adminis- divide (the Congress+allies
quirements mean that en- trators. While it is likely to vs the BJP+allies) across the
forcing the game-changing boost the government’s country, losses for the NDA
tax reform measure from tax revenue, it is unclear if will end up as gains for the
the start of the financial it will bring down prices of
The Slow Fast Congress and its allies. The
year beginning April 1, essential commodities. resurgence of the Congress
Shougat Dasgupta’s profile
2017, will be a challenge. of Irom Sharmila (Sharmila’s The biggest apprehension and its partners is stunning in
K.S. JAYATHEERTHA, Bengaluru
Choice) was a refreshing is that GST will trigger in- the more populous east and
departure from the spate of flationary tendencies de- north where the swing ratios
For the Narendra Modi stories that have appeared spite the administration’s are as high as 4.17 and 3.38
government, the GST is as in the media ever since she efforts to control it. per cent. The situation is par-
significant politically as it is announced her decision to KANGAYAM R. NARASIMHAN, adoxical in the west and
economically. The debate end her 16-year-long fast Chennai south where, despite the
on the bill in the Rajya for the repeal of the Armed NDA’s increasing popularity,
Sabha was witty and vit- Forces Special Powers Act India’s Pride the Congress and its allies are
riolic in equal measure, (AFSPA) in Manipur. She is Since the CAG chided the acquiring modest gains.
and saw GST’s original ini- summarily being accused Archaeological Survey of Turfed out of the Hindi
tiator P. Chidambaram of sabotaging a great cause. India in 2013 (for inaction heartland states in the past
hailing it as ‘good sense tri- Whose cause was it anyway? on recovering stolen herit- decade, the Congress come-
umphs’ and Trinamool It was not hers alone to bear, age), the India Pride back appears particularly
spokesperson Derek nor did she sign any con- Project of Anuraag Saxena strong in Uttar Pradesh,
tract to uphold it unto death. Bihar, Haryana and Delhi.
O’Brien calling it ‘girgit has been building aware-
It’s a shame that Sharmila Ditto in Orissa, Jharkhand,
samjhauta tax’ (agreement ness and creating docu-
has wasted her youth on a West Bengal, even Kerala. It
of chameleons). The gov- mentation for the return of
selfish group of people who
ernment accommodating such artefacts (Glossary). may be heartening for the
have wanted to catch fish
the concerns of the One would have expected a Congress that the party is
without wetting their hands.
Opposition and the latter, magazine like india today to gaining all over the country,
When, after 16 long years of
in turn, raising valid con- give credit where it is due. mopping up many more of
solitude and deprivation, the
cerns, demonstrated the iron lady finally broke down, RAM SHASTRI, via e-mail the NDA losses compared
political nous required to it was a testament to our even to its allies. In Bihar, for
pull through big reforms. collective cowardice, hypoc- Engineering instance, the Congress is
This is the kind of maturity risy and expediency. Disaster gaining while its ally, the RJD,
our legislature should dis- EDWIN P. MICHAEL, Thrissur With the exception of a is losing votes.
play on a regular basis. handful of engineering col- A damper amid all this
One hopes Prime Minister leges, most are mon- good news is that the positive
With the same lack of fan-
Modi will employ the same fare that Sharmila started ey-making organisations swing for the Congress and
strategy in resolving other her fast following the Malom owned by politicians and its allies is not strong enough
contentious issues plagu- massacre 16 years ago, she businessmen (When a to help the alliance form a de-
ing the government. decided to call it off. The fact Stream Runs Dry). Their cisive majority. The poll pre-
remains that she managed dicts more than a 40-seat
J.S. ACHARYA, Hyderabad degrees are worthless and
to attract global attention gain for the Congress-led alli-
students from these col-
for her cause. ance. But unless the party be-
The omnibus tax legisla- leges find themselves at
NALINI VIJAYARAGHAVAN, gins courting friends and
tion that subsumes excise, sea in the real world.
Thiruvananthapuram influencing potential allies,
service tax, VAT along SUDARSHAN NANDI , via e-mail
even the best case outcome
will result in a hung Parlia-
ment. The obvious alliance
Readers are recommended to make appropriate enquiries before sending E-MAIL YOUR LETTERS TO: targets for the Congress are
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UPFRONT URVASHI BUTALIA
LET’S TALK ABOUT RAPE

W
hat is it about India and rape?” an Italian and covering five South Asian countries, confirms this.
research scholar visiting our office last Whether it’s the law, or medical practice, or social
week asked me. “Why is there so much of sanction, or the ways in which we bring up children, or
it happening?” indeed preserving community ‘honour’, the perpetra-
I tried to respond with all the usual answers: yes, the tors of sexual violence almost always get away.
situation is bad but it is not as bad as other countries (I Indeed, as the study shows, the moment you start
even pulled out statistics to prove my point). Perhaps the to look at the question of sexual violence, the borders
increase in numbers is really an increase in reporting, of South Asia seem to melt away and our countries—in
which means women are coming forward to speak out. this case, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and
We may be hearing more about it because the women’s India—could be a mirror of each other.
movement in India is strong and activists have ensured In all of these countries, the law on sexual violence is
the issue remains in the public eye. I also knew that heavily dependent on ‘evidence’; much of this evidence
while all of these responses had some element of truth comprises forensic samples or signs of injury on the vic-
in them, none of them was adequate, and there was a tim’s body. In no country are these systematically col-
lot they left unsaid. lected or stored, nowhere do we have enough forensic
The rape story in India does not seem to go away, laboratories where samples can be tested; nowhere are
and ever since the protests of December 2012, the issue hospital workers trained to deal sensitively with victims/
has remained in the public eye. It’s this that allows us survivors; and many medical textbooks everywhere still
to see exactly how widespread sexual violence is. It’s teach would-be doctors that when women say they have
happening everywhere: a mother and a daughter pulled been raped, they are mostly lying.
out of their car and raped in the fields near a highway; But the news isn’t all bad, for it is also true that in
children spirited away from their homes and raped in many ways, women, some men and transgender per-
nearby fields and often left there to die; an aspiring sons have begun to speak out about sexual violence; in
law student tortured, raped and killed in her home in some instances, they’re refusing to allow themselves to
Kerala, groups of women raped in communal violence be stigmatised, to be defined merely as victims. It’s not
as in Muzaffarnagar—the list goes on and on. we who should be ashamed, they’re saying, it’s the per-
What little statistical data we have back up these sto- petrators society needs to ostracise.
ries. The National Crime Records Bureau statistics say Contrast this with other kinds of irresponsible speech
that the number of reported rapes on sexual violence, something that,
in the country went up from 22,172 Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY ironically, no one paid much atten-
in 2010 to 36,735 in 2014; that in 86 tion to, but now that it’s in the pub-
per cent of these cases, the offend- lic eye, everyone feels they have to
ers were known to the victims; say something, though they’re not
rapes inside the family increased entirely sure what. There’s this
by 25 per cent in 2014 over the clamour about teaching boys to
previous year, with Delhi register- respect girls, then that boys will be
ing the highest number of cases. boys, that women who don’t want
So what exactly is happening to be raped, can’t be, that ‘one
here? We have a new, stringent small rape’ (or something similar)
law in place. More and more vic- has negatively impacted India’s
tims/survivors are coming out to tourism industry.
report. And yet, it seems as if the Perhaps it’s time to recognise
numbers are on the rise. Are we to that sexual violence is a serious
conclude then that there is no fear and widespread crime; time to
at all of the law in the mind of the stop speaking irresponsibly about
rapist? Or that, despite the law and it; time to start thinking how we
the fact that women are speaking can address this deep-rooted mal-
out, impunity for perpetrators still aise in our society. Studies across
remains strong? the world speak of the social, eco-
The news isn’t all bad;
A recent, three-year-long qual- nomic and psychological costs of
itative research project run by women, some men and sexual violence. It’s time we recog-
Zubaan, the publishing house I work transgender persons are nised these.
in, supported by the International refusing to allow themselves The author is a Delhi-based writer
Development Research Centre, to be stigmatised and heads the publishing house Zubaan

GLASS HOUSE by SANDEEP UNNITHAN
MAIL
Gujarot STRATEGIST’S
BLUNDER
AUGUST 15, 2016
TAnandiben’s exit. Can Modi save his home state?
The BJP’s crisis intensifies after
he Congress high command has quickly
found a scapegoat for Sonia Gandhi’s
recent health scare in Varanasi—poll strate-
A DRY gist Prashant Kishor. Kishor had informed
the party it would The apparent
be a 3 km ‘crisis’ in Gujarat is
long roadshow.
SILENCE
It turned out to be 9 km. When a feverish
T he RJD’s August Sonia collapsed in the heat, Kishor and UP

9 media invite the part
Congress leader Pramod Tiwariof the media. Goondas
prevailed
Illustration by ANUP RAY

for Lalu Prasad’s over senior leaderslike Hardik will
by suggesting she restbe taken care of
felicitation of a woman and complete the roadshow as it would get
kickboxer was for her public sympathy.and Shethe Patels
was given a dripwill
in patch up.
photographers only. the car and taken to the airport
IRFAN where doc-
, via web
Insiders say it was to tors tried to revive her. Which is when she
ensure Lalu didn’t face dislocated her shoulder...
uncomfortable que-
Guj riesturns
on why he Bad made One of the foremost rules of
Your striking cover
party MLAs, opposed image Badal Thunders business management edu-
(Gujarat Model
to the new in Danger)
liquor cation is applicable to Modi
is effectively a wake-up
law, vote for it in the call THE GENERAL’SPunjab
GRANDDAUGHTER
deputy chief minister
Sukhbir Singh Badal has clearly not and his Gujarat: the real
THE SURGE
forassembly.
the BJP. The
Lalupartybowed test of a great manager is
D irector Kabir Khan minced any words in his interview to
needs to realise
to Nitish that India
on prohibi- your magazine (If comedy is key, all Rajasthan
how his CM Vasund
company functions
is ation,
secular country seems to have hara Raje is on an
but he’s in nothat jokers will be CMs’). He is forthright, in his absence.
does not elect its leaders chosen an appropri- improve ruralviaelectricity
mood to wallow in it. honest and brimming with confidence. Badal rightly says that KRISHAN KALRA, e-mail
just on the basis of religion. ate heroine for his supply drive. A recent
Kejriwal is an
upcoming anarchist to the core, something the AAP chief him-
drama,
Linguistic, community, self had admitted to in the initial days of protesting for India The pilot project’s
situation success in
in Gujarat
caste and regional affilia- Tubelight , set in the Bhimpura
was so village,that
out-of-hand Ajmer,
Against Corruption.
1962 Indo-China war. Badal’s observations on Sidhu and Amarinder
tions matter as much as Singh are also spot on. Modi waswhere power losses
compelled to give
development issues, an- Chinese actress Zhu shrunk
a free handfrom 47 to 17
to Shah, whoper
B.R. who
Zhu, Hyderabad
SANT,has been
ti-incumbency and a host cent
selected in protege
his three months
of other local factors. For, if cast opposite Salman hasBut,
Rupani. enthused her. The
it’s unreason-
religion were the only de- Khan,placed
being comesat from
the helm The BJP has only itself to able project
to expectsucceeded
that a after
ciding factor, wouldn’t the a military family.
of Gujarat’s affairs. In In this, blame for the rot that has a carrot-and-stick
change of guard willpolicy be
BJP have been in power fact,
he her grandfather,
superseded Nitin Patel, set in Gujarat. Modi seems for consumers
enough to cause the andBJP’s
mid-
CAKE ON
since Independence? Zhu Xuzhi,
who a former a
was considered
People’s Liberation
to be losing his shine just nighttoraids
troubles by officials.
subside in
HIS FACE
LT COL A.E. CHARLES (RETD),
Coimbatore
frontrunner
Army
CM general,
post
for the Gujarat two years after he left
till themay
very last. Gujarat. He is making the
Gujarat. The leadership is
now faced with the pros-
O fficials are prob- have even been personally involved

SUBHASH C. AGARWAL, Delhi sameinmistakes
1962, serving
that asarehe pect of containing the
Modi need ing ahardly
controversial
concern was then as the political commissar of the PLA Air Force’s
proving to be the undoing Patels and Dalits.
August
himself 8 circular
with the lossbyof technical
The recent department.
case of atroci-The actress hasCongress—not
of the started filmingnur-in N.C. SREEDHARAN, Kerala
Keralasince
Gujarat statethe
transport
blame Ladakh and is also
ties against Dalits and taking Hindi lessons.
turing state-level leaders
liescommissioner
squarely withTomin Anandiben’s inability to lest they challenge his GST Gist
J. Thachankary,
Anandiben Patel, who was contain the resultant furor omnipresence. His decision After both NDA and UPA
notdirecting stafferseither
able to handle of left the BJP with no choice to sideline veteran leaders played obstructionist roles
thethe road
Patel transport
agitation or the but to execute immediate BHOPAL NAIL-BITER
on the pretext of advanced in the implementation of
P
department
aftermath toflogging
of the celeb- of course correction and has- olitical circles
age (above 75)inwas
Bhopal
one are waiting for September
the Goods and Services9, Tax
ratein
Dalits hisUna.
birthday
And Vijay ten her imminent exit. when the tenureleaving
such exercise, of Madhya
the Pradesh it was firstRam
since governor proposed
(across
Rupani the state)
proved to be a Master strategist that he is,Naresh
BJPYadav
to makeends. Yadavfrom
a choice is the only UPA-appointee
in 2005, in a
the bill is finally
by distributing
great rabbit that cake
Amit Shah party president Amit Shahmajor BJP-ruled
among state to continue
second-rung lead- in office aafter
getting the NDA
chance to see the
among
pulled outthe public.
of the hat Tha-
at the is in control of the state came to power.
ers. The Special
Modi would do wellTaskto Force
light (STF)
of dayprobing
(GST: the
lastchankary
minute. insists he again and can now preventVyapam heedscam had registered
American writer Tom an FIR against Yadav
Everything for his to
you wanted
spent his ownBengaluru
A. SRIKANTAIAH, money. its slipping out of the par- involvement in the“Leaders
Peters quote: fraud. But the high know court
but quashed
were too it foxed to
Too late, the Tomin ty’s hands in the forthcom-saying a serving
don’t create governor
followers,cannot
they be booked.
ask). Will Yadav
A decade of temporis-
trolls are firing.
Factionalism within the ing state assembly election. get an extension
create more or will the CBI resume
leaders.” ing isits probe
over, andagainst
the meas-
party led to Vijay Rupani HARSH DUBEY, via e-mail him?KRISHNA
We’ll know
BALRAJsoon enough.
SAHAY, Patna ure has achieved a fragile
12 INDIA TODAY u AUGUST 29, 2016 AUGUST 29, 2016 u INDIA TODAY 70
GLASS HOUSE
CHAINS OF COMMAND
A cold war in South Block between army head-
quarters and the defence ministry has seen a
slowdown in appointments to key army posts. It
began in April when army HQ forwarded
WHO’S BOSS names for several key appointments
Union transport which were to fall vacant. Trouble
started when the MoD questioned
NO JUICE
minister Nitin Gadkari
likes to signal that he several of them. The delay saw key FOR THE PM
P
still calls the shots in posts like the GOC-in-C Western rime Minister Narendra
Maharashtra. Recently, Command and GOC Delhi Modi will have to make
he did the fire-fighting area without incumbents do without a favoured
over the issue of onion for two months. The buzz is item—fresh juices—as he
prices, calling a meeting defence minister Manohar visits China on September
of traders, the state min- Parrikar wants more say 4. G20 summit organis-
ister for dairy and cattle, in the appointments of the ers in Hangzhou have told
Mahadev Jankar, and NCP army chief’s principal staff foreign diplomats no fresh
chief Sharad Pawar, in officers—who head key juices will be available. No
Delhi. Gadkari convinced directorates like military reasons were given for the
the traders not to agitate operations, intelligence, strange notice, but officials
against the Devendra ordnance and postings. suspect a massive security
Fadnavis government. Battle lines are drawn. lockdown may be to blame.
Some 780,000 security vol-
unteers will be mobilised.
SHORT-LIVED HOME
REVOLT TROUBLE DOUBLE SULK
F
ormer
Karna-
taka deputy T he Jaipur police
is investigating F ormer UP BJP presi-
dent Laxmikant Vaj
CM and BJP Union home secre- pai is in a sulk. He refused
leader K.S. tary Rajiv Mehrishi requests to share the dais
Eshwarappa and wife Mira on with Union home minister
has been at loggerheads charges of fraud Rajnath Singh on both days
with ex-CM B.S. Yeddyur- and altering land of the BJP state executive
appa for some time now. documents. The meet in Jhansi on
He was even set to launch case relates to when Mehrishi was Rajasthan chief August 6-7. The
the ‘Sangolli Rayanna Brig- secretary—he allegedly changed land use patterns to BJP’s Brahmin
ade’ to consolidate his save on capital gains tax worth Rs 1.25 crore. Mehrishi face in the state
OBC Kuruba community. calls it a tax issue with the I-T department, says land is upset with the
Then strangely, on August conversion application was cancelled for non-pay- appointment of
9, Eshwarappa declared ment of dues and points to a clean chit in another Keshav Maurya as
peace. Wonder why? case of evading stamp duty. new state president.
213 1,500 64%

Number of intermediate Approximate number Revised reservation quota
schools recognised of state government for Muslims, SCs and STs
during the two-year tenure employees trapped by former that the K. Chandrasekhara
of Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh, Maharashtra DGP Pravin Dixit as Rao government plans to
ex-chairman of Bihar School head of the anti-corruption bureau. enact, unmindful of the
Examination Board and prime The bureau has had to drop several Supreme Court’s 50 per
accused in the toppers’ scam cases for lack of evidence cent reservation cap
with KAUSHIK DEKA, AMITABH SRIVASTAVA, ANANTH KRISHNAN, ROHIT PARIHAR, RAHUL NORONHA, JEEMON JACOB, KIRAN TARE, ARAVIND GOWDA

NEWSFLICKS SPARK
TRAIN OF
DISCOUNT =
`1,600 CR
That is the potential revenue the Indian
Railways gave away in concessions last year
FARE COST OF
SHARE
War widows 75
DISCOUNT
Concessions on train Revenue forgone (in ` crore) in 2015-16
fare vary by category Students 25-75 by category
Category/Concession (%) 107.1

Youth 40-100 118.6 Physically
Others challenged persons
Disabled
passengers 50-75
Farmers 25-50 9.5 81.6
Izzat MST* Patients
Patients 50-100
Artists &
sportspersons 50-75 1602.9
Total
Senior
citizens 40-50
Medical
professionals 10-25 1,286
Senior citizens
Awardees 50-75 * for persons with monthly income up to Rs 1,500, working
* Some categories have specific conditions for discounts in unorganised sectors for journeys
up to 150 km
Allopathic Persons with
TIME FOR 1988

doctors haemophilia
CONCESSIONS 2003 2004

While concessions on Kidney Widows of defence
railway fares were given even Awardee PM Ostomy Widows
teachers Shram patients of IPKF patients personnel killed in
before 1950, here’s when some of awardees action against terrorists
the major ones started and extremists
Paraplegic Heart
persons patients 2010 2009 2008
1961 1985 1986 2000 1999 1989

Film Izzat MST AIDS
technicians patient
Orthopaedically Deaf Press Widows of President Senior

handicapped and correspondents martyrs of
Kargil war
Police Medal
awardees
citizens 2012 Aplastic anaemia
mute
Sickle cell anaemia
Source: Ministry of Railways
VISUAL NEWS ON YOUR PHONE DOWNLOAD FROM OR SMS NF TO 52424

COVER STORY MOOD OF THE NATION LEAD ESSAY
Who is best suited to be the next

57 prime minister of India?
Aug. Narendra Modi bounces
2014 back after a slump in the 50
last three polls
Aug.
2016
40
36 37 Feb.
Aug. 2016
Apr.
2015
2015
MODI MAKES A
STRONG COMEBACK
In the past six months, the PM has learnt from his missteps
and revved up governance. This has helped him reverse the
decline in his rating and emerge unchallenged again
By Raj Chengappa
PARVEEN NEGI
I
Rahul Gandhi is still
f there were an Olympic competition akin to 22
being the prime minister of India, it would be in 2nd place, but
the decathlon. The event that determines the his rating has
world’s best all-round athlete is a test of power, plunged 13
agility, speed and endurance. Held over two 7 8
days, it consists of 10 track and field disciplines 6
Rahul Gandhi
that include the 100 metre sprint, long jump,
shot put, high jump and the 400 metre sprint 11
on the first day, followed by 110 metre hurdles,
discus throw, pole vault, javelin and a 1,500 metre run on
the second day. Points are given for each event, and the 5 5 5 6
competitor with the highest aggregate score wins.
Into the midlife of his first term as prime minister Sonia Gandhi
of the world’s largest democracy, Narendra Modi has 15
to demonstrate tremendous all-round skills, as in the
decathlon, to master what is arguably the most difficult 11
job in the world. Like a sprinter, Modi must speedily
win public approval for the rash of programmes he has
announced, leaping over many hurdles. He must show 3 4 4
the endurance of a distance runner, which he did while Arvind Kejriwal
Aug. Apr. Aug. Feb. Aug.
2014 2015 2015 2016 2016
All figures in per cent
If the Lok Sabha elections were held today,

which party will you vote for?
Seat forecast NDA UPA Others
400
354
336
304
300 299 304
288 286
NDA gets a boost

200
174 after a steep fall
148 173 147
145 in the previous
132 surveys
100 110 94
71 81
59 57
0
Elections Aug. Apr. Aug. Feb. Aug.
2014 2014 2015 2015 2016 2016
Vote share (%) projection Seat forecast

NDA UPA Others BJP INC Others
50 400
43
40 300 314
40 39 37 282
38 259
34 36 34 234
200 217 217 230
30 189
27 26
23 23
20 100
92
44 54
40
10 0
Elections Aug. Apr. Aug. Feb. Aug. Elections Aug. Apr. Aug. Feb. Aug.
2014 2014 2015 2015 2016 2016 2014 2014 2015 2015 2016 2016
Figures are from MOTN polls except where indicated
winning over political support for the soared in india today’s Mood of the intervals, began to fall precipitously.
much-delayed Goods and Services Nation (MOTN) survey held three In the February 2016 survey,
Tax (GST) Bill. He also has to display months later, giving the NDA coali- the NDA coalition numbers plunged
power and agility needed for field tion an even higher number of seats to 286 seats in the Lok Sabha, giv-
events to deal with the many chal- than the 336 it had won. But then ing it a tenuous majority. The BJP’s
lenges he faces, be it cross-border the strain of delivering on the great share dropped far below the historic
terrorism, economic instability, social expectations that his victory evoked majority it had achieved during the
distress or religious disharmony. began to set in. As people’s impa- 2014 general elections. Worse for
To emerge as champion, Modi tience with Modi’s inability to usher Modi, the Congress-led UPA, which
still has a lot of competing to do. Off in ‘achhe din’ grew, his government’s had reached its nadir by winning
to a dazzling start when he took over popularity in three subsequent only 59 seats in the Lok Sabha elec-
in May 2014, Modi’s popular support MOTN surveys, held at six-month tions, began to show signs of a major

Who has been the best Who do you think is the best alternative to
PM of India so far? Prime Minister Narendra Modi and can
successfully challenge him in 2019?
Indira Gandhi
23 [26]
23 13
[8]
12
[10]
9
[15]
[32]
Atal Bihari Vajpayee

RAHUL NITISH ARVIND SONIA
18 [16] GANDHI KUMAR KEJRIWAL GANDHI
Figures in [ ] are from Feb. 2016 MOTN

Narendra Modi
17 [14]
How do you rate the How satisfied are you
performance of with the overall
Narendra Modi as performance of the
Figures in [ ] are from Feb. 2016 MOTN prime minister? NDA government?
What do you think of 9 Very good 9 Very satisfied
Prime Minister Modi’s
style of functioning? Good 44 Satisfied 46
Average 35 Average 32
Now [Feb. 2016]
24 [20] He is all talk, no
7 Poor 10 Not satisfied
action 2 Very poor 2 Not at all satisfied
17 [21] He is pro-poor
17 [14] He believes in All figures in per cent; Rest, Don’t know/Can’t say
‘sabka saath,
sabka vikaas’ revival, almost doubling the number have regressed, dropping below
of seats it could win. Rahul Gandhi’s the 100 mark.
12 [12] He is pro-rich political fortunes showed a remark- Encouragingly for Modi, his
able resurgence and he emerged popularity ratings have rocketed
9 [12] He is sectarian and as a major challenger to Modi. back to 50 per cent—a 10 per cent
anti-minority As Modi gets to the midway boost—while those of his challeng-
point of his term, the good news ers, particularly Rahul Gandhi,
6 [3] He is driven by for him is that the latest india have fallen. Despite strong Third
social media today-Karvy Insights MOTN sur- Front leaders winning in recent
vey shows that the prime minister state assembly elections—like
6 [5] He adds character has bounced back strongly. The Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal,
to the country’s survey predicts that if polls are J. Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu and
leadership held now, the NDA would get 304 earlier Nitish Kumar in Bihar and
seats—a significant improvement Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi—they are
3 [2] He is driven by RSS of 18 seats from the February showing no signs of challenging
2016 poll. Importantly for Modi, the primacy of Modi or the NDA
3 [2] He is dictatorial the revival that the Congress and government. Kumar and Kejriwal,
Rahul Gandhi showed in the previ- though, are narrowing the gap
3 [3] He stays silent on ous surveys has been halted in its with Rahul as the Opposition lead-
major issues tracks. In fact, the UPA’s numbers ers best capable of taking on Modi

experienced under UPA-II and

MIDTERM BAROMETER: How previous put the economy back on the high
governments have fared halfway into their term growth path of jobs and prosperity.
But a series of missteps on the farm
front aggravated by two successive
NDA UPA OTHERS droughts, electoral defeats in Delhi
NDA-I: A.B. VAJPAYEE GOVERNMENT and Bihar, and the perception of
being a ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’ saw the
Aug. 2001 MOTN (seats) 200-235 225-255 84-112 Modi government’s rating plummet,
though the prime minister’s personal
Actual seats 1999 304 140 99 popularity remained high.
Does the TINA factor fully
UPA-I: MANMOHAN SINGH
explain the paradox of the current
Aug. 2006 MOTN (seats) 152-161 252-261 125-134 poll: while Modi and the NDA have
staged a strong recovery, the per-
Actual seats 2004 184 234 125 ception still remains that his gov-
ernment is yet to deliver on several
UPA-II: MANMOHAN SINGH key issues? Given the Opposition’s
Aug. 2011 MOTN (seats) 175-185 187-197 167-177 inability to knit a cohesive alter-
native to the BJP, Modi, despite
Actual seats 2009 159 259 125 the blemishes, is still perceived as
the best leader to steer the nation
NDA-II: NARENDRA MODI through these troubled and testing
times. Yet, to explain the recovery
Aug. 2016 MOTN (seats) 304 94 145 only in terms of the TINA factor
Actual seats 2014 335 59 149 would do Modi injustice. While he
always led from the front, in the
NDA Government UPA Government * Vajpayee govt - BJP+ and Cong + past six months, Modi showed he
had learnt from his missteps and
revved up governance. He shook off
in his bid for a re-election in 2019. Which party is more his anti-farmer, anti-poor image by
While there is recognition that the making the single-largest alloca-
NDA government’s performance has
concerned with the tion of funds towards shoring up
improved in the past six months, wor- problems of the poor and the farm sector and alleviating pov-
ryingly for Modi, on key issues such the unemployed? erty since Independence. He also
as jobs, inflation and corruption, the pumped huge amounts of govern-
survey shows that people are far from Now [Feb. 2016] ment funds into infrastructure proj-
satisfied (see accompanying reports). ects for roads, railways, ports and
With the BJP’s tally remaining well 40 [44] BJP housing to stimulate the economy
below the majority mark, it remains and provide employment.
dependent on its NDA allies to see it
13 [25] Indian National Modi then boldly went ahead and
through in Parliament. So Modi and
Congress further opened key sectors of the
the BJP still have to retrieve ground economy to Foreign Direct Investment.
6 [5] Aam Aadmi Party
that they have conceded in the past He was also unafraid to take tough
two years in power. 4 [2] AIADMK measures by raising LPG prices and
The most obvious explanation for limiting subsidised supply of gas to the
Modi’s rebound is what poll pundits 4 [1] Trinamool needy. Modi shed some of his hostil-
call the TINA (There is no alternative) ity towards the Opposition and, ably
factor. If you look across the political 2 [5] JD(U) assisted by Union finance minister
spectrum, there is no serious chal- Arun Jaitley, ushered in the single
lenger, within his party and outside it, 2 [2] CPI(M) biggest economic reform in recent
to Modi’s primacy. The major reason times by having the GST Bill passed in
why Modi was voted with a massive 2 [2] DMK Parliament. The ‘One Nation, One Tax’
mandate—the first government in 30 plan promises to simplify our complex
years to have a majority of its own— 18 [4] Others tax structure, enabling ease of doing
was that people wanted a decisive business and possibly bringing down
leader heading a government that 6 [6] None of the above the cost for consumers and boosting
would arrest the drift the country All figures in per cent economic growth.
Rest, Don’t know/Can’t say

COVER
MAILSTORY MOOD OF THE NATION LEAD ESSAY
Gujarot
Top 5 performing ministers of the Modi cabinet cases to the Supreme Court when
it loses the arbitration process.
And, despite promises, there
remains too much government in
22 22
AUGUST 15, 2016
21
The BJP’s crisis intensifies after Anandiben’s exit. Can Modi save his home15 13 the business of business.
To Modi’s
state? credit, he remains
indefatigable, has an eye for detail,
finely honed political instincts,
ARUN SUSHMA RAJNATH
The
SURESH
apparent UMA
‘crisis’and inanGujarat
unwavering iscommitment
JAITLEY SWARAJ SINGH nothingBHARTI
PRABHU but fond imagination towards delivering onspeedy devel-
opment that focuses on, as he
the part of the media. says,Goondas
“the last man in the line”.
like Hardik will be taken carehis
Piyush Goyal, ofcabinet colleague,
reveals that in meetings the prime
and the Patels will patch minister up. insists on three things:
IRFAN , via web show me outcomes, tell me how
fast you are doing things and how
Rest, Don’t know/Can’t say and others All figures in per cent
much better you can do them. In
the past year, Modi seems to have
Guj Theturns
result is Bad
that Modi’s macro- Which of the following got the measure
One of theofforemost
the complex rules of
economic
Your striking management,
cover image despite Badal Thunders steel frame of themanagement
business bureaucracyedu-
schemes launched by
how poorly
(Gujarat ModelRBI in Danger)Raghuram
governor Punjab deputy chief minister he is constrained to operatetowith.
cation is applicable Modi
Rajan’s extension
is effectively was handled,
a wake-up call is the Narendra Modi-led
Sukhbir Singh Badal has clearly not Corruption and at
his the top
Gujarat: echelons
the realof
being
for theperceived
BJP. The partyas sound. All the NDA government is
minced any words in his interview togovernment test has
of a been
great curbed
manager and
is
three
needskey indicators
to realise that of short-term
India
working best? your magazine (If comedy is key,most all bureaucratic
how his company appointmentsfunctions
health of thecountry
is a secular economy thatare showing are
jokers will be CMs’). He is forthright, made in on
his merit.
absence. Many of the
positive
does notsigns.
elect its Inflation,
leadersthough not honest and brimming with confidence. Badal rightly says that schemes that
KRISHAN he had
KALRA, launched
via e-mail in
licked,
just on isthestill within
basis comfort levels.
of religion. 32 Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan the first flush—such as Swachh
Kejriwal is an anarchist to the core, something the AAP chief him-
The current
Linguistic, account deficit and self had admitted to in the initial days of protesting for India Bharat and
community, The Jan DhaninYojana—are
situation Gujarat
also
castetheandfiscal deficit,
regional despite the Pay
affilia-
18 Jan Dhan Yojana beginning was to deliver.
so out-of-hand that
Against Corruption. Badal’s observations on Sidhu and Amarinder
Commission
tions matter hike as muchand the as One-Rank, Singh are11alsoMake
spot on. in India On Independence
Modi was Day,
compelled instead
to give
One-Pension
developmentpayout, issues, an- remains under B.R. SANT, Hyderabad
of mouthing
a free platitudes,
hand to the
Shah, prime
who
control. And whatever
ti-incumbency and a host way you mea- 8 Digital India ministerselected
used the hisoccasion
protege to pres-
sure GDPlocal
of other growth, it still
factors. remains
For, if at a ent a reportRupani.card of progress
But, it’s unreason- to
healthy
religion 7.65
wereper thecent,
onlymaking
de- India
being placed 5 at Fasal Bima Yojana
the helm The BJP has only itselfthe to nation.ableWhile
to expectmany thatgrumbled
a
possibly the fastest
ciding factor, wouldn’t growing
the economyof Gujarat’s affairs. In this, blame for the rot that has that his change
speech of was long,will
guard thebe fact
3 Skill India
in
BJPthe world
have beenat aintime
power when the he inter-
superseded Nitin Patel, set in Gujarat. Modi seems remainsenough that heto had much
cause theto BJP’s
national environment remains far
since Independence? who was 4 Retrieving
considered a black money
to be losing his shine justtalk about. Aparttofrom
troubles subside develop-
in
from
LT COLconducive.
A.E. CHARLES So,(RETD),
good economics frontrunner for from abroad two years after he left ment, heGujarat.
the Gujarat also rightly focused onis
The leadership
makes
Coimbatoregreat politics. CM post till the very last. All figuresHe
Gujarat. in per making what
iscent the a senior
now faced official
with calls
the “the
pros-
There are, of course, serious SUBHASH C. AGARWAL, Delhi same mistakes that are thali test”—ensuring
pect of containing that the people
long-term
Modi need hardlyissues concern
that need to be Do you think Achhe proving Din,
to be the undoingget foodPatels
every and day Dalits.
at reasonable
addressed.
himself withUnemployment
the loss of isThe
ris- recent case of atroci- of the Congress—not nur- prices. The Prime Minister’s KeralaOffice
ing to alarming
Gujarat since thelevelsblameas jobless
as promised byturing
ties against Dalits and
Modistate-level
in leaders
N.C. SREEDHARAN,
remains concerned about the steep
growth continues
lies squarely with to bedevil the Anandiben’s theinability
run-up to to the lest2014
they challenge his rise in the GST pricesGistof pulses and
government.
Anandiben Patel, Bank who indebtedness
was contain the polls, have
resultant arrived
furor for you?His decision
omnipresence. vegetables, AfterbutbothwithNDA a good
and UPA mon-
remains
not able to a handle
major concern,
either result-
left the BJP with no choice to sideline veteran leaders soon, is played
confident of bringingroles
obstructionist them
ing in a credit
the Patel agitation squeeze.
or the Industrialbut to execute immediate on the pretext of advanced under check.in the implementation of
growth
aftermath
do
remains
exports.
Dalits
projects
in Una.Major
Rupani provedface ato
sluggish,
of the flogging
And Vijay
of andcourse
infrastructure
judicial
so
33
correction and has-
ten her imminent exit.
be a logjamMaster strategist [40that
] he is, BJP[31
35
age (above 75) was one On foreign
such exercise, leaving to
to]make a choice from foot”, asin
the Goods
theexcel,since
“always
a top
policy,
it was
2005,
andModi
playing
official
continues
Services
first proposed
putisit.
the bill The
finally
Tax
on the front
with
greatcompanies
rabbit that Amit battling Shah disputes Yes
party president Amit Shah among
NO second-rung lead- evolvinggetting
Modi doctrine
a chance ofto insisting
see the
over
pulledpayment.
out of theThe hat at government
the is in control of the state ers. Modi would do well thatto India be of
light a leading
day (GST: power rather
will have to come up with inno-
last minute. again and can now prevent heed American writer than Tom a balancing
Everything oneyouis showing
wanted to
to break theits slipping out of the par- Conditions remain
vative measures
A. SRIKANTAIAH, Bengaluru
gridlock by releasing funds on ty’s 20
a hands in the forthcom- Modi
Peters quote:
the same as before
don’t create
government
“Leadersresults, as
followers,ofthey
know
engaging
is his
ask).
butpragmatic
with
A
were too foxed
a wide
decade of
approach
spectrum
temporis-
to
guarantee
Factionalism towithin
such companies
the and
ing state assembly[22] election. came create more leaders.” of countries.
to power ing isDespite
over, and reversals
the meas- in
by being
party led tojudicious
Vijay Rupani in referring HARSH DUBEY, via e-mail KRISHNA BALRAJ SAHAY, Patna the neighbourhood,
ure has achieved particularly
a fragile
Figures in [ ] are from Feb. 2016 MOTN
with Pakistan, the MOTN shows that In your opinion, do you prime minister, the MOTN done at the
people are more than happy with his halfway mark showed a steep drop
handling of foreign affairs.
think the RSS interferes in the Congress-led government’s
Rather than ducking a crisis, Modi in the functioning of the popularity. Faced with a barrage of
prefers to take it head-on and speaks NDA government? corruption charges, UPA numbers fell
with rare candour when he meets from the 259 seats it had won in the
his counterparts, as he did with the 9 Significantly 2009 general elections to a dismal
Chinese leadership recently over the 192 in the MOTN poll held in August
Nuclear Suppliers Group issue. He Slightly 39 2011. The Congress didn’t heed the
has built a strong alignment between warning and landed up with its worst
domestic goals and foreign policy ini- 2 Not at all electoral defeat in 2014.
tiatives and has been able to regain The NDA government led by Atal
international investor confidence Bihari Vajpayee showed a similar
and increase FDI flow. He is also not trend midway through its term in
afraid to take risks and flex muscle August 2001. The MOTN numbers
when required. Thwarted by the Should PM Modi indicated a sharp fall in its electoral
Pakistan Army in his effort to build contain fringe (radical) prospects—the NDA fell to an aver-
peace in the region, Modi has thrown elements within the age of 217 seats as compared to the
down the gauntlet by questioning 304 it had won in the 1999 general
Pakistan’s human rights violations
Sangh Parivar? election. Two-and-a-half years later,
in Balochistan and challenging its despite its boast of making India
claims over PoK. 29 Yes shine, the NDA suffered a surprising
Yet, as he gets towards the cru- defeat. In contrast, midway through
cial second half of his term, nagging
24 No the UPA’s first term in power, its num-
domestic problems linger. While bers showed a steady increase in the
it may be good to send a strong
18 Not a problem
any more MOTN, and it went on to win another
message to Pakistan, his govern- Rest, Don’t know/Can’t say and others term in 2009.
ment is responsible for allowing the All figures in per cent Halfway through his term, Modi
situation in Kashmir to deteriorate appears to have got the measure of
despite the BJP being part of a coali- his government and governance. He
tion that runs the state government. is willing to take bold decisions, speak
There is disquiet also about the way his mind and push hard on the devel-
his handpicked successor in Gujarat concerns are also reflected in some opment pedal. Now that the MOTN
lost control of the administration, of the findings of the MOTN poll, in results are turning positive again
requiring a leadership change. which Muslims and other minorities for him, Modi should move swiftly to
There is much appreciation for him have expressed their reservations. address the key issues confronting
having finally come out strongly The India Today MOTN surveys the nation, ensuring that he is always
against the attacks on Dalits by gau held midway through a govern- seen as prime minister of India, and
rakshaks. But it would appear more ment’s tenure have emerged as not just of a particular party, region,
sincere and less political if he also crucial indicators of a government’s faction or community. Only then will
offered a shoulder to Muslims, who ability to win a re-election. During 2019 be his for the taking.
have been attacked as well. These Manmohan Singh’s second term as Follow the writer on Twitter @rajchengappa
METHODOLOGY
The India Today Group-Karvy Insights Mood of the Nation interviews were done in each, rigorously following the right-
(MOTN) poll was conducted by Karvy Insights Limited. hand rule of household selection.
A total of 12,321 interviews were conducted, spread Fieldwork for the MOTN poll was conducted from 15-27
across 97 parliamentary constituencies in 194 assem- July 2016. The survey followed multi-stage stratified random
bly constituencies in 19 states—Andhra Pradesh, Assam, sample design. All interviews were conducted face to face
Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, using a standard structured interview schedule/questionnaire,
Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, which was translated into regional languages.
Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh The poll was conducted under the supervision of Ranjit
and West Bengal. In each of the assembly constituencies, Chib, who is a Director of Karvy Insights, and he was assisted
different starting points were selected and afixed number of by Dixit Chanana, Vice-President, Karvy Insights.

COVER STORY MOOD OF THE NATION POLITICAL ECONOMY
TACKLING
THE THREE
SCOURGES
Inflation, lack of jobs and corruption remain
the prime concerns, but our survey shows
that respondents are not blaming Modi
By Ajit Kumar Jha
C
ALL HIM A TEFLON the MOTN survey in February 2016
PRIME MINISTER, showed how gnawing economic
on whom no allega- insecurity, in the public perception,
tions or charges èver was translating into anti-incum-
stick, or dismiss it as bency sentiment. This was reflected
the good old TINA in Modi’s displacement from his high
(there is no alterna- perch of popularity in 2014—from
tive) factor. But the india today-Karvy 57 to 40 per cent—and the resur-
Insights Mood of the Nation (MOTN) gence of Rahul Gandhi—from 8 per
poll throws up a curious paradox. cent to 22 per cent. The MOTN in
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s August signals a return of the Modi Which issue concerns
popularity among the electorate wave, with a 10-point surge in his you the most?
continues to soar to dizzying heights popularity ratings.
despite the fact that a majority of While Rahul’s ‘suit-boot ki
29
the voters are seriously concerned sarkar’ jibe found its mark so effec-
about the precarious state of the tively at the time of the last MOTN Price rise
country’s economy. Inflation is ris- in February, the sarcastic ‘Arhar
ing, the number of jobs is plummet- Modi’ (following rising prices of
[34]
ing, corruption is seeing a spike in pulses) sobriquet seems to have had
the states. At least in voter percep-
tion. Surely it is not the economy,
no effect in the August edition. Nor
has the fact that a majority of youth
Unemployment 22
stupid! The MOTN survey reveals are failing to find employment in a
that voters blame the Opposition typically inelastic labour market, or
UPA and Rahul Gandhi more than
Modi for the state of affairs.
that some BJP state governments
face charges of corruption.
21 Corruption
[34]
Public approval of prime min- Inflation, unemployment and
isterial performance is notoriously corruption have always been the Rest, Don’t know/Can’t say
fickle, fluctuating from one moment three scourges of governance, Figures in [ ] are from Feb. 2016 MOTN
to the next. Barely six months ago, something all of our MOTN surveys All figures in per cent

BANDEEP SINGH / FORTUNE INDIA
Which party is more Do you think the How do you rate

concerned about Narendra Modi-led NDA the NDA’s economic
the problems of government is working performance compared
the poor and the for the welfare of the to the UPA-II?
unemployed? farmers in the country?
BETTER
55
BJP
47
40
44 51
YES
SAME
17
CONGRESS
27
13
WORSE
25 32 15 NOW
NO
NOW FEB 2016 15 FEB 2016

have attested to. The income of
the poor and unemployed is not
indexed against inflation, except
for those employed in the formal
economy. Any kind of food and fuel
price rise hurts them disproportion-
ately. Increased mechanisation and
globalisation have made economic
growth a largely jobless phenom-
enon. Greater education of the youth
in a jobless economy, therefore,
portends disaster, not demographic
dividend. Corruption within the
political elite, especially at the lower
levels, indirectly hurts the poor
much more.
Does this increasing concern
over economic gloom boil over into
public ire against the incumbent?
Or, are the PM’s popularity ratings
independent of how voters think
the economy is doing, his charisma
predicated more on how the vot-
ers identify with the candidate,
overlooking mundane issues of
governance? This brings us to the
larger question of whether political
outcomes in a democracy are quint- vexed on the issue of unemploy- How has the corruption
essentially linked to economic per- ment. An overwhelming 61 per cent
ceptions of voters. say that the Modi-led NDA govern-
situation changed after
ment has failed to create jobs for the Narendra Modi-led
PRICES UP, JOBS DOWN youth in the country in the last two NDA government came
Consider the current MOTN survey. years. Less than half that number, to power?
For 29 per cent of the voters, infla- 30 per cent, believe the government
tion is the most serious concern, has been successful in the task. Six
followed by unemployment (22 months ago, 47 per cent had said
per cent) and corruption (21 per that the Modi government had failed 29
cent). Have prices risen under the
Modi-led NDA regime in the last
two years? An overwhelming 67
to provide youth jobs, while 46 per
cent felt otherwise. Clearly, a larger
number of voters (14 per cent more
36
Remained
Decreased
the same
per cent of the MOTN voters sur- than in February) today believe that
veyed think that food and fuel prices the job situation in the country is
have increased. Only a minuscule deteriorating. 35
Increased
11 per cent feel prices have gone Does the voter’s concern over
down. About 22 per cent think they lack of jobs square with objective
have stayed the same as under the data? The BJP-led NDA govern-
Manmohan Singh-led UPA regime. ment came to power in May 2014
And the ground reality? Food with a massive mandate to fix a
prices in India, according to data faltering economy. Although ambi-
71%
provided by the Union ministry for tious campaigns like Make in India,
statistics and programme imple- Smart Cities and Digital India have
mentation, increased 7.79 per cent been rolled out, the ultimate yard-
in June over the same month in stick with which the success of these
2015. Food inflation in India aver- initiatives will be evaluated is the
aged 8.5 per cent from 2012 until volume of jobs they generate. And, respondents believe that
2016, reaching an all-time high of if statistics are an indication, it’s an corruption has increased/
14.7 per cent in November 2013. uphill task. Of the 11 million stu- remained the same since
The electorate appears equally dents graduating from colleges each the NDA took charge

Has inequality What has been the

between rich and state of poverty after
poor increased after the Modi government
the Modi-led NDA was voted to power?
assumed power at
the Centre?
44 10
NO
38
Increased
25
Decreased
YES
38 37
Remains
Remains
the same
the same
BANDEEP SINGH / FORTUNE INDIA
year, only 20 per cent get jobs cor- Has the NDA government Have the prices of essential
responding to their skill sets. And been able to create jobs commodities (like dal,
though women comprise 49 per cent for young people tomatoes, petrol etc) risen
of India’s population, they form only
21 per cent of the overall workforce.
throughout the country after the Modi government
The subjective perception of the vot- in the past two years? took over?
ers regarding jobs and price rise,
therefore, matches with the objec- NO
tive reality on the ground. 61
POVERTY AND INEQUALITY 47 22
67
Nearly 38 per cent of the voters beli-
eve poverty has increased in the YES Remains
country under the Modi regime, only 30 the same
25 per cent think to the contrary.
Thirty-seven per cent feel there has 46 Increased
been no change. That makes three- NOW
11
quarters of voters who feel there Decreased
FEB 2016
has been no reduction in poverty
since the Modi government came
to power, a severe indictment of its Rest, Don’t know/Can’t say All figures in per cent
governance model. Among Dalits,
a community the BJP is attempting
to appease for electoral purposes, It is on corruption that the gap corruption has remained the same,
an overwhelming 81 per cent feel between government perception and 29 per cent believe it has eased.
poverty under Modi has increased. voter belief is the sharpest. While With regard to pollution, 67 per
When it comes to equality, 44 per the NDA government boasts it has cent voters say air and water quality
cent say inequality has increased brought corruption under control, 35 is a serious concern in their neigh-
under Modi rule, only a paltry 10 per cent voters believe the demon of bourhood, compared to 24 per cent
per cent say it has come down; 38 bribery has become stronger in Modi who say that is not the case. When
per cent say it stays the same. era. Thirty-six per cent voters say it comes to prohibition and the beef

ban, 57 per cent think it’s alright Has your economic to 32 per cent begging to differ.
for the government to decide what Similarly, 40 per cent say NDA
citizens consume, 28 per cent think
status changed since policies benefit the poor and unem
it has no right to do so. the NDA came to power ployed, only 13 per cent say UPA did
in May 2014? better. Even if NDA numbers have
WHY HAS MODI’S POPULARITY come down marginally from 44 per
RISEN 10 PER CENT? REMAINS THE SAME cent in February, support for the
Given voter pessimism on the eco UPA has halved from 25 per cent.
nomy, why has Modi gained 10 per 42 Though voters feel the Modi gov
cent in popularity? There is his per 37 ernment’s efforts in tackling poverty,
sonal charisma, of course. A bou inequality and corruption are below
ntiful monsoon too has replaced BECOME BETTER par, 55 per cent say it is better than
despair in the countryside with hope 40 the previous UPA, up 8 per cent
for a bumper kharif crop. However, from February. Only 15 per cent
history shows that governments 43 voters think the Modi government
in India are dislodged by two sets BECOME WORSE is worse than the UPA, the same as
of factors: voter ire combined with 10 in February. The Congress should
alternative leadership provided worry why the 27 per cent who said
by Opposition parties. Voters turn 14 the NDA’s performance was the same
against the incumbent government as the UPA’s in February has dropped
when there is a relative decline in NOW FEB 2016 to 17 per cent in six months.
their economic status. This coin Forty per cent voters feel their
cides usually when the economy is status has improved under the
in a tailspin, or if there is a major Should the government NDA compared to the UPA era; only
scam involving government officials. 10 per cent feel it has deteriora
However, unorganised voters, even
decide what citizens ted, while 42 per cent say it is the
if angry, can soon disperse if there is consume (in the light of same. However, when it comes to
no one to rally them. beef ban and prohibition)? the Modi campaign slogan of ‘Achhe
An alternative leadership from Din’, only 33 per cent say they are
Opposition parties can channelise in the midst of that muchvaunted
57
voter anger into a popular move paradise, 7 per cent less than in
ment directed against the govern
ment. Anna Hazare’s movement
28 February, while 35 per cent answer
in the negative, a rise of 4 per cent
against corruption in 2013, or V.P. NO from six months ago. ‘Achhe din’ is
YES
Singh’s crusade against the Rajiv an aspiration that seems to elude
Gandhi government in 1989 or the the voters, while the voters’ current
Jayaprakash Narayanled anti economic status is tangible.
Emergency agitation circa 1975 are The paradox of surging prime
a few such examples. The MOTN
Do you think the ‘Achhe ministerial popularity despite voter
survey indicates voter alienation Din’ promised by Modi in discontent over perceived economic
and anger over economic issues. the 2014 campaign have underperformance may not last. An
However, Opposition leaders have arrived for you? incumbent government can come
failed miserably in converting this undone if people’s movements or
angry voter sentiment into a popu Opposition unity combines with
REMAINS THE SAME
lar movement against the Modi voter disenchantment. So far, the
government, something that has 35 Opposition’s inability to organise
worked to its advantage. 31 protests against the NDA’s handling
of the economy has worked for PM
NDA’S MID-COURSE BECOME WORSE Modi. That could change unless
CORRECTION 33 the NDA starts addressing the root
The Modi government has carefully causes of voter disaffection—job
40 less growth, price rise, increasing
handled voter alienation with mid
course corrections—the 2016 bud inequality and corruption. The NDA
get aimed at assisting farmers and BECOME BETTER government will be the final loser if it
the rural poor. This reflects in the 20 fails to grasp that the economy is the
MOTN survey where 51 per cent ultimate determinant of successful
say the Modi government is work
22 governance in the long run.
ing for farmer welfare as opposed NOW FEB 2016 Follow the writer on Twitter @Ajitarticle
Rest, Don’t know/Can’t say All figures in per cent

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COVER STORY MOOD OF THE NATION CONGRESS
GETTYIMAGES
32%
respondents feel
that Sonia Gandhi
has performed
well as Congress
president
A SHAKY HAND
A wavering Congress vice-president fritters away his gains. Can
Rahul Gandhi take points off the Modi government in the next round?
By Kaushik Deka
I
T WAS 2009. AN ASSAM unit counterparts—they were asked to The incident is a telling example
Youth Congress worker stood raise an alarm if they found leaders of why Rahul, now party vice-pres-
mesmerised in the corner of a working against the party’s inter- ident, cannot maintain his popular-
packed auditorium where Rahul ests. Three months later, that same ity for long. The Mood of the Nation
Gandhi, the then Congress gen- youth was penalised for criticis- poll sees a sharp fall in his ratings—
eral secretary, was delivering a fiery ing a senior leader at a party plat- while 22 per cent supported him
speech. The 27-year-old felt a new form. In despair, he tried to reach as a prime ministerial candidate
sense of empowerment as Rahul out to Rahul’s office, but got a terse in February 2016, only 13 per cent
described Youth Congress mem- response: “Please settle the issue do so now. The resurgence was the
bers as watchdogs of their senior with your immediate seniors.” result of a new political grammar the

Who is the best prime
ministerial candidate
for the Congress?
41
RAHUL GANDHI
Feb.
2016
29 30 29
Aug.
Aug. Aug.
2015
2014 20 2016
Apr.
2015
SONIA GANDHI
20 19 18
Aug. 13 Feb. Aug.
2014 10 2016 2016
Apr.
33%
2015 Aug.
2015
respondents feel
PRIYANKA GANDHI
Rahul Gandhi’s per-
formance has been
11 11
good as Congress 9 8
vice-president Apr. 7 Aug.
Aug. 2015 Feb. 2016
2014 Aug.
VIKRAM SHARMA 2015 2016
Gandhi scion had adopted after Congress general secretary. In fact, Rest: Don’t know/Can’t say and
others; all figures in per cent
his now-famous 56-day Vipassana a JNU professor was recently con-
course abroad. He found his voice sulted by several AICC members
and raised the pitch. He invented on “how to sound secular but not
new term-inology (“suit boot ki anti-Hindu”. Who do you think can
sarkar”). Just 45 Congress Lok And after the blow in Assam, revive the Congress?
Sabha members ensured that Rahul was quick to give in to the
31
the government could not pass demands of Amarinder Singh
amendments to the land acquisi- in Punjab and fall back on old
tion bill. stalwart Sheila Dikshit for Uttar
But alas, it didn’t last. Rahul Pradesh, a desperate attempt to Only someone from the
rarely has an alternative strat- revive the fortunes of the party in Gandhi family
egy when the political discourse the two states.
37
doesn’t follow the script he has Yet there is still no sign of the
rehearsed. He lost no time in much-anticipated reshuffle of
making common cause with JNU the AICC, the latest excuse being
students in the sedition debate Sonia Gandhi’s shoulder surgery. Someone from the Congress but
but failed in his response when Meanwhile, the V-P is busy plan- outside the Gandhi family
the Modi government and Sangh ning his second round of attacks
32
Parivar changed the narrative to a on the Modi government over the
test of nationalism and patriotism. rights of tribals over forest areas.
“He didn’t prepare a counter-nar- But the questions, as with all things
rative and allowed the Hindutva Rahul, are: How long will it last? Don’t know/Can’t say
bigots to steal the show,” says a And how far will he go with it? All figures in per cent

COVER STORY MOOD OF THE NATION THE MAHAGATHBANDHAN
AN
ALLIANCE
OF NECESSITY
The numbers suggest that the Modi-led NDA is
practically unbeatable in a head-to-head poll fight.
Will Opposition parties team up to take them on?
By Kunal Pradhan
A
S THE LEADERS a uniquely Indian crucible called
OF INDIA’S top ‘Others’. The MOTN survey suggests
political parties set that the NDA would get 40 per cent
the wheels of their of the vote share if Lok Sabha elec-
2019 ambitions tions were held today, up 3 percent-
in motion—either age points from the last survey, six Which coalition can
through rallies in months ago. This rise costs the UPA successfully challenge the
election-bound Uttar Pradesh and one percentage point, and ‘Others’ NDA government in 2019?
Punjab or through photo-ops with two percentage points.
Dalits in Gujarat—the key question However, that is not to say that
is this: will the next Lok Sabha elec- the NDA can afford to rest: a poten-
tions be fought on a national ver-
sus national platform or a national
versus regional plank? The answer
tial ‘Federal Front’—a coalition of
the UPA and regional parties—could
emerge as the principal challenger
31
[27]
is crucial in determining the kind for control of the national govern- UPA
of Opposition that Prime Minister ment. This would be the case if the
Narendra Modi will face two-and-a- UPA and large sections of Others—
half years from now, and whether he
will be able to muster the numbers
who currently cancel each other out
in several states by directly compet- 16
required for a second term. ing with each other—could some- [25]
The latest india today-Karvy Mood
of the Nation (MOTN) survey offers
how form a united Opposition.
But is this Federal Front a pipe
25
[ ]
NONE
29
some interesting insights into Indian dream, a rickety political structure Rest: Don’t
politics and the people at the fore- threatened by ego clashes and endan- know/
front of it. Broadly, the import is that gered by a collision of interests? Or Can’t say
the BJP-led NDA is far ahead of its is there a glue that can somehow
national rival, the Congress-led UPA, hold it together? When asked which Third Front/ All figures
and is also comfortably ahead of coalition could challenge the NDA Mahagathbandhan in per cent
regional parties—parties that form in 2019, 31 per cent of the survey’s Figures in [ ] are from Feb 2016

Who is the best performing
chief minister?
Nitish Kumar
14
15
Arvind Kejriwal
14
15
Mamata Banerjee
10
8
NOW FEB 2016
Who is the best

performing chief
minister*?
Nitish Kumar
87
83
Shivraj Singh Chouhan
81
GETTYIMAGES 80
respondents suggested it would be Aadmi Party is the man to lead the Raman Singh
the UPA. Twenty-five per cent said it Mahagathbandhan, 11 per cent back 70
would be the Mahagathbandhan— Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,
the amorphous group of former foes and 8 per cent opt for Trinamool
74
who rose to power in Bihar in col- Congress chief Mamata. It’s here * Respondents from the candidate’s
laboration with the Congress, which that the Congress comes in as a pos- respective home states
is hoping to spread its wings by win- sible binding force, because 23 per
ning over regional leaders such as cent of respondents still feel that
Mamata Banerjee, J Jayalalithaa, Rahul Gandhi is the best alternative Who according to you is best
Naveen Patnaik, Arvind Kejriwal, to Modi. When you add his mother suited to lead the non-BJP,
and Mulayam Singh Yadav/ Sonia’s 9 per cent and his sister non-Congress Third Front or
Mayawati. This cobbling together Priyanka Vadra’s 4 per cent to the
of numbers to fight a common mix, the Gandhi family’s grand total the Mahagathbandhan?
enemy is not new to Indian politics. swells to 36 per cent.
It was the Congress that was at the Should the Mahagathbandhan go
14 11 8
receiving end in 1977 and 1989, it alone, or does it make more sense
and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led to form a Federal Front? The num-
BJP in 1996; but the short tenure bers suggest the latter would stand
and shoddy performance of each of a better chance in 2019. But lots of
those patchwork governments indi- moving parts will have to fall into
cate that keeping such an alliance place for this dream (or nightmare, Arvind Nitish Mamata
together is no walk in the park. depending on your political leanings) Kejriwal Kumar Banerjee
While 14 per cent say that to become a reality. Rest: Don’t know/Can’t say and others
Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Follow the writer on Twitter @_kunal_pradhan All figures in per cent

MAN OF
THE WORLD
Most believe that the Narendra-Modi led
NDA government has been a boon for
India’s international relations
By Sandeep Unnithan
COVER STORY MOOD OF THE NATION FOREIGN POLICY
45%
more than two-decade-old ‘look east’
policy, the NDA’s proactive stance—
including renaming and reorienting
respondents feel that this policy to ‘act east’—has led to a
relations with China have number of diplomatic coups.
improved since the NDA The NDA’s foreign policy is
came to power designed to enlarge India’s glob-
al footprint. To this end, there is
increased engagement with countries
that are essential to India’s interests.
How have India’s foreign Despite the broad pillorying of Modi’s
relations fared since frequent travels, there is a method
the Narendra Modi-led to the madness; as the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace
NDA government came put it: ‘[they] are in fact anchored in
to power? the astute recognition that India’s
domestic success is inextricably
linked to how it can shape its exter-
Don’t nal environment to national advan-
know/ WORSE
Can’t say tage.’ These visits, as foreign minister
18 14 Sushma Swaraj clarified recently, are

meant to further India’s strategic and
11 commercial interests, to open up busi-
SAME ness opportunities, or, in the case of
57
prime minister Modi’s upcoming visit
to Vietnam—the first by an Indian PM
in 15 years—meant to tap a poten-
BETTER tial strategic Southeast Asian hedge
against an assertive China.
In either case, politics is mostly
about perception. In that regard, the
Modi government has been undoubt-
How has the NDA edly successful. Forty-eight per cent
government handled of respondents felt that India’s rela-
tions with the US had significantly
relations with Pakistan?
A
improved since the NDA government
FTER TWO YEARS came to power. (Modi’s own relation-
OF ACHHE DIN, the ship with the US has vastly improved
Don’t
Narendra Modi-led know/ as well—from being denied a visa in
NDA government’s
primary claim to
success appears
Can’t say
25
28WELL
2005 to being called a ‘partner and
friend’ by Barack Obama in 2015.)
Closer home, the perception remains
to be the robust that the NDA’s foreign policies
9 BADLY
38
foreign policy espoused by the prime have been a success, despite mixed
minister. Fifty-seven per cent of results on the ground. China, which
respondents to the india today-Karvy remains a geopolitical challenge for
Mood of the Nation survey believe SATISFACTORILY every government in New Delhi, was
that India’s foreign relations have recently successful in blocking India’s
improved. All figures in per cent bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers
In the past two years, Modi has Group. This underlines the fact that,
48%
travelled abroad more than 50 Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam notwith-
times, visiting 42 countries includ- standing, India and China are still at
ing the US, UK, Russia, France, loggerheads on a number of issues.
China and Germany. Closer home, Even so, almost half the survey
respondents feel that
his directives have led to an increase respondents felt that India’s relation-
relations with the US
in cross-border diplomacy; media ship with China has improved since
have significantly
reports dubbed this a ‘neighbour- the NDA came to power.
improved since the NDA
hood first’ policy. Developing India’s Follow the writer on Twitter @SandeepUnnithan
came to power

COVER STORY MOOD OF THE NATION ENTERTAINMENT AND SPORTS
BANDEEP SINGH
Who in your opinion has
THE BRUTE
been the No. 1 heroine
in 2015-16?
BANDWAGON
The nation does not care for thinking actors,
we like our heroes good-looking and fallible
By Suhani Singh
I
NDIAN CINEMAGOERS respondents prefer the Airlift actor
HAVE a propensity to forgive compared to Aamir’s 6 per cent. It
and forget when it comes to has as much to do with Aamir not
Salman Khan, the man who having a release last year as with
can get away with comparing his comments on censorship during
his experience of pretend- Pahlaj Nihalani’s reign.
ing to be a wrestler to that of The actresses’s popularity rat-
a sexually assaulted woman. Such ings are more stable. Deepika
is his exalted status that his apparel Padukone is down only slightly from
14%
company, Being Human, may as well the February 2016 MOTN poll, where
unveil a T-shirt that says, ‘In Bhai We she led with 16 per cent. Much like
Believe’. His larger-than-life presence Priyanka Chopra, who ranked sec-
in Sultan (2016) has catapulted it to ond, Padukone has her eyes set on
Deepika Padukone
the third-highest earning film of all Hollywood and spent a chunk of 2016
time behind only his own production, shooting her international debut,
Bajrangi Bhaijaan, and PK (2014). xXx: Return of Xander Cage, with Vin
That Salman, unlike his peers Aamir
and Shah Rukh, has maintained a
Diesel. At a recent India Today TV
event, the actress said that American 11
Priyanka
silence on rising intolerance has only TV does not interest her professional-
won him more admirers, includ- ly. Riding high on her career-best per- Chopra
ing in government, which appointed formance in Piku, Padukone stands
him the Indian Olympic Association’s tall on the merit of her own star power
goodwill ambassador for Rio 2016. So
what if he can’t get Dipa Karmakar’s
in Tamasha and Bajirao Mastani.
Year 2016 will be a rare one for her,
10
Katrina
name correct? For Bhai, it’s all about without a single release, but the same Kaif
being human. And humans err. is true of her closest rival, Bajirao
From the Mood of the Nation poll Mastani co-star, Priyanka Chopra.
in April 2015, when Salman had
only a 1 percentage point advantage
Anushka Sharma has gained,
having featured in two of the biggest 10
Anushka
over Shah Rukh, he now enjoys a films (PK and Sultan). With a 10 per
healthy 10 percentage point lead over cent score, six points ahead of three- Sharma
both SRK and Amitabh Bachchan. time National Award-winning actress
Meanwhile, Aamir, who in April ’15 Kangana Ranaut, Sharma is proving
was tied with Shah Rukh, with 14 per to be a contender for Heroine No. 1.
of Indians
47%
cent respondents picking him as their As Katrina Kaif languishes and ties
favourite actor, has fallen behind. with Sharma at the third spot, watch feel that films
Akshay Kumar, in the meantime, has out for new entrant Alia Bhatt. need to be
inched forward. Seven per cent of Follow the writer on Twitter @suhani84 censored

THE BRAVE NEW
FACE OF CRICKET
T
HERE IS A TIDE IN THE AFFAIRS OF
sportsmen, with apologies to
Shakespeare, which taken at the
flood leads on to greatness. If Sachin
Tendulkar rode that tide between 1996 and
1997—when he struck seven Test centuries in
five continents and added another 11 ODI hun-
dreds for good
measure to estab-
16%
Mahendra
lish himself as the
world’s best bats-
man—Virat Kohli
Singh Dhoni
has ridden it from
the second half
8%
of 2014 to 2016.
Though there is
Sania still a huge statis-
Mirza tical gulf between
the two, Kohli has
JAYESH PANDYA
established him-
self as the premier Indian sporting icon of the
next generation. Like with Tendulkar, it’s not
just what Kohli does, but how he does it. The
19%
Who in your opinion aggressive demeanour on the field is slowly get-
ting tempered, even as the aggressive streak
has been the No. 1 hero at the crease is being honed. With him batting,
in 2015-16? Salman Khan like with Sachin in his prime, India always has a
chance. Little wonder then that Kohli is India’s
favourite—way ahead of the rest. by Kunal Pradhan
9 Shah Rukh
Khan
26%
respondents feel 33
GETTYIMAGES
that appointments Virat Kohli—the

to professional undisputed
9
number 1
bodies such as sportsperson in
FTII, NIFT were 2015-16
Amitabh more politically
Bachchan
motivated during
Manmohan Singh’s
7
Congress regime
Akshay
Kumar
6 Aamir
Khan
BIG STORY ISIS SLEEPER CELLS
THE VEILED
THREAT
A spate of conversions to radical Islam has Kerala worried.
Evangelical outfits are now on the radar of security agencies
By Jeemon Jacob
O
n August 11, the Kerala pol- left from north Kerala and boarded
ice arrested two people who flights to Iran and have apparently
were recruiting a 21-year- crossed over to ISIS-controlled terri-
old girl for an unusual task. tory in Afghanistan. Among them
She was to go and fight as a foot sol- was Nimisha, 23, a Hindu girl from
dier for the Islamic State in Yemen. Thiruvananthapuram, studying to be
Thirty-eight-year-old Sheena Farzana a dentist. She had embraced Islam,
and 28-year-old Naser, volunteers of changed her name to Fatima, and
Sathyasarani, a Muslim charitable married Bexton, a Catholic, who had
trust run by the radical outfit Popular converted in 2015. Her mother, K.
Front of India (PFI), were arrested on Bindu, has had no news since they left
charges of abduction of the 21-year-old home on May 28. “I don’t know where new and dangerous spin. Certainly,
(name withheld) from Cherpulassery my daughter has gone. I just want her it has forced the police into action.
town in Palakkad district. back home okay,” Bindu told india today. The ‘ISIS 21’ were charged under the
Police say the girl, a Hindu, was Stories like these have given Kerala’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act
‘influenced’ into converting to Islam urban ‘love jehad’ legend—supposedly (UAPA), usually reserved for terror-
while working at a private firm in ‘entrapped’ conversions to Islam—a ist organisations, on August 4. The
Perinthalmanna, Malappuram distr- state intelligence branch has also pre-
ict. Officials say P. Noufal (now in ANOTHER FAITH pared a report on the conversions. The
Yemen) of Perinthalmanna was her report, accessed by india today, reveals
*Yearwise conversions to Islam;
initial handler before Naser, a mem- that between 2011 and 2015, 5,975
76% women under 35
ber of Sathyasarani’s Da’wa squad 1,149 people in the state converted to Islam;
(wandering proselytisers), took over. 1,410 did so last year alone. An over-
1,023
“Noufal led her to believe that heaven whelming number, 76 per cent, of the
867 901 902
was possible only if she lived like a true new converts are women below 35,
Muslim…and fought for Islam,” says like Nimisha. In January-February
A.R. Ajithkumar, IGP, Thrissur range. this year, 224 Hindus and 60 Christians
The state police has alerted Inter- converted to Islam at a rate of roughly
pol regarding Noufal’s role in ISIS rec- three new converts a day.
ruitments in the state. But records of 208 235 233 260 224 Most such cases were not investi-
195
a spate of such cases over the past gated in the past because there were no
60
few weeks has created ripples across complaints after the courts dismissed
Kerala. It began with the sensational 1 the missing person plaints filed by the
disappearance of 21 people in July 201 201
2 2013 2014 2015 201
6
parents. The 21-year-old from the lat-
this year. Members of five families HINDUS est case was traced to the Sathyasarani
(all of whom knew each other), they CHRISTIANS *Source: Kerala Police report trust premises in Cherani village,
K. BINDU (FAR
LEFT) AND HER
MISSING DAUGH-
TER, NIMISHA,
ONE OF THE 21
PEOPLE WHO
HAVE REPORTEDLY
JOINED ISIS IN
AFGHANISTAN
‘campus recruitments’, targeting edu-

cated Christian and Hindu women”,
says a senior police official.
The Sathyasarani Trust came on
the police radar only recently, when
21-year-old Aparna Vijayan, daugh-
ter of a widowed defence official from
Thiruvananthapuram, vanished from
her hostel in Kochi. She converted to
Islam, taking on the name Shahana,
MANU R MAVELIL
and married Siyad, an autorick-
shaw driver. A complaint by her mot-
her, Mini Vijayan, on March 30 led
to a habeas corpus petition. Aparna
Malappuram district. When sum- century CE. Five of the missing ‘ISIS then appeared in court, accompa-
moned before the high court on July 21’ were followers of this movement, nied by Sumayya, who works with
15, she talked of her desire to convert and had even taken religious courses Sathyasarani. She told the court she
to Islam. The court sent her to a hos- at a Sri Lankan Salafist centre. had converted of her own volition.
tel instead. On her second appearance A worrying factor is that a majority Islamic scholar T. Abdul Rehman
(August 5), she said she wanted to go of the neo-converts belong to affluent Baqavi, director of the Sathyasarani
back to her parents. families and hold professional degrees Trust, scoffs at any illegal connections.
Only a minuscule number of con- or are students in professional colleges. “We are functioning legally and we are
verts thus far have had ‘links’ with the During investigations into the ‘ISIS 21’, open to verification by any government
IS. But security agencies are alarmed the police say they uncovered a conver- agency,” he told india today. “Even if we
by the possibility that some of them sion network, operating through front evangelise, what’s wrong with it? Our
could become potential sleeper terror organisations like the Niche of Truth, Constitution guarantees freedom of
cells. Intelligence officials also believe Peace Education Foundation and Zakir speech and the practice of our faith.”
that the actual figures of conversions Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation The institution has a 500-volunteer-
may be much higher than reported. (IRF). Incidentally, Muslims comprise strong Da’wa squad to do its work in
Authorities say that neo-Salafism, about 27 per cent of the state’s 33.3 Kerala. The trust’s website says it sup-
which promotes a revanchist Islam, million population and proselytisa- ports new converts emotionally and
has struck root in the state. A group tion is not new. But police say these socially. According to Baqavi, they only
calling themselves the ‘Dammaj new organisations have taken it to convert people who approach them
Salafis’ live in a cloistered commun- far more sophisticated levels. Tech- voluntarily with proper documents.
ity in Nilambur in Malappuram. savvy recruiters work in professional The police, however, are not convin-
Much like the Amish in the United colleges targeting women from other ced. “Conversions are engineered by
States, they shun modern technology religions. A string of such recent cases a group, which is part of a global net-
and hark back to the primitive life in like those of Nimisha, Merin Jacob and work. We suspect the group is working
Prophet Mohammad’s time in seventh Aparna Vijayan, “reveal a pattern of with a hidden agenda—evangelising

BIG STORY ISIS SLEEPER CELLS
IRF MEMBER ARSHID QURESHI BEING PRODUCED IN A KOCHI COURT

non-Muslims and radicalising them,”
an official says. Baqavi denies the cha-
rges and clarifies that his organisation
is against the IS and terror activities.
“We have been here for the last 18
years,” he says. “But now a section of
the media and Hindu fundamentalist
forces are attacking us, saying there’s
large-scale conversion to Islam.”
The police say most missing cases
investigations end up at these religious
centres. “When we raid the centres,
they produce the girl before the court
and make a public statement that she
wilfully converted. If there is no crime,
A S SATHEESH
the police has no role,” a senior police

official points out. The majority of the
converted women then practically
disappear, according to the police,
behind the veil of a burqa. Their fami-
lies are unable to trace them and they engineered around 800 conversions against radicalisation of Islam. Abdul
are given up for dead. The women in Mumbai, and also conducted 113 Rashid was a master trainer of teach-
also wipe out any traces of their old marriages in the past three years. ers in our organisation, but we had
identity—they change names, destroy The Kerala police is now investigating no idea about his IS links,” Akbar told
passports and old signatures. All of the IRF’s role in recent conversions in india today. But the police and National
which makes it that much more diffi- the state. Officials say they are also Investigation Agency are leaving noth-
cult for security agencies to track them tracking the fund sources of around ing to chance: Akbar’s organisations
down later. 10 organisations (including Niche of and funding sources are also now
Truth, Sathyasarani, Peace Education under the scanner.
O
n July 28, the Kerala police Trust, Salafi centres in Kochi and State Planning Board member and
arrested Arshid Qureshi, Kozhikode) in the same cases. ex-Kerala University vice-chancellor
guest relationship officer at Another link popped up after police Dr B. Iqbal blames it on the ‘Saudi
Zakir Naik’s IRF, and another person, from north Kerala’s Kasargod district Arabiasation’ of Islam in Kerala. “Ker-
Rizwan, from Mumbai. They were arrested Yasmin, 29, from Bihar’s ala society always had a rich progres-
arrested on the basis of an FIR lodged Sitamarhi district, when she tried to sive tradition of living in communal
in Kochi by Merin Jacob’s brother Ebin fly to Kabul to join the others gone harmony. But that shield is eroding
Jacob, after she went missing with her missing from the state. Yasmin was fast. We have to reorient our youth
husband Yahya (part of the ‘ISIS 21’). working at three centres of the Peace against a fragmented minority sect
Jacob alleges that Merin was forc- International School till last December that is destabilising our communal
ibly converted by Qureshi and Bestin and had close links with Abdul Rashid harmony. Our campuses must be vigi-
Vincent alias Yahya. The remand of Trikaripur village (in Kasargod), lant, democratic students’ organisa-
report states that the duo converted who is missing with his family and tions can play a role here,” he says.
Merin in September 2014 and recrui- helped the ‘ISIS 21’ fly abroad. The Kerala conversions controve-
ted her for IS. Rizwan, 53, the third M.M. Akbar, a popular Islamic rsy has been going on for some time
accused, allegedly facilitated the con- orator and managing trustee of the now. In the 2009 Shahan Sha case,
version and marriage. Peace International schools, is baf- then Kerala High Court Justice K.T.
Kochi range IGP S. Sreejith says fled by his staff’s involvement with Sankaran had even directed the state
investigations found that Arshid has the IS. “I’ve taken a consistent stand to consider appropriate legislation to
make ‘forced conversions’ an offence.
In his verdict, the judge had pointed
“KERALA’S RICH PROGRESSIVE TRADITION IS out, “It is clear that this is being done
ERODING FAST. WE HAVE TO REORIENT OUR YOUTH with the blessings of some outfits...this
should be of great concern to the peo-
AGAINST A FRAGMENTED MINORITY SECT THAT IS
ple at large and to the government.”
DESTABILISING OUR COMMUNAL HARMONY” DGP Jacob Punnoose had then submit-
DR B. IQBAL, Planning Board member ted a report in the HC denying that ‘love
jehad’ existed on campuses in Kerala.
Clearly, warnings were ignored. n

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E-COMMERCE
INDIAN E-TAILERS
FEEL AMAZON HEAT
A downturn in investor sentiment, new government norms
and overseas rivals are forcing homegrown online
retailers to seek newer ways to stay afloat
By M.G. Arun
L
ast October, Flipkart ann embarrassment, its app crashed, March prohibited etailers from offer
ounced its ‘Big Billion Days’ leaving many buyers redfaced. ing big discounts on their platforms.
sales from the 13th to the “Anything you click goes out of stock. The government also capped total
17th of the month, one Flipkart should stop this flop show,” sales originating from a group comp
of many in the homebred online tweeted Vicky Vohra, an aggrieved any or one vendor on an ecommerce
retailer’s nearly 10 years of exis customer. Ecommerce giants like platform at 25 per cent. The norms
tence, during which it has sold hun Flipkart will exercise caution in hold came at a sobering time for India’s
dreds of products at deep discounts. ing such mega sales blitzes again, ecommerce sector, with invest
However, much to the company’s especially after the government in ors holding back funds and even
Illustration by ANIRBAN GHOSH

‘established’ etailers wallowing in
losses. With tightening of norms on
the one hand and a shrinking of busi
10.2BILLION DOLLARS
*(RS 68,136 CR), VALUE OF
equity players who have bankrolled
over 2,000 of India’s startups over
the past 10 years, want more bang for
GOODS SOLD ON ONLINE
ness on the other, froth in the segment PLATFORMS FOR THE YEAR TO
their buck. A KPMG and CB Insights
finally seems to be settling down. MAY ’16; $=RS 66.80 study says private equity and VC firms
“The irrational exuberance has infused just $1.15 billion (Rs 7,682
subsided as of now,” says Ashvin Vell crore) in the three months to March
264
ody, a partner with consulting firm in Indian startups, 24 per cent lower
KPMG India. Companies are now than in the December 2015 quar
devising new strategies to keep custo ter. USbased mutual fund T. Rowe
mers engaged and shopping more Price, which had invested about $100
online, despite the restrictions on dis million (Rs 668 crore) in Flipkart in
counts. For instance, Amazon India, PER CENT December 2014, marked down its
an arm of the US multinational, has JUMP IN LOSSES OF 22 shares in the study company by 15
built its India strategy on the three TOP ONLINE PLAYERS IN per cent in April. In July, it further cut
simple pillars of massive selection, 2014-15, TO RS 7,900 CR the value of its stake by a fifth, even
low prices and fast delivery, similar as the etailer said it was cutting 300
to their global standards. It recently 600 jobs to reduce costs.
55
added to its offering a valueadded A markdown in shares means
service called Amazon Prime, which a lower overall company valuation,
promises speedier delivery among making it cheaper for a potential
other benefits. Flipkart unveiled Fli buyer, in case of a stake sale. This was
pkart Lite in 2015, a web app built to Flipkart’s third major setback after
give users a rich experience online February 2016, when another inves
MILLION
and offline. To expand its customer tor, Morgan Stanley, marked down
NUMBER OF PRODUCTS
base, Snapdeal launched flight and its shares by 27 per cent. Meanwhile,
AVAILABLE ON THE
bus ticket bookings, hotel reservations AMAZON ONLINE STORE investors are reportedly reluctant to
and food ordering services on its plat pour in fresh funds into Snapdeal at
form in July, the first etailer to do so. *All figures are for online retailers in India valuations expected by its promoters.
The endresult of these new eff “It’s a sentiment downturn, irratio
orts is heartwarming. Media reports nal exuberance has come down in
say that the total gross merchandise & Promotion (DIPP), which came up the ecommerce segment...investors
value (GMV), or the value of all goods with the new guidelines, also clarified are cautious,” says Avnish Bajaj, MD,
sold through various online retail on the definitions of marketplace and Matrix Partners, a private equity firm.
platforms, grew 13.3 per cent year inventoryled models. In the first, The revenues of most successful
onyear to $10.2 billion (Rs 68,136 an ecommerce firm provides an IT startups so far were thanks to the
crore) at the end of May 2016. Much platform on a digital and electronic deep discounts they offered, which
of this growth was from Amazon network to act as a facilitator between in turn was driven by investors’ lar
India, which grew to $2.7 billion buyer and seller. On the other hand, gesse. But that is set to change. It has
(Rs 18,036 crore) from $1 billion in an inventorybased model, the to, for it’s high time ecommerce play
(Rs 6,680 crore) last year. Meanwhile, ecommerce entity owns goods and ers focused on a sustainable model,
Flipkart’s GMV remained unchanged services which are sold to consumers which also brings in steady profits.
at $4 billion (Rs 26,720 crore directly. A marketplace entity will be As of now, the situation is bleak. The
approx.), while Snapdeal’s GMV permitted to enter into transactions combined revenues of 22 top ecom
halved to $1.2 billion (Rs 8,016 crore with sellers registered on its platform merce players grew 191 per cent in
approx.), reports said. on a B2B basis, the DIPP clarified. fiscal 201415 while their total losses
To be sure, the restrictions on jumped 264 per cent to Rs 7,900
etailers came along with a big bon THE FUNDS SQUEEZE crore, a study by Kotak Institutional
anza. The government allowed 100 Equities shows.
per cent FDI in ecommerce in the Can this be a sign of maturity in the Now for the positives. India off
‘marketplace’ model, bringing in segment, a more nuanced approach ers one of the hottest markets for
more clarity on foreign investments from ecommerce players? Possibly, ecommerce. At almost 252 million,
in the sector (Flipkart and Snapdeal but it comes at a time when there has the country has the third highest
have foreign investors on board). been much pain. Investors, includ number of internet subscribers in the
The Department of Industrial Policy ing venture capitalists and private world after the US and China. This

E-COMMERCE
number is expected to double in the WHAT INDIA with over 55 million products. It has
next five years. Much of online buy BUYS ONLINE 1.3 billion products at its fulfilment
ing happens over the mobile phone. 3 centres (industry jargon for ware
The country is the second largest 2 houses) ready to be shipped out.
smartphone market, behind China, 3 “This is the largest selection by order
with 235 million subscribers in the of magnitude and we are very excited
quarter ended March 2016, says res about it,” says Agarwal. For low pri
earch firm IDC. Forrester, another 7 32 ces, Amazon focuses on the simple
research firm, finds that only 14 per Products principle it follows globally—lower
purchased online.
cent of Indian internet users (some Categories by operations costs for sellers. The com
35 million) shop online, but adds that 17 Gross Merchandise pany owns 21 fulfilment centres in 10
Value, 2014
the number will grow to 128 million states. In July this year, it opened its
by 2018. Industry body Assocham largest centre in Sonepat, Haryana,
maintains that India’s ecommerce spread across 200,000 sq. ft with a
31
sector was worth $23 billion (Rs 1.53 capacity of over 800,000 cu. ft.
lakh crore) in calendar 2015, and Mobiles, tablets and accessories Meanwhile, Flipkart launched
will touch $38 billion (Rs 2.53 lakh Fashion, footwear and accessories pickup stores last year to allow
crore) by end2016. Computers, cameras, electronics and customers to pick up delivery par
appliances Books Babycare cels at a convenient time, and has
Home decor Health and personal care
THE AMAZON EFFECT plans to launch 20 such centres in
Jewellery Others
10plus cities across India. It has its
Domestic players apart, overseas Source: Wazir Analysts; figures in per cent largest warehouse yet on the out
online retail giants like Amazon and skirts of Hyderabad, a 220,000 sq.
eBay too are eyeing a share of this ft tract of land with a storage capac
pie. Amazon, which entered India GAP IS HERE ity of almost 600,000 cu. ft. The
three years ago, is not only comm Internet users and online shoppers automated centre helps it expand
itting huge investments (founder China operations, serve customers better,
Jeff Bezos announced a $3 billion, 1,894 and also creates 17,000 jobs direc
641
or over Rs 20,000 crore, infusion in tly and indirectly in the district. Its
312
June this year), it is also building a logistics arm, EKart, has also tied
strong backend infrastructure and India up with Mumbai’s dabbawallas for
1,267
ensuring quicker product delivery. 243 Population better reach.
By January 2016, the company had 32 Internet users Snapdeal, which offers its portal
overtaken Snapdeal as the coun Online buyers in 10 Indian regional languages,
USA
try’s second largest online retailer 323 Source: Internet & Mobile has invested $300 million (over
(Flipkart is reportedly the largest). In 280 Association of India; all Rs 2,000 crore) over the past 18
165 figures in million
fact, in 201516, the company, which months to strengthen its logistics
earns from seller commissions, adv and supply chain. It has 63 fulfil
ertisement revenues and sales of its
Kindle ereader, grew sixfold over
THE BIG BULGE ment centres across 25 cities, and
has opened ‘integrated onetouch
Projected online retail
the previous fiscal. The portal was buyers, spending in India: 2015-2020 logistics centres’ in the top 10 Indian
the mostvisited commerce site in cities. “We have strengthened our
the country and also had the fast 200 flagship Snapdeal Plus (SD+) pro
Online buyers
est growing shopping app among all (mn) gramme, which screens product
150
ecommerce companies in 2015. quality and packaging, while having
“We are at a very early stage 100 endtoend visibility on all products
in the life cycle of ecommerce in 50
shipped through our centres,” says a
India, and very early in Amazon’s company spokesperson, adding that
life cycle in India,” says Amit 0 80 per cent of orders are fulfilled
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Agarwal, MD, Amazon India. “We through these SD+ facilities.
have a very longterm perspective 80
With the new discount norms in
Online spending
of what we want to do and what we place, how much more challenging
60 in India ($ bn)
want to achieve. We want to trans has it become for etailers to win
form how India buys and sells, and 40 over buyers? Amazon’s Agarwal is
in that process, do our little bit in 20
unfazed. “When we have the triple
transforming people’s lives.” effect of lower costs, higher sales and
0
Agarwal believes his company 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 lower defects, you make more abso
is today India’s largest online store, lute rupees per sale,” he says. “This
Source: Forrester Research

E-COMMERCE
MAIL
Gujarot
VIKRAM SHARMA
AUGUST 15, 2016
The BJP’s crisis intensifies after Anandiben’s exit. Can Modi save his home state?
The apparent ‘crisis’ in Gujarat is

the part of the media. Goondas
like Hardik will be taken care of
and the Patels will patch up.
IRFAN , via web
BOX IT UP
AMAZON
Guj turns Bad STAFF AT
One of the foremost THE of
rules
COMPANY’S
Your striking cover image Badal Thunders business management
LARGEST edu-
(Gujarat Model in Danger) Punjab deputy chief minister cation is applicable to Modi
‘FULFILMENT
is effectively a wake-up call CENTRE’
and his Gujarat: , IN
the real
Sukhbir Singh Badal has clearly not SONEPAT,
for the BJP. The party minced any words in his interview to test of a greatHARYANA
manager is
needs to realise that India your magazine (If comedy is key, all how his company functions
is a secular country that jokers will be CMs’). He is forthright, in his absence.
does not elect its leaders honest and brimming with confidence. Badal rightly says that KRISHAN KALRA, via e-mail
just
is on the basis
funnelled backofasreligion.
low prices and advertising firm Pinstorm and an
Kejriwal is an anarchist to the core, something the AAP chief him- it is generally low priced. That’s the
Linguistic,
that’s community,way for ‘every-
our sustainable early start-up
self had admitted entrepreneur,
to in the initial told for India winner strategy,”
days of protesting The situation in Gujarat
says Murthy. “Very
caste and regional affilia-
day low prices’ in India.” He alsoAgainst Corruption. india today in an
Badal’s earlier interview
observations on Sidhu and Amarinderslowly you will see the others that
was so out-of-hand also
tions
wel matter
comed theasclarifications
much as on FDI thatspot
Singh are also India’s
on. e-tailers were driving move into Modi this, aswas compelled
this is the only tosus-
give
development
in the marketplaceissues,model.
an- “We have themselves
B.R. SANT, Hyderabad to the edge by offering tainable a free
strategy hand
in to Shah,
e-commerce.” who
ti-incumbency
always welcomed andthea host
model in India, deep discounts, and that it was not a selectedishis
Sustainability protege
turning out to
of other local factors. For,
providing reach to tens of thousands if sustainable model. “Companies are Rupani.
be the most important word But, it’s unreason-
in the
religion
of sellerswere the onlylike
on services de-warehous-
being placed at the
in an helm spin,The
unhealthy whichBJPishas only itself
suici- to
e-commerce able to expect
lexicon. “The that
keya to
ciding
ing, factor, wouldn’t
fulfilment, logisticsthe of Gujarat’s
and much affairs. In this,
dal—except blame
in the case for the rot that
of Amazon,” has
business ischange
to reach of sustainability,”
guard will be
BJP have
more,” hebeen
adds.in power he superseded Nitin
he said. “InPatel, set inno
all of history, Gujarat.
one has Modi says
seems enoughfounder
Ben Nelson, to causeand theCEO BJP’s
since Independence? who was considered a
made money on discounts.” to be losing his shine just troubles to
of Minerva Schools, a California subside in
DISCOUNTS
LT COL A.E. CHARLES DON’T WORK frontrunner for
(RETD), Anthe Gujarat
active investor two years after he left
in start-ups, based start-up. Gujarat. Thecore
If your leadership
business is
Coimbatore CM post tillwho the did
verynot last.
want to Gujarat.
be named, Hesays
is making the
is sustainable, now youfaced canwiththen the pros-
invest
Some e-tailers say discounts have SUBHASH C.most AGARWAL, Delhiget into
e-tailers same
price mistakes
discount- in growth,pect
that are of containing
he adds. “If you allow the
Modi need hardly concern
never been their focus. “We don’t proving
ing, though they never admit to it. to be the undoing Patels and Dalits.
bloat to come in, you become less
himself
try to winwiththethe loss ofwith dis-The recentThe
market case of atroci-
Retailers of theof
Association Congress—not
India nur-
productive,” N.C.Nelson, who’sKerala
SREEDHARAN, also the
Gujarat Our
counts. sincewaythe ofblame ties against
keeping custom- Dalits
(RAI) hadand turing state-level leaders
taken on e-commerce former CEO of photo-sharing portal
lies loyal
ers squarelyis towith
customise products Anandiben’s inability
firms in Mayto2015 when lest they
it filedchallenge
a his
Snapfish, says. GST Gist
Anandiben Patel, who
for each phase of their lives andwas contain the resultant furor omnipresence.
case in the Delhi High Court accus- His decision MatrixAfter both Bajaj
Partners’ NDA and saysUPA
not able to handle either
through better customer service,” left the BJP with no choice to sideline
ing online retailers of misusing their veteran leaders played obstructionist
e-commerce will continue to grow roles
the PatelAshish
asserts agitation Shah,or the
founder but
of to execute immediate
foreign on the pretext
funding. “Discounting is of advancedexponentially in thein implementation
India, since the of
aftermath of the an
Pepperfry.com, flogging
onlineoffurniture
course correction
unhealthy, andbecause
has- theseage (above
firms are 75) was one underlyingthe Goods
drivers and
are Services
intact. More Tax
Dalits in Una. And Vijay
and home marketplace. The com- ten her imminent exit. such exercise, leaving the
conditioning customers to low prices, and more customers are buying since it was first proposed
Rupani
pany hasproved
created to be a
a suite Master strategist
of inhouse and willthat losehe is, the
them BJP to make
moment a choicegoods
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and thethemobile
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oming a chance tofor
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However, light of
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cannot afford to be
last minute.
gent quality control checks, and again and geredcan now theprevent
government heed
move American
to put writer Tom Everything
complacent. you wanted
For established players, to
A. SRIKANTAIAH, Bengaluru
every solid wood product is certi- its slipping out of the par-
the new norms in place. Peters quote: “Leaders know but were too
it is now time to focus on profitability. foxed to
fied using ‘international compliance ty’s hands in the forthcom-
“Amazon don’tacreate
discovered long time followers,Aftertheyall, noask).
oneAcan decade
afford ofto
temporis-
ignore
Factionalism
standards’ withinitthe
before is shippeding state assembly
out. ago that the election.
healthiestcreate
is the more leaders.”
‘every- basic business ing isfundamentals
over, and the for meas-long.
party led to Vijay Rupani HARSH DUBEY, via e-mail
Mahesh Murthy, founder of digital day low price’ model, which means KRISHNA BALRAJ SAHAY, Patna ure
Follow the writer on Twitter fragile
has achieved a @MGArun1
NATION FARMERS’ WIDOWS
Photographs by MANDAR DEODHAR
THE LIGHT OF
DEVOTION
VANMALA UGLE’S
BROTHER-IN-LAW
DISCONNECTED
THE POWER SUPPLY
TO HER HOUSE
AFTER HER
HUSBAND’S DEATH,
FORCING HER TO
LIVE IN DARKNESS
WITH TWO
TEENAGE
CHILDREN
THE W
hen she tied the knot at the
age of 18, Rupali Nagapure
had no regrets about set-
tling down so early in life.
TWICE
Her husband Sandeep was a farmer,
who grew soyabean and tur (pigeon pea)
on the two acres of farmland he owned
at Dongargaon in Maharashtra’s Akola
district. They had their own house, and
CURSED
after the birth of their son, Shivam, five
years ago, Rupali and Sandeep thought
they had everything they could ever
want. They were not rich, but they led
a comfortable life. Events took a bleak
turn four years ago. First, a weak mon-
SHATTERED BY THEIR HUSBANDS’ soon destroyed their crop. Sandeep took
SUICIDES AND FORSAKEN BY a loan of Rs 35,000 to get through the
year. The next year’s monsoon was no
THEIR IN-LAWS, VIDARBHA’S better, leading to another crop failure.
WIDOWS CAN’T EVEN TURN TO Frustrated—and now in debt—Sandeep
decided to end his life. Rupali was dis-
AN UNCARING STATE traught, but took solace in the fact that
she still had the farm. However, worse
By Kiran Tare was to come. Her in-laws told her that

they wanted her out of the house, would cost Rs 3,000—money that “Their names can’t be added to the
saying they were unwilling to carry she does not have. What she has 7/12 property extract unless they
her “burden”, she says, her eyes instead is a large stock of candles. hold 2.5 acres of land,” says Bondve.
filling with tears. “They wanted Two years ago, when her husband “That is why widows always remain
Shivam, not me. They said they Dnyandeo was still alive, her situa- nominees in their in-laws’ proper-
would raise him, look after him. But tion was not so grim. They lived in a ties, never owners. They have
how will I live without him?” joint-family home with Dnyandeo’s no other option but to work
A shattered Rupali returned to brother, Sukhdeo, and his family. as labourers.”
her mother’s house in Rustamabad, The two families cultivated soyabean Vanmala’s elder daughter Gayatri,
some 60 km from her in-laws’ place. on five acres of farmland, sharing 18, was forced to drop out of college,
She now works as a farm labour- the profits from the sale of the crop. while her younger daughter
er, earning Rs 100 a day to support Then, two years ago, tragedy struck. Vaishnavi, 11, is currently a student
Shivam. She is one of about 1,200 Unable to repay a loan of Rs 50,000 in the sixth standard. Her son
women who are the ultimate he had taken from moneylenders, Prashant, 17, studies in Mangrulpir,
victims of ‘farmer suicide’. Women Dnyandeo committed suicide. Soon
in Rupali’s position find themselves after, Sukhdeo snapped ties with
swiftly abandoned by relatives Vanmala and her family, saying he
after their husbands’ deaths. And could not afford their expenses. “He
while political parties are quick to put a partition in the house, (and)
extend sympathy when a suicide disconnected the electricity supply THESE WOMEN FIND
of this kind makes the news, no on my side as punishment for my THEMSELVES
one seems interested in the fate asking for a share of the farm yield,”
of the widows. says Vanmala. It has now been two
SWIFTLY ABANDONED
According to data tabled in the years since she last visited the farm; BY RELATIVES AFTER
Rajya Sabha in July 2016, 3,228 she is entitled to 1.5 acres but
farmers committed suicide in cannot legally claim ownership
THEIR HUSBANDS’
Maharashtra in 2015. That translates because the property documents DEATHS. POLITICAL
to almost nine farmers killing them- remain with Sukhdeo. PARTIES ARE QUICK
selves every single day for an entire Manda Bondve, an official with
year. Worse, this was the highest-ever the M.S. Swaminathan Foundation, TO EXTEND SYMPATHY
recorded number of suicides by farm- a Chennai-based NGO working WHEN FARMER
ers in the country. With 5.7 million for sustainable agriculture and
farmers, Vidarbha and Marathwada rural development, says that red SUICIDES MAKE THE
account for 83 per cent of all farmer tape stands in the way. In rural NEWS, BUT NO ONE
suicides in the state. In the first six Maharashtra, land ownership is
months of 2016, around 600 more often based on an official document IS INTERESTED IN THE
farmers killed themselves. Four dis- known as the ‘7/12 property extract’. FATE OF THE WIDOWS
tricts in Vidarbha—Amravati, Akola,
Yavatmal and Wardha—have earned
the unflattering distinction of being
‘death beds’ for farmers.
Vanmala Ugle, 40, a resident of
Borgaon in Akola, has learned to live
in darkness. She does not have much
of a choice: the Rs 1,000 she earns in
wages every week at the local mill is
only enough for her weekly expens-
es of Rs 900 on groceries and other
essentials. An electricity connection
WIDOW’S PIQUE
RUPALI NAGAPURE’S IN-LAWS
SAID THEY WOULD HELP HER
ONLY IF SHE HANDED OVER
HER SON, SHIVAM

NATION FARMERS’ WIDOWS
VICIOUS CYCLE
DURGA RAMGADE HAS
HAD TO TAKE LOANS
FROM MULTIPLE MICRO-
FINANCE FIRMS TO REPAY
HER ORIGINAL LOAN
around 100 km away, and works as a

tailor in his spare time. “We run the
house with the little money he is able
to send,” she says.
There is precious little government
help for people like her, apart from
the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana
(SGNY). Under this scheme, vulner-
able people—such as widows and
the elderly—get a pension of Rs 900
a month. However, Vanmala herself
doesn’t have any faith in the powers
that be. Not worldly ones anyway. in reducing expenditure and increas-
An ardent devotee of the 19th-centu- ing income through small entrepre-
ry Shegaon saint Gajanan Maharaj, neurship they will be less dependent
Vanmala has instead chosen to on loans.”
SUVARNA DAMLE
repose her trust in the divine. “God Sonali Saywan, 40, a widow from OF NGO PRAKRUTI
Saval in Amravati, saw her life spiral
will help me,” she says.
Twenty-six-year-old Durga downward after her husband
SAYS PROVIDING
Ramgade, a widow from Yarad village Gajanan committed suicide four years MONETARY HELP
in Yavatmal district, earns Rs 100 a ago, at the age of 41. Soon after, her TO WIDOWS
day as a farm labourer. A mother of father-in-law asked her to leave their
two, she took a loan of Rs 10,000 from home as he wanted to give both the IS NOT A
a microfinance company to run her house and the three acres of farm- SOLUTION;
house. “I have to repay Rs 630 every land that came with it to his other
week. If I fail, the company charges son, Sanjay. Now earning Rs 100 a THEY NEED AN
heavy interest,” she says. Durga does day as a farm labourer, Sonali lives ALTERNATIVE
not manage to find work every day, with her 13-year-old son, Vishal, and
and often ends her week unable to 10-year-old daughter, Rohini, in a INCOME SOURCE
make payments. To repay the old rented house. “The neighbours are a
loan, she often finds it necessary to bigger help than the in-laws, ” she
take out a new one. “What option do I says, alleging that her in-laws had
have?” she asks. her name removed from the will be able to bear it,” she says.
Vasant Korde of Sampada Trust, an family’s ration card, blocking her Rupali, the young widow men-
NGO working for the empowerment of access to subsidised food and fuel. “I tioned at the beginning of this story,
rural women, says there are at least could not produce the required doc- is also finding it difficult to educate
17 microfinance companies operating uments at the revenue department her child. She pays an annual fee
in Yavatmal alone. “Big private banks office to add my name in the ration of Rs 3,600 for Shivam’s schooling.
like HDFC and ICICI, smaller ones like card,” she says. “The government “He is a quick learner,” she says,
RBL and companies like L&T are also officials ask us to pay tax first to get watching him inscribe the letters ‘b
in this business. The women are get- any document.” a b y’ neatly in his homework book.
ting stuck in the loan cycle. The loans For now, her children are study- “If I get ownership of the farmland,”
[are] not really helping them get over ing at the local zila parishad school; she says, “I will either do the farm-
their problems,” he says. Suvarna but from next year, her son will have ing myself or sell it to raise money
Damle, executive director of Nagpur- to travel to Dhamangaon, about 10 for Shivam’s education.” One acre
based NGO Prakruti says that provid- km away, since the school he cur- of farmland is worth around Rs 25
ing monetary help to widows is not a rently attends only goes up to the lakh. But, first, the law has to be on
solution. “(They) should have a sus- eighth standard. “That will add to my her side.
tainable income. If they are educated expenditure. I am not sure whether I Follow the writer on Twitter @kirantare

NET FLUX by LAKSHMI KUMARASWAMI
Graphic by RAHUL SHARMA
instachatter
TROLL HOTSPOTS E-mail 25%
The web forums where users are most likely to
be at the receiving end of online harassment Twitter 20%
YouTube 12%
Google + 5% Sleeping Beauty?

Parineeti Chopra would have us
Facebook Snapchat 5% believe that knackered actresses

can’t even doze off on set without
their ‘sleeping selfies’ popping up all
63% Tumblr 5% over the place. Apparently, it was a

case of the ‘team taking advantage’
LinkedIn 5% of her falling asleep. Her Insta
followers are not buying it because
her arm is a dead giveaway.
Source: Craig Newmark, 2016

21% Other
web forums
Instagram 5%
meme-meter
viral video Million Dollar Smile

web lol
Over 6 million enjoyed the video of

a father telling his baby daughter A shot of Usain Bolt’s cheeky
that she cannot have a boyfriend grin as he passes his competi-
tors in the 100 m final in the
Too Little, Too Late Rio Games is truly meme-
Varsity student Sabryna Salazar claims to have had a worthy. His expression has
match with gold medallist Joseph Schooling on Tinder back been incorporated in a variety
in April. She tweeted about ignoring him beyond a few texts, of memes to hilarious effect.
joking that the pairing was ‘her greatest accomplishment’.
Over 3 million admired a man

netfail
rescuing a woman and her dog
during the Louisiana floods hashtag hero
Filter Fail
A Tale of Triumph Snapchat has come under
#FirstSevenJobs has had fire yet again for a racist Asian
tweeters indulging in smug filter. The slanting eyes, round
reminiscing. Celebrities kicked cheeks and buck teeth are sup-
off the trend with bartending posed to be anime-inspired.
featuring in most lists. The Thousands demonstrated soli-
hashtag revealed drastic changes in job profiles, the relevance darity by deleting the app.
Over 2 million were amazed by the
of privilege and the hard road to success. Singer Marion Call
video of a Lego plane crashing into
started the trend while asking for ideas for lyrics.
a Lego house in slow motion
what’s new Chaatz converts Craves gives the scoop

App Alert text conversations on where to get your
into comic strips favourite celeb’s styles
Follow the writer on Twitter @lkummi

RAJWANT RAWAT
TEXTILE
PICKING
UP THE
THREADS
Indian fashion designers are rediscovering the appeal of
traditional textiles, and weaving a whole revolution out of them
| By Chinki Sinha |
I
n a sprawling farmhouse in Garg is not alone. The new story in the ’80s when she started work
Chhatarpur, New Delhi, Sanjay of India’s fashion is not design, it is with the Handicrafts and Handlooms
Garg, 35, pulls out a few piec textiles. And a new group of design Export Corporation of India, which
es—a brocade silk pleated ers is changing the handloom story gave her six looms in Delhi. “If the
lehenga, a red silk sari with with design interventions that have textile is strong, fashion happens eas
pomegranate motifs and a pur transformed how urban India looks at ily,” she says.
ple sari of archival value to explain handloom. Last year’s Make in India In the global arena, Suket Dhir
what he is trying to do for hand event by the Fashion Design Council won the 2016 International Woolmark
loom. “I want to revive the need and of India (FDCI) featured 16 designers Prize, which recognises emerging
demand for saris. I am trying to make who worked with Banarasi textiles to designers across the world. Rahul
culture more relevant by mixing tex create contemporary and traditional Mishra won it in 2014. Both banked
tures, making the blouse interesting, clothing. FDCI chairman Sunil Sethi on handloom to envisage their collec
playing around with motifs,” he says. says this was just the start. tions. With their success, Indian fash
Designers who work with han ion is finally finding its global foothold.
dloom are making it aspirational. “Made in India,” says David Abraham
Handloom can’t survive on charity, of Abraham & Thakore, “could be as
RAJESH PRATAP they say. It is the business of fashion potent as Made in Italy.” The poten
SINGH, 47 that is freeing handloom of its curse of tial is enormous. Thirtyfiveyearold
Works with: Ikat, Brocade, “janata clothing”. This new approach Hemang Agrawal is a case in point—
Shikarga, Khadi, Pashmina is starting to make its mark. Many he runs a 40yearold family textile
designers have made their careers business in Banaras and works with
synergising fashion with handloom leading designers in the country. His
“I am not reviving with a focus on its timelessness. turnover has grown more than 300
anything. My work “The weaving community is dimi per cent in the past four years.
involves creating nishing. Machinewoven handloom Many others have bought into this
has a price advantage, but we can argument of late. Though the num
new things with the score with uniqueness of character,” ber of people engaged in weaving and
crafts available” says Neeru Kumar of Tulsi, who first allied activities has gone down from
began fashion’s affair with handloom 6.6 million in 199596 to 4.3 million in

RAJWANT RAWAT
TEXTILE
2009-10 according to the Handlooms

Census, the Comprehensive Handloom
Cluster Development Scheme was RINA
introduced in 2008-09 for the devel- SINGH, 40
opment of mega handloom clusters.
Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Works with:
Modi launched the India Handloom Linen, Silk,
brand on National Handloom Day to Block print,
endorse the product. A national work- Khadi
shop called Design Sutra was also
organised in Bhubaneswar, where 15 “My designs
National Institutes of Fashion Tech- come from
nology (NIFTs), private institutes and
25 weavers’ service centres decided to my environ-
integrate NIFT course work with han- ment and
dloom and handicraft clusters. that’s what
“Today, designers are making
themselves relevant by being associ-
comes natu-
ated with textiles,’’ says Garg. “We rally to me.
are not reviving textiles. Textiles are The only
reviving designers!” way we can
A NEW BEGINNING emerge on
the interna-
CHANDRADEEP KUMAR
Fashion began this textile interven-
tion with David Abraham and Rakesh tional scene
Thakore, who started using the dou- is through
ble ikat weave in 1992. Two decades
later, it is becoming clear that the only textiles”
way India can make a mark in the
international fashion arena is via han-
dloom, which can’t be replicated else- The energy in the industry is asked designers to express interest
where, says Rina Singh of Eka. infectious. Barely 20 days into her in working in 28 government clusters
This shift benefits both designers new portfolio, Union textiles minister for training craftsmen all over India.
and the sector. For example, Garg, a Smriti Irani launched a Twitter camp- Announcements from designers fol-
revivalist and an interventionist, has aign #iwearhandloom just before lowed. Anita Dongre will work with
worked with Mashru from Gujarat National Handloom Day on August 7. weavers from Odisha and veteran
and Banaras, Chanderi from Madhya It went viral, with handloom enthusi- Ritu Kumar launched a textile revival
Pradesh and brocade from Banaras, asts tagging five others with each collection. Lakme Fashion Week this
and jamdani in West Bengal. tweet. FDCI’s Sethi called his group August will feature Garg, who will
His new collection is romance tin- of designers to post their pictures unveil his collection in Mashru and
ged with nostalgia. It is poised to sell in in handloom garments before they silk with traditional motifs.
Singapore, Colombo, Dubai and Hong all left for Varanasi to celebrate the
Kong. Garg says his turnover has renewed hope for handloom with DESIGNERS LEAD CHARGE
increased a “thousand times” since he Irani. “I wear handloom and urge They join several high-profile design-
launched his label, Raw Mango. The the citizens of the country too to lend ers who are now increasingly at the
list of stores selling his label is growing their support for using handloom forefront of making handloom fash-
internationally, he says. products to benefit lakhs of weav- ionable. Rajesh Pratap Singh, 47, who
Others, too, have built their car- ers,” Irani said in Banaras. She told has been working with weaves for
eers on handloom. Each has their designers she couldn’t afford their about 20 years and is one of the stron-
own sensibility like Rina Singh, who prices but asked them to help elevate gest designers out of India, has his
believes in simple silhouettes, Samant the handloom revival in the country own loom set up in Neemrana.
Chauhan whose love for Bhagalpuri with their intervention. He has worked with Sambhalpuri
silk makes him an unapologetic pro- A special budgetary allocation of from Odisha, double Ikat from
ponent of the textile or Aneeth Arora Rs 6,000 crore was made in June for Andhra and Pashmina from Kashmir.
of Pero, quietly popular in 60 stores textile development intended to create “My work involves creating new
across 20 countries, with handloom 10 million jobs in the next five years, things. I do research and develop-
as her base and as many as 18 crafts and to attract investments of $11 bil- ment. But I am not running an NGO
in one garment. lion. An e-mail from FDCI has also and I don’t believe in tags,’’ he says.

SANJAY GARG, 34
Works with: Mashru, Chanderi,
Brocade, Silk, Jamdaani
SAMANT
CHAUHAN, 35
“My romance is with
Works with:
Bhagalpuri silk history. It is with identity”
“Textiles
have made journey fraught with many challenges
but at his newly launched store in
me. You Shahpur Jat, Chauhan says he owes it
can’t sell on all to textiles from his state that were
sympathy dismissed as too coarse for couture.
or pride. He says his turnover has increased
some 10 times in the past couple
Product has of years. He sells in New York and
to be com- London at Anthropologie and Ashi &
petitive. Co., respectively.
People don’t Chauhan was invited to the London
Fashion Week to present his collection
buy the sob in 2008, and by 2012 he had launched
story” his label Rajputana. “You can’t sell on
sympathy or pride. The product has to
VIKRAM SHARMA be competitive. People don’t buy the
sob story,” he says. His latest is hand-
At the FDCI’s Make in India event 2004 at NIFT, Delhi, and saw the col- loom denim, a project with the Denim
at the Amazon Fashion Week last lection he made with Bhagalpuri silk, Club of India. “My ambition is to open
year, he showcased a small part of she asked him why he had worked a factory in Bhagalpur where I can
his collection that uses Kinkhab from with such coarse silk. The Bihar process from yarn to a finished piece of
Banaras. He says handloom needs to designer was awarded for his collec- clothing,” he says.
be elevated from a design perspective tion, and when he showcased his col- Gaurav Jai Gupta, 34, displays
to make it sell globally. lection in Singapore in 2005, many similar enthusiasm. “You could even
In fact, designers continue to bat- say it became one of the biggest turn- weave your skin on handloom,” he
tle the perception that handloom is a ing points in handloom fashion in the says, as he flips through a portfolio
poor person’s fabric of choice. new millennium. of his work dating back to 2002. The
When Samant Chauhan’s mother In 2006, he earned FDCI member- swatches include weaves he did for
attended his graduation project in ship. That was just the start of a his graduation project at the Chelsea

TEXTILE
College of Art & Design, London:

audio tapes he wove as a piece of fab-
ric, copper wires peeled out of electric
wires woven into a swatch.
He emerged on the scene in 2010
along with others like Aneeth Arora of
Pero and Chinar Farooqui and Rahul
Mishra. “You don’t do handloom to
save it. You do it for your love of it,”
he says. Until 2009-10, the fashion
scene was ruled by Manish Malhotra,
Gaurav Gupta and Varun Sardana.
But the handloom fashion minority
had already started to challenge the
status quo. “Everyone wanted to be
Alexander McQueen then,” he says.
The past few years have been test-
ing, he says, but he has grown. His
designs made of blends of wool, silk,
cotton stainless steel, metal and zari
sell in Hong Kong, US, UK, Singapore,
Japan and Australia.
Rina Singh, 40, works mostly with
handloom, and knows that the legacy
of textiles is where Indian fashion’s
strength lies. You can’t compete with
the embroidery of Jean Paul Gaultier,
she says. “At my recent Woolmark pre-
sentation, I used merino wool and did
jamdani on it in Fulia. I used jacquard
and a little embroidery,” she says.
“Such things can’t be replicated. That’s
our strength. This is also my legacy.”
Eka sells in the US, UK, Australia,
France, Italy, Spain, Middle East,
Korea and Japan. The designer works RAJWANT RAWAT
with cotton, khadi, linen and silk and

says her turnover has increased by London took their collection to the RAHUL MISHRA, 37
200 per cent over the last few years. international stage with 30 pieces. Works with: Chanderi, Silk, Brocade
“Back then, there was no domestic
THE EVANGELISTS fashion scene and London and other
David Abraham, 61, is the big daddy markets worked for us as we had to “Craft has its own
of Indian textiles. Both he and come up with a unique proposition strength. I just enjoy
Thakore studied at NID and learned and we were doing things that nobody that strength”
to weave in college. Abraham recalls else could. From Mangalgiri to ikat
the beautiful handloom saris, like the to fulia and other weaves, everything
red, black and white ikat a teacher could be done only in India and it gave
wore those days, and how it stood out. us our design statement,” he says.
“It was an important part of the Today, A&T sell in many countries, who now shows at the Paris Fashion
philosophy. You were engaged with including London, New York, Tokyo, Week, had gone to work on a project
crafts in your environment,” he says. Singapore, Rome and Kuwait. for NID where he was then studying.
“It was an incredible palate for a It’s an experience younger design- He met Padma Shri awardee Master
designer. As designers, we weren’t ers are replicating. It was his tryst P. Gopinath, who set up 1,000 looms
interested in just the cuts, we wanted with small dreams of weavers that in a small village in Kerala; the tex-
to develop the fabric,” he says. made Rahul Mishra, 37, understand tiles fascinated him as it was like a
Their first collection featured the joy of weaving, and which estab- database of cultural anthropology.
double ikat from Andhra Pradesh lished him as a relevant designer. It Born in a small village in UP
20 years ago, and Conran Shop in was in Kerala in 2006 and Mishra, called Malhousie, Mishra knows how

DAVID
ABRAHAM, 61
Works with: Ikat, Silk
“Textiles is
communication
and language”
with their design interventions in

Banaras. Many years ago, his father
GAURAV JAI bought a saffron-coloured silk wrap
GUPTA, 34 skirt, made for the queen of the
Holkar dynasty, from the weaver
Works with: Stainless
who made only two pieces. Woven in
Steel, Copper, Silk
Banaras, the skirt was at least 150
and Cotton
years old, and had the bel motif run-
ning in diagonal lines across the fab-
“You could ric. He was 12 then.
even weave Years later, he studied fashion
your skin on design at NIFT, and returned to
Banaras to work with his father in the
handloom. four-decade-old textiles business in
That’s the the old alleys of Maidagin in Banaras.
power of The 150-year-old house is now their
workspace with textiles includ-
handloom. You
ing kinkhab, shikarga, mashru, silk
don’t do it to and tanchui housed in it. Agrawal,
save anyone. who launched his own label in 2015,
You do it for showcased his collection along with
Shrafuddin Ansari, the master weaver
your love of it” who he credits his weaving to. “The
RAJWANT RAWAT vocabulary of Banaras was cre-
ated years ago. We learn from these
to appreciate the rural way of life. He says his is the only Indian label antique textiles,” he says.
“When I entered NID, I had to take to have a presence across the globe, For some time now, he has been
up apparel design because I didn’t selling at Colette & Le Bon Marche in working on new-age textiles like wea-
qualify for anything else,” he says. Paris, Harvey Nichols and Feathers ving with pure silver, the cost of which
“Now, I am working with an enor- in London, Caanry in Texas, Saks can go up to Rs 80,000 per metre.
mous team—700-800 people already. Fifth Avenue in New York (and very They export to the US, Southeast
I am now aiming at the Northeast to soon from Bergdorf Goodman), Le Asia, Japan and Europe. Their other
explore textiles there,” he says. Masion Simons in Canada besides brand, Holyweaves, is the largest
The designer also initiated a proj- Copenhagen, Tokyo, Dubai, Riyadh e-commerce site for handloom saris,
ect called Ghar Wapasi for the crafts- and Jeddah. “We have grown 125 per Agrawal says.
men and has so far settled around cent from when we started showcas- These success stories have given
200 artisans back in their village, ing in Paris. This year, we expect to Indian designers a new confidence.
Bondpur in West Bengal, from the grow more than 50 per cent,” he says. The next step is to develop textiles
slums in Dharavi. They do a mix of But without the knowledge and such as stainless steel, paper, silver
Aari and Kantha and Zardoz. ‘’They expertise of Hemang Agrawal, fash- and gold, which is being explored and
are earning at least 25 per cent more ion’s handloom darlings would have developed as various designers lead
and living close to their families in been lost. He is the one who works India’s charge in world fashion.
their villages,” he says. with the big names and helps them Follow the writer on Twitter @chinkis

LEISURE BOOKS
INDIA’S OCEAN?
The Ocean of Churn:
How the Indian Ocean
Shaped Human History
by Sanjeev Sanyal
Penguin/Viking
An adventurous book, weighed down by motherland-lubbing Pages 323 Price Rs 599
by Arul Mani
T
he Indian Ocean seems to drive intrep- involvement of Indian soldiery in key events in the his-
id travellers. The coconut palm origina- tory of the region—a pattern that begins in the days
ted somewhere here before riding ocean of Alexander the Great. The other such trend is the
currents with the single-minded purpose connection between a strong matrilineal tradition in
of world domination. The coco-de-mer, a more the region owing to largely male migrations.
exotic, butt-shaped cousin, travelled from the The ten chapters that follow traverse the geological
island of Praslin to the Maldives and elsewhere, past of the region, the many migrations that populat-
attracting much speculation for centuries before ed it, the coming of urban civilisations, empire-build-
its home in the Seychelles was discovered. Globe ing in the subcontinent, the arrival of Islam, trade
Skimmers, a dragonfly species, across the region, the arrival of
are said to ride monsoon winds to explorers looking for spice, colo-
traverse 14,000 km in an annual nisation, and its aftermath.
round trip between South India Sanyal aims his book at a lay
and East Africa. A slightly less audience, and brings to the task
epic journey took settlers from he has set for himself a combi-
Indonesia—a country named natory excellence. The book
after its location in the ocean—to takes the reader into the arca-
Madagascar centuries ago. na of genetics and archaeolo-
Having listened to such stories, gy whilst staying readable. The
I contemplated some form of fly- author draws on an impressive
ing tackle to land the book as soon array of sources and documents
as I spotted it at the store. Luckily them carefully, and keeps a kind
for all parties, the gentleman han- of conversation going even in
dling it put it down and moved on. the endnotes. His capacity for
The title seemed adroitly pointed bringing history to the reader
towards a mythological manthan through a sharp eye for the most
just as much as it evoked move- up-to-date material and their
ment, migration and mixing. implications is commendable—
The Ocean of Churn is not the Illustration by ANIRBAN GHOSH notable among these is a dra-
most euphonious phrase, but the matic archaeological discovery
promise extended, that of explaining the ocean’s impact on made at the Hyderabad University in 2015 which pushes
human history, seemed like reason enough to press forward. Iron Age timelines in South India back to 2400 BC.
Sanjeev Sanyal, whose previous books include Land of Among the book’s other charms are a gift for wryness.
the Seven Rivers (2012) and The Indian Renaissance (2008), We find that the provenance of the name Andhra Pradesh
lays out two ways in which the Indian Ocean rim has been lies in Satavahana self-description and that their place
written about. Eurocentric views treat prior history as if it of origin is now in Telangana. The 17th century traveller
never happened. While indigenous accounts try to remedy Robert Knox records that Sinhala men respond violently
this, they end up offering a narrow focus, favouring a par- later in life to endearing home-names given in childhood.
ticular country rather than aiming for an understanding of Sanyal observes that present-day Bengali and Oriya read-
how things are tied to one another across the region. This ers would empathise.
book is meant to remedy the shortcomings of both. Sanyal’s chief achievement, through the book, is an abili-
Sanyal offers us the proposition that a coastal rather ty to continually prise revelatory little nuggets out of history’s
than a continental focus might be such a remedy. He begins unyielding rock. The Malay term for ‘Indians’, keling, comes
with a rather gripping story—the search for a successor to from the fact that the first traders to operate there set out
the Pallava crown brings to Kanchi a 12-year-old prince- from the kingdom of Kalinga. Herodotus’s fanciful stories
ling from Cambodia who fights off pretenders to ascend about how cinnamon is sourced are still knocking around
the throne as Nandivarman II, and declares himself a pure when the spice traders arrive, suggesting that Asian trade
Pallava despite his foreign origins. monopolies depended on skills with cooking up good stories.
The introduction identifies two broad trends that have The author’s eye for the small, telling detail ranges
marked the region’s history. One is the unacknowledged from the quaint and the charming to the truly bizarre. We

get to sigh over the graffiti poems left by impressed sight- The omissions are many. The Maldives, for instance, gets
seers from the past at Sigiriya; over the Arabian Nights about a paragraph where cowrie shells and Ibn Batuta’s
story of Abu Hassan who farted too loudly at his own wed- brief stint as Cadi are mentioned. Mauritius, one of the first
ding and fled social ignominy to live happily ever after in countries to receive indentured labourers from India, gets
Kozhikode where, presumably, they looked more kindly on similar treatment. Swahili, a language born of the interac-
such eccentricities. tion between Arab traders and African coastal communi-
How far can affection for details and the anecdotal take ties, gets no more than a name-check. The Nagarathar, a
an enterprise of pitch and moment like this? Pretty far, going branch of the Chettiar caste who took their name in mem-
by the success of a precursor—Richard Hall, a mere journal- ory of a lost trading city and moved far inland before ven-
ist, who wrote Empires of the Monsoon, a work of popular turing out all over Asia again, receive similar treatment.
history that continues to cast a long shadow on those who And Kaanaadukaathaan, the village off Karaikudi where
would write about the region. History, and historical method, their biggest banking operation was located, is mangled
must, after all, arrive willy-nilly in our daily conversations. into Kanadukanta. The relatively peaceful arrivals of Islam
I have some reservations, though, about this book. Sanyal and Christianity in the region, piggybacking on trade rather
remarks that “in the Marxist version, the narrative of his- than conquest, are given short shrift.
tory flows along a predetermined track like some Victorian The book’s editors need to be spanked for letting Sanyal
steam engine driven by the inescapable laws of Newton”. repeat himself severally in the book, and for allowing some
I’m no Marxist myself, but this is lazy writing, for it collapses of his bizarre statements to see print. He blithely remarks
Marx and his attempted prophesying into the conversation that Gandhi opted to collaborate with the British during
that has sprung up around his ideas. There are those who World War I—that’s a word with rather specific negative
swear by Marx and the predictive value of his work, and connotations in wartime. He tears into Ashoka’s reputation
those who might disagree with these predictions but base an for tolerance, which is alright, and then says academic his-
analytical approach on the idea that history has a material torians were encouraged to build the man up in order “to
basis. In other words, there are Marxists and Marxists, and provide a lineage to Nehru’s socialist project”. You could say
it is usually a good idea to identify those Ashoka and Akbar received a bit of a
you disagree with and why. lift as votaries of a home-grown sec-
He then offers his own theory of his- ularism, but these two different ideas
tory. The world is a Complex-Adaptive seem to have coalesced into one for the
system, and its history proceeds from SANYAL’S CHIEF author. While talking of the Kingdom
“interactions between technologi- ACHIEVEMENT IS of Melaka embracing Islam, he sees
cal innovation, geography, nature, a Chinese conspiracy “at ensuring a
socio-economic forces, the actions of
TO CONTINUALLY schism in Indic civilisation”. He has
great and not-so-great individuals, cul- PRISE REVELATORY an evocative section on how Vasco da
Gama was received in Kozhikode, and
ture, ideology and pure chance” lead-
ing eventually to recurrences and a law
NUGGETS OUT then butts in while talking of the fan-
of unintended consequences. He might OF HISTORY’S fare with some amateur anthropology
as well have called this theory A Little UNYIELDING ROCK on how Indian motorists love to honk.
Bit of Everything (including Marxism). And quite out of the blue, while talking
This grand theory amounts to of the port of Muziris, where Jewish,
very little if you measure it against the initial promise— Christian and Muslim sites were in proximity, we have a sen-
that of offering correctives to the different narrow focuses tence that reads—“This is saying something at a time when
in European and indigenous accounts. Primarily because the Christian community in Syria and Iraq is being system-
he is busy ‘recovering’ the nation as an unbroken con- atically wiped out by the so-called Islamic State.” They could
tinuity. On finishing the book, you’ve listened to him have interrupted the prose here with a little scoreboard to
ride a bunch of hobbyhorses—a debunking of the Aryan tell us who was getting points for what.
Invasion theory, that migrations happened out of India The book has its merits, but these are outwei-
into Eastern Europe, the location of the Saraswati, the ghed by the missed opportunities. Mahathir
Harappan origins of the Rig Veda, that the Persians were Mohammad, for instance, benefited from putting son-
probably Indians of the Parshu tribe, and that Tipu wasn’t of-the-soil politics into play in Malaysia, and then had to
really a freedom fighter. deal with the embarrassment of rumours that his father
While it may be difficult to cover everything that occurred may have been a Malayali. Sanyal notices the sweet para-
in the region, the coastal focus he promises doesn’t always dox that this moment offers, and how it seems to be a rever-
arrive, probably because he has becalmed himself so far sal of the Nandivarman story, and does nothing with these
inland. His successes in this department include a long look paradoxes. How is it that ethnic purity is such a big deal in
at Kharavela, the Kalingan king who upstaged the Mauryas; a region marked by greatest heterogeneity? What does this
absorbing accounts from episodes in the tussles over spice; imply for nationalist politics? Perhaps Benedict Anderson,
and another long look at the battle of Kolachal (Colachel) the Marxist social theorist who travelled to Indonesia and
where Marthanda Varma defeated the Dutch—years before learned Indonesian, Thai and Malay in order to write about
the battle of Tsushima, touted as the first Asian defeat of a nationalism and became a sort of honorary Indonesian,
European force. would have much to teach him. n

BOOKS LEISURE
HOT BLOODED
Nordic noir is passe, crime novel action moves to murder-rich developing countries
By Jason Overdorf
O
ver the past few years, Scandinavian scream of despair for a country falling into ruin.
thriller writers have acquired a cult In Sacrifices (2013), he portrays the
status, despite a crime rate so low breakdown of a wealthy white family after the
that for every real-life murder, there couple’s vicious rugby player son commits a
are a dozen or so murder mysteries. In the brutal murder and they frame their ‘coloured’
sweltering Indian monsoon, there’s a ludicrous housekeeper’s boy for the crime. (Smith makes
exoticism to stoic and morally incorruptible it clear that South Africa is no more black and
heroes preventing dastardly deeds from going white than India is Hindu and Muslim).
unpunished in ice and snow. But, murder-rich Nobody comes out unscathed as the weak-
developing countries are more fertile ground willed white protagonist, the dissipated Michael
for crime novels and political thrillers. Here are Lane, sleepwalks to ever-greater depths of
Bloodmoney: A
the three authors you should follow: depravity to protect his monstrous son—much
Novel of Espionage
by David Ignatius as the countless affluent and supposedly liberal
 W.W. Norton & white South Africans he represents wilfully
DAVID IGNATIUS BLOODMONEY Company ignored apartheid. Once called “the crime
A former war correspondent and beat reporter Price Rs 732 genre’s greatest tragedian”, Smith can be
covering the US Central Intelligence Agency Pages 384 so dark that South Africans sometimes find
(CIA), David Ignatius now writes a twice-weekly him hard to stomach. From India, the amoral
foreign affairs column and co-hosts an online cocktail of corruption, violence and squalor is
discussion group with fellow columnist Fareed disconcertingly foreign and familiar. Smith’s
Zakaria. In Bloodmoney (2011), he brings that latest, Nowhere, was published in February.
experience to bear on political thrillers that
read curiously like journalistic non-fiction. 
Bloodmoney is the story of a CIA “branch DON WINSLOW
office” gone wrong. It begins with the off- THE POWER OF THE DOG
camera capture and execution of one of the Don Winslow had a stellar career as the
branch’s assets in Karachi. It then follows unofficial bard of the seedy side of California’s
separate investigations into the apparent leak surf scene when he turned his hand to Mexico
Sacrifices
conducted by the off-book branch office, the for The Power of the Dog in 2005.
by Roger Smith
CIA itself and Pakistan’s own ISI—offering a Kindle Edition Weighing in at 542 pages, it draws on
more convincing picture of the strange, three- Price Rs 350 real events, such as the torture and killing of
way marriage of the CIA, ISI and frontier-zone Pages 290 undercover Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
jihadists than any newspaper account. agent Kiki Camarena in 1985 and the allegations
Urdu and Punjabi speakers will enjoy the of CIA involvement in cocaine trafficking to
“choice abuses”—as Indians like to say— finance its covert support of the contras in
which were supplied by Georgetown University Nicaragua, to completely deconstruct the myth
security and terrorism expert Christine Fair. of the US war on drugs. The Power of the Dog
And even five years after the US-led war and The Cartel (a sequel) are more literary,
in Afghanistan began, it reads like it could historical efforts, somewhat reminiscent of
describe machinations underway today. A film James Ellroy’s Los Angeles noirs.
version of his latest novel, The Director (2014), Like Smith and Ignatius, Smith too has
is under development by producer Scott Rudin. broader ambitions than airport-type thriller
writer, flitting from California to Mexico,
 The Power of Nicaragua and Colombia to detail how
ROGER SMITH SACRIFICES the Dog America’s war on drugs created the cartels
by Don Winslow
Racial anxieties of the sort that Oscar Pistorius Arrow that have devastated the region—and turned
used to portray the murder of his girlfriend as a Price 330 cocaine into a multi-billion dollar business.
tragic mistake play an important role in nearly Pages 542 Ridley Scott is set to direct a film adaptation
all Roger Smith novels of contemporary South of The Cartel in the imminent future, with
Africa. But Smith’s stories are less fear fantasies Leonardo di Caprio being courted for the
of a displaced white minority than a nihilistic starring role as DEA agent Art Keller.

GLOSSARY
by DAMAYANTI DATTA
INDIA
A PASSAGE TO
A POTTED HISTORY OF INDIA’S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM—FROM THE FIRST WAR OF

INDEPENDENCE TO NEHRU’S ‘TRYST WITH DESTINY’ SPEECH ON THE NIGHT OF
AUGUST 14-15, 1947
1856 1858
Company is
dissolved. British Crown
takes over India
Historic hunger
strike by Bhagat Singh
and comrades held in
The East India Company starts manufacturing a Lahore Central Jail for
new type of greased Enfield cartridge in Calcutta;
the infamous Lahore
rumours spread swiftly among sepoys about use of
(taboo) animal fat, triggering the ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ or Conspiracy case
First Indian War of Independence from May 1857
1930
Quit India Movement

begins, paving the way for
India’s freedom. Gandhi
says: “The ‘mantra’ is
‘Do or Die’. We shall either
free India or die in On August 23, Japanese
1942 the attempt.” Wartime food procurement and radio announces
the ‘denial policy’ causes the Netaji Subhash
Bengal Famine, killing over three Chandra Bose’s death
million. Churchill refuses to in a plane crash on
allow relief shipments of wheat August 18 in Formosa
1943 1945
00 INDIA TODAY u SEPTEMBER 22, 2014

Gandhiji begins
non-cooperation
movement against
Militant national-
ist Khudiram the British
Bose executed government;
for attacking Rabindranath
and killing three
Britishers in Tagore renounces
Muzaffarpur, Bihar his knighthood
1905 1908 1920
Swadeshi ‘Moplah rebellion’ of Malabar muslims

Movement
starts.
Abanindranath
Tagore begins
painting the
Bharat Mata
1921
Passage to freedom: midnight of August

14-15, the Union Jack comes down, the
Indian tricolour is hoisted. Jawaharlal
Nehru, the first prime minister, gives his
famous ‘Tryst with destiny’ speech in the
Constituent Assembly
Jawaharlal Nehru is invited by the

British to form an interim government
1946 1947
SEPTEMBER 22, 2014 u INDIA TODAY 00

EYECATCHERS
Ranveer Singh is living it up in
POINT Switzerland with his Befikre pals. From

skydiving to staying in the Yash Chopra
BREAK
suite, the actor’s taking a much-
needed break before he joins Sanjay
Leela Bhansali for Padmavati.
IRON LADY CHRONICLE

Manipuri civil rights activist
Irom Sharmila’s cause and subsequent
struggle will be brought to the big screen
thanks to a Hansal Mehta-produced biopic.
Expect actors to queue up for this role.
Good week
SHAH RUKH
KHAN
The superstar
was detained at
a US airport for
the third time
AKSHAY
KUMAR
Beat Hrithik
Roshan in the box-
office battle and
scored his third
successive Rs 100
crore hit in 2016
Bad week
SHOW In her second feature, Manto, actor-filmmaker Nandita

Das will bring together two fiercely talented actors,
STOPPERS both graduates of India’s premier film and drama insti-
tutions. Nawazuddin Siddiqui (NSD) will play Manto,
while Rasika Dugal (FTII) will play his wife, Safia.
KICKIN’ UP
A LATHER MANGO SEASON
National Award-
The aam aadmi makes his way across the
winning Marathi
Atlantic. A documentary on the rise of
actor Amruta
Arvind Kejriwal, titled An Insignificant
Subhash of Balak-
Man, directed by Khushboo Ranka and
Palak and Killa
Vinay Shukla, will be screened at the
fame has made a habit of making an impact
Toronto International Film Festival.
in limited time. Catch her standout perfor-
mance as a wife-mother smitten with the
n Compiled by Suhani Singh
hero of a Hindi TV soap in Island City.
Follow the writer on Twitter @suhani84
Volume XLI Number 35; For the week August 23-29, 2016, published on every Friday Total number of pages 76 (including cover pages)
DIGITAL EDITION
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Editor-in-ChiEf: Aroon Purie

Group ChiEf ExECutivE offiCEr: Ashish Bagga
Group Editorial dirECtor: Raj Chengappa
Editor-at-larGE: Kaveree Bamzai
dEputy Editor: Prachi Bhuchar
assistant Editor: Ridhi Kale
photo rEsEarChErs: Prabhakar Tiwari
and Satish Kaushik
art dirECtor: Rajeev Bhargava
assistant art dirECtor: Vipin Gupta
produCtion: Harish Aggarwal
(Chief of Production), Naveen Gupta,
Vijay Sharma, Prashant Verma
publishinG dirECtor:
Manoj Sharma
assoCiatE publishEr (impaCt):
Anil Fernandes
sEnior GEnEral manaGEr (impaCt):
Jitendra Lad (West)
GEnEral manaGErs:
Upendra Singh (Bangalore)
Velu Balasubramaniam (Chennai)
dEputy GEnEral manaGEr:
Kaushiky Chakraborty (East)
Photograph courtesy KOHLER
BATHROOM SPECIAL
04 BATH AND BODY WORKS INTERIORS
Not just a space to cleanse, wipe
and dry, the humble washroom 20 A MODERN MARVEL
is now full of high tech products, An apartment in Ahmedabad by
bright colours and innovative ideas. design firm OpenIdeas that is an
Experts share all you need to know. ode to contemporary living
VOL. 11 NUMBER 8; AUGUST 2016
NEWS
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Printed and published by Manoj Sharma on behalf of Living
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ited, 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, Eco friendly features and a simple From a real estate find to an urban
(Haryana); A-9, Industrial Complex, Maraimalai Nagar, District
design are the hallmarks of this Kerala dwelling that costs less than `1,000
Kancheepuram-603209, (Tamil Nadu). Published at K-9, Connaught
Circus, New Delhi-110001. Editor: Kaveree Bamzai.
home by architectural firm De Earth per sq ft, HOME's picks of the month
l India Today does not take responsibility for returning unsolicited
publication material.
PLUS
COVER COURTESY KOHLER
02 LAUNCHES 30 LISTINGS 32 LAST LOOK
August 2016, IndiaToday HOME 01

HOME
launches
I Spy
Your guide to the hottest new stores and products
Bold &
Blossoming
The D’Decor Store has un-
veiled their all new
Fantastique collection for
the Autumn/ Winter
season. It is an elegant
range of refined floral
accents and fresh pastels.
Bold patterns in bright
colours look picturesque
as the designs reflect the
outdoors; ideal for
curtains, upholstery
and wall panels.
PRICE on request;
AT No 67, Ground Floor,
Ring Road, Lajpat Nagar
3, New Delhi
Tel 011-4143 6677
Luxe Linen
Luxury home linen store Anna Simona has
launched two new collections, Ellis and
Gazaala. Featured here is the Ellis Collection
with sophisticated damask and trellis patterns
in dramatic fern gold hues. The quilted
damask surface adds layers of dimension,
while the sequinned accents with chording
complete the opulent ensemble.
PRICE on request;
AT www.annasimona.com
02 India Today HOME, August 2016

The New Tile Style
H&R Johnson has launched a new range of tiles called Johnson
Porselano 2016. The 2016 collection has been further grouped into
four sub-collections. The first, Mega Porcelain Slabs (MPS) in 120x80
cm size, with 16 unique themes and a unique 'Treacle' finish. Then
there is Germ-Free Porcelain Slabs and Splits (GPS) in 120x60 cm and
120x20 cms with two new surfaces Dazzle and Metolium. The third is
New Introductions in Glazed Vitrified Slabs (GVS) in 80x80 cm with 14
new, pleasant and robust themes. Lastly, there is the Glazed Vitrified Tile
(GVT) in 60x60 cm with two portfolios and 26 new themes. Marble,
wood, other natural stone themes dominate the portfolio in varied
finishes. The Johnson Porselano 2016 range also includes few new
wall tiling concepts in the popular ‘NEO’ series.
PRICE on request;
AT www.hrjohnsonindia.com
Bespoke
Designs
High end furniture
brand OTTIMO has
introduced Grey
and White Printed
Furniture collection
by Italian Brand
Momenti. In the
collection everything
is strictly handmade.
The idea is to strike a
beautiful balance
between the past and
the future; blending
harmony and mag-
nificence of the clas-
sical with the charm
and allure of con-
temporary design.
PRICE on request;
AT Jagat Complex,
Plot # 354, Ghitorni,
New Delhi
HOME
cover story
Colour blocking
makes its way
from the runway
to the bath
NEW RULES OF
DESIGN
Often overlooked in the style stakes, bathrooms reflect your personality just
as much as any other room. David Kohler lists five trends to watch out for.

O
ur toilets represent those few moments of personal space everyday when
we recharge ourselves before dealing with the world outside. Some of us
like retreating with a book while some just want quiet time to introspect. So,
whether you’re considering a full-fledged renovation or just looking for ele-
ments that can uplift your special space, these top bathroom trends of 2016 will come
handy. Take a pick and choose one that fits the character of your home.
DAVID KOHLER
President and Chief
Operating Officer,
1 The White on White Bathroom
There is a move toward simplicity in a cleaner, more contemporary way. That's
not to say bathrooms are going to completely lose their cosy, rustic charm for all-out
Kohler Co.
glamour, but they will have cleaner lines and more minimalist, modern vibe. A pure

HOME
cover story
white-on-white palette can create a total spa like ambi- etries and strong contrasts, it brings life to the bath.
ence and have an extremely powerful effect on the mind, Accessories with glass bottles, framed art and white
paving the way for total relaxation. A room with several vanity with legs to personalise your space.
shades of white captures and reflects light in a unique
way. Bright and refreshing in daylight, it glows with
warmth at dusk. White also works in any design style
from traditional to contemporary. Adding gleaming me-
3 The Smoky Sultry Bathroom
Having ruled the runway for being the hottest
beauty trend, enigmatic, smoky shades are now making
tallic accents to an all-white bath is a great way to infuse their way into interiors, adding warmth not only to the
glamour and sparkle. As with fashion, an easy way to living spaces but bathrooms as well. All the key trends
get the look is with accessories—in this case mixing the for 2016 have an element of gold in them. Look out
silvery faucet and light sconces with glints of gold in the for champagne golds, sun-kissed caramels, gleaming
glass cages, all against a brilliant white backdrop. coppers and dusky greys. These lustrous hues translate
across all elements and can result in a smoky, sultry
2 Noir Bathroom
Black never goes out of trend. Bold black, whether
matte or glossy or slate, has the power to convert your
effect. Combining these with warm mocha backdrop,
marbled floors with metallic hues and antique mir-
rors gives a classic look to the entire space. Use of brass
bathroom from dreary to chic. From toilets and textures and copper is also wildly popular in cabinet hardware,
to fixtures and faucets, black can add elegance and faucets and lighting. Sultry stones and warm gold-tones
sophistication to your bathroom. But every trend comes especially in taps, sinks, heated towel rails and products
with certain rules. Black is never going to work for your like copper baths ooze opulence and longevity.
bathroom if you apply it across every surface. You must
carefully select the areas of application, and use other
surface textures and colours as compliments. The most
on trend combination is monochrome with crisp geom-
4 The Playful Pattern Bathroom
When it comes to designing interior spaces, we love
pattern everywhere, especially in the bathroom. Wheth-
Playful pattern
on the wall
adds drama
HOME
cover story
Champagne
hues dominate
the smoky
sultry bath
er it is on the floor, or on the wall, pattern makes an fashion runways to the homes. Whether paired with
unforgettable statement and adds dimension and visual white, the versatile black or the evergreen monochrome,
interest to your space. From bright geometric motifs to blocks of colour energise the washroom. For an ultra-
subdued botanical prints and florals, pattern can bring modern look that oozes edginess with a playful twist, opt
any room to life. Today it’s all about uniquely tactile for a dark base colour and then introduce a colour block
patterns, oversize scaled prints, and dramatically layered (like eye-popping bright hues) to cut through the moody
applications using out-of-the-ordinary materials. Go overtones. Accented shower spaces also add an oomph
bold with larger than life motifs for bright wallpapers, factor to the bathroom. If you’re not confident choosing
complemented with neutral fixtures and faucets to strike hues that will work together or would prefer a scheme
a balance. If bold pattern makes you a little nervous go that’s a little subtler, a simple solution is to layer your
the more subtle route with one single pattern such as bath space with tones in the same colour family, rather
our Hexagon in one solid colour. Choose products with than colours that clash. To add extra visual interest,
clean, modern style and strong design lines to comple- introduce contrasting textures, including matte, glossy,
ment the layered patterns in the bathrooms. metallic and tiled surfaces. Traditional-style countertops
and vanities in deep walnut help tame a riot of colour.
5 The Colour Blocked Bathroom

A trend that has periodically come back into fashion
since the 70s, colour blocking makes its way from
It may be the smallest and most utilitarian room, but
that doesn't mean you can't have fun with the decor.
AT www.in.kohler.com
HOME
bathroom special|trends
LOO AND
BEHOLD
From trends to watch out for this
season to must buy products, industry
insiders spill the beans about the
best kept bathroom secrets
The Hansgrohe Rainmaker

Select showerpipe comes
with a 46cm spray disc
SHOWERED
WITH STYLE
CURRENT TRENDS Show-
ers are getting a lot of attention
with large showerheads and rain
shower panels in high demand.
ANITHA
Multiple spray modes in a single
SHARMA shower are also picking up pace.
General Manager Bathroom owners prefer install-
- Marketing,
Hansgrohe India ing multiple showers so that they
get a feeling of getting drenched
in the rain. Showers made of
natural materials like glass are
also in vogue as they blend seam-
lessly into cross-generational
bathrooms and evoke a sense of
elegance and simplicity.
GOING GREEN Customers
are adapting to the concept of
a green bathroom and seek-
ing showers that use less water
without hampering their overall
experience. Many eco-friendly
showers have a flow-limiter and
dispense water at a constant
minimum flow rate, no matter
what the water pressure.
MUST-BUY Get a hold of hans-
grohe Rainmaker Select, a large
rain showerhead coupled with
high-quality glass. The overhead
shower comes with a 46 cm
spray disc offering up to three
spray modes. It is equipped with
Select technology that allows
users to switch spray modes with
the touch of a button.
PRICE on request
AT www.hansgrohe.in
HOME
The L-90 faucet from

Roca has a sleek
geometrical design
SPIFFY SPOUTS Faucets give an instant facelift to the bath.

Today, electronic faucets are preferred. Automated sensor
TAP INTO equipped fittings are the latest trends in the luxury space. Eco
THE RIGHT
consciousness where water is conserved through new faucet
technology has gained momentum in the last decade.
LOOK PAU ABELLO

Managing
FAUCET FACTS Innovation rules the market and automated,
sensor-enabled fittings are chosen over the traditional ones
by the tech-savvy generation. Taking hygiene to the next level,
Director
Roca Bathrooms automatic bathroom solutions made with the highest quality
Products
and a selection of hands free features is the future of ever-
evolving bathroom spaces.
TOP PICK The L-90 Faucet from Roca characterised by
L-shaped lines, with 90 degree angles, is a great buy. It is also
available in electronic and thermostatic range.
PRICE ` 24,000 onwards
AT www.roca.in

HOME
THE PERFECT
SOAK PIT
TUB TRENDS The tub of today is consid-
ered nothing less than an at-home spa to
unwind. Pick one that is suitable for long
term use and comfortable in every way.
SERHAN ATEŞ Tubs that come equipped with massage
YAĞIZ systems (through inbuilt vibrating devices
India Country or water jets) have become very popular in
Manager
Eczacıbaşı the last few years. This year, it’s gone a step
Building Products further with LED lights, touch control pads
Division (VitrA)
and WiFi integrated into the tub.
SIZE MATTERS A free standing tub works
well for a vintage bathroom while a whirlpool bath is
ideal for a spa-like bathroom.
PURCHASE THIS If space is not an issue, a tub that
combines the comfort of a bath tub with a shower, like
in our Combo series, is perfect for the bath area. With the
The Combo series from Combo series you can enjoy the comfort of a bathtub and
VitrA combines the tub the feeling of being re-energised by a shower.
and shower in one product PRICE on request
AT www.vitra-india.com
DESIGNED FOR
RELAXATION
BATHROOM AS A SPA Over the years
the bath has emerged as a space for
rejuvenation. This is why revitalising
home spas are gaining popularity. This
RENU MISRA involves strategic placement of body jets
Managing that aid in manipulation of deeper layers
Director of muscle and connective tissue through
Grohe India
pressurised water. These products not
only enhance healing and facilitate bet-
ter blood circulation, but also promote relaxation.
SAFETY FIRST For elderly people and children,
non-slippery surfaces are needed. Further, special
buttons on thermostats prevent children from raising
temperature above 38º Celsius.
GET THIS The F-digital Deluxe turns your bathroom
into a home spa. It fills your shower with coloured
light for chromo therapy treatment, with pleasant
steam for cleansing your skin and with your favour-
ite music, all at the same time. The F-digital Deluxe
PRICE on request from Grohe with
AT www.grohe.co.in chromo therapy lights
Roca's Khromaclin
Smart Toilet in red
GAME OF
THRONES
01 India Today HOME, June 2014
HOME
bathroom special|wc
Come, take a pot shot. From

an auto flush to a night light,
from remote controlled water
sprays to air drying function,
WCs are now fit for kings.
By RIDHI KALE
I
f there is one thing that defines a bath-
room, it is the WC. Gone are the days
when a hole in the ground doubled up as
the toilet. Today, the market is full of interest-
ing, innovative and intelligent options to
choose from. Here's a round-up of the latest
high tech WCs available.
THE DIGITAL EDITION

It seems out of a sci-fi movie, but Roca’s
new collection of E-Toilets are an electronic
delight. The best part? They come with a
wide selection of hands free functions. Other
features include rear and front cleaning,
adjustable pressure, temperature function-
alities, oscillating and pulsating massage
and dryer function. Some even come with
auto-open/close and auto flush mechanism.
Part of the collection, are the ALBA E-toilets,
the Inspira range and the Khromaclin Smart
Toilet (featured here).
PRICE `2.05 lakh (Khromaclin in red);
AT www.roca.in
THE NEW BUBBLE BATH

The new Automate, intelligent toilets from
Hindware’s Italian collection come with a
host of interesting features. The auto pre
and post flush function has motion sensors
and flushes automatically. Water is dis-
pensed by infusing air with water. The nozzle
offers an oscillating cleaning mode and 3D
massage effect, at the touch of a button. You
can opt for a rear and front cleanse, auto
clean nozzles, temperature control, pressure
adjustment and a bubble wash. It comes
with an infra-red operated remote control
with 18 buttons. It even has an in-built
dryer, a warm seat, deodoriser, a night light,
slow falling seat cover and a touch flush.
PRICE on request
AT www.hindwarehomes.com
HOME
bathroom special: wc
Clockwise from top

left: Veil intelligent
toilet from Kohler;
Grohe's Sensia range
with remote; Vitra's V-
Care nozzle feature
THE POWER OF A SHOWER

The USP of Grohe’s new WC range Sensia is that it
harnesses the power of water. While that immediately
brings images of turbines to mind, here the shower toilet SMART SEAT
raises the bar for hygiene. What also sets it apart are the Kohler has introduced a range on luxe WCs (Veil,
cleaning and care programmes that can be personal- Karing and Numi) for the bathroom market. The most
ised. Adjustable functions range from the intensity of interesting is the Veil intelligent toilet. Features include
the spray, the water temperature as well as the position- automatic flushing with double siphonic flushing
ing of the shower arm. The spray comes with a forward system, night light and automated deodoriser, intuitive
and backward movement, a massage spray setting and touch screen remote that controls personal settings for
a ‘lady’ shower for feminine hygiene. It also has a warm up to five users, temperature controlled seat and water,
air blower. The shower head is automatically rinsed. an integrated bidet with UV light for self-cleaning wand
PRICE `3.20 lakh (the wand has 78 holes for a gentle wash), rimless bowl
AT www.grohe.com/in and a motion activated intuitive function.
PRICE `4 lakh
ALL ABOUT THE NOZZLE AT www.in.kohler.com
VitrA has launched the technologically advanced V-care
smart WC pan. It combines the functionality of a toilet SENSE IT
and cleaning properties of a bidet. A specially designed Duravit’s SensoWash shower-toilet line comes with an
nozzle spray allows users to regulate water. V-care can ultra-slim remote control. Features include, rear, com-
be used via a remote controller with features that con- fort or lady wash, setting the intensity and position of
trol nozzle position, pressure and temperature. the spray, water temperature and night-light function.
PRICE `1.60 lakh onwards PRICE `2 lakh onwards
AT www.vitra-india.com AT www.duravit.in

HOME
Q&A
AWASH WITH IDEAS

Jaquar has helped spruce up washrooms since 1960. Sandeep Shukla from
the brand shares trends, products and their design philosophy.
Bathroom trends for the year? bathing space you have always
Today the wash basin matches dreamt of. It is an ideal place to
the design language of the show- view world class coordinated
er and the water closet matches products that the company has
the faucet. The bathing space is to offer, all under one roof. Spread
becoming an experience zone over large areas these Orientation
rather than just serving as just SANDEEP Centers (22 in number) showcase
utilitarian. It has become 'fash- SHUKLA contemporary bathing concepts
ion-led' in terms of its high aes- Head Marcom and products like faucets, sanitary
Jaquar Group
thetic value and contemporary ware, wellness range of products,
design. Consumers are looking at shower enclosure, flushing sys-
clean and elegant products with tems, water heaters and lighting
straight lines and curves. People in a coordinated environment.
are moving towards simple, clean The Orientation Centres also
and contemporary designs hence provide expert advice, installation
products with cleaner lines and assistance, free estimation and
a more minimalist modern vibe live demo to assist while you
are preferred. Designs that are choose, visualise and create your
inspired from nature to infuse the dream bathroom.
space with a calming effect are
also becoming popular. Products In the luxe segment, what prod-
with unique designs and technol- ucts are popular right now?
ogy innovations are also trending We have recently launched
this year. Our award-winning a revolutionary new product
collections like Linea and Conflu- under our luxury brand Artize,
ence are the perfect examples. Showertronics iV6. This product is
Linea is designed on the concept an experiential and intuitive elec-
of a straight lines and clean tronic thermostatic mixing system
shapes that is amazingly easy to that is designed to provide an unmatched
use with its graceful swinging showering experience. It maintains the
motion of spout, which also acts water temperature and flow rate during
as its on/off mechanism. Conflu- showering. With a simple touch of a fin-
ence is inspired by the age-old gertip on the high-durability waterproof
use of bamboo in channelling touchpad, one can choose the shower
water from rivers and brooks. mode, control the temperature and man-
Its biomorphic design brings the age water flow. Its innovative electronic
calming effect of naturally falling thermostatic mixing system has six
water into your palms. electronic valves and multiple sensors,
which are connected to state-of-the-art
Tell us more about the brand’s intelligent control software managing
orientation centre? all showering operations. We have also
Jaquar is one of the first compa- launched our Tiaara range during the
nies in India with an orientation IGEN design forum last month. Designed
centre. At the Jaquar Orienta- by Michael Foley it is a unique designer
tion Centers you will find an faucet and the recipient of some of the
unparalleled service of com- world’s best design awards like
Touch control of Good Design & Plus X.
plete assistance in creating that
01 India Today HOME, June 2014 Showertronics iV6
HOME
A
architecture client interested in simple living, colonial architec-
ture and being close to nature; a home that can
only be accessed by a narrow pathway; a design
that puts the parking areas away from the front yard; an
uneven shaped plot where the rear side of the site has a lev-
NATURE'S el difference of three meters. Clearly, 34-year-old architects

Vivek PP and Nishan M of Kerala-based firm De Earth had
CALL
a lot of work cut out for them. To add to this, their design
practice is aimed at creating eco-friendly spaces. However,
the duo loves a good challenge and within a year they had
the 3,255 square foot home ready to move in.
A CHALLENGING BRIEF
“Our brief was simple to create a space close to nature
Lime plaster, recycled wood while integrating the owner's love for simplicity. We also
had to incorporate the client’s taste for colonial archi-
furniture, repurposed stone tecture and modest lifestyle in the design. This was done
floors and sloping roof are a by blending features of colonial style with the tropical
few of the green features of architecture,” says Vivek. To make the home seamlessly
blend with the surrounding natural beauty, parking areas
this bungalow in Calicut, Kerala,
were designed away from the front yard. “This was also
designed by De Earth Architects one of the main challenges faced during the planning of
this Calicut home,” says Nishan, adding, “The level differ-
By RIDHI KALE ence existing in the site was another challenge, which was

overcome by utilising the awkward height difference as a
utility area in the basement for storage and tank.”
Further, the mass of the project was gradually brought
down to a scale of a single floor to create a simple and wel-
coming entry. The architects also used the texture of brick
and other natural elements to evoke a sense of simplicity.
"The client wanted to conserve, practice and nurture tra-
ditional values and customs of his family and this gave us
an opportunity to create spaces with materials and finishes
in a raw yet regionalistic form and to include various ele-
ments to evoke a sense of being." Incidently, modest living
is also reflected in the interiors, where passive colours and
natural textures are used without extra ornamentation.
COURTING BEAUTY
"The key area of the house is the courtyard, which is
covered with security grills, minimising the view restric-
tions to exterior," says Vivek. The courtyard acts as the
central pivot with an adjacent long verandah separating
the bedrooms, from dining and living areas on the other
side, creating a well defined private space, without visual
disconnect. "The courtyard is placed in the central portion
with a direct view from dining area and entry foyer. It helps
in maximising the ventilation and light to the interiors
HOME
architecture
The grilled courtyard (left); the

sloping roof over the sparce
dining room (below)
and enhances the experience of passage from living layered clay roofing tiles, the double layer helps in re-
areas to bedroom," explains Nishan. Besides bathing ducing heat gain from the top. Furthermore, the clay
the home in natural light, the central courtyard also roof tiles are laid in an interlocking pattern without
gives the family a space to interact. sealed joints, this allows hot air to escape hence re-
ducing the heat inside the rooms by end of the day,"
ECO-FRIENDLY PRACTICES says Vivek. Other green features include the use of
"The house is designed as slender built block so as lime plaster instead of cement, which helps in keep-
to get maximum cross ventilation with a courtyard ing the temperature down inside the home. Recycled
secured within the U-shaped block," says Nishan. materials like wood and stones are used extensively
The slender built space allows direct cross ventilation in this house. Recycled wood adorns the interiors,
inside every room. "Also to avoid direct heat gain the flooring and furniture pieces, while recycled stones
slope roof overhangs are kept as a protection and are used for exterior paving. "The use of natural kota
to create an aesthetic quality to the structure." says stone also reflects the simplicity and cosiness inside
Vivek. The overhang slopes down to 180 cm, which is the home," says Nishan.
kept as low as possible to create an intimate atmos- What stands out about this home is the fact that
phere in the home. The roof's 40 degree slope goes up while being sustainable, the simple layout and
to a height of 4.5 meters creating a good volume of materials make the design shine while being in
space inside. "The roof is also designed with double compliance with the homeowner's request.

HOME
interiors
A glass wall divides the

master bedroom and
the bath to make the
room appear bigger
01 India Today HOME, June 2014

THE Straight lines, contemporary
furniture, lots of colour,
SPACE
bespoke lights and art
give this apartment
in Ahmedabad a
AGE
unique appeal
Photographs by MONIKA SATHE PHOTOGRAPHY (MONIKASATHE.WIX.COM/PHOTOGRAPHY)
June 2014, IndiaToday HOME 02

Colourful furniture has been used in the home theatre room
By RIDHI KALE colours in almost every room. For instance, a diverse

collection of art goes well with subdued colored walls
F
ancy designing a home for an unknown owner? and paneling, bright curtains contrast well with sofas in
This is exactly what architects Monarch Cham- neutral shades. The apartment has a living cum dining
paneri, Nilesh Patel and Niralee Champaneri room, the master bedroom, the grandparent’s room, a
of OpenIdeas were asked to do for Le Jardin, the first bedroom for the children and a home theatre room.
residential project in Law Garden, Ahmedabad by
the Advance Group. “They wanted us to infuse new LIVING AREA TURN CHIC
aesthetic sensibility in the real estate market of the city “The contemporary living room is dressed primarily in
and gave us a free hand in designing the interior of the blues and whites,” says Niralee, who has used Italian
show apartment. Our only brief was to design elegant stone cladding on the floors and walls to give a sense of
and lively livable spaces,” says Niralee. For those not in richness to the space. This is further accentuated by the
the know, OpenIdeas is a design firm that believes to vibrant blue of the curtains that serves as an interesting
showcase architecture for what it is, ‘an intelligent and backdrop for the sofa, and the artwork. However, the fo-
innovative response to local constraints’. Their reper- cal point here is the light in the centre of the room. The
toire includes community housing, private residences golden gleam of brass and the delicate cutwork makes
and urban development projects. This 3,500 square the contemporary chandelier stand out.
feet apartment is a good example of their design style,
contemporary, chic and colourful. SPACES BECOME SEAMLESS
The living room moves into the dining area. “The walls
THE CONCEPT here are adorned with a cool grey stucco vintage style
“The interiors are a blend of sophistication with func- paneling that provides a perfect backdrop for the natural
tional elegance and attention to detail,” says Niralee, stone dining table with beige upholstered chairs,” says
adding, “Each room was designed with contemporary, Niralee. Like the drawing, here too the light (in this case
comfortable sensibility, combining tailored architectural a vibrant red chandelier) grabs the spotlight. The beauty
detailing along with light and airy use of materials of this apartment is the way one area moves into the
and colours.” One can see an interesting interplay of other. The dining is located next to the open kitchen. A

HOME
interiors
A modern take on the chandelier

lights up the living room (left); while
bright blue sofas add colour (below)
tall kitchen counter with stools divides the two areas. and green have been used on ceiling and furniture for
the childens' room,” says Niralee. In fact, the walls here
DECODING THE BEDROOMS are embellished with bright printed wallpaper.
“We wanted to design an elegant master bedroom, that's
why we used Italian marble for the flooring and for the CREATING MOVIE MAGIC
backdrop of the beige, leather-finished bed. While a glass The architects’ favourite area in the home happens to
partition between the room and the bathroom gives a be the room with the home theatre. “The brightness
feeling of transparency and vastness to the space,” says and vibrancy of the fabric paneling on the walls has
Niralee. Like the other room here too illumination has been balanced by the acoustical wood paneling as well
been carefully selected. Case in point, the bed has per- as wooden flooring. While the coloured printed couches
forated metal side hanging lamps that highlights wall. give a feeling of a fun, entertaining space that is high on
The other two bedrooms have been envisioned as the comfort,” says Niralee, who believes that the apartment
grandparent’s room and the childrens' room. The for- is a perfect balance between elegance and bling.
mer is designed to appear cosy and warm, embellished Besides the contemporary design, chic furniture, the
with wood and fabrics in shades of beige with a striking art-like lighting and play of colours, what truly stands
red artwork to add colour. “While vibrant hues of yellow out is the way one space moves into the other.
HOME
news
What's
HOT
A monthly round up
of the latest trends,
news and views
from the world of
decor and design
By RIDHI KALE
REAL
ESTATE
FIND
The Charcoal Project is collaborating with

The Turtle Villas to create serviced luxury
villas and apartments. Aimed to serve as
second homes to its residents located in
the hub of North Goa, it offers a refresh-
ingly unique alternative to buying just
another flat in the city. Designer Suzanne
Khan is doing interiors, high end furniture
and furnishings for the property.
AT www.turtlevillas.com.

HOME
news
ANOTHER
JEWEL IN
THEIR CROWN
Jewellery brand Ganjam’s
flagship store in Bangalore,
launched in October 2015 for
the completion of 125 years of
the brand, has been in the news
lately. It has been rewarded for
its interior store design by a
jury of international architects
and cultural experts at the
Prix Versailles 2016, held at
the UNESCO headquarters,
for Commercial Architecture.
The store is designed by the
Denis Montel, Managing and
Artistic Director at the
eminent French firm, RDAI.
AT www.ganjam.com
URBAN THE SIDE

DWELLING STORY
Can a home cost less than
`1,000 per square foot? AKDA
(Amit Khanna Design Associ-
ates) has proved this with a
project titled House X in Noida.
The 3,200 sq ft home even has
sustainable features like double
glazed windows, courtyards,
efficient lighting, skylights, use
of local materials and rain water
harvesting, to just name a few.
AT www.akda.in
The last month has seen a resurgence of the often overlooked side-
board. Think of it as an accent piece that works well even as a room
divider (especially in the no man’s land between the dining and drawing
rooms). Featured here is our sideboard pick of the month, a consciously
engineered solid wood piece from InLiving’s new collection. The best
part? It has sliding panels that helps you store almost anything.
PRICE `30,000 to `50,000; AT www.inliving.com
TECHFIVE
Whether you are a gadgets veteran or a gizmo newbie,
technology has percolated into all aspects of our life.
A closer look at the latest devices for your home.
By RIDHI KALE
BED AND BEYOND

A clean bed means cleaning
the sheets, pillows and even
the mattress. That's where the
new HEPAbased Bed Cleaner
from Kent comes handy.
Equipped with cyclonic tech-
nology and UV disinfectant
technology, it is specially
designed to effectively clean
flat surfaces and eliminate
bacteria, virus, dust mites,
spores, allergens, dust, and
decaying skill cells. It uses a
twin mechanism of agitator
brush and vacuum suction,
with ultraviolet disinfection.
PRICE `8,000
AT www.kent.co.in
WASH OUT FOR THIS

Samsung has launched Front
Load AddWash washing ma-
chines. So what's special about
that? The machine comes with
a small Add Door that allows
the user to add laundry items
anytime during the wash
cycle. Further, it lets the con-
sumer add hand washed items
only for rinsing, or additional
softener anytime they want
during the cycle. It also fea-
tures the Super Speed cycle,
which completes a normal
load in just 59 minutes.
PRICE `59,990 (9 kg);
AT www.samsung.com/in

DO THE DISHES
The latest dishwasher from
Franke saves both water and
time in the kitchen. It allows
loading of cutlery and small
pieces of crockery in a third MISTY DELIGHT
rack. It comes with a variety of Don't mistake this one for a vase. Usha's
wash programmes such as new Cool Mist Ultrasonic humidifier al-
party (washes in 40 minutes), leviates dry skin, chapped lips, allergies,
speed (short wash cycles), half and other symptoms caused by dry air.
load (washing only the bottom With a water tank capacity of 4.5 litres,
rack), delayed start (setting a it features eight variable mist output
time for a delayed cycle), three controls each with a musical melody.
in one (for a triple wash action) The integrated rotating water disc filter
and auto (sensor sets the cycle traps germs and harmful substance in
as per soil level of plates). the water tray. The an auto-off function
switches it off when there is no water.
PRICE on request
AT www.franke.com PRICE `11,990
AT www.usha.com
JUICE UP
Bajaj Electricals has launched
a range of kitchen appliances
titled Platini by Bajaj. Featured
here is the Platini Vitamin
Juicer that has a unique slow
juicing technology with a pat-
ented metal grinding head,
which preserves the nutritive
value of fruits and vegetables.
PRICE `16,999
AT www.amazon.in
HOME
decor
A Stitch in Time
Whether you like its vibrant design or colourful expanse,
phulkari is making its presence felt on decor pieces. Kiran Singh
decodes the mystery of the embroidered beauty.
Jazz up your living
space with phulkaris
A
rt and craft are blurring boundaries. A good example is phulkari. The bright
and beautiful embroidered pieces from Punjab have gone beyond dupattas
and suits. From cushions and tablecloths to canopies, wall hangings and
bedcovers, phulkari decor items are a good way to jazz up your living spaces.
TRACING ITS PAST

The word phulkari, can be broken in to two words, phul meaning flower and kari mean-
ing work. Many historians have traced the origin of phulkari to Central Asia from where
KIRAN SINGH this craft was brought by the Gujar nomads to Punjab. Traditionally, phulkari was done
Co-founder on thick cotton fabric, which was home spun called khaddar. There were four basic col-
1469
ours used for the base, white, red, blue and black. White was used by older women or

Be it geometric
designs or
pretty flowers,
phulkari
cushions look
good anywhere
widows, red by the young girls and blue and black for and ghungat bagh, which were named depending upon
daily use. The khaddar fabric was then painstakingly their usage. Some more patterns like velanian da bagh,
embroidered upon with silk floss called pat in bright and bawan da bagh, nazzar buti, bhool bhulaiyan, dabbi and par-
vibrant colours. The distinctive feature of phulkari is the antha bagh, are a showcase of designs that are inspired
embroidery stitch, which a simple darning stitch is done by what the embroiderer saw around him. Chope was
entirely from the back of the cloth. In western Punjab embroidered on red with yellow; two fabric panels were
(now Pakistan), khaddar is stitched after completing the joined that had similar patterns embroidered on both
embroidery and one can see a slight distortion in design, ends. The only motifs embroidered on both selvages were
where as in east Punjab (part of India) the embroidery a series of triangles, while the design was worked with
was done after the khaddar pieces were stitched together. small squares in a step-ladder fashion.
TYPES OF PHULKARI A STYLE FOR EVERY ONE

Essentially, there are three kinds of phulkari embroi- The hallmark of a good phulkari is making innumer-
dery—phulkari, bagh and chope. Phulkari embroidery able patterns by using long and short darn stitches. The
does not cover the entire cloth and the patterns are designs were not traced. Techniques and patterns were
embroidered at intervals on the cloth. One such style is not documented but transmitted from word of mouth
called sainchi phulkari, which has figures embroidered. and each regional group was identified with the style
This is the only style where the outline of the figures of embroidery or design. An interesting phulkari style
are done in black and filled in with darning stitch. This is darshan dwar, which was made as an offering. It had
style was popular in Faridkot and Bhatinda districts and panelled architectural design. The pillars and the top of
usually scenes from the village life were depicted. In the gate were filled with latticed geometrical patterns.
other phulkari styles there are no patterns drawn and Sometimes human beings were also shown standing
the embroidery is done by counting the threads from at the gate. Phulkaris from Hazara were mostly done
the back. The literal translation of bagh is garden, in this on white cotton with purple and green silk and had
style of embroidery the entire surface was embroidered different types of stitches. Sheeshadar phulkari had
using the darning stitch where numerous designs were inserts of circular pieces of mirrors embroidered with
made by use of horizontal, vertical and diagonal stitch- buttonhole stitch to keep them in place.
es. There are a number of styles of bagh; vari da bagh AT www.1469workshop.com

HOME
index
Listings
DE EARTH
Ragam Apartments, Pipeline
Road Patteri, Calicut, Kerala
Tel 09388886262
Known for single family homes,
eco-responsive housing projects and
specialised hospitality ventures
DURAVIT
61, Titanium, Near Prahladnagar
Auda Garden, Prahladnagar,
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Tel 079-6611 2300
Known for bath products and furniture
FRANKE FABER INDIA

1086/1/2, Nagar Road,
Sanaswadi, Pune
Tel 020-2138612400;
Known for kitchen appliances
GROHE
14th Floor, Building no5, Tower A,
DLF Cyber City, Phase III, Gurgaon
Tel 0124-4933000
Known for bathroom and kitchen
Photograph courtesy KOHLER

accessories rain showers and taps
HINDWARE
301-302, Park Centra, Sector-30,
National Highway – 8, Gurgaon
Tel 0124-477 9200
Known for sanitaryware products
Tel 011-29812007 ROCHE BOBOIS
HANSGROHE
Known for bold designs and Tower - 1, Indiabulls Finance Centre, S.B.
Office Nos. 601 - 604, Lunkad Sky
bespoke offerings in the bath Marg, Elphinstone Road (W), Mumbai
Station, Viman Nagar, Pune
products category Tel 022-61062233
Tel 020-66259500
Known for high end French furniture
Known for showers, bath tubs
and wash basins OPEN IDEAS
306/B, Krishna Complex, VITRA
Opposite Rajpath Club, B-102, Bureau Life House, Opposite
JAQUAR
SG Highway, Ahmedabad SAB TV building, New Link Road,
D-56, Defence Colony, New Delhi
Tel 079-26871711 Andheri- West, Mumbai
Email delhincr@jaquar.com
Known for constructing spaces Tel 22-67085000
Known for faucets, bathroom fittings,
that reflect functional, social and Known for faucets, showers, WCs
taps, showers and wellness products
aesthetic consideration and wash basins
KENT
C-15, Sector-7, Noida ROCA 1469
E-mail service@kent.co.in No. 62, K G N Towers, 4th Floor, Shop No.2, Janpath Road, Janpath,
Known for water purifiers A - Wing, Eithraj Salai, Egmore, Connaught Place, New Delhi
Chennai Tel 011-2331 8527
KOHLER Tel 044-49022000 Known for Punjab related artefacts
Splash Bath Boutique, G-36 Known for wash basins, faucets,
Lajpat Nagar-2, New Delhi toilets and bath tubs Compiled by Ridhi Kale
30 IndiaToday HOME, August 2016

HOME
last look
DIVIDE & RULE
A collaboration made in design heaven, French luxury

furniture brand, Roche Bobois, has tied up with iconic French
luxury fashion house, Maison Christian Lacroix, to create
exquisite furniture. Designed by Sacha Walckhoff, Creative
Director, Maison Christian Lacroix for Roche Bobois’ Nouveaux
Classiques collection, the range is a salute to fashion and
French art de vivre. On display are dining tables, chairs, small
furniture pieces, lighting and rugs. Featured here is the double
sided screen with a 19th century town Arles (close to the heart
of Maison Lacroix) on one side and a collage of a fantastical,
lush garden on the other. The silk screen printing method has
been used to create this one-of-a-kind piece.
PRICE on request;
AT No 7/1, Ulsoor Road, Opposite Purvankara
Head Office, Bangalore
DIGITAL EDITION

AUGUST 29, 2016 `50
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AUGUST 2016
BATHROOM SPECIAL
BATHS OF
THE
FUTURE
Young
The
RJ BALAJI
CHANGEMAKERS
SMITA GONDKAR,
SPORTSPERSON
Changemakers
AND ACTOR
ANUPAMA AGARWAL
AND KABEER KHURANA
THE TORCHBEARERS

AUGUST 2016
A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE
ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
The
RJ BALAJI
Changemakers
SIMPLY CHENNAI Inside
Photograph by JAISON G
Editor-in-Chief
Aroon Purie
Group Chief Executive Officer
Ashish Bagga
Group Editorial Director
Raj Chengappa
Editor-at-Large
Kaveree Bamzai
n COVER STORY BUZZ
Correspondent
Saranya Chakrapani
The Gamechangers s-4 Into the City s-16
Editorial Team
Meet the people who are revolutionising Five things to do this month.
Mohini Mehrotra, Ursila Ali the city’s social landscape.
Photo Department
Vikram Sharma
Photo Researchers Cover photo by SUMANTH KUMAR
Prabhakar Tiwari, Satish Kaushik
Art Director
OUR PICK of the month

Jyoti Singh
Design
Vikas Verma,
Bhoomesh Dutt Sharma
Production
Harish Aggarwal (Chief of Production), Face behind the Name
Naveen Gupta, Vijay Sharma, August 20
Prashant Verma
Layout Execution Does the human face fascinate you? Then head
Ramesh Gusain to Forum Art Gallery’s ‘Introduction to Portrai-
Pradeep Singh Bhandari ture in Charcoal’, where you will be introduced
n to the works of portrait artists from around the
Publishing Director world in a workshop by Aparajita Gopal. At the
Manoj Sharma workshop, you can learn the concepts of value,
Associate Publisher (Impact) proportion and nuances that make each face
Anil Fernandes unique.
n
IMPACT TEAM Registration 42115596/97
Senior General Manager: Time 1.30 p.m.
Jitendra Lad (West) At No 57, 5th Street, Padmanabha Nagar, Adyar
General Managers:
Upendra Singh (Bangalore);
Want to tell us about an event? A new store? A restaurant? People doing interesting things?
Deputy General Manager:
Kaushiky Chakraborty (East) Anything newsworthy? Please email us at: simplychennai@intoday.com
s-2 SIMPLY CHENNAI u AUGUST 2016

SIMPLY CHENNAI Cover Story
The GAME
ChangersMEET THE PEOPLE WHO ARE TRANSFORMING THE
CITY WITH INSPIRING THOUGHT AND HARD WORK
By SARANYA CHAKRAPANI
Sofia Ashraf,
artist and
activist
Defiance and Definition
SOFIA ASHRAF, 29
From Being known as ‘The Burqa Rapper’ in college to becoming an
advocate of important social and environmental issues, Sofia Ashraf believes
she's a writer first and rapper second. “It was only after activist and journal-
ist Nityanand Jayaraman told me that I could use my words to put out a strong
social message as well, that I started looking for issues that truly resonated with
my values,” says Ashraf.
This has probably fuelled Ashraf’s intense and relentless activism against
corporate giants and government projects that flout environmental laws and
don’t own up. She carries this out as part of ‘Justice Rocks’–a rock movement
much like “Woodstock, but with a message,” in Ashraf’s own words.
Most recently, her work with Justice Rocks led her to make the now viral
video Kodaikanal Won’t and consecutively, made Hindustan Unilever compen-
sate the former workers of its mercury factory in Kodaikanal, after its alleged
mercury poisoning in the hill station.
To rebel with a cause

Ashraf’s music, in many ways, best describes Chennai’s gen-
eration which is at a cusp–one that fights tooth and nail
for its traditional definitions to stay but also for new
changes to grow into. She’s now a writer, producer
at director at Culture Machine’s YouTube channel
‘Blush’, for which she is creating a series, Sista from
the South. “It explores the identity of the modern
woman and the gamut of experiences that are
unique to her. It’s the side that mainstream media
hasn’t seen; probably because a majority of its
writers are men or from the North,” says Ashraf,
adding, “It’s all of my life’s experiences filtered
through these videos.”
Photograph by CULTURE MACHINE

Art Schooling
SRIRAM AYER, 40
“If you learn mathematics through move- Making it a way of Life
ment, geometry through shapes and history NalandaWay’s work falls under three verti-
through storytelling, chances are that you will cals—art in education, which looks at facilitating
remember them longer,” believes Sriram Ayer, early childhood learning through art; art labs,
founder of the NalandaWay Foundation, an which teaches arts through a structured training
organisation that uses art as a means to initiate programme for kids who display extraordinary
academic and therapeutic learning processes talent; and art for healing, which uses art as a
amongst children. catalyst for behavioural change for adolescents
In an education system, where art usually plays with issues of trauma and depression.
an ancillary role in knowledge building, Ayer’s
decade-long crusade has been to make it the A storyteller
primary source. However, he faces a responsibil- Besides being an educationist, Ayer is also an
ity far more challenging than what most main- avid writer. His first novel, The Story of a Suicide
stream learning modules face today; every recently released in a striking, free-for-all online
child in his camp comes from “severely disadvan- edition preceded by a hauntingly engaging
taged backgrounds”. trailer–possibly the first-of-its-kind for a book.
Sriram Ayer, founder of NalandaWay Foundation with his students

Paws for a cause

SHRAVAN KRISHNAN, 25
Shravan Krishnan’s face
appeared like warm sunlight on a
winter day during the week Chennai
was exposed to a series of attacks
on animals—filmed and published
on social media for everyone to see
and stomach their repugnance. He
became the poster boy of hope, hold-
ing Bhadra—the pup that was flung
off a terrace by a medical intern—
close to his heart, assuring us she
will survive.
An act of kindness
Krishnan’s purpose to provide
dignity of life for animals was sowed
in when he was just a child. “I grew
up in a family that respected ani-
mals, and believed in coexisting with
them every day,” he says. In fact, he
pursues his passion like a science;
a natural way of life to coexist with
even the most unusual reptiles with
varying levels of venomousness.
“During my volunteering days with
The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust
& Centre for Herpetology, I would
handle and feed snakes, when most
visitors would be afraid or repulsed
by them,” says Krishnan.A significant
part of his work today is to familiarise
people with snakes and teach them
how to handle situations where they
may come across the creatures with-
in their living and working spaces,
instead of recklessly killing them.
Creature comforts
Besides rescue operations, Krishnan
also runs a shelter for strays and the
country’s first Hotel for Dogs–com-
plete with state-of-the-art facilities, in
Chennai and Bangalore. “The point is,
when you go on a vacation, your dog
should get one too. Dogs need a lot of
space to run around, move and swim.
Our hotels are complete with swim-
ming pools, soundproofed kennels,
grooming parlours and 24-hour CCTV
surveillance,” says Krishnan.
JAISON G
Shravan Krishnan at the shelter for strays. Photograph by
Arun
Krishnamurthy,
founder of
Environmentalist
Foundation of India
Gen Next activist

ARUN KRISHNAMURTHY, 30
Photograph by HK RAJASHEKAR
“Several citizens care about the envi- to 39 lakes and 21 ponds in the country so far.
ronment and are genuinely worried about it. They Besides water body conservation, EFI also works
wish to be the mobilisers of change, but do not on Anipal, their stray animal care programme,
have the right platform to proceed. I was one such Forestree, a suburban/rural afforestation pro-
clueless citizen,” says Chennai’s eco warrior Arun gramme and Green Gramam, their holistic village
Krishnamurthy. This of course, was the case until development programme.
he got together a bunch of like-minded individuals
and started the Environmentalist Foundation of Changing outlook
India (EFI), in 2006. Since then, EFI's main objec- When disaster struck in the form of torrential
tive has been to work on the field in real time- rains and floods last year, Krishnamurthy and his
result oriented conservation projects. “It’s always team were at the forefront of rescue operations
the cause that is our hero, and not the individuals and helped close to 1,000 families through strate-
behind it,” believes Krishnamurthy. gic programmes. “We expected massive change
in public thought towards freshwater bodies post
Acing the green game the floods, but, it hasn’t happened to the extent
A prime area of focus for Krishnamurthy and his we expected it to. However, there is definitely
team has been the restoration and conservation of potential for community-based conservation work
water bodies in the city. They have cleaned close and all it needs is time.”

Us against them
KIRTHI JEYAKUMAR, 27
Kirthi Jeyakumar is one of the
most pacific lawyers you may come
across in the city. She’s soft-spoken,
talks with benevolence and waxes
eloquent on transformation. But then,
she’s also a catalyst of peace.
After a degree in international law
at the School of Excellence in Law,
Chennai, Jeyakumar volunteered
for over five years with the UN and
missed her chance to go to Oxford
“by a whisker.”“But fate took me to
the University of Peace in Costa Rica,
which is a UN mandated university,”
she says.
Ambassador of peace
In the last seven years, Jeyakumar
has gone to Libya as part of a deploy-
ment that associated itself with the
Arab Spring; worked as an intern
writer for an assignment based in the
Democratic Republic of Congo; and
most recently, got invited to be part of
Michelle Obama’s conference, United
State of Women in Washington DC, in
which she participated virtually. “As a
child, my dream was to work with sur-
vivors of war in any capacity,and possi-
bly be able to stop war,” she says.
Jeyakumar started The Red Elephant
Foundation three years ago, to work
on storytelling, civilian peace-building
and activism.
She works with children to sensitise
them on gender equality and deems
this vertical to be her most crucial. “If
my workshop with children is to make
them critically evaluate the messages
they receive about body image, gender
equality and homosexuality, I try to tell
them that they can’t judge men and
women on their sexuality or look at
them as two defined blocks,” she says.
Jeyakumar wants every NGO in the
country to realise someday that they
don’t have any more work left to do
because so much has changed. Until
then, she hopes to have trained at least
5,000 children in the next five years.
Kirthi Jeyakumar,
founder of The
Red Elephant
Foundation
Talk of Town
RJ BALAJI, 30
“In my house, there was a ‘talk less and we decided to launch Chennai Micro, an online
do more' ’ rule. My grandfather cooked us our movement with the aim to make the process
meals till he was 93, and together we planted smoother and more effective,” he says.
over 60 saplings around our house,” says RJ
Balaji, the radio jockey who has now become a People's movement
household name and enjoys a massive fan fol- It has been seven months, but Chennai Micro’s
lowing in the city. This sense of ‘deed over word’ work is far from over, says Balaji. Relief and
has probably dictated most of Balaji’s life deci- rehabilitation continue in Cuddalore and the vil-
sions—the most recent being Chennai Micro—a lages neighbouring Neyveli, “but that’s not the
movement he started with actor Siddharth and point,” he says. “Chennai Micro is about instilling
a few others, immediately following the floods a sense of ownership. If some boys in your neigh-
that shook up the city last year. “My friends and bourhood are coming together to stop felling
I started transporting people who were stuck on of trees, they’re essentially a Chennai Micro in
roads into their homes. But when we saw how the making.”
disastrous the situation actually was, and that RJ Balaji is now working on Mani Ratnam's
our rescue operations had to keep pace with it, next film, which is due for release next year.
RJ Balaji, co-founder, Chennai Micro Photograph by JAISON G

On a talent hunt
MADHAN KARKY, 36
Madhan Karky,
founder,
Doopaadoo
When the restrictions of ‘catering’ to a main- working in India, a major problem that surfaced
stream music industry became more imposing was piracy. Funnily enough, a music video that
than the joy of creating for it, lyricist Madhan earned 10,000 views on YouTube, would still not
Karky decided that there had to be a space where be bought by less than half that number on say,
unrestrained independent music could be created. an iTunes. We realised then that both the musi-
He declined “close to 50 projects”, in a little over cian and the listener needed to be informed,” says
a year, busy setting up this dream project with his Karky. He has also roped in celebrated names
friend Kauntheya, and called it ‘Doopaadoo’. such as AR Rahman, Chinmayi and Santosh
Narayanan to put up their own independent work
Being in sync on the portal.
Doopaadoo is essentially a song bank, a portal “In the past few months, we’ve made five and
where aspiring and established musicians can a half lakh streams. We’ve lined up 200 songs for
send their original, non-film music, which will 200 days and every evening at 6 p.m., we launch
then be shortlisted in a blind review by an expert a new song,” says Karky, who soon plans to bring
panel and finally uploaded on to the website. Your his Doopaadoo musicians together for an online
music is up to be heard by anyone from around project from wherever they are, through which
the world, and for every new listener you get, you they can be talent-hunted by producers. All this of
get paid. “When we looked at what was work- course, while he’s busy penning for Mani Ratnam,
ing for independent music in the west that wasn’t Shankar and SS Rajamouli’s next films.
C Moulee, LGBT rights activist,

chooses to stay anonymous
Hues of Change
C MOULEE
Back in the 1990's, when he was just a companies sponsored LGBT ERGs. But with
teenager, C Moulee, now an LGBT rights activist, re-criminalisation, they stopped, and I realised
found his support mechanism between the pages that starting an ERG would have to come from
of those few teen magazines that ran counselling employees—like me,” says Moulee. The ERG
columns and a handful of articles on queer issues. has 12 people today,including some allies
“I was 14 when I came across the term ‘gay’ in a who don’t identify as LGBT, and is spread
now defunct teen magazine’s cover story about among Symantec offices in Chennai and Pune.
homosexuality. It was in a positive light and gave “Unofficially, there are a few others who want to
me immense comfort. I knew I wasn’t alone then,” be involved but don’t want to be on the public dis-
says Moulee. tribution list. Despite the progress we’ve made,
the feeling of inclusion takes time and is hard
Indomitable spirit work,” says Moulee.
In 2015, Moulee set up the first pride Employee “My aim is to bring about more awareness
Resource Group (ERG) in the Asia-Pacific for about LGBT people among our employees. I think
Symantec, a multi-national technology company, ignorance is one of the reasons why queer indi-
and instantly became a star for the LGBT com- viduals are ignored and harassed. To make the
munity in the country. “During the brief time workplace more sensitive towards queer issues
that homosexuality was legal in India, some and people; this is at the top of my mind,” he adds.

SIMPLY CHENNAI Essay
MYRIAD MEDIUMS OF CREATIVITY

For artists, Chennai is the bridge between traditional and contemporary.
M
y works are deeply informed by entirely new dimension.
my faith. I am inspired particu- In my works, I have always tried to por-
larly by the myriad traditions that tray the various experiences that one goes
fall under the umbrella term through in the creation and evolution of the
‘spirituality’. Since my early days, I have being. It also captures in its entirety the per-
been representing the Hiranyagarbha, the petual change, order, strength and fragility;
golden womb or egg, from which the cos- colours and rhythm; melody and exuber-
mos was born. The golden womb is mythi- ance of the elemental world. I have always
cally the first eternal womb through which attempted to combine intellectual and cre-
SEEMA KOHLI various universes were born, and where ative energy in a striking manner. Although
nothing is ending. It is constantly and posi- known primarily as a painter, I have lately
tively procreating, recycling and engaging been using several other mediums to
to the rhythm and pulse of life. The Tree of express—in the form of performances, films
Life is another enduring leitmotif, which is and installation. My exhibition in Chennai
universally accepted as a symbol presented that opens later this month aptly showcases
by nature, expressing its various principles a collection of my practise and is also based
and laws. My works explore the great cycle on my connection with Chennai, and how it’s
of life-death-life and the balance of male reflected over the greater space. What is an
and female, yin and yang, Shiva and Shakti, experiential environment for me, constructs
Purusha and Prakriti in the cosmos. I make an artistic environment for the viewer.
my own narratives and carve my own Sometimes, with the use of the word, I rein-
mythology. In my practice, I invent my own vent myself and my expression. The themes
mantras and rituals, resulting as imagery in that I choose are just not spiritual but also
my language-paintings. an exchange of energies and states of mind.
In years of such exploration, I have These days, I am drawn mostly to public
seen that Delhi has a particularly interest- art. Through performances and contribut-
ing backdrop for the convergence between ing my art to larger spaces such as the Park
the historic and the contemporary, artistic Hyatt hotel, Chennai, and the recent acqui-
tradition and the momentum of a booming sition of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation
economic power. But it is important to think collection, I have been given the opportunity
beyond the city and reflect upon the diver- to open my work to a greater outlook. It
sity of the country and the region. Deeply gives me immense pleasure to collaborate
seeped in traditions, my artwork reflects with Park Hyatt and the liberal thought
the roots from where I come. This was the process it has. This creative freedom has
brief that I gave myself, as I tried to build allowed me to maintain a better state of
the cosmopolitan connect between Delhi mind. This state of mind has found the
and Chennai. I connect with Chennai in perfect connect in a space like Chennai and
the deepest way. It is the city with so many its inspiring surroundings.
I CONNECT WITH religions and has a bloodline of spiritual- Business and commerce today are close-
CHENNAI IN THE ity and tradition, which is also reflected in ly related with public art that adds colour
DEEPEST WAY. my works. It fascinates me how the connect and creativity to their spaces. Having my
IT IS THE CITY between the two cities is so different and yet artwork displayed in such spaces will intel-
the same. It was South India that welcomed lectualise and provide it with much needed
WITH MANY RELI-
my experiential videos and performances, positivity and enthusiasm. I hope this is true
GIONS AND HAS as against viewing me as just a painter. for the millions of people passing by it every
A BLOODLINE OF Chennai is the predominant cultural hub of day as well. A tone of unique aesthetics
SPIRITUALITY South India. The city has a vibrant art scene and social beauty is bound to set, and it will
AND TRADITION, and has played a vital role in the evolution develop with time.
WHICH REFLECTS of traditional and contemporary art in India.
This entire process has let me reinvent The author is a self-trained contemporary artist
IN MY WORKS. my practice and artwork, and given it an who explores themes of sensuality and spirituality
SIMPLY CHENNAI Essay
The Art of Seduction-

SUNDER RAMU
CHENNAI STYLE
THE MYRIAD HUES OF THE CITY NEVER STOP FASCINATING ME
C
hennai was ‘Madras’ in Delhi to attend the wonder- heritage worthy sites surrounding
when I first came here. It fully talented designer Rehane’s it. Areas rich in character and old-
is the city I have lived in show at a Fashion Week, I came world charm, such as Mylapore,
through the second half across a designer from there, who, Sowcarpet, Parry’s Corner and
of my life. And counting. I came impressed by a calendar I had shot Triplicane, thrive alongside posh
here from Bangalore to study for Rehane, got chatting with me. neighbourhoods such as Poes
Visual Communication at The We initially bonded over my city Garden and Boat Club—strik-
Loyola College and have stayed of origin, Bangalore, and spoke ing a wonderful balance between
on. Although, I must confess I was highly of my future in the industry. both the worlds. Temples, palaces,
most reluctant to make this move However, when we got down to mosques and fine examples of
and ready to leave at the drop of exchanging contacts, he looked at British and Mughal architecture,
a hat during my initial years here. me with almost a sense of disbelief, house important
But, like a wily seductress that has as he ran through my card. “You’re government offices and flea
you under her spell; unveiling layer a Madrasi?” he blurted, after which markets alike. Before I start
by layer, she kept me here, not he gave me quite the cold shoulder. sounding like a travel guide, I must
knowing why exactly, but knowing Like a lot of cities in India, admit that my fascination for these
enough that it wasn’t time to leave. Chennai has a strong flavour of its places stems from the fact that
Not just yet. own. I’m certainly not one to com- they constantly inspire me in
Every time I wanted to pack up pare it with its counterparts and my visual work. They serve
and leave to pursue a career—in see how it fares alongside them as a great foundation and
photography and now acting—in on a ‘Best City to Live in List’ but I influence to the arts that I
a more professional and reward- would in fact like to try and unravel pursue.
ing environment, I was reminded the mystery that has kept me here The city that hosted
of how great artists of excellence in and celebrate the positives of this the nightingale MS
various fields have been churned coastal city, which is rich in culture Subbulakshmi and
out from this very city. From music and its array of beautiful historical numerous greats
to sports, cinema to the arts; from structures spread across. of Carnatic music
the sculptors of Mahabalipuram to I’ve always been in love with the and dance in
the string of the best cinematogra- coast—something that I couldn’t one of the
phers in the country—the diverse get in Bengaluru. The second largest
talent this city has offered is longest beach in the world, the
indeed commendable. Marina, also has some of the best
Many years ago, when I was old- school architecture and
music festivals in the world— quarters, its megalomania- University of Madras
Margazhi—also boasts of one of cal characters, the stench that
the strongest film industries in greets you from open drains that
the country, which I’m happy to were once beautiful rivers, and
be a part of. every one of that reason that
Chennai has revived the made me want to run away from
almost extinct Olive Ridley it the day I landed here.
turtles, groomed the likes of I embrace this city with the
Vishwanathan Anand and love that it has shown me. I miss
Leander Paes (who started his its Woodlands drive-in, where
career at the Britannia Amritraj many a relationship was formed
Tennis Academy before scaling and broken, I miss many of those
the pinnacle of Doubles Tennis spacious bungalows with their
and starring in The Chennai vast gardens that have now been
Open), and above all, displays replaced by rows of flats or com-
the kind of inspiring spirit that is mercial buildings, I miss some of
unique only to it. those sleepy lanes that are now
Right from bouncing back filled with traffic and smog. But
from natural disasters such as the bane of development apart,
the floods and the Tsunami, to the promise of what and how
proving its mettle in sports, the much can still be done keeps you
city every now and then unites rooted here.
itself beyond all divisions, to There was a time when I
surprise us with an inexplicable wanted to start a movement
bond that makes all its negatives called, ‘Proud to be a Madrasi’, to
(which I admit are as many), stick it to that designer in Delhi,
disappear when we sit down to but thankfully I thought better of
judge it on its merit. it. I don’t really care about being
I’m an avid backpacker and proud of where I am from; as
make it a point to travel as often long as I am happy, it all adds up.
and as far as I can. And every This city and its people have con-
time I do, I admit, I almost never tributed to my life enough for me
want to come back due to rea- to gladly spend as much time as
sons of my own. But then, you’re I can giving back and making it
hit by the urge to return to this the best city it can be.
lazy city—despite its infamous
heat and humidity, rampant Sunder Ramu is a city-based film
unprofessionalism in various and stage actor and photographer
SIMPLY CHENNAI Buzz
Interiors of Little Lavish
51
THINGS
REVIEW LITTLE LAVISH
THERAPY TO
TO LOOK
FORWARD TO
WELLNESS
T
he new wave of wellness seekers like a good
ambience to bask in, some artwork to sashay
through, some jewellery to try on and some
Zen to contemplate on, even as they’re waiting
for their aroma oils to warm. This was the idea that
stuck on to Rema Devi, who recently opened her bou-
tique, Little Lavish on TTK Road, where the Lloyd’s Tea 2 PREVIEW MADRAS WEEK FESTIVAL
CHENNAI,
House once stood.She has stacked up a range of home
décor, lifestyle and wellness products—all endearingly
handpicked from her travels across Asia. The base-
ment store has a warm, personal feel to it; wind chimes
clinking, Buddha busts and figures gleaming under
FROM PAST TO FUTURE
W
warm yellow light, wooden branches doubling up as hat does Chennai mean to you? What do its
jewellery stands, exquisite clear glass tea sets and erstwhile office buildings, statues, temples and
some of the prettiest tropical dresses you’ll find around flea markets tell you? Find out from people
here by the fashion label, Tadka. who’ve spent their days dwelling into these
And right across the corner is the Thai Sabai mini questions in two amazing photo exhibitions—Ancient
day spa. The spa, besides specialising in traditional Temples of Madras by KT Gandhirajan from August 13
Thai therapies; dry massages, foot reflexology, to 31 at Kadambari art Gallery, Dakshina Chitra, and an
manicures and pedicures, also gives you lengthy exhibition on Tirukkural by architect Dhana, on August
Balinese oil massages with different aromatic oils to 19 at the Madras Literary Society, DPI Complex, College
pick from. The list of therapies is concise and gives you Road, Nungambakkam. Many such events that will
value for money; the therapists are trained fairly well engage and inform you have been planned for the annu-
and the treatments are offered under different al Madras Week festival. You can join the Cycling Yogis
durations as per your need and preference. and ride down from the city all the way up to the Sadras
In all, Little Lavish provides a wholesome experi- Fort, traversing the scenic East Coast Road, on August
ence of shopping, wellness and lounging. Keeping up 21. “Newer efforts are gaining ground—Vysarpadi in
with the trend of one-stop-shop destinations, a little north Chennai is hosting its own local fest to showcase its
café around the corner could possibly be a good idea positive side, when many consider it to be the crime and
too. It could make for a perfect lazy Sunday afternoon grime zone of our city. The idea is to make people proud
destination to spend time unwinding and rejuvenating. of their city and appreciate its uniqueness, its heritage.
Price Rs 550 for therapies Hopefully, it will also encourage them to protect that
At 406, Basement, TTK Road, Alwarpet heritage,” says Vincent D’ Souza, organiser, Madras
Tel 65388388 n By Saranya Chakrapani Week. Details themadrasday.in
n By Saranya Chakrapani
AUGUST 2016 u SIMPLY CHENNAI s-17

SIMPLY CHENNAI Buzz
4
FOR OLD TIMES’ SAKE
Research scientist
August 19
Watch Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah in Satyadev

Dubey’s Dear Liar, a celebrated play that takes from the
romance between George Bernard Shaw and Mrs Patrick
Campbell, and the fascinating chemistry they shared.
Ü TIME 7.30 p.m.
Ü AT Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, 13/1,
Shenstone Park, Harrington Road, Chetpet
Tel 43561198 Ü TICKETS bookmyshow.com
3
COOKIES, ANYONE?
Indulge in a sweet treat at
Nutmeg, as they present Mega
Cookies, an array of fresh,
delicately crafted baked cookies
straight from the oven. They come
in four special flavours—peanut
butter, hazelnut, citrus white
chocolate and pistachio.
Ü PRICE Rs 95 onward, per piece
AT ITC Grand Chola, No 63,
Anna Salai, Guindy
TEL 22200000
5
CLASH OF THE PARENTS
August 21
Nadir Khan presents The God of Carnage,
a play about how two children get into a
fight and their parents meet up to sort out
the differences, but end up exploring more
complexities in the process.
Ü TIME 7.30 p.m. Ü AT Sir Mutha
Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, 13/1,
Shenstone Park, Harrington Road, Chetpet
Ü TEL 43561198
Ü TICKETS bookmyshow.com

INTERVIEW SANDHYA MENDONCA
passage to
chennai
S
andhya Mendonca talks about her latest coffee and hence, an easier read. Even in terms of the
table book on Chennai and how it brings together production, we went for a soft cover with a double
different narratives on one common ground. layer. It’s only 600 gms; you can carry it in your bag or
tuck it under your arm.
Q. You have put together coffee table books on
different cities so far. What makes Best of Chennai - Q. How did you make this coffee table book a balance
Volume 2 different? between extensive information and reportage?
A. Its edge is in its crispness. It waxes eloquent on the A. Knowing the city, there are several things you can
city’s culture and is yet precise where it needs to be, take a verbal shorthand on, but we had to keep the
international reader in mind, and scoop out
unconventional aspects that define it. For instance,
among the many photos of Chennai that our
photographer, Badri, sent us, one was that of a Marwari
woman feeding pigeons on the beach. I immediately
assumed it was from somewhere in the west coast, till
he revealed that she was indeed a local who came to
the Marina beach every day for this little ritual. I found
it to be a fascinating story and representation of the
city’s diversity.
Q. You have featured established organisations in the

city, alongside some newer ones. What is the role of
these start-ups in putting Chennai on the global map?
A. We went through and reached out to as many as 15
start-ups. We were looking at the ones that were really
game changers and had pushed the envelope with their
founding idea and execution. For instance, websites
like Vakilsearch, which give legal advice online; found-
ers of Chargeme, who have made a revenue model out
of making invoices and one of my favourites—Invention
Labs—that has reached out to children with disabilities.
Q. How long did it take to put this book together?

A. I started working on it about a year ago—sometime
in last July. Just when I started seriously focusing on
it, the floods hit Chennai and everything was stalled. I
pulled it back temporarily, but when I did resume work,
there were some remarkable stories of humanity and
resilience from the floods that could make the book
something I never imagined it to be.
Q. Where did your fascination for new places stem from?

A. My parents were avid travellers. My father, especial-
ly, used to keep aside savings just for this. I can say with
certainty that my own hunger for new places and their
unique stories comes from there.
Sandhya Medonca, author n By Saranya Chakrapani
AUGUST 2016 u SIMPLY CHENNAI s-19

SIMPLY CHENNAI Buzz
THE
ENGLISH
CONNECT
BRITISH COUNCIL INDIA’S NEW
DIRECTOR, ALAN GEMMELL OBE, IS JAISON G
REACHING OUT TO THE

Photograph by
CONTEMPORARY INDIAN BY
REINTERPRETING SHAKESPEARE
AND LOCAL TUNES Alan Gemmell OBE, Director, British Council of India
F
ive years ago when Alan Gemmell OBE, of social media.
British Council dropped into Chennai, he was “It will celebrate Shakespeare on the 400th
working with the organisation in Mexico, and anniversary of his death. We also believe that his plays
possibly viewed this south Indian city from a and the ideas he addresses in them are just as relevant
distant vantage point. This time, he arrived as British today as they were 450 years ago. We want young peo-
Council India’s director and came with an agenda as ple to connect with those issues through these plays,
enterprising as his position and as dynamic as the city. and this project with Roysten is going to do just that,”
“I should say that this is my first proper visit to says Gemmell. This is scheduled to start in November.
Chennai. And it’s about two things—me understand- The second key initiative is ‘Mix the City’. If Mix
ing and being inspired by the things we do every day the Play is about you becoming a director, Mix the City
and conceptualising new initiatives that will mark the is about you turning into musician. “We’ve asked Sonia
upcoming year of culture between the UK and India,” Mazumdar of the world music label Earthsync, to help
he says. us create the sights and sounds from north, south,
“India is the British Council’s biggest and most east and west India, with the help of local musicians,”
important operation. We have 600 colleagues working says Gemmell.
around the country. There are brilliant projects run- “Coupling this work with The Flying Object, you’ll
ning already, and my job is a bit like a conductor,” be able to remix and reinterpret it, and share it on
he adds. social media. It will celebrate contemporary life and
Cultural exchange remains Gemmell’s prime point music-making in these cities, and is set to launch from
of focus and as part of it, he has announced ‘Mix January next year,” he adds.
the Play’, British Council’s collaborative work with In addition to these cultural exchanges, the British
Indian playwright Roysten Abel to take Shakespeare Council is training one million teachers and working
to young audiences through their smart phones. The with 35 million children as part of its programme in
process is simple—Abel will choose a scene from one government schools in India, according to Gemmell.
of Shakespeare’s plays and take Indian actors, cos- “Right now, we are just as keen to have the
tume designers and musicians to record this several strongest possible educational, cultural, economic,
times. He will then work this together with a British social and diplomatic relationship with India. We’ve
digital business called The Flying Object. This would just come through a referendum, we’ve got a new
enable people to explore over a hundred variables to Prime Minister and through these exchanges, we want
this scene, helping them direct their own scene of the to be most connected to the contemporary Indian, than
Shakespeare play and share it with their friends on India in general.” n By Saranya Chakrapani

SIMPLY CHENNAI Buzz
RESTAURANTREVIEW / HAMSA
ON A SILVER PLATTER
N
iche is a big word these days and foodies are in
constant search for something new, something they
haven’t experienced before. Hamsa, the vegetarian
fine-dining restaurant in Adyar, offers such an indul-
gence to every discerning eater. Walk into the restaurant and
you will see ornate brass lamps hanging from the ceiling,
walls adorned in exclusive artwork and fine silverware used
to serve an extravagant fare. The menu is expansive and
everything in it, rich. Try the Bhagirathi Mehar paneer—
cottage cheese cooked with reduced milk and dried plums or
the Urulai roast—roasted baby potatoes in Chettinad spices—
a classic rendered perfectly. The anar aur hari meeri ka
chawal—with pomegranate and green peppercorn is as
aromatic as it is flavoursome. The desserts here must
be devoured with a hearty appetite. For a decadent end to
your meal, do try their unique offering, the amrud phirni—
guava enriched rice pudding.
Meal for two Rs 1,800
At No. 40, B. Ramachandra Adithanar Road, 4th Main Road,
Gandhi Nagar, Adyar Tel 30637519 n By Saranya Chakrapani

DIGITAL EDITION

AUGUST 29, 2016 `50
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BATHROOM SPECIAL
BATHS OF
THE
FUTURE
Young
The
RJ BALAJI
CHANGEMAKERS
SMITA GONDKAR,
SPORTSPERSON
Changemakers
AND ACTOR
ANUPAMA AGARWAL
AND KABEER KHURANA
THE TORCHBEARERS

AUGUST 2016
ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
SMITA GONDKAR,
SPORTSPERSON
AND ACTOR
THE TORCHBEARERS
SIMPLY PUNE Inside
Editor-in-Chief
Aroon Purie
Ashish Bagga
Raj Chengappa
COVER STORY FEATURE
Editor-at-large
Kaveree Bamzai The Changemakers s-4 Showering Good Times s-9
n In a month that celebrates Independ- Enjoy the rains at these hill
Editorial Team ence Day, here are six professionals destinations which are just a short
Mohini Mehrotra, Ursila Ali drive away from the city.
who are role models in the society.
Photo Department
Vikram Sharma
Cover photo by MANDAR DEODHAR
Photo Researchers
Art Director
Jyoti Singh
Design
Vikas Verma,
Bhoomesh Dutt Sharma Made in India
Production
Harish Aggarwal (Chief of Production), Till August 30
Naveen Gupta, Vijay Sharma, Celebrate the Independence
Prashant Verma month with traditional textiles
Layout Execution and handlooms with the
Ramesh Kumar Gusain, exhibition From the Heartland.
Pradeep Singh Bhandari On show are Benarasi and
n Mubarakpur weaves; Kalamkari
Publishing Director from Dwaraka, Jaipur block
Manoj Sharma prints by Awadesh Kumar,
Associate Publisher (Impact) Chanderi by Asha Ram and
Anil Fernandes Kota Doria by the KWWO.
n At Either or, Sohrab Hall,
IMPACT TEAM Sassoon Road
Senior General Manager: Contact 26057228;
Jitendra Lad (West) facebook.com/eitherorindia
General Managers:
Kaushiky Chakraborty (East) Anything newsworthy? Please email us at: simplypune@intoday.com
s-2 SIMPLY PUNE u AUGUST 2016

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ALST
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SIMPLY PUNE Cover Story
Smita Gondkar, Actor

and sportsperson
The
Changemakers
IN A MONTH THAT CELEBRATES INDEPENDENCE DAY,
HERE ARE SIX PROFESSIONALS WHO ARE ROLE
MODELS IN SOCIETY
n By ADITI PAI
W
hen other girls went to college on their Sunny, Smita Gondkar, 32,
rode a bullet to class.I always wanted to do something different
and although I was the only girl in the family, my parents never
treated me differently. They encouraged me to take up sports and spread
my wings,” she says. So it came as no surprise when Gondkar won the
Apollo Flight of the Hawkz, an extreme off motor adventure series on Nat
Geo channel in 2010. “It taught me that nothing is impossible and that girls
are mentally and emotionally much stronger than men,” she says. Gondkar
has numerous experiences in her kitty—she worked on a luxury cruise liner
for three years, has represented Maharashtra at the state level sculling and
Road to Success rowing events, has competed in judo at the national level, was the captain
SMITA of the Maharashtra State Kayaking team at the national games and then
trained army cadets in kayaking at the National Institute of Water Sports,
Goa. In 2007, she decided to try something different, yet again, and signed
GONDKAR a Marathi film, Mumbaicha Dabbawala.
Gender no Bar With 21 films—English, Marathi, Hindi—in her kitty,

the petite actor continues to pursue her “first love”—racing and adventure
sports. “I did motor cross riding when no girls in Pune did it,” she says.
When Gondkar auditioned for Stunt Mania, people dismissed her thinking
a “model can’t do all this.” But she became the only female participant to
go right till the last round. “I got known as a biker and I got to test my own
potential,” she says.
Photograph by MANDAR DEODHAR
AUGUST 2016 u SIMPLY PUNE s-5

Kumar Prashant,
Social Reformer
Photograph by ABHIJIT PATIL
F
rom setting up a 5,000 square animal shelter made of waste plastic bottles and
cans to doing up “India’s first fully green office” for Thoughtworks, Kumar
Prashant, 27, is giving design a socially and environmentally conscious twist.
An artist and animal welfare activist, he built a shelter using over 20,000 waste
plastic bottles and tyres for People for Animals. People were urged to donate in their
waste plastic and Prashant fashioned it into a shelter for injured and abandoned
animals. “There is an urgent need to promote environment conscious living by pro-
Art with a Heart moting recycling, upcycling and reusing of waste when possible,” says Prashant,
who quit his mechanical engineering course in the final semester. But his study of
KUMAR mechanics comes handy each time the designer-artist creates a new space under
his brand Rebirth, which he started with Nivedita Joshee Chopra, 35, in 2012.
PRASHANT
Prashant uses a variety of waste materials—glass, plastic, wood, tyres, electronics
and metal scraps—and gives them a cosmetic touchup depending on what its final
functionality and application is.
Functional Art What makes Rebirth’s work interesting is that it doesn’t sit only
in art galleries but is widely integrated into modern spaces such as a number of
bars and restaurants in the city. Among Prashant’s key projects is Thoughtworks,
an IT firm which has used numerous upcycled elements in its 35,000 square feet
office. The city’s popular restaurants like Hidden Place, Swig, Tales and Spirits and
Euriska also carry Prashant’s upcycled works. He recently created a 35 feet high
exterior installation for KSH Logistics in Chakan made of recycled industrial tools.
“At 35 feet, it is the tallest exterior recycled installation of its kind,” he says. An
advocate of recycling, Prashant urges people to do their bit for the environment by
simple segregation of waste and holding waste collection drives. “Sell plastic to a
raddiwala to recycle, use cloth bags and refuse plastic,” he says..

Conscious Fashion
NIVEDITA
SABOO Nivedita
Saboo
with
acid
attack
survivors
S
he counts the city’s power set and the “Thousands of women are subjected to acid attacks
recently crowned Mr World winner Rohit and as a woman and a designer, I wanted to make
Khandelwal among her customers and her them feel confident and empowered” says Saboo.
creations have gone to fashion shows across the
globe but Nivedita Saboo, 35, continues to com- Making a difference Even as she’s set to make
bine social causes with high fashion. While she’s her debut in Mumbai next month, the designer
employed women and the physically challenged at recently held a colouring workshop for visually
her factories ever since she launched her epony- impaired children from Pune. She changed the
mous label, the designer took her social commit- texture of paints by adding pounded pulses, dried
ment a step further when she worked with victims leaves and fine sand to help the children differenti-
of acid attacks in March this year. Saboo created ate between colours they couldn’t see. Saboo works
a special collection of ivory and gold outfits for closely with artisans and the physically disabled to
a show called Satva-The inner strength in which she impart skills and create employment opportunities
had victims of acid attacks walk the ramp in their “Working with the disabled is different but not dif-
flowing outfits made of super fine gentle cotton. ficult,” she says.
I
n April, this year, Starkenn Sports partnered with Pune
Riverside Round Table 105 to conduct a cycling rally,
Pedal 3, to create awareness and raise funds for schools
in drought-affected Maharashtra villages. Pravin Patil, 42,
MD and CEO of Starkenn Sports is determined to promote
a culture of cycling in the city, he’s organised a number of
cycling experiences, the biggest one being Syclovia, popu-
The Wheels larly known as Sunday Sunshine Rides. In December 2013,
of Fortune Patil held the first cycling event in to create awareness about
cycling as the "single solution" to counter the ill-effects of
PRAVIN issues plaguing urban India. "The per-square-foot and car-

bon footprint of a bicycle is much lower than the commonly
PATIL
used modes of transport in urban India," he says.
Racing Ahead Recently, Giant Starkenn sponsored India’s

first professional cyclist Naveen John; they gifted a bicycle to
Sandesh Uppar, a 19 year-old national level champion who
MANDAR DEODHAR
hails from a small village in Karnataka and also sponsored

Pune girl Rutuja Satpute who won the bronze medal in Asian
Cycling Championship in Bangkok.
Pravin Patil, MD and
CEO, Starkenn Sports
Photograph by
Aditya Tiwari with son Avnish
Social Scanner
MANASWINI
LATA RAVINDRA
B
Between rehearsals for her new play Amar
Photo Studio that released in Pune on August
13, Manaswini Lata Ravindra, 33, recalls that
as a student of theatre, she “felt shy” to face audiences
on stage. But at the age of 21, the young playwright
penned the play Cigarettes, that highlighted the dilem-
Photograph by
NIHAR RANGOONWALA
ma of the modern Indian youth. Manaswini, who uses
her parents’ names instead of a surname that often
denotes caste, explores social norms and interpersonal
Breaking Barriers
relationships through her writings. “For me, writing is
microscopic. Our political and social hierarchy reflects ADITYA
TIWARI
through sexuality—why are people against inter reli-
gion or inter-caste marriages; what exactly is honour
killing; why do people rape and why do people want
to establish power over a woman’s vagina?” she says.
H
The write word “Human relations, the chaos, intri- is Facebook profile describes him as ‘a ray of hope
cacies, complications” are raw material for the young and happiness which welcomes everyone’. And
writer who won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar Aditya Tiwari, 28, indeed proved that when he
this year for her collection of short stories, Blogchya endured “mental, emotional and financial trauma” for
Aarshapallyad. In Alvida, she explored the mother- 18 months only to adopt a child with Downs’ Syndrome
daughter relationship when the parents decide to who he saw on a visit to an orphanage in Indore in 2014.
divorce while the Marathi play Lakh Lakh Chanderi But the adoption was far from easy—he was a single man,
traverses a 50 year-long period in the life of a film art- 27-years-old and the orphanage had decided to give
ist. In her 12 year long career, she’s published books, up the five month-old boy for international adoption.
has written the screenplay and dialogues for the popu- “I later realised it was a racket; they had kept the child
lar Marathi television show Dil Dosti Duniyadari and illegally and hadn’t registered him in the government
the acclaimed film Rama Madhav and published her records which is mandatory,” says Tiwari, a software
first ever collection of Marathi poems at the age of 13. engineer with Barclays in Pune. He made over 30 trips
from Pune to Bhopal in a year’s time, wrote numer-
Manaswini Lata Ravindra, Playwright ous letters and petitions to everyone from the Prime
Minister and the Women and Child Welfare Minister
to the Madhya Pradesh government.
The do-gooder In July this year, when Tiwari tied

the knot, instead of inviting relatives and friends, he
celebrated the occasion by providing a feast and gifts
DANESH JASSAWALA
for 10,000 underprivileged people and food for 1000

animals from shelters, stray animals and the zoo.
“These were my real guests,” he says. Even as he plays
a doting father to two year-old son Avnish, Tiwari is
already working on setting up a shelter for abandoned
Photograph by
and homeless animals and has formed a support group

of parents of child with disabilities.
SIMPLY PUNE Feature
Atmantan Health
and Wellness Resort
SHOWERING
GOOD TIMES ENJOY THE RAINS AT THESE HILL DESTINATIONS
THAT ARE JUST A SHORT DRIVE AWAY FROM THE CITY
n By ADITI PAI
Meditative Moments transformed. After all, what can be more relaxing than
yoga sessions amidst the early morning mist, a warm
ATMANTAN meal whipped up with fresh produce and spa therapies
A sense of calm sweeps over you the moment you pull by experienced hands in luxurious state-of-the-art
up into the reception area of Atmantan. Just as you spa chambers?
think it’s the crisp monsoon chill, the breathtaking view It’s the attention to small details that enhances the
of the Mulshi Lake or the gushing sound of the water- healing process here. It’s a no-kids resort; people speak
fall that’s lulling you into a languorous state, general in hushed tones and most importantly and refreshingly,
manager Athena Salim lets you in on a secret—the hills you don’t hear mobile phones ringing away. Phones
around Atmantan have a generous concentration of are banned in all public spaces here. It tells you how
natural crystals, recognised for their healing and calm- seriously Atmantan takes the entire wellness experi-
ing properties. So, does that really enhance the experience. Spread over 40 acres, Atmantan is undoubtedly
ence at a wellness resort? The next few hours ensure the most luxurious and high-end wellness resort in the
that you leave the city stress behind and emerge feeling vicinity of Pune or Mumbai with lavish rooms, warm
SIMPLY PUNE Feature
and friendly staff and some of the best fit- Rumourss Sky
ness and wellness amenities that you can Villa and Resort
find. But what really makes your stay here
an unforgettable experience is the person-
alised attention and the minute attention
to every health detail right from the initial
consultation with the naturopathy and
physiotherapy practitioners to the meals
made by Chef Sandeep Biswas.
The minimum stay is for three nights
which is understandable because you do
need that time to unwind and feel relaxed.
The day starts with yoga and moves on to
a mix of fitness activities like TRX, salsa,
water pilates, aerobics and bokwa. The
highlight, for most though, is the massage
session where you can choose from the
wide range that’s available—ayurvedic,
aromatherapy, invigorating and the Chi Nei
Tsang, probably the only place near Pune
where you can get this healing abdominal
massage done.
With clouds floating into the balconies
and the gushing waterfall overpowering
every soft voice in the resort, it’s a beautiful
getaway to enjoy the monsoons. Atmantan
feeds your body, mind and soul.
EAT TO HEALTH Chef Sandeep Biswas goes
by the resort’s motto that food is the best
medicine so the focus at the restaurant
is, predictably, healthy locavarian cui-
sine. Everything they serve is grown in
Atmantan’s own organic farms; the eggs
and chicken are free-range and the milk
comes from cows grazing in open pastures.
Beautifully presented and free of spices,
the menu reminds you to taste every
ingredient, something that we overlook in
our fast-food-driven lives. The chef thoughtfully con- in its architecture and design; it’s built on the lines of
ducts cooking sessions for those who want to take back Japanese tree house chalets, wooden holiday homes
their experience home. traditionally built atop trees. There are eight villas here,
STAY They have three categories of rooms—the Ashoka erected on a single iron mast at a height of about 30 to
and Acacia groves and the Mango Tree Villa, a luxury 40 feet above the ground.
villa with a private spa room and pool. If you want a feeling of being perched in the skies,
GETTING THERE Palse Vasti, Mulshi Taluka, Mulshi Road opt for the sky villas that give an exciting tree-house feel
atmantan.com and even sway gently in the monsoon breeze. Besides
these, there are four earth villas which are on a lower
RUMOURSS SKY VILLA level. The resort, nestled amidst hills and forest areas,
is constructed with eco-friendly material. The wooden
AND RESORT villas are treated to sustain the heavy monsoons and the
If you’re among those pet parents who rarely have a roofing is built using Oduline which is a bad conductor
guilt-free holiday minus the pooch, here’s a new retreat of heat and helps in conserving energy by keeping the
where you can carry your furry friends along—and room cool.
also bag discount deals for holidaying with your pets. PRICES START at Rs 7,000 for the earth villa and Rs 8,000
The Rumourss Sky Villa and Resort is a pet-friendly for the sky villa
retreat at a picturesque location in Lonavala where GETTING THERE Lonavala. Take the exit from Mumbai-
pets are not only welcome but can also help their own- Pune highway and continue on the on Jalavayu Marg
ers get a 75 per cent discount. The resort is unique rumourss.com

AUGUST 2016
Young
CHANGEMAKERS
ANUPAMA AGARWAL
AND KABEER KHURANA
SIMPLY MUMBAI Inside
Photograph by DANESH JASSAWALA
Editor-in-Chief
Aroon Purie
Ashish Bagga
Raj Chengappa
Editor-at-large
Kaveree Bamzai
n
COVER STORY
Associate Editor
Moeena Halim The Student Revolution s-3 we face today. These college students
Editorial Team
Mohini Mehrotra, Ursila Ali
They think out-of-the-box, finding envision a brighter future and aren’t
Photo Department
innovative solutions to the problems afraid to work hard for it.
Mandar Deodhar, Danesh Jassawala,
Vikram Sharma Cover photo by DANESH JASSAWALA
Photo Researchers

Art Director
Jyoti Singh
Design
Vikas Verma,
Bhoomesh Dutt Sharma
Production
Harish Aggarwal (Chief of Production),
Naveen Gupta, Vijay Sharma,
The Frog’s Swansong
Prashant Verma August 26 to 28
Layout Execution BlueFrog Mumbai is bidding adieu to its
Ramesh Kumar Gusain Mathuradas Mills home. While the club looks
Pradeep Singh Bhandari for a new home, they will continue to organise
n pop-ups, festivals and experiential events. For
Publishing Director its swansong three-day music festival, Frogfest,
Manoj Sharma the club has invited all the bands who have pre-
Associate Publisher (Impact) viously graced the stage at BlueFrog including
Anil Fernandes Dhruv Ghanekar and Ashutosh Pathak. There’s
n going to be a bit of soul, acoustic, blues, rock
IMPACT TEAM and RnB music.
Senior General Manager: At BlueFrog, Zeba Centre, Mathuradas Mill
Jitendra Lad (West) Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel
General Managers: Website bluefrog.co.in
Kaushiky Chakraborty (East) Anything newsworthy? Please email us at: simplymumbai@intoday.com
s-2 SIMPLY MUMBAI u AUGUST 2016

SIMPLY MUMBAI Cover Story
The Student ‘Confidently weird’ Kabeer Khurana

and ‘confidently clueless’ Anupama Agarwal
were constantly bullied in school. “Bullies believe
REVOLUTION
they are somehow superior, but we could never
understand how being different made us infe-
rior,” says Agarwal. “The stem of bringing social
change was because of this seed that was sown
in our childhood.” Procrastination during their
12th standard board exams allowed the best
THESE COLLEGE STUDENTS AREN’T friends to conceptualise their production house
AFRAID TO WORK HARD TO FIND Artyculate, which would help them use films
INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO THE and other forms of media to inspire others to
make a social change. An architecture student
PROBLEMS WE FACE TODAY. and an aspiring filmmaker, Khurana’s first short
film Project Oneness, which talked about dis-
n By MOEENA HALIM crimination, won him a ‘special mention’ at the
Media Corti a Ponte Film Festival in Venice last year.
Movement
Commissioned two films for non-profit organisa-
tions during the summer, he is now itching to
KABEER KHURANA, 18 create his next titled Isms.
The Creative Itch
ANUPAMA AGARWAL, 18
Visual isn’t the only way the students are going.
ARTYCULATE Agarwal, a first-year BBA student at Narsee
Kabeer Khurana and
Anupama Agarwal Monjee Institute of Management Studies,
enjoys the written word. She runs
their blog, Artyculate Ink, with the
help of five volunteers who write
regularly about individuality, vul-
nerability, the education system
and so on. It’s their third verti-
cal, Artyculate Mic, that has
DANESH JASSAWALA
really helped them spread the
word about their work. Their first
campaign, Confidently Flawed, had
people share stories about appreciating
oneself. Their first post had Saffana Siddiqui
Photograph by
talk about her dyslexia. It went viral with over
400 likes and 200 shares. Website artyculate.net
Photograph by DANESH JASSAWALA
Saloni Gopani and Saloni

Kukreja (in the centre)
A sari-clad woman carefully balancing pots of water on her head
with the rest of the Project
during her trek back home—isn’t that the quintessential image of rural India?
Jalvruddhi team The enthusiastic students behind Project Jalvruddhi could well change that picture
with their bright blue Wello water wheels. Project Jalvruddhi, HR College student
Saloni Gopani’s brainchild, came after months of primary research which lead the
students to understand that purification, accessibility and availability of water was
one of the major problems faced in rural Maharastra. “Pipelines had never worked
Water woes in the villages in the district of Wada, and the people had resigned themselves to
collecting water from the source. But it was very time-consuming,” says Gopani,
SALONI GOPANI, 18 one of the 30 who make up the student-run organisation, Enactus, at HR College.
SALONI KUKREJA, 20 Village Ways
When they came across Wello, manufacturer of the water wheel, the students
PROJECT
realised that an economically viable solution existed but had never made it to the
JALVRUDDHI village. Similarly, the students found that there was an existing solution to the
villagers’ problem of clean, potable water—Wockhardt’s filtration pills.
“Considering electricity is either too expensive or not available, the pills were a
more feasible solution,” explains Gopani. Project Jalvruddhi has managed to reach
out to 28 villages till now. “We began to focus on creating a cross-subsidy model
that will help fund Jalvruddhi. We taught the women from the villages to stitch tote
bags, which we are now selling to corporates in bulk and retailing on e-commerce
portals,” says Gopani.
Website facebook.com/projectjalvruddhi

Championing
culture
ISHAAN JAJODIA, 18
THE MUMBAI ART
COLLECTIVE
Ishaan Jajodia’s eyes
light up when he talks about the
Art Deco and Victorian architec-
ture along the two sides of the Oval
Maidan, the forgotten frescoes
inside the dome at the General Post
Office building and the heirloom
silverware at his grandmother’s
Marine Drive apartment. His
appreciation for art comes from
a privilege of access and Jajodia
is keen to pay it forward. This
June, he founded The Mumbai Art
Collective (TMAC), a non-profit
organisation that aims to promote
and preserve art digitally. It is an
ambitious project, and step one,
says Jajodia is to identify and reach
out to artists. He and his co-curator
Aryaman Sen decide what goes on
their web page and what doesn’t.
Multimedia Mavericks
Jajodia, who is headed to
Dartmouth College for a degree in
art history in a few months, has
been employing a multimedia
strategy to create his art repository.
Videos of classical dance perfor-
mances in the city will soon be up
on the website, as will photographs
of Mumbai’s vibrant street art.
Jajodia hopes to be able to use
virtual reality and other digi-
tal technology to do justice to
Mumbai’s heritage, but in the
meantime, he is telling the
stories of the buildings through
video interviews of the people
who embody them—the pastor
at Afghan Church, for instance.
“Not only do we wish to create a
DANESH JASSAWALA
platform for art-lovers and histo-

rians to get a picture of Indian cul-
ture, we also wish to promote art
amongst the citizens of Mumbai,”
says Jajodia. Website themum-
Photograph by
Ishaan Jajodia of The baiartcollective.com

Mumbai Art Collective
Housing societies in Mumbai tend to have two kinds of people—

those who feed stray animals and those who complain about the feeders.
Banat Kaur Bagga has faced several complaints about her generosity towards
stray dogs and cats in the neighbourhood, but that has never stopped her. Last
Food for June, the law student set up Feeders with the help of her classmate Gayatri
the Feeders
Chopra and their siblings Ganeev and Varun, to raise funds for others like her.
They began with a raddi (dry waste) collection drive in their society, but when
BANAT KAUR BAGGA, 21 that wasn’t as successful as they’d hoped. “It wasn’t until we began organising
quirky events targeted at the youth that we finally saw some success,”
GAYATRI CHOPRA, 21 reveals Bagga.
GANEEV BAGGA, 18 Fun and Philanthropy
VARUN CHOPRA, 17 Versova’s Cat Café Studio proved to be the perfect venue for Pet Stories, a
FEEDERS session meant for pet owners to come and share tales about their beloved
tail-waggers.“We didn’t charge an entry fee. Donations were to be made in
kind—pet food, rice and biscuits were welcome,” says Bagga. Their last event
was an open mic night that saw musicians, poets and comedians come
together for the cause of hungry street cats and dogs. While the others are in
(Left to right) Ganeev Bagga, charge of spreading the word and documenting Feeders’ stories, Bagga holds
Gayatri Chopra, Varun Chopra herself responsible for identifying the city’s feeders who best deserve the aid.
and Banat Kaur Bagga Website facebook.com/feedersmumbai
MANDAR DEODHAR
Photograph by
Home
Remedy
ANUVRAT SINGH, 20
NOT JUST COLLEGE
Lucknow boy Anuvrat
Singh learnt about Mumbai’s real
estate mess the hard way when
he first moved to the city two
years ago to study Economics at
St Xavier’s College. He’d meet
brokers every other day, but it
was months before he found a
suitable home and like-minded
roommates. “Brokers tend to ran-
domly club clients together, and it
can get difficult if your frequency
doesn’t match,” explains Singh.
The natural-born entrepreneur,
who made his first buck by mak-
ing mixed CDs for his classmates
in school, knew this was a prob-
lem he could find a solution to.
Serious Business
Not Just College is different from
other social media platforms
because it is to be a student-only
forum. Singh’s website goes live
this month. The plan is to charge
a nominal membership fee when
you first sign up. The website will
also have a compulsory question-
naire to determine preferences
such as smoking, socialising and
study patterns. Within six months,
his pilot project has helped over
50 students find accommodation.
“I have started getting requests
from students from other col-
leges, so I know there’s a big
demand,” he says. Website face-
book.com/NotJustCollege
DANESH JASSAWALA
Photograph by
Anuvrat Singh of Not Just College
SIMPLY MUMBAI Feature
BOMBAY BURST MY BUBBLE

DEBUTANTE DIRECTOR PIA SUKANYA TALKS ABOUT HER BOMBAY STINT WHICH LED
HER TO MAKE BOMBAIRIYA, HER COMIC TRIBUTE TO THIS CHAOTIC CITY
n By MOEENA HALIM
B
orn in Cambridge, raised in
Delhi, New York and Florence,
Pia Sukanya is not exactly what
you’d call a Mumbai girl. And
yet, it’s this city she chose to
pay tribute to with her directorial debut
Bombairiya. The film is a dry com-
edy about a Public Relations manager
(Radhika Apte) who is having a terrible
day because she loses her cell phone.
The young girl finds herself negotiating
with the thief (Siddhant Kapoor) and
seeking help from a complete stranger
(Akshay Oberoi); their varied worlds
colliding to create comical situations.
“The crazy things that happen in this
film would have been absolutely unbe-
lievable if the story had been set else-
where,” believes the singer-songwriter
turned director.
�� TOO SMART FOR TINSEL TOWN Despite
never having lived in India, Sukanya
gave up her green card to move
to Mumbai 11 years ago, armed
with a Cambridge degree in Social
Anthropology, over-qualified to pursue
Michael Ward and Pia Sukanya
her dreams of being an actor and a sing-
er. “Bombay burst my bubble. I was depressed for about the director’s chair.
three months,” she recalls. Her degree didn’t matter, �� REALITY MEETS MAGIC “Every day on set was like
neither did the fact that she had played Maria to Eddie being in film school,” says the director. It was the
Redmayne’s Tony in Cambridge’s theatrical production naiveté of a debutante that allowed her to shoot on
of The Westside Story. “The fact that I was smart posed location across the city of Mumbai, notorious for the
more of a problem, because I still had to go around with red tape against filmmakers. “You’d only do it if you
a begging bowl asking for work,” she adds. didn’t know any better. But that’s when reality meets
�� TRUE STORY It was only when she met Michael Ward, the magic of making a film. You come out with some-
an independent producer who would thing quite different from what you’d
become her husband, that she began initially thought of, because you’re
her journey as a writer and really unable to control every situation,”
learnt the craft of storytelling. “One day, “THE FACT THAT she explains. Bombairiya is a play on
writer-director Aarti Bagdi, a friend of I WAS SMART Bombay and the word bairiya (lover).
ours came to visit us. She began telling POSED MORE “Dealing with the city and its ways is a
us about how her phone got flicked and OF A PROBLEM. constant challenge. But I still love this
how she got it back. It was the most fan- city and I chose to be here because of
I STILL HAD TO
tastic little incident,” exclaims Sukanya. how bizarre and wonderful it is,” says
That was the beginning of Bombairiya. GO AROUND Sukanya. Through the film, she warmly
Knowing little to nothing about filmmak- WITH A BEGGING pokes fun at Mumbaiites, not as an out-
ing, encouraged by her producer hus- BOWL.” sider but an insider who has spent
band, Sukanya found herself in 11 years chasing her dreams here.

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ABANDONED WIDOWS AMAZON HEAT ON HANDLOOM: THE

OF MAHARASHTRA INDIAN E-TAILERS NEW FASHION MANTRA

AUGUST 29, 2016 `50

AUGUST 2016 AUGUST 2016 AUGUST 2016

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Cover by NILANJAN DAS

SPECIAL STORY Page: 66-67

02 INDIA TODAY u AUGUST 29, 2016

The apparent ‘crisis’ in Gujarat is

Guj turns Bad One of the foremost rules of

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LET’S TALK ABOUT RAPE

6 INDIA TODAY u AUGUST 29, 2016

T he RJD’s August Sonia collapsed in the heat, Kishor and UP

Illustration by ANUP RAY

O fficials are prob- have even been personally involved

213 1,500 64%

8 INDIA TODAY u AUGUST 29, 2016

Category/Concession (%) 107.1

Allopathic Persons with

TIME FOR 1988

CONCESSIONS 2003 2004

1961 1985 1986 2000 1999 1989

Orthopaedically Deaf Press Widows of President Senior

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Who is best suited to be the next

If the Lok Sabha elections were held today,

NDA gets a boost

Vote share (%) projection Seat forecast

Figures are from MOTN polls except where indicated

12 INDIA TODAY u AUGUST 29, 2016

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

18 [16] GANDHI KUMAR KEJRIWAL GANDHI

Figures in [ ] are from Feb. 2016 MOTN

AUGUST 29, 2016 u INDIA TODAY 13

experienced under UPA-II and

14 INDIA TODAY u AUGUST 29, 2016

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Which party is more Do you think the How do you rate

AUGUST 29, 2016 u INDIA TODAY 19

20 INDIA TODAY u AUGUST 29, 2016

Has inequality What has been the

BANDEEP SINGH / FORTUNE INDIA

AUGUST 29, 2016 u INDIA TODAY 21

Rest, Don’t know/Can’t say All figures in per cent

PROMO CODE FREEDOM70

24 INDIA TODAY u AUGUST 29, 2016

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26 INDIA TODAY u AUGUST 29, 2016

Who is the best

AUGUST 29, 2016 u INDIA TODAY 27

18 14 Sushma Swaraj clarified recently, are

AUGUST 29, 2016 u INDIA TODAY 29

Who in your opinion has