Volume 1 | Issue 3 | August 30, 2012 | Rs 10 CONGRESS Why S M Krishna isn’tso welcome in Karnataka politics 3

AYYOTOONS Starring Mamata Banerjee 32

100th BIRTHDAYProf G V, legendarylexicographer, onlife and good health 6

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2talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.in

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Weekend surpriseIt was a Friday morning.I was waiting for the busto my office nearCorporation Circle. I wasa little excited about theweekend. A guy wearinga Talk t-shirt gave me thelaunch edition. The lay-out was excellentlydesigned. The pictureswere well placed andcomics well chosen. The‘Keywords’ article wasbrilliant. I am sure to say,you will be the talk of thetown.

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BASU MEGALKERIbasavaraju@talkmag.in

Will S M Krishna, ForeignAffairs Minister, returnto Bangalore and lead

the Congress in the 2013 elec-tions? Many in the party hope hewill, but his journey home isn'tgoing to be so smooth.

Shamanur Shivashankara-ppa, a longtime Congressmanwho runs an empire of profession-al colleges from Davangere, is astrong contender for the post ofstate Congress president, andthere is a good chance the highcommand might given in to pres-sure and choose him over Krishnato spearhead the war against theruling BJP.

Shivashankarappa is aLingayat, and with him at thehelm, the Congress can counterthe charge of the BJP that it hasalways sidelined that community.

Leaders like D K Shivakumar,B L Shankar and G Parameshwaraare eager Krishna should return tostate politics, but a host of otherpowerful leaders, such asMallikarjuna Kharge andSiddaramaiah, would rather havehim remain in Delhi.

Kharge is seen as a Dalitleader, while Siddaramaiah repre-sents leaders who joined theCongress from rival parties suchas the JD(S). Veerappa Moilyenjoys the support of the OBCs.Moily has already been chief min-

ister, but many others are eyeingthe position. Although there isgeneral agreement that Krishna isbetter placed than most others tolead the party, he may not be ableto enthuse many who see him as athreat to their prospects. As chiefminister of Karnataka, he hadbuilt up a ‘modern statesman’image for himself, but his urbanpolish, and reputation as a cham-pion of Bangalore interests, hadworked against him in the ruralconstituencies.

A senior party leader in Delhisaid: “The party may lose AndhraPradesh this time, and with thedeath of Vilasrao Deshmukh,Maharashtra is going to be diffi-cult, too. Krishna seems the only

leader who can deliver a victory.”The parliamentary session

ends on September 6, and the highcommand could relieve Krishnafrom his high-profile portfolioand send him to Karnataka.

Already, Shivashankarappa issetting up secret meetings tomuster support. Some believe ifShivashankarappa becomes theKPCC president, the Lingayatswill support the Congress, andhelp it win. The only Lingayatleader in the Congress to havebecome chief minister isVeerendra Patil. On August 26, aLingayat group led byShivashankarappa is set to meetthe Congress high-command.

Continued on page 4

3talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.in

BEAT IT S M Krishna is afraid he can’t do much to galvanise the Congress in the run-up to the 2013 assembly elections

ShamanurShivashankarappa

politics watch

Shamanur Shivashankarappa, a rich Congressman now

playing the Lingayat card, could end up blocking

the suave foreign minister’s return to Karnataka politics

Obstacle race for Krishna

Between the bullsIn the 2013 elections, if Deve Gowda'sparty JD(S) wins 50 to 60 seats, as ithopes to, no single party can come topower. A coalition will become inevitable.

If the Congress and the JD(S) get into analliance, Deve Gowda will look for apliable Congress leader (such asDharam Singh) to do his bidding. Thismeans Krishna will play no role inKarnataka politics.

B S Yeddyurappa, backed by Lingayats,could turn out to be the biggestmoneybag this election season. He isalready touring the state with energy.Deve Gowda and Yeddyurappa areaggressive, and a mellow Krishna willhave to do a lot to match up to them.

Writer alert!TTaallkk SShhoorrtt FFiiccttiioonn CCoonntteesstt ddeeaaddlliinnee eexxtteennddeedd

Several readers who received earlier editions ofTalk mailed us requesting an extension of thefiction contest deadline. We are happy to push thelast date by 11 days. Please send your entrieslatest by August 31, 2012, to fiction@talkmag.inFor more, see page 4. And happy writing!

The confusion and disarray atthe top is affecting the moraleof Congress workers at everylevel. Motamma, MLC andone of the most active womenleaders in the Karnataka unitof the Congress, candidlyrevealed to Talk that S MKrishna was wary of the fac-tionalism in the Karnatakaunit, and was likely to remainin Delhi for that very reason.

A minister in Krishna’s cabinet,Motamma has also served as Leaderof the Opposition in the LegislativeCouncil. Now a member of the cen-tral Congress Working Committee(CWC), she was blunt in her assess-ment of senior Congress leaders.

What indications do you have aboutKrishna's return to Karnataka politics?I would like him to come. If he

comes, it would be a big advantage to the party. But what the men-folkin our party are up to I do not know. Each leader has an agenda and we are divided into so manygroups. That is Krishna’s apprehen-sion, too. He once told me he waswary of the factions, and was happyenough in Delhi. He was wonderinghow he could manage so many factions.

So senior leaders are at war within

the party?Siddaramaiah seems to havedeveloped a strong dislike forParameshwara ever since thelatter came to that position.He feels Parameshwara tookmany decisions without con-sulting him. Also,Siddaramaiah’s heart andsoul are not in the Congress. Ihear he is aligned with

Shamanur Shivashankarappa thesedays.

What is Delhi saying?I had been to Delhi to meet SoniaGandhi, but did not broach the mat-ter of Krishna’s role in state elec-tions. Sonia made no mention of iteither. I speak blunt and straight andbecause of this, I face uncomfortablesituations. But I always say thingsstraight and that’s how I will contin-ue to be.

politics watch

Continued from page 3Siddaramaiah is backing Shivashankarappa to

dethrone Parameshwara, Krishna’s supporter, fromthe party presidency. He is supported by manyleaders such as H Vishwanath, H C Mahadevappa,Ugrappa, and C M Ibrahim.

Kharge has reason to block Krishna’s entry: hecould have been the chief minister a long time ago,but feels Krishna blocked his prospects.

Sources close to Krishna reveal that he has nointentions of replacing Parameshwara as the KPCCpresident. At best, he may come down to Bangaloreto head the party’s campaign committee. In thatcase, the high command could replace him withOscar Fernandes or K Rahman Khan in the foreignaffairs ministry, thereby sending out positive sig-nals to the minorities in Karnataka.

Krishna’s family is not too happy with the ideaof his coming to Bangalore for another stint instate politics. They say at his age (80), he is betteroff in national politics. The hurly burly of state pol-itics is not for him, given his indifferent health,they believe. We could soon hear about an event tocommemorate Krishna’s 50 years in politics, andthat would also herald his return to Karnataka.

With an electorate sick of BJP’s brazen corrup-tion, the Congress is in a good position to return topower. But senior leaders are fighting each other,and appear, even to party cadres, selfish, jealousand incapable of leading them to victory.

talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.in 4

Motamma, MLC Siddaramaiah, party stalwart

‘Siddaramaiah’s heart not in Congress’A forthright MLC on what ails her party, and why Krishna stays put in Delhi

PEOPLE ON GVKKaannaakkaa MMuurrtthhyy, sculptorI visited him 15 days ago. One look andhe recognised me as his student. In1962, he recalled, he had asked me torecite a poem from Kuvempu’sChitrangada. Confused, I had recited onefrom Kuvempu’s Ramayana Darshanam.I was astonished he remembered theinteraction. The next moment, to myamazement, he started recitingKuvempu’s poem. All 20 lines, that too inold Kannada, without once halting orlooking at a book.

SShhaasshhii DDeesshhppaannddee, novelistI love his spirit of life most of all. Notonce in the last 15 years of my walkswith him have I heard him say a negativething about anyone or anything. Everyword he utters is positive, encouragingand energising. He is one of the mostunusual human beings I've known in mylife.

6talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.inscholar patriarch

PRASHANTH G Nprashanth.gn@talkmag.in

It is a breakfast the spectacularlyagile Prof G Venkatsubbaiah, thegreat Kannada lexicographer, willremember all his life. Neighboursand early morning walkers, sprang

a pleasant surprise on his 100th birthdayon Thursday, arranging a breakfast felici-tation at 6.30 am, the precise time whenhe takes a walk in the park adjacent to hishouse in Jayanagar 7th Block.

He savoured hot idlis, vada and kesaribath prepared by Adigas. As soon as hewalked into the mantap inside the park,people fell at his feet, one after the other,in reverence, gifting him flowers, shawls,and even a Mysore turban.

“You wish something that’s not possi-ble—that I live another 100 years. I wouldlove to for all the affection you shower onme. Today’s affection will live in my hearttill my last breath. May life be kind to all ofyou,” said the moved centenarian. Talkmanaged to snatch some time with him at

the park, as GV (as he’s fondly known)sipped coffee:

How is it possible to be so fit at 100?I don't know if it is in my genes. My moth-er lived till she was 107. I don’t know ofany other way to explain it because I do allthe normal things that people do everyday.

What is a typical day in your life? Every day is a day of activity. I get up at4.30 am, go for a walk in the park at 6.30

am, scan the newspapers and have break-fast at 9.30 am. Then till 2 noon, it is meand my table. I read and write. Between 2and 4 pm, I rest. Between 4 and 6 pm, I seeguests and visitors. I mostly interact withpeople about politics, writing and life. By9.30 pm I get ready to sleep.

What’s your diet?I like rice in most forms. Otherwise I eatother dishes everybody eats. Nothing inexcess. Every month I go to a differentrestaurant with my family. Most of my

friends are 20 to 25 years younger, peoplein their 70s and 80s. I know many peoplein the 90s, but they are not keeping toowell. I may be 100, but I think and liveyoung. I speak to 50-year-olds at theirlevel, and to eight-year-olds, too. I am notone bit old.

Would you like to return to the Bangaloreof, say, the 1950s? Things always change. Bangalore is nowlike an American city and perhaps thefastest growing in the country. What Iwould have loved is a green 10-mile ringaround Bangalore to keep it pristine like itwas in my early days. I wonder from wherewater and electricity will come for aBangalore that is only growing bigger.

What about Bangalore’s multi-lingualoutlook?Bangalore is a truly multi-lingual city. I amnot worried that this will affect Kannada.People learn Kannada and Kannadigaslearn other languages. Kannada is trulyalive. A new crop of writers is at work.

GV’S WORKSProf G Venkatsubbaiah isconsidered the father of themodern Kannada dictionary,having compiled as many as 10,including the eight-volumeKKaannnnaaddaa-KKaannnnaaddaa NNiigghhaannttuubrought out by Kannada SahityaParishat. His weekly languagecolumn, Igo Kannada, in thewidely ciruclated Prajavani, hasbeen running for 18 years.

Venkatsubbaiah was advisor tothe Chennai-based Institute ofAsian Studies’s multilingualdictionary project encompassingJapanese, Kannada, English andTamil. He was also part of theTelugu lexicon project initiated bythe Andhra Pradesh government.Last year, he presided over theKannada Sahitya Sammelana,the only lexicographer to behonoured thus.

RAMESH HUNSUR

In his own words, he’s ‘not one bit old’. Prof G Venkatasubbaiah, legendarylexicographer who compiled the largest monolingual dictionary in the world,shares some life secrets on the day he turned a centenarian

NO GYM, NO DIETHappy and fit at 100

ROSE EARLY Shashi Deshpande at the 6.30 ampark breakfast in honour of GV

7talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.inmanufacturing fear

PRASHANTH G Nprashanth.gn@talkmag.in

Messages on the mobile andimages and videos on theInternet fuelled the largestexodus of any communityfrom Bangalore in recent

times. About 28,000 North-Easterners fledBangalore by train over three days, August15, 16 and 17, terrified they would beattacked in the wake of the conflict betweenBodos and Muslims in Assam.

Pubs and restaurants such as Couch,Pub World, Herbs and Spices and GreenTheory have had to make do with skeletalstaff. Many apartments in Bangalore haveno one to man the gates.

Neelasandra, Viveknagar, Koramangalaand Ejipura have been the worst affectedneighbourhoods. A message with the specif-

ic threat that North-Easterners would beattacked if they didn’t leave the city byAugust 20 (Ramzan) circulated rapidly onmobiles. Another message said four peoplehad been killed: two Manipuri and twoNepali. Both messages, as we now know,were false.

Police traced the ori-gin of some threateningmessages to a mobileshop in Koramangala andarrested three people.

Fake videos, down-loaded onto mobiles,worsened an already des-perate situation. An Urdupaper in Delhi used pho-tos of the 2010 Chineseearthquake to spread hatred amongMuslims against Tibetans and Buddhists. Itpublished a picture showing a mountain of

corpses of earthquake victims, arranged forcremation, as victims of anti-Muslim riots.

While there were no actual killingsanywhere, rumours scared the North-Eastern community so badly they preferredto return to their home states than stay and

risk attacks.

AMPLIFICATIONLawrence Liang ofAlternative Law Forum,who is co-ordinatingsocial groups to instil con-fidence among North-Easterners, says socialmedia was used to gener-ate hysteria.

“We live at a timewhen new media, particularly mobiles,amplify panic. Hysteria and insecurity hasexisted much before mobiles and social

Insecurity hasexisted muchbefore socialmedia, but theynow amplify it

in the age of the MOBILEWith 700 millionIndians using digitaldevices to send andreceive text andimages, and awidespread distrust ofthe government, is itany wonder mischiefmongers were able totrigger what isperhaps Bangalore’slargest ever exodus?

MASS HYSTERIARUSH HOUR Young people from the North-East at the Bangalore City Railway Station (above and next page). Their flight home reveals their lack of confidence in the state, believes historian Ramachandra Guha

DHANANJAY T K

8talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.in

media, but there is amplificationof this hysteria with the new tech-nologies,” he told Talk.

Part of the problem is thatcontent on the Internet is taken asthe absolute truth. “There is now acasual, uncritical forwarding of‘false truths’ among people. Theforwarding is also rapid. Thismeans we have to use the sametechnologies to counter these fal-sities. Else, the new technologieswould become the preserve oftrouble-makers,” he says.

Liang points out thatrumours played a big role in the1947 partition riots, the anti-Sikhriots of 1984, the Mumbai riots of1992-93 and the 2002 Gujaratriots.

“We have to eliminate pre-conceptions, prejudices and inse-

curities to fight

rumour. The space then forrumour to fuel suspicion shrinks,”he says.

ANXIETY AND FEARHistorian and social anthropolo-gist Ramachandra Guha told Talkthat distrust of the state would beone factor prompting people toflee home.

“Usually during any ethnictensions, minorities in any geo-graphical space and context feelvulnerable. They by and large donot trust the state to protect them.This is particularly noticeable inKarnataka after the Mangaloreattacks,” he says.

While it is the duty of thestate to provide protection to all,minority groups everywhere inIndia are gripped by anxi-

ety and fear and do not trust thestate to deliver, Guha believes. Ashe puts it: “Part of that reactioncould be seen in Bangalore and theother cities from where North-Easterners fled to their states.”

NO EMPIRICAL DATAProf Ashis Nandy of the Centre forStudy of Developing Societies toldTalk rumour was no stranger toIndian society.

“It has existed much beforethe new media came in. Here wehave to examine closely what therumours were, who produced therumours, how the rumours wereconsumed and who its victimswere. Without the victims statinghow they were affected, any obser-vation would be incomplete. I can

only venture to say new mediamay have helped spread

rumour in the recent tur-moil but this will have tobe confirmed by empiri-

cal data,” he said in atelephonic inter-

view from Delhi.R a v i

S u n d a r a m ,senior fellowat Centre for

Study ofD e v e l o p i n gS o c i e t i e s( C S D S ) ,believes them o b i l e

phone screen is a new form ofauthority and the governmentwould have to be adept at handlingthis new social-technologicalspace if it has to handle mass fear.

“Around 700 million Indiansnow receive and produce text,video, audio and digital images.Proliferation is fundamental toour time and information hasvalue only if it has some velocityand is exchanged. Informationonce collected, always moves...This is our present and we have todeal with it. We have entered aworld where the old techniques ofdeploying crowd control, manag-ing social unrest and communaldisturbance are going to be test-ed,” he writes in The Hindu.

BACK IN HISTORYIn the past, mass hysteria has ledto purging of communities. Hitlerfuelled hatred for Jews in 1930sGermany, outlining clear plans towipe out that community. Word ofmouth and pamphleteering weretwo major instruments in thatcampaign.

The 1960s saw many raceriots in Europe and USA involvingwhites and blacks. In the 1990s,‘ethnic cleansing’ in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Yugoslaviashocked the world. Israel andPalestine are living through con-flict, and so is Afghanistan, with itswarring communities.

CUT MENU,SHUFFLE STAFFHow are Bangalorerestaurants coping withthe exodus of peoplefrom the North-East?

Offer fewer items on menuBring in people from other citiesTransfer staff from pubs and loungesRope in seniorsGet staff to work overtime

ExodusSAVIE KARNELsavie.karnel@talkmag.in

When a large group of peopleleave a place suddenly—theway the North Easterners leftBangalore last week—we use

the word ‘exodus’. It’s a wordwith a more storied past thanmost—and not just in termsof Biblical associations, and ahistory well worth revisiting.

The word was originally‘exodos’ in Greek. It comes from the twoGreek words, exo, meaning ‘out’ andhodos meaning ‘way’. Exodos became ‘exo-dus’ in Latin and was passed on to English.

Early Greek theatre also has a partcalled exodos. It was the last part of a trag-ic play when the final action took placeand the deity intervened. The word gainedpopularity when the Jewish holy bookTorah (also the Greek Old Testament inthe Christian Bible) was translated intoGreek from Hebrew and Aramaic around300 BC, and named the Septuagint. Thetranslators named the second book of theTorah ‘Exodos’, based on the main event inthe book, which is the departure of theIsraelites from Egypt.

According to the Bookof Exodus, the Israelites wereenslaved in Egypt and tor-mented. They prayed to theirGod to get them out ofEgypt. It is then that

God sent Moses to lead them. Tendeadly plagues affected Egypt,after which the pharaoh had torelent and let Moses take the

people out of the country.When the people reached the Red

Sea, Moses held his staff over the watersand the sea divided into two walls ofwater, letting the people pass through it.The pharaoh’s soldiers had followed themwith the intention of capturing them andtaking them back to Egypt.

But after the Israelites had crossedthe sea, the waters fell back, drowning thesoldiers. The Israelites had got out ofEgypt and were free from slavery. Thisstory plays a central role in Judaism, and itis in memory of it that the Jews celebratethe festival of Passover. After entering theEnglish language, for several centuries‘Exodus’ was used as a proper noun todenote the book which popularised it.

In the early 17th century how-ever, it became a common noun.

It then came to be used todenote people undertaking ajourney to escape a hostile

environment.After World War II, many Jews in

Germany and Austria were living in fearand in inhuman conditions. Many of themsneaked out and escaped to Palestine. In1947, over 4,500 Jews boarded a ship to goto Palestine. This ship was called SS Exodus.

At that time, the British were respon-sible for the administration of Palestine andseized the ship, deporting the Jews back toEurope. SS Exodus was the largest ever shipof illegal Jewish immigrants, and broughtinternational attention to the plight ofJewish refugees. The next year, in 1948, thestate of Israel was created and thousands ofJews migrated from Europe to Israel.

The word, which is so intimatelyassociated with Jewish history, has becomesuch an integral part of the English lan-guage that we use it to describe peoplefleeing from natural or manmade calami-ties everywhere.

The Talkcolumn on

word origins

K EW O S

YR D

It was used to describe a Jewish escape

310 WEBSITESBANNEDThe centralgovernment hasordered the blocking of310 websites in whichmorphed images andvideos were uploadedto incite Muslims.

A Pakistan-basedgroup is suspected tohave doctored imagesand spread themacross socialnetworking sites suchas Facebook, Twitterand YouTube.

‘Exodus’, a painting by Kobby Mensah, Ghana

The television talk showSatyamev Jayate withAamir Khan as host,which premiered on 6thMay 2012, took India by

storm. The show has been widelypraised as ‘capable of bringing a revo-lution’ although some have alsofound it ‘superficial.’ But overall,there has been little analysis of itspolitical methods.This is an examina-tion based on fourepisodes: healthcareand the medical pro-fession (May 27),domestic violence(June 17), alcoholism(July 1) and caste anduntouchability (July17). Since only fourissues are being examined here, thescrutiny of the show can thereforeonly be partial.

Each episode, which is precededby a clip in which Aamir Khan walkspensively along a beach, is an hourlong. This is not an on-the-spot,spontaneous talk show: a manipula-tive edited version is aired. Eachaccount is one-sided and the close-up is used as evidence of the victim’ssincerity. The interviewees are often

tearful and the host frequently emo-tional. The conversations with thevictims are interspersed with expertopinion, but overall, the accent is onperformance rather than dispensinginformation—with the host as starperformer.

The episode dealing with‘healthcare and the medical profes-sion’ began with the accounts of

patients wronglydiagnosed and per-suaded to take use-less expensive treat-ment, including sur-gery. There was littledoubt of malprac-tice because the hos-pital conducting thesurgery did not evenhave a licence. The

next interviewee was a pathologistwho reported that 40 per cent com-missions were payable to doctors onpathological tests.

After an interview revealing thestate of affairs in the MedicalCouncil of India, there was anotherwith Dr C M Gulati, Editor, MonthlyIndex of Medical Specialities, whoattributed the high cost of treatmentto the medical profession becomingunviable due to expensive private

education deliberately encouragedby the government through its eco-nomic policies. After a heartwarmingsuccess story about a hospital whichtreats poor patients under a specialscheme, the issue of generic drugswas brought up: doctors did not pre-scribe them because they got com-missions and incentives from corpo-rates to promote their products.

The episode dealing withdomestic violence had an emphasison stories by victims. As if to sub-stantiate the stories, the camerainterviewed several unidentifiedmen on the street who cheerfullyadmitted to beating their wives. Thehost talked to an activist on thenotion of patriarchy thereafter andthis was followed by a police officerwho provided information on therecourse available to abused women.After a success story of a woman whofound employment as a driver to getout of an abusive relationship, thehost raised the issue of manhood,invoking Mahatma Gandhi anddirecting a question at the audience.

The episode involving alco-holism was devoted mostly to storiesfrom victims and their families. Thesuccess story was that of a villagecommunity which had made use of a

legal provision to drive out liquorshops. The episode concluded withan enquiry into drunken driving—about whether the penalties neededto be much stricter.

The episode of July 8 involvingcaste and untouchability was obvi-ously an important one. As in theearlier cases, the host interviewedseveral victims of discrimination,including many who are highlyplaced. Interviewed after this wasStalin, director of the film IndiaUntouched, about the persistence of

10talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.intelly talk

The popularityand media

applause thatgreeted

Aamir Khan’sSatyamev

Jayatecamouflage the

reality show’ssubservience to

the politicalsystem

Tweetsdisplayed on Satyamev Jayate site(Talk hasn’t touched a thing!)2211kkeemmiinnee1100 ((GGaammzzee TTookkeerr))@smjindia I have just met thisprogramme and i enjoyed. Bythe way i think that thisprogramme will develope myEnglish :)Thank you Emir Han

PPrraaggyyaannMMiisshhrraa33 ((PPrraaggyyaannMMiisshhrraa))@smjindia We can’t understandthe simple fact that “if there willbe no female,there wiil be nomail”

pop corn

This is not aspontaneous talkshow: instead, amanipulativeedited version is aired

MK Raghavendra Cinephile and author of50 Indian Film Classics(Harper Collins, 2009)

SIMPLISTIC The episode on untouchability interviewed victims of discrimination, including people who are highly placed, but left a lot of questions unasked

Ardhsatyamev Jayate?

untouchability in India and segments ofthe film were shown.

Apart from focusing on a head priestin a Varanasi temple who asserted that theLaws of Manu were more important thanthe Constitution of India, the segmentsmade it clear that caste practices wereprevalent among Christians, Muslims andSikhs as well, although the religions hadofficially done away with it. The last inter-viewee was Wilson, Convener of the SafaiKarmachari Andolan, Vijayawada. Unlikethe other interviewees, Wilson was specif-ic about the institutions—governmental ones likethe railways— which wereviolating laws pertainingto dry latrines and manu-al scavenging, and doingnothing to rectify the sit-uation despite deadlines.

On examining theepisodes closely, onebegins to notice the ques-tions not asked. While theepisode involving the healthcare industrywas generally strong, most episodes stayedaway from the question of what action thestate might take, especially with regard toenforcement. In the medical profession, forinstance, can enforcement not be strength-

ened and negligence/unethical conductpunished since it even leads to fatalities?Other questions might have been malprac-tice in the retail trade in pharmaceuticalsand the detrimental effect of insurancecoming in a big way into healthcare. Itappears, for instance, that different kindsof treatment are now prescribed for thosewith insurance and those without.

The episode dealing with domesticviolence could have interviewed a personconvicted for assault, who might have pin-pointed remediable factors from the male

perspective, like labourconditions. It is certainlysimplistic to see domesticviolence as due entirely to‘patriarchy’. Also, what isthe present condition ofstate shelters and are theyeven safe for women? Theepisode on alcoholismstayed clear of the issue ofrevenues coming to thestate from liquor sales and

the granting of licences and the episode oncaste was strangely silent on the issue ofreservation. If eradicating caste was simplya matter of our changing ourselves, itwould not have persisted for over two mil-lennia.

If one were to characterise SatyamevJayate, one could say that it seeks to make‘exemplary citizens’ out of the public but iswary of prodding the government itself.‘People must change’ is a common refrainof religious leaders and self-appointedphilosophers but public attitudes are theresult of social processes. A person is morelikely to be corrupt, for instance, whenthere are more opportunities and less fearof punishment. A social, economic or polit-ical system actually engenders honesty ordishonesty in its citizens. Seen thus, callingfor ‘honest citizens’ instead of for strongerenforcement measures is not withoutdeceit because it is a deliberately ineffectu-al call coming out of a desire not to rufflefeathers. If locating the ills in India in thecitizen is the ‘satya’ of Satyamev Jayate,much of the show evidently resides in badfaith.

In the two cases—Dr Gulati and MrWilson—in the four episodes where theinterviewees pointed forcefully to officialculpability, Aamir Khan deflected theresponses to inane SMS or Facebook cam-paigns. “We will let the governmentknow what you are feeling,” is,in effect, washing one’shands of the sentiments.This leads one to believe

that rather than being insightful or persua-sive, the show is simply the handiwork ofpeople with ambitions to be placed on gov-ernmental platforms. It is self-evident thatthose placed on committees and platformsby the government will be those least like-ly to disturb officialdom from its presentstate of reverie. To conclude by paraphras-ing Bertolt Brecht, since it is the publicwhich is basically culpa-ble, “Would it notbe easier to dis-solve the peo-ple and electanother?”

11talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.intelly talk

The showwants to create ‘exemplarycitizens’ butis wary of prodding thegovernment

POLITICALAMBITIONS?Aamir Khan

PRASHANTH G Nprashanth.gn@talkmag.in

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw isIreland’s most promi-nent Bangalore connec-tion and Bangalore’smost prominent Irish

connection.Sometime around

1978, after she had decid-ed to follow in herfather's footsteps, Kiranqualified as a master brewer fromAustralia. Just as she was about tostep into the business, she met LesAuchincloss, founder of Biocon, abio-technology company based inCork, Ireland.

Auchincloss asked her to be hisbusiness partner and launch Bioconin India. With no entrepreneurialbackground, she turned him down.When he persisted and promisedbuy-back in case thebusiness failed, Kiranheaded to Cork, whereshe spent six monthstraining for the job.

Back in Bangalore,she started Biocon with Rs 10,000 asinitial capital, failing to find backingfrom any financial institution. Shebegan operations out of the garage ofa rented house with just two employ-ees.

Kiran faced several hurdles—thecompany was operating in an envi-ronment with little infrastructure,and she was a 25-year-old first-gen-eration woman entrepreneur with nobusiness experience. And then thebusiness of biotechnology, unknownin 1978, was fraught with risk.

But all that is now in the past.She heads Biocon in Bangalore, and

has set it on a successful course,becoming the only woman bio-techentrepreneur in India. That's onestory about how India, especiallyBangalore, quietly overtook Ireland.

When Talk met Prof PatrickCunningham, chief scientific advisorto the Irish government, at Dublin,he hinted at more collaborations

with Bangalore, and adesire to regain lostground.

“Ireland has deeprespect for Kiran

Mazumdar-Shaw’s work. The DublinUniversity has conferred an honorarydoctorate on her. I have personallyvisited Biocon and am aware of thesuccessful operations of her compa-ny. I am proud Bangalore has a suc-cessful venture that began inIreland’s Cork. There’s more to comefor Bangalore,” he said.

Here’s what Prof Cunninghamshared:

Outsourcing isBangalore’s bigstrength. WouldIreland want to forgelinks with Bangalore?

It may surprise you, but outsourcingstarted early with Ireland, which gotwork from Germany and USA. Nowthe same work has migrated to Indiaand Bangalore is at the centre of this.Ireland used to take calls at onepoint, now we’ve lost them toBangalore. One of our endeavourswill be to bring back to Ireland thecalls we lost to Bangalore.

What would you like India andBangalore to take from Ireland?India is such a big country thatIreland would be very happy to takefrom you. In our collaborative plans

with India, Bangalore is on top of thelist. The level of education is high inIreland. We’re looking at both themanufacturing and software side ofIT. We’re pretty strong when itcomes to cloud computing and serv-er management. We have high-quali-ty engineers in these domains. Thenthere’s the pharma sec-tor—we’re looking atcompanies that spe-cialise in medicaldevices and distribu-tion. We understand India has plentyof experience in generic medicine.These are potential collaborationareas. Engineering students are amajor strength for India andBangalore has a good number.

Have you had any opportunity toexplore science in Bangalore?I did visit Bangalore. I am aware IIScin Bangalore is aworld class insti-tution. Biocon is agood example ofhow Irish expert-ise can succeedelsewhere. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw isalso the consul-general of the Irishconsulate in Bangalore. So we have anatural partnership running.

Would Ireland look at renewableenergy? India is investing strongly inthe area.

Ireland now imports three majorfuels – gas, oil and coal. From a sci-entific point of view, fossil fuels arenot sustainable, so we must change.Ireland has launched research pro-grammes on renewable energysources. We’re looking at wind ener-gy and marine energy generation.

Ireland’s dairy farmingis renowned. What canwe do together here?We’ve been collaborat-

ing with India over 20 years now –with the Indian Council forAgricultural Research (ICAR),National Dairy Research Institute(NDRI) and Indian VeterinaryResearch Institute (IVRI). Dairyresearch is very impressive. We’vepublished a very interesting paper inNature. We had looked at the DNAstrain in Indian cattle, comparing it

with Europeanand African cattleto understand thehistory of domes-tication. Wefound the DNA

differed between Indian andEuropean cattle populations—andthe difference is not ordinary whenyou know it’s 300,000 years old. Yousee, Indus was where it all began...agriculture and life. I’m sure youunderstand what I mean when I sayIndia has so much to offer.

12talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.indublin view

Prof Patrick Cunningham, chief scientific advisor to theIrish government, tells Talkhis country is working hard toget back what our city took away from it, and consideringnew collaborations with our institutions

Why is Irelandso happyabout itscollaborationwith KiranMazumdar?:) Becausethere’s nobusiness likeShawbusiness!

ayyorama

COMMON GROUNDCunningham looks at

Bangalore as a ‘naturalpartner’. Visit

www.irelandindia.com,website of the Irish

embassy, for anoverview of education

opportunities inIreland

320Number of bio-tech

companies

Bangalore’s yearly biotech revenue

$4 billion

5 lakhBangalore’s BPO/IT

workforce

1450Number of BPOs/IT

companies in Bangalore

MAXPIX.IE

IrelandBangalored

14talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.inclass trouble

Vikram Oberoi’s face wasteary with humiliationand frustration as theprincipal and a horde ofteachers got a chance to

“give him nicely’’. Vikram had got intoa scuffle with a driver on the mainroad right outside school.

The news soon reached schooland the boy was produced in the prin-cipal’s office with his uniform rippedapart. Still shivering with anger, hetried in vain to explain, first to theprincipal and then to the crowd of‘concerned’ teachers who decided toshow ‘solidarity’ in teaching thealways-up-to-something Vikram alesson. Two more teachers stormed inremarking contemptuously, “Parentsthese days don’t teach these kids any-thing,” and “A rich kid with a chauf-feur-driven car, this is how it allstarts!”

What Vikram had done waswrong. But was it justified to humili-ate him by striking at the root of thedeep pride he feels about his family?Am I not as proud of my father whomay be a tailor as my friend is of herfather who may be an internationalhaute couture designer? The fact isthat all children are proud of theirparents and one must grant them thatpride. By focusing on the inessentialfactors that had to do with hiswealthy background, and by express-ing contempt and resentment, wereVikram’s teachers expressing envy?

Particularly in Internationalschools, these characters Contemptand Envy enter the stage far too often.It is understood that in these kinds ofschools the students are usually chil-dren of wealthy parents while theteachers mostly belong to the middleand upper middle class sections ofsociety. Often this difference of classcontributes to the communicationgap between students and teachers.While it might be argued that teach-ers are not envious but frustratedwith the arrogance that a wealthybackground brings into a child. There

is a need to reflect on whether we losethe point of education when weengage in this kind of vilification of ayoung person.

As long as we do not get rid ofthis resentment, we as teachers willnever know what our primary duty is.If teachers are not confident first aspersons and then as experts in theirsubjects, how will they facilitate aprocess that nurtures their students?Instead of making students realise theworth of this life and kindling theircuriosity towards their surroundings,a teacher who makes resentfulremarks about the child’s parent’swealth, as in Vikram’s example, willnever win her students’ trust. As longas there is no trust, there is norespect, no learning. When we standin our classrooms with self-respectwe will know that teaching is the pro-fession that teaches all other profes-sions. If a student’s father is a emi-nent doctor there is probably ateacher whose voice he hears everytime he foresees a prognosis!

But like all relationships, the stu-dent-teacher relationship is compli-cated as well. Teaching offers theopportunity to acquaint ourselveswith children not only as seven- oreight-year-olds but also as peoplewith their own experiences, opinions,

and to participate in their laughterand tears. The children’s relationshipto their teachers, on the other hand,holds the possibility of playing a veryimportant and responsible part ornothing at all. To take the formerpath, one must take the help offriendship. In friendship there is nospace for violence, no tolerance forhumiliation and no reason for envy.While the idea ofenvy in a student-teacher relationshipmust sound alien tomany, I am con-vinced this is one ofthe main reasons weare unable to achievea mutuality of respectand become respon-sible friends with our students.

While I do believe that there is aneed for discipline I have also come tobelieve that in our Indian schools dis-cipline only succeeds in caging chil-dren with an unsavoury don’t-do list.The words ‘discipline’, ‘conform’,‘abide’, ‘compulsion’, and ‘imposition’are certainly not synonymous. If dis-cipline must be implemented withfear then that so-called discipline cannever transform itself into a value oran asset. To me, discipline is certainlya direct result of inquiry, initiative

and freedom. With these three thingsin place there is no room for fear andin fact no need for discipline as mostof us understand it.

Instead the teacher has the taskof opening up a world for her stu-dents–a world where they respecttheir parents’ hard work above the carthey drive, and therefore, automati-cally respect the role their teacher

plays in their lives.As long as we contin-ue to insult, humili-ate and hurt ouryoung, our own stu-dents like Vikramwill continue tothink that arroganceand violence areaccepted ways of the

world because nobody he sees is apractitioner of more refined ways.

Are we teachers only here to tellour children what to think (for exam-ple, ‘a dog has four legs’)? Or are wealso here to teach our children how tothink (for instance, ‘Look at this dog,how many legs does it have? Lookcarefully at the beautiful markings oneach leg, are all four legs the same oris each one unique?’)

It is only when the teacher andthe student know how to think thateducation becomes complete.

At Bangalore’s posh schools, Contemptand Envy enter the stage far too often.Educators who hurt and humiliate theirwards can never win love or shape lives

Teachers vs students

Envy is one of themain reasonsteachers can’tbecome friendswith students

Rohini Sen Artist and art educator

SAVIE KARNELsavie.karnel@talkmag.in

There’s no escaping it. Organic iseverywhere these days—thepapers are full of nutritionexperts singing hallelujahs toorganic food, on TV there’s acelebrity passionately recom-

mending organic as a ‘way of life’, and justabout every other corporate type youencounter harbours the dream of taking uporganic farming some day.

The big retail chains have their dedicat-ed shelves for organic food, and some of thebiggest corporate houses are considering ‘get-ting into’ the organic business in a big way.TV commercials like the one for Sahara Qscare you with visuals of hospital beds andwheel chairs, presumably the fate that awaits

you if you are still refusing to go organic.True, by now we have all heard enough

horror stories to know that chemical fertilis-ers and pesticides are bad for us, and natureknows best when it comes to growing food.But why then is ‘organic’ less food and morestyle statement, and importantly, why is it soexpensive that even a leading fashion guru(read on) says he can’t afford it? Is safe foodand good health the prerogative of the super-rich? Why is this pesticide-free food unafford-able and unavailable to most people in thecountry?

Pay for the frillsNot surprisingly, consumers have to shell outmore for organic food for the same reasonthey do so for fashion labels: branding andpackaging. According to marketing expertHarish Bijoor, organic produce is niche, and“whatever is niche is expensive, and whatever

is expensive is chic.” The very definition ofchic is that it should differentiate itself frommass products. Organic food fits the bill, notjust because it tastes and looks different fromthose produced using chemical methods, butalso because of its celebrity quotient. Bijoorpoints out that companies promoting organicproduce have packaged and branded themwell, which allows them to charge a premium.

Companies that market organic foodclaim that packaging has to do more withcompetition than profit margins. “We need topackage well to meet international standardsand compete with countries like Germany,which is in No 1 in export. In the domesticmarket, conventional food is packaged welland we have to compete with them too,” saysMukesh Gupta, executive director of MorarkaOrganic Foods Pvt Ltd, which owns popularorganic brands like Down to Earth and Backto Basics. He admits that organic products are

branded as lifestyle products, but insists thathis company’s products are value for money.

The branding-packaging factor is alsoaffecting small-scale producers of organicfood. G Krishna Prasad, director of farmer’sgroup Sahaja Samruddha, says, “Our farmer’sgroup sells a particular kind of rice for Rs 40 akg. We supply the same grains to the retailchains too. The same product is packed welland sold for Rs 65 a kg. Of this, only Rs 30goes to the farmer. When we want to sell ourproduce in malls, they demand a 40 per centcommission.”

N Balasubramanian, CEO of SrestaNatural Bioproducts Private Limited, whichowns the organic food brand 24 LetterMantra, blames the retail outlets as well forthe higher prices. “Since organic food is a newcategory, retailers expect higher marginscompared to conventional products,” he says.

Consumers who like it priceyKrishna Prasad holds the loose purse-stringsof its well-off consumers equally responsiblefor the high pricing of organic food. “Whenthe products are reasonably priced, peopledon’t appreciate it. So, we are forced to brandthem and sell,” he says.

Prasad has been selling traditional ricevarieties long before the organic movementgained momentum. When hefirst attempted to sell theNavara and Kari rice varietiesyears ago, there weren’t manytakers. Navara rice is tradi-tionally gifted to youngbrides in Andhra by theirmothers. Prasad tested therice in the lab and found itrich in iron, so he branded itas ‘rice for pregnant women’. Sales shot up. Hereveals another of his secrets, behind his best-selling ‘diabetics’ rice.’ “Kari rice has a branlayer, which is nothing but digestible fibre.People knew about its benefits in the oldendays too, but I had to call it ‘diabetics’ rice’ forcity-dwellers to accept it.”

Kavitha Kuruganti, national convenor ofthe Alliance for Sustainable and HolisticAgriculture (ASHA), agrees that branding hasdriven up the price of organic foodstuff.“These days we want everything branded.This kind of marketing has to change,” shesays.

Fashion choreographer Prasad Bidappabelieves people are willing to spend more onorganic food because they consider it fashion-able. “When someone reads of a New York-based dietician talk of organic food, they gofor it. Hollywood and celebrities likeMadonna have popularised the concept oforganic food,” he says.

Bidappa does not believe in ‘goingorganic’ simply because he finds it too expen-sive. “It is priced almost two and a half timesmore than the regular food. It is not viable,”he says.

The certification factorMost organic farming done in India is donekeeping export in mind. The products are tar-geted at the European market, where there isa high level of awareness about organic food,

and an equally high demand. The catch is thatthe EU is stringent with quality control, andinsists specific types of certification on pro-duce it imports from India. “When certifica-tion comes into the picture, the prices esca-late,” explains Kavitha.

Prasad of Sahaja Samruddha, who workswith traditional farmers, finds the demandsof EU-style bureaucracy—with its accompa-nying tribe of ‘experts’ and ‘consultants’ -

cumbersome enough to callthe certification regime “amafia.”

“This certification isvery expensive and a lengthyprocedure with a lot ofpaper-work. The cost isautomatically passed on tothe consumer. This EU styleof certification should not be

applied to food for the domestic market,” hecomplains.

Vijay Grover, the founder of BangaloreOrganic Store, testifies to the price differencecaused by certification. “Our store keeps bothbranded certified produces and also producefrom local farmers. The certified ones are def-initely more expensive,” he says.

Certifying agencies say certification is amust only if the produce is to be exported toEurope, Japan or US. “There is no law in Indiathat asks for certification if the produce is tobe sold in the domestic market,” saysVasudeva, quality manager at IMO Control,an international quality

assurance and certifying company for agricul-tural produce. However, most high-endbranded organic produce in the Indian mar-ket does have expensive international certifi-cation.

Vasudeva suggests that the certificationhelps companies build a brand image and giveassurance to the people. “When the consumersees the certification, they are convinced thatthe product is genuine,” he says. He says thatthe cost of certification is about two per centof the total turnover, which is passed on tothe consumers. However, he admits that it isnot viable for small farmers, or even thosewho have 10 acres of farm land.

Sresta CEO Balasubramanian agreesthat certification adds on to the cost. “Farmand production methods must comply withcertain standards, which may require themodification of facilities. Employees must behired to maintain the quality and keep theproduct ready for inspection at any time,” hesays.

Recently, yielding to agitations by organ-ic farmer’s groups, the central governmenthas recognised the Participatory GuaranteeSystem (PGS), a cheaper form of certification.Kavitha points out that under this system, agroup of farmers is certified collectively, andinstead of an external agency keeping an eyeon the farms, the checks are kept by the

farmers themselves. In addition, there arerandom checks by a third party too. “If anyone farmer is found to be cheating, the certi-fication for the entire group is cancelled. Sothe farmers make sure that they and theircounterparts are sincere,” she says.

No state supportKarnataka was the first state to come up withan Organic Farming Policy which sought toput farmers’ interest first. The policy hassince been deemed a failure. The BJP govern-ment then renamed it the Amruta BhoomiProject, but it never really took off. Last year,the government announced a budget of Rs206 crore to promote organic farming in thestate, but not a paisa was released. This year,Rs 200 crore has been allotted again; it has tobe seen if anything will come of it.

Critics like Prasad say that the govern-ment is only interested in boosting revenue-earning export of organic produce rather thanencouraging local farmers who cater to thedomestic market. Further, he points out howmany schemes that are supposedly meant tohelp the farmer actually end up benefiting thebig retail chains. He recalls a scheme by thehorticulture department, where Rs one croreloan was offered to “promote organic farm-ing”. “I went there, but they asked for some-thing like a guarantee of Rs 50 lakh, which ourfarmers could not provide. I went back aftersix months and asked who have taken theloan. They revealed the names of some bigretail chains run by MNCs,” he says.

With no subsidy from the government,organic farmers find it difficult to match theprices of the produce from chemical farms.“The government gives subsidy on seeds, ureaand pesticides to farmers using chemicalmethods. Their yield too is much higher. Atthe most, what we get is a supply of vermi-compost once in a year.” He further pointsout that organic farmers do not even get loanseasily, unlike conventional farmers, all ofwhich add to the cost factor, and discouragethose who want to take up organic farming.

Transport and labourOrganic farmers Talk spoke to recall that in

the initial years of shifting tothis method, the

yields were lowerthan of conven-tional farming.

Continued onPage 18

‘The momentcertificationcomes into thepicture, pricesescalate’

chew on this 17talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.in

Pushed by big retailand peddled bycelebrities, organicfood—safe, good,wholesome stuffthat ought to bewithin the reach ofeveryone—is todaya lifestyle fad. Whyis chemical-freeproduce sofashionable, and soexpensive?

THE FOOD AND THE FAD

THIS AND THAT Vijay Grover of Bangalore Organic Store stocks both certified and non-certified organic products

RAMESH HUNSUR

SAVIE KARNELsavie.karnel@talkmag.in

There’s no escaping it. Organic iseverywhere these days—thepapers are full of nutritionexperts singing hallelujahs toorganic food, on TV there’s acelebrity passionately recom-

mending organic as a ‘way of life’, and justabout every other corporate type youencounter harbours the dream of taking uporganic farming some day.

The big retail chains have their dedicat-ed shelves for organic food, and some of thebiggest corporate houses are considering ‘get-ting into’ the organic business in a big way.TV commercials like the one for Sahara Qscare you with visuals of hospital beds andwheel chairs, presumably the fate that awaits

you if you are still refusing to go organic.True, by now we have all heard enough

horror stories to know that chemical fertilis-ers and pesticides are bad for us, and natureknows best when it comes to growing food.But why then is ‘organic’ less food and morestyle statement, and importantly, why is it soexpensive that even a leading fashion guru(read on) says he can’t afford it? Is safe foodand good health the prerogative of the super-rich? Why is this pesticide-free food unafford-able and unavailable to most people in thecountry?

Pay for the frillsNot surprisingly, consumers have to shell outmore for organic food for the same reasonthey do so for fashion labels: branding andpackaging. According to marketing expertHarish Bijoor, organic produce is niche, and“whatever is niche is expensive, and whatever

is expensive is chic.” The very definition ofchic is that it should differentiate itself frommass products. Organic food fits the bill, notjust because it tastes and looks different fromthose produced using chemical methods, butalso because of its celebrity quotient. Bijoorpoints out that companies promoting organicproduce have packaged and branded themwell, which allows them to charge a premium.

Companies that market organic foodclaim that packaging has to do more withcompetition than profit margins. “We need topackage well to meet international standardsand compete with countries like Germany,which is in No 1 in export. In the domesticmarket, conventional food is packaged welland we have to compete with them too,” saysMukesh Gupta, executive director of MorarkaOrganic Foods Pvt Ltd, which owns popularorganic brands like Down to Earth and Backto Basics. He admits that organic products are

branded as lifestyle products, but insists thathis company’s products are value for money.

The branding-packaging factor is alsoaffecting small-scale producers of organicfood. G Krishna Prasad, director of farmer’sgroup Sahaja Samruddha, says, “Our farmer’sgroup sells a particular kind of rice for Rs 40 akg. We supply the same grains to the retailchains too. The same product is packed welland sold for Rs 65 a kg. Of this, only Rs 30goes to the farmer. When we want to sell ourproduce in malls, they demand a 40 per centcommission.”

N Balasubramanian, CEO of SrestaNatural Bioproducts Private Limited, whichowns the organic food brand 24 LetterMantra, blames the retail outlets as well forthe higher prices. “Since organic food is a newcategory, retailers expect higher marginscompared to conventional products,” he says.

Consumers who like it priceyKrishna Prasad holds the loose purse-stringsof its well-off consumers equally responsiblefor the high pricing of organic food. “Whenthe products are reasonably priced, peopledon’t appreciate it. So, we are forced to brandthem and sell,” he says.

Prasad has been selling traditional ricevarieties long before the organic movementgained momentum. When hefirst attempted to sell theNavara and Kari rice varietiesyears ago, there weren’t manytakers. Navara rice is tradi-tionally gifted to youngbrides in Andhra by theirmothers. Prasad tested therice in the lab and found itrich in iron, so he branded itas ‘rice for pregnant women’. Sales shot up. Hereveals another of his secrets, behind his best-selling ‘diabetics’ rice.’ “Kari rice has a branlayer, which is nothing but digestible fibre.People knew about its benefits in the oldendays too, but I had to call it ‘diabetics’ rice’ forcity-dwellers to accept it.”

Kavitha Kuruganti, national convenor ofthe Alliance for Sustainable and HolisticAgriculture (ASHA), agrees that branding hasdriven up the price of organic foodstuff.“These days we want everything branded.This kind of marketing has to change,” shesays.

Fashion choreographer Prasad Bidappabelieves people are willing to spend more onorganic food because they consider it fashion-able. “When someone reads of a New York-based dietician talk of organic food, they gofor it. Hollywood and celebrities likeMadonna have popularised the concept oforganic food,” he says.

Bidappa does not believe in ‘goingorganic’ simply because he finds it too expen-sive. “It is priced almost two and a half timesmore than the regular food. It is not viable,”he says.

The certification factorMost organic farming done in India is donekeeping export in mind. The products are tar-geted at the European market, where there isa high level of awareness about organic food,

and an equally high demand. The catch is thatthe EU is stringent with quality control, andinsists specific types of certification on pro-duce it imports from India. “When certifica-tion comes into the picture, the prices esca-late,” explains Kavitha.

Prasad of Sahaja Samruddha, who workswith traditional farmers, finds the demandsof EU-style bureaucracy—with its accompa-nying tribe of ‘experts’ and ‘consultants’ -

cumbersome enough to callthe certification regime “amafia.”

“This certification isvery expensive and a lengthyprocedure with a lot ofpaper-work. The cost isautomatically passed on tothe consumer. This EU styleof certification should not be

applied to food for the domestic market,” hecomplains.

Vijay Grover, the founder of BangaloreOrganic Store, testifies to the price differencecaused by certification. “Our store keeps bothbranded certified produces and also producefrom local farmers. The certified ones are def-initely more expensive,” he says.

Certifying agencies say certification is amust only if the produce is to be exported toEurope, Japan or US. “There is no law in Indiathat asks for certification if the produce is tobe sold in the domestic market,” saysVasudeva, quality manager at IMO Control,an international quality

assurance and certifying company for agricul-tural produce. However, most high-endbranded organic produce in the Indian mar-ket does have expensive international certifi-cation.

Vasudeva suggests that the certificationhelps companies build a brand image and giveassurance to the people. “When the consumersees the certification, they are convinced thatthe product is genuine,” he says. He says thatthe cost of certification is about two per centof the total turnover, which is passed on tothe consumers. However, he admits that it isnot viable for small farmers, or even thosewho have 10 acres of farm land.

Sresta CEO Balasubramanian agreesthat certification adds on to the cost. “Farmand production methods must comply withcertain standards, which may require themodification of facilities. Employees must behired to maintain the quality and keep theproduct ready for inspection at any time,” hesays.

Recently, yielding to agitations by organ-ic farmer’s groups, the central governmenthas recognised the Participatory GuaranteeSystem (PGS), a cheaper form of certification.Kavitha points out that under this system, agroup of farmers is certified collectively, andinstead of an external agency keeping an eyeon the farms, the checks are kept by the

farmers themselves. In addition, there arerandom checks by a third party too. “If anyone farmer is found to be cheating, the certi-fication for the entire group is cancelled. Sothe farmers make sure that they and theircounterparts are sincere,” she says.

No state supportKarnataka was the first state to come up withan Organic Farming Policy which sought toput farmers’ interest first. The policy hassince been deemed a failure. The BJP govern-ment then renamed it the Amruta BhoomiProject, but it never really took off. Last year,the government announced a budget of Rs206 crore to promote organic farming in thestate, but not a paisa was released. This year,Rs 200 crore has been allotted again; it has tobe seen if anything will come of it.

Critics like Prasad say that the govern-ment is only interested in boosting revenue-earning export of organic produce rather thanencouraging local farmers who cater to thedomestic market. Further, he points out howmany schemes that are supposedly meant tohelp the farmer actually end up benefiting thebig retail chains. He recalls a scheme by thehorticulture department, where Rs one croreloan was offered to “promote organic farm-ing”. “I went there, but they asked for some-thing like a guarantee of Rs 50 lakh, which ourfarmers could not provide. I went back aftersix months and asked who have taken theloan. They revealed the names of some bigretail chains run by MNCs,” he says.

With no subsidy from the government,organic farmers find it difficult to match theprices of the produce from chemical farms.“The government gives subsidy on seeds, ureaand pesticides to farmers using chemicalmethods. Their yield too is much higher. Atthe most, what we get is a supply of vermi-compost once in a year.” He further pointsout that organic farmers do not even get loanseasily, unlike conventional farmers, all ofwhich add to the cost factor, and discouragethose who want to take up organic farming.

Transport and labourOrganic farmers Talk spoke to recall that in

the initial years of shifting tothis method, the

yields were lowerthan of conven-tional farming.

Continued onPage 18

‘The momentcertificationcomes into thepicture, pricesescalate’

chew on this 17talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.in

Pushed by big retailand peddled bycelebrities, organicfood—safe, good,wholesome stuffthat ought to bewithin the reach ofeveryone—is todaya lifestyle fad. Whyis chemical-freeproduce sofashionable, and soexpensive?

THE FOOD AND THE FAD

THIS AND THAT Vijay Grover of Bangalore Organic Store stocks both certified and non-certified organic products

RAMESH HUNSUR

Continued from Page 17

It takes two to three years for thesoil to regain the nutrients it haslost due to chemical methods.While the low yields put pressureon the farmers to mark up theirprices, transport costs further addto it, owing to the smaller quanti-ties they produce.

The organic food companiestoo agree this is the case.“Organic food production offersslightly lower yields to farmersand involves more labour, saysBalasubramanian. However,Mukesh Gupta of Morarka is opti-mistic, that with the growingdemand more agricultural landwill be converted to organic. “Asthe demand increases, the supplytoo will increase and the cost willreduce.”

Manorama Joshi is co-ordi-nator at Vanastree, an organisa-tion that promotes native farm-ing in the Malnad region. She saysfarmers have to put in extra workto nurture the fields if they are togo organic. “It is easy to go to ashop and buy a bottle of pesti-cides. But, here the farmers have

to create the compost or manurefor the plants. If the plants areinfected, they have to look fornatural remedies,” she says.

Organic at regular pricesManorama’s organisation runs ashop called Vaanya in Sirsi inUttar Kannada district.Surprisingly, they manage to sellorganic produce at market rates.Manorama says this is partlybecause they are selling at a lowermargin, given that they are tryingto promote the concept, and theydon’t incur the heavy transport

charges a city like Bangalore paysfor its farm produce.

Kavitha suggests we buyorganic produce from local farm-ers, and not from big stores andbrands. “We could go to farmermarkets and buy directly. Herethe costs are higher by only 10-15

per cent when compared to regu-lar produce. It is a win-win situa-tion for both the consumer andthe cultivator,” she says.

Grover of Bangalore OrganicStore echoes her views, andinsists that many customers whohave tried organic products fromlocal farms keep away from thebranded ones. “They try the localones and if they find it the same,they buy again. They buy it purelyon trust,” he says.

IMO Control’s Vasudeva tooagrees that one needn’t worryabout certification if there’s a rap-port between the seller and thebuyer. “If there is a neighbour-hood farmer or farmer’s organisa-tion you trust, you can buy itfrom him at a lower price.”

Krishna Prasad goes one stepfurther, and offers to organisetrips for consumers who want to

visit farms. “They can see how thefarming is done, instead of plac-ing their belief in certification.”Farmers’ organisations like SahajaSamruddha have outlets in thecity and also regularly organisefood melas. Jaivik KrishsikSociety, another farmers’ group,sells its produce in Lalbagh.

Its origin might have been asan international fad, but todaythere is a general consensus thatorganic food is good for you, andthe environment. And for farmerswho give up conventional farm-ing in favour of less lucrativeorganic, a helping hand fromurban consumers would be welcome.

G Krishna Prasad of Sahaja Samruddha

Stores near youSahaja Samruddha, Minerva Circle,Tel: 9880862058Jaivik Krishik Society, Lalbagh Gardens, Tel: 6562 4197Namma Santhe monthly market, Doddabommasandra, Tel. 99001 70424 Tibetan Organic, Off Brigade Road, Tel: 2550 5425Greenlife Organic, 4th T Block Jayanagar, Tel: 22445201

RAMESH HUNSUR

24 LetterMantra

65

150

140*

50

144

Down ToEarth

66

150

126*

37

130

SahajaSamruddha

55

NA

50

34

110

Non Organic

40

100

32

30

76

Product

Sona Masoori

Basmati

Brown Rice

Wheat Flour

Tur Dal

What it means to your purseA quick look at the pricing of non-organic, organic farmers’collective, and branded organic products.

Prices: Rs per Kg, *Brown basmati rice

chew on this 18talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.in

PRACHI SIBALprachi.sibal@talkmag.in

Given that it tells the storyof an Indian andPakistani diplomatnegotiating a peacetreaty, perhaps this play

ought to have been titled A DashThrough the Minefield. It hasn’t beennamed thus because it attempts toreveal the human beings behind thehardened bargainers.

A Walk in the Woods, written byAmerican playwright Lee Blessing,was staged in its adapted form in thecity by Mumbai-based MotleyTheatre Company recently. The orig-inal play is about the relationshipbetween an American arms’ negotia-tor and his Russian counterpart dur-ing the cold war. Predictably enough,this adaptation, which also marksRatna Pathak Shah’s directorialdebut, builds the premise aroundstrained India-Pakistan ties.Jamaluddin Lutfullah (NaseeruddinShah) and Ram Chinappa (RajitKapoor) are diplomats and negotia-tors from Pakistan and India respec-tively. While Ram is new to the job of‘diplomacy’ and appears persistentabout his business, Jamal is older,more seasoned and cynical about hisjob. They first meet at a conferencein Geneva and decide to take aninformal walk to discuss a proposalaimed to bring about peace betweenthe two countries.

The proposal comes from theIndian side and Ram, who hasrecently replaced a certain Mr Joshi,is eager to hold talks with Jamal inthe woods, eventhough the latterfavours the conven-tional across-the-tablediscussion. Jamal, on theother hand, is frivolous and moreinterested in making friends with hisnew counterpart. He won’t take seri-ous conversation from Ram and iscondescending of any proposal evenbefore hearing it. Their first meetingdoesn’t turn out too pleasant with

Ram losing his patience and Jamaladamant on talking about everythingbut work. Naseeruddin Shah’s comicsense and his seamless portrayal ofJamal makes sure that this brings inthe laughs.

The play is really an exchange ofwords, with little physical theatreinvolved. The sets are designedaccordingly with painted branches tocreate an effect of the woods, withonly an elevated path to break themonotony on stage. The lighting fortransitions was used sparingly buteffectively. For most of the play, thestage is fully lit and a play on bright-ness determines the penetration ofsunlight into this otherwise thickforest. The ultimate result, in combi-nation with the dialogue, is magical.

Meetings between Lutfullahand Chinappa continue, from oneconference to the other. The conver-sations become warmer and Ram isseen making a personal commentor two, even bringing along a box ofsweets that his wife sent for Jamal.The costumes ease out from beingultra formal to semi formal. Whilethe play is billed as an informaldialogue between diplomats andin turn about India and Pakistan,in essence it seems merelyabout two people meeting in aprofessional setting and

growing fond ofeach other,slowly. There ishardly a storythread exceptreferences to apeace proposalwhich is ulti-mately rejected

by the Indian gov-ernment, hinting

that India-Pakistan relations remainsour because political interests onboth sides want it that way.

Each meeting, each conversa-tion is fresh with humour and theoccasional heart-rending comment.The progress in their friendship ismade visible through the nature ofthe conversation and the manner ofspeaking. While Naseeruddin Shahdelivers a powerful performance as

the casual yet sensitiveJamal, the play’s best

moments easilybelong to Rajit

Kapur, convincing as the typicalhardworking Indian. The last scenebelongs more to Ram, and lets youreyes easily shift to him, despiteJamal’s wisecracks in the back-ground.

A Walk in the Woods, in the end,is a play with powerful performancesand no dull moments. Given that itwas (misleadingly) projected assomething of an India-Pakistandrama, it disappoints on that count.For instance, when it does mentionKashmir, it keeps it vague.Ultimately, you walk out of the the-atre feeling warm and fuzzy, butwithout the lump in your throat thatcomes out when you’ve experienced

a powerful story.

19talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.inback stage

A Walk in the Woods ,though inappropriatelypitted as an India-Pakistan drama,features powerfulperformances by twoaccomplished actors

DIPLOMATICmeets DRAMATIC

ENVOY STORYA Walk in the

Woods reveals theinner lives of two

diplomats (played byNaseeruddin Shahand Rajit Kapoor)

Director RatnaPathak-Shah

20talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.inback stage

In town with his theatregroup Motley to stage A Walkin the Woods, which is also his

wife Ratna Pathak Shah's directo-rial debut, acting legendNaseeruddin Shah opens up toTalk, about his preference for the“tried and tested” dramaticworks, his dream script, his sonsand more…

Motley is known to have kept toclassic but primarily foreignscripts. Is there not enough goodIndian writing around?I have always chosen to go forpatently good writing, if it stillapplies. I have nothing againstyoung writers. Theproblem is that mostrecent Indian writerstalk about the prob-lems faced by the agegroup of 20-30, and that is somethingAuthors like Shaw(Bernard) andBeckett (Samuel) arestill stimulating and the moreyou engage with the script themore layers you discover.

I have to confess though;Indian writing should be on ouragenda. But from what I haveread, I haven’t come across any-thing that would make for engag-ing viewing over stage, so I wouldrather pick something tried andtested.

Where do you think theatre inthe country is headed? What will

future productions look like?Theatre will definitely go back tothe classic and folk forms.European Theatre is not the wayto go. We have to find the perfectmedium. In order for theatre tosurvive in the country, evolutionis essential.

Do you endorse interactive the-atre, the kind that is becomingcommon in most cities?I don’t believe in making a mys-tery out of a play. According tome, once the play begins is whenthe magic starts. I don’t see thepoint of interactive theatre asaudience members are more

often planted thannot and actors endup rehearsing reac-tions for the audi-ence anyway. Thebarriers between theaudience and actorsneedn’t be so strongthough. Interactionof that kind is not

important while a play is on. Infact, I don’t even enjoy meetingpeople right after a performance.I’d rather meet them and talkabout the play after a few dayshave passed.

Every actor has one challengingscript that is close to his or herheart, something they dream ofperforming. Which is yours?I have been keen on performingSaadat Hasan Manto’s works fora long time. I wanted to take

Manto to Pakistan, but that did-n’t happen. The one script I havebeen dying to do is Toba TekSingh by Manto. I have beenthinking about it and reading itfor the last 10 years. It is a verydifficult one.

What are the advantages and dis-advantages of doing theatre withyour wife? There are absolutely no disad-vantages, only advantages. Youare available to each other at anytime. We have also developed a

code of communication betweenus. Faith is what theatre is allabout ultimately. Being in a com-fort zone is important. She hashad an enormous role to play inall my projects. I feel she had longbeen ready to direct.

What about your sons? Do youencourage them to do theatre? They have no choice in the mat-ter (laughs). Since the age of threethey have been part of our pro-ductions in some way or theother. In Julius Caesar as the

crowd, and wherever else therewas a need. Vivaan has written aplay which he wants to directhimself. Frankly we didn’t pushthem, they enjoy it.

Are you for theatre being moder-ated in the way it is with RangaShankara in Bangalore andPrithvi theatre in Mumbai?Yes, that is the only way you canexercise control over quality. Thevenue ends up having the reputa-tion of being discerning. Personalopinions do creep in though; weare all humans after all.

Do you believe in audio-visualaids being used in theatre, forexample the recorded scenes inShabana Azmi’s Bikhre Bimb?No, it’s rubbish. Using videofootage in Bikhre Bimb was validto an extent as it was images ofthe same actor, but I wouldn’t doit. This is an influence of theWest, where you can’t tell theatreand film apart anymore.

Does the Chowdaiah Hall inci-dent in 2010, when somebodywalked up onstage to make anannouncement in the middle ofthe performance, discourage youfrom coming back to the city?Not anymore. I realise I overre-acted. I could have handled thesituation with much morepanache. But at that moment Icouldn’t stop myself. To me the-atre is sacred. I later did realisethat she had no other choice.

Rajit Kapoor, award-win-ning film and theatreactor, speaks about what

keeps him juggling films and the-atre and working withNaseeruddin Shah after 25 years.

What has kept you engaged intheatre for all these years?Theatre is live interaction. It hasa vibe of its own with nomachines involved and humansgiving their take. There is nocomparison for live art; it is likeseeing painters paint and a musi-cian play. The process of rehears-al means far more. It is interest-ing to revisit, rehearse and re-

explore every script.

What keeps you coming back tofilms then?Film has logistical advantages. Ithas much larger mass appeal. Afilm can come to you, but for a play you need to go to the theatre.

Have you ever considered leavingtheatre for film? Which out ofthe two comes on top of yourpriority list?I can’t think of leaving theatre.There are times when film sched-ules keep me from doing a the-atre show. But, I decide either to

replace the character or may evencancel a show for performancelater if it means that much to me.

What are your views on stagingclassic adapted scripts? Are youin favour of Indian writing beingbrought to stage?Adaptation is necessary. But youhave to encourage new Indianwriters, something we do as partof my theatre group RageProductions through yearly programmes.

What would you rather be—adirector or an actor?I am essentially an actor who has

forayed into direction. There maybe a time in my life when I will bebored of acting and will take updirection full time.

When did you last work withNaseeruddin Shah? What haschanged this time?I first worked with Naseer when Iwas just out of college. It was aheartening experience at thattime. He was so passionate andso endearing. He reassured myfaith in theatre. Working thistime was different as there wasnothing unequal. It was a giveand take of energy. He energisesyou to the hilt.

For Naseer, European theatre isn’t the way

Moderatedtheatre is theonly way youcan exercisecontrol overquality

‘We have to encourage new Indian writers’

Rajit Kapoor

Time to Rock n Roll: Groove to the music as themenu takes you back to the1970s. Enjoy the time of dis-cotheques, bell bottoms andhave fun. Dress in a funky 20soutfit and avail 20 percent dis-count on your retro meal. Woodstock (Resto Cafe),#3777, Domlur Service Road,Indiranagar, HAL 2nd Stage,from August 23 to 24,

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Kebabs galore: The festival features a variety ofkebabs such as pather ghosht,sheek kebab, chicken tikka andmore. The chefs will dish out cui-sine from Hyderabad and sur-rounding regions. You can alsoget hands on experience at thedishes along with the chef. GAD, The GatewayHotel, #66,ResidencyRoad,

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Late night delights: Craving for some yummy foodbut the restaurant shutters turnyou back? Head to this midnightbuffet and enjoy a spread ofomelette, dosa, biryani anddesserts. Rs 700 plus tax perhead. Café Mozaic, Lobby Level,Vivanta by Taj, MG Road, tillAugust 25, 66604444

Chinese connection: Running short of time and needto satisfy your hunger? Pekingduck and dim sums make agreat combination. The Chinesespread on a varied buffet that

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for more. Memories of China, Vivanta byTaj, MG Road, till August 25,

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Onam sadhya with a twist: Lip smacking Kerala cuisineensures that you celebrate thisOnam with a bang. Choose froma variety of Kerala dishes suchas pachadi, neymeen polichathu,prawn porichathu, Travancorechicken fry, Malabar muttonkhorma, nadan kozhi curry, avial,thoran, neychoru, pathiri, andmore. Rs 500 plus taxes perhead. Oyster Bay seafood restaurant,Koramangala, August 28 and29, 42090000

North meets oriental: From north Indian to the orien-tal, you will find varieties inchicken, fish and lamb under oneroof followed by a complimenta-

ry glass of wine or a pint ofbeer with you meal.

Savour the meal

with your friends or family thisweekend. Rs 499 plus taxes perhead. Burgundy, Royal Orchid Suites,Whitefield, till August 25,

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Chiller fest:This season head to your near-est cafe for a range of chillediced teas and lemonades.Choose from LemonPomegranate, LemonCucumber, Kiwi Lemonade andmore.Available at Cafe Coffee Day outlets

22talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.in

Welcome fall-winter:The Anand Kabra Fall-Winter col-lection makes it to town startingtoday. Inspired by elements likewater and various religious tradi-tions, the colours this time areaqua blue, moss and leaf green,orange, khaki, black and rawwhite. Fabrics range from heavycottons all the way to coatedwool. The collection is designedto meet all weather needs duringthis season.Evoluzione, 14, Vital MallayaRoad, Embassy Classis

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For that luscious pout:Pamper yourself with a newrange of lip gloss from Tips &Toes. It comes with a uniqueshaped applicator that glideswith ease to give you perfectapplication. Available in eight dif-ferent colours, the gloss is pricedat Rs 375.Available at leading cosmeticstores

Go Bong-kers: Add a dash of the Eastern Indiato your wardrobe as you choosefrom a range of ethnic Bengaliclothes. Designer SnehasishBhattacharya displays his collec-tion in town. Bengalee Association, 1/A,Assaye Road, Ulsoor, till August26, 9945075154

For all adrenalin junkies: Do you feel uncomfortable whileriding due to your jeans? Here is

the latest in jeans that makesyour ride smooth. Made fromlighter fabrics, you can choosefrom a wide range of rugged andsporty ones. Take your pick frommedium and light washes. Available at all Wrangler outlets,www.facebook.com/wrangler-denims

Gadgets just got better: Visit your nearest Croma show-room to avail discounts on yourfavourite gadget. Get up to datewith the latest in technology andavail attractive discounts. Offersare available on phones, TVs,tablets, MP4 players, appliances

and more. Available at all Croma Outlets, tillAugust 26

For 'You': The ongoing Thank You sale, willleave you happy in more thanseven ways. You can choosefrom a range ofKanjeevaram silk, cutwork, Kalamkari, blockprints and more. You getto choose from traditionaland contemporary to suityour style. Avail up to 50percent discount and walkout with a surprise gift fromthe store. Sakhi, # 305, 6th Main,Defense Colony,Indiranagar, till August 26,

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Bag it: Bags and women go handin hand. Make a stylestatement this festiveseason as you make asplash with colours. Youcan find totes, hand-bags, purses andclutches to choosefrom. Look glamourousas you carry an embroi-dered or a rhinestoneembedded bag. Esbeda, 1st floor,Mahadevpura, tillAugust 31,

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L I S T I N G S

retail therapy

food

talk picks

1

2

3

4

5

English top-sellers at Sapna Book House

Get Lucky!Singer, songwriter Lucky Ali is back in town take fansdown memory lane. Lucky is known for his contributionsto film and pop music in the country. He returns to thecity to a loyal fan base every year. Expect hit numbersfrom recent films like Anjaana Anjaani and Pathshaala.Also catch the singer humming out some older numbersfrom albums like Sunoh. Tracks like Jaane Kya dhoond-ta hai may just also make it to his playlist for theevening.Hard Rock Cafe, St Mark’s Road, August 29, 8 pm

41242222

concert

Lemon Pomegranate

The Day I Stopped Drinking MilkSudha Murty PenguinPrice: Rs 199

What Young IndiaWantsChetan BhagatRupa BooksPrice: Rs 140

Govinda: TheAryavartaChronicles Book 1KrishnaUdayasankarHachette IndiaPrice: Rs 350

The MagicRhonda ByrneSimon & SchusterIndiaPrice: Rs 399

Turning PointsAPJ Abdul KalamHarperCollins IndiaPrice: Rs 199

23talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.in

theatre

L I S T I N G S

musicFind solace in the Bikhre

Bimb: Directed by Girish Karnad andKM Chaitanya, Bikhre Bimb isback with another show. Theplay brings together theatrepersonalities and actorsArundhati Nag and GirishKarnad. With three METAs toits credit it has been producedin Kannada, English and Hindi.The play is about an Englishprofessor, who has had anunsuccessful stint as aKannada writer. It is the jour-ney of this professor, wholater on goes on to be a best-selling writer. Ranga Shankara, #36/2, 8thCross, 2nd Phase, RV DentalCollege, JP Nagar, August 24and 25, 7.30 pm 26493982

The Improv: Watch eight actors perform onyour command. That's right!With no script, The Improvpromises you some funnymoments, innovative actingand much situational drama.The audience hands out situa-tions to the actors.Alliance Francaise deBangalore, # 16 G MT Road,Vasanthnagar, August 25 and26, 5 pm, 41231340

One Flew Over theCuckoo's Nest:Written by Dale Wassermanand directed by ArundathiRaja, the play features Rajeev

Ravindranath, Nakul Bhalla (inlater shows) and VeenaSajnani, who portrays thecharacter of Nurse Ratched.Based on the book, by thesame name, the play is thestory of Nurse Ratched, whorules her psychiatry ward andhas an affinity for electro-shock therapy. The play has ahumorous streak and exploresthe aspects of individuality,sanity and madness.Jagriti Theatre,Ramagondanahalli, VarthurRoad, Whitefield, August 25to September 2, Tuesday toSaturday 8pm and Sunday3pm and 6.30 pm,

41248298

Baghdad Wedding:Debut director HassanAbdulrazzak's Baghdadexplores the cosmopolitannature of London and the rav-aged Baghdad. The story awedding that goes terriblywrong and of three friendswho are caught between twoworlds and come to termswith their political, culturaland sexual identities, this playis a reflection of the array ofhuman diversities that exist inany nation. The play hasbagged three METAs includingBest play and Best Ensemble. Chowdaiah Memorial Hall,16th Cross, Vyalikaval,Malleshwaram, August 26,7.30 pm 23445810

filmShirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal

Padi HindiFarhad Pastakiya, a 45-year-oldman has spent most of his life asan undergarments salesman. Hefinds love one fine day in ShirinFugawala, a Parsi from his com-munity, only to discover enmitybetween her and his mother.INOX Malleswaram- 10 am, 2.30pm, 4.50, 7.35, 9.50, FameForum Value Mall Whitefield- 10am, 12.20 pm, 2.40, 5, 7.20,9.40, Fun Cinemas CunninghamRoad- 10.20 am, 12.25 pm,5.15, 7.20, 9.45, Rex Theatre -7.50 pm

Finding Nemo 3D English

The animated classic that tellsthe story of a Clownfish namedMarlin now releases in 3D foradded delight.INOX Malleswaram - 12.35 pm,4.40, Fun Cinemas CunninghamRoad - 10 am, 2.30 pm, 4.55,Rex Theatre - 6 pm

Expendables 2 EnglishIt is payback time for theExpendables as they reunite toseek revenge for the murder ofone of their own.Fame Forum Value MallWhitefield - 10.40 am, 3.50 pm,7.50, 10, Fun CinemasCunningham Road - 10.10 am,2.50 pm, 7.40, 9.30, Q Cinemas

ITPL Whitefield - 10.05 am, 3.10pm, 7.45, 9.45, CineMAX OuterRing Road - 10 am, 2.45 pm, 5,10, Urvashi Cinema- 10 am,9.30 pm, Rex Theatre - 1.35 pm

Shiva Kannada A bunch of social issuesare handled in Kannadafilm Shiva a produc-tion by KP Srikanthand Kantharaj star-ring ShivarajKumar and RaginiDwivedi, direct-ed by OmPrakash Rao.

When 'Shivaopens twoeyes it isClass, if heopens histhird eye it isMass, when heopens all thethree eyes it isKallas'. It is pittedas a film for the masses.Santhosh -10.30am, 1.30,4.30, 7.30pm, Uma10.15am 1, 4, 7pm,Navarang - 10 am, 1 pm, 4, 7pm, PVR Koramangala -10 am,1, 6.40, 9.20 pm, INOXMalleswaram - 10 am, 1, 6.40,9.20 pm, INOX Jayanagar - 10am, 1, 6.40, 9.20 pm, INOX JPNagar - 10 am, 1, 6.40, 9.20pm, Rockline Jalahalli - 10 am,1, 6.40, 9.20 pm

For all indi pop fans: Featuring Krishna McKenzie onguitars and vocals, Mishko M'baon Bass, Karthick Iyer on violinand Rahul Gopal on drums,catch Emergence perform livenumbers from their albumChosen by God as well as someof their other popular numbers.Their music is a blend of west-ern rock and pop with a mix offolk, which represents the inte-gration Krishna obtained whilehe lived in Auroville. bFlat, 100ft road, Indiranagar,August 24, 8.30 pm

25278361

Hindustani flavour in town: Head to this Hindustani VocalRecital by PriyaPurushothaman. The recital willreflect the traditionalHindustani Raag sangeet stylepresenting Khayal composi-tions. Like the traditional for-mat, the vocalist will be accom-panied by a harmonium andtabla. Bangalore International Centre,Teri Complex, 4th Main, 2ndcross, Domlur, August 24, 6.30pm 25359680

Go Goan: Tidal Wave, the Goan band is allset to enthrall Bangaloreans asthey play some latest pop, rock,Goan club hits all night at theGoan Carnival nights. WithVency Dias on bass guitar andvocals, Nelson Mendes on syn-

thesizer and vocals, TonyFernandes on drums and vocalsand Ally Rodrigues on rhythmand vocals. Opus, #4, Chakravarthy Layout,Sankey Road, August 25, 9 pm,

23442580

Trio to perform: Ananth Menon along with histrio pays tribute to the popularband Cream. Ananth is a well-known Blues musician in town.He is also the guitarist of thepopular band Galeej Gurus.Catch him live in action thisweekend. Counter Culture, 2D2, 4thCross Dyavasandra IndustrialArea, Whitefield, August 24,8.30 pm 41400793

Veena concert: All veena lovers are in for atreat as they will witnessKalaimamani S, Srinivasanaccompanied by C Cheluvarajuon mridungam perfom live. Theconcert would be without micsand is in the memory of therenowned veena playerRajeswari Padmanabhan. Ananya Sabha, # 91/2, 4thMain, Malleshwaram, August25, 6 pm 23472020

To get your event listed, write to us atlistings@talkmag.in

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Emergence

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www.zopnow.comYou can also call

them on 32420000

Watch that lazinessquotient - here’sanother onlineprovisions store

Breakfast in a ‘zop’

The age-old barrier between writersand publishers seems to bediminishing. While we still have writersknocking on publisher’s doors, wealso have new age publishersscouting for authors. Bangalore-based

Grey Oak Publishing recently metsome aspiring writers at a cafe inKoramangala. Also present weresome published writers, who sharedtips on the ‘hows’ that torment anywriter: how to write and how to getpublished. The workshop was a partof the Urban Shots Yuva Contest2012. Last year, the winning shortstories from the contest werecompiled in a book, Urban ShotsYuva. This year, the winning entrieswill appear in the second edition ofthe book, to be published in January2013. The stories must be set in anurban background, and should notexceed 2,500 words. The contest ison till September 15.

For more details, visit:www.greyoak.in

Just when you thoughtlive open air music hadleft the city for good,there is good news athand. Far out for mostcity-dwellers, butPhoenix Market City, theswanky Whitefield mall,is all set to let out itsopen air arena to musicbuffs. What’s more, theyare inviting Bangaloremusicians to audition tobe part of the movementto bring ‘live’ back to thecity. The upcoming showwill feature 30 bandsand 204 artistes andthe movement is called‘Pure Music’. So, getthose guitars and drumsout or simply walk in andlet your vocal chords dothe talking. Supportedby city-band Aurko, thewinners of the contestget a chance to record inAurko’s studio and maketheir music album.

http://www.facebook.com/AliveIndiaInConcertPhoenixMarketCity

Whitefield mallpromotes‘open air’music

Compared to the 1970swhen a bunch of brightyoung Film Institutegraduates fought theodds to give ussome of ourmodern classics,the indie moviescene in India is nowflush with money andmedia support. Oneexcellent initiative is FilmBazaar, an annual eventorganised by the NationalFilm DevelopmentCorporation on thesidelines of theInternational Film Festivalof India, Goa. FB has justinvited submissions forthe sixth edition of its FilmCo-production Market,which “offers a uniqueopportunity for filmmakerswith South Asian stories tofind the rightconnections.”

The event showcases 25film projects in need ofadditional finance andartistic support. Selectedfilmmakers and producerscan present their workbefore funders anddistributors from across

the world (last year’sevent was attended by635 delegates from 40

countries). Expectthe competition tobe fierce—after all,earlier entriesinclude well-known

(and relatively big-budget) productions as

Love, Sex aur Dhokha andShanghai. You can submit projectsonline, the last date beingSeptember 30, 2012.

For more details, visit:www.filmbazaar.com

Calling filmmakers

Scientists and young scienceresearchers have reason to be proudas Bangalore headquartered ISRO ison the verge of a milestone.Preparations for the historic 100thmission of the ISRO are on with thespace agency planning to launchPSLV C-21, which will carry twoforeign satellites in September. Twocapsules, a remote sensing satellitefrom France and a small Japanesesatellite will fly aboard it. Preparations

are going on and the launch is beingplanned for the second week ofSeptember. ISRO plans to launch720-kg SPOT-6 remote sensingsatellite from France (built byASTRIUM SAS) and a 15-kg Japanesespacecraft Protiers on board thehome-grown Polar Satellite LaunchVehicle (PSLV-C21) in September, inwhat is perceived as a majormilestone of sorts. The PSLV is ISRO'smost successful launch vehicle orrocket with the last few flights beingconsecutively successful.

100th space mission

How to get published

When the irritabledeputy chief min-ister K S

Eshwarappa walked into thePress Club on Wednesday,reporters were all readywith some uncomfortablequestions. Here’s how itwent:

Has the BJP removed Bellaryfrom its files?No.

Has Sadananda Gowda beenwronged?No. No one asked such aquestion when we madehim chief minister.

What happened to theRamaswamy andBalasubramanyam reportson land grab in Bangalore?We’ve erred. We will decide

on them within a month.

Mayor Venkatesh Murthyhas created fake documentsand grabbed eight acres.That’s wrong. The law is thesame for everyone.

You said Yeddyurappa isyour leader?No, I said Yeddyurappa isalso our leader.

Is the party trying to playdown his yatra?No, we aren’t.

Will you give tickets toMLAs who say nasty thingsabout your top leaders?Yes. We give tickets to thosewho can ply us with moneyand liquor. Caste is impor-tant, too. If we’d stuck toour principles, would we

have ever formed a govern-ment?

As Eshwarappa continuedin this disarming fash-ion, it was thereporters who gotangry and startedfighting amongthemselves. “What’s this?You squabble just like us!”Eshwarappa quipped,prompting the entire hallto erupt in laughter.

We gather as soon asEshwarappa arrived at theclub, someone called himaside and warned him thejournalists would hassle himinto saying something con-troversial. Now you knowhow the wily politicianstayed so calm.

BASU MEGALKERI

Temper mental no more

26talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.inpet matters

MARIA LAVEENAmaria.laveena@talkmag.in

Pets today are so valuedthat in some quartersyou are not even allowedto call them ‘pets’, but‘animal companions.’ As

people compete to spoil their animalfriends silly, a whole new range ofservices is springing up in Bangalore,covering home-delivered food torestaurants with pet platters.

Canine Cuisine and Pets Dhaba,for instance, deliver home-cookedfood for dogs. The former was start-ed by Naveen Rolands, managingdirector of Ostfold Software, whosays the idea was a natural extensionof his passion for feeding quality andhealthy food to his dogs. CanineCuisine, located in Kalyan Nagar,does not have any dining area; it is adaily door-delivery restaurant youcan call. Their specialty is the ‘bowbow biryani,’ and they also offer arange of meat-based dishes that takeinto account the breed and therequirements of their canine cus-tomers. The restaurant opened justtwo months ago, and its owners saythey will have about 1,000 dog-patrons within the next threemonths.

Canine Cuisine has four cooksand offers monthly deals. Pricesrange from Rs 1,600 to Rs 5,700.Something like a dabba service isalso on offer. This enables vegetari-ans, who don’t want to touch non-vegetarian food, to let their dogs eat

meat directly from a takeaway box.Pets Dhaba, the older of the two

ventures, offers both vegetarian andnon-vegetarian food, prepared onthe basis of what veterinary doctorsrecommend. Manager MuhammedMurshid says it feeds 60 dogs a dayfrom two outlets, in J P Nagar and RT Nagar. Pets Dhaba also offersweekly, fortnightly and monthlydeals. The menu for vegetarian petsincludes rice, broken wheat, rotis,paneer, cheese and salads. For non-vegetarian pets, it is a blend of chick-en with assorted vegetables, rice,broken wheat, rotis and salads. Theprice depends on the pet’s breed andpreference.

Regular restaurants in the city(restaurants for people is perhapshow we should call them now!) arenot far behind. They are coming upwith new strategies to attract petowners. Under the Mango Tree,Sunny’s, Daddy’s Deli, Grasshopperand Vivanta by Taj are some placeswhich welcome pets with their cus-tomers.

Vivanta by Taj on M G Roadeven arranged a first Canine Buffeton July 29 this year, where theyoffered a Sunday spread for theircanine customers and their humancompanions. On offer were rice por-ridge with chicken and bones, bakedbuffalo chicken wings, lamb trotterbroth, sausages, smoked meat ballsand steamed vegetarian balls.

Shobitha Mani, who had takenher pets Ella and Sparky for thebrunch, says, “The buffet was wellmanaged. They had a separate areafor the dogs to eat and play aroundand a separate area for the brunch.Though we have often seen dogsending up fighting with each other atsuch places, it was completely differ-ent at the Vivanta. They had peopleto clean the place if any of the dogspooped.”

If you always wanted to treatyour dog not just to good food butalso a good time outdoors, one of themost recommended places in town isUnder the Mango Tree at RichmondCircle. This restaurant provides spe-

THREE’S COMPANY (Above)

Restaurants likeDaddy’s Deli in

Indiranagar allowguests to dine with

their pets

RAMESH HUNSUR

Home delivered food,special platters inrestaurants and evenfive-star Sunday buffetspreads - pets in the cityare living it up like neverbefore

A dog’s life? They’re lovin’ it

27talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.inpet matters

cial platters for dogs everyfirst Sunday of the month,provided the seats arebooked in advance.

Recalling the madden-ing rush during the first fewSundays, owner NirmalaBalakrishnan says, “We onlyallow 15 dogs for the specialdog platter, but are floodedwith requests to allowmore.” Here, dogs areallowed inside on all days,and can play in the sprawl-ing outdoors.

Named after theowner’s labrador retriever,Sunny’s is another fine dinerestaurant which allowscustomers the privilege ofdining along with theirdogs. However, the dogs are

permitted only in the out-side enclosure, as other cus-tomers may find it uncom-fortable and intimidating todine with them. “We wereone of the first restaurantsin the city to offer this priv-ilege,” says Rohit, managerof Sunny’s.

Daddy’s Deli is anotherhas a separate areas for petowners and other cus-tomers. Managing partnerZarine Kharas says, “Wedon’t offer anything specialfor the dogs, but we oftensee our customers givingfood from their plates totheir pets.”

Some restaurantswhich used to allow petshave barred them now.Sonali Sattar, owner ofGrasshopper, says, “We lovedogs and started allowingpets in. But the dogs oftenended up fighting with eachother.” The restaurant hasits own well-looked afterdogs to provide company forany guest who might be

sorely missing his ani-mal companion.

Treating a petdog to a fancylunch may be asmuch about statusas about love for

the animal. The petis definitely going tosay “woof!” to that,either way.

Rs 100Dog platter at UnderThe Mango TreeIncludes meat balls,whole wheat rusk,boiled eggs, brokenwheat cakes, breadand milk

Rs 1,600 to 5,700For a monthly deal ofhome-delivered dogfood at Canine Cusine,prices vary accordingto breed, and tastepreferences

Rs 3,900/Rs 5,000(vegetarian/non-vegetarian)Pets Dhaba serves 1 kgof vegetarian/non-vegetarian food a meal,and also offers monthlydeals

Rs 1,800Sundaybuffet at TajVivanta, Priceis for owners;pet eats forfree

DOGGIE TREATS CAN SET YOU BACK BY...

MY TREATCricketer Venkatesh

Prasad with his StBernard Rafael at Taj

Vivanta’s Canine Buffet

28talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.inmemoirs

Iheard someone knocking. Iswitched on the light. It wasmidnight. I peered out of thewindow. “Hanumantharaya,open the door,” I heard

someone say. It was my friendDevaraj. I unlatched the door, won-dering what he was doing at thishour.

Devaraj was agitated. He was-n’t speaking normally; his limbswere flailing. He was otherwise aquiet man, not the sort to be soshaken. He used to study at theGovernment Arts College when Iwas studying at Central College. Wehad become friends. He wouldrefuse to join the gang that stoodaround teasing girls.

“What’s the matter? I’ve neverseen you so upset. Come in, comein,” I said.

Without say-ing a word, hehanded me aletter. I read it.

It wassomething a

girl called Mangala had written tohim. It said her parents had gotwind of their love, and were deter-mined to take her away to a secretplace and get her married off tosome other boy. She wanted him toget in touch and rescue her.

I understood his story. “I neverthought you were capable ofromance,” I joked.

“This is a question of life anddeath. I came to you only becauseyou wouldn’t make light of it. Wehave to save her right away. If she ismarried off to someone else, shewill kill herself,” he said, heaving.His eyes welled up. If I didn’t lookserious, I told myself, this manwould start wailing.

What power that Mangalamust have to make this unflappableman feel so miserable! “All right, tellme what you want me to do. I’ll doit,” I said.

“Use all your lawyer skills andfind out where they have smuggledher away. Don’t worry about themoney,” he said.

He said his mother would givehim anything he asked for, and hissister had got a government job, andcould pool in some money if neces-sary.

This is a true Laila-Majnu case,I told myself. “Fine. Rest here today.I’ll take you to my senior tomor-row,” I assured him.

I escorted him to our office inthe morning. Many

clients were wait-ing for my sen-ior Devadas’s

attention. Hesitantly, I told him,“Sir, this is a close friend. He hasfallen in love, and the girl is not aminor. They are from differentcastes: he’s a Vokkaliga and she’s aLingayat.”

I also explained we neededhis help to find her.

Devadas was brusque.“Don’t these boys have any-

thing better to do? Let’slook at it in the evening.

We have lots of otherimportant cases to dis-cuss,” he said.

I gestured to Devaraj not tolose heart. “You can finish whateverwork you have and come back in theevening,” I told him.

“I have no other work,”Devaraj said. “I’ll go watch a mati-nee show while you finish yourwork.” He was back by the time wereturned from court. He greeted mysenior, who just nodded andbreezed in.

Devadas took off his turban,and sat under a fan. He would getirritable in warm weather, and evenrequest that the fan be on in thecourt hall when he was arguing hiscases.

I scratched my head, wonder-ing how to broach Devaraj’s subjectagain. I finally said, “Sir, about myfriend… his mother wants to knowhow much she needs to pay aslawyers’ fees.”

Devadas sat upright. “What?His mother wants to pay his fees ina love case? This must be genuine.Bring your friend in,” he said.

When Devaraj walked in, mysenior shook his hand and said,pointing to me, “Don’t worry. Thisfriend of yours is enough for us tofind your girl. I know some policeofficers.”

I whispered in Devaraj’s earthat he should quickly fetch Rs5,000. By 8.30 pm, he came to ouroffice with his sister, who handed

my senior Rs

5,000 and said, “Sir,do anything, but justget him married to her. Hewill go mad otherwise. Thegirl tells me she likes him alot.”

Devadas said hecouldn’t take moneyfrom my friend.“Just take care ofthe court andpolice stationexpenses,” hesaid.

I gestured to Devaraj. “Sir, wedon’t know a thing about those pro-cedures. Please take care of them.Here, keep this,” he urged.

Devadas put the money in thedrawer, and told me, “Contact sub-inspector Ninge Gowda tomorrow.He is a Vokkaliga, and may take spe-cial interest in the case.” Devarajgave him the letter Mangala hadwritten, and Devadas instructed me,“File an illegal detention case.”

I was excited by all this. I felt Ishould play a part in getting thisinter-caste marriage going. My vil-lager mind told me Devaraj wasdoing something extraordinary bymarrying out of his caste.

Mangala’s father was a publicworks engineer. He was rich, andDevaraj’s family lived just across theroad. Devaraj and Mangala had beenfriends, but no one had suspectedthey were lovers.

One day, Mangala’s motherchanced upon a letter Devaraj hadwritten. “How you have betrayed us!

Your father can’t show his face tothe world,”

Mangala’s motherscreamed. Her father,

looking for a groom, hadlined up some engineers anddoctors. “But you’ve goneand chosen someone whoeats meat!” her motherberated her.

Before she had beentaken away, Mangala had

insisted she would marryDevaraj, or commit suicide.

Her father hadheard her with-out uttering a

What happens when a Vokkaliga boyfalls in love with a Lingayat girl? Thisstory straddles two powerful, oftenconflicting communities

Fabled ranconteur andBangalore’s top-notchcriminal lawyer bringsyou moving and bizarrereal-life stories from 40years of practice

C H HANUMANTHARAYAcrim

e fo

lioMidnight Romeo

VIVEK ARUN

word. The next day, he had come in a carand taken her and her mother away.

Once we lodged a complaint, NingeGowda went to their house with a searchwarrant, but had to return empty-handed.

“Her father is cunning. He has takenthem away somewhere, but you’ve madeour job easier by getting a search war-rant,” he told us. He told to tip him off incase we got to know where she had beenhidden away.

Devaraj was frustrated. “Sir, so yousay you can’t find her? If you can’t, whoelse can?” he wailed. I signalled to him tokeep quiet. “We’re bothering you everyday,” I said to Ninge Gowda. “Please don’tmistake us.”

Ninge Gowda said it was his duty tounite the lovers. “It will add to my gooddeeds. I am not upset by what our friendsaid. It’s just that he feels helpless. Andparents should stop imposing their wayson their children,” he said.

Fifteen days passed. Devaraj wouldmake an appearance at our office everyevening. That amused my colleagues.“Love fever,” they would whisper amongthemselves, and giggle. They also teasedme about him. But I didn’t let their com-ments discourage me. I was serious about

the case. My senior gave me the responsi-bility of handling it, and was relaxedabout it. Once in a while, he would ask,laughingly, “What’s the progress in theRomeo and Juliet case?”

One day, when I was in court withmy senior, Devaraj came rushing andfrantically waved to me to come out. Itwas noon, and I stepped out grumbling.“What’s it? Should youdisturb me when thecourt is in progress?” Iasked irritably.

He wasn’t in theleast put off by my tone.The gloomy look hadvanished from his face.He pulled out an inlandletter from his pocket. Ithad come from a Tumkur college, andrevealed where Mangala had been hidden.I slapped him on his back and congratu-lated him. “Now I know why you look sohappy!” I said.

The letter was signed by two boysand Mangala. It said she was in the houseof a rich man in a small village nearTumkur. The boys lived in the house.Unable to see Mangala’s suffering, theyhad posted a letter to Devaraj without the

knowledge of their elders.I came out of the court hall. We went

to see Ninge Gowda. “Let’s see them getaway now?” he said. We said we would liketo go with him. “Why not?” he said. Forsupport, Devaraj invited four or five of hisfriends to join the expedition. The policejeep raced ahead. Following it was ourRomeo’s car.

It was six in theevening by the time wereached the village. Wecaught a passer-by. Whenwe asked him for direc-tions, he said, “Why areyou policemen goingafter such a harmlessfamily?”

“Drag him into thejeep,” Ninge Gowda said sharply.

“No, please, don’t. I can’t make ene-mies in our village,” the passer-by said. Hethen pointed in the direction of a bighouse. But the constables wouldn’t lethim go.

“So you plan to take a bylane andalert them?” they threatened him. Theypulled him into the jeep and said, “Bequiet. We won’t harm you.”

The doors were open. Ninge Gowda

took strode into the house. We followedhim. Mangala was sitting in the verandah.She rushed towards Devaraj, but hermother dragged her back, screaming,“What black magic have you performed tobring them all here? Neither you nor Ishould live.” She pounced on Mangalaand sat on her chest, violently squeezingher neck.

Devaraj swung into action andpulled the mother back. He restedMangala on his left arm, and nursed herneck with his right hand, trying to easeher pain. Her mother, hair all scattered,wailed, “Gone, gone. All our honour isgone!”

Ninge Gowda got the witness proce-dures done. Mangala wrote out a state-ment: “I have been detained against mywill. I am willing to go with Devaraj.”

Left with no option, her parentscame around for a compromise. The wed-ding was fixed at Siddaganga Math.

On the day of the wedding, Devarajwas a different man. He was wearingsacred ash on his forehead, and had alinga box tied around his neck: he hadconverted to Lingayatism.

Translated by S R Ramakrishna

29talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.inmemoirs

If she is marriedoff to someoneelse, she will killherself, Devarajtold me

My close friend is having anextramarital affair for the past oneyear. He has a pretty wife and a 10-year-old son. His wife has no clueabout his affair. I have a strongdesire to tell her, but I also feel thatit would be betraying him. I foundabout his affair by chance, and I'mnot sure whether it's worth riskingour friendship. What should I do?

Manjunath, by email

Being a good friend is a very toughjob. No matter how close you mightbe to the couple, as an outsider youcan never really judge what’s goingon within a marriage. I don’t thinkyou should tell your friend’s wifewhat her husband is up to. I agreethat it might not be fair to her.What you could do is have a talkwith your friend and tell him whatyou feel could be some of the of his action. Let him know that

you disapprove.

I’m 23 years old, and work as acomputer teacher in an interna-tional school for NRI children. Attimes, the older students flirt withme. However, I am attractedtowards one student who is a bigbully/rogue. On several occasions Ihave punished him in the class. Heis undeterred and senses that I likehim. I am at a loss about how tohandle this situation?

Anonymous, by email

In our country, the teacher-taughtrelationship is the one that goesbeyond the realm of infatuation. Itis considered to be sacred. For ateenager, attraction can changeevery other day. But you should beresponsible and mature in yourdealings with such lads. You are nota teenager anymore. Pleaseremember you are his mentor andcontemplating acting on yourattraction for a student is not inanyone’s best interests.

30talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.in

1st Cross

T I M E P A S S

ProfGood Sense

Prof M Sreedhara Murthyteaches psychology atNMKRV First GradeCollege. He is also a well-known photographer. Writeto him: prof@talkmag.in

Bluff first,blush laterOnce I had to

interview thisactress who I wasn't

familiar with. The interview happened sosuddenly that I hardly had any time to domy homework on her, and I decided togo with whatever questions I could thinkof on the spot. We went live on air andthinking she was a newcomer, I asked herwhat her experience was like shootingfor her first film. She seemed taken backfor a moment. “That was four years ago.”Turned out she was a well-known star,and to this day I do not know whoamong the two of us was more embar-rassed. Pavithra Shankar, Radio Jockey

By Mark ParisiOff The Mark

Talk’s weekly crossword for Bangaloreans who know their way about town

Across1 Rice noodle delicacy of Karnataka

(4,5)3 Alternate name for our beloved

city (9)5 The state was recently plagued

by rumours of poisoned ____ (4)8 ____ ___ Azad: Union health min-

ister who praised the perform-ance of the southern states onthe health front (6,4)

11 The place for Afghani food atInfantry Road (9)

13 In 2010 human skulls were foundin a drain in this town in Dharwaddistrict (8)

Share the humour in your life, multiply thefun! Keep those anecdotes coming to:features@talkmag.in

15 Karnataka city just south of Goa (6)19 The recent ___ to North-East was one

of the largest India has seen in recenttimes (6)

20 Dynasty which ruled the area aroundBangalore in the 11th century (5)

21 Sri Lankan batsman in our IPL squad(1,1,7)

DOWN2 Multiplex at the Forum (3)4 Bangalore's famed botanical gardens

(7)5 Seraphine ____ : Kenyan singer who

recently performed in the city (6)6 Man in the news for his lawsuit against

Infosys (4,6)

7 Popular dessert in Karnataka and therest of the country as well (6,3)

8 The State Government is opposing theWorld Heritage tag to the Western____ (5)

9 Market near Brigade Road (7)10 A CAG special audit will be probing

this scam (7)12 Our city is located in this plateau (6)14 K Shivannagouda ____ : Reently

appointed political secretary (4)16 National park home to tigers, panthers

and elephants (5)17 Bangalore is divided into 198 ____ (5)18 Popular pub in Indira Nagar (4)

Across: 1 Margosa, 3 November, 5 Yoko, 8Bhardwaj, 10 Thirty, 11 St marks, 13& 18 Across Vidhana Soudha, 15Hint, 21 Inox, 23 Whitefield, 24Wonderla.

Down: 2 Goonda, 3 Nandi, 4 Bannerghatta, 6 Mahalakshmi, 7 Cyanide Mallika, 9Hubli, 12 Swine flu, 14 Russel, 16 JogFalls, 17 Agumbe, 19 Udipi, 20 Dn &22 Ac Aravind Limbavali.

Last week’s solution

31talk|30 aug 2012|talkmag.in

Buy a tiger online

That’s the question Dr Aarathi Prasad, London-based biologist and science writer, poses in her newbook, Like A Virgin. Prasad’s book isbilled as a work “that will change theway you think about sex.” It takes

us inside the labspioneering sex-less reproduction,

from egg-fertilising

computer chipsto artificial

wombs. The DailyMail, typically,

described her as“the woman who wants toabolish sex”, but looking atthis photograph released byher publishers, we can onlyask, “Oh, really?”

Is sex redundant?

Bhatt why? We hear Karan Johar is back todreaming about college. But the newsthis time is that he intends to pick facesyoung enough to be actually spotted ona campus. Student of the Year, slatedfor an October release, featuresMahesh Bhatt’s daughter Alia Bhatt andDavid Dhawan’s son Varun Dhawan.Built like a launch pad for the two, thetheatricals are a horrific reminder offilms like Mohabbatein and Kuch KuchHota Hai. Will KJo everget out of hisimaginary collegeand see a realone, wewonder. Weare cheeringhim though,for notforcing onus aretired 40-year-oldbabe as acollegestudent.

Viagra, ‘bonsai kittens’, automatic weapons…it would seem almost anything is availableonline these days. But tigers? BuyTigers.com- which calls itself ‘the most original petstore ever’ - claims to supply five-month-oldfemale tigers with vaccinations, ‘directlyfrom India breedings’. Needless to say, thewebsite had wildlife and animal rightsactivists in a rage, with PETA India evengoing to the extent of alerting thegovernment. Turns out it was just a prank, the

handiwork of a 25-year-old Italianwebmaster who introduces himself as AldoTripiciano. In a statement published on thewebsite, he says while it all started as a joke,he was surprised to get a flood of emails fromall over the world, from “rich jerks of all ages,asking for tigers and willing to pay for them.”He says most people who contacted him werefrom the United States, India and the Arabcountries. We seem to have some things incommon, after all.

In South Africa, elephant conservation pro-grammes have proved so successful that they nowface the prospect of a population explosion, threat-ening vegetation and other wildlife. Reuters reported howofficials in the country’s KwaZulu-Natal province arelooking to expand a project where she-elephants areinjected with a vaccine that triggers an immune sys-tem response to block sperm reception. South Africa,which had just over 100 ele-phants left a century ago, nowhas 20,000 of them.Thankfully, this is oneproblem we are unlikely to

have, since here the numbersof endangered animals keep

dwindling in proportion tothe funds we

spend on‘conserving’them.

A jumbo population problem

Alia Bhatt