The-Hindu-SUN17(+)

8182019 The-Hindu-SUN17(+)

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hindu-sun17 16

well be the harbinger of o ther changes tocome

Mostly created by unknown young-sters with pseudonyms such as MemeMaams Kathi Cookie Kumar Tight Mo-han etc the memes borrow heavily from film songs and dialogues They arespliced with real photos to create shortclips or pictures that spread like wildfireonline The main target this year has

been film star Vijayakant aka Captainwho has become for the first time indecades a third chief ministerial choicein the typically two-pronged contest inthe State To parody his ambitionstherersquos a still photo of him in tears takenfrom one of his films and a caption thatsays hersquos crying because he thoughtGame of Thrones was only a game

Because of their anonymity thememes spare nobody mdash from Dra- vida Munnetra Kazhagamrsquos(DMK) M Karunanidhi and his

son Stalin to Chief Minister Jaya-lalithaa to new aspirant Vijaya-kant and Pattali Makkal Katchirsquos(PMK) Anbumani Ramadoss ev-eryone is a target The creators arenot directly affiliated to any politi-cal party but sometimes itrsquos a poli-tician who picks up the tab fortheir work According to a recentreport in The Hindu they could bepaid as much as Rs 1 lakh for areally good meme As a result thepolitical meme has become themost democratic visual tool todaybreaking the hegemony of cashand clout over physical spaces

Interestingly the three chief ministerial aspirants occupy dis-tinct graphical spaces in the publicimagination From Karunanidhiwho once ruled hand-painted wallgraffiti to Jayalalithaa who is syn-onymous with gigantic bannersand now Vijayakant who hasemerged as the undisputed king of Internet memes

The 1970s and 80s saw an ex-

hen the floodsdevastatedChennai early this year therewas a lot of con-troversy aroundthe lsquoAmmarsquostickers that AIADMK (All

India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazha-gam) party workers slapped on all relief material Online though everyone wasdissolving in laughter because someonehad cleverly created a meme that showedPrime Minister Narendra Modi boardinga plane to leave Chennai unaware that anlsquoAmmarsquo sticker had been pasted on hisback as well

In a State ruled by larger-than-life fig-ures and their larger-than-life images

suddenly it is the quick and sneaky politi-cal meme that rules This is a majorchange in the visual language of politicsthat Tamil Nadu has seen over the lastmany decades where the close connec-tion between rulers and cinema hasmeant that political imagery has alwaysbeen overpowering and glitzy Nowchanging public sensibilities and theubiquity of smartphones and the Inter-net appears to have impacted not justsocio-political behaviour but politicaliconography too

This evolution is worth exploring be-cause if as Marshall McLuhan famously said the medium is indeed the messagethen the change in iconography might

From sharply satirical cartoons to pure adulation to anonymous memes tracing the political iconography of Tamil Nadu

CM

YKND-X

WEEKLY EDITION 2 SUNDAY APRIL 17 2016

2

PHOTO ESSAYA coastal village inMumbai fights tostay relevant

4

BOOK REVIEWTelecom guru SamPitrodas autobiographysays it like it is

3WIDE ANGLEThe famous MellonLectures featurethe Chola bronzes 6

THE GOOD LIFEGet pampered sillyon board a decadentfloating resort

sundaymagazine

HINDU_MAGAZINE

HTTPSWWWFACEBOOKCOMTHEHINDUSUNDAYMAGAZINE

Satwik Gade

STREET FIGHT Wall cartoons in the 70s and 80s (l to r) A jibe at the alliance formed between DMK and Congress even after Indira Gandhirsquos Sarkaria Commission indicted Karunanidhi for corruption another cartoonmocking the ldquounholyrdquo DMK-Congress alliance made at the expense of partymen who sacrificed their lives during the Emergency MGR and Morarji Desai extending their hands for votes even as they watch thecommon man being gobbled by the inflation tiger and people celebrating lsquoliquorrsquo Pongal knowing MGR will never implement prohibition even though he often promised it PHOTOS SADANAND MENON

Internet memes are fast becoming the new language of political satire

Continued on page 2

Exclusive chatxclusive chat

with Karanh K an

Mahajan aerahajan a er

his explosiveis explosive

new bookb k p4

Politicklingiti kling

httpstelegrammeSunHelpEachOther



Inheriting the seaChimbairsquos tenuous survival is probably characteristic of most fishing villages along the coastline of Mumbai as they shakily fight the onslaught of dwindling fish and proliferating concrete

Chimbai village is what historic Bombay might have looked like a chain of smallfishing villages facing the sea packed tightwith small homes occupied by familieswho have shared the joys and trials of lifewith each other from a time beyondmemory Amidst the houses are small

shrines and grottoes with images of Mary or Jesus although this cosmopolitan village is not defined by religion but by fishChristian Kolis and their Hindu neighboursboth share the common inheritance of thesea

But this village now has an urgent

tenuousness to it menaced daily by collapsing fish stocks and the irresistiblemarch of predatory property developers As the children seek employmentelsewhere the fishing boats are now strangely melancholic grounded holedand overflowing with garbage The tiny houses are still kept scrupulously cleanriotous with colour and filled withhouseplants This is how the Kolis fightthe ugliness of Mumbairsquos vast plastictides that threaten to drown their villages This place seems like theantithesis of the city suffused with asense of collaboration where religiousidentity is subsumed in the shared spiritof the sea and where the slow pace of the tides permits a connectedness andhospitality that the burning lights of Mumbai often forbid

mdash Abhimanyu Arni

Feminism over chaiWhen Sadia Khatri Instagrammed a picture of herself and her friends at adhaba she had no idea girlsatdhabas would become a thing in Pakistan

A Tumblr blog from Pakistan has been making waves and trending on social media around the world The blog lsquoGirls at Dhabasrsquo features

photos of women hanging out at dhabasdrinking chai eating reading and just being as an act of liberation It all began when Ka- rachi-based Sadia Khatri posted on Instagram

a photograph of her hanging out with some friends at a dhaba drinking chai with the hashtag girlsatdhabas It was soon trendingSome suggested that Khatri turn it into a series A Tumblr account was started and soonwomen from all over Pakistan began sending

photographs of themselves in tea shops and other public places engaged in activities traditionally considered lsquomalersquo like riding mo- torcycles cycling playing cricket or driving rickshaws The idea was for women to reap-

pear on streets In an interview Khatri speaks about mobility unlearning gender identitiesand drawing inspiration from feminists in In- dia Excerpts

What is the idea behind selfies at dhabas In addition to being a public space dhabas

represent a break of sorts from the daily grindwithout having to necessarily buy the experi-ence It is like people sitting at streetsidecoffee shops or in other public spaces simply to hang out mdash have a cup of coffee or chat

Taking a selfie or photograph is importanttoo because it implies ownership of the space Women are frequently told to stay out of orremain invisible in public spaces Putting allthose prescriptions aside to take your ownphoto in a space you are traditionally notsupposed to be in mdash there is a moment of reclamation there

lsquoGirls at Dhabasrsquo wasnrsquot necessarily a pre-conceived idea Our growth has been very or-ganic The hashtag found resonance after westarted documenting photos at dhabas Thehashtag has now come to symbolise a lot morein terms of the conversation around reimagin-ing public space for women in Pakistan

We are around 10 girls across Karachi La-hore and Islamabad who manage the pageplan events in our city and co-ordinate withdifferent groups to raise some noise aboutwomenrsquos participation in public space

We come from varying socio-economicbackgrounds and work across fields Some of us are working full-time some are in under-

grad or grad school one is a journalist anoth-er a filmmaker teacher graphic designer and

CM

YKND-X

sundaymagazine THE HINDU SUNDAY APRIL 17 2016

02NOIDADELHI02

traordinarily rich visual landscape of poli-tics when MG Ramachandran (MGR) andKarunanidhi were at the peak of their rival-ry Pictures taken by artist Dashrath Pateland photographer-journalist SadanandMenon of campaign graffiti of the periodshow a series of wickedly funny and sharply satirical cartoons The humour was raw andearthy and the canvas was the cityrsquos wallsoften pre-booked by the two parties Eachside exposed the scandals of the other ldquoItwas the rape of the citizen held up beforetheir eyes for their own entertainmentrdquosays Menon It was irony at its best ldquoTo-

dayrdquo he quips ldquothey might earn their cre-ators a defamation or sedition caserdquo

In that era however the cultural back-ground of the Dravidian movement meantthat leaders were respectful of editorialspaces and the form and content of eachspace Symbolism was used sharply Therising sun the two leaves classical TamilMGRrsquos dark glasses and woolly cap Karu-nanidhirsquos dark glasses and curly hair mdash allthese were their stock in trade Clearly theDravidian parties had mastered the art of lsquoindexicalrsquo sign language As American phi-losopher Charles Sanders Peirce said in-dexical signs mdash films videos personaltrademarks mdash require almost no knowledgeof convention to make an impact

The vibrant imagery was also of coursethe result of the Dravidian movementrsquosdeep roots in cinema publishing and writ-ing ldquoThey were on the cutting edge of im-age-building and promotion They hadstrong in-house teams and also used artstudents to transmit party messages boldly and effectivelyrdquo says Menon

Then came the age of the colossal cut-

outs Art historian Preminda Jacob haswritten about the extravagant advertisingthatrsquos the signature of Tamil cinema and itwas in the 1940s that the first film cut-outsappeared on Chennai streets Fittingly itwas superstar MGRrsquos proteacutegeacute Jayalalithaawho took this and perfected it into the giantpolitical cut-out In the 1990s Chennairsquosskyline was defined not only by massivecinema posters but also by competing cut-outs and banners of Jayalalithaa and Karu-nanidhi sometimes reaching heights of 80feet or more Soon these were replaced by the equally in-your-face vinyl bannerswhich continue to reign despite a ban

But with increasing size the sense of hu-mour proportionately decreased In factfar from being lampooned politicians be-gan to assume god-like forms and the lan-guage changed from satire to adulation Thefirst artists hired to paint banners werethose who made calendar paintings of godsand goddesses so it wasnrsquot surprising they catapulted their new subjects to the statusof deities More important politiciansthemselves began to believe they were gods

and just as coconuts are broken on postersduring a Rajinikanth film release politic-

ians and their banners began to beworshipped

The lampooning of earlier days seems un-imaginable today In the ensuing humour-less milieu even the rather tame hits thatthe DMK took on Jayalalithaa this year werereceived with glee DMK borrowed the pun-chline ldquoEnnamma ipdi panreengalemmardquo (loosely translated as lsquoWhat Amma How can you do thisrsquo) from a Tamil reality show and plastered it across full-page ads to ad-dress different complaints about the AIADMK regime

As Joker might ask lsquoWhy so sadrsquo Sayswriter and political commentator GnanildquoPolitical parties and political culture hasbecome corporatised they now hire adver-tising and public relations agencies to runtheir campaigns They are more interestedin brand positioning nowrdquo Interestinglywhere Gnani sees the bigger loss in humouris in the classic print cartoon ldquoYoung and

creative people are moving to cinema nownot to print media Magazine cartoons areneither funny nor punchy as they were inthe 60s and 70srdquo

The memes might be funny but they rare-ly attack ideology or make a point with cut-ting wit On the other end of course wehave the worshipful vinyls ldquoAIADMK hasonly one layer to its campaignrdquo says Gnanildquoand that is the projection of lsquoAmmarsquo asgodrdquo This clearly leaves no room for hu-mour or satire

But is a shrinking sense of humour themain reason for the lack of political pun-chlines To quote McLuhan again if thecharacteristics of the medium affect themessage then todayrsquos quick and ephemeralparodies probably suit the fleeting attentionspan that the Internet encourages

Also as Menon points out the best car-toons derive their humour by pitting ideol-ogies against each other In Tamil Nadu thetwo major parties have marginal ideologicaldifferences And with both facing allega-tions of rampant corruption there is nomoral high ground that either can occupy

In these unfunny days all we can do is smileand bear it

s

l i c e

o f

l i f

e Anuradha Sengupta

several work with NGOs and researchcollectives

Have you been influenced by parallel movements inIndia

We have definitely found a lot of strengthfrom lsquoWhy Loiterrsquo as well as other groups such

as BLANK NOISE and lsquoFeminism in Indiarsquo Itrsquosreassuring to know this work isnrsquot being done inisolation Itrsquos particularly encouraging to know that there is a history and context to genderdynamics in public spaces in South Asia thatmany people are trying to battle Since startingthe group we have connected with feministsrights workers NGOs anthropologists design-ers businesswomen and social workers It isincredible and relieving to know there is a big-ger support group and resource base than werealised that so much more can be done whenwe do it together

What has been the reaction so far

For the most part itrsquos been fantastic Submis-sions havenrsquot stopped coming in Girls andwomen are very enthusiastic about the pageand what it stands for We are constantly get-ting more stories and ideas and requests forcollaborations mdash which shows that the issue of gender and public space resonates with a lot of women The best are the messages from wom-en even young girls in school thanking us forbringing up issues of everyday misogyny

ldquoIrsquom so glad Irsquom not the only one who feels

like thisrdquo they say There is a lack of spacesonline and offline where feminists can connect

with each other The response wersquove got con- vinces us that we need to keep the community going because it is clearly filling a gap

Have you been able to involve men

There have been a few men actively in- volved with girlsatdhabas from the begin-

ning mdash a circle of friends that has beensupportive by helping us with male allies andbeing there as a sounding board

The conversation has to take place amongall genders because public spaces affect us indifferent ways and our interaction with itaffects othersrsquo interactions Amongst ourfriends for example we have discussionsabout how men who are extremely comfort-able in public space might be contributing tocreating a hostile environment for women What are the ways in which they can be con-scious of their behaviourhellip

Audience wise men are probably the big-gest critics of girlsatdhabas There is thepopular argument based on religion where weare told our narrative doesnrsquot fit into the oneIslam has prescribed for women there is thequick dismissal by elite progressive andlsquosecu-larrsquo men who feel threatened and canrsquot figureout why women want to sit at a dhaba andhave chai why it is even an issue mdash but therersquosa long way to go before any of those mindsetscan be eradicated or addressed

Anuradha Sengupta is a freelance journalist who focuses on issues

affecting women youth environmentand urban subcultures

RECLAIMING SPACES

TRENDING Women reclaim the ownership of public spaces PHOTO SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Photos Clare Arni

Politickling Continued from page 1

A giant cut-out of Jayalalithaa at arally last week PHOTO T SINGARAVELOU



The art ofhe art of

stealingtealingheartsearts

emple bronzes fromthe Chola era have im-mortalised in theirsensuous shapes thehistory of a people andthe fertile land aroundthe Cauvery that sus-tained them betweenthe 9th and 13th cen-

turies Columbia University art historian Vi-

dya Dehejia is taking overflowing audiencesat the National Gallery of Art in Washingtonfor a journey through an age when peopleshaped gods in their own image

Over six spring Sundays (inaugurated on April 3) Dehejia is delivering the AW Mel-lon Lectures in the Fine Arts named afterthe founder of the National Gallery whichwas established 75 years ago and is now aniconic American institution that sits be-tween the White House and the Capitol

The Mellon Lectures now a prominentevent on Washingtonrsquos cultural calendarwill focus on Indian art for the first timesince they started 65 years ago Gods andhumans from a millennium ago will come

alive through Dehejiarsquos illustrated lecturesbefore an elite gathering of art connoisseursldquoThis set of lectures will indeed acknowledgeand delight in the sensuous beauty of theChola bronzes but we will move beyond thesensuous to ask questions that have neverbeen asked beforerdquo Dehejia said at the open-ing lecture

The title of the lecture series lsquoThe Thief Who Stole My Heartrsquo i s i nspired by a linefrom the 7th century child saint Samban-darrsquos description of Shiva The lecturedwells not merely on the ascetic andcosmic aspects but the emphasis as thesubtitle suggests is on the material lifeof the period as well

It traces the prosperity and the economy that supported such a massive spending onbronze images Not only were they numer-ous but they were solid bronze whereas con-temporary pieces from other parts of theworld were sculpted hollow The lectureslook also at the role and status of the womenboth royal and commoner who commis-sioned the bronzes and oversaw thetemple events that showcased thesepieces of fine artisanship

The lost-wax technique whichmakes each Chola bronze a

unique piece of poetry used the fine clay of the Cauvery basin But where did the copperthat was needed in large quantities comefrom Tamil Nadu does not have copper de-posits Dehejia seeks to explore that ques-tion and she is possibly moving closer tofinding an answer

She has gathered granules from a few bronze pieces kept in American museumsThey will be analysed later this year for a

chemical signature that marks out copperfrom Seruwila mines in Sri Lanka If the SriLankan origin of the Chola bronzes were tobe established that would provide the mostauthentic explanation for what Dehejia callsthe ldquoChola obsession with Sri Lankardquo

ldquoThere could be many reasons for thisobsession with Sri Lanka Copper may beone They were also very interested in thepearl fisheries in the Gulf of Mannar Thatwas a reason they always wanted to controlSri Lanka They needed a huge amount of pearls to decorate these bronze images to besent as tributes to China with whom they sought direct trade links They were inter-ested in trade not territory And Sri Lankawas central to this traderdquo Dehejia says

She argues that the prosperity of the Cho-las came from rice which was plenty thanksto the irrigation system they designed ldquoTo-day rice is cultivated on a million acres inthis area We have estimated that in thosedays it was around 70000 acres It was theiringenious irrigation system that made thispossiblerdquo The Cholas used the climate sys-tem and the topography of the region to

design an irrigation system that is stillin use and that overcomes the short-falls of the Cauvery

The lecture series will turn into abook later to be published by Prin-

ceton University PressSome other legendary books

on art born from the MellonLectures include EH Gom-

brichrsquos Art and Illusion Ken-neth Clarkrsquos The Nude A Study in Ideal Form and O-leg Grabarrsquos The Mediationof Ornament Of the 65 Mel-lon Lectures so far 60 have

been on Western traditionsTwo were on China one was onMayan art and now we have one onIndiarsquos Chola bronzes

Dehejia has memories of theagraharam near Tiruchi where

her ancestors lived and she visited as a child from

Mumbai her birthplaceThe nameless sculptors

and timeless bronzes continue to lure her tothat land Dehejia spent around sevenmonths in Thanjavur Kumbakonam and Ti-ruvarur preparing for the lecture

Priests of village temples that have losttheir ancient bronzes to safekeeping by thegovernment complained that the festivalswere no longer the same

ldquoFor big festivals say a Brahmotsava peo-

ple go to a bigtown The intensity associatedwith small temples has lessened since thebronzes are not there The cultural lives mdashcentred on these temples mdash the festivalsdance theatre and music mdash are fading outrdquoshe said

Cast in Bronze Written in Stone is thetentative title of her book But she may wellgo with The Thief Who Stole My Heart

A series on Chola bronzes will be the firsttime Indian art becomes the subject of the prestigious Mellon Lectures in the US

ALLOY ALLURE

w

i d e a n g l e

On a sombre evening in Mumbai photog-rapher Atish Saha and I sit under a spraw-ling tree outside Tarq art gallery not farfrom Gateway of India The Dhaka-basedphotographer is in the city for the openingof art curator Kanchi Mehtarsquos new show lsquoFeedback Looprsquo which includes Saharsquoswork apart from seven other artistsrsquo He issomewhat anxious but also excited Helights up a cigarette and offers me one Ipolitely decline and we begin to talk

lsquoLost and Foundrsquo the series of photo-graphic works Saha is here to exhibit has

taken up most of his waking life since April24 2013 That was the day Rana Plaza an

eight-storey commercial building in Dhakacollapsed leaving in its wake a death toll of 1135 Most of the dead were garment facto-ry workers who got buried when two illegal-ly constructed floors the substandardbuilding material and a heap of buildingcode violations came crashing down Sahawho trained at the Pathshala South AsianMedia Academy arrived at the site on hisway home just minutes after the collapse

He had no idea what he was walking intoHe kept going back day after day for 16days to collect objects belonging to thosewho died mdash mangled mobile phones pho-tographs gloves umbrellas vanity bagsundergarments bones and human hair Hebrought them home along with the stenchof human flesh and the stains of blood

Saha felt ldquoempty as if something hadendedrdquo when he stopped visiting the site

so he resumed even after the governmentbuilt a fence around the area Six monthsinto the process Saha started taking pho-tographs of the objects ldquoIt was not a nor-mal thing for me to dordquo he says ldquoFor thefirst time I was seeing so many dead bodiesin one place In fact when my grandmotherdied I ran away from the body I could notbear to see itrdquo

Overwhelmed by what he saw at RanaPlaza Saha felt ldquothe need to process it insome wayrdquo He also wanted to honour thememory of those who had died particularly

as he realised how for the workers it wasan unequal world mdash in death as in life Ithurt to know that some tragedies despitetheir magnitude pass off as lesser tragediesbecause they happen in the lsquothird worldrsquo

Saha began working closely with lsquo24 Aprilrsquo a collective of artists and activistsinvolved in documenting the stories of these workers ldquoAlmost half as many haddied in the Rana Plaza collapse as those inthe World Trade Centre in New York in2001rdquo says Saha ldquoThe footprint of thebuilding was no larger than a bas-ketball court while the twintowers covered 16 acresrdquoThe ugly reality is thatthese factory workers pro- vided cheap labour for in-ternational brands such as Walmart Benetton Man-go and Primark

On one of his visits to thesite of the tragedy Sahastumbled upon the brokenhead of a mannequin It re-minded him of a skull he

had seen lying aroundmonths after the

collapse On another visit he found atorn umbrella the metal shining

through ldquoIt was like a humanskeletonrdquo he says ldquoI tried toimagine who the owner mighthave been The cloth looked newPerhaps the umbrella had beenbought only a few days beforethe collapserdquo

Much of what Saha collectedcontinues to occupy his house acollection that has won him

along with writer JasonMotlagh the Overseas

Press Club Madeline

Dane Ross Award forbest international re-

porting in the print medium showing aconcern for the human condition ldquoTheworld is imbalanced Human beings areimbalanced I do not have any middle-classguiltrdquo he says about his collection Butequally Saha is hesitant to accept any praise about his contribution to document-ing human rights abuse in BangladeshThat he feels belongs to the people ldquowhoreally care who fix problems not just talk about themrdquo

On view till April 23 atTarq art gallery Mumbai

Chintan Girish Modi lives in Mumbai

and writes on art gender films education peace and conflict

RECOLLECTIONS

Blood-stained clothes photographs torn umbrellas and bones Atish Saharsquos photographs capture thedetritus of April 24 2013 the day Rana Plaza in Dhaka collapsed and killed 1135 people

Remains of the day

CM

YKND-X


03NOIDADELHI03

Letrsquos begin with a quiz You just have to namethe film It features an attack by a grizzly bear The victim is a Caucasian man makinga living in an unforgiving inhospitable bit-terly-cold setting The protagonist based ona character who ate liver has a dead wife ason who is murdered mdash he swears revengeThe filmrsquos director made a big deal aboutpublicising how difficult the shoot wasldquoThere are no second takes for a director tocover himself withrdquo he said ldquoThere wasbarely enough lighthellip the crew had to set up(a shot) at three in the morningrdquo Then

therersquos an attack by Indians The film isheadlined by a big star known for his envi-ronmental activism a heartthrob whoplayed the lead in a film version of The Great Gatsby Yoursquove guessed the film of courseItrsquos Jeremiah Johnson the 1972 hit thatfeatured Robert Redford

Not many speak of Jeremiah Johnson to-day at least not as much as they do of theother big hits of 1972 like The Godfather orThe Poseidon Adventure or Deliverance The film wasnrsquot exactly at the top of my mind until I saw Alejandro Gonzaacutelez Intilde-aacuterritursquos The Revenant which is similar in all

the ways listed above But therersquos one cru-cial difference and thatrsquos the technology available at the time of the moviersquos makingTake that bear-attack scene which has now slipped into legend The way the enragedcreature lumbers towards the DiCapriocharacter pockets of flesh rippling beneathits fur the way it mauls him tossing himaround like a rag dollthe squelchy sound of its claws slashing into the flesh on his backyielding deep rivers of blood the dull shineof greyish claws as its foot rests on his facethe rasp of its breath the strings of saliva asit takes a break to sniff the air apparently wondering if this is enough proof of its supe-riority in these surroundings

Compare this with the wolf attack in Jere-miah Johnson Because they couldnrsquot obvi-ously set a pack of wolves on the leadingman and because the animatronics tech-nology that birthed such terrifying-lookingwolves in The Grey was still 40-plus yearsaway the film had to resort to quick cuts Wesee the blur of a wolfrsquos underside as it leapsacross the screen We see a wolf baring itsfangs We see a wolf pulling at a shoe (Ormaybe itrsquos a fur coat the quick cuts make ithard to tell) What we donrsquot see is man andwolf in the same frame at least in a way thatmakes us fear for his life Itrsquos like abstractart leaving us with the mere impression of awolf attack as opposed to the one in The

Revenant which we watch horrified asthough this man is really being ripped toshreds by this enormous bear

The point isnrsquot about which is the bettermovie (Irsquod pick the minimalist JeremiahJohnson any day over the overblown over-praised Revenant ) What Irsquom talking aboutis how a film like The Revenant ends upmaking a film like Jeremiah Johnson irrele- vant old-fashioned The older film may stillappeal to critics and cinephiles but to gen-eral audiences Jeremiah Johnson todaywill be a disappointment because its framesarenrsquot imbued with the you-are-there-nessof todayrsquos technology mdash just like the aston-ishingly life-like animation in the splendidnew Jungle Book movie is going to make it just a little more d ifficult to view the sim-pler cartoony frames in the 1967 classic a lotof us grew up with Again this isnrsquot aboutwhich is the better version Itrsquos about howin the earlier film the serpent Kaarsquos mes-meric abilities were depicted through ever-expanding circles in the eyes mdash it looked likesomething a child would draw mdash whereas inthe new film Kaarsquos orbs light up like cham-

bers of hypnotic secretsEven more amazing than the newness of

all this technology is how quickly it becomesold While I was entertained by this Jungle Book my jaw didnrsquot quite scrape the floorthe way it did when I met the shape-shiftingkilling machine from Terminator 2 Judg-ment Day or the mother spaceship at theend of Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy orthe fantastically-expressive ape in King Kong mdash all first-time-ever experiences forme And the reason The Jungle Book wasnrsquotthat kind of a blow-the-mind experiencewas that Life of Pi has already shown uswhat todayrsquos techno-magicians can whip outof a keyboard how bits and bytes can trans-form into teeth and whiskers and fur to theextent that if someone placed this tiger nextto the real one no one would be able to tellthe difference Life of Pi was released in2012 just a little over three years ago

Thatrsquos how ldquooldrdquo has come to be defined inHollywood

SCREENING ROOM

Baradwaj Rangan

Varghese K George

Chintan Girish Modi

Atish Saha (below) went to Rana Plaza for 16 days runningobsessively collecting objects that belonged to those who had died in the building collapsePHOTOS ATISH SAHA amp FERDOUS AHMAD

MIGHT OF METAL (Clockwise from top) Chola bronzes of Nandi Krishna Karikala Chola and Parvati PHOTOS WIKI COMMONS

Baradwaj Rangan is The Hindursquoscinema critic

Old is cold



lsquoMy god is a fai983156h in 983142lowrsquoMy god is a fai h in 983142lowrsquo

aran Mahajanrsquos sec-ond book The Associ-ation of Small Bombs is a sharp pacey novelwhich has the uncan-ny qualities of both prescience and retro-spection It is a study of grief of violence of

men from small towns moustaches and mothers It is also a study of a changing India Mahajan is a writer of many skills the most marvellous of which is his ability to describe a particular kind of interiorityldquoWhy do the poor refuse to give an accurate picture of their sufferingrdquo thinks one of the protagonists Vikas Khurana whose two sons die in a bomb blast in Delhi ldquoWhy

arenrsquot they frowning or at least moaning Vikas was almost upset at how much they were misrepresenting themselves Then he felt bad for wanting them to be wretched mdashwasnrsquot his job to humanise themrdquo In his writing Mahajan manages to do exactly this mdash humanise the circumstances around ter-ror terrorists and victims of terror

Excerpts from an interview

Circuitry is a trope in your novel mdash whether itrsquos inthe construction of bombs the ldquocircuitry of griefrdquothe way events echo other events Was the circuitryof your novel laid down in advance or did it revealitself in the writing of it

The plot developed organically I wantedthere to be a connection between the actorsin the novel mdash the terrorists and victims mdashand then suddenly in the writing I wouldsee it and race toward it Let me give you anexample I did not know that the Khuranaswould meet Malik in prison It wasnrsquot in therudimentary outline Irsquod made But the writ-ing funnelled me toward it and it becameinevitable My excitement at the discovery comes through in the prose

To write phrases like ldquohis nose was a beautifulchorus of poresrdquo or ldquomynahs with their minimalbeautyrdquo suggests someone who is interested in aparticular way of describing the world mdash not mock-ing but not elevating either What are you mosttuned to when you are in observational mode

Itrsquos interesting to go back and see thesepatterns because Irsquom not aware of them as Iwrite These phrases reflect my worldview Isuppose itrsquos one that is highly attuned toflaws and tragedy but also perceives theseflaws as somehow essential to understand-ing the world I see flaws as a kind of beauty

I was struck by the study of the small-town Indianmale in your book and your depictions of malefriendships in India could you say why you wereinterested in writing about these things

I travelled around small-town India a lotfor a job from 2010-2012 and I was im-pressed by the energy I encountered in theseplaces I met a number of young strivingenterprising people in cities like Aligarh and

Hubli But the mental landscape of thesetowns is out of sync with their realityMany of these towns are hellholes

I remember returning to Bangaloreafter a few months of travel and seeing itas a first-world city like New York or SanFrancisco This may be obvious to somepeople but I grew up in Delhi and I hadno experience of how someone from aTier 2 city may view a Tier 1 city Youreally do emigrate between worlds whenyou come from those towns Irsquove been animmigrant in the US Perhaps this makesit easier for me to enter the worldview of any immigrant of any outsider

As for male friendships the sexesremain highly divided Men tend to hangout in groups of men Movies presentthese groups as brutal or funny but therecan be a kind of tenderness in thesegroups too particularly when the men

donrsquot have fully developed friendshipswith women

When Vikas Khurana meets Deepa (his wife tobe) he sees her as ldquoa fragile biological creaturerdquoMansoor on the other hand is consumed by theidea that his mother ldquonoble creature with her darkthick skin and mauve lipsrdquo is going to die Deathand almost-death are everywhere in this bookHave you always been interested in mortality

This is a wonderful observation I havealways been interested in mortality Anearly awareness of death is what drew meto writing in the first place I felt life wasmeaningless and I thought foolishly per-haps that writing would be a way to giveit meaning or at least to connect all themeaningless things I was observing

For this book I was interested in how depression makes us attuned to mortalityI donrsquot think happy people think aboutdeath all the time Itrsquos a sign of un-

happiness And in both these instancesyou bring up wersquore talking about charac-ters who are deeply unhappy even whentheyrsquore recalling happy moments Every-thing in the past and future has beeninfected by death

Saul Bellow once said ldquoI donrsquot think that Irsquoverepresented any really good men no one isthoroughly admirable in any of my novelsrdquo Is thissomething you can identify with

Yes My worry with Mansoor was thathe was too good too nice too much of agood boy I like writing about people whomake terrible mistakes

Small bombs small cities small men smallburdens small thefts small bones mdash all thatpitched against the dust grandeur and corruptionof Delhi What is it about representing the smallthat interests you

I think our dreams are often out of stepwith the reality our means Therersquos asadness and comedy there This is whatdrew me to the work of RK Narayan andeven VS Naipaul They seem constantly aware of it Itrsquos an admittance of defeat onthe part of the writer as well a sort of humility A very different kind of writerwrites political novels about the peopletruly in power I think This kind of writermay be a politician at heart

The consideration of God mdash whether itrsquos theyoung politicised men who find Allah or Vikaswondering whether the State Bank of India couldbe God mdash is a significant part of the bookrsquostexture As a novelist who or what are yourgods

My god right now is a faith in flow Irsquomafraid this faith will be destroyed provenempty at some point But I have a faith inthe unconscious mind I trust the jumpbetween sentences and I trust readers willfollow them I suppose I have put faith inreaders as well

I also have a deep-seated belief whichis either Hindu or Rawlsian that I couldhave easily been born into a differentfamily or country or religion that my ldquoselfrdquo so to speak is an accident So I feeldriven to enter into the lives of peoplewho are suffering I feel a duty tounderstand them Itrsquos a stupid way to livebut I come from a guilt-based society andguilt remains a powerful engine

Karan Mahajanrsquos latest book which has set off a small explosion of praise will be released inIndia next month ldquoI see flaws as beautyrdquo he says in this interview

IN CONVERSATION

IMMIGRANT BETWEEN WORLDS Karan Mahajan

CM

YKND-X


04NOIDADELHI04

literaryreview

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i b l i o p h i l e

thefineprintIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Actor andauthor LenaDunham has teamed

up with Penguin RandomHouse in the US tolauncha new ldquovoice-drivenrdquopublishingimprint called Lenny Thenew imprint is a spin-off from Dunham andJenni Konnerrsquoswebsite of the same namethatcovers ldquofeminism style healthpolitics friendship and everything elserdquoand will launch in 2017

Former drug smuggler-turned-

author Howard Marks passed awayat the age of 70 Marksknown as Mr Nice hadbeen diagnosed withinoperable bowelcancer Marks wrote hisautobiography Mr Nice after serving a sentencefor cannabis trafficking inone of Americarsquos toughest

federal prisons Terre Haute in Indiana

Among the writers lined up to speak at

this yearrsquosHay Festival are

Simon Schama Germaine Greer SalmanRushdie and Caitlin Moran The festivalwill be held from May 26 to June 5Shakespeare will be a key focus at thisyearrsquos festival

Author and biographer

AdrianGreenwood waskilled in an attack in hishome in OxfordGreenwoodrsquos Victoriarsquos Scottish Lion The Life of Colin Campbell Lord Clyde was publishedlast July

Tishani Doshi

If the phone is ubiquitous in India today it islargely due to the amazing journey of oneman mdash Satyanarayan (abbreviated to lsquoSamrsquoby an HR clerk who couldnrsquot get her tonguearound the name) Pitroda (a Gujarati com-munity of metal-workers who traditionally used pitr or brass) the son of an unschooledlabourer Pitrodarsquos drive and vision not only earned him a 100 patents and millions of dollars in America but the role of a changeagent and path-breaker in his home country

Pitroda believes his destiny was shaped by his parentsrsquo decision to send him away atthe age of eight from their meagre home in

Orissa to a school in Gujarat The Gandhian values instilled there followed by a Barodacollege which honed his interest in physicsand revealed his entrepreneurial instinctsprovided the platform for a masterrsquos degreein electrical engineering from Illinois In-stitute of Technology and entry into the fieldof telecommunications

ldquoMost of my personal workrdquo Pitroda saysldquois about disruptive innovationsrdquo Engagingwith digital switching technologies thatwould change communications systemsacross the world he went on to patent anelectronic diary that he claims was the firstelectronic handheld device and a mobilewallet that pioneered mobile payment sys-

temsIn his 70s now he says ldquoI still keep in-

venting filing more patents and seekingnew opportunities to design products andchange the worldrdquo

Working in America gave Pitroda domainexpertise management skills and unbound-ed confidence in his capacity to get thingsdone Having been the chief executive offi-cer of an influential firm and earned his firstmillion well before the age of 40 he wasready to take up bigger challenges to make adifference in the country of his birth The

possibility arose when he witnessed theplight of telephone services in India

With an arrogance born partly out of igno-rance he saw himself as the one to fix itldquoConnecting Indiardquo becamehis big dream Realising polit-ical will was crucial he sparedno efforts in bringing onboard those he considered im-portant to his plans They in-cluded Rajiv Gandhi who hecame to regard as his ldquomostimportant friendrdquo Shuttlingtirelessly between Chicagoand Delhi for three years Pi-troda networked to set up theCentre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) in 1984Thus began the transforma-tion of Indiarsquos telecommuni-cations system

Pitrodarsquos narration of how he wheedled the political es-tablishment and negotiatedthe bureaucratic labyrinthwon over sceptics and over-

came resistance to his interlop-er status altered mindsets and

built a young team to implement his visionis enthralling C-DOT set about developing acompletely indigenous sophisticated tele-phone technology coordinating productionand managing installation of a network of rural telephone exchanges (RAX) all in a36-month time-frame lsquoA RAX a dayrsquo wastheir slogan The result more than two mil-lion yellow public phones across the country connecting India like never before flaggingoff the telecom revolution

In the light of the success in utilising tech-nology to effect deep-seated change withPrime Minister Rajiv Gandhirsquos encourage-ment Pitroda turned his attention to other

developmental issuesleading to establishmentof National Technology Missions in areas of con-cern such as drinking wa-ter literacy andimmunisation Pitrodahimself accepted the po-sition of adviser to theprime minister withministerial rank

This reviewer remem-bers the frisson that hismission-mode approachcreated in governmentcircles and the infectiousenthusiasm that Pitrodaconveyed during interac-tions But the dream un-ravelled followingGandhirsquos defeat at thepolls in 1989 the recrim-

inations arising from theBofors arms purchase mdash

about which Gandhi is reported to have con-fided plaintively ldquoSam I have not taken apenny and neither has my familyrdquo mdash thenew governmentrsquos accusations of misappro-priation against Pitroda himself a massiveheart attack he suffered and a multiple by-pass surgery and the last straw the assassi-nation of his friend Pitroda found himself not just broken but broke having taken nosalary for over 10 years his financial re-sources were exhausted

Returning to America not only did Pitro-darsquos indomitable energy soon refurbish hispersonal finances but the restoration of Congress rule saw him back in India as headof a newly-formed National KnowledgeCommission and later as adviser to thePrime Minister on his pet subject of in-novation This book is about a self-mademan who let nothing come in the way of hisgoals who claimed that work was his spiritu-ality and who more than anything elsewished to see India transformed into a mod-ern nation Pitroda comes across as remark-ably free of prejudice and ideologicalbaggage with inclusiveness at the core of hisbelief system and a deep empathy for thedisadvantaged

Presented in straight-talking prose with atouch of wry humour peppered with movingpersonal anecdotes Pitrodarsquos autobiogra-phy will inspire many

Disappointingly the later chapters abouthis second stint in government deteriorateinto a turgid compendium of his official ac-tivities But that does not detract from the value of this book which will be a beacon for

todayrsquos youthGovindan Nair is a retired civil servant

NON-FICTION

The telecom man

Sam Pitrodarsquos autobiography traces the countryrsquos telecom revolution with a touch of wry humour

Govindan Nair

lsquoI felt life was

meaningless and

I thought foolishly

perhaps that

writing would be

a way to give

it meaningrsquo

Dreaming Big My Journey to

Connect India Sam Pitroda PenguinBooks India Rs 699



Unravelling 983156he heartnr lling he heart

n the cover of A Name for Every Leaf is anSH Raza paintingone with that now-leg-endary bindu encir-cled by concentriclayers of greys It isreally the best way tointroduce the book

just the right door to lead to the pages with-in the words on them spanning decades of poet Ashok Vajpeyirsquos work

This new collection is perhaps the mostthorough introduction to Vajpeyirsquos workand to those already familiar with it a mostdelicious slice of its vast expanse Translatedfrom the Hindi by Rahul Soni the volumecontains selected poems penned from 1959to 2015 with almost every mood every styleevery idea that Vajpeyi worked with repre-

sented in some fashion So much of poetry depends on its structure its choice of lan-guage and words and their sequence andrhythm

And so while reading poetry in trans-lation it is always interesting to see theessence of the original make its way to thenew version in a new language To a very great extent Sonirsquos translation succeeds indoing this and with each poem Vajpeyirsquosown voice finds room these new lines in

English echoing their meaning in HindiThe poems are grouped in six parts with a

seventh section containing extracts from es-says by Vajpeyi interviews with him and anafterword by Ranjit Hoskote The sectionsare neither in chronological order nor rigid-ly labelled and so the act seems more of arough categorisation that groups togetherpoems of similar styles themes and moodFor example Part IV contains poems thatmake lsquoa place for loversquo There is a beautifulabandon in the way Vajpeyi writes these mdashsometimes he colours them with metaphors( Flower that grows between two handshellip a sky that exists between two bodies ) and atother times they are placed within the con-fines of a very real everyday world ( The city is still a possibility I realised when I touched Svetarsquos friendly hands on a busy road )

In the preface to the collec-tion Arundhathi Subramaniamwrites about looking for theldquoheart centre of a bookrdquo andmentions coming across thesetwo lines As long as you still have words you canrsquot reachBrahmarsquos forest This too we learned through words

Much of Vajpeyirsquos work con-tains musings on the nature andpower of language itself Thebook opens with a single poemseparate from the other sec-tions and titled lsquoThe BeginningrsquoIt speaks of the word emerginglike a worm from dry leaves andbeginning to create

There are numerous other preoccupa-tions contained within Vajpeyirsquos poems mdashsome appearing and disappearing in a few lines others returning for more and more Amongst the latter is the need and role andperhaps the inevitable presence of poetry itself A 2003 poem titled lsquoLamentrsquo expandson this in one way when Vajpeyi writes I lament only in poetry because there is no space left for regrets or dreams In the samepoem he shows us a world with borders andgeographical differences and cultures bleed-ing into each other existing together in joy-ous peace He laments not living in a worldlike this but creates the idea of it in his poem( where merchants in the bazaar would sell embroidery from Baghdad to soldiers from

America ) Vajpeyirsquos explo-ration of poetryrsquos roleemerges at other points in

the collection Subrama-niam wonders if this ldquono-tion of confluencerdquo thishope for a coexistence of the past and present globaland local East and West isthe ldquoheart centrerdquo of Vaj-peyirsquos work

Whether you discoverthis centre this bindu thatlies at the core of his work or not Vajpeyirsquos poems area pleasure to read The

scope of his referencesand his knowledge is im-mense The book devotesan entire section to poemswritten in praise of people

mdash artists painters musicians poets mdash who Vajpeyi admires He doesnrsquot critiquedoesnrsquot weave in definitions and debatesInstead his words seem to explore the magicof these masters putting in beautifully-evo-

cative words the very emotions their artevoke In lsquoRazarsquos Timersquo penned for the pain-ter on the occasion of his 80th birthday Vajpeyi writes Did colours ever know that prayers lived in them Did geometry ever feel that it possessed the structure of prayer

Vajpeyirsquos work is simple accessible andimmense in its scope A single reading only opens one door to it and even then thesepoems stay with you for longer than youthought they would so that if you returnedto them yoursquod find that they had changed alittle The verses Vajpeyi writes seem to car-ry meanings that emerge slowly in layersnot unlike the ones that surround Razarsquosbindu their deceptive simplicity hiding awealth of ideas within

lsquoDid colours ever know that prayers lived in themrsquo asks Vajpeyi in an ode to the painterRaza whose work illustrates the cover of a new collection of the poetrsquos works

POETRY

CM

YKND-X


05NOIDADELHI05

literaryreview

b

o o k s amp b

e y o n d

Founts of Knowledge - BookHistory in IndiaEd Abhijit Gupta ampSwapanChakravorty OrientBlackSwanRs 750

HedonPriyankaMookerjeePenguinRs 299

The Last Queenof KashmirRakesh KaulHarperCollins

Rs 399

ReverenceResistance andPolitics of Seeingthe IndianNational FlagSadan JhaCambridgeUniversity Press

The Oxford IndiaAnthology of

Telugu DalitWriting Ed KPurushotham GitaRamaswamy ampGogu ShyamalaOxford UniversityPressRs 995

A New StatisticalDomain in India -An Enquiry intoVillage PanchayatDatabases Jun-ichiOkabe amp AparajitaBakshi TulikaBooks Rs 850

In the pursuit of sharply-defined goals wecan at times forget that the journey itself holds riches that by far outweigh the goalsLifersquos journeys hold all kinds of signs andmessages that reveal new destinations thatare far more intimately connected with theself than with preset goals

My Search for Ramanujan is the story of one such journey

The first author of the book mathemat-ician Ken Ono is a professor at Emory Uni- versity Born to Sachiko and Takashi Onowho was himself a leading mathematician

Onorsquos future in mathematics appeared setHowever (and thatrsquos what this book isabout) his life was far from being smooth ordictated by logic Ono had to undertake hisown version of a herorsquos journey before com-ing in contact with a mathematics he couldcall his own before in fact being able toembrace with love his ldquotiger parentsrdquo

Ono was even as a child groomed to be-come a first-class mathemat-ician and the demands playedhavoc with his self-esteemBeing a prodigiously talentedteenager did not help either Violin lessons and mathemat-ics were the two activities hewas encouraged to focus upon And focus he did at great ex-

pense to his self-worth andmotivation As it happenedwhen the pressure rose to anintolerable degree he decidedto quit music lessons andschool

The day he decided to quitand break the news to his fa-ther a letter arrived from Ja-naki Ammal widow of renowned mathematician Sri-nivasa Ramanujan In the letter Janakithanked Onorsquos father for making a contribu-tion towards building a small statue of Ramanujan

Ono harboured no real hope of his fatherpermitting him to leave school Strangelyperhaps triggered by Janakirsquos letter his fa-ther mdash with his thoughts now dwelling onhow Ramanujanrsquos life was tragically cutshort by neglect malnutrition and tuber-culosis mdash half-heartedly accepted Onorsquos ideaof taking a break and going bike tour

Ono undertook his journey around theworld where he ultimately found mentorsmathematics and freedom from the voices

of disapproval he had internalised His jour-ney took him full circle and he finally re-

turned home to make peace with hisparents Despite being brought up to deny anything irrational he even went on a lsquopil-grimagersquo to Kumbakonam Ramanujanrsquosbirthplace where more signs and treasuresawaited him

The journey is at one level literally thatas Ono moved from place to place instituteto institute learning teaching failing reco- vering and most importantly discoveringthe mathematics of Ramanujan

There are many other threads to Onorsquoscomplex story mdash an Asian-American teenag-er growing up at the interface of incompat-ible cultures and breaking free an arc of recovery of an individual suffering from low self-esteem and lack of motivation a youngbright mathematician moving from bookishknowledge to an appreciation of what isdivine about math

The long sections devoted to describinghis life story apart Ramanujan makes hispresence felt in other ways too

Beckoning from his world of numbersRamanujan slowly reveals the secrets of hismathematics to Ono Subtly the reader isdrawn to understand the difference be-tween problem-solving and theory-buildingin mathematics and how Ramanujan fits

into neither category but is ananticipator of mathematics

In his short lifetime and brief stint at Trinity College Rama-nujan spewed out ideas and the-orems on number theory at afurious rate Ramanujan was asupernova among mathemati-cians throwing out multiple

ideas which no one recognisedthen and few do now

Guided by this presence andnurtured by mathematicianssuch as Basil Gordon and PaulSally to whom this book is dedi-cated Ono chooses to work onthe underlying theories in theapparently disconnected state-ments made by Ramanujan andnot just work on his ideas Ra-

manujan used to jot down his ideas method-ically in notebooks in green ink One of these called the lsquolost notebookrsquo was discov-ered in the Trinity College library by mathe-matician George Andrews in 1976 and laterpublished as a book Ono made a discovery about elliptic curves recently that wasprompted by Ramanujanrsquos comments in hisnotebooks

Ono and his co-author Amir D Aczel havewoven real-life incidents into a story that isengaging while prodding the reader to ex-plore the world The book will make a greatturning point not only for young and aspir-ing mathematicians but also for others who

have a voice in their heads telling them they are on the wrong road

NON-FICTION

Rediscovering Ramanujan Mathematician Ken Ono on how a chance letter from Ramanujanrsquos wife changed the way helooked not only at the world of numbers but at life itself

My Search for RamanujanHow I Learned to Count KenOno amp Amir D Aczel Springer

Swati Daftuar

A Name for Every Leaf SelectedPoems 1959- 2015 Ashok Vajpeyitrs Rahul Soni HarperPerennial Rs450

Many of the poems

contain musings on

the nature and

power of

language itself

Shubashree Desikan

Repeat lsquoSain Sainrsquo even if the parentsforbid Start a romance make the loverhomebound Heer was in love since infancyDesperately she turned in her cradle no respite for amoment Like a butcher with his slaughter knifethe agony of separation rips into the veinsThe troubles of a hundred years goneonce Ranjha glances her wayhellipmdash Shah Hussein (1538-99 as translated

by Nadeem Alam) A deeply romantic poetic mysticism

flourished 500 years ago in Punjab It was aform of rebellious literature breaking away from hidebound rituals takingfreely from Hindu and Islamictraditions and based entirely within the metaphor of love Allthe yearning and pain of aphysical relationship wastransported to a spiritualsphere and Sufi saints sang thelanguage of the Bhakti tradi-tion as they longed for unionwith their lsquobelovedrsquo whom they worshipped

None of these faqir-compos-ers cared about themselves ortheir reputations they wereimmersed in devotion They could dance plead debasethemselves only to get aglimpse of their ldquomurshadrdquowho could take a physical formor remain on an ethereal plane The trans-lated lines (above) from Shah Husseinrsquos ka-fis are an example of deeply felt passion and

how closely it connected to the folk narra-tives in this case Heer Ranjha

Shah Hussein widely revered as a Sufi pir is a particularly interesting character be-cause he revelled in his ignominy callinghimself fakir nimana or the lowly fakir Themore he fell in everyonersquos estimation thefreer he became to express his love Thus hewould meander around the streets of La-hore with a carafe of wine and become in-famous for his love of a good looking Hinduboy called Madho Lal He even changed hisname to Madho Lal Hussein and the two lieburied side by side at his shrine at Bhag-banopura Lahore

In this little treasure house of a book aresome known and unknown kafis translatedwith great sensitivity by the award winningPakistani poet Naveed Alam But within itlies the importance and relevance of makingthese works accessible to a wider audience

Of course I did miss the earthy flavour of

some of my favourite verses in Punjabi

which are a challenge to translate such asGhoom charakhra saiyan daTeri katan wali jeevey naliyan vatan vali jeevey Budha huya Shahe Hussaindandey jheeran paiyyanuth savere dhoondan lagonsaanjh diyan jo gayainThis has been translated by Alam asGo round and round O HandloomMay she live the one who spins youMay she live the one who spools youShah Hussain you dotard gaps widen between your teeth riseand search for them in the morningthe ones who left in the twilight However as Alam points out many of the

original verses by Hussainmight have themselves beenchanged by singers over theyears As I tried to match histranslations to the poems thatI am familiar with I becameunsure whether the words Iknew were actually the lsquoorigi-nalrsquo or had the verses alsochanged somewhat (as they must have) while being trans-lated Added to this is my problem of mishearing wordswhile they are sung

So my request to the pub-lishers would be to pleasebring out another version of this very important book butwith the Punjabi verses pub-lished in the roman script for

easy identification Or better still if thebook is accompanied by an audio recordingof the verses because much of the languageused by Shah Hussein is fast fading away

That little quibble aside the book alsoreveals to us yet again how much this poet-ry has survived just through oral traditiondefying religious codification This was de-spite the fact as the translator points outthat it was studiously ignored by the ama-nuenses of that time who preferred it bemarginalised Apparently the only excep-tion who noted the presence of this Sufisaint was Dara Shikoh who sought out thesemystics

Fortunately the popularity of the versesand their very human and plaintive refrainhas survived the wrath of emperors mul-lahs pundits and puritans through the cen-turies It is now seamlessly absorbed inpopular culture and memory

Indeed Bulle Shah Aamir Khusro ShahHussein are now much more likely to beheard in Bollywood films than in Sufishrines And that is why it is imperative thatwe try to preserve some of the original po-ems (wherever they survive) in the trans-lated form as well

Kishwar Desai is an author former TV Media professional and the Chair and

Trustee of The Arts and CulturalHeritage Trust undertaking the

Partition Museum Project

POETRY

Rebellious loveShah Hussein widely revered as a Sufi pir is a

particularly interesting character because herevelled in his ignominy

The objective of the book is to study village pan-chayat level databases and their potential use inlocal level administration planning and policy imple-mentation The authors study the overall status of local-level data of two village panchayats

This anthology showcases the works of nearly 80Telugu Dalit writers and public intellectuals Itpresents Dalit perspectives on caste oppressiontheir stinging critique of Hinduism and the Left andtheir angst against a social order that relegatedthem to a life of abject poverty

The book seeks to understand the politics that makethe tricolour flag possibly the most revered amongsymbols icons and markers associated with nationand nationalism in 20th century India The studyreveals specificities of visual experience in theSouth Asian milieu

A historical saga of treachery betrayal and thequest for land and religious supremacy in Kashmirin 1430 AD The Last Queen of Kashmir is the storyof the beautiful Kota and how she is unknowinglyswept into the intrigues of the court of Kashmir

The third in a series titled Book History in India

this volume carries the second instalment of the-four-part study of censorship of print during the RajThis collection will be an invaluable resource forbook historians and literary scholars

The book occupies a shadowy space between YAand adult dealing with a range of issues like leavinghome existential angst rootlessness and loveSteeped in youth pop culture and a healthy dose of

decadence Hedon moves between high-societyIndia and the American heartland

Kishwar Desai

Verses of a Lowly FakirMadho Lal Hussein trs NavedAlam Penguin Rs 399



Get pampered at sea p mper t se


06NOIDADELHI06

Across

1 Hissing bird turned and left insect (8)

5 Gathers energy to return prize (6)

9 Mercy one ordered in ritual (8)

10 Hollow case prosecutorrsquos last (6)

12 Fix article breaking nothing (4)

13 Cry dim hope renewed for syringe (10)16 Time poorly occupied by game second in

town (95)

17 Conservative hurt by insulting campaign to

win support (59)

19 Golfer modified range retaining good

standard (46)

20 Singer back in Scotland (4)

22 Close attention applied to book set in

New York (6)

24 Money from gambling factions divided

by pub (8)

25 Changing treaty talk incessantly (6)

26 Appeal to share (8)Down

1 Instant alternative (6)

2 Exclude piece on universal merit in sedative (11)

3 Caustic substance in tree (4)

4 Novelist showing dynamic front unusually (57)

6 Were tests designed to keep one familiar with

urban life (10)

7 Put away in the attic (3)

8 Damage airman starts to appraise slowly

rattling instruments (7)

11 Prisoner in rage got out of order

in assembly (12)

14 Hate man with brutality dispatching one (11)

15 Appalling prohibition Irsquom lifting filling

a trunk (10)17 Firm information about year in power (7)

18 Staff brought up and established in county (6)

21 Formerly working with church (4)

23 Routine agreement no pressure (3)

The Sunday Crossword

LAST WEEKS SOLUTION

copy Guardian News and Media Ltd 2016

Sample this cocktail fresh jamuns muddledand shaken with ice and gin lime juice andsugar syrup served in a Martini glass with mdash if

you like it mdash a half rim of chilli powder and youhave the Jamuntini Or how about a paan mar-tini with some betel leaf and a hint of rosewater

A great cocktail is all about a unique com bi-nation of flavours Bartenders in India havelong been handicapped by the unavailability of a range of spirits liqueurs and bitters whichtheir counterparts in New York or London take

very much for granted This has perhaps forcedus to look deeper in our own kitchens for thatunique spice herb or fruit that will make thecustomer go aaah

Yangdup Lama ace bartender and partner atCocktails and Dreams Speakeasy in Gurgaonhas begun work on a range of cocktails that usesingle estate teas from Darjeeling I can hearthe excitement in his voice as he talks abouthow the muscatel flavour of select teas fromMargaret Hopersquos tea estate would work in acocktail

Further afield in Manhattan Hemant Path-ak bar manager at Junoon (helmed by award-

winning Michelin-starred chef Vikas Khanna)has a whole masala library to play with and hesays their mixology programme is all about teaand spices Best of all he says guests love thecocktails because of their unique flavours andthe way they complement the food at JunoonThe use of Indian spices and herbs is notunique to Indian restaurants

According to Pathak Mace an award-win-ning cocktail bar in New York has a cocktailmenu where each drink is named after a differ-ent spice or ingredient from around the world

And India is well represented in cocktails suchas lsquoSaffronrsquo lsquoNutmegrsquo and lsquoCloversquo

The use of Indian ingredients in cocktails isnot necessarily a new phenomenon Back in2006 Dimi Lezinska who was then the brandambassador of Grey Goose came up with theGrey Goose Chai Tea Martini which uses hishomemade chai tea syrup to good effect in thissensational cocktail

However as the cocktail culture has flour-

ished overseas in the past 10 years so has itslowly begun coming of age in India leading to

an exploration and discovery of Indian ingre-

dients It could be a drink as simple as a Jamun-tini When I serve it at parties at my house Ispend the whole evening muddling jamuns

And itrsquos not just ingredients bars in India arealso innovating when it comes to service NorthIndians will be familiar with lsquobanta sodarsquo acarbonated lime beverage served in a uniquely shaped bottle with a marble acting as stopperwhich you need to pop to drink (South Indiansknow it as the lsquogoli sodarsquo) Riyaz Amlanirsquos enor-mously popular Hauz Khas Social in New Delhihas sourced a machine that enables them tobottle and sell their own range of lsquoBantarsquo cock-tails Again a unique Indian take on the lsquobot-tledrsquo cocktails trend in the West

And then therersquos the bar du jour Ek Barrestaurateur AD Singhrsquos spanking new con-cept place in Delhi Nitin Tiwari has put togeth-er its bar menu and says that althoughbartenders and bars have been working withIndian ingredients for a while now what haschanged is the approach to their usage

Cocktails like paan martini and imli Caipi-roska are now passeacute both examples of drinks inwhich a strong Indian flavour dominates AsTiwari says the audience for such drinks is

limited as not everyone might like the dom-inant ingredient As bartending in India has

evolved bartenders and consultants like Tiwari

have realised the importance of balancing flavours So a modern-day paan martini is notmade with the complete paan but with betelleaf and a hint of rose water so that the paan flavour is represented but not dominant

The other factor that has influenced changesin the bar scene is the emergence of chefs likeSujan Sarkar (Ek Bar) and Manu Chandra(Toast amp Tonic Bengaluru) who seek out new Indian ingredients and flavour combinationsTiwari says he was inspired by Sarkarrsquos use of mango and ginger in a dish to give a twist toPenicillin a classic whisky cocktail resulting ina cocktail called Queen Victoria one of themore popular drinks on Ek Barrsquos menu

Until now Indiarsquos significant gifts to theworld of spirits and cocktails have includedPunch a drink very much in vogue in leadingcocktail bars and Tonic water which came intobeing during the British Raj to serve as a way tohave your quinine and drink it too

As mixologists in India and overseas searchfor the new lsquonewrsquo thing itrsquos clear that our nextbig contribution is going to be the masala drink

Vikram Achanta is co-founder and CEO of

tulleehocom and Tulleeho an alcohol consulting firm

MIXOLOGY

The masala martini has arrived

Indian bartenders are experimenting with desi flavours and howhellip

A cocktail menu says it all

t

h e

g o o d l i f e

hen the journey be-comes the destina-tionrsquo is a maxim thatperfectly sums up thecruise ship experi-ence Journeying toexotic lands on gar-gantuan lsquofloating ci-tiesrsquo and stopping

almost every day at a fascinating new port of call makes cruising seem like the perfect way todo the world mdash minus the jet lag Now how about revving it all up a few degrees Simply replace the ubiquitous and dare we say pedes-trian cruise ship with smaller bespoke luxury

vessels fromso me of the worldrsquos top hospitality names and you get vessels that are as exclusiveas they are decadent

Amandira Amanwana Resort

Moyo Island IndonesiaThis onersquos for those who regard the word

lsquoluxuryrsquo as much more than the mere sum of itsalphabet parts and for whom thelsquogood lifersquo issimply well a way of life If the glampingtented camp-resort feel of Amanwana on In-donesiarsquos Moyo Island doesnrsquot add up to muchthen how about combining a weekend stay atthis tropical haven with a five-night journey aboard Amanwanarsquos very own floating exten-

sion mdash Amandira This 170-foot double-mast-ed five-cabin sailboat mdash called a pinisi in thelocal language mdash cuts an impressive figure as itcruises through the archipelago depositingguests at the famed Lesser Sunda Islands for aglimpse of its famous residents the Komododragons With an on-board crew of 14 includ-ing a private chef and diving instructor thishand-crafted vessel by the Konjo tribe is fittedwith all the creature comforts and diving gad-gets and gizmos

Cost Starts from $42850 for two all-inclusive for a seven-night stay (two nights at Aman- wana and five nights on-board the Amandira)

The Strand Cruise The StrandYangon Myanmar

A perfect reflection of the unbridled charmand hospitality that one has over the yearscome to expect of The Strand mdash itself a 114-year-old icon of Myanmar mdash The StrandCruise the hotelrsquos latest trump card turns it allup a few notches higher Promising lsquoa mystical

journey in Myanm arrsquo this 27-cabin riverboatlanguidly cruises along the placid waters of the

Ayeyarwady River offering a range of itiner-aries with the three-nights lsquoBagan to Manda-layrsquo option being the most sought after

With all mo d cons in place including a spaluxurious en suite cabins and an on-boardsommelier getting pampered silly should beyour only concern as you t ake in the serenity of Myanmar passing you by

For the gourmets The Strand Cruise offersup a plethora of dining options that range fromsampling local delicacies like the sublime tea-leaf salad to more informal BBQ nights orga-

nised on the upper deck For sundownersSparkies Bar is the place to nurse the classiclsquoStrand Sourrsquo cocktail rumoured to be GeorgeOrwellrsquos favourite tipple during his stay at TheStrand

Cost Starts from $2592 per person all-inclusive for a three-night cruise

The Oberoi MV Vrinda The Oberoi GroupKerala

While Keralarsquos much-celebrated epithetas lsquogodrsquos own countryrsquo might seem a bitoverused the luxury-seeking travellerwould beg to differ And amply reinforcingthis truism is The Oberoi MV Vrinda thatserves as a vehicle that not just transportsguests down the southern Indian statersquosmeandering coconut tree-lined backwa-ters but provides them with a completeimmersive (pardon the pun) lsquoKeralarsquo expe-rience While it may be relatively small insize when pitted against the other vesselson this list the Vrinda has eight deluxecabins each revelling in their king-sizebeds and polished teak flooring among ahost of other luxury features

Offering guests a choice of either two orthree nights of cruising down the vibrantwaterways of Alleppey or a ride along Lake Vembanad the Vrinda offers guests theoption of daily check-ins A complimen-tary 24-hour butler service on-board Mo-hiniyattam and Kathakali performancesand local delicacies like meen pollichathuand appams with stew add those extraspecial touches to The Oberoirsquos legendary brand of luxury and pampering

Cost Starts from Rs 110000 per cabinall-inclusive for a two-night cruise

Four Seasons Explorer Four SeasonsMaldives

Perfect for worshippers of sun sand andsurf Four Seasons Explorer glides overthe transparent cerulean waters of theMaldives as it sails from Kuda Huraa toLandaa Giraavaru via Maleacute and Baa Atollson its most popular itinerary that is thethree-night Northward Cruise With amaximum of 22 guests on board at any given point your experience on the Ex-plorer is guaranteed to be an exclusive andpersonalised one Why you can even char-ter the entire vessel replete with your very own customised itinerary and finedining options

The 39-meter-long three-deck catama-ran has 11 spacious fully kitted-out cabinsand comes with its own on-board chef spatherapist and marine biologist who makessure that the three daily dives that are apart of the package are the perfect in-troduction to the wondrous marine lifedown below And for those hard-to-reachdiving and fishing spots the Explorerrsquos very own dhoni (a local Maldivian fishingboat) steps in for an authentic Maldivianexperience Dining options on the Explor-er range from beach Robinson Crusoe-esque BBQs featuring Maldivian classicslike maashuni (fish cooked with coconut)and roshi to dining with the captain Ayeaye

Cost Starts from $2250 per person all-

inclusive for a three-night cruise

The Oberoi Zahra The Oberoi GroupEgypt

Picture this Yoursquore cruising down theNile in Egypt aboard a plush vessel withthe wind in your hair Historical and ar-chaeological wonders like the Temple of Edfu and the Valley of the Kings slowly drift past while you sip that nth cup of sweet mint shai (tea) Itrsquos fantasies likethese that are an everyday reality aboardThe Oberoi Zahra from the grouprsquos new-est jewel on the Nile Along with its sisterThe Oberoi Philae it rules the waters The27-cabin cruiser offers everything from apillow menu to a spa where post-excur-sion comfort can be sought Speaking of which the five-night cruise snakes its way down one of the worldrsquos most enigmaticrivers stopping to pay obeisance at exotic-sounding ports such as Aswan Edfu Ko-mo Ombo and Luxor where experiencedguides await to show you around ancientEgyptrsquos marvels Once back on board theZahra expect to be pampered by the on-board team of chefs who whip up disheslike a roasted spice-rubbed Nile perch andsaffron pilaf as you sit back and savour thesweet wispy smoke of an apple sheesha

Cost Starts from euro870 per double occu- pancy cabin all-inclusive per night for a minimum of five nights

Raul Dias is a Mumbai-based food and travel writer who is an ardent devotee of

the peripatetic way of life

On board bespoke cruise vessels that offer everything from private diving instructor to customised itinerary

DECKED UP

Raul Dias

Vikram Achanta

The Strand Cruise on the placid waters of the Ayeyarwady River Myanmar PHOTO COURTESY THE STRAND

The clues for last weekrsquos puzzle which wereinadvertently missed can be found online



Inheriting the seaChimbairsquos tenuous survival is probably characteristic of most fishing villages along the coastline of Mumbai as they shakily fight the onslaught of dwindling fish and proliferating concrete

Chimbai village is what historic Bombay might have looked like a chain of smallfishing villages facing the sea packed tightwith small homes occupied by familieswho have shared the joys and trials of lifewith each other from a time beyondmemory Amidst the houses are small

shrines and grottoes with images of Mary or Jesus although this cosmopolitan village is not defined by religion but by fishChristian Kolis and their Hindu neighboursboth share the common inheritance of thesea

But this village now has an urgent

tenuousness to it menaced daily by collapsing fish stocks and the irresistiblemarch of predatory property developers As the children seek employmentelsewhere the fishing boats are now strangely melancholic grounded holedand overflowing with garbage The tiny houses are still kept scrupulously cleanriotous with colour and filled withhouseplants This is how the Kolis fightthe ugliness of Mumbairsquos vast plastictides that threaten to drown their villages This place seems like theantithesis of the city suffused with asense of collaboration where religiousidentity is subsumed in the shared spiritof the sea and where the slow pace of the tides permits a connectedness andhospitality that the burning lights of Mumbai often forbid

mdash Abhimanyu Arni

Feminism over chaiWhen Sadia Khatri Instagrammed a picture of herself and her friends at adhaba she had no idea girlsatdhabas would become a thing in Pakistan

A Tumblr blog from Pakistan has been making waves and trending on social media around the world The blog lsquoGirls at Dhabasrsquo features

photos of women hanging out at dhabasdrinking chai eating reading and just being as an act of liberation It all began when Ka- rachi-based Sadia Khatri posted on Instagram

a photograph of her hanging out with some friends at a dhaba drinking chai with the hashtag girlsatdhabas It was soon trendingSome suggested that Khatri turn it into a series A Tumblr account was started and soonwomen from all over Pakistan began sending

photographs of themselves in tea shops and other public places engaged in activities traditionally considered lsquomalersquo like riding mo- torcycles cycling playing cricket or driving rickshaws The idea was for women to reap-

pear on streets In an interview Khatri speaks about mobility unlearning gender identitiesand drawing inspiration from feminists in In- dia Excerpts

What is the idea behind selfies at dhabas In addition to being a public space dhabas

represent a break of sorts from the daily grindwithout having to necessarily buy the experi-ence It is like people sitting at streetsidecoffee shops or in other public spaces simply to hang out mdash have a cup of coffee or chat

Taking a selfie or photograph is importanttoo because it implies ownership of the space Women are frequently told to stay out of orremain invisible in public spaces Putting allthose prescriptions aside to take your ownphoto in a space you are traditionally notsupposed to be in mdash there is a moment of reclamation there

lsquoGirls at Dhabasrsquo wasnrsquot necessarily a pre-conceived idea Our growth has been very or-ganic The hashtag found resonance after westarted documenting photos at dhabas Thehashtag has now come to symbolise a lot morein terms of the conversation around reimagin-ing public space for women in Pakistan

We are around 10 girls across Karachi La-hore and Islamabad who manage the pageplan events in our city and co-ordinate withdifferent groups to raise some noise aboutwomenrsquos participation in public space

We come from varying socio-economicbackgrounds and work across fields Some of us are working full-time some are in under-

grad or grad school one is a journalist anoth-er a filmmaker teacher graphic designer and

CM

YKND-X


02NOIDADELHI02

traordinarily rich visual landscape of poli-tics when MG Ramachandran (MGR) andKarunanidhi were at the peak of their rival-ry Pictures taken by artist Dashrath Pateland photographer-journalist SadanandMenon of campaign graffiti of the periodshow a series of wickedly funny and sharply satirical cartoons The humour was raw andearthy and the canvas was the cityrsquos wallsoften pre-booked by the two parties Eachside exposed the scandals of the other ldquoItwas the rape of the citizen held up beforetheir eyes for their own entertainmentrdquosays Menon It was irony at its best ldquoTo-

dayrdquo he quips ldquothey might earn their cre-ators a defamation or sedition caserdquo

In that era however the cultural back-ground of the Dravidian movement meantthat leaders were respectful of editorialspaces and the form and content of eachspace Symbolism was used sharply Therising sun the two leaves classical TamilMGRrsquos dark glasses and woolly cap Karu-nanidhirsquos dark glasses and curly hair mdash allthese were their stock in trade Clearly theDravidian parties had mastered the art of lsquoindexicalrsquo sign language As American phi-losopher Charles Sanders Peirce said in-dexical signs mdash films videos personaltrademarks mdash require almost no knowledgeof convention to make an impact

The vibrant imagery was also of coursethe result of the Dravidian movementrsquosdeep roots in cinema publishing and writ-ing ldquoThey were on the cutting edge of im-age-building and promotion They hadstrong in-house teams and also used artstudents to transmit party messages boldly and effectivelyrdquo says Menon

Then came the age of the colossal cut-

outs Art historian Preminda Jacob haswritten about the extravagant advertisingthatrsquos the signature of Tamil cinema and itwas in the 1940s that the first film cut-outsappeared on Chennai streets Fittingly itwas superstar MGRrsquos proteacutegeacute Jayalalithaawho took this and perfected it into the giantpolitical cut-out In the 1990s Chennairsquosskyline was defined not only by massivecinema posters but also by competing cut-outs and banners of Jayalalithaa and Karu-nanidhi sometimes reaching heights of 80feet or more Soon these were replaced by the equally in-your-face vinyl bannerswhich continue to reign despite a ban

But with increasing size the sense of hu-mour proportionately decreased In factfar from being lampooned politicians be-gan to assume god-like forms and the lan-guage changed from satire to adulation Thefirst artists hired to paint banners werethose who made calendar paintings of godsand goddesses so it wasnrsquot surprising they catapulted their new subjects to the statusof deities More important politiciansthemselves began to believe they were gods

and just as coconuts are broken on postersduring a Rajinikanth film release politic-

ians and their banners began to beworshipped

The lampooning of earlier days seems un-imaginable today In the ensuing humour-less milieu even the rather tame hits thatthe DMK took on Jayalalithaa this year werereceived with glee DMK borrowed the pun-chline ldquoEnnamma ipdi panreengalemmardquo (loosely translated as lsquoWhat Amma How can you do thisrsquo) from a Tamil reality show and plastered it across full-page ads to ad-dress different complaints about the AIADMK regime

As Joker might ask lsquoWhy so sadrsquo Sayswriter and political commentator GnanildquoPolitical parties and political culture hasbecome corporatised they now hire adver-tising and public relations agencies to runtheir campaigns They are more interestedin brand positioning nowrdquo Interestinglywhere Gnani sees the bigger loss in humouris in the classic print cartoon ldquoYoung and

creative people are moving to cinema nownot to print media Magazine cartoons areneither funny nor punchy as they were inthe 60s and 70srdquo

The memes might be funny but they rare-ly attack ideology or make a point with cut-ting wit On the other end of course wehave the worshipful vinyls ldquoAIADMK hasonly one layer to its campaignrdquo says Gnanildquoand that is the projection of lsquoAmmarsquo asgodrdquo This clearly leaves no room for hu-mour or satire

But is a shrinking sense of humour themain reason for the lack of political pun-chlines To quote McLuhan again if thecharacteristics of the medium affect themessage then todayrsquos quick and ephemeralparodies probably suit the fleeting attentionspan that the Internet encourages

Also as Menon points out the best car-toons derive their humour by pitting ideol-ogies against each other In Tamil Nadu thetwo major parties have marginal ideologicaldifferences And with both facing allega-tions of rampant corruption there is nomoral high ground that either can occupy

In these unfunny days all we can do is smileand bear it

s

l i c e

o f

l i f

e Anuradha Sengupta

several work with NGOs and researchcollectives

Have you been influenced by parallel movements inIndia

We have definitely found a lot of strengthfrom lsquoWhy Loiterrsquo as well as other groups such

as BLANK NOISE and lsquoFeminism in Indiarsquo Itrsquosreassuring to know this work isnrsquot being done inisolation Itrsquos particularly encouraging to know that there is a history and context to genderdynamics in public spaces in South Asia thatmany people are trying to battle Since startingthe group we have connected with feministsrights workers NGOs anthropologists design-ers businesswomen and social workers It isincredible and relieving to know there is a big-ger support group and resource base than werealised that so much more can be done whenwe do it together

What has been the reaction so far

For the most part itrsquos been fantastic Submis-sions havenrsquot stopped coming in Girls andwomen are very enthusiastic about the pageand what it stands for We are constantly get-ting more stories and ideas and requests forcollaborations mdash which shows that the issue of gender and public space resonates with a lot of women The best are the messages from wom-en even young girls in school thanking us forbringing up issues of everyday misogyny

ldquoIrsquom so glad Irsquom not the only one who feels

like thisrdquo they say There is a lack of spacesonline and offline where feminists can connect

with each other The response wersquove got con- vinces us that we need to keep the community going because it is clearly filling a gap

Have you been able to involve men

There have been a few men actively in- volved with girlsatdhabas from the begin-

ning mdash a circle of friends that has beensupportive by helping us with male allies andbeing there as a sounding board

The conversation has to take place amongall genders because public spaces affect us indifferent ways and our interaction with itaffects othersrsquo interactions Amongst ourfriends for example we have discussionsabout how men who are extremely comfort-able in public space might be contributing tocreating a hostile environment for women What are the ways in which they can be con-scious of their behaviourhellip

Audience wise men are probably the big-gest critics of girlsatdhabas There is thepopular argument based on religion where weare told our narrative doesnrsquot fit into the oneIslam has prescribed for women there is thequick dismissal by elite progressive andlsquosecu-larrsquo men who feel threatened and canrsquot figureout why women want to sit at a dhaba andhave chai why it is even an issue mdash but therersquosa long way to go before any of those mindsetscan be eradicated or addressed

Anuradha Sengupta is a freelance journalist who focuses on issues

affecting women youth environmentand urban subcultures

RECLAIMING SPACES

TRENDING Women reclaim the ownership of public spaces PHOTO SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Photos Clare Arni

Politickling Continued from page 1

A giant cut-out of Jayalalithaa at arally last week PHOTO T SINGARAVELOU



The art ofhe art of































ALLOY ALLURE

w

i d e a n g l e

















Press Club Madeline






RECOLLECTIONS


Remains of the day

CM

YKND-X


03NOIDADELHI03











SCREENING ROOM

Baradwaj Rangan

Varghese K George

Chintan Girish Modi




Old is cold






























IN CONVERSATION


CM

YKND-X


04NOIDADELHI04

literaryreview

b

i b l i o p h i l e












Tishani Doshi






















NON-FICTION

The telecom man


Govindan Nair


meaningless and

I thought foolishly

perhaps that

writing would be

a way to give

it meaningrsquo
























POETRY

CM

YKND-X


05NOIDADELHI05

literaryreview

b

o o k s amp b

e y o n d




Rs 399



























NON-FICTION



Swati Daftuar


Many of the poems

contain musings on

the nature and

power of

language itself

Shubashree Desikan




















POETRY











Kishwar Desai






06NOIDADELHI06

Across







town (95)


win support (59)


standard (46)



New York (6)


by pub (8)








urban life (10)





in assembly (12)








LAST WEEKS SOLUTION



























MIXOLOGY




t

h e

g o o d l i f e
































DECKED UP

Raul Dias

Vikram Achanta





The art ofhe art of































ALLOY ALLURE

w

i d e a n g l e

















Press Club Madeline






RECOLLECTIONS


Remains of the day

CM

YKND-X


03NOIDADELHI03











SCREENING ROOM

Baradwaj Rangan

Varghese K George

Chintan Girish Modi




Old is cold






























IN CONVERSATION


CM

YKND-X


04NOIDADELHI04

literaryreview

b

i b l i o p h i l e












Tishani Doshi






















NON-FICTION

The telecom man


Govindan Nair


meaningless and

I thought foolishly

perhaps that

writing would be

a way to give

it meaningrsquo
























POETRY

CM

YKND-X


05NOIDADELHI05

literaryreview

b

o o k s amp b

e y o n d




Rs 399



























NON-FICTION



Swati Daftuar


Many of the poems

contain musings on

the nature and

power of

language itself

Shubashree Desikan




















POETRY











Kishwar Desai






06NOIDADELHI06

Across







town (95)


win support (59)


standard (46)



New York (6)


by pub (8)








urban life (10)





in assembly (12)








LAST WEEKS SOLUTION



























MIXOLOGY




t

h e

g o o d l i f e
































DECKED UP

Raul Dias

Vikram Achanta
































IN CONVERSATION


CM

YKND-X


04NOIDADELHI04

literaryreview

b

i b l i o p h i l e












Tishani Doshi






















NON-FICTION

The telecom man


Govindan Nair


meaningless and

I thought foolishly

perhaps that

writing would be

a way to give

it meaningrsquo
























POETRY

CM

YKND-X


05NOIDADELHI05

literaryreview

b

o o k s amp b

e y o n d




Rs 399



























NON-FICTION



Swati Daftuar


Many of the poems

contain musings on

the nature and

power of

language itself

Shubashree Desikan




















POETRY











Kishwar Desai






06NOIDADELHI06

Across







town (95)


win support (59)


standard (46)



New York (6)


by pub (8)








urban life (10)





in assembly (12)








LAST WEEKS SOLUTION



























MIXOLOGY




t

h e

g o o d l i f e
































DECKED UP

Raul Dias

Vikram Achanta
























POETRY

CM

YKND-X


05NOIDADELHI05

literaryreview

b

o o k s amp b

e y o n d




Rs 399



























NON-FICTION



Swati Daftuar


Many of the poems

contain musings on

the nature and

power of

language itself

Shubashree Desikan




















POETRY











Kishwar Desai






06NOIDADELHI06

Across







town (95)


win support (59)


standard (46)



New York (6)


by pub (8)








urban life (10)





in assembly (12)








LAST WEEKS SOLUTION



























MIXOLOGY




t

h e

g o o d l i f e
































DECKED UP

Raul Dias

Vikram Achanta







06NOIDADELHI06

Across







town (95)


win support (59)


standard (46)



New York (6)


by pub (8)








urban life (10)





in assembly (12)








LAST WEEKS SOLUTION



























MIXOLOGY




t

h e

g o o d l i f e
































DECKED UP

Raul Dias

Vikram Achanta



Documents

The-Hindu-SUN17(+)