JANUARY 2013 `25

Issue no. 14 Volume no. 43

An MBD Publication RNI No.: 23870/72

D E M O C R A T I C

W O R L D

CAN THE QUOTA SYSTEM SAVE INDIAS MARGINS? PAGE 31

ISSUE

SHARMISTHA MUKHERJEE ON DANCE & LIFE PAGE 28

LOOKING BACK

Economist, politician and celebrated journalist Arun Shourie on faith and family
Page 12

PLUS

WAREHOUSE

HITCHHIKERS

LOOKING BACK

GOOD KARMA

EDIT ORIAL
SONICA MALHOTRA KANDHARI | editorial@democraticworld.co.in

Infinte Love, Tenderness

DEMOCRATIC BYTE

ARUN SHOURIE:
This is not a democracy at all, it is disarray. I have often described it as such... I have written that viewing the Parliament is like watching a very elongated, slow funeral rites of an institution

many words that may be used to describe Arun Shourie; erudite, articulate, verbose, and controversial. He is all that. However, he is so much more. During our interview with one of Indias most familiar journalist, we askedwho are you really? A doting slave to my son, came the answer in a soft voice and with a steady smile. Shourie has always taken his familial role as his cardinal one. He has been there for his ailing and aged parents, and later for his parents-in-law. Despite being one of the most high-profile politicians, economists and journalists of India, it is his familial side that touches your heart the most when you meet the man face-to-face. He has been very vocal about his sons condition and his wifes fight with Parkinson in interviews and self-written articles. His account of gradually accepting his and his familys fate in Does He Know A Mothers Heart? is heart wrenchingbut Shourie neither seeks nor desires your sympathy. Read up all you might or see all his interviews, when you are faced with the man and see his infinite tenderness, affection and love, while interacting with his son, the truth in his admission of being a slave hits you. Of course, he is a slaveas most parents are. They are a slave to their childs smiles and tears their actions governed by what is best for a child. People reflect the best of humanity often when
THERE ARE

they become parents as does Shourie when he candidly talks about his life with his son and wife. Within Shourie remains an analysts heart. But the fire-brand personality is a more mellow today. He is deeply introspective, but seems more content sitting, reading and taking notes in his brown and cozy study. Being physically closer to his family seems important. It was interesting to talk to the man who changed journalism by being a part of the Indian Express. Read his interview on Page XX. And for the rest of the pages, see our wonderful adventures in the most haunted places in India and meet danseuse Sharmistha Mukherjee. The daughter of the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, charmed us with her humility, humour and honesty. See how the nations most high-profile daughter feels about her father. Finally, a very good year to you. Whats on your DW wishlist? Do write to us and let us know.

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TOC
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

RHYTHM OF LIFE

SHARMISTHA MUKHERJEE A DANSEUSE, MUKHERJEE TALKS OF HER FATHER, PRESIDENT PRANAB MUKHERJEE, KATHAK AND ALL THINGS IN BETWEEN

| JANUARY

2 0 13

COVER DESIGN BY HARIDAS BALAN | PHOTO BY MANSA

12
COVER STORY VIVEK BHANDARI

12 | A Series of Happy Incidents

26 | DEMOCRACY AT THE MARGINS

Acknowledging highland systems of governance

Journalist, economist, and author Arun Shourie on faith, family and politics
SIDDHARTHA VAIDYANATHAN

Please Recycle This Magazine And Remove Inserts Before Recycling

COPYRIGHT Democratic World is published & printed by M Gulab Singh & Sons (a unit of MBD Group) at Gulab Bhawan 6, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002, India and printed at Perfect Printers Gulab Bhawan 6, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002, India. Democratic World is for private circulation only. Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of M Gulab Singh & Sons.

34 | MASTER BLASTER BIDS ADIEU: The World

survived the Apocalypse, but can India survive Sachins retirement?

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

JANUARY 2013

31
ISSUE

31 | QUOTA; THE REAL PICTURE

Debating reservation in promotion in government jobs

REGULARS

22
SOCIAL AGENDA

01| EDITORIAL 06 | UP-TO-DATE 10 | FOREIGN DESPATCHES 28 | LOOKING BACK 38 | READING ROOM 48 | STICKY NOTES

22 | Engaging Rockstar Employees

Can you spot the celebrity worker in the office and use her to the firms advantage?
GOOD KARMA WAREHOUSE GARNISH HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE

36 | THE LONE GRAM WHO BUST THE OVEN

Kaushlendra Kumar is all set to revolutionise the Bihar veggie market

40 | GADGETS & GIZMOS GOLDGENIE IPHONE 5 All that glitters

is gold in this sectionand frightfully expensive

42 | SERVED WITH NOSTALGIA Chef Manish

Mehrotra is trying to revive the lost ingredients with his eccentric style

45 | A TALE OF RUSTIC HAUNTING

Welcome to Bhangarh, the spookiest Indian town. Two mad men made a visit...

JANUARY 2013

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

RAHUL GANDHI

UPtoDATE
On the war path: India Against Corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal

Potato chips are sold at `10 a pack. So why oppose FDI in retail?

THEY SAID IT

FDI in Retail Gets Nod in Both Houses

Kerala CM to Oppose FDI in State
FDI \\ The Centre managed to pass the FDI in retail

quite comfortably in both houses of the Parliament in December. As seen by the UPA government, this win will give fillip to implement economic reform agenda seen as crucial to revitalising growth and slashing a swollen fiscal deficit. The policy will open paths for foreign supermarkets to come into the country. It will facilitate global retailers, such as Wal-Mart, to establish shops in the countrys $450 billion retail sector, and is targeted at attracting more overseas investment and controlling inflation. On the other hand, the BJP continued to protest

the proposal. The BJP wants a 26 per cent cap set on investment, which was recommended by the standing committee on finance, against the governments proposed 49 per cent. Alleging the Congress-led UPA government won the FDI vote in Parliament by using CBI pressure on some parties, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal said the decision should have been taken through a referendum. The FDI in retail should have been decided through a referendum. The way the parties have behaved in Parliament was very unfortunate, Kejriwal told mediapersons on the sidelines of Pan-IIT global meet.

49

per cent cap set on investment proposed

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

JANUARY 2013

FROM AROUND THE WORLD //

up-to-date

Punter Retires Leaving Gap in Aussie Cricket

RETIREMENT\\ The 37-year-old former Australian

The Fallen Stars: (From left) Pandit Ravi Shankar and Sir Patrick Moore

Pandit Ravi Shankar, Sir Patrick Moore No More Icons leave a gap in hearts of millions
DEMISE \\ The world mourned the demise of sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar who

breathed his last on December 12, 2012. Shankar was 92. Ravi Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar. He gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and was music director of All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956. In 1956, he began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and rock artist George Harrison. Shankar was awarded Indias highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999. Astronomer, television personality, British eccentric and a great populariser of science, Sir Patrick Moore also passed away in December. In his capacity as an astronomer, Moore had helped map the moon and was for more than half a century until his death the presenter of BBC TVs The Sky at Night, missing only a single episode through illness, in July 2004.

Captain, Ricky Ponting, announced his retirement from cricket in December 2012. Ponting announced his decision at the conclusion of the third Test match against South Africa. But he agreed to play for Tasmania and represent Hobart Hurricanes in 2013 in the Big Bash League, Australias T20 tournament. Speculation had surrounded Pontings future over the past few days after he failed in Brisbane and Adelaide against South Africa, scoring 0, 4, and 16. Its a decision I thought long and hard about. At the end of the day, it was about my results and output in this series, said the Launceston-born batsman. If you look back over the past 18 months, I havent been able to perform consistently. Noting that he had first discussed his retirement with his wife, the former captain admitted TEARFUL FAREWELL to the difficulty involved in breaking the news to his teammates. I tried to tell them a lot, but I didnt get much out. Theyve never seen me emotional, but I was this morning.

HOCKEY

Indias Hockey League, A New Beginning: December marked a new chapter in Indian hockey with 120 players finding buyers at the Hockey India League players auction, in which star midfielder Sardar Singh fetching the highest price of $78,000 (`42,90,000) from Delhi WaveRiders.
JANUARY 2013
DEMOCRATIC WORLD

up-to-date

\\ FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Map (left) An arieal view of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Mourning (below) Communities mourn the victims of the carnage

Shooter in US School Kills 20 Children Young Gunmans Motive

unknown
CARNAGE \\ A gunman named by Connecti-

cut Police as Adam Lanza, 20, shot and killed his mother Nancy Lanza at their home in Newtown, an affluent town of 27,000 people about 60 miles north-east of New York City and then went to his former school, Sandy Hook Elementary School to go on a killing rampage where he shot 20 children and six adults at close range in December. It is still not clear why Lanza killed his mother who was a school teacher, but Connecticut education officials say that have found no links between her and Sandy Hook Elementary School, which has about 700 pupils aged between five and 10. Lanza was dressed in black fatigues and was carrying an assault rifle, which police say was the main weapon used during the shooting, as well as two handguns loaded with high-capacity magazines. Police say a

We cannot tolerate these (incidents) any more. These tragedies must end Barack Obama

fourth weapon, a shotgun, was later found in his car parked outside the school. About 9:30am, Lanza shot his way into the school, as children hid in classrooms during the shooting. Newtown police were notified of shooting at the school over their radios at 09:36am. Most students were saved by the staff and teachers. One school employee ran through halls warning of a gunman on the loose, and someone switched on the intercom, alerting people in the building to the attack by letting them hear the mayhem in the school office. A survivor said the gunshots sounded like pots and pans falling to the floor. Teachers locked their doors and ordered children to huddle in a corner or hide in cupboards as shots echoed through the building. Connecticut medical examiner Dr H Wayne Carver said on Saturday that the seven dead children he personally examined had been

shot between three and 11 times each, and two of those were shot at close range. The bullets are designed in such a fashion that the energy is deposited in the tissue and so the bullet stays in, he added. Authorities allege that the shooting lasted a few minutes and took place in two rooms. At 9.38am a police dispatcher radioed that there was There is silence at this time. The school is in lock down. Fearful that the gunman could still be at large, police swarmed into the building, breaking windows to enter at several points. As officers searched and secured the woods surrounding the school, inside the building, officers found 18 children and six adults shot dead, including principal Dawn Hochsprung, 47. Two more children later died from their wounds. The latest shooting to happen in American schools shook the entire nation. As parents and families resorted to prayers, reports of bravery also poured in. The police, who did not fire their weapons during the search, found the body of Lanza, who appeared to have killed himself.

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

JANUARY 2013

FROM AROUND THE WORLD //

up-to-date

OLYMPICS

Indias Humiliating Ouster from Olympics

OUSTER \\ India was de-

SALT PEPPER
TWITTER LOSES ITS COOL OVER SHEILA DIKSHIT `600 REMARK

&

recognised by the International Olympic Committee on December 4, ironically in the year it basked in the glory of its best Olympic medal haul. IOC cited contravention of its charter and statutes for the extreme step. The Olympic

charter, last amended in 2011, says there should be no government interference in the election process of sports bodies. The Indian Olympic Association follows the government sports code of 2010. It is alleged that central to the suspension story is veteran sports

administrator Randhir Singhs battle for the IOA presidents post against Haryana politician Abhay Chautala. It was alleged that Chautala lobbied to reduce Randhirs vote to a minority in the run-up to the IOA election and got elected unopposed.

Haha classic! @ashwinmushran: Its Monday morning...Has Sheila Dixit spent her familys `600 already? THE NATION NEEDS TO KNOW
Atul kasbekar @atulkasbekar | Photographer

Anand Chosen as CNN IBNs Indian of the Year for Second Time

`600/month to feed family of 5-Dixit.Well, she is right. A Parle-G comes at `5 & it contains all ingredients for body
Chaoster @Inglorious_Engg | Twitterati

You never know, you may see a launch of `600 note with a portrait of Sheila Dixit instead of Mahatma Gandhi
Keh Ke Peheno @coolfunnytshirt | Twitterati

The master at playGrandmaster Viswanathan Anand

Dixit says `600/month enough.Wish she was coach of England; shed have thought a lead of 60 enough for declaration.
Faking News | Satire Website

CHESS \\ Chess legend Viswanathan Anand was chosen as the CNN IBN Indian of

the Year 2012 in sports category for defending his title for the third year in a row. Other nominees were billiards ace Pankaj Advani for claiming eight world titles at an age of just 26 years, shuttler Saina Nehwal for winning Indias first Olympic medal in badminton and four titles on the circuit that saw her regain her no-3 world ranking, wrestler Sushil Kumar for becoming the first Indian individual athlete to win back-to-back medals at the Olympic, shooter Vijay Kumar for decimating some big names on his way to winning a Silver at the London Olympics and Virat Kohli for cementing his status as the next big name in Indian cricket. In December, Anand finished his campaign with a draw against Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the ninth and final round of London Chess Classic.

New name for Sheila Dixit shud be CheSou Sheila, after that 600-wala remark, sounds quite nice, very European too #watsay.
Ratnakar Sadasyula @ScorpiusMaximus | Twitterati

JANUARY 2013

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

foreign despatches
\\ NOTES FROM THE DIA SPOR A

I have maps with every chapter so people know such places exist
I GREW UP in a joint family surrounded by siblings and cousins. It was a very liberal household with no discipline of any kind. Such was the case that when we needed money, we just took it, we never had to ask. Unlike other families, academics werent all that important in mine, but debates and elocutions were. Those who have grown up in joint families will know that it is a completely different experience; a joint family makes you tough, it makes you a survivor. It teaches you how to beat competition, especially if it is about grabbing hold of that last piece of momo. So my childhood was beautiful, spent is small and happy place Gangtok, Sikkim. After finishing school, I left for the US, to do my graduation in Communications, and later joined The Village Voice as their marketing executive. The Village Voice at that time had become one of those papers which had a great past, but today, was clinging to its former glories. I was into advertising and as a part of the job I would be invited to a lot of parties, which was a fantastic thing for a 21 year old. Advertising, as we know it, is a numbers game; as long as you are getting them clients, they will be happy with you. Now it so happened that the person whos cubical I took, was there in the company for a very long time. I had her phone and the calls kept coming. I didnt really have to go out to get contracts. So life was wonderful. I would claim I had appointments and go see movies all day, or read at Barnes and Nobles. This went on for quite some time, but in the end such a life seems good for a while, but then you start questioning yourself. And that is why I quit, I found myself questioning every day, if this is what I would be doing when I was 35. I was looking into the mirror with

PRAJWAL PARAJULY
Gangtok, Sikkim
PRAJWAL PARAJULY is the

author of the short story collection The Gorkha's Daughter. He graduated from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri and later joined The Village Voice as their marketing executive. Parajuly is the youngest writer signed by Quercus, and also the youngest Indian to achieve a multi-national book deal. Newspapers across South Asia, notably The Times of India, have lauded Parajuly's early work, while other media outlets are referring to him as the next big thing in South Asian fiction.

self loathing. My decision to quit was very impulsive, but I had to take it. After quitting, I decided to travel a bit, see the world. I travelled across India with my college roommate. We started from Delhi, took the train to Bombay then to Goa, then we went to Calcutta, Darjeeling, Gangtok, Kathmandu and after that we went to Agra and then finally to Delhi, and then he left and I had nothing to do. One of the good things about the trip was that we were constantly writing, he was maintaining his blogs to stay in touch with his family and I was writing Facebook Notes. These were very irreverent tongue-and-cheek Facebook notes about my experiences in the different cities. Youd think that nobody would pay attention to such trivia, but surprisingly people liked my writing. The kind of support that came my way was really overwhelming. And I understand that it is Facebook, but the kind of people who praised my writing were the ones whose writings I had respected all my life. All these people said that I could chronicle my experiences and make them into a book. Well, while I did not pay much attention to these comments, the idea somehow had stuck by me. Soon after my roommate left I went to Manali, I didnt want to go to Gangtok, because everyone there would be ready with a number of questions. In Manali I stayed at a very small place called the Raj Guesthouse, which cost `200 a day and did not provide hot water. I wrote my first short story there, called Let The Sleeping Dogs Lie. In Manali, the environment wasnt exactly conducive for writ-

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foreign despatches
NOTES FROM THE DIA SPOR A //

ing. There were quite a few Israeli people partying everywhere. When I went there I thought that I can never get any work done. But then, I think, I went into a zone and just wrote a very rough draft of the story. This was surprising because I am one of those writers who do not know how to zone out. I think I do know that when an inspiration strikes, I should not let it go. And that is what happened in Manali, I wrote for 17 hours a day. After struggling in Manali, I decided to head back to Gangtok where there was hot water, good food and the comfort of my room. While in Gangtok, I managed to write around four to five stories. My first story was based in Kalimpong, then there were a few based in Darjeeling. After writing the first few stories, I had made the decision of writing about Nepalese people everywhere and make the world aware about the Nepalese culture, which is beautiful. We all know how ignorant people are of the Northeast. When you open my book, you will notice that I have maps of places before every story. This is to make people aware that these places exist. I had gone to Nepal a few years back with my mother for Dasain (Dussera) festival. I had heard about the International Organisation for Migration building from people. There are camps in Nepal for the Bhutanese refugees, Bhutan has kicked out 10,6000 Nepalese people from the country. Because I was in Nepal, I decided to visit the place and carried a notebook with me. I spoke to the refugees and recorded their stories. Almost all of them had the same story. They spoke about the acres they had left behind to live in a dilapidated place. I knew I had a story in hand, and this one was more of a journalistic piece than any other I have ever written. When I wrote the first draft of this story it read like a research paper. I had to work really hard to make it look like a story. When I started writing this book, I knew nothing about the

We belong to a generation that would be embarrassed to make an error in English, but would brag about making one in Hindi. The colonial hangover is so ingrained that we dont pay heed to regional literature

world of literature. I did not know that there was no market for short stories; I did not know who agents were or how things worked. In fact, in the beginning I was just penning down stories, the decision to compile them into a book came much later. And since then the journey has been serendipitous. I am a very lucky person. Know, however, that writing short stories was difficult and challenging. At a psychological level, the book had moments when I was just staring at the computer screen unable to write anything. Even if the strong urge to write was there, I knew I wasnt writing what I wanted to. Initially, when such a thing happened, I would be troubled and would keep thinking about it. But then after a while, I started giving myself a break. I would read a book, watch mindless films, and then somehow after two or three weeks, I would get back. This is how I have finished the book. But like I said, I have been very lucky. To be honest, in India we have a habit of over embracing people. Look at Sunita Williams, she is not even Indian for Gods sake, but the amount of embracing she receives in India is overwhelming. Same has happened to me. But to think of it, while we are so appreciative of certain things, we have been extremely dismissive of so many other things. Take for instances, our own vernacular literature. I used to be fluent in Nepalese at one time, but now I cant even write properly. Unfortunately, we belong to a generation that would be embarrassed to make a grammatical error in English but would brag about making one in Hindi. The colonial hangover is so ingrained in us that we have stopped paying heed to regional literature. But the fault also lies in the way the regional languages are being taught to us. In order to save these languages from dying, we need to remove the chota Es and bada Es from the language, and make it a little simpler. Which would be the equivalent of not using a possessive before a gerund. We dont say my being there we say me being there. May be this way, the language will be able to connect with the younger generation. By now, I think I have made it pretty clear that I am a very indisciplined writer. And I do not deserve the praise that I have been getting; in fact I find it very intimidating. I have spent days thinking that after all this hype, if people dont like what I have written, will they be like, all this hype for nothing? Thank heavens that the books got a good review and critics, have been generous. And I am grateful not just for the reviews, but also for the labels that have been given to me, such as the next big thing in South Asian Fiction. In all honesty, these are things that you feel smug about in private and feign embarrassment in public, but after a while you need to break away from such labels, before they start getting to you. As told to Manjiri Indurkar

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cover story

\\ THE MELLOW MAN

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THE MELLOW MAN //

cover story

A Series of Happy Accidents

Arun Shourie occupies a complicated space in the minds of millions. He is undoubtedly an editor par excellence, who stood up to the Emergency, exposed Bofors and had Chief Minister Antulay sacked. He is a defender of human rights who campaigned for 40,000 undertrials. He is a man of unquestionable financial honesty. It is precisely why when Shourie opens his mouth, people hear him out.
BY ROHINI BANERJEE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MANSA | DESIGN BY HARIDAS BALAN
JANUARY 2013
DEMOCRATIC WORLD

13

here is a third wheel in the romance between the fourth estate and the journalistskepticism. It enters our lives uninvited. Journalists overhear much, believe in too little and see even less of value. In an ideal scenario, a journalist learns how peers perceive an interviewee, whether office peons hate him and whether his driver is paid on time, even before he learns the address of the man he is about to meet. A clean slate is difficult in a world of small details and the internet. Especially if one is about to talk to a man called Arun Shourie, who occupies an ambiguous space in the minds of millions in modern India, anyway. He has been described as a right ideologue and a liberal crusader; in the same breath by people who like and loathe him at the same time. He is a man who evokes the strongest of emotions in hearts of the gentlest of creatures on this planet; journalists. (Yes, sarcasm.)
There is however, a logic as to why, loved or loathed, it is difficult to ignore Shourie. Before sting operations became a bad word, in the 1970s and 1980s, Shourie was the man behind some of the journalism-defining exposes of India. When he was the executive editor in the Indian Express, Ashwini Sarin, an Express journalist, bought a Tribal woman for a few pieces of silver. Her name was Kamala and the story shook India to its core. Another scribe Arun Sinhainvestigated a series of incidents in Bihar jails where yet-to-be-convicted inmates had acid poured into their eyes or had their eyes poked by needles by lawmen. That was the series of Bhagalpur Blindings and Express carried a series of close-ups of the victims eyes to drive home the point. The two incidents were not exactly Shouries exposes, but were brought under the spotlight under his editorial stint. The man in question was directly involved in the uncovering of the Antolay Scam, he was a part of the Gundu Rao interview, he was actively involved in the defeat of the Defamation Bill (which came into the focus thanks to him). Shourie is known for his scathing criticism of Christianity and Islam, which has given him the label of being a right ideologue. It would have been easy to dismiss Shourie if he was just that. Shourie has also penned a series of texts examining his own religion and faith. Today, he occupies a complicated space. He is undoubtedly an editor par excellence, who stood up to the Emergency, exposed Bofors and had Chief Minister Antulay sacked. He is a man of unquestionable financial honesty. It is why when he opens his mouth and spews venom (he does it ever so often in guileless rage), people hear him out.

Tabula Rasa
Back to the first ideajournalists and their overwhelming information baggage; despite labels (some spot-on, and others, exaggerated), Shourie willingly embraces one. Asked to choose between his avatars (a routine question that journalists are fond of, like the weight-and-blood pressure checks before medical examinations), he emphasises that he is first a doting slave to his son. And he is a dutiful husband, son and a son-in-law. Then, depending upon his stint as Indias activistjournalist, columnist, economist or politician, he accepts all labels and enjoys them. He calls his life

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HIS PILLAR
Shourie calls Ramnath Goenka his pillar

a series of happy accidents and one trauma. The first of the happy accidents was being born, the second was meeting his wife through mutual aunts. The third was meeting Ramnath Goenka, who took him under his wings and into Indian Express. Goenka is someone who Shourie does not hesitate to call his pillar. His second pillar is the former BJP supremo, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. I was with the Tata Administrative Services, the management cadre of Tata Group. That stint lasted for three months after which I received an offer from the World Bank (WB). I resigned from WB as I wished to be closer home and work on Indian problems, which the bank disallowed. I came back to India anyway. It was during the Emergency. Here, I met Congress President and Minister for Petroleum, Mr Dev Kant Barua who offered a post as an economic adviser. But a famous economist of those times, Mr Sukumar Chakraborty, thought my stint with WB had watered my socialist sentiments. The only job opportunity I had, was lost due to what Chakraborty thought, Shourie reminisces with a gentle chuckle. Thus a jobless, soon-to-be-poor Shourie packed his bags (yet again) and left with great reluctance with wife Anita for the USthe country they had quit months ago to be home. It was a stroke of luck that I came to know JP Nayak, the member-secretary of ICSSR, who sent a message and asked me to write a proposal any proposal. I wrote one and qualified for the Homi Bhaba Fellowship. Finally, I could come home. Both he and I knew why I was really back; to write pamphlets and articles against the Emergency. When the Emergency got over, I was again jobless. The days of Homi Bhaba Fellowship were also coming to an end. As luck would have it, I met Mr Goenka who told me after a meeting, main Mulgaonkar-ko (S. Mulgaonkar, editor, Indian Express) bolunga tumhe koi achhasa naam (designation) dey de. Tum office aajao. The Emergency turned out to be quite the tumultuous time for Shourie. I had heard of him (Goenka). His paper had been taken over and he was still putting up a fight. Mr Radhakrishnan, who was at that time the secretary of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, had just come out of Tihar jail. I wanted to know about the condition of the inmates and

The Magic of 26 Tomes

1978 Symptoms of Fascism 1980 Institutions in the Janata Phase 1987 Religion in Politics 1990 Individuals, Institutions, Processes Are We Deceiving Ourselves Again? Eminent Historians 1991 Only Fatherland 1993 Indian Controversies 1996 Missionaries in India 1997 The State As Charade

November 2, 1941 born to parents father Hari Dev Shourie and mother Dayawanti Devasher Arun Shourie; A timeline of his books

1998 Freedom of expression; Secular Theocracy Versus Liberal Democracy 1998 Hindu Temples; What Happened to Them 2001 Harvesting our Souls 2001 Secular Agenda; For Saving Our Country for Welding It Governance and the Sclerosis That Has Set In 2005 2001 Courts and Their Judgments 2007 Parliamentary System 2011 Does He Know A Mothers Heart? 2012 Falling Over Backwards These Lethal, Inexorable Laws Will the Iron Fence Save a Tree Hollowed by Termites? World of fatwas / The Shariah in Action Worshipping False Where Will All These Take Us?

cover story

\\ THE MELLOW MAN

I fitted in with Mr Goenka and reporters. I cant say the same about the editors. Surprisingly, Mulgaokar was more supportive than others 16
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went to meet him. He was a large man. While I was talking to him an elderly person entered the room. Arre Fatty! How are you Fatty? They both seemed to be on great terms. After a while, Radhakrishnan asked me if we knew each other. When we both shook our heads, Radhakrishnan seemed bemused. Arrey bhaiyya! you were asking me about the man who is putting up a fight through his newspaper. This is that man. And Goenka this is your young man, Arun Shourie, who you were asking about. Mr Goenka allegedly said, Kya Fatty ke pass baithe ho, tum office aajao. During the same period Shourie was to meet his second pillar: Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Mrs Gandhi declared her plans for an election on the evening of December 18, 1977. Immediately I was sent off to Patna to write JPs (Jayaprakash Narayan) statements on the impending elections. There I met several leaders and sat down to write the manifesto of the Janta Party. And I met Atalji. during a brief meeting in which George Verghese and I were given the task of collating data. Shouries later stint as the Member of the Rajya Sabha was equally serendipitous; it happened thanks to the then BJP President, Kushabhau Thackeray. I received a call from Kushabhau one day. He introduced himself as Kushabhau, and I replied as yes sir, how could I be of service? He repeated, this is Kushabhau Thackeray. I repeated myself. Thats when he finally introduced himself; this is Kushabhau Thackeray, the President of the BJP. I was such a small fry and had never spoken to him. I could not place him at first. Kushabhauji called me to the party office. I had to ask for direction and address (10, Ashoka Road). At the office, he said that my name was chosen by party people for a Rajya Sabha nomination. Would you like to join the party, he asked? I said yes, promptly. As a young man, Shourie did not have a voters registration card also when he was made the offer.

The Fourth Estate

While the politician Shourie is a veritable book of information, dates and names, it is the editor Shourie who is a delight for of his candid confessions. I fitted in with Mr Goenka and reporters and staff. I am afraid I cant say the same about the editors, he admits about his stint with a chuckle. The reason I may not have gotten along with the editors was because of the way I wrote. (A fact acknowledged by Vinod Mehta in his book Lucknow Boy in which he admits to not seeing eyeto-eye with Shourie on several occasions but admits that when the latter wrote, people read). In those

days certainly, there used to be a British inspired habit of making elliptical understatements (laughs). Surprisingly, at the end of the day, Mulgaokarwho was not so fond of mewas more supportive than many others, says Shourie. Today, the former editor remains troubled by the relationship between the fourth estate and its subjects. The sector is based on a completely incestuous relationship. Stories are not pursued, not enough. Look at the case of the 2G Scam. Not many newspapers took it up wholeheartedly. It was only Gopikrishnan (J. Gopikrishnan, editor, Pioneer) who, for two years, pursued the case with dedication. Dailies dismissed all of it as a corporate fight. Another spot of bother: the increasing corporatisation of the media space which Shourie got to witness first-hand years ago. Editors have been sidelined. A pioneering part was played by Sameer Jain, who was a reason why I quit TOI. It was no newspaper but became a sarkari system. His father was still around when a younger Sameer would come into the office. His attitude was that an editor and a bureau were incidental. He didnt wish to see political news on the front page. He questioned why an Oped page was being placed right in the middle of the newspaper. He created a situation. Unfortunately, other papers began to follow suit. There were editors who succumbed to him; he would call them to his office to fill up birthday cards. Many answered to his fancies.

Indian Parliamentary System

Though on most part Shourie is like the favourite uncle who indulges the blunderings of a newbie

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THE MELLOW MAN //

cover story

His Firsts: (Below) The Modern School Barakhamba where he first raised a voice. (Left) Ramnath Goenkaa mentor.

Rapid Fire | Arun Shourie

scribe, it is when he talks of politics that he becomes bit of the professor-meets-thehistorian. Dates and years are important, as are names. And he has a habit of dropping them, taking knowledge of it for granted. Flattering? Yes. Frightening? Yes. It (Indian Parliamentary system) has become like a single-party rule. It is just a little drama staged for tomorrows headlines. Everyone knows that their time will come as well when they will get to wield the sword and get favours. The ruckus raised is for non-issues and silence is maintained for real ones, he says after a while. Media and politics are circular themes for Shourie and he hops between the two during the conversation. When you get the Assembly adjourned, who does it help? It helps a guilty person. Story comes out of a certain ministers son landing in a spot of trouble over the question of unfair land acquisition. For two days, instead of discussing that issue, the Parliament remains adjourned over cartoons published 20 years ago. The argument is the inconvenience of the moment that you give as your great rationalisation for destroying and undermining a great institution that all sides give, says Shourie with the glimpse of the fire-brand thinker who has not shied away from slamming the party that he belonged to. This is not a democracy at all, it is disarray. I have often described it as such.

An Editors Choice
Your favourite job? Whatever was at hand was the best. Who are your mentors? Life is the mentor. And certainly my wife and my child. One time when you really learnt? A great expansion of onces awareness was in the US where I went for my doctoral studies. I still remember when I went there, I visited the library for the first time, here I was in this enormous building with five to six floors and I remember asking the librarianwhere are the books? And she laughed and said that they are all over, everywhere. There were two basements. I remember talking a few hours to look around. Finally, I took out two three books and then cautiously asked whether I could take one or two home? How many could I take back with me? She laughed again and said as many as I could carry. It was a new thing. Here those books would have been in the rare book section and I could not touch them, leave alone borrow them. At the examinations we could bring all the books that we wanted. They were eighthour-long examinations, from morning till late evening. The questions were such that no book could help you. Tell us about St Stephens. The friendships formed at Modern School, Barakhamba, got cemented in college. Many of us went together to college. And remained a group. What do you think of constructed religion? Some work, some dont. Buddhism is a constructed religion and it makes sense to me. What is your legacy? Legacy is a very big word. Once, an editor of Surya said you dont know what you taught us; you taught to look for facts and read documents. If I have to believe that I have left a footprint then let that be it. How were you as a child? I learnt to raise my voice at school and I remember being severely punished for being very, very argumentative. A friend of mine, Suresh Malhotra, and I would be punished the most. Stand in the corner. Kneel downall those sort of things. I remember our Hindi teacher, Mr Ved Vyas, would say that I have never met a person who asks as many questions as you do. Who were some of the people who you met during your school days who left an impact? My father was a well-known and innovative civil servant. Thanks to his PILs now you have new laws. Our parents were our constant presence. It wasnt just them, but also the wonderful school that we went to that deeply impacted us. The principal used to call peopleGandhijis secretary Pyarelalji, Punditji and Dr Radhakrishnan, when we were children. The interest in public affairs was because of my father. For all of us in middle school the Emergency was a great catalyst. Then there was Jayaprakashji.

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\\ THE MELLOW MAN

For the past 20 years, I have written that viewing the Parliament is like watching a very elongated, slow funeral rites of an institution. Perhaps it is an Indian way of discarding a Parliamentary system in favour of a Presidential system. Look at the States. Is there a Parliamentary system in it? We have now come at a place where perhaps the Assembly system will be discarded in favour of a Presidential one. This adversarial politicsjust a singular aspect of democratic politicshas been carried out to a farcical level. Whatever you say I would shout at it. I will block anything you say or do; that is not how Assemblies work. Can a country be run like this where two parties block each other citing each others example of who did what and when? Ask Shourie and he will tell you that the State of India is the dead hand. The society is more innovative and resilient, and the government should stop interfering so much in the day-to-day affairs. By society I do not mean the civil society in the sense that Kejriwal and gang are suggestingthey are just appropriating a name. I am talking of the society of India. People say that I am an elitist. To a certain

extent they are right; I am a strong believer in elitism. When I say elitism I mean meritocracy. You cant have high sciences being done by everyone. Governance can not be performed by the aam admi on the street. It is a fatal fallacy in this country to think that people (MPs) should be representative of the people. So when we say 30 per cent of the people are illiterate, should 30 per cent of the MPs be illiterate as well? People dont read books, so MPs should not either? Governance requires specialisation and expertise. There is a wonderful phrase by (Thomas) Jefferson that governance is the job of the aristocracy of talent and virtue. Perhaps, this is the reason why I am against reservation. Yes, the marginalised should get all the help they deserve, but when the race starts everyone should be equal. My statements are no reflection on the innate capacity of the people. Half the jobs, promotions should be reserved? Not really. Yet another space where Shourie believes in meritocracy is the Indian higher education. The talk soon reverts towards it. I know that Kapil Sibal makes a great many announcementsboth

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SECOND SUPPORT
His second support comes from Atal Bihari Vajpayeea mentor

in higher education and telecommunications. He has quite a few good ideas. We should use ICT (information and communication technologies) to overcome the short come in higher education. There was a lecture that I had given in the IIT which was later compiled into a book (We Must Have No Price, Indian Express). In which I had argued the same. We are far from promoting meritocracy in the sector. It is one sector where Licence Quota Raj is being continued. The bogey of privatisation is being raised, actually the people who are shouting against privitisatisation are those who have set up institutes and colleges and are collecting capitation

We talk the talk of demographic dividend. The words are phrases. All of it depends on what we do; after all they can become a millstone. Parents spend money on higher education. And then when the youth is all educated, he or she does not have a job, because at the end of the day we need millions of jobs to make a success of the demographic dividend. If you create good opportunities in India, I know that people will come back to their country not for the salaries, but because he wishes to be home.

Shourie: The Author

Shourie has penned 26 books. He is in process of

The difficult bit was when I sat down to write about Gandhiji, I am worshipper of Gandhiji, but I felt his faith in God

was misdirected. That he tied himself in knots when he spoke about karma. His explanations do not stand up to scrutiny.
Arun Shourie
fees. They dont want competition, higher standards. We must have the best companies set up private institutions. There should be a movement towards de-affiliation, especially as far as the IITs, IIMs and better colleges are concerned. Best institutions are not affiliated. They are known by their alumni. Best companies, committed to excellence should set it up liberate themselves from the salary scale and bring in experts. His other ideas involve a higher scale of remuneration for professors and teachers. The question is not whether a professor needs it, but the fact that he deserves it. Universities should be encouraged to raise their own funds from the alumni. Not many people would be focused on a university as an alumni would, they are the secrets behind the success of the Ivy League Varsities in the States. writing his latest one. As we spoke we sat in his expansive study. It was one of the prettiest room with innumerable shelves adorning most of the walls. An open terrace right at the front lent a perfect light. The total effect was serene and calm which fitted the languorous afternoon quite well. However, the talk mismatched the languid effect of the entire scene. Before the interview, I was politely informed that he was not going to talk about the BJP, because it fatigues him. And at the end of the interview, as he leant back on his armchair, he opened up about it as well. Truly we were not there to talk about party politicswe were there to talk to one of the most prolific authors and a Magasaysay-award winning editor. When I happened to share the prospect of a possible interview with the man who had redefined Indian journalism, I was asked to quiz him on how he chooses his books titles. Some of them happen to have really weak ones. However, most of them are staggeringly meticulous. They are like knives that prise open difficult areas of thought. His critics call his work structurally weak and that he fits evidence to a preconceived thesis. However, it is difficult to wave aside words that pour out of him. Especially when they come from deep within his heart. One such book; Does He Know A Mothers Heart? comes

I know that Kapil Sibal makes many announcements. He has quite a few good ideas, especially when it comes to education
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\\ THE MELLOW MAN

from the deepest core of his heart. I may have received the most heartfelt reactions to that book. People said they were moved to tears. That it must have been painful and cathartic for me at the same time. Honestly the two chapters which were about familial life were the quickest ones. I finished them in two days. They are details of our daily life. The difficult bit was when I sat down to write about Gandhiji, I am worshipper of Gandhiji, but I felt his faith in God was misdirected. That he tied himself in knots when he spoke about karma. I am also a worshipper of Ramkrishna Paramhansa. Their explanations, as far as I see, do not stand up to scrutiny. That for me was the painful part. As far as family is concerned, there was no catharsis, because for Shourie that is his life. There could have been

their time will come as well when they will get to wield the sword and get favours.
Arun Shourie
difficulties if there was less love. Zareer Masanis And All is Said about his divided home must have been difficult to write. In my case, mine was a tale of love. For Nigel Nikelson, writing about his father, may have been problematic. I faced no such conflict. What I wrote about were facts. None of us believe that what we were going through was in anyway a reflection or judgement on how we were.

It (Indian Parliamentary system) has become like a single-party rule. It is just a little drama staged for tomorrows headlines. Everyone knows that The ruckus raised is for non-issues and silence is maintained for real ones

The Mellow Man

Read all you will of Shouries love for his son, nothing prepares you for a face-to-face interaction. The meeting between the father and his son is an overwhelming sight. It is overwhelming because there is no melodrama in it. Shourie is not embittered. He has not used organised religion or mellifluous words to make sense of what was offered to him. He does not want, need or accept your endorsement of him as a parent. He is happy

to be a fatherto be loved and love in return. Once Shouries wife (Anita) met with an accident as their Fiat rammed into a jeep that lost control. Soon after the accident, Anita started to feel sensations on the left half of her body. She was later diagnosed with Parkinson. Shourie was not always calm about that incident as is evident in Does He Know A Mothers Heart? Today, he is resolute. You want the Mehdi Hassan cassette beta? Shourie, like only a parent sometimes can, reads Adityas gestures and nods. Aditya, or Adit as he is affectionately called, was once the darling of an extended family. Now the family has shrunk, but Adit remains at its core. Shouries interactions with his son reveals a side to this fire-brand man often accused of being too controversial in his political writings: it also makes one rethink the necessity of acknowledging any other aspect than the tender and infinitely gentle love that you get to see.

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social agenda

\\ ENGAGING EMPLOYEES

Engaging Rockstar Employees

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Can you spot the celebrity worker in the office and use her to the firms advantage?
BY TUSHAR KANWAR
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social agenda

ENGAGING EMPLOYEES //

ook around your workplace. Can you spot a celebrity in your midst? You know, that one employee who has tens of thousands of followers on twitter and as many fans on Facebook, many of who care a lot more about what the celebrity has to say on a daily basis than his own boss in office does? The kind who possibly even has a larger online following than your own brand? Thanks to easy access to social media, the celebrity employeeone with a great reputation apart from or in addition to your corporate brandis a very real possibility in many workplaces, and how you engage with such social media rockstars inside the organisation may seriously impact how your business is viewed by the outside world. Its really sometimes comes down to a generational mindset. A number of employees join the workforce with an existing social-media presence cultivated while in college, and thats not something they are likely to abandon. So realise this firsttheir presence on social networks isnt something you can quash or contain. Now more than ever, employees are increasingly working very hard at developing their personal brand, and its perfectly reasonable for them to defend this effort, especially since its quite probable that their following will last for longer than their job with you. Yet, peers can often view their social media presence as dereliction of their required work duties. Moreover, if the employee is seen as representing the company on twitter, the question ariseswho owns the content posted or the followers acquiredthe company or the employee? Theres also the concern that the employee could possibly inadvertently share confidential information, or equally dangerous, a controversial viewpoint which may be traced back to the employer in question, leading to a PR crisis. Thats not even to tread on the possibility of severely inflated egos, team

friction (and inflated compensation expectations) as a by-product of the stardom, or the worst casethey may become a free agent and decide to leave the company for another job, hence taking his or her following along. But dont get me wrongtheres a world of good that can come out engaging such employees in a meaningful manner. Think about it, these folks are the eyes and ears out on the ground, and could be great for identifying leads that could be potential customers for your product or service. Being influencers themselves, they can help identify who the other influencers are in your space, and keep you clued into industry sentiment and insights. Encouraging them to align and associate with your

vertical has its benefits too. One, customers get to connect with a real human face of your organisation, which can positively impact perceptions of your brand and your customer orientation. By virtue of them being well regarded experts in your domain, your organisation is seen as an employer of choice, lending many organisations some much needed credibility which they may have lacked previously. And who can deny that the media coverage from being quoted in industry pieces also brings positive exposure to the company. Right then, so how do you constructively channelise such employees? Clearly, there need to be social media guidelines in place, not only for these employees but the organ-

TIPS AND TOOLS

et opinions count; It is important for your best employee to feel valued and know that his opinion matters. Ask for it regularly, and involve the employee in key decision-making processes. Recognise strengths; Get the most out of what your employee has to offer in skill, talent and expertise, and contribute to their job satisfaction, by placing him in a position where they can use and develop those particular traits. Give freedom; firstly, do not put restraints on your employee and limit the way he is to think and solve problems in the workplace. Allow and encourage him to be himself, creative and free-thinking. Encourage and enable development; Goal-driven employees are very keen on learning, developing skills, and growing. Give them the opportunity to do so, by personally mentoring them, booking them for training courses, sending them to seminars.

Show interest and listen; Though office life can be fast-paced and chaotic, be attentive when your employee speaks to you and raises issues in the workplace that affect him. Be understanding when they are experiencing personal difficulties, giving them room to deal with it. Do not threaten position; Even your star employee can make a mistake somtime. If him for some reason deliver unsatisfactory work, be honest, yet professional about it. Never threaten him with dismissal or cutting their benefits, unless it is really necessary. Reward and appreciate; Your best employee needs to feel valued. Recognise hard work and initiative and reward it with a thank you, public acknowledgement, vacation time or corporate gifts. Employees that feel appreciated are generally more loyal, and become even more of an asset.

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\\ ENGAGING EMPLOYEES BLOG WATCH

isation at large. These could include when your employees should be posting, and how much of their day can be spent on social media with respect to their existing duties. Remember, building an engaged following online can be heady and addictive, so its important you make sure employee output can be measured and these employees are pulling their weight just like everyone else on the team. Of course, if there is an expectation for your celebrity employee to align their presence with yours, there are a couple of additional considerations you must keep in mind. First and foremost, be explicit about who owns what. For instance, lets say you actively encourage an employees social media presence, then there may be issues later over who actually owns the community and the following that was cultivated. Ideally, this is the sort of thing youd want to make clear early in the engagement, preferably before any work has begun, so you end up avoiding any conflicts later in the day. Also, be up front about what the expectations of the involvement arewhere the two brands overlap and what can be done towards mutual benefit, if at all. More importantly, the messaging needs to be clear, to ensure youre not saying different things, or even hindering your marketing efforts. And should a pay-related discussion occuremployees may expect a pay rise in return for access to their followersfocus the discussion on measurable results and outputs, and not just on access. Above all, engage more people in the social media conversations for your company. This way, if one person leaves you wont lose an entire segment of your conversations. And as always, keep the lines of communication open and encourage employees to talk openly about their online profiles and their blogs or postings. At some level, both the management and the employee need each other, more than they often think they do!
Tushar Kanwar, a self-confessed gizmo-holic, is a Bengaluru-based technology freelancer, who's contributed to leading Indian tech publications for years.

G Khamba

Son of Sardar
One of the privileges of my birth is being a token Sikh in social groups that Im part of. It means that every time someone makes a Sikh reference, everyone looks at me for approval. Just like every black person knows every other black person, every Sikh is obviously related! Its a trait that minorities shareat some point, we have been excited to meet another (I met a beggar in Poland who spoke to me about his immigration attempt from Russia to England in Hindi and I wanted to kiss him). This familiarity also has its side effects; having to watch films like Son of Sardar is one of them. Every time a film with a remotely religious slant, minority or otherwise, releases, I secretly bet about the time it will take for some group to pan it. Singh is King and Oh My God! didnt sit well with Hindu groups. Personally, when religious institutions talk about films (depicting them in a negative light) I laugh. Nothing depicts a religion in a more negative light than religion itself. Last month alone, we have had a woman die in Ireland because of laws that prevent abortion, swords being drawn inside a gurdwara by rival factions in Delhi, and a girl being shot by extremists in Pakistanall in the name of religion. However, the brouhaha goes on to show that the medium of film has become an even more crucial space for negotiation and contestation between economics and religious depiction. To show that, I will work with an example of Son of Sardar. Why call it the Son or Sardar in the first place? (Because the Son of Sharma or a Son of Saddam does not have that ring.) Nothing draws a bigger crowd up here in north than a lead who is a Punjabi or Sikh. While purchasing power is a definite factor, films like Son of Sardar fill that political gap of virtually no Sikh representation on the silver screen. As much as Bollywood can use the characteristics that the Punjabi or Sikh community feeds on, in terms of their own representation (i.e. being strong, jovial, taking things into their own hands), it also provides a sense of legitimacy and mainstream acceptance when an Akshay Kumar dons the turban. And representation? I wonder why groups never objected to Jonny Levers representations of being a Sikh in the early 1990s. I will go out on a limb here and guess that during 1990s, the communitys collective consciousness saw itself as a mere sidekick to India. With time, the communitys conception of itself and its own importance has grown. Now we expect and demand a lead representation. But with that come complications. An objection raised against the Son of Sardars opening monologue was that the burden of inventing the maa and bhen ki gaali being placed squarely on the Sikhs. It became an area of contestationnot just on screen but within the community itself (which sometimes takes pride in the same fact). What other representations fall under this venn diagram of mass-commercial entertainer and adequate representation? Language. But how? Especially when Ajay Devgn (playing a Sikh man) uses a few Punjabi words to switch to Hindi for most of the film? How about places of worship? Devgn enquires about a gurdwara but Sanjay Dutt, another Sikh character, goes straight to a temple? As much as I found Son of Sardar intolerable (bad music and tired jokes), as a film it remains important. We see that through its box office success powered by a community still hungry to see itself in the lead, despite slippages in representation. Bollywood has caught on to the formula of the Sikh lead; . I believe this formula will continue to remain successful till the community manages to negotiate its own areas of contestation.

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PLATFORM
VIVEK BHANDARI | Social Scientist

Acknowledging highland systems of governance

ON RECENT VISIT to Nagaland, a place

Democracy at the margins

that conjures up all sorts of disturbing stereotypes among many of us plains people of northern India, I had a number of humbling and clarifying moments. The beauty of this region was breathtaking. I was also moved by the nuanced ways in which the people had evolved their insightful institutions to preserve and harness their land, natural resources, and cultural heritage. It is clear that the Naga people, made-up of over a dozen ethnic groups described as tribes, have historically managed their affairs through processes suited to their environment and cultural roots. And they have done this while negotiating the machinations of a post-colonial government that has failed to evolve a framework for accommodating the cultural complexity of the Northeastern states. Of all I experienced during my stay in Nagaland, perhaps the most striking was the disconnect between the formal institutions of governance created by the Indian government from the 1950s onwards on the one hand, and those that continue to

animate the lives of Naga communities in their day-to-day affairs. The former, which include governmental ministries, civil servants in their ever-proliferating departments, and now the burgeoning manifestations of public-private partnerships, seem to have no meaningful relationship with the Naga village councils, the deliberations that animate the hohos (village assembly halls), and networks of largely Baptist churches that hold sway over communities. There may be alliances between these institutions here and there, but there is little sustained overlap. This disconnect, between the formal legislative and developmental apparatus, and the popular institutions of politics, begs a fundamental question: In whom do the people of Nagaland (and dare I ask, all those who have historically been placed at the topographical and ethnic margins of mainstream democracy) place political legitimacy? My recent travels to Indias Northeast, and soon thereafter, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have amplified this troubling question.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Dr Vivek Bhandari
is a noted historian and former director of the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), a post he took up after spending 15 years in the US. Today he is a keen observer of a dramatically transitioning India

As with the larger history of capitalism, democracy is perhaps characterised by a core-periphery dynamic. In the Indian context, this dynamic plays out in terms of the fundamental hegemony of those ideas that emerge out of the plains, or the populous cities of the lowlands. The highlands, far away from the rough and tumble of mainstream politics, have usually been at the receiving end of the modern states developmental onslaught. It would not be a stretch to argue that Indian policy-makers have generally displayed a plain-centric bias, i.e., in which an understanding of the socioeconomic attributes of plains people has served as the basis for policies often applied universally, and damagingly, in the highlands. The standard justification for this has been framed demographically, i.e., that the largest populations are concentrated in the plains. This is a simplistic view, because it is apathetic to the cultural, ecological, and topographical realities shaping the lives of people living in the highlands. Worse, this bias is fundamentally tilted in favor

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VIVEK BHANDARI //
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platform

Write to us editorial@democraticworld.co.in

of an urban, capital-intensive, and environmentally disruptive notion of progress. Nowhere is this asymmetry between the political imagination of the plains and the highlands more apparent than in the Northeast. For starters, the Northeastern States are very different from each other, leading one to question the foundational rational for the creation of a single Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region in 2001. The needs of a state like Nagaland, which has its own history of ethnic and political marginalisation from the time of Nehrus visit to the region in 1953, are different from those of many other northeastern regions. But the gaze from New Delhi blurs this distinction. Within Nagaland, life in Kohima is radically different from that of the rest of the state; and this would be the case elsewhere in the States of northeastern India. In a similar vein, it is not a stretch to argue that Uttarakhand, with its 12-year long history of political autonomy from Uttar Pradesh, is learning how difficult it is to evolve meaningful developmental models when the prevailing discourses (shaped by the inertia in this regions erstwhile capital Lucknow, and now New Delhi) are based on their limited grasp of the complex relationship between the forests, hills, and people of this new state. Developmental

A book called The Art of Not Being Governed, Yale Universitys James C. Scott argues that people living in the uplands have adopted lifestyles, strategies, and agricultural practices starkly different from those of the plains
initiatives like the MGNREGA, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, or most recently, the UIDAIs Adhaar card system (which is supposed to facilitate direct benefits transfers) pose unique challenges in the highlands not always appreciated by policy makers in the plains. Uttarkhand is learning this the hard way. In an important book published recently called The Art of Not Being Governed, Yale Universitys James C. Scott argues that throughout the world, people living in the uplands have adopted lifestyles, livelihood strategies, and agricultural practices starkly different from those of the plains. More fundamentally, these communities have resisted the formal institutional apparatus of the modern state in remarkable and creative ways because they find it oppressive and impracticable for their needs. Though the book focuses on the countries of Southeast Asia, Scotts chief concern is with the universal upland phenomenon of the cultural refusal of lowland patterns, those dictated by homogenising governmental structures. Intertwined with his description of state avoidance by hill people, Scott also outlines a fundamental critique of conventional notions of agriculture, state formation, and civilisation that, he argues, are largely irrelevant to those who inhabit the upper margins of the modern developmental state. A extrapolation of Scotts analysis would be that village councils of Nagaland (or the zumsas of Sikkim, and other democratic formations in Indias northeastern higlands), which draw sustenance from the immediacy of grassroots engagement and communitarian values, remain vital and legitimate political arrangements for the tribal communities they serve. And with a grand total of one Member of Parliament from the entire state of Nagaland, the cognitive gap between this highland State and New Delhi is unlikely to change any time soon! This notwithstanding, it is gratifying to know that deliberative democracy continues to flourish at Indias margins, whether it does so at its centre or not. (The views expressed in this column are of the author alone)

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looking back

\\ SHARMISTHA MUKHERJEE

PHOTOS BY: SUBHOJT PAUL

RHYTHM OF
LIFE
DEMOCRATIC WORLD

She may be the daughter of one of the most famous fathers in India, but danseuse Sharmistha Mukherjee is happier when people know her for her moves and mudras BY ROHINI BANERJEE

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SHARMISTHA MUKHERJEE R //

looking back

DOSSIER

NAME: Sharmistha Mukherjee PROFESSION: Kathak danseuse, choreographer PRODUCTIONS: She Tales of Ancient Goddesses Badal Baul The Stream of Joy Monsoon Symphony Kathak Prabha WEBSITE: http:// wwwsharmisthamukherjee. com/production.html

espite how cliched it might sound, I have noticed that in most middle-class, Bengali families there is an affinity towards artmost forms of it. Bengali children are encouraged by members of their families (whether a grandparent or an odd uncle or the parents themselves) to be part of muhollah programmes or generic art schools imparting their dose of song-dance-recitation classes. Whether children take up any of the forms later, professionally, is not important to the families. What is essential is a holistic education that balances between scholastic, formal school lessons and a larger, more beneficial, scheme of activities vaguely termed as extra-curricular. I believe it helps children derive a world view not driven by a singular priority. Gladly, I was encouraged to go down the same route by both parents, especially my mother who remains exceedingly fond of Ranbindrasangeet. Though she was never professionally trained, apart from a small stint under an exponent called Sudhir Chandran who is quite a well-known name in Bengali circle within the NCR, she has continued to be a part of programmes out of her own initiative. She formed a group of her ownGeetanjalieventually. Interestingly, she always wanted to be a professional dancer more than a singer. A few generations ago, women from respectable families did not become performing artists, especially a dancer, thus her aspiration was nipped at the bud. Fortunately, by the time I grew up, the taboo was well broken, least to a large extent. Some affairs are love at first sight, some are not. When I was around five my formal training in Kathak began. After a few days I put my foot down and refused to learn. As my teacher would arrive during what I considered to be my play time! Those precious hours after school and before I had to sit down for home work. So the

There are some words that come to my mind when I think of the love of my life speed, rigour, grace, elegance, abstraction and a climatic language through movement. The abstractness in the form lends it a fluidity...
affair ended then. But the love for performance was instilled so deep that it never truly went away. In between I started to perform in presence of my familymy siblings, cousins and friends would put up shows for family during (Durga) pooja holidays. We were encouraged to plan, direct and perform skits, plays or pantomimes. And in between there was also a small stint in which I learnt Kuchipudi which I also enjoyed immensely. My turning point came when I was 12. I saw a magical performance by a maestro, the Late Durgalalji. He was such a master that he managed to capture the heart and imagination of a 12-year-old. Soon, he became my Guruji. That was perhaps the most fateful things to happen to methe fact that I met the man who was so strict and yet full of love for his students, so dedicated to his art. On a day, when he could not conduct the classes personally, he would call me over the phone and ask me to perform. He could judge whether I had practised by hearing the sounds of my feet and ghungroo. I was humbled and terri-

fied by his presence. And he instilled a deep love for Kathak which helped me to manage formal education and rigorous practise (often performing on stage) till I was a postgraduate. All along, my father remained my strongest and most silent supporter. He held some of the most important and busy portfolios for the Central Government and now he is the President of the nation. To me, he is a liberal father, one who has been encouraging all of us in whichever way he could. He was a terribly busy man and barely got to see me perform, but recently, he sat through an entire show. Post performance, he caught me by surprise with his intuitive analysis of each aspect of the show, Rainstorm and Autumn Leaves. It was inspired by a poem by Ranbindranath Tagore which in turn was inspired by Shelleys Ode to the West Wind. For music I had used Vivaldis Four Seasons. In one part of the performance, I had draped a dancer in black cloth to convey a certain tension and conflict. My father felt that was too vague. Even if we are not on the same page as far as our interpretations of dance are concerned, I am infinitely glad that when he is there, he pays me his whole attention. But I digress. I started to perform in my Gurujis troupe, one-and-a-half years after I started under his tutelage. But they were group performances where I would have a small space within the background dancers. My first solo happened when I was in Class XII. In a single word my practise was intensive. As I said before, the days he was not there, he would call me up over the telephone to hear the sounds of the ghungroo. When he taught me, he was so immersed in it, that my mother had to intervene at times and beg him to let me go so that I could finish my homework. I am endlessly thankful that I got him as my Guru. His untimely death in the early 1990s was a blow to me. It was always a task to balance studying and practising dance. I remem-

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looking back

\\ SHARMISTHA MUKHERJEE

ber the only time when my father intervened was when I was about to sit for my final board examinations. Around that time I was also performing with Gurujis troupe. My father called me to his room one day and quietly told me that he would pull no favours to get me anywhere if I did badly in the final tests. At the same time he praised me for my dedication to dance. That pinched my egothat he could even think that I would seek his help. I pulled up my socks and dived into studies for those final months. I continued with my formal education till my postgraduation. I completed my Masters in sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). It makes me strangely content to state that my admission into St Stephens and to JNU was based entirely on merit. And I know that my father derives a lot of pleasure from that as well. Whatever little time that he would spend with us, it would be quality time. That is how he is. My mother, on the other hand, has been a pillar of support. We have performed together. By that I mean that we have been part of the same programme. It is difficult to dance to Ranbindrasangeet and it is to sing for a form like Kathak. There are some words that come to my mind when I think of the love of my life; speed, rigour, grace, elegance, abstraction and a climatic language through movement. The abstractness in the form lends it a fluidity

CASTING A SPELL
FAVOURITE SONGSTERS: Bach and Mozart

School: Lady Irwin College College: St Stephen's, Delhi

which makes it open to all sorts of experimentation and interpretation. Recently, a friend, who is also a well-known musician, and I, were talking about our life and art, and he remarked about how the feet and the ghungroo cannot be heard individually all the time. That lent the idea of the experimentation I did using different forms of ghungroo. As is with all artists, dancers too are struck by ideas at all times. Because all artistes, live and breathe their art if they are truly dedicated. It is that dedication that sometimes helps us to continue despite the long hours, the strenuous practise, the lack of respect and adulation. People ask me whether I grudge the obsession of the Indian populace with popular culture. Well no.

It would be childish to even expect that the two can be comparable. Pavarotti was a genius, but he could never become a Michael Jackson. In fact the two were content being in their individual sets and having their share of fans. Both popular culture (by which I believe people are usually referring to Bollywood and the increasing Bollywoodisation of art) and Indian Classical Art have their audience, the latter a smaller subset, a niche. Indian Classical Art will never become a popular set, perhaps. But artists would rather settle for a small but attentive audience, rather than a large group of distracted individuals. Having said that, it does hurt a bit when organisers call us and do not have the decency to clean up the stage or leave it in a state that is safe for dancers. But the show goes on. As we owe it to the audience and to our art. Especially, to our art.

I wish I would have been....

Would you believe it if I tell you that I always wanted to be an astrophysicist? Those marvellous minds get to travel across the Universe, galaxies, time zones, and through worm holes, thanks to the powerful faculty of their minds. What a cheap way to travel and what lucky people! Unfortunately, I have blundered through mathematics all throughout my life and probably would never had become an astrophysicistbut there are no limits to dreaming, is there?

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RESERVATION //

issue

Quota Fury;

issue | A closer look at reservation in promotion

The Real Picture

In December 2012, the Lok Sabha witnessed a repeated uproar before the quota in promotion bill was to be taken up for consideration, with the Samajwadi Party members storming the Well in protest against the measure. As Lok Sabha reassembled at noon after an adjournment soon after question hour began, SP members again trooped into the Well raising slogans against the Constitution (117th Amendment) Bill, which provides for quota in promotions for SCs and STs in government jobs.
BY ROHINI BANERJEE

QUOTA

WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD? The Bill will need

the support of a twothirds majority in both Houses of Parliament as it seeks to amend the Constitution. It entails a vote and the House has to be in order. Mayawati, who heads the Bahujan Samaj Party, is now making focused efforts to get political parties to cooperate and allow a discussion and vote on the bill. She has met BJP leaders to seek their support.

At that time, the Centre had planned to introduce in the Rajya Sabha, a bill to allow reservation in promotions of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in government jobs. The Union Cabinet cleared a proposal that seeks to amend four key articles of the Constitution to make that possible. Amending the Constitution became necessary after the Supreme Court, in April 2012, struck down a decision made by former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati to provide reservation for SC and STs in promotion to higher posts in government departments. At an all-party meeting in August, most political formations supported quota in reservations. But Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati has warned the government that any law on the reservations issue should be framed with extreme caution because it is likely to be legally challenged. The UPA then requested the Opposition party, the BJP, to help pass the Bill; the BJP disallowed either House to function for 10 days demanding the Prime Ministers resignation in connection with a coal scandal. But the party admitted that it supports the reservation-in-promotions Bill. When it quashed the Mayawati decision, the Supreme Court had questioned this criterion for promotion, saying the government needed to quantify

that Dalits and backwards were insufficiently represented in the public services and therefore needed this quota. The court had said that three aspects needed to be looked into for reservations in promotions: backwardness, representation and overall administrative efficiency. Constitutional expert P.P. Rao said if the government brought in amendment without curing the defects pointed out by the Supreme Court then it may not stand legal scrutiny. On December 17, 2012, a Constitution Amendment Bill providing for quota for SCs and STs in government job promotions was passed by the Rajya Sabha with an overwhelming vote of 206 in the 245-member House. Around 10 votes were polled against the proposed legislation, which was strongly opposed by UPA ally Samajwadi Party but pushed by another supporter BSP. DW spoke to two experts, professor and social activist Kancha Ilaiah, who has been talking about Dalit rights for years now, and Anand Kumar, professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University. We quizzed them on five pointsthe merit of the decision, the disadvantages and advantages, and the blow to meritocracy (if any). Here is what they had to say.

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issue

\\ RESERVATION

Professor, Activist

KANCHA ILAIAH

Kancha Ilaiah is an Indian activist and writer. His books include Why I am not a Hindu, God As Political Philosopher: Buddha's challenge to Brahminism, and Critique of Spiritual Fascism. He is a member of the Dalit Freedom Network

KANCHA ILAIAH// How do we decide wheth-

er a habit is healthy or not? If it is a personal one, whether it is or not, it does not matter. However, when it is a social one, it needs to be scrutinised. Practising caste discrimination is a social habit of (so-called) uppercaste officials, whether at the entry-level or at the promotional level. In every office there are methods of discriminationpromotions may be governed by qualifications, but these qualifications are acquired or are given to only upper-caste employees, through caste preferential treatment. Those who head offices, by and large, are upper

caste officials with a casteist mindset. While writing confidential reports, while allotting grades in service records, while sitting in selection committeesthe mindset swings in favour of certain candidates. In order to see that biased promotions are not allowed, reservations, even in promotions, is a must. At least, thanks to the rule, people will not be able to stop other people within that quota from getting promoted. Until we abolish the caste system altogether, habits which emanate from it, cannot be changed. As for the question of whether this move is dictated by the vote bankpeoples life

and dignity cannot be judged from the point of view of votes alone. There are some issues that are not judged by the point of view of votes alone. Everyone seeks the right to education. Dominant upper castes are not afraid of peoples votes. They are afraid of a civil war breaking out on caste linesif some perks are not granted to all sections. Honestly, a job in a government office, especially in India, is not meant for public good. It meant for private enrichmenta benefit. Why should this benefit not go to the SCs, STs and the OBCs? As for the disadvantages, what are we talking about? Reservation has all the advantages for the SCs, STs and the OBCs, and all the disadvantages for the upper castes. In future, there is the possibility that upper castes may be displaced from decision-making positions which would, largely, be an advantage for the nation. Because the nation does not need the upper-caste gluttony. A nation needs productivity and creativity. Both will be available with the SCs, STs and the OBCs. As for the question of whether there would be dilution of merit, let me ask youis there meritocracy within the upper castes? Where do you find the rule of meritocracy in this country? What kind of bureaucracy do we have? Where is merit in this system? Where does our system stand in comparison with other nations? A ruling class or caste which practices untouchbility has no right to talk about merit. If the SCs, STs and the OBCs come into the places or positions that the so-called upper-caste intellectuals occupy, they cannot spoil the meritlessness of our country, which has hit the rock bottom anyway. How can anybody take the system lower than what it is today? The Indian media should stop talking about merit at all. Only a truly-intellectual class that strives to improve lives of the poorest of the poor should be allowed to talk of merit. How can a so-called intellectual class which created untouchability issues in the first place, talk about merit? In the future, the SCs, STs and the OBCs will give a different meaning to merit which will hold true for all people, irrespective of caste.

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ANAND KUMAR
ANAND KUMAR// This topic needs to be

explored publicly by those who support or oppose it. More than the reservation issue, this decision to amend the Constitution, questions the workings of three institutions of the democracythe legislative, judiciary and political. There was an old practice of granting promotion based on reservation criterion in bureaucracy in certain states of the country. A few people went on and complained regarding the legality of the situation to the Supreme Court. It asked governments to stop the practice till factual ground realities were presented before the court for consideration. Instead of presenting the ground realities of actual disproportion or discrimination based on facts, the central government decided to go for Constitutional Amendment bypassing the judiciary. This decision has been taken on a flimsy ground and it is not going to do good to the countryor to the people who support reservation on grounds of egalitarian ideas and justice. If you bypass judiciary in favour of legislature, then in these days of coalition governments, any group can take advantage of it, and move towards amendments which may dismantle the judicial regime. People should not be happy about the fact that the judiciary was bypassed for ensuring reservation in promotion for a handful of senior officials, who were not necessarily that kind of victims for who the idea was initiated 65 years from today. As for the question of meritocracy, thats another area where we need factual understanding from both sides. Bureaucracy and meritocracy are not necessarily converging all the time. We need some technocrats to guide the meritocrat in any case. The way the state of India is; a person (bureaucrat) could be a general manager of Steel Authority of India, tomorrow might be looking after a Model Bakery, and day after he may be running the railways. There is little connection between authority, responsibility and meritocracy in India. The training, on basis of which the bureaucrats are performing their duties, falls within the frame of law. They are not running a lab through which new technologies will be implement-

ed. They are not scientists of our missile centresthe meritocracy argument is not that strong. What is strong is the question of inner harmony within the bureaucracy itself. Because between two people, the process of promotion will be available on basis of their birth that situation would lead to a reaction. Colleagues will anyway see an SC, ST or an OBC candidate to have entered with an advantageeither relaxed merit or age. If you are on a job for the 30 years, by then one should not need protection of the state to do better. Perhaps, there are people who are bright and just because they belong to a certain caste, face barriers built by the so-called upper-caste dominated bureaucratic system. But the SCs, STs and the OBCs, are just 22.5 per cent of the people. The rest of the population, it needs to be said, also need to be recognised, and incidentally they may belong to the dominant castes which may not always be the upper caste. So granting only 22.5 per cent the chance to do better will not help the nation. Granted that there may be instances when certain castes gang up against others, but to prevent that, governments need to step in and ensure that merits and only that leads to promotion. Why is the government shying away from its job? It was the job of the UP government, and its honourable chief minister, to ensure that all her people got jobs. Why was she sitting on this judgment when she could have produced facts. It is somewhat of an open secret that there

Professor, JNU

Anand Kumar has an MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University and is a PhD from the University of Chicago. He has been teaching for the past 30 years since 1979. His areas of interest include, political sociology, media and communication and social thought and globalisation
is a mismatch between the governments claims and the reality. It is irresponsible politics to intervene with the Constitution for the whim of a handful who have created a nexus of politicians and bureaucrats. This is going to hurt the purity of thought that goes into the idea of reservation for those who need it today, tomorrow and after.

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SIDDHARTHA VAIDYANATHAN | Sports Journalist

PLATFORM

Apocalypse, but can India survive Sachins retirement?

Master Blaster bids adieu The world survived the

GROWN up Indian men, their stubbles

haggard, are weeping copious tears. Pot-bellied uncles, who have seen their share of lifes challenges, are walking around like disoriented wrecks. Many are spending their Christmas pouring over YouTube videos from the past, clips that reveal to them hidden secrets from the past. All this could only mean one thing. Sachin Tendulkar has retired from one-day cricket without anything even remotely resembling a notice period. There is no motorcade for the greatest one-day career of them all. There is not even a press conference. The news breaks via the official BCCI Twitter handle, after which there are some cursory statements from BCCI honchos. The selectors dont say anything about Tendulkar when they pick the one-day team for the forthcoming series against Pakistan. Rumor mills are on overdrive. A conspiracy theory suggests that Tendulkars retirement is a strategic distraction from the mass protests triggered by a gangrape in Delhi.

Others think hes been forced into retirement by the selectors, thereby denying him a farewell series. Its time to retire from watching cricket, says a tweet, echoing many others. Its time one-dayers are retired from the sport, says another. These irrational reactions must tell us something. A living, breathing, cultural phenomenon will no longer swirl around the countrys TV screens. We have seen the last of Amitabh Bachchan in a blue jersey, Rajinikanth with a bat and Shah Rukh Khan in an India helmet. Such was his aura. Tendulkar is yet to retire from Test cricket and he may continue to play for another series. Or maybe another year or two. One can never be sure. Yet his departure from the one-day format carries with it a lasting significance for Tendulkar owned the one-day game like none other. Viv Richards had the dominance but not the longevity, Javed Miandad the cunning but not the versatility, Michael Bevan the dog-

Author

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
is a writer who divides his time between India and the US. He blogs at sidveeblogs. wordpress.com

gedness but not the chutzpah. Tendulkar had it all. He adapted to the vagaries of the one-day game. He knew how to anchor the middleorder and ushered in a paradigm shift when he was promoted to open. He had a more-than-handy record with the ballbowling medium-pace, offspin and legbreaksand was, for most parts, an electric outfielder. Some of his catches and run-outs turned games. His records will remain unmatched. While it is conceivable that another cricketer gets close to 51 Test hundreds, it is impossible to imagine anyone scoring 49 in the shorter format. That is simply outrageous, a record so far out of range as Bradmans Test average (of 99.94) is from the rest. Nobody in their right minds is going to get anywhere close to the 18,426 runs he has made in ODIs; nobody is going to even attempt it. But records can tell you only so much. Tendulkars influence runs far beyond numbers. Indians of a certain

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SIDDHARTHA VAIDYANATHAN//

platform

Virat Kohli was speaking for a generation of cricket fans, the same set who will now have to grapple with the massive void that Tendulkars exit has left in their lives

vintage have most of his one-day career etched in his memory. Wake them up in the middle of the night and they will tell you exactly when and against who Tendulkar struck a particular six. Remind them of Henry Olonga in Sharjah and their mind will turn to Tendulkar smashing him around the park; say Brett Lee in Sydney and they will describe the blistering drives that Tendulkar played. Tendulkar is also the reason many people have missed the final part of many one-day games. When Tendulkar got out in a run-chase, many spectators, consigned to defeat, witched off the TV sets. When he was out in the Natwest Series final in 2002with India at 146 for 5 chasing 326Mohammad Kaifs parents left their home to watch the newlyreleased Devdas. A few hours later they were being interviewed by TV channels. Kaif and Yuvraj Singh had led India to an improbable win. Tendulkar began his one-day career in whiteshe even sported a white helmet in his first few series. He

went on to wear various shades of blue, ranging from the azure in an early series in New Zealand, the dark navy blue at the 1992 World Cup, the sky blue in the 1996 World Cup, all the way to the bright bleeding blue in the 2011 World Cup. He has ridden the waves of change of the last twenty three years and has constantly adaptedor sometimes initiated the changein a rapidly changing format. But Tendulkars most lasting legacy will remain how he inspired so many young kids to take up the game in the first place. Ten members of Indias World Cup winning squad, most of whom formed the core, were between 27 and 32. Almost all of them were drawn to cricket because of Tendulkar. Many have talked about idolising him in their impressionable years and revealed how they picked up heavy batsthe kind that he usesbefore exchanging them for lighter ones. Mahendra Singh Dhoni once said most of the cricket he watched as a kid was restricted to Tendulkars bat-

ting. He also said how he stopped watching the 2003 World Cup final between Australia and Indiathe moment Tendulkar got out. This is how deeply Tendulkar has been ingrained in the young Indian psyche, this is how integral he has been to the development of the generation that followed. Which is why the most memorable part of the 2011 World Cup celebrations was when Virat Kohli, after chairing Tendulkar and parading him around the stadium, said to the TV cameras: Tendulkar has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years. It is time we carried him on our shoulders. Kohli wasnt just speaking for himself. He was speaking for a generation of cricket fans, the same set who will now have to grapple with the massive void that Tendulkars exit has left in their lives. For these millions from the Tendulkar generation, watching Indias one-day matches in the near future will no doubt be one heck of a challenge. (All views expressed in this column are of the author)

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good karma
\\ SAMRIDDHII

THE LONE GRAM

Kaushlendra Kumar, the subzeewala of Patna is all set to revolutionise the vegetable market of Bihar
BY MANJIRI INDURKAR

THE OVEN
F
riends, readers and countrymen, let me tell you a story. A story of a young boy who lived far away in a small village of Bihar, called Mohammadpur. This young boy was the son of a poor farmer, he went to a government school, his books werent brand new and his school bag was a home-stitched polythene bag. When at home, our young boy and his family sat on jute sacks, they couldnt afford couches. Life was an everyday struggle for this boy. In these circumstances, you wont be surprised if I told you that, the young boy who is a grown up man today, sells vegetables in the big city of Patna.

WHO BUST

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good karma
SAMRIDDHII //

Founder

FOUNDER NAME: Kaushlendra Kumar FOUNDED IN: 2007 ORGANISATION NAME: Samriddhii WEBSITE: www.kaushalyafoundation.org

What is so special about this story, you ask? Why am I bothering all you good readers with this mundane story of every third Indian? It is because this subzeewala is no ordinary man. This is the story of Kaushlendra Kumar. Some four years back this man caught the nations eye when he decided to sell vegetables instead of taking up a high-end job, after passing out from the Indian Institute of Technology Ahmadabad. His aim was to organise the vegetable markets of Bihar. To create a process in which the farmers could directly sell their produce to the vendors. For someone who had spent most of his life in poverty, getting through a premier institute like IIM meant big job, good money and a gateway to a better life. So then, it was obvious that his family and other villagers would not take his decision of becoming a vegetable vendor very nicely. He informs us that when he told his parents about his plans a lot of drama ensued. My mother cried for months, I was an outcast for a very long time, he adds with a chuckle. But Kumar had his reasons. While he was in Gujarat (he did his graduation in agricultural engineering and post graduation both from Gujarat) a lot of his fellow students looked

down upon him for being a Bihari. I was a topper in my engineering college, I got the maximum number of gold medals one could, but at the end of the day I was just a Bihari, he tells us. It was then that he decided that once he is done with his education, he will work towards building a brand Bihar. The only question was, how? After completing his education, he put his focus on the unorganised vegetable markets in Bihar. Belonging to a farmers family he was always aware of the exploitation that the farmer community suffered under the hands of the middlemen, the zamindars and the vendors. Therefore taking matters in his hands to improve the situation seemed like the inevitable to Kumar. Moreover, very early in his life, he had learnt the value of an established network. In the year 1989, when Kumar was a little boy, there were floods in Bihar. The flood water washed away the only rail track that connected Mohammadpur to the rest of Bihar. This event changed the lives of the farmers. Though his village was just 26km away from the city, the bad roads made the 30 minute trip a six hour journey. The farmers could not sell their produce in time, and suffered big losses. When the now Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar became the railways minister, he rebuilt the network, and life became much better. Kumar was a silent spectator of this change. In his mind he had understood the value of organisation. Geared with his Masters degree and some `1.5 lakh, he started Samriddhii. From the beginning, he knew what he had to do; with the confidence that the IIM course had instilled with him, he knew he could do anything. After overcoming the first hurdle, which was convincing his family, he set out to jump the second one. He just had a paltry sum in his hand and a project like this one required huge investment. So he started frequenting the Punjab National Bank with the project file in his hand. They ignored his application for a long time, but after a while

they got tired of seeing his face every day and finally decided to sanction his loan. Now that he had his initial investment of some `85 lakh, the third step and the most important one was to convince the farmers. He repeated the same process here. He went and met the farmers every day. The farmers are nave people, they start believing anyone who meets them regularly, he says, and then pauses to quote Gandhi First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win. And win he did. He began with a network of 300 farmers and today more 5,000 farmers work with him. The process is simple; the state has been divided into zones. Each zone has a collection centre where the vegetables collected from the farmers are cleaned and sent to the packaging and distribution centre in Patna. Here the vegetables are packaged, sealed, bar coded and finally sent to the vendors. We sell branded vegetables, we dont sell local vegetables, says a proud Kumar. The first day of work, he barely managed to make a sale of `22, and his first annual turnover was merely 7Lac rupees. But today, his annual turnover exceeds `5 crore. Though he informs us that the profit rates are low, hardly one or two per cent, but more than the profit what they are doing is changing the social infrastructure of Bihar and changing the lives of the Biharis. Kaushlendra Kumar is an ordinary man with an extraordinary story. He speaks in broken English, is dismissive of his achievements, quotes Gandhi now and then and regrets letting his parents down. If you ask him of his plans for the rest of the country, he tells you in his cut-throat honest manner that he set out to build a brand Bihar and thats what he will do all his life. There is a proverb in Hindi akela chana bhad nahi phod sakta (meaning: a lone gram cant bust the oven), Kaushlendra Kumar proves it wrong. The world, or Bihar at least, has found its lone gram who has bust the oven will continue doing so till he can.

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READING ROOM

Give me your turban and take my veil, Give me the sword so that the matter will be dealt with.
Ms Asefi Nasrat
Author

It is an honest and important political project, albeit not a literary one. Read it, for these voices have never been heard before
BY MANJIRI INDURKAR

Poetry of the Taliban

THE POETRY of Taliban, which is a

collection of poems, picked up and translated from the Taliban website is an intriguing book. One never thought that one could juxtapose the two words poetry and Taliban. So when I heard about this book, my first instinct was "I want to read it." But, when I actually got down to reading the book, I was disappointed. It is not the kind of poetry that would make you think; it is not powerful enough. In fact, for me, it is not a book of poetry at all. Having said that, it is unfair to judge a poem based on its translations. Like most translations, this book too lacks beauty and depth. Therefore, it won't be wrong to put the blame on the translators Mirwais Rahmany and Hamid Stanikzai. And to a great extent, on the editors Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn. Had they paid more heed to the poems and looked at them as important pieces of Afghan literature, things would have been different. The question that arises here is: how do you look at a book such as this one? For starters, put that literary critic in you to sleep; he is not needed here. Then with an unbiased mind read each

poem as you might be reading a personal diary. One needs to write a diary with honesty; it should be straight from the heart. Poetry of Taliban is nothing if not honest and heartfelt. Despite its failings, what makes it an important book, is the fact that it puts a human face to Taliban. It brings to light the agony, frustration and tragedy of life in Afghanistan. When one thinks of Taliban the words that come to mind are war, terrorism, death but not poetry, not compassion, not peace, and not freedom. And this is what this book does. It makes you empathise with the Afghans. There are satirical poems where they criticize Karzai and accuse him of selling their country for a few dollars, then there are poems which reflect their resentment towards their own countrymen earning in dollars. There are poems which show their obsession with religion and God. And the sense of self-pity comes out all too often. Malalai of Maiwand, a national folk hero of Afghanistan who rallied the Pashtun army against the British troops at the 1880 Battle of Maiwand, often finds mention in the poems; it is, therefore, ironic that there is just one woman

ABOUT THE BOOK

Book: Poetry of the Taliban Author: Taliban Poets Translators: Mirwais Rahmany and Hamid Stanikzai Publisher: Hachette India ISBN: 9350095025 Price: `499

poet in whole collection. Faisal Devji in his foreword writes: " recent history of Afghan struggles against Soviet or American invasion has produced no more heroines of this kind (Referring to Malalai); though the bravery and fortitude of unnamed women who typify the county's indomitable spirit continues being praised in the Taliban's poetry." While this does hold true for the book, it somehow comes across as an attempt of projecting a modern image of Taliban. Nothing wrong in doing that, however it becomes increasingly difficult to put your trust Faisal's foreword when you think that just a few months back a 15 year old Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen for being "the symbol of the infidels and obscenity". Literary luminaries like Mohammed Hanif and William Dalrymple who have been generous in lavishing praise over the book partly share the blame for the failure of this book as well. "This extraordinary collection is remarkable as a literary project uncovering a seam of war poetry few will know ever existed and presenting to us for the time the black turbaned

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Translations are not about words. They are about what the words are about.
Nataly Kelly

reading room
CRITICS & AUTHORS //

Wilfred Owens of Wardak," writes Dalrymple, in his testimony for the book. After reading the collection, one can only agree to disagree with Dalrymple. Afghan literature, I hope with all my heart is more than this collection of 235 poems. This is no way a remarkable literary project; at best it serves

as a footnote in the history of Afghan literature. However, it also holds true that is the first and the only sample of Afghan literature available to the rest of the world. This is why, it deserves a read. So that better editors and better translators can do justice to real poetry of Tali-

ban. This is not a collection of poetry; this is Taliban's plea to be understood, to be seen as human. Read it not for the verse, but to get a however lopsided view of the other side of Taliban, because honestly, before this anthropology got published, you didn't know that this view existed.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Nataly is Chief Research Officer at Common Sense Advisory, an independent market research firm. A former Fulbright scholar, Nataly is a certified court interpreter (Spanish). Jost Zetzsche is an English-German translator, a consultant in the fields of localisation and translation, and a writer on technical solutions for translation Book: Found in Translation ISBN: 978-0-39953797-4 Publishers: Penguin Group (USA) Price: $16

Found in Translation
How language shapes our lives and transforms the world BY ROHINI BANERJEE

IS IT A COINCIDENCE that

the month in which the DW team decided to decode the poetry of the Taliban, Found in Translationa book that re-emphasises the worth of translations, and the work of translators and interpretorsmakes its way on our reading list? Poetry of the Taliban left us with a niggling feeling that we were unable (or simply failed sometimes) to grasp the angst behind words and lines; that the pain of the people was lost in poor translation. Found in Translation reiterated that belief. The book begins with strong lines. Translation. It's everywhere you look, but seldom seen. This book will help you find it. That is a tall claim. So, does the book help its readers to locate the authenticity of the claim? Yes, it does. Through excellent examples told lucidly with the help of recent global inventions, disasters and phenomena, it makes a strong point in favour of translators and interpreters; a unique breed who are overlooked by academics, critics and media. Those who love reading know the need (yes, the sheer need) of accurate translations especially in the present context when there is fevered academic discussions surrounding the first

line of Albert Camus' The Outsider (the one in which the protagonist Meursault finds out about his mother's death). Global literature scene would have been barren indeed, if countries could not share fabulous writers and songsters. Here's a pop quiz; do we think of translators and their work when we think (we beg your pardon) a boob job, or why Japanese men get heart shaped candies on Valentine's Day and why exactly did HSBC cough up $10 million to re-brand? Found in Translation talks of incidents in which mistranslations cost millions, even changed popular customs and how cosmetic tourism is shaped by the work of the peculiar breed who helps us to communicate. There are times we tend to forget that we live in a multilingual world. This book is a reminder that we are indeed slaves to interpretation. In a world where democratisation of ideas is a necessity, and a communication battle is being fought everyday, interpreters are the foot soldiers without who the battle would be half-won. A small point in favour of the easy read, the font and cover design is pretty marvellous. It makes the book a greater delight to read.

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WARE

HOUSE

Our pick of the boldest, bravest and craziest gadgets. Glance through the Warehouse page and check them out. Happy hunting!

GOLDGENIE IPHONE 5
` 1.5 LAKH

The recently launched iPhone5 is quite an expensive gadget as it is (in India, at least), but there are a few who can resist the idea of coating the device with the precious yellow metal making it even more exclusive. Available in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities and factory unlocked, the gold iPhone 5 from Goldgenie comes with its back, sides and buttons touting 24karat layers of the precious metal. Apart from all the regular Apple bells and whistles, the gold-plated iPhone 5 comes with a plush piano-finish box. It is not too expensive either, only `1.5 lakh

Goldgenie iPhone 5

NOKIA ACQUIRES EARTHMINE

Nokia completed the acquisition of 3D street-level imaging specialist Earthmine, that will help it boost its digital mapping service even more. What are you waiting for, hit the road.

WOW TURNS 8
Blizzard Entertainment celebrated eight years of World of Warcraft by giving away free in-game gifts to players before December 1

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GADGE TS & GIZMOS //

warehouse

IPAD MINI CASE

`3.8 CRORE

If youre a rich early adopter of the recently launched Apple iPad mini, for `3.8 crore, you can have an authentic and exclusive case designed by The Natural Sapphire Company that will definitely make heads turn. This ultra-expensive iPad mini case has an 18-karat white gold body studded with 3,328 natural Ceylon blue sapphires, while 50 diamonds embellish the Apple logo. If you ever needed one very good reason to break the bank, here it is, and what are you waiting for?

PRESTIGE HD
SUPREME `13.2 CRORE

Latest in the world of mindless splurging and excesses is the PrestigeHD Supreme television for filthy-rich digital enthusiasts! All we know for sure is that its a 55-inch flat-screen LCD TV. However, every other tech specification pales in comparison to these next few words. The TV has a base and outer frame with 28 kg of handcrafted, solid 18-karat gold... and also fitted with 72 glittering diamonds. A variant of this model from Stuart Hughes also has the TV screens inner layer stitched with alligator skin. Its price? A whopping `13.2 crore!!

DALLMEIER SWAROVSKI IP CAMERA

You want to keep thieves out of your jewellery store, encase your surveillance camera in hundreds of Swarovski crystals. The camera doesnt only look beautiful, but has 1/3rd DPS image sensor and Camin PIX technology. Price: `1.1 lakh

GIGABYTE SWAROVSKI GM-M7800S

You need this Gigabyte wireless mouse with a brown-leather exterior and Swarovski crystals. The mouse deploys advanced laser tracking, on-the-fly 1600 by 800 adjustable DPI and an ultra-portable nano-receiver.

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GARNISH
PHOTOS BY OLD WORLD HOSPITALITY

Treat to your tastebuds:

The Roast Scallops Balchao; [below] wholemeal and samolina puchkas

Served with Nostalgia

Chef Manish Mehrotra is trying to revive the lost ingredients with his eccentric style

BY MANJIRI INDURKAR

n my small tenure as a journalist, the chefs who I have interviewed, have had one thing in common: most were inspired by mothers or grandmothers, and in some cases, even their fathers. But the Indian Accent Chef Manish Mehrotra is not like them. The moment you ask him about what propelled him to be a chef, pat comes the reply, Mine was not one of those stories inspired by a mother or a grandmother. It was a decision and a choice. Good for us that he did decideIndian Accent, as we know it, is one of the most popular restaurants in Delhi, and more importantly, it is one of the eccentric and interesting ones. Where else can you get flavoured candy-floss (buddhi ke baal)? That is not it; Indian Accent also serves the delightfully-tasty Phantom cigarettesmint-flavoured candies which parents never bought you and yet the coolest kid in school always had a pack. People get down Rolls-Royces and ask for Phantom cigarettes. There is a sense of nostalgia attached to the brand. It makes

us feel like kids again, says the man who strives to keep small things of our pasts, alive. If your mother was anything like mine, she probably raised you on chavanprash. We have all had chavanprash with warm milk or made a topping of it on a Monaco biscuit. But who would have thought of a cheese cake using chavanprash? Mehrotra did. It sounds bizarre, I know. But chavanprash is one of those things that will vanish in one or two decades. We want to keep it alive, and hence the experiment. People, who come to dine, make a face when we suggest it to them, but they always order it. It is not a strong flavour, it is your regular cheese cake, with a hint of chavanprash, as an

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MANISH MEHROTR A //

garnish

CHEF OF THE MONTH

Chef Manish Mehrotra is the Executive Chef of Indian Accent. After graduating from the Institute of Hotel Management, Mumbai, he joined the Taj Group of Hotels and worked in the Thai Pavilion, after which he joined the Old World Hospitality where he still works. He was the winner of a NDTV Goodtimes show in 2012 and will soon publish a cook book of his recipes

aftertaste, explains Mehrotra. Mehrotra is one of those chefs, who have constantly kept away from media glare. He is not seen in Page-3 parties, nor is he found giving too many interviewsyet his popularity continues to rise. The reason; his style. He might be a seasoned chef today, but the hands who hardened him were the chefs at Thai Pavilion of The Taj Group. He informs us that the years he spent in Taj were the best (and the worst) years of his life. Chefs would yell at me thousand times a day. When I messed up, they would wait for my shift to get over, and would ask me to do the dishes or dirty work, says the man, who now is the Executive Chef at the Indian Accent. We were learning to extract coconut milk; and my chefs would make us repeat the process throughout the day. So much so, that my hand would be moving in the same motion during sleep! he admits with a laugh. He did learn a lot in those days. Today, he admits to breaking into evil laughter, while giving his current juniors a hard time in the kitchen. After a hearty conversation with Mehrotra, it is hard to believe that he is capable of giving anyone a hard timebut he apparently is. Why is it that chefs are full of torture storieswe wanted to know. Mehrotra explains that a kitchen is a like an orchestra. Even if a single instrument is out of tune, the music becomes a cacophony. The moment an order comes in, every unit of the kitchen

Delightful Duck: The Duck Tawa Khurchan [top] and the Old Monk Rum Balls [below]

starts working in tandem. If even a small unit makes a mistake, then it will resonate with the whole kitchen orchestra. This is why the otherwise sweet chefs become devils in their kitchen. They cannot let anyone make mistakes. While he does owe the most of his lessons to Taj chefs, he also owes something extra, something

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garnish

// MANISH MEHROTR A

perhaps a little more important than all the learning. He met his wife while working at the Thai Pavilion. She used to work at the Konkan Caf which was right across the Thai Pavilion. While he shies away from sharing his story, he does tell us that he fell in love with her while working there. We were curious to knowwho was the better chef? He is quick to tell us that his wife is, but now she cooks at home. After working with the Taj Group for five years, he joined the Old World Hospitality Group, a company he has been associated with for 11 years now. Before the group started their most popular restaurant Indian Accent they sent Mehrotra to London, which he calls the culinary capital of the world. It was like leaving a kid in the candy store. London had so many cuisines to offer, I went crazy there. More importantly, the kue ka mendhak in me died a royal death. After his return, he started the Indian Accent, possibly the craziest kitchen of the country. Where else will you find foie gras stuffed galawat, masala miso Scottish salmon, masala wild mushrooms or achaari New Zealand lamb shank? Indian Accent, like its Chef, is a fine balance of the desi and the international. He claims that he can survive on mushroom risotto, and craves for the thele wala noodles occasionally. He loves his coconut and his garlic. He cant do without his choppers, and cringes at the sight of a beetroot. When asked about the best compliment he has received so far, he shyly admits that women often come to him to say, I want to take you home. Then he breaks into laughter. While most Chefs of his stature are planning their own restaurants or have already opened

Grab that Crab: The soft shell crab, cooked with flame roast coconut and served with tomato pickle chutney

KING OF FUSION

Chef's Corner: Only food lovers make for good chefs, says the man

Bit of Desiness: The chef knows how to blend the Indian with the international

Amazing Aamras: Served with homemade coconut jaggery icecream

them, Mehrotra tries to keep away from such things. He says that if he starts his own restaurant, then his focus will move away from food, and hell start concentrating more on the mundane things that make a restaurant work. He says that once he retires, he will be out of the grind. We do not have to worry about that for now. There will be a long time before that happenstill then we all can sit back and enjoy the amazing food plated with a bit of nostalgia and a lot of passion.

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HITCH
PHOTOS BY RAJIV BHAKAT

HIKER
Walled Fort:

Inside the Bhangarh Fort

Welcome to the spookiest Indian town. Two mad men made a visit and lived to tell the tale

Tale of a Rustic Haunting

BY RAJIV BHAKAT

ut is it haunted? my friend Ram asked as we discussed whether to embark on a road trip to Bhangarh, other factors appeared secondary. As we started our research about the abandoned city located between Jaipur and Alwar, legends emerged. There was the tale of an ancient sadhu, a holy man, who resided near where the city fortress was founded. He permitted the city to be built with the provision that its construction should not disturb him. He demanded that not even a shadow of the buildings erected should fall on his abode. The city was built and populated with his blessing but as time went by the rulers forgot their promise and continued to expand upwards. When the shadow fell on the sadhus home, he cursed it to a terrible fate. Disasters followed. The city was shortly abandoned as the tallest structures crumbled, demonstrated today by the fact that the royal palace located at the highest point is now a four-storey structure with three of

its top stories having collapsed. Then there is the tale of the princess who died after being cursed by a tantric, a practitioner of black magic, which led to the demise of the city. The ruins of Bhangarh apparently wait for her rebirth and return.

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HIKER OF THE MONTH

An architect, the author Rajiv Bhakat also doubles up as an amateur photographer, visiting college professor, writer, movie fanatic, videogamer, traveller and professional time waster. After nine years in the United States, he returned to India to start his practice in Delhi with his closest friends

Others give less supernatural explanationsperpetual battles with neighborsbut legends aside, there are plenty of anecdotes from visitors and villagers of disembodied noises including anklets clinking in the darkness. Some claim to have seen apparitions, others have noted ghostly lights. Visitors claim to have been depressed to the point of tears for no reason inside the palace and some felt invisible hands holding them. Stories have led Bhangarh to be listed online as one of the most haunted places in India. Investigators of the supernatural have delved into the ruins. The romance of Bhangarh tales was undeniable. Ram, my companion on this tour and a writer, wanted to experience a genuine haunting. As an architect enamored by history, I am easily smitten by ruins. We decided that there was only one way to know the truth about Bhangarh. Driving, we went from Delhi to Alwar in a few hours which presented itself as a dusty township. It appeared to be a city which has rapidly progressed from the medieval to the slightly banal modern. The imposing Bala Kila Fort, was visible from several places and we resisted the temptation to drive up in lieu of more ghost hunting. Later, we explored the bustling Kalakand Market near Hope Circus and gorged on Alwars most famous sweet. Varieties available were impressive; the sweet itself was gorgeous. We stopped briefly at our hotel where we were amused when we ambled into the gift shop. Like avid tourists we asked to see what was local and were promptly offered printed T-shirts with Bob Marley prints. When further prompted, the shopkeeper

Haunted House: (Above) One of the broken walls at the Bhangarh Fort. Nature has reclaimed most of the land

declared us to be men of the world and surreptitiously fished out Kama Sutra-themed playing cards. Soon after we left we were at the Sariska Forest Reserve; tiger country! We were politely informed that we could not drive through the reserve. The highway rapidly

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hitchhikers guide
BHANGARH //

deteriorated into a broken path and our city car was virtually challenged off the road. Our pace became sluggish and tempers frayed as we spent more than an hour grinding through a 10km stretch ignoring the jungle around us. Traffic thinned the further we drove away from Alwar. After Thana Gazi, it virtually disappeared. Our enthusiasm started to wane with the realisation that we were possibly lost on a desolate stretch while going to a ghost town with the possibility of light fadingalmost appeared that we were driving into a clichd horror movie scene. When we finally reached Bhangarh, we were tired but raring to go on. The first thing one notices about Bhangarh Fort is that despite being a tourist spot, it presents itself as isolated even from the nearby village. Locals shun the fort at night. The Archeological Survey of India prohibits entry into the complex between sunset and sunrise, a guideline which only adds to the legends. The fort nestles against a small hill in the Aravalli range. The sense of abandonment is acute. The surrounding jungle breaks through into the fort in parts. A single neatly paved stone pathway winds its way up flanked on both sides by shells of buildings. Most roofs have collapsed and rectilinear walls appeared to have been whittled by time to no more than a foot or two in places. The bases which once were rooms and houses appear to be the last stand against the invading forest relentlessly inching towards the path in the center. As we walked, we played guessing games about how the buildings must have been lived. Seeing some obviously recent etchings on the walls, Ram remarked about how poorly some Indian historical sites were maintained and how this site could easily mirror a photo-op site in Rome. He was right. Bhangarh could easily be as a pristine ruin in another part of the world. At the hill top behind the complex stood a conspicuously single chattri, a covered pavilion. It was visible from everywhere, and we wondered if that was the source of the legendary offending shadow. Later we were told that the chattri

Desolate Road: The drive after Thana Gazi

WILD WEST

Ragged Beauty: The semi-arid region is best visited in autumn

Lonely Highway: The road remained lonely for the better part of the journey

Paved Path: ASI disallows tourists within the fort post dusk

was the one of the places of ghostly evil. Hordes of monkeys appeared to rule the place as dusk set in. As we walked past an inner gate now populated by hundreds of simians, we were pleasantly surprised to see a large quadrangle with two temples and the entrance to the palace which appeared to have survived the ravages of time better than the rest of the complex. The temples were both impressive with lovely stone details and tall shikharas. One of the carved stone bands of a monkey-like face stood out as creepy and wonderful. The palace, higher up the hillside appeared relatively austere. As we explored some of its chambers, we remembered the stories of the terrible despair indicative of haunting. We roamed, we waited, and sadly, we felt nothing. The palace despite its regal past, defied legends. As we descended we were treated to a beautiful fading landscape at the palace entrance and were forced to stand and stare. The caretakers, while clearing the complex of stragglers, acknowledged our presence and indicated their leniency with the rules towards us since Ram had claimed earlier to be a writer in search of his truth. As we walked down, we stopped and tried to explore every ruin we hadnt seen and take every path we missed on the way up till we could see no more. We were the lone ghosts of Bhangarh then and were sad to leave. A caretaker doubling as a parking attendant hastily locked the gate behind us. Before we could enter the car, he hopped on a bicycle and raced away from the fort; whether to family or away from ghosts was not clear. As we drove back to Aligarh guided mostly by starlight we both decided that Bhangarh was definitively not haunted, but certainly haunting.

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STICKY

A qui ck guide -start to wha fresh, ts fu worth n & y peek.. of a .

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ATTEND

TRADE FAIRS

Come January 2013 and it is business as usual. The year starts with a series of state and central trade fairs along with business summits, so take your pick. We picked the top two for your benefit. Our first pick is the NRI Business Summit which will be held between January 4 and 6, 2013, at Mumbai. The event is being organised by the India International Trade Centre (IITC India) jointly with the Maharashtra Industrial and Economic Development Association (MIEDA) and SME Chamber of India with the support of Maharashtra and Gujarat governments. Also between January 11 and 13, 2013, attend the Vibrant Gujarat 2013 Trade Show in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The events are being planned to provide a common platform to think-tanks, academia and industrialists.

WATCH

THE GANGSTER SQUAD

Los Angeles, 1949. Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in the town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from drugs, guns and prostitutes andif he has his wayevery wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of his own paid goons, police and politicians. A small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sergeant John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) who come together to try to tear Cohens world apart. Untouchables redone. Release date January 11, 2013.

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