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THE HINDU DELHI SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2019 SPORT 17 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Aussie pacers rip through New Zealand Mary Kom sets the record straight Cummins leads the charge with a five­for; hosts bat again to extend lead beyond 450 Outclasses Nikhat 9­1 in an ill­tempered trials face­off BOXING ment. While the first round with BFI president Ajay N Z IN AUSTRALIA order. Paine could have en­ was about opponent assess­ Singh stepping in to control forced the follow­on, but UTHRA GANESAN ment, the second and third the situation. Agence France-Presse opted to bat again and Aus­ NEW DELHI saw a lot of clinching with Mary Kom retorted that Melbourne tralia raced to 62 without It was a bout that had the en­ few clean ones landing from she would respect those New Zealand was facing a loss before Neil Wagner tire boxing community in In­ either boxer. who respect her. “I don’t like massive run chase to save tempted David Warner into a dia hooked, but the final re­ There were words ex­ controversies. Why should I the second Test and the se­ drive on 38 and he was sult was on predictable changed during the bout shake hands or hug? First ries after it was dismissed for caught by Blundell. lines. and even afterwards. Nikhat you say so much outside the 148 in Melbourne on Satur­ Form­player Marnus La­ Mary Kom proved herself claimed Mary refused to ring, talk too much before day, with Australia batting buschagne was run out for 19 the best in the country in the even shake hands and used the bout. I will respect you if again to rub salt in the and spinner Mitchell Santner 51kg with an impressive 9­1 foul words as well. you respect me,” she said. wounds and extend its lead. snared opener Joe Burns for win against Nikhat Zareen in “The result is a different At the close on day three, 35, caught behind off a bot­ an ill­tempered bout at the issue, it definitely was not Action elsewhere the home team was 137 for tom edge. trials for the Olympic Quali­ 9­1. Anyone can see that the With the Mary­Nikhat bout four, building on its first in­ When Steve Smith depart­ fiers here on Saturday. first two rounds were clearly taking precedence, the oth­ nings 467 to be 456 runs in ed for seven, Wagner’s mine while the third was er four bouts on the day front. 200th Test wicket, the Black Simmering issue equal, I managed a lot more were overshadowed, but First innings century­mak­ Caps were on a roll. But The differences between the clean punches. But I am hurt there was no lack of action. er Travis Head was not out 12 Head and Wade steered two had been simmering for that someone who is so se­ Simranjit Kaur over­ and Matthew Wade was on them to the close, leaving over four months, ever since nior and is my idol behaved whelmed 37­year­old vete­ 15, with skipper Tim Paine so New Zealand with a monu­ the Boxing Federation of In­ in this manner,” the 24­year­ ran Sarita Devi 8­2 in the far resisting the temptation mental task. dia decided to not hold trials old said. 60kg. Youth World cham­ to declare. for the World Champion­ Supporters of both boxers pion Sakshi Chaudhary got New Zealand began the Boult ruled out ships in October and Nikhat were vocal with A.P. Reddy, the better of Sonia Lather day already in trouble on 44 New Zealand pace spear­ cried foul, writing to the claiming to be from the Te­ 9­1. for two. It didn’t survive long head Trent Boult fractured sports minister and de­ langana Boxing Association, The results: 51kg: Mary Kom bt with a world­class pace bar­ his non­bowling hand on Sa­ manding a face­off. getting aggressive in his Nikhat Zareen 9-1; 57kg: Sakshi rage from Pat Cummins, turday and will miss the Saturday, therefore, was protests at the decision and Chaudhary bt Sonia Lather 9-1; James Pattinson and Mitchell third Test against Australia in about both wanting to prove declaring they would ap­ 60kg: Simranjit Kaur bt defeat- Starc destroying the middle a big blow for the Black Caps. a point. proach AIBA. ed Sarita Devi 8-2; 69kg: Lovli- The bout itself, though, He and his supporters na Borgohain bt Lalita 10-0; SCOREBOARD had little in terms of excite­ were asked to leave ringside, 75kg: Pooja Rani bt Nupur 10-0.

Australia — 1st innings: 467. 30-2, Cummins 17-5-28-5, New Zealand — 1st innings : T. Pattinson 15-2-34-3, Lyon 9-1- Latham c Paine b Cummins 50, 35-0, Wade 1-0-13-0. T. Blundell c Paine b Cummins Australia — 2nd innings : D. 15, K. Williamson c Paine b Warner c Blundell b Wagner 38, Pattinson 9, R. Taylor c Burns b J. Burns c Watling b Santner 35, Cummins 4, H. Nicholls lbw b M. Labuschagne run out 19, S. Cummins 0, B-J. Watling c Smith c Southee b Wagner 7, M. Burns b Pattinson 7, C. de Wade (batting) 15, T. Head (bat- Grandhomme c Warner b Starc ting) 12; Extras (lb-4, b-4, w-2, 11, M. Santner c Paine b Pattin- nb-1) 11; Total (for four wkts. in son 3, T. Southee c Paine b 45 overs): 137. Cummins 10, N. Wagner (not out) 18, T. Boult b Starc 8; Ex- Fall of wickets: 1-62, 2-100, 3- tras (lb-4, b-4, w-2, nb-3) 13; 110, 4-110. Total (in 54.5 overs): 148. New Zealand bowling: Boult 9- Fall of wickets : 1-23, 2-39, 3- 0-30-0, Southee 10-3-24-0, de 46, 4-46, 5-58, 6-97, 7-112, 8- Grandhomme 5-0-14-0, Wag- 116, 9-124. ner 13-1-39-2, Santner 8-0- Breathing fire: Pat Cummins was virtually unplayable on the day, as Henry Nicholls Australia bowling: Starc 12.5-4- 22-1. discovered. * AP The best: Mary Kom is declared the winner after the bout against Nikhat Zareen. * R.V. MOORTHY

India U-19 Knighthoods for Lloyd and Greenidge It’s Dhoni’s Blasters, NEUFC share points clinches series England’s World Cup winners receive honours decision: Controversial penalty to the aid of North Eastern side IANS Agence France-Presse Johannesburg London Ganguly ISL India U­19 on Saturday beat Ben Stokes and several of his Stan Rayan South Africa U­19 by eight England Cricket World Cup­ Press Trust of India Kochi wickets to take a 2­0 lead in winning teammates were re­ New Delhi Was that a penalty? the three­match series cognised in Britain’s New BCCI president Sourav That was the talking point here on Saturday. Year Honours list an­ Ganguly on Saturday said for a major part of the se­ SA put in to bat was bun­ nounced on Friday, as two Mahendra Singh Dhoni has cond half as NorthEast Unit­ dled out for 119 in under 30 West Indies greats, Clive “surely” communicated ed, down by a goal towards overs. Lloyd and Gordon Gree­ his future plans to India the end of the opening half, Yashasvi Jaiswal took nidge, received captain Virat Kohli and came back to hold Kerala four wickets in 3.5 overs knighthoods. selectors. Dhoni has been Blasters to a 1­1 draw after a while Akash Singh, Atharva All­rounder Stokes was on a sabbatical from controversial penalty in the Ankolekar and Ravi Bish­ made an OBE (Officer of the Clive Lloyd. * FILE PHOTO Greenidge. * FILE PHOTO international cricket since Hero Indian Super League at noi got two wickets each. Order of the British Empire). India’s semifinal exit in the the Nehru Stadium here on Meanwhile, Eoin Morgan, First strike: Jaiswal then went on to the British Empire), the level the inaugural 1975 World ODI World Cup, leading to Saturday night. Kerala Blasters’ Ogbeche, left, celebrates after who captained England to scoring against NorthEast United FC. * H. VIBHU star with the bat as well, beneath an OBE. Cup final at Lord’s. speculations about his That piece of action came World Cup glory, was named scoring 89 off 56 balls after Australian Trevor Bayliss, Opening batsman Gree­ future. five minutes into the second a CBE (Commander of the India lost two early wick­ England’s World Cup­win­ nidge, a key figure in Lloyd’s “He’s had half when referee Rahul Ku­ Mario Arques and goalkeep­ goalie Subasish Roy. Order of the British Empire), ets. ning coach, received an all­conquering team, has communication with the mar Gupta punished Seitya­ er Subhasish Roy rushed to At the other end, Ghana­ one rank below a OBE. been knighted on the recom­ captain, I am sure he has sen Singh for what he thwart the Blasters striker. The scores: South Africa U-19 nian Gyan was the man to 119 in 29.5 overs(J.Bird 25, knighthood. Lloyd, the forerunner of mendation of the govern­ had communication with thought was a handball. But But in the process, his fol­ watch. He looked dangerous Yashasvi Jaiswal 4/13) lost to Wicketkeeper Jos Buttler today’s modern power bat­ ment of his native Barbados, the selectors, and I don’t it appeared to be the midfiel­ low­through appeared to as he received a long pass India U-19 120/2 in 16.2 overs and Test skipper Joe Root smen and brilliant fielders, with certain Caribbean na­ think this is the platform to der’s head that was in con­ bring Ogbeche down and se­ from Lalthathanga Khawlhr­ (Yashasvi Jaiswal 89 n.o, were both awarded MBEs hit a superb century as the tions conferring their own discuss about it,” Ganguly tact as he attempted to de­ conds later, the Frenchman ing in the 20th minute. He Dhruv Jorel 26 n.o). (Members of the Order of West Indies beat Australia in honours. said during the latest flect a Rakesh Pradhan cross placed the ball neatly to the was nicely placed too as he episode of ‘Inspiration’ on to his goalkeeper and not his right corner to give the home ran into the box but to the India Today. hand. And NorthEast striker side the lead. Subhashish, home team’s relief, he shot Ganguly said“it is his Asamoah Gyan, who had however, appeared to be ve­ over. Fifteen minutes later, Solid Burns raises England’s hopes (Dhoni) decision what he missed a couple of good ry upset with the referee’s Gyan had a goal disallowed wants to do. I haven’t chances earlier, converted decision. With the crowd for being offside. spoken to him, but he’s a the penalty with a shot to the thinning at the Nehru Stadi­ The match lost much of its The visitors need 255 more runs to go ahead in the series champion, he’s been an right which goalkeeper Re­ um here — today’s count at tempo in the last quarter and absolute champion in henesh could do nothing 12,168 was probably the in the end, after sharing E NGLAND IN SA Indian cricket.” about. team’s lowest this season — points, the Blasters stays in Ganguly further said, Blasters needed a win des­ the ninth spot with eight Reuters “You won’t get another M S Blasters take lead perately to move up from its points while NorthEast kept CENTURION Dhoni very, very soon, but Blasters’ goal, which gave it ninth spot in the league. its seventh rung with 11. A battling 77 not out from what he does — whether he the lead, also came through And the home side started The result: Kerala Blasters 1 Rory Burns on Saturday gave wants to play, whether he a penalty seven minutes ear­ well. In the eighth minute, K. (Bartholomew Ogbeche 43 pe- England a fighting chance of doesn’t want to play, is up lier. Captain and forward Og­ Prasanth’s attempt from just nalty) drew with NorthEast Un- improbable success as it to him.” beche moved into the box af­ outside the box was pushed ited 1 (Asamoah Gyan 50 penal- needs 255 more runs for vic­ ter receiving the ball from out of danger by NorthEast ty). tory in the first Test against South Africa at SuperSport Park. Set an imposing 376 runs Wolves dent Man City’s title chances Arrows stun to win the first of the four­ match series, England Guardiola’s men surrender two­goal lead Churchill reached 121 for one wicket at stumps on the third day after P REMIER LEAGUE I-LEAGUE a positive start to an enor­ mous task. Agence France-Presse Press Trust of India Wolverhampton Margao Good start Manchester City’s faint In the first big upset of this Burns and Dom Sibley put Key player: It would serve England’s cause well if Rory Burns can bat in the same vein as he did hopes of retaining the Pre­ I­League season, Indian Ar­ rows rallied to beat the in­ on 92 for the opening wicket on Saturday. * GETTY IMAGES mier League title was left in before Sibley (29) chipped tatters as it blew a two­goal form Churchill Brothers FC the ball back to spinner pecting to wrap up South SCOREBOARD lead and had Ederson sent 2­1 in its own backyard Keshav Maharaj for a caught Africa a lot earlier after it res­ off in a dramatic 3­2 defeat at here on Saturday. and bowled. umed at 72 for four over­ S outh Africa —1st innings: 284. 4-62, 5-153, 6-170, 7-177, 8-220, Wolves on Friday. Reaping the benefits of Burns, who survived a re­ night. But the home side ex­ England — 1st innings: 181. 9-250. Pep Guardiola’s side reco­ the tactical brilliance of view in the first over, played tended its overnight lead of vered from Ederson’s 12th­ head coach Shanmugam South Africa — 2nd innings: A. England bowling: Anderson 13- an attacking innings with Joe 175 runs by 200 as debutant Markram lbw b Anderson 2, D. 1-47-1, Broad 11-2-42-1, Archer minute dismissal to take con­ Venkatesh, the substitutes Denly (10 not out) in a sup­ Rassie van der Dussen Elgar c Buttler b Archer 22, Z. 17-1-102-5, Curran 12.4-3-51-1, trol thanks to Raheem Ster­ of the Arrows proved to be porting role. scored 51, Vernon Philander Hamza c Buttler b Broad 4, F. du Stokes 8-1-22-2. ling’s double either side of the game­changers. Plessis c Curran b Archer 20, H. South Africa, which will 46 and nightwatchman An­ England — 2nd innings: R. half­time. Hail the hero! Mates converge on Matt Doherty, second from This was the first win for van der Dussen lbw b Archer 51, * have to take nine wickets to rich Nortje 40. Burns (batting) 77, D. Sibley c & But City’s fatigued stars right, after he scored Wolves’ match-winner. AFP Indian Arrows, the deve­ A. Nortje c sub b Archer 40, Q. end a run of five successive b Maharaj 29, J. Denly (batting) were unable to go the dis­ lopmental side of the All de Kock c Bairstow b Stokes 34, 89th minute. Third placed 3, Mooy 79) bt Bournemouth 0; Test defeats, was bowled out Five-for 10; Extras (b-4, lb-1): 5; Total tance as Adama Traore’s India Football Federation, D. Pretorius c Sibley b Stokes 7, City trails runaway leader Li­ Newcastle 1 (Schaer 56) lost to for 272 in its second innings, Jofra Archer did bag a five­ (for one wkt. in 41 overs): 121. goal started a thrilling in four matches and the V. Philander c Bairstow b Curran verpool by 14 points. Everton 2 (Calvert-Lewin 13, just before tea after frustrat­ wicket haul but it cost him 46, K. Maharaj c Curran b Archer Fall of wicket: 1-92. Wolves fightback. 64); Southampton 1 (Ings 74) first defeat for Churchill ing England in the field. 102 runs, including a bashing 11, K. Rabada (not out) 16; Extras South Africa bowling: Rabada Raul Jimenez equalised The results: Wolves 3 (Traore drew with Crystal Palace 1 Brothers in three games. With 15 wickets falling on from Quinton de Kock who (b-5, lb-3, nb-2, w-9): 19; Total 9-0-48-0, Philander 10-2-20-0, with eight minutes to go and 55, Jimenez 82, Doherty 89) bt (Tomkins 50); Watford 3 (Dee- The result: Churchill Brothers 1 a lively pitch on Friday, En­ smacked him for three sixes (in 61.4 overs): 272. Nortje 6-1-20-0, Pretorius 6-1- Matt Doherty hit the winner Manchester City 2 (Sterling 25, ney 42, 67-pen, Sarr 71) bt As- (Abu Bakr 42) lost to Indian Ar- gland would have been ex­ in a cameo of 34 runs. Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-25, 3-29, 12-0, Maharaj 10-3-16-1. to send Molineux wild in the 50); Brighton 2 (Jahanbakhsh ton Villa 0. rows 2 (Givson Singh 78, 90). CM A ND-NDE YK EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

DELHI THE HINDU 18 SPORT SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2019 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

T V PICKS R ANJI SCORES: ROUND 3, DAY 4 Vinay Kumar’s Australia vs New Zealand: GROUP A garh 1. distinction 2nd Test, Sony Six (SD & HD), Kolkata: Bengal 289 & 46/0 in Cuttack: Uttarakhand 117 & 195 Ashwin Achal 5 a.m. 21 overs drew with Andhra 181 in in 52.1 overs (Dikshanshu Negi NBA: Sony Ten 1 (SD & HD), BENGALURU 69.2 overs (C.R. Gnaneshwar 74 40, Dhanraj Sharma 50, 5.30 a.m. With a three for 24 haul in South Africa vs England: n.o., Ishan Porel 4/50). Points: Suryakant Pradhan 5/63) lost to 1st Test, Sony Six (SD & HD), Bengal 3, Andhra 1. Odisha 253 & 63/0 in 21.4 overs. Mizoram’s second innings, 1.30 p.m. New Delhi: Delhi 284 & 84/3 in Odisha 7, Uttarakhand 0. R. Vinay Kumar has be­ Premier League: SS Select 1 27.5 overs bt Hyderabad 69 & PLATE come the highest wicket­ (SD & HD), 7.30 p.m. & 10 298. Delhi 6, Hyderabad 0. Dibrugarh: Manipur 196 & 215 bt taker among fast bowlers p.m. & 12 a.m. (Monday) Nagpur: Vidarbha 338 drew with Arunachal Pradesh 143 & 184 in in Ranji Trophy history. Punjab 408/5 in 97.5 overs (San- 65.4 overs (Rahul Dalal 84, Rex ISL: Star Sports 2 (SD & HD), Vinay now has 412 wick­ 7.30 p.m. vir Singh 82, Shubman Singh 6/58). Gill 100, Gurkeerat Manipur 6, ets, going past Pankaj I N BRIEF Mann 149, Mandeep Arunachal Singh (409 wickets). Vinay Singh 59). Punjab 3, Pradesh 0. has 474 wickets in 133 First Vidarbha 1. Patna: Bihar Class matches, at an aver­ GROUP B 326 & 162/1 in age of just over 23. Mysore: Karnataka 49 overs (In- Most wickets in Ranji Trophy 166 & 296 in 108.3 drajit Kumar 71 (top 10): 1. Rajinder Goel overs (Devdutt n.o., Kumar (637), 2. S. Venkatraghavan Padikkal 99, Karun Mridul 56 n.o.) (530), 3. Sunil Joshi (479), 4. Nair 64, B.R. Sharath drew with Goa Narendra Hirwani (441), 5. 42, Rishi Dhawan 5/ 470 in 129.4 B.S. Chandrasekhar (437), 6. 83) drew with Hi- overs (Aditya V.V. Kumar (418), 7. Vinay Ku- machal 280 & 34/2 in Kaushik 73, mar (412), 8. Pankaj Singh 16 overs. Himachal 3, Amulya (409), 9. Sairaj Bahutule Karnataka 1. Pandrekar 42, (405), 10. Bishen Singh Bedi Indore: Tamil Nadu Amit Verma (403). Dragic helps Heat 149 & 377/7 in 131.4 89, Suyash overs (N. Jagadeesan Prabhudessai pip Pacers Giving it his all: Mohammad Siraj makes a vain attempt dives to catch Jonty Sidhu. * R.V. MOORTHY 54, M. Kaushik Gandhi 154, K. 135, Darshan Misal 55, Ashutosh Lifter Seema LOS ANGELES Mukunth 52 n.o.) drew with Mad- Aman 6/99). Goa 3, Bihar 1. Miami’s Goran Dragic drained hya Pradesh 333. MP 3, TN 1. Kolkata: Mizoram 73 & 113 in banned for the game-winning basket Rajkot: Saurashtra 331 & 120 in 33.4 overs (Pratik Desai 45) lost with 6.8 seconds remaining 42.1 overs (Harvik Desai 50, Saur- to Pondicherry 458/5 decl. Pon- four years as the Heat edged Indiana Delhi completes the formalities abh Kumar 6/55) lost to Uttar dicherry 7, Mizoram 0. Pacers 113-112 in a wild NBA Pradesh 523. UP 7, Saurashtra Bhubaneswar: Sikkim 274 & 133 Press Trust of India finish on Friday. Heat took Hyderabad, however, manages to deny the hosts a bonus point 0. in 35.5 overs (Bibek Diyali 42, New Delhi their league-best home GROUP C Nagaho Chishi 4/20, Imliwati reached the target following Delhi — 2nd innings: Kunal record to 14-1, but the injury- R ANJI TROPHY Thereafter Delhi lost skipper Jammu: Jammu & Kashmir Lemtur 4/37) lost to Nagaland India’s Commonwealth a cautious approach after a Chandela c Sumanth b Siraj 6, hit Pacers made them work Shikhar Dhawan and Nitish 460/5 decl. drew with Assam 296 in 61.4 overs (Stuart Binny Championship silver me­ Shikhar Dhawan c Sumanth b every step of the way. delayed start of two hours Rana, both to Ravi Kiran. 82/2 in 29 overs. J&K 1, Assam 135, Nagaho Chishi 40, Ishwar dallist weightlifter Seema Kiran 21, Dhruv Shorey (not The results: Boston Celtics R AKESH RAO owing to poor visibility. Dhruv Shorey and Jonty 1. Chaudhary 5/133) & 113/1 in 12.2 has been slapped with a NEW DELHI out) 32, Nitish Rana c Thyagara- 129 bt Cleveland Cavaliers Jamshedpur: Haryana 371 drew overs (Yogesh Takawale 43 n.o., Sidhu took Delhi past the fin­ jan b Kiran 6, Jonty Sidhu (not four­year suspension for a 117; Oklahoma City Thunder Hyderabad denied Delhi a First win with Jharkhand 408/5 in 119.1 Shrikant Mundhe 45). Nagaland ish­line without further dam­ out) 7; Extras (b-4, lb-7, w-1): doping violation. 104 bt Charlotte Hornets 102 bonus point but could not overs (Kumar Deobrat 161, 6, Sikkim 0. Delhi’s first win in three age. In the fourth round, be­ 12. Total (for 3 wkts. in 27.5 ov- In a statement, the Na­ (OT); Orlando Magic 98 bt Utkarsh Singh 48, Saurabh Tiwary Mangaldoi (Assam): Day 3: prevent the host from regis­ ginning on January 3, Delhi ers): 84. tional Anti­Doping Agency Philadelphia76ers 97; matches raised its tally to se­ 152 n.o.). Jharkhand 3, Haryana Chandigarh 455/9 decl. bt tering a seven­wicket tri­ ven points. For Hyderabad, plays Punjab at Mohali and (NADA) said Seema’s dope Milwaukee Bucks 112 bt umph in the Ranji Trophy Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-46, 1. Meghalaya 148 in 48.2 overs the defeat was the third in as Hyderabad hosts Kerala. 3-52. sample was collected this Atlanta Hawks 86; Miami match at the Ferozeshah Kot­ Pune: Maharashtra 289 & 149/3 (Puneet Bisht 84, Shreshth Nir- Heat 113 bt Indiana Pacers many outings. Mohammad The scores: decl. in 69 overs (Ruturaj mohi 5/30) & 118 in 29.4 overs year during the 34th wo­ la ground here on Saturday. Hyderabad bowling: Moham- 112; Golden State Warriors Siraj had Kunal Chandela Delhi — 1st innings: 284. mad Siraj 13-3-33-1, Ravi Kiran Gaikwad 76, Satyajeet Bachhav (Puneet Bisht 54, Gurinder Singh men’s National weightlift­ 105 bt Phoenix Suns 96. Resuming at 24 for no loss caught behind to dash Del­ Hyderabad — 1st innings: 69. 11-4-29-2, C.V. Milind 3.5-1- 52 n.o.) drew with Chhattisgarh 4/44). Chandigarh 7, ing championship in Vish­ AGENCIES in its pursuit of 84, Delhi hi’s hopes of a bonus point. Hyderabad — 2nd innings: 298. 11-0. 286. Maharashtra 3, Chhattis- Meghalaya 0. akhapatnam. Efforts on to make the ‘biggest youth event’ Will respect those who DDCA ombudsman’s plea memorable one: Sonowal respect me: Mary Kom for Sunday’s AGM UTHRA GANESAN Special Correspondent pect to the conduct of the president Ajay Singh fur­ NEW DELHI KHELO INDIA NEW DELHI thered altered it to all me­ AGM to be held on The war of words between dallists, she said. The Delhi and District Crick­ 29­12­2019.” kamesh srinivasan Nikhat Zareen and M.C. Ma­ et Association (DDCA) om­ The Ombudsman, in his GUWAHATI “The BFI makes rules and ry Kom has been brewing I only follow them. Then it budsman has ordered the order, added, “It is expected The Assam Chief Minister for some time now — the lat­ became an issue. Now trials Annual General Meeting to that the AGM shall be held in Sarbananda Sonowal stated ter a legend, owner of an have been held, it’s over,” be held on Sunday to stick to a free and fair manner and the government was making Olympic medal and multiple she said. legal norms. in strict compliance of the the best possible efforts to World titles, and the former Nikhat had claimed she Acknowledging com­ law, including the Compa­ make the “biggest youth considered her successor. was hurt by Mary’s language plaints received from many nies Act as well as the Arti­ event”, the third Khelo India Mary has all along re­ during the bout and her re­ members of the association, cles of Association of Youth Games, a memorable fused to even acknowledge fusal to shake hands after­ Justice (Retd.) Badar Durrez DDCA.” experience for all Nikhat. But, on Saturday, af­ wards, but Mary defended Ahmed said, “Several appli­ Justice Ahmed conclud­ participants. ter a 9­1 win in the trials for herself. cations have been received ed, “In order to obviate any Interacting with the media the Olympic Qualifiers here, “Why should I shake from members of the DDCA complaint from any quartet, at his residence here on Sa­ she finally spoke, expressing hands? First you say so as well as some from the it would be appropriate if turday, former Union Sports her angst and explaining, much outside, create this Apex Council of DDCA ex­ the proceedings are video Minister Sonowal said the for the first time, the entire entire issue with the media pressing concern with res­ recorded.” State government’s focus controversy around the and talk too much before was on making Guwahati the trials. the bout. Then you expect country’s Sports Capital. me to shake hands and He cited the successful Not the first smile? I don’t like this na­ AICF confirms poll date conduct of the National “How many times am I go­ ture, I ignore it. Games, South Asian Games, ing to prove myself? This is SPORTS BUREAU Raja and Chauhan were Getting ready: The Sarusajai Sports Complex, the main venue for the Khelo India Youth Games “I will respect you if you BHOPAL Under­17 football World Cup not the first time, I have bea­ respect me. Keep whatever combined. in Guwahati. * KAMESH SRINIVASAN and World youth women’s ten her many times. I don’t you feel inside and chal­ In the battle for one­upman­ On the matter of ‘forgery’ boxing championship to em­ Games,” the CM said, under­ Assam, and sports was being Sonowal. Efforts were on to like to speak outside, you lenge in the ring, prove ship against All India Chess in the Utilization Certificate phasise his point. lining the fact that a major encouraged in every pan­ establish a Sports University, just have to prove yourself yourself and then speak,” Federation president Venke­ submitted to the Ministry The Games, being held on part of the budget would be chayat, he said. construction was underway in the ring,” she said. she said. trama Raja, secretary Bharat with regard to the 2018 Na­ a budget of ₹104 crore, with used to provide quality ac­ for archery and football aca­ Foreign coaches Santiago Asked about future plans, Singh Chauhan evidently tional sub­junior chess ₹34 crore coming from the commodation for the Talent hunt launched demies and a Sports school, Nieva and Raffaele Berga­ Mary said it would depend rode on ‘majority support’ championship in Kolkata, Centre, would be held from athletes. A talent hunt was being he said. masco had at first an­ on how she felt beyond To­ in the crucial General Body complainant Grandmaster January 10 to 22 and shown The State Sports Policy launched to identify 1,000 The Chief Minister an­ nounced that international kyo. “I am only focusing on meeting here, with the Dibyendu Barua and defen­ live for about 11 hours every formulated by his govern­ youngsters and provide nounced ₹1 lakh for gold me­ gold winners would not upcoming big competitions. house endorsing every deci­ dant IM Atanu Lahiri pre­ day by Star Sports. ment offered ₹1 crore to them ₹50,000 for their dal winners from Assam in have to attend trials, Mary If you go by age, then Tokyo sion to his liking. sented their case. Olympic gold medallists sporting needs. the Khelo India Youth said. should be my last Olympics. The meeting chaired by It was decided AICF will Big opportunity apart from suitable jobs. “We can strengthen socie­ Games, with ₹75,000 and This was later changed to But I will stay connected to Raja, confirmed the election file a FIR against Lahiri. Iron­ “It is a big opportunity for us Around 500 play grounds ty through sports. Sports has ₹50,000 for silver and exemption for gold and sil­ boxing in some way ,” she on February 9 in Ahmeda­ ically, in October, a three­ to host the Khelo India Youth were being modernised in to become a way of life,” said bronze medallists. ver medallists, before BFI signed off. bad. On December 14, Raja announced the election on member AICF enquiry com­ February 10 in Chennai. mittee gave Lahiri a clean chit. For the first time after the Agni for feature event feud broke out between Raja According to AICF joint Attorney General obliges in Stewards Cup and Chauhan, the suppor­ secretary Naresh Sharma, B ENGALURU: ters of both sides came face “The house accepted Chau­ HYDERABAD: Agni runs with a Pradeep Annaiah nad Charitable Trust rep by. Mr. Moon (5) Deepak Singh 59, 4. trained Attorney General (Srinath han’s detailed response to good chance in the first division Lancashire (10) Irvan Singh 59, 5. A.C. Muthiah. Trainer: G. to face in a meeting, attend­ of the Mayor’s Cup (1,200m), the up), won the Stewards Cup, the Aravind. ed by Government Observer the show­cause notice is­ Joy Of Giving (6) G. Naresh 57.5, feature event of the races held main event of the races to be 6. Valee Tiger (8) Akshay Kumar STEWARDS CUP (1,200m), Satyajit Sankrit. sued by Raja and treated the held here on Sunday (Dec. 29). here on Saturday (Dec 28). The 56.5, 7. Limousine (2) B.R. Kumar winner is owned by Sohna Stud 6 rated 60 & above: ATTORNEY matter as closed. It rejected 53.5, 8. Rutilant (1) Kuldeep Singh GENERAL (Srinath) 1, Cerise Noir It may be recalled that Ra­ MUSICAL MORN PLATE Farm Pvt Ltd rep by. Mr. Gautam the four­member committee 1 (1,200m), 2­y­o only (Cat. II), 53.5, 9. Vijay’s Empress (4) Surya Thapar & Sultan Singh & Mr. Ra­ (Indrajeet Singh) 2, Side Winder ja’s supporters attended the (Terms), 1­15 p.m.: 1. Conscious Prakash 51 and 10. Wood Bridge jan Aggarwal. (Arvind Kumar) 3 and Depth GB meeting in Chennai on formed on December 14 to (7) Nakhat Singh 51. Gift (6) I. Chisty 55.5, 2. Waitoma Charge (Sai Kiran) 4. 1­1/4, 2 and December 14 and those assist the President till elec­ (5) A.A. Vikrant 54, 3. Amyra (7) 1. VALEE TIGER, 2. LANCASHIRE, BUGS BUNNY PLATE (1,200m), 3/4. 1m, 13.48s. ₹17 (w), 11, 14 and Ajit Singh 51.5, 4. Attica (1) Ak­ 3. RUTILANT 1 maiden 2­y­o only, (Terms): 19 (p), SHP: 31, THP: 42, FP: 47, Q: backing Chauhan reached tions. The proposal on Chess FOREST FLAME shay Kumar 51.5, 5. Mark My Day (David Egan) 1, 37, Trinella: 115 and 59, Exacta: the Central Council Meeting in Schools was passed.” MAYOR’S CUP (DIV. I), Golden Oaks (Nathan Evans) 2, 566 and 272. Favourite: Attorney (3) Nakhat Singh 51.5, 6. Spicy at Gurugram on December Star (2) Irvan Singh 51.5 and 7. 5 (1,200m), 3­y­o & over, rated Drusilla (I. Chisty) 3 and Stone General. Owners: Sohna Stud The minutes of the GB Artemis Arrow (4) Rafique Sk. 50. 60 to 85 (Cat. II), 3­15: 1. That’s House (Vaibhav) 4. 5­1/2, 4­1/4 and Farm Pvt Ltd rep by. Mr. Gautam 22. 3­1/4. 1m, 13.59s. ₹13 (w), 10, 14 meeting held on December 1. CONSCIOUS GIFT, 2. MARK MY My Class (4) Nakhat Singh 60, 2. Thapar & Sultan Singh & Mr. Ra­ According to Sports Mi­ 14, the Central Council Meet­ DAY, 3. WAITOMA Magical Skill (2) Jitendra Singh and 12 (p), SHP: 32, THP: 31, FP: jan Aggarwal. Trainer: Pradeep 54.5, 3. Southern Legacy (1) Ash­ 36, Q: 30, Trinella: 76 and 40, Ex­ Annaiah. nistry’s December 16 direc­ ing in December 22 and the NEXT MOVE PLATE (1,600m), had Asbar 53.5, 4. Mr. Baahubali acta: 744 and 627. Favourite: tive, the GB meeting called one held here on Saturday, 2 3­y­o & over, rated upto 25 (8) Ajeeth Kumar 52, 5. Agni (3) Forest Flame. Owners: Poon­ NATIVE CHIEFTAN PLATE (Cat. III), 1­45: 1. Dillon (1) Rohit Akshay Kumar 50.5, 6. Asteria (7) awalla Racing & Breeding Pvt Ltd Rewarding success: Ramesh Rangarajan, left, presents the S. 7 (1,400m), rated 15 to 35, 4­y­o by Chauhan on December 22 will be presented to Madras Kumar 60, 2. Silver Dollar (3) Afroz Khan 50.5, 7. Her Legacy rep by. Mrs. Behroze Z. Poon­ & over: WHIZZO (C. Umesh) 1, stood postponed to this day. High Court when the matter Surya Prakash 59, 3. Rasika (2) Rangarajan Memorial Trophy to Arvind Ganapathy, trainer of Hidden Soldier (R. Anand) 2, (6) I. Chisty 50.5 and 8. King awalla, Mrs. Simone Poonawalla As a result, the agendas of comes up for hearing on Ja­ Mukesh Kumar 57.5, 4. Ultimate Maker (5) Surya Prakash 50. Pandole & Mrs. Deina Z. Poon­ Mighty Red owned by M.A.M. Ramaswamy Chettiar of Dreams United (Rayan) 3 and Zhu Risk (5) Ajit Singh 57, 5. All Star awalla, Mr. Mukul A. Sonawala, Chettinad Charitable Trust represented by A.C. Muthiah, in Zhu Zest (J.H. Arul) 4. 9, Shd and the GB meetings called by nuary 3. General (6) Akshay Kumar 54 and 1. AGNI, 2. THAT’S MY CLASS, 3. Nose. 1m, 27.18s. ₹26 (w), 13, 46 M/s. DT Racing & Breeding LLP the presence of BTC chairman Vinod Shivappa, second from 6. Golden Faraska (4) N. Rawal MAGICAL SKILL rep by. Mr. D.R. Thacker and Mr. and 18 (p), SHP: 192, THP: 39, FP: 53.5. right, and senior steward Hari Mohan Naidu. 922, Q: 781, Trinella: 4,101 and SWEET GIRL PLATE (1,600m), Chanduranga Kanthraj Urs. 1. DILLON, 2. ALL STAR GENERAL * 1,070, Exacta: 13,515 and 3,686. 3­y­o & over, rated 40 to 65 Trainer: S. Attaollahi. G.P. SAMPATH KUMAR 6 Favourite: Whizzo. Owners: Mr. MAYOR’S CUP (DIV. II), (Cat. II), 3­45: 1. Midnight Dream AMATHOS PLATE (DIV. II), Punjab, Railways triumph Clinton Miller, Mr. Sujay Chandra­ (1,200m), 3­y­o & over, rated (2) I. Chisty 60, 2. Miss Marval­ RADI- and Daring Sweetheart (Chetan K) (p), SHP: 68, THP: 104, FP: 360, 3 2 (1,100m), rated 15 to 35: has & Mr. Dean Stephens. Trainer: 60 to 85 (Cat. II), 2­15: 1. Tootsie lous (7) Kuldeep Singh 60, 3. ANT BEAUTY 4. Nk, 1/2 and 3/4. 1m, 15.61s. ₹91 Q: 278, Trinella: 5,652 and 2,422, (Chetan G) 1, Oro­ Azhar Ali. Sports Bureau took the third place. Roll (3) I. Chisty 60, 2. Super Dart Zamora (8) Ashhad Asbar 58.5, 4. genesis (Chetan K) 2, Smile (w), 25, 23 and 19 (p), SHP: 74, Exacta: 47,391 and 5,803. Favour­ LUDHIANA Punjab 93 (7) Gopal Singh 58.5, 3. Mon Gen­ City Of Blossom (4) Rohit Kumar Around (M. Naveen) 3 and Anakin THP: 49, FP: 1,176, Q: 473, ite: Bernardini. Owner: Mr. Arun AMATHOS PLATE (DIV. I), The results: Men: eral (1) Ashhad Asbar 57, 4. Hon­ 58, 5. Gusty Look (9) Akshay Ku­ (Bhanu Singh) 4. Not run: Zafrina. Trinella: 2,252 and 1,485, Exacta: Alagappan. Trainer: Irfan 8 (1,100m), rated 15 to 35: Punjab men and Railways (Arshpreet Singh Bhuller 33, est Hunter (2) B.R. Kumar 56, 5. mar 58, 6. Sporting Smile (6) 3/4, 3 and 2. 1m, 09.11s. ₹126 (w), 15,650 and 5,030. Favourite: Dar­ Ghatala. SANDARINA (J.H. Arul) 1, Dragon women emerged cham­ Amritpal Singh 24,Amjoth Warrior Supreme (6) A.A. ing Sweetheart. Owners: Mrs. Jitendra Singh 57, 7. City Of Wis­ 23, 12 and 39 (p), SHP: 30, THP: S. RANGARAJAN MEMORIAL Mountain (M. Naveen) 2, Dallas Singh 19)bt Tamil Nadu 75 Vikrant 55.5, 6. Guiding Force (5) Mahima Shailesh, Dr. Dayananda pions in the 70th senior Na­ dom (1) Afroz Khan 54.5, 8. 120, FP: 376, Q: 216, Trinella: TROPHY (Arvind Kumar) 3 and Sadaqat N. Rawal 55, 7. Miss Lily (4) Surya Pai P, Mr. Daulat Chhabria and 5 (2,000m), rated 30 to (Muin Bek 23, Jeevanatham Mahira (3) Aneel 54 and 9. Plat­ 3,727 and 2,995, Exacta: 89,836 MIGHTY RED (Donoghue) 1, (Vinod Shinde) 4. 1­3/4, 2­1/4 and tional basketball champion­ Prakash 55 and 8. Top Link (8) Mrs. Vedashree Madhusudan. 50: 20, Aravind Annadurai 13,Bala inum Claasz (5) Rafique Sk. 54. (carried over). Favourite: Orogen­ Crack Of Dawn (Nathan Evans) 2, 4. 1m, 08.22s. ₹52 (w), 18, 12 and Santosh Raj 55. Trainer: Irfan Ghatala. ship here on Saturday. 1. GUSTY LOOK, 2. MIDNIGHT esis. Owners: M/s. Blazing Saddles Game Changer (A. Imran) 3 and 19 (p), SHP: 47, THP: 48, FP: 129, Shankar10). 1. TOP LINK, 2. MON GENERAL, Punjab overcame Tamil Na­ DREAM, 3. CITY OF WISDOM (PF) rep by. Mr. Niraj Tyagi & Mr. KUNIGAL STUD PLATE Ozark (David Egan) 4. 1­3/4, 10 Q: 52, Trinella: 328 and 183, Ex­ Women: Railways 68 (Sruthy 3. MISS LILY Vikas Sachdeva. Trainer: S. (1,400m), rated 45 to 65, 4­y­o and 1. 2m, 06.89s. ₹21 (w), 13 and acta: 2,291 and 1,651. Favourite: du 93­75 while Railways Aravind 16, Shireen Limaye 15, Day’s best: GUSTY LOOK Narredu. 4 Dragon Mountain. Owner: Mr. HUSSAIN SAGAR CUP &over: BERNARDINI (C. Umesh) 1, 12 (p), SHP: 27, THP: 37, FP: 42, Q: tamed Kerala 68­55 in the Navaneetha PU 13,Poonam (1,600m), 5­y­o & over, rated Double: CONSCIOUS GIFT — AGNI AGUMBE PLATE Colonel Harty (R. Anand) 2, Ex­ 22, Trinella: 285 and 124, Exacta: T.S. Suresh. Trainer: S. Attaollahi. 4 (1,200m), well­contested finals. Chaturvedi 12, Madhukumari 20 to 45 (Cat. III), 2­45: 1. Somer­ Jkt: 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6; Mini Jkt: 3, 4, 5 3 rated 00 to 20: SHOW GIRL cellent Sorrento (Chetan K) 3 and 229 and 46. Favourite: Mighty Jackpot: ₹874 (623 tkts.); Runner­ set (3) Ajit Kumar 60, 2. Hope Is & 6; Tr (i): 1, 2 & 3; (ii): 4, 5 & 6; (Vaibhav) 1, Kanthaka (Sai Kiran) Sahara (A. Imran) 4. 8­1/2, 1 and 1. Red. Owner: Mr. M.A.M. up: 88 (2,665 tkts.); Treble (i): 524 Uttarakhand men and 10) bt Kerala 55 (Jeena PS 24, Eternal (9) Aneel 59.5, 3. Desert Tla: all races. 2, Turf Prospector (Darshan) 3 1m, 25.59s. ₹25 (w), 12, 25 and 52 Ramaswamy Chettiar of Chetti­ (38 tkts.); (ii): 205 (247 tkts.). Madhya Pradesh women Stephy Nixon 15).

CM A ND-NDE YK DELHI

Sunday, December 29, 2019

SPOTLIGHT SOCIAL MEDIA GOD’S COUNTRY LITERARY REVIEW In this age of the What made the last The decade of the The literature of the Anthropocene, artists decade nothing like unholy ‘godmen' decade is all about engage with the India has known — and the sordid change — from the rise environment using before? Well, it is stories that of the Right to bringing satire, science and WhatsApp, writes tumbled out of minority voices to the nostalgia p5 Anita Nair p6 their closets p12   fore p8-9

United we stand Scenes from protests held across the

world in the past decade. * REUTERS, NYT, THULASI KAKKAT, AP, SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA, VIJAY BATE, NISSAR AHMAD, AFP & KIRAN BAKALE

SPECIAL ISSUE The decade of

s we enter a new year and a new decade, images of incredible courage and resolution are imprint- ed on our minds. Going to press, the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the proposed National Register of Indian Citizens still rAage across the country. Two actions, designed wholly to di- vide the country along religious lines, have resulted in uniting people in one strong voice that says loud and clear that it protest won’t allow India’s secular fabric to be rent. This is the voice of protest. The voice of resistance. The voice that says, enough is enough. And over the last 10 years we saw this voice raised aloud in country after country, for cause after cause. From the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protesters to the millions worldwide who marched against climate change to the un- precedented citizen protests in Hong Kong, it was the ‘push- back’ decade. Millions took to the streets against Chile’s Presi- dent Piñera and millions marched to protest China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims. Dalits and farmers marched, women marched, Muslims marched, gay people and students marched. And so, a decade marked by the rise of the Right was also a decade when people fought back. And they managed to make tiny dents everywhere. Some laws were changed, some re- pealed, some guilty punished, some systems established. Each protest echoed over and over again that there will al- ways be singing, even in the dark times. Each protest sowed hope. And in the years to come, we will wait to reap it.

CM ND-X YK 02 DELHI THE HINDU * Magazine SPECIAL ISSUE Sunday, December 29, 2019

In a crisis A farmer gears up for the night at Ramlila Maidan during the Kisan Mukti March in November 2018. * SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

When the farmers marched

n November last year, around 35,000 farmers from 24 States marched to New Delhi to demand legislation for a guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) and freedom from debts. The rally I saw land­owning and landless farmers come together in a rare show of unity that received widespread attention and also support from the For justice Police use water cannons to disperse the huge crowds gathered at Rajpath on December 22, 2012, to Opposition parties. In March that year, some 40,000 Adivasi farmers in demand immediate action against the rapists in the Nirbhaya case. * R.V. MOORTHY Maharashtra walked from Nashik to Mumbai, a distance of 180 km, to demand implementation of a loan waiver scheme, land titles, and implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations, among others. India’s agrarian sector has been in a state of flux for a few decades now and the situation has been worsening each year due to a host of reasons, including unpredictable weather, high production costs and inadequate compensation. The crisis has resulted in several farmer When Nirbhaya shook suicides over the years, and the two major rallies, and a handful of smaller ones across the country, were desperate attempts to push the government to take welfare measures. Despite promises, however, the farm sector is yet to see radical changes. the nation’s conscience

n 2012, the heinous rape and mur­ never before, as people poured out into rape. Six new fast­track courts were set der of a young woman, christened the streets in hundreds of thousands up. Most important, by bringing the Nirbhaya in the aftermath of the demanding justice. The protests forced discussion of rape and its punishment incident, became a watershed the government to set up the Justice into the mainstream, it emboldened moment in how the crime of rape Verma committee, as a result of which more women to speak up. Today, Nirb­ Iwould be adjudicated and perpetrators several new sexual assault laws were haya has become a potent symbol of punished. The country witnessed an passed, including a mandatory mini­ women’s resistance and their ongoing outpouring of anguish and anger like mum sentence of 20 years for gang fight for safety.

Bhima Koregaon protests

New dawn Protesters celebrate inside Tahrir Square after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation on February 11, 2011. * REUTERS and the aftermath

ach year, in a tradition by some rogue elements, it activists, most of whom work When the Arab Spring started by Ambedkar, soon turned violent. As Maha­ for Dalit and tribal rights, on Dalits collect at Bhi­ rashtra erupted in protest, the flimsiest charges. They E ma Koregaon in Mah­ FIRs were filed against two were Surendra Gadling, Sud­ heralded a heady summer arashtra to commemorate the Hindutva activists, Sambhaji hir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Battle of Koregaon, when Ma­ Bhide and Milind Ekbote, for Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut; har soldiers of a British Army having incited the violence. followed by Varavara Rao, hat started as protests in Tunisia against poverty and an unit defeated Peshwa Baji Rao Soon, however, a ‘think­tank’ Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharad­ oppressive regime soon spread like bushfire across West II’s forces. Last year, the cleared the two men and waj, Vernon Gonsalves and Asia to envelop Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. 200th year of the battle, lakhs blamed ‘Maoists’ instead. Pol­ Gautam Navlakha. Many of W Suddenly, there were street demonstrations, riots and of Dalits gathered. Infiltrated ice then arrested a series of them are still in prison. popular uprisings. Authorities attributed the rapid spread of the protests to social media and shut down connectivity in many places. Right side A tea shop in Hong Kong with a ‘Lennon Across the Arab world, the slogan ash­sha‘b yurīd isqāt an­nizām(the wall’ covered with Post-Its. Shops that openly people want to bring down the regime) became a catch phrase. In support the pro-democracy protests are called some countries, regimes were toppled; in others, authorities shut “yellow shops” and are winning more customers. * AP down protests with violent reprisals. Large­scale reforms, however, did not ensue as expected. As the decade ends, unrest and rallies continue in Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt. The Arab Spring still blooms. Uber-rich to * GETTY IMAGES/ ISTOCK uber-angry

s the decade wound down, the world seemed to wind up tighter. In 2019, the stylish and wealthy city­state of Hong Kong erupted in an uprising A that’s still burning. It began with the introduc­ tion of a bill that would have allowed the extraditi on of criminal fugitives wanted in territories with which Hong Kong does not have extradition agreements, including Taiwan and mainland China. Fearing the bill would allow authorities to deport dissenters and put islanders under mainland Chinese law, students and citizens launched massive marches, blocking streets and facing off with the police. The clashes have slowly become violent, with pol­ ice firing live bullets and protesters attacking officers and throwing petrol bombs. The bill was withdrawn but prot­ Voice of dissent After the Bhima Koregaon clashes, Prakash Ambedkar, leader of the esters want other conditions met before backing off, in­ Bhartiya Republican Bahujan Mahasangh, at a rally at Azad Maidan last year, demanding cluding for the protests to not be labelled as riots an d the arrest of Sambhaji Bhide. * PRASHANT WAYDANDE amnesty for arrested protesters.

Right to privacy made a fundamental right Dalit pushback n July 2016, seven members of Mevani, in which some 20,000 Da­ historic judgment by the Supreme Court on August 24, 2017 a Dalit family who were skin­ lits marched from Ahmedabad to made the right to privacy a fundamental right for 1.3 billion ning dead cows were attacked Una over 10 days. They vowed to Indians. In a landmark case that was debating a 2015 I by a group of people claiming give up their traditional livelihood A decision on whether the controversial Aadhaar scheme was to be ‘gau rakshaks’ (cow protec­ of disposing cow carcasses and de­ constitutional, the nine­member bench held unanimously that “the tors) in Una, Gujarat. The video of manded land from the govern­ right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and the brutal incident went viral and ment. Dalits across the country personal liberty”. Overturning a long­held belief that privacy was the set off a slew of protests across the have been subjected to oppression privilege of the rich, but not the concern of the poor, the judgment State; Dalits came out in large for decades with hardly any re­ held that “every individual irrespective of social class or economic numbers to decry the govern­ course to justice. Their coming to­ status is entitled to the intimacy and autonomy which privacy ment’s inadequate response and gether in large numbers and the protects.” The fallout of this milestone ruling will be seen in years to the discrimination against the rise of young leaders such as Meva­ come. For example, the judges ruled for data protection. The ruling community. The largest of these ni and Chandrashekhar Azad in will impact how the state looks at unlawful surveillance, illegal data demonstrations was the Dalit As­ U.P. signals the beginning of a new harvesting and more. mita Yatra, led by activist Jignesh era of Dalit pushback. Outrage Dalits gather in Ahmedabad to protest the Una violence. * VIJAY SONEJI

CM ND-X YK THE HINDU * Magazine DELHI 03 Sunday, December 29, 2019 SPECIAL ISSUE

Freedom The LGBTQIA+ community celebrates the historic verdict on Kolkata’s streets. In September 2018, the Supreme Court overturned a regressive 158-year-old colonial law that criminalised gay sex. * ASHOK NATH DEY A historic judgment for queer rights

n July 2009, when portions of Sec 377 of the Indian Penal Code were struck down by the Delhi High Court, the queer community in India rejoiced. But in December 2013, the I Supreme Court overturned this judgment, saying that amending or repealing Sec 377 should be left to Parliament, throwing everyone into gloom. Finally, it was on September 6, 2018, that the Supreme Court gave the historic judgment that once and for all decriminalised same­sex relations. In powerful language, the judgment held such criminalisation under Sec 377 to be ‘unconstitutional, irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary’. The ruling gave a huge boost to LGBTQI+ rights, it allowed queer people to come out to their families, it gave them access to public spaces, it gave them their identity back. It has Speaking up An anti-CAA protest in Mumbai. * VIBHAV BIRWATKAR since opened up possibilities for queer literature, queer lit fests, queer art and more. A fight for the Constitution

he ongoing nationwide protests Act, coupled with the prospective all­India are against the very idea of India. Citizens, against the Citizenship (Amend­ National Register of Citizens — a sequence led by students, are protesting in every ment) Act, 2019 (CAA) are un­ of events the Home Minister has reiterated town and city. In UP and Mangalore, the precedented. A spontaneous several times — feeds into the Hindu Rash­ police responded with shocking violence. popular uprising of this kind has tra dream of the BJP. Exclusions based on So far, thousands have been arrested and Tperhaps been seldom seen since Indepen­ religion go against the tenets of inclusion 25 killed. But there seems to be no stop­ dence. The exclusion of Muslims from the and secularism of the Constitution, and ping the protests now — India has risen.

The Greta Fall from grace Once powerful and now disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein leaves Manhattan Criminal Court after a hearing on December 11, 2019. His case sparked the effect worldwide #MeToo movement. * AFP

n August 2018, a 15­year­old Swedish schoolgirl stood outside the country's Parliament with a pla­ Across the world, women card that said ‘School strike for the climate’. With­ I in a year, Greta Thunberg’s solitary protest would galvanise millions over the world to take to the streets said #MeToo to demand action against one of the biggest catas­ trophes of our times: climate change. ‘Climate strikes’ — by young and old — erupted across the globe this Sep­ he phrase ‘MeToo’ was first used on social media by Tarana Burke tember; close to four million people are estimated to when she wrote about the sexual harassment she had suffered. have marched. Addressing world leaders at the UN Cli­ But it was only when multiple charges surfaced against mate Action Summit, Thunberg minced no words: “We T Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein that #MeToo became are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all y ou a viral, global trend as more and more women began to put #MeToo as can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal e co­ their social media status to show how widespread the menace of nomic growth. How dare you!” she said, in a fiery workplace sexual harassment was. It led to wide­ranging discussions speech that went viral. Earlier this month, she was across nations, forcing institutions and companies to take sexual named Time’s Person of the Year for 2019 — the youn­ harassment seriously and establish mechanisms for complaint and gest person ever to be named so by the magazine. redress. Starting with showbiz and media, the movement spread to other Thunberg, who has Asperger’s syndrome, has said she industries including music, sports, law, politics and advertising. In India, considers it a ‘superpower’. the movement was spurred in October 2018 when actor Tanushree Dutta accused actor Nana Patekar of sexual harassment, leading to a barrage of charges across professions.

Brute force A police officer detains a Kashmiri student outside a Srinagar college, where students gathered in solidarity with the nationwide protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill on December 17, 2019. * AP How silent is my Valley

n August 5, 2019, the panied by massive security de­ der the constant eye of gun­ government revoked ployments and a communica­ wielding forces, the ordinary the limited autono­ tion blockade that involved Kashmiri has been rendered O my granted under imprisoning prominent politi­ voiceless. It’s left to others to Article 370 of the Indian Con­ cal leaders and shutting off In­ record, transmit and protest stitution to Jammu and Kash­ ternet and telephony. As this the unspeakable from the Val­ mir. It also simultaneously bi­ goes to press, leaders are still ley. To point out that the go­ Greta again Thunberg holds a placard saying furcated the State into two in jail and the Internet is still vernment has behaved like ‘School strike for the climate’ outside the Union Territories of J&K and blocked. Stripped of connec­ nothing but a brutal occupying Swedish Parliament. * REUTERS Ladakh. The move was accom­ tivity, stripped of liberties, un­ force.

Iconic art ‘Season’s Greetings’, a mural by Bansky, stencilled onto a Rise of the Right Duterte respectively. garage in Port Talbot, Wales, in December 2018. * CREATIVE COMMONS The face on the wall he decade saw the rise of right­ gary’s Viktor Orbán, with his euroscep­ wing populist political move­ ticism, his anti­refugee policies and ments around the world, seen espousal of “illiberal democracy” were n unknown graffiti artist from Bristol was already the talk of T as a backlash against the per­ harbingers of the trend. Protest votes London by the late 1990s, but it was in 2010 that Time magazine ceived failures of the largely liberal­cap­ by this disgruntled electorate played a put Bansky in its list of the world’s 100 most influential people, italist world order and the compla­ major role in the U.K.’s Brexit referen­ A where he jostled for space alongside Barack Obama and Lady cence and greed that led to the great dum and the election of Donald Trump Gaga with a paper bag over his anonymous head. He went on to become financial crisis of 2008. Anger against in the U.S. Majoritarian sentiment in In­ an iconic figure, converting graffiti from mere vandalism into a politically globalisation, deindustrialisation, im­ dia saw the rise of Narendra Modi with charged, democratic art form. In 2018, Bansky’s ‘Girl with Balloon’ sold at migration and the growing refugee cri­ two thumping election victories that es­ a Sotheby’s auction for $1.4 million. Just as the gavel fell, the painting sis contributed to this extreme reaction tablished the BJP as the dominant par­ slipped out of its frame and shredded to pieces. Bansky had fooled the in the West, while elsewhere strong­ ty. Similar but even more extreme rhe­ world again. Challenging authority and notions of ‘high art’, Bansky is a men leaders, muscular nativism and toric and policies found favour in Brazil quintessential people’s artist. He said once, “This is the first time the heightened culture wars were ubiqui­ and the Philippines as well, with the Lashing out U.S. President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in essentially bourgeois world of art has belonged to the people. We need to tous features. Leaders such as Hun­ victories of Jair Bolsonaro and Rodrigo Pennsylvania in 2018. * AP make it count.”

CM ND-X YK 04 DELHI THE HINDU * Magazine SPECIAL ISSUE Sunday, December 29, 2019

TRENDS

The art of liberty Hong Kong’s great pro­democracy movements gave rise to an outpour­ ing of art. Colourful umbrellas and Namrata Joshi BIG SCREEN mosphere of doom in Punjab, after Op­ the ‘Umbrella Man’ statue achieved eration Blue Star. iconic status as symbols of the 2014 ocial media and independent The indie wave has come riding on protests, while the hard hat — and cinema may not seem to have digital technology — it has been a big statues and figurines of ‘Lady Liber­ much in common; but in enabler, helping keep costs in check . ty’ wearing the same — was emble­ 2010, shortly after I joined the An independent So you have a Rima Das, a one­woman matic of the 2019 movement. Both then­fledgling platform called filmmaking army, who came up with STwitter, I got to e­meet Srinivas Sun­ Village Rockstars and Bulbul Can Sing, produced a bevy of installations, sculptures, murals and posters. derrajan there. He had just made a 70­ where she handled everything from minute feature film with a paltry sum camera to direction to editing and pro­ of ₹40,000. It was a self­reflexive film — duction. In fact many filmmakers from about making a film. the Northeast have been fiercely inde­ The Untitled Kartik Krishnan Project, pendent, such as Pradip Kubah, Do­ starring Kartik Krishnan, Vishwesh K, minic Sangma or Kenny Basumatary. Swara Bhaskar and D. Santosh, was Forums like the NFDC Film Bazaar made without any studio support. Shot have helped nurture indie talent since in 30 days, guerilla style, over a year, at 2007, and in the last decade these ef­ various Mumbai locations, most of the forts have truly borne fruit. It has film’s budget was spent on hiring decade shaped films such as The Lunchbox, Tit- equipment and props and on post­pro­ Now, everyone can make an indie film, thanks to streaming platforms, li, Thithi, Court, Chauthi Koot, Qissa, duction. The film’s frames were of im­ Ship of Theseus, Village Rockstars, Bale- peccable quality. It was picked up and social media and labs that support production kempa, Miss Lovely, S Durga, Soni, released by PVR Pictures but didn’t Moothon, Bombay Rose, Aamis, Eeb Al- quite get the eyeballs and strong push lay Ooo!, Aise Hee and Nimtoh. At one in the indie niche. level, South Asia’s biggest film market Cut to 2019 and you have Bhaskar brings in international buyers, distrib­ Hazarika’s Aamis, a thought­provoking utors, sales agents and festival pro­ Atrocities acknowledged portrayal of unusual relationships in grammers together with filmmakers, Belgium’s Royal Museum for Central which forbidden food gets intertwined and at another the Screenwriters’ Lab Africa reopened in 2018 after a res­ with proscribed passion. The film got a and Work­In­Progress Lab help sup­ toration that tried to transform it rare, robust release both offline and port filmmakers in the development from a colonial relic into a modern online, through MovieSaints, a stream­ stage of their projects. institution with greater acknowled­ ing platform and a distribution solu­ gement of atrocities. Similarly, a tions provider for independent cine­ Films for everyone major exhibition in Brazil, 'Histórias ma. Meanwhile, Prateek Vats’ Eeb Allay Social media has played its own unique Afro­Atlanticas,' (2013) looked at Ooo!, an absurd take on societal and role. For filmmaker­actor Rajat Kapoor, the country’s involvement in the human condition, centred on a mon­ it also helped bring in the moolah. slave trade and engaged with artists key repeller working in Lutyen’s Delhi, When producers were noncommital from the African diaspora. is all set to travel to Berlinale early next about his new film Aankhon Dekhi, a year after its opening at the Pingyao tweet reached Manish Mundra, the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Inter­ CEO of a petrochemical company national Film Festival. based in Nigeria. He decided to bank­ roll the project. Mundra went on to Black and white support other small, independent, off­ The decade just gone has seen a steady beat films like Neeraj Ghaywan’s Ma- sprinkling of interesting indies — saan and Masurkar’s Newton. Today, he Kshay, Loev, CRD; from the South, Lu- has started a Bollywood company of cia and Aruvi; from Bengal, Gandu and his own called Drishyam Films. Asha Jaoar Majhe; and from Haryana, G Technology has ensured democrati­ Kutta Se — fighting against the odds to sation too. Everyone can make a film establish a niche for themselves, away and about issues that get buried in the from mainstream cinema. mainstream. Dakxin Chhara, an Ahme­ Most have been debuts by young dabad­based theatreperson and film­ filmmakers such as 23­year­old Achal maker, belongs to the Chhara denoti­ Mishra’s Maithili indie, Gamak Ghar, fied tribe, and aims to use cinema as a where the protagonist is his own ances­ tool to empower his community. Bhau­ tral home. New voices Stills from (clockwise from above) Asha Jaoar Majhe , Loev, The Untitled Kartik Krishnan rao Karhade, a farmer­turned­filmmak­ Highest bidder, ever They have brought in a diversity of Project, Aruvi and Eeb Allay Ooo!. er from Maharashtra, makes cinema A 2017 auction at Christie’s, New stories, ways of telling, languages and about the agrarian crisis. York, saw Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Sal­ cultures. Pushpendra Singh’s Ashwat- that lay bare the human mind’s steady glance at the backroom boys and girls The Ektara Collective of Bhopal vator Mundi’ (c. 1500) sell for thama was as much about a young boy dissolution. of Bollywood who live in Andheri­Ver­ made a ‘community’ film, Turup, on Most of the indies have been $450,312,500 — making it by far reconciling with loss and grief as about If Aamir Bashir’s Harud provided a sova­Oshiwara, their struggles with caste, class, gender, religious politics the most expensive painting ever the Braj language and patriarchy. Ka­ relentlessly grim, ringside view of em­ debuts by young filmmakers landlords as much as with the process against the backdrop of rising funda­ sold at a public auction. The so­ ran Gour’s Kshay looked at how faith battled lives in Kashmir, Ashim Ahlu­ who have brought in a of writing itself. mentalism. In 2017, several indie­spirit­ called ‘Male Mona Lisa’, redisco­ turns into superstition and eventually walia’s Miss Lovely showed the grime diversity of stories, ways of ed films emerged from the main­ vered in 2005 and restored, depicts becomes a dangerous obsession; but and debauchery behind the glamour of telling, languages and Understated approach stream: A Death in the Gunj, Anaarkali Jesus Christ as the saviour of the the ingenuity lay in the use of black­ the film industry. Amit Masurkar’s Sule- cultures Sudhanshu Saria described his film of Aarah, Lipstick Under My Burkha, world. It was reportedly purchased and­white cinematography, and in the mani Keeda (before he went on to mak­ Loev as a post­gay film — Gay 2.0 — Gurgaon, Mukti Bhawan and Ribbon. by Saudi Prince Badr bin Abdullah. background score and sound design ing the celebrated Newton) cast a where sexuality and sexual orientation But the indies are still grappling is matter­of­fact and understated rath­ with viable platforms to take the films er than questioned or made a big deal to the audience. Many have remained of. Set in the world of college theatre, confined to the festival circuit. Then Kranti Kanade’s CRD has multiple ide­ you have a Sandeep Mohan who literal­ ologies play off against each other even ly takes his films by the collar to the au­ as the linearity of time collapses. A diences, organising independent dense and complicated narrative, screenings in small cafés and booksh­ which throws open more questions ops everywhere. than answers, it explores the fascism One remarkable success story is and fierce competition in the world of Bardroy Barretto’s modest Konkani arts and the obsession with success. film, Nachom­ia Kumpasar (Let’s Dance Sandeep Mohan’s Shreelancer cap­ To The Rhythm), a fictionalised ac­ tured the lives of freelancers in little count of the popular Konkani jazz sin­ details, be it at home or at the many ca­ ger Lorna Cordeiro’s love for the fa­ fés that fill in as workstations. mous saxophonist, trumpet player and Then there have been reclusive musician Chris Perry. Made with con­ filmmakers, such as Amit Dutta, who tributions from 101 of Barretto’s family has been making experimental films members and friends Nachom-ia Kum- West coast wonders sitting in Himachal Pradesh, like Nain- pasar premiered in Goa in 2014 and ‘Pacific Standard Time’, a research sukh, on the life of an 18th­century has had hundreds of housefull ticketed initiative funded by the Getty Foun­ painter from Kangra; Sonchidi, about screenings organised by the makers dation, has had a major impact on two travellers in search of a flying craft themselves. The idea behind the stag­ the art world. Focusing on unrecog­ they believe will help them get rid of gered, non­conventional release was nised art from Los Angeles from the cycle of birth; and The Museum of that the film should reach audiences, 1945 to 1980, the first edition in Imagination, an abstract portrait of art gain critical mass steadily, and remain 2011 unearthed a number of works historian B.N. Goswamy. Gurvinder relevant for two years, not just two that resulted in some groundbreak­ Singh’s Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan looked weeks. This indie is now referred to as ing exhibitions, while the 2017 edi­ at caste politics among Sikhs, and Sholay of Konkani cinema. The irony tion transformed the understanding Chauthi Koot was all about the at­ couldn’t have been sweeter. of Latin American and Latinx art.

Musical topper Heroes of the decade Not just one album The Book of Mormon grossed over Avengers: Endgame, part of the Mar­ Music streaming services like Apple $500 million to become the most vel Cinematic Universe, grossed over Music, Spotify and SoundCloud be­ successful musical of all time. It de­ $2.7 billion worldwide, becoming came popular during this decade. buted on Broadway in 2011. The the highest­grossing superhero film Digital music sales exceeded CD show was awarded nine Tony of all time and the highest­grossing sales in 2012. These platforms be­ Awards, including Best Musical, and movie of all time, surpassing 2009's came popular as they offered music a Grammy Award for Best Musical Avatar. Displacing war films, musi­ streaming on the Internet without Theater Album. The Broadway cast’s cals and historical dramas as the the listener having to download recording of the musical, written by most popular genre, superhero films files. Spotify, one of the most popu­ Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt became box office leaders during the lar of these streaming services, had Stone, topped the Billboard charts. last decade. its Indian launch in 2019.

CM ND-X YK THE HINDU * Magazine DELHI 05 Sunday, December 29, 2019 SPECIAL ISSUE

circling the skies over Chicham village in Spiti, the lonely shrike in the rain in Lachung, the barking deer with a foot frozen mid­air in Val­ and sketch from nature. “It’s projects parai. But the rest of nature is not like these that I love most — where I can mere backdrop: it heaves as the forest bring stories from the natural world floor shifts, leaves drop, shrubs, orchids closer to people. To me art is not just push upwards towards the light — it is about having a show in a gallery.” nature as a sensate being, with its own SPOTLIGHT At first glance, it’s just a lovely water­ memory, its own intents — a visual coun­ colour of the Tropical Sundew: those terpart to a novel like Richard Powers’ beautiful carnivorous plants that make The Overstory, which makes us see and death look attractive. There’s the flower feel the life of trees. on a long thin stem, and the leaves with long, sticky tentacles that ensnare pass­ Hungry city Art for the ing insects. Here the devil is in the de­ Gigi Scaria’s installations and videos, tail, literally — look closely and you see sculptures and photos are preoccupied the mosquitoes and bugs getting swal­ with the oxymoron that is the urban en­ lowed up by the leaves. The illustrator vironment — especially Delhi, where he of this image, Bengaluru­based Nirupa lives. It is a metropolis obsessed with Rao, adds an interesting fact: “The long cleanliness but is the very detritus that stem helps keep the flower well away chokes River Yamuna; it is a hungry city from the leaves — so pollinating insects that bursts at the seems but also segre­ don’t get caught, and can carry pollen gates and excludes as it grows. on to other flowers.” Speak of nature’s In his video ‘Panic City’, he con­ Anthropocene perfect design. structs an animated panorama of the unequal city, shot in sections from the Hidden kingdom minaret of Jama Masjid. Big buildings A new wave of artists is returning to the wild, and using science, satire, protest, Rao’s most recent book, Hidden King­ muscle through modest neighbour­ dom — Fantastical Plants of the Western hoods; they ominously rise and ebb, to jolt us back to the natural world, or to what remains of it Ghats, where this image is from, can be like slumbering beasts, to the disorient­ called India’s answer to The Lost Words ingly beautiful crescendos and dimi­ by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Mor­ nuendos of Vivaldi. “The urban land­ ris, the book that has kicked off an ongo­ scape has always interested me, Divya Gandhi & focus on the dystopian urban environ­ ing movement in the U.K. to bring chil­ especially the hierarchies. It is a micro­ Anusua Mukherjee ment, others draw our attention to the dren back to the disintegrating natural cosm of the larger environment around politics of human displacement. world around them. Like The Lost us — increasingly fragmented, but also ike an airborne samurai, ta­ Chakravarty is better known for Words, Hidden Kingdom too has illustra­ fighting for a sense of cohesion,” says lons drawn, green eyes Green Humour, a cartoon strip where tions set to rhyme, explaining the cha­ Scaria. squinting fiendishly, a thing of wild animals get speech bubbles, and in racteristics of given plants. Rao has also beauty swoops down on its which they call out humans on their en­ illustrated Pillars of Life: Magnificent Politics of loss panicked victim. There’s a vironmental follies: “Ah! so you’re the Trees of the Western Ghats by naturalists Filmmaker and artist Amar Kanwar Lbrief pursuit. Feathers fly. You can al­ big foot!” exclaims a leopard visibly Divya Mudappa and T.R. Shankar Ra­ takes up the politics of loss — of land, most hear a clamour of cymbals, and dumbfounded by the large sloppy foot­ man, as well as the stunning cover of water, livelihood, life — in his work. His then it’s all over. It was no match. The prints left behind by a man walking by Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island. multimedia project, ‘The Sovereign For­ crested hawk­eagle, with its crown his side; “Nah, that’s just my carbon For inspiration, Rao looks to Al­ est’, ongoing from 2012, brings together feathers fanned, sits victoriously on its footprint,” declares the biped. brecht Dürer’s nature studies, to minia­ films, texts, books, photographs, seeds vanquished prey — a jungle fowl. “When I started out, I just wanted to ture and Japanese scroll paintings, and (the multiple varieties of rice that once This could have been an animation draw something on wildlife and have modern artists like S.M. Khayyam from grew in Odisha), to highlight the con­ short, only it’s an illustrated sequence fun as a cartoonist. I wasn’t very serious Pakistan, whose 2018 exhibition, ‘Art flicts between local communities and from Bird Business , the latest offering about messaging. But then as I started for Climate Change,’ had drawn interna­ the government and corporations over from Hyderabad­based cartoonist Ro­ getting responses from scientists and tional attention. If Renaissance artists the control of agricultural lands, forests, han Chakravarty. But the 32­year­old’s the public, I realised I have a responsi­ like Dürer were documenting the hith­ rivers and mineral resources in Odisha. stint at an animation studio — develop­ bility to live up to,” he says. erto undocumented natural world, Leaders of primarily non­violent ing characters, storyboarding, directing what are modern­day ecological artists groups of peasants, fishermen and tri­ films — have rubbed off onto his comic Touch it, study it aiming to achieve? Rao thinks that the bal people can be heard speaking in style, he says. And you can see, in the Sangeetha Kadur carries a scrapbook return to nature is a response to the loss ‘The Sovereign Forest’ — the idea is to economy of the panels, in the way he with her wherever she goes. In it are of the wilderness but professionals and build up evidence against the crime ‘directs’ the action sequences, the in­ sketches of moths and seeds, birds and hobbyists alike are also using their art committed and also to ask vital ques­ fluence of his biggest idols from the ani­ leaves, rendered with such startling em­ “as a means to slow down and rethink tions: can an artist intervene in this sce­ mation world, particularly Genndy Tar­ piricism that you can feel the powdery our lifestyles.” nario? Can ‘poetry’ be presented as ‘evi­ takovsky, the creator of Samurai Jack pigment on the wings of the brown­and­ dence’ in a criminal or political trial? the adventure­action series set in a dys­ orange Eudocima moth; the weight of Listen to the silence Yet Kanwar wouldn’t like to categor­ topian future. the chandelier of fruits on a fishtail Pillars of Life also features sketches by ise himself as artist/ activist/ artist­acti­ Chakravarty is part of a growing le­ palm; the papery edges of the Pterocar­ Sartaj Ghuman, who is introduced in vist. “It is more important to respond — gion of Indian artists — cartoonists and pus seed. the book “as a trained wildlife biologist either to the question of violence or to painters, filmmakers and sculptors — When Kadur made a switch from who prefers poetry to academics.” He our inner contradictions and perhaps who tell vital, sometimes cautionary, confirms that when we meet him, tell­ even our desire for violence and re­ tales of the wild before all is lost in this ing us that his breathtaking paintings venge. To question, reconfigure our un­ age of the Anthropocene, the earth’s are just art, and if he uses science, it’s derstandings of ethical and moral posi­ new epoch brought on by our own hu­ for composition’s sake. A scientist, tions, and introspect — that’s our man recklessness. And they do so with Draw of the jungle (Clockwise from mountaineer, birder, painter, explorer responsibility,” he says. great idiosyncrasy: some unabashedly top) ‘Barking deer’ by Sartaj Ghuman; and writer, Ghuman has worked exten­ The American biologist E.O. Wilson anthropomorphise their subjects, oth­ ‘Oleander hawk-moth’ by Sangeetha sively with the Nature Conservation has warned that we are entering “The ers paint them with a scientific eye, Kadur; ‘Tropical sundew’ by Nirupa Foundation (NCF) in its various projects Eremocene”, the Age of Loneliness, as some with the yoke of nostalgia others Rao; an illustration from Bird all over India. As part of the NCF’s out­ more and more species go extinct and with the sting of satire. Some turn their Business by Rohan Chakravarty. reach programmes, he also paints birds swathes of landmasses disappear. By and beasts on school walls to educate making us appreciate what remains, children. Showing us images of the walls these artists are urging us to conserve, psychology to art, she found herself less specimen at the Bombay Natural Histo­ he has decorated in Spiti schools, he and so to delay, if not stave off, the Ero­ keen on the abstract form that her fine ry Society. “I wanted to touch it, study says there’s value also in the bonhomie mocene. And yet we must ask: can a arts college was pushing her towards — its scale pattern — I noticed the scales that this builds up with local work of art, however beautiful and po­ “My heart was in realism,” she says. “My are arranged differently around its communities. werful in its message, bring about work is as much about art as it is about mouth than they are on its tail.” Yet it’s not the hum of busy voices change? Perhaps not. But there’s value science.” And nature journalling works Kadur now takes nature journalling but solitude that pervades his paintings. in the fragments they have shored as a reckoner she dips into for her pro­ to children through her GreenScraps In that silence, you can hear nature against the ruins — it’s art as evidence, jects — be they wall murals commis­ project where they can hold and study breathe: there’s the Himalayan griffon art for keeps. sioned by environmental NGOs, coffee table books or paintings on canvas. One such project was an acrylic por­ trait of a monitor lizard perched on a rock, its forked tongue surveying it’s se­ But the rest of nature is not mere mi­arid world. “I remember I spent an backdrop: it heaves as the forest entire day at the Bannerghatta zoo ob­ floor shifts, leaves drop, shrubs, serving its anatomy, the way it moved, sketching it.” Then she made sure she orchids push upwards towards got an even closer look at a preserved the light

The web’s play Back home House of Cards, an American web In 2018, French President Emmanuel television series created by Beau Macron, after receiving a report that Willimon, was the first original web called for the return of African series to receive major Emmy artworks looted during the colonial nominations. This drama is period, announced the repatriation considered to have redefined how of a number of pieces to Benin. This television series are produced set a precedent and sparked debate. because of the strong performances It was also found that about 90% of and sure-handed direction. It is Africa’s cultural heritage was based on a novel by Michael Dobbs. outside the continent.

CM ND-X YK 06 DELHI THE HINDU * Magazine SPECIAL ISSUE Sunday, December 29, 2019

SOCIAL MEDIA WhatsApp, India?

If you ask me what made the last decade nothing like what India has known before, it is an app that has insinuated itself into our lives

Anita Nair

he alarm rings. It sounds like birds twittering, the morning chorus from the trees and skies, but it is nevertheless an alarm and if I don’t shut it up, it will twitter aga in in five T minutes. Soon all the reminders set on my phone will tell me what my day will be like. Sometimes my nights too. It is 5.30 in the morning and already the world is rushing into my life demand­ ing time, attention, wit, wisdom and a good morning. Communal fracture BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi at Ayodhya in 1992. * THE HINDU ARCHIVES If you were to ask me what made the last decade nothing lik e what India had known before, it is WhatsApp. Not technology. Nor HISTORY OF HATRED even smartphones. All that was inevitable. Technology h as only one trajectory: a forward surge. That it would take the world with it was bound to happen. The nation’s slide into fear, hate and bigotry did not begin ex nihilo five years ago. It’s the climax of a What made it seamless was an app that insinuated itself into our hundred­year campaign against the kind and pluralistic ethos of the freedom struggle lives with the insidious stealth of a snake crawling in through a drain hole. One day you were sending text messages or e mailing each other and then suddenly there was a messaging s ervice that told you if the person you were chatting to was online, wh ether they had read your messages or were pretending not to have seen them. The double blue tick gave you the power of righteous indig­ nation. It gave you emojis to show how you felt in c ase words we­ Battle for India’s soul ren’t adequate. And most importantly, was free. (Tha t it cost you via data usage somehow failed to register.) You didn’t need a Black­ Harsh Mander to remould India into the muscular and in Ayodhya, to demonise the Muslim, ment peaking to a 45­year high. This berry or an iPhone. A plain old Android did the tric k and What­ resentful nation of their imagination. and to construct a sense of permanent has been interpreted by the leadership sApp changed Indians forever. hundred years have passed grievance in the Hindu people. as a mandate to implement their alter­ since a battle was launched Ideals of the past Since 2014, however, India has hur­ nate vision for India as a land only for OMG for the soul of this ancient I was born eight years after India won tled far more rapidly downwards to be­ Hindus. They have moved with resolve At first, it was the prelude to Tinder and Grinder. Y ou met some­ land. At stake was the coun­ her freedom. I recall a childhood in come a country increasingly dangerous and swiftness, hubris and recklessness. one. You exchanged numbers and then you checked if they were on try we would together build which the idealism of the freedom and unwelcoming to minorities, espe­ Diminishing Kashmir to a Union Terri­ WhatsApp. Later you sent them a hello or a good morning. The aAfter the British left our shores. struggle, although rapidly unravelling, cially its vast Muslim populace. Fear tory, the law criminalising triple talaq, geek, the wallflower and the socially inept came into th eir own. This was the time when Mahatma still endured. We were raised without and hate have become inseparable and the judicial ruling for a Ram temple Quips and witticisms, emojis declaring love, kisses and hugs punc­ Gandhi returned from South Africa to bigotry, taught to be thrifty and kind. from public life, for both minorities and at the site of the demolished mosque, tuated what once was the comma and full stop’s realm. Where once join India’s freedom struggle. In his lea­ Friendships across religion were com­ for those who stand with them. Elected all fulfil the long­prized agenda of the you waited for the postman to ring the bell or for the trill of the te­ dership of three decades, a majority of mon (though much less, I realise now, leaders flaunt hate speech, legitimising RSS. lephone or even the gentle ping of the text message, WhatsApp an­ Indians — Hindu, Muslim and of other across caste). Our cinema, our poetry, and valorising bigotry and hatred, The next pivotal step for this raging nounced itself with a descending tonal register that in a strange faiths — shared his vision of a country music and theatre, celebrated our plu­ which have become the dominant juggernaut is to create by law, for the way felt like your intestines descending into the knees. In those ear­ resolutely inclusive and humane, ral identities. It was an unequal India, first time, a hierarchy of citizenship ly days, e­commerce and work groups had not colonised this mes­ which would welcome people of every but comfortable in its diversity, stirred rights based only on religion, which saging service. This was a parallel universe you ret reated to every belief and ethnicity to be equal citizens with the hope of building a better fu­ bars only India’s Muslims. This, if fol­ few minutes where you shared the minu­ with equal rights. This ideal lay at the ture for all our people. I recall a childhood in which the lowed by the National Register of Citi­ tiae of your life with a near stranger and foundations of the constitution of the Today, my grandson is being raised idealism of the freedom zens that has been pledged repeatedly received as much if not more in return. new republic, crafted in the care of Ba­ in a worryingly altered India. From the by Home Minister Amit Shah, will You could even Sample this: struggle, although rapidly basaheb Ambedkar. time he will make sense of his world, he unravelling, still endured. We thrust India’s Muslims into the same make out on X: Had bf? This goal was bitterly contested all will routinely hear conversations of bi­ vortex of permanent fear and desper­ were raised without bigotry, WhatsApp and no Y: Not yet. Did you? What did you eat? these hundred years by the Hindu Ma­ gotry and exclusion, in living rooms, in ate insecurity that has been the fate of X: Puri aloo… I love puri­aloo one would even hasabha, founded around 1915, and by classrooms, on his phone and laptop, taught to be thrifty and kind Bengali­origin people of Assam. Y: OMG. So do I the RSS in 1925. Their vision for India on his television screen. He will join a Then, like a sudden flash of brilliant know unless you X: You know, right from when you were the noisy was of a nation exclusively for India’s section of the world that is complacent markers of social life. Crowds gather to light in a stormy night, the revolt led by said hello, I felt this connection with you Hindu majority, in which Muslims and in its comfort and vulgar overconsump­ lynch Muslims and Dalits in the name of students across the country has broken kind. [hug emoji] Christians would be ‘allowed’ inclusion tion, indifferent to the stark penury and protecting the cow, and proudly post through the darkness. By refusing to al­ Relationships and Y: [heart emoji] only as second­class citizens. Though want outside its doors. videos of the lynching on social media. low their nation to be divided by hate, friendships It wasn’t conspicuous, so parents, si­ less explicitly enunciated, people of India did not suddenly change in re­ Relationships between Muslim men young people are challenging the go­ blings, spouses or colleagues didn’t in­ disadvantaged castes and tribal ethnic­ cent years. The slide started much ear­ and Hindu women are stigmatised as vernment’s hubris. The movement between the trude or realise what was going on. It was unlikeliest of ities would also be lesser citizens. lier. In college, idealistic students of love jihad. Christian priests, nuns and might or might not sustain. But the fact like having a secret friend who was tuned The turbulent combat eventually earlier batches had disappeared into shrines are attacked. Dissenters are pil­ that it has happened reassures us that people flourished to your every thought and need. You took a toll of over a million lives, includ­ the countryside to fight rural oppres­ loried as anti­national. A new slur ban­ our young have the moral fibre to seize could say what you wanted without flush­ ing that of Gandhiji, and caused the lar­ sion. We fought against the corruption died by even the Prime Minister is so­ the mantle. They will fight for the kind ing in embarrassment or worry about being judged. You could even gest cataclysmic displacement of hu­ and authoritarianism of the Congress mething called ‘Urban Naxal’. and equal country that Gandhi fought make out on WhatsApp and no one would even know unle ss you man populations in history. government and against the Emergen­ for a hundred years earlier. were the noisy kind. Relationships and friendships between the un­ Today, we find ourselves at a decisive cy. The 1980s saw vast fractures crack Vortex of fear ...... likeliest of people flourished. And all you had to do was ghost so­ phase of this same battle. We are led to­ India’s plurality: calamitous communal In the midsummer 2019 elections, the The writer is a human rights worker, meone to end it. The persistent kind could be muted or blocked. day by men who have spent all their massacres, regressive mobilisation BJP government won an expanded author and teacher.His books include Relationship management had hit a new milestone. adult lives as staunch members of the against the rights of Muslim women, a mandate, despite economic collapse, Partitions of the Heart: Unmaking the RSS. They believe their time has come, violent campaign to destroy a mosque mounting farm distress and unemploy­ Idea of India. A petri dish Then family, school and work groups crept into what was once just a personal space. It became a great leveller, decimating hierar­ chies. As voice notes, voice and video calls were enabled, the mes­ saging service became a political tool. WhatsApp had turned into a HUNGRY GENERATION dians of air, water, earth and space — petri dish where bigots emerged and spat venom. Soon, it became will we fail to rein in our greed? Can we the most effective way to propagate news, most of which was doc­ legislate hunger in a more creative way tored, and to spread baseless rumours that had far­reaching conse­ than through greed? quences. And like a forest fire, there was no controlling it. So much Rage is no longer an emotion, it’s an Eating the digital banana emoji, a thumbprint that can transmit so that election campaigns played out on WhatsApp. The irony was that each person sharing fake news thought they were doing their anger in an instant across time and contacts a service by sharing it with them. As far as bananas go it was spectacularly ordinary bank or more automatically at an ATM space. The last decade has empowered For centuries, tantrics have been trying to teach the world how or a gas station, or as digital art, as the collective manifestation of rage and to awaken their kundalini. Suddenly, it seemed that all it took was a but it was a moment frozen in time food, as the taste and colour with which its more intemperate twin, violence. In WhatsApp message to do so. The energy slowly slithered higher up we navigate our landscape listening to some cases, as with the Japanese film­ the spine, letting us take control. WhatsApp taught us to make our Geeta Doctor his intentions, the artist did not call it details about the weather conditions, maker Takashi Miike, it can also be a phones into an extension of ourselves. We were no longer daunted ‘Drowned Humanity’. or of the dangers lying ahead while lo­ philosophical stance. He has been qu­ by technology. We had figured out it was there to do our bidding. hen put on the wall of a wering a stethoscope on the surface of oted as saying about the overt violence It’s 6.30 a.m. I open WhatsApp. I send Ali, a coconut­picker, Miami art gallery by Flashing images the moon. It no longer matters for the that underlies his oeuvre, “Ultimately, who lives 500 km away, a message to drop by at my parents’ home. an artist named Mauri­ Tragedy as spectacle has often served most part how we describe ourselves as violence is an expression of love”. An e­commerce site sends me a ticket. An editor forwards an event zio Cattelan, celebrat­ as a motif for art, particularly religious a society, whether democratic or totali­ One of the strangest evolutionary photo. I share my location with a friend visiting from another city. I ed for making golden art. Just as during totalitarian regimes tarian. Algorithms have already decid­ features of the past decade has been tWoilets, it auctioned for $120,000 and the brute power of the majority is sig­ ed how we will vote our new leaders. the one legislating human desire. At its send bank transfer details of a payment made to a vendor. Half a dozen people have already said good morning to me. And so have I. became a worldwide sensation. For nalled by mass parades of flag­waving We choose between two extremes. best it’s been a liberating force. For us BTW, I still haven’t got out of bed or said good mor ning to my those who are looking for a new car, people in perfect sync and heroic forms Flashing images of simple binaries, of in India, the scrapping of Section 377 of living, breathing family all under the same roof as me. this sum, we are told, will buy you a cast in bronze towering over the land­ real vs surreal; need vs greed; settler vs the IPC must be seen as one of the most ...... 2021 model of a Chevy Trailblazer. scape. Earlier, the statues were bathed the outlier; hunger vs desire, are most dramatic changes that took place in the “I was hungry,” confessed David Da­ in milk and saffron, today strobe lights often what constitutes freedom of last decade. It allows people of alter­ The writer is the author of several novels. tuna, a Georgian­born American per­ choice. nate sexual orientations to live together formance artist. And he picked the ba­ as they choose. It has not just broken nana from the wall and ate it for the Raise the flag the shackles that have bound our socie­ * GETTY IMAGES/ ISTOCK cameras. He called the performance Rage is no longer an emotion, it’s Needless to say, none of the double­ ty, it has also allowed every one ‘Hungry Artist’. Man and banana an emoji, a thumbprint that can edged desires that we now term bin­ of us to think and celebrate merged. A myth suited for our digital transmit anger in an instant across aries are new. They have been what must be seen as the di­ age was born. All it will need is a digital time and space there forever. The question that versity of being human. artist to create reproductions of the ba­ we must ask ourselves is, how do As far as flags go, the rain­ nana and put it up on walls of art galler­ caress them with dazzling displays of we legislate these primal needs? bow flag is a celebration of in­ ies around the world. subtly programmed messages pro­ There is, for instance, the clusiveness that has released a The ‘Hungry Artist’ may be seen as a duced by digital systems. The different question of whether we spirit of creativity that symbol for the last decade. The digital body parts of a bronze hero are crafted will be able to sum­ breaches barriers and age has triumphed. Reality and the vir­ and assembled with the expertise of a mon the desire to walls. It underlines the tual have become synonymous. surgeon re­attaching a severed limb. In save our planet. Or message the Dalai La­ Twined around each other, they have both cases, it will soon be possible for whether in our an­ ma recommends become indistinguishable. The body of robots to replace the trained human xiety to grab the re­ when life gets too the three­year­old Aylan Kurdi, who component at the press of a button. sources that we complex. was found lying face down on the sandy Power no longer comes from a gun venerated in the “Let us laugh!” beach along the Mediterranean littoral, but lies in the index finger of the digital past — as the guar­ ...... became a heartbreaking symbol of the artist. Without our even being aware of The media critic refugee crisis. It underlined our collec­ its power, the digital imprint has invad­ and commentator tive rage and helplessness, but it also ed every tiny crevice and cranny of our Performance art decodes the baffling became art. The moment was en­ thinking lives, including memory. This David Datuna eats the variety of human shrined in an art installation at the Ko­ is true whether we see it as the mone­ installation banana. behaviour in our chi Biennale the next year. Whatever tary transactions that we make at a * REUTERS global village.

CM ND-X YK THE HINDU * Magazine DELHI 07 Sunday, December 29, 2019 SPECIAL ISSUE

RIGHT TO LOVE WATCH OUT If having a gay friend is the new cool in post­377 India, it is because queer Indians walked the talk when no one else did Something for everyone This decade of streaming has done a world of good for pop culture buffs

I march, are surely licking their lips ahead of their In­ Aditya Mani Jha dia launch — given the blockbuster appeal of South Asian LGBTQIA+ issues that came out of n 2012, back when this writer was still MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) films in California. Counsel Club used to distribute Tri­ in college, to be a movie buff meant this country, they have a readymade footh­ kone in India to save on postage costs from flaunting multiple external hard old in India. Besides, Disney+ content will America. One day Pawan got a notice from Cus­ drives, all chock­full of Hollywood and be distributed via Hotstar, which already toms. They had opened the package of Trikone therefore I am world cinema classics (Bollywood was has over 300 million subscribers in India and issued a show cause asking, “Why iInfra dig, of course), downloaded either (Netflix and Prime combined have approxi­ shouldn’t we charge you with corrupting the from the Internet or the college’s internal mately 100 million). morals of the nation?” Pawan told me, “I can file­sharing network. The golden era of tele­ never forget those words. I still have that notice vision meant, however, that these hard It’s a dent with me.” drives would also be stuffed with season af­ But this decade of streaming proliferation ter season of American TV shows — everyth­ has brought its own set of problems. In Oc­ ‘I hear you’ ing from prestige fare like The Sopranos and tober, a number of media outlets reported That notice is among the artefacts of India’s The Wire, high school stuff like Gossip Girl or on how Disney is putting hundreds of vin­ LGBTQIA+ movement. As are the thousands of wisecracking, dialogue­driven dramas like tage Fox movies (like Alien, The Princess letters people like Pawan received from lonely Boston Legal and The West Wing. Bride, The Omen and so on) out of circula­ men and women trying to make sense of their The running joke in my hostel was that tion, denying small­theatre owners the lives and desires. In his book, Out of Line and one guy, a bit of a jerk who kept mostly to chance to spice up their programming with Offline — Queer Mobilizations in ’90s Eastern In­ himself, had been watching The West Wing the odd classic. Disney has not responded to dia, Pawan shares some of those letters, writ­ nonstop for years (we would hear the media queries on this, but it’s anybody’s ten “in yellow envelopes, inland forms, open show’s opening credit music literally every guess what’s happening to these films — they postcards and aerogrammes”, some looking day from his room). are part of a giant stockpile that will service for a partner, some just a sense of self. “Sir, I Disney+ in the years to come. started sensing my homosexuality at the age of Customised for you Similarly, networks like NBC are with­ 11 though till now I have not had sex with any­ Much before we started using that word, drawing their bestselling products — for body.” Two women wrote in, asking for help to therefore, we were binge­watching. I remain NBC, that’s stuff like The Office — from Net­ flee to Delhi. Otherwise, they said, suicide was convinced that the ‘external hard drive era’ flix et al , with a view towards launching the only option. Pawan says he still has 2,500 (that arrived in the late 2000s, mostly) con­ their own streaming platform. Very soon, if to 3,000 of those letters. I don’t think many of tributed to the speed with which Indian mil­ most other networks follow suit, they will them talked about Section 377. The letters were lennials took to streaming platforms. essentially be asking people to go back to inevitably about loneliness rather than legality. By then, most of us had heard of Netflix. 1999 and the TV model, when we flipped Legal change, once unimaginable, even­ But we couldn’t understand why someone channels endlessly (a move sure to backfire, tually happened because people refused to would pay money to watch old films when for most consumers will prefer buying only AFP give up. As Owais writes in an essay in his an­ there was a vast and wonderful world of Tor­ two or three services, as opposed to 10 or thology, Gulabi Baghi, “Success comes only to rents and free downloads, right there for the 12). This each­man­for­himself model is not gay” novels and memoirs. Corporate giants that person and only that group which is con­ Sandip Roy taking. Eventually, of course, we under­ compatible with the ethos of a good stream­ like Tata are extending benefits to their sistent, which is a lambi daud ka ghoda” (the stood just what Netflix was selling — a cura­ ing platform — namely the Netflix­pioneered he three men wore bright yellow T­ LGBTQIA+ employees. Karan Johar is promis­ horse for the long run). In 2018, that long run torial service that would customise user ex­ system of ‘we have something for everyone’. shirts with rainbow­coloured foot­ ing a Dostana 2 that will be “accurate, non­car­ finally bore fruit when the Supreme Court said, perience, ensuring it has something in the Sooner rather than later, the big players are prints. Rafiquel Haque Dowjah wore icaturish and on point”. It’s part and parcel of a “The right to love is not just a separate battle bag for every presumable kind of consumer. going to have to settle this among them­ his on top of a perfectly pleated dho­ more woke post­377 India. for LGBT individuals, but a battle for all.” Then in 2015, Hotstar and Eros Now selves, or risk losing the market consolida­ ti, probably a fashion first. The T­ But those three men in their yellow T­shirts The quotes from that historic judgement started operations in India and just like that, tion they have collectively achieved in the Tshirts celebrated the 20th anniversary of In­ were a reminder that these rights did not just will be saved, savoured and celebrated, and millions across the country discovered the 2010s. dia’s first Pride Walk in Kolkata and these men emerge fully formed on September 6, 2018, rightly so. The words were carefully chosen, pleasures of the streaming era. It wasn’t a On the whole, however, this decade of — Rafiquel, Pawan Dhall and Owais — were when the Supreme Court read down Section written with an eye towards history. Panellists whole lot to begin with — from the begin­ streaming has done a world of good for pop three of the original marchers. Owais had 377, overturning the 2013 ruling that had recri­ quoted them on television shows. But I hope ning, Hotstar was more focused on corner­ culture buffs. Unconventional or even brought the original yellow T­shirt they had minalised it, pushing LGBTQIA+ Indians aside we also never forget that long before judges put ing the sports market than anything else. It avant­garde films and shows are being fi­ worn back in 1999, a little bedraggled but still as a ‘minuscule minority’. pen to paper, there were ordinary queer In­ would take Netflix another year to set up nanced much more readily than before. historic. Twenty years ago, they didn’t call it an The change happened because over the dians who answered, by hand, letters strangers shop in India, one of 100­plus countries Films and shows from other languages and LGBTQIA+ Pride March. That seemed too out years, queer Indians, like Pawan, Owais and sent to a post­box. They probably didn’t quote around the world where the company ex­ regions have never been this accessible to so there. They chose the more innocuous Friend­ Rafiquel and many others, walked the talk Goethe and Shakespeare and Leonard Cohen. panded. Circa 2016, Netflix was a bona fide many. More importantly, Netflix & Co. have ship Walk. when no one else did. When I would come to They could not even promise “It gets better.” global giant, and it had now entered what made a dent in the hitherto unchallenged India on my annual pilgrimage from San Fran­ The greatest solace, sometimes the only so­ could be its biggest­ever market. supremacy of the feudal, nepotistic movie How woke? cisco, where I worked in Silicon Valley, Pawan lace, those at the other end of a post bag num­ The streaming wars had begun in real studios of the world, whether Hollywood or When some 15 walkers stepped out on that and I would chat about what it meant to be gay ber could provide was to pick up a pen and earnest. By 2018, the Indian consumer had Bollywood. It’s not fatal damage, to be hon­ monsoon day in 1999 they could not have ima­ in India. Once a friend and I brought back vide­ write back to just say, “I hear you.” Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, Eros est, but it’s a dent and that counts for so­ gined that one day they would be on stage at a os of queer films in our suitcases and we had a Long before this revolution was televised, it Now, Alt Balaji, Voot, Zee5 and others to mething. “Queer & Inclusive” Rainbow Lit Fest in New mini LGBTQIA+ ‘film festival’ in Pawan’s living was handwritten, one letter at a time, stamped choose from — a $300 million­plus market, And as we usher in a new decade, film Delhi, recounting that story to cheers. There room. It was hard to imagine a post­377 India with the kindness of strangers. by most estimates, a figure expected to tri­ and TV buffs have a lot to look forward to, was a catch in festival director Sharif Rangne­ with a public Rainbow Fest which people ...... ple over the next 4­5 years. And even this whichever way you slice it. kar’s voice as he thanked them for coming. In would pay to attend. The writer is the author of Don’t Let Him might be a conservative valuation, given the ...... India these days having a gay friend seems to Those days Pawan ran a group called Coun­ Know, and like many Bengalis like to let rate at which both Netflix and Prime Video The writer and journalist is working on his be the new cool (at least in some circles). Pu­ sel Club in Kolkata. I was volunteering as editor everyone know about his opinions whether are investing in India. The folks at Disney+ first book of non-fiction. blishing houses are bringing out “Indian and for Trikone, the world’s oldest magazine on asked or not.

A SELECTION OF SURENDRA’S BEST CARTOONS PUBLISHED IN THE HINDU OVER THE DECADE

CM ND-X YK Sense of an Ending The Lives of Others Julian Barnes Neel Mukherjee f there’s a definitive Barnes, this is the one. ukherjee has a genius for imagining the lives of I This 2011 Man Booker Prize winner gathers in M others in their entirety and that skill is honed to its pages almost all of Barnes’s pet themes — an perfection in this novel set in the Calcutta of the 1960s and eroded sense of seriousness in the English the paddy fields on the edges of West Bengal. The eldest son psyche, class, ageing, mortality, tricky of the well­to­do Gupta family, Supratik, joins the CPI(M), remembrance. The title is a reference to literary hoping for a classless society. It’s a dream, of course, and critic Frank Kermode’s book of the same name, the novel shows how class privileges are taken for granted where he explains how writers bring in plot even by Supratik. Food and its lack is a running theme — twists to make readers readjust their sense of an Supratik, who has berated his mother for the heaps of food ending. Expectedly, Barnes does the same, she prepares, recognises hunger for what it is when he joins The Sellout showing how we restructure memory in the way the ragtag bunch of rebels. The descriptions of nature are we want things to happen, while reality might Bring up the Bodies beautiful and the examinations of inner lives incisive. Paul Beatty have been otherwise. A novel of ideas, glittering his Booker winner means to offend, with intelligent insights. Hilary Mantel T and how. The satire is scathing, and it he Tudors never fail to thrill — you have the endless spares none. Set in LA, the novel is T books, movies and television series on them as proof. narrated by Bonbon, who observes and Bring up the Bodies takes up the story from Wolf Hall, about describes his black community with a zen the crafty Thomas Cromwell, plotting, fighting, detachment. In the process, the hallowed dismembering with gusto. Here his worthy opponent is tenets of the U.S. Constitution are Henry VIII’s mistress, and later wife, Anne Boleyn, who is challenged, and the idea of racial equality famous as a flirt but also has a very clever head on her turned on its head. But Beatty, the first shoulders. Cromwell appreciates her pro­Reformation ideas, American to win the Booker, fights shy of and the way she occasions Church of England’s break with calling his novel a satire: indeed, he is Rome through her marriage to Henry, till she tries to get rid reluctant to talk about it at all, believing of him. Her head rolls, of course. Cromwell comes across as that a work of art should speak for itself. dark, deep, self­aware, ruthless, but with flashes of tenderness. Sequels usually disappoint — Mantel’s doesn’t.

BEST FICTION OF THE DECADE Books that break out of the rut, books that are heavy with promise of things to come — our list of the best fiction of the decade Sense of a Americanah There’s Gunpowder in the Air Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie We That Are Young Manoranjan Byapari Preti Taneja trs Arunava Sinha y now, Chimamanda Ngozi B Adichie is a feminist icon, and ho could have thought that his 2019 DSC Prize shortlisted novel is remarkable on several beginning to read this novel is to know where W King Lear could be recast in T counts. Like Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland, this is also set in her appeal lies. She has a way of Delhi, that too by a young Indian Calcutta of the Naxalite years, but to read Byapari’s fictionalised telling the truth, and telling it academic­activist? Preti Taneja account is to get the feel of lived experience (Bypari was once jailed he decade did not see earth­shaking changes in fiction­writing. Established straight, so that it hits home with plays with all the stereotypes of for his Naxalite connections). While there is lament for the young writers like Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Arundhati Roy or Kazuo the clarity of a revelation. Ifemelu post­colonial writing in her novel, lives lost, there is also humour — in the shape of an indomitable cat Ishiguro chiefly wrote along the lines that have made them famous, and the and her boyfriend Obinze, both subverting them smartly. Lear is and a ghost that has made the jail its last stomping ground. In all its results were not startling. While a few new authors — notably Sally Rooney, from Nigeria, migrate to the West the ageing tycoon, Devraj, who delicious irony, jail life comes to resemble domestic life — with a jail T Lucy Ellmann, or closer home, Madhuri Vijay, Roshan Ali, Amitabha Bagchi — broke for studies, the former to the U.S. heads the sprawling India guard who resents his duties; a petty thief who finds his real calling the mould of the expected, most gave in to market forces, and the results, again, and the latter to the U.K. There is a Company. The characters rage, as when inspired by the idealistic young men around him; there is were anything but startling. We list here 10 books that stood out over the last 10 clinical dissection of the various they must, as does nature — a routine, which becomes a rhythm; there’s bad food to wait for, years for different reasons — some set a trend, some made history glamorous, while levels of ‘wokeness’ that the two reminder of the effects of climate unexpected treats to look forward to. Arunava Sinha’s measured some took India’s regional literature to the world. encounter in both countries. There change and what we have brought translation keeps the flavour of Byapari’s no­frills Bengali intact. is a special emphasis on upon ourselves. On the political appearance — hair, especially — plane, there are the anti­ which sort of seals the fate of any corruption riots of 2011 in which The Mysterious Ailment African immigrant. In America, Devraj’s family gets caught. Taneja of Rupi Baskey Ifemelu is assumed to be unabashedly uses filmi tropes to instinctively part of a ‘black her advantage to notch up the Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar consciousness’, although she grew drama. The much appreciated ansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s debut novel, which up reading Mark Twain and novel won Taneja the 2018 H won him the 2015 Yuva Puraskar, started the roll of Graham Greene. A deeply felt novel Desmond Elliott Prize. awards that was to follow. And foreshadowed the and a landmark for post­colonial controversies. The Mysterious Ailment stands out for its studies. fiery women. Putki Baskey, daughter of the patriarch, Somai, from a Santhal village in Jharkhand, is indomitable. She dresses to the hilt, dances, drinks, drops lovers like handkerchiefs. Her bestie, Della, is as wayward. What marks this novella is its unapologetic realism, also the defining characteristic 1Q84 of Hansda’s later collection of short stories, The Haruki Murakami, Adivasi Will Not Dance, which the Jharkhand trs Jay Rubin, Philip Gabriel government banned briefly, alleging that it urakami is cult, and 1Q84, offended the dignity of Santhali women. M published in English in 2011, adds to the legions of his devotees. Incidentally, the novel also features a religious cult, the Sakigake, which operates in much the same way as English Socialism does in Orwell’s 1984. The “Q” in the title denotes a “‘question mark.’ The world that bears a Ghachar Ghochar question.” In Japanese, ‘nine’ is pronounced like ‘Q’, making the title a Vivek Shanbhag pun on 1984. In the hyper­real sky of 1Q84, trs Srinath Perur there are two moons, one true and the f there’s a translation revolution happening in India now, with works written in other false, one good and the other evil. I regional languages getting almost as much attention as Indian writing in English, As the song goes, it’s a “Barnum and Ghachar Ghochar can be said to have started it. Originally written in Kannada and Bailey world,/ just as phony as it can be”. set in Bengaluru, Ghachar Ghochar was described by Deborah Smith in her The key to get to the real world? Belief “in review in The Guardian as “both fascinatingly different from much Indian writing me”, in love. With its heady mix of old­ in English, and [providing] a masterclass in crafting, particularly on the power of fashioned tropes and post­modern glitz, leaving things unsaid.” The dysfunctional family at the centre is caught in the throes of 1Q84 whispers just the right things in the ghachar ghochar, a nonsense phrase that suggests something tangled up beyond mending. ears of Gen Z. Srinath Perur conveys Shanbag’s fine nuances into English with aplomb.

TRENDS Book to screen Eco books The screen almost took over the written word this de­ cade, with more and more For years, climate change activists and denialists have been fighting over its novels being adapted into veracity. Now that the results are more evident than ever before, it is making it­ movies or webseries. How self felt in literature too. In his non­fiction book, The Great Derangement , Am­ many of us have read The itav Ghosh had argued for the representation of heaving, unpredictable nature in Handmaid’s Tale or The Oth­ literature and followed it up with The Gun Island, where nature shows a will of its er Boleyn Girl? If we visualise own, apart from human design. Internationally, writers lik e Robert McFarlane red­clad women whenever are transforming the way we think of nature, taking us to its bowels, giving us there’s a mention of The the arboreal perspective, as the Pulitizer­winner novel, The Overstory , does as Handmaid’s Tale , it’s all be­ well. We can expect more eco books in the coming years as scientists finish map­ cause of the webseries, ping the wood wide web — the underground network of microbes that connects which is arguably more pop­ trees, on the one hand, and we slide further away from nature, on the other. Growing up ular than the novel. The Net­ flix adaptation of Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games had If children’s literature makes you think of candies, rainbows and neat morals, people discussing it eve­ you are lagging behind in your reading. Contemporary children’s literature tack­ rywhere, from the corner les politics, racial and sexual abuse, dysfunctional families, differently­abled bo­ chai shack to the hip coffee dies. In India this year, there was Pops! by Balaji Venkataramanan, where a young shop. And now there’s no boy talks about his trauma resulting from his parents’ separation. In Paro Anand’s stopping the juggernaut, No Guns at my Son’s Funeral , set in the conflict­ridden Kashmir Valley, violence is with authors writing or being just a breath away. In the stunningly illustrated Lubna and Pebble by Wendy Med­ commissioned to write spec­ dour, young Lubna arrives at a refugee camp with her father and finds solace in a ifically with screen adapta­ shiny, hard pebble. tions in mind.

CM ND-X YK THE HINDU * Magazine DELHI 09 Sunday, December 29, 2019 Literary Review

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer Caste Matters Siddhartha Mukherjee Suraj Yengde

n 2003, Siddhartha Mukherjee began advanced n 2017, Sujatha Gidla’s Ants Among I training in cancer medicine at the Dana­Farber I Elephants was published, which pulled Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital in apart the Indian state for failing to stop Boston. He wanted to initially write a journal, but soon the inhumanity its poor and wretched he was on to a book on the biography of cancer. Using had to endure. Two years later, journalist the past to explain the present, he delved into the Yashica Dutt wrote her memoir, a history of the disease to understand the ‘shape­ personal story (Coming out as Dalit), shifting’ illness; Mukherjee wanted to know why a which was also a powerful social disease caused by the uncontrolled growth of a single commentary against everyday casteism Capital in the Twenty-First Century cell was so difficult to battle. Published in the U.S. in that often goes unchallenged. Both books Thomas Piketty 2010, it bagged the Pulitzer Prize the next year, for talked about “the invisible arm that turns Cricket Country: The Untold Story of attempting to answer questions about the larger story the gears in nearly every system in our the First All India Team he publication of French economist Thomas of the ‘emperor of all maladies’: How old is cancer? country.” In July, 2019, Suraj Yengde’s Prashant Kidambi T Piketty’s book, first in French (2013) and then What are the roots of our battle against this disease? Caste Matters took the argument forward, in English (2014), created waves across the world. Where are we in the ‘war’ on cancer? How did we get wondering when India’s progressive amachandra Guha’s A Corner of a After a decade of research and data­crunching, here? Is there an end? Can this war even be won? Brahmins will take up anti­caste work on R Foreign Field wove biography with Piketty offered an outlook on global inequality — a war footing, “for caste in India is an history to chronicle the lives of famous and and conclusions on the relationship between absolute sanction – of the dominant class forgotten cricketers including in the list income and wealth. He argues that as a rule, BEST NON-FICTION OF THE DECADE over the dominated.” He writes that India’s first great slow bowler, Palwankar wealth grows faster than economic growth, despite the academic credentials he had Baloo, a Dalit who fought against caste explaining it with a simple formula r > g, where r How the decade stacked up in books on politics, carefully honed — Yengde is with the discrimination. In Prashant Kidambi’s stands for the average rate of return on capital and Harvard Kennedy School in New York — well­researched account of the formation of g stands for the rate of economic growth. economy, society, sport after growing up poor, he was still treated the first representative Indian team and its According to Piketty, when the rate of return on as an “uneducated labourer... vulnerable tour of England in 1911, two Dalits including capital exceeds the rate of growth of output and and unprotected.” Baloo feature. In Cricket Country (2019), income, capitalism automatically generates Kidambi gathers the first all­India team, ‘a arbitrary and unsustainable inequalities that End of liberalism and diverse coalition comprising Indian radically undermine the meritocratic values on businessmen, princes and publicists, which democratic societies are based. He ends the working in tandem with British governors, book by suggesting that governments should levy a officials, journalists, soldiers and global tax on wealth. professional coaches.’ When the side departs to England, it is ‘an improbable case of characters,’ chosen from several GROWTH OF regions on the basis of their religion: six Parsis, three Muslims and five Hindus, including the two Dalits. “The book charts how the idea of India took shape on the cricket pitch,” Kidambi writes in the THE RIGHT preface. f the first decade of the 2000s was about global terrorism after Al­Qaeda’s audacious attack on A Short History of Nearly Everything the twin towers in New York in 2001 and the Bill Bryson wars that followed, the second grappled with the rise of the right across the world and the strain n a long flight across the Pacific, as he oIn liberalism and democracy as a result. Books O stared at the moonlight on the ocean, Second-Hand Time reflected the uncertainty and Donald Trump’s Bill Bryson (known for his travel books Svetlana Alexievich election as U.S. President in 2016 led to a host of Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the writers trying to make sense of a chaotic Woods, and so forth ) felt he knew nothing econd­Hand Time (2016) is Svetlana Alexievich’s administration with Watergate journalist Bob ‘about the only planet’ he was ever going S oral history, the life stories of housewives, party Woodward’s Fear: Trump in the White House one of to live on. He spent three years workers, artists, students, soldiers and traders who the most damaging. researching and finding ‘patient experts Directorate S lived through the fall of the Soviet Union and the At home, the government of Narendra Modi came prepared to answer a lot of outstandingly Steve Coll two decades that followed it. Awarding her the to power in 2014 and cemented its presence with an dumb questions.’ The result was A Short Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015, the Swedish even bigger win in 2019, but its policies particularly on History of Nearly Everything which is his ournalist Steve Coll gave a first­hand Academy said her polyphonic words were a Kashmir, the economy and the social, religious fabri c of the country made many quest to understand everything from the J account of America’s secret history in monument to suffering and courage. Her books writers anxious. In The RSS: A Menace to India (2019), leading constitutional Big Bang to the rise of civilisation. In his Afghanistan (Ghost Wars) in 2004. Accessing have taken into account the consequences of the expert and political analyst A.G. Noorani argued tha t the Rashtriya Swayamsevak quirky, self­deprecating humour, he government files and interviewing senior nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, the Soviet Union’s Sangh was beyond a doubt “the most powerful organisation in India today” and tackles the tiniest, ‘spatially unassuming’ U.S. officials, he wrote about the CIA’s covert war in Afghanistan, and the lives of ‘Homo that its “pracharak (active preacher) Narendra Modi is now Prime Minister of India. proton, and intimidating subjects like funding of a jihad against Soviet forces in sovieticus, who isn’t just Russian, he’s Belorussian, Its stamp is evident in very many fields of national life.” When Noorani wrote the particle physics. He tries to explain how Afghanistan, sowing the seeds of Osama bin Turkmen, Ukrainian, Kazakh.’ As she records book, the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir was yet to happen, neither was the we got from there, being nothing at all, to Laden’s rise. In devastating detail, he lay snatches of conversations in kitchens and the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill passed, yet he presciently foretold here, being us. Best known for his bare the American intelligence’s failure to streets (1991­2001), we hear one voice saying, “...we matters in the introduction, “What is at stake is the soul of India.” travelogues, he makes this a marvellous understand the threat from Laden in the finally got the stuff we’d always dreamed of: blue In 2014, French economist Thomas Piketty shook the world with Capital in the journey across the universe through years leading up to 9/11. Coll won a Pulitzer, jeans, winter coats, lingerie, decent crockery.... We Twenty First Century in which he tried to answer two key questions: Do the science. First published in 2003, it was and wrote more books, including a chose the beautiful life. No one wanted to die dynamics of private capital accumulation inevitably lead to the concentration of updated 10 years later in 2013, taking in biography of the Bin Laden family. In 2018, beautifully anymore, everyone wanted to live wealth in ever fewer hands, as Karl Marx believed in the 19th century? Or do the the major scientific developments of the he wrote Directorate S, the sequel to Ghost beautifully instead. The only problem was there balancing forces of growth, competition and technologi cal progress lead to second decade. Wars, picking up the story from two days wasn’t really enough to go around...” reduced inequalities, as Simon Kuznets thought in the 20th century? Earlier in before 9/11 when the Afghan warlord and 2011, Nobel laureates Abhishek Banerjee and Esther Duflo focused on the world’s commander of the anti­Taliban Northern poorest in Poor Economics , arguing that “very rich economics emerges from Alliance Ahmed Shah Masood was understanding the economic lives of the poor.” Histor ian Ramachandra Guha assassinated, and detailing the CIA and updated his 2007 treatise, India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Larg est America’s secret wars in Afghanistan and Democracy, in 2017, taking into account the changes in the republic, the fall of the Pakistan during 2001­2016. Coll highlights Congress and the rise of Narendra Modi. Pakistan’s strategy for Afghanistan — join the The decade saw a profusion of writing on science and nature, environment and U.S. war against terror, while also covertly climate change, medicine and sport. As end of 2019 — and another decade — nears, supporting the Taliban, through a highly we take a look at the top 10 books, the list by no means the last word on the subject. secretive wing of the Inter­Services Intelligence, known as ‘Directorate S.’

India After Gandhi Ramachandra Guha

ecause they are so many, and so various, the Early Indians Where India Goes: Abandoned Toilets, Stunted “Bpeople of India are also divided.” Historian Tony Joseph Development and the Costs of Caste Ramachandra Guha’s history of the world’s largest Diane Coffey and Dean Spears democracy, India After Gandhi, was first published he decade saw the science of population in 2007. But he updated it in 2017, because in the 10 T genetics advance rapidly and DNA sequencing n his foreword to Diane Coffey and Dean Spears’ years since the first book appeared, the Republic of ancient remains told us a lot more about where I 2017 book, Where India Goes: Abandoned Toilets, had witnessed two general elections; “the fall of the we came from. If David Reich’s Who We Are and Stunted Development and the Costs of Caste, the Congress and the rise of Narendra Modi; a major How We Got Here (2018) explained about ancient Nobel Prize­winning economist Angus Deaton anti­corruption movement; more violence against DNA and the new science of the human past and writes, “It is hard to think of anything more women, Dalits, and minorities...; a wave of what we are learning with its help, Beyond Stones important than how we treat our children... we prosperity for some states, regions and classes but and More Stones, edited by Ravi Korisettar, (2017) have come to understand that what happens to the persistence of poverty for others...; comparative brought our understanding of early human children ricochets through their lives and that many peace in Nagaland but more discontent in Kashmir.” occupation of South Asia up to date. Tony Joseph’s of society’s ills could be addressed if we were to The manner of the story’s telling, he says in the Early Indians, published in December 2018, makes take more care of the youngest among us. Nowhere prologue, was driven by two fundamental the point that there was large­scale migration of is this more true than in India.” One of the ambitions: to pay proper respect to the social and Indo­European­language speakers to south Asia in questions they raise is why economic progress is so political diversity of India, and to unravel the puzzle the second millennium BCE, and that “it is also true incompletely reflected in India’s poor infant health. that has for so long confronted scholar and citizen, that all of today’s population groups in India draw In search of answers they zero in on two — poor foreigner as well as native — namely, why is there an their genes from several migrations to India: there is sanitation and the reason why it persists in rural India at all? no such thing as a ‘pure’ group, race or caste that India due to unique social forces like caste. has existed since ‘time immemorial’.”

Graphic novels Gone are the days when graphic novels were considered niche. Authors like Appupen, Amruta Patil, Sarnath Banerjee have been gaining more and more readers in India and then Nick Drnaso’s Sa- brina was longlisted for the 2018 Booker, telling the world that the fu- Translations ture of the novel is graphic. With their The International Booker Prize has done much to bring translations to the Small publishers strong visuals, they forefront, with the award money of £50,000 being split equally between create a greater impact author and translator since 2016. The image of Polish author Olga Tokarc- Olga Tokarczuk’s Booker win brought a little known independent pu- than just the written zuk sharing the stage with her translator, Jennifer Croft, when they won blisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, to the limelight. If in the U.K., the Small Pu- word. The recently re- the International Man Booker for Tokarczuk’s Flights in 2018, became icon- blishers Fair has been taking place since 2002, in India, the Kolkata-based leased Aranyaka by ic. By that time, regional-language translations in India have already been independent publisher, Seagull Books, has been competing with giants Amruta Patil and Dev- gaining in popularity and now authors like Perumal Murugan, K.R. Meera, like Penguin and HarperCollins since 1982. But it is only in the last decade dutt Pattanaik is creat- Vivek Shanbhag, Manoranjan Byapari are being read widely in English, that small publishers have got the traction they have been waiting for. Na- ing waves and we can thanks to translators like Aniruddhan Vasudevan, Srinath Perur, Arunava vayana, Tara Books, Yoda Press, Zubaan Books are now the go-to publish- look forward to more Sinha, Ministhy Nair. In the last one year, modern Tamil literature in transla- ers for readers looking for something different from the mainstream stuff. of these books in the tion, for instance, has gone global, with the rights of several books being This year, Sadia Abbas’s The Empty Room , published by Zubaan, made it years to come. bought by publishers in the U.S. and the U.K. to the DSC shortlist: the small is the new big.

CM ND-X YK 10 DELHI THE HINDU * Magazine SPECIAL ISSUE Sunday, December 29, 2019

SPECIAL QUIZ LETTER FROM A CONCERNED READER Easy like Sunday morning Decade-old nonsense

Actually, years mean nothing. It’s what’s inside them: Simon Van Booy Respected Madam/Sir, email.” Photocopy man said, “No mmediately I will ask one problem, printout ready.” Berty Ashley question, whether your I went to the boys and said, esteemed newspaper is “Thambis, what and all technology preparing oho aha whole­ these days. How you people On January 15, 2001, what began as decade­has­finished type managed before mobile phone and a side project to allow collabora­ 1 Inonsense articles? 100% you are internet and email and all?” They tion on articles prior to entering the doing, don’t lie. How I know? said, “Uncle, what do you mean peer­review process became active before mobile phone and email? online. What site was this that soon Because Madam/ Sir, newspaper all young people and youths are Ha ha ha. Which period you are became the most popular point of re­ from? Whether you are classmate ference on the internet? only working in the office no? Any retired people are there? Never. with Raja Raja Chola? Since my birth itself, phone and email and On July 15 , 2002, this gentleman Because first of all we are retired. Second of all retired people are all is there. Life before that I don’t 2 was elected to be India’s First Citi­ care, it is your problem.” zen. He wrote a book, which is dedi­ not having cool factor and all. Some new film will come in Madam/ Sir, this is why I am cated to a young girl whom he met. saying your newspaper will He had asked her, “What was your talkies and youth journalist will say this is amazing film, I have publish some nonsense, ayyo dream?” to which the young girl re­ 2010­decade­gone­away type plied, “I want to live in a developed never seen such film before, landmark in history of culture. lamentations and jeremiads. India.” Who was this person and Instead you go and ask some what book did he write? Retired person will say moodu thambi moodu. Your whole life is retired person. Hello, Madam, how life has changed since last 20 years On June 10, 2003, MER­A Spirit only 15 minutes long, have you seen Kappal Ottiya Tamizhan? No? for you? Seruppu only will come. 3 and MER­B Opportunity were Same house, same family launched and seven months later You have seen nothing. Some buffoon made some stupid film in problems, same fruits and reached their destination where they vegetables, same novels, same would carry out their duty and go which people are going into each nonsense films, same traffic jam, where no man­made object had gone other dreams and doing same plumber and electrician before. What is the full form of MER? Mohiniattam in slow motion means we should forget doing fraud, same Tirupati Balaji listening some days, not listening On June 6, 2004, in a joint sitting everything? Towering (Clockwise from above) Declared open in 2010, this building is the tallest in the world; India’s own other days. Same Suhasini has of both houses of Parliament, it * What youths are knowing about 4 MOM; and Sanna Marin, the youngest head of state in the world. REUTERS & WIKI COMMONS stopped acting in films. Same was announced that a certain lan­ olden days. Two­three days back I Goutami has also stopped acting in guage would become the first to be went to photocopy shop to get film. But whether hero actors will recognised as a classical language of that is the tallest structure in the came India’s pride and joy. Only the year before. Which challenge was birth certificate photocopy. In stop? Never, till tooth is coming India. Which language was this fol­ world? fourth in the world and the first Asian this that supposedly made one feel front of me in line two­three lowed by Sanskrit in 2005? nation to achieve this feat, India also how it was to have ALS for a few youths. I thought what these out of nose they will act and act On July 11, 2011, in Africa, a man became the only nation to do it suc­ seconds? fellows have come to shop empty­ and overact. Same cricket is on TV Launched on February 14, 2005, 11 was operated on for a tumour in cessfully on the first attempt. How handed? No papers, no nothing. morning and night. Same children 5 this site was a concept by three his trachea. Since no donor was better do we know MOM? In June 2018, a team known as Just standing like that as if behaving like nonsense. Same former Paypal employees to create a found, scientists grew his stem cells 18 the ‘Wild Boars’ went exploring museum. But when they came to housing complex people having platform on which it would be easier on a polymer scaffold and eventually On May 8, 2014, the world’s ol­ after a practice match but were hit by photocopy man they said, “Uncle, same chicanery thoughts. Same to share videos with others. What site planted the new trachea in him. 14 dest astrolabe, a mariner’s navi­ monsoon rains. They became give 2­3 printout, document is in onion price rising, decency was this whose first video was of one What was this the first instance of in gator tool, was discovered from a Por­ trapped and after 18 harrowing days, reducing but news programme of the founders in a zoo? the world? tuguese shipwreck found near Oman. all of them were successfully rescued shouting same. Same two It was supposed to have been used by by an international effort. Which Olympics gone and India is On August 24, 2006, the Interna­ On October 14, 2012, Felix, an a legendary explorer on his voyage to country was this and what sport did thinking next Olympics full 6 tional Astronomical Union made 12 Austrian skydiver, broke several India. Who was the owner of this tool the Wild Boars play? medals. Same politician on an announcement that sparked much records when he stepped off a helium from 1498? poster. Same ladies are scared controversy. balloon over New Mexico and free fell On April 19, 2019, the very first to go out at night. Same NRIs They had to take this decision be­ for 4 minutes 20 seconds. In the pro­ On March 28, 2015, this lady 19 picture of one of the most mys­ coming and telling I will show cause of difference in paths of mo­ cess he became the first human to 15 created a record by becoming terious objects in the universe was how to improve whole tion. What happened that downgrad­ cross a certain speed factor without the first Indian woman to be world seen. Described as “a bottomless pit country within 15 days. And ed something before a year even vehicular assistance. What record did number one in her sport when she in the fabric of the universe from then after 15 days they are passed on it since its discovery? he cross? beat Carolina Marin. A few which not even light can escape ,” going back because too much weeks later, on April 13, what cosmic entity did the Event Ho­ humidity. After years of speculation on Janu­ On November another lady made a rizon Telescope take? What has changed? Only date. 7 ary 9, 2007, this particular pro­ 13 5, 2013, history by becom­ So please don’t put nonsense duct was released. It was considered MOM was ing the first In­ On December 12, 2019, Sanna articles about 2010 decade. to be a revolution in its field as it was launched dian woman to 20 Marin was sworn in as Prime Instead you please see whether one of the first mass­produced to from a achieve world Minister. At 34 years of age, she be­ any improvements can be made in completely do away with buttons. place in number one came the youngest ever head of state 2020 decade. If we start now What was this product that now is in Andhra rank in dou­ in the world. She also leads a coali­ maybe 2­3 improvements can its 9th iteration? Pradesh bles when tion party where 12 of the 19 cabinet happen. and be­ she and her ministers are women of whom three Where is zero calorie, sugar­ On September 10, 2008, when partner are below 35 years of age. Which free rose milk? Where? 8 this entity was powered up it was, Martina Hin­ country does Marin lead? Yours in exasperation, and still is the largest and most po­ gis won the ...... J. Mathrubootham werful of its kind — 27 kilometres long WTA Family A molecular biologist from Madurai, * GETTY IMAGES/ ISTOCK and spans two countries. What entity Circle Cup. our quizmaster enjoys trivia and is this that is basically a long tunnel Who were these music, and is working on a rock through which stuff travels close to two outstanding ballad called ‘Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi the speed of light towards each sportswomen? is an Emotion’. @bertyashley other? In September THE SUNDAY CROSSWORD NO. 3080

In 2009, Indian names took 16 2016, thanks to

9 global significance with aggressive conservation efforts by Finland 20.

two individuals winning China, this animal was removed off Hole Black A 19. an Academy Award and the endangered species’ list and Soccer Thailand, 18.

a Nobel Prize each. moved to ‘vulnerable’. With more Challenge Bucket Ice 17. 16. Giant Panda Giant 16.

Who were these two than 2,000 individuals now, which Mirza Sania and Nehwal Saina 15.

people? animal is this that has been the Gama da Vasco 14. symbol of the worldwide fight (MOM)

On January 4, for nature? Mission Orbiter Mars Mangalyaan, 13. 12. Faster than the speed of sound of speed the than Faster 12.

10 2010, this transplant organ

building was de­ In May 2017, scientists at complete synthetic fully first World’s 11.

clared open. A Ben­Gurion University Dubai in Khalifa Burj 10. 17 Ramakrishnan

large portion of the announced that they had 9. A.R. Rahman & Venkatraman & Rahman A.R. 9.

building is used for made a breakthrough re­ (LHC) Collider Hadron Large 8.

residential purpos­ search in finding a cure for iPhone Apple 7.

es, but it is also ALS (What Stephen Hawk­ planet a more no is Pluto 6. 5. Youtube 5.

home to a hotel, ing suffered from). This Tamil 4.

corporate offic­ was hugely, thanks to mil­ Rover Exploration Mars 3.

2. A.P.J Abdul Kalam — — Kalam Abdul A.P.J 2.

es, and a res­ lions of dollars raised by a Fire of Wings taurant. What ‘challenge’ which was Wikipedia 1.

building is this popular on social media a Answers

GOREN BRIDGE

Across things that won’t work (4,5) 1 Account in which a trio of figures are de- 7 I will be given a large quantity: perfect (5) Unmakable? tailed? (5,5,4) 8 Alarmingly silent son becomes soldier (7) 10 Not a byelaw broken by archbishop (5) 9 Oliver’s family dances (6) 11 To evoke old memory, emulate town 15 Chinese way of thinking is superior to North-South vulnerable, crier (4,1,4) every single European PM (9) 12 Son taking protein didn’t get up (5,2) 17 Buy goofier backless pants please South deals 13 Unprofessional hairdresser half-smiles, (1,3,2,3) makes uncertain movements (7) 18 Conceited fellow’s keen to get a Guin- 14 Bird who wrote satire (5) ness (5,4) Bob Jones 16 Petitions with legal process stowed in 19 ‘Turkey’s head,’ butcher groaned (7) large containers (9) 21 Well-mannered denizen muffling flush hree no trump was 19 The Spanish are heartlessly appropriat- (6) headed for down ing legendary Kazakh: it’s complicated (9) 23 Laid up, poorly, missing date with a dish one or more, but 20 Part of flight in fastest Airbus (5) (5) South came up with 22 Place that attracts interest (7) 24 Bat, seen as it sleeps, by cat (5) a startling line of 25 Excluded slang for ‘paw’ in large lexico- 26 To be understood, with seconds to pTlay when he was able to read er cashed the ace of diamonds West innocently played low — a graphic work (7) spare, finish drawing (3,2) the opponents’ table action. and both opponents followed. decision he would soon regret. 27 Almost always taking bass in lively song South played dummy’s South was sure that West Dummy’s king won the trick. (6,3) 28 Singer with some frisky Lieder (5) queen of clubs on the opening had ducked the queen of dia­ Declarer cashed dummy’s ace Solution No. 3079 lead after much thought. East monds earlier. West wouldn’t of spades and exited with a low 29 Nice bun that guy bolts as a guilty hesitated slightly before play­ have ducked with only three heart to West’s now bare ace, pleasure (7,3,4) ing the jack. South interpreted diamonds, as South, had discarding a diamond from his Down this as a play from a doubleton shown six during the auction. hand. 2 Evil cheat desecrated font (9) jack, rather than a singleton. He was already playing West West cashed the ace of clubs 3 Like youngster’s first pint in place by the Med (5) South then ran dummy’s jack for five clubs after trick one, and led a club to South’s king, 4 Direction and date announced to arrive at of diamonds, which held the and now it looked like he also but South led his last club to vast body of water (6,3) trick after a slight hesitation by had four diamonds. Should West. West cashed another 5 Dodgy info; Trump’s dropping behind West. South led a low spade to West also hold the doubleton club, but then had to lead a otherwise (2,3) his jack, winning the trick ace of hearts, there was a ray of diamond into declarer’s 6 Insensitive, possibly, Donald’s offering when East played low. Declar­ hope. South led his heart and king­10. Not bad!

CM ND-X YK THE HINDU * Magazine DELHI 11 Sunday, December 29, 2019 OPEN PAGE

FEEDBACK Letters to the Magazine can be e-mailed separately to Statues fall on [email protected]

Cover story stony ground The vivid description of the police violence They force the memories of leaders unleashed on on a hapless people, using the Jamia Millia Islamia taxpayers’ money campus presents a surreal I.J. Singh picture of a mythical ld soldiers never die, battlefield (‘Beaten, in India on temporary they just fade away. In a never broken’; December papers. No entrant after 1980 interview with 22). Physical injuries this cut­off date is Barbara Walters on apart, the trauma of covered by the law. The ABC’s news magazine otherness the students facts are being O20/20, former U.S. President Ri­ underwent due to completely ignored and chard Nixon paraphrased the catch­ unprovoked police unfounded rumours are phrase into ‘Old politicians usually excesses inside the being spread to cause die, but they never fade away.” campus cannot be this massive unrest The authoritarian states of the brushed over. The first­ across the country. 20th Century had a tradition of person accounts of the Ram erecting larger­than­life statues of victims with the heavily dead leaders. Instead of looking violated campus as Masseur danger stately, they sustained painful me­ the backdrop are This is in reference to mories of the tyranny of dictator­ upsetting. ‘Mystic masseurs’ (Photo ship. With a penchant for outsize sta­ Ayyasseri Raveendranath essay; Dec. 22). tues, India, a democracy, has a few Traditional masseurs are questions to answer. The students have shown not medically well­ Should democracies build memo­ great courage in versed. They blindly rials to dead leaders, have museums confronting the apply oil over the body to showcase their achievements? strongarm tactics and give massages to Should citizens be co­opted into unleashed against them relieve pain and stiffness. such political ventures which stink Sreejith R. Kumar by the police and have Sometimes these of party agendas? Should taxpayers’ formation technology, no one needs seums, they should be themed on and the uplift of the have­nots. Polit­ not shown any signs of massages can create money be spent on the construction statues to know the contribution of a the ideas of great leaders who pro­ ical parties must come on a common backing down. Students complications involving of statues or should political parties leader. Spending precious resources moted unity in diversity, constitu­ platform and suggest that the land taking to the streets is a bones, nerves and or their leaders come up with their on construction of statues and me­ tional values, nation building, the used for memorials be put to use for real headache for the muscles. One should own funds? morials is a sin in a country where green and white revolutions, space purposes that add to the Gross Na­ dispensations in the always take a medical Spending It is an irony that the memories of the majority live in inhuman condi­ science and technology, industrial tional Happiness. States and at the Centre, opinion before going to leaders are forced on a hapless peo­ tions without the basic amenities. development and reforms in the The younger generation is more and tackling them could these masseurs. precious ple, and it is the taxpayers’ money Public memorials incur not just field of education and medicine. practical and do not want eco­fragile prove to be an extremely J.P. Reddy resources on that is being used for constructing the construction cost but also recur­ Political parties still wishing to go rivers, beaches and forests to be tough proposition. statues is a and maintaining them. ring expenses in their upkeep and ahead with statues of their leaders used for erecting statues of national C.V. Aravind Dishonour killings sin in a security. If the government is inter­ must spend their own party funds leaders. Dear politicians, will you It is a sad reality that in country In ‘history books’ ested in building monuments, it and build them in their own land— fade away for a good cause or will This all happened due to some societies in Asia, majoritarian politics. The women are still where the Shouldn’t these leaders be remem­ must focus on commemorating a surely the size of the statues will re­ you leave behind a turbulent society bered for their deeds and misdeeds, concept rather than an individual — duce. National leaders should write with irritants of dynastic frictional strong protests by people considered by the majority live virtues and vices and unintended for instance, the Statue of Liberty or in their “will” that their assets be put syndrome? from all walks of life majority of the men as in inhuman and intended blunders only in “his­ the Eiffel Tower. to use for construction of hospitals, ...... against the Citizenship personal property to be conditions tory books”? In the present age of in­ If the state should build mu­ educational and research institutes [email protected] (Amendment) Act (CAA) owned by marriage, demonstrates the danger controlled and treated at of giving a massive will (60 Minutes: electoral mandate to any ‘Qandeel was murdered one political party. There because of people’s should be an equally judgement’; Dec. 22). Embracing imperfection Putting a name to a face strong Opposition in the Hypocrisy and a false law­making house. Keep sense of honour rule the How not to deceive people into believing that you recognised that in mind when you minds of the men in go to the polling booth. patriarchal societies, in the Instagram era them and remembered their names Sunnykutty Abraham prompting them to resort to honour killings. Airbrushed faces and plastic smiles are Sourabh Dutta Not only was the police’s The case of Qandeel attack on the Jamia Baloch is very poignant posted to crave attention and seek validation was all of 19 when I disco­ students brutal and and it is unfortunate that Ivered that my brain had atrocious, they broke brave women like her are Megha Mathur two major defects. their own rules when considered “heroes” by “Agnosia is a medical con­ they bludgeoned and society only after their fter being bombarded with so dition in which the patient baton­charged the deathsand not in their Amuch perfection on Insta­ fails to recognise familiar students on their upper lifetimes. gram and Facebook, I often won­ things. A common type of ag­ bodies, heads and hands. Kosaraju Chandramouli der where have all the real people nosia is one in which the pa­ Further, entering the gone. Airbrushed faces, plastic tient struggles to remember campus without Identity crisis smiles, manufactured memorable the faces of people. It’s due to obtaining permission To argue that Hindus moments and rehearsed sponta­ a defect in the base of the from the principal was have migrated out of neity — I can’t help but spot the brain,” my professor said in against all ethics. Even Pakistan, Afghanistan obsession with appearing perfect class blandly. taking for granted that and Bangladesh due to at all times. “Another common brain their entry was to flush aspirational reasons We are barraged with a volley We have a thousand friends on defect is one in which the pa­ out anti­social elements, (‘Carving out a South of images photo­shopped to per­ social media, yet we battle loneli­ tient fails to remember the why should they then Asian identity’; Dec. 22) fection. We look at picture­per­ ness and depression more than names of familiar people . Sreejith R. Kumar beat the guards, who is simply laughable. To fect relationship moments and the earlier generations. This problem arises from a school?” “Already a year old, conversation over a lavish were ex­sevicemen? add injury to insult, the postcard­like vacations, feeling defect in the left side of the is he?” “She, not he. Doctor, I buffet. But he refused to drop D. Sethuraman author writes blithely sorry for our mundane lives. Race to nowhere brain.” don’t think you recognise me any hint. “There, you, in your about conversions We seldom realise these mo­ This has made us more vulnera­ It was a moment of truth at all . How could you forget halcyon days,” he showed a The JMI alumnus Tahir through marriage. ments and posts are more a pro­ ble than the earlier generations. for me. But, over the years, I the little girl who had passed photo. For a moment, I pan­ Akhtar should read the Everyone is well aware jection of how people want us to Even as we look happier on social perfected the art of deceiving greasy, green potty for more icked, thinking my agnosia full text of the CAA from how serious the problem perceive how their lives are and media, in reality we have become listeners into believing that I than a month?” “Aha! How had got so bad that I couldn’t The Gazette of India. It is of abduction and forced not the reality. more vulnerable to depression. recognised them and remem­ could I forget,” I said, trying recognise even myself. Lucki­ an absolute canard that conversion of Hindu girls European vacations, dreamy­ We have reluctantly thrown our­ bered their names. not to gag on my pista ly, my wife said, “Oh, come he has to prove his is in Pakistan and eyed couple selfies and profes­ selves into an invisible race of The other day, I bumped ice­cream. on, that’s not him. And hon­ citizenship. The CAA Bangladesh. Even the sional accomplishments are keeping up with the Joneses. into my daughter’s class estly, I can’t recognise you or does not apply to any U.N. has taken note of it shared to crave attention, seek va­ So perfection is the biggest teacher. “Hello, doctor,” she Exclusive club your wife.” Indian citizen. It only and requested Pakistan lidation and acceptance and feel myth that a consumeristic society greeted me with that ring of Another time, I met a doctor Finally, I asked him ginger­ applies to those who to take appropriate good. is selling to us. It is so easy for cos­ familiarity which I dread. who said, “I didn’t know you ly, “Aren’t you Dr. Mahesh entered India on or action — though it never The people who look at these metic companies, apparel manu­ “Hello, madam,” I replied put­ worked in this institute. What Gupta, who had trained in before December 31, does. posts rather wistfully, unknow­ facturers, and the beauty indus­ ting on my most ingratiating a pleasant surprise!” I replied Sydney?” “No,” he replied in 2014, and are currently Abhishek Bakshi ingly start comparing their own try to play on our insecurities, smile. “So how is my little one with equal cheer, “Hey! After shock. “Aren’t you Dr. Bhajen­ lives with that of a person who push our buttons while making doing?” “Doctor,” she gushed, so many years! And how’s the dra Nath Pande, my former has posted a snippet from his money out of our miseries. They “It’s very sweet of you to say, family?” colleague from Lucknow?” “perfect” life. won’t be able to get under our ‘your little one’.” “I will always remember Two jaws dropped in un­ We live in times where we have skin if we were at peace with our “The last parent­teacher the wonderful time my family ison. I wasn’t alone in this un­ more, yet we are more dissatis­ imperfections, both real and meeting must have been quite had with you and your wife,” iverse. “Welcome…,” I said fied. We wear plastic smiles, imagined. a strain on you,” I said. “Oh!” he said. “For old times’ sake, feebly, after a pause. “…to the More on the Web while our minds are clouded by ...... she said puzzled. “But my why don’t you join us for din­ club,” he completed. thehindu.com/opinion/open-page darkness. [email protected] child is only one year old. ner tonight,” I invited him...... Isn’t that too early for We had a wide­ranging [email protected] Good design scores in empathy ‘Elegant usability’ must be the watchword while building public spaces Depression, the melancholy minus its charms Sri Krishnan Break the walls, let them fly high It stems from a combination of factors; it can’t be separated from feelings of inadequacy and guilt Stop imposing our views on children, give them the right to choose what they want to be I. Satya Sundaram adequacy and guilt cannot be not just a passive state but a fairly stoic attitude early in life. In his Fuhar Arya Choudhury separated. Fluctuations in mood active state on the molecular le­ work Managing Your Mind, S.H. n the modern world, more and do not constitute depression. So vel.” Kraines has said that life is neith­ Celebrate similarities, overlook differences Imore people face stress, loneli­ are temporary emotional res­ Depression needs to be han­ er a rose garden nor a garbage Simple wisdom from a band of migrant workers in a ness, depression and mental ponses to the challenges of life. dled with the same seriousness dump; it’s both. breakdowns. Depression is gen­ Depressed people generally exhi­ as with any other mental aberra­ He declared: “There are arid busy Bengaluru locality Sarita Talwai erally associated with desolation, bit reduced interest in things that tion. Our goal is to create a places that can be removed. We, perpetual sadness, ennui and cause happiness. healthy society. All of us should like our environment, are in pro­ restlessness. maintain a reasonable level of cess of becoming; we are capable This page consists of reader submissions. Contributions of up to a Doctors say depression is the Genetic basis mental health. But individual dif­ of modification and change.” length of 700 words may be e-mailed to [email protected]. denouement of a combination of Research has revealed that the ferences are there. We have to ac­ Krains offers this advice: Please provide a postal address and a brief background of the writer. factors — over­expectation from genetic basis of depression over­ cept the reality and strike a ba­ “Don’t accept anything you don’t The mail must certify that it is original writing, exclusive to this page. The Hindu views plagiarism as a serious offence. Given the large parents, friends and self, an un­ laps significantly with that of oth­ lance between too many rules wish until you have used all your volume of submissions, we regret that we are unable to acknowledge usual dependence on technology er psychiatric disorders such as sleep is underestimated. Dr. Al­ and no rules. When we face an imagination and sincerity and receipt or entertain queries about submissions. If a piece is not and friendship and an inability to bipolar disorder and lan Pack of the University of adverse situation, it is desirable graciousness to make it better.” published for eight weeks please consider that it is not being used. handle setbacks. schizophrenia. Pennsylvania says in a Time to seek professional help...... The publication of a piece on this page is not to be considered an endorsement by The Hindu of the views contained therein. Depression and feelings of in­ Very often, the importance of magazine article that “sleep is It is necessary to develop a [email protected]

CM ND-X YK 12 DELHI THE HINDU * Magazine SPECIAL ISSUE Sunday, December 29, 2019

THE CUT

Bandana Tewari and Eka, to name a few — who under­ stand that doing good will make mo­ n the recently concluded Qatar In­ How green is ney. Research after research shows dia 2019 Year of Culture in Doha, that, increasingly, consumers (especial­ the exhibition of nine contempor­ ly millennials) are willing to pay more ary Indian clothing brands quickly for products that have the least impact established what can be seen as a on the environment. GETTY IMAGES/ ISTOCK IMAGES/ GETTY * pIaradigm shift in Indian fashion. With a But sceptics have an argument: res­ focus on craft and handwoven textiles, ponsible brands constitute only a small seamless co­creation with the artisanal fraction of the gargantuan Indian fash­ clusters of India, and most importantly, your gilet? ion market, so what real change can we an overall emphasis on slow fashion, expect? Yes, the industry grows expo­ these creatives exemplified Indian fash­ The biggest shift in Indian fashion in 2019 came nentially, and change is slow. According ion’s entry into an Age of Nuance. to data from McKinsey’s FashionScope, Relatively young, these designers — not from dramatic variations in cut, colour or the Indian apparel market will be worth Mia Morikawa and Shani Himanshu of $59.3 billion in 2022, making it the sixth 11.11, Sohaya Misra of Chola, Gaurav sleeve shape but a more conscious way of being largest in the world, comparable to the Khanijo, Santanu Das of Maku, Chinar that now seems like the only way U.K.’s ($65 billion) and Germany’s Farooqui of Injiri, Shreya and Priyal ($63.1 billion). The report says that the Mewara of Ode to Odd, Pallavi Dhyani aggregate income of the addressable of Three, and Urvashi Kaur — represent population (individuals with more than a certain design mindset that is sweep­ $9,500 in annual income) is expected ing across India. They may constitute a is to slow down, streamline produc­ — with their exemplary work with arti­ to triple between now and 2025. Ac­ microcosm in a much larger industry, tion, reduce inventory and edit collec­ sanal communities of India. But what cording to Sanjay Kapoor, founder of but they are, nonethe­ tions, in India it’s this rung of designers differentiates most young designers to­ Genesis Luxury, an Indian luxury retail less, an undeniable — homegrown, small­scale, mindful, day is their acknowledgement of the conglomerate, higher incomes are like­ chorus of change craft­oriented fashion businesses — that negative impact of their profession on ly to create a whole new class of con­ GOD’S COUNTRY in the fashion is leading the way for conscious, not the environment, and their willingness sumer: “We are moving on toward the world. While conspicuous, consumption. to address it at a design level. Most im­ ‘gold collar’ worker. It’s a term that de­ global fashion portantly, their focus is not just on the fines the highly paid professionals who has accepted Foot soldiers end result — the valuable are happy to look good, The decade of that the need of Fashion, worldwide, has a high energy product — but the entire happy to feel good, and the hour consumption; according to The Busi­ supply chain, which al­ are expanding the con­ ness of Fashion’s The State of Fashion lows them to address sumption of today.” 2020 report, it accounts for 20 to 35% sustainable practices on the unholy man of microplastic flow into the ocean and every level: from sourc­ Take-make-waste outweighs the carbon footprint of inter­ ing and packaging to the But now consider this: national flights and shopping com­ after­life of the products when a 16­year­old Gre­ The last 10 years have been an unholy mess bined. We cannot turn a blind eye to they have created. They ta Thunberg, a radical this global problem any more. may be small­scale busi­ climate activist and the for the nation’s ‘spiritual machinery industry’ Of course, we have had pathbreak­ nesses, but they are the latest luminary on the with the exposure and conviction of ers from the earlier generation — true foot soldiers of sus­ Time cover, calls out James Ferreira with his zero­ tainable fashion in India. seasoned politicians a string of godmen waste ethos, Rajesh Pratap The year 2019 saw a and ordinary consum­ Singh, Abraham & Tha­ surge in this dialogue on ers like you and me for kore, Ritu Kumar, Rohit sustainability; 2020 will apathy toward climate Urmi Chanda-Vaz Bal, Tarun Tahiliani, be even bigger because, in all honesty, change and is able to inspire and gal­ Anamika Khanna, there is no other way out. No one can vanise 7.6 million people to protest on ild Wild West, the Netflix show that chronicled the sor­ Sabyasachi, do business on a dead planet. the streets in the Global Climate Strike did truths about Osho’s life, predictably created a big among others in September, it is time to know the tide stir. National embarrassment for us, yes, but who Craft champions is turning and time is ticking for every W doesn’t like a story of the fall of a self­styled godman? What this means is that the first­tier de­ designer, producer and consumer to be Then this November, the world’s leading streaming platform decid­ signers of India who have amassed on the right side of history. We cannot ed to tell another grizzly story — Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator — a great wealth and success from the wed­ continue to cohort with an industry documentary on the Indian­born American yoga teacher and foun­ ding and festive­wear industry of India, that dumps, according to a statistic by der of Hot Yoga, Bikram Choudhury, exposing the celeb guru’s ma­ those who seldom stuck their neck out Ellen MacArthur Foundation, one gar­ ny misdeeds. to address the problems of consump­ bage truck of clothes in landfills every And just when you thought you’d seen the worst, it turne d out tion, pollution and wastefulness in second. That is the equivalent of filling that another ‘godman’, Nithyananda, had established an e ntirely their business practices, need to take a one and half Empire State Buildings per new country. If the Kailaasa website is to be believed, th is is the cue from this younger generation of day with discarded clothes. place every Hindutvavadi’s dream can come true. Sure, we’ ve all designers. They will be called out for So, as the Indian market grows, it is laughed at this latest spectacle, sure Ecuador and the Indian Minis­ excesses that harm the environ­ imperative that we have changemakers, try of External Affairs have both denied the existence of such a ‘na­ ment. So far, few have taken however small, who infiltrate and tion’, but the sheer audacity invites slow claps. Only an Indian ‘god­ meaningful action whatsoev­ upend a regressive system of take­ man’ could be accused of abduction and rape, be a fugitive from the er to make a change, in make­waste; seek consumer responsi­ law, and still make statements like: “No stupid court can prosecute spite of their size and bility; and collectively resuscitate a dy­ me for revealing the truth.” When the truth of his cri mes finally clout. It is the young ing ecology. catches up with him, he will have to join his infamous c ohorts in designers, along with To reduce this sustainability move­ prison. craft champions — ment in India to a ‘trend’ is abomina­ The average Indian’s ‘faith’ and gullibility have ena bled Nithya­ Good Earth Sustain, ble, to say the least. The young brazen nanda and his ilk for long. But if crime statistics in the last decade Rahul Mishra, Sanjay designers of India, working with limit­ are anything to go by, the tide seems to be turning. Or is it? Garg, Pero, Anavila, ed budgets and resources, should be applauded and upheld as the shining Wholly unholy example of what can be achieved on a Nithyananda can be counted among the top three falls from grace in grander scale. Never underestimate the the last 10 years — the other two being Asaram and G urmeet Ram Slow fashion Actor Sonam Kapoor in small rumbles that reach a crescendo. Rahim Singh. Following their arrests, there were vio lent standoffs a khadi attire designed by Anamika ...... between their supporters and the police, triggering curfews, inju­ Khanna, Rajesh Pratap Singh and The writer is a lifestyle journalist and ries and deaths, before the convicted were finally put behind bars. Rohit Bal. * PTI sustainability activist. Asaram and Singh enjoyed fabulously privileged lives, with mil­ lions of followers, tremendous social influence, and colossal mate­ rial wealth that could put the country’s top industrialists to shame. Beneath their deceptively simplistic ideologies, per sonal charisma FLAVOURS and so­called social causes, bubbled an underworld of corruption, sexual exploitation and murder. That Singh’s conviction took 15 years to come throug h (the first allegations of rape surfaced in 2002), and that at least three eyewit­ Raise a toast to the momo nesses in Asaram’s case were killed, shows the extent of the power of such ‘godmen’. And these are just the It is not just our window to the world, but reminds us, in these difficult times, to keep our doors open high profile cases. Some others in­ And just when you clude Rampal Singh Jatin a.k.a. ‘Sant’ thought you’d seen the Rahul Verma fine dining parlance, of course, it is Rampal Ji, who was convicted in 2018 worst, it turned out known as the dim sum or shumai, or on similar charges of confinement that another ‘godman’, ucked away in a corner of my the Japanese gyoza. The casing may va­ and murder, and Jyotigiri who ab­ kitchen is a little bamboo con­ ry, as may the filling. Sometimes, egg is sconded after videos of him surfaced Nithyananda, had traption that gave us all great added to the flour. The fillings can be in August amid allegations of sexual established an entirely T joy once upon a time. It came anything from sautéed shrimps and abuse of minor girls and women. new country from Kolkata and was introduced to us ground meat to steamed and chopped as a momo steamer. Shape your momos asparagus or water chestnut and Chi­ Being shady at home, place them in the steamer, nese mushroom. Hotels and restau­ The judiciary has lifted the lid on many such criminals in the last de­ cook them for some minutes — and you rants even serve dim sum meals, where cade. Media accounts also tell us of other ‘lesser’ cases like that of can have a plateful of piping hot dum­ you can eat all the dumplings you want. Vijay Kumar a.k.a. Kalki Bhagwan and Nirmal Baba, who were con­ plings to be eaten with a sizzling red victed for tax evasion in 2019 and 2014 respectively ; and Gurinder chilli­garlic dip. Bizarre forms Singh Dhillon of the Radha Soami sect who was recently embroiled Even a decade or so ago, momos Momos have started taking on new in the Ranbaxy shares scandal. were not as ubiquitous as they are now, forms as well, some more bizarre than These cases of fraud and embezzlement also remind one of Sath­ so the steamer came in handy. Today, I others. They are not just simple ya Sai Baba, whose death at the start of this decade was followed by don’t know where the steamer is, be­ steamed dumplings anymore but are the discovery of unprecedented sums of hoarded wealth. The cause I don’t need it anymore. These dumped in gravies or cooked in a tan­ bushy­haired godman escaped public shaming, but it left millions of days, you can spot a momo stall in ev­ door. I was urged to try out the tandoo­ his followers confused, betrayed and heartbroken. A lot of the do­ ery street corner in every city. Some­ ri momo at a Mussoorie restaurant that nated money they thought had been used for charity was sitting in one enterprising steams momos at served Oriental food. The momos were their guru’s private chamber all this time. home, and then makes a small profit fiery red in colour, and I wanted to call selling them on the street side. If and for a fire brigade when I had my first New guru on the block? when I have a yen for momos, all I have bite. I am not going back there. The greatest outrage by such ‘gurus’ has invariably been for their al­ to do is step out of the house and stop Be that as it may, the little dumpling leged sexual crimes. It’s invariably the vow of abst inence from sex by at the nearest momo stall. has a story for us. I would like to think that seems to give the Hindu ascetic an unbeatable ‘moral edge’, so I am often asked if there is a street that it shows, in some small way, the when charges of sexual assault and depravity come to l ight, it be­ food item that can be described as pan­ opening of doors of our very insular comes the worst kind of breach of trust. Indian. There are quite a few popular * GETTY IMAGES/ ISTOCK world. I remember the time when the Curiously, the domino­like fall of many spiritual le aders has oc­ dishes you will find across India, in­ only place we got momos was at a com­ curred mostly under BJP’s watch. Did the skeletons in these collec­ cluding the omnipresent dosa or the ties such as Delhi even have some cen­ which you need a wide mouth and mil­ plex that we called Tib Dhabs (short for tive closets get too numerous to hide? Or perhaps the global #metoo tandoori chicken, but I think the hum­ tralised kitchens where the dumplings itary­like precision to enable you to Tibetan Dhaba) in north Delhi. Then movement shook the conscience of a few good men in the judiciary, ble momo has pipped every other dish are prepared in large quantities for mo­ pick up and pop the mint­water­and­ eateries near Chanakya Cinema started who finally took action against these unholy men. to the post of being pan­Indian. mo sellers to take away. potato­chickpea­filled ball into your serving momos, and soon some of the Or perhaps it’s a case of mass transference of faith. Now that the For those who love their momos, mouth just before it breaks or spills. Northeastern outlets in Dilli Haat had leader of the nation is styled as an ascetic himself, someone who is Everyone’s fancy the dumpling is like no other. For one, Momos are easy to customise, too. You momos on their menus. Today, the dish charismatic, a great orator, who does ‘boulder yoga’ on World Yoga It’s not surprising to see why the momo the name is easy to pronounce: It is a like your food hot? Then just smear that is believed to have come to India Day, ‘meditates’ in a cave in Kedarnath (so what if there is a camera­ has caught everyone’s fancy — from lot easier than, say, katlambe, a fried your momo with the hot sauce that it is across the Himalayas from Tibet is as man along?), under whose reign the Supreme Court has en sured Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from poori of north India, or radhabollobhi, usually served with. You like your food much a part of our food lexicon as, say, that mandir wahin banega, and one who promises to magically Kutch to Kolkata. It’s the seller’s dream a stuffed poori from Bengal. Momos are bland? Ignore the sauce. If you like the South Indian vada or the Mumbai solve the nation’s problems, why do we need anyone else to direct item, needing neither much capital nor easy to eat — unlike, say golgappas, for fried food, momos ably step in — for pav bhaji, the Bengali phuchka or the our bhakti towards? Sure, we still have the Sri Sris and the Ramdevs effort. You knead some dough, boil you get some delicious fried momos, North India papri chaat. and the Jaggi Vasudevs to go to for breathing exercises or soap opera minced chicken with ginger and mild too. A momo is an otherwise healthy Let’s raise a toast to the momo. It is or gyaan, but we all know who the big boss is. spices, shred it and keep it aside. You (despite the flour casing) and hearty not just our window to the world, but Perhaps the new decade will prove some of us sceptic s wrong; make small balls of the dough, shape The fillings can be anything from snack. And a plate of momos (some­ reminds us, in these difficult times, to perhaps it will make saffron the new black. them into bowls and stuff them with sautéed shrimps and ground meat times served with broth­like stock) is a keep our doors open...... the shredded chicken (or pork in some meal in itself...... The writer is a culture writer and an Interfaith Studies scholar. happy circles) or shredded and boiled to steamed and chopped But what’s equally interesting is that The writer likes reading and writing cabbage, then close the mouths and asparagus or water chestnut and the momo, unlike its other street food about food as much as he does cooking steam them. Voila — they are done. Ci­ Chinese mushroom cousins, also occupies the high table. In and eating it. Well, almost.

CM ND-X YK