SCM SOPHIA COVER.indd 1-3 1/18/17 12:53 PM • • Acknowledgements

DIRECTOR, SOPHIA POLYTECHNIC STUDENT ASSOCIATE EDITORS DR (SR) ANILA VERGHESE ANANYA DESAI ELTON GOMES SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS VINDHYA BARWAL MEDIA DEPARTMENT, SOPHIA - SMT.MANORAMA PHOTOGRAPHY HEADS DEVI SOMANI COLLEGE, NILOFER KHAN SOPHIA POLYTECHNIC VEDIKA SINGHANIA

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT PHOTOGRAPHY TEAM DR SUNITHA CHITRAPU MINAL SANCHETI PRIYANKA ARORA CORE FACULTY RITIKA DEBNATH NIRMITA GUPTA RITU SHARMA SHAMA DESAI VISITING FACULTY TUSHAR ARYA AJAY NORONHA CHIRODEEP CHAUDHURI ILLUSTRATION HEAD GEETA RAO KIRTI CHATURVEDI JEROO MULLA JERRY PINTO ILLUSTRATION TEAM MADHAVI TANGELLA PRIYANKA ARORA MANAS MITTAL UPASANA BOSE MAYANK SEN SHIVANI KUMAR P SAINATH PARTH VYAS PRODUCTION HEADS RABINDRA HAZARI MINAL KHOSLA SHOLA RAJACHANDRAN YASH SHAH SMRUTI KOPPIKAR SONALINI MIRCHANDANI PRODUCTION TEAM SUNAYANA SADARANGANI AKRITI BINDAL SUPRIA LAL PRIYANKA ARORA SURESH VENKAT SHYMA RAJAGOPAL DESIGN KAPIL BATUS MAGAZINE PROJECT IN-CHARGE TANVI SHAH JERRY PINTO COVER PHOTOGRAPH STUDENT EDITORS NILOFER KHAN JOVITA ARANHA MAYANKA GOEL SURYASARATHI BHATTACHARYA

SCM SOPHIA COVER.indd 4-6 1/18/17 12:53 PM • • Editorial

ime and again we hear about the ‘real world’ being an entity quite beyond the world of books and movies. It’s a dangerous place, we’re told, before being sent out there armed with degrees. More often than not, we’re trained to expect the worst. With SCM, we set foot in that territory. We covered and uncovered unknown parts of the city and interviewed people from different walks of life. Often, it got difficult and we were left disappointed. And yet, at the end we were left with a number of accounts that changed our ways of perception. All around us, every corner and every individual had a story waiting to be told; Tand often we were able to get them to tell us those stories. This magazine is an outcome of those excursions. Over the years Marginalia has attempted to bridge the gap that separates ‘us’ and ‘them’ and to uncover stories that go unnoticed. Students at SCM have come together to pool their experiences into this magazine, and every story has had something to say, whether about visits to jails in Mumbai, or about the condition of Tibetans in the country. This issue brings together thirty years of such encounters that must be acknowledged and enjoyed. With stories about young professionals in Welcome to Yuppiedom in 1987, or the environment, with Nature’s Barricade in 2005, this edition of Marginalia aims to restore memories that deserve to be preserved for all time. The issue also takes into account the fair share of adventures that this year has had. The third demonetisation in our country, and the first of our lives, has been chronicled in the magazine. Progress found its voice in the stories of Jockin Arputham of Dharavi, Dalit editor Sudhir Dhawale and the doughty activist Medha Patkar, among others. A rare glimpse into the life of poet and To all those who have helped and writer Javed Akhtar was afforded to us in an interview. Many exciting things supported us in making this year’s special happened in our very own classroom as well. We got to meet and talk to some anniversary edition of Marginalia a reality, highly talented people such as graphic novelist Amruta Patil, filmmaker and we extend our heartfelt gratitude. We SCM alum Leena Yadav, Karnatic musician T M Krishna. Established SCM would like to thank Dr. Sunitha Chitrapu alumni walked down memory lane about their time at the institute and their for being one of our fiercest teachers. time working on the magazine. Thank you, Nirmita Gupta, for being one of our kindest supporters; and to Jeroo Finally, with this magazine we realised what it is that makes this world Mulla, for being our best critic and our real, after all. It’s the telling of stories, of real lives and real experiences. Yet, source of inspiration. We are grateful to even with thirty years of history backing us, we, as a collective body, have Chirodeep Chaudhuri, for making our barely scratched the surface. Many stories are yet to be discovered, with this stories come alive and Kapil Batus for being just the tip of the iceberg. We feel it is a good start, however, to our lives designing this magazine. Thank you, as professionals, and hope to carry this zeal to explore into the future. Smruti Koppikar and P. Sainath, for encouraging us to look beyond what the eyes can see and the ears can hear. Nilesh — Jovita Aranha Correia and Dinkar Sutar, thank you, for — Mayanka Goel helping us through all hurdles. We would — Suryasarathi Bhattacharya also like to thank Neeta Shah, for being so patient with us. And Gracy Vaz, for your unconditional support, we love you. And lastly, Jerry Pinto, for scandalising us at 8 in the morning and shutting the door in our faces. Congratulations on winning the Sahitya Akademi award. This magazine would have been impossible without you.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 3

• • Guest Editorial

The journalism debut In which SIDHARTH BHATIA looks back at the beginnings of the student magazine

n 1987, when I first walked into the classroom of For the magazine, the students stepped out of their the lovely pink building of Sophia Polytechnic classroom to talk to people to understand issues and wrote to teach a batch of about 40 students, I am sure their copy as if they were already professional reporters. I was more anxious than they. The students, all By the end of the year, they had picked up some of the girls, were in fact full of anticipation and nervous necessary skills that any good journalist should have— energy; they wanted to know what their teachers balance, fairness, an objective tone and quoting a wide would be like and what they would learn. They variety of people. But like all students, they were also wanted to know about the world of media and earnest and idealistic, and their topics reflected that. Most communications. I, on the other hand, was full of of the ideas came from them, so clearly the magazines— self-doubt. with names like Debut, Swayam and Byline, (in the first IThough I had had a good number of years as a three years)— as well as the contents, reveal their views journalist, I was a relative newbie to teaching, having only and concerns. It is clear, looking back at the first issue and delivered a few general lectures here and there. How would subsequent ones, that they had a social conscience. (And of I hold up for an hour and a half? What would I teach? What course they were all warm and sensitive.) if they didn’t take me seriously? And did I have enough to I like to think (and I may well be right), that they last for an entire year? still nurture the same earnestness and idealism in their As it turned out, between us, we had a great year and professional lives today. Many of the names I see in the at the end I was as enlightened as presumably they were. I magazines of 30 years ago are today highly respected learnt a bit about classroom psychology too—students will professionals in their fields—SCM has undoubtedly played a respect you if they feel you have done your homework and big role in what they have become. are not going to waste their time. I am delighted that the student magazine is now a The highlight of the year was the student magazine— tradition and has an unbroken record of 30 years. I am sure that was the year the tradition was begun and the first one it has become thicker and better produced—the budgets was called, appropriately, Debut. I don’t recall every little all those years ago were laughably small. But I won’t be detail, but looking at the copy afresh recently triggered surprised if it still retains the same SCM spirit of excellence, some memories. a wide worldview and social concerns at its heart.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 5 • • Guest Editorial

Thirty years of writing from media ethics. Sainath has won the Magsaysay award (among one of the numerous prestigious awards for his incredible the margins contribution to journalism) and has been a great pillar of BY JEROO MULLA strength for the department. Ravi is an eminent lawyer. Their contribution and Sidharth’s to the shaping of students into award-winning journalists with high ethical standards, is riting this takes me back something SCM needs to be really proud of. many years to almost One of the magazines that stands out in my memory is forgotten memories. The Unequal Spheres. Sainath inspired the students that year to Social Communications write excellent articles on pertinent topics and bring out the Media department (SCM) issue to coincide with the World Social Forum held in 2004. magazine was where Sainath has also been the inspiration and role model for so many students who many SCM students—both journalists and non-journalists. are now well-known For a very brief period of time the magazine was journalists, writers, poets, supervised by Shernaz Engineer who is now the editor of script-writers and documentary film-makers got their first the Jam-e-Jamshed and then later by Pamela Cheema, also Wchance to explore their writing talents. a fine journalist. But the mainstay of the magazine since I write this piece to pay tribute to all the journalism Sidharth left SCM has been Jerry Pinto who recently won the teachers in the SCM department who taught them and Windham-Campbell prize and the Sahitya Akademi. inspired them to do what they are doing today. Soon after Sidharth left I invited Jerry Pinto and Smruti I had joined the SCM Department in 1979. A few years Koppikar, a former SCM student, to teach journalism. Jerry later Sr. Vera Pereira who was the Head of the Department has done a remarkable job with the magazine over all these then, invited Ammu Joseph to teach journalism. Ammu years. And Smruti who has won the Sanskriti Award and Joseph, now a well-known journalist and author, was just was the Senior Editor of the Hindustan Times has continued beginning her career. She motivated the students to work in the tradition of Sainath and Sidharth—to provide a on two magazines that were already being published— strong ethical and moral base to journalism, inspiring many Promotion—a magazine of the Ad Club and Eve’s Weekly—a students to become excellent journalists in the mainstream. well-known woman’s magazine. The students worked their She has really given back to SCM what she learned from fingers to the bone and Joseph supervised every detail. I it. Her dedication and commitment are in complete remember her making corrections in the students’ work that consonance with the values of SCM. While Jerry supervised were sometimes even longer than the articles! These two the magazine and handled all the key aspects, many inputs publications that the students worked hard to create, were have also come from Smruti and of course Sainath. the pre-cursors to the SCM class magazine. Jerry has become a legend at SCM—he performs, In 1987, I was appointed the Head of the Department throws tantrums, is extremely generous, asks the students and I invited Sidharth Bhatia to lecture in Journalism. Today uncomfortable questions, thumps on tables and breaks Bhatia is the Founding Editor of The Wire and was one of them, and shouts so much that the students tremble in the editors responsible for launching the newspaper DNA fear. But at the end of it all he is much loved and respected in 2005. At that point in time, Bhatia was responsible for by all! There is no doubt that he is an excellent teacher and taking the initiative to begin the SCM class magazine. I was provokes the students to think and question. eager to ensure that his idea materialized and supported He has contributed to the growth of the SCM class the endeavour with all the enthusiasm of someone who has magazine with enormous passion, enthusiasm and total just taken over. The department was growing and this was dedication. He has also contributed significantly to the a major landmark in its growth. And so we began with the cultural space that I felt is so important to SCM, and the first class magazine aptly namedDebut . Bhatia was a very emphasis we place on those who are marginalized—which is inspiring and dynamic teacher. The students remember him perhaps the reason for the title of the magazine—Marginalia. for throwing chalk at them. I remember him for his complete I am delighted that we are celebrating 30 years of the commitment to teaching and his enthusiasm in bringing to SCM class magazine. Reading some of the old issues has the class new ideas, thoughts, ethical values and of course brought back so many memories! Most of all I recollect the the ability to motivate students to produce excellent work. excitement of the students as they would bring their first Bhatia worked with our department for several years and printed copy just before the exhibition and show it to me then sadly left us to go out of the country. He supervised the proudly. Many are now well-known writers and journalists first few issues. I am also most grateful to him for suggesting who I feel extremely proud to say studied at SCM under the that I invite P Sainath and Rabindra Hazari to SCM to teach guidance of a superb team of journalism teachers!

6 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • Editorial

From students to media professionals- in-training BY JERRY PINTO

he class magazine of the Social Communications Media department has now become something of an annual fixture in my life. “It’s magazine time,” I tell my friends and they nod sagely and try to understand Twhat it is that is taking up such a huge chunk of my life and time and attention. I’d like to make one thing clear. The

VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA students edit, I simply hang around saying encouraging things like, “Well, if that’s the way you want it…” and “If you’re happy with that level of achievement…” They look confused sometimes but most often they get it, they try harder and we all end up with something we can live with. The magazines we have done and which we have represented here therefore represent the hive mind of SCM. They represent the culmination of a year of hard work, of trying to get to grips with what Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault mean, of trying to decode statistics and the F-stop, of shooting out on the streets and talking to strangers in distant parts of the city. I take a very quiet, very personal pride in my students’ work. I do not claim it. They go out and pound pavements, they go out and decide what kind of stories they want to do, they find the stories, shoot the pictures, redo, rewrite, reshoot, edit, re-edit, rephrase, find the headline, write the introduction… everything. Then they must go out and find the money to print the magazine. The awards we’ve won make me proud because it is my students’ work that is being judged and it is taking on the work of professionals. Some years ago, I started telling my class to stop thinking of themselves as students but as media professionals in training. They are. I rest my case.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 7 8 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 9 • • Contents VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA

The Journalism The Ink Flows On The IHO: Angels Off the fence, 05 Debut by 16 by Prema Dorairaj 23 Tread Where Fools 32 On to the soap box Sidharth Bhatia (Debut, 1987-88) Fear To Go by (Repartee, by Saloni Meghani and 1991-92) Deepali Pannu (Or…, Thirty years of Welcome to 1995-96) 06 writing from 17 Yuppiedom by Smruti A student the margins by Jeroo Koppikar and Anshu 26 perspective on A Bitter Pill to Mulla Puri (Debut, 1987-88) Ayodhya by Radha Bose 34 Swallow by Nandini and Radhika Chadrashekhar Ramnath and Aesha Ahsan From students to Reaching Out To (Sakshi, 1992-93) (Disha, 1996-97) 07 media professionals- 19 HELP by Sonora Jha in-training by Jerry (Swayam, 1988-89) Against the grave- Seven Stepsisters Pinto 27 diggers by Nancy 35 by Naomi Datta, The journalist as Adajania, Cynthia Rodrigues Sanjukta Sharma SCM alum 20 activist by Sameera (Citylogue, 1993-94) and Nilanjana 13 achievements Khan (Byline, 1989-90) Sengupta (Outsider, We saved ourselves, 1997-98) FROM OUR Seeking an identity 30 but lost our homes ARCHIVE, 30 22 by Leela Jacinto by Dionne Bunsha and Uneven Surfaces YEARS OF SCM and Jabeen Merchant Varsha Dixit (Currents, 38 by Abigail Fernandes JOURNALISM (Insignia, 1990-91) 1994-95) (Walls, 1998-99)

10 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • Contents

And Not A Drop John and Siddhi Patel Medha Patkar, a 48 To Drink by (Marginalia, 2012-13) 108 fearless voice by Aneesha Durga, Shohini Minal Sancheti and Elton Ghosh, Shweta Mulki, Sorry, Mr. Haveliwala. Gomes Nalini Ramachandran 71 It’s not available and Divya Subramaniam by Anubhuti Matta and On the train (Unequal Spheres, Sneha Paul (Marginalia, 110 to Thane by 2003-04) 2013-14) Suryasarathi Bhattacharya And Miles To Go Hello, please, I 50 Before They Sleep 74 need some Kunda Vartak: by Menaka Rao, Anahita help by Vanessa 112 the dynamic Mukherji and Savitri Carvalho and Tejasvi deputy sarpanch of Medhatul (The learning Momaya (Marginalia, Saphale by Mayanka curve, 2004-05) 2014-15) Goel

Nature’s Barricade by Carved in Stone The Disappearing 52 Cherry Fernandes, 76 by Prathmesh 114 Saltpans by Khushboo Gwalani and Kharatmal and Clarence Priyanka Arora Tanika Jalan (E-quotient, Mendoza 2005-06) (Marginalia, 2015-16) Sadak Chaap - The 116 Stamp of the Street Sindhi Abaani by Jovita Aranha 54 Boli by Dimple ALUMNAE SPEAK Sharma (Communique, “There is nothing 2006-07) 80 Smruti Koppikar 120 to fear...”-Sudhir 81 Sameera Khan Dhawale by Vishaal ART-MART by 82 Shabnam Minwalla Mudholkar 56 Payal Kapadia 83 Priyanka Kakodkar and Anamika Nandy 84 Anubha Bhonsle They wake so (Metromorphosis, 85 Maya Mirchandani 123 we may sleep by 2007-08) 86 Anahita Mukherji Nilofer Khan

Like a kite whose Know Your Rights MARGINALIA Hot Reads for 40 string has been 58 by Priyanka Londhe 2016-17 126 Women? By cut by Supriya Correa (Ripple effect, 2008-09) Mayanka Goel (Spaces, 1999-2000) SCM Happenings Against the grain 88 by Mayanka The Robin Dancing for Men 60 by Sonam Saigal Goel, Suryasarathi 130 Hood Army: 42 and Money by (Redefining limits, 2009- Bhattacharya At War Against Food Smita Polite (Grey matters, 10) Wastage by Priyamvada 2000-01) The Demonetisation Mangal Tales From The 95 Diaries by Beastly Tales of 62 One-Person Tent Ananya Desai The New Mantra: 44 Hansel and Gretel by Zahra Gabuji (Voices, 132 BYOB or Be by Rakhi Basu (Labyrinth, 2010-11) Javed Akhtar Your Own Boss by 2001-02) 102 : Wizard Of Minal Khosla Democracy is Words by Suryasarathi From Ahimsa to 66 Millions of Small Bhattacharya Mumbaichi 46 ashes by Faiza Actions by Vinelle Vaz 134 Chimbai by Ahmed, Janice Monteiro, (Gully, 2011-12) The Identity of Elton Gomes Neha Jain, Rasika Dugal and 106Libraries in the Sukanya Ghosh (Montage, We went to Jail Digital Age by Vindhya Nepal Diaries by 2002-03) 69 for SCM by Lianne Barwal 138 Jovita Aranha

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 11

• • We are proud of them SCMSophia alumnae achievements in 2016

he social awareness that we work on 12 locations. Given our integrated course where everyone at SCM continues to guide the actions learns to do everything, it is perhaps not surprising to learn of our alumnae. We are delighted to that Parul Rawat (SCM 2013-14) co-authored a paper titled note that Nidhi Goyal (SCM 2009-10) Pedagogy and Storytelling in the Indian Context, which was has been appointed a member of the presented at the International Conference on Emerging Civil Society Advisory Group (2017- Trends in Teaching and Research 2016, held at Guangzhou, 2019) established by the Executive China. She was also the dialogue writer for popular sit-coms Director of UN Women. UN Women Sahib, Biwi, aur Boss on Sab TV and May I Come In, Madam was established in 2010 as the United on Life OK. She did all this while still working on her MA Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment at Mumbai University. Sunitha Chitrapu (SCM 1992-93) Tof Women. Minnie Vaid (SCM 1980-81) wrote The Ant authored a paper titled ‘Should You Listen to Your Wife? in the Ear of the Elephant, a book about fisher people’s Tamil language television debates on modernity’ presented protest against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. in Sweden. It was released by actor Nandita Nalini Ramachandran (SCM Das in Mumbai. Anuja Ghosalkar 2003-04) was the Tamil language (SCM 1999-2000) examines gender consultant on the National through a new theatrical form Geographic Channel documentary, called documentary theatre. In her Chennai Megafloods and co-wrote play, Lady Anandi, produced by Celebrating True Heroes: Chhatrapati her company, Drama Queen, Anuja Shivaji Maharaj, INS Vikrant and uses archival materials to explore Indian Navy, a coffee-table book. the life of her great grandfather, She is also the author of ‘Shakti’ the who was a female impersonator in lead story in Scary Tales, a horror Marathi theatre. Aparna Jayakumar anthology published by Scholastic (2004-05) exhibited her photos of India. She is co-editor of Bombay Bar black-and-yellow Mumbai taxis titled Association: A Legacy of Law, a coffee- Goodbye Padmini at the Swenson table book which commemorates Gallery, Bakehouse Art Complex, the Bombay Bar Association through Miami Florida. Paroma Mukherjee the 150 years of its history. Ekta (SCM 2004-2005) exhibited her Bhatnagar (SCM 2005-06) has written photographs in New Homelands: Genius Kids on a Mission. The Indian Diaspora in the European Work done by alumnae when they Union in Mumbai and New Delhi. were students at SCM continues to SCM alumnae are successful be recognised. Marginalia (produced in diverse segments of the media industry. Rohini by the class of SCM 2015-2016) won six ICE awards Ramanathan (SCM 2004-05) was a part of the launch including Best Magazine, Most Imperative Content and team at Radio Nasha. She currently hosts the morning Best Cover out of nearly 600 magazines produced by show on this channel. We are excited that our alumnae are corporations, public sector undertakings and educational launching events and organisations. Lubaina Bandukwala institutions. Unmasked, a broadcast news feature about (SCM 1989-90) launched a literature festival for children Reshma Qureshi—an acid attack survivor—by Ankita Sorot, called Peek A Book in Mumbai and Hyderabad. Aquila Mansi Shanbagh, Rajan Parmar and Sonali Telang (SCM Khan, Brenna Ribeiro, Tanmayi Oak, Tejasvi Momaya and 2015-16) was awarded the third prize at the US Consulate’s Vanessa Carvalho (all from SCM 2014-15) launched a digital Women’s Safety and Empowerment Film Contest. Insight, marketing agency called Leading Lines (www.leadinglines. a documentary about White Print—a magazine in Braille— in). Amrita Mukhopadhyay (SCM 2012-13) was a one- directed by Shweta Rajguru, Charlene Fernandes and Zara woman army for content in her role as Senior Manager- Mann (SCM 2015-16) was screened at Cut.In at the Tata Content, at the food app GORB launched by Zee Living in Institute of Social Sciences.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 13 1987 - 2016 FROM THE ARCHIVES

14 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 1987 - 2016 FROM THE ARCHIVES   

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 15 From THE ARCHIVES

1987-1988 The ink flows on

he judiciary has wound, invade someone’s privacy been particularly and that is the end.” She pooh-poohs careful to keep the refrain that journalists had a job the people only to inform. “If my job restricts and the press my interaction with values and my nervous about commitment to society, then I will the bolt of extend and expand it.” To inform “Tjudicial wrath cutting the ground was the prelude and to act on the before us unexpectedly and opening information was a logical extension. up the doors of a barren room none of So, she filed her first petition in us are keen to reside in. Lawyers and court challenging the Suppression academicians have failed to develop of Immoral Traffic Act (SITA). She the law and citizen’s right vis-à-vis the exposed the sexist bias in the law that judiciary and contempt of court. The “Only a woman can be a prostitute” objective of this exposition is of course and revealed the barbaric injustice not limited to the themes of law of perpetrated on child prostitutes—

contempt of judicial accountability. ARCHIVES SCM and met with a measure of success. The ambition is to question the very respond encouraged me.” The definition of a ‘prostitute’ was system iconoclastically.” The newspaper and magazine modified. Recognition also came Such fierce, crusading, ‘ambitious’ boom that overwhelm us today, is her way with the India Today- PUCL words condemning the very still of recent origin. However, Sheela award for “journalist of the year” in firmament of justice is representative had to contend with the hegemony 1985. of Sheela Barse’s current fight against of the two “biggies” — the Times of Sheela has also pioneered our “juvenile judiciary”, as she India (TOI), the Indian Express and the right of journalists’ vis-à-vis caustically puts it. their allied publications. But Darryl the establishment for access of Sheela Barse: a journalist, D’monte, who was the assistant-editor information. Successful has also been whose relentless battles with the of TOI “was not fuddy-duddy going her fight against the government’s ban establishment have been waged but ahead with the system.” So, when prohibiting her from entering prisons with the continual flow of ink. Sheela penned her first story about in 1982 where she was investigating Sheela Barse: an activist, who the police torture of prisoners, it was the conditions of women prisoners in extends her journalistic brief to file given adequate coverage and the stage Arthur Road Jail. and fight petitions in the court. was set for her tenacious struggle. Sheela has written on a wide array Sheela Barse: a woman with Encouraged by the public of injustices, be it women prisoners, exemplar grit and tenacity, an response, she decided to investigate children in jails, child labour, female individual worthy of admiration, one of our biggest evils: prostitution. infanticide and foeticide, remand respect, nay emulation! She interviewed trapped girls, the homes, police torture, or judiciary. What prompted a sheltered criminal nexus, the children of She has not only written widely and middle-class comfortably ensconced commercial sex workers (CSWs), incisively but has taken them to court, girl to jump into the fray in the fight police-raids and laws. The series sometimes the highest court in the for justice? of articles on “Nowhere Women In Land, with her own funds. “I have “It was the Emergency in 1975 Nowhere Land” published in the spent a lakh of rupees on six Public that incited the ferment in me. Laws Illustrated Weekly, was distinct for its Interest Litigations (PIL).” were being flouted, people were being information on the substrata too, and As Sheela says, “I am my own arrested, discipline was unheard not only on the hard facts. investigator, writer, peon, court clerk, of and anarchy reigned supreme. It But after a couple of articles solicitor’s clerk, secretary, all in one.” was then, that I realized that it was along a similar vein, Sheela began When she was doing her story on not somebody else’s fight. I felt this to get disillusioned with this style missing children from remand homes, intense desire to communicate. And of journalism where ‘you peddle she had to file 34 petitions from 450 the aspiration that people would someone’s pain, scratch someone’s districts in India. She requested the

16 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 Indian Social Institute to help her with an arm of the government. She wants whole judiciary system will collapse!”) the paper and typing at a concessional democratization of police rights which it will not only be the money that will rate. They charged her a 10 per cent will improve the lot of the police and impede the struggle. service charge, and the typist charged in turn will reflect in their attitudes Sheela Barse leads an unprotected, her 1 ½ times his salary, as overtime! towards people. She seems to have solitary, committed life, contributing What then, are the reactions come a full circle since the days she her might in bringing the unreached she meets with? “‘Why do you campaigned against police atrocities into the mainstream. As I come away, want to do it?’ is the common and torture. I notice a single precarious latch on refrain. The middle-class apathy is Come a full circle indeed, since her door trying to keep out the cold understandable, but what does one do Sheela declares that her next petition January air. Perhaps symbolic of the if social activists and legal lawyers also against “Our juvenile judiciary” will precarious existence of the common react in the same way?” be her last one. “I just do not have the voiceless deprived man on the street, Sheela’s current concern is memory to carry on.” And judging by her protagonist. the Police Law which she deems the attitude of the judiciary (former Meanwhile, the ink from her pen is unconstitutional because in a Chief Justice PN Bhagwati told her, “If flows on…. democracy, the police ought not to be the judiciary is made accountable, the Prema Dorairaj

1987-1988 Welcome to Yuppiedom

anish Maholkar, is an executive with Citibank— overseas trade negotiations are a part of his M9 to 5 routine. He hails from a well- placed family of professionals, has had a privileged education culminating with the coveted MBA degree. Young, suave and dynamic, he is eager to reach the top of his profession soon. Manish Maholkar epitomises the ‘Yuppie’ —young upwardly mobile professional.

The word “yuppie” is not just an DESAI SHAMA addition to the English lexicon. It symbolises a mode of thinking, a style fascination for the West. “Job satisfaction can be measured of living, a set of attitudes and values— The yuppie phenomenon is an only in terms of money satisfaction”, in fact, a whole new ideology of a class import—a cultural import from the explains Pradeep Mane of Citibank. of people in the ultra-urban pockets United States of America. It is basically The accent is always on financial of the metropolis. Manish Maholkar un-Indian. Yet yuppiedom has thrived, success. is only one, nevertheless, a true, nay, flourished, albeit in a few urban Certain careers seem lucrative, representative of this emerging class. areas—especially with the coming of therefore more attractive than others: Fierce ambition, self-centred Rajiv’s young “government that works finance, advertising, management are achievement and a highly competitive fast”. but a few. To be a Management Trainee spirit characterise ‘the yuppie’. What does yuppiedom thrive on? in a multinational at the age of 24 is But what sets him, apart in a class, Money, money and more money. The only the beginning of the realization is his single minded devotion to yuppie, from his nascent stage, trains of yuppie ambition. Anyone for Civil professional success and material himself to think in terms of material Service? Manish explains why not; “It advancement, besides a continual gains. Even his career is thus dictated— may be socially satisfying, but I would

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 17 From THE ARCHIVES

be treated shabbily. Besides, there is either show a total apathy towards quick results” syndrome of the young a limited scope to rise. I would prefer these problems or admit, though professional has infiltrated politics. to sell soaps from a wood panelled air- sheepishly, their lack of awareness. Of late, India’s economic and social conditioned office.” This could well be “I can’t do anything about poverty, problems hardly lend themselves to the sentiment of any other yuppie. corruption, dowry and things like that. quick, scientific and computerised Ambition, with a capital ‘A’ is their So how does it help to think about solutions, yet the young man at the middle name. Since professional and them?” questions Amol Desai, an up- top is attempting just that. financial success assumes importance, and-coming Chartered Accountant. The yuppie culture, in all its joining the rat race to reach the top in The yuppie would like to believe numerous facets is spreading, and the shortest possible time becomes that larger social issues are alien to spreading fast, with the transfer of not inevitable. And we have a “young yuppiedom; that his lair is immune only political but economic, industrial man in a hurry” with “get results” to them. Manish puts it succinctly, and financial power also into younger plastered all over his wood panelled “Yuppie culture is basically elitist; it hands. The social repercussions can be air-conditioned office. has broken away from society.” tremendous. Why? One would ask. Once in a rat race, his life becomes The basic tenets of yuppie a constant endeavour to earn more o strike a balance culture—competitive ambition, and more. “I’m only a little better between the emphasis on financial success, off than others but I still can’t afford conservative Indian single-minded devotion to material a yacht,” laments Achutan Palot, a values and his advancement, the resultant young CA in a multinational financial Western-oriented conspicuous consumption and consultancy. thinking, the yuppie consumerism—are antagonistic to The yuppie’s increasing bank often takes to the accepted Indian way of life and account is reflected in an exaggerated Tpatronising Indian art and culture. He thought—a non-material, spiritual life style of living with emphasis on items believes himself to be a distinguished based on co-operation. How does the of sheer luxury. He aspires to pack connoisseur of the same. This yuppie culture fit into this mould? his Maruti Deluxe in the garage of his coupled with his purchasing power Perhaps, it doesn’t. The yuppie apartment block in a posh area of the leads to a pseudo-revival of certain culture is an outgrowth of a small city. “Conspicuous consumption has art forms. Suddenly, ethnic decor for section of urban, privileged, West- become the mainstay of yuppiedom,” the apartment becomes fashionable, oriented Indian Society. “The yuppie observes P. Sainath, Deputy Chief Husain’s canvases command an would feel more at home in America Editor of Blitz. astronomical piece, off-beat films and than in India,” says Manish. He is The pertinent fact is not his ghazals become popular. According probably echoing the thoughts of aspiration for a high standard of to an art critic, “This leads to his fellow yuppies. But the fallout of living but that is his deal, more often commercialization and vulgarisation this culture would definitely leave its than not, the American standard. of art because the yuppie’s interest mark on Indian society Pradeep Mane Foreign goods, a luxury till now, have in art is aimed at proving his explains how “the yuppie culture become a necessity for him; Indian distinguished tastes”. It is, perhaps, a is creating aspiration, which shall stuff is only second best, so thinks the manifestation of money culture. eventually lead to saturation, as there yuppie. Or else why would we have However, money alone does not will be too many people, too few jobs Wrangler jeans being advertised on satisfy the yuppie, nor does it sustain and dearth of capital.” Indian television? Standard of living, yuppiedom. Inherent in the yuppie The yuppies in the United States unfortunately, is not divorced from culture is a yearning power—the have suffered a big financial blow due a wider social context. A lifestyle is licence to influence, control and to the Wall Street Crash of October, not imported in isolation; along with govern. It is not tight-fisted, absolute 1987. It will be interesting to see it come a set of values and attitudes. power, mind you. The yuppie, true to how they resurrect themselves and When the yuppie puts a premium on his liberal traditions, does not ‘control’ how this affects Indian Yuppiedom. material advancement, it alters his and he only ‘manages’. Little wonder The crash, though a setback, has perception of societal institutions, then that Management has become not deterred many a young aspiring values, mores and norms. The blinkers one of the most sought after careers of yuppie. on their eyes point only in one the yuppie era. Whatever the outcome, the fact direction—upwards—and shut out all “The yuppie culture may be remains that the emerging segment else. “Even if their sole aim is material most obvious and visible in the of young, ambitious men and women advancement, is it correct to lose sight management or advertising industry, stick out like a sore thumb in our of finer social values?” asks Sainath but that is only the fluff,” reflects Iqbal society and threatens to imbalance thoughtfully. Masud, a noted media critic, “The the Indian social set-up. Ask them about social and political crux of the culture is at another level: Smruti Koppikar issues confronting us; most yuppies in politics.” And true enough, the “get Anshu Puri

18 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 1988-1989 Reaching out to HELP

few months ago, my husband) started in 1980. But I Rinki and a group of other committed some prominent filed for a divorce only four years ago. persons wanting to help women and publications carried Fortunately, I still had a home to live children in distress took shape in the a letter inviting in, along with my children. I had been form of a telephone number- 6142026. responses from doing freelance writing for several This is no ordinary number. Behind women who had years and I could fall back on that.” it lies a human voice: an organization been the victims of Being the wife of a celebrity, her called HELP. Says Rinki, “We modeled violenceA within their families. story met with shock and sympathy, ‘HELP’ on the monitoring system in Not a single woman replied. sometimes with disbelief and Southall which was run by a friend’s The writer of that letter was Rinki disapproval. “I broke the myth that brother in England. We needed a Bhattacharya. Her attempt towards such things happen only amongst similar crisis call system.” HELP is encouraging the women to respond the lower classes of society. I gave a group of lawyers, doctors, social were in vain. However, Rinki realizes interviews about experiences that workers, and police officers who offer the deep rooted reasons behind this were usually shoved aside,” she their services free of charge to women total lack of response. remembers. and children in distress. HELP takes “Our culture, our society, sees the A number of calls all through the women only in the family context. If questions night, between the woman is subjected to violence emerge when 10 pm and 7 am within the family, she wants to keep a woman Apart from the matter under wraps,” she says. decides to twelve active Rinki herself is a person who has take such volunteers, each succeeded in coming out into the a step. Is she of whom attends open with her own shocking story of doing it to gain to the calls at least a marriage that had turned extremely publicity? Is she three nights a violent. exaggerating? month, there are In 1963, Rinki married filmmaker Is it not too also a number of Basu Bhattacharya, who was at that private a matter resource people time an assistant to her father Bimal to be spoken and voluntary Roy. about in print? helpers. From the After 22 years of marriage in which Society does not accept that violence, time HELP was started in March ‘88, it she was subjected to acute physical in any form and between anyone can has received about 200 calls. abuse and emotional humiliation ever be a private matter. Most of the cases pertain to at the hands of her husband, Rinki But Rinki is firm on the point. wife-beating and desertion. A fairly finally decided to change the course “Assault is a social offence,” she says. typical case was that of a woman who of her life. She came into contact with “It is a strongly punishable crime. If it had been married for 12 years, during some women’s groups, which gave her has been happening for too long and which her husband gradually turned courage and understood the legitimacy the woman continues to bear it, people extremely violent and aggressive of her struggle. She did not want to be term it as sado-masochism on her towards her. He also began having an seen as a saint or a martyr. Neither did part. They ask questions like—‘Why affair with his secretary. When his wife she want to be tagged a victim, because did you stay for so long?’ No one asks confronted him, he admitted it and she knew that it was due to her love for why the husband is beating her up. physically threw her out. her husband and her family life that The problem is, where do women go? I “She was fortunate enough to have she had struggled to compromise for have become stronger, but what about a job and understanding parents. But so long. She was merely a woman who other women? I wanted to relate to the husband began threatening her had suffered the act of wife-beating the women who could not articulate. I with divorce on grounds of desertion from the man she had loved and wanted to put my experiences to use.” even though he himself had thrown decided that she could take no more. This decision took a practical her out. That was when she contacted

ILLUSTRATION BY PRIYANKA ARORA PRIYANKA BY ILLUSTRATION “The whole process (of leaving form: a plan that had been formed by me,” says Rinki.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 19 From THE ARCHIVES

Rinki counselled her, to help her an individual. We try and make her home. I have been speaking to her for overcome her depression, at the same totally aware of what to do and start some months now, but I have never time forwarding her case to a lawyer rebuilding from there.” seen her face. It is strange to be so close from HELP. He explained to her that When a woman is victimized by to someone you have never seen.” she could not be thrown out of her the very husband or family members HELP has plans of starting a matrimonial home especially since she in whom she has laid her trust, she is centre for women and children, where had an infant child. She went back to subject to a variety of overpowering a woman who has been rendered her children with the help of the police emotions. In such a situation, she is homeless may be able to seek and then filed for a divorce. “She still even liable to take her own life. “When shelter along with her children. “She comes to me with her problems,” says she has suffered a traumatic event, needs a little time to gain control, to Rinki, ”since she feels that I am not an it is a very dangerous point in her rationalize. Though shelters are not an ‘interested party’ and therefore can be life. Isolation can be very violent. We answer to a woman’s problem, they let trusted”. feel that a lot of things can be done her think in a quiet situation.” once we have broken this barrier of HELP faces more logistical his fits in with isolation.” problems. Not every woman has HELP’s philosophy of Having been through the access to a telephone. Sometimes, attempting to enable experience of a broken marriage and even if she does, she may be prevented the woman to gain the loneliness that comes with it, from seeking help. Women still do better control over Rinki finds it easier to relate to the not know that such aids exist. HELP her life. The workers women and offer advice on the basis of has been trying to overcome this by Thelp her through counseling, to problems she herself had to face. reaching out to her by word of mouth. know her rights, to take her own Sometimes, more than anything Says Rinki, ”If I know of someone decisions. “There are certain other else, a woman may just need an who needs us, I may pass on the establishments for example Baap Nu understanding and encouraging word to her through someone she Ghar that believe that reconciliation voice to talk to her, human advice or knows. We never give the address of with the husband is the only answer, guidance. There develops a friendship, the centre because there is a chance so they send her back to her marriage. a bond that serves as a reservoir of of a volunteer being attacked if the They treat the women like minors. strength at her time of need. “There is husband comes to know.” We realize the need to treat her as one woman who even calls me up at Sonora Jha

1989-1990 The journalist as activist oday journalism in a situation can a journalist who is P Sainath India is standing supposed to inform remain aloof? at a crossroad. The Shouldn’t he get “involved” and take dilemma is whether a stand? Some journalists are not to join hands with content to merely report on such social activists and tensions, but in fact have involved become a weapon themselves in activist groups. Tfor a particular cause or to stick with Professional traditions on the other the established norms of “objectivity” hand demand that disseminators of and take up the role of a detached information be more objective and observer of events. unbiased. Both these roles are of immense According to Allwyn Fernandes, importance in a country like Special Correspondent, Times of India, where fast-paced economic India, Bombay, and a firm believer development is taking place side by in objective journalism, says that side with worldwide information the duty of a reporter is merely to revolution. examine all sides of an issue and This development has led to not to judge what side is right. “The escalating social and economic public,” he says, “is intelligent enough

tensions in Indian society. In such ARCHIVES SCM to decide for itself.”

20 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 However, Sheela Barse, well- generation.” facts in an objective manner—with no known journalist and active lobbyist Today he is involved in a apparent biases. for the rights of children, maintains number of environmental issues Sheela Barse feels that the word that while information dissemination including the Narmada Dam and “objectivity” has a “sterile kind of is an important aspect of journalism, Western Ghats movement. “There outlook” and wonders whether one one must “expand the conventions was a need to co-ordinate all non- cannot add a human element to it. of journalism and add more human governmental organisations working Though Allwyn Fernandes agrees values to it”. Through her own on environmental issues and create a that a journalist must look at the issues journalistic writings, she got involved network,” he says. Therefore, he and surrounding him with sensitivity, with what she calls the weakest and a number of other environmental he feels that a journalist must retain most populous section of our society: journalists formed the ‘Forum of his objectivity because this is what children. Environmental Journalists of India’ “establishes his credibility.” The voice of this segment of our (FEJI). According to him and Darryl But for Arun Vinayak “the population has been stifled for a long D’monte, Resident Editor, Times question of objectivity should not time. Today Sheela Barse has taken of India, Bombay and Chairperson go to such an extreme so as to claim the cause of children beyond mere of FEJI, the Forum does not take a that news is value neutral. It is not.” reportage to the courts of law. stand on any issue, but only studies In fact, according to Kalpana Sharma, For Kalpana Sharma, Assistant environmental issues from all angles “Nothing is objective, everything is Editor, Times of India, Bombay, it is and in great depth and collates governed by our world view.” women’s issues that are of primary information on them. Every story, it is said has two sides interest. As a founder member of to it. But this view is contradicted the “Women and Media” group, she hy do these by P Sainath, Deputy-Chief editor of thinks that “you would make a better journalists take the Blitz group of publications, who journalist if you have a genuine up particular feels that some stories have only concern for the deprived people and issues and get one side. The Bhopal victims’ case seek to present the views of the most involved with and the dropping of the Atom bomb inarticulate groups of our society—be it them? While in Hiroshima, for example. “Good tribals, women or children.” Wsome like Kalpana Sharma took up journalism,” he says, “can be as biased From the beginning of her women’s issues because of their own as facts often are and as one-sided as journalistic career, Kalpana Sharma awareness of them, others like Arun reality often is.” He himself claims he is has evinced a keen interest in human Vinayak and Darryl D’monte feel that “biased in favour of the bottom thirty rights and development issues. But time is running out and if we must per cent of our country’s population.” gradually, she came to realize that save our Earth then we must do it now. According to him, the Indian press women’s problems cut across all other For Sheela Barse, this is a question only purports to talk on behalf of issues, be it environment, health or asked time and again of her, and it public opinion, but actually represents any other, thus making the Indian “irritates” her. “Why should someone the interests of the 10 per cent woman the most deprived class in assume that people cannot react population “which owns the country.” society. This made her concentrate on normally and intelligently to a thing He would rather see journalists studying, writing and researching on they see around them?” she asks. “taking stands on issues than making women’s issues, despite all warnings “As a socially responsible citizen, pretences of neutrality, favouring the given to her by women journalist this was my favourite response to the status quo.” colleagues, that she would thereby be horrors I saw inflicted on children all Often one cannot present the stuck in a groove and be marginalised over India.” She was dissatisfied with other side of the story because there and labelled a ‘feminist’ writer. both the fields of journalism and social is no information available. This is While some journalists get work and their inability to alleviate especially true in cases of government involved in issues only to the extent the suffering of children. “Most social and official control. No right to of writing about them, a few like Arun workers could not see issues besides information has led to taking sides Vinayak, former news editor and their own welfare and the good ones on issues. It is “one way to provoke special correspondent with PTI, have had a feeling of helplessness because information,” says Arun Vinayak. left their jobs and are now full-time of government and organisational But Fernandes feels that his activists. structures.” reputation as an objective journalist For Arun Vinayak, his socialist She is aware that privately many has stood him a good stead. He leanings provided the inspiration for journalists criticise her for having has found it easier to get access to such a move. As he says, “There is gone beyond the confines of objective government and official information. a feeling of anger in me. I cannot let journalism. After all, one of the His writings which he prefers to call degradation and suffering take place unwritten rules of journalism has “exposés” have covered topics ranging and take away the heritage of our next been the journalists’ duty to present from urban problems of education and

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 21 From THE ARCHIVES

health to government policies and law India; Tilak’s Kesari and Sadanand’s At this point one may well ask and justice. Free Press Journal fired the Indian whether the same case (of activist Kalpana Sharma, Darryl D’Monte people’s desire to be free. “I want journalism) can be made applicable and Allwyn Fernandes make a clear every journalist to be an activist—he for blatantly communal writing by a distinction between News page and must question every direction society person who is in favour of a particular Editorial page stories. Opinion pieces is moving towards,” says Sainath. religion and anti another. For Kalpana are usually restricted to the Editorial But this does not mean that the Sharma, this is a frightful thought page. “Unfortunately,” says Fernandes, emotions of the journalist should run and she insists that the “right kind “news and views are being blurred in amok. Activist journalists must rid of specialisation among journalists the Indian press. Often news articles themselves of the tendency of making must increase.” This specialisation subtly indoctrinate the public. Finally “facts fit the theory,” says Fernandes. on various topics must be acquired one may ask whether it is possible to In the long run, he says, they must through in depth research and a good journalist and an activist at the decide where their commitment lies – education. same time.” whether to their profession or to their It is essential to see that journalists For Sainath there is no distinction cause. do not merely take stands on issues, between these two roles, though he but do sufficient homework on them would prefer to use the term “socially hough it may be and can back all their arguments conscious journalist” instead of possible for journalists with facts. “Un-informed writing “activist journalist.” Every journalist to take up causes, downgrades the value of journalism according to him has to have a social for editors it is not so and the cause becomes just another obligation and responsibility to the easy. As D’Monte says hobby horse,” says Sharma. public. Journalists are here not to “Editors must give the Thus it becomes imperative that merely entertain or present facts but Timpression of being fair and non- journalists put brakes on themselves. also to explain conscientise and even partisan”. “Besides,” says Rahul Singh, More importantly, they must mobilize people into action. This role ex-editor, Sunday Observer, “editors understand the power they wield to was played by the Indian press during rarely have the time to campaign affect peoples’ lives and not take for the freedom struggle. Newspapers actively on an issue. But they can granted the strength of pens. such as Gandhi’s Harijan and Young encourage their journalists to do so.” Sameera Khan

1990-1991 Seeking an identity person has to identity implies insecurity. specify whether he Does this mean then, that is Muslim or Hindu. secularism does not provide He can no longer security anymore? afford not to.” Karim It does not seem to for Lallani, 23 years old, Shyam Mhatre (22) who is actively involved has founded “Aditya”, an “Awith Aga Khani Muslim Youth Board organisation to develop in Bombay. He feels that while his a fighting spirit among community has always propagated Hindu youth”. Identity, both secularism and communal harmony, religious and cultural, is most (“We believe in sticking together first, and as they maintained their important. This, according to him is and working for the welfare of our religious identity, they had a common especially so in the case of the Hindus, community”) it is the psychology of social ideology. “Mine was a secular who unlike the minority communities, the times that more and more people culture but today, the loss of identity is are not governed by the church or feel the need to turn to religion. turning the youth towards a religious have a leader like the Shahi Imam. According to journalist Iqbal culture”. “My religion is very broadminded Masud, his generation which he terms Is it a fact that more young men and we don’t hurt anybody, but we the “Nehru generation” had a tendency and women today seek an identity for suffer because we are not united and to look upon themselves as Indians themselves in their religion? A loss of aggressive.” VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA

22 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 This has led Shyam it is like standing on the shore to look upon bloodshed and wondering about the as a means to fight waves.” Joseph Dias says that “domination”. He feels CROSS believes in “living the that the Muslims actively values of the Bible on a day to VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA assert themselves through day basis.” At the same time, various organisations and communal. He very aptly puts it: “It’s he feels that religion should be a pan-Islamic culture, and Christians mutual you know, the Hindu becomes “packaged and marketed attractively” constantly propagate their religion more Hindu so the Muslim becomes to appeal to the youth. CROSS does through conversions. “It is our land,” he more Muslim and the cycle goes on.” this by taking up social, political says, “but we never force anybody to Being an engineering student at the and cultural issues for the Christian follow our faith. Converting is a form of Saboo Siddique Polytechnic—a Muslim community. blackmail.” institution, Shahid has witnessed this All these people agree that it is On the other hand, the Christian trend amongst both the Shia and Sunni impossible to separate religion from Revival Oriented School Service sects. politics. At the same time, they realise (CROSS) was formed by Joseph Minority organisations like the that they themselves are being used as Dias (26) in 1989 to combat the CROSS and the Jaffari Youth Federation vote banks. Shyam wants to create a communication which Joseph feels claim that it is rampant communalism ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and says, “If minorities has reached alarming proportions over whipped up by bodies like the BJP and will think that ‘Hinduism’ is theirs, the past 2 to 3 years. Christian interests, RSS that intensifies their tendency to where does the question of conflict he felt, were being threatened and consider themselves apart from the arise? If they don’t agree, they have no the community was being taken for mainstream. right to live here.” granted. According to Shahid, “Politics Joseph Dias feels that CROSS must Shahid Merchant, 20, member is one way of ensuring that your fight for the basic rights of the Christian of the Jaffari Youth Federation, an religion survives”. But it appears upon community which are constantly under organisation of Shia Muslims, which examination, that religion per se is an threat and Shahid says of his religious promotes Islamic culture and attempts ambiguous concept for these young group: “The general idea expressed t train its members to cope with worldly people. Shyam talks about a return to is that we haven’t been following the matters without “compromising the Vedas, which he considers the “true tenets of Islam if we obey secular laws.” on their Islamic ideals,” notes that Hinduism”. “But I have not read the Leela Jacinto society is becoming more and more Vedas…there are such few translations… Jabeen Merchant

1991-1992 The IHO: Angels tread where fools fear to go

“To forget is a crime. To be lazy is the WHO goal of ‘Health for all by which works for the prevention of a crime. To neglect work and offer 2000 AD in India’. AIDS among prostitutes, and other excuse is the greatest crime. Action Its members consist of medical related social issues. Recognising without delay is the soul of efficiency.” doctors, health personnel, medical that the issues related to prostitution — IHO students and professionals from other are manifold and complex, the fields of the human sciences. In the IHO workers feel that, “except in he Indian Health seven years of its existence, the IHO our attempts to eliminate minor Organisation was has been working for leprosy control prostitutions, forced prostitution and founded on 7th and eradication, health services the Devdasi system, we do not appear April, 1982 (the during natural catastrophes and in a to be explicit in our position against World Health Day), big way, for the health hazards related prostitution per se…..maybe one day by ten socially to AIDS and the issue of prostitution. we could touch the inner spaces of conscious doctors. It The activities of the IHO have over these women, and then a change Tworks for the service of the poor and the years, taken the shape of some from within, the only true change, can oppressed, and thus aims to achieve major projects like the ‘Saheli’ project, neither be impossible nor remote.”

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 23 From THE ARCHIVES

twice a day, six days a week; with each visit scheduled for a different area in Bombay. The first thing that Sharda said was, “The word ‘prostitute’ has so many negative connotations. But after meeting these girls—so young and yet without any laughter in their eyes. I don’t know what ‘prostitute’ really means.” The workers have a great deal of compassion and understanding of human nature and most importantly the dedication to do something selflessly. Yes, selflessly in every sense of the word. They are not compensated very highly, though in just one day they receive the self-satisfaction very few of us can receive in a lifetime. With the kind of work they do, they are at

PRIYANKA ARORA PRIYANKA risk of acquiring AIDS or some other disease themselves. Yet they feel that Headed by Dr I S Gilada, the here is however a each moment of their time is spent organisation has a group of extremely catch—what do you fruitfully. dedicated social workers assigned threaten them with? So involved have they become to many projects. The Saheli project The loss of their lives... that they share a relationship with works primarily for the prevention of their lives….. Lives their sahelis that goes beyond the AIDS among prostitutes by educating they themselves don’t professional. Sharda has tears in her them and distributing free condoms Tvalue too much—that they in fact feel eyes as one of her sahelis declares amongst them. deceived by? The social workers have that she doesn’t want to live anymore. The project works along these succeeded to some extent in gaining Neeta and Munna are ecstatic that lines —each social worker makes a few the trust of their Sahelis. Dr. Gilada one of their sahelis is soon to get sahelis (friends) in a locality. These told us, “We organise regular picnics married. Munna always has a joke to sahelis are in turn friends of other for the sahelis and celebrate festivals crack when he visits his sahelis. prostitutes. These sahelis are given a like Raksha Bandhan also.” Sharda, a But things are not all hunky dory. stock supply of condoms to fulfil their worker, told us, “It is touching to see Each worker has his or her own life needs as well as those of their friends. these women—so scared to leave their accompanied by personal problems. These sahelis are chosen with great locality at first. But once they know Over and above this are the emotional care —either ‘madams’ or erstwhile we can be trusted, you can see the joy problems that come with their jobs prostitutes with influence in the in their eyes. Usually all one sees in and the kind of lives they are exposed locality. But all this is not as simple their eyes is contempt and hatred.” to. Yet day after day, week after week, and mechanical as it sounds. For any The workers have also recognised they still have a part of themselves to social worker to make one Saheli another sensitive issue: the children give away to others. is itself a long process which may of the prostitutes, a possession they take months. Because of the social value more than their own lives. ut in spite of this, they oppression, economic inferiority These children are given the highest can still make the and the trauma they have faced, the priority in the IHO’s programmes effort to remember prostitutes are highly skeptical and on prostitution–related issues. As the names of their cautious with outsiders. They suspect one worker stated, “If these children sahelis and other small the motives of anyone who tries to are given equal opportunities for touches which make help. So the social worker has to visit education, on par with other children, Ball the difference in a relationship. It and revisit, and over the months try they will not land in prostitution is people like these, members of the and build an atmosphere of trust (female children) or other criminal IHO, who restore one’s faith in the into the relationship. On these visits, activities (male children). potential goodness of man. condoms are regularly supplied and It is amazing to see how “99.5 per cent of doctors refuse an attempt is made to encourage them sensitive the workers are in these to treat AIDS” Nothing about the to use condoms with every client. surroundings. The visits are made seemingly ordinary person of Dr.

24 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 Maniar suggests the pioneering Dr. Maniar’s study of AIDS was other degree colleges, besides talking spirit of a man with a mission. Yet, stimulated by his frequent travels to general practitioners consultants, that is just what Dr. Janak K. Maniar overseas as a visiting professor, factory workers, Lions, Rotarians etc. is; one of the few Indian doctors as well as the many seminars he His greatest challenge, however, engaged in a pitched battle against attended abroad on the subject. He is in educating prostitutes and their the deadly scourge that threatens to participated in the African AIDS challenge, however, is in educating engulf India—the Acquired Immune workshop in Nairobi and twice visited prostitutes and their clients about Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Africa on a scholarship to observe the the necessity for safe sex, as well What makes Dr. Maniar’s work AIDS situation there. This decision as about AIDS and the methods of even more extraordinary is the to learn more about AIDS was a transmissions of his deadly virus. fact that 99.5 per cent of doctors natural corollary of his sense of duty He attempts to achieve this through in Bombay refuse to treat patients as a doctor towards the patients. As his work at the Municipal STD clinic afflicted with the AIDS virus. Yet Dr. Maniar says in a matter-of-fact in Kamathipura. These attempts are the doctor feels that he is not doing manner: “AIDS is a part of sexually highly commendable considering that anything out of the ordinary and his transmitted diseases and so I feel it is 32 per cent of prostitutes in Bombay responses to any questions about his my duty to know as much as possible are HIV- positive and that they work are extremely matter of fact. His about the disease and keep up with constitute highest risk group. dedication to duty would perhaps do the latest developments.” He manages even Hippocrates proud. to do so by reading extensively and esides working with A skin and STD (Sexually feels that doctors’ refusals to treat AIDS patients at Transmitted Disease) specialist, Dr. AIDS patients stems from their Kamathipura the Maniar treats AIDS patients at the ignorance because few doctors bother doctor also treats AIDS GT Hospital and at the Municipal to read about AIDS. patients daily at the STD Clinic in the red light district of In his attempt to increase GT Hospital which Kamathipura. According to Dr. Maniar, awareness about this disease, Dr. Bhas a six-bed ward for them. While his being born and brought up in Maniar lectures at medical colleges, most doctors will not even touch Bombay has greatly influenced his AIDS patients with a bargepole, Dr. outlook and attitude as a person and Maniar firmly believes that only as a doctor. simple basic precautions need to be He studied in a Gujarati Medium “AIDS is a part taken when treating an AIDS patient; School in Bombay and passed what he refers to as Barrier Nursing. his Inter-Science exam from K.C. of sexually He explains that there is a negative College. Upto this point in his life, inborn feeling in doctors as far as he had never thought of becoming a transmitted AIDS is concerned which reminds one doctor, because he never used to get diseases and of the situations that existed 50 years those kinds of marks. At this crucial ago with cancer research. exam however, his marks were good so I feel it is my However, Dr. Maniar fears the enough to get him into Grant Medical present-day apathy because more College. Thus, he set out to become duty to know than six years have passed and the one of that succour giving tribe: a situation shows no sign of improving. doctor. as much as The doctor claims that the work he Having graduated as a doctor, possible about is doing is like a drop in the ocean Dr. Maniar proceeded to do his and much more needs to be done, post-graduation from JJ Hospital the disease yet the supposed minuteness of his and thus became a skin and STD contribution does not deter him from specialist. In this capacity, he worked and keep up doing his bit. He is fighting a deadly with prostitutes who came to the disease, ignorance and a lack of time government hospital for treatment with the latest and predicts with a despairing shake of various venereal diseases. This developments.” of his head, “If nothing is done to experience prompted his request to improve the situation, India will be the government health authorities the worst AIDS hit country in the next in 1985 for a posting at the Municipal five years.” STD Clinic in Kamathipura, because, A start has been made. Many more as Dr. Maniar puts it, “This work had crusaders are needed. More doctors become a part and parcel of my life.” like J.K. Maniar have to stand up and Once AIDS was discovered, this too fight. became an important part of his life. Leena Yadav

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 25 From THE ARCHIVES

1992-1993 A student perspective on Ayodhya

A barrage of opinions has flooded “It seems strangely ironic now. We thinks Gandhi is responsible for the press following the demolition actually saw the Mandir-Masjid issue the prevalent strife. “He’s the one of the Babri Masjid. The reaction swell up from minor political game who started this policy of Muslim of students all over the country, to a crescendo of mass hysteria and appeasement,” she claims emphatically. however, has been strangely muted. fanaticism,” says Sanjeev Reddy from Bewildered students often parrot An articulation of the hopes and fears Loyola College, Madras. Faced with a the rhetoric they hear being bandied of the proverbial ‘voice of tomorrow’ situation they thought would never about. Constant propaganda seems to arise, the dominant mood now is one have seeped into the consciousness of of confusion. “I always believed that many students, as phrases are picked heir parents were the problem was restricted to small up without discernment. Ekta Shah Midnight’s Children. packets. I never thought it would come from Poddar College, for instance, A generation born to a stage where the entire foundation believes that “When 60-70 temples out of chaos and of our Indianess, our religion and our were demolished in Kashmir, nothing destruction —of way of life would be threatened,” feels happened, but when one mosque is a nation being Pushan Dutt from the Delhi School of razed to the ground, the whole country fractured on Economics. goes up in flames.” According to the religious lines. Amidst the hurt and the cynicism, government appointed Verghese TPeople who grew up in a young there is an attempt to cling onto the Commission, however, only one country imbued with hope and last vestiges of a desperate idealism. temple was destroyed, Kashmir and idealism. A tolerant, democratic nation. “India as a civilization has weathered that too partially. This is what the youth of today many storms. It will possibly survive There is growing awareness that inherited. Secure in their shields of this one too,” remarks Apurva Shah of the Ayodhya issue, despite having urban complacency, religion was Elphinstone College, Bombay. strong religious overtones, is basically incidental to them—they were born However, a clear picture of what political. According to Sunanda Singh into it. They believed, instead, in happened in the past seems to be from St. Xavier’s, Calcutta, “India is a personal faith. They didn’t think of lacking. It is this absence of a historical country that everything takes on as a themselves as Hindus, as opposed to perspective which has led to the religious meaning. The BJP was able being Muslims. They read about the confusion. History today is being to take advantage of this by playing horrors of partition. The communal distorted to suit the arguments of on people’s religious sentiments- canker that had eaten into their nation opposing faction. Girija Chatterjee, a something like what Hitler did. “A in 1947 was relegated to the history management student, for instance, similar opinion is expressed by Neeraj books; or so they thought. Sahaj, from St. Xavier’s, Today, with a sense of Bombay. déjà vu they watch the same “We Muslims feel totally horrors come to life before betrayed. What can you their eyes. As Sahana Murthy, say when people you have from IIT Bombay muses, “It known all your life suddenly now seems that we haven’t turn enemies?” survived partition. Instead, It is an insidious attempt partition has survived us.” to gain power by politicising Thus, the student community religion that has threatened has been forced into a the tenor of millions of lives, situation where they have especially among those of to think and have opinions the minority community. on issues that have never They are today gripped by

concerned them before. BOSE UPASANA a terror that knows no end.

26 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 Will they be killed or forced to flee from neighbours who are Muslim which government. Neither the riot victim, the only home they have ever known? is different from a wary approval of nor communalism as a whole has Maleeka Ahmed, a student of HR the destruction of the mosque as a formed the focus of government or College, Mumbai feels, “We Muslims justified act to salvage Hindi ego.” media attention.” feel totally betrayed. What can you say The confusion arises when we start Elaborates Nivedita Rao also of when people you’ve known all your life to question our basic beliefs and JNU, “Has the government put forward suddenly turn into enemies. I wonder attitudes. Explains Prartha Prasad, of any long term plan to decommunalise if we can ever live in complete safety Bombay University, “Under the garb the country? There should be a again? ” of our Secular indifference, we are sustained fury in the media to combat There is a sense of guilt among a all communal. When it comes to a this attitude. But I’m sure before long large section of Hindu students who question of loyalties we draw a line the media to will discard this issue in feel outraged at the crimes being between ‘us’ and ‘them’. its characteristic perfunctory manner.” perpetrated against helpless people “It now seems that we haven’t Thus, in the immediate aftermath because of an accident of birth. survived Partition. Instead Partition of the post-demolition violence, the ”What has happened today has survived us.” scepticism and sense of insecurity was mocks the very essence of what I Probing deeper in a quest palpable, even among students, all over believed Hinduism to be. Where is for answers reveals the layers of the country. The youth are so symbolic that tolerance we heard so much complexities which shroud the of what is to come, and always so about? Today, I feel ashamed to be a problem, “I am often confused and filled with hope and innate buoyancy, Hindu,” admits Poonam Narang from do not know whose word to take as that their gloomy vision of the future Presidency College, Calcutta. Others gospel truth,” feels Feroze Dabara from seemed even more frightening than have a more cynical view. Kanti Murthy Bhavan’s College, Andheri. the horrors of the present. from Bombay University, for instance, The prevalent scepticism has With time, their despondency points out, “More Hindus will be taking extended into a questioning of media has lifted. But what is needed from the side of the Muslims. By virtue veracity as well. ”Who knows what the youth now is action. A concerted of being the majority, they have the this true? Different newspapers say attempt to change the attitudes of intrinsic assurance of security and can different things, focusing sometimes both their peers and society towards therefore afford to be benign.” on entirely different issues,” complains secularism. A condemnation not only There is an almost universal Rajesh Vadhani, Elphinstone College, of violence but of communalism itself, condemnation of violence itself. As Bombay. Adds George Jose from for only then can one hope that the Deepa Balasubramanyam, Stella Maris JNU, Delhi, “Nobody is making a sanity of the nation will be restored. College Madras says, “There is a wary hue and cry about an intelligent Radha Bose sympathy for personal friends and and reasoned response from the Radhika Chadrashekhar

1993-1994 Against the grave-diggers

The Jews of Bombay: ext year in occupies its Ark. The caretaker opens Legend and Fact. Jerusalem’, the cabinet exposes the scroll to a light occurring at that cannot decipher it. “The Jews are not a historical people the end of The carpenters continue to and not even an archaeological many prayers, faithfully varnish empty chairs people, the Jews this ceremonial disciplined into neat rows. Two huge are a geological people with rifts phrase hangs in Elijah chairs—used in the ritual of and collapses and strata and fiery ‘Nthe air like a scroll without a passport. circumcision for Jewish male infants lava. Yet another year has been shuttered —sit squatted, wrapped in dust covers, Their history must be measured away for the Jews of Bombay. The light memorising exile and silence. on a different scale.” streams into the Keneseth Eliyahoo Yehuda Amichai : ‘The Jews’ Synagogue on Forbes Street, through Deathwater and Departures rosettes of cobalt blue stained glass. Posthumous- ity subscribes to blue At the far end of the hall filled veins of legends embroidered by away in a cabinet, the Sepher Torah refugees into citified traditions.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 27 From THE ARCHIVES

names, inevitably, were Indianised; they adopted the regional dress and the Marathi tongue. Besides farming, they engaged in oil pressing, and in consequence, came to be known as the shanwar telis (Saturday oilmen) in the Konkan hierarchy of occupational castes. They also internalised the Hindu caste system, as is evident from the subcaste–like relationship that operates between the Gora (White) and the Kala (Black) Jews. The nineteenth century was a period of intense self-questioning for the community, as a result of pressures applied from three sources. Documentary evidence shows that the Bene Israel came under the influence of Cochin Jews, The last of the tribe? who published prayer books for Jews in Mumbai

MINAL SANCHETI MINAL the “lost tribe”. Alongside them, worked Christian missionaries, in From the city, the refugees look back the story is interesting.” whose schools Hebrew was taught, through the subscription weaves of So says one of the raconteurs in as a step towards reclaiming the legends: the ancestors of the Bene Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon. Origin Jews from native life. These efforts Israel left northern Palestine, possibly myths compete, likewise, over the coincide with those of the Baghdadi fleeing the persecutions of Antiochus founding of the synagogue. The Jews, patronising merchants Epiphanes around 175 B.C. or perhaps scholar Joan Roland observes that who condescended to share their later, and were shipwrecked near the “during the Second Anglo Mysore War supposedly superior religio-cultural village of Navgaon on the Konkan (1780-84), a Bene Isarel commandant wisdom with the “strayed lambs” of coast of Western India, 26 miles south in the British Native Infantry the Bene Israel. of Bombay. Regiment, Samuel Ezekiel Divekar, Eighty per cent of India’s Jewish and several other Bene Israel soldiers he Baghdadis population consists of the Bene were captured by Tipu Sultan’s contributed as pioneers Israel; the Baghdadi and Cochin Jews forces. Divekar vowed that if he was and catalysts, to the account for the rest. The Bombay Jew released he would build a synagogue.” industrialisation is, invariably, Bene Israelite: in the mid Eventually, Divekar was released—the of Bombay. Their Eighteenth century, the community Sultan’s mother being sympathetic to fortunes, founded began to move from the Konkan Jews, a People of the Book—and on his Ton the Gulf trade and the opium villages to the towns of Pen, Panvel return, he constructed a synagogue in boom, sustained both speculation and Thane, and thence of Bombay. Bombay’s Jewish quarter. The legend and philanthropy. Families like the The colonial port city had widened its is current in other versions, too. Sassoons established the first of the occupational jaws to feed its ever- Stories can lie but they can also large-scale textile mills and fishing increasing need for skilled artisans borrow colours. From their Hindu wharves. Against the grave-diggers of and traders of all kinds. and Muslim neighbours, the Bene forgetting, these intrepid Baghdadis Moreover, the British East India Israel assimilated certain social were compulsive commemorators: Company was expecting its native customs such as laws of inheritance, they live on, in the schools, hospitals, regimental force: many Jews found ceremonial food offerings and libraries, and orphanages which they employment in its ranks. observance of certain marriage and endowed. As the community took root in funeral customs, but these did not Towards the end of British rule, Bombay, the demands of communal affect Jewish rituals. however, the list peters out, amidst life began to be articulated. In 1796, Cut off from mainstream Judaism, closed mills, vanishing businesses, the city’s first synagogue, the Sha’ar they had gradually forgotten the and victims of a changing cultural ha-Rahamim (Gate of Mercy) was Hebrew language, and most of the economy. And in 1948, a millennial built. It still stands in Samuel Street. prayers. All that remained were dream was realised, with the People “only remember what they dietary laws, circumcision, and the establishment of the state of Israel. want to…I don’t mind lies (as far as)… observance of the Sabbath. Their At that time, the Bene Israel in India

28 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 numbered nearly twenty-thousand; enrolment.” We, as witnesses to with systematic emigration from the his glorificatory enthusiasm, can newly independent India to the newly only attempt to understand this gained Israel, they have now dwindled compassionately as the expression to five thousand. of a racial psyche that has survived The dust covers were pulled centuries of pogroms, culminating in over the Elijah chairs. “Next year in the Holocaust. Jerusalem” had become a reality; no longer a utopian threshold, phrased at eople like Abraham the end of many prayers. have clearly set their sights on Israel; as a Decision and Dilemmas carrier of dreams, he Before it acquired cartography, Israel, categorically states that more fluid than solid, had been a “Indian Jews do not liminal space for its worshippers: a Pmix citizenship with religion.” But space of imagination, usually sacral how do they acclimatise themselves or ritual, in which the participant, to their new homeland? The scholar through the enactment of a prescribed Shalva Weil reports that “The Bene form, literally enters a parallel area of Israel are consistently described consciousness. The imagined becomes as a ‘closed’ group who have not the real momentarily. succeeded in Israeli society either When liminality is transformed politically, economically or socially.” into actuality, however, “fact” looses Weil adduces factors of language as its aura of fiction, settling into fact. At being responsible: the Bene Israel tend the Jacob Sassoon High School, seven to withdraw into themselves, into a Jews out of a class of 25, would like to Marathi-speaking shell which leads permanently settle in the promised them to largely ignore the Hebrew- land, Sharona Malekar, one of them “When I speaking, Ashkenazi–dominated says, “I know what if I ever go to Israel, went to Israel reality outside. I may not get a job or a home but I’d For all those who have chosen still like to go there.” for the first to stay on in India, the poet Nissim Community life continues along Ezekiel speaks in clear voice: “I have traditional lines, for the Bene Israel time, in 1984, made my commitments now/This combine the past with modernity; a is one: to stay where I am/As others rabbi comes from USA to minister to everything, choose to give themselves/In some spiritual needs; the AJDC (American every turning remote and backward place. My Joint Distribution Committee) backward place is where I am.” helps train the youth in various seemed Then there is Elijah Jacob, dynamic activities. The older generation has Country Manager of AJDC, who has, either adopted the middle ground of familiar. The with Nissim Ezekiel, rejuvenated the compromise, or a romantic futuristic organization’s agenda: youth camps, vocabulary. Bible stories are a free lending library, history trips, a Salome Parikh, born of Baghdadi still alive there.” kindergarten, unemployment doles, Jewish mother and Muslim father, care of the aged and infirm, are some is married to a Hindu. She feels that of their contributions. “I prefer to Indian Jews “ghettoise” into tight, Benjamin Abraham, the Hebrew remain here,” says Jacob; “or else, self sufficient groupings; yet goes teacher at the same school, works for there would be nobody to continue on: “I feel bereft of community here. the Israel’s Education Department. In this unique Bombay Jewish culture.” I did not know what it meant to be 1983, out of the eighty Jewish students Believing that it is a greater effort to an Indian, quasi Hindu, half-Indian, he took to Israel, 35 choose to remain preserve the ancient rituals in their with a westernised education.” behind, there. When questioned about homes of the past 2000 years, rather Identification with Israel has helped the state of constant belligerence than in Israel, where all the amenities her cope with an identity crisis: “When surrounding Israel, the conscription of religion are accessible, Jacob says, “I I went to Israel for the first time, of youth into the Army, he replies would like a Sabbath candle, whatever in 1984, everything, every turning in superlatives. “Honour” and it is, to light up all parts of the world.” seemed familiar. The Bible stories are “patriotism” are sufficient explanations Nancy Adajania still alive there.” for him; the conscription is “voluntary Cyntia Rodrigues

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 29 From THE ARCHIVES

1994-1995 We saved ourselves, but lost our homes

ombay witnessed its we couldn’t sleep well and we did not worst-ever communal have enough food,” says Devaki Rane violence in December whose family shifted from Premnagar 1992-January to the Hindu-dominated Sarvodaya 1993. More than Nagar in Jogeshwari East. Now, the 800 people lost family is settled in the new home. their lives. Some Though Bombay is considered Bof those who survived the horrific cosmopolitan, there have always experience were either chased out been residential areas where a of their homes or chose to move certain community or caste lives in to safer locations. In the process, a a majority. Mohammed Ali Road and supposedly cosmopolitan city showed Bhendi Bazaar, for instance, have the dangerous trend of communal always been Muslim areas while ghettoisation. Dadar and Parel have been Hindu and Mehboob Khan Mohammed Marathi dominated. Most slums are Khan, 59, was a resident of Jogeshwari divided along Hindu-Muslim lines East slum for the last 31 years. He too. However, these living patterns was witness to five riots there in less CHATURVEDI KIRTI have arisen gradually as a result of than 20 years. His small factory in comforting. However, the family has people settling down voluntarily in Gandhinagar was looted in the 1974 decided to not return to their old an area depending on various social, violence. But in the 1992-93 riots that home. Mehboob has not changed the cultural and economic factors. In broke out in the wake of the Babri address on his ration card and still contrast, what we are seeing today Masjid demolition, Mehboob lost the goes to Gandhinagar for his provisions is forced ghettoisation. Residents, only home he had—the family moved but he feels more secure living in a especially in the riot-affected areas felt out from Gandhinagar to another Muslim dominated chawl. “We have compelled to move from their homes settlement at Premnagar. Mehboob no fear of being attacked now. There involuntarily. In a sense, they became recounts the trauma, “When riots was a lot of harmony in Gandhinagar, refugees in their own city. broke out, the goons had warned Jogeshwari. With the entry of Shiv us but our neighbours too, out of Sena, the harmony was disturbed; heer insecurity is sympathy, asked us to leave. During we didn’t know what would happen forcing both Hindus and the curfew, 10-12 people came into next,” he says. Muslims to increasingly our house with choppers and almost During and after the two rounds shift to areas where their killed my wife and me. We ran out of of riots, many people like Mehboob community dominates. the house and barely managed to save Khan fled from their homes and The uncertainty that our lives. After that incident, I just did shops fearing for their lives. Some S“riots could happen anytime, again” not have the guts to stay there. There sought refuge in their relatives’ still hangs in the air and haunts their are no Muslims staying there any houses, refugee camps, temples and minds. “If they did it once they will more.” mosques. Others simply went back to do it again. Our lives are in danger,” Days later, when he returned to their villages. Though some of these says Rehana Qureshi, a resident of see the situation, Mehboob found people returned in a few months, fear Premnagar. Devki Rane reiterates, his house looted; the family had has forced them to set up house at a “We moved here because here we are lost belongings worth Rs 90,000. new location. “Before settling here, among our own people.” Ghettoisation He lost the capital he had collected we were in a refugee camp for three has sharpened the divide between the start a rakhi-making business. The months. We had a lot of difficulty; communities. “Our people” no longer compensation of Rs 4000 he received we had the safety of our daughters means neighbours and people nearby; from the government is hardly to think of. Their education suffered, it means people belonging to the same

30 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 community. Girish Srinivasan of the from Gandhinagar to Premnagar, says, Lokshahi Hakk Sangathana describes “We moved with whatever clothes this as “a deepening sense of division. we were wearing. We went back the Most Muslims feel marked out. They next day to get the ration card and feel they can’t trust their neighbours the photo pass.” But the family could or the police.” not trace the handcart and materials Asghar Ali Engineer, the noted worth Rs.15000 and households Muslim reformist, is worried about the utensils worth Rs.18000. They had to phenomenon. He says, “The process begin from scratch all over again. of ghettoisation is on in Bombay. Secondly, in the rush to sell their Muslims from cosmopolitan and houses and buy new ones at “safer” Hindu areas are increasingly shifting locations, several people sold at less to Muslim-dominated areas. Earlier, it than the then prevailing market rate. happened in all the hutments after the For instance, Ismila’s family sold their riots. But now even the middle class house for Rs.48,000 when the real are shifting. Some people are shifting market price would have fetched from Bombay itself to places like “We moved them Rs 80, 000. Thirdly, people who Bangalore and Hyderabad.” were owners of shops and chawls The ghettoisation has not only with whatever lost their assets due to usurping by cut across class-divide but the goondas, or crashing property prices, trend has increased with every riot. clothes we or lost rent and are now tenants. Ghettoisation is on in Bombay. A Then, almost all such riot-affected study conducted by Youth Unity were wearing. people have lost their jobs or sources for Voluntary Action (YUVA) in We went back of income. Business people found Jogeshwari East slums throws light their contacts missing; others lost on this migration. Each time a riot the next day to their trade goods and equipment. breaks out, Muslims and Hindus have Masons, shopkeepers, milkmen moved out of their chawls; they feel get the ration working in a particular area had to safer amongst their own community. find new work. Ali Abdul, a carpenter Nasreen Contractor of YUVA explains, card and the shifted from Indira Nagar to Amina “After every riot it was observed photo pass.” Nagar during the 1990 riots. With that people move in and out of the all his tools looted and his contacts Muslim areas of Premnagar, Harinagar, slipping away, his monthly income Pascal Colony and Bandra Plot from Andheri, Worli, Asalpha Nagar and decreased from Rs.5000 to Rs.800- surrounding areas such as Maghwadi, parts of Jogeshwari to alternate transit barely sufficient for the basic Indiranagar and Gandhinagar. The camps in the suburbs giving these necessities. He still needs at least study shows that the numbers shifting areas a strong communal complexion. Rs.5000 to buy carpenters’ tools. increase with every riot. Earlier there Or, they have gravitated to areas Lastly, the trauma of the riots and were certain areas in Bombay where a with large Muslim concentrations. the loss of one’s home have led to majority of a certain community lived Hindus, from a comparable strata, psychosomatic illness and emotional but it was never seen as a ghetto. Now, have hurriedly moved out of areas like disturbances in many individuals people are being forced to move to Kurla, Jari Mari Road, Sewri, Wadala and young children. Devaki Rane worse living conditions. That is why and Deonar preferring the apparent explains how her daughters suffered, we call it ‘displacement’.” safety of localities outside Bombay “Mentally, the girls were greatly Teesta Setalvad, co-editor of such as Kalyan, Thane and Panvel.” stressed. Physically, they suffered Communalism Combat says, “The from fever, diarrhoea, and stomach desperate need to sell homes and he ghettoisation has ache.” shift urgently has resulted in a sharp adversely affected the Though people feel “safer” increase in real estate prices in select lives of the displaced among their own community, the parts of the city. Many people now people in many ways. ghettoisation is not without its prefer areas like Vasai, Mira Road Firstly, most families dangers. Nasreen Contractor explains, in north Bombay and Yari Road in suffered monumental “The fact that people have moved Andheri.” The cost of real estate in Tfinancial losses. During the thick of is not at all good because it will lead these areas shot up by 25-30 per cent the riots, they fled without any of their to further separation. Already due within a year of the riots. “Lower belongings; subsequently they found to cultural ghettoisation caused down the scale, Muslim families have their houses and assets either looted by communal forces, interactions shifted en mass from Pratiksha Nagar, or burned. Ismila Shabir who shifted between the two communities have

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 31 From THE ARCHIVES

been affected.” The physical and such a way that the Muslim area is at area in Jogeshwari East and evacuated geographical separation will also the top of a hill surrounded by Hindu over 200 Maharashtrian families to a lead to ghettoisation of people’s areas which makes access difficult. nearby Municipal School. Soon after, mental attitudes and increasing Moreover, though the population has two Shiv Sena corporators made a isolation among people of different increased everywhere, the density demand that Hindu families be given communities. of population in the Muslim area is “pucca” accommodation elsewhere. far greater than in surrounding areas. As tension subsided, the odd sight of ays Teesta Setalvad, This results in narrow lanes, smaller the Hindu families coming to their “The moment you spaces to live and severe problems house to clean up and carry out their feel walled in, your in living conditions. The place has chores during the day, and return to mentality suffers. This no banks, schools, hospitals and no the Municipal School refugee camps prevents ghettoized public transport. Thus, protection of during the night was observed.” minorities from reaching residents becomes impossible for the Though the trend persists, the Sout to the world and deepens their police who find the access to these lack of research and statistics into this isolation. Even earlier, there were areas very difficult. specific aspect has made it difficult clear lines drawn, but there were Organizations like YUVA to assess its proportions but the little also points of common interaction in have tried to prevent the trend data that is available leaves no doubt the chawls, such as market, schools, of ghettoisation. “We encourage that ghettoisation is a dangerous and common problems. When you people to go back to their old homes. trend. Bombay was once a collection separate communities completely, We help in reconstructing their of islands. The riots and the resultant it gives more space for myths that houses. However, the Government ghettoisation threaten to isolate the other community is unsafe or promises them houses and protection different islands of people. Even if the untrustworthy to be built. Another elsewhere and dilutes the effort,” says horrific memories of the riots fade, the important impact is that in the next Nasreen Contractor. Moreover, as unprecedented violence will have left riots they become even easier targets.” journalist Gurbir Singh pointed out in behind a sad legacy. The YUVA study showed that one of his articles, “A joint Shiv Sena- Dionne Bunsha ghettoized living patterns emerged in police posse entered the Bandra Plot Varsha Dixit

1995-1996 Off the fence, on to the soapbox

and SALONI MEGHANI DEEPALI of them are controlled by the state, started by Javed Anand in August PANNU examine the alternatives to the monoliths of the media. business houses, or multinational 1993 to fight fundamentalism and corporations. They are an outcome of exploitation of religion for political ‘Citizens Politics’. gain. The magazine has a clear stand his is an alternative Activism occupies one end of the and does not hesitate to take sides on article. It has for its alternative media platform. Jayesh explosive issues like religion. subject something Shah, editor of the monthly journal He feels that the mainstream it can’t define— Humanscape which attempts to put media have many concerned journals alternative media. the human being back at the centre of like Manushi, Marxism Today, Dalit The reader has the the society, says that the mass media Voice, and Muslim India that address alternative to choose consists of non-committal fence specific concerns. Issues covered Ther definition from the views of its sitters. “So people and groups with range from environment in Sanctuary practitioners. a cause use other media to bring on to gay rights in Bombay Dost. These The media activities clubbed the agenda, issues they feel must be journals arise out of a deeply-felt need under the heading ‘alternative discussed.” His two-year-old magazine for social debate on subjects which media’ have one thing in common. tries to overcome the differences in are marginalised in the mainstream Consciously or unconsciously, they political, religious and commercial media. depart from the mainstream. Some try agenda. Television and film are not to counteract its effect and others are Another journal that strays off the considered avenues for alternative forced to stay out of its purview. None beaten track is Communalism Combat media. Television is seen as non-

32 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 responsive to social problems audience presumes the and overwhelmed by film-based scope and nature of the programmes. Filmmaker Gulan discussion in the media. Kriplani says, “Nobody is thinking Javed Anand disagrees. anymore.” But in this non-encouraging According to him environment she teamed with Rinki “activism does not take Anand Patwardhan Bhattacharya to make Char Diwari, a away from objectivism”. at a shoot film on wife abuse. SINGHANIA VEDIKA The alternative media ventures are he Economic and Patwardhan because films that do not different from pamphlets; they are not Political Weekly is a deal with marketable subjects do not partisan ‘one-time one-shot’ affairs semi academic journal attract finance. Gulan Kripalani says used just merely for announcement based on social justice, that filmmakers and journalists have and propaganda. The content is not equity and political to beg, borrow and steal to produce ‘wishful thinking’. Alternative media plurality. The editor, such films and journals. persons see the discussion as serious TKrishna Raj wonders if his journal falls Due to lack of technical and and reflective of the common people’s into the fold of ‘alternative media’ economic resources, the reach of the concerns. These discussions find a because it is not activist in its content. alternative films and journals can be space mainly in journals and videos. It is a commercial venture but it differs limited. Scattered viewership and Television remains an expensive from the mainstream magazines in its readership does not help to sustain medium largely owned by the approach to the issues covered. Also, them. Javed Anand complains that Government and corporate houses. subscription constitutes 70 per cent distribution agents often fail to make There does not seem to be much scope of its revenue, and unlike in mainline payments. More often than not, for a channel dedicated to specific economic magazines, advertisements retailers and book shops refuse to keep socio-economic concerns. Radio is one do not influence the editorial content. Communalism Combat on the stands medium that has untapped potential So, it serves as a platform for serious as they are afraid of being targeted by for alternative use but has been under- debate. communal groups. exploited so far. Filmmaker Anand Patwardhan Mainstream media markets and Harsh Prabhu, a social researcher sets out to communicate, not to advertises itself aggressively to its in Australia, says that community be different. He wants his message audience—something the alternative radio can be very effective. In to reach as many people as it can, media cannot afford to. Word of Australia, a few villages got together preferably through the mainstream mouth, publicity and personal and voiced community concerns on media but many of his films are not credibility of the people behind such their new channel. Thus they could telecast on these. Often, he has had to ventures become the decisive factors relate closely to the medium and fight through the courts for the films to in their success. Jayesh Shah says that express themselves. A network of be shown on Doordarshan. But his first alternative media actually benefits such community efforts could be a documentary Prisoners of Conscience because the interested readers powerful tool for change, he avers. made in 1977 made him a filmmaker and audience themselves look out Folk art is also an alternative to reckon with. His later filmsA Time for these journals and films out of medium for most of us, but rural of Rue, Bombay our City, In the name personal interest. But there is a catch- communities have been expressing of God, Father, Son and Holy War the alternative media runs the risk of themselves through this for a long show that despite the distribution preaching to the converted. time. But as an alternative medium, problems, his first priority is to make They often restrict themselves it has limitations. Used by activists films on contemporary socio-political to people who already know about who do not belong to the culture it issues which try to increase people’s a particular issue and are inclined often loses its appeal and impact. awareness of such issues. It is not just to agree with the viewpoints in the The essence of folk media is that a reportage of these issues, they are journal or film. However, these media it is indigenous and thrives on expressed from a particular point of do serve the purpose of networking participation. However, the alternative view. and creating chain effect as readers media serves an important purpose. Doordarshan and other private and viewers pick up the issue and It becomes the platform for citizens’ channels have refused to screen them initiate debates in the mainstream participation in a way that the because it may turn controversial. media. mainstream media cannot be. It So, he has had to rely on alternative C Y Gopinath, journalist and serves to generate opinion which is means of distributing them. They are filmmaker says that alternative media not shaped by media corporates. It disturbed through video sales, mail sometimes lacks credibility. Since is a dent in the media monopoly and order and personal contacts. These are the inclinations of the journalists such dents may bring the monolith also the primary sources of finance for and filmmakers are not a secret, the tumbling down.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 33 From THE ARCHIVES

1996-1997 A bitter pill to swallow

The woman’s body must bear the brunt of sterilisation VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA

NANDINI RAMNATH the population in control. Today, as reproductive tract infections with AESHA AHSAN India approaches the one billion mark the incentives offered to a woman for Intent on winning the womb war, the and threatens to take over China in at sterilisation. government has wilfully ignored the least one respect, it seems that family In fact the so-called ‘cafeteria reproductive rights of Indian women. planning has been a failure after all. approach’ the government is so proud The government’s response to this of, offers little or no choice to the has been to intensify its efforts, pump woman. Among the various methods f some excesses in more resources, personnel and offered like the pill, Intra-uterine appear, don’t blame funds—a great deal of which is external Contraceptive Device or Copper-T, me... you must aid—into the programme. In Mumbai operative procedures like abortions consider it something alone, the Brihanmumbai Municipal and sterilisations and now injectable like a war. There could Corporation recently concluded the hormonal contraceptives like Depo- be a certain amount India Population Project 5 with a little Provera, Norplant and Net-en. The of misfiring out of help from the World Bank. Given preferred ones are Copper-T and enthusiasm. Whether newspaper headlines like “Mumbai sterilisation. you like it or not, there hurtles towards a population disaster,” And why wouldn’t they be? Unlike will be a few dead people.” it is likely that family planning efforts the other methods including natural “IDr D N Pai, Harvard-educated, are likely to continue on a war footing, barrier methods, these methods are former director of family planning in leaving quite a few victims in their permanent and permit greater control Mumbai, on his plans for compulsory wake. over fertility. As Dr. Patil, medical sterilisation (New York Times, 1976), “The policies were not geared to officer, Family Planning at the Cama quoted in Reproductive Rights and women’s health nor did they challenge Albless Hospital puts it, “Sterilisation Wrongs by Betsy Hartmann. the status of women nor did they is the only permanent and guaranteed address themselves to the question operation.” Women with more than In 1952, the Indian government of sexuality... Everything to do with one child are “persuaded” to opt for embarked on something like a war. women’s health was geared to family sterilisation in keeping with the targets The government has not managed planning,” says Ammu Abraham of set by the government. to keep many of its pledges, one of the Women’s Centre, Mumbai. She This ‘bachche bandh karne ka which is to keep the growth rate of contrasts the lack of treatment of operation’ is targeted more towards

34 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 women than men. Males who were partially withdrawn only because of others may have failed because its scared off by forcible male sterilisation vociferous protests by women’s groups. priority is the overall health of a during the Emergency were almost Today it silently hovers at the sidelines, woman and the community rather never wooed back; the onus fell on waiting for official approval. The J.J. than just controlling her fertility. women who traditionally have little or hospital in Mumbai administers Depo. Concepts like maternal and child no control over their bodies, and who This is in spite of a statement by the health, reproductive health, and family repose their faith in the government to special officer for family planning BMC welfare have always been integral to its address their health needs. that they do not use it. And certain approach; the government on the other “The government wants to use health groups would welcome its side of the fence seems to have just methods where they do not have to retun. Says Dr. Patil of Cama hospital, woken up to this idea. “Old wine in a interact with women so often,” says “We would definitely use Depo if it new bottle,” says Ms Joshi dismissively. Chayanika Shah of the Forum for were to be approved.” However, some Do we need a State-sponsored Women’s Health. In keeping with this groups are not completely convinced family planning programmes at all? indictment, the government plans of its benefits. For Leena Joshi, director “We do not need American money to to reintroduce Depo-Provera, an of Apnalaya, a health group for women tell us how many children we should injectable hormonal contraceptive, which works in the Tardeo slums, the have,” says Annabel Mehta of Apnalaya. a single shot of which when family planning programme is “one Smaller, community-based efforts administered every six months can of coercion. It looks at a woman only which focus on female education and prevent pregnancy. Being an injectable, when she is going to be a mother.” She overall health have always stolen the Depo can be administered easily. Its points out that other health needs like march over top-down bureaucratic merits end here. Its side-effects include treatment for Sexually Transmitted programmes. Then, as Leena Joshi puts menstrual disorders like irregularity Diseases and infertility are neglected in it, “family planning is a by-product.” of menstrual cycles or heavy or favour of population control measures. “Family planning has to shift to intermittent bleeding, skin disorders, She feels, “The family planning talking of different ways in which tiredness, nausea, depression, hair programme does not need a separate women and men relate to one another,” loss, loss of libido and delayed return budget; it should be included in the says Chayanika Shah. A tall order of a to fertility. Yet, Depo was incorporated general health programme.” government bent on achieving targets into the programme in the 1970s and Apnalaya has succeeded where and winning the womb war.

1997-1998 Seven stepsisters

NAOMI DATTA Mizoram, in The Telegraph, May 16, merely be equated with the economic SANJUKTA SHARMA NILANJANA SENGUPTA 1997) isolation and backwardness of the The North-East hits the headlines “We are at least 300 years behind region. when a bomb blast or a massacre urban India in terms of technological A psychological barrier rooted creates “sensational” news. The media and economic development. in cultural, economic, and historical as well as the Centre have conveniently The disparity gets more heavily differences separates the north- managed to ignore the interests of the accentuated with the obvious benefits eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, region. of economic liberalisation, foreign Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Manipur, investment, and various technological Mizoram and Nagaland from rest of nsurgency is not the work opportunities going to mainland the country. biggest problem in the India.” (S C Jamir, Chief Minister Alienation operates at two levels – region. Instead it is the of Nagaland, addressing the North the economic and the psychological. psychological barrier Eastern Council summit in Nagaland) The obvious question that arises created by the Centre, and A curious mixture of emotion and is—alienation from who or what? the rest of the country economics dictates the exclusion of The answer is generally stated in which has alienated the the North-East from what is ostensibly terms of a rather nebulous concept “Ipeople from the seven states here.” the mainstream of the country. The of the ‘mainstream’. To the people (Lalthanhawala, Chief Minister, alienation of the North-East cannot of the North-East, ‘mainstream’ is

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 35 From THE ARCHIVES

synonymous with the ‘mainland’, he region is on the the region and its culture, Chinai and efforts assimilate them into the outside, in the sense travelled extensively over Assam, mainstream will be construed as that it is distanced from Nagaland and Manipur in the 1980s. foisting of the ‘mainland’ culture on the consciousness “That was when the whole of Assam them. As noted Assamese film maker of the nation’s was ablaze with the anti-infiltration Jahnu Baruah, in an acerbic interview mainstream. The students’ movement. I was young to a Calcutta-based daily, said, “What Tnation confers peripheral, almost and impressionable. I had never is the mainstream that people talk absent-minded recognition on it, and witnessed such an uprising before. about? If it means dowry, deaths or the people of the region respond by An entire community was awakening. rapes, where even a prime minister is being silent, discontented, sullen But later when I travelled throughout not safe from her bodyguards, then I subalterns of the mainland hegemony. the region, I discovered that the would say we should be in no hurry to This reciprocal alienation is directly interests of the tribal population join the mainstream.” Baruah’s views connected with the coverage that the were being overlooked. It was a are representative of the large bulk of North-East receives in the national movement with a narrow, myopic the citizenry of the North-East. This media. vision. That is why perhaps it could kind of rhetoric in which not stand for the long- cultural pride veers on term, more fundamental insularity is a feature of issues of the region. The this region. Centre continues to be Beruika Achumi is a relatively indifferent 20-year old BA student in to fundamental issues Mumbai’s Wilson College like the abysmal state of from Nagaland. She health and education in admits that being a North- the North-East.” Easterner has proved to Chinai, however be a handicap on several adds, “As of now, the occasions. “Initially, I had people of the North- some difficulty trying East, like the Nagas, are to accept that we were gradually coming out looked upon as ‘different’. of their obsession with The students, even some their separate history and of the professors, at times culture, and focusing on were condescending. problems of education Maybe not obviously and employment. More so, but sometimes even and more local journalists simple comments like in the North-East are ‘Were you taught in writing about the region. English?’ can be loaded That’s encouraging.” with discrimination. That apart, the region It took me a long time continues to exist on the to adjust. My friend fringes of the national Elizabeth had also come media which consistently with me. So I wasn’t projects it as an exotic completely lost”. BOSE UPASANA hell-hole rife with Elizabeth Lyngdoh, a insurgency, secessionism Khasi from Meghalaya, feels the same Rupa Chinai, a correspondent and the occasional floods for a change. way. She says, “People here know for the Times of India, feels that the The North-East as an outsider nothing about the North-East. I try North-East is grossly misrepresented is a contentious issue. To some, the not to get irritated when people ask in the mainstream media. Her North-East represents a separate idiot questions which just show their association with the region and its geographical block with a majority of ignorance. It is almost as if the North- people goes back to the days when its populace fundamentally hostile East is a foreign country.” Lyndan she worked for Rajmohan Gandhi’s to mainlanders. In effect then, the Kharshiing, another Khasi student Himmat. Chinai, feels that Himmat entire region becomes an ‘inside’ to is, on the other hand, rather amused was one of the earliest newspapers which the rest of the country has no at the attention his ‘different’ looks to provide a platform for the people access. The hostility and insularity of get, “It’s all right. The girls in my class of the North-East to voice their the region may in part be attributed to think I am cute.” opinions. To familiarise herself with historical reasons. Colonel Arnab Bora,

36 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 a retired defence service officer from problems. In fact, this constant Assam avers, “The North-East has a and artificial homogenisation of history of isolation from the rest of the seven disparate states into the word country. When India was under the ‘North-East’ rankles with most of Mauryas, the Sultans or the Moghals, intelligentsia. the North-East i.e. undivided Assam Bora avers, “It seeks to impose an remained free. Prior to British rule artificial sense of homogeneity over in 1835, Assam was under the Ahom “Geographical a region which houses not one, but Kings, a race which came from South- seven different states.” Not everyone East Asia - which consequently had segregation would agree though. When the Gowda nothing in common with the culture has also played government sought to do away with of the rest of the country. There had the usage of coinage ‘North-East’, the been no process of assimilation.” a part in this Assam Gana Parishad was quick to Bora adds, “Geographical sign a communiqué which said, “The segregation has also played a part in process of move is aimed at creating rifts among this process of alienation. The North- the sister states and it is now certain East is the only part of the country alienation. The that the Centre is afraid of the united separated from the rest of by another North-East is strength of the North-Eastern states.” complete country (Bangladesh).The The Centre’s knee-jerk response only link between the main land and the only part to insurgency problems of region has the North-East is the North Bengal been to dispatch additional regiments corridor.” of the country of army and paramilitary forces to It is simpler to define the North- quell such movements. Rupa Chinai East as an outsider in cut-and-dried separated says, “Insurgency in Punjab and the economic terms. It is a stranger to the from the rest North-East are separate issues. In economic processes taking place in the Punjab, at least you have a minimal country. Token gestures like the tax of by another adherence to basic codes of human holiday declared in 1991 by the Centre rights. In the North-East there is a cannot undo a history of economic complete blatant violation of all such codes”. exploitation. Editor of Guwahati-based U.G. Brahma, the late president daily, The Sentinel, D.N. Bezbaruah country of the All Assam Bodo Students’ asserts, “Gas from our oil-fields has (Bangladesh). Union had a valid point when he been flared ceaselessly since 1961 or had said in an interview, “They (the 1962. The value of the gas being flared Centre) never listened to us and now now is of the order of Rs.30 to 32 lakh they sent in the army to sort out the per day! When the proposal for setting to their potential. Bezbaruah affirms, problem.” Excessive militarisation up a refinery in Assam in the early “The transport and communication is not the solution, but has been 1960s was approved by the expert infrastructure in the North-East is far used extensively since Angami committee, the Centre decided to below what pertains in the rest of the Zaprei Phizo, founder-member of locate it in Barauni instead, and built country. The greatest resource of the the National Socialist Councils of a pipeline so that Assam’s crude oil North-East—water, remains untapped Nagaland declared independence and could be refined in Bihar!” because the Centre is reluctant to armed insurrection in the early 1950s make major investments in this region, in Nagaland. Repressive acts like the he North-East has been even though the rest of the country Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and deliberately excluded stands to gain from the hydroelectric Disturbed Area Acts, which give the from economic potential of around 40,000 MW we army complete arbitrary freedom to development due have here.” kill, are applied only in the North-East. to residual colonial When the North-Eastern Council The rest of the country doesn’t even thinking which dictates (NEC) was launched, it was supposed murmur in protest. Tthat it is ‘militarily unwise’ to develop to bring about extensive regional The North-East is distanced a border province. This established an development. Today, it is nothing emotionally, geographically and unwarranted and arbitrary correlation more than a body that allocates funds. perhaps historically from the between development and security. The rather amorphous concept of mainland. There are no easy solutions Ignoring the fundamental premise that ‘regional development’ on which, to end this deep-seated alienation. problems of insurgency and counter- economic planning for the North-East While the Centre grapples with it insurgency would fade on their own, hinges is not viable primarily because purely on platitudinous level, the if all border provinces are developed it ignores individual states and their North-East slips away further.

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1998-1999 Uneven surfaces Abigail Fernandes scans the walls of a newly painted city and meets the men who make the most of the platforms, pipelines, parapets.

rom the window of a local train is a world of frescoes. The art is simple, the colours loud, the plea for attention clear. Juliet undergarments, Et-Mi FSupermix, Lion King Underwear Banian and ‘Ticketless Travel Invites Prosecution, Nirodhless sex invites infection’—they’ve added a certain flavour to train travel in Mumbai. These advertisements register in your mind subconsciously—the precise intention of the advertising agencies. The same names can be spotted from one station right up till the last stop—a RITU SHARMA clear indication of the persistence of the clients whose sole preoccupation catch someone’s eye, at some point publicised. Wall painters are paid only is being noticed. So if you see or the other. Besides, they make the after the job is done, but if the job has Assignment Abroad Times, a weekly stations look better.” been erased or blackened with paint, publication advertised on platform And so the platforms speak a new then the painters forfeit their pay. three of Malad station, rest assured language. From child helpline numbers “Sometimes there is a that you’ll find it on platform one of to the latest Bollywood flick, the compromise,” says Mohiddin Kandivali and Naigaon as well. The platform carries a range of messages. reluctantly, “as instead of Rs. 400, brand name has whizzed past millions Deepakbhai believes that this is the I get Rs. 200 which does not even of sorely compacted consumers so best alternative for manufacturers cover half my cost.” The blackening many times, that they have it stored with small budgets. “There are many of the advertisements is completely somewhere at the back of their minds. advantages,” he says, ”It is cheaper than unpredictable. This is why Bulander As Deepakbhai, owner of Sapani other advertising alternatives and it Arts devotes most of its effort to and Sapani Pvt. Ltd., an agency that improves sales, though not as much as painting hoardings and banners. “We specializes in this alternative form of television or newsprint which are far hardly get to work on wall paintings advertising, says, “People see these too expensive anyway.” anymore,” he says disappointedly. advertisements, and then later while The actual sketching and painting With the present situation buying automatically remember the on the platform has to be carried out extremely bleak, Mohiddin and product.” during the hours when the trains don’t other artists like him, have to look for Watch the wall my darlings as run—between 1 and 4 am, with the alternative means to make a living. the advertisements go by. You have minimum of light and equipment. Mohiddin doesn’t consider what no option anyway. The messages are One such wall painter is Mohiddin he does as ‘art’. “I just do it to fill my now in the most obscure places such Khan of Bulander Arts. His, he says, is stomach at the end of the day.” He as below railway platforms, on the a dying business.” The Brihanmumbai stresses, however, that painting has walls of overhead bridges and even Municipal Corporation (BMC) has always been a hobby. But sadly, his meandering along sewage pipelines. launched a strong drive to prohibit work has remained the same for years. Deepkabhai confidently states, “This wall painting. Mohiddin says that He doesn’t have a favourite. “It is all the is a well-conceived marketing strategy. if a wall has been used for painting same routine stuff.” he says. While people are waiting for their an advertisement, the BMC sends a Another category of the artist trains, these advertisements definitely prompt notice to the company being paints a different picture. These are

38 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 artist who climb towering high-rise railway painter, this painter, too, is the skills that canvas does.” These buildings, balancing on thin bamboos hard-pressed for time. artists have to lay emphasis on fine to fill in the grids of huge hoardings Under pressure to meet deadlines, details which can be easily overlooked in front of them. Arnold Fernandes, the painters have to act as their own in either wall paintings or hoardings. contractor, Shalimar Arts, believes that critics. They have to have a sharp eye Films are released on Fridays, wall painting is a “dead art”. His father, for spotting even minor mistakes so the work load is maximum on who worked on the wall paintings that could cause the entire hoarding Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. many years ago, says that today there to be rejected by the client. Suresh’s Balakrishnan Arts paints posters for is no room for wall paintings. Today representation of the Thums Up Hindi and English films. Shalimar Arts has restricted itself Thunder gear campaigns would have Rajesh, too, talks of a decline in to working only on hoardings and been flawed had he not realized that business. He explains that this is banners. Woodland Shoes had been misspelt. because the number of films released But even this group is now under According to Arnold, “Correction is has gone and budgets, too, have been threat from technology. Computer the painter’s responsibility. If there slashed. Vinyl paints have threatened printing, also known as Vinyl Works, is a mistake, he pays for it.” If Suresh this art form to even greater degree. poses a threat to hand painters. doesn’t rectify the error on that day, Ironically Rajesh’s work has been According to Arnold, work is hard to coming back to re-do the job would be highly appreciated in European find. This frustrates artists who have to his responsibility. countries. He was approached by keep waiting for work. To the onlooker, the writing on Vanz Demameles, a man working Suresh, a loyal painter at Shalimar the wall or outside a building 40 for an advertising agency in Zurich. Arts, paints hoardings as high as 40 feet feet tall could be passed off as a part Balakrishnan Arts was asked to fly almost every day. He considers risk a of dying urban landscape. But the down for the Indian Film Festival part of his life. “Initially, I was afraid,” he work continues to be carried out by a there. “Over there they have only says, “but now it has become a habit.” number of people. one-sheet posters,” says Rajesh, “so The extraordinary height at which he Arnold narrates a recent incident, they wanted us to explain our method works holds no fear for Suresh. The fear where one of his senior most painters which fascinated them.” Rajesh then lies in the fact that the strength of the was suddenly asked to stop his work proudly states that Balakrishnan Arts scaffolding he stands on depends on at Chowpatty beach. The painter got would probably go to Italy in July for the integrity of the site owner. down from the scaffolding and was another festival. If the scaffolding is old and not interrogated by officials concerned It is heartening to know that properly maintained, there is a greater with the clearing up of the beach. their work is receiving its due credit. risk to the painters working there. The painter was not only asked to Ironically, here in India, states Rajesh, Suresh has 12 years of experience on stop his work, but had to remove the producers don’t have the money the job; there is little consolation when scaffolding all by himself. It took him a to spend on publicity. As for wall he has to step on rickety bamboo every long while to convince the authorities paintings, the payments are made after day to get his work done. that this was not a part of his job and the job is completed. A canvas poster Arnold does not believe that furthermore, he couldn’t possible is damaged easily, but the producer the painters are fated to only remove the massive structure all by does not have the money nor the reproduce advertisements for the himself. While Mohiddin paints walls inclination to ask for it to be redone. rest of their lives. Some go on to work at a low level and Suresh climbs on Sadly, there isn’t even time for remorse independently. Satya, an acquaintance, to high-rise structure, there are those if a canvas is torn. After relentless hours started out as a small time painter, but lucky enough to carry on painting of filling details in a sketch, a painter now works on people’s portraits. “You at the stable ground level. These are must disregard the damage done and have to work your way up to doing the film poster wallas. People like Rajesh start afresh. Rajesh does not see any fine lettering,” says Arnold. And there Vaidya of Balakrishnan Arts, have distinction between painting walls is always MF Husain who also painted for their backdrop a gigantic canvas, and painting film posters. “It’s just that posters at one point. which when pieced together, makes a their canvas is the wall.” And so the city As we talk, the painters work complete picture. Huge block canvases bears a complex landscape of varied tirelessly, completely absorbed in are only a part of the jigsaw puzzle that images. Most of us don’t ever get to see their work. The sun has set, but the Rajesh paints. their faces behind these images and are painters continue to fill colour into the Like Mohiddin and Arnold’s father, quick to condemn these forms of arr. outlines of the gigantic pictures before Rajesh, too, was once involved with Classifying them as Kitsch is as easy as them. Arnold explains that it is the wall paintings, but its “unfeasibility” overlooking the effort that goes into duty of the painter to keep an eye on as he puts it, has restricted him to making these paintings, which no one lighting conditions. “If the work-place working only on canvas. “Balakrishnan would ever consider as masterpieces, is not properly illuminated, he should Arts is a 27-year-old institute,” he says but they form a part of our visual start work earlier in the day.” Like the proudly. “Wall painting doesn’t require vocabulary.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 39 From THE ARCHIVES

1999-2000 “Like a kite whose string has been cut…” The Tibetan in India. The Indian Tibetan? The Tibetan Indian? The Tibetan in Exile? SUPRIYA CORREA finds an identity crisis among the thousands of stateless persons who have found refuge in India ILLUSTRATION BY UPASANA BOSE UPASANA BY ILLUSTRATION

Thirty-nine years in exile. Home is Tibet. Now occupied invasion took place under the pretext Yet no nation supports us. territory. Officially known as the of developing infrastructure. Says Not a single bloody nation……. Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), Dharmo, “Realising a barbed wire ………I am Tibetan according to China. With the escape was being tightened around us, there But I am not from Tibet. of the Karmapa Lama to India, the was rebellion in several pockets Never been there, ignored detritus of the Tibetan issue which was brutally suppressed by Yet I dream of dying there. resurfaces. Whether or not their fate is the Chinese. In 1951, China forced Tenzin Tsundue being discussed, the Tibetans in India a Tibetan delegation to sign an (Excerpt from a poem ‘My continue their present occupation as agreement, the terms of which were Tibetanness’, from Crossing the they have for the past 40 years. Which considered unacceptable to us.” The Border) means that Pema, Pasang, Dharmo, 1954 Pansheel agreement had India Tolang and a host of other vendors sit and China unfairly deciding the fate n the house of the Tsundue on the footpaths of the Chhatrapati of a third nation, Tibet, without its family, Kollegal, Karnataka, Shivaji Terminus, selling woollens involvement and consent. In 1959, the monsoon rain water during the months of winter. “I was fearing a threat to his life, the Dalai sometimes seeps through the born in India,” says 24-year-old Pema, Lama, the spiritual and political head roof. Utensils and make-shift and pointing to 64-year-old Dharmo of Tibet, fled to India. Therefore, the buckets are placed under the continues, “But he fled Tibet with his exodus began. leaks to collect the water. For family when he was just 14.” Since India is not a party to the Ithe past 25 years of their stay there, “When I was young, I wanted to be United Nation Convention relating the Tsundues have consistently a scholar,” reminisces Dharmo. But, it to the status of refugees, it cannot repaired the house but never re- was not to be. The 1950s shattered the grant refugee status to the Tibetans. structured it. “Why bother renovating dreams of a million people. In 1949, “We are given a “stateless” status. We it?” Mrs Tsundue asks, “This is only a China invaded Tibet, an act amounting have to be interviewed at the Tibetan temporary dwelling. We will go home to gross violation of human rights Refugee Center at Dharamsala, soon.” and suppression of freedom. The which monitors the flow of Tibetans

40 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 in exile. They ascertain that we are second and third generation Tibetans. kite floats, not knowing where it will fleeing persecution and not here for Recently many have taken to selling fall.” espionage. Our certificates of living sweaters in the metros. Pema laments, Still, the fiercely proud Tibetans do in India are temporary and have to be “Unfortunately, this activity takes the not avail of Indian citizenship despite renewed every year,” says Tolang. able-bodied away from the farms; it the fact that most of them are born But why settle for a status of also separates families. The cities do on Indian soil. The reason is clear. statelessness rather than live in their not offer decent housing and if the If they do, they can no longer stake own country? In the years of the cold is not severe, few buyers means their claim for independence of Tibet. uprising, 1.2 million people died from meagre profits.” In general, they are “Not being a citizen of any country the Tibetan population of six million. ghettoised to primary sector activities is a precarious situation to be in,” 6,250 monasteries were desecrated and not many engage in secondary claims Tenzin. Being stateless is like and the act of possessing a Tibetan and tertiary activities. Therefore, their belonging nowhere. Yet at the same flag or venerating a picture of the unemployment rates remain high and time there is a beautiful sentiment Dalai Lama could land a person in the standard of living, low. of belonging to a nation for whose jail. According to the Tibetan Center As for education of children, freedom we yearn.” for Human Rights and Democracy in there are Centre Schools for Tibetans He writes, “We are refugees here. Dharamsala, “Torture, in detainment, Children’s Villages. Yet, higher People of a lost country. Citizen to no was accompanied by extreme education is a problem. Those wishing nation.” physical abuse. The victims would be to enter legal, medical and other such He is right. Not a single nation severely beaten with electric batons, fields have to depend on sponsorship. recognizes Tibet as an independent handcuffed with arms around hot In spite of these difficulties, some nation state. India recognizes Tibetans chimneys and hung from ceilings students do manage to brave the as “people registered to be living in with fires burning underneath. Nuns odds and pursue the subject of their India.” To be recognised as a refugee suffered sexual abuse and even choice. Tenzin Tsundue, a 24-year- involves protecting them from strife pregnant woman were not spared. The old student, not only has an MA in in their own country- but Tibet is not Chinese government used coercive English to his name but is also reading a country. methods of birth control. China has his Masters in Philosophy. He has As long as the Tibetan government gone so far as to drive most of the written and published a collection of does not exist and until the Indian Tibetan folk from their land and allow his own poems (Crossing the Border) government takes a definite political Chinese to settle in Tibet resulting in and zealously participates in pro-Tibet stand, it will be very difficult for a population transfer. However, the activities on the issue of statelessness. Tibetans to live. barbaric treatment was endured with He muses, “How do I describe what it Though they claim to enjoy the fervent chant, “Kill us, but do not means to be stateless? It’s like being the tolerance meted by the Indian kill our Dalai Lama.” a kite whose string has been cut. The community, the present asylum The Dalai Lama having escaped that they avail of, on Indian soil, from Tibet has been given asylum in is superficial when faced with the Dharamsala. He has formed a Tibetan ultimate insecurity of a stateless Government in Exile (TGE). The people. Where would they go if Indian government has leased land the Indian government decides to the Tibetans and the Department to withdraw the annual ritual of of Home looks after the land. Each However, registration and issuing of certificates adult was allotted one acre of land to them? They remain thus, a and gradually a settlement developed the barbaric community once on the ‘roof of providing other employment the world’ now with neither the opportunities like agro-industries, treatment citizenship of one country, nor the soil making handicrafts and carpet was endured of another. weaving. Pema relates an anecdote: But the available opportunities are with the “Initially when the Tibetans arrived in limited. The prime factor is the influx India, they grew papayas because the of 3000-plus Tibetans entering India fervent plant bore fruit quickly. They rarely every year that puts further pressure grew coconuts. Because they felt that on the settlements. The land has not chant, “Kill they would be home before the palms increased in proportion to the settlers; us, but do bore fruit.” it has dwindled to half-an-acre per Now they have started growing adult. As a result, many people leave not kill our mangoes and guavas. Coconuts too. looking for lucrative jobs. Indeed, “Never been there, it is more difficult rehabilitating Dalai Lama.” Yet I dream of dying there.”

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 41 From THE ARCHIVES

2000-2001 Dancing for men and money SMITA POLITE investigates how the 75-crore dance bar business is set up in the interest of men on one hand, and on the other, is a necessary source of livelihood for the women who have no option other than to work here.

‘decent’ alternative and, ever since then, they have been mushrooming all over Mumbai. The ‘decency’ of dance bars, however, has been in question, though the customers are an odd mix of professionals, young executives and businessmen. The men rationalise their visits by saying that they go to see women dancing, not in search of sex. “One enjoys music videos and likes to see people dancing. Similarly, I like to see these girls dance,” says Sudhir Aroskar, who works in an advertising agency, “I go to appreciate beauty and talent,” he says. However, when asked if he would like to see his sister or

SCM ARCHIVES SCM daughter dance here, he says, “These girls dance for money. I would never n the yesteryears we dancers, who dance to popular Hindi want my sister to become so needy had mujras, today we numbers, add to the fun, frivolity, that she has to resort to this.” have dance bars. It is as and glamour that these dance bars The kind of money that these romantic to visit a dance are usually associated with. However, men spend could easily be spent on bar as a mujra,” says not all are glamorous. Some are even a commercial sex worker instead. Deepak Kathuria, a young sleazy. However, the power to make a woman executive and a regular Most of the owners of the dance dance by showering money is a high in “Ivisitor of these bars in the city. When bars are the Shettys who hail from itself. As sociologist Nandini Sardesai asked whether he feels comfortable Mangalore. Apart from the licenses says, “Winning over a girl with money about acknowledging that he enjoys that a normal ‘Restaurant and Bar’ gives men a sense of acquisition which visiting these bars, he retorts by saying, would require, these bars require the is much more pleasurable.” “No one questions Indra’s (a Hindu performance license from the police. The choice of carrying on affairs God) desire to have apsaras (fairies) Most of them employ women on with these men is supposed to be a dancing in his court. The concept of the basis of their beauty or dancing decision made by the women and apsaras in heaven is there in almost abilities. the owners claim to have nothing to every religion and yet you point your The customers are served drinks do with prostitution or the affairs. finger at me for wanting to have a nice by the waiters, who also collect the However, retired IPS officer AA Khan time looking at these girls.” money given in ‘appreciation’ of these has a different story to tell. Dance bars usually have a sign dancers and put it in a common pool. “During our investigations,” he saying ‘Bar and Restaurant’. The In most cases, sixty per cent of the says, “We found that the pick-up interior is generally a room with sofas money goes to the owners while forty was generally arranged with the and chairs aligned along the walls and per cent goes to the women. However, connivance of the management. The there’s place enough in the middle for in the suburbs, the break-up is 70:30. management also arranged for the around ten to twelve women to dance After the closure of the cabarets, transportation of the most popular at a time. The glittering lights and the which were a craze in the 1960s and girls, as well as their upkeep.” He also shining ghagra-cholis worn by the 1970s, the dance bars come as a more affirms that ninety-five per cent of the

42 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 women are engaged in prostitution. flats for these women in places like there are chances that either one of The dancers do not publicly solicit Lokhandwala and, in one particular her family members or a close friend customers but they do get around case, found that Tiger Memon had would instigate her to join these bars. to carrying on affairs (as both parties gifted a Maruti as a birthday present At times, it’s her own decision. concerned like to call it). to a dancer named Poonam, from Women from Bedia tribe come The entire management, which Caesar’s Palace. from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya involves huge sums of money, hardly During the New Year celebrations, Pradesh and Rajasthan to join these affects day-to-day life, except perhaps on the eve of 2001, a dance bar at bars. This tribe is well known for in areas like Mulund, which boasts Dahisar went beyond midnight limit, its tradition of women working as of two hundred-odd dance bars. In resulting in an altercation between sex workers and the men as pimps. 1997, Joint Commissioner OP Bali the Inspector PI Kakde and the owner. Belonging to a Scheduled Tribe, they held a meeting of the local people at The owner protested against the have little scope of embracing other the behest of the local BJP MLA Kirit action that the police office took as respectable jobs. Somaya. People had complained that being unjust, and the news reached families were getting ruined because of the papers. Three weeks hence, the t is in rare cases that a young the proliferation of dance bars in their office in question was not available for woman from an average middle locality. The uproar lasted precisely comment as he has been transferred. class family, fully aware of the for one week. No one suffered except “It was a routine transfer,” says implications of being a bar perhaps for the women who lost a Shriranjan Inamdar, senior inspector dancer, willingly decides to join week’s earnings. at Dahisar police station. When asked this occupation. about the possible connections of the Whatever the f one assumes that there is dance bar owner with the underworld, Icircumstances may be, one wonders no prostitution involved and he says that there are no such why these women say that it is just these young women dance connections that he is aware of. another profession when they never exclusively for entertainment, The women in the dance bars earn disclose their true identity. Almost all then it ought to become an good money. So one can argue that it of them work under a fictitious name. even bigger concern for us. is a necessary source of livelihood for The questions that come up The customers who avail many people. cannot be easily answered. On the Iof this kind of entertainment are One of the popular dancers, Kajal, one hand, we have the problem of predominantly men. The few women from Samudra Dance Bar, managed to men setting up the business of these who visit do so more out of curiosity earn so much in three years that she dance bars in the interest of other than for entertainment. How are is now planning to send her younger men, and on the other, we have these we content with the showcasing of sister to Australia to study. Born and women who have no other options women in such a fashion? brought up in the slums, Kajal could than to work as dancers or to enter into Is it being given sanction because never manage to study beyond eighth prostitution. there is not much political mileage grade. In the year 2000, these bars did a to be gained out of robbing these “I used to pose in the nude for business of Rs.75 crore, according to dancers of their profession or does this young, aspiring artists,” she says. an unofficial survey conducted by the business run under the aegis of such “At Rs. 100 an hour, I was almost Mumbai police. powerful people that there is no scope doing a service for many of them By the looks of it, this business of for opposition? who could not afford models. Here, entertaining the rich and the powerful The investigations of AA Khan in one night, I get anything between will continue to thrive and prosper in during the Jignesh Dholakia shoot- Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 10,000.” At least, her the interest of everyone connected out case clearly indicated that the family’s life has changed if not hers. with it, and dancing bars will remain a dancers developed close relations Kajal still lives in Congress House at part of Mumbai’s ‘Night Life.’ with people from the underworld. He Foras Road along with other dancers. (Some names have been changed on discovered that gangsters had bought If a woman is poor and beautiful, request)

Note: Prostitution, as such in entertainment duty on dance performances of western to garner an additional Rs. department, huge amount of not a punishable offence. Under bars, enjoying exemption music (classical, light or 13.54 crore annually. The state cash is generally splurged on the Suppression of Immoral under the guise of performing instrumental) and dances government will issue an the dances in over 650 bars in Trafficking Act, soliciting for a Indian cultural dances. A bill from western countries or ordinance shortly to amend Greater Mumbai, Thane and customer in public and living on to this effect was passed by Indian folk dances such as the Mumbai Entertainment Rajgad districts. the earnings of a sex worker are the legislative assembly by Ras Garba or Dandiya, by Tax Act, 1923, for this purpose. The dance sequences punishable offences. a voice vote in Nagpur in whatever name it is known, The state revenue department presented by these dancers The Maharashtra government January 2001.According to the will be entitled to pay the will henceforth be the do not fall under the category has amended the Bombay amendment, the management entertainment duty. nodal department for giving of Indian dances and thus Entertainment Duty Tax Act, of any dance bar, or that entertainment tax exemptions. have to be brought under the 1923, to enable it to levy responsible for organising Note: The new levy is expected According to the revenue tax net.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 43 From THE ARCHIVES

2001-2002 Beastly tales of Hansel and Gretel RAKHI BASU explores the growing problems of child sexual abuse in India.

CSA is usually different. As one report says, “Indians usually operate as lone wolves. They use and then discard the kids. Unlike them, Westerners expand on the experience of perversion, sharing it with others. They also keep memorabilia about child victims.” An illustrative example of that would be the infamous Freddy Peats, arrested in Goa in 1991, from whom the police seized 2305 photos and 152 negative strips containing pictures of his victims. While most abusers are men, women are not exempt from participation, either as direct abusers or as passive bystanders. Abusers have a tendency to go back to their victims and repeat the atrocity over and over again, as in the case of Nathni Shah Sonar who was arrested in October 2001. Sonar took the three children of his lover into his custody after she JOVITA ARANHA JOVITA died. One night, he got drunk and n August 2000, the body of a is sexually abused. What makes this raped one of the children, a seven- three-year-old boy was found in alarming is that most of these cases year-old girl, in front of her brothers. the bushes near a government are not reported. In December 2000, a The girl was then raped repeatedly shelter in New Delhi. He had Swiss couple, the Martys, was arrested over the next three months until been sodomised and then when the authorities were intimated a local grocery shop owner sensed murdered. In March 2001, a by the Forum Against Child Sexual something amiss and contacted a sixty-three-year-old Goan, Exploitation (FACSE). remand home. ILawrence Fernandes, was arrested. The Martys lured beggars and Repetition of abuse becomes easy A former male nurse at the Institute schoolchildren with gifts and clothes in the case of children because of of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour, into having sex with them and filmed several reasons. For one, a child cannot Goa, he had lured a fifteen-year-old pornographic videos that were distinguish between play and abuse boy into having anal and oral sex with uploaded on the Internet. They were a unless there is pain involved. They him. In 2001, Reverend Samuel Alfred, part of an international ring operating usually lack the awareness to give Director of Prem Sagar, a home for in Thailand and Sri Lanka. Paedophilia informed consent to sexual activity. street children in Kandivali, Mumbai, is defined as child sexual abuse that It becomes easy for a child abuser to was arrested for sexually abusing some is done in an organized manner when make the whole exploitation seem of the homeless girls who had been there is some gain involved. This like a game. The abuser encourages taken there. How much brutality can carefully administered form of child the child to keep the matter a secret we accept before we begin to raise any sexual abuse (CSA) is more commonly between them, and the victim in questions? Infinite, it would seem, seen in the West where there are puerile innocence complies. if India were to be observed as an underground associations with their In the case of fifty-two-year-old example. own publishing houses. Australian monk, Allen Paul, many One in every five children in India In India, however, the pattern of of his victims did not even feel he

44 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 had done anything wrong. Paul was him have been a “high” from control abusing children at a destitute home in over the child’s space, and consequent Madhurawada, near Visakhapatnam. pleasure. Child abusers are often Being around those children for long Physical immature or have low self-esteem. periods, he was able to win their trust They are unable to derive sexual and build a rapport with them. signs of and emotional satisfaction in adult This brings us to the most blood- relationships and feel more mature curdling truth about child sexual sexual and confident in relation to children. abuse. “Children are most at risk from But, perhaps, the potent reason for their own family members and others abuse child sexual abuse separates the they know and trust,” says Anuja • Sore or swollen genital individual from personal pathology Gupta, Executive Director, Recovering areas into situational opportunity and and Healing from Incest (RAHI). Over social and cultural factors, as in the • Bleeding or discharge from 70 per cent of CSA cases in India have aforementioned case of J. Pandy. rectum/vagina been committed by someone close to India is a long way from the victim—family, friends, teachers, or • Stained underpants instituting a process to identify and servants. treat pedophiles. The least we can This is often the reason why the • Pain on urination do is watch out for signs indicating family hushes up the issue, for fear exploitation. The possible physical of sullying the name of the family. As • Excessive masturbation signs of sexual abuse are: someone close to the child, the abuser • Sore or swollen genital areas • Drug/alcohol abuse enjoys tremendous faith and power. • Bleeding or discharge from rectum/ When belief is breached, according to • Sleep disturbances vagina psychologist Dr. Achal Bhagat, children • Stained underpants develop schematas (templates) in their • Eating disorders • Pain on urination mind, which affects later relationships. • Excessive masturbation A child abused by a trusted person • Drug/alcohol abuse experiences feelings of fear, anger probably explain why the judiciary • Sleep disturbances at the abuser, fear of losing adults system has had only 15 successful • Eating disorders important to them, anger at other convictions in the litigation of CSA More and more attempts are silent adults, isolation, shame, and cases. being made to bring the issue of child even guilt. In the rare case that a CSA case is sexual abuse, whether in factual or In India, if a child is being abused reported to the police, the child is put fictionalized form, out into the open. by a parent, there are no provisions through repeated rounds of rigorous NGO RAHI, of New Delhi, released by law for a “third person” to rescue and painful questioning by the police. a book called The House I Grew Up the child from the “legal guardian.” Questions like how much abuse is In, in which victims that RAHI has One would imagine that, at least, the abuse are raised, and excruciating helped have shared personal accounts social fabric would tighten around details are extracted. To complete of incestuous abuse. The theme has the abuser to bring him/her to justice. the torture, there is a medical now also moved on stage in the form Sadly, reality speaks a different story. examination. of Mahesh Dattani’s play 30 Days in In 1999, J. Pandy, a Sales Officer with Sangeeta Punekar, former September and Meena Naik’s Marathi the Government Dairy Department in convenor of FACSE, has requested the production Vatevarti Kachaa Ga. An Barda district, Uttar Pradesh, had been government to create a special cell to alert media could perhaps bring the found sexually abusing his eleven- handle child abuse. criminals to justice by creating public year-old daughter. A public hearing There have even been strange, uproar. was held on the issue. The Akhil almost bizarre, motives attributed to Now is the time to accept we have Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) child sexual abuse. Freud suggested a serious problem on our hands and took out a demonstration against the that there was an unconscious realize we cannot repress it any longer. activists who demanded justice for inclination toward incest because it Repression is lethal than anything the child. The culprit was eventually was forbidden. There are even myths else because when the problem finally bailed out. among men that sex with a virgin unleashes, as it inevitably will, it The Indian Penal Code does not enhances male virility, strength, and assumes insurmountable dimensions. recognize child abuse. Only rape power. No one really has been able to And so, if we do not really start looking or sodomy can lead to criminal delineate the reasons for pedophilia. out for our children, by 2002, India convictions. Anything less than Most theories are speculative. will have a possible 6,44,00,000 rape (as defined by law) amounts to Psychologist Dr. Achal Bhagat says sexually abused children. By that time, “outraging the modesty.” This would that reasons that offenders have given it will be too late to start thinking.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 45 From THE ARCHIVES

2002-2003 From Ahimsa to Ashes

shattered lives. Chand Bhai, a tailor, lost all six of his sewing machines as they were burned by the mob. The government’s compensation schemes of providing sewing machines to the jobless tailors hasn’t brought any relief to Chand Bhai, who is yet to receive his share. Sewing machines have been distributed arbitrarily in the village and sewing classes are being organised to train these people. “Jo silaai nahi jaanta, woh machine lekar kya karega?” asks a disgruntled Chand Bhai. (What will those who don’t know how to stitch do with sewing machines?)Some of the recipients don’t even attend the classes and have started selling off their machines. Chand Bhai now plans to buy machines from these people once the rates drop. Organizations like the Islamic Relief Committee are

KIRTI CHATURVEDI KIRTI compensating for the callous attitude by working towards the rehabilitation of those affected. rief is an intensely lives. Life went on. A walk through Daman Lal Iman private affair. But In Ahmedabad, life is not smooth. Lal Ki CHaali in the Boot Bazaar when an entire mass In vast pockets of the city, every lane in Kakoria, Ahmedabad reveals of people becomes a other street is known as a ‘border’ harsher realities. Ramchander( Hindu) victim of leviathan marking the separation of the resident and Raju Bhai (Muslim)have been calamity, individual Hindus and Muslims. The concept of neighbours for twenty years now. The tragedies tend to get ‘border’ is so ingrained in the minds mob attacked Raju Bhai’s house totally Gblurred. Once swept under the banner of the locals that even the daily task reducing it to cinders. As a result, parts of a national disaster, the common of crossing the street could mean of Ramchander’s wall and the beam man’s suffering is forgotten. Those serious trouble for either community. supporting the roof caught fire. The untouched by the inferno become Things might seem normal, but even a amount of compensation received by mere sympathizers of that faceless trifling matter could result in a violent the two families reveals staggering mass that perished. The pogrom in outburst. disparity. While Ramchander managed Gujarat may well have drifted into One of the first to be torched, to get a sum of Rs. 21,000, Raju Bhai our amnesiac consciousness, but the Naroda Patia, witnessed gory crimes has to content himself with a meagre victims continue to writhe in the most during the riots. The inhabitants fled Rs. 10,000/-. unremitting affliction of the massacre- to the nearby camps in a desperate On entering the village one is despair. While Gujarat was smothered attempt to save their lives. Several greeting with a board, which reads by gross hatred, the rest of India months have passed, but many are ‘Hindu Rashtra welcomes you to gasped in horror and soon slid back still afraid to come back. Those who Ognez village’. Try the other entrance, to the comforting humdrum of their have are picking up the pieces of their and you’ll find a mosque now reduced

46 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 to rubble. After some initial hesitation, the “Dus hazzar mein main apni villagers in Ognez are willing to talk to chchat banaaoon ya diwaarein,”(With outsiders. However, the conversation ten thousand rupees should I do up takes a turn when one mentions the my roof or walls?) asks Raju Bhai. riots. Among some people, talk of the The neighbours complain that riots evokes responses which reveal Ramchander got a chance to renovate subtle hostility towards the Muslims. his walls and roof with extra money Others are silenced by their fear of the he received. Stories abound in Kakoria upper castes. There are no Muslims and the preposterous amounts of living in Ognez today. On entering the compensation being awarded to village one is greeted with a board, Hindus. which reads ‘Hindu Rashtra welcomes “The entire process of allotting you to the Ognez village’. Try the other compensation is full of corruption,” entrance, and you’ll find a mosque says Mohan Bundela, a member now reduced to rubble. of Jan Sangharsh Manch, a social organisation. “In some cases where hose most affected by people were to receive compensation this senseless violence in installments, the receipts were “In some cases are the children of stamped twice the first time itself.” the city, the children The scorching pogrom was not where people of Gujarat, the future limited to the city alone but spread were to receive citizens of India. There to the rural areas as well. When Altaf were around ten relief walked through his village, not one compensation Tcamps operating in different corners voice greeted him. Eight months ago, of the state as of September 2002. One he was welcomed into every home. in installments, such camp at Quereshi Hall was home The same neighbours he grew up to approximately two hundred and with looted and burnt the twenty- the receipts fifty children. At least ninety per cent two Muslim homes in the small were stamped of these children have lost one family village of Buchansan in the name of member or have been first-hand patriotism. Three thousand kilometres twice the first witnesses to rape, murder or arson. away, Altaf’s brother Ashfaq died in a The thousands of innocent victims landmine blast. He had been serving time itself.” were ordinary people living ordinary the BSF for the last eighteen years, lives. Sher Kan from Bapunagar, defending the country at the borders Ahmedabad, is one such boy. Although in Kashmir and the North East. To marriage. Exactly two days later, the in his early teens, all his hopes and the communal forces in the village, twenty Muslim families of the village aspirations were shattered by a lone patriotism meant ridding the national were attacked by a mob comprising bullet fired by the police. The doctors of these ‘anti-national elements’. In fellow villagers. The change however, who performed the emergency stark contrast, Ashfaq, one such ‘anti- was not as sudden as it may seem. This operation not only removed the national element’, laid down his life for hostility was a culmination of many bullet from his leg but also one of his his country. He was due to retire in a social, economic and political factors. kidneys. He now survives with a single few years. Finally, he would have time Ognez is a village of 8,000 people. The kidney and a paralyzed leg. to spend with his wife, Mehmoona Patels own most of the agricultural Life is a process of rebuilding and their two children. Now, his land in the village. However, in recent itself from the rubble. It has ended family must carry on without him. years most of the land has been sold up in a rubble of fear, disgust and Rebuilding their home and bringing to the government. The primary hopelessness. But eyes that are so up two children will not be easy for incentive to sell land is to educate their used to looking and never seeing will Mehmoona. Ten thousand rupees children abroad. This increases the perhaps accept it as another macabre were all the compensation she got for contact they have with non-resident event to be mourned for. As we get a home reduced to ashes. She is still Indians making the Patels all the more on with our lives, a stygian gloom awaiting Ashfaq’s death certificate powerful. In the political sphere, the continues to haunt Gujarat. from the BSF, without which she current sarpanch of the village belongs Faiza Ahmad Khan cannot claim insurance. to a political party which did not have Janice Monteiro Not too far from Ahmedabad in the support of the Muslims. During Neha Jain Ognez village, people from all castes the riots, no attempt was made to help Rasika Dugal and communities gathered for a them. Sukanya Ghosh

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 47 From THE ARCHIVES

2003-2004 ...And not a drop to drink!

n Khupri, Wada, the village seems to be under the spell of the afternoon sun. The heat seems to have lulled even the trees to sleep. The only sound that breaks the silence is the rhythmic ‘thump – thump’ Iof clothes being beaten on stone. Unmindful of the scorching sun, two women squat beside a puddle, washing clothes. The village, some two and a half hours away from Thane, is said to be one of those affected by the nearby Coke factory. It is alleged that the existence of this factory has deprived most villages around it of water. The rhythm of the clothes mirrors the simmering discontent lurking beneath the calm surface. The factory situated on the

outskirts of this village is the largest SINGHANIA VEDIKA manufacturing unit in Asia for Coca- Cola. The factory with a production case of Wada Taluka, it is still not clear consumption needs are put at around capacity of thirty lakh litres per day is if the villages there have benefited 40 liters per day, which means that located in an area declared as a D-Zone, in anyway. The factory is sixteen the company uses water which would i.e. development zone. This is a policy kilometers from Vaitarna River and, serve the needs of 75,000 villagers a being followed by the government further away is the Modak Sagar dam, day.” to encourage industries to set up originally said to have been built Savio D’Souza, Assistant Manager plants in extremely backward regions. for the needs of the nearby villages. (HR), flatly denies this. According to The company enjoys incentives According to a study conducted by him, the factory has not been taking provided by the state government in the All India Democratic Women’s water from the river since November the form of sales tax exemption, loan Association (AIDWA) this year, “The 2002. The company claims it is now concessions, and interest subsidies. Company was given permission to getting its water supply from tankers Such a policy is ostensibly to benefit draw water from this check dam of with sources, five km away from the the local population and help in the 300,000 litres a day. According to plant. It says it has dug a number development of the region. But in the government norms, per capita daily of bore wells inside the plant, but

48 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 is not using them. Local activists dispute these claims. The company attributes the water scarcity in the area to insufficient rains the year before. According to it, the authorities had, for several months, stopped releasing water from the Modak Sagar dam, upstream, into the river which might have contributed to the lowering of the

water table in the area. D’Souza claims ARCHIVES SCM that the water shortage problem in the area has always been there. “The for months, with the water table so low their pipes through our fields. All we villagers now want more convenience that there is no water even when they are asking for is that we be allowed to that’s all. Earlier, they used to travel the dig bore wells. use some of the water. They promised same distances without complaining.” In summer, the villagers now often great things when they wanted to take A number of people when have to wait by the side of the highway the land, now we want them to keep questioned do say that they do every night till 2.30 am for Coke those promises.” not face any water problems. One tankers to pass by. These do not ‘give’ villager in Kudus says, “We have them the water as the people from the o why doesn’t the many common taps from which village claim. Instead, they have to buy government lay a pipe we receive water for an hour every the water at Rs.20 per drum. Similar for these villagers? morning. In case there is no water on problems have risen due to the Coke According to the a particular day, we use groundwater Company in regions such as Kerala and topsider, “Often these from the bore wells. That is not very Benaras. villages consist of good for drinking.” Their main water There are guards posted at every only about five or six source, according to them is not the five kilometers along the pipeline, so Shouses. It is not feasible to lay an entire Vaitarna, but a lake nearby. Most of that villagers do not ‘steal’ the water. pipeline just for these. Also, how can them seemed quite happy with this In Kauri nearby, Ms.Patil, the local we expect the company to give water arrangement. Moreover, some of them school teacher says, “They have laid from a pipeline that they have laid for added that in case there was no water their personal purposes? We cannot on any day, the tankers of the Coca- come down too heavily on these Cola company would provide them companies as the development of with it. “Villages can’t the district depends on more of these coming into the district.” n general, no one seems to expect the An engineer from Sichuan acknowledge that there is a Haven who spoke on the condition ‘problem’ at all. One old lady same benefits of anonymity, explained, “The main says, “Obviously in summer, as cities.” It source of water is Vaitarna, where the there is no water, so we have Modak Sagar dam was built. From to travel up to the river. If is difficult to this dam, there is another extension it rains, we get water from understand known as the Wada Kt. Vihar which Ithe village well.” Others inform in a supposedly has to supply water to matter that they do not get a lot of whether these Wada and Coke. Till June last year, water considering that it was a village there were leakages in the dam and consisting mostly of tribal people. answers are thus, Wada Kt. Vihar was getting more Another lady explains, “Villages can’t a practiced than its required supply. Once the expect the same benefits as cities.” leakages were fixed, a water problem It is difficult to understand whether response to supposedly started.” these answers are a practiced response outsiders, or a Amidst all this, as usual the to outsiders, or a stunning lack of sufferers are the villagers. Meanwhile, knowledge about their own rights. The stunning lack in Khupri, the women still have only a sarpanch of the village was unavailable puddle to wash their clothes. for comment. of knowledge Aneesha Durga However, about a hundred meters about their Shohini Ghosh from Kudus, is Vadoli, where the Shweta Mulki people are very bitter and angry. They own rights. Nalini Ramachandran say that the village goes without water Divya Subramaniam

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 49 From THE ARCHIVES

2004-2005 And miles to go before they sleep COURTESY HENRY JENKINS HENRY COURTESY

hat do you students of Mamnoli village looked that there was a slim chance that he want to do blank. They gestured uneasily that would go to college. The girls didn’t after you they didn’t know. One boy broke the quite recover from their initial bout complete silence and said. “I will help my father; of shyness. No plans, no future, no Std. X?” I guess...what else can I do?” A few dreams. “WThe Std. IX others nodded vigorously. One said Mamnoli, a village in Kalyan 50 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 district is about 25-28 kilometres in his office in Mantralaya would says, “We are not a homogenous from the Kalyan junction. Most like to believe, but only adds to the community and the curriculum that people in the village are agricultural number of children going to school. we provide the children does not take labourers who grow paddy, pulses This increase in the percentage of into account the cultural ambience and vegetables mostly for home children attending school, whether or of the child.” Ideally, the curriculum consumption. Financially, their not they have to study, is all that the should be moulded as per the cultural condition is unstable and largely government can boast of. variants of each village. The school dependent on the monsoon. The It is generally that the low ambience of the child is divorced from children of Mamnoli go to the only attendance of students is directly a their practical realities thus rendering zilla-parishad School in the area. result of the economic conditions their education irrelevant. This village did not have a secondary and the educational status of the The teachers also find themselves school till an NGO called Chhatrapati parents. However, a research paper in a catch-22 situation. They are all Shikshan Mandal (CSM) took the titled ‘Determinants of Household qualified and hold B. Ed and D. Ed. initiative of setting up Mamnoli Expenditure on Education in Rural degrees as per state regulations. They Madhyamik Vidyalaya. This school India’ by Jandhyala B.G. Tilak have all struggled to get through serves as the only secondary school published in 2002 by National Council the education system that they are for Mamnoli and ten villages around of Applied Economic Research based now a part of. One of the teachers, on it. According to State policy, only in New Delhi breaks the myth that conditions of anonymity said, “We primary education is compulsory. uneducated parents living in rural have all been born and brought up This means that government can areas are willing to spend on their here. With such limited exposure we skip setting up secondary schools if it children’s education. One of the are also unable to teach the children wishes to, especially in inconspicuous results of the paper indicates that about the outside world which holds places like Mamnoli. the more the government spends on promise.” Some of the villages like Approximately 80.96 per cent* of infrastructure, the more interested Advali, Mhasrundi and Bangarvadi children enrolled in primary schools parents will be in educating their have only 11 students from Std. I to in Mamnoli and the villages around children. Quality is the key here. The Std. IV (all in one classroom). They it drop out before they make it to the research paper seems to indicate that, have a principal-cum-teacher at their secondary school. The escalating given a chance, parents will spend disposal who also has to do the job of dropout rate is a reflection of a money on their children’s education. a peon and administrator. In addition, number of economic factors operating But the condition of the zilla-parishad he has the job of making sure that the in the village. The children have to school does not seem to reflect this. child is physically present in school. contribute to the family income and Since the government is not bothered The principal of Mamnoli Primary find it difficult to focus completely about the quality of education, it is School added that students have been on their studies. Besides, spending obvious that the parents are not given encouraged to take up teaching this on education is very substantial. much of a choice but to train their year. “Indirect” costs, such as books, children as farmers. Parents also do The Oxford dictionary defines uniforms and examination fees, which not feel safe sending their children education as ‘training the mind, are very high, even in government (especially girls) to school, which is character and abilities’. Education in run schools at the primary level are usually a good two to four kilometres rural India translates into inaccessible not taken into account when the from their homes. The children have schools, lack of infrastructure, government uses the term “free to pass through fields, forests and inadequate teachers, with midday education.” dangerous isolated areas. Only a few meals and free textbook. In spite of The midday meal programme students can afford a bus ride every their commendable efforts, these was started by the state government day from far-off villages. children do not have a bright future to encourage parents to send their The biggest failure of the ahead of them. Education has to help children to school. The midday meal education system, particularly in the children to create a niche in their has increased the number of children rural areas like Mamnoli is that the lives. Not just free education but also attending school. But the principal of education offered has no connection quality education is the key to a better Mhasrundi a village near Mamnoli) with their lives. The Std. IX history future for these intelligent young says, “I have a student who takes textbooks are about European children with nothing to dream about the cow out to graze in the morning, revolutions; the geography textbook as present. comes to school in the afternoon contains information about the *Statistics obtained from Mamnoli for the midday meal and then goes different zones of the world. There Madhyamik Vidyalaya back to work I don’t know what to do is no mention of agriculture in the Menaka Rao with that child.” Midday meals do not science textbooks. The children have Anahita Mukherji always facilitate education, as deputy been pulled out of their own culture. Savitri Medhatul education secretary S P Joshi, sitting Joshi of Chhatrapati Shikshan Mandal

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2005-2006 Nature’s Barricade NILOFER KHAN NILOFER

he smell of moist soil stabilize the coastal landmass against high, travelling at 500-800 km/hr, wafted through the sea erosion. They also help in filtering will lose momentum when it crashes sultry monsoon air. the silt brought by the river, before into a mangrove cover. Consequently, The rain-drenched flowing into the sea. Mangroves are an the damage caused is minimized. countryside was a lush extremely biodiverse ecosystem and “If a tsunami was to hit Mumbai, it canvas of green. But this serve as a habitat for fish, crustaceans, would wipe out nearly everything, Twasn’t the countryside, and it wasn’t amphibians, micro-organisms, insects, except for Vikhroli, as it is surrounded June. This was the urban sprawl of reptiles and migratory birds. by mangrove forests which will Vikhroli, Mumbai, in the middle of The ecological functions of protect it,” explains Vivek Kulkarni, October. We were in the midst of shady mangrove forests and their value as environmentalist and member of mangroves. A short walk led us back renewable suppliers of goods and the Mangroves India Society and the to the gray, concrete jungle that has services are grossly underestimated. Godrej Mangrove Project. replaced the lush mangroves that once Advocate Girish Raut, member of In recent years, mangrove lands dominated the city. the Mangrove India Society says, have been exploited for various Mangroves grow in intertidal “Mangroves are one of the most purposes. The mangrove land in regions i.e. the area between the biodiverse areas in the world. Their Goregaon, for instance, is being lowest points of a low tide to the biodiversity is comparable to that of exploited to construct a private 550- highest point of a high tide. These the Amazon.” acre golf course. The mangroves in salt-tolerant species are the only Mangroves act as a buffer against Kanjurmarg are being proposed as plants that thrive in this region. tsunamis and cyclones. They are like a dumping grounds for garbage. The The roots are spread parallel to the giant air bag that absorbs their impact. greatest destruction of mangroves has earth forming a network, which help Even a coastal wave thirty to fifty feet been for housing. Debi Goenka, one of

52 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 Mumbai’s leading environmentalists and thousands of crores, so they are Shivaji Park Dakshita Samiti, Save and a founding member of the getting money by reclaiming land and Versova Forum, Dahanu Environment Bombay Environment Action Group selling it. It’s like a cash cow for them,” Protection Committee and the (BEAG), pointed out at a seminar says Darryl D’Monte, environmental Worli-Bandra Sealink Virodhi Kruti conducted by NGO PUKAR on writer, former Resident Editor of Samiti have been actively fighting urban issues in December 2005, “In The Times of India in Mumbai, and for the protection of mangroves in 1981, Indira Gandhi declared that all Chairperson of the International various areas. The Worli-Bandra areas five hundred meters from the Federation of Environmental Sealink Virodhi Kruti Samiti had a coastline should be free of any kind of Journalists. The repercussions of major agitation in April 2002, when development. This declaration was not mass reclamation were not taken “we put boats under cranes to stop legally documented. The law was not into consideration till the July 26, construction,” says Raut, one of its implemented until 1991 with the CRZ-1 2005 floods last year forced fresh members. Despite their protests, the (Coastal Regulation Zone) notification reflection. “The Mahim bay area construction is still in progress. which described the mangroves as has been described as the kidney of On October 6, 2005, the Mumbai ‘ecologically sensitive areas’ which Mumbai,” says D’Monte. Tributaries of High Court passed an order, after a would henceforth be treated as a the Mithi river, from the Sanjay Gandhi Public Interest Litigation was filed ‘Protected Species’.” National Park to Mahim meet in this by the BEAG, that mangroves be Regardless of this, mangroves declared as ‘protected forests’. All continued to be treated insensitively. construction 50 meters around the In the early nineties, mangroves mangrove land was immediately existed in areas such as Thane WHY ARE stopped. It also barred the state and Creek, Mahim, Versova, Gorai and MANGROVES the Bombay Municipal Corporation Ghodbander and a few patches in from developing any government or Bandra, Malabar Hill and Colaba NECESSARY? privately owned mangrove land. as well. Bittu Sehgal, Editor of The 2000-acre Godrej mangrove Sanctuary Asia, has also pointed out • Prevent coastal erosion. Project in Vikhroli has proved to be a in his magazine a 40 per cent loss of success. Kulkarni, who is part of Godrej • Provide food to many marine and mangroves in Mumbai between 1995 Mangrove Project, explains that it is fresh organisms. and 2005. as necessary to protect mangroves as After the CRZ notification (1991) • Hold a diverse ecosystem it is to regenerate them. He took us to came into effect, the MMRDA (Mumbai the mangroves forest in Vikhroli to see Metropolitan Region Development • Absorb water and reduce the one of the protected mangrove areas Authority) adopted certain piecemeal impact of floods. in the city. strategies to preserve mangrove These forests will soon house • Act as a protective wall against forests. However, this rich wetland a butterfly garden and a wooden tsunamis and cyclones. ecosystem is on the path to irreversible walking path across the mangroves. damage. According to the MMRDA This inclusion will not only help draw plan for the Bandra-Kurla Complex, people’s attention to mangroves, but 283 hectares of mangrove forests were area carrying sewage, silt, chemicals, also make their visits a visitor friendly reclaimed from the inter-tidal zone of metal particles, water, etc. which flows experience. Mahim Bay for development. into the sea at Mahim Bay. Through Though individual groups and Vivek Kulkarni explains, “The this region, a large amount of the city’s NGOs have been successful in Thane Creek was approximately fifty waste is flushed into the sea. protecting mangroves by taking up feet deep a hundred years ago. Today it Girish Raut explains, “The projects such as this one, one must is only thirteen to fourteen feet deep.” reclamation of Mahim Bay for the realize that it is only a handful of This drop in its water-carrying capacity Worli-Bandra Sealink has led to the them that have been successful, is largely due to the destruction of destruction of mangroves which whereas the majority is still struggling mangroves for commercial use. The helped protect the coastline from to protect this species. For their mangrove forests hold on to silt-loads, erosion. Now that the mangroves continued growth, protection and thereby preventing silting of creeks have been destroyed, it is being regeneration, it is up to the citizens and rivers, which serve as a great usurped by the aggressive sea and and the government to take on the backup for draining out the water from the area reclaimed. Places like Dadar responsibility of protecting these the city. The gradual silting reduces Chowpatty, which is now a narrow fifty plants that protect us. their capacity which leads to an feet patch will soon cease to exist if no Cherry Fernandes overflow into the land. action is taken.” Khushboo Gwalani “The state is in debt of hundreds Citizen’s initiatives such as the Tanika Jalan.

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2006-2007 Sindhi Abaani Boli (SINDHI—OUR ANCESTRAL LANGUAGE)

The community has cared more about possessions and comfort than the rich cultural heritage and language, which is now losing its distinctness. BY DIMPLE SHARMA

ifty-two letters; forty- seven borrowed from Arabic; Five original letters to encompass the sounds of a new tongue. A history that goes back Fto 1538, when the earliest records of the Sindhi language were found. And yet, Hari Tanwani, Editor of Mahraan (The Sea), a Sindhi weekly newspaper can claim only three thousand readers across thirty-eight cities in India. According to Wikipedia, 18.5 million in Pakistan speak Sindhi language and two million in India. This figure seems inflated if one considers the circulation figures forMahraan. When did the Sindhi language begin to die? “I do not know how to speak Sindhi; we don’t communicate in Sindhi at home,” says Ritika, a 12th standard student; “I feel embarrassed if my friends call me ‘Sindhi’ because KIRTI CHATURVEDI KIRTI there are many stereotypical notions attached to the community.” This the number of Sindhi schools have anyone comes here for the love of is the condition of many teenagers. reduced drastically over the past 10 the mother tongue.” She reluctantly They feel ashamed to be recognized years. agrees that her daughter is educated as ‘Sindhi’; this is the reason that they Teacher-in-charge of Netaji High in an English medium convent school. do not want to learn to read or write School Sindhi Medium, Ulhasnagar, Another teacher of the same school, Sindhi. Lata Jaisinghani says, “The reason that on condition of anonymity says, “The The convent cult has gripped students take admission in our school, number of students is decreasing the parents so much that they learn or any other Sindhi medium school drastically every year. We have no English to communicate with their for that matter, is mainly because students for ‘balmandir kaccha children at home so that they should they are too poor to afford fees of and balmandir pakka’ (Jr. K.G. and be ready to face the global village. English medium schools. Sindhi Sr. K.G.), so we merge the students Parents have become reluctant to schools are funded either by trusts or from both the standards and teach send their children to Sindhi-medium the government, so they don’t have them for two years in same class.” If schools, and this is the reason that to pay a single penny. I doubt that children are forced to go to Sindhi

54 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 arrive from my relatives in Pakistan, I cannot read them either. I feel I am the resident of no man’s land who does not belong anywhere. I do not feel that I am a complete Sindhi. I feel that I am somewhere lost between the glorious past that Sindhis of past generations talk about, and the blurred future of my generation which seems to be willing to merge into mainstream India and accept the languages of the area or the languages of power that surround them. I have lost the feeling of belongingness.” Dr. Dayal Asha, who is one of the earliest Sindhis to acquire his PhD from the University of Mumbai when it was still known as Bombay University, says, “Today’s generation has no idea who our great writers and poets are such as Sami, Sachal, or Popati Hiranandani, for that matter. It is a pity that the rich and glorious KIRTI CHATURVEDI KIRTI heritage of our culture is not getting medium schools, they develop a deep percolated to the youth.” inferiority complex and feel shy to “Our library has over 2500 and communicate with their friends who 3000 books in Sindhi, but hardly study in English medium. “Preeti is anyone ever reads them. It is sad that the leader of our group because she such a treasure is going waste,” says is very smart and can speak English Andrea Pinto, Assistant Librarian fluently, whereas I find it difficult to of Mumbai University. Television communicate even in Hindi,” says personality and film program anchor, 11-year-old Renu. She adds, “I ask Rajeev Masand, says, “Today’s my parents to let me go to English generation use ‘Sindhi’ only to

medium school, but they say, ‘We KUMAR SHIVANI communicate with their grandparents. cannot afford it.’ But I still wish I could It is sad that after partition, Sindhis speak English. I hate it when my Minority College), agrees that the have lost the sense of belonging and friends make fun of my Sindhi accent. students take the benefit of being have no hometown to back to. But it is I want to be like them.” ‘Sindhi’ while taking admission, but a survivor community, and it has only when it comes to selecting Sindhi progressed each day. And Sindhi is a student of Sindhi language as an option to study, very survivor language that may well find Minority College, few of them do it. new life across the borders in Pakistan, Ulhasnagar, on condition “I can’t say I’m very different. A just as Urdu has.” of anonymity says, laf ‘amb’, be ‘balan’… that is what my Sadhu Vaswani has rightly said, “During our annual grandmother used to teach me when I “The Sindhi don’t have a land, nation, collegeA festival, we have one Sindhi was a kid, and that is all I know about or state to call their own, they are a cultural function. Our principal the Sindhi script. I was not very keen scattered community, spread all over literally orders the security guards to on learning a new language and script India, and in most countries of the shut the gates so that the students especially when I had loads of stuff world. If there is one thing that will do not go out; even then we bribe to study in school. Learning Sindhi help us retain our identity, it is our the gatekeeper and try to sneak out. was part of a game that I used to play language. Unfortunately Sindhis have We really get bored listening to it and with my grandmother. Now 15 years neglected their mother tongue, and search for a chance to escape.” later, my refusal to learn has come to if we don’t use the language, we will Dinesh Panjwani, Principal of Smt. roost. My grandmother’s eyesight has lose it. Language is the soul of our Chandibai Himathmal Mansukhani grown weak. She cannot read but I community. If the soul goes away, how College (also known as Sindhi cannot read to her either. When letters long can the community last?”

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 55 From THE ARCHIVES

2007-2008

It was in 1947 that the Progressive Artists Group was formed in Bombay. The founder members of the group were artists F N Souza, K H Ara, and S H Raza. Other members included Art-Mart M F Husain, H A Gade, and S K Bakre. PAYAL KAPADIA and ANAMIKA NANDY capture how art, from These artists claimed they “painted with absolute freedom for content and being a personal, exploratory journey, may now be transforming into technique, almost anarchic... .” Their yet another purely commercial pursuit. art harbored socialist ideals, which was the mood of the country at the time. The group split up in 1956, but it had paved the way for future artists. The artists of that time struggled to make ends meet. M F Husain, whose work sells for crores today, started out as a signboard painter, earning about six annas per square foot. Other artists would get meager monthly stipends from galleries. Some artists, like Sudhir Patwardhan and Gieve Patel, had other careers on which they depended on for an income. Patwardhan was a radiologist, and Patel was a GP. “One never expected to earn from art,” says artist Navjot Altaf. “I would do screen prints in order to make money.” Although the infrastructure available for artists was frugal compared to that available today, there was significant scope for experimentation. Open spaces, like the Bhulabhai Institute at Warden Road, allowed for artists from all fields to interact and influence one another, VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA providing them with work spaces. here was a time when kids to art schools where people are Here, musician Pandit Ravi Shankar the word “artist” cashing in on the art boom that has ran a music school; dramatist Ebrahim conjured up a certain hit the country. Art is no longer just Alkazi conducted theatre workshops image in our minds— a reflection of society but a money- and painters like Tyeb Mehta started the image of a khadi- minting profession. their careers. Artist Bal Chabda, who clad, left-wing person, At the eve of Indian independence, was reasonably well off, would support Tcontent in the impoverishment. Today, there was a desire to come up with a other artists. Chabda started Gallery however, things have changed. An modern art genre that was intrinsic 59 at the Bhulabhai Institute, creating artist today is a Page-3 celebrity, party to India, rather than being influenced a space where younger artists’ work hopping in her Mercedes, dressed in by the western styles that were could be exhibited. the best designer clothing. dominant in the world. Artists were Art was now considered a lucrative “My parents were completely desperately experimenting and investment rather than a visual and against me being an artist in those seeking the ‘Indian form,’ not only to intellectual expression. The nouveau days. ‘What will you live on?’ they assert their independence as a nation riche bought artwork to prove their asked me,” says artist Nalini Malani. but also their intellectual and cultural existence and that they could afford Today, parents are happy to send their independence. works of art. It was also a method

56 • • MARGINALIA 19881987 -- 20172017 they used to show that they were not merely wealthy but also cultured. Today, many from the nouveau riche employ interior decorators to decide what artwork would look best in their homes and reflect their lifestyles. Another trend that has now exploded is art-investment funds. The trend is similar to the concept of mutual funds, where several people purchase artwork together through such a fund and store it in climate- control vaults till the prices boom. Sadly, these artworks are not even viewed and are solely for money- making purposes. Several galleries like the Sakshi Gallery at Colaba have launched such funds, making these galleries more like shops.

verybody wants a piece of the pie. Galleries have burgeoned throughout SINGHANIA VEDIKA the city. Where a few years ago there were artworks are highly overpriced and and accepted. Video artists like Tushar only a few like Jehangir follow similar styles,” he says. These Joag and Sharmila Samant, who EArt Gallery, Pundole, and Chemould, artworks are like exclusive interior previously struggled to get their work today there are over twenty galleries design, very large, brightly-coloured exhibited, are now able to do so much in South Bombay alone. Lifestyle and often very realistic. They are also easily. Even though these works are magazines and channels have also decorative and make lavish use of still not easily sellable, they are at least started featuring artworks that are attractive colours like gold. “They are exhibited more often in alternative “must- have” items that define luxury. flashy, like advertisements, and artists galleries like Project 88. These artists India Today’s recent edition of Spice stick to the same style, creating quick are “Open Circle,” a group where artists had artworks by artists like Atul replicable editions of their works,” says of alternative ideologies could come Dodiya, often quoting their prices. The Pijnappel. together. magazine followed the same pattern “One is at the right place at the Artists like Navjot Altaf have with types of wine and perfume, right time!” says artist Jitish Kalat, also given back to society through indicating how the value of an artwork when asked about his personal success art. She has spent years working in has deteriorated to a mere luxury in the present art scenario. Artists are Bastar, Chhattisgarh, where she has commodity. Other artists have worked now part of a larger capitalist race, encouraged tribals to rediscover their their way up and are now enjoying the where competition has overtaken own art. Also, she has tried to promote financial perks of the boom. However, compassion. Where previously the this art as a parallel art rather than their work reflects the common artist was the conscience of a society, craft. She fears that with the rising man and has a left-wing inclination. today he works like an assembly-line interest in art, many such indigenous An example of this is artist Sudhir manufacturer, producing many more artists will be crushed. Patwardhan. Which is perhaps why paintings a year than ever before. Thus, whereas everyone is he said “No comments” when asked Artists have no qualms about hiring enjoying the fruits of the art market, about the art boom. assistants and directing them to some are exploring alternative As a result, the nature of the art paint in a desired way. So the next avenues. The question now is: and the artist has also changed. Johan time you buy an artwork, consider whether the art boom is sustainable? Pijnappel, an art historian, calls this the possibility that the artist who While the Indian artist is raking in phenomenon “BRIC art.” BRIC is an has signed may not have painted it moolah in India, they have hardly acronym for the countries Brazil, himself. acquired international recognition. It is Russia, India, and China. “These There are some positives that only when they are able to do this, will economies have all seen a sudden have emerged as well. Video and the art-market growth be a long-term boom in the art world, where the installation art is more widely shown phenomenon.

MARGINALIAMARGINALIA 19881987 - 2017 • • 57 From THE ARCHIVES

2008-2009

studies, her parents don’t mind too Know your rights much. Most middle-class parents want their daughters to complete their Can you be an empowered woman if you don’t know your rights? graduation from local colleges and get PRIYANKA LONDHE thinks not. a normal nine-to-five job in the vicinity so that a benevolent eye can be kept on her. n India, being a woman is that degree, laughing indulgently dressing “decently” after puberty, when she says she does not want to PROPERTY: being modest, working not for marry yet, smiling at her sky-high This attitude, wherein a woman is a career but to pass a little time expectations from herself, even seen as unable to be a part of “worldly” until she gets married. That allowing her to talk with suitable men matters has formed the basis of law in way when a woman marries under strict parental supervision at India. For example, for many decades, Iand conceives, she can leave her job weddings. These indulgences come the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 and tend to her child. It’s part of her with a statutory warning that any of says that only male members of a socialization: even as an unmarried them can be taken away, at any time, Hindu family, which held its property woman, she must learn to take care without discussion. under the Mitakshara system, could of the house and to cook, so that in In India, a girl is seen as a inherit family property. An unmarried the absence of her partner, the male representative of her family. What she daughter of the family does not inherit members of the family suffer no does, who are her friends, what is she anything legally. The assumption was discomfort. The girl child soon realizes wearing and studying is significantly that what was hers had to be given she has no rights. She is only “allowed” scrutinized. Boys are only judged on to her as dowry anyway; the law was to do what she wants as long as it fits how much they will be able to earn. amended in 2004, insufficiently. A in with how her parents, specially her How many girls are encouraged by woman may ask for partition of a joint father, think a girl should behave. their parents to study and be career family; however, she still has no rights Many things here are given oriented? Very few. to agricultural land. But why should to a daughter as a form of indulgence— When a girl doesn’t do her that surprise you? Globally, women letting her wear jeans, letting her get homework or does badly in her own only 1 per cent of the land. The rest is owned by men.

MARRIAGE: Many women don’t know their basic rights. This can be quite dangerous because it means we don’t know when these rights have been infringed upon. For instance, few women know that the law does not allow a woman to be arrested after sunset, that she can only be arrested if a female constable is present, that she cannot be held in an ordinary lock up with other men. Further, few people know that they have the right to be presented before a magistrate within twenty-four hours of their arrest. This is called the right of habeas corpus, and it is only suspended under emergency and under draconian measures relating to terrorism. There exists substantial ignorance about inter-religious marriages. A matrimonial lawyer at a legal help centre for woman

KIRTI CHATURVEDI KIRTI says, “There is a provision in the constitution for women who want to

58 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 marry men of other religions. It’s called of mind, then immediate action is changed) account: He had a steady the Special Marriage Act (1954).” supposed to be taken. relationship with a girl; he was a This law allows a couple to marry However, the abuser only gets performer at work, quite friendly and from different religions without having punished if the victim can prove the popular in his office. The couple was to convert to the other’s religion. harassment with the help of evidence, well liked in social circles. His fault Availing this SMA (Special Marriage like pornographic mails, smses, and was that he recorded some intimate Act) certificate is simple. You have to the like. It’s said that just the complaint moments with his girlfriend on his contact the Marriage Officer of your from the victim is enough. cellphone. He then transferred it on district. You fill out the forms, attach “If the offence is validated, then a pendrive. Many days passed, and age and residence proof to show ideally the abuser should be strictly he forgot about it. Once his friend that you are above 18 and 21 years punished. The abuser has not only asked for the pendrive to watch a for women and men, respectively. psychologically damaged the victim movie stored in it. He sent it through a The court needs 30 days advance but has also violated multiple stranger who happened to see it before notification. After 30 days, a notice fundamental rights in the Indian handing it over to the friend. When he is put up at the registrar’s office. The constitution, namely right to life saw all the clippings, he forwarded it to notice is not sent to either party’s and livelihood (article 21), gender the entire office consisting of around house. equality (article 14 and 15(1)), work 200 employees. Damage control was The law however cannot deal with with dignity and protection against done by the IT department of the office social pressure. Nor does it seem to sexual harassment (article 32),” says and managers, but Sharma suffered act when young people belonging to the lawyer. severe humiliation and depression. He different religions marry. Sometimes In reality, the abuser is either let never told his girlfriend and left the families resort to desperate measures off with a warning or transferred to office soon after. in order to prevent such “dishonor.” another branch of the same corporate, Many girls face moral dilemmas Killing the young couple is not or if the complainant wants to transfer, in India, when it comes to having uncommon. it is granted to them so few things pre-marital relationships, sexual or The law, if it is to be given teeth, seem to work in the complainant’s otherwise. There are cases where the must be protected. And our rights favor. She must not only prove the boys/men have threatened to release must be enforced. harassment but also has to make do sex tapes or videos, which explicitly with superficial punishment given detail their private act. It may happen SEXUAL HARASSMENT: to her abuser. What must happen in cases where the girls want to end Some women in India have attained to women who are harassed by top the relationship and move on with economic independence through officials of their company? Who will their lives. However, the man, in his education. However, in a professional believe her? Where will she go if she obsessiveness, may threaten her or atmosphere she is often looked upon leaves her job on a bad note? It will not actually release videos, the way it as a sex object, and unflattering, only cause her acute stigma and make happened with the 15-year-old girl. undesirable, and obscene advances are it difficult for her to work in the same There are many perverts who get made by her male colleagues. office, but if she goes somewhere else money out of it as well but sometimes, A young female lawyer says, “In to work, what guarantee does she have both the girl and the boy, can be many cases, women are not given their that she is safe? victimized by a third person. In such salaries and are overburdened with cases, lawyers suggest that a woman work if they don’t comply with the BLACKMAIL: can file a case in Magistrates Court, requests of their colleagues and seniors It was April 4 when the DNA ran an Civil Court, High Court, City Court; at work.” article about a 15-year-old girl whose she can press charges like defamation This terrifies the woman, makes boyfriend circulated an MMS of section 499 right to privacy breach her feel cheap and cripples her feelings their sexual act. They had an affair, of privacy and confidentiality under of self-worth. In most cases, due to or relationship, if you will. The boy IT Act 2000 Section 72 and charges excess feelings of disgust and shame convinced the girl that he would against obscenity section 19 to which and a fear of vengeance from the eventually marry her. This is how he comes the fundamental right of abusers, the victim of sexual or mental not only managed to have sex but free expression and thought when harassment never reveals her problem. also recorded the act on his cellphone. required. There is supposed to be a Since she was a minor, the boy was However, filing a case and fighting committee in every office that deals convicted of raping her. for it can be psychologically, socially, with corporate sexual harassment. If you think that these things and financially taxing for a woman. It is supposed to be formed and led happen to kids, or “really dumb girls So even if women have laws that can by women. If a woman registers a who walked into trouble,” then you potentially curb problems, taking the complaint in a visibly distressed state have to consider Raj Sharma’s (name legal route is tougher than expected.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 59 From THE ARCHIVES

2009-2010

farmers’ groups, basically people who cared about justice and biodiversity Against the grain and collected about a hundred thousand signatures of people to file Why is the Green Revolution a failure? What’s wrong with the BT a case in European Patents Office. I Brinjal? Why does a cancer train run to Bikaner? Sonam Saigal gets did this with two other women: one some answers from VANDANA SHIVA. who used to be the President of the International Federation of Organic Movements worldwide and the other, the President of the European Greens. f the spinning wheel was This partnership was necessary the symbol of our first because without them it would have independence, then the meant that I would have had to fly to seed is the symbol of second Europe constantly. Instead with their

independence,” says Dr. ARCHIVES SCM help, I had to go when it was absolutely Vandana Shiva. In her many necessary. One of the biggest “Iavatars, as environmentalist, physicist, companies in the US jointly held the feminist and philosopher, hers has patent; it took us eleven years to fight been a powerful voice emanating from the case, but we won and the decision deep conviction and grounded in was taken on International Women’s solid research. Her ability to combine Day. intellectual study with grassroots We fought other cases like the activism in the fields of eco-feminism, Basmati case, the wheat case, and now biopiracy and intellectual property we are preparing a case for all the crops rights has won her many international that are resistant to climate change , awards, including Right Livelihood that have drought/salt/flood/resistance. Award (Alternate Nobel Prize), Earth Day International award and the Global down, “You have to kill us before you What led to the birth of Navdanya? 500 Award. Her Wiki entry tells us that kill the trees.” I think Chipko changed Navdanya is a national programme to she directs the Research Foundation thinking about the environment in the basically fight the seed monopolies. I for Science Technology and Natural country. Before Chipko there was no started it ten years ago when I could Resources Policy in New Delhi. An environment industry. see the emergence of this kind of world associate director of an ecology Then in 1984, the Bhopal Gas of total control. Navdanya means nine magazine, she has many books to her Tragedy occurred, a leak in the seeds. Through it, we can save native credit including Water Wars, Stolen pesticide plant owned by Union seeds. In India, we still have a lot of Harvest; The Highjacking of the Global Carbide and now by Dow Chemicals peasant agriculture. We still have a lot Food Supply; The Violence of the Green killed 3000 people in one night. of seed diversity. We do not try and Revolution; Third-World Agriculture, I went there with a little sample do it as a museum activity. I started Ecology and politics. In her latest book of neem because it controls the pest, Navdanya as a political act so that the Soil not Oil, Dr. Shiva brilliantly reveals to let them know that it might help farmers would have free seed. Using what connects humanity’s most urgent where Union Carbide Pesticides that free seed they would be able to crisis—food insecurity, peak oil and would kill. We then were labeled as resist the kind of control system that climate change. being superstitious about neem. In the new corporations were trying to 1994, I found articles in biotechnology establish in India. Through those Excerpts from the Interview journals that said that neem has been seeds they can establish sustainable, How did you start working as an patented for its ability to control pests. organic agriculture again. environmentalist and ecologist? So when people had the knowledge No seeds are bred for heavy I thought I would be a physicist— about neem, they were considered chemical influence and even that was my passion, but when I was a superstitious, but when the companies now when Monsanto [US-based student a movement started called the knew about it, it was science. multinational agricultural and Chipko Movement; Chipko means the biotechnology corporation, the hug movement: women came out and What followed after that? leading producer of genetically said that they would hug the trees and Then we collected signatures from engineered seed that sells 90 per cent told those who had come to cut them people, from women’s organizations, of the world’s GE seeds] says that its

60 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 genetically engineered crops don’t near as precisely configured as they Why are half of farmers in the world need chemicals. If they were to bring are said to be. Right now it seems to hungry? these seeds in India there would be be fashionable to insert the genes of I call it a failed technology because twenty-fold increase of chemicals unrelated organism into some crop. Punjab today has a dying agriculture because they’d introduce chemicals Earlier, farmers would work with that and unhealthy populace. There is a into farms that have never used them. same species .They would take a strain train called the cancer train because Our native wheat sells at twice the of wheat and cross it with another it runs to Bikaner where the poor price that the high yielding variety strain and hope that the offspring have Punjabi peasant goes to get treatment wheat flour sells at because it’s much the good qualities of both. By trial and for the cancer he has contracted from tastier, much nicer for chapatis. It error some interesting hybrids were the water he drinks, which has been was evolved for making chapatis. Our created. Now we cross species; you can poisoned by fertilizers. native legumes sell for much more put human genes in cows, take tomato because not only are they organic they genes and put them in fish. Is it true that the use of GE crops are tastier, they are more nutritious. also contribute to the farmer’s They are better for the earth. But won’t genetically engineered suicide? Part of our battle has been to give crops increase productivity? Most farmers kill themselves on the respect again to the innovations of There is an assumption that day debtors are at the door, to seize the the farmers and the diversity that genetically engineered crops increase land. The internal justification is that the earth has provided. What I often productivity. But across the world, the use of genetically modified brinjal say is that through the seed saving of over the last 20 years, there has been will decrease the use of pesticide Navdanya, we have managed to make no increase in the yields—this has a and hence boost the economy. But the celebration of diversity our mode of very specific reason. Yield is related to with BT cotton, the use of pesticide resistance. many genes, together called the multi has increased thirteen-fold! They genetic trait. The only traits that are are promoting monoculture, and How will GM crops affect the commercialized in these 20 years are that is the recipe to increase the use growth of the Indian economy? herbicide resistant and BT toxins—both of pesticides as well. The plant’s Basically, these seeds create single gene traits. So basically there metabolism has been disrupted, and offspring that do not breed true. You is no increase in the yield; whatever that makes it lose its immunity. This engineer them because you want yield comes in is from the original means more pesticides again. the farmers to come back every year. crop. So why not use the conventional The farmer cannot save the seed for methods. Climate change is closely linked the next year as he has always done. From the Green Revolution, I learn to agriculture. How would you fit These genetically engineered seeds are that Punjab didn’t produce more food; in this industrial push for GM foods hardly 20 years old, but they are made it produced more rice and wheat, dal, in the climate change debate? Is to sound sophisticated and accurate greens, etc. So as far as the food balance climate change an excuse to push because we are told that the bio- is concerned, the food output is GM? engineers are working at the genetic reduced. If the revolution has worked A biotechnology company in Bangkok level, while in fact they are nowhere why is every fourth Indian hungry? is really trying to push genetically modified crops as a solution to climate change. The argument was the round of resistance crops; they are now reformulating these as conservation crops. When you spray herbicide, you kill everything green. Normally you control one weed one ploughs. VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA If the farm is small, women weed by hand. But now there seems to be only one method of weeding: spraying herbicides. The real solution for climate change is not the carbon credit system by which the polluters end up hugely rich. It is organic farming. We can reduce up to 40 per cent of emissions by growing food right. It would be beneficial for us, and farmers would make money.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 61 From THE ARCHIVES

2010-2011 Tales from the one–person tent ZAHRA GABUJI listens in to whispers that issue from behind the veil.

My story View from First, self-implication: I am a behind the Muslim woman. veil 1 I am a Muslim woman who chooses not to wear the burkha or the ridha, which would have been part of my cultural tradition as a Bohra. I claim no special feminist position on this. It is probably only because women in my family do not ordinarily wear the ridha that I have not been pressurised into wearing it. To me, therefore, it is a garment that symbolises oppression. So I think I can understand what Sara S feels when she writes: “We are caged birds/our wings have been mutilated.”

SARA’S STORY Sara S is 15 years old and studies in

college. For most young women this KHAN NILOFER is the time when they make a whole new range of acquaintances. Not for of Mass Media course but I keep not want to wear something that was Sara. Following her mother and elder wondering if I will fit in.” She fears her thought of as appropriate by religious sister, Sara started wearing the burkha. burkha will create a problem when she experts. As I grew up, my mother also She felt marked. “I started wearing applies for a job. never asked me to wear it. the burkha when I was 11 years old. I When I asked my mother about studied in a convent school, so they did My story it she said, “The ridha does not really not allow headscarves and burkha in I ask my mother why she did cover the women’s body. The upper the school premises. I would take off not make me wear the ridha when veil shows the women’s body when the burkha before I entered the school I attained puberty, the time around the hands are lifted; for me it does not premises. One day the principal called which Bohra women start wearing serve the purpose. It is not really a me to her cabin and said I could not it. This ceremony is called misaaq. hijab. Also I never wore the ridha in my remove the burkha before the school A misaaq is an initiation of a person youth so it would be wrong for me to gate since people living in the area into the fold of adulthood; a misaaq is ask my daughter to wear it as well.” and parents of other students were performed by a priest upon a teenager, constantly watching. This coming who is ready to take his/her own A FATHER’S STORY from a highly educated woman, the responsibilities and duties as a Muslim. Moshin Mirza, father of Sana and principal of St. Louis High School in My misaaq was done when I was 15 Roohi who are six and twelve years Mumbai.” years old after which I was supposed old, does not allow his daughters to Sara aspires to become a journalist. to wear the ridha. I did not wear it wear western clothes. He says, “My She says, “I want to do the Bachelor afterwards; it felt claustrophobic. I did girls have to wear salwar kameez and

62 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 burkha later in life. This is what is View from given and this is the right thing to do. behind the Women cannot roam around as they veil 2 wish; there are certain bondages and certain boundaries that they have to follow. My girls have developing bodies and figures and they need to cover themselves with a dupatta when they move out of the house. It is not just about religion. I do not want anyone to comment on my daughters or look at them. If they attract attention then it is bad for me. This Bombay air goes to everyone’s head and I do not want that to happen to my girls. So my girls wear salwar kameez from childhood and know that they have to wear the burkha when they cross puberty.” The Mirza family have been our neighbours for a decade. Sana and

Roohi have always seen their mother KHAN NILOFER and aunts wear the burkha and salwar kameez. They were made to wear hijab as a receptionist because Almighty.” it from childhood so they do not then his whole office gets looked Nazra feels that she has always had question it now. Roohi wants to learn upon as a ‘Muslim’ place rather to make more effort than other women swimming, but cannot do because than a ‘professional’ workspace. do to prove herself. “I visited the it requires her to wear a swimming And that is a valid concern. At the Mumbai University for admission in costume. She is not allowed to have same time, I have been pleasantly the English Literature masters course male friends. Sana loves dancing which surprised at a young woman in a this year. My mother had accompanied is strongly discouraged in the house. burkha landing up at my home from me, and we both were wearing the The girls are silent. a pathology laboratory to take my burkha and naqab. The in-charge at blood. She came early one morning the admissions desk looked at me *** wearing a black burkha and with her a and asked, “Will you be able to handle Sameera Khan, independent medical kit, very efficiently drew my a Masters-level course?” More than journalist and researcher, who is blood, stored it away safely, gave me a humiliated, I was amused. It is sad researching ‘the old Muslim mohallas receipt and went back to her path lab. how some people view the burkha and of Mumbai’ says, “I think the burkha Her burkha didn’t matter, her skill and women who wear the burkha. When both opens access for Mumbai women efficiency did.” he heard me speaking to my mom in and closes it. In traditional families that fluent English, he was hiding his face,” allow women and girls very little access NAZRA’S STORY says Nazra. to spaces outside their homes, the “Our dreams have been doctored, She worked at a gym as a fitness burkha or hijab becomes a way through we belong nowhere, we sail instructor during the summer holidays. which women can access worlds unanchored on troubled seas, and we She trained during the ladies hours. outside their homes and can pursue may never be allowed ashore,” writes She says, “Initially I would get many study, work, or fun by wearing it. But Nazra S, 22, a resident of Andheri. stares from clients while I took off my at the same time, there are spaces and “I started wearing the burkha late burkha. They became comfortable professions that will close themselves in my life. My father passed away when once they got to know me better. But to women in burkha. Sometimes it is I was 11 years old. My mother, born back then it made me feel unhappy because that work cannot be done by a Brahmin, now a Muslim convert, and uncomfortable.” wearing a burkha, particularly one that suggested I should think about wearing Nazra wants to be a teacher and involves the naqaab (face covering), burkha and naqab. I read the Quran and write a novel. She wonders if future and sometimes because people the Hadith and took my time to make employers will be willing to hire a are prejudiced against people who up my mind; I decided I would wear woman who is good at her work as a observe purdah and consider them to it only if I believed in it completely. I teacher but dressed in a burkha. “The be incompetent or illiterate. I know wear it because I respect and have faith question arises in my mind all the someone who won’t hire a woman in a in the relationship I share with the time,” she says.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 63 From THE ARCHIVES

NAJAM’S STORY Najam Mashadi, 30, a dentist, has experienced quite a struggle during her job-hunting days. “I went to a well- known clinic for a job in Bandra few months ago; the owner of the clinic questioned me about the burkha and naqab I observed and opposed it. The nature of my job does not allow me to wear a burkha in the clinic since I have to deal with many machines throughout the day but if I were doing a desk job or a job that required minimal movement, I would wear the burkha even at work. It is second skin View from to me. I told the owner of the clinic that behind the I would wear a headscarf while treating veil 3 patients since even male patients visit KHAN NILOFER the clinic. She had a problem even job, where every passer-by would really want to wear the burkha?” She if I removed the burkha in the clinic be able to see her. She hesitated and folded the burkha and put it away. because she was afraid people would remained quiet. For her, giving up the burkha was a make assumptions about her clinic. I Many Muslim women say they way of participating in a journey of walked out of that clinic immediately. wear the burkha not based on any self-discovery and she did this with Wearing the burkha is a personal pressure but for their own self. The the help of her husband. Here was choice, so no woman must be forced to right to wear or not to wear the burkha a Muslim man, who helped his wife wear it or criticised for wearing it. It is is an individual choice and it is and silently revolt against something she my credibility as a dentist that matters would be incorrect for anyone to had been doing unquestioningly for so at work. condemn it or force it. But having said many years. He made her think, reason “Even during my internship days, I that, we form perceptions of people and understand herself. used to get many worried expressions from our interactions, experiences and On the other hand, Kamala Das, from the patients when they saw me observations which are not necessarily one of feminism’s best-known faces, enter in a burkha. My father used to wrong or right. The black burkha is suddenly decided that she wanted to tell me, “Beta, do not wear the burkha a strong marker of a Muslim woman get into purdah, when she converted to if it is giving you trouble at work,” that probably makes her stand out Islam and became Kamala Soraya. but I told him that I would get a job more than anyone else. Then again, “I liked the purdah which Muslim on my conditions. Today I work at a women are marked in various ways by women wore. I liked the orthodox clinic in Bandra, where I remove the the patriarchal system itself. Sindoor lifestyle of Muslim women. I don’t burkha when I come inside and wear for instance, is a strong marker put by want freedom. I had enough of it thrust a headscarf. My work is what matters a man to mark a woman as married to on me. Freedom had become a burden and not my clothing. No one in my him. The stereotypes surrounding the for me. I want guidelines to regulate family wears the burkha but they burkha have often caused hindrances and discipline my life. I want a master are always worried that people will for several women to get jobs and to protect me. I wanted protection and discriminate against me because of my study further. not freedom. I want to be subservient burkha.” to Allah. In fact, for the past 24 years A VEIL THAT DISAPPEARED – I had worn a purdah off and on. I had POOJA’S STORY AND ONE THAT APPEARED gone to markets, matinee shows and Pooja Malhotra, human resources Saeed Mirza in his book, Ammi: even while abroad I had worn purdah. expert for a reputed media agency Letters to a Democratic Mother, I have several of them. A woman in says, “We have several Muslim women (Westland Books, 2008), tells us about purdah is respected. No one touches working for us in our company. We his mother Jahanara Begum who had you or teases you, if you wear one. You do not hire on the basis of religion. If been wearing the burkha ever since she get total protection. I like the purdah, you are good at you work and fit the was 13 years old. Her husband Nusrat which Muslim woman wear. I like the requirements, you are hired.” When I Beg (Farhat Akhtar Mirza) encouraged lifestyle of Muslim women. Purdah is a asked her if she would hire a woman her to shed the burkha. He simply wonderful dress. No man ever makes a dressed in a burkha for a receptionist asked her one day, “Begum, do you pass at a woman in purdah. It provides

64 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 her with a sense of security,” she performance called BurkaBondage. and how this affects their lives. It explained much to the dismay of her BurkaBondage is a modern dance requires a deeper understanding of feminist and Marxist friends. performance about the burkha the Muslim community and the issues in Afghanistan and bondages of of occupation, class, caste, origin SHAANAZ’S STORY various kinds in Japan. Through and place of living in Mumbai that Shaanaz Shaikh, 26, did not find BurkaBondage, the dance spoke of the surround them. it difficult to get a job. She presently bondages that surround women. works at the Centre of Study of Society Sex, relationships, marriage, My story and Secularism and is doing her society, clothing, people’s opinions, France bans the burkha; the Shiv research on ‘Fatwas on Muslim Women perceptions can all turn into bondages Sena wants the burkha banned after in India’. Shanaaz wears the burkha of one kind or another. Sometimes a burkha-clad woman steals a baby while travelling but takes it off at work. these bondages are invisible and so at a civic hospital. It is only one of the She says, “I wear loose salwar kameez integral a part of our lives that we do several groups that have asked for this; at work. I feel comfortable wearing a not even look upon them as bondages. all agree it is a security measure. But is burkha when I am outside because I This dance uses the two regions it really? feel protected, safe and I do not attract of Afghanistan and Japan, talking I went to Jogger’s Park in Bandra for attention. I started wearing the burkha through their younger generation a walk a few months ago. What I heard during my college days at Sophia women. Through two women from there made me realise how much we College. My friends used to wear the both the regions, we see the fight to internalize the various things that burkha and I took to it naturally. I did escape, to break free from the various happen around us. Sitting a few steps not come from a household where bondages that women experience away from me was a woman with her women wore the burkha, but after me, throughout life. Women are given son, who was merrily playing in the even my mother started wearing it. I several names, put into stereotypes sand pit. I watched him as he struggled have been subjected to discrimination by men and society and this is shown to make a decent mountain out of several times while wearing the through a part of the dance that has the sand. On the walking track, that burkha. Professors at Mumbai the dancer behaving like a bitch in runs parallel to the sand pit, walked a University used to ask me if my parents heat. This explicit visual reminded me woman dressed in a black burkha with allowed me to study willingly and if my of Henry Miller’s narration of a sexual only her hands visible. I overheard the family was progressive. I have taught scene in Sexus. The description of the mother saying to her son, “If you go at Bhavan’s College and Government woman angers me. Women cannot close to her she will take you away.” I Law College previously and I used to express or enjoy sexual freedom. do not know what it was that triggered remove the burkha inside the college Their bondages do not allow them to her reaction. Was it the woman who while lecturing students. Now at do so. For women in India, bondage stole the baby from the civic hospital? work as well, I am more comfortable begins at an early age. No education The colour black? The fact that she was working without a burkha. It is more = bondage; early marriage = bondage; Muslim? convenient. But I am not sure if the no indecent clothing = bondage; long I walked away wondering how colleges would be comfortable with hair = bondage. The burkha to me is a and why we judge people around a teacher teaching their students, restrictive garment that is bondage. But us without knowing anything about dressed in a burkha.” it is not like that for a young girl living them. How can we lose faith in an in Madanpura, a Muslim populated entire community simply because My story area, where women are in hijab most some people have misused the In my pursuit to understand the of the time. It is not so easy to tackle burkha? What is it about a piece of burkha and what it means to different the issue of Muslim women, and the cloth that makes it so potent? And people, I went to watch a dance different kinds of hijab and burkha what about the son? What does he go on to think about this woman or View from several women that he will see in behind the a burkha as he grows up? Several veil 4 questions remain unanswered. NILOFER KHAN NILOFER Purdah is a kind of safety. The body finds a place to hide. The cloth fans out against the skin muck like the earth that falls On coffins after they put dead men in. Imitiaz Dharker, Purdah, Oxford University Press, 1989

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2011-2012 “Democracy is millions of small actions” It may be, but Aruna Roy’s actions in starting the Right to Information campaign have made her a role model to millions of young women across the country. VINELLE VAZ interviewed the IAS officer-turned-activist.

Mumbai, she redefined feminism for the woman of today. Feminism is not, as is widely perceived; she emphasized the power of collectives for women and spoke of how feminism continues SCM ARCHIVES SCM to influence her life and work.

Could you tell us about the Jansunwani (Public Hearing) that heralded in India? How did the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) think of organizing them? Actually, we began with some fast unto death strikes, amaran anshani we called those. They were agitations against minimum wages. Twice in 1991, we sat on hunger fast, but the problem with hunger fasts is that you ask for redressal and justice. We felt that there was something wrong with this process; we wanted to protest with strength. We wanted a strengthening and empowering tool, one that did not make us beggars in front of the very system that was exploiting us. The other parallel fight that we had was that every time we went to the government and said that we have worked eight hours, they would say our records do not show that. It became important for us to get hold of these records. While we were thinking about all this in a collective, runa Roy walked in crucial prerequisites for any kind of it occurred to us that we should have calm and confident. public service: ‘joy’ and ‘satisfaction’. an assembly of people and somehow She must know Regardless of what she does and access these facts. Then we should put that the story of her whom she works with, she clarifies the facts in front of people, and people journey from an Indian that all of us are equal. should testify. Thereafter, that whole Administrative Service At her address to the students of argument—that the government has (IAS)A officer to a Right to Information the Social Communications Media another set of facts—will be finished (RTI) activist defines one of the Department at the Sophia Polytechnic, because all facts will have come from

66 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 government papers. Rs. 3500. And he/she would say mein bhai ho gaya hoon. Yeh kaise ho The second point is that we will but I have got only Rs. 1500; who sakta hai?’ (When you robbed me was speak from a position of strength and swallowed that other Rs. 2000? Then I not your brother? Now that I have have collective support because it will you go to the third person and say that complained, I have become a brother. be far more effective. There have been you have supplied bricks and stones How is that possible?). That whole public hearings in other parts of the to the extent of so much and you did assembly disbanded. There are people world and in our country before we three trips with your tractor and trolley with tremendous guts, and the enemy had these Jansunwais, but they were and he would say I did not do three sits next door, your sarpanch is in the always held in closed rooms. trips. Who has taken my money? Then village. And your moneylender lives What we did was to sit in an open you go to the next person and say. It four doors down; so you are talking lace. We put up a shamiana (tent). It says here that your father went to work against people in your environment. I did not have any of those kenats (cloth site. He says but father has been dead do not know whether I have the guts walls that mark the boundaries of the five years! How can his name be on the to depose publicly repeatedly against tent), so anyone and everyone could muster roll? my neighbor and that neighbor might join. Of course we had a mike at the You get this kind of tremendous torture me every day in different ways. public hearing, we had a panel, and the anger; anger against being personally So, there are very, very courageous panel consists of experts from outside made a fool of, exploited. At the same people; it’s just that we do not who could express their opinion on time it becomes a public cause. So the recognize this courage. what was happening. We invited coming together of the people then everybody; we invited the people strengthens all of them. If I am alone, Would this be different in a city? who were exploiting and the people I can be victimized, but if there are 15 In rural areas, it is that much who were exploited; so no one was others, then there is no victimization. tougher because you are talking debarred. The only things we insisted The first public hearing was held against your kith and kin. You also on were that nobody who is drunk at Kot Kirana on December 2, 1994. have the security of having your kith could speak at the public hearing, There was huge mobilization against and kin around you. In urban areas nobody could talk party politics, no us. People representing the vested there is freedom because you are not one could settle personal vendettas interests went all over the place and that bounded, but you don’t have your and no one could abuse anybody. said do not go for the public hearing. community protecting you. It is always Besides that you had to focus on the Why should you go? We will beat you difficult to depose, but there is no issues under consideration. If you up if you go. We did not know this, other way and we must speak out. You follow these basic principles, you can so the villagers took our side. They cannot keep quiet about things that speak wherever you want. Anyone put up a parachute, which one of the grow wrong because there is a deep is welcome to testify. It was in this ex-service men had brought back, as a disquiet of guilt of participation in the process that the public hearings begin. tent. They gave us tables, chairs, and crime that you do not report. When made us sit. They offered their homes injustice happens and we are silent, we When we saw the Public Service for us to sleep in. They said don’t sleep consent. You have to protest, so there Broadcast Trust film on your work in the school, you may be beaten up. I think all of us have it in us. What we about the Right to Information, The next day 1500 people turned up really require is a platform, and that many people looked very frightened despite being given liquor and bribes, platform is provided. to come up and speak and yet they and they testified because they were did. So what factors motivated angry; angry with the system, which What prompted you to leave the people to speak up? not only exploited them but tried to stability of your IAS job and take up It is amazing how information bribe them not to depose. the cause of Right to Information? motivates people. That is why it is such The other interesting thing was How can you have a society that a powerful tool. You go up to a person. that it was in the same caste; so the divides itself on caste? How can you You say you are Chitra, or whatever same caste deposed against its own have a society that says women are her name is. She says yes. You say your caste members. They had the Jaati less than men are? How can you have a name is on this record, which says you Panchayats where they called the society, which says rich need so much have been given Rs. 2500 and you whole jaati (caste) and said ostracize more money and the poor can live on have worked for so many days. You this person and throw him out; he Rs. 32 a day? Where is the justice? So ask Chitra, did you receive the money? has had the guts to depose against a then there that disquiet in s. You would see outrage in her response, brother. So a man named Kesar Singhji I think I also had progressive because the money had been taken in went to one of these Jaati Panchayats parents and grandparents. I grew up her name. You go to another woman and said in Hindi, ‘Jab chori shikayat with a lot of progressive talk around or man and say is your name ‘X’. You kar raha hoon to mein bhai nahi thha me, and I always felt that you were have been shown as having received kya? Ab mein shikayat kar raha hoon to not defined by the power you wielded

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 67 From THE ARCHIVES

or the money you had. I grew up dissatisfied with hierarchies; I am a little as possible of an institution. We believing that power lies only in your nonhierarchical person. I hate to be had a contract before we got married ethics. I was very close to the era called something better than others; I that he would not interfere with my of Gandhi. Gandhi died when I was don’t want to call someone better than mind space. In his turn, he was worried one-and-a-half years old; so in a sense I. I was going and living in a marvelous that I would start asking for economic I lived for one-and-a-half years with world where they accepted you as support. I was fine with that as long as Mahatma Gandhi in India. one of them. They argued and fought I had my freedom. I would not have Ethics in public life was not dead with you, but they also listened. They been able to take a marriage which when I was young. It was not only laughed at you and with you, so it curtailed my right to move and think. Gandhiji, it was all the others: Tagore was fun and it was a beautiful society, However, I have been very happy that I or Netaji or people who disagreed with you know where you really merged. am a woman. I have never felt envious him, like M N Roy. Everyone spoke They had their own hierarchy that of men. And of course a student of their mind. For me politics meant you followed, which was acute, which literature, some of my favorite lines that one should have the courage to was gender and there you brought are from Yeats. He says, “God guard speak and there was glory doing that; in all other schooling, education me from those thought men think/In it was not something reprehensible. understanding politics, but at one level the mind alone/He that sings a lasting The courage to speak was a socially there was also this great collective song/Thinks in a marrow bone.” All acceptable thing. The only thing one understanding and collective these categories of thought–action, needs some substance. leadership. So I think we all seek our mind–body do not exist. We are The second thing is that I have own levels. And I’m sure every one of holistic; that is what my village women not given as much as I have received. you has a great social activism in you. taught me. The reality of Yeats’ words When I went to the village, I was Only thing is that you have to give it came with Naurati, Mangi, Chnnibai; told off in one second by the women space to flourish. I believe we are all they were living it. You know for them there. They said, “Just get out. Who different, but in different ways, we can it was not divided. They did not think are you to come and tell us what to all contribute. this is political action, this is thought; do?” I thought to myself, “God I have this is my buffalo … no, it was a burnt all my boats. I have come, and Has being a woman ever held continuum so living in that continuum they do not even want to talk to me.” you back? I realized that we have a fantastic Then I thought to myself, “Who is I do not think so. Personally, I have strength. Compassion comes to us more logical? They or I? Did they invite been quite lucky in the man I married, naturally. In the villages in Rajasthan, me to their homes? Did they ask me but he is very lucky in the woman he even when we went to the toilet, we to come? Did they ask me to change married. We have both worked at this went in groups. I found that shocking. their lives? Who am I to presume their institution of marriage to make it as They would say this is the best time lives should be changed?” I saw their to talk as there are no mothers-in- reasoning, and then I realized it was law around. So I have not sacrificed arrogance on my part to think I could anything. I have done it all with joy just barge in and say that you have to and power has been redefined for me. change. Then began a slow process They said, “Just I think RTI activists getting killed of un-learning for me. The arrogance get out. Who are shows the power of information. I and assumption that I have logic and think some of us have been naïve in they do not, that I am literate and they you to come and thinking that exposing large-scale are not. They are my real teachers. scams through RTI alone would not Whatever happened, happened tell us what to do?” meet with reprisals. Even those who because of collectives. Women I thought to represent vested interests have begun instinctively believe in collectives. to understand that information is We believe that it is a family, a unit myself, “God I potent. So while, on one hand, it with friends, that keeps us going. have burnt all proves the power of information, Men tend to work in isolation. The on the other hand, the need for feminist movement also contributed my boats. I have protection and collective action is to my understanding the theory of also paramount. We have been telling collectivism, the theory of working for come, and they government that where activists are a different kind of power, a different do not even want killed for asking for information that kind of leadership for different goals. particular bit of information must be Every inch of the way, I have to fight to talk to me.” made public immediately. Then those for more justice, far more justice, who kill will understand that killing because there is patriarchy. I was one person won’t solve anything.

68 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 2012-2013 “We went to jail for SCM”

walked down Claire Road, Byculla, desperately searching for a crime story. Nothing seemed to be happening. Everyone was going about their lawful business. I wondered how I would face the VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA Iwrath of the instructor over yet another late assignment. Fortunately, I had an ‘a-ha’ moment when I saw a cop. Assuming that there would be a police station somewhere around, I walked up to him and said, “Sir, I need to go speak to your senior inside, can I go in?” “Who, Borse Sir?” he replied. I smiled and said, “Yes, yes, Borse sahib.” Of course, I had no idea who he was, but I was on my way. The entrance her in-laws and they were arrested Just as I was about to leave, luck was massive and on each end was thereby under Section 498. But in cases did me another favour. I bumped into a policeman guarding it. As I stood where the girl does not commit suicide Dr Khan Sayed Ahmed, the general there trying to absorb all this, I turned and complains against dowry, the in- physician who treats the inmates my head above to read the board in laws could still be arrested under this on a regular basis. I wanted to know Marathi. And it was then that I realised, same section.” what kind of treatment the prisoners I had struck gold! What I had presumed Inspector Borse gave us statistics received and on what basis. The doctor to be the police station, turned out to be about the convicts living in the prison. said, “Before a convict is granted the prison. I reasoned that there would “As of now we have about 260 men custody, he/she is examined in a be no dearth of crime stories here. I was and 262 women along with their government hospital. Within 24 hours ushered into a waiting room and asked babies (babies allowed are those from of an arrest, they have to be examined to write my name and other details in a day old to six years). If the mother again.” Further, once in jail, the prisoner a register. From there, I was taken into is pregnant during her term in prison, is once again checked the next morning another room where I met Inspector she is kept here only till the seventh by the medical officer. And in case Ashok Borse. month and is then let out. In case of any previous illness history, they Inspector Borse was polite and of emergency, they are sent to J J are also sent in for a compulsory HIV/ we had a long conversation about the Hospital,” he said. AIDS test. When asked about pregnant workings of the prison, the kind of cases When asked about a typical day women and the kind of treatment that came in, etc. “We get all kinds of in the life of a prisoner, he replied, they receive, he replied, “We give these cases here like robbery, chain snatching, “They wake up every day by 5:30 am mothers extra diet and the smaller murder, rash bike riders, railway track and are then counted and sent to the babies extra protein diet.” crossing, illegal immigrants, etc,” said toilet, after which they have an early This was about all the physical the Inspector. He spoke about several breakfast. We also give them an early ailments. What about their important aspects of crime in the city. lunch at around 10:45 am followed by psychological condition, and the According to him, women commit tea at 3 pm and a early dinner at 6 pm. trauma they go through, due to the murder more often than men. He also They live a good life and get almost crime they had committed? “We have spoke about dowry crimes as still being everything.” The prisoners are also psychiatrists and counsellors coming in a problem in the city. He said, “We had further given facilities like the library, for them, so that’s not really a problem,” this one case where the family troubled television, art of living courses, moral he added. But they have to be cautious the girl so much for dowry, that she lectures, painting workshops. NGOs about all this. “We often get people who committed suicide. So in this case, the come to teach them various forms of fake illness because they feel by doing girl’s family filed a complaint against earning a livelihood once they’re out. so it would only benefit them with

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better food and treatment, so we have can come here now, grab those chairs at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in to be on guard often as to who’s faking please!” Just then, a young man walked November, 2008. Inspector Mahale it and who isn’t,” added the doctor. in, wearing black shorts and a t-shirt. said we couldn’t see the cell, and we Byculla prison was one of the most He was carrying a file asking for some didn’t wish to argue. intriguing places I have visited. With information. He seemed like a normal However, the other prisoners were the facilities provided, I would say it teenager, working for the prison. “Meet housed in what was called ‘barracks’, barely fits into the category of a ‘prison’. Narendra, He’s been working with us for which looked like any other ordinary Next up was Arthur Road Jail, the over a year now,” said Inspector Mahale. two-storied building. Inside, it was a oldest and largest prison in Mumbai. He saw our confusion. “He was arrested dormitory, a large single room with This time I covered the Arthur Road under Section 302- that’s a murder case access to common toilets adjacent Jail story with Siddhi Patel. Special and has been with us since then.” to the barracks. There is also a library Inspector Vinod Lokhande gave us the Narendra didn’t want to talk about which could be accessed by the required permissions. the details of his crime. “I do some prisoners as and when needed. Apart While most of our Wednesday administration work here,” he said. “It from the library is also the small mornings are spent in the SCM studio, keeps me busy and I will have some storage room, filled with commodities 16 January 2013 was our tryst with experience when I leave.” stored for the prisoners like those of Arthur Road Jail. We clearly remember As we left the dark brown painted toothpaste, biscuits, Bisleri bottles, entering this prison and being room and were walking out to the open, khari, chiwda and other items, which surrounded by fifty constables waiting we saw ten convicts, waiting in line could be taken on a credit system. to take prisoners to courts across near Inspector Mahale’s office, which When we got back to the office, the city or other places. A constable looked like a waiting passage for these Inspector Mahale told us what made explained what they are doing, “Each convicts. It was small and they were all this prison different, “We get people constable here waits for their turn to made to sit down on the floor without from all over Mumbai which makes take their set of prisoners, about ten handcuffs and we wondered what was this prison all the more unique. In the each, to various courts in the city.” happening when Inspector Mahale whole of Maharashtra, Arthur Road Handcuffed and docile, the turned round and said, “They are Jail is well known because of the prisoners climbed into a van and waiting for someone to come question different kinds of people that come headed out. Quiet descended on the them before we put them in.” Many here from all over the state.” As much prison yard and there was nothing to do prisoners roamed around this prison as the administrative system sounds but wait. From time-to-time, someone like they were at work, handling either interesting, the history of this prison would ask what we were doing here, papers or talking to constables. sounds even better. Arthur Road the only women in the vicinity. As we walked out and made our Jail, established in the year 1925-26, Then someone said in a Marathi way through the door, we passed was originally a Tata Building and accented voice said, “Sophia College?” through the reception area. It was six-acres large. Although this prison We met the superintendent who crowded with convicts that had just was made before Independence by asked us to meet Senior Inspector entered the prison. Inspector Mahale the British, which could be clearly Ramesh Mahale. We were asked to said, “The capacity of the convicts, seen in its structure, it still stands as go to another room where Inspector which have now increased to 2,000 a strong prison. After Independence, Mahale spends his entire day working from the earlier count of 807, is the it was converted to a Central prison. on his cases. We entered his room, present day capacity of the prison. The strength of the prison lies in their and were asked to sit in silence till he Prisoners here are always assigned officials who consist of security guards, finished what he had to do. The room work, be it administrative duties, art or 22 officers, 6 police inspectors, 1 deputy looked like just another office room even craft, they are kept busy by the superintendent and four medical painted brown with two cupboards NGO in charge.” officers. filled with files that were opened every In the kitchens , lunch was being One last image: “Hamein yahaan five minutes. Adjacent to Inspector prepared for 2,000 people. There were se jaana hai, phir kabhi nahi aana hai”. Mahale’s desk was a wooden door huge vessels and mounds and mounds (We wish to leave here, never to return.) with a small opening through which of vegetables for a meal of rice, dal, Amen to that. we could see prisoners line up and chappatis and two sabzis. The dough The authors would like to thank wait for a constable to handcuff them. for the chappatis was being kneaded Special Inspector Vinod Lokhande for The constable would bark out names in large kneaders. Later, we were given having given us the chance to explore and numbers of the prisoners which samples. We liked the baingan. Arthur Road Jail, Inspector Ashok sounded like serious matter. Inspector We would have liked to see the Borse’s cooperation and all those Mahale jotted down a few words in ‘anda cell’, the famous high-security incarcerated who spoke with us. his file, closed it and looked up to us cell that housed Kasab, the terrorist Lianne John and spoke in a stern voice, “Yes, you who shot innocent, unarmed civilians Siddhi Patel

70 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 2013-2014 Sorry, Mr. Haveliwala. It’s not available. Is this city really as inclusive as it claims? ANUBHUTI MATTA and SNEHA PAUL find out, as they attempt to look for housing for an unmarried Hindu-Muslim couple.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NILOFER KHAN

nubhuti Matta and ENCOUNTER ONE: house although it looks like a Khuzema Haveliwalla It’s late on a Saturday afternoon. We makeshift office. do the rounds of the walk from the Sophia college campus Anubhuti: Hello, can we talk to city, going from one towards Bhulabhai Desai Road. On our Kishore O Alreja? broker to another, way we revise our respective roles and Alreja: What is this about? attempting to secure a the answers to the possible questions Anubhuti: We were looking for a roofA over their heads. we might have to face. place when we came across your ad Peacock Palace located opposite on a real estate website. Could we talk CHARACTERS: the former American Consulate on to you about the same? Kishore O Alreja, the broker. Bhulabhai Desai Road, is fairly easy to Alreja: Oh! Yes, please come in. Anubhuti Matta, an SCM student spot. We take the lift to the seventh Malcolm Kolah, actually a Parsi, as floor and almost immediately after We are welcomed into what looks Khuzema Haveliwala a Bohri Muslim. ringing the doorbell we are greeted like a semi-furnished uninhabited Sneha Paul, an SCM student, as a by a doubtful gaze from behind the apartment. The sofas are all covered friend. security door. This is the broker’s in white sheets. The bright rays of the

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 71 From THE ARCHIVES

sun accentuate the dust accumulated terrorist. But I will definitely try and place which will agree to a girl and a on table tops. A framed photograph of help you out. boy who are not married, just living Sai Baba is up on the wall facing the The conversation seemed to in. Of course, things are complicated door. It seemed as if Alreja was the revolve around ‘That’ name, ‘That’ because the boy and the girl don’t only person in the house. We move community. belong to the same religion. on to the sitting archand Anubhuti What happened to all the other initiates the conversation. important questions about our CHARACTERS: Anubhuti: So Sir, we were looking papers being ready or not, on whose Sneha, looking for an apartment for a flat near Sophia College name would we want to acquire the with her boyfriend Khuzema. The broker immediately asked us agreement etc. Of course, why would Anubhuti as a friend. for our budget. they arise? We locate ‘Arora and Associates’ Khuzema (Malcolm): Twenty-five A simple name was enough to at Seven Bungalows in Andheri West. thousand per month. overshadow all the background The proprietor S. Arora reminds us of Alreja: Oh, I have a very good deal information about Anubhuti and the jaunty Boman Irani from Khosla for both of you. One bedroom hall Khuzema. ka Ghosla. Arora is dressed in white, kitchen and the owner is comfortable with gold chains gleaming on his renting it out to two girls. ENCOUNTER TWO crisp white linen shirt. His maroon Anubhuti (looks at Sneha and On our way to broker number two, Mr. turban matches Sai baba’s clothes in a Khuzema): Oh no sir, I want it for him Nair (who refused to give us any other diamond studded frame behind him. and myself. name) at Essdee Apartment, 55 Pedder His love for bling is evident. Alreja: Oh so you guys are Road, Cumballa Hill, we realize that We interrupt him while he is ..uhmm..in sort of a live-in? we need to call the real estate office jotting down notes in his ‘Jai Mata Anubhuti nods. Then Khuzema and ask the exact location. Di’ dairy. He looks up and gestures, declares his name. A two second welcoming us. pause. Anubhuti calls Nair to confirm the Arora: Yes, how may I help you? And then the dreaded question. address. A very brash voice on the Sneha: Hello Sir, we are actually Alreja: Oh so you are a Muslim? other side asks what we really want. looking for an apartment in this area.| Khuzema: Yes, a Bohri We give him the same answer. The conversation begins A pause Again. Nair (Voice over the phone): Oh with hope that there will be no Alreja: Will you guys pay five my god, how can you live with a boy? assumptions this time. thousand more and make it thirty We explain to him calmly that Sneha: No Sir, my boyfriend and I thousand? it is fine with our parents and ask if want to stay together. Khuzema: Definitely five thousand he is willing to help us or at least set Arora (pointing at Khuzema): That more should not be a problem. up a meeting. Unlike the first broker would be you? Alreja: Then let me try but it looks he is interested in what both of us He is concerned with everything a little difficult. do and where we are from and other else than our names. By now he Alreja picks up the phone and dials information. knows that we study in Sophia College a number. Around five to seven minutes into while Khuzema works for MTV. He Alreja: Listen, there is this couple the conversation. is concerned with why Sneha has sitting in front of me, unmarried, Nair: Who am I talking to? chosen to live with her boyfriend and looking for a flat near Sophia College. There is a swift reply to that. if the parents from both the sides have But the girl is Hindu and the boy is Anubhuti: Anubhuti Matta fully agreed to their alliance. Muslim. Nair: What is the boy’s name? We keep telling him that our Muffled protests on the other side. Anubhuti: Khuzema Haveliwala parents are okay with this decision. Alreja: Oh okay, you check that Nair: I am sorry. I will have to keep Arora: Will your parents be place and let me know. Yes, thirty is the phone. present to confirm the deal? the budget. After the disappointing response Anubhuti and Khuzema (speaking He hangs up and then turns to us. of South Mumbai and after receiving together): Yes, they will. Alreja: See, after 26/11 and much several false promises of being Arora: You see, I left the before that, Mr. Khuzema,please contacted later, we move to the committee of my building just two don’t mind, okay? Please do not take suburb, Andheri hoping for a more months back. I will be giving you the it personally, there has been a lot of egalitarian treatment there. flat in the same building. I must warn commotion and prejudices attached. you that the residents might come So, societies are not comfortable ENCOUNTER THREE up with lame reasons and refuse you. letting Muslims stay in their building. It is 8:30 pm We are still looking for a But I’ll try my level best to help you. They assume every Muslim is a roof above our heads, trying to find a Tum log mere bacchon jaise ho (You

72 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 are like my own kids and we are left second part of our investigation, if it Arora: Beti, aApka naam kya hai? wondering if his kids will ever be may be called so. A little journey to (What is your name?) allowed to live-in by a father of his unravel what finding a place in this Poonam: Poonam Chaudheri tone of voice and physique!) city is like. Shelter is a basic need, but Arora: Oh okay, why I asked for Finally, the moment we were what if it is determined by who you your name was because two weeks waiting for. pray to? ago I has a similar case came to me. Arora: Toh beti, aapka naam kya (Referring to us, obviously) But the hai? CHARACTERS: problem was, the boy was Muslim, a (What is your name?) Poonam Chaudheri as herself, Bohri Muslim. Yours is a problem, but Sneha: Paul, Sneha Paul. Gautam Singh, as himself, lesser. Arora: Paul. I see. So you are Accompanied by Shweta Tripathi Yes, ’lesser’ is what he said. Bengali? as herself Poonam: A problem? How and Sneha: Yes. And as Poonam’s friend. why less? Arora: And what happens to be The broker is again Arora Arora: Aap bache Rang De the name of your man? and associates, located at Seven Basanti dekhte hai aur sochte hai Khuzema: Khuzema Haveliwala Bungalows, Andheri West. He is the desh me kranti layenge. (You kids There is no trace of smile on same one approached before and watch movies like Rang De Basanti Arora’s face anymore. we went to see if his reaction is any and think you can bring about a Arora: “But bacche, Haveliwala different when he is confronting an revolution.) Living-in is not so easy. matlab...uhmmm...Bohri wale na?” unmarried Hindu couple as opposed I am still in a position to try for you (Haveliwala as in, Bohri right?) to an unmarried Hindu couple. since you belong to the same religion. Poonam: Hello sir, I needed your That couple was Hindu Muslim. Two Khuzema: Haan, I am Bohri. help to look for a flat in this area. problems. First, Muslim boy, and And guess what, the smile is back. Arora: Please sit down, could I second. Arora: Oh then that shouldn’t be have the details please? No, it stops there. Why do we want much of a problem. Bohris are much Poonam: Our budget is Rs 25000. I to move into the second problem? better than Muslims from U.P. And need a flat in this area. Semi furnished Our friend Khuzema goes into the other states. Sunnis and Shias I am also works for me. mosque. Celebrates Eid. His mother talking about. Arora: Will you be sharing it with wears a Burqa. He is a ‘Haveliwala’. He This was like a thunderbolt. other girls? Or stay with your parents? could have been a Khan. But he is not So we inferred, we were still at Poonam: No..uhm..i will stay with a terrorist. a better position than the ‘other’ Gautam, my boyfriend. Can he choose to live where he Muslims. Thank God for small mercies Arora leans back on his shining wants? we think. And then we wonder which leather chair. Swivels a little. His index Can he choose to live with his girl? God to thank. finger on his lips, he stares at Poonam Do we want to give him the It was time to move onto the and Shweta for a few seconds. choice?

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 73 From THE ARCHIVES

2014-2015

to talk to my parents when I had already told him that they were not understanding my problems but of “Hello, please, course the counsellor didn’t get that because he was busy asking me to listen to him, while it was me calling I need some to discuss my issues. I feel having a listening ear would work in the best interest of the Aasra suicide helpline.” The next call to a helpline turned help…” out to be shocking, Arushi Dutt, 23, pretended to be a student in distress and called up Vandrevala Foundation, When India has the highest number of suicides in the age group also styled as a 24/7 helpline. “I told between 15 to 30, do we have helplines in this city? the counsellor I have a lot of issues in VANESSA CARVALHO and TEJASVI MOMAYA investigate my life which I am not able to handle and rather than asking me what my with a little help from their friends. issues were, she calmly told me that her shift was over and hence she won’t be able to talk to me. She asked ho told the highest rate of suicide per 100,000 me to call in 15 minutes which was you to fall of the population in India. During the the expected time of arrival of the in love? same time, reports from the National next counsellor. “I still persisted that Couldn’t Crime Records Bureau also reveal that I want to talk now, as I am not able you see that suicides in Mumbai rose by 12 per cent to take the pressure of living my life the boy was in 2012 and 50 per cent of victims were and was considering ending it but “Wnot that into you?” said the counselor less than 30 years old. the counsellor kept telling me to call when communications student Srishti At such high levels of suicide rates, later. By the end of it she told me not Singh, 21, made a frantic call to the amongst the people of Mumbai, we to call. She’ll ask the counsellor to call suicide helpline. set out to test the number of Mumbai- me to which, not knowing what else “I just wanted to talk. I was based suicide helplines that promise to say, I agreed and hung up. The call disturbed; I thought someone with counselling and help. Are they really back came 45 minutes later which I a calm, soothing voice would make of any help to the victim or not? The didn’t pick up to see if they try to call me feel better. But I found the findings were both alarming and more times but that didn’t happen, I counsellor to be commanding and amusing. The test involved a series of think by then a real victim would have dominating. Rather than listening to mock calls to various helplines. committed suicide. After providing me and understanding my problem, Aman Sharma, 22, called Aasra, a 24/7 services the Vandrevala he seemed to be judgmental. To my a 24/7 suicide helpline. “Why don’t Foundation should live up to it.” horror, after sometime I heard him you listen to me first?” the counsellor Ek Umeed was our next umeed munching chips while I poured my asked repeatedly as Aman, pretending (hope) to get good counseling, but the mind out and spoke to him about to be a student having love issues, line was out of order. Their website my plans to commit suicide. Rather spoke of his suicidal intentions. “I promised services between 8:00 am to than helping me come out of my kept telling him I want to die, it’s not 5:00 pm which didn’t even sound very depression, the helpline sort of pushed working out for me and all I could hear helpful (Suicides don’t follow office me towards suicide. Thankfully I came from him was, ‘Listen to me first,’ in a hours.) They even play sad music as out of it but I will never take their help harsh voice. All I would have wanted if soon as the page opens; maybe it is to again,” Singh said. I were a victim in a situation would be make the victims more comfortable As per (rounded-off) figures on to speak my mind and have a listening in their already sad lives. Ek Umeed suicides provided by National Crime ear, maybe an understanding voice to should update their status online and Records Bureau in 2012, on an average, calm me down and then help me find refrain from building false umeed in 15 suicides an hour or 371 suicides a solution. I felt the counsellor was peoples’ minds. Next was Samaritans, a day were recorded. According to a commanding and pushy while I talked. a mental illness helpline, which also World Health Organization report, the “At the end of it all, he didn’t even counsels distressed callers who want age group 15 to 29 years accounted for give me a solution. He advised me to commit suicide. It is one of the

74 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 first names to pop up when you do a helpline search. They give the option of email, which they promise reply in 48 hours, and even face-to-face counselling by appointment if the caller wants to meet. Between 10am and 4pm they offer free assistance to those who need it. The only drawback is that it is time bound (3pm to 9pm) making it inaccessible. The biggest issue with making a helpline time bound is expecting people to call for help only in a certain period while the thought of ending your life can pop up any time.

n online search on suicide helplines offers only these four ARCHIVE SCM numbers as options for the people of Mumbai, you specifically search for KEM’s as to why he had called. After giving a so we dug deeper to psychiatric department, which is listening ear to Aman and the situation findA out if there are any government wrong since everyone does not know he had to share, the woman asked him helplines or any more private helpline about the different departments to give his number and contact details initiatives which actually provide that the hospital has. On contacting for their volunteers to come rescue help to potential suicide victims. them, Aman Sharma, 21, posing as a the child, when Aman asked whether Our research gave out ‘icall’ from stressed-out teenager, came across a he can personally go and help in some TISS which comes up only through peppy counsellor, who asked him the way, she politely refused saying that newspaper articles. The helpline purpose of his call and also ways in it could be dangerous for the child promises a 9 am to 9 pm service and which she could help him. “If I were a and the foundation will take care of even anonymity of name and location real stressed-out teenager, desperate to the situation completely. Hence we which they mention on their website, end my life, I don’t know how I would would like to say that the CHILDLINE this gives the victim more courage to have responded. If I knew the answers operators were fast, to the point and contact helpline. to my problems, why would I call in clear in their conversation. The way Arushi Dutt, 21, posed as a foreign the first place? She even said that only they spoke was soothing to the ears so student having problems adjusting help on call would be possible and that if a distressed child calls, he would to the Indian education system and anything other than that should not be comfortable to open up. college environment. “The counsellor be expected. What can a distressed Although there have been a lot was very efficient and helpful, calm, person wanting to die expect?” of initiatives to start suicide and understanding and gave a listening ear depression helplines, they should be not cutting me even once as I spoke ur last call was then maintained more efficiently to get constantly for about half an hour. I made to test the child better results. Also, some of them personally I felt good talking to her. helpline no. 1098 do not stand true to their promises The service has efficient staff backing of the CHILDLINE with regards to timings and getting it up and I feel they should be the India Foundation, the rejections in a vulnerable state of first contact to pop up when suicide country’s first toll-free mind could be misleading and fatal. helplines are searched for, they should Otelephone helpline for street children The helplines could also advertise or also be 24/7 rather than a time bound in distress. It claims to have serviced make their number more accessible service since people of Mumbai clearly 31 million calls since its inception. so that there is a greater chance of need good counselling and efficient Aman Sharma, 21, called the 24/7 consideration of a call to them when help.” helpline at around 7:00pm in the in need. And finally, perhaps there After these calls, we were evening. He called as a well-wisher should be some transparency. Who determined to find a government who has encountered child labour in answers these calls? How are they helpline, after much scavenging his locality. The helpline operator very selected? There are many more we came across KEM suicide calmly described the many services questions other than the ones the helpline, which comes up only if they provide for children and enquired suicidally inclined people have.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 75 From THE ARCHIVES

2015-2016 Carved in stone: The ornaments of CST CLARENCE MENDOZA And PRATHMESH KHARATMAL explore the ornamentation in Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

of Architecture, Sir J.J. College of Architecture, Mumbai explains, “The railways itself was a novel concept in the mid- 19th Century. Before that there were no railways. So whenever railways had railway stations they were designed in a fairly lavish manner. One of the reasons was, many of the early railways were privately owned. The Victoria Terminus was owned by the Great Indian Peninsular (GIP) Railways. These buildings were their show places. But in the process, they made a fantastic public building which the common person could use with equal delight.” One of the main reasons the CST building stands out amongst the bustling skyline of our great city, is its Gothic architecture. “It is because it was the popular style in England at that time. In the late-19th century

NILOFER KHAN NILOFER there was a great fashion in England to build new buildings in the style of the he Victoria Terminus Every stone laid, tells us a story. old Gothic cathedrals. And of course more fondly known as One which began all the way back in what happened in England started to the Chhatrapati Shivaji 1878. According to officials records happen here as well,” says Dalvi. But Terminus in present of the Central Railways (India), what exactly in Gothic architecture? day, is an architectural construction began in 1878 and it was We ask. “Well, the one very clear marvel that has stood christened Victoria Terminus on June marker of the Gothic style is the Tthe test of time for almost 130 years. 20, 1887 in honour of Queen Victoria’s pointed arch. If you look at the arches, Showing minimal signs of wear and Golden Jubilee, marking 50 years of they are typically pointed. Other than tear, this beauty of a building will reign. Designed by Frederick William that, you have the teat roofs, spires and probably outlive the youngest of Stevens, a consulting architect, it was towers, you have stubby columns, you us. According to The Guardian, it is being built as the headquarters of have what is called an arcade which is second most photographed structure the Great Indian Peninsular Railways a running set of arches,” says Dalvi. in India, after the magnificent Taj Company (the British-Raj predecessor “But this Gothic building is like Mahal (the erstwhile Mughal palace, of Indian railways). It almost took a no other and the reason I say this is not the hotel). You‘ve probably clicked decade to build at a princely sum of in its details. According to Douglas the photo yourself or seen one of the Rs. 16,13,863/- only. The building is John, lecturer at Sir J. J. School of Arts, millions trying to take that perfect lavishly designed. Mumbai, Lockwood Kipling spent selfie. Smile please! As Mustansir Dalvi, Professor years as faculty at Sir J. J. School of

76 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 Arts before moving on to greener pastures. He along with John Griffith, were sculptors and had a team of students and craftsmen, mostly from Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, already working on the floral and faunal ornamentation few years prior to the construction of the former Victoria Terminus even began. Why no artisans from Bombay you ask? One of the reasons, John says, could be that Bombay at that time was mainly NILOFER KHAN NILOFER inhabited by the Kolis who were a fishing community, not artisans. The artisans from Hyderabad were renowned sculptors and had been so for generations. It is said that F W Stevens too, was a visiting faculty member at the art school. Thus, one can be led to believe that his meetings with Kipling and Griffith led to a collaborative effort which culminated in the inclusion of the characteristic ornamentation to his design of the Terminus. Mustansir Dalvi says, “Buildings at that time were ornamental. So there would have been ornaments of different types in anyway. The big building gave a lot of scope of innovations in small ways which is where all these animals and birds come in. Because in a sense that was one of the ideas which was being developed in the school to have more and more local symbols and figures in the ornamentation.” These ornaments can be found very prominently on the facade

of the CST. You’ve definitely seen SINGHANIA VEDIKA the crocodiles lining the turrets, numerous ominous gargoyles between a parrot and an angry lizard, a seen elsewhere. “You might also say looking down on the people walking mongoose battling a snake, a monkey that the ornaments which were added below, etc. The entrance gates to with a fruit in its mouth, squirrel to it made it more accessible to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus carry clutching its nuts, birds such as owls, local people using the station. They two columns, which are crowned, one pigeons, crows, etc. encapsulated by would see animals and birds that they with a lion (representing the United examples of local flora. A huge stone wouldn’t have related to. Instead they Kingdom) and the other with a tiger lion sits proudly in the lobby with its used mongoose and mice. The animals (representing India) and there are stone paws clutching a shield etched are the smaller animals, they are not tympana portraying peacocks. with Anglo-Indian symbols. lions and tigers or elephants. So these The beauty lies in the details The common theme of these are the more local, everyday animals/ though, and that is a secret kept ornamentations being these were the birds like rabbits, owls and pigeons. hidden inside the heritage wing. Here flora and fauna seen locally. Stevens Even the plants are Indian if you look. we find Corinthian pillars embellished could very well have kept this building There is a lot of floral ornamentation. with a fusion of floral and faunal completely English but chose to You can recognize hibiscus flowers and creations. Upon close inspection incorporate the local flavour thus local Indian fruits and things like that” you can see scenes such as a stare off giving rise to the unique design not explains Mustansir Dalvi.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 77 30 years and counting...

1987-1988 1988-1989 1989-1990 1990-1991 1991-1992

1992-1993 1993-1994 1994-1995 1995-1996 1996-1997

1997-1998 1998-1999 2000-2001

We present a selection of our cover art. This represents hundreds of hours of thought, worry and concern. Enjoy! 2001-2002 1999-2000 2002-2003

78 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 30 years and counting...

2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-2007

2003-2004 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010

2010-2011 2011-2012 2015-2016

2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2016-2017

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 79 ALUM INTERVIEWS

SMRUTI KOPPIKAR BY SURYASARATHI BHATTACHARYA but to her credit she never stopped me from doing what I was doing. She tried, but only half-heartedly. My father was a worried man too, but he could see that pounding the pavements was my work. He didn’t want his worry to hold me back. They suffered as parents would but they let me do what I wanted to. And that is the biggest gift they have given me.” Koppikar has been instrumental in bringing up stories and campaigns which have a strong social underpinning involved. The most recent ones being ‘Mumbai in Transition’ series and the ‘Make Mumbai Safer’ initiative started by Hindustan Times and revived by her. SCM ARCHIVES SCM “Mumbai as a city is relatively safer than most of the cities in the country, yet it is mruti Koppikar (batch of 1988-89) has not completely safe for women. But the position where I and been a journalist for most of the leading many others came from was not just about Mumbai being national publications. As reporter, she safer than an ABC or XYZ; it was about making Mumbai safer worked with The Sunday Observer, The than what it is today. Therefore, the campaign was Make Statesman, The Independent and India Mumbai Safer—safer than somewhere, safer than what it is Today, among others. Since 2001, she today and safer than anywhere else.” has been the City Editor, Mumbai, for Her fellowships on development and environment took The Indian Express, Chief of Bureau of her to Japan and the United States. Her stories in The Indian STAR News and Outlook magazine, and Express and Outlook brought court cases and some abuse, till last year, a Senior Editor at Hindustan besides occasional visits by local thugs. Times. She has been teaching journalism at SCM Sophia since Her former colleague and friend Carol Lobo, Former S1993. Deputy News Editor, The Indian Express, Mumbai says, Talking about her SCM days she says, “My great- “Smruti’s depth of knowledge and exceptional ability to grandmother was deeply associated with the movement for articulate her thoughts made news discussions riveting— India’s Independence. Listening to her stories, I was greatly where there was only a nugget of information, suddenly, a influenced by her and the values of pluralism, cooperation, whole story would unravel. As City Editor, Smruti anchored and justice. The AIR news that I heard every morning at 6am the newsroom as only few seasoned journalists can.” as a young child with my father also left an impression.” Her former boss and Senior Editor at Outlook magazine, But it wasn’t easy. She was travelling from Borivali, Ajith Pillai says, “From the time she came on board, Smruti putting up with the ‘townies’ and she didn’t become the was the best of our reporters. She had a great understanding college magazine editor. “Jeroo and Sidharth Bhatia (their of the city. She did some pretty challenging assignments like journalism teacher) chose two others, I was crushed. Perhaps the 26/11 or the floods, and carried them out really well. Her they were better but I felt they knew how badly I wanted to work was very well thought out and executed. She did more do journalism while those two weren’t even serious about than just reporting facts; she went to the core of the story, journalism.” understood the social dimensions of each event and brought From flooded out villages to daily reports on education out the human side of the story. I can definitely say, today and governance, Koppikar covered them all. But her there aren’t too many journalists of her calibre.” journalism during 1992-93 post-Babri riots and March To her students Koppikar says, “The one thing that I love 1993 bomb blasts brought her into prominence. She faced the most is opening windows in young people’s minds. They threats and abuse from Shiv Sena for the riots’ coverage. don’t have to look at the world through the windows I open Remembering those initial days and her family’s support, but as long as they know that there are these other windows she says, “My mother lived in perpetual anxiety about me, too, through which they can view the world, I am happy.”

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SAMEERA KHAN BY UPASANA BOSE umbai-based journalist, enjoyed ground reporting, crafting a piece, digging up facts, researcher, writer, separating it from fiction etc. I think what SCM gave me is co-author (with Shilpa the confidence to move ahead in the direction of my dreams. Phadke & Shilpa Ranade) I realised I had some chance to be a good journalist. Also of the book Why Loiter? I appreciate the relentless push towards progressive and Women & Risk on Mumbai liberal thought at SCM. Something that Sainath always said Streets, Sameera Khan has also stayed with me: ‘Always be sceptical. That’s the mark is also a visiting faculty of a good journalist’. (journalism) at School of Now that I teach journalism, I always say that to my Media Culture Studies students as well.” at TISS and a former Assistant Editor at The Times of India, Khan travels down the memory lane, to her days as MMumbai. the editor of the college magazine, “Kaumudi Marathe and Sameera Khan thinks back to the SCM student-life back I edited ‘Byline’, the SCM magazine for 1989-90. It was a in the late 1980s: “I was at SCM in 1989-90. Life at SCM was wonderful partnership and the best by-product of it was hectic and crazy with all of us that Kaumudi and I became best racing to meet several deadlines friends for life! And we both learnt all at once. I think that hasn’t so much about generating fresh changed at all at SCM. But in ideas, coaxing others to stick to retrospect I feel that it gave us deadlines, the editing process important skills to cope with – everything from headlines to deadline pressure in the ‘real’ grammar to spellings to rewriting world outside! But SCM was also full paragraphs,dealing with fun and laughter. I made several printers and our boss (Sid Bhatia!), good friends and we have stayed coping with delays, endless in touch through the years. Group meetings over chai supplied by activity was frustrating and the ever-helpful Joe D’Cunha in enjoyable in equal measure. The the canteen (God bless that lovely faculty expected a lot out of us man!). Those were busy and tiring and so it was a challenge to meet days but the best days too!” all their expectations. Khan’s advice to media “For most of us, it was first taste students: of what professional life and • Follow your passion now! When challenges could mean. It also you get older, what you regret exposed us to many progressive most is the things that you did ideas and concepts and while ARCHIVES SCM not do or pursue. these were not new for me (as • Spend your initial years honing I had been exposed to them at St Xavier’s College where I your craft, learning it inside-out. did my undergraduate education and at home). Certainly • Check, recheck, check all your facts. SCM helped strengthen many of those ideas. Such as those • Every detail is important. It establishes your credibility. relating to gender, the poor, the marginalised etc.” • Never take your sources for granted or be condescending Juggling between the choice of being an anthropologist towards them. while also having a natural inclination towards words, • Even the most ordinary person who takes time to talk to her initial exposure to journalism began at SCM. “I knew you as a media professional is not obliged to talk to you and I wanted a life in the media though at one time I was is doing you a favour. Respect her/him. convinced I wanted to further study anthropology (one of • Don’t over-rely on technology. It’s there to help you but you my disciplines in undergraduate years along with History). I have to use your brain to think and to use it best. thought it would be film, especially script writing. I enjoyed • Always be good to the ‘smaller’ people (big corporate czar’s all my classes at SCM—I thought they all challenged me executive assistants, editor’s secretaries, peons, interns, in some aspect or the other. But P. Sainath and Sidharth junior staff) you meet on the job. Bhatia, my journalism teachers at SCM, coaxed me towards • It is good to be confident but over-confidence might mean journalism by saying I had a natural flair for it. I wasn’t sure that you think it’s beneath you to learn new skills. but I knew that words did interest me the most. And I really • It’s never too late to learn new stuff.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 81 ALUM INTERVIEWS

SHABNAM MINWALLA BY SURYASARATHI BHATTACHARYA

habnam Minwalla has carved out a remarkable career of an author with three popular children’s book in her kitty - The Six Spellmakers of Dorabji Street (2013), The Shy Supergirl (2015) and The Strange Haunting of Model High School (2015). A mother of three beautiful daughters, Minwalla is an example for many women who think that post children, their careers start rolling downhill. She has been a part of SCMSophia family ever since she stepped in as a student of the course back in 1989. STalking about those memorable days at SCM, Minwalla recalls, “There are so many moments. I remember all the mortifying photo shoots we conducted for our AV on “Hands” (How did we come up with that topic? I still don’t know.) We became quite hand-obsessed and kept hopping off buses and taxis to take pictures of gnarled or interesting hands.” SCM has played a significant role in her life. She says, “SCM changed me as a person. When I joined SCM, I wanted to be a journalist because I loved writing. But SCM showed all of us that - especially in a country like ours - there are many changes you can achieve through SINGHANIA VEDIKA the media. SCM helped me develop a social conscience and influenced the stories I wrote through my career as a Women & Risk on Mumbai Streets’ was a batch-mate of journalist. For my ten years as a reporter and feature writer, Minwalla during her undergraduate years at St. Xavier’s I constantly remembered what SCM taught us - we could College (1984-89), her classmate and group mate during serve as a voice for the voiceless.” her time at SCM (1989-90) and later a colleague and friend Writer-editor-blogger, Kaumudi Marathe, alum of when they worked together as journalists at The Times of the same batch, says, “One of the things I noticed about India in Mumbai in the mid to late 1990s. She says, “What I Shabnam was how soft-spoken she was, with a gentle have always admired about her as a journalist and writer is manner that hid an incisive intelligence, sharp wit, and the her ability to stay focused on a task, never cut corners and kind of critical thinking that made her aptly suited for her always illuminate her writing with fine details that lift an chosen profession of journalist. I enjoyed reconnecting ordinary story to an amazing one. Sometimes at The Times with my old classmate through her writing. Reading of India we worked together on stories. Shabnam was a Shabnam’s book only reinforced my initial thoughts about fabulous partner-in-crime because like me, she understood her as a talented and versatile writer with hidden depths the demands of a story and what could make it better and and an imagination and sense of humour just waiting to didn’t mind going the extra length to do so. She brings the burst forth.” same meticulousness to her children’s fiction writing. Her Sameera Khan, writer/journalist, co-author, ‘Why Loiter: books are wonderfully creative and well-written and my

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kids are major fans!” publish it. I was even more delighted that so many schools Minwalla says she, “...decided to be a journalist when I are using it as a reader, so many children read it with joy, was ten--because I loved writing and poking my nose into and that it has been made into a play performed by a couple the business of others. I was editor of my school magazine of schools. I guess the Mumbai element has touched a Picktales, and did summer internships with various chord in the city. I never intended to become a writer of magazines during my years at St Xavier’s. After SCM, I children’s books but ended up writing three! I enjoyed did an MA in Journalism from the University of Southern the process immensely. In fact, I’m still planning an adult California. I got a job with The Times of India as soon as I got murder mystery.” She is already occupied with creating the back to Bombay and stayed with them for ten years till my draft of her new book which is untitled yet. She says, “My older daughter was born.” new book is set in a Mumbai college, very like St. Xavier’s. Shifting one’s career is a crucial step that one takes A shy, rather nerdy schoolgirl called Maya is invited to in life. Minwalla has moved from journalism to writing attend summer school and starts seeing strange things that books. Elucidating on this she says, “I had always planned terrify her. Very reluctantly, she steps into an adventure to return to The Times of India. But after my daughter was that leads her on a historical treasure hunt through the city. born, I really felt like spending time with her. So it was In the process she makes friends, falls in love and learns to over a year before I decided to return to journalism. And become comfortable in her own skin.” then, just as things were falling into place, I found I was Minwalla’s tip to the budding media professional is, pregnant with twins! Crash. There went all my plans. After “The media has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. the twins came along, I kept planning to write a book.” She But the essentials remain the same. Be true to your facts; be further adds, “I wrote the book as a lark and was thrilled true to your heart. And understand that you are the voice when Hachette contacted me and said they would like to that can speak for so many silent, helpless people.”

PRIYANKA KAKODKAR BY ELTON GOMES

CM was one of “those watershed The biggest challenge is the lack of interest in traditional experiences; I thought it was really media networks … you need to be financed to go to those inspiring … I came into it because I liked areas, and if the newspaper is not interested or the channel is to write,” says Priyanka Kakodkar, Editor not interested, then you don’t get to go.” Moreover, she adds, (Special Projects), The Times of India. “Once you go, that material may not be published if there’s “Sainath was doing his series on the not enough interest editorially.” poorest districts in However, according to Kakodkar, the country for The the gargantuan digital space has Times, and so it was “created many opportunities for those really inspiring to see those stories; I who want to write because there’s far Sreally felt that’s what I wanted to do.” more space so you can write 3000 After beginning her career with an ARCHIVES SCM words and just put it up … There’s a internship at the same newspaper to very strong print tradition, but I think which she has now returned, Kakodkar that the digital space has challenged then spent roughly nine years in NDTV print significantly, globally.” as a reporter. “I think you need to have Some insights for media students? curiosity about the world, because “I think it’s very important to know if you are not curious in any way, it’s multiple languages; the more very difficult to be a journalist. There’s languages you know, the more rapport a misconception that you have to be you have with people”. She adds: brave … it’s more important to just be “Sometimes the story is not what you interested.” think; it’s very important to have an Kakodkar says, “Besides having open mind. And by that I mean being the facts and information, you have aware of your biases. If you make the to write in an interesting way; it’s very mistake of trying to make things fit into important to be able to tell a story. Or your notion of what they should be— else, why should anybody read you? that’s a critical mistake.”

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ANUBHA BHONSLE BY ANANYA DESAI came in because you start wanting to do more, you want to be a good writer; you want to have the tools to question, to research and be a good journalist; you learn what it takes to click a good picture and more.

SCM ARCHIVES SCM “So, I think I was confused to the extent that I found myself getting these tools in these respective areas and I felt that I wanted to do each one of them, but I think that because I had a broad focus that I wanted to be a journalist, each of these tools were extremely helpful,” she says. While speaking about her experience at SCM as a student, she recalls how she had gone to Nalgonda, Telangana, with her group to shoot their documentary on fluorosis (caused by water-borne fluorine attacking bones and damaging them). “ I was a) challenged b) I felt that I was getting all the tools and all the training to be a journalist; I think I already felt that I was a journalist, while I was there. “I think it also taught me to be fearless. Fearless not just as a person in situations that would be extraneous, but I think fearless in thought. You could be fearless and question, you would think in multiple ways—you would think straight and then you would think laterally, you were encouraged to think in all those ways. And I think that made me fearless,” she says. She treasures most the values that she left SCM with and says that they were all very critical to becoming a journalist. “It may sound clichéd, but I have to say that now that I’ve spent almost about seventeen odd years in journalism, I look back at my year in SCM as one of the most memorable, for sure, but also a year that challenged me the most, in terms of an education. I look back at that year as a year that imparted a great amount of critical thinking. My remember one of Jerry’s first assignments: year in SCM was truly what education should stand for,” she getting on a bus. I think he made some adds. chits and we had to pick one each and get Any memorable experiences while working for the college on a bus and then tell a story. And I was magazine? Bhonsle said she would like to tweak her answer amazed at what everyone came back with; and talk about just memorable experiences at SCM, out of and I think that for the first time in my life, which the college magazine was a rather important one. I saw such diversity of how people see.” “We did everything! And I remember two of my colleagues, says Anubha Bhonsle, the Executive Editor who remained really good friends of mine and are very of “ICNN-News18 who attended SCM in the year 1998-1999 in stellar journalists- Aarti Dabas and Sumati Nagrath, order to pursue journalism. who were also part of the magazine. It was just such an Bhonsle always knew that she wanted to pursue important life experience. At that point in time, I think journalism. SCM prepared her for it and she thought that all we never felt that we were doing a ‘college magazine’. We the things that she learnt at SCM were very relevant to what were undertaking a magazine that we believed had to she wanted to do ahead in life. meet the standards of any professional work. I think the “I came into SCM knowing that I wanted to be a entire experience was a ‘close-to-life’ experience. I think journalist. My confusion was about the tools that I needed the amount of passion, stress and disagreements we had to become a good journalist and I think the only confusion wouldn’t really mean that it was just a ‘college’ magazine.’

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MAYA MIRCHANDANI BY JOVITA ARANHA ecember 1999: Maya taught us to do our own writing and handle the camera. We Mirchandani’s first assignment as did not have the resources for video equipment, so our film an international affairs reporter. project was an audio visual slideshow. We did storyboards, Venue: Then Prime composed the shots, and timed them. It set the discipline. Ministerial candidate Chandrika People like Jerry Pinto, Jeroo Mulla, P Sainath and Smruti Kumaratunga’s rally at the Town Koppikar taught us, and there was something that stayed Hall, Colombo, Sri Lanka. back every time they spoke. “I am winning the election,” “Most organizations that I worked with emphasized says Kumaratunga and a quality. I remember at SCM, our drafts for the audio-visual suicide bomber detonates her exercise would get approved after twenty or more drafts. So I payload. While 25 die, the NDTV cameraperson and Maya always pushed myself to deliver my best. Of whatever I have DMirchandani escape unhurt. An eventful start to her career as learnt, I never had to unlearn anything.” a foreign policy reporter. To be a woman journalist at a period when the gender- About her student life, she recalls, “I had never lived divide in journalism was apparent, she says, “In most away from home on my own. Coming to Mumbai, studying organizations where I have worked, women outnumbered here, was a brand-new experience. “The most important men in strength. Men at NDTV sometimes joke that they lesson at SCMSophia was being self-reliant and sticking are being discriminated against. In the 1990s, political to your beliefs. We had to raise journalism was not a domain money for our own group projects for women journalists. Male and events. In every class, Jeroo reporters would say things like: taught us to be quick, to think You bat your eyelids to get your on our feet and encouraged us to work done. But if you look at the stay true to our principles. To be current trend, trolling of women open to learning and to question journalists happens on a massive authority, to not just sit back and scale from people outside the think we know it all,” she adds. profession as against in it. Slang Sink or swim, that’s how you like ‘presstitutes’ is one example.” do it, says Mirchandani. “I began Reporting on sensitive issues working in 1994. I was at the news brings grim realities to your agency ANI for a brief time, before doorstep. Is that difficult? “It is joining NDTV. It had just started always difficult. But objectivity The News Tonight, a nightly news is the goal. To be a true reporter broadcast for Doordarshan. It you have to be removed enough was recorded in the evening in from the story. That being said,

our studio and then the tape was ARCHIVES SCM we are humans. We feel strong physically taken across,” she says. emotions and react when Maya Mirchandani’s Media Mantras: Mirchandani remembers dark • Stay true to your principles. children and innocent people get times too, “There was censorship. • A story is a story. You are not the story. injured in complex situations. It was a daily struggle. We had • Don’t let anyone bully you. Say what you Non-state actors do it in the come from colleges where, as believe in. name of freedom. But the state is journalists, we learnt to speak • Feel the drive that compels you to tell that story. accountable.” the truth. And here, every day • Do your research. While the accolades are many, • With your principles and your facts in place, we were dealing with somebody there are regrets as well, “When you are invincible. questioning that.” we go to cover these affected This censorship did not areas, the violence and poverty is deter the journalists who immeasurable. But at the end of began to emerge during the politically charged 1990s. the day, often we do a story for self-gratification. But where is “There was a strong drive and passion to tell a story. We the follow through?” she questions. “They place their trust in were twentysomethings with fire in our bellies. No other us when they tell us about medical help, broken homes, land profession teaches you to stick to your guns like journalism disputes etc. We grapple with these issues within ourselves. does,” says Mirchandani. But we go back to our comfortable homes and offices. Our She emphasizes the role of SCM in her development, “SCM lives go on but theirs don’t,” she adds.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 85 ALUM INTERVIEWS

ANAHITA MUKHERJI BY MAYANKA GOEL Mukherji, when asked about her memories of the course, “So on a rainy day, I landed up at Virar station and asked around for the local MLA. I found my way to his office, flashed

SCM ARCHIVES SCM my SCM ID and asked him to help me with my homework. Back home, I googled his name and found he had links to a gangster and a host of criminal cases against him.” That, Mukherji recalls, was her first taste of reporting. There were other subjects which had a significant impact on the journalist as well. “There’s just so much that SCM packs into one year that you need the rest of your life to digest what you’ve learned there,” she explains, “I studied Chomsky at SCM and then saw his critique of mainstream media play out in the real world.” Mukherji further recalls how SCM’s faculty inspired her to become a journalist. “In class, I’d listen wide-eyed to their adventures in the chaotic world of India’s mainstream media. The more I heard them talk of their lives, the more I wanted to be out there, doing the sort of things they were doing. Thanks to SCM, I figured there was nothing foolish about wanting to change the world,” she says. She went on to work with The Times of India. Her work there led her to cover the sort of stories she truly believed in and to do the sort of journalism she dreamt of doing as a starry-eyed student at SCM. She went on to write extensively on issues regarding child rights, education and environment, covering places such as the Dongri remand home to record the lives of the children trapped there, student of biochemistry and as well as the Western Ghats, for the deforestation practices life sciences at St. Xavier’s prevalent in the region. College, Mumbai, Anahita Looking back, she feels that her work on the college Mukherji realised soon after magazine at SCM was completely in line with the work she graduation that she wanted to would go on to do as a professional. “I visited a school in spend her days working with rural Maharashtra for an article on education for the SCM and around people, instead magazine. It was an incredible experience,” she recalls. of in a laboratory. Journalism After over a decade’s worth of experience in the came to mind even though she industry, what advice does the journalist have for media knew very little about the field students today? itself. She took the leap, however, and joined the Social “Don’t let anyone hold you back from doing all the CommunicationsA Media course at Sophia Polytechnic in amazing things you can do in life. The journey won’t be 2004. easy and there may be several occasions when you simply “Cover Virar. Everything about it. That was my brief want to give up. Let your time at SCM help you stay on for an assignment during my first month at SCM,” recalls track.”

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SCM HAPPENINGS

“It’s not who follows you that matters. It’s who follows who follows you that matters.” — Sree Sreenivasan

SREE SREENIVASAN, the newly- Museum of Art in New York, where from the very first minute. His story appointed Chief Digital Officer (CDO) he contributed to the re-designing of how he merged something as of the City of New York stopped by of its website and the creation of its historic as the MET with something at SCMSophia on his six-city ‘India app. He says that social media can be as contemporary as the Internet was Social Media Tour’ in the month used to make museum-going a fun really worth hearing.” of August this year. Addressing us, experience, converting followers into With Sreenivasan, we also he talked about his “Digital ABC”, visitors. “Mumbai’s museums such as started the ritual of asking guest- which is, “Always Be Charging” (your the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu lecturers to write their messages phone), “Always Be Connecting” (with Sangrahalaya can benefit by adding to to SCM students on the ceiling. He people), and “Always Be Collecting” their digital presence,” he added. remarked, “Yours is probably the only (information). He also suggested that the Municipal place where there is a blackboard on He highlighted the importance of Corporations of the city, including the ceiling as well.” - SB annotating, particularly in the digital the Municipal Corporation of Greater age where people need to make Mumbai (MCGM), can function better Note: Two SCM students’ newspaper sense of their access to information by incorporating social media. The articles on Sreenivasan’s visit: overload: “Use your phones as first step of this process would be http://www.thehindu.com/ collecting devices. The notes in your listening. He opined, “Listen to the news/cities/mumbai/news/ notebook are really important, but people. What are the things they Charging-Connecting-Collecting/ the notes on your phone are also specifically need?” article14556834.ece really important. The more notes you SCM student Purbali Mukherjee http://www.afternoondc.in/city- take, the more sense you make of life.” says, “As someone coming to class news/cdo-sreenivasan-urges-more- Sreenivasan had also been the Chief and telling us to always carry a power indians-to-embrace-digital-media/ Digital Officer of the Metropolitan bank, Sree definitely had me hooked article_173921

arts fight between some of “It is not about how to attack, but about how to our classmates and volunteers protect oneself” — Chaitanya Gavali from Team Relentless from Team Relentless. This was a great practical exercise for all of us as we could see the INDIA’S LEADING mixed They taught us defence trainers around. The things execution of tactics that they martial arts team, Team mechanisms to tackle, block that they taught were very taught us. Overall, it was a fun Relentless came to SCMSophia and prevent attacks. Gavali simple and elementary. It was session with lots of sweat – and emphasized the said, “We are not here to teach really fun.” shedding, jumps and falls. importance of being aware you how to attack, but to We also underwent an exercise Ritu Sharma, SCM student, who of the surroundings and the protect yourself. It is always session, where the entire also participated in the demo possible threats around. better to avoid any physical class was divided in pairs. fight says, “I had a blast wearing Chaitanya Gavali and Susovan conflict and run.” Each member had to attack, those boxing gloves and doing Ghosh who are assistant Yash Shah, SCM student, says, while the other had to defend. all the tackling. All the more coaches in the team were “The best part of the workshop Then we reversed roles and because I have undergone accompanied by a team of was that we were taught by repeated the same process. similar training earlier. This was volunteers. some of the best martial arts Then, we had a live martial a great experience.” - SB

88 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 T M Krishna in conversation with Jerry Pinto intertwined, in terms of production Posing questions on the existing THE FAMOUS CARNATIC of sounds and arrangement of pieces. establishment, he asked questions to maestro and Magsaysay Award He further elucidated on the relation us and proposed revolutionary ideas. winner T M Krishna paid a special between the artist and ‘rasikas’. He One of them being, “Can the local visit to SCMSophia where he had a said, “Applause is the biggest bane Mumbai colloquial dialect be used in conversation with Jerry Pinto which for an artist,” and that one needs to a bandish?” was followed by a general Q&A delve deeper. “There’s a constant Jovita Aranha, SCM student session with students and other power struggle or friction between says, “To be in the presence of people attending the discussion. the musicians and rasikas.” While the stalwarts like Jerry Pinto and T M He was in the city for his concert musicians would want a cognizant Krishna and watch them interact “Karnatic Modern—The Concert” in audience, deep within, “they want on our very own platform was a association with First Edition Arts. rasikas to know something but not stupendous experience. It was indeed Krishna is known to break clichés everything.” an amalgamation of words, music, and is often called a ‘rebel’ who goes One of his students was also ideologies and philosophies.” beyond the conventional—through present in the audience. He talked Apart from performing in his music and writing. He said, “The about how dichotomous Krishna various locations on his Mumbai best part of art is to break barriers, is with his disciples. He can be tour, the main attraction remained break structures.” But he also stressed the best of friends where one can the collaborative concert with the fact that, “One needs to master ask and discuss about anything. the Jogappas (A transgender the structure, the art.” He talked But, while he is teaching, he is a community of musicians based in about how science and music are complete-no-nonsense teacher, Northern Karnataka and Southern where he just concentrates on music. Maharashtra). - SB

at SCMSophia in November. Abdul Rasheed said, “Poetry Poets Translating Poets The panel included—Abdul is communicated before it is Rasheed (Kannada), Mamta understood.” Naseem Shafaie Sagar (Kannada), Orsolya particularly talked about the Kalasz (German) and Naseem state of education in the valley THE PROJECT “Poets South Asia and Germany to Shafaie (Kashmiri). Each of and how war affects the lives Translating Poets” is a translate each other’s works. them read their own poems of people. Kalasz spoke about remarkable initiative by the It is a two-year project, in and translation of each other’s perceptions associated with Goethe Institut, Mumbai (Max which 51 poets, who speak poems. This recitation and cultures and how people react Mueller Bhavan) in cooperation 20 different languages met in discussion was moderated to poetry from foreign cultures. with Haus für Poesie and new places across South Asia by Sridala Swami, poet and “What really stupefied me was German Commission for and translated each other’s SCM alum. These poets that the passion in the voices UNESCO, with an idea to poetry. As part of this, a panel were also accompanied by of the poets spoke volumes. It build a forum for poets from of poets also made their stop Rebecca Siebert, a German- didn’t matter that the language English interpreter was not known to us; the and Chandrika Javeri, communication was complete,” Web-Editor, Goethe- says SCM student Vindhya Institut-Mumbai. All of Barwal. us were delighted to Nothing could describe the listen to poets from such effect of this poetry recitation diverse backgrounds and discussion than the and languages. On following lines by Brecht: being asked about their “Will there be singing in the experience of translating ‘dark times’?” and working with poets “Yes. There will be songs of foreign languages, about the dark time.” - SB

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 89 SCM HAPPENINGS

“All information with the government belongs to us, and it is our right to know it” — Shailesh Gandhi

“RTI IS NOT A WEAPON, it is 15th August 1947, Swaraj never came. RTI, many of our doubts got cleared a powerful tool,” says Shailesh It’s a delusion. There was only a and we could see how the process Gandhi, former Chief Information transfer of power.” He also showed works. There were many questions Commissioner of India, in a us certain examples where people that were put forth to Gandhi and discussion with SCM students this were provided with all the possible he answered each of them, giving year. Earlier, we had filed RTIs on information on issues they had filed appropriate answers with relevant various topics and had received a RTIs for. He said, “Some of them did examples, if needed. plethora of replies from departments not have to give chai-pani, instead “This session made me realize across the spectrum. Some of them they got chai-pani. That’s the true that it is important to ask questions. are still arriving. Gandhi emphasized power of RTI.” He further elucidated In a democracy, it is our right to ask the power of rights in a democracy. the post-RTI filing process, where questions to the government and He said, “All information with the he said, “After the money is paid, the we should not be afraid of filing a government belongs to us. RTI is sort PIO is obligated to reply within thirty RTI. Instead, it is our duty,” says SCM of a negotiation between equals – the days. If it exceeds that, your fees is student Meenakshi Verma. public servant and the citizens.” refunded. No file shall be pending Gandhi finished by saying, “I own Speaking of the condition of more than seven working days.” the information, and if I own it, it governance today he said, “On the After his detailed presentation on must be provided to me.” - SB

narrated those humorous “The only villain in Parched is the accounts when the film was conditioning”— filmmaker and SCM alum Leena Yadav. reviewed by the Central Board of Film Certification. She told us how she stood her ground to ACCLAIMED DIRECTOR and their position in society. oriented film which talked keep the necessary expletives SCM alum Leena Yadav paid It was an interactive session about liberation of women in used in the film, so that the a visit to her alma mater this where Yadav shared her a strongly patriarchal world. basic flavour of the film is year. The session was about experiences during the making She explained to us what the retained. her filmParched that released of this film. She spoke about classical players of the Priyanka Arora, SCM in 2016. The film traced the every process in detail, telling industry think about the people student and an aspiring life of four women in a village us from the start—how the and their works, who try to filmmaker says, “It was an grappling old traditions like film’s script was conceived, how break with conventions. She amazing opportunity to forced child marriages and the casting was decided, interact with a senior other social issues like financial how the production filmmaker like Leena Yadav difficulties, rape, physical and team worked on settings, who happens to be our emotional abuse, alcoholic costumes, how the alum as well. Seeing her husbands. The film starring shooting progressed and film Parched has made me Radhika Apte, Tannishtha how the film was received an even stronger feminist. Chatterjee, Surveen Chawla in international platforms. Interacting with her made and Lehar Khan takes us on She also talked about me realise that it is not the a ride of women in distress how she faced difficulties budget that makes a film coming out and standing for in bringing a woman- but the mind.” - SB 90 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 Patil, besides giving lessons in overwhelming. She made us quite art, also taught us about the simple comfortable by not judging our mechanics of observation and hideous work,” smiles student Elton perception. Breathing exercises, Gomes. charcoal sketches and some Patil, illustrator and writer of Kari photography later, the class received (Harper Collins, 2008) and the Adi interesting lessons in storytelling. Parva (Harper Collins, 2012), also The artist drew connections between shared work from her latest graphic the portraits clicked and the various novel, Sauptik (Harper Collins, 2016), “The eye, not perceptions everyone in class held with the students. She spoke about about each other. The first day her work process in the face of a the heart, is ended with a rough layout of stories project as Titanic as the Mahabharata, the organ of that pairs would be turning into which forms the foundation of sequences of drawings. Adi Parva and Sauptik. Sharing an compassion,” The second day of the workshop analogy to make us understand, she —Graphic novelist had students scurrying around, said, “One sieves through impossible arranging their strips, either through volumes of sand from a riverbed in Amruta Patil photographs or sketches. Patil the hope of finding that one potential remained a sturdy guide through the gem. And after having chanced upon WHEN AMRUTA Patil was having process, helping us identify various a keeper, you begin the tireless time her Michelangelo moment on the issues and offering solutions at every in the lapidary. You keep polishing ceiling of the SCMSophia classroom, point. The day culminated in the facets of raw rock until you reveal the she was laughing as much as she was exhibition of all our comic strips fire at its heart.” drawing. A two-day workshop was on the screen in class. Stories were Note: SCM students’ article conducted by the artist in August for shared and advice and constructive on Amruta Patil’s latest work- an artistically-challenged-yet-hopeful criticism followed, helping and http://www.thehindu.com/news/ set of students here, kick-started by a deepening our perception of cities/mumbai/entertainment/ conversation between Patil and Jerry everything around us. “Interacting Reaching-for-the-fire-in-her-heart/ Pinto. with an artist for the first time was article14621794.ece - MG

with everything being engulfed “Give radio a chance”— RJ Rohini by the wave of digital, radio is now competing as one whole medium against this onslaught “I’M A GOOFY sort of person, and in doing so managed to Being an RJ, explained of technology. But, as Rohini but my heart is in the right get a generation of iPod users Rohini, is a position of pointed out, through various place,” said RJ Rohini, of to look at radio in a completely responsibility as well, and it portals such as Internet radio Radio Nasha, as she entered new light. is even more important and live-streaming, digital has the classroom. In true SCM Radio, an inherently when you’re a woman. also been a supplementary spirit, the class nodded local medium, connects Rohini herself was very force for radio. understandingly, dressed as to its audience through its conscious of her status The students also prepared we were in our uber-cool retro acknowledgement of the on her show, and refused Dubsmash videos as a surprise clothes, as a surprise to her. present and its unabashed to be dumbed down to a for Rohini. Student Upasana Rohini began the session celebration of all things festive. stereotypical figure. Bose recalls, “While all the with a talk about the radio “You have to be conscious of excitement was building community and their culture, being a woman and not up, we decided to make an and her fascinating stories a sex object or dumb person. invitation video for RJ Rohini. about various goof-ups on air The presenter is an informed We hadn’t been in class for and the guests on her show person. They must be aware,” too long and the preparation had the students completely she said. as well as the event ended up engrossed. She made the She further talked about how being one of those things we class understand the various the older shows on radio were bonded over and had a great dimensions of the medium, much more informative but time at.” - MG

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 91 SCM HAPPENINGS

Anuja Ghosalkar in and as Lady Anandi

ANUJA GHOSALKAR, theatre artist and SCM alum, thrilled everyone with her play Lady Anandi, at SCM in October. Written and performed by herself, it is a deeply personal project, based on her great grandfather University College of Art, Craft and was wonderful to see the character Madhavrao Tipnis, a female Design in Stockholm, Lady Anandi is then break through those moulds,” impersonator in late 19th century engrossing and unsettling, to say the says student Saurabh Thapa. Marathi theatre. Another well-known least. The show was presented as play on a similar subject happens The studio space was completely a work-in-progress, and Ghosalkar to be Satish Alekar’s Begum Barve. transformed by her company with invited everyone present to engage Ghosalkar’s work, however, has a a few set pieces and projections. in a discussion after the much more personal narrative, using Ghosalkar, modulating her voice in performance. a form of documentary theatre with extremes to suit the various facets “The play has evolved through real-life stories. of the characters she was enacting, these suggestions overtime. It was Ghosalkar first thought of the described the story of a female actor, quite different before,” she said. narrative while reading Virginia Lady F, along with archival material Students were asked to question as Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Could and family stories. well, which encouraged discussion on Shakespeare’s make-believe sister, “The cinematic effects within the subjects such as gender. Ghosalkar’s Judith, have been a playwright? play made it a wonderful aesthetic Lady Anandi, with its remarkably Or would she have been married experience. It was a novelty in itself. non-linear and quirky structure, straightaway? Such questions And I loved how she portrayed the demonstrated to us layers of politics, formed the core of the play. Written lives of women, how femininity is gender, theatre, and history woven during a residency at the Kontsfack imposed upon them at all times. It together. - MG

learnt about a farm labourer’s Transplanting rice in Kamshet daily life. While this work seems far removed from our realities, ONE OF THE FIRST activities practice. In heavy downpour, from the rain or sun. The it is an intimate relationship that we engaged in as a we then proceeded into the trip made me realise what we share with this part of our class, the trip to Kamshet field. It took us mere minutes troubles a farmer has to go world and we must be aware established what SCM was all to realise how much effort and through,” says Priyamvada of our responsibilities to our about, after all. Coming from perseverance is invested in Mangal. society and environment. various backgrounds, a lot of farm work. We also understood the Jovita Aranha describes her the students had never had “Regardless of the weather environmental and nutritional experience, “The amount of much experience in a farm. The conditions, farmers continue significance of continuing effort these farmers take to prospect of transplanting rice in to toil under minimal protection organic farming, as well as bring food to our table has a field was exciting, as well as a been ignored for a long little unsettling, at first. time. Stepping into their Processes such as headcounts shoes for a day was and divisions into groups difficult, but connecting (that we were to grow so to the earth, transplanting familiar with over the months) rice barefoot and the kick-started the trip. When short trip to the river we reached, we were told whilst trying to not lose about organic farming, and balance- has helped me the scientific benefits of the empathise.” - MG

92 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 Sameera Khan, on why women should loiter

AUTHORS OF Why Loiter (Penguin Books, 2011), Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade, came to the SCM classroom for a lecture on gender and violence. With a simple exercise where they asked students to plot various groups of men and women on a map of a residential complex, questions were answered. itself. As a group of people that are they demonstrated to us the gender Sameera Khan, an SCM alum, going to become part of the powerful structures and problems prevalent in returned to the classroom three days media field soon, awareness of the our society. later for a workshop on the reporting deep issues prevalent around us was “Where would you place a young of sexual assault. The history of all the more important. woman waiting for her friend in this laws, in relation to sexual violence, SCM student Ananya Desai public space?” Sameera Khan asked. was explained, and students were says, “When an author writes a “Mixed use areas mean more eyes informed about the various rights book answering all the looming and on the street, making them safer for of all victims of sexual crime. Khan antagonising questions that have women and other users,” said Shilpa also discussed a number of cases plagued your mind for years, and Ranade. The movement which Why from recent years with the students, you have the privilege of meeting the Loiter has generated across various which afforded us a glimpse into how author and conversing with them, it’s parts of the subcontinent was various attitudes have percolated quite difficult to explain what you’re discussed as well, and a great many down into our very legal system thinking.” - MG

“Was it our fault, that we dared to dream of a better life?” — our characters asked the crowd

song, which the students sang an NGO they must contact for themselves. A ‘sutradhaar’ guidance and assistance for and one of our own Nepali prevention of similar situations. classmates helped narrate the Finally, with a song about hope entire story to the crowds. Clad and strength, we joined hands in black and shouting at the and made a circle, sincere and top of our voices, we managed hopeful about the possibility of to attract a huge audience in having helped someone find a the village. They laughed and better future. sang along with the students SCM student Akriti Bindal and remained attentive at all says, “I was playing a negative the right moments, seeming character in the street play. “AYE HAH! AYE HAH! Aye, Performed in the market of a thoroughly engrossed. The moment when an NGO hah, hah, hah, hah!” small village called Chisapani, The climax of the play had the approached us to do this play Thus began our humble our play was about two young two young characters asking again for them was really attempt at making the slightest women who get lured into the crowds for answers. “Was special. It was a moment of possible difference to the leaving their homes by false it our fault that we dared to pride and achievement. It is issues of human trafficking promises of love and job dream of a better a life,” they better to educate some rather being faced by Nepal, on our opportunities. Every important asked. We then delivered our than no one at all. I hope this study tour to the far west juncture in the play was message about awareness little effort of ours saves few region of the country. emphasised by a Bollywood and referred the audience to lives.” - MG

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 93 SCM HAPPENINGS

Lowe Lintas President, Raj Gupta, on advertising and new media

RAJ GUPTA, President, Lowe Lintas, came to Sophia College in September, for a lecture on brand planning and the future of advertising in the digital age. Describing the difference examples from the Indian industry, the newer platforms are gaining between a ‘brand’ and a ‘product’, he we were able to understand his momentum; this was going to be a helped us understand the foundation message in a relevant context. great and exciting challenge for us to of the field, as it is today. Products He also spoke of a number of battle. which come with an image of cases, explaining to us the changing Kirti Chaturvedi describes her something that goes way beyond the trends in advertising. As individuals experience, “We are seeing this mere services they render are what who would soon be part of the transformation all around us. Media we must aim to create. industry, we were told about the is changing and we need to keep up “People are motivated to buy new media we’ll be facing, in place with it. Gupta’s lesson about push and products when the brand has a very of the traditional modes that have pull trends in advertising helped us strong point of view,” he said. Gupta been most popular until recently. understand the modern approaches played some ad films for the students An important turning point, where of the industry, to cater to the present to get his points across as well. With the older means are retiring, and consumers.” - MG

Khan further spoke about the “Communal violence sets us dynamics that exist between minorities and majorities in all back ten years”— Hasina Khan a country like India. When a community is treated as a minority, they learn from HASINA KHAN, founder of the majority and begin to Bebaak Collective, an initiative adapt. Muslim ghettoisation, to bring all Muslim women’s according to the activist, groups together, visited the has become a very common SCM classroom in September problem. However, the for an insightful lecture on the question isn’t just about battles that Muslim women are Muslims. Khan explained how facing all over. It began with the same arguments apply to her questioning the students each marginalised community about their perceptions of in the country. After a point, the Muslim women that they as you continue to force have encountered. Thus began somebody into a box, there the much-needed discourse is bound to be an explosion. on issues such as triple talaq, “Communal violence sets the halala and the stand taken on Muslim community back by them by the patriarchal All India ten to fifteen years,” Khan Muslim Personal Law Board. said. An atheist herself, Khan “Divorces should have mutual summed her own experience consent, which the Muslim as well, “If you do not challenge personal law doesn’t allow with religion, you are yet to reach an Triple Talaq,” she said. educational milestone.” - MG

94 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 DEMONETISATION DIARIES The Demonetisation

DiariesA documentation of the hassles, exam-stricken SCMites had to face compiled by ANANYA DESAI

n 8 November 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the five hundred rupee and thousand-rupee Obanknotes in circulation would no longer be valid currency. Perhaps, the words of a wise professor echoed in every SCMite’s head: “At SCM, you w ill have bad days and then you will have very bad days,” she had warned us half-jokingly, but only half. We knew a bad day when we saw one: the start of our semester examinations, topped with Trump

winning the presidential elections SINGHANIA VEDIKA and now this: demonetisation... things could not get any worse. f anyone could describe a terrible I desperately searched for my ringing Even though some of us openly landing, it would have to be phone in my pockets while tugging a denied being affected at all, we all Darshana Devi, whose woes heavy suitcase. “Yes Ma, what is it?” I were affected in one way or another. began the moment she landed asked, almost dropping my phone as Through the course of the chaos, each in Mumbai from her hometown I tugged my suitcase along to the taxi of us had a day that has been coined on the 8th of November. “The stand. I was rather excited about the permanently in our minds. Iturbulence during landing made for new semester, and reuniting with all a fine alarm when I landed at 11 am in the Mumbaikars. “Check the news. ★ ★ ★ Mumbai. Mr. Modi has just banned the 500

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My father has never let me take the ‘staff’s daughter’s’ advantage. What is it with Indians and their judging?” she enquires.

★ ★ ★

lton Gomes faced withdrawals, which were rather unpleasant. “I was not that badly affected by demonetisation, because all the money that I had Ebelonged to my parents: it was pocket money; my savings were all in 10 and 100 rupee notes. “I owed money to two of my VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA friends, and I was supposed to pay them on Friday, but was unable to do and 1000 rupee notes. You’ll have to this would be really hard to use. The so, since all the 100 rupee notes were manage somehow for a while,” she said. next two days, I ran around looking required at home. “It took me a while to realise that I had for change unsuccessfully. I heard “Two cups of cappuccino just left home with a teary farewell and that there were people taking the old comprised my daily quota at work; 10,000 bucks in 500 rupee notes. With notes and giving 100 rupee notes at a however, I needed something potent my exams starting the next day, I didn’t commission of 20 per cent. It seemed when I began working 12 hours daily. have time to stand in long queues. rather tempting and I was quite I switched to espresso shots, and it After panicking, I borrowed some desperate for cash, but funnily enough, worked wonders for me. I broke for loose change from a few friends and it wasn’t worth it,” he said. coffee breaks thrice a day, having started paying online. I had to take an two espresso shots each time. While Ola to college because I had no money. ★ ★ ★ conversing with a colleague, she told The once spoilt brat had to save every me that my breath reeked of coffee. Be penny now,” she said. owdy Queues, Pink it home or office, surviving without notes, Endless coffee for hours became difficult; but ★ ★ ★ debates. now I had to survive without coffee To say the first week for three entire days, because the 100 n the 9th of of demonetisation rupee notes were used sparingly, very November every was crazy would sparingly in fact. Indian woke up “Rbe an understatement,” says Purbali “Friday, the 11th, was the worst with just one Mukherjee. day for me, firstly, due to the absence thought, where “On 10th November, I was standing of coffee, and I had been waiting to and how can they in a queue, behind dozens of sleazy order a book online. I generally pay “Oget rid of their old 500 and 1000 rupee men who were discussing the policies cash on delivery. Demonetisation only notes,” speculates Yash Shah. like financial experts. Between prolonged my wait,” he said. “I had all my savings in 500 rupee sweating like a pig and getting late for notes, the first thing I did that morning class, I heard someone say ‘Bankers are ★ ★ ★ was to go and deposit it into my the reason our lives have become hell.’ account. Being a banker’s daughter, this et another film “Although it took me three hours obviously irked me. Right when I was enthusiast did not I was relieved; the next step was giving a fitting reply to them in my let demonetisation to convert a few big notes into 100 head, my phone rang. It was mom. break her spirit on the rupee notes. Standing in line with the ‘Dad has been hospitalized.’ I sat on the 12th of November. maximum exchange limit of 4,000 ground on hearing this. After working “Dormammu, I come rupees I would be glad to get 40 notes for 13 hours straight every day, Dad Yto bargain,” said Doctor Strange for the in 100 rupees. had fainted in his overcrowded bank. nth time, and the theatre collectively “Next thing I know is I am handed After that day till today, I have heard chuckled. The four of us, after our two notes of 2000 rupees and I knew remarks about bankers being corrupt. less-than-exceptional exam, laughed

96 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 too, quite engrossed in the film,” says Mayanka Goel. “There were two days to go before the next paper, and in a week full of all- nighters, this had seemed like too good an opportunity to ignore. The cheapest and most conveniently timed show had been settled on, and we had set off to Matterden, in Lower Parel, to watch Doctor Strange. “Reaching there, we discovered that the venue didn’t accept cards, and we were, not unexpectedly, low on cash. The first attempt to battle

this was through online booking, but SINGHANIA VEDIKA we were way past the booking time. We went looking for ATMs, hopeless ration exhausted. Almost all my “As we stood at the billing counter, but desperate. And then, a friend had roommates work in corporate offices anticipating the total, Priyanka did an idea. We could ask stores to swipe and earn hefty salaries. They were off at mental math and nudged me, “It’s not our cards and transfer money to their work for most of the day; I didn’t have more than 700 bucks, cute puppy face,” account, in return for hard cash. cash and the ATMs were unusable. she whispered. The cashier continued “First came a restaurant. The On that particular day, all of us were at scanning the goods in our basket, and manager, while on the phone, thought home but with no cash. That almost the total said: 660. In our desperate we were there to use the loo, as cut off the supply of daily food at our attempt to increase the total, we added we waited with our most demure house. Yes, we did have the privilege of a carry bag, but in vain. expression for him to finish his call. debit/credit cards and smart phones; we “We looked at the cashier and the They were out of cash, he said, as did ordered food online. cashier merrily opened his drawer, and half a dozen other establishments. “But then, what about Saleema (32, pulled out a wad of Rs. 100 notes and “One last store, we thought. house-help) who lives three blocks handed me 13 leaves. I looked at him “Arrey, of course,” said the lady at away in perennial destitution. Was she suspiciously, he identified my concern the counter, as her husband glared at able to feed her two sons, Altaf (11) and and exclaimed, “Madam, the new 500 her from the corner. Taufiq (8)? What was she going to do? notes have started circulating,” and “We all must help each other. You That taught me a lot more than what all pointed at the guy at the end of the aisle are in need, and so I will help you,” she the newspapers and news apps couldn’t and said, “He has even got one.” “Will smiled. teach me in those initial days,” he says. you give me one in exchange of this?” the hoarder in me asked. “Sure”, he said ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ and went to fetch it. “Might you have one more?” I enquired. The cashier gave ven though Suryasarathi edika Singhania was me a look and we knew it was best to Bhattacharya wasn’t probably the only take the nearest exit route,” she said. directly affected, he did one who thought of witness the repercussions hoarding the new ★ ★ ★ on the 13th of November. currency notes on the “As I was busy with my 14th of November, riyanka Arora, not Efirst semester examinations and was Vwhen she saw one for the first time. particularly an early riser, more often than not at home, I didn’t “My friend, Priyanka and I usually buy had to make an exception feel the pinch,” he says. our groceries weekly, but we decided to on the 15th of November. “Being at home, I also felt and hoard the goods for the month at one “Like everyone, my first probably started believing the go; hooray for the two of us. How else brush with the news of propaganda thought that it is all for is one supposed to acquire a change of Pdemonetisation happened on 8th good; and better days are probably 2000 bucks? November, 2016 when Mr. Prime nearing. Then a series of incidents “We headed to Sahakari Bhandar Minister’s banning of 500 and 1000 occurred and I learnt that the effect of and filled our baskets with our notes sparked headlines. this move by the government wasn’t necessities. We needed change, but we “I didn’t realize how bad the effects black and white; there were grey areas. also knew we couldn’t spend too much were until I saw the enormous queues “It all began, when my flat’s monthly because of the cash crunch. outside banks and ATMs. Being a

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hostelite, and never having enough if there’d be any money left. I sincerely ilofer Khan was cash, I frequented ATMs. But they prayed to be able to withdraw money or unnecessarily dragged seldom had cash. I wouldn’t be able to travel the next day into the mess. “Tareeq On the 14th of November, with yet for my paper or buy myself dinner. After Bhai (name changed another futile attempt to withdraw, I a three-hour wait, I got the cash and on request), my asked the guard and he informed me didn’t sleep with an empty stomach,” cousin, dropped me a that cash was deposited every morning she says. Ntext on 18th of November and asked me at 5 and exhausted by 7:30 am to ‘help him out’ with exchanging and “The next morning, I left the ★ ★ ★ depositing money. He promised that hostel to withdraw money at 5:30 am it wouldn’t take more than an hour. I and was surprised to find 10 people eenakshi Verma, hadn’t visited banks so I thought maybe awaiting their turn. As I was standing who expected a it wouldn’t be crowded at 3 pm in line, several came and stood behind Netflix Sunday “When I reached the bank I wished I’d me. I laughed at the irony of how Mr. on the 17th of stayed home and studied instead. Long Prime Minister’s move to end black November, was queues, angry people talking about money had given rise to money being quite disappointed. how Mr. Modi shouldn’t be the PM and withdrawn during black mornings M“I wanted it to be an ordinary lazy a completely harassed staff was what I devoid of sunlight,” she says. Sunday, but waiting in queue for four saw. Time was running out since I had hours to deposit money into my bank to start studying and the commotion ★ ★ ★ didn’t feel Sunday-like. around was giving me a headache. “My first stop was at SBI; seeing “Just then, my cousin left me to get his hipra Jha was grateful a comparatively small queue, my identification proof which he forgot that she didn’t have to sister and I rejoiced at the fact that our at his place. Finally, it was my turn. starve herself on the job would be done within thirty odd Hallelujah! It was short-lived. It all came 16th of November. “After minutes. down crashing the minute I saw the my photography exam I However, we were quickly shooed notes. Everything seemed wrong. The decided to go to the ATM. I away by an employee who said we had notes resembled monopoly money. Swas afraid of waiting in long queues and to be ‘special branch’ account holders in What made me laugh was the fact, not knowing whether at the end of it, order to get our money changed. Seeing ‘How could I get smaller denominations there would be any money left. the queue outside, an alternative at any shop?’ How will this help us in “I went to Goregaon where I live with almost made me faint. We realised the near future?” she enquires. the 30 bucks I had been saving for three that it would be smarter to split our days. The queue was huge and after money and venues and stand in queues ★ ★ ★ about an hour or so, there was some simultaneously instead of keeping each movement to my relief. With the tiny other company and practically wasting emonetisation quarter centimetre that the line moved more time,” she said. if nothing else, forward, I felt blessed. revealed my “I was rather anxious and wondered ★ ★ ★ need to plan expenses better,” says Vindhya “DBarwal. “When I noticed that I had only two hundred rupee in my wallet on November 19th, I had second thoughts about showing Jackie, my Chinese friend around Mumbai. “Politeness however, got the best of me and I took a cab from Malabar Hill to Colaba. In the clearly unplanned process, I spent half my money. So there I sat across her at Leopold Café insisting that I had already eaten while my stomach rumbled. I then spent three hours taking Jackie places without moving out of the periphery of Colaba. I tried to compensate for the distance travelled by spewing the VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA

98 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA

limited knowledge I had about the time had elapsed. “Google often said without cash. After much scavenging, museum and art galleries. that we were only 15 minutes away my friend found a bank near “Finally, having successfully set from our destination… well, it lied! It Priyadarshini Park that had a smaller a good impression about my city, I was a six kilometre walk, which felt queue. scavenged all the coins in my bag and much longer, after which we were “After waiting in queue for 45 thanked the Lord for the existence of thoroughly fagged out. We rested minutes, the manager refused to BEST buses”, she said. our tired legs in the theatre, and were exchange my friend’s money because extremely grateful that the theatre she had a laminated adhaar card. ★ ★ ★ accepted card payments for food “After the shock subsided, we purchases. questioned the grounds on which she rather lazy Ananya “We still didn’t have any money to based her argument. Not only did she Desai had the take a bus back home, let alone a cab; ignore us afterwards, she refused to experience of her so we scavenged around for ATMs and write down the reason for the refusal life on the 20th of walked another three kilometres. We on the form and sign it, so that we could November. “My exams finally found one, withdrew money and show it to the police. were getting over the took a cab home and crashed for four “We contacted a few journalist nextA day and I had booked tickets for hours straight!” she says. friends for help. The bank employees Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find said she’d sent fifty people back for Them. My roommate and I were so ★ ★ ★ the same reason. After a long thrilled because we had spent our last ear Diary,” writes argument, she finally gave us pennies on the tickets...sadly, we didn’t an exasperated the cash. have cash, between the two of us to Akriti Bindal on the “We didn’t have that large an reach Nariman Point. 21st of November. amount to exchange, but I wondered “After an entire night of “Getting my money about those who did and the angst at brainstorming, we got dressed in keds exchanged was being sent away despite waiting,” she and tracks and walked from Peddar “Dimpossible until my exams were over. says. road to Nariman Point. We kept looking The long queues were frightening but at our wrist watches to see how much it was becoming difficult to survive ★ ★ ★

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inal Khosla complains of her never ending woes that escalated on the 22nd of November. “I was Mjust checking the NDTV app on my phone, when my mom called. I had just read the story and Ma had heard. She knew that I had 500s and 1000s, so we both panicked a little and discussed the possible ways I could immediately get the money converted. “After talking to her, one of my roommates and I decided to get it changed. As both of us needed medicines, we decided to head to the closest chemist. We were pretty sure we’d get change there because how could a chemist say no? To our shock we were refused. “As we came out of the store, depressed and ready to stand in the ATM queue right across the road, we saw ‘Naturals’ and decided to try our luck there. Embarrassed, but in need, we went there and to our surprise the employee there gave us change. “I felt so relieved and ecstatic!” she said.

★ ★ ★ SINGHANIA VEDIKA

inal Sancheti master stroke, I decided to generate the Note Ban Andolan at Churchgate admits that she some content for my Instagram. So I station on 28th November. wasn’t really went to the queue outside the banks “Since I was writing about Sudhir affected, but she near the college and started asking Dhawale for the college magazine, spoke to those them what they think about the I accompanied Dhawale to the affected on the situation and the new policy. protest. When I reached there, I saw M25th of November. “I was lucky. I “People doing services and jobs were about 30 people shouting anti-Modi did not face any problem due to facing a lot of trouble as they had to jingles and waving their flags high in demonetisation. I did not have to stand for hours leaving their work the sky. stand in the queue either. I always behind,” she said. “By the time I realized, the crowd used to keep a thousand rupees note in had increased to a hundred. News vans, my bag for safety. Then I had to remove ★ ★ ★ camerapersons and Anand Patwardhan that and replace it with 100 rupee were ready with their cameras. But notes. emember, for some reason I never came across The night this happened, for the next remember the 28th any of it on any newspaper, channel, few days there was less traffic. The only of November”, says and neither the web. It’s as if it never places that gathered a lot of crowds Vishaal Mudholkar. happened. were outside the banks. All the holy ”Narendra Modi ki The demonetisation didn’t make a places got some serious competition tanashahi ke khilaf difference in my life except for the fact from the ATMs in the city. “Raam aadmi ek ho,” (The common that I couldn’t pay my rent in cash,” he “Even some temples refused to people should unite against Narendra says. take the old 500 and 1000 rupee notes. Modi’s despotism!) was one of the Since I was not directly affected by the slogans yelled by a CPI member at ★ ★ ★

100 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 n 30th November, I faced a major cash crunch,” complains Upasana Bose. “By this time all “Othe cash I had, was completely over and I found myself in a position where I had to adjust with things of daily use that SINGHANIA VEDIKA could be availed only through card. I we had to go through another tedious on the 6th of December. had to restrict myself from buying fruit process. Finally around 3pm we “When I went to the Grant Road which could be bought only through received our money and were relieved,” station to take a train home, I realised cash. she says. that the railway counters were “I had visited the nearby ATM accepting the old currency notes. So several times, only to find the cash was ★ ★ ★ I seized the opportunity and over. Thus, for this day and a few days requested for a recharge of a 100 after, I was compelled to adjust without he 5th of December rupees on my smart card. I gave them cash. The demonetisation took place was not quite how a 500 rupee note and they gave 400 and even more than a month after its Arzoo Hamal pictured bucks back to me without any hassle. inception there are such days when she’d be spending I called back home to tell my family we all are facing discomfort of various her Monday, but then about this victorious transaction,” she kinds,” she says. again, one shouldn’t said. expectT any less of Mondays. “After ★ ★ ★ demonetisation was announced, I ★ ★ ★ tried avoiding the queue outside the felt helpless, broke and bank. However, like everyone else I ovita Aranha had it the hardest absolutely poor despite was unable to escape it. I went to the from the lot of us. She had to having money,” says Ritika Punjab National Bank ATM on 20th live up to a challenge that was Debnath. November. almost impossible to meet on “Living alone is not an “Being a Nepalese account holder, the 9th of December. easy job and undoubtedly my bank restricted my transactions. “In 2011, the Indian Planning “Ithis entire demonetisation had affected I waited patiently for over three Jcommission stated an average Indian me. With exams just getting over a hours to withdraw money and finally spending Rs 32 a day is not living below day before and with a wallet full of succeeded. My lifestyle has changed poverty line. I tried to live a day with “illegal” cash, I was a little anxious. My entirely. I have to think before Rs 40/- only. Well, not off my own roommate and I went on a mission spending at a place that doesn’t accept accord. Blame demonetisation. to the bank on the 1st of December cards. Besides, getting change for the “Two bananas, one, a humble alm from and waited in chaotic queues. A little newly introduced Rs. 2000 notes is a one of my friends and one bought for unaware as to how to go about Herculean task. Rs 5. Two sharing cab rides later for the process, we decide to get “Most places are not equipped with Rs 10 each and a donation for a cello some help. swiping machines. While earlier it tape dispenser we lost in college for “The people asked us to fill took me five minutes to complete my Rs 10, I was back at the mercy of the out a form and we did as we were transaction, I unwillingly waited for shiny orange Bank of Baroda card in told. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hours to withdraw money to sustain my wallet. Bapu shone in all his glory get our money exchanged as we myself,” she says. in pink as the ATM decided to bless me weren’t account holders in the bank. with a note of Rs 2000 only. Disappointed and a little embarrassed, ★ ★ ★ “So began the hunt for change. Seven we decided to leave and find the was stuck with nine notes shops and several eateries refused. And nearest branch of our bank. of 500 rupees on me but so, I walked from Goregaon station “The mission proved to be a looking at the situation to our Lady of Rosary church just little difficult because the bank around me, I decided that I’d to miss the Eucharist forty minutes where we had our account, all rather beg, borrow, steal or late, munching on a half ripe banana mayhem had broken loose. People absolutely not indulge in any bought for Rs 5, winning the on live- were yelling at the guard and creating “Imonetary transactions, than go to the for-40-a-day challenge, just a whole a ruckus. And since our bank accounts bank for at least a week or two,” said a lot disappointed and feeling Rs 2000 were actually our father’s accounts rather level-headed Priyamvada Mangal poorer,” she says.

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Javed Akhtar: Wizard Of Words In a conversation with Javed Akhtar, SURYASARATHI BHATTACHARYA takes us into the world of the writer, lyricist and poet.

aved Akhtar or Jadu, as he is Amitabh Bachchan) and as a lyricist for Bollywood cinema known by few of his close ones, that he is known. Javed saab explains that in the world of was born in Gwalior to a family of the lyric it is the tune that comes first; the words play second poets and writers. His parents, the fiddle. progressive poet Jan Nisar Akhtar “Most of the songs that you hear are written to a tune. and Safia Akhtar, raised him in The tune comes first; the words must be added to it. So to an environment of books, poetry, be a lyricist, you have to have an understanding of music. intellectualism and communism. You may not be a trained musician, but you have to have a Thus, from a very young age he musical ear. You can only write a song on a tune when that grew into a love of words. Some of tune has got to your heart. There are very complex tunes his favourite works were those of also. Particularly for somebody like A R Rahman it is very Nikolai Gogol, Vladimir Stavsky and difficult. His tunes aren’t on regular meters. Writing to his Mikhail Sholokhov. music needs tremendous control of craft to produce words “Russian literature was available that sound good and also have meaning.” to us because my parents belonged The noted filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker who has to the Communist Party. My maternal uncle Majaz Lakhnavi collaborated with Javed saab for six films fromLagaan was a renowned poet; my father was a poet; their friends to Mohenjo Daro says, “All know him as a screenplay Jwere poets. So I lived in a poetry-soaked environment; it writer, lyricist and a thinker. But few know him as a poet. I was assumed that anyone who was educated would know discovered the poet Javed Akhtar through his collection of poetry,” he says. poems—Tarkash. The poems and ghazals make you smile, The noted actress Shabana Azmi, who is his second wife cry and ponder. There is a lot of romance but also realism and says, “When I met Javed, he was just turning into a poet. I practicality. They appear so realistic that we are able to relate think I got attracted to him because he took me back to my to them individually. His power of reasoning is unmatched in roots. In getting to know Javed, I got to know my father (Kaifi creating public awareness about various issues. I will always Azmi) better because they belong to the same culture. Both be indebted to him for giving my movies dignity and clarity have a huge sense of propriety. They are old fashioned in of thought.” their values and both have a great sense of humour. I often This clarity of thought is visible when you ask Javed say that Javed and I actually should have had an arranged saab about his favourite genre of song. He says there is no marriage because of the similarities between us.” such thing as a favourite genre but he is happy to talk about Javed Akhtar may be a poet but it is as a script-writer (as particular songs. “It is not the genre per se, that is good or half of the Salim-Javed pair that dominated the hustling in bad; songs are good or bad. If you say that you like only Rock the 1970s and invented the Angry Young Man persona for or Indian classical or medium paced songs, that will be a very

102 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 SURYASARATHI BHATTACHARYA SURYASARATHI

sloppy statement. Saare classical to acche nahi hai, boring when he says ‘that is the question’. And, he also has to make bhi ho jaate hai aur jo sugam sangeet hai woh accha bhi ho sure the light is on his face. Now, if he is involved in the play sakta hai bura bhi. It depends on the product, the particular and he starts believing that he is the prince of Denmark how composition, the particular poem. It is not the genre that will he remember the chalk mark? And if he remembers it, gives a song dignity; at least I don’t believe that. Ultimately how does he believe he is the prince of Denmark? But, he what can happen is that a light-hearted song can be very must do both the things. In the same way, when you write good while another song that is pretending to have depth a song or a poem, you have to feel the pain, the envy, the and poignancy can be a dull and boring composition.” emotion, the romance, the anger, the longing and the pining He further elucidates, “See, whatever form of art—be it of the character in that situation. But somewhere a part of poetry, prose, painting or even acting, there is content and you has to be aware of the craft also. Although ostensibly there is craft. The first is the ‘what’; the second is the ‘how’. these are contradictory things, that is how art is created: For the ‘what’ we have thoughts, passions, imagination, chalk mark and believing that I can’t decide both at the emotions, fantasies and dreams. But there is craft too. same time.” Poetry’s craft is unique. For example, when you sing you One cannot help but agree with Shabana Azmi when she make sounds. While you talk you also make sounds. The says, “He is an amazingly analytical person, but he works on difference is the same as that in prose and poetry. Prose his instincts and that is his biggest quality. I have read Talking is talking and poetry is singing. Pythagoras, the Greek Songs and Talking Films, two books in which Nasreen Munni philosopher once said that music at one level is pure Kabir interviewed him. I read them from first page to the mathematics; exactly the same goes for poetry. Poetry is last without setting the book down and was amazed at how also pure mathematics. Now if it is in regular meter then it clearly he can articulate processes. There are so many artists is simple mathematics and if it is in free verse, then it is very who are very good at their job but are incapable of analysing complex theorem.” what they do.” Director and daughter Zoya Akhtar recalls the days she e explains this technique with an first got her scripts read by her father: “When I wrote my appropriate example. He says, “Suppose a first script and I took it to him, that’s when I started getting man is playing Hamlet. Now Hamlet is the feedback from him, in terms of the craft, nuances, what to prince of Denmark and he cannot make look out for, characterisations, how a narrative in terms of up his mind. So obviously the actor has to screenplay should go.” believe that—I am the prince of Denmark Speaking about his father, actor and director Farhan Hand I am a fickle-minded person. I cannot make up my mind Akhtar says, “There are many poems of his, be it Fasaad se and I cannot make decisions. That is what he is going on Pehle or Waqt or the one he wrote on Mother Teresa that I stage believing in. But, at the same time the director has told really cherish. I wish I could see him work because it would him that there is the chalk mark and he has to reach there be an amazing process; so much of his work has entered our

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cultural vocabulary, I’d like to know how he does this. When I worked with him I noticed how focussed he was.”

is father has been a huge influence on Farhan Akhtar: “I started with not just watching him work but watching Hhis work. A lot of the movies that he had written were a staple part of me watching films while I was growing up. Dad has had a tremendous influence on not just me as a writer but I think SURYASARATHI BHATTACHARYA SURYASARATHI on most writers of our generation,” says Farhan. Adding to this, the more “I started with deserted by the middle class. contemporary and recent-in-the- not just watching Nobody can undermine the market writer Varun Grover says, “I him work but importance of English in today’s have been hugely influenced by Javed watching his world. It is not possible, yet it is very saab’s writing and his struggle to get work. A lot of important. But, children are learning respect for himself and the profession the movies that English at the cost of their mother of writing. His scripts are still bustling he had written tongue which is not a nice thing to with the same energy as they must were a staple part happen. Ideally children should be have when they first released in the bilingual. They should have total facility 1970s. That’s the mark of a writer who of me watching in English and at the same time they is adding so much personality in his films while I was should be devoted to their mother works that it looks relevant even today. growing up.” language. You see, a tree needs roots I like his screen-craft the way character and a tree needs branches. One cannot conflicts are so layered (like Big B in be a tree without branches and one Deewar has daddy issues, moral issues, burden of his own cannot be a tree without roots. So it is not a matter of either- ambitions, familial strife etc.) and his dialogue-writing which or, it is a matter of both, of ‘and’.” never shows off but is still so impactful.” Apart from the world of words, he has a world of his own Honey Irani, Javed saab’s first wife and still a close friend – the one within. Revealing the real-and-not widely-known says, “When I met Javed, he was writing with Salim saab and Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi says, “People in adversity and they had already written a few films. He was very fond of holding on to their dignity is what I feel moves Javed the poetry but did not write at that time. I think Javed’s writing most, because of the lessons that he has learnt through all has very good characterisation, and he is one of the best his hardships. I mean here was the man who had not eaten dialogue writers I have seen or worked with. I love so many for three days, here was the man who had slept at the railway of the films they have written together likeZanjeer , Deewar station in Khar. I remember very clearly that once he was, and of course Sholay. And I love Arjun which he wrote during his initial days in Bombay, very hungry. It was raining individually, and all the songs he has written.” heavily and he was on streets because he had no home. Javed saab strongly believes in accurate placement of There was this one small lamp that he was watching. It was words and holds perfect language and its usage at the highest the lowest depth of his struggles and suffering. And he told pedestal of writing skills. Adding more light on this aspect, himself that he wasn’t born to die just like that. These days Farhan Akhtar says, “I think the best part about his work is will change.” that he uses a language that is very easily understandable She further, talking about Javed saab’s spirit, says, by all. I mean, if he wanted, he could write in a way which “He doesn’t dwell in his past at all and never talks about probably only people who really know the nuances of that. I completely marvel at his spirit and about his not language or who have an amazing vocabulary when it comes moaning and groaning about his past. Also in his work, I find to Urdu would know. But he writes for everyone, so that that he never speaks about tragedy. He will, with a turn of people can connect with his ideas and thoughts which I find phrase and twist of words, make it less heavy. I think that very fascinating.” is one of his immense strengths. Hiding emotion under Talking about the importance of language Javed saab emotion is expressed more strongly. He firmly believes ‘less says, “Language has not been given the importance that is more’.” it deserved. Anything that was not bankable was not “Kyun darein zindagi mein kya hoga important, which is tragic. The regional languages have been Kuch na hoga to tajurba hoga”

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The Identity of Libraries in a Digital Age VINDHYA BARWAL tours the libraries of the city and asks some tough questions. Photography by VEDIKA SINGHANIA

ahya Batatawala, a environment. Just a few seats away “I declare after law student from from him sits Suresh Manjerekar, a all there is no Lala Lajpat Rai 73-year-old retired machinery worker enjoyment like College would not buried in a Marathi book, looks up to reading! How be impressed by say, “I come here whenever I have any much sooner one Austen’s words. free time because I don’t want to waste tires of anything Sitting in the time.” He wonders why the students do than of a book! YPeople’s Free Reading Room and not leave their mobile phones outside -- When I have a Library (PFRRL), Dhobi Talao, he says: the library and asks rhetorically house of my own, I “According to me libraries are used how anybody can study with such a shall be miserable by students to study their notes and distracting device around. if I have not an by old people to read newspapers.” That distracting device is where excellent library.” Batatawala is one of the students the internet seems to be converging. - Jane Austen, Pride in the city who take a temporary And the internet seems to be the and Prejudice membership in libraries during enemy where libraries are concerned. examinations to study in a peaceful When almost all literature is available

106 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 online, one cannot help but wonder have to go through the what purpose libraries and reading process of membership rooms serve. Dr. Amol Shripad Divkar, because otherwise director at Niteeka Archival Research somebody has to propose, Infotech, a company dedicated to the somebody has to second restoration of books and libraries says, you, a scrutiny committee “The question is very touchy; whether looks at your applications people will frequent a library as before and decides if you are or not. They may not physically worthy. Students can frequent them given today’s set up of simply walk in with an ID the InfoTech scenario, they may access card and fill up the form,” them online.” she says. The oldest libraries in Bombay in While the physical spite of their rich heritage are facing readership at the libraries the problem of a declining readership. and reading rooms of Kaushik Oza, the Vice-President of Bombay is definitely David Sassoon Library at Kala Ghoda declining, the initiative says, “Readership is going down day of digitisation aims to extend ways The growth may be parallel. Physical by day. I am seriously thinking about in which they can extend their reach growth of books will also not come giving incentives to the best reader as a repository of human knowledge, to a halt. And a digital library will also who borrows maximum books.” wisdom and civilisation. Digitisation simultaneously grow. What may grow Notably, this Venetian Gothic library is offers to give more people more faster or slower will depend on time where Dr BR Ambedkar sat and wrote access to more books, libraries and it and life.” the final draft of the constitution of ensures that no institution can exert India. Aarti Mehta, librarian at the HD a monopoly on literature. Libraries e says that just as a Kanga Sports Library at Wankhede including JN Petit, David Sassoon, HD traditional library Stadium, says, “Previously so many Kanga, PFRRL and Asiatic have taken a can get destroyed people used to come; nowadays step towards modernization. “Now we by fire and other everything is on the internet. Most are classifying books on computers. We calamities, a digital people may not know about the have to move to the digital world and library can also get library.” HD Kanga is the only library in keep up with the time,” says Goolshan Hdestroyed by corruption of the storage, Mumbai which is dedicated to sports. Cooper, secretary and librarian at the software dysfunction and other such Professor Vispi Balaporia, the PFRRL. factors. Because the content matter of Honorary Secretary of the Asiatic Dr. Amol Divkar says that the digital libraries comes from traditional Society Library talks about the library as an identity will always exist; libraries, he is of the opinion that the incentives offered by the library for it will only be split into a physical and significance and importance of the students to become members. “We are digital one. He says, “You may want to traditional library is far more. Dr. Divkar happy if students come to the library. study from the digital copy. So this is adds, “As far as the heritage aspect To be a student member you don’t both parallel as well as combinative. goes, old libraries would also have the architectural significance and the ambience through the collection of old and rare books.” Libraries and reading rooms today have a dearth of members who wish to issue books and take them home. Most students continue to use libraries for the sole purpose of finding a quiet and comfortable place to study their own notes. Dr. Divkar however, does not think of this as an unwelcome behaviour. He says, “It is a use of a concept or a use of a service for the purpose they think it should serve them. That’s all. No harm in that. But it still shows that they come to the library.”

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already movements, but they were highly localized. Medha could bring together these different, little points of Medha Patkar, struggle.” In the beginning, nobody believed her. “When I came to the (Narmada) a fearless voice valley initially the farmers here used to say, ‘Arre yeh chori kya karegi idhar?’ MINAL SANCHETI and ELTON GOMES in conversation with (What will this girl do here?),” Patkar Medha Patkar about her journey through thirty years of being part of says. Madhuri Variyath, close friend resistance movements and social work. and classmate from school, says, “In order to educate the tribes about the situation and their rights, Patkar even his is the story of “Our first demand was for learned the tribal languages such as big dams, 350,000 information. We believed that people Bhilali and Pavri; she used to deliver displaced villagers, should be given information about speeches in these languages,” she says, more than 244 everything. The other questions were with awe in her voice. submerged villages, on the project, its cost benefits, its The media soon portrayed and thousands environmental impacts and the social Patkar as the face of the movement. of people impact,” said Medha Patkar. Madhuri Variyath says, “She started marching to halt “Since we were not getting the giving most of her time to the project. Tthe combined power of the World responses we needed, we decided that She was the torchbearer when the Bank and the Government of India. we would dig out the information. whole team was convinced to talk to Narmada Bachao Andolan is 30 Although every party supports the World Bank about the disaster. years of resistance against the transparency in their manifestos, they She started negotiating and talking government’s plan of making dams a rarely bother informing people. So we to the World Bank to pull out and part of the development project. The insisted on maps in the tribal dialects convince them that whatever is being Narmada River flows from the lush of the region. That was the first time projected to them is not going to green mountain ranges of Maikal, we raised the issue of the right to live. happen. And that’s how she became Amarkantak, and flows across Madhya Then, Aruna Roy’s organisation had the main leader. Now there are many Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and started a dharna in Rajasthan. That youngsters, but of her generation, Gujarat, affecting the lives of Indians continued for few days. I took part in she is the main person.” Patkar’s and in a variety of situations: rural, urban, it.” her colleagues’ struggle forced the developed and even forest dwellers. When it all began, Medha Patkar World Bank to withdraw its financial In 1979, the government decided had a Masters in Social Work from the support for the project. Thereafter, to build dams on the river Narmada. Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) she became the representative of Dams were built in Gujarat and due to and was working on her doctoral The World Commission on Dams, submergence of villages, people were dissertation. But when she found a branch of International Rivers affected in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat out about the Narmada project and (www.internationalrivers.org) which and Maharashtra. The development its ramifications and the fact that “protects rivers and defends the rights project was being funded by the most of the villagers were unaware of communities that depend on them.” World Bank. These dams were of the project and the impact it was Kailash Awasya, who lost his house supposed to provide irrigation and going to have on their lives and their and his village to the dam water, says, provide hydroelectricity. However, livelihoods, she decided to work full “We had an idea but were not sure many questions went unanswered. time on the issue. According to close how serious the damages would be. Whom would the dams benefit? And friend and colleague Pervin Jehangir, When I heard about the damages from how? What will be the impact of the “Once she gave up her studies, she the project, I could only think about dams on the environment? What will threw herself into the movement our village, what the government is happen to the people living on these but she did it by beginning with the planning for our rehabilitation and lands? people. She walked through the who is responsible for relocating us Medha Patkar was one of those jungles and from village to village in the government.” He is currently a who were asking the questions. She asking people: ‘Do you know what is teacher at a jeevanshala in Nimmad. soon became the leader and the torch going to happen to you? Do you realize Besides the Narmada Bachao bearer of what would become the that this dam is coming and how it is Andolan, Patkar has also co-founded Narmada Bachao Andolan. going to affect your life?’ There were the National Alliance of People’s

108 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 Movement (NAPM). With regards to the genesis of NAPM, Variyath says, “Meanwhile, NAPM was established somewhere around in 1992–93. It is for the people. So there were different agitations going on under NAPM: Yamuna agitation, Singur agitation, Bhopal gas tragedy.”

urrently, Patkar’s participation has been extended to other areas: “Everywhere I went they told me that NAPM should Ccall a meeting. Now again, several states’ people started calling me. I went and participated in Orissa and Chhattisgarh.” Recently, Patkar has been working on an anti-liquor campaign called Nasha Mukt Bharat; she denies the claim that this campaign might be different from other campaigns she has done: “All the issues are linked to the right to life. So any particular issue comes in front of us on the grass root level, we decide whether to take it up or not. We had taken up the issue in the Adivasi areas in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of our people in the villages in the hilly communities of Maharashtra had taken a decision to stop liquor although it was a part of their tradition. The youth actively participated and supported the drive. As our jeevanshalas started and as they became part of the movement, they learned many things.” Toward the end of the interview, Patkar gives an important message to the youth: “They should rise up; they must study any issue that they come across in depth. They must go to the grass-roots level. If they are working with slum dwellers, they must actually go and stay in the slums for a few days. If it’s rural issues, they must go there and stay in the villages. They should do in-depth work. With all the tools and techniques they now have access to, the young generation has better access and better knowledge than people like me. They must spend all their extra time investing in anything MINAL SANCHETI MINAL that is for social change.”

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hundred passengers in fourteen coaches. The Great Peninsula Railway had ordered a set of eight locomotives from the Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le- Willows, England, for the purpose. A suite of Durbar Tents was erected at Thane to welcome the first train. The great patriot and philanthropist Jagannath Shankarsheth, was one of the directors of The Great Peninsula Railway along with Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy. Both were on the first train journey of India. The train started from Bori Bunder at around 3:30 pm and reached Thane at approximately 5:00 pm, covering a distance of around thirty-three kilometres. Today, not even a single relic of this momentous feat remains at the station. Many may not have noticed this loss, but things might change soon, courtesy an initiative started by a retired senior journalist, Shrikant Nerlekar of Maharashtra Times. Explaining his devotion to the cause, he says, “I remember somewhere On the train around 2003, there was a lot of buzz regarding the Thane-Bori Bunder railway route as it was celebrating one hundred and fifty years of that to Thane historic journey. Indian railways had repeated the same journey on Revisiting history, SURYASARATHI BHATTACHARYA takes us to the same date and at the same time the last stop of the first railway ride–Thane Railway Station using the very engine that was used at that time. I wrote about this in various newspapers like Tarun Bharat, Sagar, Maharashtra Times and Sanmitra. It was a memorable day for hane Railway commenced with a twenty-one gun all of us, citizens of Thane and all our Station is testimony salute, as if the British knew that they countrymen.” to the days when were inaugurating a new age in the Old railway documents and India started to land. The Governor himself came to newspaper cuttings state that there taste the fruits see the train off. was only one platform at the station, of the Industrial You can see that the trains were in stark contrast to what Thane revolution which supposed to be for the elites—all has become today. In one of the had started signage was in English and Gujarati. newspaper cuttings of Nerlekar’s Trewriting cities, countries and Some of the seats in the Chhatrapati piece, the fare details are also continents across the globe. British Shivaji Maharaj Terminus still provided, with 24 pie (one pie equals colonisation laid the foundation of carry the imprint of this linguistic one third of a paisa ) being the rate per path-breaking advances in machinery, snobbery: fakt bhaanu-on maate (only mile for first class seats, and 12 pie, for communication and the power sector for women). the second class. Some old statistics in India. The rail line between Thane According to the Central Railway also show that between the years 1853 and Bori Bunder was the first railway archives, the train was hauled by and 1859 the fare of the trains didn’t route in India; it began operations three engines – Sindh, Sahib and increase at all. Instead, they decreased

on 16th of April 1853. The journey Sultan and carried around four twice. This was probably to encourage BHATTACHARYA SURYASARATHI

110 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 On April 24, 2016, the Times of India wrote: “Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu has given in-principle approval to the plans proposed by BJP MLA Sanjay Kelkar from Thane, following which details like the location and budgetary allocations will be worked on.” Referring to the same news story, Shrikant Nerlekar remarks, “In the same month, a letter had been sent to S K Sood, General Manager, Central Railway by Rajan Vichare, Member of Parliament, Thane.”

owever, it may be a while before these plans take off. Owing to the fact that Thane is the busiest suburban station near HMumbai, railway authorities find the people to get on the train! It was time idea of a museum to be a secondary to go from the elites to the money at thought. S Mahidar, Station Manager, the bottom of the pyramid. Thane, says, “It is a very good and “All this information needs to be BY THE important idea, but it’ll require a lot of made available to the general public effort and planning.” as well. I raised this concern once WAY Narendra Patil, CPRO, Central again on 27 February, 2007 through Railway, says, “Museums can and MAHATMA GANDHI WAS NOT my column in Maharashtra Times. IMPRESSED BY THE RAILWAYS: should come up. But that will only It did a bit of awakening indeed. I happen as a part of redevelopment, am in touch with the local MLA who It must be manifest to you that, but where the entire air space above the happens to be equally excited about for the railways, the English could station will be made into a commercial this,” says Nerlekar. not have such a hold on India as they hub – offices and shopping malls, thus did. The railways, too, have spread The MLA, Sanjay Kelkar, from the bubonic plague. Without them, helping the railway economy grow as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), says, the masses could not move from well. “We are already experimenting “For a long time, this has not been place to place. They are the carriers this plan in Surat and based on its done. But now, with the initiative of plague germs. Formerly we had feasibility and success, will roll the started by Guruji (Nerlekar) and natural segregation. Railways have process in other stations as well,” other notable citizens, we expect also increased the frequency of he continues, “A number of other advancement. We have approached famines because, owing to facility developments are in progress as well, of means of locomotion, people the DRM (Divisional Railway sell out their grain and it is sent such as the new Thane Terminus Manager) and the Railway Minister, to the dearest markets. People Station on the land currently owned by Union of India to sanction our become careless and so the pressure the Thane Mental Hospital.” proposal for basic renovation of the of famine increases. Railways One hundred sixty-three years station, setting up of a small museum, accentuate the evil nature of man: after that first journey, the glory of and most importantly, bringing back Bad men fulfil their evil designs with Thane Railway Station may have that engine that was used in the first greater rapidity. The holy places of dimmed. However, the iconic and India have become unholy. Formerly, journey in 1853.” He adds, “It will be people went to these places with historic significance it once possessed great to have every visitor at Thane very great difficulty. Generally, could still be reclaimed. After all, know how important that location therefore, only the real devotees future generations have a right to is. The railway authorities and the visited such places. Nowadays realize and experience for themselves government have assured us that rogues visit them in order to practise why the Indian Railways came this matter will be looked upon with their roguery. into being and where the whole

SURYASARATHI BHATTACHARYA SURYASARATHI immediacy.” story began.

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KUNDA VARTAK: With her conditions on the table, the members of the Panchayat conceded and Vartak served as the The dynamic deputy deputy sarpanch for five years, from 2001 to 2006. Presently, Saphale, along with its neighbouring villages, sarpanch of Saphale with a population of 35,000 citizens, has less than 140 households to go MAYANKA GOEL meets the woman who said she would be deputy before it meets its goal. The village sarpanch only if she were allowed to build toilets and roads. even acquired a number of public toilets built by Vartak, first in pairs and then in fours, during her tenure, hey wanted to make the consequences of the prevailing on land under the Gram Panchayat. me the deputy, but conditions in the village, having been “Kunda Vartak is super dynamic. I had a condition,” born in Saphale, and returning here No one can say no to her. She goes says Kunda Vartak, after marriage, in 1998. and stands where even the police 55, resident of “Rickshaws and cars couldn’t are afraid to set foot,” declares Praful Saphale, in Palghar, come into the interiors of the village. Gharat, a clerk in the Panchayat office. “T“There were very few toilets in the Bullock-carts had to be used during Vartak’s younger son, Vikrant, village and the roads were bad. I made emergencies, and even cremations. who works in Human Resources, it clear that they would have to let me Once, when I was sick, my husband recalls, “About ten years ago, there build toilets in every house here and had to carry me on his shoulders till was a day when the MLA had come fix the roads if I took the post.” we reached the main road,” recalls here. My mother then went and

Vartak, had herself experienced Vartak. blocked his path and started to GOEL MAYANKA

112 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 argue with him about the conditions law for being from a lower caste. of the village. There were some Vartak had to intervene and get repercussions, but she never budged.” the husband to take action against the mistreatment. Another one of artak, fondly such cases was due to the issue of addressed as inheritance. Jiji, has been a “I went out in “The elderly mother left the house great crusader for the middle of and went to live with her daughter. women’s safety the night and Her son and daughter-in-law didn’t and welfare for convinced her. want to let any part of the property many years in the I couldn’t go go to the daughter,” explains Vartak, Vvillage. She was instrumental in the during the day “and because the mother was against setting up of street lights along many because it would that, they mistreated her.” of Saphale’s lanes and highly active attract attention. Saphale has a long way to go within the Mahila Dakshata Samiti, before social conditions could be ideal a voluntary organisation that helps With girls, you for all, Kunda Vartak admits, but the women in distress and aims to elevate have to be village is getting there, step by step. their status through education. careful here.” With her husband retired, and sons “There are women here who away in the army, Vartak has been cut wood all day for a living. Better dedicating all her time and energy to employment opportunities need to be “I explain to the students how it is her village and its betterment. made available,” she says. not right to laugh and be dismissive Arun Ghaiwat, sub-editor of Vartak has also been working when a boy whistles at them or passes local newspaper Aapla Upnagar with the Baal Sudhaar Kendra of a comment. They need to be aware and a teacher, met Vartak when she Saphale, a correction facility which and be assertive,” she elaborates, “It’s volunteered to be the invigilator at a provides education, counselling, and important. So whenever they ask local school, “I have been seeing how healthcare for children. me to come for a lecture, I leave all active she is for about five years now. “There are times when these household work and go.” Vartak wants to see change. She has kids go missing from home. Recently, The former deputy has helped built a temple right outside her house a teenager ran away and refused solve a number of cases of familial which is open to anyone who wishes to return,” Vartak recalls, “I went problems through her work in to come pray or rest. She never stops out in the middle of the night and organisations, while also helping trying to help.” convinced her. I couldn’t go during many young women and men One of Vartak’s daughters-in-law, the day because it would attract individually in times of crisis. One of Vishakha Vartak, a nurse for BMC, attention. With girls, you have to be Vartak’s greatest contributions to the in Dahisar, further illustrates Jiji’s careful here.” village of Saphale has been the sheer character, “She is the one who told me A regular lecturer at the girls’ number of weddings she has helped I shouldn’t have to sit at home after school in Saphale, Vartak is a firm take place. marriage, and suggested that I go to believer in education and awareness. “Couples come to my home to hide work. Her sister, nurse herself, helped She is called to classes to explain to from their family members,” chuckles me then.” students the concepts of touch, and Vartak, “I take them to Chinchadi and Vartak’s younger daughter-in-law, how to identify inconsistencies and get them married!” Sanjeevani Vartak, continues, “I was problems in various relationships. A number of inter-caste marriages a teacher before marriage, and have “I tell them about the behaviour of in the village were made possible due continued to work even after. There men, be it their uncle or their father, to Vartak’s support and guidance. has never been a problem about that and about how they must behave “One of the men here, Prashant at home,” she says. with them,” she says, “we women Savey, came to my house one day all Calling herself old, Vartak shouldn’t have to be weak. We need of a sudden with his South Indian believes her time of retirement from to be careful, and share whatever we girlfriend. They wanted to get all activity is near. However, she do know. The girls need to learn how married. I hid her in my house for over continues to be the first to rise and to notice if there’s a problem in their a week,” Vartak says. help at the advent of any issue. From family, or in their friends’, or relatives’ The village has also had a number organising rallies in Saphale, in 2012, homes. And then, they need to know of cases involving domestic abuse. for women’s safety issues, to helping how to find solutions.” Vartak acknowledges the problem, an estranged couple reconcile, Vartak has also raised other issues recalling a case where the newlywed Vartak remains a remarkable force of in these classrooms, wife was tortured by her sisters-in- betterment in the society.

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where seawater is collected and The Disappearing used to evaporate the brine for the production of salt. The water from the Arabian Sea passes through a channel, which is covered by the mangrove trees and is collected in these saltpans. In the west of Saltpans Bhayandar too, which is a suburb in the north west of Mumbai city, there PRIYANKA ARORA explores the conditions of saltpans, one of are many saltpans. the city’s heritage industries. The Arabian Sea is a salty sea, they say. As compared to the Bay of Bengal, t is something of a cliché to But when you go to a place like we do not have too many rivers say that Mumbai is growing Mira Road, you suddenly see what the running into it and so there is more and the city’s greed for land is city might have been. Do not look east salt in the water, as it has not been almost legendary. From a small at Mira Road; turn your eyes to the diluted by river run-off. So it seems hamlet in the 1700s, the city has west. This is where an uninterrupted easy enough. Let the sea run in and grown and scooped up all the stretch of grey and white and blue, then trap it. Allow the sun to do its Igreen space, reclaimed the marshes, punctuated only by a sole egret, greets work, and you’re done. Right? Wrong. destroyed the mangroves and filled your eye. Welcome to the saltpans Harvesting salt needs some great up the wetlands. Today we are paying of Mumbai. As of 2016, almost 5400 degree of skill, and many workers the price for this ecological massacre hectares of land in Mumbai is under have spent a lifetime getting it of the seven islands on the West Coast the saltpans. right. Generations of these workers

that were once known as Heptanesia. Saltpans are shallow, open areas have lived in small, old and filthy ARORA PRIYANKA

114 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 shacks, on the edges of the saltpans table, is 99 per cent Sodium Chloride the city’s last remaining open spaces in Bhayander. Work starts after the whether it is rock salt or sea salt. for development. They are going to monsoon in September and salt is Anmol Garodia, owner of Hermoz take away their land, their only source formed in the conducive weather Salt work in Wadala, says, “My family of earning bread. They are planning to conditions from January to March. has been running this business for give contracts to builders who want to Huge mountain shaped stacks of salt over a century now. We have 112 acres build housing complexes along with are then collected at the edges of the under salt production and I get 5000 gardens and playgrounds on these salt pan and are covered with grass tonnes of salt per year. This is raw salt saltpan lands.” to prevent the water from entering so and is not purified. This salt is sent Being the interface between the that the salt doesn’t get dissolved in it. to chemical factories for purification sea and the land, saltpans mitigate Parvesh K Majhi, 58, a worker and then used in industries. The cost the impact of storm surges, tidal and salt maker living in a small of producing this salt is much higher surges and act as buffer. Saltpans shack exclaimed, “Because of and the returns are almost negligible.” often make city’s last defense against the city’s awful drainage system The crystals of salt produced in flooding from the seas as they absorb and the hazardous waste that is these saltpans used to be absolutely the rush of water from the sea. The dumped in the sea every single day, white in colour and was sold to vulnerability of a city like Mumbai the salt production has reduced to contractors who further sold it in will increase if these saltpan lands are approximately five to six hundred the city for around 1200 per tonne. opened up. The reclamation will also tonnes a year which is almost half of However, pollution has not only trigger water logging due to blockage what was produced in the previous depleted the quantity of salt that was of the natural water drainage system. decades.” His wife Kamla Majhi, 52, earlier produced, but has also caused Housing and the infrastructural who helps him in salt work added, deterioration of quality projects coming up in the saltpan “Monsoon is not suitable for the According to the Government of lands will be prone to flooding, production of salt. Thus, during the Maharashtra, the only places where putting human lives at stake. rainy season, we earned our living by substantial amount of salt is produced Mumbai-based activist Simpreet catching and harvesting fish from the are Wadala and Mulund. The Singh says, “The state authorities rainwater and the seawater that was government is likely to go ahead with are always looking for opportunities collected in these saltpans. However, the policy that seeks construction on where more land can be brought into now because of water pollution even saltpans. The development control public use. Since the past few years, fish don’t survive in the sea and do regulations of the draft Development saltpans have come under their radar not breed. Hence, it is difficult to find Plan 2034 proposed taking up 260 and they are thinking that these lands a fish in this water that is collected in hectares of saltpans for constructing can now be brought under other uses the saltpans.” affordable housing. than for the production of salt.” This has also led some health Avdesh Singh, a resident in the “Most saltpan lands fall in the freaks to prefer rock salt to sea salt. vicinity, says, “These environmental CRZ-1 category and within the Their contention is that sea salt is problems are not just enough. The intertidal zone. The opening of these contaminated by pollutants while Maharashtra Government along lands will put unbearable pressure on rock salt isn’t. This is simply not with the Brihanmumbai Municipal the already crumbling infrastructure

PRIYANKA ARORA PRIYANKA true, for the salt that appears on your Corporation (BMC) are throwing open of the city,” said Executive Trustee of Conservation Act Trust, Debi Goenka. According to Stalin D, project officer with environmental NGO, Vanashakti, construction on saltpans is nothing but a convenient way for developers to get free land. 2.5 lakh houses are still empty in Mumbai, hence the idea of creating affordable houses is an absolute farce. This move of the Government will render the saltpan workers landless and will also put an end to the source of livelihood for hundreds of workers and their families who are solely dependent on the saltpan industry and are settled in this region for decades.

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ockin, the Slum Sadak Chaap: Dweller,” he introduced himself, as he walked up to the podium to accept The stamp his British Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in Slum Rehabilitation of the street in the United Kingdom in 2014. “J“Could you introduce yourself in JOVITA ARANHA meets Jockin Arputham, the slum-dweller who other words?” a voice interrupted. worked in shanties for forty years, now a Padma Shri and Ramon “I am Jockin, a proud Slum Dweller. Is Magsaysay awardee. that better?” said Jockin Arputham, social activist and President of National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF) and Slum Dwellers International (SDI). Arputham is “a man who dares to dream with wide open eyes,” say the ladies of the Mahila Milan, a women’s self-empowerment cooperative who

work with NSDF. The 70-year-old ARYA TUSHAR

116 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 sits on a chatai in his humble abode Some sleeping in garbage dumps, at Dharavi, his home-cum-office, near railway tracks, on platforms, with a small table overloaded with bus stops—their safe hiding places for paperwork. Awards and photographs the night. I would watch and follow adorn the orange walls: the Ramon them during the day. Thursdays were Magsaysay in 2000 for International known as Chor bazaar ka din among Understanding, an honorary Ph.D. the kids. They would go shower in from Kalinga Institute of Industrial public restrooms and buy shirts for Technology University, Bhubaneswar, two rupees, pants for one rupee each in 2009 and the Padma Shri in 2011. from the age old dingy lanes of Chor More than 25 people—I counted—rush Bazaar. Those weren’t new clothes, around the house: one brings him tea; but it made them happy. I understood the ladies of the Mahila Milan discuss them; I could connect to children very the schedule of the next meeting and easily. accountants from the Society for the “My work with street children Promotion of Area Resource Centres first began when I helped the Salesian (SPARC) get financial budgets for the priests at Don Bosco, Wadala, set up repair of night shelters approved. the boys’ home. It was Celine D’Cruz, “My journey began 54 years ago. I a Nirmala Niketan student who was a street boy,” Jockin says, “with worked for SPARC, who helped me by no shelter, no roof. I left Kolar in arranging funds for the establishment Karnataka and came to Mumbai, as of Sadak Chaap and our night shelter millions do every day. The city of Dongri was a at Churchgate,” says Jockin. dreams, they said. It was a culture notorious place, But others were not so shock. I lived on the streets for infamous for understanding. “I struggled with three years, before finding a place drug abuse and the Maharashtra JAPU (Juvenile at the Janata Colony in Mankhurd— physical assault. Aid Police Unit) Police, who would makeshift bamboo tents, dilapidated Older boys would identify runaway children, find them, structures, one sub-par public toilet sexually assault and prosecute them. These kids and too many issues. I worked as a younger boys. would then be either detained and small-time carpenter during the day What people in released in a few months or taken to and patrolled the city at night.” power did not the observational homes in Dongri It was this patrolling of the streets understand was, if found in conflict with the law. of Mumbai that led Arputham to his Observational homes made them feel calling, he says. these street kids like criminals. Dongri was a notorious “I would patrol the city were not just place, infamous for drug abuse and unaccompanied, search every nook runaways physical assault. Older boys would and corner identifying street kids. sexually assault younger boys. What people in power did not understand was, these street kids were not just runaways. Financial, physical, and emotional problems had made them leave home at a young age. Did they deserve to be treated that way?” That was when Arputham felt he had to change things. This manifested itself through the establishment of Sadak Chaap for street kids in 1991 and a night shelter for street boys at Churchgate in 1995, under the Wankhede Stadium railway foot-over bridge. “Once the Don Bosco boys’ home was set up with the help of Salesian priests, my struggle with BMC began. This was the time we wanted to establish a federation for JOVITA ARANHA JOVITA

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nuns or social workers would say!” he says with a laugh. “Out of the 25 boys aged 7-17 at the Churchgate night shelter, only six today are street boys. Fifteen of them are kids of single parents, most of their mothers are commercial sex workers (CSWs). Many kids have been forced to stay here under the notion of being rootless and roofless. But records say that the whole circle from Bombay Hospital, Haji Ali Dargah, and behind Aayakar Bhavan, is their hiding place. But as far as schooling and sanitation are concerned, we do our bit to help them,” says Gopal Sharma, 58, one of the four care takers at the night shelter.

oday associations like Childline India and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) have come together to rehabilitate street kids. the kids. My vision to let them live on one daunting task. But I used reverse Jockin has a different perspective on their own led to Sadak Chaap. A term psychology. When I said, ‘Pigs don’t Tthis, “With all due respect, I do not by which children refer to themselves, have bath, why do you need to?’ they understand how TISS can write a aptly describing those who carry would rush to bathe. Sometimes, they manual on street kids. Studying about ‘the stamp of the street’. Everybody would complain about wanting meat, them and living with them are two worked from 9 am to 5 pm We worked which we couldn’t afford. They took extremes. Street life is a culture. You from 5 pm to 9 am with all the kids. me to a dustbin outside Taj Hotel’s cannot sit in an air-conditioned office When I asked the BMC for land, they huge kitchen, where a truckload of or on huge forums, deciding rules mocked me and said: Are you crazy? chicken legs and heads would be and regulations without experiencing Land for construction in Mumbai?” dumped every morning. They would their daily struggle to survive. says Jockin with a laugh. go, select the best pieces, wash and Attempts should be made to address But that did not mark the end cook it with turmeric, chillies and the issue at the ground level, in this of Jockin’s ambitions. “The number salt. Sometimes even add rice to matter—the pavement-level.” of footover bridges Mumbai struck make biryani! When hunger was Emphasizing the major issues me. It was a no-man’s land. I spoke a lot stronger than helplessness, that need to be addressed, he says, to IAS officer Sujata Saunik, the you wouldn’t feel ashamed. It was “These kids are roofless and rootless, then Municipal Comissioner. a lovely time. Educating these kids disconnected from values, discipline She understood my vision and and getting them accustomed to and mainstream culture. They can be backed it. I asked HDFC for a grant, mainstream life is the idea, says manipulative, yes, and interviewing got a contractor on board. The Jockin. “At Janata Colony, we set up an street boys at different times would kids themselves helped in the informal school where older children tell you that. But this is how the construction. We provided them taught younger children. I decided to society deals with them and how ration and told them to cook their keep the more qualified kids busy by they respond. They become adults own food. setting up a coaching class. Passers- at the age of 15—physically, mentally, “Working with street kids can by would hear every letter from A to sexually. They need a shelter which be challenging,” he admits. “To Z read out with corresponding cuss will equip them for the society they

convince them to stay hygienic was words in Hindi. I wonder what the are constantly fighting for survival ARYA TUSHAR

118 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 against.” Sanghatan at Govandi, run a local Even today, the night shelter at sanitary pad manufacturing unit for Churchgate continues to remain a safe slum dwellers and own a one-room place for many. Kartik Shetty (name kitchen in Govandi.” changed), 16, says, “My Baba left my “I am a really old man now. The Aai and me years ago. We were alone light in my eyes is slowly dimming. and then I left home when I was 11. But work must never stop. I have I did not want to study; life on the Shekhar, my Mahila Milan ladies and open street was thrilling. I ran away NSDF volunteers who will carry this twice from home. I wasted three work forward,” says Arputham. years indulging in drugs—sometimes Guna Shekhar, 36, Secretary, whitener, sometimes Vicks on bread; NSDF, says “When Jockin Sir that was the cheapest. I was held at protested against the demolition the Dongri Observational Home for of slums at Janta Colony, I was six three months. Once out, I slept under years old. I never studied beyond the the Dadar Bridge for days till Samtik, tenth grade, but I wanted to learn a boy from this night shelter, got me everything. From assembling crowds here. I am currently studying in the of fellow slum dwellers, learning how seventh grade and playing football to have open dialogue with Municipal and kabaddi for small-time clubs. and Government authorities and Ganpati reunions don’t mean a warm coordinating work at the night welcome back home by my Aai, but shelters—this 30-year journey has I have come to accept and love this transformed lives, mine just being bridge as my home.” one of them.” Jockin’s power cell are the women Currently, even as the Mahila of his Mahila Milan. These are women “When Jockin Sir Milan and NSDF take significant who run their own manufacturing protested against strides, many issues remain units, run Sulabh Shauchalayas the demolition unresolved. According to the 2011 and are the bread winners of their of slums at Janta census, Mumbai has over 57,416 families. Colony, I was six homeless residents, but the actual years old. I never figure could be many times over. arveen Sheikh, studied beyond There are seven night shelters built in the city as against 124 shelters which 48, member of the 10th grade, Mahila Milan is the needed number. Most take and NSDF for but I wanted to young boys below the age of 18. What the past 19 years, learn everything. about homeless street-girls? shares, “I was From assembling “I struggled to work with street born on the crowds of fellow girls, but my ambition couldn’t come footpath, lived slum dwellers true. The Government is reluctant to most of my life illegally, learning give space. Also, night shelters are not on it too. To be how to have the right place for girls,” he says. homeless plus a woman wasn’t the open dialogue Is hope for street girls to have a Pgreatest combo to live by. Everything with Municipal roof over their heads dwindling to I ate was measured so as to avoid the and Government naught? embarrassment of open defecation on authorities and A question about government aid to help the poorest of the poor section the Govandi railway tracks. Changing coordinating the blue plastic over the makeshift in the city, receives an uncertain tent, was a luxury back in the day,” she work at the reply. “60 per cent of Mumbai’s continues, “Jockin Sir once told me – night shelters— population lives in slums, and not do not be ashamed. If your men don’t this thirty year even 6 per cent of the annual budget take charge, being a strong woman is journey has is allotted to them. It is ironical how the only way to go. From micro door- transformed the city of dreams has no place to to-door savings of less than Rs 5 per lives, mine just accommodate the reality, let alone the day in the 1990s to the current day being one of dreams of the homeless, no?” he says scenario, we’ve become self-sufficient. them.” as he takes a sip and places the empty Today, I head the Mahila Milan tea cup on the table.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 119 MARGINALIA 2016-2017 VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA

120 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 “There is nothing to fear…” -Sudhir Dhawale Sudhir Dhawale has fought for the rights of the marginalised for fourteen long years through his magazine Vidrohi. VISHAAL MUDHOLKAR talks to the man determined to make India a better nation for all

udhir Dhawale is the awareness. I used to take my son and do and we started a bimonthly magazine editor of Vidrohi, a the activities of VPS. In 1997, demolition called Vidrohi. The aim of the magazine Marathi bimonthly drives taken up by the government was to bring these factions closer to magazine that works on the Malad and Goregaon stretch each other; it has now been in existence to bring equality to a caused civic unrest among the slum for the last 14 years.” caste-ridden nation. residents. Renowned personalities from The soft-spoken journalism and film-making fraternities idrohi brought 47-year-old recounts formed the Nivara Hakk Suraksha to attention the Shis journey to the present: “When I was Samiti to fight this, and also to ensure Khairlanji mass a student in college way back in 1986, proper rehabilitation of the displaced murders and I used to participate in many activities families. Famous people like Shabana rapes of Dalits in conducted by a social group called the Azmi were very active in this agitation. a small village Vidyarthi Pragati Sanghatana (VPS). So during this agitation VPS did a lot of in Maharashtra. The volunteers of the group used to work to bring awareness by performing “The accused come to our college. I was an urban street plays and skits. Vwere of the upper-caste, and the police kid, born and brought up in Nagpur “In the year 1999, the All India and the administration did not take and went to college there as well. That Marathi literature festival (Akhil appropriate steps to bring justice to the meant I never faced any discrimination. Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan), victims. We participated in agitations However, I was aware of what was was organized by the so-called main against these atrocities on Dalits, and happening in society; we heard about stream or upper-caste Maharashtrians the administration did notice us at that atrocities. As a responsible citizen, I in Dadar, Mumbai. At that time, there time. But the government never took thought it was my moral responsibility was a BJP–Shiv Sena alliance in power any steps to punish the perpetrators,” to do something about it. VPS gave us in Maharashtra. The progressive he said. a vision and a perspective on things thinking Marathis and Ambedkarites “I started reading Vidrohi in order around us and also gave us direction decided to hold a parallel festival for me to be able to sell it with more to tackle problems of personal abuse, showcasing culture and literature of conviction,” says Sagar Bhalerao, a discrimination at work sites, problems the downtrodden, Dalit and worker seller of the magazine who was initially faced by farmers and other issues. It class. The first festival was organized unaware about what Vidrohi was about. was then that I started taking part in in Dharavi. It was called the Vidrohi He further said, “My interest in the agitations organized by VPS. I was 17 Sahitya Sammelan. Thereafter, the magazine grew not only so I could make years old when all this started, so it has Vidrohi Sahitya chalval was formed. my buyers understand what Vidrohi been a journey of 30 years. I think that the next important was all about, but I also realized that in “I came to Mumbai in 1994; I started moment for us was when the 2002 our country, upper-caste domination writing articles in newspapers like Godhra riots happened. The country was taking the life of one Dalit brother/ Loksatta, Maharashtra Times etc. VPS was being divided by forces on the basis sister almost every minute. As the work was also going on, and we started of caste, religion and so forth. Hence, we mainstream media does not report doing street plays and skits to spread decided something needed to be done, these cases, Vidrohi plays an important

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 121 role in conveying these atrocities to the that, while they left Nashik, they were general public.” supposed to give Sudhir Dhawale his In the recent September–October computer.” The fabricated story led to 2016 edition of Vidrohi, Dhawale “Our mindset Dhawale spending the next 40 months commented on the Global Financial is based on in jail. Integrity report, wherein India ranked old scriptures. “In my case, highly reputed fourth with regards to the largest These were politicians visited Patil, saying that I was amounts of unaccounted (‘black’) the sources of neither a Naxal nor a terrorist and that money. “Neither the Congress nor the emergence I should be released from jail, but Patil the BJP have the capacity to stop the of castes. insisted that he had proof about my creation of unaccounted money,” The contents activities as a Naxal in Gondia. It soon he wrote, and that the Dalit and the of these came to light that on the dates when working class are the only people who scriptures I was ‘supposedly’ in Gondia, I was bear the consequences when there is actually attending a birthday party of any economic reform. Dhawale has need to be an old Dalit Panthers’ friend in Mumbai, been mainly reporting on international interrogated and it was captured on video which was affairs in the magazine; for example, logically.” shown to Patil. After 40 months, two in the 2009 edition he covered the of the cases I was charged under were issue between Israel and Palestine, and dropped,” he said. compared the British Petroleum oil Maharashtra comprising of Nationalist Suggesting some remedies for leak of 2009 in Mexico with the Union Congress Party and the Congress the casteist mindset of the society, Carbide’s Bhopal Gas Tragedy. party when the Home Minister of the Dhawale said, “Our mindset is based “I bought more than forty issues at state was R R Patil. “Patil had started a on old scriptures. These were the a time and within a short period read all scheme which is still going on by the sources of the emergence of castes. The of them, one every day,” said P. Ratnakar name of Mahatma Gandhi Tanta Mukti contents of these scriptures need to be Bhagat, a loyal subscriber and one of Abhiyan. What this scheme proposes interrogated logically. The upper-castes the writers of the magazine. “Vidrohi is that any dispute arising in villages have hijacked all the land and property not only reports atrocities on Dalits in should be solved within the village which rightfully belongs to us.” Maharashtra, but it reports atrocities without taking it to the courts. There He continued, “Moreover, in the happening on Adivasis, females is a structure created, which is a social present system, the reservation policy and other marginalized populace all structure, comprising of a Chairman for backward castes, Adivasis or OBCs over India, and also gives detailed and other committee members. Our will not bring any radical uplift. This is information regarding the type of problem was that these committee because basically this system is feudal, atrocities and detailed analysis of each members were drawn from the upper- in the hands of the upper-caste people. event. Poems and songs penned by castes and they will never provide Based on the population of the lower- people who have fallen prey to state- justice as they will always shield their caste people it is not possible for them sponsored atrocities and who are in the people, who are the perpetrators. to get education, jobs et cetera because jail at present are given prominence in Further, any disputes pertaining to caste actually there are not enough positions the magazine. The magazine brings out atrocities do not go to the police station available. Also, privatisation has reduced special issues that are event specific like and are not recorded. So we opposed the jobs available on reservation. And Khairlanji, Love Jihad, Rohit Vemula, this scheme and proposed that it must what we are asking for are not tid-bits, Boiling Kashmir and commercialization be abolished.” some education, some jobs, but we are of education to name a few,” said Bhagat. On January 2, 2011, Dhawale was saying that the entire system belongs How has discrimination against the invited to Wardha, Maharashtra, to to us, and you have taken charge of the scheduled castes been institutionalised? speak at the third Yuva Ambedkar system, and you need to get out of that Dhawale said, “This is because all the Sahitya Sammelan. After the speech, he position. This is a very revolutionary top posts in the government, judiciary boarded the train at 9 PM to return to approach; hence, the administration and other administrative offices are Mumbai. Upon his arrival at the station, is scared and is after us always to keep held by upper-castes. Hence, they may the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and us in check. They hound us, tap our shield these perpetrators out of a feeling Anti-Naxal Squad were waiting to arrest phones and scare us constantly to that they’re one of them. Despite having him. “After the arrest they took me to dissuade us.” Although the tapping of laws against atrocities, the conviction Gondia, and at Gondia they took me to phones can be a scary scenario, Dhawale rate is only five per cent. Ninety-five per some place where they had held some believes, “There is nothing to fear; in cent of the perpetrators go scot-free.” suspected Naxalites. They said that I fact these people want us to get scared Dhawale went back in time when had connections with the Naxalites and so that we would falter, break and stay there was a coalition government in that the Naxalites had told the police oppressed.”

122 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 MARGINALIA 2016-2017 VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA They wake so we may sleep NILOFER KHAN, on the life and struggles of those keeping our homes secure.

hey are invisible, be invisible, they say. The limelight is Jha has been working as a guard at most of the time. rarely - if ever, kind to them. Most of various residential areas since 1982. He But when you them come from other parts of India, adds that he has no place of residence need something, and work in difficult conditions. in the city; he uses the common toilet when you have an “I used to work as a small time in the buildings where he works, to intruder, when you farmer in Bihar,” says Anand Jha, a shower and change. “I work for eight have a trunk that 55-year-old security guard at Christmas hours at Christmas Eve; then I go to needs to be lifted Eve, a residential building at Peddar Somerset House (a residential building Tdown the last flight of stairs, that’s Road. “I earn 8000 rupees per month, at Pedder road). After that, I sleep (at when the security guard jumps into which isn’t sufficient.” His current a place) near Sophia College,” says sharp focus. The security guards of salary is inadequate since he has to Anand. He is currently employed with Mumbai city are generally happy to send money to his family in Bihar. Singh Security Force.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 123 The people they protect aren’t aware of their plight. M. Rama Somayajulu, 58, a resident of Purnima at Malabar Hill says, “They are all class-three employees; they are paid quite well, we know that.” People generally have a notion that guards are well paid. Mrs. Priya Milind Vagal,38, a resident at Surya Mahal Apartments, Charni Road adds, “Some guards tend to leave their duty as well. Our security guard left us because the allowance he wanted was more than the society could afford. Everyone has significant respect for him because he showed really good grace rather than retaliating badly when his demands were not fulfilled.” Aamir Manair, Director at Geekay Security, an agency which has its branches in 14 states across India says, “South Bombay is very expensive NILOFER KHAN NILOFER to stay. So it’s not feasible to provide accommodation for the guards. If the guard pays rent, he cannot save State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), mess.” He has mostly worked around anything.” Private agencies have they just take lump sum amounts Muslim localities, since that is where branched out from Mumbai to other from housing societies, for example he feels comfortable and that is where places like Nagpur, Delhi, Bangalore, Rs 10,000 out of which Rs 2000 he finds work. and Chennai. These agencies bridge is deducted without the guard’s The guarded are guarded from the gap between the client and the knowledge.” acknowledging the poor-living guards. Moreover, he adds, “We prescribe conditions that these men live in. A “Back in 2005, I used to earn the rate only in Maharashtra as per the large chunk of the neighbourhood Rs 1,400 per month,” says Pankaj Jha, guard-board rates. There are a lot of has no idea about the place where 49, standing outside the State Bank things to be deducted; the deduction the guards stay. “They stay in their of India at Crawford Market in his takes place off their ESIC, their PF, quarters; we don’t go much into detail black safari suit. Jha lives at Khetwadi, their Professional Tax (PT). So after there,” says M. Rama. Mrs. Aprami Girgaum, along with eight men. He those deductions, they earn Mota, 48, resides at Anantniwas, says, “I worked in Mumbai for seven to Rs 10,000–12,000 for an 8-hour duty. If Masjid Bunder, says, “I don’t know eight months, then I went home for a you go out of Maharashtra anywhere, where they stay. Ours is a trust-owned while. When I returned here, I worked Gujarat, this is central minimum building so all the employees of the wherever the payment was feasible,” wage.” PF is Provident Fund, and the building are hired through them.” he adds. employer contributes 12 per cent of the These three men belong to very According to Maniar, there are wages and the employee contributes different backgrounds, yet their fate two types of security agencies which the same. ESIC is Employees’ State is dictated by the same profession. function throughout India: One is a Insurance Corporation, which is “We have a lot of Assamese and UPites professional security agency, and the deducted as 1.75 per cent from the with us. We have sites which are in the other is a non-professional security employee’s salary.” suburbs like Uran. There are logistics agency. “A professional security Javed Khan, a 38-year-old security companies where the containers come agency acquires a licence from the guard from Jammu and Kashmir, in, so they provide us the barracks Maharashtra government, which is working as a guard at Zam Zam Tower, where the people can stay; then they called PSARA (The Private Security Mazagaon, since 2010 says, “As a provide us the canteen,” says Manair. Agencies (Regulation) Act, 2005). Kashmiri, it’s difficult to get a job here. Most of the guards say that they However, non-professional security We don’t gel. Our language is different.” are unaware about health insurance. agencies do not have a licence; they Furthermore, he says, “We are nearly “We don’t have any health insurance as don’t pay for Provident Fund (PF) or seven to eight men living in a small such, and we have to pay for our meals even enrol their staff with Employees’ room below the building, which is a as well,” adds Anand.

124 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 “They get PF/ESIC. There is no such Monica Ghurde, the security force health insurance given to them. Meals has been critically analysed by the are to be taken care of by the guards residents. Mrs. Vagal adds, “Many themselves—that is the basic thing people in the building started to look which is mentioned in the contract,” at guards with a shallow mind-set and says B K Singh, a field officer at for the first few days after the news, we Empire Guard Force. However, Maniar were a little suspicious. The security adds, “ESIC, which covers health, is agency of the building let the people prescribed by the government; the know that these guards have been employee and employer both pay, working here for a long time and that so that the amount is paid to the they had records of their whereabouts. government, who then takes care of As time passed, people started to re- their medical terms. ESIC is meant for bond with them.” the people under BPL.” This has not changed the recruiting Anand and Pankaj say guards are process of the agencies. “We haven’t not allowed to form a union. “We don’t changed our procedure of recruitment entertain these unions. So there are yet, there is no need to do so. If we no unions as such currently in our have a problem, we take strict action. security,” Maniar adds. According to If there is a problem at our site, we Singh, “There is no need of unions quickly take action and alert the guard. because the guards are paid on time.” We also alert the other sites as well. When it comes to holidays most If nothing happens, then there is no of the guards have complained that need to alert them. We give them it’s difficult to take a day off. “We don’t training beforehand,” says Ramesh get any holidays; we have to work all Jha, 62, a retired field officer of Empire the time,” says Anand Jha. However, Security agency. the security agencies have stated that Ramesh adds that they take holidays are given to the guards, Singh all the vital information such as adds, “We provide the guards with the residential address, important sufficient holidays; there are other documents such as birth certificates guards who fill in their shifts.” and school/college marksheets, their Moreover, Aanand says, “If we plan bank account numbers and their PAN on taking a day off, that day’s wages are cards. deducted from our salary.” Agencies “Yeah, we feel safe, because have said that most of the holidays they are in uniform and they are are paid, Maniar adds, “The guards powered with guns and they are are given twenty-one holidays yearly, trained. Their uniforms and also their which are paid. These are for any guard gadgets are good enough. How they going on leave or any guard who wants handle it depends on the opponent,” to encash their leave for twenty-one says M. Rama. No matter what is the days. The client pays us, and we pay situation, people feel safe around the guard.” “Yeah, we feel guards. Sabir Fakruhdin Vohra, 57, The agencies are supposed to safe, because a resident at Anand Bhavan, Breach provide sufficient training to guards, they are in Candy, says, “Actually, I feel safe yet that is not the case in many areas. uniform and they anyhow. It doesn’t really matter but “We have our training centres; if the are powered with reasonably good housing societies guard is not working properly, we have guns and they need security. They need security onsite trainings also. So we send our are trained. Their guards for maintaining discipline, training officer to train them on site,” ensuring that people entering the says Maniar. It is mandatory to train uniforms and also building are genuine, like whoever is guards as per PSARA (2005). “If the their gadgets are coming, milkman, newspaper man or rounder (field officer) says the guard is good enough. courier boys.” not working, a trainer will be assigned How they handle Khan says that since the recent who will work with the guard on site,” it depends on the attacks and turmoil back at home, he adds Singh. opponent,” fears for his fate. “I can’t think about After the recent murder case of going back now,” he adds.

MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • 125 MARGINALIA 2016-2017 Hot reads for women? MAYANKA GOEL explores how literature has celebrated one of the most taboo subjects of all.

e’ve had erotic fiction in India for a long time. Ancient Sanskrit Wtexts, spread over a period of 1500 years, tell a number of stories of erotic love. But that doesn’t mean we enjoy anything close to an open dialogue about sex and sexuality in our times. In India, we must struggle with the ruling on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises homosexuality, with the kind of censorship of films that allows all kinds of innuendo but demonises frank investigations of human sexuality, and the ever-growing right- wing section of society. Whatever their source, these battles are always fought over the woman’s body. And yet, the years have seen the emergence of clear voices, calling for celebrations of female sexuality and pushing wide open, the gates to exploration. It isn’t just about war on smut or a ban on porn (although the Indian government did try that in 2015). Literature has faced our censure as well. In her short story Lihaaf (1942), Ismat Chugtai wrote an iconic work. The story is not erotic; it is charged, however, with sexuality, power and the corruption of power. Faced with intense flak that ended with her facing obscenity charges, Chugtai

continued her journey to court and SINGHANIA VEDIKA

126 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 back, unapologetic and firm. Today, as a template. It is also interesting to her store.” erotic literature and their writers are know how, even as the stories vary Currently, the atmosphere is still a strong force for the liberation, drastically in settings, the audience for definitely much more favourable. and acknowledgement, of women’s this genre has consisted primarily of No Outlaws in the Gender Galaxy sexuality in India. women readers. attempted to understand the “For a long time erotica had only “Women are the target audience assignment of gender at birth through been read ‘under the sheets’. That for erotica, most of the time. I think research studies and lived realities. seems to have changed recently men prefer and respond to a visual Even kink, observes Kiran, has found with the publication of Fifty Shades impulse,” explains Padmanabhan. its place in literature. (Vintage Books, 2011), which has Gradually, however, the genre, “Even though Fifty Shades isn’t made it mainstream,” explains Ananth which has predominantly adhered to real kink, people now know about Padmanabhan, CEO at Harper Collins, strict, stereotypical gender roles and it. Awareness along with the ability and author of Play With Me (Penguin, hetero-normative relationships, is to talk to someone about it has 2014), when asked about the trend of beginning to evolve to include other increased,” she says. erotica in the country. attitudes and orientations as well. The popularity and acceptance In Fifty Shades of Grey, a highly India’s first LBT initiative,Labia that these works have received have eroticized romance develops Collective, began in 1995 as a small led various cultural shackles to fall between young college graduate, space for women who liked women. away. Books are being published and Anastasia Steele, and impossibly rich A safe order was evolved in Mumbai, are being sought much more openly. and handsome business magnate, with people contributing from all “Close, Too Close (Westland, 2012), Christian Grey. “You are not just a over the country through letters the first anthology of queer erotica pretty face. You’ve had six orgasms so and by phone. They presently work available in South Asia, is being far and all of them belong to me,” on a variety of issues related to sold on all major platforms. Clearly, says Grey to Steele in one sequence. sexuality and gender with regards to attitudes are changing,” says Kiran. Anastasia has no reply. He owns her marginalised communities. Literature, Writers too, are able to experiment orgasms? Is that liberation? How do interestingly, has become an and change traditional narratives. young women, empowered, even important part of their movement. All in The Game by Iravi, from feminists sometimes, respond to this? “We started off our ’zine fifteen the anthology, has a blindfolded Aesha Kewalramani, an engineer years ago,” explains Kiran, member participant being kissed by a line from Pennsylvania, explains her love and writer for Labia, “We have of friends, while guessing their for the work, “The books talked about submissions, both fiction and identities. The tale explores safe sex in a completely different light. It personal accounts, as well as reports spaces and orientations, along with showed love, which was damaged, from what’s happened since the last biological and social situations. irrational and yet unconditional.” issue in terms of the social movement. Another instance of the variety of Padmanabhan explains the And there’s always some erotica.” stories in the genre emerges from the popularity of the genre. “If romance The response to the ’zines has magazines published by Labia. meant love and pornography meant been highly positive for the group and “My submission for the travel sex, erotica intertwines these two has led members to work on further issue of ‘zine—it’s one kind of a piece. exploring the limits of pleasure and projects, such as the book No Outlaws It makes it seem like the whole piece sensuality,” he says. in the Gender Galaxy (Zubaan, 2015), is about masturbation, when, really, it While the E.L. James series stands as well. But things weren’t always so is about me driving a car,” says Kiran, in the limelight at the moment, encouraging. “And you don’t find it out till the end.” many publications, such as those of Indeed, the discourse about sex Harlequin’s Mills & Boon books had iran recalls, “At one in literature in India has gained a already made strides in the market. point, about six or new momentum and significance Marking a sharp turn from traditional seven years ago, in the past decade. “Erotica is still romances, series such as Spice and we were going to not a genre that people openly Blaze, and Virgin Books’ Black Lace bookstores to see acknowledge reading. However, after celebrated sexual relationships served whether they would the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey with a side dish of love. From having stock our ’zines, the Indian readers too seem keen to a covert FBI agent seducing a terrorist Kmaking it clear that we were a not- read erotica that is Indian,” says Shruti in the Middle East, to modifying for-profit organisation. We found one Chakravarty, one of the editors of The Twelve Dancing Princesses into a place in Juhu, but were called to take Close, Too Close. tale with a sorceress instructing the our copies back after three days, by Chakravarty and her co-editors sisters in ways to satisfy their sexual the owner. We were told she said she had initially intended to target only needs, the books used the original couldn’t keep these kinds of items in the queer audience but soon realised

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that erotica is a genre that goes beyond the binary of heterosexual or homosexual. “Erotica is about reading about sex and sexual pleasure and it is meant for all people who are willing to engage with it. And our aim was to expand the normative understandings of sex and package the limitless possibilities into one book,” she says. Explaining the genre’s potential, Rosalyn D’Mello, writer of A Handbook for my Lover (Harper Collins India, 2015), says, “Literature is a space where one is able to incorporate different narratives. This genre is where conversations can occur, and narratives about our bodies and ourselves, as social beings, can be put forth.” “I was clear thing in a stall, what’s the big deal if he popularity all along that there’s a lesbian kiss on TV?’, and I ask of websites them about the number of straight such as the women in kisses they have seen around them,” Literotica.com my novel were she says, “Everything around you give credit going to be reflects you, and nothing around me to D’Mello’s unapologetic reflects me. And that’s a problem.” words. The about what site has they wanted herefore, as thousands for their bodies erotica in of nameless and their need India gears amateur authors contributing stories for pleasure. up to be a Tacross various categories such as They are strong, significant Erotica Horror, and even specifically independent and force of Indian settings. Damini Pattnaik, know what they change, what reader and a final year engineering step must it student in Chennai elaborates, “There want,” explains take next? are stories which don’t have as much the writer. “I am not substance as just risqué sex, where sure if erotica needs to be different people engage in intercourse in public Tfor men and women. It just needs or in other imaginative ways. I think need for pleasure. They are strong, to be different from what it is now. the taboo element draws a lot of independent and know what they Traditional notions of sex need to be people.” want,” explains the writer. expanded. We need to write about The element of exploration seems The restrictions are still plenty sex from the points of view of people to be approaching mainstream erotica though, explains Chakravarty. from various genders and sexualities as well, as the works begin to move “Currently, like anything sexual, that include women, transpeople, and beyond the trend of the virginal erotica too, is defined largely by men queers,” explains Chakravarty, “Only female leads and ruthless heroes, such and their understanding of sex. Close, then can we present erotica that is as seen in the Fifty Shades Trilogy. Too Close was an attempt to challenge representative of many people’s lives Padmanathan’s Play With Me, along these limited understandings of and their desires and not restricted to with D’Mello’s works, is another such hetero-normative sex and present a normative understandings of sex.” example. wider range of erotic lives.” “The genre of erotica is not “I was clear all along that the Kiran seems to agree as she recalls limited,” says D’Mello, “It is the women in my novel were going to an incident, “Someone asked me once, understanding of the people that is. be unapologetic about what they ‘Why are you so excited when you The genre, by itself, has immense wanted for their bodies and their see some lesbian thing or some queer possibilities.”

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MARGINALIA 2016-2017

The Robin Hood Army: At war with food wastage PRIYAMVADA MANGAL engages with modern-age Robin Hoods making a small yet significant difference in society

he Department of Food and Public Distribution in India has been unable to live up to its vision of food security, since 194 million people in TIndia remain undernourished—the highest in the world, according to the annual report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2015. This means that the number of people that go hungry every day is only a little lesser than the population of Brazil. On a Sunday, a young man wearing casuals goes to pick up food packets from Sadguru Restaurant in Chembur. He loads these packets onto his bike and hits the road. At his destination, a group of hungry urchins wait for their weekly treat. Rohit Thakur is one of the 2000-plus people across 19 cities volunteering for the Robin Hood Army (RHA). This non-governmental organisation (NGO) is a volunteer- based organization that works to acquire surplus food from restaurants to distribute it to the less-fortunate sections of society in cities across Pakistan and India. The RHA reaches out to homeless families, orphanages, night shelters, homes for abandoned children and patients from public hospitals.

Years ago when Siddhant Sethia, an MANGAL PRIYAMVADA BY PHOTOGRAPHS

130 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 the RHA,” says Rohit, resident of Amar Mahal, Chembur, and a corporate employee, “we decided to approach a number of hotels to tell them about this organization.” He heads the Chembur Chapter of the RHA. “Neel Ghose, who works for Zomato, and volunteers at the RHA could get a lot of hotels to tie-up with the Chembur Chapter as well,” he adds. During the distribution drives, you see the poor in clusters flocking around the volunteers for their food packets. They are asked to stand in a queue, but some of them queue up twice to get extra food packets. There have been instances where the volunteers just about saved themselves from being scratched. When there are two different food packets, urchins want it to be distributed according to their preference. When asked about how the RHA can help combat the hunger issue in India, Rohit says, “The hunger issue is very vast in India, so we are trying our level best to set up more chapters across the country so we can cover more people.” “I enjoy working for the RHA; I really like the idea of taking leftovers and distributing it to avoid wastage,” says Darshana Pinto who has been MBA student of K.J. Somaiya College, restaurants, and go for distribution at volunteering for the RHA since August joined the RHA, he approached his their designated places. 15, 2016. college canteen so that he could “The weekend that we distribute “India is the second most populous distribute food to the beggars he saw food begins with calling up the country in the world and can easily at Amar Mahal junction in Chembur. number of restaurants listed a day combat hunger. Distribution once Even though it was only once or twice in advance, and then approaching a week can’t resolve the issue with a month, it marked the beginning the restaurants an hour before the the degree that it’s supposed to be of awareness amongst the people of drive begins, to get the food ready. addressed with, but if we could form this area about the cause of hunger Whereas, food items depend on the seven groups of people and each among the underprivileged. A group hotel or the places where the food group could distribute each day of of inspired people came together to is collected from. We distribute only the week, then it would be good,” form the Chembur Cluster. Before the vegetarian and freshly prepared food. says Nikhil Rijwani, a regular at the cluster commenced its work, they We go to spots that we find urchins in, weekly distribution drives. “But the visited several spots where they could depending on the amount of food we best solution would be having literacy find urchins to distribute restaurant get,” says Thakur. He adds, “Currently drives along with the food distribution food. They also went from hotel to we have tie-ups with a number of drives or maybe teaching them some hotel so that they could tie-up with a hotels, which provide us biryanis skills because teaching a person to fish few for the food supply. Presently, they for up to sixty to eighty people. is better than buying them fishes. Our have a tie-up with a number of hotels Additionally, we have a food bank, team has been working on coming up around Chembur. They call the hotels which is run by ladies who prepare with a format for the literacy drives,” up, an hour before time to get the provide us with home-cooked food.” says Suraj Ramakrishnan who has food ready. Thereafter, a volunteer or The Chembur Chapter of the RHA is been working with the Robin Hood two go to collect the food from these fourteen months old. “When I joined Army since the beginning of the year.

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The new mantra: BYOB or Be Your Own Boss The youth are turning to startups. MINAL KHOSLA finds out why.

ccording to many people of his age haven’t That’s exactly what I’m doing right Nasscom been able to. He, with his friend now. Also, startups have like a ton and Zinnov and now colleague Haardik Mehta of work to do, and I’m a bit of a Consulting in the started Farbefest Ventures, an event workaholic. So it’s brilliant. There’s year 2015, India management company where they an insane amount of work to do in a had the third organize many government events startup. Then there’s the social-work largest number and festivals, musical shows, plays, angle plus football which made it the of startups in conferences and other events. When perfect job for me.” Do you need to theA world with only the UK and the asked why he actually started this be a workaholic then? “You need to US having more. With every passing startup, he explains, “This is my age have a really self-motivated, organized year, more and more young Indians to take risks and I can experiment and strong personality. There’s an are coming up with innovative ideas with life. I belong to a family where extensive amount of work and of and plans which are leading to the the members are not into doing course many ups and downs. You emergence of this huge market of 10am-6pm jobs and all my family need to be mentally prepared to work small quirky startups. These ideas members work for their own ventures. in a 24/7 environment and you need are not just helping people initiate Working in events is quite exciting: to be strong and motivated to deal startups, but also encouraging the sleepless nights and last-moment with all of that.” people to actually work with these crises excite me and so I decided to One huge difference between an companies, often choosing them over work on events.” established company and a startup multinational companies. But why are people actually is, that in an established company all It is only safe to say that people switching from MNCs to startups? the rules are set and the procedures who like to keep themselves busy Kareena Rogers, 25, who works at a are well established, whereas a startup and want to try something new and startup called Just For Kicks, which is still in a trial-and-error mode different are the ones who go for uses football as a medium to work which also makes space for a lot of these working places. Also, the fact upon the relationship between brainstorming, experimentation and that if you’re ready to go against the kids, teachers and parents of low- new ideas. status quo and face the world with income schools believes, “Choosing Another reason why people are the zeal to be up for experimentation to work with a startup was the best increasingly going for startups over and without the fear of failing you are decision because there’s more MNCs is the newer different work tailor-made to work in startups. opportunity for growth here. It also culture here. Ashok Jangid, 22, didn’t Rishikesh Kisan Avhad, 20, a means I am not in the rut. I wanted to join a startup because he wanted resident of Mumbai, achieved what do something unique and different. to work with one in particular, but

132 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 because he believed that the kind of working in the sales department with multinationals but your ability to environment and work culture he the opportunity to simultaneously do the same things due to money, wanted was available there. Now, work a little on everything else. Most experience, manpower are obviously after working with CoHo, a startup importantly, I am now accountable the deciding factors in that.” When pioneering the concept of ‘Co-Living’ for a lot of things, have had great asked about the challenges one faces, in India through offering fully- exposure, am directly in touch he adds, “The challenges we’ve faced furnished apartments and villas with with the founder and have gained a have been mostly spanning the range the best amenities near corporate business understanding. I know the of things like having to learn a lot on offices and colleges, for more than amount of work we do is crazy, but the job. Nothing hits you in the face one year, he looks back at his journey I wouldn’t have wanted it any other like practical experience. Getting and explains why this was the best way.” people to believe in your idea, your decision possible: “I was placed in Terence Fernandes, co-founder vision and still being able to protect Deloitte, a huge MNC through college of Polit, a polling platform that allows and nurture your vision were also placements. I knew that I’ll be made to users to poll on any topic of their extremely hard things to do as time work in one department there, which choosing where once a poll ends went on.” I believed wouldn’t have provided the user can see the demographic In a country like ours, where, me with the kind of growth I had breakdown of all the people who’ve with time, youngsters are ready to here at CoHo. I chose CoHo because answered the poll, believes that experiment even if it requires facing a since the start, I wanted to work in another big difference between a lot of challenges, and there is increase a small set-up with a team of ten to start up and a MNC is, “It’s different in the want to not just come up with twelve people so that I could work in so far as you’re a much leaner new ideas and start startups, but join in every department. I began as a tram to start off with. Your vision startups, it can be said that ‘startup

ILLUSTRATION BY KIRTI CHATURVEDI KIRTI BY ILLUSTRATION business developer here, now I am might be perfectly in line with the culture’ is here to stay.

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inhabitants of the city—but there are Christians and Muslims too. A decline in fishing activities on Chimbai beach has engendered concern among the Mumbaichi Kolis who are striving to keep their home afloat. Pointing to a garbage-ridden strip of land on Chimbai beach, 67-year-old Murlidhar Chimbaikar, a fisherman, Chimbai says, “In the past, when we were five, seven years old, we used to sleep in a In the bustling metropolis of Mumbai, a village grapples with change. line here. The sand was pure white.” ELTON GOMES walks through the lanes of Chimbai. Now, however, the sand is covered by garbage vomited up by the sea: plastic bags, sludge-ridden footwear, broken nets. According to Chimbaikar, “Now midst thermocol near the sea or simply flying away, that the elections will take place, the boxes and large fragments of broken bricks and other (clean-up) truck will come only for brown tokris, debris, pieces of tarpaulin sheets, cans, two days, simply to show, and then rusting boats empty liquor bottles, dead leaves the it’s over.” Besides starting a cycling and storage color of burnt umber, and a broken track on Carter Road somewhere crates, Chimbai commode. Although Bandra has next week, Asif Zakaria, H Ward West beach in Bandra seemingly transitioned from a fishing corporator, says, “I have been pursuing is strewn with village to the Queen of suburbs, some a comprehensive cleaning of Chimbai multipleA colours: broken brooms parts are now a far cry from Bandra’s beach, like the one at Juhu beach or with orange handles, silver paper heritage, Chimbai being one of these Shivaji Park, and that is in the pipeline plates, teal-colored wrappers of plastic parts. Chimbai is home to a large now.” Additionally, Zakaria says, “I’ve bottles, white plastic bags floating community of Kolis—the original been able to get a complete and large NILOFER KHAN NILOFER

134 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 NILOFER KHAN NILOFER new sewerage network for the Shirley garbage-bin-free areas. I say we should and Raigad; Bandra was the most Rajan and Rizvi Complex areas.” have garbage-free areas, not garbage illuminated one. Bandra got educated Dharmnath Chimbaikar, 31, bin-free areas. The BMC is working first, but it was also a disadvantage another resident and fisherman, says, toward discarding bins, but they’re not in the sense they moved away from “They (the BMC) simply send the doing enough to discard the garbage the culture … A lot of the urban JCB (J C Bamford, a cleaning truck) from there.” population who have come there are to collect the garbage in one place, Zakaria feels that segregating literally driving them (Kolis) away and that’s it.” Forty-eight-year-old garbage is paramount and that the from their home. Everybody wants a Christopher D’Abro, a resident and BMC should inculcate the notion water-front house, so they’re buying part-time broker, says, “People go and of segregating garbage in everyone. at any cost.” The government plans to dump (garbage) in the sea; it goes Concerning Chimbai, Zakaria says, build a coastal road; however, several down, again it comes up. There are “In fact, Chimbai is termed as one fishermen in Chimbai opine that the no dustbins. What this BMC is doing: of the filthiest beaches in Mumbai, projected coastal road will affect their they come and sometimes clear all the unfortunately.” Frequent clean-up livelihood. According to 29-year-old garbage, but they don’t keep dustbins. drives can remedy Chimbai’s garbage Vishnu Chimbaikar, fisherman, “When Once a month, they clear the beach, problem, according to Zakaria. Mahim and Worli residents opposed and again people go and dump there; the sea link (Bandra–Worli sea link), so, no use. I suggest they should keep ffects of they were beaten up. Certainly their dustbins.” urbanization business was going to get affected, When questioned on garbage were visible and the same will happen with us.” disposal, Asif Zakaria says, “It is early in Bandra: To this, Dharmnath Chimbaikar, 31, mandatory, as per the Municipal Alphi D’souza, adds: “We might get a place to stay, Solid Waste rules, for each household spokesperson of but what will we eat. What will we to segregate the garbage.” This the Mobai Gaothan do with just a piece of land, and segregation is happening only in some Panchayat, says, certainly we’ll have to pay a lot for the areas, he says. Commenting on the E“Bandra East Indians were the allotted land.” When asked whether lack of bins, he states, “Unfortunately, educated lot among the East Indians anyone has opposed the coastal road, the BMC has started a drive of creating of Bombay, Vasai, Thane (then Thana), Dharmnath Chimbaikar said that the

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road’s construction work was stalled or lands.” She also says that people of Mumbai; it is not right to usurp for some time. from other places have houses here their area, their land, and at the same In lieu of development projects in Mumbai, but the land allocated for time cause them inconvenience by and the coastal road, 78-year-old the Koli seems to be shrinking. When way of financial losses, because their Manibai Chimbaikar, a fisherwoman, asked to comment on the coastal livelihood depends on that.” says, “Several meetings were road, Asif Zakaria says, “The fishing Although several boats could be convened, but nothing happens.” community definitely, all over the seen in the sea, many fishermen have Private architects are now planning city, is against because they feel it’ll complained about the increasing development schemes in Chimbai; affect their livelihood. As of now the expenditure on boats: “See, now this ironically titled “Nourishment Plan.” coastal road is coming from Nariman area is a bit rocky; hence, big boats Manibai Chimbaikar comments on Point up to Worli, and then from Worli, cannot operate here. In Danda (Khar) these nourishment plans: “No, we will it connects to the existing sea link and Mahim, there is sand; hence, never give our land to those people. and comes into Bandra. I think care the big boats there,” says Dharmnath Our village is for ourselves only.” On should be taken by the authorities Chimbaikar. Furthermore, finding the changing landscape of Chimbai, while constructing the coastal road so employees to work on the boat is Chimbaikar further states, “We want that it should not affect the livelihood tedious, as people do not wish to whatever is ours. Mumbai belongs to or the way of living because the Kolis work on meager salaries. Vishnu the Kolis. We don’t have native villages are the original inhabitants of the city Chimbaikar, 29, states, “Initially people worked on boats for 12 rupees per month.” Vishnu Chimbaikar then explained the entire expenditure, which amount to lakhs as of now: “Now, a day’s diesel amounts to 1200 rupees a day; their (the employees’) ration amounts to 500 rupees a day— that amounts to 2000 rupees there. If 2000 rupees has to be paid daily, the catch has to be worth approximately 4000 to 5000 rupees, leaving some money to be paid to the employees. Ice worth 200 to 400 rupees is also required. Moreover, the boat captain (known as tandel in Marathi) has to be given a cellphone.” The increasing prices of nets, thread, and other related items only add to the problems of the Chimbai fishermen. According to Manibai Chimbaikar: “Initially there were several fishing boats here; now what has happened is a price rise—the prices of oil and diesel have increased, the cost of paying employees has increased; hence, our ancestors sold the old boats.”

hristopher and Alex D’Abro have said that communities live peacefully in Chimbai, and one can find Christians, Kolis, and Muslims here. CKeeping in mind Mount Mary and the religious importance that Bandra has,

Christopher D’Abro says, “One of the SINGHANIA VEDIKA

136 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 NILOFER KHAN NILOFER

biggest feasts here is the Vailankanni catch, there’s no place to separate encourage better designs and feast; all the villages come together the fish, and it is all very urbanized architectural inputs through for a nine-day novena. On the eighth there.” Emphasizing the work of collaborative projects.” September, (which the Roman communities in urban spaces, an Known as the inhabitants of Catholic Church holds sacred as the urban research collective titled URBZ Bombay, the Kolis have a mixed bag birthday of Mother Mary) we have has been focusing on Dharavi. URBZ’s of opinions about them: Mathew a big celebration.” Influenced by ideology is that residents are prime, Sherring, in his book Hindu Tribes and other sky-rises in Bandra, the and urban practices can be bettered Castes, vol. II, writes that “The Kolis D’Abro’s house was also to go under if comprehensive and collaborative are not a dull and stupid race, but are redevelopment; however, since they work is done with residents. Rahul shrewd and intelligent, yet reckless were tenants, the landlord has some Srivastava, a founding partner of and fond of ease.” In The Mahadev other plans. URBZ, says that urban practices can Kolis, GS Ghurye, former Head of An element that could not go lead to betterment of villages: “By department, Sociology, Mumbai unnoticed in Chimbai was solidarity, accepting the form of the urban University, writes, “In Maharashtra, be it the several Catholics returning village as a modern contemporary Koli par excellence means a from Sunday mass or seven to eight form. Improving infrastructure in fisherman.” With the onset of old age Koli youth prodding a boat into the them without destroying their fabric and the dwindling fishing scenarios sea. Alphi D’Souza says, “Chimbai and by responding to the needs of in Chimbai, when asked about what was more on the fishing side because the residents.” When asked what can will happen if the coastal road is of its proximity to the sea; so they be done to restore fishing villages, successful, Murlidhar Chimbaikar, 67, have their own boats. But today they Srivastava replied, “Work with says, “What’ll we survive on? We don’t are facing a lot of hardships—there’s residents, respond to their needs, have any education. Where will we no place to dry their fish after the help improve the civic infrastructure, go?”

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We never pose. Really VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA

We choose our NEPAL frames right DIARIES Living up to its annual ritual of defying the norms of a conventional classroom, this year the students of SCMSophia embarked upon an adventurous study tour to Far West Nepal. A never- ending thirty-three hour train ride, an adventure resort, river-rafting and an anti- human trafficking nukkad KUMAR SHIVANI naatak later, Sudhoor Who needs Paschim became home. Tears bottled water shed, a comrade lost and when there are hand pumps found, an emergency medical around? trip to the Banbasa border and exploring the sheer beauty and rich culture of a new country -- Nepal has been etched on the minds of every SCMite. Come, walk down the picturesque lanes of Nepal with us. - JA VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA

138 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 Jungle safari at Bardia National Park SURYASARATHI BHATTACHARYA SURYASARATHI NILOFER KHAN NILOFER SCM ARCHIVES SCM Bombay to Aee ha! Aee ha! Anti- Nepal -- our Human trafficking own Bollywood nukkad naatak by the moment SCMites at Chisapani

Chasing the sun at Bardia National Park MAYANKA MAYANKA GOEL In-sync at all times VEDIKA SINGHANIA VEDIKA

Let me get the aperture right! YASH SHAH YASH MARGINALIA 2016-2017

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140 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 ust be manifest to you that, but for the railways,

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MARGINALIA 1987 - 2017 • • 141 142 • • MARGINALIA 1988 - 2017 • • Acknowledgements

DIRECTOR, SOPHIA POLYTECHNIC STUDENT ASSOCIATE EDITORS DR (SR) ANILA VERGHESE ANANYA DESAI ELTON GOMES SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS VINDHYA BARWAL MEDIA DEPARTMENT, SOPHIA - SMT.MANORAMA PHOTOGRAPHY HEADS DEVI SOMANI COLLEGE, NILOFER KHAN SOPHIA POLYTECHNIC VEDIKA SINGHANIA

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT PHOTOGRAPHY TEAM DR SUNITHA CHITRAPU MINAL SANCHETI PRIYANKA ARORA CORE FACULTY RITIKA DEBNATH NIRMITA GUPTA RITU SHARMA SHAMA DESAI VISITING FACULTY TUSHAR ARYA AJAY NORONHA CHIRODEEP CHAUDHURI ILLUSTRATION HEAD GEETA RAO KIRTI CHATURVEDI JEROO MULLA JERRY PINTO ILLUSTRATION TEAM MADHAVI TANGELLA PRIYANKA ARORA MANAS MITTAL UPASANA BOSE MAYANK SEN SHIVANI KUMAR P SAINATH PARTH VYAS PRODUCTION HEADS RABINDRA HAZARI MINAL KHOSLA SHOLA RAJACHANDRAN YASH SHAH SMRUTI KOPPIKAR SONALINI MIRCHANDANI PRODUCTION TEAM SUNAYANA SADARANGANI AKRITI BINDAL SUPRIA LAL PRIYANKA ARORA SURESH VENKAT SHYMA RAJAGOPAL DESIGN KAPIL BATUS MAGAZINE PROJECT IN-CHARGE TANVI SHAH JERRY PINTO COVER PHOTOGRAPH STUDENT EDITORS NILOFER KHAN JOVITA ARANHA MAYANKA GOEL SURYASARATHI BHATTACHARYA

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