Vol. 32 M A R G I N A L I A 2018-2019

MARGINALIA 2018 - 2019 • • 1 / Acknowledgments

DIRECTOR, SOPHIA POLYTECHNIC MAGAZINE PROJECT IN-CHARGE DR. (SR.) ANILA VERGHESE JERRY PINTO

SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA DEPARTMENT ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF DINKAR SUTAR HEAD OF DEPARTMENT GRACY VAZ NIRMITA GUPTA NILESH CORREIA NEETA SHAH CORE FACULTY NIRMITA GUPTA STUDENT EDITORS SHYMA RAJAGOPAL SHRADDHA SHARMA VISHNU BAGDAWALA VISITING FACULTY ANTARA KASHYAP ALKA KHANDELWAL CHIRODEEP CHAUDHURI ASSOCIATE EDITOR GEETA RAO RAJAT ZAMDE JEROO MULLA ASSISTANT EDITOR JERRY PINTO SHEVAUGHN PIMENTA MAYANK SEN NIKHIL RAWAL PHOTOGRAPHY TEAM P. SAINATH KASHISH JUNEJA PARTH VYAS JAGRUTI PARMAR RAVINDRA HAZARI SONALINI MIRCHANDANI PRODUCTION SMRUTI KOPPIKAR ANANYA MALOO SUNAYANA SADARANGANI SHRIYA AGARWAL DR. SUNITHA CHITRAPU SURESH VENKAT DESIGN SHOLA RAJACHANDRAN KAPIL [email protected] SMRITI NEVATIA STASHIA D’SOUZA COVER DESIGN

KASHISH JUNEJA JUNEJA KASHISH

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 3 2/16/19 2:52 PM Marginalia Volume 32 RADHIKA TODI RADHIKA

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 4 2/16/19 2:52 PM / Contents

25 So I asked them to Smile By Antara Kashyap, Aakansha Malia

26 Sari Not Sorry! By Ananya Maloo

28 Society wants to keep you safe By Parul Rana

30 House Gali No. 9 Nala: Abode of Mumbai Mahanayak By Aakansha Malia

32 Culture and Cuisine Jugalbandi in Maharashtrian Cuisine By Kingkini Sengupta

34 The Biker in Me By Rosanne Raphael

36 Waiting in Mumbai By Kashish Juneja

40 Blind Faith By Aakanksha Chandra AAKANKSHA CHANDRA

42 Where are all the Dalit cricketers? SCM Throughout the Year By Rajat Zamde By Palak Bector, Aakansha Malia, Hitarth Desai, Parul Rana, 44 Whatsapp with those saris Shevaughn Pimenta, Rajat Zamde, By Samiksha Mishra Avantika Singhania, Snigdha Agarwal, Radhika Makker, Shraddha 46 Bollywood: Feminist Enough? Sharma, Aakanksha Chandra, By Samiksha Mishra Ananya Maloo 48 Pain in those paws 18 Many failures, one success story: By Kritika Champawat Kalpana Saroj By Shraddha Sharma 50 In Uttarakhand Beside the Mountains 19 Pink taXX By Shraddha Sharma 54 AlumPanah: Rasika Dugal By Parul Rana 21 The Library of Infinite Possibilities By Vishnu Bagdawala 56 SCM Alum Achievements

22 Understanding India’s Northeast: 58 Namas A Reporter’s Journal By SCM batch 2018-19 By Antara Kashyap NEHA JAIN NEHA JAIN NEHA

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 5 2/16/19 2:52 PM SCM batch 2018-19 on tour to Uttarakhand

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 6 2/16/19 2:52 PM / SCM Speak

REACHING MILLENNIALS

e begin 50 years celebrations of the Sophia Shree B K Somani Memorial Polytechnic and SCM, starting 2019, a landmark for most organisations. The brand purpose of SCM (as an ad person, I must talk the Wlanguage) is to empower women; we have done this for 50 years and we will continue to do so. As a mere department with no real resources, except goodwill, we compete with major institutions, with deep pockets and solid grants, and we come out winning, our head held high! Outlook magazine and India Today, for instance rank us among the top ten media departments of the country. The past few years have seen major disruptions in the media industry. Most media as we know them are threatened and are fighting for survival with the new God people worship, the all-encompassing, ambiguous God of Digital Things. Giants have tumbled: The New York Times, Washington Post and the Guardian all ask their digital readers to pay “as little as a dollar to help independent journalism survive”. JWT, the largest and oldest ad agency is now Wunderman Thompson, carrying its new upstart digital colleague on its weighty shoulders! Netflix, Amazon Prime and other Over The Top (OTT) platforms have made primetime television redundant. Consumers have never had it better as giants fight for survival and superiority. But .commercialism is also at its peak. So what are we doing, publishing the 32nd issue of Head of the Department Nirmita Gupta Marginalia? We believe our core values have not changed setting an example for her students on and still have currency in this age. While we are constantly how to overcome obstacles tinkering with the curriculum to keep it abreast of current developments in the media, we continue our conversations about women’s empowerment in the time of #metoo, we continue to talk about the marginalised, encouraging freedom of thought and creativity. Yes, we are also learning about hashtags and OTT, SEO and UI/UX. We wish to provide context and grounding in times that are confusing and often fevered. It is indeed an exciting and challenging time and we will continue to grow with your support. So please bear with us as we approach you saying, Hi, it’s that time of year, and here we are again  Here’s to the 2019 issue of Marginalia. Happy reading.

NIRMITA GUPTA HEAD, SCMSOPHIA

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SCM – A Journey, My Garden Patch

t’s 2019. The calendar says that the batch of and advertising professionals and public relations people, students who will graduate this year, the one so I thought. And I plowed on and on and on. Year after year. that put this magazine together, will be the 25th Batch after batch. that I have taught. Twenty-fifth? That’s nearly a In return, I came away enriched with ideas that were thousand faces seen, a thousand names read, some unlike mine, world views which persuaded me to re- committed to memory, a few put on speed dial as examine my own, approaches to life which forced me to friends and 12 midnight mates across continents. ask questions of myself, and more. My life, my work, my Taught, did I say? But not in the conventional network, my world view is richer for the time spent in SCM sense, not to raise cohorts, not to assess and judge classroom - and the department. the retention of material printed in government-approved Some of you treasured me, celebrate me. Others fell Itextbooks. My intention, every time that I walked into that off the radar at some point in time (and re-appeared), a classroom - same room few turned cold or even for the last 25 years - has Smruti Koppikar hostile. Thank you to been to share what I knew addressing a all. So many of you are panel at the Media and did as a journalist, to Mirror event held in positions of great open windows in young by SCM authority and influence in minds, to mould clay. journalism. The success The sharing came is, of course, all yours. easier as the years rolled I applaud in awe and by for I was seeing, admiration. absorbing, doing, even The largest chunk of resisting various aspects my gratitude goes to two of journalism in various people - Jeroo who gave newsrooms. Drawing me the opportunity and upon that, dipping into put her faith in me, and my own experience and Sainath who encouraged that of colleagues, I spoke me at the beginning and to young minds in that gamely became the sole classroom. Within the “student” when I tried out ambit of the approved syllabus; often outside it too. Else a potential lecture or two. How can I forget Kaumudi Marathe how would we contemporarise the study of journalism and and for years after that Anupamaa Joshi who was my discuss ongoing stories? sounding board besides handling the logistical part of it all? Less than one-fourth of any batch chose to be in Thank you to Nirmita who was the quiet force behind journalism. This has been the pattern for years. With the rise the department for years and now heads it admirably, to of 24x7 news television, more women chose it over print. Sunitha for all that she did, to Sunayana with whom I have In the last few batches, the trend has been towards digital had the pleasure of sharing so much including classes, and to platforms. When I began my stint, the term “Breaking News” Jerry for the irreverence and indefatigable energy he brings would appear on front pages of newspapers, occasionally to SCM. I remember the late Balaram, stoic as stone, but ever so. Forget what it came to be, the term is itself broken now. willing to get me coffee. Thank you to Gracy and Nilesh for We do journalism in an era when the world’s largest news always being there, and to Dinkar for all that he does. platforms are not news – even media – companies, but Through full-time jobs and part-time assignments, function as tech companies. through pregnancy and child-rearing, in ill-health and The brief to me then was to train young women – lately Bombay monsoon, despite punishing deadlines, in spite of men – to be trainees in newsrooms. We explored and occasional disagreements with the department, I came to adapted the syllabus but my approach was to go beyond the the SCM classroom. It felt right, it felt good, it felt like home. skill sets. I wanted to leave students with ideas, concepts SCM is an indelible part of my life, never mind how cheesy it and questions about journalism, its place in democracies, sounds to say so. its role in our lives, its core principles. I wanted to transfer For those who remember my “garden patch” lecture at my passion for journalism to as many as could absorb it. No the end of an academic year, know that I chose SCM as one matter that someone chose to make films or another decided of the garden patches in my life. Come, talk to me, have a to be in advertising. For knowing about and engaging with coffee, share your ideas to make it more verdant, relevant journalism, they would be aware and informed filmmakers and fulfilling.

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KNOWING THYSELF

he past year at SCM has been a process of unlearning and learning. We all had different ideas of our own which were inevitably linked with who we were at the time. Various people came into our class and our lives, and talked Twith us of their worldview and had their explanation for the way the world was. At the end of each day, we were left thinking about the worldview of each of these people, and knowingly or unknowingly, all of us began to borrow from each other. The Italian political philosopher Antonio Gramsci once said, “The starting-point of critical elaboration is the consciousness of what one really is and is ‘knowing thyself’ as a product of the historical process to day…” All of us, who had been living in our bubble until that time, had begun to peek at the outside world. We started to understand the context in which we existed, and how we were linked to the whole of humanity. It is not easy to articulate what changes we went through, except that a shift had happened. Suddenly, the world around us made a little more sense; we began to see connections. It began to look like an interesting place. The articles in this magazine are a testament to this. THE Be it the life of a sanitation worker, or the mystery of a hidden tax women STARTING- pay because of their gender, or the moments of waiting in a city which never POINT stops, all of us have tried to do something with our newfound sensibility. OF CRITICAL Some of us chronicled the life of a visually impaired cricket enthusiast, some ELABORATION wrote of libraries in a small town flourishing in a digital age, some interviewed IS THE an author who’d written about the Northeast, while some wrote of a saree CONSCIOUSNESS empire created on WhatsApp. OF WHAT ONE The words of Gramsci keep coming back. The innocuous-looking phrase REALLY IS AND seems to hide a profound meaning. How do you even begin to know yourself? IS ‘KNOWING Our entire lives have been shaped by a countless number of people, leading THYSELF’ AS us through the phases of hope and despair and the moments of epiphany A PRODUCT OF THE HISTORICAL and meaninglessness. In our opinion, the year broke us to build us into PROCESS TO DAY… tougher beings. We’ve begun to look outside ourselves and inside ourselves to understand the context in which we’ve been born.

VISHNU BAGDAWALA SHRADDHA SHARMA ANTARA KASHYAP SHEVAUGHN PIMENTA SHEVAUGHN

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 9 2/16/19 2:52 PM because this structure of storytelling has been followed since the time of ALEX ‘BIRDMAN’ Aristotle.” This structure is not used enough by young film-makers. He said, “You DINELARIS JR AND SCM cannot blow up a structure without Shraddha Sharma talks about the day the students of knowing. Once you know the rules, you can start bending them.” SCM Sophia found themselves having Breakfast with Alex Since we hear opposing views about Dinelaris Jr., an Oscar winning screenwriter. following the three-act structure and its variants of five-act or seven-act structure, it was a rest to the confusion for good. In the Q&A, we touched upon other amazing films La La Land, The Shawshank Redemption, Still Life, Children of Men, etc. Dinelaris quoted SCM students Mark Twain and said, “I didn’t have with Alex Dinelaris Jr. time to write a short letter, so I wrote a and Boman long one instead.” This was like a Zen Irani lesson in writing. Perhaps Boman Irani was right when he said, “Writers are the most important part of this industry.” We were finally able to grasp what a screenplay writer does. She is responsible for what happens in the film. We left with several tips which were meant for screenwriters but can also be used for anyone interested in telling a story. • Action, action, action. What’s going on? Does it add to the story? Does it add to the conflict? Does it reverse it? • The protagonist must be as strong as the antagonist. And tudents of SCM Sophia young screenwriters from India to both must be interesting. were invited to a New York. These students will work • What goes for the scene goes for screenplay writing closely with Dinelaris for a week on the sequence goes for the story. workshop by Boman Irani their screenplays. This was also the • When you see a coincidence that was being held on the occasion for the launch of Boman worked into the plot, you can 24th January 2019. To our Irani’s new production house, ‘Irani tell that the writers were having Ssurprise, each of us personally received Movietone’, inaugurated byAmitabh a bad day. a call from Boman Irani himself. The Bachchan himself. The morning at JW • If you must have a coincidence, workshop was called ‘Spiral Bound’ Marriott in Juhu saw several renowned it must be disguised by the and was conducted by Oscar winner screenwriters, actors and director fabric of the film so that it does Alex Dinelaris Jr, one of the writers for from the Bollywood fraternity. It was not look like a coincidence, nor Alejandro Inarritu’s Birdman (2014). thrilling to view ‘Birdman’ through the smell like it, nor sound like it. It Alex Dinelaris Jr sat with us at the writer’s lens. must feel inevitable. breakfast table to discuss our idea of As Alex Dinelaris Jr. talked about the • The ending of a movie must be screenwriting. It was one of the most process of writing the screenplay for surprising but also be inevitable. exciting moments of the year but Birdman, we were all left awestruck You should go away feeling, ‘Oh, credit for that must go to Dinelaris by the attention to detail he had paid wow, it could not have ended who proved to accessible, informal while writing it. He took us through the any other way. and capable of sharing his excitement three-act structure for screenwriting, PS: These were our takeaways. about writing and cinema. He told us and he insisted, “You need to We apologize in advance if we have also that his new venture was to take understand the structure and follow it misinterpreted Mr Dinelaris Jr’s words.

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product. The ad should be designed to attract your attention in the first five seconds of watching so that the ON A HIGH WITH consumers don’t skip the ad,” said Kanksha Aroraa. They also showcased some popular LOWE LINTAS Indian ads from Lifebuoy and Idea. We were able to understand how brands Radhika Makker recalls some brand gyaan use social messages to establish a specific position in the market. We were given a few brands such as Times of India, Shaadi.com, Axis Bank vis- à-vis social issues like saving money, he advertising giant, girl-child literacy, etc. We were divided Lowe Lintas, came to into groups and asked to choose a social SCM Sophia to conduct issue and connect it with a brand. The Ta workshop on digital aim was to understand how brands advertising and the new media wave. decide which social issues to take up to The two-day session was initiated boost their sales. They spoke about the by the Chief Executive Officer of the Nike campaign starring American company, Raj Gupta. The session football star Colin Kaepernick in order was put together and conducted to explain how brands take up by Vaseem Edroos, Executive Vice- challenging positions in the market to President (EVP),Kanksha Aroraa, Sr. Customised glass create their identity. bottles presented Brand Planning Manager, and Kunal to each student by One of the students, Vishnu

Mirchandani, Brand Planning Director. PARMAR JAGRUTI Lowe Lintas Bagdawala, says, “It was very “You can only sell your product if interesting to know how giants like your brand takes up a strong point of Today, everyone uses some OTT Nike strategize and make an ad view. Creative content and ideas are platform. Thus, those platforms are campaign. No easy job that; it was a critical to making your product unique. the best way to showcase and sell your great experience.”

he Week That Was’ has you are not engaging with news, how been a team activity will you report it?” Antara Kashyap, from in SCM since 2014. the current batch of SCM, recalls her ‘TIt involves students analysis of the coverage of the farmers’ THE analysing the major happenings in the march and her comparison of it to the news of the past week. The class was Ayodhya issue, “These little differences divided into three teams, each expected in placement of news in print and airing to analyse news coverage across media time in broadcast is what we started WEEK platforms. Senior journalist, Smruti noticing after TWTW.” Koppikar mentored the class for each Has it helped? “The students’ level of round of TWTW. engagement has increased. Since they She said, “Earlier each student used have to present observations, analysis THAT to maintain news clippings along with and comparisons, they have to read. It their analysis in a scrapbook that they is also a lot more fun in a group because found interesting from the day. But as something might strike you that doesn’t WAS reading habits changed, we found that strike your teammates. We brought back students were reading less and less of the scrapbook era in this form given the Shraddha Sharma writes news. This was dangerous because if media evolution.” about the evolution of Presentations of TWTW TWTW.

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important so that we can see the THROUGH THE GENDER LENS: operations of the patriarchy not just in others but in our own activities as well. Because of it would lead us to have ANUBHA BHONSLE better reportage and that is precisely what putting up a Gender Lens means. Palak Bector writes about one of the very important She stressed how, along with sessions of the year on ‘Gender’ gender, caste also plays a significant role in a woman’s life and is used to discriminate against her. Women are not preferred as a source of knowledge. To have such regressive attitudes, she said, makes an enormous difference nubha Bhonsle, the in reportage in media organizations. Anubha executive editor of CNN- Bhonsle takes She also told us how the presentation News 18, is an alumnus the session of women in advertisements is more through the who attended SCM in the complexities of a satire on the female section of the A of the term year 1998-99. She is also the recipient society. Gender of the Jefferson Fellowship where she Gynaecologist Dr. Suchitra Dalvie researched America’s political history. spoke about SRHR Act focusing on the A print and TV journalist in addition sex ratio and the reasons that impact to being an author of Mother, Where’s the accessibility of safe abortions for My Country?: Looking for Light in the women. She talked about how the Darkness of Manipur (Speaking Tiger, Medical Termination Of Pregnancy 2016) was at SCM to conduct a session women are treated in a certain way Act (MTP) was in loggerheads with the called Gender Up Close. Throughout in society because of their gender. Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act the course, she concentrated explicitly To understand the roles given to ( PCPNDT), which gives doctors the on the gender in reportage in media. them based on their gender and the right to deny safe abortion to women. The media is only reflections of inequality inherent in society which Therefore, making abortions legal but society, she pointed out. Men and gives them those role becomes not a right to women in India.

one’s rights. As Rytasha says in it, “It’s about empowerment and if you don’t feel empowered how will you be able VICE MEDIA VISITS SCM to smash STDs and the patriarchy’. Aakansha Malia writes about the interesting The video takes us into the interiors session with Vice Media of a small village, Mehdiganj, where a local NGO, Mahila Swarojgar Samiti, in an attempt to work ahead of its times, has dissed the so-called ‘Sanskar induced sex education programme’ ice Media has been questions about sex that you were too in India to teach girls about sex with known for putting out shy to ask.’ The video series showed us a practical approach. It also looked quirky content on digital and took us around India’s sex-positive at the largest red light area of India V platforms, making it revolution through its most intimate which is in Kolkata called Sonagachi. attractive to the millennial audience. obsessions and explicit moments. They spoke with women there Video content head of Vice Media The very first video in the series is who have not only normalized sex India, Sameera Kanwar visited SCM in called ‘Asking for a friend.’ It brings to education, but they also speak openly Sophia Polytechnic with her team and light how sex education is actually about pleasure under their ‘Peer Sex introduced us to the video series they about knowing one’s own body and Education System.’ It highlights the had made on gender and sexuality on importance of knowing one’s

their website. The videos celebrated Sex-Rated-The body which can eventually conversation, dialogue, and myths VICE Guide to help us to be confident associated with sex. The series is Sex in India individuals and learn to called ‘Sex Rated - The Vice Guide to respect and appreciate the Sex in India, the show where we ask human body much more.

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 12 2/16/19 2:52 PM / In Conversation

AMDAVAD MA FAMOUS: HARDIK MEHTA Hitarth Desai interviews the documentary filmmaker, Hardik Mehta, after his session with the students

he documentary He took the students through collected while travelling all over India Amdavad Ma Famous the ins and outs of documentary by train during his early filmmaking (Famous in Ahmedabad) filmmaking. With Amdavad Ma days. Talking about the importance of won the National Famous, he had made a film which exploring and feeding one’s curiosity, Award for Best Non- was as entertaining as a mainstream he had said, “It is essential to give feature Film in 2015. At masala movie, but when asked yourself time to explore the nuances Tthe SCM screening, director Hardik about it he said, “It is a positive if a of film-making. I edited the film Mehta talked about his film. He has documentary film entertains the myself in order to learn editing.” also worked on feature films like audience. But a documentary must Stressing the importance of sound Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan engage the audience, even if it does in documentaries, he said, “One (2010) and Lootera (2013) as a script not entertain. You cannot not engage.” can afford to have a few bad shots supervisor. He was a co-writer for He said, “The only way to master but not a poorly recorded audio.” Motwane’s Trapped (2017). Recently, something is to never stop exploring.” He recommended we watch a he directed his first feature film As a part of his learning, he had made documentary miniseries called The Kaamyaab which premiered at Busan a film called Meditation in Motion Jinx to understand how sound can be in 2018. made from the footage he had used creatively in a documentary film.

Students with the screenwriter and filmmaker, Hardik Mehta

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Apart from giving his insights the rest of their lives. While working The first thing is that you should on the process of documentary as an engineer in a dairy, I realized that treat kids like adults. They respond filmmaking, giving us anecdotes I wouldn’t be able to do this forever. I if you become their friend. Don’t try about his struggles in the film-making landed up in the advertising industry to talk them down, as they will lose industry and information about his where I worked for two years as a interest in talking to you. Secondly, upcoming projects, he recommended copywriter. It is during those days you have to catch the kid at their us to watch some films related to that I realized that I’m interested in innocent best. Our protagonist didn’t the documentaries that we were filmmaking. care whether we were shooting or not. making as a part of our course. He only cared about his kite and not The recommendations included When did your love for cinema the camera. Chronicles of a Summer (1961), begin? Searching for Saraswati, Cinema Growing up in India, cinema is At what stage in Amdavad Ma Travellers, Cowspiracy, Black Fish, always a part of your childhood. Famous did you start thinking Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj and Everybody watches films here. But about the music? Imposter. I was impacted when I was I wanted something like an introduced to world cinema by a accordion or a harmonium which You started your career as an DVD shop in Baroda. At that time would also underline the humour in engineer. What made you quit that there were no online streaming sites my story. I was sure that I will need and get into filmmaking? to watch movies and hence this DVD music in this documentary to tie the I think by 23-24 everybody starts shop was my only access to watch images. However, I didn’t know that realizing what they’re going to do for films from around the world. Almost I’ll end up using so much of it. everything that I wanted to watch was available. After a national award-winning documentary, your next project is The influence of mainstream a fiction feature film. How different Hindi cinema is quite evident was the making style and how did in your documentary film Amdavad you adapt? Ma Famous as well. Why is that? There is a saying, shoot your In India, one cannot avoid documentary like a fiction film mainstream cinema. It is a part of your and shoot your fiction film like a nostalgia. It will eventually become a documentary. part of your filmmaking. Here, there My next film is about a supporting are only some filmmakers who have actor in Bollywood, and I have grown up with European films. They cast Sanjay Mishra who plays the are doing an excellent job by shunning supporting role in all other movies the mainstream, but I can’t avoid it as the lead role in this one. I’ve used myself. some more documentary elements in IN the film also. So do you have a basic script in INDIA, the documentary as well or do you How difficult was it to sell your ONE CANNOT go with the flow? documentary? How do you find a AVOID During the shoot, you can only producer? MAINSTREAM calculate what can be in the film. My wife Aakanksha had given us CINEMA. IT IS A While shooting with the boy (Zaid, the money for the shoot and getting PART OF YOUR the protagonist), we didn’t anticipate the rough cut ready. NOSTALGIA. that it would be an illegal terrace and A lot more money is needed in the IT WILL we will end up finding our antagonist post-production for music, sound EVENTUALLY in Mushtaq (security guard). It all designing, poster making, and a lot BECOME A happened in the spur of the moment, more taam jaam. After our rough cut PART OF YOUR FILMMAKING. and we thanked God that he agreed. got ready, Arya Menon came on as HERE, THERE You always have to keep your eyes the other producer. So yes, you need ARE ONLY SOME open, and thankfully digital cameras to make that great first cut to get the FILMMAKERS allow that. producers excited. This is a great time WHO HAVE for documentary film-makers because GROWN UP WITH How did you manage to get the Netflix, Amazon Prime and other EUROPEAN FILMS. kids so comfortable in front of the platforms are encouraging so many of camera? them.

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ISLANDS IN THE SUN Rajat Zamde and Shevaughn Pimenta write about the session with Pankaj Sekhsaria, in which SCM students learn the southernmost point of India’s land mass.

ankaj Sekhsaria, a clear. Imagine the level of researcher, writer, destruction that it would cause to all photographer, life forms. campaigner and He introduced us to the culture, academician, ecology and geology that are visited SCM distinct to the islands alone. His Sophia to conduct research led him to find out more a lecture on an about the tribal communities that area of special inhabit the islands such as the Great interest: the Andaman and Nicobar Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa PIslands. He has been conducting and the Sentinelese, who have lived environmental research there for the on the islands for thousands of years. past two decades. It was heartbreaking to learn that “What is the southernmost point of multiple deaths take place among India?” he asked. them due to the diseases they are “Kanyakumari,” the class chorused. exposed to and the lack of medical We should have known. We were assistance. Sekhsaria also spoke about wrong. the tsunami of 2004 that further Indira Point, located in the Nicobar decimated these communities. district of the Islands, is the southern- He also introduced us to interesting The cover of Islands in Flux: The Andaman most part of our country. He further and Nicobar Story by Pankaj Sekhsaria endemic animals the green sea turtle delved into the geography of the that leaves behind trails that resemble islands, taking us through the variety the tyres of a tractor on the beaches, of rich fauna and flora that is spread The cover of The Last Wave: An thus making it easy to track. He across them. Island Novel by Pankaj Sekhsaria showed us photographs of edible- The most admirable was his nest swiftlet, the breathing roots of concern for the dangers that mangroves that grow above the earth the islands are facing due to and orchids which grow only under their exploitation by the government sunlight. Hence, as he explained, of India. He explained to us the an increase in the growth of these kind of harmful effects that would orchids would mean that there were come to each living organism on fewer number of trees around on the the Islands if mankind continued to islands, indicating the reduction in exploit it of its resources. Sekhsaria’s green cover. blunt statements about the foolish Sekhsaria’s efforts to make us decisions made by Indian politicians aware about the islands through the in the past exposed their blunders; compilation of his research matter the most astonishing one being the was put forth to us by introducing two decision to build nuclear power of his famous works, The Last Wave plants on the islands. The fact that and Islands In Flux: The Andaman the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Nicobar Story. Both these books are located in the ‘Ring of Fire’ sketch out a detailed overview of which is the epicentre of devastating the Andaman and Nicobar islands earthquakes makes the folly of as being much more than merely a constructing a nuclear power plant holiday destination.

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had been ousted out of Tibet, he shared stories about his childhood, living on TENZIN TSUNDUE : the road in a tent with his parents, who had then worked as construction labourers. He said, “The roads which go THE TIBETAN through Manali, toward all those places like Lahul and Spiti Valley, it was my parents who had built them.” IN MUMBAI Tsundue’s session was an insight Snigdha Agarwal recalls the day when Tenzin into this struggle and how the rest of Tsundue visits SCM the world has ignored it. He told us about the Chinese exploitation of the abundant resources in Tibet. He also talked about the threat to the identities of the Tibetans. No longer allowed to travel to Tibet, their identity has been orn in India to Tibetan deals with his experience of being threatened by the neo-imperialist refugees, Tenzin stateless. In one of his poems ‘My motives of China. Tsundue is a poet, writer Tibetanness,’ he writes, Arrested and jailed numerous and an activist. He visited times, threatened with his life for the SCM on 19th December Thirty-nine years in exile. cause of his country’s independence, 2018 to speak about his Yet no nation supports us. his journey as a freedom fighter is Bexperiences and his struggle for Tibet’s Not a single bloody nation! an inspiration. Living austerely on independence from China. Being a We are refugees here. two pairs of clothes, surviving on the poet and a writer, he said, “Writing is People of a lost country. income he makes by selling his books, about what the mind and the heart Citizen to no nation. he is striving to make a change in the want to express.” world today. He spoke about the struggles of His poems bring out his tragic Tenzin’s struggles for his country’s Tibetan refugees in getting equal rights situation quite beautifully. Currently freedom is symbolized by the red in India. He read some of the poems living in Dharamshala, Himachal bandana he wears around his head. He from his collection Kora (TCV Alumni Pradesh, which is where the Tibetan has said he will remove it only when Association, 2000), which essentially refugees had settled initially when they his country is free.

Tenzin Tsundue recites a poetry from his book Kora

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motive of these normalized modes of expression in our childhood. We also have probably internalized them to LOITERING WITH such an extent that when Khan told us how these narratives were a part of the patriarchal setup, it was difficult not to SAMEERA KHAN have a feeling of unease. Avantika Singhania writes about Sameera Khan’s session She also spoke about the coverage of about loitering in streets and the patriarchal attitudes. sexual assault cases. There are specific legal guidelines for the coverage of sexual assault cases for publications. She told us how the newspapers dodge these guidelines by disclosing just the ameera Khan, a journalist, how the only way to right information which an ex-SCMite who has been change this is through the Sameera and essentially discloses a her book working extensively on issues radical act of ‘loitering’— Why Loiter survivor’s identity even S related to women, took a roaming around in the though they might not session with the SCM batch of 2018-19. city—even though there be violating guidelines. With Shilpa Phadke and Shilpa Ranade, are risks. Patriarchy often Besides, she explained she wrote Why Loiter?: Women And manifests in stark ways how adjectives ossify the Risk On Mumbai Streets (Penguin India, but there are other not- subordinate identity of a 2011), in which the central argument so-easily-recognizable woman. She might have made is that women in Mumbai, even forms making us realize reached Mars but ‘Mother though they have access to urban how it affects our lives. of 2 touches the surface public spaces, do not have an equal She told us how it starts of Mars’ would remain claim to public spaces in the city. The even at an innocuous her identity. Hence, how session was, among other things, about level of fairy tales where the girl has a woman’s identity is still limited to explaining how the low visibility of to be a beautiful princess in a castle, those traditional roles normalized in women in public places is one of the no less for the prince to come for her. a patriarchal society, negating their manifestations of the patriarchy, and We hadn’t recognized the underlying individual achievements in their lives.

as they could from the The second screening filmmakers by watching was Bombay 70, about their work and talking a street rapper Naved WHO IS about them. The Shaikh, AKA Naezy, students had selected shot by Bhanu Babbal their topics and had who disclosed tricks of MONA?* formed teams. The next shooting on the streets. Ananya Maloo and two days were allotted The last screening was Aakanksha Chandra to the students to shoot Hardik Mehta’s Amdavad their documentaries Ma Famous. We saw write about an intense without the assistance Anushka Shivdasani week on film-making, of faculty. The last Rovshen’s Breath about one of the many firsts at day was reserved to The poster for the week two characters battling SCM this year. learn basic editing Who is Mona mental health issues. skills. We were then A script workshop was asked to edit our work. Pooja Gupte, a held by Adhiraj Singh, a filmmaker and cinematographer, who has worked on a sound engineer, who demonstrated magine whipping up a short films like Rukh and Crossing Bridges, the power of a well-written script. documentary film of your own took a lighting workshop. She briefed Then we shot in teams of three or less. while being mentored by some of us on three-point lighting and other The last day of the Who is Mona week Ithe accomplished documentary basics. She talked to us about her ended with RTV faculty Parth Vyas filmmakers. We were lucky to be part experience as a woman in a male- taking us through the various editing of the first SCM ‘Documentary Film- dominated profession. Then came a tools we’d need. making Week’. In the first two days, documentary series like Abstract which *Mona is anybody. Mona is nobody. As the students had to imbibe as much took us into the making of design. human beings, we want to know Mona.

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of ‘Humanity’. I have come to realize that caste isn’t the reason that stops you, it is low confidence in your own self. And everyone has equal rights under the constitution, so being afraid is unnecessary. I was scared to even step out of my house. I used to cry in the beginning as the society then thought badly of a woman who stepped out of their homes to work.” Padma Shri recipient in 2013 for Trade and Industries, Ms. Saroj’s boldest bets were on distressed properties including Kamani Tubes. ‘I give my hundred percent to my work, and of course, the family was a support system,’ she said. Burdened with over 100 litigations, Kamani workers, who were previously helped by Kalpana Saroj, wanted her to take over the management. It was MANY FAILURES, ONE between 2000-06 that she requested Finance Ministry to waive off the penalty and interest of the sinking SUCCESS STORY: company. Not only did she receive the waiver, the principal amount was also Shraddha Sharma in conversation with the ‘Original reduced to an extent. Slumdog Millionaire’, Kalpana Saroj Along with Kamani tubes, she manages around ten companies. Even two roads are named after her company, ‘Kamani, Kurla’ and ‘Ramjibhai Kamani, Fort.’ Her venture, KS Film production he was not given a chance everything fell apart. I even tried to had also produced the film called to study, instead, she was commit suicide, but after that I decided Khairlanjichya Mathyawar; She said, married off at the age to live by doing something than die ‘I am thankful the way world media of 12. Today, she has an without doing anything.” She started portrayed me. They have been kind to estimated net worth of a beauty parlour after taking a loan. me over the years.’ over US $100 million. Her She started understanding about all Her journey’s next landmark was Slife story goes beyond the rags to riches government schemes and benefits that from being afraid on the roads of narrative, because even as a kid, giving new businesses could claim. As she Mumbai to becoming an esteemed up wasn’t one of her traits. She recalls, had seen deprivation so closely, she TEDx speaker. She said, “Not belonging “I was the elder daughter, and while started an organization for unemployed from Mumbai originally was also my father, who was a police constable, people to help them raise loans a drawback initially. Times have left for work, my mother stayed back under government schemes to start improved now. I think it is a harm to the to take care of us. By the time I turned businesses, the way she had done. Soon country’s fabric if we restrict migration.” nine or 10 years old, I started going to after, she stepped into real estate and Starting in the slums of Mumbai and the market to buy everything needed even faced death threats for stepping making INR 2 per day in a hosiery firm in the house. I also started selling milk in the male-occupied territory that was is also a part of her journey that she in the village. I think it helped me build highly monopolistic. sometimes sits and recall. She had lost my self-confidence.” Kalpana Saroj is She said, “I believe in doing good her sister to illness because there was currently the Chief Executive Officer of work with a clear conscience. There will no money. Soon after she left on the the Mumbai-based company, Kamani always be people who will try to stop journey to pull her family out of poverty, Tubes Limited. you. Moving forward with confidence is her piece of advice is, “Forget what the Kalpana Saroj is also a domestic the only solution, I think”. world says. Always do honest hard work violence survivor. Known to be both She faced double-oppression because with self-confidence. Running away fearless and confident, she is often she was a girl who belonged to the is never a solution. Suicide is never a asked the reason behind her courage. Dalit community. Talking about it, she solution. You’ll justify people who have

PHOTOGRAPH BY JAGRUTI PARMAR She said, “I wanted to study. But said, “I believe there is only one caste been pulling you down in a way.”

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with, but it is the existing reality. Within which if we speak about the GST on processed wheat (atta), it impacts women much more because they are the ones responsible for PINK TAXX? feeding the family. If the tax on wheat All over the world women pay more for goods and is different and on Atta is different, services. That’s called Pink Tax. Shraddha Sharma GST is higher on Atta. We are talking investigates if women pay this tax in India as well. about a normal average poor woman of the country to whom even a difference of Rs 3 per kg on tax slab is huge. They (poorer women) tend to buy the wheat, clean it themselves, process it themselves and grind it themselves. So there is a component he widespread agitation search in an Indian context will start of what we call as unpaid labour which in India for removal of in Quora users suggesting it doesn’t is built into this gender differential tax on sanitary napkins apply to India. It is true. It doesn’t taxation. Say, the responsibility of led to roll back of 12% apply to India ‘on its surface’. Dr. women is to feed the family and also Goods and Services Ritu Dewan, Vice-President at Indian provide them with water (drinking Tax (GST) in July 2018. society of Labour Economics, and water and for household usage). So OnT the surface, it was a win because President at Indian Association for when water is not provided, or there what was patently a health necessity, a Women’s Study known for her work is no investment made, women matter of hygiene would now become on gender economics says, ‘’First of all, walk three, four miles every day to cheaper. I object to the name pink tax. Pink for collect it. Then again in that for safe In reality, sanitary napkins remained girls and blue for boys is just idiotic. drinking water, the energy goes into just as expensive, and therefore out So the term is something I don’t like. boiling water. This is what we call in of the reach of most Indian women. Instead of giving it the same kind of economics, the imputed cost, which This was because manufacturers could trivialization, we can use a different is not calculated. Under GST, this not claim input tax credit any more. phrase for it. Secondly, that hasn’t been whole political discourse and ideology Net result: sanitary napkins are now a major kind of study on this, but there impact taxation. There is no GST on more expensive. Dr. Surbhi Singh, is an impact of taxation on different bindi, bangles, mangalsutra but you practicing gynaecologist and founder products that men use and women had GST on sanitary napkins, and then and president of the menstrual use. But the issue of taxation and we ran that huge campaign. There awareness NGO ‘Sacchi Saheli’ says, gender hasn’t been taken seriously. So is lower GST on shaving cream than “In general, most of our choices in we are talking about the whole societal there is for a women-specific product. life are determined by marketing and and not social component. If you see So it has to do by the products that advertising. We tend to follow trends within that, the space allocated for men use, and women use that is set by brands, sometimes almost women is specifically for maintenance defined by their roles in the societal blindly. What makes it worse are the and consumption of the household, structure. So, of course, it is true for standards set by society, especially et cetera. To which, one may not agree India but it is not talked about, and when it comes to women and girls and it is invisible. So it is invisibilized how they are taught in consciously or unconsciously most cultures that is a different take altogether.’’ physical beauty is supreme. With ink tax is this in mind, the idea that we are drawn similar and towards products even identical that are marketed consumer to make us feel products are prettier or fairer, etc. For pricedP higher for women than this, that for their male counterpart. I am certain we pay the ‘extra’ price Academic studies in places that is also known as the pink tax.” including New York and Germany The media in the west has long have proved this concept. What

ILLUSTRATION BY AMRITA RAJPUT AMRITA BY ILLUSTRATION used the term, pink tax. Any Google products are more expensive for

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women? size in the women section is smaller a thing in India maybe. Is sprinkling Advertising professional and than that of men. Similar V-neck t-shirt femininity, nature, and romance on commentator Geeta Rao, said, “There is also priced discriminately. Although, products reason enough to make are categories where men’s products garments will still be debated for cereals for women cost more than are more expensive and categories being fancier for women thus, earning ‘gender neutral’ cereals? Or are the where products that target women the privilege to be over-priced, just reasons different? Harish Bijoor, Brand are more expensive. For example, like salon services. According to the Guru & Founder of Harish Bijoor Women’s grooming and beauty survey, people think that women are Consults Inc.illustrated, “Category of products are far more expensive than ready to spend more when it comes products which are sold to women men’s, but business suits for men tend to their looks, therefore, making it more, there is undoubtedly a premium to be more expensive than for women. a marketing strategy. This enables which is put on these products and Bikes and cars targeting men are far Gillette Razors to price their product services. The same thing happens more expensive than cars and bikes at a higher price for women. Some of to items related to kid garments.It is targeting women. the respondents said that the reason indeed a question of what goes into When it comes to fragrances for this discrepancy could be because it. It’s not really a Pink Tax or let’s say and shoes, you will find they can of ‘economies of scale.’ Since men a Pink discount. It is really telling the be equally expensive for men and need more razor, increased demand quality of the garment, round neck women. In the fashion category, a also reduces the price. Which would or maybe type of cotton. You can’t good template to look into is the bridal have held true if we were restricting measure it yard to yard as there is segment. If you look at the emphasis ourselves to the previous decade with colour as well. A particular colour on the bridal trousseau or jewellery only one product? I wonder what might cost different than the other. It’ll or all those accessories that go into justification would marketers of Nivea be wrong to say that it’s a pink tax. If at making a bride versus all those that go duo have. Nivea duo for men in India all there will be a pink Bolero launched into making a groom, you’ll see there costs Rs. 250 for the 100ml product, by Mahindra, it is quite likely that it is a vast disparity. Some of it could be it costs Rs.185 for 50 ml product for would go at a discount over the regular because there is more workmanship females. It looks all okay on the surface version. Because the idea will be to and embellishment that goes into until we dig deeper with the quantity give it at a discount to women rather bridal wear. Some of it is definitely which happens to be 48% lower in the than ask for a premium.” created by branding, marketing and a latter case As per reports, women in India earn push from the marketers. Some of it is This pricing system might also around 20 percent less than men due gender stereotyping. There is a study be called to arise from gendered to multiple reasons. This gender pay that was done which says that women marketing of products. Tolson spoke gap increases the daunting effect of consumers are more susceptible to about mythologies in his early work any pricing differences. Maybe other marketing because it appeals to our of signs and meanings in advertising. industries just need a crash course in ‘lower’ self-esteem, but I am not sure I Indra Nooyi might make ‘lady-chips’ equality from the aviation industry agree with that entirely.” in India which has no gender pay gap. Being an Indian and a woman, I was Talking about transportation, writer more than intrigued to find the traces Aarian Marshall speaks about ‘The of hidden patriarchy in my country. Pink-Transit-Tax’ in New York. It won’t In a survey conducted with a sample be hard to draw parallels to conclude size of 30 consisting of 15 male and 15 that women in India might make a female respondents in the age group different set of transportation choices of 18-25, 67% of the respondents for safety reasons. Women do choose have never heard the term Pink tax. radio cabs over public transport in What was interesting to see was 93% late evenings. “Everyone will say that of the respondents feel that similar roads are roads but of course, roads consumer products for women might “THERE ARE and gender are related, and the point be charged at a higher price than for CATEGORIES is who uses them, where do they go WHERE MEN’S their counterparts. and how frequently it is used,” says Dr PRODUCTS ARE Dewan. Unlike the west, there will hardly MORE EXPENSIVE be any examples where an identical AND CATEGORIES Is it a covert form of patriarchy? Or a product is priced higher for females. WHERE PRODUCTS marketing premium that may or may But one of such cases would be Basic THAT TARGET not apply homogeneously around the Black Jockey T-shirts in size small WOMEN ARE globe? Perhaps we would know where on the Jockey India website. While it MORE EXPENSIVE. to look if we know that it exists and would cost Rs.399 for men, women once again we are paying the price for will pay Rs.419. Even though a small being born women.

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this kind of purchasing ‘on approval basis,’ and since we’ve been buying from the same vendors for a long time, THE LIBRARY OF they trust us with the books they send. “Another way is when people recommend certain books to us. But INFINITE POSSIBILITIES we must be sure they are right for the Vishnu Bagdawala visits a library in Surat and finds a library. Some of them ask us to get programme to encourage the reading habit. finance books, which are costly so that they wouldn’t have to buy them themselves. So we have to look at the larger picture.” But what kind of books do people recommend? “All kinds of books. In Gujarati, there are some famous he concept of the books as we can within that budget.” authors like Kajal Oza Vaidya, Pannalal universe as an infinite Khunt seemed to have meticulously Patel, and others. In English, they library, containing all the organized the knowledge about how mostly suggest American authors. possible combinations the library worked in his head. He said, Some people donate books. We have alphabets in all the “Out of the total budget of seven a system to commemorate those who languages in the world is crores for the library and its auxiliary donate books.” Tone way of understanding the universe 106 reading rooms spread across the When asked if they select those and therefore God. The concept was city set aside by the Corporation, we books based on their content, he said, conceived by Jorge Luis Borges in his get a budget of one crore every year for “Yes. The library assistants read those story ‘The Library of Babel’ where purchasing books. Of this, about sixty books, especially those in the English he talks about a library made of the to seventy lakh goes into purchasing language. Our idea is to get the books combination of twenty-two alphabets, magazines and newspapers. The rest we think will be useful to our readers. a comma, a full stop and space we use to buy books.” So, we decide after the assistants have between two successive words. When asked about how they read them.” It wasn’t difficult to extrapolate purchased the books, he said, “We get “Also, we have this ‘Vancho ane that concept of ‘The Library’ with the them through different channels. The Vanchavo’ – Read and Make Others Biblical notion of the ‘Word’ that was vendors, from whom we buy, which Read – a scheme where we donate with God and which was God. Many the Corporation has approved of, send books which we are looking to discard human beings in their heart of hearts us books to select from. They know the from the library to those who want aspire to become God, and for me, that kind of books we like. We choose and. them. They just have to fill a form, and had taken the form of finding a library pay and we send those which are not they can get any book they want for as close to the one conceptualized by selected back to the vendors. We call free.” Borges as possible and gulp it down. However, it turned out that I was in Surat and the closest I could get to it was the Kavi Narmad Central library, named so after the nineteenth century Gujarati poet born in the city, run by Surat Municipal Corporation. Bharat Khunt said, “We get the books we think our readers read and which our readers tell us to get. We get all the Gujarati books though, published by the major publishers like Navbharat and others so that at least we can make Gujarati Literature available to our readers. But there is no compulsion for the publishers to give the books to us. As for the English language books, we The building make decisions as to which book will where Borges make it to the library and which won’t. might have loved working

VISHNU BAGDAWALA We have a budget, and we get as many

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UNDERSTANDING INDIA’S NORTHEAST : A REPORTER’S JOURNAL BY RUPA CHINAI Antara Kashyap in conversation with journalist and author Rupa Chinai

he elevator opens on during the Assam Movement (1979- and went on to become ministers). the eleventh floor of 1985), a popular yet violent movement What lacked was the perspective Vaibhav Apartments in against illegal immigrants in Assam of those who bore the brunt of the Breach Candy, where when the Himmat magazine had sent violence the movement involved. senior journalist and her as a reporter. Himmat magazine This set in motion the wheels of her author Rupa Chinai lives. was one of the first “Mainland” determination to come to Northeast TI pause for a moment before ringing media organizations to have reported and report about it in the most free the doorbell because my anxiety is the movement - at a time when and fair sense, as she set on the already uncontrollable and I get the Northeastern representation in the journey towards lands far away to give urge to run away. I imagine a voice to a region, that rarely got thousand scenarios in my head these privileges, at times even of what I could possibly say to emptying her entire savings. someone of her stature when The book starts with an she opens the door and greets extensive introduction about the me with a smile, calming me seven states. Rupa Chinai briefly instantly. Rupa Chinai’s beautiful introduces us to the state; it’s house overlooks the sea, and she geography, the eco-politics, and offers me coffee in this beautiful the pressing problems it faces or little steel glass with a curved has faced at some point in top. Before I begin interviewing history. The chapters start with her, she asks me what I think of that of Mizoram, ‘the land of the ‘Assam problem,’ and I ask liquid gold,’ then go on to talk her which one because there are about Manipur, Tripura, so many. We talk a little about Nagaland, Assam and how once when she was in a little a collective chapter analyzing the town in Assam taking pictures, future of the seven states, an army officer threatened to respectively. Rupa Chinai warns take away her camera and yelled us at the beginning itself that at, she not only feared for her she’s made a conscious decision life but felt humiliated. I talked not to include Meghalaya and about how I remembered an Arunachal Pradesh in the book Assam where bombs would go because she did not get the Journalist off every three months randomly, and Author, chance to explore these states especially around festivals and Rupa Chinai properly - which I think defines in Assam how people would die, and her determination to get every how tragic it was when people detailThe perfect. book on the surface might eventually got used to this. She then media was negligible. Rupa Chinai look intimidating, but once one starts did something that overwhelmed me; recalls reporting the movement along reading it, they realize how simple she gifted me her newly released book, with her team with a lot of hard work and easy the read is. The book pulls Understanding India’s Northeast: A and enthusiasm, but then receiving you into a world which is so full of rich Reporter’s Journal. criticism from her colleagues back at detail that it is encyclopedic. While ‘Understanding India’s Northeast’ is Himmat, who told her that the story reading the book, I realized about the Rupa Chinai’s collection of reportage was one-sided and contained the number of things I didn’t know about worth of over 30 years in the Northeast. perspective of only the protesters (who my own state because I’ve never been JEROO MULLA JEROO PHOTOGRAPH BY JEROO MULLA Her journey in the region started later formed their own government trained to look at Assam that way. I’ve

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been living inside the privileged caste- our country. Amidst the stories of what non-tribal; that their political and Hindu bubble, and hence I’m ignorant India has done wrong here, there is cultural rights and identity are assured. about the tribal people struggling to also one story about what we did right. Enactment of the 6th Schedule of be recognized and to get equal rights The Constitution of India ensured the Constitution enabled the NE hill and opportunities. I got to see the that the tribal people of the Northeast tribal groups to be masters of their other states in a light that is more have special protection of their land, own destiny and have the right to run aware, and it helped me understand forests and natural resources. These their own affairs. This has not always why people struggle so much for their communities have long protected worked to their satisfaction. The hill identity. This book enables you to see this, while we in the rest of the tribes, most of whom have achieved Northeast as something more than country finished what we had. This statehood, are however far better off a conglomeration of troublesome, Constitutional protection has been than the plains tribal groups of Assam secessionist states. If the book talks honoured by the tribal people of the or the tribes of Tripura whose existence about the problems of the region, it Northeast, and we must ensure that is at a brink. celebrates it too. this right vested to them continues. It However, where support for the NRC Chinai also has a fantastic shows us the pathway to sustainable is concerned, you may find that not just storytelling tool where she uses development and health, both for the the Assamese, but every indigenous personal stories of her friends, people people and the land and in the interest group in the Northeast feel the need she met during her visits to talk about of survival for all of us and our future for clear documentation on who is a issues deeply rooted in the community. generations. citizen living in the Northeast today. For example, her account of Hnema Everyone recognizes that nobody can from Mizoram is one such example, What is your opinion regarding the be expelled out of the region. But such where she speaks about the struggles National Register of Citizens (NRC) a register could facilitate a benchmark of a father, who has been estranged draft which excluded 40 lakh people against future influx. Meanwhile, a from his children, to provide food for and deemed them as illegal. Do you simultaneous attempt to creatively his children amidst abject poverty, think the process of “Assimilation”, ensure the protection of tribal land, insurgency, and alcoholism. plays a role in shaping public opinion forests, political and cultural identity, Before reading the book, I had a little on this? would go a long way in meeting the apprehension about this phenomenon The indigenous communities in broader issues that currently need to called appropriation. But Rupa Chinai the Northeast have long been agitated address. doesn’t appropriate. She writes with over the significant presence of experience and professionally but ‘illegal migrants’ from East Pakistan/ What are your thoughts on Irom also perfectly balances it with analysis Bangladesh. It has led to decades of Sharmila Chanu’s defeat in Manipur of sustainable development and a ferment, agitation, and violence across elections in 2017? Is it a form of better future of the Northeast. She is a the region. The presence of large discontent among people because of reporter from her heart, and the book numbers of Bengali Hindu or Muslim, her political inclination, or was it a does justice to it. particularly in Tripura and Assam, failure of her legacy? Below, is an interview with an has hugely impacted the lives of local, In my view, from a distance, author. indigenous groups, making them a Sharmila’s intentions were simple minority in their own land. They have and straight forward – to continue As a person coming from Assam, it lost their lands, cultural identity and the fight against AFSPA on a political was very interesting to read about the political rights and they are now in a platform. She was a powerful voice of launch of your book, “Understanding last-ditch struggle for basic survival. the Northeast, known nationally and India’s Northeast, A Reporter’s This inflow into the Northeast is the internationally. If she had won in that Journal.” Can you tell us a little bit legacy of Partition, and successive election, she would have stood out about the experience while writing governments have played ‘vote bank as a rare Manipur politician, a person the book? politics’ without bothering to ensure of integrity, courage and deep love My book Understanding India’s that all illegal migration is obstructed of her motherland. I hope she will Northeast A Reporters Journal, is based and that indigenous communities are still work towards creating a political on 30 years of my travels in this region. assured adequate protection for their constituency that has faith in Indian It recounts personal interactions with land, culture, economic and political democracy and our election system. indigenous communities. Looking rights. Imperfect though it is I do not see any beyond issues of politics and conflicts, The critical issue for me is that other way. It can only improve with I have written about the colour of the Constitution of India made a the evolution of the political culture; their daily lives, their cultures, and commitment to the tribal people the kind of people who join politics; traditions that have long sustained of the Northeast ensuring that land a heightened involvement of civil the last vestiges of the forests and and forests are protected against society and the support of a free and biodiversity that are still left intact in encroachment and take over by independent media and judiciary. I

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think the discontent of the Meitei the social reform and leadership, ensuring and people, and if they converge with valley people of Manipur, stems from that society moves forward with finesse and integrity, it will be worth their loss of faith in the Indian political cohesion, inclusiveness for the most the wait and torture. Unfortunately, system and they have good reason marginalized and a sense of values. the manner in which contracts are to feel that way. The Meitei story is In Nagaland for instance, corruption being doled out does not reassure complex and needs a more profound is also rampant, but at the same time, you. The roads can also bring about understanding. I saw a powerful civil society led a the rapid destruction of the forests, movement that was challenging Naga the, and the environment. The advent As a reader, what I noticed about society and even its insurgent factions of uncontrolled mining and forces of your style of writing is how you used to look inwards too. It has made an social disruption are already being personal stories to talk about broader enormous difference to the Naga unleashed. Northeast tribal societies social issues of the regions--be it spirit, and I saw the transition where are seeing rapid transition -- from Hnema from Mizoram or Bikramjoy people instead of cowering in fear and headhunting barely a 100 years ago, Rupini from Tripura. How as an helplessness, began to speak up and and they are leaping straight into author do you make this creative offer creative responses. It started to the modern age. They carry with decision in a Reporter’s Journal? subsequently happen in Manipur too, them the roots of their ancient and It was not a conscious decision. To in the courageous responses of the wise cultures, and I do believe they me, it was the most natural way of Manipur media as I saw it. will find ways to deal with change understanding things. It’s the kind in confidence and with the triumph of journalism I have always tried to Do you think your decision of the human spirit over avarice and practice. It is people and their stories to exclude Arunachal Pradesh destruction. A cohesive social response that tell you so much about their entirely and a particular chapter on that includes every minority group history, culture, social experience and Meghalaya, was a tough one? Did it in their fold and having their master political issues. The reader relates impact the writing of the book? plan for the development they want is to and remembers such stories and The book is already 350 pages, so key to meeting head on the forces of associates places and problems individual chapters on Arunachal avarice and exploitation that are being with them. We begin to look at the and Meghalaya would not have unleashed on them. Without this, human face of the Northeast and done justice as it would have meant their divisions and fault lines will be recognize that there are people of significant cuts to the manuscript. The exploited and used to undermine and highly sophisticated cultural ethos region is huge, and each state has a render them helpless. and intellectual attainment. To be a diversity of people, cultures, issues that part of their world has been a gift of are of a very high order. There is little Lastly, what is your favorite thing enrichment for me. This was what I point in doing a magnum opus. Travels about the North East? experienced, and my book tells it how in the Northeast do require enormous It’s hard to pin down one thing. I it happened. resources, time and local support. I feel I am amongst friends and people have been to Tripura only once, but the who are my own. I feel part of a culture When talking about Manipur, you quality of my contacts and knowledge that seeks to bring out all that is quote “Corruption is a way of life.” Do I attained through them for several gentle, humane and wise in those who you think it’s true for the other states years, enabled a solid understanding encounter it. I see a people (villagers of as well? of what was happening there. I would Nagaland) who are of high intellectual Yes, of course, it’s bad enough all love to do a sequel to the book I have calibre, deeply rooted in their own over India. But somehow during my started and continue to follow stories culture, who hold value to their word travels in the Northeast, it struck me from the region, including Arunachal and have a great sense of humour that corruption in Manipur society and Meghalaya. The region is going and creativity. I see great beauty and scraped the bottom of the barrel and through a very challenging phase of refinement in their art (the Meitei of its impact was causing enormous rapid transition, and it is vital that their Manipur) which reflects the power of conflict in the minds of people. experiences be documented. graceful movement, joyous colour as Everyone spoke of corruption and the also a great depth of pain and sorrow tremendous stress it created in their You also conclude the book in a that moves me to the core. The NE society. They blamed the ruling party delightful, visually appealing manner. tribes are a people of simplicity, and for abysmal corruption but talked Do you feel positive about the future dignity that I find appealing. I respect little about how it appeared in their of the Northeast? Where do you think their closeness to nature, their artisanal day to day lives and interactions and the road leads? ability and capacity for hard work. One what could be done about it. While The roads are presently coming of the most heartwarming experiences conducting a political movement and up in the Northeast are causing is to sit by a kitchen fire in Nagaland fighting for the rights of your people, enormous disruption. These roads are sipping red tea and just sharing stories. there has to be a simultaneous effort at lifelines for the movement of goods It’s a feeling of having come home.

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na!’ (Take my photo too!) and I happily pointed my camera at him and said ‘SO I ASKED ‘Smile’ [smiles] and there was another person standing there. At that moment, I thought it would be cool if we had both these people standing side by THEM TO SMILE’ side. So you make assumptions about me based on if you see this Jay [frowns] Jay Weinstein, a photographer from Australia, crossed the or this Jay [Smiles].” world asking people to do just that. Antara Kashyap and He talks about how travelling Aakansha Malia visit his photo exhibition in a school in Dharavi. impacts his work, how his project is about many cultures. Originally from Perth, Australia his parents moved to India when he was three years old to be a part of Indian culture. “I am an Indian and I’m not an Indian, I’m an insider and an outsider, I’m neither and I’m both. And this has given me a unique perspective where I can contrast and compare two different cultures and share it with you.” Weinstein first exhibited his project in the Jehangir Art Gallery in 2014. When we asked Parvez Damania, the owner of Banyan Tree School, Dharavi, why he brought the exhibition to his school, he said, “Because I fell in love with it. People in Dharavi are hardly Photographer Jay exposed to anything other than Weinstein smiled at The Banyan Dharavi. So we decided to bring this Tree English exhibition from Jehangir Art Gallery School, Dharavi to Dharavi. It’s a non-profit project; an open exhibition.” e Ladakh ke hain, all the other aspects except that in one Weinstein maintains that the credit is aur ye Australia of the two, the person is smiling. Jay not his. “You won’t find my name here. ke hain, phir bhi engages his audience, surprises them I’m a spokesperson for this project smile...?” (He’s with his Hindi and takes them through because I’m the photographer but it’s from Ladakh and each of his photographs from around not about me, it’s the strangers I met He’s from Australia, the world. His catchphrase: Phir Bhi and photographed. Does it matter that “Ybut the smile?...) Jay Weinstein trails smile, same! (All smiles are same). my name is in the beginning, does it off, asking for a response. The ‘So I Asked Them To Smile’ change the experience at all? If it shifts “Same!” A bunch of children squeal project started five years ago, when the way we view people, if it makes any in unison. Surrounded by these kids Jay started photographing strangers positive change, that’s ultimately the is Jay Weinstein, who surprisingly all over the world, taking a picture of a most beautiful thing.” speaks Hindi better than most of us. person and then asking them to smile. Jay credits the Photography Jay Weinstein is a photographer, who He then put these images together Promotion Trust, headed by Sudharak exhibited his photography project ‘So I to show how the smile can make the Olwe, which aims to bring social Asked Them To Smile’ at Banyan Tree difference. The project has now spread change through photography, for his School in Dharavi in January. to Australia, Kenya, China, Denmark journey. The scenario is this. The exhibition and Singapore. And India. “When Jay showed me his pictures, is yet to open. They are waiting for the Jay says, “It all started when I was I said they were brilliant, but he didn’t children’s parents to come and pick in Bikaner, in Rajasthan, and I was believe it. My partner and I saw his them up. The exhibition opens when walking down a market street. I wanted work and edited it. We pushed him to parents waiting outside the school to photograph someone but I was a bit exhibit in the [Jehangir Art] Gallery. are asked to come in. On a white wall intimidated. Luckily, I walked forward We showed him the direction, now opposite the school building, they can and photographed his friends, who he’s taken it to four countries. It’s see a series of photographs in groups were smiling. While photographing brilliant how a small idea can turn into

ANTARA KASHYAP ANTARA of two of the same person, similar in them, he said ‘Mera bhi to photo lo something beautiful,” says Olwe.

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 25 2/16/19 2:53 PM / FEATURE Sari Not Sorry Ananya Maloo takes the six- yard challenge.

aris have long weaving gave them strength and to cover the kanchuki. Since they were adorned the sheen – so much so that the textile did the most immediately visible part of silhouettes of not need additional finishing, artificial the attire, they were ornamented, dyed Indian women. glazes or chemicals after its weaving. or embroidered according to the status The fluidity of Journalist and author Vimla Patil of of the women.” this nine yards e-Samskriti writes, “As if to better use The British introduced the blouse of cloth makes these arts of dyeing and embroidery, and the petticoat to this archetypal it versatile, the normal outfit of a woman piece of clothing to prevent it from perfect for a progressively became a three part looking immodest. This has now come cultural melting ensemble. The lower garment wrapped forward to become a staple three piece pot that is India. This quintessential around the waist was the neevi. The Sari set. In the early 1900s the Indian SIndian garment has endured, evolved, kanchuki covered the breasts and a women draped short length saris transformed throughout history and shawl-like garment, called the uttariya, pairing them with leather boots which continues to grow, incorporating completed the outfit. Many a time, went on to become quite a rage then. the changes in the world but also these shawl-like Uttariyas were worn It was in the 1930s and 1940s that the remaining in touch with its innate qualities. Through the years powerful women have dictated the Sari fashion in the country and continue to do so. The past century has seen a multiplicity of influences that changed the styles over decades. Politics and Bollywood being the two major influencers. Sari stylist and author of The Whole 9 Yards, Kalpana Shah says, “Prior to the 1900s the Sari was just a piece of cloth weave which was about 2-3 meters in length. A small piece of cloth was used to wrap around the bust for the ‘choli’ (blouse). As the years progressed the meters of the cloth started to increase.” Kalpana Shah has seen this happen in her lifetime. She says, “My mother used to wear 4.5 to 5 meters of Sari and then it came about to 6 meters around my time because now people want more material for better looking pleats.“ The fabrics of the early 1900s weren’t artificially dyed. The use of eclectic ingredients like onion juice in the creative process lent the fabrics a unique texture. Smearing the yarns

with onion juice and rice paste before JUNEJA KASHISH

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famous neevi style made its entry into The Sari has now suddenly become golden tissue blouse alongside a pair the Indian Sari fashion club, a style an urban fetish and finds its way out of golden heels and a beige purse.” The adopted by the royal houses of India of the closet a little more than just first Sari is always a special one because slowly engulfed the rest of the nation. festivals or for office wear. it shatters some expectations but also With the onset of Independence, A sari has always been a piece of creates memories that would last you a Bollywood gained popularity. clothing that has expressed more than lifetime. It instils a feeling of being The saris underwent a lot of words, be it an expression of maturity, mature but also beautiful thus evoking transformations in relation to weaves, an expression of power or even an an emotion that only a Sari so fabrics, lengths and patterns. Some expression of a new-found identity. culturally adaptable can induce. of the major influencers were Nutan, Wearing a Sari is an emotion most The Sari has also evoked a sense of Madhubala, Nargis and Mumtaz. The Indian girls experience ever since pride amongst those who wear Parsi/Gujarati drape gained popularity. their early childhood. The dreams of it. It exudes confidence and garners The women weren’t afraid of showing wearing just the right kind of Sari are respect for many who wear it. The their midriffs. fostered right here and are nurtured Transgender community in India find The 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s brought in with always changing Bollywood and that respect which they deserve with vibrancy to the saris. The switch from fashion standards. the Sari. Kama La Mackerel is a poet, a black and white to colour movies was a multi-faceted artist, a performer and a turning point for the fashion industry he jitters of community organiser based out of too. Prints and vibrant colours were wearing just Montreal. She took to Facebook when used in place of muted tones. The Sari the right her mother accepted her new found also got translucent to give a peek of kind of Sari identity and gifted her a Sari to revel in the fancy blouses. It is here that fabrics excites many the beauties that accompanied being a like georgette, chandheri, organza, and Indian girls woman. Mackerel wrote, chiffon flourished. The pop culture in as they take a “Embroidered in these six yards of silk the west also inspired the colour and leap towards are the thirty years it took me to find print experimentation. Icons such as maturity. The who I am and slowly become who I Usha Uthup added the much needed excitement was meant to be.“ zing to the Sari styles. The knows no bounds and the preparations Vicky Shinde, founder of the Shiv translucency of the saris allowed the Tbegin over a month before for some. Shakti foundation, which fights for the blouses to steal the show with Anindya Nagori, a 16-year-old student rights of transgenders, who organized embroideries, marori work, gotta of the humanities, says, “The first time the first transgender health camp patti etc. I wore a Sari was on November 14th to with Cancer Patient Aid Association With the commencement of the celebrate Children’s Day at school. I recalls, “I wore my first Sari when 1990s, the monotone saris made a had imagined myself wearing a blue I was about 15-16 years old for a comeback owing to the sheer saris and black Sari and had thought of lavani performance.“ A strong voice, sensationalised by filmmaker Yash myself to look like an Indian princess advocating for the rights of women, Chopra. Saris were the linked to of some sort. However, I ended up she embraces the beauty within and sensuality and were a balance between wearing a pink chiffon Sari with a outside with utmost grace. She recalls the good and the bad. Actresses how she was fascinated with the Sari Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit and Rekha from as long as she can remember. She epitomised the sensual monotone Sari reminisces the times that she used sirens. “During this time the film to wrap around towels as saris and industry started to pay more attention dance around in the house. She tells to the bodies of actresses, so through A SARI HAS how pants and shirts didn’t give her the these translucent saris the figures were ALWAYS BEEN comfort that saris did and how they enhanced to bring the sexy side of A PIECE OF gave her with a sense of feeling Sari,“ says Kalpana Shah. It was the CLOTHING THAT beautiful and something that garnered Indian way of getting the best of both HAS EXPRESSED her respect. “Sari is a feeling,“ Vicky worlds where you could maintain MORE THAN Shinde remarks, a feeling that brought traditional dignity while also look sexy. WORDS, BE IT AN her closer in touch with her feminity. EXPRESSION OF Throughout centuries, Indian saris A Sari is not culturally bound. It is to MATURITY, AN have through a metamorphosis like a EXPRESSION OF be aross religious, cultural and socio- chrysalis. It is essential to notice how POWER OR EVEN economic divides in India. this versatile nine yards of pure beauty AN EXPRESSION It sews the nation with the thread can be adapted and adopted by anyone OF A NEW-FOUND of modernity on the cloth of the and everyone delivering a fresh new IDENTITY. past. style with every experimentation. It is what keeps the past prevalent.

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 27 2/16/19 2:53 PM / Investigation Society wants to keep you safe Should women have the right to go where they want when they want? Or should society sequester them where they’re safe. Parul Rana tries to decode this old question.

hich is more woman, Phadke, Khan and Ranade certain places unaccompanied, then important? point out must think out everything. maybe, you shouldn’t. It is important Freedom “…the mental gymnastics that a woman for you to be a part of the narrative that or security? performs when thinking about what to questions why women have to do this. Would you wear, where and when” are a matter of You are empowering your choice by give up the course for most of us. securing your safety.” freedom So, the theory is that women’s safety Rasika Duggal, best known for her Wfor safety? Is safety really in your own can be achieved by restrictions on role in films like Qissa, Kshay and hands? their freedom of movement, on their Manto shares, “As far as freedom These questions often pop up in our access to campuses of an educational is concerned, my parents have daily lives but seldom get answered. institution, public streets, markets, etc. always allowed me to take my own Freedom is of utmost importance to Is it? decisions and have never really each one of us for it allows us to speak, Swara Bhaskar, known for playing said no to anything. They allowed to act, to do what we feel like doing, to unconventional roles in films like me to do whatever I wanted to and live and pursue happiness without any Anaarkali of Aarah, Raanjhanaa and Nil supported me. Other than that, I trust fear and without facing unnecessary Battey Sannata says, “Often, the whole my instincts, and I do not work with restrictions. onus of being safe falls on woman people I don’t feel comfortable with.” But how free are we? With the idea in a way where it actually becomes There was research conducted of free choice, free expression, we restrictive. I think, for me, the way to by Jackson Katz in his book, The immediately shift our thoughts toward go is not to back down and claim the Macho Paradox on what steps men security, especially for women. It is places that are deemed unsafe in an and women take on a daily basis ironic and even tragic that women intelligent way as a collective. Don’t to prevent themselves from being willingly compromise on much of that restrict yourself. Just be safe about sexually assaulted. The women in the freedom to have security. it. Go in a group, wear whatever you book had replied, “hold my keys as a The book, Why Loiter? Women and want, but make sure you have enough potential weapon”, “always carry a cell Risk on Mumbai Streets by Shilpa people around at all times. I think it’s a phone”, “don’t go jogging at night”, “be Phadke, Sameera Khan and Shilpa negotiation. A part of it is also fighting, careful to not drink too much”, “never Ranade (Penguin, 2011) talks about the perhaps with your parents, perhaps use parking garages”, “only go out in patriarchy that lurks behind the low with concerned people. Nobody will groups”, “make sure family knows my visibility of women on certain streets give it to us in a platter; we will have to itinerary”. Compared to the men who and at certain times. In one of the claim and fight for safety and freedom.” said, “Nothing, I do not think about it,” chapters of the book which talks about Miss India Pacific 2000 Winner, an no women had such carefree approach the measures of safety a woman keeps actress and now a UN Environment toward their safety. in mind before stepping out of the Goodwill Ambassador Dia Mirza said, The habit of thinking so much before home; what to wear to what occasion; “I think it is important for you to be making decisions is also a reflection and by what time she’d return home. responsible for your safety and allow of how deeply women have been But it isn’t just what time she needs yourself to do what you believe is safe. conditioned from their very childhood, to get home and where she’s going. A If that means that you should not go to that to do things in a certain way or

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 28 2/16/19 2:53 PM The trade off between security and freedom

wear certain kinds of clothes will make more policed and disciplined city. unlikely to bring any real difference them safer. The measures governments take, in women empowerment and safety “Safety is always a priority for me. only if they do, for creating a safe in this country, as is evident from the However, it does not mean that I have environment for women includes continued instances of violence against to sacrifice my freedom, at least not “more policed areas, more CCTV, more them. all of it. Also, as long as things do not street lights, more suspicion, more Surbhi Mehta, an advocate in the change, it is better to be safe than control, et cetera.” Supreme Court, says, “In my opinion, sorry,” said Barkha Dua, a 22-year-old That is because the talk about the focus needs to shift from deterrent law student. safety for women has been legislation to a more proactive and dominated by victimization and broad-based approach in education, aishali Kashyap, who is helplessness. The parties are more health and empowerment wherein 25 years old, works in an inclined towards promoting control, children, men, women are sensitized advertising agency says, “I but not freedom. about these issues and taught to V would prefer freedom over Anubha Sharma, the General understand the rights of women so security. It is about what I want, what Secretary, Madhya Pradesh Congress, that they may appreciate their role in my decision is and then with that said, “Freedom cannot be taken the society. We as a society need to get comes safety. I am responsible for my away as our progress depends on it. sensitized to women safety concerns decisions.” But we live in a time which largely so that we become more sympathetic When I asked the same question depends on safety. Therefore, and proactive.” of my aunt, Ms Ruby (she goes by a freedom might become limited. It is essential to create awareness and single name), who is 53 years old and Clothes, timings and what we speak impart education to children at a very has a 26-year-old daughter, she said, is a personal choice.We will all have tender age where they can understand “Of course we have to think about our to take this decision individually, and and develop the right kind of mindset. safety, and it is fundamental to check we might not like it, but freedom is Nobody is giving us our freedom the places that you are going to, to see compromised.” because it is ours and when we talk whether you are going at the right time. The issue of women’s safety of freedom, it includes being free from Security is a must. How can you enjoy needs to be addressed holistically the stress of safety that worries us being free when you are not even safe?” and cannot be confined to separate all the time. Therefore, being secure Even in the political scenario, the stand-alone measures. Today, women should be a part of freedom in itself underlying image of women as victims safety legislation is focused on the which allows the possibility of doing everywhere has led the political parties punishment of crimes rather than what a woman wants to do and live the

KASHISH JUNEJA KASHISH competing over who will push for a their prevention. Such an approach is way she wants to.

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 29 2/16/19 2:53 PM / FEATURE House Gali No.9 Nala: Abode Of Mumbai’s Mahanayak Aakansha Malia follows the life of Sunil Kasare, a manual scavenger

ali No 9, Grant it lies between, but it is also a waste inconvenience of using such protection Road East. I bin for the residents who throw their ultimately overrides apparent benefits. am standing garbage from the windows. This is Workers feel it is better to get done with knee-deep in the reason why Kasare wears a yellow their tasks quickly sans protection, the middle of helmet while he enters the drain, and than fussing over inappropriate masks a nala in which shouts ‘Kude Nako Pheka” (Don’t throw and oversized boots. plastic bags and garbage) while dredging out dirt from When I asked him why he has dead cats are the old rusted instrument given to him. been cleaning the same thing every Gfloating. I am trying not to think about Another accessory they are day, he says, “Aaj kam kuda hai, abhi all the other possible things that are supposed to wear is their gumboots, dus minute ke baad aaoge toh yahi making this dark water stink like this. I but Kasare doesn’t wear them. When dobara milega.” (Today, there is less am trying not to think. I am stuck. My I asked him, “Sir, why are you not garbage. But if you come here after worst nightmare comes true when I see ten minutes, you’ll see. a pile of human faeces dripping slowly It[the naala] will be full.). Gali No.9 Nala, from a broken pipe in front of me and Grant road (E) I instinctively asked, “Toh hear a bunch of rats squeaking behind is the first place Sir aap dustbins kyu nahi Suni Kasare me. “Where do I go?” I asked myself a cleans at 7 a.m lagate?” (Why don’t you moment before I felt something warm install dustbins?) He says, up my legs and realized it was urine “Madam dustbin chori ho falling from the pipes. As I stood there, jaate hain, mard bechke with my feet dirty, it hit me that I was daaru peete hain.”(But standing in human shit, broken glasses madam, they get stolen. and used syringes, “What if I got cut? Men sell them to buy What then?” alcohol). Meanwhile, a Of course, when I got back to the lady gets her garbage hostel, I washed. I washed the filth and dumps it in the pile away. I washed with soap. I washed Kasare has dredged from with Dettol. I washed my clothes. I the filthy nala. washed until my hands were raw. I The mornings are could do this because I have access to beautiful for us because soap and water and Dettol. he plunges his legs in the In the fastest=growing economy in dirt, even before we wake the world, many people don’t have wearing your shoes, do they not help?” up. As Kasare comes out of the nala to such ‘luxuries’. And there are people He said, “Nahi main nahi pehenta head towards the other end, the poojari who must do this every day. kyuki boot phatt gaye hain. Usko from the temple passes him while One of them is Sunil Kasare, aged pehenke bhi koi fayada nahi kyuki looking at him with an expression of 50 years, a conservancy worker nale ka paani andar chala jaate hai aur contempt. under Brihanmumbai Municipal plastic pair ko tang karta hai.”(My shoes This condition prevails in the Corporation(BMC), who cleans drains have torn. Anyway, there is no benefit midst of the ongoing Swacch Bharat and sewers at Grant Road. He has in wearing them because they do not Abhiyan in remembrance of Gandhi’s been assigned to clean the Gali No. protect me from the dirty water of nala. constant ideas to ‘Keep India Clean’ 9 drain from inside and has been And the plastic irritates my feet when as well as make India completely working there for fifteen years. The I wear them.). The oversized rubber caste-ridden. But manual scavenging, drain is not only a meeting point for gloves make gripping impossible and an umbrella term, a profession which

the sewage pipes of the two buildings are often tossed off while working. The clutches onto one’s caste, lies in AAKANSHA MALIA

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juxtaposition with this. The inhumane smelly pit filled to the brim with filth. contributors in improving sanitation practice enslaves people in India, Alcohol is considered to be a necessity, conditions in India and have played an who belong to the lowest rung of the to dull their senses and ability to smell, important role in the Swacch Bharat society- “untouchables among the before entering muggy sewage-filled Mission. Anubha Bhonsle, a journalist untouchables.” They are subjected to pits. This behavior, however, is hard who has worked on the Grit section on-going, intergenerational torture, and to condone as it aggravates the risk of of the The Wire, dealing with the in severe mental and physical pain rooted unconsciousness in these open drains, depth coverage of sanitation, health in caste-based discrimination. not to mention the socio-economic and manual scavenging in India says, aspects of alcohol addiction in general, “Women are doubly invisibilized in this hile walking where the man ends spend majority caste-based oppression. They are the with him, of his income on alcohol, leaving his ones who clean human excreta from residents family to suffer in penury, along with the dry pit latrines because this task form a losing his respect in the society.” has the lowest of wages, sometimes crowd and Manual scavenging was outlawed in none, two stale rotis. In many parts one of them 1993 by Indian government under The district officials will not even consider showed Employment of Manual Scavengers this as manual scavenging. In the Wconcern and asked us to wash our feet and Construction of Dry Latrines Act. case of dry toilets—95 to even more after coming out. I thought, “Shouldn’t The law remains largely on paper. are women. There is a denial that the we be washing their feet first?” It was made more rigorous with practice exists and even for those who Sunil Kasare’s father worked as a harsher penalties in the Prohibition of have come forward to be identified, mukadam (a position comparatively Employment as Manual Scavengers rehabilitation has been sketchy.” higher in the hierarchy, manual and their Rehabilitation Act 2013” or R P Amudhan, a documentary scavengers and conservancy workers “M.S. Rules 2013”. The broad aim of filmmaker, director of the film Shit will report to him) in the BMC, and the act was to eliminate unsanitary and expert on Dalit politics, highlights his mother worked as a cleaner in a latrines, prohibit the employment the issue of low wages of sanitation government school. His sons, Atul who workers. He says, “Earlier is 23 and Aditya 21, he says, will follow workers were permanent Sunil Kasare's him into this profession. There are Workplace and came under the reasons for this. He can only keep his direct jurisdiction house if someone in the family works. of the government. Sunil Kasare lives in the 12 No. chawl Even the social groups at Mumbai Central. The house contains discriminated against one room and a kitchen. As his wife, Tai could make use of was making tea for us, Atul talks about government facilities. his dream to become a photojournalist. Now workers have also “My father was very proud when an lost permanent status offbeat photograph clicked by me was due to privatization of the published in DNA, with a byline.” municipal corporations. Tai tells us about the legacy of the There is no security due house, “Yahaan par pehele 15 log rehete to the complete removal the, hum, inke chaar bhai aur unke of government from bacche, abhi pichle saal hi woh log sab people’s lives, making gaye hain. Aadhe logon bahar sona their lives dangerous, padhta tha. Inke bhai yahi kaam karte precarious and extremely the fir chal base 35 ki umar mein kyuki vulnerable.” woh peete the.” (Fifteen people used of manual scavengers and the He adds, “There are two types of to live here. Our family and the family hazardous manual cleaning of sewer people in this world — one, people who of my husband’s four brothers, all of and septic tanks, and to maintain a maintain the status quo and those who us used to live together until the last survey of manual scavengers and wish to crush it. There is a constant year. Half slept outside. My husband’s their rehabilitation. It also contained war happening between these two. brother died at the age of 35 of drink.) many measures for rehabilitation. The present government is attempting Sudharak Olwe, a social People continue to be employed in the to remove all the roots and methods documentary photographer who profession. These approaches have which help people to escape from has extensively worked with safai failed to place the issue of manual the caste discrimination to maintain karamcharis, speaks about alcoholism scavenging in the social, cultural and the status quo. You can introduce as and the use of tobacco which is political context. many laws as you want, but as long as endemic. He says, “It is impossible for a Many of these government schemes people don’t change their mind, the

AAKANSHA MALIA person in his senses to get into a closed, do not apply to women who are major implementation is impossible.”

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 31 2/16/19 2:53 PM / Foodgasm What’s cooking in Maharashtra? Kingkini Sengupta’s Bengali taste-buds get a sense of Marathi food history

hen you we have Hindus of different castes (and Muslims who migrated to Maharashtra enter the therefore different food habits — lower from the north or who follow pan- Kemps Corner castes eat different parts of animals, for Muslim trends and eat semiya, biryani, Crossword instance, and upper castes might not etc.)” bookstore prefer spicy food), Muslims of several Kaumudi believes that a lot of the in Mumbai sects, Jews, and Christians. Their Marathi cooking is not learnt or handed Wsearching for Marathi cookbooks, you religious rules bind each one, but they down as recipes but are learnt by the will be directed to the extreme right of also eat in a way that is familiar to their method of ‘osmosis.’ She mentions the store where in a wall-to-wall recipe ethnicity (for example, Goan Christians that when children help their family section, some shelf will have thin ones have different food habits from one in kitchens by chopping or peeling written in Marathi. What if you are group of Marathi Christians known vegetables, they learn the most by not Marathi speaking? You will glance as East Indians. Konkani Muslims smelling what curry is being simmered. through the shelves, look at the red eat different kind of food from those She learnt a lot from ‘frying puris’ cherry that Nigella is almost gobbling

in her book ‘Nigella Bites’, and still A traditional think why there isn’t a cookbook on Maharashtrian Thali with Puran Marathi cuisine. Anyone can wish to Poli made on the read up on Marathi cuisine, ‘but how? occasion of Gudi And where?’ is the real question. As a Padwa Bengali fish lover residing in Mumbai for work purposes, I was lucky that I knew a few people who could tell me about the region’s food, even though much of the information has already been lost and forgotten now. Kaumudi Marathe has led a peripatetic life but her family comes from Pune. She loves documenting ‘history before it is lost.’ Thus, she went onto write about Marathi cuisine in her books: The Maharashtrian Cuisine; A Family Treasury (Zaika 1999); and The Essential Marathi Cookbook (Penguin 2017). Like any other, Marathi cuisine represents the interface between culture and geography. Marathe mentions the use of paata varvanta or the flat grinding stone which was used to make chutneys of a specific silky consistency and distinct flavour. On asking her about how vast the expanse of Marathi cuisine is, she says, “Maharashtra is a very large state, only a little smaller than France. So imagine the variety that you find in France and multiply it manifold to understand the vastness of Marathi culinary traditions. Bengal is a much smaller state and ethnically less diverse. In Maharashtra,

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with her mother.’ Many things have modak one if which is called ukdiche part of what is essentially Konkan, has changed. modak made of rice fl our, jaggery and a lot of infl uence from the Portuguese She said, ‘Back in the day, in coconut but steamed. When the Lord as well. Pune and Nashik which is Maharashtra, it was often said that is bid adieu anticipating a year-round not as hot or humid as that of the if a young girl knew how to make wait, He is fed curd and rice for his Konkan region sees an abundance of puran poli (a notoriously diffi cult and send-off . On Nagpanchami which is preparation of what they call ‘Thaali complicated process of sweet-mv one more auspicious festival of the Peeth’ which is a Gujarati’s thepla, the aking in the state), she was ready to get Marathis, there is a tradition of eating only diff erence between them is that married. Conversely, if she cooked rice Rajgira popcorns. Around the time it is made of roasted pulses and green that was sticky, she did not know what of Holi, there is a huge craze among chillies and needs an accompaniment she was doing and was NOT ready to people to make Puran Polis which are of buttermilk to initiate faster get married!’ jaggery fi lled chapatis. Each festival digestion. in the calendar of Maharashtra has Ghavan is another locally made iff erent regions vary a specifi c dish associated with it. Maharashtra dish typical to the Konkan in various ways in Diff erent households in this state region that is made by pouring freshly making Maharashtrian maintain the tradition of preserving made rice fl our batter in banana leaves cuisine as diverse as it and steamed. There is a considerable is. Kaumudi mentions amount of usage of coconut, jaggery a number of factors. and banana-tree related recipes in the D‘What ingredients are indigenous to Konkan belt. The unripe bananas and that region, what crops are grown banana stem recipes are still made and there, and the region’s climate consumed widely by the Konkani and terrain aff ect what they eat. people. What rice fl our bhakri/ batter In the Konkan, for instance, pancake is to Maharashtra, is ragi people love rice, coconut, fi sh bhakri to the Beed area, kalani (if their communities eat fi sh bhakri to Satara, and jawar and at all), kokum (Garcinia indica), bajra bhakri to Pune, Nashik and jaggery (made from sugarcane Aurangabad area. juice), etc. Inland, where people are From the time of Sankranti around landlocked, where crops don’t grow January to Holi in March to Ganpati in as easily or plentifully, they favour August, Maharashtrians have recipes peanuts to enhance the protein in their for every occasion. Maharashtra diet, add tamarind for tartness rather celebrates local produce and tries to than kokum, and even use ingredients use them in abundance in all of its like watermelon peel that others might their culture through their food. cuisine. Their love for spices and raw ordinarily consider trash, because The same is also done by Dr. Rupali materials is in plenty. vegetables are often scarce especially Joshi Panse, an ayurvedic medicine Kaumudi Marathe mentions that in times of drought or very dry, hot practitioner from Pune who avidly the State of Maharashtra is a very summers.’ blogs on drrupalipanse@wordpress. diff erent place today, as is the world. “Passing down of recipes through com about Marathi cuisines and She says, “The older generations have generations is similar to maintaining delicacies that people follow for passed away so we can’t learn from a will,” believes Ranjana Sawant, a healthy eating and preservation of them anymore. People have moved 35-year-old homemaker who is making culture. Her book Udarasth which got far from home, families have become sure her children are well aware of the published last year and won the Best nuclear, and kids do not grow up near treasure trove of local recipes that her Grantha Award awarded by Khadiwale grandmas or other elderly women grandmother and mother-in-law have Ayurveda Research Institute, which who cook. Mothers often work outside passed down to her. extensively records how food and its the home, so they don’t have as much Over the years, Maharashtra as a availability also depends on geological time to cook. Even if they do, they may commercial hub of India has welcomed conditions of an area. not make dishes from scratch the way and embraced people from a lot of Though rice is a staple in all of they did two generations ago. People cultural spheres. Does that mean Maharashtra, the various regions of use a lot more readymade spice blends that it has forgotten its own? A lot Konkan, Malwan, Pune, Nashik have and mixes than they did when I was of Marathi households use festivals very diff erent preferences when it growing up.’ and rituals to upkeep the culture and comes to food as stated by Dr. Panse. ‘Some mothers are an exception,’ food jugalbandi in several parts of the Konkan is a more hot and humid belt she says very emphatically. ‘Mine still state. In the Ganpati festival when but also receives an abundance of makes butter by hand every week, but Lord Ganesha is brought home, the rainfall. Their staple is mostly fi sh and not many other women make that sort

JAGRUTI PARMAR JAGRUTI deity is off ered twenty-one kinds of rice, as mentioned earlier. But Goa, a of eff ort anymore.’

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Rs. 150. The bike was not in its best condition, so my grandfather bought books on how to maintain the bike and would often repair the bike if it ever gave trouble. “Your grandfather used to maintain it himself. Whenever My bike, anything went wrong he did it himself, he never went to a mechanic shop and (the bike) became the pride of our family,” says my father. He remembers, “The Norton bike was known as the world’s best gripping my self bike, you can take very sharp turns on All Rosanne Terese Raphael needs is an open road it. I’ve been so low that the footrest would just hit the ground and sparks would fly.” In 1965, when my father started his Rosanne Terese job as a teacher at the age of 19, my Raphael on a grandfather gave him the Norton to Yamaha FZ ride and use as a means of conveyance to and from work. My father’s elder brother, Horace, also got a keen interest in bikes and would read and absorb whatever information he could about them. He became a genius regarding the makes and models of bikes, and I remember when he would come to visit us on Sundays, we would have innumerable discussions about motorcycles – the models, the designs, the seats, right down to the types of tyres used. My father said, “The bike remained with the family until 1984, but it had to be gotten rid off as the magneto wire which was finer than a strand of hair had broken and getting it replaced was a task as the Norton company had shut eing born and brought bike racing shows on the television. down by then and there was no way to up in an Anglo-Indian Perhaps because my mother, Patricia, get it repaired.” household in the historic was a working woman, I always had “We, the Raphaels were known in town of Allahabad, Uttar a certain admiration for women who Allahabad, for our love for bikes and Pradesh, my elder sister, were independent and could take care even today I feel sad that the bike is Lizanne and I were of themselves. not available for you and your sister Bbrought up very differently from my My father, John Raphael, is an avid to ride,” my father says, “You all would friends and peers. In a house where bike enthusiast and would often tell have been thrilled to ride it.” music echoed seven days of the week, us stories about a motorcycle that his My elder sister, Lizanne, who is I remember waking up often to the family owned, a Norton, which was seven years older than me, learnt to tunes of Jim Reeves, Cliff Richards, used during the First and Second ride the Hero Puch moped in the late Johnny Cash and Chet Atkins to name World Wars. We would listen to the 1990s, which was much the rage at a few. stories with rapt attention. The Norton that time amongst the youngsters of My parents, who are retired teachers, in my family’s possession was a 1940 the town. My father made sure to teach always taught my sister and me that 16 H model with a sidecar and a 500-cc us how to ride a scooter or any geared there was equality between boys and engine. It had been disposed of after vehicle in case of an emergency. girls and there was nothing a girl could the World War and had been bought by I remember many a time when my not do that a man could. Due to this, I a police officer. father used to ride the Hero Puch, I was always a tomboy at heart, watching In 1940, my grandfather bought used to sit in front and when there was

World Wrestling Entertainment and the Norton from the police officer for a clear road ahead, he would gently JUNEJA KASHISH

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kept moving along with me to make sure I was steady. As I changed to the second gear and rereleased the clutch, my friend let go, and I felt one with the bike and I was off . It came to me so smoothly and easily. Lizanne says, “I felt happy that I had a biking partner now, happy and proud that my sister was looking good riding a nice bike.” “I am proud that both my daughters know how to ride bikes and are popular all over

John Raphael on for riding bikes,” my father Rosanne Terese the riders seat says proudly. “When I Raphael’s with Uncle Horace grandfather (1942) in the sidecar saw you riding the bike around the church, I felt release the clutch happy and proud that my and allow me to take control of the younger daughter was throttle. I must have been around keeping up the family seven or eight years old at the time. I tradition.” remember my tiny hands grabbing the My mother grew up throttle and accelerating away to my with fi ve brothers, so she heart’s content, enjoying the breeze was used to them riding through my hair and feeling the thrill motorcycles, so wasn’t of the ride. concerned. “At fi rst I was With all the stories and the concerned that you won’t imagination of the Norton in my nearby, as they were never allowed to manage the heavy bikes, but then I felt head, I often imagined myself riding a even go near his bike. Lizanne got on proud that I was the only mother in bike one day. I hesitated to ride a bike the Bullet and took it for a ride around town whose daughters ride bikes,” my because of the fear of embarrassment the church as the boys standing nearby mother states proudly. of what a laughing stock I would be if I were complaining that he gave it to her The sound of a motorcycle gets me fell and I thought I would not be able to to ride and never gave them a chance. pumped up, and whenever I ride a manage it because of my height, which Floyd stated that he trusted her and bike, it makes me feel like a total badass I thought would be a hindrance. knew that she would not be reckless who can do anything I put my mind to. One of my friends from church, who with the bike. Whenever I get on a bike, I feel strong, was a bike enthusiast too had added On the 17th of August 2008, a confi dent. I am no longer the shy, soft- the sporty Yamaha R15 to his collection Sunday morning, after mass, I saw spoken person that people often think of bikes, which included the Bajaj my sister riding the Yamaha R15, and I of me to be. The moment the bike Discover, Pulsar and a Royal Enfi eld. gathered the courage that I was going starts, I end and another me takes over. The Yamaha R15 caught my attention to ride that bike that day no matter I have been idolizing lady bikers with its sporty look. It was red which what. When my sister was done here in Maharashtra, including Urvashi quickly caught the attention of passers- riding and brought the bike to a halt, Patole aka the Alpha Bikerni, who by. Many a time after Sunday mass, my I had compelled myself that it was conducts bike rides for lady bikers friends would ride the bike around the happening. I got on the bike, and my to diff erent parts of the country and church, and my sister was the only girl feet just about touched the ground. Priyanka Kochhar, a sports biker to be one of those people to ride the Some of my friends looked at me as from Mumbai. “Don’t allow anybody bike. though I was crazy. I was nervous but to dictate terms to you. Allow your A close family friend from church, hitting the start button to hear the heart to lead you to what you want Floyd, had a Bullet which was his engine roaring was music to my ears. to do and who you want to be. Your pride. Whenever you heard the bike My friend and sister held the bike as I gender shouldn’t discourage you resounding in the church parking lot, managed to balance that beauty and from achieving glory,” says Priyanka you knew who was on his way. So, one not fall and embarrass myself. My Kochhar, a model cum biker and author day when Floyd saw my sister riding friend kept revising the gears, one of the photo blog called ‘Bikewithgirl.’ the Discover he told her instead of down and rest up, my sister assuring My dream is to own a KTM 200 Duke that “toy” why not ride this Bullet, a me that I would not fall. He gradually and a Harley Davidson Iron 883 along real mean machine. There were loud moved away as I released the clutch with some other mean machines to my gasps heard from the boys standing very slowly at the pace of a snail. He collection of motorcycles.

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“WAITING” IN BOMBAY John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” Kashish Juneja waits and explores the city of Mumbai

t every point there scarce resources, we will always be a red signal, fishermen waiting at the are so many choices waiting for something. docks for the boats to come back with to make, as you are You stand in lines because there the dead haul, people waiting at the waiting to become the is something at the other end that is ticket counter for beautiful journeys person you always worth waiting for. to be undertaken, never mind the thought of becoming. Or so you think. crowded local trains of amchi Mumbai. YouA are always waiting for that special We are always waiting for the Before long you realize, you are not time, that special friend, that special adventure, the experience which will even aware that you are waiting. event when one’s life will finally unfold ever so spontaneously and You seamlessly navigate from the begin, waiting for that big moment gracefully. And what is it? Normal, hours of waiting to hours of working, when your life will just sweep you off daily life cruising along on our streets and vice-versa. As soon as you step your feet and plant you into an office and footpaths, in our homes, with our down from the right side of the bed, with glass cabins with all the lovable mothers still worrying about our erratic you begin by doing justice to the few paraphernalia of the work you like food habits, our unmade beds, dinner treasured moments at the breakfast doing the best, where there is nothing tables skipped by and ignored, a family table with family, in the corner of an more stimulating than the desire to with unruly kids waiting at the bus office, in the photography workshop or change the world for better. stop, a man snatching his forty winks in the kitchen. You begin where you are

In a city of so many millions with waiting for the bus, cars stopping at waiting. JUNEJA KASHISH

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IN A CITY OF SO MANY MILLIONS WITH SCARCE RESOURCES, WE WILL ALWAYS BE WAITING FOR SOMETHING. YOU STAND IN LINES BECAUSE THERE IS SOMETHING AT THE OTHER END THAT IS WORTH WAITING FOR.

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 39 2/16/19 2:54 PM / Life Lessons BLIND FAITH Aakanksha Chandra chronicles the life of Ravi Wagh, president of the Cricket Association for the Blind of Maharashtra.

his is the story of a President of simple boy with a not- the Cricket Association for so-simple life. A four- the Blind,MH, year-old boy once said, Ravi Wagh “I know I am blind but I want to play cricket, play Tfor India!” “Poor kid,” said the world. Ravi Wagh didn’t care. He had about ten percent vision in his eyes, built something which no one ever thought he could. He started the Cricket Association for the Blind of Maharashtra (CABM) in 2011, an organisation that brings together all the visually challenged who want to play cricket at the highest possible level. In the 1950s, Wagh was born in a family where his father and his five brothers were cricket fans. “Being At the age of four, Ravi took it upon what people thought or said. I was surrounded by cricket enthusiasts himself to be a cricketer “There was happy and that was all that mattered. since childhood is what made me a factory near my house where every My day started with this and ended interested in the game. Many a time morning the bell used to ring at 10:00 with this. In this small corridor outside I would sit on the field and hear my am for the factory workers. This was my house, I thought myself to be the brothers and friends shout with joy also the bell for me to walk out to the best player in the world.” when they hit a six or took a wicket.” small corridor just outside my house. I When Wagh got admission in Poona Ravi Wagh’s desire to be one of them made this corridor my pitch; cleaning School and Home for the Blind in drove him to hold the bat. He would it all by myself. My brothers went to Koregaon Park, Pune, he began to often find himself staying back after school but I went to play cricket every play cricket for real. The boys in his everyone left, just so he could sit on day. I didn’t have a cricket kit to play school decided to make teams among the ground and feel what the pitch was with; a thick broad stick was my bat themselves and have a World Cup like. He pictured himself running and and an empty small Parachute oil tournament each year in their school. making the maximum number of runs. bottle used to be my ball. I used this It was only during cricket when the Once in a while, his three elder instead of stones as it was easier for me students from all the grades bonded. brothers—all of whom had normal to find the bottle. I used to throw the Narayan Warda, warden of the hostel, vision—would let him play with them. ‘ball’ a little high and used to pretend used to train them. His school warden One of his brothers used to stand as if I just hit a six! It was a task for me was also blind from one eye. They behind him and hold the bat with him, to hit the ball. But somehow, I could made a special ball by stuffing mud in giving Ravi a partial satisfaction of manage that. I would do a non-stop a plastic ball so that it’d make some playing cricket. During India’s cricket commentary while playing. It didn’t sound. It was not a properly organized matches, when his whole family matter if my ball hit the bat or not, but tournament but the students who and his friends would gather, the for me, all hits were a four or a six. My played it treated it like a professional commentary used to teleport him to commentary was so loud that passers- game and took the sport very seriously. the field. by used to be amazed, but I didn’t care The game was played thus: the

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totally blind bowler would ask the umpire if he could throw the ball. The umpire would say PLAY aloud so that everyone would hear it. After getting ready, the batsman calls out “KEEPER”, after which the keeper would shout “HEAR” and clap three times. This would give direction to the bowler as to where to throw the ball. Then the ball would be thrown. The ball was thrown in an ‘under arm’ style. The batsman had to listen to the sound of the ball. This game was about making all senses alert, which Visually was, and is more challenging. The impaired fielders too had their role divided. The member of Ravi Wagh's completely blind would stay in the association 30-yard circle, while the fielding on the boundary lines was done by the partially blind. As the batsman hit the missed out on most of his lectures to Ramakant Satam agreed, thus ball, he would shout to the fielder in practice.On weekends, he spent his becoming the Secretary of the the 30-yard group as to where the ball time practicing in Mumbai, where Cricket Association for the Blind of is going. The completely blind were the Maharashtra team players met. Maharashtra (CABM). Today, the also trained to be alert when the bowler He would stay at his friend’s place or association covers 19 districts. It has said play and as soon as the stroke from Mumbai University hostel. Islamic been successful in sending their the bat sound came, the fielder slid on Gymkhana and Parsi Gymkhana had players for international matches. to their right or left to block the ball. become his new home. Now his goal Maharashtra players Pravin Karluke, was to get selected for the Indian team Anil Belsare, Swapnil Wagh and hen you are in World Cup tournament for the Blind. Amol Karache were the key players passionately He didn’t get selected in the first in 2014 World Cup for Blind which crazy about instance. None of the Maharashtra India won. something, players were selected for the final The current captain of Maharashtra, you tend to do Indian team. He tried his luck for the Swapnil Wagh (no relation) has been certain stupid second time but failed again. Feeling playing cricket since 2007. He says, Wand embarrassing things. One of his the pressure of earning a livelihood and “I work as a bank clerk in Pune. I earn most embarrassing events was when not burdening his family, he started around Rs 11,000 a month. When we Mr. Ravi stole thirty rupees from his working in BJ Medical Hospital in Pune win a match, the amount given to each father’s pocket to buy plastic balls. He as an IT operator. He got married. But player is about Rs 25,000 to be divided was in the 2nd grade. He didn’t get still there was a burning desire inside among the players. So, the funds are scolded for doing this, but for him, him to play cricket for his country. low and we hope CABM comes under this was against his principles and he Then, he thought perhaps he should the Board of Control for Cricket in swore never to do it again. His cricket help someone else get into the team. India (BCCI) so that the association obsession, however, did make him do The idea developed in his mind can be funded well. But we now have many things like bunking school to and Ravi Wagh is now the founding a field to play cricket in. We have a watch a cricket match at Wankhede member and is the current President team which can meet regularly and stadium with his elder brother. of Cricket Association for the Blind of practise together. But this is only at the Later, he joined Nowrosjee Wadia Maharashtra (CABM). Wagh invited district level. At state level, the story is College. He started playing cricket Ramakant Satam to work with him. different. Players from different regions matches for the visually impaired boys Ramakant Satam was from Worli and practise on their own because they in his high school. Till the time he known for his work with the school for have jobs. The team meets only a week reached the first year in graduation, he the blind there. The students in that before a tournament, so we don’t get was participating in local matches held school loved chess. This intrigued him, much time to play together. I hope this for visually impaired boys throughout hence he started volunteering for chess changes.” his college. During one such match in events held for the visually impaired. Swapnil Wagh still works in IT. He Nerul, he got noticed for the first time The chess event grew so that matches says, “I want to live with no regrets. by Maharashtra Cricket Federation, held were later played between a I have been passionate about cricket which was looking for a good bowler. visually impaired player and players and I love meeting people who are as Encouraged by the recognition, he with no problem with their eyes. passionate as I am about this sport.”

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 41 2/16/19 2:54 PM / Investigation WHERE ARE ALL THE DALIT CRICKETERS? Rajat Zamde, an inquisitive sports enthusiast, explores possible answers to low participation by the Dalit community in cricket.

Young boys playing cricket at Azad Maidan

n 25th December 2012, back sharply and bowled Umar Akmal Kumar. Eknath Solkar was one of the India was playing with through his gates, taking his middle best short leg fielders the world has Pakistan, at Bangalore stump. The bowler ended the match ever seen. His 54 catches in just 27 test in a T20 I match. India with the figure of 3/9 with 19 dot balls matches are a proof of that. Karsan had just scored 133/9, out of 24, best performance in T20Is is Ghavri was a left-arm pacer and was so they had to take by Elias Sunny of Bangladesh who had quite handy with the bat lower down Oearly wickets to remain in the game. picked up 5 wickets, giving just 13 runs. the order. Vinod Kambli, a left-handed A bowler from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, Though India lost the match, we found batsman from Bombay was the next making his debut, was handed a new a quality swing bowler, Bhuvneshwar big thing after Sachin Tendulkar ball. In the last ball of his first over, Kumar. (Tendulkar debuted in 1989, Kambli in he bowled an in-swinger from a good But Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the last 1991) but because of his inconsistent length to Nasir Jamshed. Jamshed was Dalit player to play for India in Tests; form, he was in and out of the team. stuck in the crease and got bowled. after him, there is nobody to represent Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the latest The bowler then bowled the second the Dalit community. In 86 years of entry into this list, now leads ball of his second over, an outswinger test cricket history of India, India has India’s bowling attack with Jasprit to Ahmed Shehzad, who threw his bat awarded test caps to 295 players. Out of Bumrah in all three formats: one-day and got caught behind the wicket. In those 295, only four have been Dalits. internationals, T20Is and Test matches. that very over, the same bowler pitched They are Eknath Solkar, Karsan Ghavri, The standard belief in cricketing circles

the ball outside the off stump; it came Vinod Kambli and now Bhuvneshwar is that cricket doesn’t take caste into JUNEJA KASHISH

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consideration, that it’s a performance- at Shivaji Park says, “I spend close to segregation. Until that goes, the system based sport, like any other, where what Rs 2,500 monthly. And this is for the will always keep them marginalised.” matters is your skill, your ability and cheapest club. Average kit cost around The social problem is there and will your numbers. Everyone we talked to four to five thousand rupees.” be there, in the 21st century of India we said the same thing. Rajiv Adhtram, a have different utensils for Dalit people, former player for the railways and now ashish Kulaye, coach they have a different well for water, a coach at the Shivaji Park Gymkhana at the Amre Cricket they got humiliated at working places, says, “Cricket is a religion to me. I don’t Clinic, who has been we still stopped them from entering ask the caste of my players and you coaching players into the temples. There are all kinds of shouldn’t ask about their caste either. from the last ten social problems for Dalit people to face. You make your own level. Cricket year says, “It will cost How can then we get players from doesn’t consider whether you are a aroundA Rs 60 to 70 thousand a year Dalit communities? What about Dalit or not. Playing quality cricket is on average cricket coaching, including affirmative action? Before you blench important and you have to prove it. travelling expense, match fees in age- and say, ‘That will be the end of any When your average and analysis are level cricket.” Cricket is an expensive chance we have of succeeding,’ you good, you come into the team.” Kiran game compared to other sports like should know that it has already been More, former Indian international hockey, football, badminton. Hence, tried by Cricket South Africa, the said, “I don’t want to talk about this”. not all people can afford it, that too in a organisation that chooses and runs the Shreyas Iyer, Indian International, “We country like India where the economic national team. They started reservation can talk about normal cricket but not gap between upper caste and lower in year 2010 in domestic cricket and this”. Bishan Singh Bedi, former Indian caste is so high. then they applied it on the national Test captain, replying to our query in a According to 2011-12 National team in the year 2016. According to text message, “it’s an interesting query Sample Survey Office, the gap for it, there has to be six black cricketers U’ve made..but honestly, I’m struggling household expenditure between upper in a squad of fifteen. It has worked to find a viable answer...fr one I’m not caste households and Scheduled Caste for them. Can this type of reservation a Crkt historian...perhaps U ought to (SC) household was 37% in rural India be usefu? Their solution cannot be contact Ramachandra Guha.” Gautam while in urban India the same gap applied without thinking. South Africa Gambhir, the former Indian captain, was 60%. Between upper caste and has only to deal with issues of race. We “Nahin yaar, I’m not interested in all Scheduled Tribes(STs) the gap is 53% have many more categories including this [talk about] Dalit cricketers.” Pravin in rural India while it is 48% in Urban Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Amre, former Indian International, he India. This might be one of the reasons Vimukta Jatis, Nomadic Tribes, Other says “NO, I SAY NO, IN ONE LINE” why we have a meagre 1.35% Dalit Backward Class, Special Backward We live with the caste system but we representation in Indian Test cricket. Class among others. are afraid to talk about it. But one might Thousands of years of discrimination We all agree that cricket is a national ask why Brahmins who are just 4% of have limited the access to resources for sport. If it is, it should represent all the population in the country, hold the Dalits. They have been deneid basic the colours of the nation. If that is to close to hundred caps in Test cricket. amenities how can they play cricket? happen and we are still to have a viable Most of the former Brahmins Elaborating this point, Sudharak Olwe, team, the BCCI must go out and find cricketers hold big positions in Board a photojournalist and a Padma Shree such players. As a private organisation, of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). awardee, who has been documenting it has no requirement to be nationally Regional bias is well-recognised in atrocities against Dalit communities representative. According to the BCCI’s Indian cricket. But are there caste over the last decade said, “There is no annual report 2015-16, the board made biases too? access, I travelled extensively in Bihar a profit of 7847.07 crore in that financial Writing in Outlook magazine and UP. Many communities have not year. After having deducted for issue dated 10, February 2003, yet gone to school. They don’t have expenses, that’s a lot of money that can Ramachandra Guha who says, “Cricket houses, they don’t have an election be put into training national hopefuls being a non-body contact sport cards. No government facilities reach across the country, in economically was certainly one attraction for the them. In Madhya Pradesh, Dalit kids underprivileged areas. If every village Brahmin.” That might be the reason are made to sit separately. Because of school has a kit or two, if every village why brahmins preferred this sport. that, they take mid-day food home, eat could boast a pitch specially prepared, Perhaps, that is why we have so many it and go on to do other things. With no if every child has an equal opportunity, brahmins. access how will that person come up perhaps our national game could truly There is an economic aspect to incricket? There is too great a gap.” represent the diversity that is our playing cricket as well. Cricket is a Mr. Olwe continued, “Unless the nation. Cricket is a game of uncertainty game where you need proper clothing, caste system is abolished, the Dalits and because of the caste equations in a full kit, a cricket ball and a bat and won’t get a chance to play cricket. our country, there will be uncertainty many other things. Shoaib Khan, There’s the social and the economic for the Dalits in mainstream cricket and whose kid is six years old and plays problem. But the country runs on caste in mainstream India.

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says she was earning 70,000 per month and was quite happy wth the shape of her world. That was the year WHATSAPP WITH in which she got married and one year later, she had delivered a baby boy. That was a moment of inflection. Her son was not in the best of health THOSE SARIS and then to make matters worse, her Samiksha Mishra interviews the creator of a WhatsApp-based mother-in-law died in an accident saree empire that also caused an injury to her two-month-old baby. Now she was a stay-at-home mom and found that her hanmuga Priya, a young employee, Shanmuga was one of the life had changed. woman entrepreneur, many who witnessed this technology “I had long been an independent owns a sari empire establishing itself as the pastime of woman. I did not ask my husband for built on WhatsApp. The choice among the young but she was money for anything. But without a 33-year-old resident of also one of the few who saw that it salary, I found that I had to ask him Chennai understands that could be used for work and business even for my basic needs,” she says. Smillennials are all about the media. We as well. Reminiscing about those times, speak, we debate, and communicate Shanmuga Priya was a human she adds, “I always wanted to be on social media platforms across resources consultant in a independent financially. Asking the world in seconds. As a corporate multinational company. in 2014. She money for every other thing was

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21st century entrepreneurship tool

was supportive of her and helped vendor. So a day in my life is about my her in establishing a base for her child’s homework and my business business which now has a stream of going together.” approximately 70,000 resellers, of There were times when it was which 80 per cent are women. difficult for Shanmuga to manage her She said, “Many women approached business. But her husband played the me because they too wanted to earn role of catalyst. He supported her and and be financially independent, but motivated her to strive harder and couldn’t because of their daily chores. fight stronger. She said, “I was very It was then that I created a business depressed after quitting my job. It was group on WhatsApp which made a tough phase. And I told him that I selling and buying easy for women want to start a business. We travelled across the country. Using this digital together to suppliers. He would come space, I not only empowered myself early and help in packaging and but also thousands of women across also take care of our son when I was the nation.” busy. More than anything else he has Shanmuga transformed the first been so motivational and supportive floor of her house into a business throughout.” space with four employees. With a When a woman takes charge of kid to take care of on the ground floor, her life and starts making her own Shanmuga was able to balance both. decisions, she becomes aware of her She says, “Every evening my orders worth and capabilities. However, a dispatch at six sharp. Every minute I little support from a partner can turn get a message, my WhatsApp keeps into a wonderful boon for both man buzzing. At 10 in the morning, my and the wife, in this case, is what this staff comes home, and the whole run couple stands for. begins. One of them will start sending Business and finance are the tools and tracking information for the that bring power into one’s life, and orders dispatched yesterday. Others for ages, men have kept it away from never acceptable to me.” Now she was take the order for the day, check the women and women have allowed like every other educated Indian girl quality and go to buy stuff from a them to take these away. But in the who gives up or is forced to give up on century where feminism drive is at its her career once married. This was not peak and women across the globe are acceptable to Shanmuga. She said, “I “Every evening fighting for freedom, Shanmuga keeps thought I should do something of my my orders her financial freedom not just alive own, something for myself, but I had but also essential for her household. to think of my child as well.” dispatch at six Her journey is an answer to everyone Her mother-in-law used to sell saris, sharp. Every who questions the capabilities of going door to door to people’s houses. minute I get a women and defines her role in society. Finding it the most flexible option, she Standing up for your rights, creating started selling saris like her mother-in- message, my a change, and believing in yourself law to close acquaintances. But what WhatsApp keeps are key mantras on which Shanmuga began as a small side-business turned buzzing. At 10 functions. However, Shanmuga into a huge one with a yearly sale of hugely credits her success to social about INR 2.5 crores. All of this in just in the morning, media. three years, and now, she aims to keep my staff comes She said, “If it weren’t for WhatsApp, working and empowering women like home, and the I would have never been able to her. manage my child and business this Shanmuga started her business whole run begins efficiently. Also, now when I look back, with an investment of twenty-five I wouldn’t have been able to have thousand rupees. Her husband these many resellers.”

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Though it has time and again made attempts to fly the flag of feminism, BOLLYWOOD: the patriarchy seems to be secure in its position, whether it is in how much male stars are paid or how many women directors there are in the FEMINIST industry. Leena Yadav, the director of Parched, Teen Patti, Shabd and now Rajma Chawal, dissects feminism and filmmaking in the following ENOUGH? conversation. Samiksha Mishra tries to get to the bottom of the newly It is believed that Bollywood is changing and is becoming more promoted feminist notions in Bollywood while in conversation aware of gender disparity. We have with filmmaker Leena Yadav. witnessed narratives which have introduced strong female characters recently. But is the audience ready for a character that does not coincide Leena Yadav on the sets of Parched with the stereotypical heroine of Bollywood? There is no black and white, we are all grey, and we react to circumstances in different ways. There are now many more well etched female characters than there were in the past, so people are changing. There is no doubt about that. But Bollywood is still very far from attaining the feminism we want. People talk about female-driven stories, and when they say that what they mean is that fifty per cent of the narrative should be about the female character. That’s a low bar. If you have a romance, you would think fifty per cent of the time and attention would be given to the female character but it is the male character that hogs the time and the limelight. But it is something that we now see women characters as important and as worthy of delineation. So acceptance will come a hen Geeta takes its toll). little later. First, we need to start writing (Gayatri Joshi) Swades was a well-intentioned film characters that actually portrays a decides to run with a failing; the failing was that it strong woman character. Throughout her parents’ could not see its female characters our cinematic history, we have made school and outside the matrix of masculine female-driven films, but there have refuses to agency and feminine helplessness. been trends which come into fashion Wmarry a man who was not ready to But what can one make of the very for a while and then die. A hit film with take a working woman as his wife, she recent blockbuster Simmba, we a central female character will bring did somewhere take a step towards see a celebration of masculinity by other copycat films but they will not be feminism. But then the writers of trivializing the important issue of rape, made with the same empathy so they Swades lost their nerve and when it using it as a mere plot point. Simmba’s will fail and then everyone goes back came to saving her school from the narrative ignores the nitty-gritties of to the old formula. So unless it sustains panchayat, it is Mohan (Shah Rukh the cause but uses rape to foreground and grows, I don’t see it as a change. Khan) who comes to her rescue. Our and even celebrate toxic masculinity, heroine dances as Sita, begging her which the audience enjoys. So from Most of these female-driven stories Rama to come and save her in the song mild disparity to big blunders, we on women sexuality and their issues ‘Pal pal hai bhaari’ (Every moment witness it all in Bollywood. are written and directed by men,

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the very recent example being Lust the poster. So for me, the issue exists at women and also because women Stories (Netflix) where three out of every level. can come out and talk without being four directors were men. How much shamed because rape or sexual abuse justice do they bring to the narrative Talking of finance, most of the is generally about the women’s shame. when they write these stories? producers in the industry are also So yes, it is a positive thing. But again, Firstly Lust Stories were not ‘lust’ men, what role do they play in this I hope it is not just something that stories; they were more guilt stories. vicious cycle we are talking about? ‘trends’ on social media and then is So that is our attitude towards sex, and That is the case all over the world. replaced by a new trend. I hope that it even today, four filmmakers interpret In America, a movement had begun will grow. But the problem is more than ‘lust’ as ‘guilt,’ so that is where we are when all the studios suddenly just this; there is no single solution when we talk about exploring women’s had women chairpersons and vice to it. For the longest time, I believed sexuality. Similarly, Simmba used rape as a plot device, and its success may From the sets of bring other rape films to be made, so Parched some filmmakers oblige audiences. Also, whatever happens in the society does get reflected in our cinema. So probably, all the lust became guilt because of that. Then, being a man or a woman is going to affect your narrative. If I write a male character, it will be more of how I see men or how I want to see them. People often tell me that the men in my stories are more vulnerable and sensitive than the norm, but that is how I see them. So it’s not that men cannot make feminist films, it’s a very individual thing. Men have made some of the best feminist films, so it’s more about how sensitive an individual is towards understanding a woman’s perspective, and it can be a man or a woman. presidents. But even then at the back of that education is the key to all of it. all decisions, there were men because But then, while making Parched, I How difficult was it to make a film well…men have the money. So all witnessed the young, educated section like Parched which talked about a lot our structures are controlled by men. of men questioning the film and its more than women’s sexual desires? You may see a woman on the face of content. It was then that I realized that Nobody was ready to finance it, but it is usually men behind all the it starts from the very beginning, at Parched, but this is an issue with most decisions. And it is evident because the very root of society and we need to narratives. So maybe there is content it is a general statement that in most change there. We need to sensitize our out there, but nobody is ready to back of the households, a woman decides children from the very beginning of it. It is a vicious cycle. Your hero drives the expenditure which suggests that these constructs, and it will take time. the market. He will decide the cost of a woman decides what movie they your film, and he will also determine would go to watch, and simultaneously What would you tell young the value at which it is sold. Then we another woman is sitting at the head women who are aspiring to become a complain about the disparity in the of a production house. The question filmmaker in this space? pay cheques, but it is bound to be there arises as to why there is no content for First, never call yourself ‘a woman because the market is driven by ‘who women. The answer is simple: a man is filmmaker.’ They will try their best to the hero is’. So to break the cycle, the controlling both these women. keep you in a box, at least don’t help onus is not just on the filmmaker but them do that. also on society. It is still easy to make What is the solution to this whole Second, write stories that resonate a film like Parched, but if the audience situation? With ‘MeToo’ in talks, with ‘truth,’ and it will resonate with doesn’t support it, it will never get we see women now standing up the world. Never make a film for made again. Often filmmakers are for women, so can we say that it is a someone else, make it for yourself. Let asked this, but we need to ask the step ahead in the fight of achieving it come from a personal space and tell audience if they will support a film equality in workspaces? your story, make it your account. like Parched. The answer would be no. ‘MeToo’ is the wonderful step ahead That is the best I can say to all the They still want a prominent face on because it brings solidarity among budding filmmakers.

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PAIN IN THOSE PAWS Kritika Champawat investigates the pain behind the clipped ears of the Mumbai stray dogs.

On a lazy Sunday, catching up on sleep at Marine Drive

hen I shifted pet owner myself, I just could not sterilization of dogs, he said, “Not all to Mumbai, understand, why would anyone the dogs go through a behavioural apart from the want to sterilize dogs? Isn’t human change, but some of them do. However, local trains and population a bigger concern than dog in my opinion it is for the better. Stray the hustle and population? Aren’t there other issues dogs can be aggressive and that causes bustle of the which need to be dealt with? them to fight, so the people who might Wcity, what caught my attention were the Abodh Aras, Chief Executive Officer come in their way get bitten. When clipped ears and collars on stray dogs. of The Welfare Of Stray Dogs (WSD) a female dog is on heat, the males Why were their ears like this? Why did is an extraordinary man. I had seen a run behind her to mate and fight so many of them have collars around collared dog outside a store at Breach with each other. Sterilization brings their necks? To know the answer to Candy who was always sleeping, who down the levels of aggression because these questions, I did the next best was never active or moving around. He testosterone levels go down in male thing, I ‘googled’ and thus began my had been sterilized. When I asked Aras dogs. When a female dog is sterilized, journey of understanding sterilization about it, he knew the dog I was talking she does not go into heat. This is in a of dogs in Mumbai. about. general sense. There might be different Honestly, I didn’t really understand When I asked him if there were effects of sterilization on individual

it. Being an avid dog lover and a any behavioural changes because of dogs.” CHAMPAWAT.JPG KRITIKA

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away because she had developed into some processes which are: cancer of the mammary glands. Maybe, intervention (sterilization of dogs), if she had been sterilized, that might output (reducing fertility), outcome not have happened. Prostate cancer (decreased number of stray dogs) and can be avoided in the males. So from reduced impacts. Impacts include the point of view of their health, to get reduction in prevalence of rabies, less your dog sterilized is better for them. number of road accidents due to stray As for the stray dogs, naturally there’s a dogs, hygiene issues, less number different objective behind sterilization of workforce or expenditure will be like controlling the population and involved in controlling them which can controlling rabies.” be utilized in some other programmes.” But what are the ethics of the eanwhile I kept situation? How do we get the right to thinking about decide how many animals of a species my pet Shelby. should live or die? How do we repay The thought of the love of humankind’s favourite her suffering from animal by controlling their numbers. any of the above Aaron Savio Lobo, marine Mmentioned diseases scared me. Was conservationist and technical advisor there a right age to sterilize your dog? for the Indo-German bio-diversity “Veterinarians say the good time to program of Deutsche Gesellschaft carry out sterilization is when your Fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit dog is about eight to nine months old. (which translates as the German But the law says that a street dog can Corporation for International be sterilized after six months because Corporation) in India said to me, female dogs go into heat very early “I know sterilization is supposed to in their lives. There is no upper age have particular effects on dogs in limit because dogs can procreate even terms of mating and also in terms of at the age of 10-11. But the important hormonal changes, but that is not thing to consider is if the dog is fit for my problem. My issue is that stray sterilization. Not all the dogs can be dogs are a man-made problem. I say sterilized at the age of nine months.” a problem because most of the stray The operation does not take long. animals whether dogs or cats pose “The surgery takes about 10 minutes. a huge threat to biodiversity. These When the dogs are caught either by strays dogs and cats actively feed the municipal cooperation or by WSD, on wild birds. They pass on canine they are brought to the sterilization distemper to jackals because of which center. On the next day, they are their population is in decline. The checked to see if they are fit for surgery. thing is that when we lose a specie we If they are, then they carry out the lose them forever. There’s a common operation. The dogs have to go through argument that the strays also have a Asking him specifically about the a 12-hour fast just like a human right to live. But this is only within the lethargic dog I had seen outside the surgery. After the operation, they are confines of your house where they are store in Breach Candy, he said, “No , kept for seven days for post-operative vaccinated and properly taken care of. there’s no lethargy or anything like care. Once the stitches heal, they are Strays dogs and cats are a man-made that. The effect on individual dogs are returned to the streets after giving issue. Their population is increasing different. He might just have been a them a rabies shot.” because people feed them. Because quiet dog in the first place.“ I was still not convinced if sterilizing of this their fertility rate increases and When I asked about the physical dogs was an injustice to them or not. I they tend to breed faster. This has a effect of sterilization on dogs, he said, wanted to know more about it, and this negative influence on wildlife. Stray ”Actually , any veterinarian will tell time from a different perspective. cats have wiped out complete island- you that it is always good to get the When I asked a friend, Manali bird population in places like Rann of dogs sterilized because they develop Swargiary , a Ph.D. holder, who had Kutch; the dogs there chase nilgais. health issues in later life if they are not. done her thesis on a topic related The single largest predators in our Females can develop tumours in the to public health, she said, “The country are stray dogs.” mammary glands. They might develop process of sterilization of dogs My mind understood why it is ovarian issues or infections. Recently, under the Prevention of Cruelty to important but my heart still does not the dog of one of our volunteers passed Animal Act, 1960 can be divided want to accept it.

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UP TO UTTARAKHAND Kashish Juneja recalls the ten days in the hills of Uttarakhand

s we grow up, who are running their own libraries and blue to yellow to purple. everyone around teachers from the Gandhi Fellowship We climbed up the bus roof, us tries to push us who had left the comforts of the city pretended to be in an Imtiaz Ali film, out of our comfort to work in the villages. We saw strong hopped over rocks, skipping alternate zones. “It’s a part of women use a local variety of millet ones to cross streams as if we were in growing up,” people (madua) into a variety of foodstuffs Takeshi’s Castle, and stayed up talking say and it is. We including biscuits. We tried to explore to each under the canopy of stars while knowA it is, but the discomfort makes us the problem of waste management the early birds resigned themselves reluctant. SCM enveloped its motive in the state. We captured all of them to the tents. People got to know each of making us step out of our comfort through our broadcast features while other in ways that they had never zones and overcoming our fears into one of the teams captured us capturing known each other before. this beautiful idea of “exploring” the these stories. While we worked in the Each one tried to capture a world which Bollywood romanticizes harsh terrain of the state, we realized photograph and hoped that it had for us. We transformed from being how privileged we are. escaped the eyes of the rest. Most apprehensive about the trip because SCM also made us step over the line, of them had the same blue sky with of the cold weather and the difficult beginning with jumping off a rock flaming white clouds, the same old living conditions, to actually feeling into the ice cold water in Mukteshwar man with freckles, the same elephant the humble self in the foothills of followed by rappelling down a cliff and rolling in mud and the same long Himalayas. then climbing back up. We saw the winding road that led into the forest. We went to Uttarakhand to make world unfold its beauty through our What differed was the way everyone

short films on subjects like children camera lens as the sky changed from looked at the same things. JUNEJA KASHISH

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“THE STRONG CENTRAL WOMAN CHARACTER OFTEN GETS LOST.” Parul Rana speaks with actor Rasika Dugal about her journey in the industry

est known for her roles me. At that time, I did not have a desire in terms of being able to take better in Kshay, Qissa, and to act in films, but I was interested in decisions, I always felt that if I had Manto, Rasika Dugal has acting. However, once I joined FTII, I somebody around who could guide carved out a niche for realized that acting is what I wanted me, it would have been better. But I herself in the Hindi film to do. never had anyone like that. I had to industry. From playing find my way. Ba character named Beena Tripathi Were your parents supportive in her latest webseries Mirzapur when you were figuring out what to Since you have always been (Amazon Prime) to her upcoming web- do with your life? very selective and particular about film Hamid, Rasika Dugal has kept My parents never imposed any of the kind of work that you do and audiences engaged and intrigued with their decisions on me. I think that was the people you work with, do you her brilliance. not really because they wanted to give think there have been certain me freedom. But I guess they did not consequences of that? From graduating in Science at Lady take me seriously…(laughs) There have been some decisions in Shri Ram College (LSR) to studying Sometimes when you are the which I have not trusted my instincts Social Communications Media younger sibling, your parents are and have ended up working with at Sophia Polytechnic, and then ambitious for the elder one while you people who did not match with me pursuing an acting course at the Film are left on your own. However, I can creatively. I need to find a connection and Television Institute of India, you say that they are caring parents. with the work I do. But sometimes, seem to have wandered in and out I don’t think that it was a conscious you put yourself through work, and of many potential career pathways. decision on their part to give me you invest a certain amount of passion What was the reason behind that? the freedom I enjoyed. I think they which requires a lot of vulnerability You make decisions like these when didn’t expect me to achieve anything from your side and then the other you don’t have a plan. When you are significant. So, they allowed me to do actors do not respect and reciprocate. young, you make decisions according whatever I wanted to and supported That is very disappointing. It feels like to the fantasies you have at the time. me in that way. They never said no. a waste of time then. After finishing SCM, I worked as a research assistant. Eventually, I How difficult was it when you There has been an increase in the realized everyone around me was started your journey in the film number of films which are said to very academically oriented and had a industry, to make decisions like be female-centric but those films background in social sciences, so I got which auditions to give, what kind of mostly depict merely a women’s bored with the job. scripts to look for, the kind of people sexual life or desires, so how much It was around this time that I to work with? in your opinion has the role of found that the Film and Television It was purely instinctive. I think I women actually changed in the film Institute of India(FTII) was restarting am very particular about the kind of industry? its acting course. I had been involved people I work with and that’s a very I think the kind of change that in theatre while I was in Delhi at LSR. intuitive decision. I had nobody to is happening is very superficial. So I thought it would be great to guide me, but all my friends from FTII Feminism has become just like learn something new. I was also quite were living together, helping each nationalism. People follow the mesmerized by the thought of FTII other out and sharing contacts. So trend. However, I am grateful even because we used to watch a lot of films there was a support system in place. for that because at least now there while we were at SCM. Ms. Jeroo Mulla Other than that there was nobody else is a conversation happening even if was the head at the time, and films to guide me. Sometimes I didn’t know it is superficial. At least there is an automatically became a crucial subject what was right or wrong. There were acknowledgment that we are not for us. She had a great influence on a lot of ups and downs all the time. So getting women’s roles which are

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sexual desires anywhere. All the conversation seems to be happening about the women in the so-called woman-centric film. In some films, the women play the central role, but the part is written as if she was a man. So, the idea of masculinity perpetuates in this way. In this new age, there seems to be a lack of understanding about the ideas of masculinity and feminism. People impose their own idea of what and how they want a woman to be in today’s society. For instance, after having watched Manto, one person told me that Safiyah is a very weak woman. I had to tell that person that she wasn’t. Safiyah displayed great strength in her world and her reality. The strength for me is a nuanced character. She would stand up for herself at times, but sometimes she would not. But in experiencing life and creating situations for herself, she knows how to react. Sometimes she is ready to speak to the world, sometimes she is prepared to fight, but sometimes she is not. So, that is the kind of strength a woman possesses. I don’t want her to see herself as a man and I don’t want to see her as an object of sympathy. I am also not comfortable with the narratives where women rebel against meaty enough, long enough and good men, or where women are merely enough. a subject of titillation or sympathy. I think we are moving in the right I think there is a These are not the only narratives. direction. But there is still a long way thin line between I want to see a narrative, where a to go. The roles for women when a woman being woman has desires. For instance, the they are written on paper seem to an object of character I have played in Mirzapur. empower. But for some reason, when But sometimes you know the visuals they are translated on screen, the titillation and a can look sexualized, it is also about central idea of having a strong woman woman having how society is viewing it. It is tough character gets lost. However, I am glad sexual desire. The to be able to tell whether that visual, that they are being written on paper. acknowledgment in which I am acting, is an object of While I am not satisfied with it in the titillation or not because the audience present moment, I am looking at the of woman and her will have a subjective view. When positive side. sexual need does somebody else comes and tells me I think there is a thin line between not exist in our that it is very sexualized, it is difficult a woman being an object of titillation for me to decide whether or not that and a woman having sexual desire. society. is indeed the case. There is a very The acknowledgment of woman and thin line, and everybody has a very her sexual need does not exist in our different opinion on it. It varies from society. While there is a considerable director to director. However, I think amount of conversation about a man that we are moving towards an era and his sexual desire, there is no of films with more nuanced and conversation about a woman and her interesting women characters.

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ontrary to nature, feature film—a coming-of-age story set which women negotiate freedom SCMSophia is a single in India. and dignity. It has been screened moon that shines We look forward to watching the film. at the International Documentary through the reflected and Short Film Festival of Kerala, glory of its many suns. Rasika Dugal Thiruvananthapuram and Dialogues: The achievement (SCMSophia 2002-2006) Calcutta International LGBTQ Film & Cof our alumni is at once our proud Rasika held her own as Safia to Video Festival. moment and cement that strengthens Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Manto our core. From senior alums to fresh in Nandita Das’ acclaimed biopic Aparna Shukla young scmites, they are all making a Manto. She also turned in a splendid (SCMSophia 2014-2015) difference and shining bright. performance as Ishrat, Hamid’s SCM alum, Aparna Shukla along mother in Hamid, a tender story of a with the NGO Dhan foundation, has Saswati Bora Kashmiri boy. received the Asia Pacific Journalists (SCMSophia 1998-1999) grant of Rs.14 Lakhs from the Saswati is currently employed at the British Council. They were World Economic Forum (WEF) where selected from the whole of Asia. she heads WEF’s agriculture work in The grant will be used to mentor India as well as the global work on village journalists document and technology and innovations in food report issues relating to the coast systems. As part of this work, she is of Bay of Bengal through reports, responsible for content development, documentary films, audio partnership facilitation and program podcasts, etc. Aparna was there management. She is also responsible when the Gaja cyclone hit Tamil for managing the World Economic Nadu and is helping the village Forum’s Stewardship Board on Food Amrita Mukhopadhyay youngsters rebuild their lives. Systems, which includes around 40 (SCMSophia 2005-2006) global CEOs, Ministers and heads Kapadia is now Head of Content (In Manjiri Prabhu of international and civil society Africa and the Middle East) for Tickled (SCMSophia 1985-1986) organizations. Media, a multinational publishing An author of mystery novels, Manjiri company that caters to 13 million wrote her 11th novel and destination Shuchi Talati monthly parents in southeast Asia. thriller Voice Of The Runes. It takes (SCMSophia 2005-2006) She helped grow their SEO traffic place in 36 hours in Sweden and along Shuchi recently story-produced by 206% in a year and launched a with a mystery, is a haunting love Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas, a Nigerian parenting website in less story. She is also the Founder and documentary series for HBO, which than a week in December. Director of the Pune International was EP’ed by John Oliver and Ezra Literary Festival, now in its 7th year. Edelman. Shuchi is collaborating with Anushka Shivdasani an all-woman team to develop her first Rovshen and Madhuri Mohindar (SCMSophia 2001- 2002) A documentary, Breathe by Anushka Shivdasani Rovshen and Madhuri Mohindar explores the intersections between identity, sexuality, mental health, and the many alleys through

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very year there is an arch of emotion that JERRYNAMA students go through with Jerry. It is His modus operandi is ‘SHOCK you still end up saying it, he is always from ‘terrified’ to ‘I AND AWE’. On the very first day of happy to take a ten rupee fine, which think he’s a genius classes, the Jerry Pinto who was calm goes into a piggy-bank for charity. but he’s terrifying’ and friendly during the interview, Little did we know that this was an to ‘Perhaps, he’s storms into the class, and gives us a exercise to understand skewed power a genius and I can learn something week to interview a celebrity like it’s dynamics at play in a classroom and E patriarchy in India. from him’ to something like ‘My God, no big deal. he was right’ at the end of the year. By One fine day, Jerry said, “Read the Jerry Pinto’s teachings are an the time you realize his importance, fucking papers every day if you want to extension of his own life. Be it the beat Jerry no longer comes in at 8 a.m. in be great. And if you don’t want to, stand areas we were sent to, the MLAs we the morning screaming at you, talking up and say that you have committed had to interview, the buses we were about Mahabharata and section 377 in yourself to failure.” Throughout the asked to take and the 5000 words the same sentence. year, he keeps coming up with different assignments on our mothers. Some of You don’t forget Jerry. In the ways of telling you that you are not us went to places that were flooded, twenty-five years he has given to SCM, working hard enough, you are not some MLAs had scary criminal records the students who have sat in his class putting yourself through the grind, and and some of us cried because of the and listened to him telling the most even if you are hurt, even if you feel, things we got to know about our outlandish, yet believable stories, to put it mildly, like ‘shit’, you know mothers that we would never get to remember him fondly. Yes, he is a somewhere in your heart that he is otherwise. Jerry Pinto is John Keating brilliant story-teller, you won’t find speaking the truth. (Dead Poet’s Society) and Terence anyone emphasizing on exactly the Jerry always asks each of his Fletcher (Whiplash) at the same time. part of the story one should emphasize students to call him by his first name, We never knew a teacher who told on and you won’t find a teacher and if not his first name then, ‘Mr. us to ask any question on whichever dancing on ‘Dil Hain Chota Sa’ from Pinto’. You never call him ‘sir’, just topic we found interesting. The Roja in the middle of the class. because the protocol dictates it. And if highlight for us is the time when he

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SCM 2019_V1 Final 15 FEB.indd 58 2/16/19 2:54 PM analyzed the beginning of the film ‘In lunchroom become Marquezian has without doubt been an excellent Cold Blood’ with us. We never knew trips like the one in which an aunt’s teacher. Of course, like most creative one could see a film in that manner. neighbour sacrifices a camel for Eid, people Jerry has his delightful quirks Beneath the hard-hearted man all complete with blood spurting into which can both annoy and charm of us were terrified of, we all found a the face of the aunt who happens to simultaneously. The nuns initially sensitive soul who understood us in look out of the window at that very (now they love him) would grumble all our complexities and knew us in instant. Did we mention we are mostly about his attire and behaviour. He is and out. He had once said something vegetarians at that table?” a glutton for punishment - the most to the effect of, “I don’t love you. I just She adds, “But it almost blinds you number of assignments given by any want to make you the best you can be.” to the anonymous (well, not anymore teacher in the course are his. I always But it doesn’t matter because we have now, is it?) donations; incredible wondered that with his writing work accepted to not accept ourselves the purchases to support self-help groups and NGO work where he found the way we are and to aim for something and non-profits; the constant reflection time to correct them, but he did. His which we thought we could never be. and learning; and the line-by-line commitment to teaching is absolute. The phenomenon that is Jerry is edits with students for their magazine His contribution to SCM has been not only limited to our classes. You articles.” enormous. “ can tell when Jerry is in the SCM Jeroo Mulla who ran the There is not really anything we can department when you can hear the department for thirty years, who was say about Jerry that hasn’t been said loud laughs and passionate arguments the one who hired Jerry to teach at already. happening inside. SCM, recalls, Thank you Jerry for giving time to Nirmita Gupta, the Head of SCM “Jerry was introduced to me us novitiate and for being the guiding and Sunitha Chitrapu, a faculty for by Kaumudi Marathe, one of my light for all of us. Fundamental Concepts, remember, students. I invited him to teach at Congratulations for completing “Our Spartan lunches in the faculty SCM and now it has been 25 years! He twenty-five years. SMRUTINAMA

any years later, as she faced the class, Smruti Koppikar would “Mremember that distant morning twenty-five years ago when she stood in front of the class for the first time”. This would have been an apposite beginning to a novel about Smruti Koppikar, no less than a Marquesan (her favourite) protagonist in the scheme of things. It was 29th June 2018. We were three days into the course, when Smruti entered the classroom and said, “Do I need to introduce myself?”. If we knew then, what we know now, it would be that very moment we would start counting our blessings. Probably the first thing that we learnt in her class was that it was not for the weak, she was a firebrand and if we did not put our 100%, it would be our major loss. She left the classroom, leaving

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all twenty-seven of us devastated better media professional here at SCM. We got to know very recently that about how ignorant we were. That is Smruti has a way of cutting through we were her 25th batch of students, a the ‘Smruti Koppikar’ effect, the class the verbiage and getting to the heart huge milestone for her. It also opened ends like the climax of a Hitchcockian of any matter. Smruti’s greatest our eyes to the fact that it was kind thriller, leaving half of us with our contribution is that she is willing to of a huge responsibility. Was her 25th mouths wide open and the other half play Devil’s advocate. The idea for batch, a batch she would remember? It in an existential crisis. But there’s one The Week That Was as an in-class also made us realize that for twenty- thing we would all agree on – Smruti media coverage exercise came from five years, Smruti has been impacting Koppikar changed our lives. her insistence that students needed to the lives of thousands of her students We were introduced to the engage with the news in a substantive other than us. theories of Manufacturing Consent, manner. She has also been generous With us she introduced My Own Agenda Setting, Gatekeeping and the enough to let some students work Journalism (MOJO), just so that each Propaganda Model. She opened our on stories with her and it was a great one of us had something solid for our eyes to the other side of media and boost to everyone when one such resume. She worked tirelessly with taught us about it was never free, story got picked up by The Guardian, us for the entire year, taking updates objective and unbiased. Ma’am said, London. from us every week, in effort to teach “Most biased choices in life arise from We know that students and alums us consistency, order and dedication. internalized preconceptions”, a lesson benefit from her years of experience She never gave up on us even when we will never forget. “I’ve started in the field and her unstinting support we failed to deliver or were lazy. That is influencing the way you all think, to fledgling journalists. Working with the charm of Smruti Koppikar, and we haven’t I? Am I not manufacturing Smruti has been an incredible learning know a large reason of our success will your consent?” And we collectively experience for us as faculty.” always be dedicated to her. gasped. Jeroo Mulla, who was the SCM With our hands jittering and hearts Smruti would often talk to us Head of The Department for nearly beating fast, we walked into our last about the times she got in trouble thirty years, fondly remembers, lesson with her. She said “You’re at with the authorities for her constant “Smruti was my student, and for me an age where you are idealistic about pursuit of justice and challenging the a very special one. course. Over the certain things. It’s good to be idealistic. status quo. We remember her telling us years Smruti has become a close You will also have two thoughts- Who stories about being a fearless reporter, friend too and I value that friendship you want to be and what you want speaking truth to power and always enormously. When I was unwell to be. At this age, you’ll fight for what being driven by the desire to dissect and unable even to walk, she helped is right, you will voice your opinions the truth. my husband get me admitted to the about things and do things that you Smruti has been a rock for the hospital. I shall never forget that act of stand for. But as you grow old, you’ll department as well. Nirmita Gupta kindness. I will also always remember become cynical So, in the process of (1982-1983) and Sunitha Chitrapu the day she cooked an entire meal for finding out what you want to be in (1992-1993), Head of the Department me. Nothing gives me more pleasure life, don’t forget WHO you want to and a faculty at SCM respectively, than eating what someone has cooked be, Do you want to be the old cynical “Smruti is always trying to build a for me with love.” person who’ll always complain, or you’ll want to be that one person, who still stands and fights for change no matter what” With tears in our eyes we were left speechless and thought we do not deserve a professor like her, so inspiring, so genuine. Happy 25 years at SCM ma’am. Hope we weren’t too bad. You’ve taught us to question, to think and never just believe. You’ve taught us that we’re all storytellers, no matter which field we will eventually go to, and what matters is we tell someone’s story with honesty. You’ve made us better people over the past year and for that, we’re forever grateful. Smruti Ma’am, you are inspiration for all of us and we will always be indebted to you.

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