www.openthemagazine.com 50 3 AUGUST / 2020

OPEN VOLUME 12 ISSUE 30 3 AUGUST 2020

contents 3 august 2020

5 6 7 12 16 18 20 LOCOMOTIF INDRAPRASTHA NOTEBOOK in memoriam SOFT POWER WHISPERER OPEN ESSAY The politics of masks By Virendra Kapoor By Anil Dharker John Lewis (1940-2020) Gold’s own country By Jayanta Ghosal The Mahatma and By S Prasannarajan By Ramesh Sharma By Makarand R Paranjape Kashmir By MJ Akbar

28 IS SCIENCE ABOUT 28 TO DEFEAT THE CORONAVIRUS? With the recent vaccine results, new drugs and experienced care, the first glimmers of hope arrive By Lhendup G Bhutia

34 A Tale of Three Vaccines The world has responded to Covid-19 by developing and testing vaccines 12 at record speed By Shahid Jameel

38 BEGINNINGS AND ALTERNATIVE ENDS The trajectory of pandemics suggests that humanity will always triumph in the end but without control over the time and toll By Madhavankutty Pillai 42

42 THE DESERT FOX The daring and durability 46 50 of Ashok Gehlot By Amita Shah

46 virtual checkmate 58 streaming goes mainstream in By V Shoba

50 LETTER FROM LAHORE The ideal and the real By Mehr Tarar

54

54 58 62 65 66 THE SECOND ACT PREMCHAND’S PARTNER A MOVEABLE FEAST HOLLYWOOD REPORTER NOT PEOPLE LIKE US Yesteryear actors return to play On the writer’s 140th birth A detective’s diet Colin Farrell on his London calling complex roles as streaming anniversary, why it’s important to By Shylashri Shankar new Artemis Fowl series By Rajeev Masand platforms allow greater variety celebrate his wife Shivrani Devi By Noel de Souza By Kaveree Bamzai By Arnav Das Sharma

Cover by Saurabh Singh 3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 3 open mail [email protected]

Editor S Prasannarajan letter of the week OPEN managing Editor PR Ramesh C executive Editor Ullekh NP The rise of Donald Trump was a reflection of the fact editor-at-large Singh deputy editors Madhavankutty Pillai that even Americans could no longer ignore the real- 27 JULY 2020 / 50 www.openthemagazine.com (Mumbai Bureau Chief), ity that trade is not always ‘free’ and ‘advantageous’ Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah, V Shoba (), Nandini Nair (‘Self-Reliance in a Brave New World’, July 27th, 2020). creative director Rohit Chawla Economists, political scientists and sociologists have VOLUME 12 ISSUE 29 art director Jyoti K Singh Senior Editors Sudeep Paul, known all along that ‘free trade’ has distributional Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia (Mumbai), consequences and losers need to be compensated to Moinak Mitra, Nikita Doval Associate Editor Vijay K Soni (Web) prevent political backlash. No political leader, least assistant editor Vipul Vivek of all Prime Minister Narendra Modi, could ignore chief of graphics Saurabh Singh the consequences of skewed trade patterns. When

SENIOR DESIGNERs Anup Banerjee, 27 JULY 2020 Veer Pal Singh Covid-19 hit India, we were found scrambling for vital Photo editor Raul Irani medical supplies. While it is unlikely that India will deputy Photo editor Ashish Sharma turn protectionist, the concern for policymakers here National Head-Events and Initiatives after China’s wayward behaviour is to keep vital supply going down and rapidly Arpita Sachin Ahuja AVP (ADVERTISING) chains within India. There is a strategic logic to losing support among all Rashmi Lata Swarup such reasoning, motivated by the fear that the huge communities. The worst GENERAL MANAGERs (ADVERTISING) Uma Srinivasan (South) disparity in trade that feeds China’s war machine can- enemy of the Congress party, not be dismissed in a country that lost territory with it seems, are its stalwarts National Head-Distribution and Sales Ajay Gupta a catastrophic war with its more powerful neighbour. themselves. regional heads-circulation CK Subramaniam D Charles (South), Melvin George Getting stuck in a ‘middle-income trap’ (‘where de- (West), Basab Ghosh (East) mand saturates and, in turn, growth stagnates’) is now Head-production Maneesh Tyagi a real worry after multiple years of tepid growth. By blaming the BJP for the senior manager (pre-press) Sharad Tailang India needs to be cautious and pragmatic about coping revolt within its ranks, the MANAGER-MARKETING with the new world economy rather than depend on Congress is behaving like Priya Singh Chief Designer-marketing ideological and historically damaging formulations. the proverbial ostrich that Champak Bhattacharjee Margaret Chatterjee buries its head in the sand cfo & HEAD-IT Anil Bisht on seeing a danger. The Pilot Chief ExecuTive & Publisher threat was an open secret. Neeraja Chawla The party leadership chose All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner swadeshi & sound Despite India’s relatively to not address it till it became is prohibited. Every crisis comes with an high position on the World real. Gehlot now says that he Editor: S Prasannarajan. Printed and published by Neeraja Chawla on behalf opportunity (‘Self-Reliance Bank’s Ease of Doing hasn’t been on talking terms of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd, in a Brave New World’, July Business index it has a long with Pilot for the past one 18-35 Milestone, Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana). 27th, 2020). With Covid-19, way to go to make the life of year. Rahul Gandhi should Published at 4, DDA Commercial India learnt to ramp up entrepreneurs easy. either take up the challenge Complex, Panchsheel Park, -110017. production of PPE suits, Ashok Goswami or simply quit to make way Ph: (011) 48500500; Fax: (011) 48500599 hand sanitisers and face for a new order. It’s clear that To subscribe, WhatsApp ‘openmag’ to 9999800012 or log on to masks. We will soon also confused congress the Congress has no future www.openthemagazine.com or call our Toll Free Number ramp up pharmaceutical The Congress high with the Gandhis. 1800 102 7510 production and become one command is in a fix (‘The Bholey Bhardwaj or email at: [email protected] of the world’s main suppliers. Jaipur Jolt’, July 27th, 2020). For alliances, email [email protected] China’s transgression is now Senior leaders in the party The infighting in the For advertising, email going to greatly transform are publicly criticising its Congress has taken an ugly [email protected] For any other queries/observations, India’s soft power. From methods and the way it has turn with Gehlot’s attacks email [email protected] the IT export market, given up on its long-time on Pilot. For a party that is on India will now meet the cadre. The writing is on the the brink of being wiped out Disclaimer ‘Open Avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing challenge of turning around wall for the party. The ‘credit’ from politics, this does not initiatives and Open assumes no responsibility for content and the consequences of using its performance on the for this state of affairs should send a positive message to products or services advertised in the magazine home turf. Jio’s 5G foray is go to the top leadership. It an electorate that is already

Volume 12 Issue 30 noteworthy and so are the may tide over the Rajasthan moving away from it. It does For the week 28 July-3 August 2020 many homegrown apps. crisis, but rebels like not seem like the Congress is Total No. of pages 68 What India needs now is to Sachin Pilot will continue interested in surviving. remove regulatory cobwebs. to threaten the party. It is MR Jayanthi

4 3 august 2020 LOCOMOTIF

by S PRASANNARAJAN The Politics of Masks

t’s everything now. It’s what sets you apart. It’s the There was another type: the authoritarian who saw in the mark of responsible living, and a filtered defence against viral adversity a political opportunity. Already the sole arbiter death. It’s a piece of cloth that conveys individual duty and of freedom, he now rearmed himself as the saviour with all civic solidarity, no matter it has denied us the many givens the knowledge—and demanded more from the people. When of social as well as personal intimacies of communication. science was uncertain, politics knew what exactly was IIt’s a talismanic sign of our pandemic times. it seeking. It feasted on fear. There is more to the mask. Then there was the one who realised that leadership did Elsewhere, it’s a political statement. Its absence is a not mean the bravado of denials or an exploitation of fear. This declaration of freedom, and a repudiation of enforcement. one respected science and expertise, and to a greater extent Defying science and common sense, the intentionally maskless succeeded in containing the virus. Between the freedom makes an argument for the autonomy of choice, and intends to that was certain to increase deaths and the control that only trade it for ideological gains. strengthened the strongman further, this was the option based It’s a choice made to subvert consensus, and pandemics, on the decencies and responsibilities of governance. like wars and calamities, create a social order built on fear and Any of these three versions of leadership has not fully contained expertise. To break it is to put your right, even if it makes a bad the virus, but their politics decided the degree of containment. The choice between life and death, before shared knowledge. It is to wisest of them did not get trapped in the rhetorical choice between be self-consciously stupid instead of being robotically obliging. saving lives and saving livelihoods. It was an alliterating falsity that Is it the choice of the false libertarian? came handy to the Left and the Right. It made the The sovereignty of ‘me’ rejects the lockdown a dispute between the compassionate all-knowing state, and whose voice usually Left—let’s remain indoors till the virus goes comes through the bureaucracy of away; and the realistic Right—let’s get on behavioural code. The libertarian is a with life. Today, the dispute is over opening fundamentalist, a denier comforted by his own schools and bars. The dispute is political faith. The inviolability of his faith is his ultimate because it subordinates freedom to ideology. It security in a world of stifling agents of change. The seeks expertise only for political ends. utilitarianism of change, he believes, asks for a price from When the pandemic peaked, the most conspicuous the individual. He has been asked to pay with his faith for the talisman of the times became an incendiary political item. The promise of security. For health lately, he protests. world’s most powerful politician refused to wear a mask because The mask, or the absence of it on faces in a shopping he thought it was a nuisance perpetrated by the scientific queue or in a political rally, becomes a statement about how establishment. He stood by his personal choice, as a defiant bad ideologies divide a world when it is most vulnerable. When example. When he began to acknowledge its usefulness, he the coronavirus began to spread and kill, some of the freest regained a bit of his lost humanity in the eyes of his critics; and democracies were reluctant to curtail individual movement— when he finally wore one, it was a global headline of how he or control it. Even experts were of two minds then—to close or became a human for a day. not to close the pub. And no expert was sure about how a mask It is as if the mask defines the man, but it doesn’t conceal or could minimise the transmission of the virus. control the transmission of the ideological virus. Once the word That was a time when the politician was more authoritative denoted the unspecified, even the unreal. It kept truth out of sight. than the expert. We saw all the types then, facing up to an One evening in the neighbourhood, we may all look like escapees inchoate threat. The liberal in the classical mould, now most from a comic book. The odd man out, maskless and dangerous, is likely a conservative in a Western democracy, was reluctant to the last bad example of freedom, and still, somewhere, someone be an alarmist, and averse to fight an illness by retreating from is ready with an argument that makes him a necessary political individual freedom. This politician relented only when fear symbol. It is a paradox of the pandemic that it takes a mask to replaced cynicism. reveal our intentions—political or individual. n

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 5 INDRAPRASTHA virendra kapoor

ostalgia leavens the markers of the old CP, making it a Neverydayness of life under the jolly trip down memory lane for the lockdown. Not having stepped foot old Dilliwallahs. Even I can recall outside the house for four dreary once in a long while coming from months, obliged to robotically go north Delhi in our student days to through the motions of the same have coffee in what was then called daily routine with a heavy burden The Standard restaurant on the first on mind and heart, reminiscing floor of the Regal Building. Espresso youthful times does seem to provide coffee with two crispy biscuits cost a break, nay a welcome relief, that Rs 1.25. It was the standard fare at comes from mentally visiting the The Standard. You chatted for hours good old days. Thanks to the growing over a cup of coffee till the lunch or digitalisation of our lives, refreshing dinner-time crowd arrived and you memories of a carefree youth were politely asked to clear out. when your day revolved around unforgettable lines. Again, the Central Park extended college friends, movies and cricket Actually, I began with the idea of right up to the boundary of the is now only a click away on the TV writing about an excellent piece of present car-parking lot with the remote. But you also wonder how nostalgia forwarded to me the other Police Band playing every Friday and people of your parents’ generation day by a former GoI secretary whose regular displays of artworks held on lived without TV, mobile phones, choice of WhatsApp messages one corner of the park. Remarkably, social media platforms, streaming reflects a keen inquiring mind and all the four old movie halls, Odeon, channels, etcetera. Those were a zest for life even past his 70 fecund Regal, Rivoli and Plaza, have survived indeed simpler times when people summers. But I somehow ended to this day, albeit in the multiplex seemed contented, though avenues up recycling my own youthful mode. But some of the popular for entertainment and socialising times which occasionally help me restaurants such as Volga, Standard, were limited and rudimentary. Four overcome the dreariness of the Tea House, Gaylord, etcetera, folded decades later, watching movies you Covid-19-enforced lock-in. This up long ago. Happy to note , the had seen and songs you had hummed particular forward is a tour-de-force popular Kake Da Hotel is still going along in your college days, also raises on Connaught Place (CP) by a scion great guns, doing brisk business as uncomfortable questions about your of the famous Nirula family which ever on the strength of its trademark taste and bent of mind. How could had established the city’s first decent chicken curry and crisp tandoori anyone be crazy about a restaurant in CP way back in the mid- rotis, with tari (gravy) on the side star who could hardly act? Or how ’30s. Anyone remotely familiar with for a fraction of the price of a plate of could a heroine who always hammed the CP of those days would recall chicken curry. Incidentally, after the her lines and wasn’t particularly the Nirulas Corner House serving death of the founder, his sons went pretty be the number one in her time? continental and Indian food, and their own separate ways, with the Some of the unforgettable songs much later in the mid-’70s, adding an younger son opening his own Bhape which still stay buried deep in the ice-cream parlour with 21 flavours Da Hotel only a few shops away recesses of your mind, for instance, served either in cones or cups. The from the original establishment. ‘Karwan gujar gaya gubar dekhte rahe’ south Delhi gentry and the Delhi Unsurprisingly, CP’s three famous or ‘Tujhe kya sunau main dilruba’ seen University smart set loved to be seen bookshops closed down long ago. on the small screen, now leave you at the Nirulas, especially for an after- Incidentally, given the repetitive with a feeling of disappointment. dinner ice-cream. political slugfest on our television You were better off not allowing the However, what the writer of the channels, it makes me wonder why two non-actors to intrude into the piece, Lalit Nirula, does is that not wouldn’t either of them do at least sheer pathos and poignancy which only he reminisces about his own a monthly programme taking the only a Mohammed Rafi could convey family’s iconic eatery but most viewers down memory lane about with his versatile voice in those two cleverly weaves into it other notable their cities and other famous places. n

6 3 august 2020 Mumbai Notebook Anil Dharker

hat is Mumbai without both feet. Wits Ganpati festival? Weeks What will the Kamblis do this before the 10-day celebrations start, year? The coronavirus is now the raja every street and gully is abuzz with of all it surveys, so the government neighbourhoods preparing for has banned largescale celebrations installation of their Ganesh murtis. and decreed that murtis can only be Don’t ask how they got the figure— four ft tall. What will the hundreds perhaps an army of Ganpati counters how—that 15 lakh people queue up and thousands of people do who zoomed around on two-wheelers, at the big pandals for darshan every make large murti after murti, the or (the cheaper option) someone single day. It’s not just for worship, tableaux, the decorations, plucked a number from the air—it is there is curiosity too about the the pandals and the festival’s said that on the main visarjan day, murti itself and the tableau around cacophonous music? 1.5 lakh idols are immersed at the it, which is elaborate and expansive, Ganesh is the god who removes city’s many Chowpattys. with a new theme each year. The all obstacles. How very badly we need Unless you are a celebrant, you Andhericha Raja, for example, has a his powers this August! stay indoors on the main visarjan massive replica of a different famous day, which is the 10th day. But you temple every year. The GSB Seva he evening newspaper also stay home on Ganesh Chaturthi, idol at King’s Circle, set up by people TMid-Day (of which I was Editor which is the first day when murtis originally from , draws in the last century, but I hasten to are brought in, on day 1.5 when crowds not for its size (fixed at 14 ft add, not a century ago), ran a truly many smaller family Ganpatis are as prescribed by the scriptures, they scary story July 19th. Ignoring the immersed, and also on days 3,5 and 7, claim), but because it is covered with overly optimistic projections of the other days for immersion. That’s gold, 60 kg of it. The Khetwadicha plateauing of the Covid-19 curve a lot of staying indoors. For a majority Raja is also covered with gold and given by authorities in general, and of Mumbaikars, however, outdoors real diamonds, but is known for its political leaders in particular, its cor- is where they want to be: for the daily competition with the Lalbaug idol. respondent talked to James Wilson, a aarti in community pandals where In the year 2000, it set the record man who crunches data for break- everyone is not just given prasad for the tallest ever murti at a fast. He says as on July 14th, India but a full meal, or to queue up for staggering 40 ft. had conducted 1.2 crore tests for the darshan at the big pandals of which Immersion of these massive idols coronavirus (1,20,92,503 to be exact). there are many. is an enormous exercise in organisa- That sounds impressive, but it breaks The biggest is the Lalbaugcha tion, logistics and crowd control. The down to 8.93 tests per 1,000 people. Raja, which can reach towering journey of the Lalbaug Ganpati starts Comparable figures are: the US: heights of 20-35 ft. Lakhs of people mid-morning of the tenth day and its 121.7, Russia: 159.61, Canada: 85.13 queue up to see it every single day progress through thronging crowds and Australia: 118.49. That perspec- and it takes hours before you get any- is so slow that it reaches the sea late at tive leads him to predict that India where. There is a simple darshan line, night. Last year, its immersion took will have 15.5 lakh people infected when you get to within 30 ft of the place at 8 AM the next morning! on July 31st and the figures will only idol—at peak hours, you could spend The murti has been made by gen- rise in August. Another researcher, ten hours in this queue. But if you erations of the Kambli family ever Rukmini Shrinivasan, tells Mid-Day want to touch the idol’s feet, you join since the tradition of Lalbaugcha Raja that our problem lies in poor contact the Charansparsh line, and on a busy began in 1935 when it was just five tracing. We can find only six contacts day, you could be waiting a daunt- feet tall. The Kamblis get a copyright per infected person, whereas South ing 15 hours. You need resilience, on the idols so it can’t be replicated, Korea’s success lies in the fact that it patience and stamina, but above all, but they stopped changing the posi- could trace 80 per cent of contacts. indomitable faith. tion of the murti’s legs when they If ever we needed Ganesh’s powers It is estimated—again, don’t ask found that devotees wanted to touch to remove obstacles, it is now. n

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 7 openings

NOTEBOOK Great Expectations By Aekta Kapoor

t the astute, headstrong age of four, my and aunties in drawing rooms into matrimonial websites that daughter threw a tantrum while on a visit to my cater to all tastes and needs—from niche ones for every possible aunt’s house in Mumbai because was being religious community to dating apps that use complicated forced to eat something she didn’t like. “Girls algorithms to match partners. Ashouldn’t be so stubborn,” my middle-aged aunt reprimanded But the intent, agenda and purpose of arranged marriage ap- me for my parenting. “They have to learn to compromise. How pear to be the same as they were two millennia ago: to maintain will they adjust after marriage otherwise?” caste bloodlines, to restrict inter-community mingling, and to Seventeen years later, the same words were repeated by an- control young people by negating individuality and choice. It other middle-aged Indian woman on a web series so many continues to be a clinical and repressive way of looking at bond- times that they generated thousands of memes on social media: ing and relationships, binding humans into boxes to be ticked, “Good Morning beta. Are you ready to compromise? (sic)” went while disguising social evils such as casteism, patriarchy, clas- one viral tweet from a parody account. The show in question, Indi- sism and colourism in snazzy, digital new avatars. an Matchmaking, directed by Indian-American Oscar-nominated For their part, matchmakers say they are only catering to the filmmaker Smriti Mundhra, hit Indian streaming television on demands of the market, and that their role is one of a service pro- July 16th and instantly lit a fiery controversy. A reality show that vider, not change-maker. “I hate to see Sima [Taparia] trolled; we follows the lives of Indian singles seeking arranged matrimonial have a lot of regard for each other’s work,” says Geeta Khanna, a alliances through Mumbai matchmaker Sima Taparia, the show relationship counsellor and the second matchmaker featured in was brutally called out by millennials and Gen-Z’ers who are Indian Matchmaking. Her one-day shoot for the show took place fighting the same discriminatory system the show glamorises. in October 2019, two months before she moved from New Delhi “The real damage is going to happen when families are just go- to Kuala Lumpur. Her list of singles grows by the day, both Indian ing to feel validated for all this. People need to voice their disgust,” residents and non-residents, and—contrary to expectation—it is says Gurin Pal Singh, 29, Kuala Lumpur-based creative lead at often the candidates themselves who approach her for match- personal-growth platform Mindval- making, not their parents. ley, who feels privileged that his “After years of studying, making parents were “super understanding” a career and dating several people, of his European girlfriend even these singles finally turn to us though he had to overcome his own In a country where the for help in finding a life partner,” fears to tell them about her in the wedding services industry is observes Khanna, whose clients first place. “Not everyone else is that consider her a ‘modern’ matchmak- lucky. And those are the people this worth over $56 billion, one er since she matches partners by per- show is going to harm.” cannot ignore the lure of sonality type, and not just financial, India’s arranged marriage arranged marriages. This is caste or community parameters. system has been both vilified and A large part of her work involves exoticised in global media but even also the same country where ‘de-conditioning’ parents to be more as the country struggles to haul LGBTQ+ persons are forced accepting of matches from diverse itself into a modern era of gender backgrounds, and of ‘conditioning’ equality and social justice, the into marriage and young young people, especially women, system shows no sign of becoming women are conditioned to to be prepared for adjustment in the redundant any time soon. With the believe they will ultimately course of a new relationship. “Un- advent of the internet, matchmak- less they are planning to marry a boy ers may have morphed from uncles need to ‘settle down’ abroad, girls in India do end up mak-

8 3 august 2020 Pradhyuman Maloo and Rushali Rai on the Netflix show Indian Matchmaking

Courtesy Netflix ing more personal sacrifices after marriage; it’s just how things sites have over 40 per cent fake users, Singh says her website asks are here,” she says, preferring to be more realistic than idealistic. a series of personal questions before verifying and registering But there is a growing number of educated, urban parents users—from whether they want an ‘open, exclusive or discreet’ who no longer want for their children what they themselves relationship, to their sexual preferences—using algorithms to went through two decades ago. “I would rather teach my son find matches. Unlike popular dating app Tinder, which requires that love is more important than marriage, respect is more just two or three minutes to sign up, andwemet.com needs one to important than legal sanctions, and a life partner cannot be invest at least 20 minutes, a process designed to screen out ‘non- found by ticking a list of criteria from a menu card,” says Sonali serious’ candidates. “We don’t ask the usual questions about Sudarshan, 46, a Delhi-based entrepreneur and mother of a skin colour and caste; I abhor such labels and I believe we must 19-year-old who starts college in the UK this year. Vehemently all do our part in eliminating social inequalities,” says Singh, critical of the Netflix show, she says, “I’d tell my son, marry only pointing out that even matrimonial majors like Shaadi.com had if you cannot imagine life without someone.” to remove their photo filters, which helped candidates appear Another parent of the same generation, Ritu Harish, a Pune- fairer, after a strong public backlash. based entrepreneur and mother of a 20-year-old daughter and a In a country where the wedding services industry is worth 17-year-old son, refers to the outpouring of forced-matchmaking over $56 billion, where the matchmaking and wedding memories on Twitter after the show went on air when she says, industry are growing steadily between 25 per cent and 30 “I think every Indian girl has a matchmaking horror story. I just per cent every year, and where 10-12 million marriages take cannot imagine us putting our kids through it. I am fine if they place annually, one cannot ignore the domination and lure of marry out of choice, and I am fine if they never marry at all.” She arranged marriages. This is also, however, the same country adds in a lighter vein, “I have already told them I have no plans of where LGBTQ+ persons are forced into marriage to uphold fam- looking after their kids in future so they better have them at their ily tradition, and young women are conditioned to believe that own risk. My daughter is gay and was going to adopt anyway.” no matter how successful they are in their careers, they will ulti- For such parents and their kids, there is hope for change. mately need to ‘settle down’ with someone of their community Keeping its ears to the ground, a new breed of matchmakers is and have babies, thus leaving them vulnerable to crooks like now rising to address the changing needs of today’s generation, Tanmay Goswamy, who conned eight women of Rs 1.25 crore balancing their desire for a suitable partner with modern values through matrimonial websites. of equality and diversity. Shalini Singh, founder of Andwemet. The elephant in the room cannot be wished away, but a solu- com, a new matchmaking portal that addresses the needs of urban tion lies in awareness. Taparia’s much-trolled quote on mar- Indians, believes marriage is not the only outcome of a successful riage requiring adjustment, compromise and flexibility is not relationship. “Maybe someone wants to be in a live-in relation- entirely wrong. Except, it’s not just the youth but their parents ship, or a long-term companionship, maybe they are divorced and all of Indian society who should be heeding it. Instead of and are seeking a reconstituted family… why judge anyone? forcing our kids into an outdated system, let’s open our minds Why not celebrate such commitments as much as we celebrate to a more inclusive future for them and us. marriage in this country?” asks the Bengaluru and -based It’s not the kids who are stubborn. It was us all along. n startup founder who also runs a public-relations firm. Having found that most Indian matrimonial or dating web- Aekta Kapoor is the founder and editor of eShe magazine

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 9 openings

portrait Kangana Ranaut away in the world has risen exponentially in the 1990s. This generation now wants Mumbai cinema to deliver what they have experienced and seen in The flame thrower the world. And to live up to the diversity of their The outspoken actress once again lives. Imagine the multiple genres the young use to make media do justice to their experiences— shakes the Bollywood establishment memes, documentaries, porn, Bollywood, music videos, news, stand-up comedy, blogs, social media very few years, Bollywood sees fit to destroy itself only to platforms, says Bhaumik. All this has to be delivered E emerge again, changing shape and form. In 1973, it was Amitabh by a new media industry in which cinema is the Bachchan who took the idea of the Indian hero by the scruff of its neck driving force. This is the revolution we are looking at. and made him respond to the social changes happening around— Much of it is because of the artificial shortage inequality, corruption, urban angst. Twenty years later, of entertainment. Until the opening up of OTT would be doing it, with his borderline schizophrenic hero, articulating platforms, films were the preserve of barely 9,500 the moral confusion in post-liberalisation India. In 2020, as conventional screens in a country as vast and movie-mad as India. Bollywood struggles to keep pace with the demand for greater democracy In contrast, China has over 69,000 screens and the and egalitarianism after the death of actor , it is, US has over 41,000 screens. That’s not enough. There fittingly, a woman who is trying to drive the narrative. is now what poet and CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi One can question her motives and call out her inconsistencies. One can calls a “culture of snacking”, with Indians tasting criticise her for breaking the unsaid code of honour of not mocking one’s ever newer content every hour, every day. Old-style colleagues openly. One can even wonder about her selective outrage. But movie production houses are not able to satiate this there is little doubt that actor Kangana Ranaut has become a professional eternal hunger. Outsiders are no longer happy to flame-thrower intent on burning down the crumbling old edifice of knock politely at the door of old Mumbai cinema. Bollywood, with all its failings—misogyny, feudalism and dynastic power. They’d rather storm the barricades. As director says, the Mumbai film industry is peculiar in And in Kangana they have a readymade rebel that very large financial decisions can be taken by individuals, which has the leader. She’s someone who has worn her scars potential to offend a vast number of people. It is not a quality that sits well with proudly, whether it be from love or work. She has the increasingly democratic nature of consumption. Audiences no longer talked about honing her craft with confidence have to be content to suffer only one kind of entertainment. The industry was bordering on arrogance. She has refused, publicly, always limited in its scale of production—it never produced enough. That’s to act as a sidekick to boldface superstars. She why it can accommodate so few performers. What the upsurge has also challenged former mentors and shaken of talent today needs is a real industrialisation of entertainment to live up to a metaphorical fist at erstwhile friends. She has the aspirations of the nation’s young, says film scholar Kaushik Bhaumik. questioned long-accepted practices and refused to The number of youngsters who now leave home to seek their fortunes turn the other cheek, at least retrospectively. All this is unusual in an industry where a polite veneer Illustration by Saurabh Singh covers a lot of simmering ill will. Where chummy backslapping at movie previews will precede almost immediate behind-the-back dissing and where Friday failures are met with poorly concealed glee. And where bad behaviour being passed off as public heckling by hosts at film awards has to be taken with a bright smile and an invisible shrug. Add to that a filmography that includes some beloved films such as Queen (2014) and Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015). A much-publicised desire to raise the bar in the quality of filmmaking and not settle for mediocrity. And the ability to beat those who won the genetic lottery with patience and passion, whether it was working on her English language skills, her stylistic grooming or her media relations. Kangana Ranaut is a survivor and she is living to tell many tales. n

By Kaveree Bamzai

10 3 august 2020 ANGLE ideas

The Slippery Encounter Slope On allegedly killing Vikas Dubey and appointing a panel to investigate it es g e tty imag By madhavankutty pillai Space Race The space missions of the past, he slippery slope argument Both the Telangana and particularly the race to land humans T is considered a fallacy because it encounters were deliberately brazen. on the moon, was defined by the Cold takes morally questionable events and They wanted the public to feel satisfied War rivalry between the US and the extrapolates another event, usually a and served a lesson to other criminals. erstwhile Soviet Union. So, many more extreme case, from it. But when And yet the judiciary acts too late decades later, a new space race appears the slippery slope is evident in front and too slow for any deterrent value. All to be ensuing. Tianwen-1, which of your eyes, it is hard to restrict it to policemen in the Telangana encounter blasted off on July 16th, is China’s fallacies. The chain from a gang of remain heroes. Almost all the encoun- first Mars mission. Beijing eventually rapist-murderers being shot dead in ter specialists of Mumbai who went on wants to send a manned mission to Hyderabad by the police to the shooting a killing spree in the mid-1990s became the red planet, apart from launching a down of gangster Vikas Dubey is clear heroes, went into disgrace for a while permanent space station by 2022 and a as daylight because of the striking simi- not for the encounters but their corrup- manned probe to the Moon sometime larities. In both, criminals who were tion, and are now reinstated. Encoun- in the 2030s. Donald Trump wants under the escort of armed policemen ters are usually with political sanction to send American astronauts both managed to break free and snatch guns and it comes bundled along with fixing to the moon and Mars. Earlier this before being shot down without any the process after the killing. On July year, Trump is reported to have said, fatality on the other side. The parallel is 22nd, the Supreme Court approved a “Already, from what I’m hearing and so strong that the Uttar Pradesh police UP government-appointed panel that based on reports, we are now the leader were forced to argue in an affidavit in would investigate the Dubey killing. In in space.” After finding themselves the Supreme Court that both encoun- theory, an external independent body embroiled in frequent disputes, from ters were different. is a good mechanism to get to the truth. trade relationships to occurrences in The difference is merely in specifics. But then, as reported, the South China Sea, the US and China The slippery slope is created from one one of the members in the panel is an now find themselves competing in police department getting away with ex-policeman who has already made up their race to Mars. n killing a criminal because the outrage of his mind that the police were right. Its the crime justified it and public sentiment report said: ‘Days ago, [KL] Gupta, who was on their side. And once Telangana did served as the DGP of UP from April 1998 Word’s Worth so without repercussions, UP applied the to December 1999, mainly under the BJP principle for an equally outrageous crime. government led by Kalyan Singh, said ‘Many years ago, the Neither the government, the police in a TV debate that it was not right to great British explorer nor the majority of the public see any- doubt the police over the encounter.’ George Mallory, who was thing wrong in such summary justice. Since Dubey’s alleged killing couldn’t The reason these encounters continue have happened without government to die on Mount Everest, is because the only institution that can orders, what can you expect from a was asked why did he check it—the judiciary--does not do a panel appointed by the same govern- want to climb it. He said, good job of it. In the last many decades, ment? You should also not be surprised judges have umpteen number of times when other states see such killings over “Because it is there.”’ ruled against illegal encounters and similar cases. The slippery slope can John F Kennedy yet it never seems to go out of fashion. keep going for a very long time. n former us president

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 11 in memoriam

The Last Freedom Rider The civil rights icon was a true Gandhian. A personal tribute By Ramesh Sharma

or a long time, I was obsessed with the idea of that many films had already been made on Gandhi and his telling a story about Mohandas K Gandhi, ahimsa or struggle. I had to find an original and compelling peg. Fnon-violence. The world was restless and turbulent. An entire generation had been moved by the com- Violence, divisiveness and hate had become the new curren- manding moral force of ahimsa but that infectious spirit cy of social discourse. In India, Gandhi’s relevance was being often got lost in the dry recitation of history. New genera- challenged with intemperate abuse. Using freedom of speech tions have problems relating to icons of earlier eras. That’s as a convenient excuse, there began a movement to give his why a new approach was needed to breathe life and emo- assassins legitimacy. To put them on a pedestal as new heroes tion into telling the inspirational story of just how Gandhi and paint non-violence as irrelevant and naive idealism. and his message of non-violence continue to be a relevant On October 2nd, 2019 the world was to commemorate tool for conflict resolution for the entire world. I envisaged the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi. I was desperate to to project Gandhi’s vision of non-violence as a feature-long make a film to commemorate this anniversary. I was aware documentary for contemporary times, parts of which

getty images John Lewis 1940-2020

12 would be played out so that there is a multiplier effect in John Lewis, Martin Luther King III (right first row) all forms of modern media, including the digital world. and his wife Arndrea Waters King (second right) at the Non-violence was a creed followed by many, including Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, February 2009 Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Václav Havel, the Solidar- ity Movement in Poland but most importantly by the Civil Rights Movement in the US. With a global arc as its canvas, I hoped the film would underscore the significance of Gan- dhi worldwide. The struggle to make an international feature documen- tary on a shoestring budget was a challenge. But coordinat- ing the dates for interviews with celebrities, who have fully booked schedules, was a bigger challenge. I had confirmed dates from Rajmohan Gandhi, in New Haven, US; Rev James Lawson had agreed to meet me in Los Angeles a couple of days later. What I needed was a confirmed date from Congressman John Lewis aound this same week. John Lewis was the towering icon of the Civil Rights movement, one of the youngest members of the Martin Luther King Jr’s core team. If I could not get to meet him or interview him on the Gandhian influence on the Civil Rights Movement, I would be telling the story of Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark. I sent emails to his chief of staff, but there was a stony silence. In desperation I reached out to a friend in DC, working in the State Department. She sent an emotional tweet to John Lewis, in effect complaining about his chief of staff and how rude and disrespectful that he wouldn’t even reply to a request for an interview on a film being made to celebrate Gandhi and non-violence by an Indian filmmaker. Within 24 John Lewis spoke fondly of his pilgrimage hours I received an email from Lewis’ office confirming to India in 2009 to commemorate the the date when I could fly down with my camera team. But 50th year of Martin Luther King Jr and his there was a caveat: Congressman Lewis was busy with wife Coretta’s visit to our country. Just like events in Charlottesville, and there was a remote chance, but a chance nevertheless, my interview date could be MLK Jr had remarked in 1959, changed. I decided to take the risk. I was also warned that Lewis too called his visit a pilgrimage we would get 15 minutes to set up our cameras and lights and it would be a 15-minute interview. Of course, eventu- ally I ended up spending over an hour with John Lewis. Fortunately Nitin Upadhye, my cameraman, was not John Lewis walked in sharp at 9.30 AM and shook only a brilliant artist, but also a disciplined technician. hands with me. And though he was physically short, mor- We were given his office to set up the two-camera shoot. ally he was a towering presence. He represented the sup- He was ready to roll in 10 minutes flat. And as I walked pressed and tortured soul of a country desperate to break into that office, I felt humbled as if I was on some sacred, away the shackles of its oppressive past. hallowed ground. The walls were full of framed images of The interview itself was deeply moving, even though contemporary American history. There were portraits of there were no embellishments, he recited in a matter Gandhi, MLK Jr, other great Civil Rights Movement lead- of fact monotone, his childhood; a young boy’s ers and major events which shaped the African American bewilderment of seeing signs which segregated the whites struggle for dignity and voting rights for the blacks. There and the blacks, the humiliation of being treated as an were pictures of President John F Kennedy, his younger inferior human being and how very early in his youth he brother and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. And developed a rebellious streak with a passion for getting stacked against the walls were huge mounted blowups of into “good trouble”. historical images which chronicled memoirs of the Civil He spoke about the inspirational leadership of MLK Jr Rights Movement as it unfolded. and the influence that Gandhi had on all of them, in shap-

www.openthemagazine.com 13 in memoriam

ing the Civil Rights Movement. The most moving an- massive crowd that historic day. ”We were six of us there,” cedote he narrated was that of the Freedom Riders. Black he said as he showed me the photograph, ”But out of the folks and whites were not allowed to travel together by six, I am today the only one alive.” With his passing away bus into many southern states of America, this despite a on July 17th, now there are none of the Big Six with us. Supreme Court order. A group of Civil Rights Movement And even as America battles today with the ghosts of its activists, dubbed Freedom Riders, decided to challenge history, trying to come to terms with social divisiveness, this. When they reached Alabama, an assembly of Klu with a racist stain that seems stubborn and refuses to be Klux Klan members was waiting with iron rods and erased, John Lewis, like his mentors Martin Luther King Jr chains. The passengers were beaten ruthlessly, before the and others, will serve as inspiration and a moral compass. police came in to rescue them. Lewis had dedicated his life to bring social equity In Lewis’ words, ”My seatmate was a young white and give voice to the voiceless, extracting concessions of gentleman. The two of us tried to enter a so-called white human dignity from the closed fists of white supremacists. waiting room at a bus station. We were beaten and left Prying those stubborn fists open painfully, finger by finger. lying in a pool of blood. The local police official came up But never once abandoning the tenets of ahimsa. wanting to know whether we As he said in the interview, wanted to press charges. We said ”Gandhi and Dr King taught no. We believe in a way of peace. John Lewis with us and they are still teaching us We believe in a philosophy of the author through their words, their non-violence, we believe in a way writing, their action that the of love. Many years later one of way of peace the way of love is a the guys that beat us came to my much better way. Then we have office in Washington DC. White to come to the point where we gentleman in his 70s, his son in his lay down the burden of violence, 40s, he said. Mr Lewis I have been a lay down the way of hate and member of the Klan and I am one move toward what some of us of the people that beat you. I want today call the building of the to apologise. Will you forgive me? beloved community. We spoke His son started crying, he started a great deal about redeeming crying. I said I forgive you. I accept the soul of America. They have your apology. They hugged me. to find a way to redeem the soul I hugged them and the three of of the world and create a world us cried together.” Congressman community at peace with itself. It Lewis spoke fondly of his pilgrim- is the power of the teaching and age to India in 2009, where he the philosophy of nonviolence. accompanied Martin Luther King And America today it is a better III, Ambassador Andrew Young country. We’re not perfect we’re and the jazz legend Herbie Han- not there yet, but if it hadn’t been cock to commemorate the 50th year of Martin Luther King for the teaching of Gandhi I don’t know what it would be Jr and his wife Coretta’s visit to our country. They followed as a nation and as a people. I have said to President Barack the same route, including a visit to the Sabarmati Ashram Obama on one occasion I said Mr President, if it hadn’t and the Gandhi Samadhi in Delhi. And just like MLK Jr had been for Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, you wouldn’t remarked in 1959, John Lewis too called his visit a pilgrim- be President of the United States of America.” age, which moved him and the entourage deeply. Meeting Lewis was to be in the presence of a true After the interview, Lewis showed me the mounted American hero. A Gandhian who symbolised the pictures which were stacked against the walls of his tenets of ahimsa. A man who believed in a simple office. Some were of the Selma March, where the peace- philosophy, that if you saw something that was not fair, ful protests were met with mounted police and batons not just, not right, you had a moral obligation to do which were mercilessly rained on them. Lewis had a something. Stand up. Speak up. Speak out. There is a broken skull that Bloody Sunday. lesson in it for all of us. n There were pictures of the historic March on Wash- ington where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his iconic Ramesh Sharma is an Emmy-nominated, national and ”I Have a Dream Speech”. international award-winning filmmaker whose latest film John Lewis turned sentimental as he took out the last Ahimsa: Gandhi—The Power of the Powerless is ready for picture of the group of the Big Six, who had addressed the worldwide release @rameshfilms

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By Makarand R Paranjape

Gold’s Own Country A smuggling scam reveals why India needs to liberalise gold trading

erala’s latest golden girl, Swapna consulate. It was discovered that her degrees were fake and Suresh, seems suddenly to have lost her shine. antecedents dubious, with suspicious stints in the UAE. Like Rising out of the dark and treacherous underbelly the proverbial vishkanya (poison maiden) of yore, she became a K beneath the social and legal safety of law-abiding, political untouchable overnight. No one wanted, even remotely, middle-class society, she had risen to dizzying heights of to be associated with her. power, influence and pelf in G‘ od’s own country’. Suresh fell for the allure of gold which, for India, is nothing Frequently seen, even filmed and photographed, in the new. It is believed that we have the world’s largest horde. Over company of high-profile politicians and bureaucrats including 25,000 tonnes of gold, mostly in private hands and households communist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his IT secre- (‘In Gold We Trust: India’s Household Gold Reserves Valued tary, M Sivasankar, she seemed an important player in a murky at over 40% of GDP’, May 20th, 2019, Financial Express). That and uncertain domain where crime syndicates, smuggling is more than all the gold in Fort Knox, US, central banks in networks, terrorist organisations, local politicians and molls on Europe and China combined. Thiruvananthapuram’s Sree the make illicitly converge. Padmanabhaswamy To insulate himself from the brewing political storm, Temple alone has an estimated incredible $1 trillion or Rs 75 Vijayan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 8th, re- lakh crore worth of diamonds, gold, precious jewels, crowns, questing a probe: ‘Every link of this crime should be unravelled. coins, besides golden pots and pans,in its vaults (‘A One Trillion … The case has serious implications as this undermines the Dollar Hidden Treasure Chamber Is Discovered at India’s Sree economy of the Nation.’ The opposition, far from being molli- Padmanabhaswamy Temple’, November 15th, 2015, Forbes.com). fied, mounted a demonstration against Vijayan, demanding his Of this staggering sum, the Supreme Court in 2011 itself ac- resignation. Water cannons had to be used in Kozhikode on July knowledged that $22 billion or Rs 65,000 crore had already been 10th to disperse protestors. found and inventoried in the temple’s underground vaults A to The sequence of dramatic discoveries and sensational F, excluding B (‘The Wealthiest Structure on Earth Is an Indian seizures began when P Sarith Kumar, professing to be a United Temple!’, June 25th, 2019, Medium.com). The yet-to-be-opened Arab Emirates (UAE) consular Public Relations Officer, saun- vault B is the largest; many expect the treasure trove in it to tered into the Thiruvananthapuram international airport to exceed what has already been recorded. If we look at the collect some diplomatic cargo. Little did he know that he would historical and cultural value of the artefacts, they would be be arrested two days later. The suspicious carton that he came to priceless for their rarity or beauty, especially with some dating collect was opened in the presence of the UAE consulate official as far back as 200 BCE. to reveal, among other knickknacks and inconsequential items, Thankfully, the Supreme Court recently ruled that this hollow pipes filled with 24-carat gold. 30 kg of the precious immense treasure will remain the property of the deity and metal worth Rs 15 crore! temple, managed by a private trust headed by the members of The National Investigation Authority (NIA) swung into the former royal family of Travancore. The communist-led state action on July 10th. This was quite unusual considering that it government had wanted to take over both the temple and its normally only takes up terrorism cases. In addition to Kumar, it vast fortune. More alarmingly, they had won in the high court. named Swapna Suresh, Sandip Nair, Fazil Fareed and, later, KT India’s age-old love of gold was well-known to the ancients. Ramees. Suresh’s dream run had turned into a nightmare. An Gaius Plinius Secundus, better known as Pliny the Elder, absconder since the gold-smuggling scandal hit the national complained in 77 CE that India was ‘the sink-hole of the headlines, she was apprehended at a Bengaluru hotel on July world’s gold!’ Pliny, an author-philosopher, naval commander 18th along with her alleged partner in crime, Sandip Nair. and friend of Emperor Vespasian, certainly knew what he Suresh, too, like Kumar, had been associated with the UAE was talking about. All the world’s gold ended up in India. In

16 3 august 2020 as with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and especially Nepal, Swapna Suresh the task of catching the culprits is harder. Last year, India imported about 900 tonnes of gold (‘Gold Imports Up 35.5% in First Quarter’, August 13th, 2019, The Economic Times). Not all of it is consumed locally, though. Some is turned into ornaments and re-exported. Given this excessive and insatiable demand for gold in India, higher domestic prices, not to mention Customs duties (12.5 per cent) and taxes (between 3 per cent and 8 per cent), smuggling has become lucrative again. Gold prices have hit an all-time high, crossing Rs 50,000 per 10 g, making illegal import even more compelling. Estimates vary, but every kg of trafficked gold can fetch a ‘profit’ of as high as Rs 6 lakh. The scam has uncovered the nexus between politi- cians, government officials, foreign consulates and a whole host of other shady conduits and characters. The NIA stepped in because it also suspected Middle-Eastern terrorist links to the racket. This is supported by the fact that 75 per cent of the smuggled gold entering the country comes from the UAE, although its original source is Africa. However, according to the World Gold Council, only 2 per cent of such ‘blood gold’ is actually caught. Drive through any major city or town in Kerala. You will find the grandest, largest and most lavish jewellery showrooms. Some of the biggest names in the business are from this state. What is more, gold is cheaper in Kerala than anywhere else in India. Obviously, some of the smuggled gold must make it into the showrooms as legal merchandise. This, and other illegal activities again linked to the Middle East, account partly for the

Saurabh Singh Saurabh by Illustration enormous and extravagant homes that dot the countryside. Indeed, that is what connects Kashmir and Kerala, the two Make India one of the world’s extremities of India—heaps of dirty money, as well as jihadi best and most competitive terror links. On June 6th, 1990, during our early phase of liberalisation, open markets for gold. When the Government repealed the draconian Gold Control Act of the prices in india are the same 1968. That immediately put paid to the notorious gold smug- as abroad, smuggling will gling era. But it looks as if we are returning to the bad old days. What is the way out? become a thing of the past Make India one of the world’s best and most competitive open markets for gold. When the prices in Mumbai or Kochi are the same as New York, London, Zurich or Singapore, smuggling will become a thing of the past. What about the duty that the exchange for the finest luxury products from India, including Government will lose? We can always find myriad ways of mak- textiles, handicrafts and spices, Indian traders brought back ing up for the losses by monetisation and leveraging our gold. Roman gold, which itself was plundered from other parts of the You don’t have to be a dyed-in-the-wool or diehard economic civilised world. freemarketeer to understand that restricting and controlling a No wonder Mahmud of Ghazni, son of Sabuktagin, sacked commodity so much in demand will only encourage crime, ter- India 17 times between 1000-1025 CE. Attacking temples, such rorism, hawala transactions and destabilisation of our economy. as Somnath in 1025 CE, yielded relatively easy pickings. Several The fallout can be incalculable. Add the huge costs in Customs, temples, therefore, resemble fortresses to this day and are in border patrolling, investigation, law-enforcement and judicial remote or hard to access places. Throughout history, India has process. The true picture will quickly emerge. been invaded and attacked for its enormous wealth in gold. Liberalising and rationalising gold trading in India will also Even today, an estimated third of all the gold in the world save future Swapna Sureshs-in-making from going astray. Or moves across Indian borders. Where these are relatively porous, realising the hard way that all that glitters is not gold. n

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 17 Whisperer Jayanta Ghosal

To Meet Or Not to meet? ecently, Parliament’s Public Accounts RCommittee, under the chairmanship of Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, held a meeting that was long overdue because of the lockdown. But afterwards, a few cases of Covid-19 were reported among the parliamentary staff. It has made the Speaker apprehensive. New Rajya Sabha members also took oath in Parliament recently. There is now a discussion on whether the Monsoon Session should take place, even with fewer people and social isolation. The constitutional six-month deadline to hold a succeeding session is fast approaching.

Next Target? fter Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, Acan toppling be next on the BJP’s agenda? In a virtual rally this week, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that the BJP is spending money to split her party. Rumours put the number of Trinamool Congress MLAs The Friendship the BJP is in touch with as high as 50. Recently, the state’s governor also rime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha Chief met Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Minister Naveen Patnaik seem to be getting close. adding fuel to the gossip. The governor P is supposed to have made a report Recently, when there was a crisis in the supply of stating that the law and order situation medical kits for Covid-19 tests in some areas of Odisha, has deteriorated in Bengal. Patnaik called Modi at midnight and sought help. It was immediately organised through the health ministry and the very next day, the supply was made. In the last election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was Patnaik’s main political opponent. He had aggressively campaigned against the party, but after the election he changed his strategy to cooperate with the Centre. Even when the Jagannath Rath Yatra case was in the Supreme Court recently, he sought Delhi’s help. A solution was sought together and Odisha got a favourable judgment. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had been the BJP’s face for chief ministership but he has also now developed a good working relationship with Patnaik. There are no elections in four years in Odisha and with the Muslim population being negligible in the state, Delhi reportedly thinks the Biju Janata Dal could join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in future. Confrontations are thus avoided. Patnaik is a reclusive politician with only a few personal friends and Modi could now be among them.

18

Illustrations by Saurabh Singh

Man of the Moment ajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister of GState and also Member of Parliament from Jodhpur, who recently got tangled in the matter of Sachin Pilot versus Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, may be the next BJP chief ministerial candidate in Rajasthan, should the party manage the numbers. He is the Jal Shakti Minister, a favourite of Modi, who gives him a number of other political assignments too. Even on Pakistan Day, the Government sent him to the Pakistan High Commission as its representative. But another faction of the BJP in Rajasthan denies that Shekhawat is a choice of Modi and Shah for chief ministership. And that it is Shekhawat himself who is keen on the chair. A whisper campaign against him has started in the party. An audiotape of him talking to several Congress MLAs also went viral. The Congress is demanding his resignation and also raising corruption charges against him. Meanwhile, everybody in the media wants to interview Shekhawat and he is said to be enjoying Temple List his sudden importance in Delhi. n August 5th, Modi is going to inaugurate the Ram temple construction inO Ayodhya. Who else will be present? Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah will be Repairing Relations there. Also, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi he latest headache for External Affairs Adityanath. Interestingly, Chief TMinister S Jaishankar is Iran getting close Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who is no longer to China and even Pakistan. On its Chabahar a BJP ally, may also turn up. The Bihar election port and rail project, where India was supposed is approaching and so Chief Minister Nitish to participate, it is now China that is going to Kumar could be invited. What is not clear be Tehran’s partner. MEA officials are saying is whether BJP leaders like LK Advani, Murli India was never a participant, so the question of Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh, Vinay Katiyar rejection does not arise. Jaishankar is, however, and Uma Bharti, who were all faces of the Ram trying to mend the relationship with Iran because Mandir movement, will be present. India does not want to lose an old friendship.

Welcome Mat Memorable Charity ith Sachin Pilot’s rebellion in the Congress he late Arun Jaitley’s wife, Sangeeta Wnot succeeding, people are asking what he TJaitley, has set an example by foregoing the will do now. Will he join the BJP or return to the parliamentary pension of her late husband for Congress? In the midst of such rumours, the Aam a good cause. She has written a letter to Rajya Aadmi Party (AAP) surprised everyone by inviting Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, stating that Pilot to join the party. At a press conference in she wants to start a scheme named after Jaitley Rajasthan, its leader Raghav Chadha made the to provide financial assistance for Group C public appeal. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal had employees. In her letter, she said that earlier tried and failed to expand in Rajasthan and Jaitley’s soul would be happy if she this could be his route to it. Pilot has, however, could help needy people. remained silent on the appeal.

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 19 open essay

By MJ Akbar

The Mahatma and Kashmir On the eve of the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370, let us remember Gandhi’s Churchillian moment in the face of Pakistani aggression

nce, on August 14th, 1947, Pakistan became a fact he could not change, Mahatma Gandhi devoted himself with his usual complete dedication to nursing the horrific, suppurating slash across the body of the subcontinent. On August 15th, he refused to celebrate a freedom that had come at the price of India’s Partition, telling an astonished All India Radio that he had nothing to say, and a bewildered BBC that they must forget that he knew English. He chose instead to strive for peace and solace in the midst of a brutalised and battered Bengal. On August 15th, he was in Calcutta, shivering at the prospect of unprecedented blood- shed, rather than in Delhi, where his nominated heirs were celebrating Independence and the prospect of power beyond the reach of Britain. From a lonely, abandoned house in Calcutta, using the elixir of his moral courage, Gandhi brought peace to Bengal, and thereby the whole of east India. Even the wizened British editors of The Statesman described Gandhi’s achievement as a miracle. But in the west, Punjab, Sind, Delhi and the Frontier were tortured by the frenzy of the Ounbelievable and inhuman carnage that followed Partition. Gandhi’s voice, heart and ideals became a psychological shelter for lost refugees, although even he could not fully erase the anger against barbaric violence. From September, Gandhi led the practical effort to obtain millions of essentials, like quilts, for camps that would house the bereft and the broken even as he tried to calm the wither- ing rage of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims who had lost everything that mattered because of compromises made by blind politicians. Those who still believed in humanity during that havoc would only trust Gandhi. On October 15th, 1947, a group of anonymous but obviously Muslim craftsmen brought blankets and money for distribution among refugees. Gandhi placed this donation on record. ‘They have not even given their names. I asked them to distribute those things themselves among their own fellowmen who have suffered. But they said they wanted to hand over the things in Gandhi’s hands, because such things should be distributed among the Hindus and the Sikhs who have suffered in West Punjab. I was touched by their sentiment. In the present conditions even if a few Muslims or Hindus or Sikhs do things like these, they must be written down in letters of gold. They said that at one time they considered me an enemy of the Muslims; but now they were convinced that I was a friend to everyone. So am I, and I claim to be one. I do not need a certificate from anyone for that. I have lived in that spirit not for five or seven years but for the last 60 years’ (The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume 97, Publications Division, page 91). The poison of civilian conflict was also shadowed by the prospect of war between the two new countries. The germ of tension was the future of Jammu and Kashmir, which as yet had not acceded to either nation. On September 27th, 1947, Gandhi made one thing clear: “In the event of a war between the Union and Pakistan, the Muslims of the Indian Union should be prepared to fight against Pakistan.” The prophet of non-violence was as totally transparent about the duties of nationalism as he had been about his commit-

20 3 august 2020 Mahatma Gandhi with Louis and Edwina Mountbatten, 1947

The Germ of tension was the future of Jammu and Kashmir, which as yet had not acceded to either nation. On September 27th, 1947, Gandhi made one thing clear: ‘In the event of a war between the Union and Pakistan, the Muslims of the Indian Union should be prepared to fight against Pakistan.’ The prophet of non-violence was as totally transparent about the duties of nationalism as he had been about his commitment against British imperialism

getty images ment against British imperialism. He did not want war, but if it a meeting of the Defence Committee at which Lieutenant Gen- did break out, every Indian’s obligations were enumerated with eral Rob Lockhart, Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, clarity. As Gandhi wrote to Julian Huxley: ‘I learned from my read out a telegram from the ‘headquarters of the Pakistan illiterate, but wise, mother that all rights to be deserved and pre- Army stating that some five thousand tribesmen had attacked served came from a duty well done’ (this letter was published in and captured Muzaffarabad and Domel and that consider- the UN Weekly Bulletin of October 17th, 1947). able tribal reinforcements could be expected. Reports showed Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Pakistan, emboldened by Parti- that they were already little more than thirty five miles from tion, unable to judge the difference between glory and vain- Srinagar’, according to the diary (published as Mission with glory, unwilling to wait for discussions, launched an armed, Mountbatten in 1951) kept by Alan Campbell-Johnson, Press pre-emptive strike to seize Kashmir in the last week of October Secretary to the Governor General. 1947, starting a war that has not stopped after seven decades. A frantic and unnerved Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, The first official mention of Pakistan’s sudden military grab Hari Singh, had requested armed help from Delhi, but Mount- was made by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru at a buffet din- batten insisted on accession to India as a necessary condition for ner in honour of the visiting Thailand foreign minister on the assistance. Mountbatten was still the British monarch’s repre- night of Friday 24th, October. sentative, and British officers were still in charge of the Indian The next morning, the last Viceroy and firstG overnor Army: they would have never supported the despatch of Indian General of the Dominion of India, Lord Mountbatten, chaired troops to Srinagar without the paperwork being in place.

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 21 open essay

getty images FroM a lonely, abandoned house in Calcutta, Gandhi brought peace to Bengal, and thereby the whole of east India. But in the west, Punjab, Sind, Delhi and the Frontier were tortured by the frenzy of the carnage that followed Partition. Gandhi’s voice, heart and ideals became a psychological shelter for lost refugees, although even he could not fully erase the anger against barbaric violence

Gandhi arrives at a prayer meeting in Calcutta, August 1947

‘The Maharaja’s accession gave complete legality to the constant prayer to God that He may give me the strength to in- action so far taken,’ notes Campbell-Johnson. Britain, thereby, tercede even for my assassin. And it should be your prayer too became the first foreign country to accept the accession. In- that your faithful servant may be given that strength to forgive’ deed, when Jinnah, responding to the arrival of Indian troops (quoted by Gandhi’s secretary Pyarelal in Mahatma Gandhi: in Srinagar, ordered Lieutenant General Sir Douglas Gracey, The Last Phase, Volume 2). acting Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army, to send Gandhi’s first remarks on Kashmir came on the evening his army formally into battle, Gracey ‘replied that he was not of October 26th, 1947, at his prayer meeting: “Yes, I am quite prepared to issue any such instruction without the approval of aware of it [Kashmir]. But I know only what has appeared in the Supreme Commander [Mountbatten]’. the newspapers. If all those reports are correct it is really a bad Gandhi, father of freedom, was not kept informed of these situation. All I can say is that we can neither save our religion decisive developments by his anointed heirs. Later, perhaps nor ourselves in this manner. It is reported that Pakistan is try- not without a touch of regret, Gandhi said that he only knew ing to coerce Kashmir to join Pakistan. This should not be so. It what had appeared in the newspapers. He maintained his is not possible to take anything from anyone by force.” normal schedule of meeting individuals and delegations, and He added: “The people cannot be attacked and forced by holding prayer meetings in the evening. burning their villages. If the people of Kashmir, in spite of its On October 25th, 1947, he scolded a group of communists Muslim majority, wish to accede to India no one can stop them. for their lack of patriotism: “Communists have come to The Pakistan Government should stop its people if they are consider it their supreme duty, their supreme service, to create going there to force the people of Kashmir. If it fails to do that, it disaffection, to generate discontent and to organize strikes... will have to shoulder the entire blame.” People seek knowledge and instruction from Russia. Our com- The next day, Gandhi wrote to Hussain Shaheed munists seem to be in this pitiable state.” Suhrawardy, the last Premier of united Bengal, whose role in The Muslim festival of Bakr-Id fell on October 26th. Gandhi fomenting the virulent communal riots of August 1946 had had a powerful message for the community: ‘Ahimsa is always been assuaged by his public admission of guilt in 1947, on tested in the midst of himsa, kindness in the midst of cruelty, Gandhi’s insistence. Gandhi’s letter, dated October 27th, 1947, truth in the midst of falsehood, love in the midst of hate. This asserted: ‘Hindus and Muslims are not two nations. Muslims is the eternal law. If on this auspicious day, we all made a sacred never shall be slaves of Hindus nor Hindus of Muslims. resolve not to spill blood for blood but to offer ours to be shed Hence you and I have to die in the attempt to make them live instead, we would make history. Jesus Christ prayed to God together as friends and brothers, which they are.’ Gandhi saw from the Cross to forgive those who had crucified him. It is my absolutely no contradiction in the fact that a Muslim-majori-

22 3 august 2020 ty state wanted to join the Union of India. of the government. The Mahatma called him the “Lion of By October 29th, Indian troops had saved Srinagar airport Kashmir” who was doing “whatever a single individual can but heavy fighting continued within five miles of the capital. do... he has decided to do his utmost”. The people of the state Gandhi had a 90-minute talk with Mountbatten, and was final- were with him, but even in this atmosphere of barbarism ly given a detailed brief on the continuing crisis. That evening, perpetrated by the invading Tribals, they would not descend to at his prayer meeting, Gandhi spoke at length about a war such levels in their response. The proper answer was to leave thrust upon India. He described it as “an astounding story”. the matter to professional soldiers. “What should they do? Gandhi noted that Mountbatten had “welcomed” Maharaja Let them fight to the end and die fighting. The job of armed Hari Singh’s decision to accede to the Indian Union, and com- soldiers is to march ahead and repel the attacking enemy. They mended the decision to send Indian troops. He explained the die in fighting but never retreat... So these 1,500 soldiers have difficulties in troop movement by an airlift, and applauded the made an effort. But they will have really done their duty when bravery of about 1,500 Indian soldiers fighting against a “large all of them lay down their lives in saving Srinagar. And with number of men who have come from the North-West Frontier Srinagar the whole of Kashmir would be saved.” Province”, referring to the Tribals who had been armed, trained The theme of sacrifice extended to civilians: “If anyone can and led by thinly disguised Pakistani officers. save Kashmir, it is only the Muslims, the Kashmiri Pandits, the Gandhi praised Sheikh Abdullah, who had taken charge Rajputs and the Sikhs who can do so. Sheikh Abdullah has

By October 29th, Indian troops had saved Srinagar airport but heavy fighting continued within five miles of the capital. Gandhi had a 90-minute talk with Mountbatten, and was finally given a detailed brief on the continuing crisis. That evening, at his prayer meeting, Gandhi spoke at length about a war thrust upon India

Courtesy Ministry of Defence

Indian soldiers at Srinagar airport, October 27, 1947

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 23 open essay

Gandhi with Begum Abdullah and her daughter Khalida in Srinagar, August 1947 affectionate and friendly relations with all of them. It is pos- sible that while saving Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah would have to sacrifice his life, his Begum and his daughter would have to die and all women of Kashmir would have to die. And, if that happens, I am not going to shed a single tear. If we are fated to have a war, there will be a war.” Gandhi could see that the aggressors could not survive without the support of Pakistan, even if Karachi was calling it an “independent uprising”. He had absolutely no qualms about the necessity of defeating this invasion with a military response and civilian sacrifice: “If the people of Kashmir die in the fighting, who would be left behind? Sheikh Abdullah would have gone, because his lion-heartedness consists in dying while fighting and saving Kashmir to his last breath. He would have saved the Muslims and also the Sikhs and the Hindus. The Sheikh is a devout Muslim. His wife also offers Namaaz. She had recited Auzobillahi to me in her melodious voice. I have even gone to his house. He would not let the Hin- dus and the Sikhs there die before the Muslims.”

andhi had called on Begum Abdullah during Ghis only visit to the Kashmir Valley, in the first week of August 1947. He saw in Kashmir’s struggle against Pakistan hope and an antidote to the poison that had contaminated the people after communal savagery. “What if the Hindus and the Sikhs are in a minority there? If this is the attitude of the Sheikh and if he has influence on the Muslims, all is well with us. The poison which has spread amongst us should never have spread. Through Kashmir that poison might be removed from us. If they make such a sacrifice in Kashmir to remove that poison, then our eyes also would be opened. The tribesmen are only interested in killing. So they invaded Kashmir and even showed their strength. I know all who are with them. But the result would be that if all the Hindus and Muslims of Kashmir sacrificed their lives, that would open our eyes also. Then we would know that not AP all Muslims were insincere and bad, there were some good men also among them. Similarly it is not true that all Hindus Johnson recalls in his entry for October 29th, clearly written and Sikhs are either good and saintly or worthless and kafirs. very late into the night, that ‘the Mahatma struck an almost I believe that there are good people among all, Hindus and Churchillian note over Kashmir. His line was: the result was in Muslims and Sikhs. And it is due to these good people that the the hands of God; men could but do or die. He would not shed world goes on—not due to the people carrying arms.” a tear if the little Union force was wiped out like the Spartans Gandhi ended on a near-triumphant note as he imagined bravely defending Thermopylae, nor would he mind Sheikh the cleansing power of sacrifice: “I shall dance with joy even if Abdullah and his Moslem [sic], Hindu and Sikh comrades everybody in Kashmir has to die in defending his land.” dying at their posts in the defence of Kashmir. That would be Campbell-Johnson reports a comparison that Gandhi made a glorious example to the rest of India; such heroic defence to the Spartans, which has been excised out of the precis made would affect the whole sub-continent, and everyone would of the Mahatma’s speech by his aides. (Gandhi would always forget that Hindus, Moslems and Sikhs were ever enemies’. check before the final version was released.) The British dia- Mountbatten, in the meantime, was trying to persuade Jin- rist’s account is credible because Gandhi was deeply impressed nah to abort the aggression. He met Jinnah in Lahore and told by and made frequent references to the courage of the Spartans; his press secretary that he was very pleased with the three-and-a- it was a constant reference point during his months in No- half-hour conversation, although there did not seem to be much akhali between November 1946 and February 1948. Campbell- to be pleased about. Mountbatten told Campbell-Johnson, as

24 3 august 2020 recorded in the entry for Sunday, November 2nd, that the two got that the average Moslem would be far too frightened to vote for into an argument about who was responsible for the war, which Pakistan. Mountbatten proposed a plebiscite under United Na- ended up in a ‘vicious circle. Mountbatten agreed that the acces- tions Organization auspices, whereupon Jinnah asserted that sion had indeed been brought by violence, but the violence came only the two Governors-General could organize it.’ from the tribes, for whom Pakistan, not India, was responsible’. It was Mountbatten’s turn to reject this suggestion. Privately, no one had any doubt that Jinnah had ordered According to Campbell-Johnson, ‘Jinnah’s mood was one of and organised this “independent uprising” in Kashmir. Jinnah depression, almost fatalism. He kept harping on the mas- used a typical feint by claiming that India had committed ochistic theme that India was out to destroy the nation of his violence by sending troops, a demonstrable inversion of facts. making, and his attitude to every personality and act of policy Mountbatten stood his ground and ‘Thus it went on until across the border was coloured by that general assumption.’ Jinnah could no longer conceal his anger at what he called In complete contrast, Gandhi had absolute certainty about Mountbatten’s obtuseness’. Kashmir on exactly the same day in Delhi. He told his prayer Mountbatten went so far as to inform Jinnah about the ex- meeting on the evening of November 1st, 1947 (which in- tent of the Indian troop build-up in Kashmir, and made it clear cluded a bhajan by Dilip Roy with the line ‘We belong to a land that the prospect of tribesmen now entering Srinagar was “re- where there is no sorrow and no sigh’): “From the number of mote”. This seemed to shake Jinnah up, for the Pakistan leader planes going from here, I guess they are all carrying soldiers [to changed his line quite dramatically. I will quote directly from Kashmir]. Some cowards are running away from there. Why the diary: ‘This led Jinnah to make his first general proposal, should they do so? And where will they go? Why should they which was that both sides should withdraw at once and simul- not put up a brave fight and lay down their lives? At this rate taneously. When Mountbatten asked him to explain how the even if the whole of Kashmir is razed to the ground I am not tribesmen could be induced to remove themselves, his reply going to be affected. I would gladly ask you also to rejoice over it, but on the condition that everybody, young and old, should die there valiantly. If anyone asks why the children also should Gandhi had absolutely no qualms about die there, I will say that the children cannot go anywhere. In any case they stay with their parents. Those people are all there the necessity of defeating the invasion with in Kashmir, how can we provide them with arms? A person a military response and civilian sacrifice. He like me does not need arms. After all, if we are alive, we have had called on Begum Abdullah during his to sacrifice our lives. Then alone can we say that the soul is only visit to the Kashmir Valley, in the first immortal. If we do not do this, it means that we confuse our soul with our body and worship the body. But the body has to week of August 1947. He saw in Kashmir’s die one day. If the child is on the mother’s lap, when the mother struggle against Pakistan hope and an dies he also dies. And when one has got to die, let him die will- antidote to the poison that had contaminated ingly. Let them say that if the Afridis [Tribals who had invaded the people after communal savagery the Kashmir Valley] have come to destroy them they will pre- fer to perish of their own accord. Even the soldiers who have gone there would die with pleasure. They have gone there to die. When can they remain alive? Only when they know that everything is safe and there is no invasion on Kashmir and was ‘If you do this I will call the whole thing off’, which at least peace is well-established.” suggests that the public propaganda line that the tribal inva- It was a powerful message, given without doubt or rancour: sion was wholly beyond Pakistan’s control will not be pursued India’s soldiers would guarantee the safety of Kashmir, defeat too far in private discussion.’ the aggression and establish peace. In other words, Jinnah admitted at the very inception that Alan Campbell-Johnson describes Gandhi’s speeches as al- Pakistan had launched the ‘tribal’ invasion, and started the war. most Churchillian. For a war-hardened Britisher whose service Jinnah was a curious mix of uncertainty and contradiction. included four years on the Headquarters Staff of Lord Mount- Mountbatten introduced, for the first time, the idea that there batten at Combined Operations and South-East Asia Com- could be a resolution through a plebiscite managed by the mand, who had been awarded CIE, OBE and Legion of Merit United Nations. Jinnah flatly rejected the suggestion. (US), and who had seen Winston Churchill lead a ravaged but Jinnah believed that the average Muslim Kashmiri would unbroken Britain to triumph against Hitler’s once-invincible not vote for Pakistan, although he attributed this to “fright”. war machine, there could be no higher praise for a Mahatma Campbell-Johnson describes Jinnah’s stance: ‘On inquiry who brought down the British Empire. n Mountbatten found that Jinnah’s attitude to a plebiscite was conditioned by his belief that the combination of Indian MJ Akbar is an MP and the author of, most recently, troops in occupation and Sheikh Abdullah in power meant Gandhi’s Hinduism: The Struggle Against Jinnah’s Islam

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Blood samples from Covid-19 vaccine trials being processed at the Jenner Institute in Oxford, June 25

Is Science about to Defeat the Coronavirus ? With the recent vaccine results, new drugs and ex perienced care, the first glimmers of hope arrive

28 Photo ap Is Science about to Defeat the Coronavirus ? With the recent vaccine results, new drugs and ex perienced care, the first glimmers of hope arrive By Lhendup G Bhutia Cover story

Sunday, July 19th, late into the came out with a pre-print version of a combined Phase 1 and 2 night, the editor of the science journal study, showing that their vaccine was not far behind. Lancet sent out a tweet: ‘Tomorrow. About a little over six months since the first confirmed case Vaccines. Just saying.’ of Covid-19 outside China, after 15 million worldwide infections, It is difficult to imagine a moment 600,000 deaths and massive financial losses, the first glimmers when there has been this level of of hope had arrived. There are still over 150 vaccines in various anticipation over the publication of a stages of development. Some are even in the final Phase 3 human scientific paper. All of the previous few trials. But just six months since the genome of the Covid-19 virus days, there had been dribs of informa- was first sequenced and put up online, the frontrunners were tion in the media about the promising now becoming clear. results that the early human trials of the There are two key questions asked for every vaccine. Is it Covid-19 vaccine developed by safe? And, does it work? The studies show all four are safe. And Oxford University and the firm Astra- all four also generate an immune response, both of antibodies Zeneca had shown. Now, it was time to present it to the world. and T-cells. A response in these two arms of the immune system ONAbout a week earlier, the American biotech company Moderna is necessary to provide immunity. T-cell response is particularly appeared to have pulled slightly ahead in the race when it presented noteworthy, because some recent preliminary research has led successful results from its early human trials. Now the old to speculation that developing only antibodies might not provide frontrunner, the so-called Oxford vaccine was catching up. lasting immunity. Perhaps even pulling up a lead. “I had my doubts earlier about whether we can have vac- The next day brought news not just about the Oxford vaccine. cines early,” says Dr Satyajit Rath, an immunologist and There was an equally promising result from another candidate professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and (developed by the Chinese company CanSino Biologics and the Research in Pune. “But the way it is going, I think it is very pos- Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, published along with the one sible we could have one of these vaccines by year-end,” he adds. from Oxford in Lancet). Even the Pfizer vaccine (being jointly Usually a vaccine takes years to develop. Every step is done developed with the German biotechnology company BioNTech) sequentially. You wait for lab tests before you manufacture a

reuters

A research lab at the Serum Institute of India in Pune vaccine for animal tests. Then you wait for the results from the alarmed when one sees the swelling numbers of infection across animal trials before you make vaccines for human trials. One the world. But in this darkness of what looks like an unending phase follows another. But most of the Covid vaccine candidates tunnel, are the first few tiny specks of light beginning to appear? are doing many of these steps simultaneously. Several are well When the novel coronavirus first began its rampage across into later stages before they even get results from a previous step the world, this virus was new for everybody, to both our bod- which would show if they are on the right or wrong path. The ies and the doctors and nurses who care for us. Six months on, Oxford vaccine is well into its final Phase 3 trial (India’s vaccine we know a lot more than we did in the past. Hospitals, with manufacturer Serum Institute of India, which has signed a deal experience, are managing the illnesses much better. There are to manufacture one billion doses of these vaccines, plans to be- new and repurposed drugs, from antivirals like Favipiravir gin manufacturing even before the results are out). Moderna is and Remedesvir, that appear to show good results when given scheduled to start Phase 3 later this month. The other two aren’t early on, to steroids like Tocilozomac, Dexamethasone, and even far behind. There are several more. Even India’s Bharat Biotech the recently introduced Itolizumab, that seem to help when and Zydus Cadila have begun their human trials. It’s all a risky patients’ conditions deteriorate and they begin to come close gamble. But if and when whichever of these candidates proves to what is referred to as ‘cytokine storm’ (the immune system’s effective, they will have shaved years off the timeline. overreaction which begins to threaten the rest of the body). Dr Shashank Joshi, a Mumbai-based endocrinologist who is the Dean of the Indian College of Physicians and part of a group that advises the Maharashtra government on its Covid-19 re- different class of drugs—an inhaled form of protein sponse, says, “Vaccine development is a long process. It’s like substance called interferon beta which is usually used in running a marathon. But these guys are running a marathon the treatment of multiple sclerosis—is reported to have like a 100-metre sprint.” A shown remarkable effectiveness. In a small trial involv- Apart from the potential cure of these vaccines, several new ing only 100 Covid-19 patients, it was found that when this drug and repurposed drugs have arrived or are on their way that provide developed by British biotechnology company Synairgen was valuable supportive care. Even our healthcare systems are a lot administered, it reduced the need for ventilation by 79 per cent more experienced in dealing with the virus. It is difficult not to get and patients were two-to-three times more likely to recover. The study, although small and yet to be published, is being described as a gamechanger. Rath points out that more than these drugs, it is changing hospital care protocol that is being effective in containing deaths. The Oxford vaccine is “Clinicians, as they get more experienced with a certain illness, into its final Phase 3 develop their own rules of thumb on the fly that tend to be quite effective,” he says. “In the early weeks when people were trial. Serum Institute dying, the fact that there was a major blood coagulation-related of India, which problem hadn’t quite been noticed. Now, that’s being addressed [with the use of blood thinning agents]. Or take something as has signed a deal to simple as this notion of ‘proning’ [making a patient turn on to his sides or belly]. Because the lungs tend to accumulate fluid in a manufacture these gravity-consistent manner, simply turning patients periodically vaccines, plans to has improved outcomes. Or what speed oxygen is to be given at through oxygen-supply nasal tubes. These are all the things that begin before the outstanding first-responder intensive care clinicians across the world are superbly good at doing, both at learning and imple- results are out menting it. Even when it’s not sort of academically systemic.” A paper published a few days ago in the journal Anaesthesia, which analysed two dozen studies involving more than 10,000 patients in Europe, North America and Asia, found that fewer patients are dying in ICUs, indicating that hospitals are getting better at treating severe forms of the pandemic disease. Mortality rates had fallen from 60 per cent in March to under 42 per cent by the end of May. ‘It may reflect the rapid learning that has taken place on a global scale,’ the authors write. Dr Rahul Pandit, the Director of the Intensive Unit at Fortis in Mumbai’s Mulund area and a member of the taskforce advis- Adar Poonawalla, CEO, ing the Maharashtra government on Covid-19, points out that Serum Institute of India

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“Vaccine development “You can’t say it is unsafe. But it is a long process. It’s like is not like other modern vaccines running a marathon. But which don’t produce such degree these guys are running of side effects. If the side effects a marathon like a persist, it could face difficulties in 100-metre sprint” acceptance from people” Shashank Joshi endocrinologist and dean, Satyajit Rath immunologist and professor, Indian Indian College of Physicians, Mumbai Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune doctors have had to develop new ideas. He indicates how the use have crossed their peaks. appears to be heading the same of machines like High Flow Nasal Cannula (which a patient uses way too. The number of daily cases, rising rapidly earlier, has now to breathe high-pressure oxygen on his own, thereby avoiding hit a plateau. In about two or three weeks, if the same level of the lung scarring that can come with the use of ventilators) or caution is used, Pandit says, these numbers will begin to see a dip. simple tips, such as what he calls the ‘6 Minute Walk Test’, have An interesting fact is that a few antibody surveys seem to show proved helpful. In this test, an individual is asked to walk for six that in some places in India, a substantially higher number of minutes (three minutes if one is above 60) at a comfortable pace. people have already been infected and developed antibodies At the end of the walk, the oxygen concentration in the blood, compared to official tallies. A serological survey has found that when measured with a pulse oximeter, should remain between nearly one in every four individuals in Delhi has been exposed 94 and 100 per cent. If there is a drop below 90 per cent, the patient to the virus. This data was collected between June 27th and July has to be rushed to emergency care. “You don’t know how much 10th and some like Kishore believe the actual numbers now will something as simple as this has helped. A patient may not look be higher. Another survey by the private lab Thyrocare finds that oxygen-deprived, but with this test you can tell if he needs to be out of about 75,000 cases that had their antibodies checked (from rushed to the hospital, or if it is being done in a ward, if he needs over 600 pin codes across India and from a time period between to be taken to the ICU,” he says. June 26th and July 22nd) nearly 18 per cent were found to have ‘Proning’, or the simple task of turning a person over to make developed antibodies. “These numbers are a positive develop- him lie on his stomach, has also been very useful. “It was stan- ment. It means so many of us are already silently immune to the dard care in the past where we did it after a patient was medi- infection,” Kishore says. cally put to sleep. Now we do when he is awake. Those patients If these numbers are indeed correct, it has gener- would [earlier] have gone on for oxygen support or been put on ated speculation whether some populations in some ar- ventilators. But not now,” Pandit says. eas haven’t already attained herd immunity or are near- Many experts point out that the metric people should be keep- ly there. There is no consensus on how many people ing an eye on is not the number of daily cases but mortality rates. will need to develop antibodies for something like herd “The focus isn’t on rising immunity to kick in. cases. A lot of people will A hematologist helping with the Oxford vaccine’s clinical Some have suggested up- catch the virus. It is on trials examines a patient in Sao Paulo wards of 60 per cent; oth- saving lives,” says Dr ers have offered estimates Jugal Kishore, the head ranging from 20 to 40 per of the department of cent. An official pursuit of community medicine such a target, many cau- at Delhi’s Safdarjung tion, could lead to many Hospital. On this front, deaths. with a case mortality “We don’t know how rate of around 2.5 per long antibodies will afford cent compared to a glob- protection. You have to re- al rate around 3.5 per member the virus itself is cent, India hasn’t done just seven months old,” so poorly. Many experts says Caesar Sengupta, the point out that the large vice president of opera- cities of Mumbai and tions at Thyrocare. Delhi, which have con- Some recent research tributed the most cases, from small studies has reuters

32 3 august 2020 “Proning was standard care in the “The numbers are a past where we did it after a patient positive development. was medically put to sleep. Now It means many of us we do when he is awake. Those are silently immune patients would earlier have gone on to the infection” for oxygen support or been put on Jugal Kishore ventilators. But not now” Department of Community Medicine, Rahul Pandit director, Intensive Unit at Fortis, Mumbai Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi

suggested that antibodies may not provide lasting immunity. For in shares. that, a vaccine that triggers both and antibody and T-cell response The current studies also show that most of these vaccine candi- would be more lasting. Some like A Velumani, the managing di- dates come with side-effects, such as headaches, chills and fatigue. rector of Thyrocare, suggest that we should not rule out the poten- In Moderna’s case, in at least 80 per cent instances, this could have tial of antibodies in fighting cancer. He points out, on Twitter, that been enough to interfere with participants’ normal activities. A if the survey by Thyrocare is looked at, over 18 crore Indians are participant even came out to the media talking about how bad already ‘silently immune’. And that the mortality rate, currently the reactions were. In the Oxford vaccine trial, while the press estimated to be about 2.5 per cent, could be significantly smaller. release claimed there were ‘minor side effects’, the paper shows ‘In India only 1/10,000 exposed die, high immunity. In Western that moderate or severe harm—defined as being bad enough to rich countries 1/500 exposed die, poor immunity,’ he tweeted. interfere with normal life or requiring medical care—was also Velumani points out that if the number of people developing fairly common. About a third of people administered the vaccine antibodies continues to expand in India, to about 25 per cent by without paracetamol experienced moderate or severe headache, the end of this year, and about 40 per cent by March 2021, if a vac- chills, fatigue, feverishness and malaise. Nearly 10 per cent devel- cine or effective drug hasn’t arrived by then, it may not really be oped a fever of around 100.4 degrees. That’s quite a lot when one needed after that. considers that the participants roped in were mostly young and without any underlying health issues. “The thing is you can’t say it is unsafe. But it is not like other ne reason why many of these leading vaccine modern vaccines which don’t produce such degree of side effects,” manufacturers have managed to cramp a timeframe that Rath says. “If one of these candidates is to be found effective and would make years into a few months is because they had these side effects persist, it could face difficulties in acceptance O already been working on vaccines quite similar to this one. from people.” The researchers from Oxford were working on a vaccine for the It is also difficult to ascertain from these results whether the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) virus, a type of deadly immune response triggered is effective to grant immunity. “There coronavirus, right before Covid-19. Moderna was developing a is an elephant in the room when it comes to immune responses. Zika vaccine. Already some people are beginning to make comparisons or say The technologies they employ are also quite novel. The things like Moderna’s candidate looks better than the Oxford Oxford vaccine deploys something of a Trojan horse-like system, a one,” he says. “[These sensitivity tests] are like having a weigh- chimpanzee adenovirus (a common cold virus) with genetic ma- ing balance that can weigh one gram accurately and one that terial from the surface spike protein of the Covid-19 virus being can weigh only 100 grams accurately. If I don’t know that I am injected into our bodies and tricking the immune system to fight weighing a kilogram [of something], one balance will show I have back. CanSino and Johnson & Johnson are also developing simi- a weight one thousand above my detection limit. The other will lar vaccines but using a human adenovirus instead. Moderna’s say I have something tenfold above. You can’t say which is bet- candidate is a more revolutionary concept. It doesn’t contain any ter. We should not be anxiously looking at these numbers and pathogen and is hence considered safer than traditional vaccines. over-interpreting them at this point. Whether [the immunity] In it, an engineered strand of messenger RNA instructs the body’s response confers protection is a different question altogether. cells to produce a very specific part of a pathogen that will ignite None of the papers claims or addresses it,” he says. an immune response. So where are we now with these vaccines? They do all that we None of these frontrunners is however without its concerns. could ask of them at this preliminary stage. If their results hold Many of them have conducted strong PR campaigns champion- up in the next big trial that will check for efficacy, and with the ing their candidates. Moderna, for instance, issued a press release rapid improvements in drugs and hospital care, we may perhaps of positive results from early trials right before the company have an exit strategy for Covid-19 much earlier than some of us came out with a stock offering where it sold off nearly $30 million had thought. n

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 33 Cover story Expert A Tale of Three Vaccines The world has responded to Covid-19 by developing and testing vaccines at record speed By Shahid Jameel

omorrow. Vaccines. Just saying.’ they can be used on large population groups. The testing is broad- Rarely have four words generated such excitement ly divided into pre-clinical (or animal) and clinical (or human) and expectation as the short tweet above. The tweet on testing. The human testing is done on volunteers and in stages— Sunday, July 19th, from Richard Horton, editor-in-chief Phase I tests safety and dosage in a few people; Phase II repeats of Lancet, a UK-based medical journal, referred to the safety and sets dosage for larger groups of people; and Phase III release of clinical trial results of two separate Covid-19 involves large-scale efficacy testing whereby those receiving the vaccines—the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine (called vaccine (or placebo) are allowed to get naturally infected. At each ChAdOx1-nCov19) and the CanSino Biologics vaccine stage, an independent monitoring team tracks the trial. An inde- (called Ad5-nCoV19). pendent national regulator reviews the data to allow progression TWith over 14.7 million confirmed cases and over 0.6 million and gives the final approval. Thereafter, a vaccine can be licensed deaths globally as of July 20th, vaccines are being viewed as an for public use. While this process used to take years, testing time- important tool in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. With lines have been compressed significantly during the pandemic over 170 different vaccines in various stages of development, and by conducting multiple development tracks in parallel. with over 35 vaccines in human clinical trials, this is a jubilant Vaccines work by developing two types of immunity. Humor- celebration of science and the culmination of years of hard work al immunity is based on antibodies produced by B cells, which towards the development of suitable vaccine platforms. bind the virus to prevent its entry into cells and thus limit its mul- A vaccine is a substance that resembles the disease-causing tiplication. Cellular immunity, which is based on T cells, helps agent (in this case, the SARS-CoV-2 virus) but does not cause dis- develop more robust and long-lasting antibodies as well as killer ease. It trains the body’s immune system to recognise and kill the T cells. The latter seek out and destroy virus-infected cells. virus, and create a memory for the future. There are multiple ways The past week saw publication of results from clinical trials to make vaccines. These include whole viruses, which are either of three different Covid-19 vaccines. killed with chemicals (inactivated vaccines) or weakened in some On July 20th, Lancet reported on the Oxford/AstraZeneca vac- manner to not cause disease (attenuated vaccines). Protein-based cine, which uses the common cold adenovirus from chimpan- (subunit) vaccines use the purified surface protein of the virus. zees, modified to not cause disease in humans, to produce the These and other proteins can also be produced inside the body by Spike (or S) protein of SARS-CoV-2. This is the major protein cov- using DNA or RNA (genetic) vaccines, or by using other viruses ering the virus surface and binds to the cellular receptor (called as ‘trojan horses’ (viral vector) to deliver vaccines. ACE2) to allow the virus to enter cells. The Phase I/II randomised Vaccines require extensive development and testing before clinical trials used a single injection of either ChAdOx1-nCoV19

34 27 july 2020 (vaccine group) or a licensed vaccine against bacterial meningitis from Moderna, a US biotechnology company, was the first to be (placebo group) in 1,077 healthy adults (age 18-55 years) at five administered on humans. It contains a messenger RNA (mRNA) centres in the UK. The vaccine was safe and well-tolerated, and for the S protein encapsulated in a lipid (or fat) nanoparticle. Its neutralising antibodies were observed in the blood of over 90 per Phase I results in 45 volunteers (age 18-55 years) at three different A Tale of Three Vaccines cent of the volunteers for the entire 56-day observation period. A doses of 25, 100 or 250 micrograms showed the vaccine to be gener- small group of 10 volunteers also received a booster dose, which ally safe and well-tolerated, except for some adverse events at the was well-tolerated and showed a strong neutralising antibody highest dose. After two vaccinations, all volunteers developed response. All participants receiving the vaccine showed T cell neutralising antibodies and T cell responses. With a fast-track de- responses against the S protein. velopment pathway, the company has moved into Phase II trials The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is currently in Phase II/III on 600 volunteers split in two groups of 18-55 years and 55-plus in the UK and in Phase III trials in Brazil years of age. It is also recruiting 30,000 vol- and South Africa. AstraZeneca has part- unteers for its Phase III testing. nered with nine companies globally In India, two vaccines were recently with a commitment to produce 2 bil- approved for Phase I/II clinical trials after lion doses of the vaccine. One of these is With over 170 different completing pre-clinical studies. the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, vaccines in various The Zydus Cadila vaccine candidate, which has committed to produce up to 1 ZyCoV-D, is a DNA expressing the S billion doses for India and GAVI, a global stages of development, protein, developed with support from vaccine alliance that provides vaccines the Department of Biotechnology, Gov- to the poorest countries. Clinical testing and with over 35 vaccines ernment of India. Its Phase I includes 48 for this vaccine will start in India by Au- in human clinical trials, volunteers across four groups in a ran- gust of this year. These steps auger well domised, placebo-controlled and dose- for global access to this vaccine. this is a jubilant escalating study. The Phase II testing The Lancet of July 20th also pub- would have similar design and would lished results from Phase II trials of the celebration of science include 1,000 volunteers. The Bharat Bio- CanSino Biologics vaccine. This uses a and the culmination of tech vaccine candidate, Covaxin, which human adenovirus called Ad5, which is being developed in partnership with is incapacitated to multiply in human years of hard work the Indian Council of Medical Research, cells, to express the S protein. The Phase I is a killed viral vaccine. On July 15th, the trial results for this vaccine were already company initiated Phase I trials on 350 published earlier (Lancet, May 22nd). In volunteers located at 12 trial sites across this Phase II study, 508 unexposed volunteers (age 18-83 years) in India. The volunteers were distributed across four groups in a Wuhan, China were randomly divided across three groups, two of randomised, placebo-controlled and dose-escalating study. Phase which received the vaccine at 1x1011 and 5x1010 viral particles, II, with similar design, would use 750 volunteers. Both ZyCoV-D respectively, and the third group received a placebo. The vaccine and Covaxin trials are expected to be completed in about three was well-tolerated, with 85 per cent of the volunteers develop- months. ing neutralising antibodies and over 90 per cent developing T What must one look for in Covid-19 vaccines? There is general cell responses to the S protein for the 28-day observation period. consensus on the following questions. Do people develop im- On July 15th, the results of another vaccine trial were published munity? If yes, how long does the immunity last? What kind of in the New England Journal of Medicine. The mRNA-1273 vaccine immune responses must developers look for? How do we know

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 35 Cover story Expert

Manufacturing capacity and access would be the other challenges, and these require global cooperation. Dr Francis Collins (Director, National Institutes of Health, US) and Dr Anthony Fauci (Director, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, US) recognised this when they wrote in the journal Science on May 29th getty images

if a vaccine is likely to work? Will it be safe to administer to tibody responses to antigens in killed viral vaccines. Experience large populations? from the Respiratory Syncytial virus killed vaccine that led to the Clinical research, especially longitudinal studies in which death of two toddlers in 1966 serves a cautionary note. patients are followed post-recovery, can answer some of these Manufacturing capacity and access would be the other chal- questions. Though neutralising antibodies seem to get depleted lenges, and these require global cooperation. Dr Francis Collins in patients in about four months post the onset of symptoms, (Director, National Institutes of Health, US) and Dr Anthony Fau- studies have shown longer-lasting T cell responses in people ci (Director, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, exposed to not just SARS-CoV-2, but also SARS-CoV (in 2003) US) recognised this when they wrote in the journal Science on May and in a subset of people with no history of SARS or Covid-19. 29th. ‘The ability to manufacture hundreds of millions to billions This presumably comes from exposure to the common cold of doses of vaccine requires the vaccine-manufacturing capacity coronaviruses, and bodes well for a memory response follow- of the entire world,’ they wrote. ‘Cost, distribution system, cold ing another exposure. It is hoped that some vaccine candidates chain requirements, and delivery of widespread coverage are all would behave similarly, but that would involve longer-term potential constriction points in the eventual delivery of vaccines tracking, testing and analysis. So far, such due diligence on vac- to individuals and communities. All of these issues require global cines has not been possible due to the short follow-up of volun- cooperation among organizations involved in health care deliv- teers in accelerated clinical trials. ery and economics.’ Though encouraging, results from these recent clinical trials Global vaccine manufacturing capacity stands at about 8 also reveal gaps. The Oxford/AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines billion doses annually, which includes all the childhood and have so far been tested primarily on Caucasian volunteers, and the seasonal flu vaccines. How much Covid-19 vaccine would be CanSino Biologics vaccine was tested only on volunteers in Wu- needed will depend upon the doses it takes for reasonable im- han city. Besides gender, ethnic and geographic diversity of test munity and the levels at which herd immunity can be achieved. populations are crucial before a vaccine is approved for public use. For 60 per cent vaccine coverage and two doses, we are looking There are scientific challenges as well. The adenovirus plat- at 9 to 10 billion doses to achieve herd immunity. There may not form has so far been licensed for just one human vaccine, for be enough vaccine for everyone for a few years, and this will lead Ebola, and that too only in July. Much remains to be learned about to access challenges. the efficacy of these vaccines, especially those that use the adeno- The issues notwithstanding, this is a time to reflect on the virus 5 backbone, such as the CanSino Biologics vaccine. A very value of science and the return on investments made in research. large portion of the world population has already been exposed to There cannot be a better example of this than how the world this common cold virus and carries antibodies and memory to it. has responded to Covid-19 by developing and testing vaccines How this would impact repeat injections and long-term efficacy at pandemic speed. of the vaccine is not understood. Similarly, no vaccines that use Let this not be forgotten when Covid-19 is genetic platforms, such as the Moderna (mRNA) and the Zydus behind us. n Cadila (DNA) vaccines, have so far received licensure for human use. The Bharat Biotech killed viral vaccine is a known and tested Shahid Jameel is a virologist and CEO of the platform. However, careful studies are required to understand an- DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance

36 3 august 2020 While Inside Look Outside For FREE With access visit www.openthemagazine.com Cover story Essay Beginnings and Alternative Ends The trajectory of pandemics suggests that humanity will always triumph in the end but without control over the time and toll By Madhavankutty Pillai

hen does a pandemic really begin? Was it when of Exeter. “Looking back, we have a weak narrative. For whom the Chinese first realised in a hospital that there was does the epidemic end, and who gets to say?” a new virus and kept the knowledge hidden in the One must always be suspicious when anyone answers a ques- hope of containing it in secret? Is it when the world tion with a question but the last quote above is a valid point if realises with curious interest that there is a ripple in you look at a disease that changed the course of history more the disease universe thousands of kilometres away? than anything else in the last 1,000 years. The bubonic plague Is it the mild alarm of a first case on home shores? Or decimated the population of Europe by at least one-third after it Wis it when, finally, a lockdown is first announced which suddenly first appeared there in 1347, thought to be its starting point from turns the spread and danger real and makes everyone a partici- Western history’s point of view. The outbreak actually began a pant in its containment? Even up to a few days before Narendra couple of decades earlier in China but for most of the world for Modi’s announcement of a three-week lockdown, the token Jana- many centuries, it was irrelevant information. And the end of ta curfew was considered by most people as a day of celebration. that particular outbreak—more would follow in later centu- The beginning of house arrest could count as the psychological ries—which lasted for about 50 years has also for long been seen beginning of the pandemic. And what then would be the end? only from the European point of view because all of history was Would there be a real end when the virus itself is eliminated? Or from the lens of their civilisation. One of the plague’s fallout is the threat of the virus from causing any damage even if it is pres- thought to be European domination of the world and the answer ent, leading to a cosy co-existence, like the common cold or the of ‘who gets to say’ is the ones whose memories travel the most. flu virus, that is the best of both worlds for all species concerned? The selective remembrance can be seen in India itself when it Will the end also be a psychological event and not a medical one? comes to the worst pandemic humanity has ever known—the In early May, a New York Times article argued that would be the Spanish flu of 1918. It killed at least 50 million all over the world. case because for most people the question they are asking when The biggest toll was in India: about 18 million could have died. they ask about the pandemic’s end is when the fear will end. The That is every single person who lives in Mumbai today dying off article quoted historians who seemed to say what many epidemi- in the space of a year. And yet, who remembers such a calamity ologists too have been saying—the end is when mankind learns even though in families there will often be a memory of someone to live with the virus—as exemplified by this extract: “‘When who died. A few weeks ago, I was speaking to a retired journalist people ask, ‘When will this end?,’ they who is in his 70s and he casually men- are asking about the social ending,” said tioned that his grandmother had died Jeremy Greene, a historian of medicine after her pregnancy from the Spanish at Johns Hopkins. In other words, an end flu. The history of that pandemic was can occur not because a disease has been The beginning of house never explored in full here, the oral his- vanquished but because people grow arrest could count as tories never collated and its horrendous tired of panic mode and learn to live with impact remains not even a blip in the a disease. Allan Brandt, a Harvard histo- the psychological collective memory. And it began almost rian, said something similar was hap- as Covid-19 began, in some far country, pening with Covid-19: “As we have seen beginning of the with a ship getting the first spreaders in the debate about opening the economy, pandemic. And what would into a city and then the virus wreaking many questions about the so-called end havoc in stages. The virus came in three are determined not by medical and public be the end? Would there be waves. One mild wave in the summer. health data but by sociopolitical process- Then the deadly one that targeted in es.” Endings “are very, very messy”, said a real end when the the northern hemisphere in Septem- Dora Vargha, a historian at the University virus itself is eliminated? ber; the virus had mutated by then and

38 3 august 2020 Beginnings and Alternative Ends

Bishop Henri de Belsunce ministering to the victims of the Plague of Marseilles in 1720 alamy Cover story Essay

this was the one responsible for majority of the deaths in the span immunity makes it possible to control infections without vacci- of just a few months as it went from India’s west coast to its east nating the entire population. There are often people who cannot like a Mexican wave. Then finally there was a milder one again in be vaccinated—such as newborn babies or those with compro- the early months of 1919, but it was now dominant elsewhere in mised immune systems—but herd immunity allows vaccinated places like European countries. After that it faded away, probably people to protect these vulnerable unvaccinated groups as well metamorphosing into a benign seasonal flu strain that no one as themselves. And if diseases can be controlled through vaccina- was afraid of any longer. These series of peaks and crests of differ- tion, they can potentially be eliminated from a population. This is ent intensities are a regular feature of pandemics depending on why herd immunity has found its way into the heart of epidemic factors like seasons that affect the transmission or the manner theory. ‘The concept has a special aura,’ as epidemiologist Paul Fine in how people congregate. When a sufficient number of people once put it.’ If and when a vaccine for Covid-19 is discovered, it will get it, herd immunity develops and then the pandemic is over. take months and years to reach all the people on earth, but the In his book The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread—and Why principle above will be used to decide on who gets it first. The most They Stop, Adam Kucharski recounts the work of two scientists, vulnerable to its effects, like the elderly, the immunocompromised William Kermack and Anderson McKendrick, in the early de- and health workers, will be first in the line. cades of the last century in finding out how epidemics end and Sometimes virus outbreaks end sooner than one expects. Co- also how the concept of herd immunity vid-19 is SARS-2 virus. SARS-1 virus also was discovered. They did a simulation of started in China a decade and a half ago an outbreak asking what would happen and spread to nearby nations and just as if a single case began in a population of the alarm bells went off for a global pan- 10,000. ‘The simulated epidemic takes a How Covid-19 will end demic, it petered off abruptly. It didn’t while to grow because only one person depends on what comes take Covid-19’s scale because it made is infectious at the start, but it still peaks the infected much more severely ill and within fifty days. And by eighty days, it’s first. If a vaccine is out by so steps could be taken early to contain all but over. Notice that at the end of the it from spreading. A Scientific American epidemic, there are still some susceptible end of the year, then give article said: ‘Thanks to aggressive epide- people left. If everyone had been infected, about half a year more for miological tactics such as isolating the then all 10,000 people would have even- sick, quarantining their contacts and tually ended up in the ‘recovered’ group. wide enough availability. implementing social controls, bad out- Kermack and McKendrick’s model sug- breaks were limited to a few locations gests that this doesn’t happen: outbreaks But even otherwise, medicines such as Hong Kong and Toronto. This can end before everyone picks up the in- might make Covid-19 containment was possible because sick- fection. ‘An epidemic, in general, comes to ness followed infection very quickly and an end before the susceptible population non-lethal. And once the obviously: almost all people with the vi- has been exhausted,’ as they put it.’ rus had serious symptoms such as fever In the beginning of the spread, the fear is over, so is the pandemic and trouble breathing. And they trans- number of new cases is much more than mitted the virus after getting quite sick, the number of recoveries. As more and not before. “Most patients with SARS more get infected, the numbers available were not that contagious until maybe a to get infected start coming down. The pool keeps shrinking, until week after symptoms appeared,” says epidemiologist Benjamin the recoveries become more than the new cases. Take the results of Cowling of the University of Hong Kong. “If they could be identi- the serosurvey of Delhi that was just revealed this week. It showed fied within that week and put into isolation with good infection that 23 per cent of the population has been infected. Which means control, there wouldn’t be onward spread.” Containment worked that the virus now has three-fourths of the population to play with. so well there were only 8,098 SARS cases globally and 774 deaths. But because there are so many who are already immune, they can’t The world has not seen a case since 2004.’ transmit it and are also chainbreakers. Once the idea of herd im- How will Covid-19 end? It depends on what comes first. If a munity became known, epidemiologists realised it could be used vaccine works out by end of the year, then give about half a year to manoeuvre the trajectory of the pandemic. Kucharski writes, more for wide enough availability. But even if a vaccine is not ‘The concept of herd immunity would find popularity several found, medicines might make Covid-19 non-lethal, like HIV has decades later, when people realised it could be a powerful tool for become now. And once the fear is over, so is the pandemic. Or disease control. During an epidemic, people naturally move out there is the third alternative. The virus could mutate to become of the susceptible group as they become infected. But for many harmless. Or none of that might happen and over the course of infections, health agencies can move people out of this group time, enough humans would have been infected for herd im- deliberately, by vaccinating them. Just as Ross suggested malaria munity to develop all across. Humans will survive and triumph could be controlled without removing every last mosquito, herd eventually, but time and toll remain the unknowns. n

40 3 august 2020 The beauty of the written word; a story well told. The luxury of immersing myself in myriad lives; journeying to faraway lands. I am obsessed. And the Reviews in Open help me discover the best. A quiet corner. An interesting book. Life’s good!

Sanjay Malik, Dubai

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The desert fox The daring and durability of Ashok Gehlot By AMITA SHAH

Photos getty images

hen Ashok Gehlot made one toral losses, being made Chief Minister again in 2018, despite of his rare appearances in the Rajas- the emergence of Sachin Pilot, 26 years younger than him, on than Assembly, sometime after the Rajasthan’s political chessboard. But ever since, Pilot, who reluc- Congress’ defeat in the 2013 Assembly tantly accepted the post of Deputy Chief Minister, has resented election, every single member from playing second fiddle to the veteran. Jodhpur division, cutting across party The dissimilarities between the two are unmistakable. lines,W made a beeline for him. Among them was Manvendra Jodhpur-born Gehlot, who was handpicked by former Prime Singh, then still with the BJP, for whom that image of Gehlot’s Minister Indira Gandhi in the 1970s as a youth helping refugees popularity remains etched in the mind. in what is now Bangladesh, rose in the party from the grassroots. At that time, the Congress, under Gehlot, was down to 21 Pilot, the son of late Congress leader and former Union minister seats in the 200-member Assembly, its worst-ever performance. Rajesh Pilot, is more of a Delhiite, having studied in the city. He Six months later, in 2014, the BJP—with Narendra Modi as its emerged on the political scene after his father died in 2000 and prime ministerial candidate—swept the state, wiping out the became the youngest Member of Parliament at 26 in 2004, join- Congress in the Lok Sabha election. Gehlot survived the elec- ing the Congress’ brigade of next-generation leaders who were

42 3 august 2020 Ashok Gehlot

nicknamed ‘babalog’. Yet, Pilot chose to leave Delhi and go to ing from the Gandhi family gave him an edge over Pilot. Unas- Rajasthan, politically investing in the state. suming, in stark contrast to his rivals within the party, Pilot, The unlikeness between Gehlot and Pilot are reflected in and Vasundhara Raje in the opposition, Gehlot is not daunted their equations within the party. After the 2018 state Assembly by his origins. Rather, he revels in his humble background. A election, when Gehlot won from Sardarpura and Pilot from teetotaller and vegetarian, he has his last meal of the day before Tonk, both landed in the capital. While Gehlot went to Mother sunset. It is said that Gehlot had to sell his motorcycle to fight his Teresa Crescent, where senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel re- first election in 1977 when he lost to the Janata Party’s Madhav sides, Pilot headed for Tughlak Road to meet Rahul Gandhi, who Singh in Jodhpur’s Sardarpura Assembly seat. Later, he went was then the Congress President. The numbers stacked in favour on to win the seat, in the Marwar region of the Thar Desert, four of Gehlot, who had a larger share of the MLAs’ support—as in times. It was in 1998, when the Congress bagged 150 of the 200 Madhya Pradesh, where Kamal Nath was made Chief Minister, seats, that he became Chief Minister for the first time, nearly 25 leaving Jyotiraditya Scindia disappointed. years after joining the party. A quintessential Congressman, always in white kurta-pyja- Like Scindia, Pilot too had nurtured hopes of getting the mas, Gehlot’s grassroots experience, political acumen and back- top job in 2018. He had put his heart and soul into ensuring the

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 43 Politics

Congress won the Rajasthan Assembly election in 2018. Earlier dent of the party’s state unit, he has not joined the BJP, but has that year, Pilot, who was Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Commit- taken his battle to the court, challenging the disqualification tee chief, was credited with the Congress winning the Lok Sabha of the MLAs backing him. With these MLAs disqualified, the bypolls from Ajmer and Alwar. The message for Pilot—from a Gehlot government would comfortably sail through in a floor Congress leadership struggling with naming a president after test as the majority mark would come down. If not, it could have Rahul Gandhi stepped down—was to wait. Some party leaders a wafer-thin majority, leaving it vulnerable in a House with 72 in the state are of the view that Pilot could have been patient. He BJP members and 19 rebels. had time on his side. Gehlot is 69, and Pilot, 43. The discord between the two camps has taken a nastier turn The aftermath of Pilot’s revolt has exposed the intensity of the with an MLA from the Gehlot camp, Giriraj Singh Malinga, al- bitterness. For those who have known Gehlot closely, his public leging that Pilot had offered him Rs 35 crore to join the BJP. Pilot outbursts against Pilot have come as a surprise, negating his ‘nice has served a legal notice to Malinga for what he claims are false guy’ image. As his mask slipped below his nose, he pulled it off and malicious statements to the media. his face and launched a scathing attack into the mikes thrust at A former Congress leader says that Pilot, also chosen by him, dubbing pilot “nikamma” (worthless) and “naakara” (idle). the Gandhis as party chief in Rajasthan, had started feel- He accused Pilot of backstabbing. ing increasingly isolated as Sonia Gandhi had more faith Dheeraj Srivastava, who was Principal Officer onS pecial in the “old lobby” of Gehlot, Patel and other leaders. Before Duty to Gehlot for over four years Scindia, the Congress had lost its lead- from 1999, says that it is unlike him er in Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, to to lash out in public. “Generally, he’s the BJP. He is now the party’s strategist always smiling, cracking jokes and if for the entire Northeast. Former Tri- at all he loses his cool, it’s only when pura Congress chief and royal scion he’s genuinely disturbed.” According With his nose to the Kirit Pradyot Deb Barman quit the to Srivastava, Gehlot had given him grindstone, Gehlot Congress and formed The Indigenous standing instructions that if ever he Progressive Regional Alliance, aimed got angry with someone, he should proved to be an effective at ‘protecting the rights of tribal com- reach out to that person. This strategy munities’ in the state. “It’s not about of bridging the gap kept everyone in organisation man. As young versus old. It’s about relevance. good humour. party general secretary Several leaders who are working on The Gandhis, each with a different the ground outside Delhi have been worldview, appear to be caught be- in charge of organisation, overlooked,” Barman tells Open. tween Gehlot and Pilot. They want to Gehlot’s unflinching loyalty to take neither the onus of pushing out he did well. The Congress the Gandhi family has also paid off. the younger leader nor the chance of put up a good fight on Manvendra Singh, BJP leader Jaswant asking the satrap to tone down his Singh’s son who quit the party and rhetoric. While the Congress has tried Prime Minister Modi’s joined the Congress in 2018, recalls to infuse fresh blood, the party has home turf, Gujarat, and how, when he kept referring to Rahul shown an increasing dependence on Gandhi as “Rahul Gandhi”, Gehlot regional satraps—Amarinder Singh in Karnataka ticked him off saying that he was in Punjab, Gehlot in Rajasthan and the party leader and should be called Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh. “Rahul Gandhiji”. Gehlot’s attack comes at a time Yet, when Gehlot’s daughter got when the Congress leadership is married in 2001, he had kept it a fam- trying to reach out to Pilot in an attempt to mitigate the crisis. ily affair and did not even invite Sonia Gandhi. He told Srivastava The rebellion in the Rajasthan Congress was only a matter of that no hotel room needed to be booked as he would not be invit- time, after Madhya Pradesh, where the revolt was led by Scin- ing any VIP and there would be no extravaganza. Srivastava could dia, who happens to be Raje’s nephew. It was a forewarning to not believe at first that a Chief Minister’s daughter would be mar- the Congress in Rajasthan. While Scindia, at loggerheads with ried this way, but it did turn out to be a simple wedding, attended veteran Kamal Nath—again a generational struggle—moved by close relatives and friends. His family did not use the official to the BJP and managed to topple the Congress government in vehicle and his children were often seen taking a rickshaw. “He Madhya Pradesh, Gehlot succeeded in getting the backing of had such an aura that no one dared to flout his directions,” recalls 102 MLAs (including the Congress’ 87), just one more than the Srivastava. He goes on to add: “Ashok Gehlot’s action spoke louder majority mark in the 200-member Assembly. Pilot, who initially than his words. He believed that ‘example is better than precept’. claimed the support of 30 MLAs, finally walked away with just He was not a hypocrite. When he said limited guests, he meant it. 18. Removed from the posts of Deputy Chief Minister and Presi- He wanted to attend to each one of them personally.”

44 3 august 2020 A quintessential Congressman, Gehlot’s grassroots experience, political acumen and backing from the Gandhi family gave him an edge over Pilot. Unassuming, in stark contrast to his rivals within the party, Gehlot is not daunted by his origins. Rather, he revels in his humble background

Gehlot with Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi

With his nose to the grindstone, Gehlot proved to be an ef- takes everyone along, cutting across caste lines.” The 2013 de- fective organisation man. As party general secretary in charge feat, when the Congress won only one seat on his home turf of of organisation, one of the three crucial individuals besides the Jodhpur, did not dampen his spirits as he always said winning party president and Ahmed Patel, he did well. The Congress put and losing were part of electoral politics. In 2018, the Congress up a good fight on Prime Minister Modi’s home turf, Gujarat, won seven of the 10 seats in Jodhpur district. and in Karnataka. Srivastava recalls that Gehlot made a schedule of visits to vari- “Gehlot was seen as a model Congress leader who started ous leaders of all parties, giving top priority to Congress veterans, from scratch, till he brought his son into the picture,” says Ra- and made a list of their requirements. When he decided to orga- sheed Kidwai, the author of Sonia: A Biography and 24 Akbar nise a food scheme for the poor, Srivastava cautioned that people Road. After the 2019L ok Sabha debacle, Rahul Gandhi had said from outside may also come to get the food. “He told me that as at a meeting that some of the senior party leaders had priori- long the food was going to the needy it was fine,” Srivastava says. tised their sons’ election. But he did not name anyone. Gehlot’s This is not the first time that Sonia Gandhi has stood by the son Vaibhav, who was contesting from Jodhpur, lost to the BJP’s satrap. When the party’s Jat lobby, known to have an uneasy Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, now a Union minister and in the relationship with Gehlot, sought a larger share of seats, she asked eye of the storm over leaked videos. Rajasthan Police’s Special them to have faith in the panel headed by former Prime Minis- Operations Group has registered two FIRs alleging conspiracy ter Manmohan Singh to finalise the seats. In 2013, Gehlot, who to topple the state government, following a complaint by the belongs to the Mali (OBC) caste, was himself worried about Jats Congress that three audiotapes detailed the plot. Shekhawat turning against the Congress. In 2018, when the Congress fought said Gehlot was avenging his son’s defeat. without projecting a chief ministerial face, Gehlot was seen to Back in Jodhpur, those who have worked with Gehlot laud be having a wider appeal compared to Pilot, a Gujjar. his “simplicity”. Shravan Ram Patel, a PCC member of Rajasthan The last word is perhaps yet to be said in the Rajasthan Con- from Looni in Jodhpur, who has known Gehlot since 1998, says gress. It is to be seen what tricks Gehlot, son of a magician, has that he is the Congress’ tallest leader in the state, particularly in up his sleeve, and what is in store for Pilot, who had pinned his the rural areas: “He is accessible to everyone, big or small, and hopes on a political future in the state. n

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 45 Sport

, india no 2 chess player

anish giri, world no 10 chess player

alamy virtual checkmate Chess streaming goes mainstream in india with top-ranked players and youtubers collaborating to create a new audience

46 By V Shoba

t is a manic Monday on India No 2 Vidit Gujrathi’s YouTube channel. He is new to chess streaming, but being the first Indian to sidle into the online world, has netted him 50,000 subscribers in under three months. Today, he has nine faces crowding his stream, including two formidable chess , personages—Teimour Radjabov and Anish Giri, the world No 9 and 10, re- india no 4 spectively. Except they are not so formidable when they are trash-talking and chess player chill-streaming with Gujrathi. Together, they are ‘The Wolfpack’—bhediyon ka jhund, as Radjabov, Raja Babu or Baku ka Daku to his newfound Indian fans, helpfully translated in a past stream. The pros are teaming up with standup comicsi Samay Raina, Biswakalyan Rath and Vaibhav Sethia to play hand-brain chess, an internet variant of the game with the players who are the brains highlighting the pieces to move and those who are the hands making the moves. It is a raucous battle of wits, worlds apart from pro chess. The chess is, in fact, secondary here. “You sound like you keep losing your internet connection,” says Rath, one of India’s brightest comedians, doing a Giri impression, down to his Dutch accent and staccato delivery. “You do too, except you actually lose internet,” retorts Giri. With his deadpan wit and dry humour, Giri, easily the funniest of the top-ranked chess players in the world, started streaming on his own just three weeks ago—his first stream on July 6th, where he starts with a chess.com rating of 2,000 and finishes two hours later at 2,708, has over 93,000 views. “I am not funny,” Gujrathi tells me over a WhatsApp call. “I am still confused about my identity as a streamer. When I play chill-chess with comedians, I get a lot of views, but when I play a Titled Tuesday tournament on chess.com, I still get 10,000 viewers watching live. I don’t know what people want from me. What I do know is that there is no other sport where the India No 2 is streaming so often.” Streaming is a little like talking to oneself and it wasn’t easy for Gujrathi to find his voice at first. “Now I have opened up and I am comfortable talking about my state of mind, about eating with an audience watching. My social circle has grown. And I look forward to streaming at the end of a day of serious prep. It’s my time to relax,” says the 25-year-old from Nashik who has been streaming nearly every day—from tournaments and challenges to banter blitz with other guests. “He is busy counting the money,” jibes Radjabov when Gujrathi appears distracted midway through the nine-in-one stream, referring to earnings from the ‘super chat’—a monetisation feature on YouTube where viewers can donate real money to the streamer in exchange for virtual attention. To no one’s surprise, the talk of the town is Anshuman Das, a mysterious fan from Odisha who has been giving away Rs 10,000 every day to every Indian chess stream worth his time, spawning memes about his wealth. “I didn’t start streaming for money but the visibility it has given me has brought with it new opportunities,” Gujrathi tells me. “I am in talks with a couple of brands for promotions Sagar shah, and collaborations. It is a rare opportunity for a chess player, but it just goes to show how co-founder and ceo, popular the game has become under lockdown.” chessbase india After much hemming and hawing, his compatriot Adhiban Baskaran, who has stolen the show as a guest on others’ YouTube streams, has finally given in to popular demand and launched his own channel. Ranked India No 4, Baskaran, in a sombrero and his lucky ‘superman’ T-shirt, is on Gujrathi’s stream today, which is enough to flood the live chat with messages of support for ‘the Beast’, as he is known to chess lovers. Within a couple of minutes of announcing his channel, Baskaran’s list of subscribers has crossed 1,000, and a minute later, 2,000; at the time of going to press, with no content on his channel, he had over 8,200 subscribers. “A hundred years later when people celebrate International Chess Day, they won’t know it as the day the International Chess Federa- tion (FIDE) was founded, but as the day Adhiban started his channel,” jokes Sagar Shah,

www.openthemagazine.com 47 Sport

a chess analyst and mentor, and the ninth man—the sole woman on the stream is Tania Sachdev, India no 4 in women’s chess—in what looks like a primetime TV grid. Livestreams are appointment television in the age of on-demand movies and shows. More new bandwidth in India is filled up by followers rushing to finish the day’s work or Zoom lessons to keep their date with a favourite YouTuber than by award-winning web shows. Unscripted and rough round the edges, they can hook you and never let you go as you watch your icons rant, rage, play, joke and swear in real time. With the world in lockdown, among the streamers who got busier than ever, was a cohort of pro chess play- ers and analysts who were suddenly drawing tens of thousands of live viewers. Worldwide, chess streaming has truly sprung into the mainstream, with world No 18 and reigning blitz champion leading the charge backed by a fan base of over 324,000 or two, Raina has steered his existing fan base towards chess while on YouTube and 477,000 on Twitch, a streaming platform for gam- also acquiring a new class of followers who had a passing interest ers. The American’s streams are mental circus acts featuring simul- in the game. While pros like Sagar Shah have increasingly been taneous plays where he easily dispatches his opponents, analyses commentating on tournaments online, walking viewers through both in real time and past games, and plays blindfolded or without positions and discussing scenarios several moves down the line, a few pieces, all of it while talking up his audience. SP Sethuraman, those who are only just discovering the game cannot keep up a 27-year-old Grandmaster from Chennai who has been watching with such content. All it took to convert them, however, was an the chess streaming boom from the outside, has a theory about why entertaining motormouth struggling to cross over to chess while Nakamura is successful as a streamer. “YouTube mirrors and ampli- befriending and roasting pros. Raina’s channel, with 223,000 sub- fies the personality of an expressive player like Nakamura. When scribers, has almost exclusively streamed chess since the lock- I played against him in the 2017 Isle of Man International Masters down, starting with a charity chess tournament among others in tournament, I had to try hard not to look at him. His expressions can April that featured India No 1 , who played be deceptive for an opponent but they are entertaining for a chess comic Abish Matthew in an absurdist version of the game. Hav- stream,” he says, adding that Asian players are rarely expressive. ing Antonio Radic, the Croatian chess YouTuber better known Even so, when Vidit Gujrathi, upon Samay Raina’s invitation, took as Agadmator, on his stream, helped shore up his confidence and on American Grandmaster and star streamer Alexandra Botez in a chess viewership—much like Comicstaan had boosted his comic three-game blindfold simultaneous match, there were over 20,000 cred. So when Gujrathi, who keenly follows standup comedy, watching live. “To put it in perspective, that’s like three-fourth of responded to a retweet indicating he was open to a match, Raina Wankhede Stadium watching a chess game. We have never seen jumped at the opportunity. The two have since become “3 am bud- such numbers in India except for World Championship games. dies” and share great chemistry onstream. “The biggest learning So much for chess not being a spectator sport,” says Shah. “Much from this whole experiment is that chess players watch comedy of the credit goes to Samay Raina, who has created a new category and comedians play chess,” Raina tells me. “It was this realisation of chess enthusiasts.” that chess players are so cool that made me engage with them “I also get a lot of hate for spoiling chess and for singlehandedly more and more.” Raina has helped promote chess in the most bringing down the level of Indian players,” jokes Raina, over a phone unconventional ways. He has rechristened flagging, or winning call. He refers to the online Nations Cup in early May where Gujrathi on time in a short game even from bad positions, the “Jammu and Baskaran faltered. “If Vidit is playing a tournament, I sit up all and Kashmir gambit” and got GMs to try out gimmicks like four- night worrying that I would be blamed if he doesn’t play well.” player chess, ‘bughouse’ or exchange chess, blindfolded chess, hand-and-brain play, Counterstrike and Skribble. “Before this, we didn’t have a platform to express ourselves,” says Baskaran. ounging on his bed, with orange satin drapes behind “Whether people come for the jokes or the chess, they have been him—Giri dubs it a “wedding night theme” —Raina, 22, seeing us for the people we are. That should have a pull of its own.” Lis uncharacteristically quiet on the International Chess Would the interest persist after the world shakes off the Co- Day stream. “He is upset that the bird has left the nest,” Giri prof- vid-19 threat and regular tournaments resume? “We have created fers. “Now that there is going to be a vaccine for Covid, Samay is an audience, a new market for fun chess streams. Since we are pio- worried the lockdown will end,” jokes Rath. Watching them lob neers, people are very sweet to us, they reach out and console us, insults, Raina probably feels a twinge of achievement at bringing make memes out of memorable moments, and we love this world. them all together. An amateur chess player, he has streamed more It has become a family that I have to meet every day,” Raina says. games in the past three months than he has played in his entire His subscribers are mostly beginners with a ranking of 1,000 and life. Taking on random opponents at a similar skill level, and invit- below on chess.com, a popular platform for online chess that hosts ing pros and other streamers to his stream to play with a handicap more than a million games a day.

48 3 august 2020 some jokes,” says Giri, who, on one occasion, agreed to play Skrib- ble with Raina if he could direct a few hundred subscribers to his channel. “I was seriously quite hesitant to play any other game on stream, but we managed to negotiate a good deal,” Giri jokes. “Chess is a very specific sport and requires some patience to first learn the rules and then slowly improve to start understanding Samay raina’s what is going on, at least on a basic level. In that sense, it is less youtube channel accessible than many other large sports. It is also the opposite of comedy, where you want to make jokes that most people will get. But chess brings incredible rewards at every stage of learning after you have invested the initial time and effort.” “What Samay has done is opened a window to the chess com- munity, which is like any other sporting community. The stereotype of the serious chess player has been broken,” says Shah. “Chess is not Shah, who been coaching Raina, Rath and Sethia to play better a science for Samay. It is like an engaging video game and that’s how on a daily morning livestream, says they are intelligent players he plays it.” Shah’s platform, Chessbase India, has also soared dur- who have improved quickly, but that is not the only reason for ing the lockdown, and interest in serious sessions for aspiring chess Raina’s rapid and stunning rise. He has worked hard not just on players is on the rise, he says. The channel doesn’t stop at streaming, his game—his current chess.com rating hovers around 1,250—but but also analyses games, often with pros like Anish Giri, also on social connections and event management, venturing and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, besides putting out primers on into new worlds to make unlikely friends with the likes of Carry popular moves and tactics. Minati, Bhuvan Bam, pilot-vlogger Gaurav Taneja aka Flying While popular streams aim to make the heroes of chess more Beast, rappers Raftaar and Krsna. They have all brought with approachable, Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly, among them hordes of fans, some of whom have the top 10 Indian pros who also holds the stayed back and started following Raina. distinction of having been Anand’s To return the favour, Raina is in the habit second, has started a channel where he delves of ‘raiding’ other channels. A raid helps a deeper into their professional lives. With streamer send his or her viewers to another With the world 4,390 subscribers, he caters to an audience live stream, temporarily boosting its view- in lockdown, among that truly appreciates chess and is looking ership. In Raina’s case, however, his follow- the streamers who for a peep into top players’ minds. After ers are literally that—they do his bidding got busier than a four-part series with Anand, where the by spamming the raided channel’s live latter, in a rare gesture, went over details chat with ‘Samay raid’ or ‘Samay OP’—OP ever, was a cohort of past preparations, Ganguly’s channel stands for overpower, a term of apprecia- of pro chess featured a deep dive into the multifaceted tion on fan chat—until you can no longer players and personality that is , the tell if it’s a prank, a hustle, power play, or a analysts who were world No 7, in his first major interview simple act of support. “One cannot deny suddenly drawing since his wife’s death in a car crash. “I know that Samay has been a catalyst for interest these players and I know what it takes to in chess streams in India, even by pros. I tens of thousands get there. And while it’s easy to dismiss had planned to set up my YouTube chan- of live viewers my channel as elitist, I think amateurs nel, but never found the time before the too would like to understand how the lockdown. Samay and Vidit then helped chess greats got to be so great,” Ganguly me set up the live stream too,” says Rad- says. “I have nothing against casual chess jabov. “I like Nakamura; he is really good at streaming, but what we streams,” he hastens to add. “But I hope they’d stop swearing are doing with Vidit and Anish is more my style—chilled, friendly on stream because chess draws a very young audience.” The streams, Wolfpack specials and so on,” he adds. “I am an introvert chats on Ganguly’s channel often feature GMs and are moder- and don’t like talking about myself but hanging out with friends, ated by young players, including Praggnanandhaa and Divya playing and analysing online, and receiving countless messages Deshmukh. “Chess is that rare sport where you can take part from fans, saying that they have just discovered chess during these while a game is going on. You can think along with the player,” hard times, make me want to stream more and more.” Ganguly says. As they branch out to find their respective niches on the web, The endgame for chess streaming will unravel over the the pros are each in search of a sweet spot, the perfect balance of coming months as the world opens up again. “I am curious to see chess and fun that also showcases their personalities. “People do how Vidit Gujrathi, who is the Olympiad Captain, juggles pro have to realise that I am a professional chess player. I am not a chess and streaming,” says Sethuraman. “That should give us a comedian that plays some chess, I am a chess streamer that makes clearer picture of the future of pro streaming in India.” n

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 49 Letter from Lahore

The Ideal and the Real Will Imran Khan be Pakistan’s first Prime Minister to last a full term?

hat was one of the was the new ruler, and Pakistan changed, one sombre day at a time. first questions that per- Zia, like most people in power, did not keep his promises. He plexed my mind when promised a better Pakistan. He promised elections. Pakistan was T I learned to read as a pri- democracy-less. Most of the prominent political leaders were in mary school child the Urdu of the jail or in exile. Many of them, most notably, PPP leaders, continued newspaper Nawa-e-Waqt. The word to fight for democracy. Bhutto was the martyr of democracy every- was ‘gormint’. It also appeared in one mourned but not many dared to celebrate as the hero that he daily bulletins of PTV that my dadaji was to millions of Pakistanis. Unarguably, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, to By Mehr Tarar used to watch in our family home in a date, remains the most loved politician in the history of Pakistan. small Punjabi city, Sargodha. We could He taught the common man to dream. Muhammad Ali Jinnah is set our invisible watches to his entry the most revered one and would have been the most loved one if in my uncle’s room where some of us assembled for the he had not passed away in 1948, a year after Pakistan’s creation. pre-6 PM cartoons. Some of the most familiar sounds in my childhood were that of Illustration by Saurabh Singh Woody Woodpecker’s shrill cackle, Shaista Zaid’s flawless news- reading in her impeccable British English, Popeye the Sailor’s strange baritone, and Azhar Lodhi’s flawless Urdu in the 9 PM main news bulletin. Cartoons and gormint formed a fascinating mix in my life before my precocious mind understood the unique irony of it all. My first real memory of politics was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s speeches. Without understanding much of what he said, or the connotation of his fiery, passionate oration, I remember watching him riveted once I could focus on things that were not food or playing with my cousins. It was all because of my mother, living in her village, Kolo Tarar, after her separation from my fa- ther. My Ami was a Bhutto supporter. All I remember is her saying that Bhutto was “different”, and that he would change things. In 1977, one of my maternal uncles, one of my mother’s half-brothers, won a National Assembly seat on Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) ticket. There were fireworks. Everyone stayed up late, happy. Kolo that night was uncharacteristically noisy. When I was nine years old, General Zia-ul-Haq appeared as the new gormint on television. I didn’t understand what a military coup was, but Zia scared me. He was also the man with the stern face who took away Bhutto’s voice from my mother’s black-and- white Philips TV. That made me sad. My next vivid memory of politics was Bhutto’s hanging on April 4th,1979. For years, I remembered reading Pakistan Times’ headline, ‘ZA Bhutto hanged, buried in Naudero.’ Did my young mind change the words or was this the exact headline that kept popping up like an indelible sliver of a recurring nightmare in my mind since then, I don’t know. Bhutto was buried in the silence of night. There was no public funeral. I waited. Nothing was shown on Ami’s grainy black-and-white TV screen. Bhutto was gone, Zia

50 3 august 2020 On April 10th, 1986, returning from her exile, Benazir Bhutto Sitting up all night, clutching a pen and a schoolchild notebook, arrived in Lahore to a historic welcome. That day, during my sec- pages meticulously margined and divided in sections, I jotted ond year of college, symbolised hope for a different Pakistan to down every seat won by the PPP. Benazir was the leader who was me. I, like millions of Pakistanis, idolised the 33-year-old Benazir going to make Pakistan the country of my dreams. But you know as the idealistic, Oxford-Harvard-educated, brave and beautiful what they say about dreams. Most of them end when you wake up. woman who would give us the Pakistan of our dreams shattered During the walima reception of a first cousin in Islamabad, a by Zia’s nine years of stifling dictatorship. huge do attended by the who’s who of Islamabad, dressed in embel- Zia didn’t hold party-based elections. Pakistan waited for the lished wedding wear, my plate hurriedly filled with food I knew I promised change. Benazir, charismatic and determined, became wouldn’t eat. Instead of clustering around the bride, I chatted with more and more popular. Nawaz Sharif, one of Zia’s protégés, was many people who mostly nodded and grunted at my incessant the new face in Punjab’s—what do they call them—corridors that chatter about what Pakistan needed. One such gentleman was zigzag in the complex labyrinth of power in Pakistan. I thought the Pakistan Muslim League veteran leader, Chaudhary Shujaat Sharif was dull, and wasn’t popular among the masses, and would Hussain. What was and what should be and what could be in the not last long in politics. Two of my assumptions were wrong. politics of Pakistan was one of my favourite topics, and politicians Zia was assassinated in August 1988. Pakistan was stunned. I were my first choice to talk to in any gathering where everyone watched, on a colour television, in my family house in Sargodha, talked about everything and nothing. The year was 1988. I was the very long transmission of his hugely attended funeral. It was 20, and I still held my dreams tighter than the hug of a loved one. surreal. I felt sad for his family. Funerals do that to me. At a dinner in 1989 at the haveli of the socialite Yousuf Salahud- In December 1988, after the first real elections since 1977, Bena- din in Lahore’s old city, I met one of Pakistan’s then most famous zir became the first female prime minister of a Muslim country. politicians, Mustafa Khar. Bhutto’s right-hand man and former

Zia didn’t hold party-based elections. Pakistan waited for the promised change. Benazir, charismatic and determined, became more and more popular. Nawaz Sharif, one of Zia’s protégés, was the new face in Punjab. I thought Sharif wasn’t popular among the masses, and would not last long in politics

governor and chief minister of Punjab, Khar and his brothers were friends of my father. Re-introducing myself, I remember saying to him how amazing it would be if all old, trusted members of Bhutto’s original PPP reunited to help Benazir make her vision of Pakistan become a reality. Khar, ever charismatic, agreed. Bhutto’s old party remained another broken dream, and so did Benazir’s vision of a glorious Pakistan. Throughout my late teens and until now, discussing politics with politicians—how original—and everyone else I know, re- mains a constant in my life. Fast-forward the next nine years: Benazir’s government dis- missed in 1990; new elections and Sharif in power; Sharif’s gov- ernment dismissed in 1993; Benazir back in power after fresh elec- tions; Benazir’s government dismissed in 1996; Sharif’s return as the prime minister in 1997; in 1999, General Pervez Musharraf’s ouster of Sharif’s government; his rule as a dictator-trying-to-be-

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 51 Letter from Lahore

a-democratic-leader until 2007. Imran Khan formed his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in 1996. I loved Khan the cricketer, I respected Khan the philanthropist, but I did not pay attention to Khan the politician. Meeting him in 1991 and later, many times, during his fundraising days for his cancer hospital and later, I thought he was impossibly good- looking, very private, deeply dedicated to building the hospital, passionate about making cancer treatment free for the poor, and unapologetically self-centred. Most of my initial impressions of Khan remained unchanged for years. Or was it decades? My mother and many of my political memories are inter- twined. On October 12th, 1999, sitting with her in my sixth month of a very uncomfortable pregnancy, TV on mute, I noticed that the signals on my mobile phone had vanished. A few minutes later, there was news of Sharif’s ouster and Musharraf taking over—what do they call it—the reins of a fragile Pakistan. Ami and I looked at one another with our stupefied Punjabi exclama- tions. Hai, aye ki ho gaya? Tauba, hun ki hon laga aye? (Gosh, what Benazir Bhutto (centre) at her last has happened? Now what is going to happen?) campaign rally on the day she A month later, Ami, 60, passed away. It was November 6th, was assassinated in Rawalpindi, December 27, 2007 1999. The unexpectedness of her demise was a pain so great my siblings and I grieved for a long, long time. We still do. Until the world-changing death of my younger brother Babar in March 2019, Ami’s passing was my biggest grief. Babar’s loss is a giant hole in my heart that will close when I am dead. Khan became the prime minister. In the first time in my many In two months, my life changed. My son Musa was born on decades of observing the politics of Pakistan, I saw someone other January 26th, 2000. Everything else ceased to exist. The next few than a general, a Bhutto or a Sharif, come to power. Will Imran years of my life was Musa and only Musa. Twenty years later, it is Khan be the first one to finish his full term as prime minister? still Musa and only Musa. Even when he left for college in New Time will tell. York in 2017. Despite being pushed to the attic of my completely-inhabited- The politics mania became a half-forgotten indulgence. by-motherhood mind, politics still remained a passion in my life. Benazir Bhutto’s assassination on December 27th, 2007 shook I followed political happenings of my country, that of the region, Pakistan. Everyone mourned, even her harshest critics, her fierc- and the world through television, newspapers, weeklies, biogra- est rivals. Eyes fixed on a TV screen, I cried. I did that for days. Not phies and autobiographies. While taking care of my only child, I much had changed in the tragic history of the Bhutto family— often thought about what I used to say to my cousins in Sargodha: both of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s sons and Benazir’s brothers, Murtaza that when I’m a grown-up, I want a child and a career. I always and Shahnawaz, were murdered. thought I would do something important, something that would What was different now was the 24-hour coverage of Benazir’s have the power, even if in a limited capacity, to do good things. last rally, her assassination, the national response, the mourning, One part of my dreams, the most important part, the the funeral. ZulfiqarA li Bhutto was buried in the darkness of indispensable part, is my son Musa. His beautiful smile, night. His daughter Benazir’s funeral was attended by hundreds his innate kindness, his beautiful heart, his empathetic of thousands and watched on television by millions. wisdom—are Allah’s biggest blessings for me. And his constant Benazir’s PPP won the 2008 elections. Musharraf receded belief in me pushes me to not give up on my other dream: to do into political irrelevance. The first government in the history good for people in a way that matters. I try to do what I can. of Pakistan finished its term in 2013. So did the second govern- ment, headed by Nawaz Sharif, prime minister for the third time, in 2018. Sharif was disqualified in 2017, and Shahid Khaqan hy I started thinking about politics on a humid July Abbasi of his party, Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz, became the Wmorning in Lahore today, rethinking about some key prime minister. memories of my wide-eyed introduction and limited understand- No prime minister has ever finished his or her full term in ing of politics in my childhood, teens, 20s, 40s, I don’t really know. the entire history of Pakistan. I have written about that very un- Perhaps it has something to do with my one week of binge-watch- fortunate reality many times. Now Pakistan is fully democratic. ing on YouTube videos of primetime talk shows of Pakistan. In a Well, almost. few weeks, in my personal, sometimes hopeless, pursuit for the Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf came to power in 2018. right answers, I will be hosting my one-on-one interview show

52 3 august 2020 That set of glorious convictions that becomes the raison d’être of a government that is focused, primarily and ultimately, on do- Benazir Bhutto’s ing good for the people of their country. Be it the party in power or those in opposition, positivity and sincerity of intention and assassination on December action become the difference between those who are in politics 27th, 2007 shook Pakistan. to make a change or use it as means for shameless and limitless Everyone mourned, even self-advancement in myriad ways. My ideal government is the one that is cognizant of and her harshest critics, her respects the dreams and aspirations of the people. My idea of a fiercest rivals. Eyes fixed on solid opposition is that of a party or an alliance of parties that a TV screen, I cried. I did holds the government accountable, that highlights the flaws of its policies and decisions, that backs the government on that for days. Not much had issues of national importance, and that constantly reminds the changed in the tragic government of its duties and promises. A responsible government history of the Bhutto family— is essential for a safe today, a dependable tomorrow. A solid opposi- both of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s tion is indispensable in any proud democracy. I see much of my ideal government in the leadership of Prime sons andBenazir’s brothers, Minister Imran Khan. But what is missing in his government is Murtaza and Shahnawaz, the unity among the members of his cabinet. The singleminded- were murdered ness of his vision is stretched in many directions due to the lack of cohesiveness in the many actions of his team. The intent is good, getty images the work is solid, the direction is delineated. But what is absent is the proper articulation of all that. Khan’s dream of a naya Pakistan is glorious. The optics are not. on a TV channel. My idealism is not blind to the limitations of The opposition parties, comprising some wonderful and the power of strong messaging, of the sincerity to reach people. I many not-so-wonderful politicians, are embroiled with no know a TV show comes with its packaged boundaries, its glossy clear roadmap and leadership in a short-sighted battle with the no-go areas. government. In the time of the coronavirus, when Pakistan, What I wish to do: try. To ask the hard questions, to expect seri- like the rest of the world, is faced with challenges, human ous answers, to give a platform to a politician, to my guest from and material, problems cropping up everywhere, envelop- any field, to present their point of view, highlight their work, ing the country in a locust cloud and millions are looking at ponder over their mistakes, give a glimpse of their envisioned their government for answers, the opposition is mired in its tomorrow. What I would wish to establish is my tiny world in own survival tactics. Their only form of action is to attack the which my guest knows that there is no fear of demonisation, no government even for failures that are non-existent. The good gushing glorification, no audacity of enabling and promulgation political fight, imperative for the functioning of a vibrant de- of lies and propaganda, no cornering in a defendant’s box while mocracy, is now mostly reduced to petty name-calling and ad the interviewer becomes the judge, jury and executioner, falsely hominem attacks. powerful in the glow of a camera while droning on in a micro- Every night, millions of Pakistanis, bemoaning their limited phone, amplified on millions of televisions and computer screens. earnings, inflation and various other issues, watch on their televi- Politics and media, in Pakistan, and globally, for a long sions the representatives of government and opposition indulge in time, have been in a bizarre union, one clinging to the other for mutual sludge hurling. Their fights, despite being condemned, survival. Each takes its power to make or break as an unquestionable increase the TRPs. The people’s emotions, their hopes, their prob- entitlement. Their existence is intertwined. Their co-dependence lems be damned, as long as there is ad revenue. There are some is unapologetic. Their agendas are naked. Their games are overt. media persons who do their best to be honest to their profession. Their power is staggering. Their ability to channelise that power Many pretend to do so. Most don’t even hide their agendas any- to be an instrument of positive change is so little, so fragile, it is more. The result is a macabre circus every night. that glasshouse that could shatter to smithereens without a For keeping the government and opposition on their toes, notification any day. on their guard, on their best behaviour, what is needed is a consci- Politics holds tremendous value to me because I believe in entious, fearless but not reckless, pragmatic and open-minded, fair the power of politics to do unlimited good for the people, for the and non-partisan media. That media is a utopia: it does not exist. country. Elected governments are mandated, through the power My pursuit for both continues. Good politics and good of vote, to bring a tabdeeli that reshapes a nation, on micro and media. I’m not holding my breath. n macro levels. I believe in the power of positive politics based on a set of convictions that are necessary for my country to progress. Mehr Tarar is a well-known Pakistani columnist and author

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 53 television The n Second o Act Yesteryear actors return to play complex roles as streaming platforms give space to a greater variety of stories By Kaveree Bamzai sal

here’s a scene in ’s It helps if they’ve lived a life and seen atmospheric Aarya where Sushmita the world in the intervening time. Of Sen, playing the widow of a reluctant the 10 years Sen was away from the arc drug kingpin, says to the driver of the lights, she spent five years battling Addi- T shipment she is trying to locate, in the son’s Disease, an autoimmune condition language he best understands: ‘Bhosadhi that attacks the body’s adrenal glands. ke, get up and drive the damn truck.’ When Madhvani went to her with the This is Sen, sophisticated Miss Universe script for Aarya, he expected a long 1994, princess of posh and all things wait. Instead, the approval was almost swish, making her comeback as Aarya, instant. He took a moment to explain to a gangster, on Disney+ . “There her the way he works—mindful of time, are some actors, viewers are invested collaborative in spirit and completely in, who become part of our psyche, and immersive. “I told her,‘I shoot scenes, when they return to the screen, it is like not shots,’” he says. It wasn’t idle talk. He meeting someone you haven’t met for a completed 60 days of the shoot with a while,” says Madhvani. day and money to spare.

54 3 august 2020 in Aarya (left); Pooja Bhatt in Bombay Begums

Sen is not the only star from the a year later,” says Madhvani. Singh, ’90s making a return in Aarya. who taught history at Doon School and , educated at the music at Vasant Valley, had a dream Doon School and St Stephen’s College, Alankrita debut with ’s (1996) and was Madhvani’s choice to play Aarya’s Shrivastava has a went on to romance Aishwarya Rai conflicted (spoiler alert) husband who unique vision. I am Bachchan in Josh in 2000, directed by is killed early in the series. “We needed Mansoor Khan. But then he someone who looked like he had a real grateful to her struggled after a water-skiing injury life, in whom the audience could place for the trust and and more or less stopped working. “I its trust. When I’m watching as an patience, and for was a single father for so many years,” audience, I want to feel safe, I want to reminding me of he says. With his son now in boarding relax. Seeing someone familiar imme- school, his own alma mater, Singh has diately comforts me. It’s like the world where I always started working in the entertainment welcomed John Travolta in Pulp Fiction belonged industry again. in 1996 after first discovering him in Pooja Bhatt actor Alankrita Shrivastava, who cast Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease Pooja Bhatt in her forthcoming Netflix

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 55 television

series Bombay Begums, says for her, choices emerge from the character. Who fits the part? And if an actor fits the part, it doesn’t matter whether the actor has been working in recent years or not. If an actor has not been acting for many years, you do have to take a chance to see whether the story you had been are telling and the character you are relegated to a certain offering is exciting enough for them to kind of role because want to face the camera again. She adds, she was a goodlooking “I loved Pooja Bhatt from the time I was woman, as if that was in school. I watched Dil Hai Ki Manta her only quality. But I Nahi [1991] numerous times. And I knew her and felt she loved her in Daddy [1989] and had much more to offer” [1998]. She always had this energy that Ruchi Narain sparkled through her. She was always director of Hundred so different from the rest, so unique.” So when her casting director, Shruti Mahajan, suggested Bhatt for Bombay Begums, she jumped at the idea. “The very first meeting I had with her I knew she was right for the series. She had that same spark and yet so much more that her life experience had given her. I’m so glad she said yes. And she has brought so much to the table. She is so open There are some actors and so full of life and a real joy to work viewers are invested in, with,” says Shrivastava. who become part of our Newer films and over-the-top (OTT) ethics, personal crises and vulnerabili- psyche, and when they platforms have opened up spaces for ties to own their ambition, in contem- return to the screen, all kinds of stories. And bit by bit one is porary urban India. Bhatt will also soon it is like meeting chipping away at the ageist and misogy- appear in an updated version of Sadak nist idea that ‘youth’ in a woman is key directed by father and someone you haven’t to her being a protagonist. As for Bhatt, co-starring sister Alia. met for a while” she says being in front of the camera Ram Madhvani creator of Arya again has been like a homecoming. Steering away from acting to producing or many actors, OTT and directing numerous films over the series present an opportunity last few years gave her immense satisfac- F to stretch acting muscles they tion, but to return to acting in a film or either didn’t know they had or were series takes a different mindset and com- not allowed to stretch. , last mitment, and for that, the story and role seen in a non-Deol comeback on the had to be complex and powerful. big screen in the spoofworthy Race 3 “Alankrita has a unique vision and (2018), returns in a surprisingly serious The very first meeting working with her was like a baptism of role. He plays a senior police officer fire, as she pushed me to give my best who trains a group of officers as lethal I had with Pooja Bhatt and guided me to places in my heart assassins to nail those in the under- I knew she was right that I had not visited for a long time. I world he was unable to while in active for the series. she has am grateful to her for the trust and pa- service and before being ostracised to a brought so much to tience, and for reminding me of where I training academy, far away from active the table” always belonged,” says Bhatt. The story duty in Netflix’s forthcoming movie, Alankrita Shrivastava revolves around five women across Class of 83, directed by Atul Sabharwal. director of Bombay Begums generations who wrestle with desire, Deol, the younger son of megastar

56 3 august 2020 hard time with producers. When she approached male ‘stars’, they weren’t comfortable working with a ‘woman director’ at the time. She worked paral- lelly in advertising so she could keep her craft honed and work with the best technicians, but she was always around in the film industry, trying.

he coming of OTT changed Lara Dutta T everything for her. Suddenly in Hundred; there was a seemingly level Bobby Deol in playing field where content seemed Class of 83 to be valued over other non-essentials. Guilty, her movie for Netflix earlier this year, and Hundred got greenlit at the same time. For a change, she was inundated with work and offers as she had stories and by now a lot of directing and producing experience. For people like her, a woman and an outsider, it is liberating. “Much of my struggle was so unnecessary, and that also led to im- mense emotional trauma. One also had to work extra hard to keep one’s head straight for which family and close friends’ support is so important,” says Narain. Dharmendra could never find his way.” She was 100 per cent sure Dutta When she started out, even mul- groove when younger, caught between was the right person and Hundred tiplexes didn’t exist. Her first film Kal his chocolate-boy looks and his proved her right. Dutta finds herself had a 23-print release over all of India. family’s He-man expectations. wanted all over again, whether it was When she wrote Hazaaron Khwaishein Looks have also ended up being to play the naughty Begum Samru in Aisi, there was no money for writing Lara Dutta’s biggest enemy. As Miss Gurinder Chadha’s East India and the script went on for six years, as Universe (2000), she rarely got roles Company apologist TV series Beecham she wrote daily soaps to earn money. which went beyond her appearance. House or in the forthcoming Bell Bottom Writers were constantly asked to copy Ruchi Narain, who directed Dutta in with Akshay Kumar, the first film some Hollywood movie (which later Disney+ Hotstar’s female cop series, from Bollywood to start shooting became a Korean movie) as nobody Hundred, says,“Lara and I have a after Covid-19. with money valued original content. personal connection that goes way Narain herself could be said to Much of that has changed now, giving back,”adding, “She, like the character have made a comeback. After work- actors more elastic careers, as in the case of ACP Saumya Shukla, had been rel- ing closely with in of Neena Gupta, who has been busy egated to a certain kind of role because the iconic student rebellion movie starring in movies and series since she she was a goodlooking woman, as if Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2003), which posted an ad on Instagram in 2017: ‘I that was her only quality. But I knew she wrote, she directed Kal: Yesterday live in Mumbai and am a good actor her and felt she had much more to and Tomorrow (2005), raising the money looking for good parts to play.’ From the offer. The character required a lot of herself by writing a business plan ageing third-time mother in Badhaai Ho bullish strength and a wicked sense of and going to 14 individual investors. (2018) to the supersharp pradhan’s wife humour of someone who was brutally Once Kal was made and she tried to in Panchayat to her forthcoming reality aware of how things were and yet put together her next project within show, Masaba Masaba, with fashion-de- was ready to push her way through the industry, but she hit one roadblock signer daughter Masaba, she has proved all the bullshit to realise her ambi- after another. When she tried to make that comebacks are possible at any age. tions, smirking at the ironies all the her films with new actors, she had a Even at 62. n

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 57 books essay

Premchand’s Partner On the writer’s 140th birth anniversary, why it’s important to celebrate his wife Shivrani Devi, herself an author and freedom fighter By Arnav Das Sharma

Premchand and Shivrani Devi very year on July 31 st, the little town of be his first marriage, which was characterised by a marital Lamhi, on the outskirts of Varanasi, is decked discord, stemming primarily from what Gopal describes as a up to celebrate the birth anniversary of one its tough relationship between the new bride and Premchand’s most illustrious sons. Dhanpat Rai Shrivastav, stepmother. The marriage would eventually fall through who would later go on to write under the nom de some years later. At this time, Premchand had secured a job in plumeE of Munshi Premchand, was born in this town. But while a government school in that paid him a decent Rs 30 we celebrate the birth anniversary of this remarkable writer per month, which the young writer would supplement with whose words provided a new direction to the course of tuitions that brought in an additional Rs 10. literature, by reorienting its focus firmly onto the trials and There seems to be a distinct chasm between Premchand’s tribulations of the common man, it’s important to also life in Kanpur and his domestic life in Lamhi, where his throw the proverbial spotlight onto someone whose first wife lived. In one of his letters addressed to his support and everyday presence enabled an environment for publisher-friend Daya Narain Nigam, Premchand laments Premchand to thrive. And that happens to be Shivrani Devi, how his house in Lamhi ‘although the envy of everybody Premchand’s wife. in the village, but [has] not a room worth living’. His letters For long, she was seen as just Premchand’s wife, a necessary around this time paint a picture of domestic disharmony, part of the author’s life no doubt, but still as someone whose with constant bickering between his wife and his stepmother, biography existed solely under her husband’s shadow. which hindered his writing. This situation would come to a A moot question arises at this point. If July 31st is head pretty soon, with this wife refusing to live in Lamhi any Premchand’s birth anniversary, should the focus not be on longer. ‘My wife,’ writes Premchand, ‘was adamant that she him rather than his wife? A way to answer this would be by no longer wants to live in Lamhi and wanted to go back to posing another question: what makes a writer? Is the process her village, to her parents. As a last resort, I got the dues from of writing, producing a text and eventually letting it out for the land, and made the necessary arrangements for her readers to consume the only linear way that a writer should departure.’ This departure would prove to be permanent. At be identified by? At least in one point, Premchand writes, ‘It’s Premchand’s case, the vicissitudes been eight days since her departure of his life fed into his creative and I have received no communica- world—and Shivrani Devi is an in- tion from her. Now I hate her very tegral part of it. But more than just sight and God willing, this time our playing a part in shaping her hus- separation would be final.’ band’s writing, it is also important Madan Gopal argues that to extract Shivrani Devi from the Premchand had decided that if he shadow of Premchand and allow were to marry again, it would be her to sing for herself. And that in to a child widow. He went through turn could serve as a fitting tribute matrimonial advertisements and to Premchand himself. finally settled on an ad by Mun- Very little is known about shi Deviprasad for his daughter Shivrani Devi’s early life. Preetha There are two Shivrani who had been married at Mani who has translated portions surviving texts the age of 11 and was widowed just of Devi’s memoir, Premchand Ghar written by three months later. From Gopal’s Mein (Premchand at Home, 2010), biography we learn that Munshi from Hindi into English argues that Shivrani Devi. a Deviprasad was an ardent Arya she was born sometime in the late collection of short Samajist who was a vocal advocate 19th century and died on December stories, Kaumudi, of widow remarriage and had even 5th, 1976, outliving her husband by written and published many pam- a good 40 years. In one of the earlier published in 1937, and phlets dedicated to this cause. The biographies of Premchand, the au- her now-famous biography quotes Shivrani Devi thor, Madan Gopal, gives a detailed memoir, Premchand as saying that her father invited account of Premchand’s domestic Ghar Mein, published Premchand over to the life but sheds little light on the life town of Fatehpur, sandwiched of Shivrani Devi herself. in 1956, which contains between Kanpur and Allahabad, Premchand, as Gopal points out, a wealth of details and gave a token to the young was first married at the age of 15, about her writer symbolising commitment. when he was still preparing for his Gopal quotes Devi as saying, ‘The Class 9 examination. This would marriage did not meet the approval

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 59 books essay

of Premchand’s family. In fact, he didn’t even inform them at Thus, I was given the opportunity to participate in his literary first of his decision. His marriage to me was against all lifestyle. When he went to court, I read all day. And established conventions, it was a bold step, and proved to me this is how I entered the world of literature’ (from Preetha his courage.’ Mani’s translation). A crucial question that can be asked is how do we read a text like Premchand Ghar Mein, written ostensibly to function here are two surviving texts written by Shivrani as some sort of hagiography of Premchand? Yet through these TDevi. One is a collection of short stories, called Kaumudi little asides that I have mentioned above one can clearly see (Moonlight), published in 1937, and her now-famous memoir, how the text tries to create an idea of a feminine self. Devi Premchand Ghar Mein, published in 1956. It is the latter text that might be tethered to Premchand, yet, the memoir functions contains a wealth of details about her and the kind of life she led also as a room of the author’s own. We can see her conscious- with Premchand. Although the bulk of the memoir deals exclu- ness emerge, not only when she is talking about herself, sively with Premchand, there are segments which do provide us but also her husband. In other words, it might very well be with that rare glimpse into her world, a world exclusive to her. As an account of Premchand’s life, but it isn’t objective. It sets Preetha Mani argues, Shivrani Devi wrote her memoir with the out exclusively her version. It isn’t Premchand as the world sole intention of providing her readers with a glimpse into the knows, but Premchand as she knows. In that way, we can say kind of life she led with Premchand, and the text is replete with that at least so far as the text is concerned, it is Premchand who little details about the humdrum interactions between the hus- is tethered to Shivrani Devi, and not the other way around. band and wife. We get a glimpse into Premchand’s increasingly We find this becomes more pronounced when she begins precarious financial situation as he begins to dedicate himself to articulate her political thoughts, as the Premchand family fully into writing, to quarrels over health. But we also receive begins to get more involved in the freedom struggle, especial- tender moments of intimacy, both of grief and joy. Interspersed ly after Mohandas K Gandhi’s famous speech in Gorakhpur within the text are also moments where Devi digresses to talk on February 8th, 1921, at the peak of the Non-Cooperation about herself, her interest in literature and the political climate. Movement. It was a speech which Premchand witnessed and For example, there is an interesting anecdote that she which had a profound impact on him. But the Premchand recounts about the publication of Premchand’s first collection of family’s desire to participate in the freedom struggle didn’t short stories, titled Soz-e-Watan (Dirge of the Nation), that came really begin with Gandhi’s Gorakhpur speech. out in 1908. As Devi tells us, the book was found to be incendiary In the aftermath of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, we by the authorities and Premchand was summoned by the district have Shivrani Devi arguing in Premchand Ghar Mein: ‘It was collector to sort the issue out. The collector told him, “If you were natural that everyone’s heart was inflamed with rage. Perhaps not living under British rule, both your hands would have been it was in my heart too! Next day I prepared myself for all the cut off today. You are inciting rebellion through your stories. troubles that were to come after quitting the government Turn all your manuscripts over to me. Do not even think of service. ... When I said that we have to together put an end to writing in the future.’’ this inhumanity; the policies of the government are beyond the Right after recounting this inci- limits of tolerance, he [Premchand] dent, Devi tells her husband that she laughed and said, “Before putting an hasn’t read the manuscript yet and end to others think of your own end! won’t be able to because it is written … Think over, later do not tell me that in Urdu. Premchand then remarks Shivrani devi might be you suffered and made me suffer too! she shouldn’t worry about not know- tethered to There will be many troubles ahead; ing Urdu as he would teach her. you may have to go without food.” I She writes further: ‘I was living Premchand, yet, her replied—“I have thought over’’’ (from alone in Mahoba in those days. memoir functions Jyoti Atwal’s translation). During his court sessions, he stayed also as a room of the The statement ‘I have thought with me and spent all his time reading over’ leaps out to the reader as a quiet his writing to me. If he was reading an author’s own. We can voice of defiance. This voice, instead of English newspaper, then he would see her consciousness being stymied, grows louder. By 1929, translate for me. As I listened to his emerge, not only she had become formally involved in stories, my interest turned towards when she is talking politics and the affairs of the Congress literature. I insisted that he read to me by becoming a member of a ‘Mahila whenever he was home. He allocated about herself, but Ashram’ in Lucknow. This participa- the morning hours for writing. Even also her husband tion in the Gandhian movement during the court sessions, he wrote taught Devi to navigate through the in the mornings before going to trial. freedom struggle, allowing her leader-

60 3 august 2020 More than just playing a part in shaping her husband’s writing, it is also important to extract Shivrani Devi from the shadow of Premchand and allow her to sing for herself. And that in turn could serve as a fitting tribute to Premchand himself

A statue of Premchand in his hometown Lamhi, on the outskirts of Varanasi ship qualities to grow. Historian Jyoti In the 1930s, the British had banned the Congress in Luc- Atwal in an essay on Devi argues how her relationship with oth- know. In a public meeting in the Mahila Ashram, in front of at er women in the Ashram was quite ambiguous. Most women least 12,000 people, Devi delivered a fiery speech, denouncing who joined the Ashram had barely enough to eat. Their lives the colonial rule. And in November, with Premchand in Vara- revolved around the Ashram work during the day and domestic nasi, she was arrested for picketing against foreign cloth. She chores during the night. In such a scenario, they didn’t even writes: ‘As we sat inside the police lorry, we hailed Mahatma know what Gandhi’s call for swaraj meant or what it would Gandhi and ‘Bharat mata ki jai’. There were seven of us, one bring them. While these women found it difficult to work with inspector, and seven constables. All sisters kept singing the Devi, given her higher class and, most probably, higher caste, national song... when the inspector got down, we saw tears in they also couldn’t work without her, needing her leadership the eyes of the constables’ (translated by Atwal). skills. But the power struggle in the Gandhian Congress became Shivrani Devi emerges from her memoir as an individual more pronounced with men, and Devi writes extensively on in her own right, with her own consciousness. And it is not dif- this. The men, for example, had begun to complain that Gandhi- ficult to, therefore, gauge the profound impact she must have an ashrams had more women per each man, thereby trying had on her husband and his writings. In fact, we see clearly wherever possible to limit the involvement of their spouses. how the traditional bifurcation of the home and the world that One can clearly discern Devi’s exasperation at this: ‘This is the characterised Indian family life during the colonial period was reason why women are not happy with the Mahila Ashram. If repeatedly breached by her. On July 31st, when the country [men] say that [women] are already large in numbers, then they celebrates the 140th birth anniversary of one of the doyens of want less of us to participate. Men never look at our troubles. It’s Hindi literature, it is a much-needed corrective to ensure that been six months since the Congress office was declared illegal. Shivrani Devi doesn’t remain a footnote. n Since then the entire burden has fallen upon Mahila Ashram. They should now imagine how any work could have possibly Arnav Das Sharma is working on a biography got done without women’ (translated by Atwal). of Munshi Premchand

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 61 a moveable feast

A Detective’s Diet When Agatha Christie cooks Poirot’s breakfast

ood is not the tray is deposited on the table outside the bedroom, the rustle of first thing that comes a print dress, then the soft knock and the entry of Mary to draw F to mind when one the curtain (The Body in the Library, 1942). These elements were thinks of Agatha Christie’s no longer as normal in that class’ morning routine. mysteries. Her youth and At the same time, Englishness and the food traits associated middle age were spent with other nationalities are also teased in a lighthearted way. in a time of nationalism, Who can forget Poirot’s anguish at the thought of having to eat jingoism and rationing: two Maureen’s cooking in (Mrs. McGinty’s Dead, 1952). He finally World Wars, an economic teaches her how to make an omelette, which is praised in an- Depression and almost a other book (Cat among the Pigeons, 1959) by a young girl whose decade of rationing after mother is friends with Maureen. By Shylashri Shankar each World War. ‘I can still ‘Aunt Maureen makes smashing omelettes.’ remember the enchantment ‘She makes smashing omelettes.’ Poirot’s voice was happy. of the things there were ‘Then Hercule Poirot has not lived in vain,’ he said. to buy. Food, for instance. Little cardboard platters of roast Poirot rages against the English breakfast, particularly the chicken, eggs and bacon, a wedding cake, a leg of lamb, eggs. Why? ‘It is really unsupportable,’ he complains in The apples and oranges, fish, trifle, plum pudding.’ All this for Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim (1923) ‘that every hen lays an her dolls’ house. This is Agatha Christie reminiscing about a egg of a different size.’ Or in Murder on the Links (1923) where time of plenty during her childhood in an upper-middle-class he is offended by absence of symmetry in the toast. ‘Is it of any home in the pre-World War I years (she was born in shape remotely pleasing to the eye?’ Non. As for tea, he called September 1890). it ‘your English poison’. But his fondness for tisane is teased by Yet, it is through food that she conveys a character’s nation- Hastings who says it smelt vile to the English nose. ality. The Belgian Hercule Poirot was a gourmand, the English Anne Hart in Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Life and Times of Miss Marple was not. What her characters ate, their liking or Hercule Poirot describes his routine: A tray of early morning dislike of a dish or a drink and how they thought about food’s coffee, toilette, breakfast, mid-morning cup of chocolate, lunch purpose in their lives were connected to their nationality in at 12.30, followed by well-sugared coffee and supplemented two ways. The first was her attempt to write about Englishness, during the day with tisanes and sirops and more chocolate. He of a way of life that was fast disappearing in the tumultuous much prefers coffee and warm rolls for breakfast and, to please aftermath of two World Wars. Breakfast, tea and the Sunday his sweet tooth, a brioche. mid-day dinner are synonymous with an English way of life. Contrast Poirot’s breakfast with that of Miss Marple, a In At Bertram’s Hotel (1965), the manager tells one of the guests quintessentially English upper-middle-class lady (modelled on that he could have the English breakfast. Christie’s grandmother) and brought up with Victorian values. ‘Eggs and bacon?’ For her, food was not something to be mulled on or experi- ‘As you say—but a good deal more than that if you want it. enced as a pleasurable thing. One ate to exist. Except breakfast, Kippers, kidneys and bacon, cold grouse, York ham, Oxford of course, At Bertram’s Hotel. marmalade.’ ‘Miss Marple ordered her breakfast. Tea, poached eggs, fresh ‘I must remember to get all that… don’t get that sort of a rolls. So adept was the chambermaid that she did not even men- thing any more at home.’ tion cereals or orange juice. Five minutes later breakfast came. Humfries smiled. ‘Most gentlemen only ask for eggs and A comfortable tray with a big pot-bellied teapot, creamy-look- bacon. They’ve—well, they’ve got out of the way of thinking ing milk, a silver hot water jug. Two beautifully poached eggs about the things there used to be.’ on toast, poached the proper way, not little round hard bullets ‘Yes, yes... I remember when I was a child. ... Sideboards shaped in tin cups, a good-sized round of butter stamped with groaning with hot dishes. Yes, it was a luxurious way of life.’ a thistle. Marmalade, honey, and strawberry jam. Delicious- That it was, but by the 1960s, the English upper-middle looking rolls, not the hard kind with papery interiors—they class’ luxurious way of life was eroding rapidly. The tea tray smelled of fresh bread (the most delicious smell in the world!) brought by the maid, the subdued chink of tea things as the There was also an apple, a pear, and a banana. Miss Marple

62 3 august 2020 Illustration by Saurabh Singh

childhood that she associated with these foods (Sunday roast, cherry tart, rock buns) and rituals (elevenses, tea) could not return. In Agatha Christie’s childhood, Sunday midday dinner was served: ‘An enormous joint, cherry tart and cream, a vast piece of cheese and finally dessert.’ She loved cream and could drink cups of it. We often assume that the author will sneak in food she doesn’t like and make it a murder weapon or give the murderer tastes that are the pet hates of the author. She writes in An Autobiography: ‘I don’t like cocktail parties, any kind of drink except in cooking, marmalade, oysters, lukewarm food, the feet of birds, or indeed the feel of a bird altogether. Final and fierc- est dislike: the taste and smell of hot milk. I like sunshine, apples… silence, sleeping, dreaming, eating, the smell of coffee.’ It is tempting to attribute Poirot’s taste for coffee to Agatha Christie’s tastes. Or dislikes—the fact that oysters were served with strychnine in one story. Miss Marple is offered a cup of hot milk by her hostess to help her sleep, but in fact, it contains poison (Nemesis). In Murder Is Easy, (1938), the murderer tries to poison Bridget by putting it in the tea. But poison (Taxine) is also put in coffee (which Christie likes) in contrast Poirot’s breakfast A Pocket Full of Rye (1953). with that of Miss Marple, a As a child, Agatha Christie loved having a cup of cocoa quintessentially English for her elevenses, which may have something to do with Poirot’s fondness of a cup of thick rich chocolate. Some- upper-middle-class lady. For her, thing Hastings ‘would not have drunk for a hundred food was not something to be pounds’ and calls it the thick brown mess, which Poirot sips and sighs with contentment (The Chocolate Box). mulled on or experienced as a Sirop de cassis (blackcurrant sirop) was Poirot’s favourite pleasurable thing. One ate to exist social drink. He even offers it to Inspector Japp in The Capture of Cerberus. Though Agatha Christie did write The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding—a set of short stories grouped in two main courses, a selection of entrees and a sorbet, with inserted a knife gingerly but with confidence. She was not dis- Christie as the self-described chef, her interest in food doesn’t appointed. Rich deep yellow yolk oozed out, thick and creamy. extend to describing the dishes eaten during lunch and dinner. Proper eggs!’ It took her back to 1909. She is more like Miss Marple than Hercule Poirot in her attitude It is not surprising that Christie chose food to evoke a nation- to food. We can’t even be sure that someone who enjoys good ality. English rural gentry dishes emerged as the national cui- food and has a hearty appetite, and can be trusted. Think of Sir sine in the 18th century as a reaction to the French influenced Eustace in the Man in the Brown Suit, a hedonist and a murderer. menus favoured by the Whig party leaders, says Rachel Laudan Even on the delectable Orient Express where one dreams of in Cuisine and Empire. Cookbooks written in this period spoke dining on a cordon bleu chef’s dishes, the dishes mentioned are of dishes an English housewife might produce. ‘Roast beef, not meagre—eggs, delicate cream cheese, chicken cooked without the game or the richly sauced dishes of the aristocrats, nor the sauces, cereal and boiled fish! rabbit and pig of the cottager, was the centrepiece of English In almost all her books, the poison is introduced through cuisine.’ The more affordable port became the preferred drink a drink or in a pie or a salad. Once the murder happens, food in place of claret from Bordeaux. becomes fraught with its association with bad omens. A feel- While the English breakfast at the hotel evokes memories ing she is familiar with, having endured the privations of two of a bygone Golden Age for Miss Marple, it also makes her sus- World Wars. When Max, her husband, returned home from picious of the hotel staff because she knows one can’t go back in the war in 1945, they ‘ate burnt kippers and were happy’. ‘What time. Agatha Christie knew that too, that the Englishness of her a wonderful evening it was!’ she writes in her autobiography. n

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‘None of Us Has Mastered the Game of Humanity’

isney brings the and you are left with yourself. I first in the series of have had my youngest boy with DArtemis Fowl novels, me for quite a bit so that has written by Eoin Colfer, to been amazing. Look, as I said I screen. It deals with 12-year- wish I didn’t have a chance to old Artemis, a criminal witness the rewards which are of mastermind who is in search personal appraisal, I’m praising of his missing father. He soon my life and how I want to live finds himself in an epic battle my life. I think that a lot of us against a group of powerful, are going through that, we have underground fairies, who very little to do but reflect. It’s may be behind his father’s been an interesting time and I disappearance. Colin Farrell would love for it to be over, and I plays the father. would love, not things to go back to normal because I don’t know Can you tell us a little about what that means. I hope that your father and the lessons you we all take something from this learnt from him? time, learn something. I My dad worked very hard all his am very fortunate; I have a life, he was self-employed, he home, a fridge full of food and imported goods and supplied money in the bank. Some people them to markets around Ireland, say it’s the equaliser, it’s not, it’s so, anything I learned from Colin Farrell no more a great equaliser than him was through observation. death is, I mean death is the How hard he worked to provide great equaliser. for his family, but he wasn’t very like I have earned the right to a couple loquacious. I do think that leading by of opinions that I do share openly What would be your wish at this time example is the best way to lead. with both of my children, we have a of the pandemic? very open relationship, we are very That old thing of treating people Lead by example, is that what you do communicative and I do love them the way you wish you were treated with your own children? both. I introduced to myself the best and try and exercise a little patience, I try to, but I don’t know what I am aspects of myself and also the most we are living in such a reactionary doing as a parent most of the time, I traumatised, most damaged aspects of world, everyone is dying to have an am just flying by the seat of my pants. myself through interacting with the enemy, everyone is dying to draw If you are just open and present as a boys, they really are like two samurais, lines in the sand and say, ‘You are over parent as simple as that sounds, if you and they teach me a lot. there’ and ‘I am over here,’ and this is are present and attentive, learning our difference and it’s just futile, it’s from your children, they will tell you You are quarantined with your counterproductive and it has awful either through words or through children. What is that like? implications that just filter down into deeds or through energy, they will I say this with respect for those who all sorts of nefarious ways. Just look at tell you what you need to know. And have struggled greatly and still are it, there are more shootings every day, I really think that none of us has and those who have been really sick much more than usual, it’s maddening mastered the game of humanity, we and still are, and those who have lost and I think that it comes from the top, are still, as grownups, struggling to loved ones: It hasn’t been so bad for there has been an amount of spoken live decent, virtuous, fun, connected me. Psychologically there have been and unspoken permission for people lives. But at the same time, at 43 I feel ups and downs. Very little distraction to judge each other. n

3 august 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 65 NOT PEOPLE LIKE US

RAJEEV MASAND

London Calling Apte-Nawazuddin Siddiqui noir Raat Akeli Hai, the With the lockdown considerably relaxed in London, more Kunal Khemu comedy Lootcase and friendship saga Yaara and more producers are reportedly calculating the feasibility starring , Amit Sadh and Vijay Varma will all of shooting there when travel restrictions are eased. At least become available to watch. one film unit may be ready to roll cameras immediately. While there is none of the earlier pressure of the box- Actors Purab Kohli and Gold star Mouni Roy are expected to office, or the pressure to grab more eyeballs than the begin filming a new project as early as this week. competition in the opening weekend, word on the street My Brother Nikhil star Purab is a resident of London, but is that some producers are not thrilled that with OTT as the actress, who was quarantining in Abu Dhabi for the well, there is no guarantee of a solo release window. For the past four months, flew to London last week to prepare for streamers too, sharing a release date with other Bollywood the shoot. Mouni was in the UAE for a photoshoot in March titles will mean bigger marketing spends in order to make a when the lockdown was announced. She has said she decided bigger splash. to stay at a friend’s home, expecting to return to India in a few weeks. But with the lockdown extended repeatedly, she Hot Right Now remained put in the Middle East. After sending over 1 lakh migrants and workers from across Very little is known about the film they’re meant to shoot, the country back to their homes in these Covid-19 times, man except that an entirely British crew has been recruited and of the moment Sonu Sood—who’s proved over the last few that all safety measures are expected to be followed. months that there’s a real hero behind those villain parts that he tends to play on screen—is embarking on his most Now Streaming ambitious project yet. The Dabangg and Happy New Year When Covid-19 required that cinemas be star has set up the Pravasi Rojgar initiative through which closed for the unforeseeable future and he hopes to connect migrants and unemployed workers many finished films were sold to streaming with job opportunities across the country. He says the platforms for a direct-to-digital release, one online platform will provide an end-to-end solution to big relief for the producers of those films was those seeking jobs, and will also connect hopefuls with that their medium-budget movies wouldn’t institutions where they can acquire skills related to the get squashed under the might of big films kind of jobs they are seeking. as frequently tends to happen with theatrical Sonu has revealed that the overwhelming releases. Also, the relief that there was no pressure positive response from corporates and that their films deliver solid ‘opening day’ employers in the wake of his Ghar or ‘opening weekend’ numbers in order Bhejo initiative triggered this idea, to hold on to screens. Because streamers as did the fear of unemployment typically don’t release viewership that he noticed among the figures, there’s no stress of being migrants who were heading declared a ‘flop’ if the film didn’t find a home. The initiative will be substantial audience. free of cost, he told me. Asked But few would’ve predicted that if he was likely to bite the bait release dates were going to get as if offered a ticket by a political crowded as they are. Next Friday, party, Sonu revealed that he on July 31st, as many as four Hindi has, in fact, been wooed by films will drop on streaming several parties over the years, platforms. Vidya Balan’s biopic but he believes he isn’t done with of Shakuntala Devi, the Radhika his acting career just yet. n

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