www.openthemagazine.com 50 21 DECEMBER /2020 OPEN VOLUME 12 ISSUE 50 21 DECEMBER 2020 CONTENTS 21 DECEMBER 2020 5 6 8 14 LOCOMOTIF INDRAPRASTHA MUMBAI NOTEBOOK TOUCHSTONE Pandemic correctness By Virendra Kapoor By Anil Dharker Iran of the mind By S Prasannarajan By Keerthik Sasidharan 16 18 20 22 SOFT POWER THE RACHEL PAPERS WHISPERER OPEN ESSAY Moving mountains The constant actor By Jayanta Ghosal The shape of Covid Makarand R Paranjape By Rachel Dwyer By Rajeev Srinivasan 26 26 THE NEWBORN DAD How the pandemic is changing the role of man By Lhendup G Bhutia 34 HOW TO BE A MODERN MAN New laws and the pandemic have changed ideas of masculinity and society’s expectations of men. Are they up for it? By Kaveree Bamzai 40 ACTION! FINALLY 40 46 Rajinikanth keeps his promise and enters politics. How does it change the dynamics of the battle for Tamil Nadu 2021? By V Shoba 44 WALKING WITH THE ENEMY How a team of Odisha Police’s Special Operation Group traversed hostile terrain to rescue an injured Maoist 50 By Rahul Pandita 46 A TIME TO DELIVER Cloud kitchens have emerged as the biggest trend of the dine-out culture in a pandemic year By Nikita Doval 54 50 54 58 62 64 66 MAPPING THE A WRITER AND WRIT WITH GUILT THE PULSE OF A MOVEABLE FEAST NOT PEOPLE LIKE US VISUAL INDIA THE ART OF MEMORY Katharina Volckmer’s debut THE PERIPHERY Defining Indian cuisine The bubble unit Abhishek Poddar on Siddharth Dhanvant novel explores Germany’s Grammy nominee By Shylashri Shankar By Rajeev Masand his Museum of Art Shanghvi’s meditation historical baggage Priya Darshini on & Photography on old age and death By Ullekh NP her live album By V Shoba By Urvashi Bahuguna By Divya Unny Cover by Rohit Chawla 21 DECEMBER 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 3 OPEN MAIL [email protected] EDITOR S Prasannarajan LETTER OF THE WEEK MANAGING EDITOR PR Ramesh C EXECUTIVE EDITOR Ullekh NP The agitation against agricultural reforms is holding EDITOR-AT-LARGE Siddharth Singh DEPUTY EDITORS Madhavankutty Pillai the national capital to ransom (‘Rage and Reality’, (Mumbai Bureau Chief), December 14th, 2020). Turning the pandemic into Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah, V Shoba (Bangalore), Nandini Nair an opportunity for reform, the Government tried to CREATIVE DIRECTOR Rohit Chawla rationalise laws in the farm sector and bring about a ART DIRECTOR Jyoti K Singh SENIOR EDITORS Sudeep Paul, paradigm shift by making it demand-driven, freeing Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia (Mumbai), it from the monopoly of mandis and the hegemony of Moinak Mitra, Nikita Doval AssOCIATE EDITOR Vijay K Soni (Web) middlemen. The opposition to these new laws stems ASSISTANT EDITOR Vipul Vivek from the fact that any change by its very nature is CHIEF OF GRAPHICS Saurabh Singh unsettling and finds resistance, thereby creating SENIOR DESIGNERS Anup Banerjee, Veer Pal Singh legitimate apprehensions. But this raises a question as PHOTO EDITOR Raul Irani to whether the Government could have tried to take DEPUTY PHOTO EDITOR Ashish Sharma the farmers on board before legislating. Could they NATIONAL HEAD-EVENTS AND INITIATIVES have been assured that the proposed changes in law national shape. Arpita Sachin Ahuja MR Jayanthy AVP (ADVERTISING) would be in their best interest, that nothing short of Rashmi Lata Swarup these reforms could address the deep structural crisis GENERAL MANAGERS (ADVERTISING) Uma Srinivasan (South) in agriculture India faces? As the standoff continues, GROWTH CURE it would be good for all sides to recall an American India’s GST collection in NATIONAL HEAD-DISTRIBUTION AND SALES Ajay Gupta newspaper headline in 1966 when then Prime November was above Rs 1 REGIONAL HEADS-CIRCULATION D Charles (South), Melvin George Minister Indira Gandhi went to the US to negotiate for lakh crore, of which about (West), Basab Ghosh (East) food supplies: ‘New Indian Leader Comes Begging’. 25 per cent or Rs 22,000 HEAD-PRODUCTION Maneesh Tyagi An agri-crisis then spurred us to launch the crore was owing to imports SENIOR MANAGER (PRE-PRESS) Sharad Tailang Green Revolution. (‘The Pace of Growth’ by MANAGER-MARKETING Sangeeta Kampani Bibek Debroy, December Priya Singh CHIEF DESIGNER-MARKETING 14th, 2020). Another large Champak Bhattacharjee contribution was from CFO & HEAD-IT Anil Bisht internal currency rotation. CHIEF EXECUTIVE & PUBLISHER FARM REALITY of Parliament to repeal the For India to transform into a Neeraja Chawla One look at a direct farmer- three new agriculture reform 21st century smart economy, All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner selling market or rythu bazaar laws. While providing a legal we need to plan for exports is prohibited. would convince anyone of safeguard for minimum earnings of 50 per cent of Editor: S Prasannarajan. Printed and published by Neeraja Chawla on behalf the urgent need to organise support prices is something GST—or at least equal to the of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd, India’s crops procurement the Government is now imports revenue. There are 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana). and selling system according showing intent to do, more some avenues, including Published at 4, DDA Commercial to modern needs (‘Rage and adequate safeguards within those that Covid-19 has Complex, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110017. Reality’, December 14th, the agricultural produce opened up, we should focus Ph: (011) 48500500; Fax: (011) 48500599 2020). Farmers and agri- market committee structure on to raise our exports To subscribe, WhatsApp ‘openmag’ to 9999800012 or log on to administrators need periodic itself could be considered. earnings: electronics goods, www.openthemagazine.com or call our Toll Free Number training on latest trends in An important demand that clean energy (batteries or 1800 102 7510 the world. Our farm strategy the Government should cells), bio plastic, coronavirus or email at: [email protected] needs to change completely consider is related to the cures, conversion of For alliances, email [email protected] according to today’s global redress mechanism under the synthetic plastic waste. Our For advertising, email markets. Farmers need to be new laws which makes the entrepreneurs should also be [email protected] For any other queries/observations, rescued from the vagaries lower bureaucracy extremely provided with information email [email protected] of weather and infertility of powerful by making it the of the demand and cost overused land. last court of appeal. Instead of trends in foreign markets. Disclaimer ‘Open Avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing PV Madhu negotiating separately with PN Sreelekha initiatives and Open assumes no responsibility for content and the consequences of using different groups, the Centre products or services advertised in the magazine A little over a week after should see these demands TO POLITICK OR NOT Volume 12 Issue 50 they began protesting on the as from farmers in general, An indecisive leader is good For the week 15-21 December 2020 borders of Delhi, farmers’ not only from Punjab—at for no one (‘Indecision’, Total No. of pages 68 groups demanded that the least not anymore now that December 14th, 2020). Centre call a special session protests seem to be taking a Bholey Bhardwaj 4 21 DECEMBER 2020 LOCOMOTIF By S PRASANNARAJAN PANDEMIC CORRECTNESS HE ENORMITY OF reality is such that questions Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Alex Berenson, who had can hardly alter it. So better don’t ask any. Truth is serious trouble self-publishing his booklets on “unreported truths so overwhelming that retrospective thoughts can about Covid-19 and lockdowns” on Amazon’s Kindle Direct, argues only legitimise lies. Better keep quiet and follow the that mainstream media organisations are “increasingly unwilling instincts of those who outnumber you. When the even to ask ideologically inconvenient questions. Few acknowledge Tworld is challenged by what man has failed to defeat for so long, that top biologists are calling for an independent investigation what is required is not the consolation of alternative ideas but into the possibility that Sars-Cov-2 is the product of a Chinese a consensus on the wisdom of others. laboratory accident.” Berenson’s booklets are now bestsellers, but Or it’s what a world in the grip of a pandemic demands to get them published he needed endorsement tweets from the from potential flamethrowers. Solidarity alone can sustain likes of Elon Musk, because he thinks “many measures to control the Order of Fear. the coronavirus have been damaging, counterproductive and Maybe such an unwritten code of conduct is needed when unsupported by science.” A former New York Times reporter who unhinged conspiracy theorists are at play, and they have a lot doesn’t consider himself a “coronavirus denier” or “conservative”, to peddle, from Trump’s defeat to the origin of the coronavirus he has become a kind of pandemic revisionist. to the secret centre of global power. Maybe faith and trust are Revisionists are not what the world needs when the death toll in virtues that can make a benighted place a lot more tolerable, its the US alone approaches 300,000. This is not a time to ask whether inhabitants better citizens. Maybe it’s a necessary protection wearing a mask would really protect you from the coronavirus, or from deniers and debunkers. whether dining out would shorten your life. The people who are Still there comes a time when the Order wants complete asking such questions are mostly professional doubters who find control over knowledge, when there are good experts anything officially imposed reeking of a hidden agenda. They are and bad experts, and when an informed conversation is a the ones now refusing to trust scientists on vaccines.