The Week India - 07 July 2013

JOURNALISM WITH A HUMAN TOUCH ● www.the-week.com JULY 7, 2013 $30

WorldMags.netWorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

http://worldmags.net/


CONTENTS3

Publisher: Jacob Mathew. Printed at Malayala Manorama Press, Kottayam, Print House India Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, M.P. Printers, Noida, and Rajhans En-terprises, Bangalore, and published from Manorama Buildings, Panampilly Nagar, Kochi-682 036, by Jacob Mathew, on behalf of the Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd. Editor-in-Charge: T R Gopaalakrishnan*. *Respon-sible for selection of news under the PRB Act. Air surcharge 35 paise; Dimapur, Jorhat, Tezpur, Tinsukia, Silchar and Agartala. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form is prohibited.Focus/Infocus features are marketing initiatives

CONTENTSVOL 31 NO 27 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

FOR THE WEEK JULY 1-7

18 Andhra Pradesh: Congress's indeci-siveness on the Telangana issue might brew more trouble

20 Neighbours: A proposed US-Maldives agreement would bring the American fleet to India's backyard

48 Economy: The fall of the rupee will hurt students who want to study abroad

54 Sports: The OPEX training programme has lost its teeth, thanks to the apathy of the government and national sports federations

56 Business: CCI's lackadaisical approach has cost the economy many promising investors

COVER DESIGN: AJAY PINGLE || PHOTO: PTI

LETTERS 4

APERITIF 8

POWER POINT 10

WORD PLAY 10

HAWK EYE 16

FIRST CITIZEN 17

SECTION 376 52

MASALA MUSINGS 58

FORECAST 66

ART TO HEART 78

HIP GUIDE 79

LAST WORD 82

REGULARS

67 @leisure: Yummy dishes served with a sprin-kling of history, food walks in Mumbai are finding many takers● Dhanush on Ranjhanaa, the love of his life and

Bollywood dreams. Plus, movie review● American television host Jeff Probst about his reality show, Survivor, and his image of India● God does not keep me on that wire, says Nik Wallenda, who won his seventh record for the high wire walk across the Grand Canyon

24 COVER STORY

Plus● We are yet to learn how to manage

the fragile Himalayan ecosystem● Many deaths could have been avoid-

ed had the Uttarakhand government been more proactive

● If 20,000 pilgrims assemble in a place that has a capacity for just 3,000, such tragedies are bound to happen, say environmentalists

Interview● M. Shashidhar Reddy, vice chair-

man, National Disaster Management Authority: We need to develop a disaster prevention culture

62 Dawn to dusk: Lt-Cdr Abhilash Tomy on his 150-day voyage that changed him and the one regret he has in life

FREENEXT WEEK

VALLEY OF DEATHExclusive: Death, disease, hunger, biting cold... stories of pain lurk in every nook and cranny of flood-ravaged Uttarakhand. While the ordeals of the pilgrims have been doing the rounds, the fate of the local people who lost their homes and livelihood remain untold. ● THE WEEK reports from Wing Commander Darryl Castellino's chopper, which rescued many before going down

When life stood still: Aerial view of the temple (yellow roof) and flood-hit Badrinath town

CHERIAN THOMASSANJAY AHLAWAT

VISHNU V. NAIR


WorldMags.net



LETTERS4 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

JOURNALISM WITH A HUMAN TOUCH ● www.the-week.com JUNE 23, 2013 $30

MODIMEANS IT THERE IS NO denying that Narendra Modi is an able administrator and an efficient politician (‘The iron lotus’, June 23). What’s wrong if the BJP has been reduced to a Modi-centric party? Isn’t the Congress a Sonia Gandhi-centric party? Modi is one of those few leaders in the country who have the charisma to attract huge crowds wher-ever they go. He means business and does not beat around the bush. David D’souza, Panaji.

IF MODI IS responsible for the Gujarat communal riots, then Jawaharlal Nehru is accountable for the Partition riots. Gujarat is the most developed state in India. Narendra Modi has all the potential to be the Prime Minister. It is only he who can raise India’s standing in the world. S. Raghunatha Prabhu,On email.

IT WOULD BE wrong on the part of the BJP to dis-appoint party activists at grassroots level, and there-

by cause confusion, by not naming Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate. The BJP needs a strong wave to come back to power in 2014, and only Modi has the ripple effect, so to say.Vimal Tyagi,Delhi.

THE WEEK SHOULDN’T have called Narendra Modi a chair-snatcher. He rides high in popularity across the length and breadth of the country. The BJP should announce Modi as the prime ministerial candidate and garner as many seats as possible. The BJP can survive only with Modi. I feel India can be a truly prosperous country under the leadership of Modi. And there are so many who think like me. Ratnakar Pandey, On email.

IT SEEMS THAT the ‘chair-snatcher Narendra Modi’ is overconfident of not only winning the 2014 parliamentary elections but also occupying the prime ministerial chair. Modi should know that the fate of any political party will be decided by the younger generation of today.Ramesh Kotian,Udupi, Karnataka.

NARENDRA MODI IS the apt person to lead the country. Nitish Kumar has dug his own grave by pulling out of the NDA. Mark my words, Kumar will come back to the NDA after the 2014 general elec-tions. N. Mahadevan,Chennai.

EVERYONE KNOWS THAT Nitish Kumar is playing vote-bank politics. He is an opportunist. The Modi mania is not orches-trated, Mr Kumar! You will realise your mistake soon. Pranav Bhushan,Patna.

LIFE-LONG ASPIRA-TIONS OF overambitious political leaders, like L.K. Advani, have created a tsu-nami in the Indian politi-cal system. If there can be an age-limit for those in bureaucracy and judiciary, there must also be an age-limit to remain in politics.Subhas Chandra Agrawal,Delhi.

ADVANI SHOULD HAVE known that younger and energetic leaders like Modi can up the ante and ensure that the BJP wins the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with a reason-able tally of seats. The argument that is levelled against Modi is his refusal to apologise for adminis-trative failures in 2002. Did the so-called ‘secular Congress’ apologise for the 1984 Sikh riots? Has the Samajwadi Party apologised for the count-less minor riots in Uttar Pradesh? Has the CPI(M) said sorry for what had happened in Nandigram?Padmini Raghavendra,Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

ONE FEELS THAT L.K. Advani should have been gracious enough to accept the elevation of Modi. He should remain a patri-arch in the party like Atal

Bihari Vajpayee. All suc-cess to the NaMo magic in the BJP.P.R. Achuthan Nair,On email.

THE SORT OF quick response that the Gujarati population gives to even minor changes in policy and administration will be missing in Delhi. The mindset of Gujaratis need not always be the mindset of rest of the Indians. Vani A.,Hyderabad.

MODI IS A no-nonsense, corruption-free and clear-headed leader. He is cer-tainly prime-ministerial material. It’s a doom and gloom feeling every other day for us, the citizens, under the Congress regime.Devika Banerjee,Kolkata.

True serviceHATS OFF TO Aruna Roy for the commendable work she does for the better-ment of society (‘A living experiment’, June 23). I agree with Roy when she says that she cannot live in air-conditioned comfort and speak of trickle-down theories. Difficulties need to be experienced first-hand.Anup Sharma,Mumbai.

Service before self: Aruna Roy

SANJAY AHLAWAT


WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net



LETTERS6 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

Managing Editor: Philip MathewSenior Assistant Editor & Director: Riyad MathewEditor-in-Charge: T R GopaalakrishnanSenior Editor: V.S. JayaschandranSenior News Editor: Stanley ThomasNews Editor: Lukose MathewDeputy News Editor: P. SrideviChief Subeditors: Mathew T. George, Maijo AbrahamSenior Subeditors: S. Neeraj Krishna, Vidhya C.K., Jan Mary Varghese, Ajish P. Joy, Susamma KurianSubeditors: Diya Mathew, Anirudha Karindalam, Viji Rajan, Navin J. Antony, Nirmal George KoshyResident Editor, Delhi: K.S. Sachidananda MurthyChief of Bureau, Delhi: R. PrasannanDeputy Chief of Bureau, Delhi: Vijaya PushkarnaChief of Bureau, Mumbai: Dnyanesh V. JatharChief of Bureau, Bangalore: N. BhanutejSenior Special Correspondents: Neeru Bhatia, Rekha Dixit (Delhi)Special Correspondents: Tariq Ahmad Bhat (Srinagar), K. Sunil Thomas (Delhi), Anupam Dasgupta (Mumbai), Ajay Uprety (Lucknow), Mandira Nayar, Nikita Doval, Syed Nazakat (Delhi), Deepak Tiwari (Bhopal), Kallol Bhattacherjee, Neha Sharma Bajpai (Delhi)Principal Correspondents: Nandini Gunavantrai Oza (Ahmedabad), Lalita Iyer (Hyderabad), Soni Mishra (Delhi), Niranjan Takle, Rachna Tyagi (Mumbai), Soumik Dey (Delhi), Lakshmi Subramanian (Chennai)Senior Correspondents: Gunjan Sharma (Delhi), Rabi Banerjee (Kolkata), Mini P. Thomas, Abhinav Singh (Bangalore), Sharmista Chaudhury (Mumbai), Shweta Thakur Nanda (Delhi)Correspondents: Vandana (Delhi), Swagata Ramamoorthy Yadavar (Mumbai), Sabarinath Bahuleyan (Thiruvananthapuram), Anjuly Mathai (Bangalore)Chief Reporter: U.A.E.: Rajeev Menon, DubaiPhoto Editor: Cherian ThomasChief Photographers: Arvind Jain, Sanjay Ahlawat (Delhi), Janak Bhat (Mumbai), Bhanu Prakash Chandra (Bangalore), Salil Bera (Kolkata)Senior Photographer: Amey Suhas Mansabdar (Mumbai)Photographer: Aayush Goel (Delhi)Senior Picture Coordinator: Bimal Nath C.Special Designer: Ajay PingleChief Layout Artists: Jayant Pithadia, Jayakrishnan M.T.Chief Graphic Artist: N.V. JoseIllustrator: B. Bhaskaran Layout Artist: B. ManojkumarDesigner: Deni LalArtist: Rajesh A.S.Junior Artists: Sumesh C.N., Sujesh K.Research Head: K. ManoharanResearcher: Saju C. DanielResearch Assistant: Rani G.S.Executive Director: George JacobChief General Manager, Marketing, Advertising Sales: Varghese ChandyChief General Manager, Works: P.K. PhilipChief General Manager, Circulation: M. Rajagopalan NairSenior General Manager, Sales: Anand MathewBusiness RepresentativesSenior Resident GM, Mumbai: Shree Kumar MenonRegional GM, Chennai: K.C. SureshRegional GM, New Delhi: Pankaj BelwariarRegional GM, Marketing, Bangalore: Ranjit KurienCoimbatore: Rajesh NairHyderabad: Abraham T. GeorgeKolkata: Manoranjan AnandanPune: Amarnath Joshi

WE NEED MORE people like Roy who have gone out of the way to help the needy. I feel Roy should be reinstated in the National Advisory Council. The country needs her service at a more broader level. R. Kishore,On email.

Show-all dummies RECENTLY, I WAS embarrassed when my three-year-old child asked me, on seeing a scantily-clad dummy, what it was (‘Modesty for dummies’, June 23). I said it was a banian! What else could I have said! Displaying a woman’s body like that is wrong. Santhi Krishnamurthy,On email.

IT IS STUPID to say that mannequins provoke men to commit sex crimes. No way! Grow up, politicos. And grow up, Indian soci-ety!Lakshmi Menon,On email.

Dark horseTHE AAM AADMI Party’s presence in the Lok Sabha

elections will matter only in Delhi and the surround-ing areas (‘What’s AAP?’, June 23). But it can make a difference in the Delhi Assembly elections. All the best, Arvind Kejriwal. Tigin Thomas,On email.

THE AAP WILL take away a considerable number of votes from the BJP and the Congress in Delhi. I like the way the party has shortlisted a diverse mix of candidates. Kejriwal and company are certainly a force to reckon with, mind it! Manish Tripathi,Delhi.

Alliance for sureTHE DMK HAS no option

but to go for an alli-ance during the run-up to the Lok Sabha elec-tions (‘Together to win’, June 23). As of now, the AIADMK is with the NDA, and the DMK with the UPA. For either front, it is easier to work with M. Karunanidhi than with J. Jayalalithaa. Nikhil Tomar,Bhopal.

Past gloryTHE 1983 WORLD Cup victory was a watershed moment for Indian cricket (‘World’s cup’, June 23). As Michael Holding puts it, “The Indian cricket fan’s world changed on June 25, 1983.” So true. Discipline and fitness are essential for any nation to do well in sports. Anagh Pal,On email.

Genuine talent VIKRAM IS SHEER genius (‘Madness in his method’, June 23). Very few other actors in India work like him for the character they enact. He has a pan-India following now, thanks to his two Bollywood releases. Anajli Iyer,Chennai.

THERE ARE SO many talented actors in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada film industries. But, sadly, they don’t have the reach that Bollywood stars have. Many of the Hindi film stars are all hype and no substance. Devika Reddy,Hyderabad.

Poll results from My Take on>>>>www.the-week.com

MyTakeIs Modi's contribution of

02 crore for the flood relief fund too low?

No 86%Yes 14%

Mission, New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal (centre) at a meeting in Delhi

PTI


WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net



APERITIF8 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

POINT BLANK POINT BLANK POINT BLANK POINT BLANK POINT BLANK

JUMBO JUNCTION || Elephant corridor meets IT corridor at Huskur village, near Bangalore's Electronic City. Shutterbugs and bikers blocked the path of this herd, which was migrating from Tamil Nadu. Forest officials said the 13 jumbos were manageable, the humans were not.

PHOTO BY BHANU PRAKASH CHANDRA

Narendra Modi has tremendous capacity and willpower to transform. His qualities resemble Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He will be more concerned about good governance.P.A. SANGMA—Former Lok Sabha Speaker

I don’t watch TV too much. I see it only at night to see if there is some breaking news. MANOHAR PARRIKAR—Goa CM

By merely calling for fronts... fronts don’t appear. They can’t be created from the atmo-sphere. SITARAM YECHURY—CPI(M) leader, on the possibility of a Third Front

Having premarital sex to be considered legally married! Sounds like having a swim to be considered legally drowned. TASLIMA NASREEN—Writer, on a Madras High Court judgment on sex and marriage

Congress workers are selling the party. In return, the Samajwadi Party is obliging them with high security cover, government bungalows and money.BENI PRASAD VERMA—Union minister

I am not afraid to die. If one Ma-mata Banerjee is killed, one crore Mamata Banerjees would be born. MAMATA BANERJEE—West Bengal CM, on threats from the Maoists

I invite you for a public debate... at Ramlila Maidan... at your con-venience. But I know that you will not accept this challenge. ARVIND KEJRIWAL—Aam Aadmi Party leader, to Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit

PTI


WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net



APERITIF10 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

power point ■ Sachidananda Murthy

MILESTONES

In the seven years he has been the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's point man for the BJP, Suresh Soni has

grown in strength and clout. Many party leaders suggest that the pracharak from Madhya Pradesh has been manipulating the changes in the BJP's campaign leader-ship. L.K. Advani even complained to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat about the role Soni played in bringing Narendra Modi as the big face of the BJP.

Soni, however, enjoys the RSS leader-ship's confi dence. He rarely comes to the forefront, but controls the BJP through a network of organisational secretaries at the national and state level, most of whom are from the RSS stock. However, it was not Soni who had pushed Advani out as BJP president in 2005. Soni's predeces-sor Madan Das Devi, an RSS veteran, took umbrage at Advani's praise for Muham-mad Ali Jinnah.

When Devi stepped aside because of ill health, Soni, despite his strong likes and dislikes, was chosen for the key post. In his home state, Soni did not get along well with the charismatic but mercurial Uma Bharti, who had brought the BJP to power in 2003. However, he struck a good rapport with Rajnath Singh, who was BJP president. Interestingly, Advani's close aide Ananth Kumar, who has an RSS background, maintains strong links with Soni.

After the NDA's disastrous show in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, in which Advani was projected as

the coalition's prime ministerial candidate, Soni decided that the party could not be led by a nominee of Advani. Hence came the formula “None of the Delhi Four”, wherein Bhagwat ruled out making any of the four Delhi-based leaders, who were close to Advani, party president. The Delhi Four are former BJP president Venkaiah Naidu, parliamentary party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, and Ananth Kumar. Soni played a role in bringing Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur as party president.

When Gadkari did not get a second term, Soni pushed hard for the return of Rajnath Singh. He even helped Singh make a long presentation at the RSS Pratinidhi Sabha (its largest decision-making forum) in Jaipur on changes needed in the BJP's strategies and personalities for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Soni had felt it was in-evitable to take a hardline and break a few eggs in the NDA basket to push for saffron primacy. No wonder Advani likened him to a master puppeteer who pulled strings making leaders like Rajnath, Jaitley and Kumar gyrate as he pulled them. Former party president Murli Manohar Joshi and Swaraj were the only people who voiced their dissent over Modi's elevation at the Goa national executive.

Now that he has his team of Modi and Rajnath, Soni would move fast forward, knowing well he has the support of the RSS high command. He hopes to soar high, but the Advani camp fears he would make the party [email protected]

Puppets on strings

BHASKARAN

Women have shattered the glass ceiling in various walks of life, but, it seems, there are more ceilings to break. Earlier this year, The Huffi ngton Post ran a headline with the phrase brass ceiling. The article lauded the appointment of Major General Michelle Johnson as superinten-dent of the US Air Force Acad-emy, Colorado Springs. Johnson is the fi rst woman to head an academy of any of the three forces in the US. Brass ceiling, by defi nition, means the unac-knowledged promotion barriers in the armed forces.Another ceiling relating to promotion is the grass ceiling, which is the barrier caused by a person's inability to “play golf or join the right golf club”. The meaning has been extended to include other sports in which your boss might be interested.

More wheels: Japanese car maker Honda is planning to launch four new models in the Indian market by 2015. One of them is an upgraded variant of the compact hatchback Jazz. The other three: a compact sports utility vehicle, a seven-seater multi-purpose vehicle and an upgraded premium sedan.

Scary fi gure: According to sta-tistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau, 1,35,445 people committed suicide in India in 2012.

Grand slammed: In what was his earliest defeat in Wimble-don since 2002, Swiss ace Roger Federer crashed out of the Grand Slam tournament: He lost to world number 116 Sergiy Stakhovsky. The tournament had more shockers. While third-seeded Maria Sharapova was knocked out by Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal (ranked 131), fi fth seed Rafael Nadal lost to 135th-ranked Belgian Steve Darcis in the fi rst round.


WorldMags.net



21THE WEEK JANUARY 20, 2013

Are you a globe-trotter?Do you enjoy narrating your travel experiences

with humour and excitement?Then send your articles to

[email protected] 'TripTease' mentioned on the subject line.

And, if published, get paid!

From a quainter Italy to a traditional Dubai and a luring Belfast,TripTease on the-week.com and Globe-trotter on THE WEEK on iPad bring you first-hand travel experiences from all round the world.

DES

IGN

: RA

JESH

A.S

.


WorldMags.net



APERITIFparty snacks12 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

Fatherly flakSAMAJWADI PARTY CHIEF Mulayam Singh Yadav is not satisfied with the way the Uttar Pradesh government is functioning. In a recent party meeting, he stunned everyone when he told his son, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, that the performance of the government did not meet the expectations of the people. Had he been the CM, said Mulayam, he would have set things in order within 15 days. A surprised Akhilesh had no option but to listen to his father quietly.

Hindi hiccupAMIT SHAH, A confi-dant of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, was recently appointed in-charge of BJP affairs in Uttar Pradesh. But he has a big disadvantage. His knowledge of Hindi is poor. Shah's detractors point out that he would find it difficult to com-municate with leaders and workers of the state. Also, they say, he is an urbanite and comes from a state that is largely urban, which does not suit his responsi-bility of winning seats for the BJP in a state that is largely rural.

MUTE POINTUS SECRETARY OF State John Kerry recently gave a speech at Stein Auditorium in the India Habitat Centre in Delhi. By the time he could touch upon the topic of terrorism, he was charged up and promised tough measures against terrorists. At that point, the sound system failed. Kerry realised that, in a moment of anti-terror zeal and vigorous gestures, he had switched off the microphone! As the audience looked on in surprise, he switched on the mic and carried on with the speech.

ILLUSTRATIONS: JAIRAJ T.G.


WorldMags.net



13

©prepress:PUBLICATIONS:THE WEEK:27 06 13:Party snacks Folder:Party snacks indd

THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

HOW TO REACH USBy MailLetters should be sent to: The Editor, The Week, Manorama Buildings, P. B. No. 4278, Kochi 682036, Kerala, India. They must include the name, address and telephone number of the writer. By Telephone 0484-4447888 By Fax 0484-2315745By [email protected]

Internet Home Pagehttp://www.the-week.comAdministrative Offi ceManorama Buildings, P.B. No. 26, Kottayam-686 001, Kerala, India. Tel: 0481-2563646Regional Co-ordinating Offi ceGround Floor, PTI Building (adjacent to RBI), 4, Parlia-ment Street, New Delhi 110 001. Tel: 23359541, 23327451, 23356537, 011-23325565 By Fax: 23354919BureauBangalore: 080-22867345,

22867050Kolkata: 033-24198233, 24198344, ext.216Chennai: 044-66918500,Delhi: 011-23715210Hyderabad: 040-23314168, 23324692Mumbai: 022-22074604, 22004358Patna: 0612-2535970Thiruvananthapuram: 0471-2328198Bhopal: 0755-2431001Lucknow:0522-2341576CirculationBangalore: 080-22247735/22247736Bhopal: 0755-2557937

Chandigarh: 0172-2724699Chennai: 044-43181402, 43181405Coimbatore: 0422-2241911/2245470Delhi: 011- 23379718, 23379719Hyderabad: 040-23314168/23324692Kolkata: 033- 24198233Lucknow: 0522-2341576Mumbai: 022-24901331, 39495969Patna: 0612-2233809Jaipur: 0141-2368360Thiruvananthapuram: 0471-2328198

SUBSCRIPTIONSFor all subscription-related inquiries please write, email or fax to Manager, Circulation, Malayala Manorama, PB No. 26, K.K. Road, Kottayam-1 Kerala. Fax: 0481 2562479, Tel: 0481 2563646Toll free no.: 1800 4255001Email: [email protected] advertising098953 [email protected]

Samosa chatsAS THE HEAD of the Congress media depart-ment, Janardan Dwivedi used to meet journalists at the canteen of the party headquarters in Delhi. He would gorge on samo-sas, ignoring his doctor's advice to avoid fried and spicy food. Many journal-ists suspected that the meetings gave him an excuse to indulge quietly, away from the glare of his family and doctor. Now that Dwivedi's tenure has ended, they are talking about the good old days when hot samosas used to be the norm at press briefings. Some are even displaying withdrawal symptoms.

Business concerns THE SECURITIES AND Exchange Board of India has asked Alchemist Infra Realty Ltd, owned by Trinamool Congress MP K.D. Singh, to wind up its 'collective invest-ment schemes' and return money to investors in three months. Sebi found that the company had illegally mopped up huge amounts from the public. The directive has come as a headache for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had strug-gled to distance herself from the Saradha chit fund scam. “Didi has asked Singh to take care of his business,” said a confidant of Mamata. “Otherwise our party would have to face another embarrassment.”

Quietly brilliantWHILE SPIN DOCTORS are busy portraying Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a Rambo who rescued 15,000 Gujarati pilgrims stranded in Uttarakhand, some politi-cians are handling the rescue and rehabilitation work with quiet efficiency. Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan camped in Uttarakhand to super-vise rescue of stranded pilgrims from Maharashtra. He is also learnt to have expressed his willingness to help the Uttarakhand gov-ernment in rebuilding infra-structure in affected areas. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh tweeted that Chavan had also offered to recon-struct Kedarnath temple complex long before anyone else did.

symptoms.ntur

”

at

y. terd

ra.

Fowl playAt Wimbledon, even Roger Federer is no

match for Rufus. The number of opponents FedEx has sent packing from the Centre Court is only a fraction of what Rufus has achieved.

So, who is Rufus? Well, he is the star employee of Avian Environmental Consultants, which sup-plies birds of prey to scare away pesky pigeons roosting at the All-England Club. To be precise, Rufus is a fi ve-year-old American Harris hawk. A Wimbledon fi xture, he has his own Facebook page and Twitter account with nearly 1,000 fol-lowers. When it comes to scaring away pigeons, he is the champ you have never heard of.

Rufus begins his job early in the morning and fi nishes his shift by 10 a.m., when fans start pouring in for the matches. “It has to be done when there are not many people about,” says Wayne Davis, Rufus's employer. “He does not kill pigeons, but his presence is enough to frighten them away. It is an environmentally friendly way to keep the courts clear.”

Like tennis stars, Rufus, too, is closely guarded at all times —with the help of binoculars and radio scanning equipment. Last year, he went missing for three days before the police found him aban-doned in his transportation cage near Wimble-don. Rufus has put the mishap behind him, if his fi ne form in this year's event is anything to go by.

Ace performer: Rufus with his handler Imogen Davis

REUTERS


WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net



16 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

hawk eye ■ Maroof Raza

Ignorant decision-makers

Recently, the ministry of defence (MoD) announced that India would not appoint

a chief of defence staff (CDS), or what the media refers to as a ‘super-general’. The official reason was that the current system—under which each service chief gets a chance to be a CDS on a rotational basis—is work-ing well enough. But this is far from the truth.

The issue of the CDS has come up from time to time, ever since Jawaharlal Nehru, fearing a coup, made the Army’s commander-in-chief equivalent to the other two smaller services by appointing all three as chiefs of staff. He then went on to select a series of unimpressive defence ministers—Sardar Baldev Singh, Mahavir Tyagi and Kailash Nath Katju—perhaps to consolidate his own hold over the military, which eventually saw the embarrassing fall-out in the 1962 confl ict, under V.K. Krishna Menon, Nehru’s friend and intellectual comrade.

While the armed forces have enjoyed considerable operational freedom since then, India, despite be-ing a nuclear power, has a situation unlike anywhere else in the world. Here, all major decisions on the use of force, includ-ing nuclear weapons and defence procurements’ rest with the civilians, whether it is the political leaders or the general-ist bureaucracy. Even well-thought-through recommendations of the service headquarters

are questioned by the bureaucracy, whose knowledge of matters military leaves a lot to be desired. But the babus in the MoD will not let go, even though the Kargil Review Committee report recommended a CDS, a recom-mendation that the Naresh Chandra Committee on national security endorsed recently.

What India desperately needs is a full-time CDS—a four-star level offi cer from any of the three ser-vices—and not necessarily senior to the three service chiefs who have opposed a CDS in the past for fear of losing their importance. The CDS would then be the one point of con-stant military advice to the defence minister.

For a country that is expected to play a global role—and the US needs India’s help in Afghanistan and in the Indian Ocean—we cannot bumble along without a serious understand-ing of what India’s hard currencies of military power are. India has tough neighbours—China and Pakistan—who will continue to spring surprises. Our political leadership needs a security confi dant who can help them

absorb nuances of military mat-ters, since all our defence ministers, except Jaswant Singh, have had little understanding of strategic issues.

Today, India is in a laughable situation, where the MoD calls itself the ‘Integrated Headquarters of Ministry of Defence’, but each of our three services has adopted and published their separate war fi ghting doctrines—though their roles differ a great deal—to project their impor-tance!

Strategic issues apart, civilians having the fi nal say has led to such delays in the procurement of es-sential weapons that India’s forces are far from battle ready. There is a desperate need for artillery guns and ammunition, air defence guns and helicopters, to name a few, but following the Bofors scandal, no bureaucrat wishes to put his neck out for military procurements. And even when they do sometimes, they have to face the auditing watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General.

However, the three services are also responsible for allowing them-selves to be marginalised in South

Block and elsewhere. It is one thing to respect the authority of the political leadership, and quite another to be brow-beaten by our generalist bureaucrats, who would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between an armoured vehicle and a tank, or a frigate and a corvette!Maroof Raza is a commentator on strategic affairs.www.maroofraza.com

BHASKARANWorldMags.netWorldMags.net

WorldMags.net



17THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

FIRSTCITIZEN

Sporting gestureBY MANDIRA NAYAR

Long walks. This is what defines exercise for most Presidents. The 13th

President, Pranab Mukherjee, wakes up bright and early and strides across the vast green purposefully for an hour. Giani Zail Singh used to do a little round occasionally. Abdul Kalam was like clockwork. A walker, he was known for his wandering. Pratibha Patil, too, enjoyed her daily walks. The eighth President, R. Venkataraman, was an all-rounder. He played tennis, billiards and bad-minton well.

“I remember playing a round with him,’’ says Gauri Shankar, tennis coach at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. "He was really the most active President we have had. He could play badmin-ton for 20 minutes non-stop.”

Other Presidents have also tried their hands at sports, even if for a short time. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed played golf. Shankar remembers Kalam playing tennis, twice. “He was out for a walk and he stopped by and bounced a few balls.’’

The Rashtrapati Bhavan has the best sports facilities in the heart of the capital. Delhi’s VIP club is not the Gym (The Gymkhana) or the Golf Club or even the rather stuffy IIC (In-dia International Centre). That credit goes to the newly-renovated Peacock Sports Complex in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. It has a golf course with nine holes known as the Peacock Course, with verdant greens, and unlike the Golf Club, you have the opportunity to play without traffi c.

George W. Bush is believed to have

played a round here. The complex has tennis courts, both clay and grass. The clay courts are the most scenic in the city, with the background of the dome on the Hill. You can also play billiards, badminton, squash, table tennis or simply splash around in the pool.

Apart from serving and former Presidents and their families, VVIPs and senior offi cials of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the sports facilities can also be used by former offi cers who have served in the estate. This rule, it is believed, was introduced when the military secretary to a former Presi-dent realised that he could not get his usual round at the course, once he had left the offi ce. Negotiations ensued and, of course, the fauj was victorious. The current military sec-retary to the President, Major Gen-eral Anil Khosla, also enjoys his golf. The President’s daughter Sharmishta Mukherjee is perfecting her swing at the course. One of the most active

offi cers at the moment is Suresh Yadav, OSD to the President. The President’s tireless Press Secretary Venu Rajamony is a keen sportsman, too. He plays tennis and golf. Other VVIPs also enjoy the facilities. V.P. Singh’s daughter plays tennis. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra use pool facilities.

President Mukherjee has, however, gone beyond his predecessors. He has made the facilities more inclu-sive. Under the Sports Plus Initiative, 15 talented children of the employees of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, chosen through a competition, can now use these facilities. This is a small step, but a giant leap to make the estate a family. “This had never happened before,’’ says Shankar. “These kids could not even come into these premises, now we are training them alongside the children of offi cers.” ●

Brisk pace: Kalam taking a walk in the Mughal Gardens

PTI


WorldMags.net



CURRENT EVENTS18 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

Uneasy stateCongress sinks deeper in the Telangana quagmire

BY LALITA IYER

Un i o n H o m e M i n i s t e r Sushilkumar Shinde recently gave a one-month deadline for

a decision on Telangana. The deadline is fast approaching but no answers seem forthcoming. Six months after the B.N. Srikrishna Committee sub-mitted its report on Telangana, the Union government is yet to decide on the matter, either hoping the problem will go away or afraid of triggering another violent agitation.

Andhra Pradesh has always been an important state for the Congress, be it in terms of Lok Sabha seats or funds for elections. So if the Union government decides to split the state, will the Congress gain electorally? If it decides not to, the party is unlikely to win any of the 119 Assembly seats from this region; besides, many MLAs might walk out of the party to join the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)

Fight, not flight: Police detain pro-Telangana activists at a road strike

The current strength of the Assembly is 278 (15 members have been disqualified and one member died)Congress 146 TDP 79TRS 17YSRCP 17MIM 7CPI 4BJP 3CPI(M) 1Lok Satta 1Independents 3

or the YSR Congress Party. The lat-ter will take away Congress seats in the Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions as well.

If the Union government does decide to form a separate state of Telangana, the Congress might win a couple of seats in this region but will it make a significant difference? The Congress prospects seem poor and the anti-incumbency factor might weigh heavily against it after nine years in power. The YSR Congress Party, led by Jaganmohan Reddy, is quickly gain-ing ground in the state and it appears that the fight in the 2014 elections is between the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress Party.

The Congress will do well to appoint a group of ministers to develop the Telangana region. After all, the clamour for a separate state stems from discontent over lack of development in Telangana. There is talk that a Telangana Development Council (TDC) might be formed, along with sanction of a finan-cial package to Telangana, as a tempo-rary measure until a bill for statehood is passed in Parliament. There is already a race for the seat of the chairman of the proposed TDC and state Congress president D. Srinivas seems to be in the forefront. He had ambitions of becom-ing the chief minister and might think that chairmanship of TDC will bring him closer to his ambition. K. Jana Reddy, MLA, who is hoping for a good

The Congress's prospects seem poor and the anti-incumbency factor may weigh heavily against it after nine years in power. The YSR Congress Party is quickly gaining ground in the state.

Andhra Pradesh Assembly has 294 elected seatsTelangana has 119 seatsCoastal Andhra has 119 seatsRayalaseema has 56 seats


WorldMags.net




post in the TDC, recently said, “If the Congress carves out Telangana state, I will spend the rest of my life serving the party.”

When Congress MPs G. Vivekananda and Manda Jagannadham and former state Congress chief K. Kesava Rao recently joined the TRS, they hoped to create a political sensation. But noth-ing really happened. Kesava Rao is now the general secretary and chair-man of the TRS national affairs com-mittee. Vivekananda harbours aspira-

tions of becoming the first Dalit chief minister of Telangana.

The strength of the Assembly has dropped to 278 with the death of a member and the disqualification of 15 MLAs under the anti-defection law, nine of them from the Congress and six from the TDP. The Congress MLAs were disqualified for voting for a no-confidence motion that the TRS moved against the Kiran Kumar Reddy government.

“Telangana is not an issue that can

AFP

be resolved easily,” said the chief min-ister. After the Union government announces a separate state, a unani-mous resolution must be passed in the Assembly, he said, stressing on the word ‘unanimous’.

The TRS, the BJP and the CPI have been unequivocally pro-Telangana. The CPI(M) and the Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen have been against the bifurcation. The TDP and the YSR Congress Party have been ambiguous on this issue. ●


WorldMags.net



NEIGHBOURS20 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

BY KALLOL BHATTACHERJEE

The Republic of Maldives shall furnish, without charge, to the United States, all Agreed Facilities and

Areas including facilities and areas jointly used by the United States and the Republic of Maldives.”

This startling statement has appeared in a draft Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) supposedly final-ised between the US and the Maldives. Once signed, it will allow the US forces to virtually control the 1,192 Maldivian islands that stretch across the Indian Ocean’s energy lane. Interestingly, the agreement focuses on Seenu Gan island in the southern-most part and Laamu atoll near Male, the capital, which would bring the entire nation under US control.

India is particularly worried about articles III, VI, VIII and X of SOFA, according to a highly placed Indian source. While article III gives exclu-sive criminal jurisdiction to US person-nel in the Maldives, article VI allows sweeping import and export of equip-ment without inspection, customs duty or taxes. But the most worrying are articles VIII and X that allow US ships and aircraft carriers to move freely into and out of Maldivian waters. The agreement makes it explicit that the US military personnel on the ground will be fully armed and will have all kinds vessels under their command, includ-ing nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

The US has about 100 SOFAs around the world, mostly with allies like Canada, Qatar and South Korea or troubled countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. Broadly there are three types of agreements—the first cat-egory deals with NATO countries, the second with partner countries and the third with countries that are on the US radar for gaining greater access.

The proposed agreement with the Maldives is a maturation of two earlier deals in 2004 and 2010. The purpose of the 2004 agreement was to provide relief and rehabilitation in the event of a tsunami in the Maldives. But the 2010 agreement and the draft SOFA envisage US military presence in the Maldives in the name of controlling illegal immigration and anti-piracy and

SOFA so badA proposed US-Maldives agreement would bring American fleet in India's backyard


WorldMags.net




anti-terror operations. Reportedly, Indian diplomats are

intrigued by the comprehensive nature of the draft SOFA. The US has SOFAs with Sri Lanka (1995), Bangladesh (1998), Nepal (2000) and Afghanistan (2002). In fact, the Congressional Research Service of the US counts the 2004 US-Maldives agreement also as a SOFA. None of these agreements,

What is SOFA?A Status of Forces Agreement allows a foreign nation to station military forces in a host nation. The US has about 100 SOFAs around the world, mostly with allies like Canada, Qatar and South Korea or troubled countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.

SOFA in south AsiaThe US has SOFAs with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan, but none of them is as comprehensive as the proposed one with the Maldives.

American designIf signed, SOFA will allow the US forces to virtually control the Maldives, which sits right on the energy lanes that con-nect south and Southeast Asia with the Persian Gulf.

India's concernsThe proposed agreement will allow US ships and aircraft carriers to move freely into and out of the Maldives' waters. New Delhi is obviously not happy about the idea of US aircraft car-riers within 30 minutes' flying distance of the Indian shores.

Sky is the limit: A US-Maldives joint exercise in the Indian Ocean

PHOTO COURTESY: U.S. NAVY


WorldMags.net



NEIGHBOURS22 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

however, is as comprehensive as the one under discussion, which, if suc-cessfully concluded, will allow US air-craft carriers within 30 minutes' flying distance of the Indian shores.

India was informed about the agree-ment by Maldivian officials who visited Delhi in April. In response, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said the Maldives was free to do what it wished with other countries as long as it did not have any security implication for India and South Asia.

Foreign policy experts point out that New Delhi, which has been pre-occupied with figuring out the 'string of pearls' strategy of China, ignored how the US has been encircling India. The US and the Maldives had been holding joint exercises after the 2010 agreement. China built its embassy in Male in 2011, during the presidency of Mohamed Nasheed, setting off alarm bells in the region. It was followed by a tug-of-war in the island nation involv-ing various global players.

India's suspicions about China’s friendship with the Maldives, after its courting of Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Pakistan, intensified with reports of a $550 million investment by the Chinese government in the Maldives.

Indian authorities had taken note of the under-the-radar reports of Chinese plans about a submarine base on Marao island. The SOFA draft, however, shows the Americans were a step ahead of China, India and the rest.

Former Maldivian president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom had told India that the move to sack the Indian infrastructure company GMR from the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport project in Male was devised by the office of President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik with American blessings. GMR was asked to leave in October 2012, after an adviser of Waheed accused Indian High Commissioner D.M. Mulay of inter-fering in the country's affairs. It had been attributed to China’s prodding. GMR did not respond to the rev-elation as “arbitration is going on in

Singapore” between the company and the Maldives government.

Strategic affairs commentator Alok Bansal said the Maldives was a play-ground of many forces. “The Maldives is the crown jewel of the Indian Ocean region and sits right on the energy lanes that connect south and Southeast Asia with the energy market of the Gulf. So, obviously, major powers will jostle with each other to gain control over this country,” he said.

India, however, never aspired for a base in the Maldives, despite the clout it enjoyed in the region for decades. During the unrest in February, when Nasheed took refuge in the Indian high commission citing threat to his life, it was protected by Maldivian forces because India did not have guards in Male.

The proposed SOFA, however, is unlikely to get a walkover. The draft agreement violates the Maldivian con-stitution, which forbids using any part of the country for military purposes. It is said that the leak of the draft docu-ment was engineered by Gayoom, who wants to maintain pressure on Waheed before the elections in September. Soon after Gayoom returned to Male from his meetings in Delhi, Waheed announced that the Maldives may not sign on the draft as decided by the US. This indicates that the Maldives’ sov-ereignty might become a major elec-tion issue.

Supporters of Gayoom and Nasheed say that SOFA in the current form will have wide-ranging implications for the security and the movement of oil and gas in the Indian Ocean region and it must be signed only after discussion with friendly countries like India and Australia and other members of the Indian Ocean region. More impor-tantly, the Maldives is obliged to dis-cuss it with India under a bilateral understanding between the countries. It, however, remains to be seen if the Maldives is willing to honour its com-mitments. ●

New Delhi, which has been preoccupied with figuring out the 'string of pearls' strategy of China, ignored the US.

New lessons: Crew of USS Momsen with Maldivian coast guardsmen

PHOTO COURTESY: U.S. NAVY


WorldMags.net



Wellness guide for a Sharp, Sexy You!

COPY INQUIRY? PLEASE CALL: BANGALORE: 080-22247735 CHENNAI: 044-43181405 NEW DELHI: 011-23379718,23379740 MUMBAI: 022-24901331 HYDERABAD: 040-23314168, 23324692

KOLKATA: 033-24198233, 9831604133 CHANDIGARH: 0172-2724699 LUCKNOW: 0522-2341576 JAIPUR: 9461628972 BHOPAL: 0755-02557937 COIMBATORE: 0422-2241911

Subscribe at: subscribe.manoramaonline.com

THE MONSOON SPECIAL OF SMART LIFE GIVES A PEEK INTO

WHAT HAVOC THE RAINS CAN DO TO YOUR IMMUNITY.

DES

IGN

: SU

MES

H C

.N.


WorldMags.net




COVER STORY


WorldMags.net




Sky fall

The floods that swept through Uttarakhand also ravaged the buildings around Kedarnath temple, one of the holiest shrines dedicated to Lord Shiva

Flood's fury


WorldMags.net



COVER STORY26 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013


WorldMags.net




Stranded pilgrims watch soldiers of the Indian Army repair a foot-bridge over the River Alaknanda

Camoufl ageangels

REUTERSWorldMags.netWorldMags.net

WorldMags.net




Near Badrinath, a survivor begs a soldier to put her mother on an Army helicopter

A plea, a prayer...


WorldMags.net




A chopper with relief supplies takes off, as

volunteers rush to load another

Helping hands

REUTERS AP


WorldMags.net





WorldMags.net




A long line of pilgrims winds its way to the helipad at Badrinath

Road to life

SANJAY AHLAWAT


WorldMags.net




Soldiers help a woman down a slippery path in Govindghat

Safe hands


WorldMags.net




A body lies trapped in the wreckage of a house

Rage in Rudraprayag

The relief work in Uttarakhand is led by a combined team of the Indian Army, the Indian Air Force and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police

The A team

Relatives of missing pilgrims wait at the Jolly Grant airport, Dehradun

Hope springs eternal

PHOTOS: REUTERS PHOTOS: SANJAY AHLAWAT


WorldMags.net




COVER STORY

Wing Commander Darryl Castellino (far left) gave THE WEEK wings in flood-hit Uttarakhand. On June 25, while flying back from Kedarnath, the Mi-17 commanded by him crashed, killing all 20 onboard. Photo taken on June 23, at the Gauchar airstrip

Farewell, winged knight


WorldMags.net




When nature unleashed its fury on Uttarakhand, a few good men were what the victims counting on

BY NIKITA DOVAL

It was 3 p.m. on June 23 when Wing Commander Darryl Castellino landed his Mi-17 V5 chopper at the Gauchar airstrip

in Karnaprayag. He had just completed a sortie to Badrinath, evacuating four people, and intended to go back even though the weather reports were not encouraging. “I will go for another round, Sir, come back with 15 this time,” he said to Air Vice-Marshal S.R.K. Nair, assistant chief of Air Staff Operations.

Nair and THE WEEK team had been with Castellino and Sergeant Sudhakar Yadav on the sortie. The chopper was carrying relief material, which includ-ed packages of packets of oral rehydra-tion solution, bottles of mineral water, juices, loaves of bread, biscuits and blankets. And a foil-wrapped “non-veg sandwich for Castellino Sir”, a snack for the pilot when he felt peckish. Yadav had joked with us about our weight adding to the burden of the chopper.

Two days later, Castellino and Yadav, along with three others from the Air Force and 15 from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and National Disaster Response Force, took off from Kedarnath for the second time after dropping wood for a mass cre-mation and headed towards Gauchar. Castellino perhaps intended to return to the valley for a third sortie, as in the previous days, but fate had other plans.

The Mi-17 crashed in the narrow val-ley, killing all 20 on board. Air Chief Marshal N.A.K. Browne had promised that the Air Force rotors would con-tinue to turn till the last person was rescued. Castellino, Yadav and their 18 companions lived and died by those words.

Twelve long days have passed since that fateful morning when Uttarakhand's skies opened, making the mountains roar and leaving the mankind tremble. The annual pilgrim-age to some of Hinduism's holiest sites—Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri—was at its peak, and several thousand people were there seeking salvation. What they got instead was apocalypse. Most of those who were stranded and alive have been rescued and evacuated. What is still missing is a number for those who perished in the flash floods that swept away villages, houses, people, animals and just about everything that came in its way.

“When the first rumble came at 7 a.m. on June 16, I thought it was an earthquake,” said D.P. Dubey, a pilgrim from Delhi. Before he even had time to gather his wits, water rushed into his room in a dharamshala in Kedarnath. Dubey clung on to the door of his room for some 20 minutes while the river swirled around him. He still breaks into a cold sweat when he recalls what he saw when the water receded. “It was a

SANJAY AHLAWAT

TRAIL OF DEATH

EXCLUSIVE: GROUND ZERO


WorldMags.net




nightmare. There were bodies every-where, the whole place, right from the temple compound to the bazaar area, was strewn with carcasses,” he said.

Gayatri Saxena, wife of Dubey's friend Subhash Saxena, starts weeping during the narrative. Her family was already descending towards Rambara, the base camp, when the deluge struck. They ran up the mountain. “Stones were pelting down from above. The river was raging below us. I saw a boy being struck on the head and dropping below,” she said.

Every corner of Uttarakhand has a story of loss and pain to recount. “I was being transported to Rambara in a handheld chair when the mountain came down. I was buried under but my porters pulled me out,” said Priti Bendidarji of Ahmedabad. She survived the next eight days on biscuits, some of which she dug out of the mud, and contaminated water. “There were bod-ies all around us. Some were piled one on top of the other, some were strewn around. Those who had injured family members were carrying them on their backs,” she said. She had come for the pilgrimage with 60 others, but has not seen one of them since that fateful day.

While tales of the pilgrims' ordeal have been doing the rounds, another aspect of the tragedy has been com-pletely overlooked—the loss at the local level. Data collected by Sphere India, an NGO, shows that 700 houses have been washed away in Rudraprayag dis-trict alone. While the government has reported the loss of only 1,000 animals, unofficial reports place the number between 5,000 and 6,000. “People have lost houses, fields, animals. Irrigation channels are gone, water supply pipes are damaged,” said Ravi Chopra, director, People's Science Institute, Dehradun. “The rainfall during that weekend was heavy across the state. There were flash floods in several small river valleys and everything that stood in the way has been washed away.”

Many villages have no access to food or drinking water. And even as they deal with the trauma of the present, the uncertainty of the future weighs heavily on them. If the pilgrimage is cancelled for the next two or three years, as the government has been saying, they will lose out on their main source of income.

On the way to Kedarnath is Rudrapur village. The men of the village have always been priests at the holy shrine. Ten of them went missing on that fate-ful day. Also missing are many men in the villages around the temple, who work as porters or in the innumerable dhabas and dharamshalas during the

pilgrimage season. “The loss of every life is tragic but the

focus is only on the pilgrims. No one is concerned about the locals, neither the media nor the administration,” said a young employee at the water depart-ment in Rishikesh. His office is just a few metres from the banks of the Ganges and the river had gushed in, in the early hours of June 17. The base-ment of the office is locked with mud and debris. “The local administration and the state government have let the people down. PWD officials, doctors, policemen, all abandoned their posts when the disaster struck. The locals and pilgrims were left to fend for them-selves, trekking through kilometres of tough terrain. A lot of them, especially the elderly and the injured, succumbed to exertion and hunger,” he said.

The Rudraprayag district magistrate got himself admitted to a hospital in Dehradun claiming to have suffered a minor heart attack. In towns uphill, like Srinagar and Rudraprayag, the damage is extensive. Vehicles are bur-ied under mud and debris, and houses along the banks have been swept away. “We have been stuck here for 10 days now. We have been standing in this line since 9 p.m. yesterday and still our turn for evacuation has not come,” said Kastubai from Rajasthan, who had come on a pilgrimage with her family.

The Army's order of evacuation is very clear. “First the sick, physically injured and the elderly. Then children and women with infants,” said Nair. In Badrinath, the able-bodied and physi-cally fit were being geared to trek for a part of the stretch.

Calamities, as rightly noted by a vic-tim, bring out the best and worst in peo-ple. Tales of corpses being robbed and armed gangs attacking survivors were circulating, especially among those who were stranded in Gauri Kund. But then, there are also heart-warming incidents of the locals overcoming their own loss to help the stranded. “The locals here are helping out with cooking and caring for the stranded,” said an Indian Army officer posted in Harsil. Community rescue efforts were, in fact, the first to

Call of duty: Sergeant Sudhakar Yadav (left) helps a woman on board the chop-per while being rescued from Badrinath. Yadav died in the crash on June 25

COVER STORY

SANJAY AHLAWAT


WorldMags.net




be mobilised when the disaster struck, said an NDRF official.

Groups have come from Delhi and Haryana to organise community kitch-ens and help the victims. The Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee has hired private choppers to evacuate the stranded pilgrims and has organ-ised langars [kitchens]at Joshimath, Rishikesh, Gauchar and Govindghat.

The first line of the Chetwood Motto, which the Army abides by, says: “The safety, honour and welfare of your country comes first, always and every time.” It came first in the worst of times as well, as shown by the selfless way in which the forces have been working, round the clock to help the people. From pilots who flew eight hours every day to troops who lay down over a makeshift bridge so that people could get across by crawling over them, there were many inspirational moments. And they were least bothered about their own lives. “What fear of epidem-ic?” scoffed Squadron Leader Manoj Gautam, when asked if the decompo-sition of the dead and infections in the living scared the soldiers.

In Harsil, the troops of 5 Garh Rifles have given their barracks over to the pilgrims. Getting by on little sleep, the men have been working round the clock, rescuing people, feeding them and taking care of them. “We came here to seek blessings from God but the Air Force and the Army men have turned out to be the God for us,” said Madhu Srivastava of Lucknow.

Uttarkhand has always been prone to cloud bursts and flash floods but the scale of the tragedy could have been contained if, in its blind worship of commerce and development, the state authorities had not repeatedly flouted environment and construction laws. In this age of corporate-style prayer houses and pilgrimages doubling as vacation, we have forgotten that the first god that mankind worshipped was nature. Not a plea bargain but one that stemmed from respect. We might think that we have harnessed nature and her power but she just reminded us why she should still be feared. ●

BY REKHA DIXIT

The Himalayas are depicted in popular iconography as the tough guys who stand tall—tallest, actually—pro-

tecting the subcontinent from inva-sions, both human and climatic. They command the monsoon clouds to rain over the subcontinent, bringing sus-tenance. There is just one little, but crucial, error in this imagery. The Himalayas are anything but tough. Vulnerable and fragile are terms which do not go with their macho looks, but they are exactly that.

As the youngest mountain range in

Macho looks, vulnerable withinThe Himalayan ecosystem is fragile; India is yet to learn how to manage it

the world, they reached their pres-ent height only 10 million years ago. Compare that with the Aravallis, which are over a billion years old. The Himalayas are still in their growing phase, as tectonic plate movements push the fold mountains higher. “Every year, the Indian subcontinent goes a further 5cm under the Tibetan plate and the mountains increase by anoth-er 1.5cm in height,” says Arundeep Ahluwalia, Himalayan geologist and disaster management trainer.

Great heights and steep gradients do not add up to stability. Throw in the highest rain lashings anywhere in the world, as well as avalanches in the upper regions, and there is never a qui-escent moment. Then there are three tempestuous river systems originating here: the Indus, Ganges and Yangtse.

ECOSYSTEM

Holding on, just: The Mandakini in spate took many houses down the stream. Some survived

AFP


WorldMags.net




Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation, agrees. “If there was a heavy rainfall warning issued, why was it not relayed to all who would be affected? Himalayan temple towns don’t have a carrying capacity of more than 3,000 visitors; then how are they accommodating 10 times the number? Shouldn’t there have been restrictions on the number of visitors at a time, especially when you know the monsoon is beginning?”

Joshi said local people, especially those in remote areas, are in no way equipped to deal with natural disasters. Says Ahluwalia: “We use technology for commerce. Mobile phones receive regular messages for apartments, but never any usable warning.”

A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General in April was porten-

Interview/M. Shashidhar Reddy, vice-chairman, National Disaster Management Authority

We need more precise warning capabilitiesBY REKHA DIXIT

There is the allegation that the NDMA lacks teeth, that it is merely an advi-sory body.No. Whenever disaster strikes, the immediate responsibility of relief and rescue is with the state government. When a disaster is of national propor-tion, the NDMA coordinates the relief work. The National Disaster Relief Force goes out for relief and rescue. NDRF teams were pre-deployed in many instances, like during the Kosi floods. One and a half lakh people were shifted to safer ground.In coastal regions, storm warning sys-tems are becoming effective and we see fewer fishermen stranded during cyclones. Why has such a culture not percolated across the country?We need more precise warning capa-bilities. The weather bureau predicted

heavy rain, but it did not translate into what the state should do with the warning. Also, the Central Water Commission, whose responsibility was to anticipate floods, didn’t know any-thing. We had a meeting, and I have urged the two departments to give proposals on developing better systems.

When warnings trans-late into action, the dam-age is contained. We saw that in 2009, during the Krishna floods in Andhra Pradesh. Because we had inundation maps in advance, authorities evacuated over five and a half lakh people. The death toll was less than 100. This, when a flood of such proportions is expected only once in 10,000 years. But this does not make headlines.Disaster management is one aspect, prevention another. Shouldn’t the NDMA seek a larger role in this area?The focus of disaster management shifted from relief and rescue to pre-vention and rehabilitation when the NDMA was formed. But authorities should heed our guidelines. Our experts have prepared guidelines for more than

17 areas, and over 75 per cent of these do not require much investment. But they go unheeded. I told a chief min-ister recently that we would like to discuss disaster preparedness in his state. He wrote back saying that the next time I happened to be in the state,

I could brief his officials.Look at Japan. They

have weekly drills in schools, offices, apart-ment blocks... I am told a new tenant is sup-posed to be given a thor-ough run through of the safety measures in the society. We are yet to develop that culture.

Any lessons learnt from this incident?Yes. Amarnath has a system of giving a weather forecast at 4 a.m., depending on which pilgrims proceed. We should have installed a similar one at the Char Dham, too. Another aspect is crowd management. It is the biggest chal-lenge in rescue operations in India. We’ve seen this during the Kumbh bridge collapse, [and] at Sabarimala, everywhere. We need better training in this aspect, as well as developing systems of regulating people.

cloudburst leading to flash-floods in Ladakh and a massive earthquake in Sikkim, both of them causing huge loss of life and property.

“The losses are high because we’ve not learnt to live around the phenom-ena,” says Ahluwalia. “One cannot stop development just because an area is fragile. By that yardstick, there should be no inhabitation in Japan. Nature doesn’t strike without warning, espe-cially in these times of sophisticated forecasting technology. Our repeated failure in heeding to warnings leads to disaster every time. Hurricane Sandy ravaged the US last year; it was inexo-rable. Yet, only around five lives were lost. There is no reason in this day and age for people to die because they were not forewarned.”

Anil Joshi, founder of the

This being a high seismic zone, earth-quakes are a regular occurrence here. Adding to these natural activities is the huge population pressure on the hills as well as the plains that the moun-tains nurture. “The Himalayas need to be treated apart from any other land form,” says Sunita Narain, director-general of the Centre for Science and Environment. “There has to be a sepa-rate policy for them. Unfortunately, they've been handled with the same set of rules as anywhere else in the country.”

The recent cloudburst and flash-floods were not an aberration but a regular Himalayan phenomenon. This is why the country should have been prepared for it, instead of acting like a deer caught in the headlights. In recent times, the Himalayas have witnessed a


WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net




Wet and witlessThe Uttarakhand government has been a disaster

BY AJAY UPRETY

A farmer from Indore, Gabbu Singh went to Kedarnath as part of a group of 50 peo-ple. Only seven have man-

aged to survive the disaster. “The Mandakani’s killer currents took 30 of them,” he says. “The remaining 13 are still untraceable.”

According to Gabbu and his friend Anil Sisodia, even after 48 hours of the tragedy, the Uttarakhand govern-ment had no clue how to act. “There was no water to drink and nothing to eat,” said Gabbu. “We collected rain-water in a leaf and drank it. No relief measure reached us. Half of those who died could have been saved if food and blankets had reached Kedarnath. Many people died of cold and others succumbed to hunger and thirst.”

Survivors say the state government’s lackadaisical approach has worsened their plight. Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna camped in Delhi even as rescue and relief operations started in Kedarnath. He made no efforts to go to the badly affected areas, and he

went for an aerial survey only after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi had done so. And when the government advertised helplines, the numbers were wrong. “There was utter lack of coordination between the chief min-ister and officers dealing with relief measures,” said a bureaucrat.

Realising that Bahuguna had failed miserably, the Congress high com-mand dispatched senior leader Motilal Vora to supervise the rescue opera-tions. But, even as the government struggled to contain the damage, some ministers turned the tragedy into a public relations exercise. During his visit to the state, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had ordered that no minister, except the chief minis-ter, should take choppers to affected areas. Agriculture Minister Harak Singh Rawat ignored it and flew sev-eral times to Kedar valley along with journalists in a bid to boost his image. According to an official deputed at the helipad, a chopper had to offload relief materials to accommodate Rawat and two reporters. Local people, exasper-

GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSEtous. It revealed that Uttarakhand’s disaster management authority had not even met once since its inception in 2007, forget framing policies and regu-lations. The report said the state had no early warning system in place, and not even requisite staff at the district level. “The state government failed to ensure incorporation of disaster pre-vention into the development process of the state,” says the report, adding that more than 044 crore was released from the Calamity Relief Fund for proj-ects that were ineligible. The CAG also rapped the state for its failure to reha-bilitate 80 villages affected in previous disasters. Uttarakhand is not the only errant state; a similar unpreparedness reflects in other states, too. The CAG has now pulled the lid off Andhra Pradesh’s disaster preparedness.

“We have no disaster mitiga-tion plans,” says Gopal Krishna of ToxicsWatch Alliance. “When the minister of environment and forests reports to the cabinet committee on economic affairs, one knows what the priority is.” Joshi adds that when the GDP is the only yardstick of growth, caution and restraint will fall by the wayside. His organisation recently filed a public interest litigation in the Nainital High Court seeking the inclu-sion of an Ecologic Growth Measure, too, to rate development.

Some years ago, the Planning Commission proposed a National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, which outlined in detail every aspect of Himalayan manage-ment, including sustainable urban-isation. The policy paper suggested, “municipal bylaws will be amended to prohibit construction in areas fall-ing in hazard zones or across align-ments of natural springs... the building code will be revised on the use of local materials and local architectural prac-tices...” There were other lofty recom-mendations on restricting the num-ber of pilgrims and preventing road construction near sacred places. The recommendations lie mostly unread, and the mission seems nowhere near its launch. ●

Rescue act● The Air Force has deployed its

entire aircraft class, includ-ing HAL Dhruv, Mi-17, Mi-26, Cheetahs and C-130s

● It has conducted more than 1,500 sorties since June 17

● The force has rescued more than 13,000 people

● It has lost five men in the opera-tion, named Op-Rahat

● The Indian Army has deployed more than 8,000 troops

● It has evacuated over 25,500 people on foot


WorldMags.net




Nature's wrath● More than 80,000 people were

stranded after the flash floods● The worst-hit was the Kedarnath

valley, with people stranded all over Rambara, Guptkashi and Junglechetti

● Many villages still remain cut off and local people have suffered a loss of lives, property and livestock

● As many villages are without electric-ity and potable water, there is the fear of epidemics

● 94 bridges are believed to have been washed away

● The estimated loss is more than 04,500 crore

ated, directed their anger at Kedarnath MLA Shaila Rani Rawat at Nala village.

Yashpal Arya, minister for disaster management, admitted that there were problems even though the government was doing its best to evacuate people. “When such a massive catastrophe strikes, one always comes across prob-lems and minor lapses. I’m not defend-

ing the government. But while blaming us, one should keep in mind the hos-tile circumstances under which we are functioning,” he said.

According to Arya, the govern-ment has pumped in all its resources to rescue stranded people. “So far, the government has rescued more than 80,000 people from different areas

Weary road: A worker carries a shovel to clear the Rudraprayag-Gauchar road; (below, left) pilgrims rescued from Gangotri board an aircraft at Dharasu

AFP

PTI


WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net




EXPERT VIEW

AS HEAD OF the Himalayan E n v i r o n m e n t S t u d i e s a n d Conservation Organisation, Anil Joshi has been studying the ecologi-cally sensitive Himalayan region for years. He attributes the floods to a formidable cloudburst, followed by excessive rains and lack of tempera-ture variation in a particular area.

According to Joshi, the disaster should not be seen as a natural calam-ity; it was strictly man-made. The affected areas were encroached upon and densely populated, damaging the fragile ecological system. “The envi-

Digging, drilling, destroying

Road to safety: Army personnel carrying an injured person at Gauchar

ronment of the area has changed a lot in the past two decades. Temperature has gone up and reckless development has worsened the situation,” he said.

Joshi said digging, drilling and other construction activities in the hills had put a strain on the ecology. Developmental activities did not take into account the environmental pecu-liarities of the Himalayan region. The casualties, he said, could have been averted if the government had a disaster management plan. Even though other parts of Uttarakhand also had received heavy rainfall, most of the deaths were

reported from the Kedar valley. Why? “If 20,000 pilgrims assemble at a place that can accommodate only three or four thousand people, such tragedies are bound to happen,” said Joshi.

Cloudbursts are a frequent phenom-enon in the Himalayan region. But the toll, he said, never goes this high. If the government knew that the hostile weather could wreak havoc, why did it not control the inflow of tourists? asks Joshi. “Unless we have a proper system of forecast and disaster management in place such tragedies will keep happen-ing,” he said.

SANJAY AHLAWAT


WorldMags.net




BY NANDINI OZA

The media has given him a nick-name: Rambo. That is after

a rumour, that Chief Minister Narendra Modi had rescued 15,000 Gujaratis in two days from flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, created a flutter on social media sites. The hot topic of discussion was how the poster boy of the BJP was using the disaster to project himself.

While some other chief min-isters set up control rooms in Uttarakhand, Modi visited the area with a team of civil servants. He conducted an aerial survey, met Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and coordinated the relief and rescue efforts. The Shiv Sena in its mouthpiece lambasted Modi for rescuing only people from Gujarat.

Modi’s offer to rebuild the Kedarnath temple complex led to another controversy. It died down after Bahuguna turned down the offer, saying it was his govern-ment's responsibility. Those close to Modi claim that generosity is in

his nature. As chief minister, he had extended help to other states, espe-cially during the floods in Bihar and the tsunami in south India. “Considering his track record, it is quite natural for Modi to have gone to Uttarakhand. He would have gone there even if he was not chief minister,” said Dhiren Avashia, Modi's former electronic media adviser.

Gujarat has announced 02 lakh to the next of kin of those killed in the disaster and a 05 crore assistance to Uttarakhand. This is in addition to the household kits that Gujarat will send to Uttarakhand. Congress leaders in Gujarat said they had no objection to Modi’s Uttarakhand trip; they said he should have done more for that state. Said Gujarat Congress president Arjun Modhwadia: "The financial sup-port should be more, considering that when an earthquake struck Gujarat in 2001, several state gov-ernments, irrespective of the par-ties in power, provided financial support and also built homes for the quake affected.”

POLITICS

Kindness, selectively

PTI

and has shifted them to safer places,” he said.

Experts say the tragedy could have been averted had the government been serious about disaster management in the ecologically fragile Himalayan region. According to a Comptroller and Auditor General report, the gov-ernment is yet to convene a meeting of the disaster management committee formed in 2007. “The government did not learn any lessons from tragedies like the Uttarkashi earthquake and Rudraprayag landslides. Natural disas-ters occur here quite frequently, and people have become used to it,” said environmentalist Avadash Kaushal.

A 2001 report by the Space Applications Research Centre and Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad had classified Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Karanprayag, Nandprayag and Srinagar as extremely sensitive and warned of floods compa-rable to the Alaknanda floods of 1970. The report is gathering dust.

Arya, however, insists that the gov-ernment will work out a comprehen-sive disaster management plan in the near future. “We need to work in this direction... especially keeping in mind the most sensitive eco-zones in the Himalayan region,” he said. “Our plan will have a 360-degree angle so that it can take care of all aspects and help in avoiding mishaps like Kedarnath.” ●

Built to lastThe flash floods swept away everything in the valley but the Kedarnath temple still stands. Even the idol of the bull Nandi in the courtyard is intact. Wonder why? There is no divine reason for it but rather a practical one. Built with heavy stone slabs, the temple is meant to withstand the turbulent mood swings of nature. Buildings around the temple com-plex were washed away because they stood on soil. In contrast, the temple has a strong stone plinth and a deep foundation.

Regional Rambo: Narendra Modi at a relief camp in Haridwar


WorldMags.net




For God's sake

BY NIKITA DOVAL

It is one of India's youngest states but it is going through one of the country's biggest crises. Ecologically, Uttarakhand has

always been vulnerable to the vagaries of nature, with cloudbursts and flash floods being common occurrences. They cannot be prevented. However, what could have been contained was the magnitude of the tragedy that struck the state.

The number of pilgrims visiting the state is believed to have tripled in the past decade. The number of thrill seek-ers, looking for adventure sports like trekking and rafting, has also increased steadily. This has led to rampant con-struction, especially on the riverbeds, with little or no regard for environ-mental laws. Also, several hydro proj-ects have been launched, causing fur-ther degradation of the ecology. All this contributed to the death dance of the rivers on June 16.

The state now has to do extensive rebuilding and rehabilitation work. “Rebuilding of the state is a very complicated issue. There are several factors like outsiders acquiring vast tracts of land to build summer homes and apartments, eco-tourism and reli-gious tourism, which have to be looked at individually to form a consolidated policy,” says architect Gautam Bhatia.

“The importance of well-built roads in the Himalayan belt cannot be emphasised enough,” says former

chief minister and retired Major-General B.C. Khanduri. “Had the roads been in place, the disaster could have been contained.”

According to Gautam Kaul, for-mer director-general, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the roads in this region need to be constructed straight rather than curved along the mountain. “In Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir, they are contemplating building roads through the mountain. This reduces the possibility of roads being blocked due to mudslides, which keep occur-ring in the region,” he says.

T h e U t t a r a k h a n d T o u r i s m Development Board had ambitious plans of bringing in foreign consul-tants and drafting a tourism policy to harness the state's potential. The board is “a complete waste of time and mon-ey,” says a hotel owner in Rishikesh. “For a state which sees mass trekking, there is no trekking policy. Nearly 150 companies have been issued licences for running camps and 150 more are in the queue. Many of these are run by fly-by-night operators with no trained staff. In the past two months, there were 15 water sports-related deaths. But the government, instead of regu-lating the adventure tourism industry, has completely unregulated it.”

Waste management is another major concern. “Rules dictate that every hotel owner should build a sew-age treatment plant so as not to pol-lute the environment. But this policy has been honoured only in violation,” says the hotel owner.

However, the need of the hour is a strong pilgrimage policy. There have been voices calling for a ceiling on the number of pilgrims who are allowed in the valley at a particular time and for keeping an eye on private opera-tors. Also, the local population could be trained for emergency situations.

Uttarakhand needs to learn its les-son well and take swift action to pre-vent such tragedies in the future. ●

THE FUTURE

Ravaging the hills in the name of religious tourism has to stop

Secure line: Survivors being moved during a rescue operation at Govindghat in Uttarakhand

REUTERS

There have been voices calling for a ceiling on the number of pilgrims who are allowed in the valley at a particular time and for keeping an eye on private operators.WorldMags.netWorldMags.net

WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net



ECONOMY48 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

Downward dash

Mild-mannered and soft-spoken, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve,

hardly looks like a villain. Yet, millions of Indians planning to go abroad for higher studies or vacation now think of him as one. Bernanke's comments on bringing an end to the era of easy money, also known as quantitative eas-ing, have sent the rupee into free fall. It has fallen by 11 per cent since May, even touching 60 to a dollar on June 26.

The rupee's steep decline is weigh-ing heavily on the Indian student community. Robin D'Souza from Bhubaneswar is planning to go to the US for his undergraduate studies. But

The rupee's free-fall puts Indian economy in crisis mode

BY VANDANA with the decline of the rupee, the fees to be paid—initially calculated to be about 020 lakh—have gone up steeply. At the present exchange rate, he will have to pay 02 lakh more for his undergraduate programme at Princeton University.

“It is a huge burden on us. That, too, when there is little time left for admis-sions. The difference that we have to pay is huge,” says Annie D’Souza, Robin’s mother. His parents are now borrowing from friends and relatives, increasing their debt load.

The costs of vacations abroad have gone up. Tour operators who bank heavily on summer vacations are wor-ried, because inquiries have gone down by at least 20 per cent. “People are either postponing travel plans or look-ing for cheaper options,” says Gaurav

Arora, managing director of plany-ourholiday.com, a travel web site.

The pressure on the rupee has been the result of the flight of money from the Indian markets. Foreign institu-tional investors withdrew as much as $5 billion in June from the debt and equity markets. With indications com-ing from the US about the possibility of ending bond-buying and pumping cash into the system, there was widespread selling across markets, triggering a flight of the dollar back to the US.

Simply put, in quantitative easing the Federal Reserve buys bonds and treasury bills and pumps cash into the system to revive the economy. A part of that cash has flowed into emerging markets, including India. Bernanke has indicated that quantitative easing

Rock-bottom: Foreign investors withdrew around $5 billion in June from Indian debt and equity markets, worsening the crisis

AFP


WorldMags.net




will be tapered off, which means there will be less cash to be invested abroad. This also signals that the economic recovery in the US is strong and the returns will be better there.

The bloodbath in the markets and its impact on the rupee have been worrying for Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. He has maintained that Bernanke's statement was ill-timed and completely misunderstood. Raghuram Rajan, economic adviser to the Prime Minister, on the other hand, is confi-dent that the government can tame the rupee if it wants. “We will be alert to developments. We do not like volatility and will take action when necessary. The rupee is not in shambles and we should not be overly pessimistic,” he said in a recent briefing. However, no visible action from the government has been forthcoming.

“The US markets have gone up by 15 per cent since the beginning of this year. In contrast, the Indian markets are down by almost 13 per cent. Why should investors flock to our markets? We will see a lot of money moving away from the emerging markets to the US,” says U.R. Bhat, managing director of Dalton Capital Advisers, an invest-ment management firm.

Chidambaram's worry is that a declining rupee will increase India's already burgeoning import bill. In May, India imported goods worth $44.65 billion, mostly crude oil and gold. But, the exports stood at $24.51 billion, showing a deficit of $20.14 bil-lion. If the rupee continues to go down, imports will be costlier.

“The foreign exchange reserves are barely sufficient to cover seven months of imports—the lowest in the last 15 years. However, other BRICS mem-bers have 19 to 21 months of import cover,” says Anand Tandon, CEO, JRG Securities, a financial analysis firm. India's foreign exchange reserves stood at $290.66 billion on June 14.

The crisis is accentuated by the slow-down in the Eurozone, one of India’s largest export destinations. “Apart from our famed IT exports, there is not much we can boast of. It is high time

the government looked at building in-house manufacturing competitive-ness. This will not only boost exports, but also bring down our imports and promote employment,” says Vikram Dhawan, director of Equentis Capital.

The rupee's fall cannot be seen in isolation. Foreign investment, on which India relies heavily, has dried up because of the slow pace of reforms, incomplete projects, corruption and bureaucratic delays. “India is not as compelling an opportunity now as it was earlier,” says Bhat. “Most of the sectors are floundering because of policy or bureaucracy. Our ministers do not know the reality. The compla-cency is very evident.”

Market analysts feel that the rupee will continue to be volatile. It might inch up a little bit in the short term, but most analysts see it going down fur-ther. Standard Chartered has lowered its year-end rupee forecast to 60.5 from 53 against the dollar. It said the contin-uously strengthening dollar, persistent outflow from Indian markets and low probability of strong policy measures added to the rupee’s fall.

India Inc.’s first quarter results, which will be out by the second week of July, will also show the impact of rupee depreciation. Sectors that are dependent on imports, such as con-sumer durables, and even the oil com-panies HPCL, Indian Oil and BPCL will feel the pinch.

“The 10 per cent rupee deprecia-

tion in the last two months is expect-ed to raise raw material costs for all companies. It will squeeze FY 2014 earnings by 3 to 4 per cent,” says Anil Hetamasaria, analyst at PINC Research, a financial services compa-ny. It will also affect companies with external commercial borrowings. With the rupee going down, these loans will become costlier. India Inc.’s total external commercial borrowing exposure stands at $20 billion.

Prospective and existing home loan takers are also likely to be affected as the rupee's decline will prolong their wait for a rate cut. “The rupee’s fall will further stoke inflation and it has put a question mark on the timing of rate cut. Though it is much needed, the Reserve Bank will restrain itself once more. I do not see a rate cut coming up in the near future,” says Shubhada M. Rao, chief economist at Yes Bank.

Fall of the rupee has been a welcome relief for IT and pharma sectors, which are major exporters to the US. For oth-er exporters, however, the increased outgo in importing raw material could nullify the positive effect.

Non-resident Indians, too, stand to gain. There is already a lot of activity in the real estate market after rupee depreciation as NRIs are picking up assets. The banks say remittances have gone up. State Bank of Travancore, for instance, witnessed a jump of 33 per cent in its quantum of remittances in the last few days. ●

GRAPHICS: DENI LAL

56.44

58.39

57.51

58.70

60.72

4 11 14 19 26

RUN ON THE RUPEE

Rupee vs Dollar in June 2013


WorldMags.net



Inheritance of gainIn a rare instance in the history of the monarchies in the Arabian peninsula, Qatar's emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani ceded his throne to his son Sheikh Tamim. Though the emir's abdication came as a surprise, Tamim has been groomed for the throne since 2003. In fact, despite the many lines of descent, most Arabian monarchies have clear succession plans.

DubaiSheikh Hamdan, 30, the second son among ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's 23 children, is the crown prince of Dubai. A poet, Hamdan is popularly known as Fazza, his pen name. He is also a well-known horse rider and a semi-pro skydiver.

Abu DhabiCrown prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, 52, half-brother of the emir Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is the deputy supreme commander of the UAE's armed forces. He holds clout as the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.

Saudi ArabiaPrince Salman, 78, has the reputation of being a trusted mediator in settling conflicts in the vast House of Saud, which has thousands of princes. He is in charge of state affairs when King Abdullah, his half-brother, is out of the country. He has a keen interest in the media and owns a publication group.

n

s

Kuwait Al-Jaber and Al-Salem branches of Kuwait's ruling Al-Sabah family get turns to the throne. Sheikh Sabah, the current emir, broke that tradition by anointing his half-brother Nawaf Al-Ahmad, 76, the crown prince. Sheikh Nawaf had been a governor and minister during his long political career.

BahrainPrince Salman, 43, is the eldest son of King Hamad. Western-educated, he maintains a close relationship with the British royalty and the US. He is regarded as a reformer.

KKArStAN

kh hkme for e Qatar

Sheikh Hamad ceded power to Sheikh Tamim, 33, on June 25. The new emir is often touted as the brain behind Qatar's arrival in the interna-tional arena by hosting sporting events. In 2006, he chaired the organising committee of the Doha Asian Games. His efforts won Qatar the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.


MIDDLE EAST

GRAPHICS: N.V. JOSEWorldMags.netWorldMags.net

WorldMags.net




BY LAKSHMI SUBRAMANIAN

By going back to the Congress for a Rajya Sabha seat, DMK chief M. Karunanidhi seems to have upset many of his followers. They feel

that the nonagenarian, who is known for his political shrewdness, uses his acumen only to save his kin. Even when party workers put up banners and posters across Chennai on his 90th birthday, he was preoccupied with the thought of finding support to get his daughter, Kanimozhi, re-elected to the Rajya Sabha. “He used to address his cadres as udanpirappugal (brethren), meaning the DMK is one big family. But now his family has become his party,” said an AIADMK minister.

And 100 days after leaving the Congress-led alliance, his party has gone back to the Congress to get votes of five MLAs in the Rajya Sabha elections. “Karunanidhi quit the UPA in March claiming that the Congress was soft towards the Sri Lankan government’s pogrom against Lankan Tamils. But he has been maintaining silence over the Union government’s decision to impart training to Sri Lankan military officials in India’s defence establishments,” said Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

Neither the DMK nor the Congress can face the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in the state without each other. The Congress support to Kanimozhi underscores the point that it can only ride piggyback on the DMK in the Lok Sabha polls. In an article in THE WEEK (June 23, 2013), Karunanidhi had written: “The DMK will decide on when and with whom it should forge an alliance during the run-up to the gen-eral elections. The DMK's executive committee and the general council will discuss and decide on it, based on the national political situation at the time of the elections.”

Though there was no DMK council meeting, senior leader T.R. Baalu was seen knocking at

the doors of Congress leaders in Delhi to strike a deal for the Rajya Sabha elections. But a DMK leader said, “Congress supporting us now doesn’t mean we will go together in the Lok Sabha polls. There is still time for it. The Lok Sabha elections did not figure in our discussion at all.”

While the Congress support has buoyed the DMK camp, it shows that the state’s most pro-gressive Dravidian major is a political orphan in the state. With just 23 MLAs, the 2G scam burden, increasing family feuds and factions within the party, Karunanidhi still needs time to restore the party's glory. Though Kanimozhi personally thanked the five Congress MLAs, the bitterness between the two parties is still fresh. The Congress’s tactics—in getting the DMK cor-nered in the 2G scam—have let the DMK cadres down.

The Karunanidhi- Congress pact for Kanimozhi's re-election must have pleased his family but not his brethren, who celebrated the DMK’s exit from the UPA. For them, this move will push them back to slavery. ●

Forced reunionThe DMK and the Congress come together for Kanimozhi

TAMIL NADU

Daddy dearest: Newly-elected Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi with her father, M. Karunanidhi


WorldMags.net




FIGHT TILL YOU GET IT RIGHT

Violence, up-closeMore than one-third of all women face physical or sexual violence glob-ally, says a recent report released by the World Health Organisation. “It is a global health problem of epidemic proportions,” says Dr Margaret Chan, director-general, WHO.The report, developed by WHO, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the South African Medical Research Council, is “the first systematic review and synthesis of the body of scientific data” on the prevalence of violence by an intimate partner or by perpetrators other than the partner.Collecting data on non-partner sexual violence was challenging. Women generally do not report violence fear-ing social stigma. Some countries had no data on sexual violence by some-one other than the partners.Around 7.2 per cent of women reported non-partner sexual violence, says the study. The health outcomes of violence can range from broken bones to pregnancy-related compli-cations to impaired social function-ing. “They are 2.3 times more likely to have alcohol disorders and 2.6 times more likely to suffer depression—

slightly more than the women experiencing intimate partner violence,” says the report.The report underlines the

need to take preventive measures to address the causes of violence against women and provide care for the victims. WHO is planning to come up with new guidelines for this and will team up with ministries of health, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and United Nations agencies in South East Asian countries to imple-ment its new recommen-dations.

Dress codes and dusk to dawn curfews are among the many regulations—for women—that authorities come up with to prevent rape following an incident of assault. But why restrict the fair sex? Are the authorities not potent enough to protect women? Is it not possible to restrict the men instead? Our Senior Correspondent Mini P. Thomas seeks answers.

Despite a national debate following the December 16 gang-rape on a Delhi bus, remedies to curb sexual

violence against women end up fur-ther shrinking the already restricted spaces that women occupy in society.

In the wake of the Manipal rape incident, many educational institu-tions in Dakshina Kanada are plan-ning to impose restrictions on girls. For instance, Yenepoya University in Karnataka is planning to make it compulsory that girls should reach the hostel before 6 p.m. This is precisely what the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bangalore did after one of its students was gang-raped last year. Women's hostels, pay-ing-guest accommodations and even homes are imposing curfews on girls.

Women's rights activists feel that this is an infringement on the basic rights of women. “As soon as violence against women takes place some-where, institutions restrict women instead of providing them a safe envi-ronment. But, they do not restrict men. And though the men are the rapists, the authorities never ask them not to go out after 8 p.m.,” says Ruth Manorama, general secretary, Women's Voice,

Broken pathTHE WEEK campaign: Why do authorities react to sexual assault with dos and don'ts for women?

Bangalore. Providing safety to women is the responsibility of the state and the academic institutions, she says.

However, the authorities—be it of an academic institution or the public administration—translate 'security for women' to 'police protection'. While there is hardly any talk about the lack of public transport late in the night or well-lit streets, there is much hype about CCTV cameras after the Manipal rape case. Sadly, CCTV cameras can only provide evidence, and not prevent an assault.

Academic institutions point out that beefing up security is not economically viable. The Jnana Bharathi campus of Bangalore University—where a student of NLSIU was raped by eight men last year—sprawls across 1,200 acres and has just 40 security personnel who work in two shifts. “We know it is inad-equate. But what else can we do?” asks K.K. Seethamma, registrar, Bangalore University.

“Universities are not factories, which generate profit. We do not have the funds to hire more security personnel. Even now, our monthly bill runs into lakhs,” says Seethamma. The funds given by the state government are insufficient. So, the existing security per-sonnel have been posted in sensitive regions on the cam-pus, she says.

Like many other institu-tions, Bangalore University has also imposed restrictions on its 600 girl students follow-ing the rape. “The hostel war-den has been instructed not to

slightly mexperienviolenceThe rep

needmeacauwofoisw

angalore

tories, o not

ore w,

. r-in

am-

itu-rsity ions low-war-

not to


WorldMags.net




let the girls out after 6 p.m. Those who want to go out in the evening will have to take prior permission,” she says.

The Manipal University is also in a 'cautious mode'. The MBBS stu-dent was raped as she was walking to her apartment, which is close to the campus. The incident happened on a public road on the campus. “We are planning to man those roads. We will also increase the illumination in a few places,” says G. K. Prabhu, registrar, Manipal University. The police have instructed the university authorities to put cameras in some places on the 600-acre campus.

The university will also make stay in hostels compulsory for health sciences and engineering students for the first three years, from the next academic year. The hostellers will be allowed to enter till 11.30 p.m. But, while the uni-versity charges $1 lakh as hostel fees, it is about 30 per cent less in the off-campus accommodations.

The government also underlines the need to take more precaution-ary measures. “That does not mean women should not go out or walk around. We have no inten-tion to restrict w o m e n ,”

offenders of sexual crimes. “The judi-cial process should happen quicker, not 20 years down the line,” she says.

Shakun D. of Vimochana, a women's rights forum in Bangalore, says the uni-versity authorities should think of solu-tions like monitored auto or taxi stands in the university. “I am not really sur-prised at the lack of imagination where preventing sexual attacks against wom-en is concerned,” she adds.

While there are demands for stron-ger laws that stress on greater pun-ishment for the perpetrators, little or no thought appears to go into issues such as better public transport, street lighting and more policewomen after sunset. The answer is not to lock the women away to 'safety', but to make them occupy public spaces in greater numbers. ●

ILLUSTRATION: BHASKARAN

Karnataka Home Minister K.J. George told THE WEEK after he visited Manipal University.

Efforts to restrain girls by curbing their timings and imposing dress codes are absolutely pointless, says Anita Nair, who depicted a woman's solitary train journey in her novel Ladies Coupé.

“The nature of men around us has changed vastly,” says Nair. She believes that women need to be cautious at all times. “If an attack takes place against a woman, she has to live in a society, which becomes even more judgmen-tal. The judicial process is tedious and women are often denied justice. Ultimately you lose faith. And there is no way of preventing such things from happening. So girls need to be judi-cious and avoid taking pointless risks.”

According to Nair, the need of the hour is to have serious punishments for


WorldMags.net



SPORTS54 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

Shooter Joydeep Karmakar's participation in the 2012 Olympics was a touch-and-go affair. The 33-year-old almost

missed it. He was granted the quota place won by fellow shooter Hariom Singh after much debate about selec-tion of the shooting squad. By then, the rest of the squad was training abroad with foreign coaches and Karmakar

was losing precious time.However, thanks to Operation

Excellence (OPEX) London 2012, decks were cleared in a jiffy to make sure he landed in Germany to train under Heinz Reinkemeier, who had coached Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra. Karmakar missed the bronze by a whisker in the 50m rifle prone event.

Had it not been for OPEX, Karmakar would have been running from pillar

to post wasting time.OPEX is one of the rare suc-

cess stories of the sports ministry. Launched before the Commonwealth Games 2010 and working till the 2012 Olympics, it set up a seamless mech-anism for coordination among all stakeholders of Indian sports. Besides, it identified athletes who could win medals. Buoyed by its success, the ministry even announced OPEX 2020. But OPEX 2016 is yet to be born. This is at a time when the sports ministry has submitted a report to the prime minis-ter's office regarding its recent policy decisions.

The Commonwealth Games are to be held in Glasgow next June, and the Asian Games three months later in Incheon, South Korea. Let alone OPEX 2020, even the broad outline of OPEX 2016 has not been charted. What exists is a concept note by the sports minis-try, brushing aside OPEX even as the ministry web site applauds its success.

REUTERS

Operation drOPEX?A successful training programme stares down the barrel

BY NEERU BHATIA


WorldMags.net




“Indian sports is taking a few steps back,” says Manisha Malhotra, admin-istrator of the Mittal Champions Trust, an initiative by industrialist Lakshmi Mittal to identify sporting talent in India. “It's a case of apathy from both the government and the federations,” she says.

Bureaucrats in the sports minis-try think otherwise. The ministry’s concept note “Long term Plan for Development of Talent in Olympic sports” says: “Despite recent success-es, we are actually falling behind and short-term palliatives like the OPEX will not pay dividend unless huge cor-rective actions are initiated. It is to be appreciated that sportspersons that did us proud in 2010 and 2012 may not be around for 2016 and 2020. Unless new talent comes up, and in sufficient numbers, mere training programmes like the OPEX will not deliver.”

However, OPEX has given results. It ensured quick and right decision-mak-ing, which is important to an athlete’s preparation.

Brigadier P.K. Muralidharan Raja, former secretary- general of the Indian Boxing Federation, says OPEX was a “very helpful” platform. “It is all right

It is a case of apathy from both the government and the national sports federations.Manisha Malhotra, administrator, Mittal Champions Trust

Off target? Joydeep Karmakar during a practice session at the Pune Balewadi shooting range; (left) Deepika Kumari in action during the 2012 London Olympics

TONY DOMINIC

if the previous OPEX has ended but you need to have continuity. There should always be an overlap between programmes,” he says.

OPEX had a steering committee and an apex committee. The apex commit-tee consisted of 18 members, including the sports minister, Sports Authority of India top brass, former athletes like Ashwini Nachappa and Dingko Singh and National Rifle Association of India president Raninder Singh. The com-mittee’s role was to ensure continu-ous training and foreign exposure for about 250 days in the run up to the Olympics.

“Decisions were made on the spot and our views were heard there and then,” says Raninder Singh. He cites the example of Karmakar’s last-min-ute training and fast-track clearances made by the then sports minister Ajay Maken in an OPEX meeting for pistol shooter Heena Sidhu's training abroad.

The steering committee, chaired by the sports secretary, approves training camps for specific disciplines, foreign and national coaches, support staff and training abroad.

Nobody calls it a perfect system but it gave space for views, counter-views, discussion and immediate action.

One reason why OPEX has not been revived is perhaps the ban the International Olympic Committee has imposed on the Indian Olympic

Association. Indian federations for sports where India is expected to win medals, such as boxing and archery, have also been suspended by their international federations, says Malhotra.

“I see something happening only after the IOA issue is cleared,” observes Raja.

However, the IOA impasse cannot be a case for policy implementation paralysis. Even if the IOA and national sports federations are not represented, the steering committee could still con-sist of specialists.

The ministry, however, says the training as well as exposure of athletes is not in limbo. It says programmes as per the annual calendar for training and competition are going on.

However, Malhotra is quick to point out: “How do you know the ACTC is correct? You have to constantly review and change programmes if required.” She says she doubts whether the training is giving desired results and says experts in the OPEX committees would have reviewed the programmes.

In addition, experts argue that ulti-mately it is about what one wants to achieve. The national federations are “notorious” for applying for most exposure trips and a lot of funding is wasted.

T h e m i n i s t r y ' s a i m f o r Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is: “Third position overall but with a higher tally of 125 medals.” The aim for the Asian Games 2014: “Fifth posi-tion overall with a tally of 75 medals. We won 65 last time.”

Tell it to national federations and sports coordinators, and you hear the snigger. ●


WorldMags.net



BUSINESS56 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

BY VANDANA

Fi n a n c e M i n i s t e r P. Chidambaram’s pep talk last month on clearing infrastructure projects and

raising the ceiling on foreign direct investment made headlines. But cor-porates and investors do not seem to be buying it. They no longer want talk; they want action. Their investment is stuck because of the snail pace of vari-ous ministries.

The government tried to have sin-gle-window clearance for infrastruc-ture projects and push pending proj-ects by forming a Cabinet Committee on Investments (CCI). But the CCI has not made much headway in attracting investments or in sending positive sig-nals to investors. “The CCI has moved very slowly over the past few months and that is evident in the worsening economic scenario,” says Parvesh Minocha, group managing director, Feedback Infrastructure. “Be it the [falling] rupee or the [withdrawal of ] foreign institutional investors, con-fidence in the economy has plunged sharply. That is why corporates are investing overseas. Some of the big names recently invested $40 billion in Australia.”

Formed in December last year, the CCI has Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as its head and ministers of all major infrastructure ministries on board. It claims to have cleared proj-ects worth 01.5 lakh crore in the past six months, but these are only a frac-tion of the 341 projects worth 010.5

Slowcoach CCI fails to fast-track infrastructure projects

lakh crore waiting for clearances.The CCI has met only five times

since its inception, and is seldom bothered about the huge backlog. At its last meeting on May 23, it consid-ered only two topics—security clear-ance for public-private partnership projects and the measures taken to fast-track implementation of National Highways Development Project. It has also ignored its responsibilities such as monitoring the progress of identified projects and reviewing implementation of projects that have been delayed. There is a view that the CCI has been focusing only on public sector projects.

“Despite the CCI being touted as a single-window clearance mechanism, it resembles Gulliver who was tied down by the Lilliputians. The gov-ernment will have to find a process to deal with its own ministries,” says an expert with an infrastructure financ-ing firm.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry recently submitted a list of 50 projects involv-ing an investment of 02.89 lakh crore to the CCI. Power sector accounted

for 01.48 lakh crore of it, followed by metals (056,265 crore), roads and highways (053,237 crore), oil and gas (021,150 crore), mining (08,000 crore). The CCI is yet to do anything on it.

“The government will have to fix some basic issues first, such as pric-ing of gas and priority in gas alloca-tion. This in itself will clear up a lot of projects,” says K. Rajagopal, chief executive officer, Lanco Power. Lanco's Kondapalli project is among

Single-window jammed

Banks' significant exposure to the infrastructure sector—around 06 lakh crore—is a reason the finance minister has to spring into action. WorldMags.netWorldMags.net

WorldMags.net




the several power projects in Andhra Pradesh that are stalled because of gas shortage.

Many thermal power projects have been held up owing to scarcity of coal and poor health of the state distribu-tion companies. Out of 85 coal blocks that were allocated to private com-panies, only 15 are producing. While a financial restructuring package has been announced for distribution com-panies, it will take a while to show any result.

Land acquisition is another major issue, says R. Venkataraman, director of India Ratings, an affiliate of Fitch Ratings. “There is no clarity on the norms and the [land acquisition] bill is stuck.”

Even as the CCI struggles to get going, the government has announced another committee. Manmohan Singh created a special cell in the cabinet sec-retariat in the form of a project moni-toring group for all large projects, both public and private. A list of about 215

● The Cabinet Committee on Investments (CCI), formed in December last year, is headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

● It claims to have cleared projects worth 01.5 lakh crore in the past six months, but some 341 projects worth 010.5 lakh crore are still wait-ing for clearances.

● The CCI has met only five times since its inception, and is seldom bothered about the huge backlog. At its last meeting on May 23, it considered only two topics.

● It has ignored its respon-sibilities such as moni-toring the progress of identified projects and reviewing implementa-tion of delayed projects.

● It is often seen as focus-ing only on public sector projects.

such projects, in which banks have put some 07 lakh crore, has been prepared. The time and cost overruns of these projects have also been documented, as well as the action required to remove the bottlenecks.

Banks' significant exposure to the infrastructure sector—around 06 lakh crore—is another reason the finance minister has to spring into action. With bad loans already weighing heavily on banks, Chidambaram will not want it to snowball into a crisis. ●

ILLUSTRATION: JAIRAJ T.G.


WorldMags.net




masala musings ■ Kishwar Desai

Politician, reinvent yourself

BHASKARAN

The other day I met some-one who said, “You know, I believe in reinventing myself

every ten years.” It seemed like a good idea in general—not just for individuals, but for all organisa-tions and, especially so, for political parties. In a fast changing world it might just be worthwhile to look at one’s values and perceptions and upgrade according to the chang-ing environment. Naturally, one assumes that this ‘reinvention’ will be progressive and positive—espe-cially for those involved in, or one hopeful of, running governments.

In any case, most governments across the world are now feeling the rough edge of an electorate that is tired of old promises and poor delivery. The recent outburst of street protests in Brazil began as demon-strations against raised bus fares, but suddenly morphed into a much larger refl ection of the discontent among the middle classes. The new-found power of the middle class to get together through the social media has been experienced in other countries as well. It cannot be taken lightly and, in many ways, it has also become a means of keeping democratically elected governments in check, and a means of making them more responsive.

For democracies like India, which are still suffering from huge depriva-tions, this power of the politically disenchanted collective is something to be genuinely respected. Many such uprisings have happened in the past few years and will continue to occur. The old mai-baap attitude of deference towards the ruling classes is fast disappearing, and as the mobile

phone-linked middle class expands, this reverential demeanour will continue to evaporate. There might still be a few sycophants who would want to sweep fl oors if commanded by their political leaders, but their numbers will also shrink. And this receding deference will exacerbate the pressure on politicians to change policies according to the demands of the populace.

Some parties had already started their reinvention long ago, becoming more people-friendly and trying to occupy the middle space. In the UK, for instance, David Cameron had seen the writing on the wall some time back and juggled ideas and ideology according to changing needs. This has often blurred the edges between the left and the right in the UK, and, it has, by and large, won him and his party new supporters. He has also been very careful about changing the popular perception of the Conserva-tive Party, trying to project the image of being a caring individual, and thus, by implication, prime minister.

It is interesting to see some rein-vention within the right parties in India as well, as the BJP leadership begins to talk about (at last) caring about the minorities and dealing with gender issues. It is a long awaited

positive response, one that recog-nises the reality of India. Instead of greeting it with cynicism, perhaps we should welcome and encourage it.

Less than 10 years ago, when I came to the UK, the Tories were depicted like the stuff of nightmares. The last leader was caricatured as Dracula, and people said he had “something of the night” about him. But Cameron strove to change all that—because he understood that he had to make the Conservatives appear ‘electable’. Party offi cials have also acknowledged that if they want to rule then they genuinely have to drop traditional ideas and become modern and progressive. Perhaps one of the most notable steps taken in this regard by Cameron was his insistence on allowing same-sex mar-riage, something which older Tories would have been dead against. It is the courage to press for these kinds of changes that has boosted Cam-eron’s personal ratings.

In India it is essential that the BJP, and other parties as well, reinvent themselves, creating more inclusive agendas. If the Conservatives in the UK are more acceptable to the liber-als today, it is because the positive changes have been highlighted and communicated swiftly along with the tougher measures they have had to adopt because of the economic situation. A reformed, reinvented opposition in India can only be good for the country because then there will be a genuine alternative for the people, and it will also provide healthy competition.www.kishwardesai.comDesai's latest novel is The Sea of Innocence


WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net



DAWN TO DUSK62 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

Deep impactAbhilash Tomy on his loves, regret and how the seas have changed him

BY NAVIN J. ANTONYPHOTOS BY CHERIAN THOMAS

Sailors who have braved the perilous waters around Cape Horn in South America and the Cape of Good Hope in Africa have the privilege of keeping both

their feet on the table while having dinner. But Lt-Cdr Abhilash Tomy, the first Indian to com-plete a solo, non-stop circumnavigation of the globe, is a man who prefers to keep his feet firmly on the ground, chow time or not.

“It’s very difficult being famous,” says the 34-year-old marine reconnaissance pilot, as he welcomes me to his home in Surabhi Nagar at Kandanad near Kochi in Kerala. The showcase in his drawing room is chock-a-block with souvenirs and trophies—evidence of the hero’s welcome he received after he moored INSV Mhadei at the Gateway of India in Mumbai. The felicitation spree has almost come to an end, says Tomy, so it seems he can now concentrate on his next mission—writ-ing a book about his 150-day voyage.

“I haven’t started writing it. But it will be more or less on the lines of my blog, which was essentially about what happened at sea. The book will have a lot more about the run-up to the voyage and what happened after it,” he says.

If his blog (sagarparikrama2.blogspot.com) is anything to go by, the book is well worth the wait. The prose is strikingly graphic—“the youth-ful, inquisitive and godless ocean of the south had grown older, wiser and bored in these latitudes,” reads one of the posts. “I read quite a lot,” he says, by way of explaining his writing skills. “One Hundred Years of Solitude was a book I read every day while I was at sea. And there’s hardly any work of his [Gabriel Garcia Marquez] that I have not read.”

During a layover in Chile, Tomy also visited Pablo Neruda’s home in Santiago. “I discovered his Memoirs,” he says. “Reading it was an out-of-the-world experience for me. I have never ceased to talk about it.” So is it the profound that appeals to him? No, says Tomy. He is averse only to popcorn fare. “I’m not close to the idea of reading new-age books, and I rarely listen to others’ recommenda-tions. People come and tell me, ‘I read a lot’. So I ask,


WorldMags.net




Unflagging spirit: The movies stored in his laptop kept Tomy buoyant during his demanding voyage


WorldMags.net



DAWN TO DUSK64 THE WEEK JULY 7, 2013

‘Which book have you read? ‘Chetan Bhagat.’ ‘OK, good. Stay away from me’,” he laughs.

Books might have kept his spirits high, but it was movies that helped him stay alive while crossing the seas. “I couldn’t read books all the time. When you are freezing at four degrees Celsius, you can’t take your hands out of your sleeping bag. The easiest I could do was hold a laptop and keep my fingers warm. I watched Dr Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, Letters from Iwo Jima... a lot of time I just watched boring chic flicks,” he says.

Even in the middle of nowhere, with only giant waves for company, Tomy did not feel all at sea. Perhaps, that was because the Navy has been a constant presence in his life. His father, Lt Cdr (retd) V.C. Tomy, was a naval police offi-cer. “His transfers meant I had to move around quite a lot when I was a child,” says Tomy, who went to six Kendriya Vidyalaya schools before he joined the naval academy in Goa as a teenager. He learned to sail and fly before he learned to drive. “I spent six months in Kochi in a training ship, and another six months in a warship in Visakhapatnam. Then I learnt to fly at the Basic Flying Training School at Bamrauli near Allahabad, and at the Fixed Wing Training Facility at Yelahanka near Bangalore,” he says.

The extensive training he received helped him a great deal in the circumnavigation. “In April 2011, I sailed from Cape Town to Goa for 33 days, as part of the training for the mission. The first four or five days, I was in a storm. There were equipment failures. My generator and gal-

ley caught fire, one sail tore, the autopilot sys-tems failed and the wind indicator system was not working properly. I lost sleep, and once your mind goes into a set of negative thoughts, it’s very difficult to get out of it. For days, I just tried to prevent my mind from thinking. I succeeded, and then the sailing became pleasurable. When the wind subsided, I started to actually enjoy the solitude.”

Tomy says the experience was “life-chang-ing”. “A long voyage changes how you perceive life. Alone, in the middle of the ocean, you dis-cover that everything you have known your life, the notions of right, wrong, sin or crime, are just concepts. Relationships, too, are like that. There’s nothing permanent. When you are at sea, it is only you and the elements. If you don’t have patience, the sea teaches you patience.”

He started practising yoga to cope with the gruelling challenges. “My day always starts with a one-hour yoga session, even though my routine really varies. When I’m on duty, it’s

Son rises: Abhilash Tomy with his father, Lt-Cdr (retd) V.C. Tomy, and mother, Valsamma


WorldMags.net




something; when I’m on leave, it’s something else.” He switches to a playful tone as his moth-er, Valsamma, serves tea. “When I’m at home, I wake up early and help her with the dishes. And mop the house clean, of course.” Does he cook? “My cooking usually involves chopping vegetables and making a stir-fry,” he says. “I use oyster sauce and no spices. I can cook for myself; but if I cook for somebody else, they will definitely lose weight.”

Tomy’s idea of a fun day is to wake up late and have chapatti and eggs made by his mother. “I don’t have a routine here. I take whatever comes my way. If there’s work, I prefer to stay up late. On duty, though, it’s a different matter. I wake up at six o’clock, and everything revolves around a timetable.”

A shutterbug, Tomy has an impressive collec-tion of photographs. From dolphins and seals to killer whales and sea elephants, whatever he has witnessed while he toured the globe is there on his Picasa account. To view it, you have to send a request, though. “I found some people were stealing my pics and selling it on the web,” he says.

For an aggressively enterprising person, Tomy has one big regret. That he is still to mas-ter the guitar. “I have been trying to learn it for years. But I know only the basics still,” he says. And then he belts out a near-perfect rendition of a tune from The Godfather. “That’s all I know,” he says, trying in vain to be modest.

Now that he has sailed around the world, which has been his ambition since his child-hood, does he plan to tie the knot soon? “No way,” he says. “I like the way it is right now. I’m not planning anything. If I asked you whether you would sail around the world, what would you say? You can’t predict the future, can you?” ●

The man and the moments: (Clockwise from left) Tomy practising yoga at his home; making his signature vegetable stir-fry; strumming his guitar


WorldMags.net




AriesMarch 22-April 20

CancerJune 22-July 23

LibraSeptember 24-October 23

CapricornDecember 23-January 20

TaurusApril 21-May 21

LeoJuly 24-August 23

ScorpioOctober 24-November 22

AquariusJanuary 21-February 19

GeminiMay 22-June 21

VirgoAugust 24-September 23

SagittariusNovember 23-December 22

PiscesFebruary 20-March 21

forecast ■ By K.K. Vamanan NampoothiriJULY 3 – 9

Keep your employees happy and you will benefit. There will be rise in income, power and prestige. There is profit to be made from the export sector. A weekend outing with family is indicated and you will splurge on them. Elders and members of the opposite sex will appreciate your care and concern for them.Lucky day—Wednesday: persuasive best

You are generous, determined, frank, dignified and indepen-dent this week. Good relation-ship with seniors will pay rich dividends. This week does not bode well for lovers. Those fond of reading and lecturing will find ample time for both. A business-related short journey will turn out to be a learning experience.Lucky day—Friday: increase in income

Those on the lookout for domestic help will get a faith-ful one. Those who are ill can expect speedy recovery. You are very reliable and affectionate. No wonder your friends love you so much. Connections with people in power will do you good. You may buy a costly dress or jewellery this week. Lucky day—Monday: gift from mother

Ahead is a week of good health and fun. There will be social and financial gains from bud-dies. Some of you will be in a religious mood and will go on a pilgrim-age. A newborn will bring joy and comfort. Ventures begun this week are likely to be profitable. Your pleasing manners will be appreciated.Lucky day—Sunday: shopping spree

Children will bring you happi-ness. There could be indirect gains from enemies. Your world-view and spirituality will be much appreciated. Anonymous calls or false petitions could bother you, but don’t let all that get the better of you. Be calm and things will fall in place. Stay in the good books of your bosses.Lucky day—Tuesday: the Midas touch

This week is particularly good for students; go ahead and make the most of it. Your fam-ily life will be peaceful as your partner will be in an accommodating mood. A change of residence is likely for some. Those in partnership ventures will have a rewarding week. There is more success at home than abroad. Be careful while driving.Lucky day—Saturday: party time!

Your planning skills will be put to test. You will be popular among friends and will make new ones, too. Poultry farm-ing will be profitable. A short business trip is likely for some. Visit the gym more often. You will be adaptable and versatile. You might accompany your parents to a place of worship. Be careful while on the drive.Lucky day—Monday: a surprise in store

Your standing in society will increase manifold. Your trust-worthiness will be appreci-ated. You can expect some good news at the workplace, possibly an increase in salary. Those in the agriculture sector stand to gain. You will be admired for your advisory skills. Your parents might need that extra care this week.Lucky day—Monday: kids make you happy

You are inclined to get an ambi-tious partner with a beneficial influence. A litigation or dis-pute may end in compromise. Time is apt for students planning to go abroad for higher studies. Doctors, engi-neers and editors have a fabulous week ahead. There will be success in business, politics and social work.Lucky day—Wednesday: a long journey

Cupid strikes this week and you might propose to your sweetheart. Your connections with people in power will work to your advantage. Minor health problems will worry you, but this shall pass, too. The friends you make now will stand by you through thick and thin. Engineering and medical students will do well.Lucky day—Friday: auspicious

Your ability to bounce back from the toughest of situ-ations will win you many admirers. Take care of your health. And, exercise regularly. Your friends will guide you through your moments of despair. Some of you will buy a new car or a house. Journalists have an exciting week ahead. Wedding bells are ringing for some.Lucky day—Saturday: time to go overseas

Your methodical nature will be appreciated. Shopping is likely to be on your agenda this week, but you will do well to exercise restraint while spending money. Single among you will find the spouse of your dreams. Animal lovers will bring home a pet dog. Keep deals with relatives on hold. A cousin might come calling.Lucky day—Tuesday: gains via partner


WorldMags.net



CINEMA•ART•THEATRE•BOOKS•FOOD•LUXURY•PEOPLE•FASHION•LIFESTYLE•DANCE•TRENDS•REVIEW

Mumbai on my plate

FOOD

Scrumptious food with a garnish of history, food walks are finding takers among locals and tourists alike

BY MONTY MAJEED

VISHNU V. NAIR

Taste of history: The good old

ice lollie at Matunga


WorldMags.net




My coffee comes with a tray that has four can-dies in pink wrappers. I am at Candies in Pali

Hill, Bandra, Mumbai, the starting point for the food walk Kalyan Karmakar has promised to take me on. Called the Bandra Legends Walk, it covers restau-rants and shops, which have been part of Bandra for long. “Allan Periera start-ed Candies 25 years ago in his ancestral home,” says Karmakar, Mumbai-based blogger, who writes Finely Chopped.

The ground floor of Candies is noisy with youth engaged in animated con-versations. A couple in the corner is using the space to iron out their dif-ferences. As we climb the stairs to the top floor, a signboard announces that we have entered the Quiet Zone. The landing looks into an open ter-race. The walls are tastefully done with Allan's mosaic portraits of Jimi Hendrix, Jesus Christ, Barack Obama and Mahatma Gandhi.

After Candies, we stop at Mark’s, a grocery store in the Pali market, where the owner Nancy D’Souza offers us fresh mangoes and flaunts the tattoo of a cross on her hand, the one that drove her mom 'nuts'. At Lalu’s Vegetables you find thyme and spring onions sharing shelf space with green chillies, curry patta and shallots. Karmakar urges the walkers to sample the Parsi sali par eendu—potato straws served with an egg cooked sunny side up—at Ashmick’s Snack Shack. By the end of Karmakar’s walk, we have made friends with some of Bandra's legends, tasted some of the best food available in the suburb and savoured many a story about the city and its people.

Priced anywhere between 01,000 and 05,000, Mumbai's food walks are an engaging way to know the city. These walks usually cover a specific area or neighbourhood and involve tasting and understanding the food and the stories behind it. “Food has more stories to tell than we can ever imagine. It is universal in its appeal and yet very specific to each cul-ture, its history, climate, belief sys-tems, agriculture and economy,” says

Reshmy Kurian, founder of the web site Bombay Chowparty that conducts taste trails and cooking workshops.

A food walk is different from a heri-tage or sightseeing walk because you employ all your five senses to under-stand and experience the place and its people, says Roshni Bajaj, food writer and guide for the Mumbai Boss Taste Trails. “Food walks offer a chance for complete immersion in the cul-ture and the ways of a population and area,” she says.

However, a food walk is not com-plete without a bit of history. While Karmakar’s walk delves into the per-sonal histories of the restaurant own-ers and shops in Bandra, the Tamil

Town walk conducted by Travel Logs traces the history of migration of the south Indians to Mumbai.

“So where did the idli come from?” Nitika Khanna of Travel Logs asks me during a Tamil Town walk. The wait-er at the Idli House throws impatient glances at me as I try to scoop up a piece of my jackfruit idli without letting the melted butter on top trickle down. “Tamil Nadu?” I offer. “Indonesia,” says Khanna, almost startling me. “The earliest mention of the idli can be found in the Sangam literature. It is assumed to have been inspired by a snack called kedley found in Indonesia at the same time. It is also made by fermenting and steaming.” Its roots can also be traced back to Czechoslovakia, where this technique of cooking was widely used, says Dhiresh Sharma of Travel Logs. “There are many such things we do not care to think of while eating,” says Khanna. “Every bite of what we eat, carries with it baggage of rich history and culture. It is impossible to have an informed perspective of food without knowing the history behind it.”

It is impossible to have an informed perspective of food without knowing its history.Nitika Khanna, food walk guide


WorldMags.net




The idli finally reached Mumbai through the Udupi Brahmins, says Khanna. Matunga is now the cen-tre of the best Udupi restaurants in Mumbai, some of which have stayed true to their roots while some others have diversified to include pav bhaji dosas and Schezuwan uthapams in its menu.

Besides Matunga, the preferred areas for food walks are Dadar, for Maratha cuisine, Fort for Parsi eater-ies and Colaba for Goan food. “The real joy during a walk is to see people happily try out what they would have otherwise never eaten,” says Bajaj. She recalls how some of her customers fell in love with Goan dishes like roasted

beef tongue and shark ambotik when they tried it for the first time. “Another plus is when people who have been liv-ing in the neighbourhood for years say that they have never heard of the eat-eries or the dishes,” says Bajaj. “Little things like this make the walk enjoy-able for us, too.”

Earlier, foreign tourists were the main consumers of food walks, which are usually conducted for groups of eight to 10 people. For them, it was about getting introduced to unusual and unfamiliar Indian flavours. Kurian laughs as she recalls the time when one of her American customers tried paan. “She was shocked because she thought she was eating perfume,” says Kurian.

The trend of food walks seems to be fast catching up with the locals, too. Now more and more of them are com-ing forward to experience a piece of the pie. “All kinds of people come for my walks. From NRIs to those who are new to the city and locals, the group is almost always diverse. Last time, I had a person who was gifted the walk by his wife,” says Karmakar, who also conducts bespoke walks on request. “There are no criteria to be a part of food walks. A love for food, willing-ness to experiment, hunger for new experiences and an adventurous pal-ate would help.”

A minimum of a month’s planning goes into charting out a walk, say organisers. “When people are giving you two to three hours of their time, it is a huge responsibility,” says Bajaj. As of now, there are at least seven tour organisers who offer food tours in the city. “Considering the pace at which the Mumbai food scene is expanding, I would not be surprised to find a dozen more food walks cropping up in the coming years,” she says. From the bhe-ja, boti and khiri fry of Mohammed Ali Road to the thalipeeth, solkhade and aam panha of Dadar, the city of dreams is right here on your plate, waiting to be tasted. ●

Eat, drink and be merry: Khau Gali at Fort is known for its authentic street eats; (below) a jalebi seller at Fort

PHOTOS: VISHNU V. NAIR


WorldMags.net




Survivor’s success

Jeff Probst is charismatic, the kind of person who can hold his own in the presence of a Hollywood superstar like Hugh Jackman. Doubters can go check the episode of The Jeff Probst Show where

Probst, 51, matches Jackman in wit, humour and screen presence.

A multiple Emmy awards winner, Probst is also a report-er, author and filmmaker. His second book, Stranded 2: Trial by Fire, will be out soon. But he is most famous for being the host of Survivor, an American reality series on Big CBS Prime, where a group of strangers are marooned in the wilderness and have to slug it out to survive. Probst, who has anchored the show for 14 years, is recognised as Survivor’s potentate.

The show’s success has far exceeded his own expecta-tions, Probst tells THE WEEK from the US. Currently in its 25th season, Survivor is one of the most widely-viewed television shows around the world. “When we started, I didn’t know anything about TV. For so many years, Survivor became my life. I hadn’t anticipated that. I just thought it would be a fun job,” he says.

Probst is no less a survivor himself. Born in Kansas, USA, he began his career making corporate videos but swiftly moved to being in front of the camera. In American television, game and chat shows are a tough segment to break into. Probst wanted to be like his hero, legendary American television host Johnny Carson. He learnt the nuances of hosting by observing Carson, noting how he always managed to keep his audience ‘hooked’.

A 2011 Forbes magazine article speculated whether Probst can be the next Oprah Winfrey. Tall task, some would say, but Probst knows he is good at his job. Hosting, he says, probably comes naturally. “I do my homework,” he says, when asked if he comes prepared on Survivor. The spontaneity of reality shows gives him a broad scope to perform. “I try to anticipate what might happen. If I ask this question what answer might I get and where would that lead me,” he says.

Indian television viewers get to see the desi version of

Television host Jeff Probst talks about his reality show, new ventures and his image of India

BY SHAIKH AYAZ

TELEVISION


WorldMags.net




the show called Survivor India on Star Plus. Its first win-ner was a female hockey player from Haryana. Probst says he often gets queries from India on Twitter. “One of the [most frequent] questions I get asked is: ‘Why can’t you do an international version of Survivor where you have people from different countries, including India?’” The answer is simple. “We only have the rights for America,” says Probst. “Other countries do their own versions of Survivor.” Would Americans like to see Survivor with rep-resentations from different countries? “I don’t know,” he says. “We are very ego-centric. We like things about ‘us’ in America.”

On the other hand, he feels Indians are very warm. Although he is yet to visit India, he has ethnic Indian friends who have contributed to his mythical image of India—a land of friendly and hospitable people. “They say that there is so much community and love in India,” says Probst. “I see that kind of hospitality in my Indian friends as well. My mind tells me that Indian hospitality is like, ‘Hey, are you hungry? Come on in. Sit down. We are making dinner.’ That’s the image I have, that if I go to India someday, I would be welcomed.”

The other thing he likes about India is Bollywood. He feels that Indians know how to make films on modest budgets. “Budget is something American cinema is strug-gling with,” says Probst. “In $200 million, you can only make one Hollywood movie, but if you were to take the Bollywood approach, you could make many more films in that budget.” Having watched a few desi films, he is fascinated by the song-and-dance, which reminds him of American musicals, particularly those featuring actor Gene Kelly. “Bollywood has a sense of play,” he says. “I miss that in our movies. In America, they take their movies so seriously and many of them aren’t that good. Sometimes, you just want to have fun. Why should movies always be about some earth-shattering message? It can be about a man who meets a woman, falls in love and sings a song about her.”

Talking about films gets Probst excited. In September, he will release his second feature film, Kiss Me, star-ring actors John Corbett and Sarah Bolger. He hopes to adapt his Stranded trilogy into a film, a “kid’s adven-ture”.

Recounting how the idea for the book came about, he says: “I meet many children who tell me, ‘I wish you would do a Survivor for kids my age’. I always ask them, ‘Do you really think if you were stranded on an island, you would catch a fish, make a shelter or fire, and the kids always say, ‘Yes. Yes. I know I could. I practised it in the backyard.’ There’s something in every human that asks the same questions: Can we do it? Kids react to Survivor because it touches that thing, about self-sufficiency and about living off the land. If the next two books sell well and there is appetite for this, maybe a movie on it might be fun.” ●

One of the [most frequent] questions I get asked is: Why can’t you do an international version of Survivor where you have people from differ-ent countries, including India?

Standing tall: Jeff Probst, host of the American reality show Survivor

MONTY BRINTON


WorldMags.net




BY JAN MARY VARGHESE

Thank you, Jesus, for calming the wire,” said Nik Wallenda during his Sunday afternoon walk across the Grand Canyon on June 24. During the 22-minute high wire walk at 1,500ft on a two-inch-thick cable,

the aerialist had to crouch twice because of strong winds. While he did pray throughout the walk, in an interview with THE WEEK before his feat, the 34-year-old said, “I always want people to know that I don’t believe that God keeps me on the wire. I believe that God has given me a unique talent and it’s up to me whether I want to train properly to stay on that wire. So I always want to make sure that’s clear from the beginning.”

Nik is the seventh generation of the Flying Wallendas, a family of aerialists who have been performing since the 1700s. The walk, which was telecast live by Discovery Channel, was watched by 13 million viewers and generated at least a million tweets. It will be the seventh in his bounty of world records. But the Guinness Record that is more dear to him is the one that he re-created in Puerto Rico, where his great-grandfather Karl fell and lost his life in 1978. “It was probably the most memorable. It created a lot of closure for our family. It was definitely the most emotional walk,” he said.

Though high wire walking for Nik is almost like walking on the ground for us, he says the ride has not been easy. He trains on the wire five days a week, two to three hours a day, even when he is not performing. There have been times when the pole he holds for balance has had a winged visitor, upsetting his balance, and he was stung by a bee during one of his walks. He says his family is most dear to him and would quit the high wire if they say so. “My family is extremely important to me,” he said. “I have three children and a loving wife Erendira. I have two sons, Yanni, 15, and Amados, 12, and a 10-year-old daughter, Evita. All of them already walk the wire and they’re very good at it. But they do it for fun. It’s more of a game than anything.”

Apparently, Yanni wants to be an architect and move to Japan, while Amados wants to be a brain surgeon and Evita wants to be a veterinarian. “Of course, they’re still young and I’m sure their minds might change,” he said. “But at this point in their life, that’s their dream and I’m fully supportive of it. And I’m starting to save up now to pay for all that expensive college.”

Nik has already planned his next record—a high wire walk with a safety harness across the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building in New York. ●

A walk to remember

ADVENTURE

Width, in inches, of the cable that was drawn across the Canyon. His elkskin shoes were custom-made by his mother, Delilah22


WorldMags.net




PHOTOS: AP

REUTERS

minute-walk across the Grand Canyon gave Nik his seventh world record

The height of the wire Nik was on when he proposed to his wife, Erendira (seen with their three children)

Number of days a week Nik trains on the wire

2222

303055


WorldMags.net




CINEMA

Simply DhanushThe Raanjhanaa star talks about his Bollywood entry and how he met his wife

BY SHAIKH AYAZ

It is a bit of a surprise to hear Tamil star Dhanush, who has wowed critics with his boy-ish charm in Raanjhanaa, say

that he never intended to do a Hindi film. When director Aanand L. Rai offered him Raanjhanaa, his first response was: ‘Sir, I don’t want to do a Bollywood film at this point. Please, excuse me.’ Dhanush wanted to direct a film and was in no mood to take up acting assignments.

When reminded of that statement, he says with a laugh, “It would have been stupid to say no to such an honest film. Frankly, I had other plans. But Aanand sir said, 'If you don’t like the script, you can always turn it down'.” Over the next half-hour, Dhanush heard the narration and was so impressed that he reportedly said, “When do we start shooting?”

Raanjhanaa was greeted with ardour by the audience and critics alike. “I knew that it would move people just the way it moved me,” says the 29-year-old actor. “It has everything going for it—right from the script to performances to music [by A.R. Rahman]. The credit goes to Aanand sir.”

Set in Banaras, Raanjhanaa plays out like a Shakespearean romance between a Tamil priest's son (Dhanush) and a Muslim girl played by Sonam Kapoor.

He calls Sonam “one of the most wonderful co-stars you could ask for”. She helped Dhanush with his Hindi diction. Like most actors migrating from regional cinema to Bollywood, he found Hindi is a stumbling block. “But Aanand sir assured me that it is not a big problem. I had to take lessons and then, your director and co-stars are

always there if you need a little guid-ance,” he says. “Sonam encouraged me to speak Hindi all the time. Any other actor would have laughed while doing a scene—my Hindi is so bad, you know—but she never made me feel conscious.”

Now, Dhanush is more confident of carrying a Hindi film on his own. “Once you overcome the language problem, you can do a lot. Acting is the same, whether it is a Tamil or a Hindi film. Connecting with the story is all that matters.”

So, is a full-fledged Bollywood career in the works? He insists that Tamil cin-

ema remains a top priority but quickly adds, “If there are good Hindi offers, why not?”

While the Hindi film fraternity has heaped praise on him, the two people whose opinion Dhanush values the most are his wife, Aishwarya, and father-in-law, Rajinikanth. “Aishwarya is both a fan and a critic. She can praise me to the skies and at the same time bring me down to earth as quickly if a performance is not good,” says the national award-winning actor.

Dhanush married Aishwarya in 2004 and they have two sons, Yatra and


WorldMags.net




Linga. The couple bonds over movies and, incidentally, the first time they met was in a theatre. “It was funny how we met,” Dhanush recalls. “I was checking out the audience's reaction for Kadhal Kondein. I did not know Aishwarya and her sister Soundarya were in the theatre. The theatre owner told me that Rajini sir's daughters loved my performance and wanted to meet me. I said, ‘Fine, where are they?’ He took me to his cabin and there they were.”

Dhanush recalls being awestruck by Aishwarya’s beauty. “In front of her, I felt so ordinary,” says Dhanush, whose boy-next-door look is, as one critic remarked, his “biggest asset”. Dhanush forgot about the meeting and went back home. The following day, a bouquet arrived from Aishwarya with a message: ‘Good work. Keep in touch.’

Dhanush says his round-the-clock work and constant travelling come in the way of him being a good father. “My

only regret is that I do not get to spend enough time with my kids. Thankfully, Aishwarya is around and she is a loving mother,” he says.

Taking some time off her maternal duties, Aishwarya directed him in the 2012 Tamil thriller 3. Who can for-get its Kolaveri Di number that made Dhanush a household name through-out India? Wherever he goes, two things follow him—Kolaveri Di and Rajinikanth.

“Its success proves that if you do something well, it will find an audi-ence.” But at times, his other merits get overshadowed by the song’s cult status. “Wherever I go, people say, 'Look! the Kolaveri guy'. Sometimes, I feel like saying, 'I am more than just the Kolaveri guy'.”

He does not like comparisons with Rajinikanth. The comparisons are futile for the simple reason that “he is a legend”. He explains, “First, he is an

idol to me; a father figure. Second, he is a senior and has been around far longer in the industry than I have. And third, he has more fans than I can ever dream of. So where is the comparison?”

Being Rajinikanth’s son-in-law can be both a blessing and a curse. “I want to be simply known as a good actor,” Dhanush says in a voice belying a hint of mild irritation. “Judge me for who I am.”●

A lost plotBY MONTY MAJEED

Film: RaanjhanaaDirector: Aanand L. Rai

Cast: Dhanush, Sonam Kapoor,

Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub,

Swara Bhaskar, Abhay Deol

✦ ✦

A JNU student wakes up Kundan

(Dhanush) in the second half of

Aanand L. Rai’s Raanjhanaa and

tells him: “We know why you

became a thief. Because you are

poor and you don’t have a job.” A

group of kurta-clad, Left-inclined

JNU students taking a whole

night to come up with this rea-

soning is hilarious. Though one of

the best comic scenes in the film,

it doesn’t fit in—like many other

sequences in the second half.

While the first half is about the

crazy love Kundan has for Zoya

(Sonam Kapoor), the second half

is dominated by unnecessary

political and social commentary.

And in making this transition,

some innocence, a life and, most

unfortunately, the plot is lost.

Raanjhanaa, however, does

excel in a few departments.

Dhanush, in his Bollywood debut,

transcends all limitations, of

language or looks, and emerges

a winner. You cheer Kundan, a

Tam-Brahm settled in Banaras,

when he stalks the effervescent

Zoya. Sixteen slaps and a slit

wrist later, the girl gives in, but

things go haywire, as is expected

in a Hindu-Muslim love story.

Her parents pack her off to an

aunt’s house in Aligarh.

Eight years on, Zoya returns

home as a confident JNU stu-

dent, who is in love with another

man. A senior from college and

an upcoming political leader,

Akram (Abhay Deol), enters the

scene and the script nosedives.

Too many ideas are introduced

and the film loses its light-heart-

edness and turns into a dark,

broody story with huge holes.

Dhanush is convincing as a

naughty teenager as well as

a scruffy 23-year-old. Kapoor

looks older in the first half but

deserves credit for looking the

part with minimum makeup

and an apt attire. Abhay Deol,

Swara Bhaskar and Mohammed

Zeeshan Ayyub are impressive,

but we see less of them in the

latter part of the film.

A.R. Rahman’s music adds life

to Raanjhanaa, but most of it is

used up in the first half. Good

songs like Aise na dekho and

Nazar laaye are wasted in the

second half at inappropriate

times. But Rai deserves applause

for getting the Banaras-feel right

(thanks to his cinematographers

Nataraja Subramanian and Vishal

Sinha), for a perfect casting and

for an unconventional ending.

MUST WATCH ✦✦✦✦✦ EXCELLENT ✦✦✦✦ GOOD ✦✦✦ YAWN ✦✦

Convincing portrayal: Still from Raanjhanaa


WorldMags.net




Binding loveBY MANDIRA NAYAR

There are love stories. The epic sweep-you-off-your-feet kind; the quiet type where love comes

softly and then outstays its welcome; the happy-ever-after romance, fictional, of course; the love-at-first-sight tales and Bollywood’s favourite in the 90s, the battle to stay together in the face of parental opposition. There are also those that break your heart. In the Shadow of Freedom, Laxmi Tendulkar Dhaul brings alive a love story with a sprinkling of all these elements. Only, the opposition to the love story is a little more daunting than ordinary parents.

In the 1940s in Belgaum lived Indumati Gunaji, idealistic, opinionated, beautiful and fearless, and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Ayi Tendulkar had just returned from Germany to start a Marathi newspaper. He was married to a German, Thea van Harbou. He drove around town in a red convertible Mercedes. He was irresistible. They fell in love.

Banished from her home, Indu chose to live with Tendulkar in his village in Belgundi. Her father, unable to drill sense into her head, wrote to Gandhi for help. Bapu asked to see her and then stipu-lated that she “purify all by purifying her friendship with Dr Tendulkar’’. They were to test their love for five years. When they successfully did it, Gandhi gave his consent for their marriage. However, he extracted a promise from them to have children only after India won freedom.

“My mother followed Gandhi with her heart,’’ says Laxmi. “My father wore khaddar till the day he died. But my mother was a Gandhian. I grew up with mixed feelings for Gandhiji.”●

In the Shadow of FreedomBy Laxmi Tendulkar DhaulPublished by Zubaan BooksPrice 0495; pages 308

of

ulkar

es 330808088888888

BOOK REVIEW

MOVIE REVIEWS

BY MONTY MAJEED

Christopher Nolan and co-screenwriter David S. Goyer recreate a ‘believ-

able’ backstory about Superman, the only problem being that it occupies half the movie. The too lengthy prologue is about Superman’s origins with a story of the sinking planet Krypton.

Back on earth, Clark's superhuman powers force him to live under false iden-tities, until the journalist Lois Lane (Amy Adams) finds out the truth about him.When the villian, Zod (Michael Shannon), enters, there is fighting. Buildings col-lapse. People die. Some are saved. And, in the end, the superhero saves earth.

The biggest disappointment is that Henry Cavill’s Superman is not even called so in the film. Yes, just one and a half times, to be precise. What’s more? Cavill is seen in his suit only after an hour into the movie.

While Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner

and Michael Shannon are outstand-ing, Cavill’s acting skills are put to test. Adams, too, is not at her best.

The last half an hour of the film is packed with flying, fighting, falling and sci-fi jargon. The solemn narrative style does not do it any good either. As for the many fans who trusted Nolan’s tal-ent, Man of Steel disappoints.

MUST WATCH ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ EXCELLENT ★ ★ ★ ★ GOOD ★ ★ ★ YAWN ★ ★

MAN OF STEEL★ ★ Director: Zack SnyderCast: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe and Michael ShannonLanguage: English

FUKREY★ ★ ★Director: Mrigdeep Singh LambaCast: Pulkit Samrat, Manjot Singh, Ali Fazal, Varun Sharma, Richa Chadda, Pankaj Tripathi and Priya AnandLanguage: Hindi

A lot to cavil about

Laughter riotBY MONTY MAJEED

Novelty is not what debut director Mrigheep Singh Lamba’s Fukrey can

boast about. Four jobless (fukra in Punjabi) youth who want to make a quick buck get entangled in a mess of drugs, gangsters and cops. Sounds familiar, right? At many points, Fukrey reminds one of Delhi Belly. But the fresh cast makes it a fun ride.

Money is what stands between the four friends—Hunny (Pulkit Samrat), Choocha (Varun Sharma), Lali (Manjot Singh) and Zafar (Ali Fazal)—and their

dreams. So, they land up at the den of Bholi Punjaban (Richa Chadda), a pimp cum drug dealer, and what follows is pure chaos.

The character that demands the most attention is Bholi Punjaban. With a ‘Sinderella’ tattoo, broken English and brash ways, Richa stands out from the rest of the cast.

Among the guys, Varun owns the film. Every time he makes an appearance, the audience is in splits.

The music by Ram Sampath perfectly reflects the mood of the film and the funny moments are strategically placed, too. Though a tighter script would have added to the film’s quality, it, neverthe-less, is a sincere attempt to make you laugh.


WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net



78

art to heart ■ Sanjna Kapoor


A calming, creative corner“Our inextinguishable need for

theatre, for live experiences that tell us about our place in the world.”—Simon McBurney, director of Com-plicite, a UK-based theatre company.

Just imagine if you were a peanut seller, a taxi driver, a grandmother or a CEO in

Mumbai, and could wake up on a weekend and know you had a little oasis to go to, alone or with friends or family, a space that is creative, imaginative and gives you the opportunity to be ‘wowed’ by the performing arts, away from the fre-netic madness of the city.

A space where you can simply be you. Where you can come away with something new each time—either a realisation of your own creative abilities through something you have made with your own hands, or a new insight into the world around you, another perspective, or the fullness of experiencing a performance that fi lls you with an amazing sense of ‘aliveness’. Or even a new friend. This experience would leave you with a calming, refl ective trace that would stay with you through the following weeks. A balm for your soul.

One such space could be a public garden. It would have a relaxed atmosphere, where you would amble in and fi nd a comfortable bench to dive into a book from a bookstall, or play a game of chess with a new neighbourhood regular, or listen to some live music by young aspirants, or try your

hand at creativity at the junk art section or paint your heart out on the community mural, or sit around the poetry corner and hear great poets read their favourite work and talk about their world or poetry.

And a little later, as the sun be-gins to set, you may take your seat at the performance. If it is Friday, you would be treated to an amaz-ing musical recital, Saturday would have the buzz of children’s thrills as they wait for their monthly treat of professional theatre in the park to begin. On Sunday, it would be theatre for you. And all this would cost you nothing more than your time.

This public arts programme would demolish all misguided ideas of the arts catering only to the elite. Ensuring that there is something of the highest calibre for everyone, we need to move out of the ‘haloed’ spaces and bring the arts to audienc-es throughout the city. The inhabit-ants of this city are hungry for art spaces they can call their own and feel comfortable in.

I believe the multi-dimensional aspect of the theatre is incredibly

powerful and transformative. The-atre is made up of the world of ideas, of location or geography, of society, of politics, of the heart and the body. Theatre quite simply engages and responds to all this and more. And it does all this communally. The act of putting up a production and that of watching a show brings people together. This is essential.

So imagine having access to such a nurturing artistic space on a regu-lar basis, in your neighbourhood.

This is an urgent need of the hour—more now than ever before. In this concrete jungle with our crazy population and more people uproot-ed from where they belong, thrown into the mayhem of survival and all the demands on you that come with this city, our open public spaces are fast disappearing.

We are living ghettoised lives, in our tiny fortresses, disconnected from each other and the city at large. It is no secret that the city is like a dry forest, ready to erupt into a thousand fl ames at the slightest provocation. We need to revive what was the core strength of this city once called Bombay—its truly

cosmopolitan nature. We need to celebrate its diver-sity and rich artistic and cultural variety. We need to create spaces to share col-lectively, creatively and see the effect of the arts to act as an equalising and unify-ing force.

I believe this can happen.The writer is a theatre personality and co-founder of Junoon.www.junoontheatre.org


WorldMags.net




HIPGUIDE

To be seen, unseenFor those who be-

lieve gadgets spoil the beauty of their living space, designer Michael Friebe may have the answer. He has designed the Transparent TV, which looks like a plain pane of glass when switched off and lights up with a combination of LCD and TOLED displays when activated. Cool, we say.

Stay connectedPicture this. You are midway through

a conversation or you have an important message to send and your phone runs out of juice. Google turns saviour with its new android app called Last Message that will text, e-mail, send a Facebook message, or tweet your family and friends when your phone’s battery is about to run out.

Contributors: Mini P. Thomas, Monty Majeed, Aditi M. and Sreenidhi Krishnan

Virtually stylishYou love both Jennifer Aniston’s ‘Rachel’ cut and Serena Wil-

liams’s wacky hairstyle, but which one will look good on you? YLG Transformer helps you decide. The virtual hairstyling applica-tion will help you try more than 150 hairstyles before choosing the right one. “We believe in empowering customers and YLG Transformer will help change their looks with our exclusive hair-styles,” says Rahul Balachandra, CEO and director, YLG Salon and Spa. Built on the Windows 8 platform, Transformer will soon be launched as an android and iOS app.

The balloon effectApparently, only one-third of the world’s popu-

lation is connected by the internet. To sort this out, Google has launched Project Loon, which involves sending super-powered balloons into the stratosphere at a height of 20km to work as an aerial wireless connection. If this works out, slow internet will be a thing of the past even in remote corners of the earth.

Suits you wellMove those boring LBDs

away to make space for some trouser suits in your wardrobe. This androgy-nous ensemble will help you look chic and classy quite effortlessly. The mantra to carry off the suit with élan is to keep it simple. Stick to a clutch or maybe a ring for that extra pizzaz. If you are on the heavier side, opt for single colours and if you are skinny, show a little skin by trading those trousers for a short skirt.

AFP WorldMags.netWorldMags.net

WorldMags.net




AFPPTI

Biopic bossIt was quite a memorable moment, an emotional one, too, when Olympian Milkha Singh fl ew down to Chandigarh to launch the offi cial trailer of his biopic, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and lead actor Farhan Akhtar kept their ensemble casual, while fashionista Sonam Kapoor stole the show with her white Anamika Khanna anarkali. She added a dash of colour to her look with the detailed embroidery on her suit and statement red lipstick.

Dealing with painRecovering from her father’s demise, Priyanka Chopra is now battling pain of a different kind. The actor, who is shooting for Omung Kumar’s biopic on Olympian boxer Mary Kom, is fi nding it diffi cult to deal with body pain due to the high-intensity boxing sequences in the fi lm. The director had initially arranged for a physiotherapist to help the actor with relaxation techniques between shots. But now Kumar has hired a full-time physio as Priyanka kept complaining of unbearable pain in her limbs. The therapist will be part of her entourage 24x7, not just while she is shooting for the movie.

PEOPLE


WorldMags.net




What's in a name?A lot, say the makers of Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai Dobara. Sonakshi Sinha, who plays a yesteryear actor in this Milan Luthria fi lm, got her name changed from Yasmeen to Jas-meen, to avoid a controversy. This was after they learnt that Yasmeen Joseph is the origi-nal name of actor Mandakini of the Ram Teri Ganga Maili fame. The change has required re-dubbing of some portions of the fi lm.

AFP

got her nammeen, to avthey learntnal name oGanga Mare-dubbing

A bit too careful?Shahid Kapoor has become too cautious in pick-ing scripts. The actor, who was last seen in Teri Meri Kahaani, apparently rejected three fat offers. One was Dhanush's part in Ranjhanaa and the reason seems to be the lack of chem-istry he had with Sonam Kapoor in Mausam. No one knows why Shahid opted out of Manish Sharma’s Shudh Desi Romance alongside Parineeti Chopra after three days of fi lming. He even said no to Abhinav Kashyap’s Besharam, which is now touted as Ranbir Kapoor's magnum opus.

COMPILED BY JAN MARY VARGHESECONTRIBUTORS: MONTY MAJEED AND ADITI M.

BHANU PRAKASH CHANDRA

AP


WorldMags.net




last word ■ Patrick French

North Indian Romans

European travellers in India in previous centuries were prone to compare every place

they visited to the country they had left behind. A river in Kashmir might bring back memories of salmon fish-ing on the River Tweed in Scotland, and the Nilgiris would somehow evoke the Picos de Europa. So, it is with some hesitation that I say nowhere in Europe reminds me of north India quite so much as the city of Rome.

Certainly the food is different: raw beef, truffl es and pasta. The architecture is different too: classical monuments, Renaissance churches and palazzos, and at its centre the stupendous Altare della Patria, the altar of the nation, a boxy, white marble monument that would look too large even in New Delhi.

The similarity comes not from Rome’s surroundings but from the attitude of many of the people. Like in north India, everyone has a story to tell and a determination to tell it on their own terms, accompanied by physical effects, as if they are

performing in a fi lm of their own, or at least in an item number.

Amid the hustle and bustle, there is no rush. If you say to a man that you are in a hurry, he will remove his jacket with deliberation, arrange it carefully on the chair beside him, continue a conversation with his friend and then, fi nally, discuss what it was you were asking. A journey in a car can be an opportunity for a private chariot race or a display of horn blowing, shooting over a bridge under which a family lies sleeping on a mattress. As in Amritsar, it appears to be possible to drive a motorbike sharply round a corner in Rome while speaking on a mobile phone.

Having noticed this, it was inter-esting to meet Ali, who had a hawk-ish nose and came from Rawalpindi. “Yeh Europe ka Asia hai,” he said. “The way it works here is like in our place.” He had been in Italy for 14 years and told me that if you wanted to have a street stall or sell fake Gucci bags to tourists in the summer, you could end up paying a hafta of several hundred euros a day to the

mafi a. “They come and collect.” As so often in foreign lands, Indians and Pakistanis got along. “Here there is nothing between us. We go to each other’s houses.” Most years, Ali returned to Pakistan, and had just been back to vote for Imran Khan. Migrants from the subcontinent, he said, now ran a fair number of the city’s petrol pumps, the trinket shops and even the fruit juice carts that looked to me like the ones in Delhi.

Who were the levitating sadhus in saffron in the Piazza di Spagna, one sitting above the other cross-legged so that passers-by dropped money into a hat? They were illusionists from Bangladesh. The sad, exhausted men who worked the tables at the outdoor restaurants selling red roses, retreating now and again to stone fountains to dip the thirsty fl owers in water, came mainly from Dhaka.

Ali himself worked as a waiter and spoke good Italian. One evening I watched him at work, ‘prego’ and ‘mamma mia’ dropping easily from his lips. An Italian waiter, hearing us talk, leaned over and said to me, “India bueno, Pakistan horrible.” Ali was not bothered by the national insult. “I can take him any time,” he said, gesturing gamely over his shoulder. “Mein roz iski beizzati karta hoon.”

Later I suggested to an Italian pro-fessor there was a similarity between Rome and Delhi. “Come on,” he said, “there is a shared culture from south of the Alps all the way to Central Asia, and it is only when you get to China that it changes.”Follow Patrick French on Twitter:@PatrickFrench2


WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net



84


WorldMags.net



Date post:	20-Oct-2015
Category:	Documents
Upload:	shailka-mishra
View:	153 times
Download:	4 times

The Week India - 07 July 2013

Documents