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I left India when I was seventeen years old and spent two years in boarding school in the US. Then I went to college there and even spent some time in Eastern Europe after that, actually. I travelled to Romania, where I had earned myself a fellowship and from there, back westwards to England for my doctoral studies. I grew up in Puducherry in the Auroville Ashram. Even as a child I was acutely aware of how different it was from the rest of India. Auroville was an international and cosmopolitan space with a global community of people. It was also, to use a lose term, ‘westernised’. The rest of India was less open to the world in the seventies and the eighties. When I was young, I would often travel to visit my extended and very scattered family at Udaipur, Mumbai and Delhi. At the time, those places were even more diverse and different from what they are today. I knew that my home in Puducherry was more special, especially then. The decision to leave India at the age of 17 was mostly educationally driven. The schools in Puducherry, especially the schools in Auroville, were exceptional. However, they were very different in their structure – while growing up I was in no rat race to get better grades, as there were no grades awarded to students; it was a holistic educational background. There was an emphasis on liberal arts. Part of my family lived in the US, so my family decided to put me into a boarding school there to give my education a sort of structure. Even while I was there, I would come back home frequently. Though I was in a foreign land at the time, India was not too far from my thoughts and I knew that one day I would be back. So the decision to return was not one taken overnight. What started happening around 2000 or so were a couple of things: India was changing and was becoming a much more open, exciting and dynamic place to be. I do not mean exciting only in terms of the material opportunities, but also intellectually stimulating. There is so much life here. That, combined with the feeling of flatness in the west, particularly the US, prompted me towards the decision. I remember being in the US when the Iraq War broke out. And I remember thinking to myself that I did not wish to be a part of this imperial decline. The war was the most specific thing that helped me to make this final decision, in a way – why would I live in a country where so much was messed up? I did not think of going anywhere else (so-called ‘first world’ countries) because the point was to come back home. At that time my family and I were living in New York. We had initial hesitations about coming back to a slower lifestyle because at NYC we were so used to a dynamic social life. We pondered over the choice of staying in a city, say a Bengaluru for instance, but then soon dropped the idea. The intention was to live free under the open skies and have a certain quality of life in India. Both my wife and I were partly raised in Auroville, so we were inclined towards unlimited and clean space. I grew up on the edge of a forest, walked on unpaved streets and breathed in fresh air every day. We could walk to the beach when we wanted to. If we had to have it, we wanted the older ways. So we thought about coming back to Bengaluru–I find larger Indian cities very challenging. My book doesn't talk about Auroville or Punducherry, but I do talk of my life and living in the middle of nature, which leads to introspection, inner peace. For better or for worse, there's much less to do in the semiurban and rural spaces. t6There are no urban trappings such as a mall or a hangout spaces and as a result, one feels freer at some level. I think that nature has a calming effect on the human soul. For a writer, Puducherry was perfect. I am surrounded by people who are very environmentally conscious; they work on the land and pioneer green development in India. In this day and age, Auroville is like an oasis and an inspirational place to stay in. We were all struggling to come to terms with a new place in the first few months after we came back. Anytime you start something new, it is exciting and yet there is a fear and a struggle to get into the pace. When I came back, India was in a much more euphoric state and I was more tuned to the positive aspects of the country. Something had changed in the very spirit of the country. India was infused with an energy, a can-do ambition and an entrepreneurial spirit - at least that is how it appeared to me at the time. As it is now, that euphoric feeling has been bogged down by the realism of staying in a country. But even now, though I see the struggle clearly, I still see the spirit of survival just as well. Today, the honeymoon may be over, but the love has been reinforced. My book is what you call narrative non-fiction, which is a result of my family's move from New York City to Puducherry. Some people might call it literary non-fiction, but literary is a big, pretentious word and I would rather not use it. The book is a result of my struggle to understand a country which is complex and confusing. It is an attempt to tell true stories and real-life matters, rather than give policies, arguments or statistics, which ultimately leave much more unsaid. In NYC I was really close to the commercial side of the writing business, which was not so uplifting or inspiring for me as a writer. When I moved back to India, I initially thought that I would abandon the pen. However, when you are back there is so much happening in your head. I wanted to understand what was going on, within and outside me. I realised that things were far more complicated than I had thought they would be. Writing and research were tools to engage with my country and understand it; that was the impetus behind the book. I was very clear from the beginning that when I would write the book, I wanted to understand India through its people and its stories. Partly, it was because I find narratives far more engaging than any other form of writing, and partly because I think what was being written about India were the broadly economic, policy and academic books. Because they are so broad-based, they missed out on the nuances and complexities of the day-to-day living of the country. There is nothing more complex than a life and when you focus on it, you really get into the ups and downs and the ambivalence of what is going on in the country right now. If you compare a macroeconomic figure like a GDP indicator to a life, the latter has so many layers and thereby can give so much more information than just a figure. Now I have this information, do I wish to do something more about so-called ‘saving’ Auroville, which has been so pristine all this while? Yes and no. I don't see the book as an implement of activism. And I believe that even in civil life there is always that need to stand up for what is right. What happens in India (and perhaps all across the world), is that citizens become mini-activists in their backyards by accident. Everyone who I have known has engaged in some level of activism against things that need to be prevented or things that needed to be done. For example, I have been talking about the garbage problem in the area where I stay. Of how one night my family woke up to the smell of burning rubbish which choked our son and made him ill for the better part of the night. I spoke up about that issue, not as a writer but as a person who was affected by a problem. The writing comes out of the citizenship, rather than the citizenship coming out of the writing, if you know what I mean.
Social media trends have been shifting on a monthly basis, but here’s a look at some which left an impact—whether good or otherwiseThere was a time, not too long ago, when charting out the social media trends that made an impact over the year was easy. Entrenched players took their time to change, and new entrants were few and far between. That time, however, is not now. With the unprecedented pace of disruption and the ground shifting below your feet on a monthly basis, what worked on the social scene in January may no longer be useful as you read this copy right now! Even so, in our yearly wrap-up of what made the news (and notoriety) this year, I try to assess the key trends that have shaped the social agenda in 2012.
The Internet of People: Till recently, you’d use a news portal or a search engine to find your way around the cluttered mass we know as the Internet and find out what’s happening. Today, your Facebook and twitter feeds are where news breaks first, and user generated content – news, videos, photos and opinion – are increasingly driving our daily reading habits.
Curation is Key: That said, with so much data bombarding our lives throughout the day, the need for curated content – content that has been chosen, either manually or algorithmically, to be worth your time – has grown by leaps and bounds. This year saw names like reddit and Techmeme creep into the mainstream, and they’re here to stay.
Are you Pinterest-ed: One brand that really rode the social wave this year was Pinterest. The image-sharing network, while being the newest of the big kids on the block, had more clickthroughs than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ combined! Not to mention research that shows significant sales that are driven off the site. Imagine how much traffic that could mean for your brand’s website if you engage fans on the platform.
Kickstart It!: Kickstarter may be the perfect platform to get crowd funded, but more and more folks are realising that it’s an equally effective way to grab big media attention and make a hard sell for a product before its launch. Plus, projects that are well on their way to being funded get noticed by VCs and angel investors as well. The moral? Make that pitch video for your Kickstarter funding perfect!
Social becomes Human: If you’re using your brand’s twitter channel to send out robotic sounding messages like “Hi! Please DM us your contact details and we’ll get in touch” for just about every customer interaction, you’re missing the point of being social, not to mention becoming the object of much ridicule on the platform. If anything, your social presence should be more like people you’d want to spend time with. Case in point: look at the playful banter that Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart engages in on its twitter account, while handling customer queries and complaints.
Mobile First: More and more folks are only accessing social media from their phones. And with smartphone users globally tipping into the 1 billion figure in 2012, that’s a vast market, one that has to be addressed in a manner that is very different from the days of the desktop. Imagine this – brands can now reach potential buyers at the exact time when they’re out looking for the service or product, with relevant messaging and up-to-date offers. Plus there’s the brand opportunity with apps as well. Brands that ignore this rapidly growing segment do so at their own peril.
The Social Enterprise: Social media in the enterprise is no longer just implementing a bunch of tools and ensuring your presence on social networks. The social enterprise goes one further, integrating social across all platforms of engagement, be it sales, marketing or service. Think less 'social for social’s sake', and focus more on social media as a business tool to facilitate communication, engagement and loyalty. Large B2B companies spent much of 2012 boarding the social media train, as the acquisitions of social startups by players such as Microsoft and Salesforce indicate.
Wherefore art thou, Google+?:It’s nearing on 18 months for Google+, and the stark reality is that while it has its niche, it just isn’t working. Not with all the resources and engineering at Google’s disposal can the internet giant crack social. Want more evidence? Look back at Google’s previous attempts – Buzz, Wave and Orkut.
Videos Work!: Getting your brand video to go viral may have been the elusive holy grail for most online marketers, but even for those that didnt, online video represented a huge opportunity this year. With broadband and 3G penetration levels rising, customers are no longer shy of engaging with your brand via rich video content. Combine this with an ever-decreasing barrier of entry for the average person to quickly become a video-sharing ninja, and you’ll notice that in 2012, video quality (picture and sound) and entertainment quality rapidly increased across the board. Brands like Red Bull crossed the fine line into entertainment channel territory, offering sports, TV, music and lifestyle content, all shared socially and linking back to the company’s website.
The Hindi film industry shows signs of change and a growing maturityTHERE IS A fleeting moment in one of the finest Hindi films of this year, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar, which almost cries out for subtextual analysis. The title character— once an upbeat army man and athlete proudly serving his country, but now a baaghi driven to a life outside the law—is nearing the end of his personal race. This section of the story is set in 1980, and on a transistor belonging to the policemen pursuing Paan Singh we hear the news about the death of actress Nargis. Given the film’s larger themes, it is reasonable to wonder if this scene is an allusion to Nargis’s most famous role: does it reflect the end of the Mother India ideal for the film’s embittered protagonist? If so, it would be in keeping with this film’s subtle, plaintive tone. Though Paan Singh Tomar is based on a real-life tale that has the resonance of a Shakespearean tragedy, it doesn’t strain self-consciously to be one. There are no grand epiphanies— it stays in the moment, and there is a understatement in scenes that could easily have been overmany. Clearly, our modes of storytelling have been changing. Mainstream Hindi cinema has always been full of stories about the disaffection of the wronged individual with the System, or with the nation state, but such narratives tended to be presented in dramatic terms, accompanied by flashes of over-expository declaiming. Paan Singh Tomar does have scenes such as the one where our hero remarks that apart from the Army everyone in the country is a thief, but they are handled with restraint—not least thanks to Irfan Khan’s brilliantly measured performance. In fact, the better, more provocative Hindi films of 2012 have shown unusual maturity in dealing with such subjects as patriotism, national integration and the idea of India. If Dhulia’s film tells the story of an individual and his times, the claustrophobic gloom of Dibakar Banerjee’s Shanghai gives expression to a number of different stories—adding up to a tightly-knit comment on the aspirations and power struggles that brush against each other in a overmany- layered society. The film’s protagonists include a lower-class man who fantasises about a job where he might one day get to wear a tie as well as a privileged man in a high-profile job who loosens his own tie every opportunity he gets; such polarities and contrasts can be seen elsewhere in the story too. In some ways, Shanghai is a “non-Bollywood” film. It has the self-consciously stygian look of a contemporary noir movie—it even makes Mumbai’s busy nightlife seem sinister in a way that has rarely been achieved in our cinema before. (During an interview, the film’s cinematographer Nikos Andritsakis told me that this was how he experienced the city when he first arrived in it.) And it is adapted from a Greek novel, Z, which was about a very specific political context. But Banerjee and his co-writer Urmi Juvekar have done a thoughtful job of fitting it to the contemporary Indian situation—this is a depiction of a world where there is no lasting solution to the hegemony of power, where underprivileged people unwittingly participate in their own exploitation, and the rich marginalise the poor while indulging the hubris of turning Mumbai into a glistening “Shanghai”. Trying to keep your equilibrium, turning your face away from injustice until your conscience no longer lets you...these are repeated motifs in this film, and they are reflected in its ending. The bureaucrat Krishnan (played by Abhay Deol) does something that in a more simple-minded film might result in the summary cleaning up of the political order, but here we see that nothing has really changed. So, is Shanghai a cynical film? Banerjee himself sees it as an ode to individual conscience in a harsh world, while Juvekar told me during a recent conversation that they didn’t want to tie up loose ends and provide the audience any false comfort. No wonder the film, even as it was widely acclaimed, left so many viewers with an uncomfortable, unresolved feeling. Other major films of the year don’t deal explicitly with “national issues”, but they do reflect an increasing willingness by Bollywood to visit places that are not often charted. The authenticity of the hinterland depiction in Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur has been called into question, but there is no doubting the film’s ability to establish the mood of a very particular setting; while the bulk of the action is in Dhanbadthere are also two scenes set in Varanasi, revealing—with typical Kashyapian humour—an incongruously sinister side to one of our holiest towns. Meanwhile, Sujoy Ghosh’s fine thriller Kahaani—in which a pregnant woman comes up against a calculating IB officer as she tries to find her missing husband—made excellent, atypical use of Kolkata as a setting, and even provided solid roles to the popular Bengali actors Parambrata Chatterjee and Saswata Chatterjee (as well as a supporting part for the veteran Dhritaman Chatterjee, who was such an arresting presence 40 years ago in Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi). Bengali characters also featured in cute takes on inter-community relationships in two of the year’s warmest “little” films. In a charming scene in Shoojit Sircar’s Vicky Donor, a Bengali girl hums a few notes of Rabindrasangeet to her Punjabi boyfriend; they are in a car somewhere between Lajpat Nagar and Chittaranjan Park (two south Delhi colonies located near each other in physical space, but traditionally the bastions of very different communities), and the scene is an important bonding moment in a romance between two people who hail from different universes. And there is an interestingly similar moment near the end of Sameer Sharma’s Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana, where a young Punjabi man serenades his lover with a Bengali song in the presence of his startled family, who can’t even make sense of what they are hearing. The scene feels a bit like cultural stereotyping at first (“Punjabis masculine, Bengalis effeminate”) but the film is clearly on the side of the young lovers, so it works well. In any case, both Vicky Donor and Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana overturn the conventional tropes of “Punjabiyat” and allow us to see their characters as individuals rather than as representations of groups. And perhaps, in the final analysis, that is the best way to make a film about the many colliding realities of a complex country. Bollywood has certainly succeeded in doing this in the past 12 months.
Nandita Das talks of stories that touch hearts and mindsI came into acting by default and my human rights background must have influenced my choices in the acting work that I took. For me, in many ways the transition from actor to director was a natural progression. It was always exciting to watch the rest of the crew work towards shaping a scene. Often, I would get involved with suggestions or just ask questions. Slowly the desire to tell stories the way I wanted to started growing stronger. I grew up in a creative family (my mother is a writer and father an artist) must have acted as an impetus. My home environment helped shape my ethos, ethics, sensibility and outlook towards life in general. My father has had a deep influence on me and my choices. Right from the beginning he encouraged me to question everything and gave me the freedom to explore, to follow my heart. He laid a lot of emphasis on core values like honesty, equality and sensitivity. I was reminded so often to question my motivations and my actions that it has almost become a habit to do a reality check in every situation. Today, if I have been able to keep my feet firmly on the ground, my head on my shoulders and my heart in its right place, then it has a lot to do with my upbringing. I got into films as an actor by default too. I did my Master’s in social work and then went on to work with NGOs. The experience of being exposed to the many realities of life was bound to impact my choices in films both consciously and instinctively. There is no career graph as there is no real strategy or plan to the way my life has unfolded. Social work is what I did much before I got into acting, so for me it was the other way around. Throughout my career I have been instinctively anchored towards projects that I can relate to, that have resonated with my interests, concerns and dilemma. Having said that, there have been films that did not turn out the way I had imagined them to. Despite that, I am happy that at least I made a choice for honest reasons. Whenever I select a project I look for a strong script, a director who can translate that into an interesting cinematic experience, and a role that is layered and believable. Often, all these things don’t come together as there are many factors involved in film-making. But when they do, it is a fulfilling experience. Recently, I have finished shooting for a Tamil and a Hindi film. I consciously took projects that did not require more than a week’s commitment, but they were both powerful stories. Chhoti Productions was conceived by my husband, Subodh (Maskara) and I, to provide an outlet for our creative ideas. Chhoti is the vehicle through which we hope to express ourselves in the Performing Arts. Our endeavour is to bring quality Performing Arts to audiences in the country and beyond. From the time I have known my husband Subodh, I have seen how comfortable and creative he is when he is narrating stories or mimicking people. He has a natural flair for performance. But most importantly, his passion and commitment to theatre and his new life of creativity is what gave me the confidence that he would be a great partner on stage. As a producer, I had no doubts at all as he has been an entrepreneur for a long time now. I saw him growing through the workshop experiences with Waman Kendre and Mahesh Dattani. He had been an inherent part of our writing journey as well, and therefore feels close to the script. Every day during our rehearsals and shows of the play, I have seen him getting closer to the character he is playing! Firaaq is an Urdu word that means both separation and quest. Set in the context of the aftermath of a communal riot in Gujarat, Firaaq is a work of fiction, based on a thousand happenings. It traces the emotional journeys of ‘ordinary people’ — some who were victims, some perpetrators and some who chose to watch silently. It is through their journeys that we experience the explicit and implicit impact of violence, and the desperate desire for peace. It also had to do with waking up to newspapers with stories full of violence; having conversations about religion and identity and soon finding oneself in a very polarised debate; meeting victims of violence and seeing their vacant helpless eyes; feeling deeply disturbed by the constant ‘them and us’ from all quarters...Firaaq is a reaction to all that and more. On a more optimistic note, during my many travels and interactions, I have sensed a collective desire to understand this complex and violent world we inhabit and a palpable need for peace. I think Firaaq reflects these complex thoughts and touches the hearts and minds of those who watch it. During the process of writing the script, many stories, comments and events inspired us and at times found their way into the screenplay. The long gestation period was good for the script because it allowed stories to breathe and our characters to grow in a more organic manner, making the script more layered, relevant and interesting. This is a work of fiction, based on a thousand true stories. There were actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Raghubir Yadav and Deepti Naval who I had thought would be perfect at the scripting stage. There were some who I had wanted to cast, but for different reasons we couldn’t work together. The journey of finding the rest of the cast has also been very exciting. I am also happy to have found extremely talented actors like Sanjay Suri, Shahana Goswami, Nowaz, Tisca Chopra and many others who have given their best to the film. The journey of making Firaaq has been an all-consuming, but also cathartic experience. At any given point, hundreds of factors need to be dealt with and many simultaneous decisions have to be made. I am really glad that the film got made against all odds. But I have enjoyed every phase of film making, with all its challenges, big and small. And I am grateful to all those who had faith in me and in the story I so wanted to tell. My last three years have been hectic, as a new mother and the chairperson of the Children’s Film Society. Direction requires a lot more time and focus, and is therefore something that I can look into only once our play, Between The Lines, is over. Perhaps early next year I will start exploring some of my other ideas. As the Chairperson of the Children’s Film Society of India, I found my work both daunting and rewarding. It was an opportunity to make a difference, to try out something new and explore yet another area of interest. I tried to make systemic changes that will last beyond my tenure. Today, children are growing up on a completely different diet and we cannot stop that. But we can certainly provide an alternative. There aren’t too many takers in terms of distribution, as they prefer family entertainers as opposed to films made specifically for children, despite the fact that kids form a huge part of the audience. There is a real dearth of quality content that provides wholesome entertainment to children. Children form a huge film audience the world over. I wonder why we have not explored this segment enough. In India, economics gets in the way of everything, more so filmmaking. Because of that, people often do not want to take a chance. However, it is possible to make low or medium-budget films that are strong in content and form, do not compromise the ideals and are a lot of fun. Unfortunately, our films for children are either preachy and boring, or fluffy and sometimes even violent. The reality shows are putting a lot of pressure on children, which can be very harmful for their emotional growth. As for motherhood, women are forced to be great multi-taskers, thanks to all the different things they end up doing. We are forced to be good at it! Honestly, juggling roles has been challenging. I will continue to travel the journey of life with multiple interests and concerns, and thankfully without the pressure of proving myself or fearing the consequences. I care deeply about issues concerning women and much of my work, be it acting, writing, directing or speaking, is about advocating these concerns. It is all half a drop in the ocean, but we all need to do our little bit. I have seen that there is always time for what one really wants to do. Whatever is a priority comes to the forefront and the rest takes a back seat. Sometimes other things go on the back burner and resurface later. During Firaaq that was my focus, now it’s Chhoti Productions and, of course, Vihaan, who has made me introspective, other than filling me with a lot of joy.
A recent book, Same Sex Love, by Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai traces the history of homosexuality in the Indian subcontinent throughout the ages. What they come out with are revealing insights for those who condemn homosexuals in the name of protecting Indian culture and civilisation. The book says, “Our study suggests that at most times and places in pre-nineteenth-century India, love between women and between men, even when disapproved of, was not actively persecuted. As far as we know, no one has ever been executed for homosexuality in India”. In the Manusmriti there are references to punishments like loss of caste, heavy monetary fines and strokes of the whip for gay and lesbian behavior. Such references point to the tensions in the norms of compulsory heterosexuality prescribed by Brahmanical thought. Both sexual systems coexisted, despite fluctuations in relative repression and freedom, until British Colonialism, when the destruction of images of homosexual and sexual expression in general became more systematic and blatant. The last century witnessed major changes in the attitude to homosexuality. Since 1974, homosexuality ceased to be considered abnormal behaviour and its classification as a mental disorder was removed. It was also decriminalised in different countries. Since then, various countries have enacted anti-discriminatory or equal opportunity laws to protect the rights of gays and lesbians. In 1994, South Africa became the first nation to constitutionally safeguard the rights of lesbians and gays. Canada, France, Luxembourg, Holland, Slovenia, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand also have similar laws. In 1996, the US Supreme Court ordered that no state could pass legislation that discriminated against homosexuals. In India, so far no such progressive changes have taken place and homosexuals remain victims of violence in different forms, supported by the state and society. However, in a landmark judgment in 2009, the Delhi High Court legalised gay sex among consenting adults, holding that the law making it a criminal offence violates fundamental rights. But despite the Court ruling, not much has changed on the legislative and societal front, though opposition to gay rights is becoming less vocal. To speak in favour of LGBT rights is Danish Sheikh, a homosexual and active promoter of sexual rights. In opposition is BP Singhal, Hindutva ideologue and retired IPS officer.
DANISH SHEIKH // The personal tends to conflate with the political when it comes to LGBT activism, and one part of this for me is simply being out as a gay man. I find it important to weave my identity into discussions about marginalisation, as I feel the biggest fight that we’re waging is that of invisibility, which can only be countered by putting a personal face on the stories of harassment and abuse. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalises ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’. These words have been interpreted to include homosexual intercourse by a number of High Court decisions, and thus cast a shadow of criminality on the LGBT community in India. With the Delhi High Court’s Naz Foundation judgment of 2009, Section 377 was read down to exclude consensual sexual intercourse between adults, effectively decriminalising homosexuality in India. Soon after this judgment, an appeal was filed in the Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court heard arguments on the matter early this year and has reserved the case for judgment. Today, even if we have a law which is in our favour, we are yet to receive societal acceptance. Part of it is based on our negative stance towards sexuality, where any expression of sexual desire outside the bounds of heterosexual marriage is frowned upon. The LGBT community simply reflects the furthest extreme from this normative ideal. The existence of alternate gender and sexuality also poses a challenge to dominant ideals of masculinity and patriarchy. More than anything, I believe the discrimination is based on a lack of information/ interaction with the LGBT community, which allows people to foster prejudices which go unchallenged. Whether it be a higher risk of HIV/AIDS due to lack of access to safe spaces and awareness, economic marginalisation of the hijra community due to the stigma faced by them, or issues of harassment at the workplace, the issues are all tied in to social prejudice. However, things are slowly changing. And the media has played a very important role in outing homosexuality through their positive coverage, particularly at the time of the Naz Foundation judgment and in reporting on Pride marches in different cities. At the same time, there have been instances like the TV9 Hyderabad broadcast where the channel outed a number of closeted gay men on a prime-time broadcast. In that case, TV9 was censured by the News Broadcasting Standards Authority and asked to pay a fine, along with issuing a public apology. While the media has been vocal, I would say that the larger political parties are mostly silent on the matter. Recently, Tammy Baldwin became the first gay senator in the US. In India, we’ve had instances of members of the hijra (eunuch) community stand for election and even win. But when it comes to homosexuality, there is zero visibility in the political sphere. I do believe it is largely a question of time more than anything else. The LGBT movement in India has progressed at a remarkable pace and I don’t think it will be too long before we find an openly homosexual person contesting elections. The one section of society where getting acceptance won’t be easy is the religious circle. I think the LGBT movement will require some amount of active engagement with religious groups to the extent of finding spaces within religion for accepting difference. These are movements that have progressed with some success in places like South Africa and the United States, where you have religious groups opening up spaces for homosexuality in their midst. In India no such thing has happened yet, but with constant effort and interaction it might become a reality some day.
BHARATENDU PRAKASH SINGHAL // Section 377 of the Indian Constitution is nothing but a paper tiger. On paper, it inhibits people from freely becoming homosexuals but it has never been an easy law to implement. For implementation of any criminal law you need a complainant and a witness—sodomy is being conducted in closed rooms and neither party will complain because it’s a mutual consent matter. Moreover, Sec 377 does not refer to lesbians, because it specifies that penetration has to take place. The major issue is that you can’t even fight the cause properly. In my 35 years in the IPS, I never saw a single case registered under 377 and no case of police harassment. I am aware of the arguments made in favour of ‘gay rights’. They say that gays feel that their desire, their very existence, is being criminalised. I ask them, what do such people have to say about adultery between consenting adults? Homosexuals have also been transcending the law. How can you differentiate between the violation of one law and another? If you talk of consenting adults, why should gambling be an offence? What’s wrong with sati if a devout wife wants to commit it? The whole question is about social morals. I say public morality, and not Constitutional morality, because the Constitution so far has not been able to act against the crimes of homosexuality. And if the Constitution is lacking in enforcing public morality then there is something wrong with it. The Constitution prescribes not just fundamental rights but also duties, including preserving your culture. Moreover, you cannot possibly ignore public opinion; and a majority of the people have a problem with homosexual behaviour. In India most people have normal sexual behaviour and by legalising a behaviour which is not popular you are going against the masses. Do not think that I am unaware of the mentions of homosexual behaviour in our scriptures, but even they have talked about punishments to be given for such practices. When Manu has prescribed a punishment ages ago, you can’t play fraud by saying that it’s a Victorian notion. There was a survey by Wikipedia in 2004 of 44 countries asking if they would like this to be an offence. 83 per cent in India wanted it to be! It is not in the nature of Indians to have homosexual behaviour. Whatever you are seeing is an imposition from the west. Why do you think the noise to decriminalise homosexuality is emerging now? It’s because the market is open, we are more exposed to the western ways of life and as a result we are getting corrupted. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have any problem with homosexuals. Homosexuality has existed since the beginning of time. But it doesn’t mean it’s a healthy thing. The Center of Disease Control in the US has done a study on how homosexuality breeds diseases. Besides, it’s completely unnatural. We are fighting to preserve nature and those who oppose us want to legalise abnormal behaviour. I feel homosexuality is a crime against humanity. The talk about police harassment and public persecution is all bogus. I have personally asked people for examples. Though they said there were many cases but the only example they ever had was that of Lucknow in 2001. I will tell you what happened. When the police raided this place in Lucknow, they were just boys there who were ‘supposed’ to be doing HIV-AIDS awareness work, teaching gay men about the use of condoms, etc. But if you see the recovery memo, it has video cassettes where you can explicitly see sodomy taking place. They were there to promote homosexuality. No condom was found; it was a gay orgy.
The kudos are slowly piling up for the leader of a ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ON DECEMBER 20, Narendra Modi is widely expected to lead the BJP to a third successive election victory in Gujarat. The state’s prodigious economic success in the past decade and the administrative efficiency and transparency of the Modi government, are now impossible to deny. This has led to a rethinking in diplomatic circles as well. A few weeks ago, the United Kingdom announced it would resume official contact with the chief minister of Gujarat and that the British high commissioner in India would travel to Gandhinagar to call on Modi. This ended an awkward interval. Following the Gujarat violence of 2002, certain diplomatic missions had seemed to lose the distinction between being neutral observers and participants in domestic political debates. In the case of the British High Commission, for instance, an internal report relating to an assessment of the violence in Gujarat was deliberately leaked to the Indian media. Over three years, from 2002 to 2005, a whole bloc of Western countries sought to boycott Modi and refuse him visas, or discourage him from visiting without explicitly denying him a visa. The most egregious case came in March 2005, when the United States cancelled Modi’s visa and refused to allow him to address a conference of the Gujarati diaspora. That decision by the Americans was actually preceded by vigorous argument. Professional diplomats in both New Delhi and the State Department were opposed to the decision to declare Modi persona non grata. They pointed out there was unlikely to be any charge of an act of commission against him. They were only likely to be accusations of acts of omission, and it would be impossible to prove these were deliberate, if they were recognised as having occurred in the first place. That aside, it was the job of diplomats to engage all sections of political opinion and not exclude one group or the other. That counsel proved completely correct in the long run. In 2005, however, it was ignored by recent political recruits to the South Asia Bureau of the State Department. They also believed that pushing Modi to the ropes would not just destroy his political career but also lead to the newlyelected UPA Government being grateful to Washington, DC. This too was an erroneous assumption. To be fair to him, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh criticised the US for seeking to anticipate the due process of law in India and sought a revocation of the travel ban imposed on Modi. That aside, the perception of at least one official in the State Department — she was critical to the Modi decision — that a black certificate from Uncle Sam would make the Gujarat politician unpalatable to Indian voters turned out to be nonsense. Gradually, as Modi altered the discourse in Gujarat and made it even more of an economic powerhouse, the chatter in Chanakyapuri began to change. Previous British high commissioners had hinted at the frustrating nature of the ban on engagement with Modi, even as British companies were rushing to solicit business. Aside from some naysayers within the British system itself — particularly MPs bothered about ethnic Pakistani voters in their constituencies — the British were constrained by their association with the European Union, which had adopted a hard line on Gujarat. The mood turned as it became clear that Modi was here to stay. In January 2011, Japan was the partner country at the Vibrant Gujarat business event and Ron Somers, president of the United States India Business Council, said he hoped the US would be the partner country for Vibrant Gujarat in 2013. It was obvious the US was looking for an appropriate opportunity to pull itself out of a self-created problem. The Australians too upgraded engagement with Mr Modi, as have a few EU countries. What has helped, of course, is the Special Investigative Team’s report exonerating Modi from any role in the 2002 violence. The fact that multiple police investigations, including one directed and monitored by India’s Supreme Court, have completely cleared Modi makes it easier for western governments to walk away from a maximalist position. In the coming months one can expect a drawing back from the State Department. One by one, the EU members will also crumble. Many of them already have a strong business relationship with Gujarat. Indeed, in recent years, individual politicians from many countries, including national legislators, have visited Gujarat and promised to work for better relations. Modi has not been without his advocates. Softer issues like human rights and civil liberties are becoming part of diplomatic discourse, and justifiably so. Even so, a diplomat needs to be a hardnosed animal. He must promote his country’s interests and have the clear-headedness to tell exaggeration from cold fact. This calls for maturity that unfortunately some diplomats of 2002-2005 just did not show. They were keener to appear on the right side of interested busybodies in New Delhi than make a legitimate appraisal of the political and social conditions in Gujarat. The issue goes beyond Modi and whether or not he becomes prime minister. To acquiesce in his judgement and conviction by foreign diplomats — rather than the Indian legal system and, more importantly, the Indian people — would have been very damaging for this country’s standing. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was both chief minister as well as home minister when the Singur- Nandigram violence took place in West Bengal. It was triggered by the brutal CPI(M) cadre and assisted by biased police action. There were enough civil-rights groups who wanted Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, prosecuted for hunting down Maoist insurgents. Their guilt — if any — is for India to sort out. It is not for a foreign visa officer to arrogate to himself the role of moral ombudsman.
Sentila Yanger and her team at Tribal Weave are trying to spin a dream for the people of the NortheastMost Indian and international fashionistas have an item or two in their closets which have been sourced from the eastern side of the Himalayas. Those who frequent the markets at Paharganj (Delhi) or Fashion Street (Mumbai) will find it hard to believe that the traditional crafts of the Northeast were once fast disappearing. “Now these items are a rage in both the national and international markets and have been so for the past few years,” says a content Yanger. She has every reason to be pleased—it is because of the hard work put in by her and her team that these accessories, textiles and artefacts, so popular and readily available today, reached the markets. Ironically, these omnipresent popular crafts were not to be seen, even in the Northeast, during the years she was growing up. “One time, I was at my grandmother’s house in Nagaland spending my vacations. Some of her friends dropped by carrying a material. I saw the fabric and yelled ‘jeans’!” Denim, one of the most popular fabrics for young people today, was a rarity in those days. It was thus inevitable that the young Yanger got all excited about it. Yanger’s grandmother gently informed the excited girl that the fabric was not denim, but a more traditional textile dyed with natural indigo. “The fabric stayed with me,” says Yanger. In the late 1980s, Yanger began to work with an NGO which fought substance abuse in the Northeast. It was then, when she regularly met people who had forgotten their traditional attire, that Yanger was reminded of the magic fabric that looked like denim. When she inquired about it, she came faceto- face with a sad reality—people had not even heard of the material. She realised that people had forgotten about their roots and culture. She met others who shared her concerns and they decided to do something - and so was born the idea for Tribal Weave. Talking to DW, Yanger’s conversation moved across her diverse concerns. At one moment she would talk of fighting substance abuse—a still alarming issue in most parts of India—and in the next, she would talk about dying crafts in the same breath. While working with families struggling to support an addict, Yanger realised that crafts could be an excellent medium to make communities more self-reliant, and help them move away from addiction. Yanger started to take steps to rectify the situation. Her first act was to gather weavers under one roof and make them work in an organised fashion. “It was one difficult task,” admits Yanger. After all, the weavers she had gathered together were craftspeople who had quit their craft generations ago. The few still continuing were doing so on their own, without direction in isolated pockets. Most were unaware of how to promote their craft. In fact, most of the time, the weavers and craftspeople were themselves unaware of the value of the craft. They started with the women , who were brought under the Tribal Weave umbrella and given more specialised training in an effort to upgrade their skills. To make exemplary products, they were provided with the fabric, yarn and material required. Then, the finished products were marketed and put up in exhibitions. When the world saw the exquisite accessories, it literally went mad. The first exhibition held by Tribal Weave was a hit! The demand skyrocketed, and continues to do so. However, do remember that Yanger was working in the Northeast—a region suffering years of neglect and riven with disputes. In the thick of the brewing tension and growing anti-India sentiments, how did she manage to convince her people to come out and be a part of the mainstream? “It was an uphill task to organise everything but the ‘anti-India’ sentiment that you speak of was not a concern. Mainland India has got it all wrong. If any anti-India sentiments have been brewing, they are a by-product of the treatment Northeastern people have received in the rest of India. If anyone has been anti, it has been mainland India,” she says. Yanger had no problem in trying to convince the craftspeople to sell their products in the bigger markets. The movement, if one may call it that, began by working with tribal women, but today men also have become active participants. “I have been able to impact the lives of the people in the region, I think this has been my biggest achievement so far,” says Yanger. And then, as an afterthought, adds that she was rather overwhelmed when she got the Padma Shri. “It was completely out of the blue, but it felt nice to be acknowledged,” she says. The busy woman that she is, she barely has time to sit back and reflect on awards and honours. As we are having this conversation, one can hear the honking of horns from the other end. She informs us that she is headed for another meeting and this was the only time she had been able to squeeze out for the interview. As we get ready to leave, I reflect on the fact that, had it not been for this industrious lady, the wonders of the Northeast would have been lost forever. So, the next time you flaunt your accessory, whether it’s that cool necklace or the beaded bag, in front of your friends abroad, just remember to thank the fighter. She may not be asking for your appreciation, but she certainly deserves it.
Ancient cities, medieval markets and modern play-towns, Tunisia has them all in spadesWhere on earth is Tunisia? I learnt to quickly provide a one sentence answer to bemused friends as I prepared for my vacation. In North Africa, tucked between Algeria and Libya, along the southern Mediterranean. Yes, I would reassure them, it’s safe and very tourist-friendly, and no, I do not need to wear a head scarf while I am moving about the country. I am a history buff—the kind who reads stories of ancient empires and titanic clashes of civilisations. I had day-dreamt of ancient Carthage, the challenger of mighty Rome, and after its defeat, the seat of Roman Africa. I love the sun and the sea, and lazing on a beach-side café. And North African cuisine with its meltingly rich couscous, and bitingly spicy harissa had always intrigued me. I was excited about a country that offered me this fabulous combination. And my mom—my partner in this adventure—was swept up in the excitement too. Tunis was our base for the first few days, as we explored the north. The city itself is a harmonious mix of the old and the new—European style boulevards (Tunisia is a former French colony) with wrought-iron balconies, cafés and pâtisseries lead to the medina (the old walled city) with narrow winding lanes and chaotic markets. It also has a gem of a museum—The Bardo—filled with superb mosaics that adorned the luxurious villas of Roman Africa. The extraordinary collection at the Bardo was just the appetizer for our main course—the Roman ruins at Carthage, Dougga and El Djem. While the huge bath complex at Carthage gives you a glimpse into the lavish Roman lifestyle, you can actually feel it come alive as you walk down the streets of Dougga. The city is one of the best preserved in Roman Africa— with carved temples, marbled baths, villas, marketplaces, a brothel and a 3,500-seat theatre. The hillside location also provides magnificent views of lush olive groves, fields of grain and dense forests. Finally, El Djem’s spectacular 3rd Century amphitheatre brought to mind every gladiator fight I had ever seen on the screen. You can still see the rooms and underground passages where predatory animals were kept before being released towards the waiting fighters, or where the unfortunate participants waited for their turn at a struggle with violent death. It’s also very rewarding to climb up to the upper seating levels and gaze down on the arena as you take in the scale and drama of the building. After stuffing our imagination with stories from the past, we stuffed ourselves with some delicious French-Arabic fusion food at charming Sidi Bou Said. The chic, clifftop-based medieval village is filled with homes of the very wealthy—including Prince Albert of Monaco—set against the jaw-dropping backdrop of the azure Mediterranean coastline. Its gleaming white walls are a beautiful contrast to the bright blue of the window grills; the entire village is a symphony of blue and white. This is the place where painters like Paul Klee and August Macke were inspired to rethink their notions of light and colour. We spent some very happy hours winding our way through its cobbled streets. We then shifted our base to the south. This is a landscape that’s filled with mountain oases, rocky outcrops, and at the very bottom, the sand dunes of the Sahara desert. The indigenous people of Tunisia—the Berbers— have left their own imprint on this landscape with their underground troglodyte dwellings and distinct way of life. One of our most memorable moments was a visit to a Berber home in Matmata and drinking honeyed mint tea as we admired the weaving skills of the lady of the house. The landscape of the region looks bleak and alien—so much so, that it was chosen as the locale for portions of the Star Wars movies. On the southwest side of the country lie the Atlas Mountains—an opportunity to enjoy magnificent gorges, canyons and lush oases in the middle of nowhere. A restored wooden train called the Red Lizard, once owned by the last king of Tunisia, takes you through the narrow Selja gorges and some truly breath-taking scenery. You can also take a jeep safari up into the oases of Chebika and Tamerza and enjoy beautiful waterfalls on the way. The contemporary villages are built near the old picturesque settlements, places that were abandoned some decades ago due to catastrophic flooding in the region. And on the southern end lies the endless undulating expanse of the Sahara desert—from barren rock and pebbled ground to giant sand dunes higher than a man’s height. A journey out to the desert on the back of camel is an experience to be savoured. And then, if you are lucky enough to be based in Douz, you can come back to your hotel and relax your aching limbs in steaming mineral pools common in that area. No journey in Tunisia is complete without a trip to the holy city of Kairouan. The 7th century Great Mosque is the oldest in North Africa—and built with a spare yet elegant simplicity that soothes and elevates at the same time. Another noteworthy building is the Tomb of Sidi Sahab, decorated with intricately carved marble and stunningly coloured and patterned tiles. Tunisia has a rich tradition of moderate Islam, so visitors of all faiths are welcome into the buildings. Our last stop was Hammamet, the playground of Tunisia, where we spent some time relaxing and washing away the accumulated fatigue of some hectic days. Endless stretches of pristine beaches are surrounded by charming restaurants and cafes where you can while away a lazy afternoon before revving yourself, if you are so inclined, with a variety of water sports. There are also plenty of opportunities to buy Tunisian carpets, metalwork, organic products, very high quality dates and some richly delicious oliveoil. Surprising, endlessly changing and filled with warmth—Tunisia is one place that satisfies both the mind and the soul. Spring and autumn are the best times to visit. That is when the weather is pleasantly sunny, and the foliage lush and cheerful.
Subodh Gupta talks about good art, the clever artist and creative independenceIt is ominous when an interviewee refuses to answer the first question that is put to him. It is even more so when he in fact retorts, “Do you have anything interesting to talk about at all?” Obviously, we had to start over. A lot has been said and written about Subodh Gupta—an internationally renowned sculptor, painter and contemporary artist, whose works have been shown in most prestigious art galleries around the world. The positive aspect of a lot of information floating around on the internet is that it makes research easy. The not-so-good aspect is that it makes it harder for journalists to come up with new and fresh things to talk about. For an artist and man like Gupta, this might be boring. In fact, I am being understated. Answering the same questions makes Gupta downright furious. Though he wishes to avoid the stereotypical label of the jhola toting, bearded artist, Gupta does fall into the volatile creative genius category. Like several members of his ilk (and I have had the fortune of meeting a handful), he is quick to lose his patience. However, his temper fizzles out just as quickly as it had risen and after the initial hitch, he opens up about his early life. He goes on to talk about his encounter with Russi Mody, the former Chairman and Managing Director of Tata Steel. The meeting with Mody took Gupta a year to plan and then execute, “When I was in Patna, a friend told me that Mody loved modern and contemporary art. He asked me to get in touch with him and show him some of my pieces.” That simple advice was easier said than done. It took a year-long hunt to find the right man to get to the right man. “I found a Tata Steel representative called Kishore Singh. After I pestered him for a long time, he agreed to introduce me to Mody. But it took several trips to Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Jamshedpur to finally get to meet the man. It was worth all the trouble. Mody not only encouraged me, but also bought three of my pieces. That gave me the freedom to think about possibilities and to eventually move out of Bihar,” Gupta admits. The money gave Gupta the option to move out of his hometown. However, the question remained— where to? After giving it some thought, Delhi seemed to be the natural choice for the man who was only a young college student at the time. The capital was “right”, he informs us, as it was neither too familiar like the friendly-neighbourhood town of Calcutta nor too “English-speaking” and alien like Bombay (now Mumbai). “Coming from Bihar, there were only two cities that excited me. On my left was Calcutta and on my right was Delhi. People in Delhi spoke in Hindi. And I did not wish to join the legions of artists coming out of Bengal. I was doing completely different work, why would I wish to mould myself into something that I was not?” he says. He goes on to add, “For people of Bihar, Calcutta is familiar. It feels a lot like home. I wanted to get away from home.” Thus, Gupta arrived in his city of dreams and made it his home for nearly two decades. Like with many good artists, Gupta’s rags-to-riches story began with a struggle. But far from being daunted by it, the young man from Khagaul in Bihar only found that it fuelled his drive to succeed. So independent rewards. And it’s not only about the money or the spellbound audience, but also about the knowledge that all of it was hard earned. As he explains, “There is always that possibility that the people you help, you actually end up hindering. It’s all right to be less known and struggling and finally emerge as an entity with your own unique signature, rather than be helped and then emerge as a photocopy of a muchbeloved senior artist.” Gupta certainly practices what he preaches. The artist is known to have declined a job offer from the legendary M.F. Husain during his early days of struggle. Urban legend has it that Gupta, who was introduced to Husain by Urdu activist Kamna Prasad, was offered a job by the great artist to assist him in a few odd jobs and work on his art alongside. Gupta, to Prasad’s horror, politely declined the offer. Already impressed with Gupta’s art, Husain later told Prasad that he was “going to follow the boy.” Today, the artist who is popularly known as the Damien Hirst of India has an artistic style that isintriguing and a bit eccentric. Buckets, tiffin boxes and cow dung - all are grist for his mill. I wanted to know what his technique was, how he gave shape to his ideas and came up with unusual art using many everyday objects. He informs me, “Technique is very important in art, no doubt about it. But the content of art and the subject of art trumps all other concerns such as training and technique. I am a multimedia artist and I use various techniques when I am working, which also includes the computer. I use traditional mediums such as canvas and paint. I perform on stage. What needs to be figured out is which piece of art demands which specific technique. For an artist, ideation is a 24X7 task. A good idea can come at any time. As an artist it is my job to think about an idea. If I am thinking all the time then I am working all the time. However, the process from the mind into material is not a smooth one. A great idea strikes and then there’s this euphoric feeling. The next morning I wake up and think ‘bakwas’. If you think of something for the longest time–us me kuchh bat hogi.” This ‘24X7 approach’ is something that Gupta is well-known for. Various observers have dubbed him one of the ‘hardest working artists’ in India. While there is great demand for his work these days, Gupta kept up a relentless pace and churned out creations even when buyers were few and far between. All the effort paid off and sales of his work saw a meteoric rise when he was still in his thirties. Obviously, he had struck a chord with the buyers. Gupta is unapologetic in his belief that there is such a thing as a “clever artist”. “A clever artist is someone who identifies the right technique and looks within himself for the right idea. How clear you are with your thoughts and how well you execute them visually will ascertain whether you are a clever artist. Whether you are good or bad will happen later. Let’s say I have a fantastic idea and no clue how to execute it. Say, I have executed something brilliant most disastrously, once again it all becomes rubbish. Execution and idea need to go hand in hand.” And where does the art audience fall into the equation? For Gupta, the viewer, the buyer and the aficionado are all a big part of the process. “Name an artist you know, who is a force to reckon with, and has chosen to remain anonymous. Why would you create anonymously? What is the purpose of art if it is not to be shared? Of course, I know that I will be showcasing my art. But am I creating that for others? The creation bit is all me.” Naturally, Subodh Gupta is a clever artist—and if you ask art critics and connoisseurs, he is a great one. So who does he believe to be great? Like most of his interview, there is no quick answer to this question either. But K.G. Subramanyan’s name is dropped ever so often. F.N. Souza, too, is mentioned in the conversation, as is M.F. Husain, the first artist to notice the tour-de-force which was soon to be Subodh Gupta.
If ever there was a young, old magazine, then Democratic World or DW is its best example. This is its launch issue and I don't believe you could get fresher than this. At the same time, DW is an old magazine; the original idea that led to DW germinated in the early 1970s with my father, the late Mr Ashok Kumar Malhotra, founder of the MBD Group. Democracy – in its larger meaning of egalitarian behaviour –meant the world to him. It was more than just a word. It was his way of life, manifested in the way he conducted his business, interacted with his family and friends, and in the way he treated his peers, seniors and employees. Little wonder then, that today it is our company mantra. Our magazine Democratic World is a culmination of those ideals and principles. When our team began brainstorming over DW, we managed to reach a single consensus: that the magazine will be of the people from all walks of life – businessmen to bureaucrats, performers to politicians, and from travellers to the ‘Twitterati’. Instead of confining ourselves to a niche, we have done the opposite by focusing on influencers across sectors. This month we have a special feature on Mr Analjit Singh, a man whose journey to success and continuous efforts to go further made him a natural choice for the cover story. A free thinker and a man who believes in leading through collaboration, he embodies democratic ideals in his business life. We also hope that the entrepreneurs among you will be inspired by the people who share their stories with us in the Looking Back segment — this month, Dr Arvind Lal talks of his struggles and achievements on the road to success. The magazine will also be by the people. There is no subject too insignificant and no distance too vast for us to reach out to those who have something to say. Whether it is notes from abroad in our Foreign Depatches section or a blog about the queuing habits of Indians, all these voices find their way to our pages. And finally, it will be for the people –DW is for new-age Indians, who is in the process of carving out their rightful place on the global platform. For such people, DW is a window to a world of differing interests. The following pages have sections like Garnish, for the epicures; and the Reading Room, for the bookworms among our readers. For those whose interests fall more in the realm of all things mechanical and electronic, do check out our Life in Technicolour and Warehouse pages. All in all, it is a good time to be here in the country. I hope you enjoy the ride!!