It was at the fag end of 2014 that the airline which was once making waves in the air seemed to be headed for the ground. Once India’s second largest airline by market share, SpiceJet was on the verge of shutting shop
People thought it was going the Kingfisher way that went belly up in 2013 after it was unable to repay its debt. By December 17 that year all SpiceJet’s aircrafts were grounded with debtors knocking at the doors and oil companies refusing to refuel its aircraft.
But then SpiceJet has survived—and how. And the person who gave Spice Jet wings again was Ajay Singh who had just turned 50. Barely three years later, the airline has grown manifold and is pushing for its place in the sun once again.
By late 2015, the airline steadily rose to capture India’s fourth largest market share and managed to fly at 93 per cent of its capacity.
The Gurgaon-headquartered airline also posted net profits of Rs 22.5 crore ($3.5 million) in the January-March quarter of 2016, the first time in almost two years. During the April-June quarter, the company’s net profit grew to Rs71.8 crore ($11.3 million) compared to a loss of Rs124 crore ($19 million) a year ago.
Much of that success was the handiwork of 50-year-old Ajay Singh, an Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi- and Cornell-educated businessman, who returned in early 2015 to the helm of the company he had built. Back in 2004, Singh had founded SpiceJet along with Bhupendra S. Kansagra—a Londonbased businessman—and ran it for almost six years before selling his stake to Chennaibased billionaire Kalanithi Maran in 2010.
Singh couldn’t have asked for a more challenging time to regain control of SpiceJet. But the risk seems to have paid off. Singh’s experience in running a low-cost airline along with some help from the government was largely responsible for that turnaround. Singh was at the right place with the right team at the right time.
SpiceJet’s then promoter, Maran’s KAL Airways, was looking to rope in an external investor to bring fresh capital into the company. But it failed to attract any suitors— and by December 2014, it was struggling to pay staff salaries.
That’s when Singh emerged as SpiceJet’s white knight.
Fresh from his role in Narendra Modi’s wildly successful prime ministerial campaign—he was widely credited with coining the slogan, Ab ki baar, Modi sarkar (This time, Modi’s government)—Singh swiftly purchased Maran’s stake in the company in January 2015 for an estimated Rs 350 crore.
Since then, he appears to have pulled the low-cost carrier out of a rut. The company cut down on non-profitable flying routes while increasing frequency to routes that it identified as viable and lucrative. In addition, it also managed to renegotiate engineering and maintenance contracts for its aircrafts to bring down costs. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government—where Singh reportedly has a number of good friends— also extended a helping hand to the beleaguered carrier.
This, however, isn’t Singh’s first such corporate turnaround. Singh is a nonconventional, street-smart investor who does not have an institutional approach to things but very hands-on like a typical Indian promoter. He is there to take calls even at 4 am when a deal is in the making.
As a young, 30-something MBA, also armed with a degree in law, Singh started out as a Director of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC). The public bus transport authority of India’s capital had 300 buses, 40,000 employees and was running heavy losses in 1995. After about 30 months in office, DTC was operating 6,000 buses and managed to break-even.
Singh eventually went to work as an advisor to the late Pramod Mahajan, India’s telecommunication minister and a rising star within the BJP in the late 1990’s. The period also coincided with a time when India was laying its foundation and policies for the eventual telecommunication boom.
SpiceJet started out as a low-cost airline in 2005 after Singh and Kansagra joined hands to purchase a defunct airline that was registered between the SK Modi group and the Lufthansa group. The airline, ModiLuft, flew for a few years before the partners had disagreements. But it had all the necessary flying licences in place, and the duo renamed the company as SpiceJet.
Singh invested Rs 10 crore and upon starting operations offered tickets at a base price of Rs 99. With a growing economy, the airline business was only beginning to take off. First-time flyers being lured by plummeting fares, and upstart carriers including SpiceJet, IndiGo and Air Deccan were challenging existing players such as Air India and Jet Airways with their low-cost model.
By 2010, when Singh decided to leave SpiceJet, the company had more than Rs800 crore in cash reserves. But an impending global economic crisis, coupled with sky-high oil prices and competition in the Indian airspace, meant that the aviation business was becoming a costly affair. But SpiceJet managed to reverse its downward spiral by 2015.
Once back again, Singh and his team took the battle to the skies.
Ajay Singh carries immense experience in the fields of information technology and airline operations. Prior to SpiceJet, Ajay worked with top-notch corporates like Intel constructions Pvt. Ltd., Argentum Defence Systems Pvt. Ltd., Pan India Motors Pvt. Ltd., and many more established firms.
Whether running a company or advising the government on transport and tourism, Ajay has always emerged out as a master with a clear vision. It’s not the first time he has proven his decisions to be correct; in 2005 Ajay rebranded the entire ModiLuft and acquired the company, which was later renamed as SpiceJet.
Singh is an engineering graduate from IIT, Delhi. He completed his further studies in MBA from Cornell University, specializing in finance. Ajay was also elected as the President of the University of India Association
He hails from Alwar from his paternal side and Meerat from his maternal side. Prior to working with corporates, Singh handled his family business in real estate and fashion accessories
Ajay Singh was appointed Pramod Mahajan as a special duty officer to focus on revamping Doordarshan. After Singh joined, two new channels, DD Sports and DD News were launched. It’s not the first time; Singh has helped many failing companies to emerge as successors.
On the day Ajay Singh took charge of SpiceJet, the situation was so that the director general of civil aviation (DGCA) had been told that the airline would stop operations from the next day, December 17, 2014, and all employees had been asked to stop coming to work.
Three years later, the airline has doubled its fleet (33 B 737s and 17 Q400s against 26 aircraft when Singh took over) and has placed an ambitious order for 100 B737 MAX aircraft for $11 billion.
On December 16, 2014, the airline had 49 daily flights; this has increased to 364 at present. Its aircraft are pretty full, yields have gone up (costs are down primarily due to a sharp fall in fuel prices) and several quarters have been profitable.
The airline has improved its on-time performance and is beating many rivals on this count. The airline has grown its staff: 4,912 to 6,725 at present.
It was Singh’s own innate sense of knowing what to do - and perhaps even more important of what not to do - that saw him through. So, in the absence of a magic wand, how did he do it? Singh mostly set about undoing all the mistakes made by the Marans, which were aplenty. He started with an almost total rejig of the routes. As much as 90 per cent of the schedule was reworked.
But perhaps the biggest weak spot is the fact that Singh has managed this almost totally alone. Industry sources argue that the airline today is too much of a “one-man show or a “single-man army”.
Spicejet needs to strengthen its management team significantly. It is too dependent on the promoter. With massive expansion planned from FY19, a stronger management team is critical.
Singh is Spicejet and SpiceJet is Singh. The fact that the whole thing hinges on one person adds to the risk. But challenges are what Singh specialises in: Spicejet in 2017 versus Spicejet in 2014 is clear evidence of that.
Certainly, it has not been one hundred years of solitude, though the luminescent magic realism of hope, as in Latin America in the last few decades, has often shifted its paradigm as much as its narrative into long spells of bestiality, brutishness and barbarism since the first and the second world war, echoing Walter Benjamin’s prophetic words that all history of human civilization is the history of barbarism. Since the revolution through the bullet, the paradigm shift in Latin America in the last decades has been significant with the era of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro yet again unleashing a new rainbow of hope.
Latin America moved from protracted guerilla struggles and ‘revolution by the bullet’ against oligarchies, drug cartels, looters and plunderers, and tinpot dictators backed by American imperialism in various banana republics, to the successful syndrome of ‘revolution through the ballot’. They pitched a totally different political economy, mainly socialist in essence and fiercely independent, aligned to each other and the developing countries, outside the American exploitative liberalized structures, or the IMF and World Bank; they liberated themselves partially from the yoke of banana republics, and set up new, egalitarian political formations, like the first indigenous president of Bolivia, Evo Morales. Or, the popular working-class hero, Lula in Brazil, and, later, former communist guerilla, Dilma Rousseff as president, finally hounded out by corrupt lobbies working for the relentless American establishment, after a long and protracted struggle within the electoral and party system of Brazil.
And, yet, the rainbow coalitions of solidarity across Latin America continues to inject hope across the Left paradigm, and teaches multiple lessons to the multiple communist currents across the world, dying, dead, resurrected and alive in various geographical regions, about changing strategies and tactics, shifts in theory and praxis, the infinite difficulties of armed as much as peaceful capture of power, and the possibilities of the resurrection of an alternative stream of consciousness of human liberation.
However, one hundred years after the Great October Revolution in Soviet Russia, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Bolshevik-communists, among other revolutionaries, history keeps coming back in multiple spirals, like a rectangular dialectic with many thresholds, moving into a contrary montage of not only farce and nightmare, but also as bitter realism and dogged, stoic optimism. The dialectic, surely, has been turned upside down a million times to discover the ‘rational kernel’, as Karl Marx reinterpreted the speculative, metaphysical ‘quest’ of Hegel in the 1840s of Europe.
It’s just that the kernel seems to lose its rationality so often; that humanism, or communism itself, becomes a tragic and bloody victim at the stakes, as the world has witnessed under Adolf Hitler’s fascism, the concentration camps, gas chambers and the holocaust, or during Joseph Stalin’s war and victory against fascism, the conquest of Berlin and the suicide of Hitler as the Red Army defeated the Nazis, while millions of Russians sacrificed their bodies and souls defending the ‘motherland’ against Hitler’s army, amidst mass hunger, dying and death in a frozen and cruel landscape.
This incredible reality, often camouflaged by the CIA’s well-oiled culture and political industry, and the western propaganda machine, however, cannot run away from the Gulags, the Siberian death and labour camps, the mass purging of party leaders, artists, writers, dissenters and Red Army commanders and the mass murders of innocents, including thousands of ethnic Soviet and Polish citizens, led by a psychopath called Stalin. Between the defeat of fascism and the purges, the vision of ‘Utopia’, trapped in the Cold War, became an incomplete and broken MarxistLeninist dream which is still struggling to survive and come to terms with its bitter past.
The truth is that Karl Marx is and was the greatest political philosopher of radical transformation and humanism the world has ever seen – till this day. “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it," he wrote famously. He also wrote in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (EPM), that a man who cannot love, cannot create love, is an unobjective being, an impotent being. The truth is also the fact that he (like Lenin, later) expected a revolution in the heart of Europe, perhaps with its roots in Germany, and not in Tsarist Russia, with its opulent and obscene palaces, its vast poverty, its oppressed peasantry, and an incipient working class, so classically depicted in the classics of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Instead, with the Great Depression, and Germany’s humiliation post-World-War 1, it was the rise of fascism and the Holocaust which ravaged Europe.
That is, Lenin (like Mao, who led the Long March of impoverished peasants in an agricultural society, ravaged by warlords and dynasties) reinterpreted Marxism and ushered in a revolution in a quasiindustrial society which continued for years, and not only with the toppling of the Tsar. Perhaps that he would have preferred, the ‘organiser’ Leon Trotsky, as his trusted successor, instead of Stalin; Trotsky being a non-dogmatic scholar, tactician and mobiliser par excellence. Lenin died too young and too early, and since then the history of Soviet Russia, surrounded by the ‘Iron Curtain’ and a scheming CIA etc, could never be the same, until its collapse post ‘Perestroika’ and ‘Glasnost’ initiated in a hurry with no theoretical or pragmatic preparation by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, much to the glee of the American and Western capitalist and military machine.
Surely, both Perestroika and Glasnost marked a big learning landmark for the ‘evolutionary’ Chinese Communist Party (CPC), which, effectively, dumped Mao, adopted the ‘little bottles’ of Deng, and moved from one rigid totalitarian principle to another, becoming an advanced capitalist and military machine which has given American imperialism a run for its money. Xi Jinping’s ‘four comprehensives’ is the latest to celebrate yet another onedimensional Chinese chapter of the ‘Great Leap Forward’ — no questions asked.
One hundred years after the October revolution, and on the 50th anniversary of Che Guevara’s murder by the CIA in Bolivia, even while the brave and resilient young are showing the way, will India write another new resolution of a rainbow coalition, stopping at nothing but the defeat of fascism? In dark times, as Brecht said, we should not only write poetry and songs of liberation, we should be ready to drink all the poison of differences and contradictions, and make a united scaffolding which defeats the fascists both on the ground, on the streets, as well in electoral politics. Finally, indeed, there is no alternative but continuous and relentless mass movements; a peaceful movement which is innovative, imaginative, incredible in its flexibility and stoicism, and which can become a rainbow coalition of a million mutinies.
Look back in anger. Look back with a new political consciousness. Look back with new doors of perception. New windows of enlightenment and resistance. Old cliches will not work. Neither will bureaucratic leftism. Nor will sectarian dogmatism.
It is time to embroider and stitch a new Persian carpet of alliances. It is time to weave new narratives of tactics, strategies and hope. It is time to go the ground and join the silent upsurge; carve a new language of theory and Praxis. It is time to hold hands with the young, and wave the flag at the barricades, and derive inspiration from young faces fighting the fascists. It is time to walk again and again on the streets shouting slogans and songs. It is time to meet and resolve and find a synthesis of currents and counter-currents, a new synthesis of political dialogue and perennial contradictions, outside the incestuous ego factories of the past, and the lethargic and stagnating pools of static consciousness. It is a moment of dynamic resurrection which history has provided to India; the Left and progressive forces should grab it, wave it for all to see, and walk to the barricades with a song on their lips. There is nothing to fear; there is nothing to lose but our shackles.
In the times of fascism, as in India, surely, there can’t be one October revolution. There has to be many, many more, each learning and unlearning; consolidating each other. Or else, there will be no time to regret. Indeed, no time to look back in anger or shock or awe or introspection; it will be too late.
Sports have had a huge fillip in India in the year gone past. Some of the biggest sporting events such as the U17 FIFA World Cup, the annual edition of the IPL, ISL and other leagues unfolded in the country. In fact, we now have a league for almost every popular sport in India, from hockey to cricket. And Indian sportswomen and men have done the nation proud in 2017.
India had a great outing as far as 2017 was concerned with Kidambi Srikanth being the stand-out performer who became the first Indian shuttler to enter three consecutive super-series finals and also the fourth player to ever win four super series titles in one year. He took home the Indonesian open, Australian open, Denmark open and French open. The next big highlight was the most expected event of the year for India, the U17 FIFA world cup where the England team went on to win the tournament by beating Spain 5-2 in the finals.
Cricketer Rohit Sharma and stand-in captain for the T20s brought up the end of the year with a blazing third double century against Sri Lanka in Mohali only to follow up with another blistering century in the T20 in Vizag. It was the fastest century by any batsman in T20 and miles ahead of any other Indian to match the deed.
Not only this, many other surreal moments were also experienced as far as 2017 was concerned and the Indian sports stars did a great job at outshining on the international front.
One of the biggest achievements in Indian sports came in 2017 when an actual sportsman who did the country proud by winning one of the few silver medals that India has won at an Olympics. Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the 2004 Olympic Games double trap silver medallist in Greece and is now the Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports. For the first time in the history of Indian sports and politics, a true sportsman will actually be driving the country’s sports policy. A lot of hope and expectations are tied in with this man.
Col Rajyavardhan Rathore has already promised that the Khelo India campaign will be kickstarted at a cost of Rs 1756 crores for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20. This campaign will make sure that 150 schools and 20 universities in the country will provide young talents with an opportunity to pursue a career in both education and sports.
One of the big-ticket events for 2018 is going to be the Men’s Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneshwar from November 28 to December 16. Let’s hope that India finishes stronger and bigger this year. Apart from this, we have a lot in store from the IPL, ISL, Pro Kabaddi League, Premier Badminton League and much more.
Mirabai Chanu wins gold in Weightlifting
For the first time in more than two decades, we won the gold in the Weightlifting World Championships. Mirabai Chanu, the diminutive athlete from Manipur won the gold in the 48 kg division, lifting an impressive 194 kg (national record) in the US.
It was quite a moment for a nation that has never participated in a World Cup that involves the most popular sport in the world. So to host the FIFA Under-17 World Cup was by far a great moment of pride for the country. After hosting the tournament with grand success, India is now aiming high and making a bid for the U-20 FIFA World Cup in 2019.
It was a great moment for women’s cricket and the nation when our girls put up some outstanding performance on the cricket field, only to lose the final against England at the Lord’s. In a country so dominated by men’s cricket, it was great to see the nation sit up and take note of our girls in blue. In their semi-final against Australia, the women’s team posted 281 for 4 with a spellbinding inning of 171 by Harmanpreet Kaur and then went on to bowl Australia out for 245. Amazing but sad they could not pull off the cup.
Having performed very poorly at the last Olympics, our paraathletes did us proud at the 2017 world Para Athletics Championship in London winning one gold, two silver and two bronze medals. Sundar Singh Gurjar winning the gold in the men’s javelin throw was truly a proud moment for the country. Gurjar’s throw not only marked his best but he beat the best in the world by a huge margin having clocked 60.86 meters.
After Saina Nehwal, it is PV Sindhu’s moment in the badminton limelight. Also a girl from Hyderabad, Sindhu has had some great moments on the badminton court in the past year. But the one that really stands out and something the world is unlikely to forget in a hurry will be her final against the Japanese shuttler Nozomi Okhura. It proved to be an epic battle of guts, stamina, skill and pure willpower which saw the two shuttlers in a marathon battle. In fact, the rally of 73 shots exchanged between the two for a single point will go down in badminton history.
Both players went the whole hog fighting a marathon 110minute battle in which ultimately Sindhu went down 19-21, 22-20 and 20-22. It could well go down in badminton history as one of the greatest games ever.
India’s badminton record has never been as good as it has been this year, with an Indian featuring in the top five players in the world among men as well as among women. Kidambi Srikanth at the fourth position among men and PV Sindhu at third place among women have powered India’s rise to the top of the charts this year. This year has also been great for Sindhu, who has risen from the 10th rank at the start of the year to finish third. Saina Nehwal, who has been recovering from injury, slipped one place from ninth to 10th.
And now for the Big Boys of cricket. The year 2017 saw Indian cricket reach amazing heights in all formats of the game. But the year began with a jolt but ended on a dreamy sweet note.
In January the talismanic Mahendra Singh Dhoni stumped every cricket fan on Wednesday when he informed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that he is stepping down as the skipper of India’s One-Day International (ODI) and T20 International sides, ending a trophy-filled era.
The 35-year-old had already retired from Test cricket in December 2014 but continued to lead the national team in the shorter formats of the game. Dhoni, who had led India to the International Cricket Council (ICC) World T20 title in 2007, to the World Cup victory in 2011 and lifted the Champions Trophy in 2013 also took India to the zenith of the Test rankings during his tenure. He is the only captain in world cricket to win each of the ICC trophies.
Now just as India begins their ultimate challenge of carrying their successful run across formats overseas in countries like South Africa, England and Australia, former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has labelled Virat Kohli’s team as the one which may become one of India’s greatest-ever in ODIs.
India became the No 1 ODI team after their series win in Australia and shot up to the second spot in T20s after thrashing the Lankans at home. Last year, the team reached the No 1 spot in ICC Test Rankings.
But the mantle of the test team passed on to another great cricketer in the making, Virat Kohli, who after taking the side to a series of wins decided to take some time off and win over his other love and settle down. His marriage to Bollywood star Anoushka Sharma in the middle of December in dreamy Tuscany in Italy surely left Indian cricket and its fans starry-eyed and happy. It was a great 2017.
The drumstick tree is often referred to as a miracle tree due to the sheer amount of nutrients it delivers. Kale and matcha have long since ruled the super greens kingdom. But recently, a powerful new grassy-hued food has started making waves as an even healthier alternative. Moringa oleifera, also known as horseradish tree because of the pungent, bitter flavour of the roots, is a tree native to India, Pakistan, and Nepal.
The catchy name, which sounds more like a salsa dance move than a superfood, cropping up as an ingredient in smoothies, juices, and booster shots at health food shops nationwide. Some have already called Moringa, with its seemingly endless list of benefits, the next big supergreen of 2017. But while it may strike the average green-juiceswigging Indian as new, the nutrientpacked plant has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years.
Moringa trees grow at a rate comparable to weeds, sometimes growing 20 feet in a year and flowering in six months. The fragile leaves are the most popular part of the plant. They can be eaten whole, but are most often dried and ground into a fine, velvety powder.
Every part of this tree is a nutritional powerhouse in itself, but it's in the leaves that they are most concentrated; 90 nutrients are already known to date, with the possibility of more to be identified.
Moringa is a rich source of vitamins, minerals, and contains significant amounts of vitamin A, B, (folic acid, pyridoxine and riboflavin), C, and E, calcium, manganese, magnesium, potassium, phosphorous, zinc and protein. Moringa leaves contain more than seven times the vitamin C of oranges, four times the vitamin A of carrots, four times the calcium of cow’s milk, and three times the potassium of bananas. The rich amino acid, vitamin, and mineral profile of Moringa leaves make them a great natural energy booster, despite the fact that they are caffeine-free.
It delivers all the eight essential amino acids our body needs and is actually one of the few plant foods that contain all the eight.
Moringa is actually a "must eat" because it belongs to the niche group of adaptogens, the new stress-fighting superherbs, which have the nutrition world excited. Some plants have superpowers that can help the body adapt to stress and handle it in a healthy way (instead of letting it run us down) - these wonder foods are called adaptogens, and they help tone, strengthen, rebuild and nourish the body. Moringa tops the list of adaptogens.
Fresh Moringa leaves can also be cooked in the same way as spinach and other saags. If you have access to them, cook fresh or have the dried powder or flakes. The best news is that you need very little about three grams per day - to score the benefits. Add to your smoothie or cereal, soups and stews or just mix it with water and gulp it down. It has an earthy and grassy taste, so you can add some honey, maple syrup or cinnamon too in order to mask the flavour, but have it all the same - for the unlimited benefits it packs.
Sometimes, all we need to do is look in our backyard to find the superfood we need in order to score health and combat modern day diseases.
And moringa is just that superfood.
Moringa is a convenient, nutrient-dense food that can be used to supplement diets otherwise lacking proper nutrition. The leaves provide a healthy boost of vitamins and minerals for anyone looking to consume them, but the plant’s true power lies in its potential to redistribute nutrition across a broader global spectrum. Instead of turning Moringa into yet another fleeting diet fad that is here today and gone tomorrow, we might find the most benefits from it if we resolve to view Moringa as a vital resource in feeding the world first and a trendy supergreen second. In a country already bursting with superfoods, that’s the type of benefit that makes Moringa worthy of real excitement.
Meanwhile, my mother tells me that in southern India, some folks have other ideas: "They thought it was an aphrodisiac." It's true. In some Tamil movies, women who are having marital troubles will try serving up Moringa for dinner. At least at this point, there's no science to back that strategy.
Superfood trends come and go - but it looks like Moringa might be the new wellness additive that's here to stay.
One is described as calm as a millpond, another as an “incredible flirt” who terms himself a “sinner with a clean conscience”; then there is the “details lawyer” and another who is “arrogant about his gumption”. What binds these four individuals, and five others together is the fact that they have managed to stride the worlds of law and politics with consummate ease without needing to wear their affiliations on their sleeves.
Noting that the Indian Parliament is headed, layered and controlled by legal luminaries, debutante author Shweta Bansal, who has just won a place in the Indian Foreign Service after a bitter legal battle, discovered that these lawyers in politics have not been written about. Yet blinkered and incomplete stories float about them in the public domain, which barely does justice to their lives and achievements.
And so she decides to find out more. The outcome, after three years of interviews and research, is the just-published “Courting Politics” (EBC/Rs 695) a 450-page tome that serves as an invaluable chronicle of the journey of these nine individuals in the postemergency (1975-77) years with today's day and age marking a watershed in their lives.
As eminent lawyer Fali S. Nariman writes in the Foreword, for 35 years since the lifting of the Emergency, “lawyer-politicians in India (and there were many) had no qualms of conscience about their loyalties. During this period, a lawyer Member of Parliament could truthfully say he was loyal to Parliament as well as to the courts. No longer.
“With the re-emergence, after over three decades, of a supermajoritarian government (as there had once been in the 1970s), the lull is broken. Each of these nine men must now make a choice and it is a dilemma that they face — a dilemma that did not trouble the lawyer-politicians of yesteryears.”
There’s “The Daredevil” Ram Jethmalani, “The Lawyer of Emerging India” Shanti Bhushan, “The Reformer-in-Chief” Palaniappan Chidambaram, “The Gentleman” Muzaffar Hussain Baig, “The Ultimate Multitasker” Abhishek Manu Sanghvi, “The Artiste” Kapil Sibal, “The Man for all Seasons” Arun Jaitley, “The Debonair Man” Salman Khurshid and “The Lawyer of Lord Rama” Ravi Shankar Prasad.
A fair mix across the spectrum, but Bansal accepts the fact that some of the successful women politicians did not make it to the book because successful women politicians like Sushma Swaraj, Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati who hold law degrees, have a negligible legal practice. On the other hand, lawyers such as Flavia Agnes, Meenakshi Lekhi, Pinky Anand and Indira Jaisingh have impressive legal careers, but prime political benefits still elude them. Jayanthi Natarajan and Pramila Nesargi are examples of women who have been successful in both law and politics but have largely remained confined to regional spheres.
According to the author, the under-representation of women lawyers in Indian politics raises grave concerns. More women in positions of power confer a greater sense of political legitimacy to the government simply by virtue of the fact that it represents the population more fairly. She hopes that if she were to attempt the exercise a second time around, there would be an equal number of men and women as its subjects.
Sibal: “Calm as a millpond with an extremely optimistic outlook — both winning characteristics for success in law and politics."
Baig: “God lies in details and in the annexures of the case brief. He is a details lawyer. He is not a special leave petition type of lawyer."
Jethmalani: “Despite his honesty, the man cannot help but be an incredible flirt and is notorious for his extramarital affairs... Nevertheless, he claims to be a sinner with a clean conscience.... Ram is a man full of contradictions. He is a crusader against institutional corruption, on the one hand, the defence counsel of corrupt politicians on the other."
Shanti Bhushan: “Many times a successful lawyer makes a hopeless parliamentarian, and a brilliant parliamentarian may prove to be an ineffective lawyer. Only a few people combine both the skills and are effective in both... Bhushan is proud of his achievements and is arrogant about his gumption."
Chidambaram: “Quite like the great economist, politician and strategist Kautilya Vishnugupta, Palaniappan Chidambaram is brisk, cerebral, crafty, direct and unbending.”
Singhvi “maintains a precarious balance between self-criticism and overweening confidence”, Jaitley “can make deals like nobody else and is said to know everyone and everybody worth knowing in Delhi and its power corridors", Prasad “is passionate yet cautious, authoritarian yet informal, intelligent but not creme de la creme... (in whom) one can see a brand new script of a Bihari lawyer”, while Khurshid “is very ambitious but does not wear his ambition on his sleeve”.
Born in Lucknow into a family devoted to public service, Shweta Bansal is a product of the La Martiniere Girls' College.
A childhood accident left Shweta differently-abled, but what she lacked in physical attributes, she made up for in sheer mental strength. She was always good academically and went on to do law from NUJS Kolkata and then worked as a corporate lawyer at Amarchand Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co.
The desire to take the civil services examination led Sheta to take the exams and clear them — however things were not easy and she had to fight the government for over three years regarding her rank and cadre, after which a landmark judgement helped her through to the Indian Foreign service or the IFS. Shweta’s own saga could be material for a book.
The year 2016 ended almost on the same note as the beginning of 2017. However, there is a big difference.
Last year ended with the bad, bad, bad hangover of Donald Trump taking over as US President. As a journalist and academic reporting on the American polls from Boston and New York, I could sense that almost half of the nation, especially the cities of New York, Boston, San Francisco, among others, went into a depression. A closed, alienated, mechanised and isolated society, as America is, the puffed up eyes and tears were hidden from the world, even as university students in Boston sought psychiatric care, professors took special mass counselling classes, and immigrants, foreigners, students and academics went into a traumatized shell. There were scattered protests across the big cities, especially by students, proclaiming, “Not our President”.
The fear of Ku Klux Klan became transparent on empty streets of distant suburbs, with racist and hate graffiti emerging on the walls. Women with hijab, including students and American citizens, faced the typical barb: “Go back to your country.” Anti-depressants and antianxiety pills became a hidden ritual. An MIT scholar in Boston told this reporter with absolute fear, “What if he triggers a nuclear war?”
His victory, days before Christmas and New Year last year in America, shocked and awed all those Americans who were earlier rooting for Democrats Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. A ‘socialist’, radical, anti-establishment and ageing Sanders was universally loved, especially by the young and the academia – the millennials – and Hillary was basically disliked, for the ‘dynastic’ lust for power, for her leaked e-mails, for the war she unleashed in Syria and the Middle-East, and the ghastly ‘murder’ or ‘mob-lynching’ of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on the streets of the town where he was hiding. A video became viral in America those days, that of Hillary laughing her guts out as she was shown the ‘grand finale’ of Gaddafi’s life and times, his bloodied face, and ravaged body, being dragged on the streets, finally, bayoneted, from his behind. That diabolical laughter lost her a lot of her potential and entrenched constituency, especially among the young and the antiwar sections, though she won a ‘bigger’ vote share in the ‘typical’ American presidential polls, even while Trump trumped across more states than her. Indeed, even while the ‘secret Russian roulette’, and ‘Dial M for Moscow’ thriller allegedly orchestrated Julian Assange’s Wikileaks days before the final polling, with Putin’s shadow looming large over ‘buddy’ Trump’s shrill, supremacist, racist, misogynist and xenophobic campaign, the results gave out clear signals to the people of America and the world.
The democrats finally found out several bitter realities which they had buried, ostrich-like, celebrating the magical illusions of the Barack Obama years: One, that their vote share was restricted to the ‘blue’ coastal zones and cities of upper/middle class urban America, while the vast, isolated and empty countryside, steeped in joblessness, zero social security, daily deprivations in a cold-blooded topheavy economy, and literally with no access to higher education, chose to go for the mass phobia of ‘outsiders’ taking over ‘white America’, the ‘white supremacist’ narrative of ‘Make America Great Again’ and ‘America First’. They were convinced that ‘outsiders’, especially Latinos and Mexicans, were taking over their jobs and social and economic spaces. Plus, Trump evoked another dangerous spectre: the spectre of Islamophobia. Indeed, large sections of upper-end white women too voted for Trump, even while AfroAmericans and others backed Hillary.
So Trump declared that he will create a mythical wall across the Mexican border, paid by the Mexicans, stop illegal immigrants/refugees, deport those who are illegal, create jobs and money, stop funding the NATO and United Nations etc. He started off by banning the entry of people from six Muslim countries of the middleeast, which led to protests across all international airports in the US, apart from several court injunctions declaring his ‘order’ null and void. However, the bitter taste in the mouth and the poison in the air remained stark and transparent. One Pakistani women professional, a US citizen, told this reporter, “I get out of the house, and I feel as if several eyes are looking at me.” One PhD scholar from India, said, “Sometimes I am afraid that they will kill me since guns are allowed.”
The bitter taste and the poison spread across several continents, and in India too, while supporters of Narendra Modi said that he has anticipated Trump on the victory lap. His extremist followers celebrated Trump’s birthday at Jantar Mantar in Delhi with a ‘havan’. In Europe, a Neo-Nazi wave swept the undercurrents from the Netherlands, Austria, Hungry to Britain, France and Germany. In the Middle-East, the Wahabi fundamentalists started flexing their muscles, backed by US ally Saudi Arabia, even as new wars and mass tragedy loomed large on the horizon. Surely, Trump was in the air.
The poison in the air was sweetened, and blocked, finally, in Europe. The Dutch defeated the prototypes of the Neo-Nazis. Angela Merkel in Germany went against the current and accepted one million Syrian refugees and others from the conflict zones. Later, she led a coalition and won against the xenophobic forces, who grew in strength but were marginalized. In France, a young Emmanuel Macron emerged from the blues and ushered in an element of jazz in Paris and elsewhere, while not only defeating the ‘fascists’ but also celebrating a new language of liberation with several eminent women professionals taking up top positions in his cabinet. Between Macron and Merkel, along with Greece and others, the European Union took a decisive position against the vitiating Trump narrative, as was witnessed in the collective defiance of Trump’s adamant and irrational posture on global warming. Besides, in Britain, the Brexit loyalists got a shock of their life in the sudden elections called by Theresa May, with a huge decline in vote share and seats in Parliament, with ‘Leftist’ Jeremy Corbynn becoming the new red star in the British sky.
In India, an era of hate crimes, moblynching and murders, crude and violent muscle power on the streets, lumpen intolerance, crushing of dissent, and attacks on students, Dalits and minorities, dominated the murky landscape. With the fall-out of demonitisation and GST becoming starkly negative, it damaged the political economy, and rendered thousands jobless, pushing them into the margins, especially daily wagers, farmers, small-scale entrepreneurs, traders, businessmen, even as mass employment stalked the land including in the ‘white and blue collar’ sectors like the IT and manufacturing industry.
Even as Modi’s charisma remained intact, backed by a servile and sycophantic media operating almost like his fake news PR machinery, the post-truth was the writing on the wall: that his graph has gone down drastically, though he might win elections using the BJP’s final trump card: communal polarization. Indeed, all his grand projects seemed to have turned into ‘jumlas’ with Feku jokes flooding tweeter and social media: Digital India, Stand Up India, Skill India, Swachh Bharat, Rs 15 lakh in every bank account after getting black money from foreign shores back, Namami Gange, Bullet Trains, you name it. The year-end saw Modi scraping through in Gujarat, his bastion, finally using all kinds of fake allegations and daily histrionics and drama, even while totally avoiding the mention of the ‘famous’ Gujarat Model, or the two feathers in his cap: demonitisation and GST
This was also a year of spontaneous protests across the nation, non-partisan and not affiliated to any political party or ideology. From school girl Gurmehar Kaur to young girls in BHU, from a social media call by a Delhi-based woman filmmaker, Saba Dewan, becoming a nation-wide ‘Not in My Name’ protest, to thousands of journalists coming out on the streets against the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bangalore, and two other journalists in Tripura; from tens of thousands of farmers and workers blocking Delhi’s Parliament Street for days, to farmer protests and police firing across the heartland – Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan – it was truly a year of mass unrest without any strings attached, totally outside the control of any political party or vested interests
Hundreds of girls students and men too walked across small towns and cities in India, in support of the girls in BHU, who were beaten up in the campus and inside their hostel by male police for demanding action against goons who would routinely harass them. In the Not in My Name protests, singers, musicians, artists, theatre persons and actors joined students and ordinary people across 100 places in Delhi and all over the country, saying ‘No to Hate’. The year ended with the ghastly video shot by a Hindutva fanatic who murdered a Muslim labourer from Bengal in Rajasmand, Rajasthan, hacked and burnt him to death, even as his young nephew filmed the horrifying spectacle. Those who have seen the video, could not sleep for days.
There were happier notes too. Young Hadiya, a potential homoeopathic doctor, stoic and resilient, stood for her love and freedom in the Supreme Court which allowed her to carry on her further studies – and thereby freed her from the forced imprisonment of her family. The latest picture of the couple celebrating their first anniversary brought a smile all around, as love wins over yet again against the vicious campaigners of ‘love jihad’ with not an iota of evidence to prove their fake charges.
Even as Hollywood erupted, with skeletons trooping out one after another, cases of sexual harassment and assaults against women by big-time producers, actors etc, including against top actresses, poured out across the glitzy American skyline. One after another, actresses and others in the industry have come out, citing instances of direct and indirect sexual harassment against hitherto highly acclaimed international celebrities. This spread like fire across other professions, including in the academia. Before Christmas, three top orchestras have refused to work with their ‘world famous’ conductor, on charges of sexual harassment.
The charges brought back bad memories for Donald Trump too, with women who had accused him during the campaign of ‘groping’ etc, once again coming out in the open. Even Nikki Hailey, Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, backed these women, much to the embarrassment of the White House.
This also triggered a ‘Me Too’ campaign across the globe, on social media and elsewhere, including in India, with women coming out in the open against the ghastly experiences they have gone through in their lives. The social media was flooded with thousands of girls and women coming out, often with graphic and gory details, how they have been degraded, brutalized and humiliated over the years by a malechauvinist, misogynist and predatory society. The campaign ushered in despair, but a wave of hope and courage too, as a new feminist phenomena in the assertion of women’s rights. The Time Magazine declared the ‘Me Too’ movement as the ‘Person of the Year’.
The year-ender once again arrived with the hangover of Trump, who suddenly decided to declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, defying all international conventions and protocols, universally agreed, including by the United Nations. Palestine has always claimed East Jerusalem as its inherited capital, now occupied by Israel. So much so, he and Nikki Hailey on his behalf, threatened that they will be watching all those who defy Trump and the US, and choose to vote against him. In the end, yet again, Trump has got egg on his face, even as the whole ‘multi-polar’ world watched with a certain irony and amusement.
Surely, the Bush doctrine of either ‘I or the highway’, or, ‘with us or against us’, simply did not work in the contemporary global strategic scenario. In the United Nations General Assembly, a block of 128 countries, including India, voted against Trump’s unilateral declaration, backing the Security Council’s resolution on Jerusalem, thereby consolidating Palestine’s right to East Jerusalem. Only six countries voted against: Israel, Honduras, Guatemala, and three small Pacific Island nations. As many as 35 countries, including neighbours, Canada and Mexico, abstained. Significantly, France and Britain, plus 28 EU countries, most of East Pacific and South Asia and Southeast Asia, including South Korea and Japan, almost the entire Arab and Muslim world, including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Egypt, voted against Trump. South Africa has declared that it is cutting the American embassy size, while even a small African country like Botswana has said that it will not be cowed down by the US when it comes to the question of Jerusalem and Palestine. That means something.
Indeed, as Merry Christmas and Happy New Year arrives, putting the curtain to 2017, and bringing in cheer in 2018, hopefully, the bells will chime happily in Jerusalem, even as blessings, gifts, love and good cheer permeates the nooks and corners of the world, bringing joy and sunshine to all humanity, across religion, colour, caste and creed. In the ‘Silent Nights’ of the sublime old choir, may the songs of hope and wonder make the world a better and beautiful place.
Happy New Year. Cheers!
Anniversaries are a good time to look back. As 2017 draws to an end, it is time to remember that at DW we have completed a seven-year eventful journey, a journey that has served up the many colours and hues of our democratic world to our readers and followers; a journey I hope you enjoyed as much we did. Thank you all for travelling with us. So as we turn seven we take a look back and go forward.
The world seems now to be more aware than ever. Oxford dictionary’s word of 2016 ‘posttruth’ came to roost in 2017. Post-truth essentially means situations in which emotional and personal beliefs shape the opinion of the public than objective facts. The word took centre stage in the political commentary of the world as well as India, especially after the US elections and the demonetisation move by the Indian government. This concept has influenced the Indian consciousness to a large extent, especially since this year has been one of the most momentous political years of this generation. It has been almost an era-defining year remembered by the US Presidential elections for the world and demonetisation for India. In fact, our anniversary issue will take a look at all the big events that shaped 2017.
And then we introduce you to one of the Big Bangs of 2017 — the opening of an all-new world of Delhi-NCR’s premier and one-of-its-kind oasis, the Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida. A landmark for years in the hospitality sector, this hotel has undergone a makeover with an all-new appeal that is iconic, stylish and sophisticated. The Radisson Blu MBD Hotel is no doubt an exciting and individualistic hotel for individual minds. Savour the offering in this issue.
Clearly, 2017 seems to be a year of anniversaries and centenaries. Not only is it the centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution, it is 50 years since the death of the great revolutionary Che Guevara, the face of revolution on T-shirts even today. We pay homage to the rebel who never paused.
India is steeped in traditions and knowledge, yet we are so eager to look outwards and accept everything the West offers. The return to the vast array of textiles and sensible diets seems to be making a comeback once again with designers promoting indigenous fabric and dieticians putting their faith back into local produce.
And in the backend comes the usual political column, travel features and much more. Happy reading and Yuletide Greetings!
ACCOLADE// India’s Manushi Chhillar has won the Miss World beauty pageant for the year 2017. The win comes 17 years after Priyanka Chopra brought home the coveted title in the year 2000. Andrea Meza, who is Miss Mexico was the first runner up and Stephanie Hill from England was second runner up. Around 108 women from across the world participated in the beauty pageant.
Ms Chhillar, a 20-year-old from Haryana, studied in St. Thomas School in New Delhi and Bhagat Phool Singh Government Medical College for Women in Sonepat.
According to Ms Chhillar’s profile on the Miss World website, Ms Chhillar aims to be a cardiac surgeon and has plans of opening non-profit hospitals in rural areas.
Ms Chhillar’s profile also says she is a trained classical dancer and has a passion for outdoor sports like scuba diving, snorkelling and bungee jumping.
After reaching the top five, Ms Chhillar was asked during the Question and Answer round, which profession she thought deserved the highest salary and why
Replying to the question, Ms Chhillar said it was not a question about a person's salary and that a mother was worthy of the highest respect.
“I think a mother is of highest respect. I don’t think its just about cash but love and respect she gives to someone. She is the biggest inspiration in my life. Mother should get highest respect.”
POLLUTION// Due to the extremely high levels of pollution experienced by Delhi last month, the Indian government has decided to introduce cleaner fuel for vehicles operating in the capital. Cars and other vehicles operating on the cleaner fuel will release less pollution into the air.
Starting April 2018, BS-Grade VI petrol and diesel will be sold in the capital. This is being introduced two years earlier than planned to fight the pollution levels in Delhi. BS Grade VI fuel contains 10 parts per million of sulphur compared to 50 parts per million in Grade IV fuel, which is being used now. BS-VI fuel will bring down the sulphur content in waste gas given off by vehicles by five times from BS-IV levels, an 80 per cent reduction that makes the fuel clean.
Cars and other vehicles in Delhi will need better engines before they can get the full benefit of Grade VI fuel. While pollution released by an old car using the new fuel may drop slightly, the real improvement will come when new cars fitted with engines that can run Grade VI fuel efficiently hit the roads. That may take a few years and experts believe that it will be 5-10 years before Delhi feels the good effects of Grade VI fuel. But, it’s important to take these steps now so that the pollution story gets better in the future. “Taking into account the serious pollution levels in Delhi and adjoining areas, the petroleum ministry in consultation with public sector oil marketing companies has decided on introducing BS-VI grade fuel in Delhi from April 1, 2018, instead of April 1, 2020,” an official statement said.
LAW// The Indian Government is coming up with a new law to ban ‘Triple Talaq’, making its use punishable. ‘Triple Talaq’ is a Muslim custom where a man is allowed to divorce his wife by simply uttering the word ‘talaq’ thrice. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ordered an end to the practice but despite the court’s order, the practice of ‘Triple Talaq’ continues. Without a law that sets out punishments for those using ‘Triple Talaq’, the court’s order does not seem to have much effect. A group of ministers are working on the new law which may be brought before Parliament for approval. This may happen in the very next session of Parliament. The practice of ‘Triple Talaq’ is unjust to women as it allows men to abandon their wives by simply uttering the words thrice. Women have no such rights. The problem has become worse in recent years with men divorcing or leaving their wives by sending the words in a text message via mobile phone.
GOVERNMENT// The nation of Zimbabwe in southern Africa is in a state of upheaval. Its military leaders announced recently that they were removing the country’s unpopular president, Robert Mugabe, from office and planned to replace his government with a more efficient one. Mugabe too resigned finally on Tuesday to make way for change in Zimbabwe. The 93 year old Mugabe was the oldest head of state in the world. Over the years, his government had come to be seen as one that was poorly run and corrupt, with officials involved in many kinds of wrong-doing. But Mugabe has stubbornly held onto power, and as a result, Zimbabwe is no longer the prosperous country it once was. Although it has among the richest farmland in all Africa, many of its people go hungry. Following the military’s announcement, the people of Harare filled the city’s streets, celebrating the ending of Mugabe’s term as their president. With Mugabe finally gone, the changes they want so much may come quickly.
WORLD CUP// For the first time in 60 years, Italy has failed to qualify for the finals of the football World Cup. The next World Cup will take place in 2018 in Russia.
Italy, which has won the World Cup four times in the past, drew with Sweden (score read 0-0). For Sweden, the draw meant that they would qualify for the World Cup as they had done better than Italy in previous matches. Sweden has now qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time since 2006.
Italy has failed to qualify for the World Cup finals just once before, reaching 14 straight finals since 1958, the last time they didn’t qualify. Next year’s World Cup finals will miss several notable teams including Italy, Holland, Ghana and the United Stated, all of whom failed to qualify. Holland incidentally was also beaten by Sweden.
For the Italians, who are passionate about football, not qualifying for the World Cup finals is nothing less than a disaster. Following the defeat, Italian goalkeeper and captain Gianluigi Buffo announced his retirement. Much of the country was in a state of shock after the match
VERDICT// It has been a bitter war over something really sweet-that soft, delicious little Indian sweet called the ‘Rasgulla’. For some time now, both West Bengal and Orissa have claimed the sweet as their own, saying that the rasgulla originated in their state. But now the Geographical Indications tag, which confirms the geographical origin of products, has been given to Bengal for the rasgulla.
A few years ago, Orissa began claiming that the sweet was invented in the state and was connected to rituals performed at the Jagannath temple at Puri in Orissa. Until then, the sweet was only associated with Bengal. The Bengalis decided to fight back and took the matter to court to prove that the rasgulla was invented by the famous Bengali sweet maker Nabin Chandra Das in 1868.
Now a government agency has looked into the claims of both states and decided to give Bengal the GI tag for the rasgulla. The GI tag connects a product to a particular place- for example, in India, products like Darjeeling tea, Madhubani paintings, Kashmir Pashmina and Nagpur oranges have GI tags.
TENNIS// Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov won the year-ending ATP finals tournament, one of the biggest tennis prizes of the year. He beat David Goffin of Belgium to win. The pair played the longest ATP final ever played and Dimitrov won in 2 hours, 30 minutes, 15 seconds, adding 11 minutes to the record set by Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2011. It was a surprise end to a year when old stars Federer and Rafael Nadal between them won all four Grand Slams.
CALAMITY// In 2015, some of the worst floods in its history affected the southern city of Chennai, which is the capital of Tamil Nadu state. Two years later, as heavy rains hit the city last month, it was the same story once again for a city that refuses to learn its lesson.
Last month, over just five days, Chennai received 70% of its total rainfall from the north-east monsoon. Unlike other parts of India where it rains from June to September, Tamil Nadu, coastal Andhra Pradesh and a few other places receive most of their rainfall during the south-west monsoon from October to December.
After the 2015 floods, studies revealed that flooding had been caused as many of the city’s natural water bodies had been allowed to dry up. New colonies and buildings had come up on what was once marshland. As the city expanded, lakes dried up and that land was also sold to builders. Much of these areas are low lying-this means that, when it rains, water collects in them naturally.
Two years later, the 2015 story is repeating itself-people in low-lying areas are suffering as roads are flooded and in some cases boats are being used to move around. Experts have been saying that Chennai needs to revive old water bodies such as lakes, which allow rain water to collect naturally and prevent floods. Plus, this water is then available during the dry months when the city faces water shortages. But will the city learn from its mistakes?
HOCKEY// The Indian women’s hockey team has lifted the Asia Cup, defeating China in a tense game that was won by India 5-4 during the shoot-out. The win means that India has qualified for the 2018 hockey World Cup.
The Indian women’s team last won the Asia Cup in 2004 when they beat Japan. This time, they won a hardfought match against China that saw neither team score a goal during the match. With both teams at 0-0, the match was extended by a shoot-out. Team captain Rani Rampal scored India’s fifth goal, but it was goalkeeper Savita Punia who blocked the last shot from the Chinese who were trying to level the score (make it 5-5), thus helping India win 5-4. Savita was adjudged ‘Goalkeeper-of-theTournament’
Commenting on the win, the team’s coach Harendra Singh said, “The Asia Cup is just the foundation, we have to achieve much more. The year 2018 is very crucial for Indian women's hockey. We have three important tournaments – Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the World Cup and I expect minimum two medals out of these three tournaments."
It has been a good year for Indian hockey. The men’s team also won the Asia Cup earlier this year.
CRICKET// Indian pace bowler has Ashish Nehra has announced his retirement from cricket. His final game was the first T20 against New Zealand played at New Delhi on November 1 that India won. His farewell match was also special to Nehra as Delhi is Nehra’s hometown
In some ways, the farewell match at Ferozeshah Kotla stadium saw Nehra’s career come full circle. At the beginning of his career, he had bowled his first over from the same end at the same ground, in a Ranji Trophy match against Haryana. Nehra has played for India since 1999. He has had an injury filled career, often having to take long breaks to cope with the fitness issues. However, each time, he managed to make a come-back to the Indian cricket team. Nehra was part of the World Cup winning team in 2011. He was a key played in the semi-final against Pakistan that India won. He has also played for a number of IPL teams-Chennai Super Kings, Delhi, Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians, Pune Warriors and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
STUDY// Gravity signals that race through the ground at the speed of light could help seismologists get a better handle on the size of large, devastating quakes soon after they hit, a study suggests. The tiny changes in Earth's gravitational field, created when the ground shifts, arrive at seismic-monitoring stations well before seismic waves.
“The good thing we can do with these signals is have quick information on the magnitude of the quake,” says Martin Vallée, a seismologist at the Paris Institute of Earth Physics.
Seismometers in China and South Korea picked up gravity signals immediately after the magnitude-9.1 Tohoku earthquake that devastated parts of Japan in 2011. The signals appear as tiny accelerations on seismicrecording equipment, more than a minute before the seismic waves show up.
Had seismologists been monitoring for gravity changes, they might have realized sooner just how big the Tohoku earthquake was. It took the US Geological Survey (USGS) 40 minutes to update its initial estimate of magnitude 7.9 to 8.8, much closer to the quake’s true size, and 3 hours for the Japan Meteorological Agency to do the same. A small increase in an earthquake’s magnitude means a large change in the energy released by the quake — and the devastation expected. That information is crucial for emergency responders as they decide what resources to deploy.
The latest work arose when a group of European and US researchers began exploring how vibrations from small earthquakes affect gravitational-wave detectors such as the European Virgo and the US Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Many of the scientists also worked on earthquake early-warning systems, and they began to think about whether earthquakes created gravitational perturbations and how those might be detected. A few extra minutes of warning can save lives, particularly in coastal areas where people can evacuate ahead of an incoming tsunami.
One of the most popular and well-known tools for learning a language online is Duolingo. This free language learning app offers 11 completed language courses for English speakers and two beta languages. Duolingo also includes language courses for speakers of languages other than English. These include French for Portuguese speakers, English for Czech speakers, and more.
Duolingo is a great example of a straightforward language app. It’s really simple to use. One can set up a profile, choose your target language, set your weekly goals and start your language learning adventure!
Each course in Duolingo is made up of modules which are grouped to form skills. The app dictates the order in which you need to complete the different modules, with new modules becoming active only once you’ve completed the previous one. It allows you to ‘test out of’ individual modules as well as groups of modules. There are also listening exercises where you need to type what you hear, and speaking exercises where you say what you hear. Once you’ve finished all of the lessons in a module an additional screen appears. It shows your ‘weakest words’ that the app identified while you worked through the module. You can strengthen your weakest words there and then, or go back at a later point. Duolingo recognizes that language learners need to be motivated to make sure they come back to the app and engage in some more language fun. Duolingo uses several different methods to keep you hooked. The first is its goalsetting tool. The goals you can choose from vary from ‘casual’ to ‘insane’, depending on how serious you are about learning and how quickly you want to progress. The second method that Duolingo uses to motivate its learners are bonus skills and the ability to earn ‘lingots’. A lot of the learning that goes on in Duolingo is visual. There are pictures for learning vocabulary, colours that indicate whether you’re right or wrong, and highlighted tapable text for new words or grammar points.
Change is the only constant and at the Radisson Blu MBD Noida, this is one dictum that the hotel seems to truly believe in. So once more the hotel is ready with its new look and upping the ante once again. Another word for super luxury!
Iconic, stylish and sophisticated, Radisson Blu MBD is an exciting and individualistic hotel for individual minds. The style and elegance of this new-age hotel are aimed to delight the travel savvy, modern guests with a genuine, inviting ambiance and create excitement with its stunning, leadingedge design. The hotel strives to engage each and every guest through its innovative and relevant range of holistic facilities and services. MBD has packaged it all neatly together, with an exemplary service ethos and 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.
The Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida is a perfect equation that adds up to a highly individual - and unforgettable – 360° hospitality experience, hard to rival in the industry. It is exclusively designed for you.
In the heart of the NCR the Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida has been hailed as the finest and the most respected hospitality benchmark for anyone travelling for business and pleasure. It’s a place where the traditional meets the innovative; the classical and the contemporary.
To further upgrade and reach new heights, the MBD Group has transformed the hotel into an ultra-luxurious destination. The re-designing exercise it has recently undertaken is comprehensive with amazing detailing starting right from the lobby to its adjoining restaurant with the singular aim of providing an unprecedented level of luxury and hospitality experience.
Luxury, care and warmth await you at Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida which has created an altogether new definition of super luxury, refurbished with all that you will ever need.
The breathtaking craftsmanship on wooden panels with the element of fire representing the colours adorning the lobby gives it a new energetic and positive vibes. A breathtaking chandelier in the background of a white carved ceiling in the lobby will draw your immediate attention. The ornamental pieces of furniture with intricate artistic artwork and luxurious stones add to the grace and the grandeur of the lobby interiors. The look of the lobby is further enhanced by the curved pillared entrance with contrasting elements of fire and water.
The hotel has also re-located its multi-award winning patisserie The Chocolate Box in the lobby. The stunning, lobby-level patisserie, TCB is as always a tempting known for its artistry and unparalleled selection. It’s this dedication that has made the multiple award-winning, TCB stands out in the fine art of chocolate making and delicate cakes over the years.
At the MBD Privé Collection, the comforts of luxury will cocoon you. It offers an exotic treat of leisure in bespoke style, with each room in this brand new collection defining only what uber luxury stands for. To most astute global travelers, the MBD Privé Collection stands for a lavish experience that includes a personal butler, exclusive access to the Privé Lounge, signature amenities signature aromas, mood-lighting, the in-room technology designed to personal specifications and much much more for an unforgettable experience.
The other new surprise offering is the relaunch of the hotel’s award-winning All Day Brasserie, SXVIII.
A true standard-bearer of fine culinary experiences, guests can choose from myriad dining options in the recreated/recrafted SXVIII. With an extensive array of delectable eastern and western cuisines, the all new high-end SXVIII presents an interesting medley of food in exotic compositions. It features an open kitchen set-up, which connects with the dining area.
The all-day brasserie is a privileged venue with interiors that will take you back to the neoclassical era along with a fantastic array of indoor and outdoor dining choices
SXVIII is a perfect destination for trendsetters who want an exclusive experience, offering just the right mix of sophistication and spectacular service for the most delightful culinary experience, accompanied by a live piano performance.
Dedicated to the art of food and wine pairing, the all-day brasserie is a place not just to celebrate special occasions, but to raise your dining level at any moment in the day of the week over a drink, light snack or a great meal.
Experience the open kitchen with live cooking stations and amazing recipes drawn from and brought together with the help of some of the most unrivalled culinary wizards of our time.
The new high-end SXVIII also presents a newly created and charming Conservatory accented by glass walls, with stunning panoramic views of the outside. Conservatory, the premium dining venue is an ideal place for a celebratory dinner with friends, an intimate meal with a loved one, or a lively celebration.
True to the MBD Group’s philosophy of offering guests the ultimate and ultra-luxury experience, The Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida surely lives up to that promise at every step.
The Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida remains truly passionate about great, dynamic design: both driving and delivering on its guest expectations.
The group has been working with leading global design talent to create iconic exteriors and contemporary interiors. With an electric, exciting, inviting ambiance. Bold and innovative lobbies. Gorgeous, fashion inspired guest rooms. Indulgently functional modern bathrooms. Flexible, inspirational public spaces. With fast Free Internet, the very latest technology: plus a unique range of highly individualized solutions and choices. Unforgettable. That’s what the Radisson Blu MBD Hotel Noida is.
The Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida delivers genuine 360° hospitality, designed to ensure that its guests enjoy a truly memorable experience. The hotel’s brand-defining features include the collective sum of its range of contemporary facilities and services – applied through an iconic, stylish and sophisticated filter; its belief in design with a purpose.
The group’s unique offering also addresses the holistic guest journey, anticipating every guest touch point throughout, while understanding all the complexities of traveling in the modern world: it defines and delivers brand components in answer to every question and need arising along the way. Some of them may be small but, all of them are significant.
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Padmavati, in a sense, is a neighbourhood story. My village, Mustafabad, happens to be in Rae Bareli, which embraces numerous Chishtiya Sufi shrines or places where the saints spent some time, including Khwaja Ashraf Jehangir Semnani, the saint Malik Mohammad Jaisi, the author of Padmavat, was devoted to. Jaisi would faint at the controversy surrounding his masterpiece.
From nearby, Salon, Naeem Ata Shah in his flowing orange robes and headgear often visited Mustafabad. Jaisi, who preceded Tulsidas, in the list of great poets of Awadhi, was an endless source of quotations. So was Tulsidas, whose correspondence with emperor Akbar’s premier courtier, Abdul Rahim Khan e Khana, on meter and structure of poetry one heard about later and which is something one would have expected more scholarship on.
To a most unexpected source I owed my acquaintance with the fact that Rahim, known for his dohas, wrote devotional poetry on Lord Rama in Sanskrit. The source happened to be Vishnu Kant Shastri, former Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, Governor of UP. It always puzzled me how a man of such catholic interests – knew Jaisi as well as Akbar Allahabadi backwards – had actually emerged from the RSS stable.
If Jaisi’s flight of fancy can create so much mayhem, I shudder to contemplate the fate of the 1960 classic, Mughal-eAzam in a similar circumstance. By today’s yardstick, that was the original, unadulterated case of “Love Jihad”. In fact, the settled conventional wisdom in the 60s conceded Akbar victory at Haldighati. The national mood today has reversed the outcome of that battle in favour of Maharana Pratap. There have been suggestions that New Delhi’s Akbar Road be renamed “Maharana Pratap Road”. In other words, revenge with retrospective effect is in order. To give this trend a more contemporary twist, Vishwa Hindu Parishad has demanded that an FIR be lodged against Mulayam Singh Yadav for ordering the police to fire on Kar sewaks in 1990. In that framework, it can be argued that producer K. Asif glorified Akbar’s love jihad. For that unforgiveable guilt, copies of the film must be consigned to the flames by way of historical revenge. Dilip Kumar, who played Prince Salim, is lying in coma otherwise he could have been brought into focus of public ire with great effectiveness on the eve of key elections with a singular purpose – polarize the poll
At a time when logic has been crowded out by a rush of a non sequitur, some pundits have attempted common sense. It will not work.
The new cultural brigade destroyed the grave of Wali Dakhni who showered adoration on this land with such verses as:
“Koocha e yaar ain Kashi hai
Jogiya dil wahaan ka baasi hain.”
The yogi of my heart has made it his dwelling place.) The sentiments the poet represents did not deter the vandals seething with anger against past historical injustices. Never will the bandish Munmohan Braj ke rasiya in Raag Paraj, steeped in Krishna lore, be sung better than by Ustad Faiyyaz Khan. They tried to desecrate his grave in Vadodara, regardless.
Rasoolan Bai’s plaintive appeals to Rama, in so many of her songs, did not protect her house from being gutted during the 1969 Gujarat riots. It did not matter that the Congress was in power then. What is being tapped into is something which gained a lease of life after Partition and which invites instant, angry, passionate response at the street level. In his very first speech in Parliament after the 2014 elections, this was precisely the nerve Narendra Modi touched: “the nation has to recover from the subjugation of 1200 years”. This is what differentiates the present government from previous regimes. Congressmen may have privately believed in “1200 year of subjugation”, but they considered it tactically proper to speak only of the British as foreigners.
Let us, meanwhile, revert to Jaisi’s purpose in Padmavati. The sentiment is common in western poetry too.
The “desire of the moth for the star, of the night for the morrow.
The devotion to something afar from the sphere of our sorrow”
Shelley’s lines are an ultra-simplified version of the interplay between love and beauty which Jaisi is delineating. Padmini and Khalji are secular symbols of Jaisi’s elaboration of the theme on an epic scale.
Keat’s “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know” can also be tossed in to simplify communicating Jaisi.
Maulana Hasrat Mohani communicates the mood thus:
Should the ever-expanding tribe of the new cultural warriors run out of ideas, here are some on offer, gratis. They should denigrate with retrospective effect those Muslims who dared to take liberties with Hindu Gods. Remember, how India’s greatest modern painter, Maqbool Fida Hussain was exiled for his supreme guilt: excessive adoration of Goddesses. His “adoration” was considered lewd by the protectors of culture and faith.
Well, in like fashion, Maulana Hasrat Mohani deserves to be shamed retrospectively. He wrote a great deal about Krishna in Urdu, but in his Bhasha or Braj verses he takes liberties:
“Mose ched karat Nandlal”
“Squeeze out”, in a tight embrace, has erotic connotations which should be unacceptable to the new cultural brigade.