Iam obsessive but I am serial obsessive. Having done one, then only I do the other, “says author-poet Vikram Seth on how he switches from poetry to prose, and vice versa. The author’s latest book of poetry, Summer Requiem, which features poems written over a span of 20 years, was published sometime ago. The poems were written individually and not as a book. “Some written during this time period haven’t featured here — the ones that I haven’t honed or perfected as yet,” he says, dressed in a pale blue shirt with a stole casually thrown over his shoulders.
The book is published by Aleph helmed by David Davidar — Seth’s publisher for his magnum opus — A Suitable Boy. Davidar says: “Vikram is the most protean talent I have worked with in the thirty years that I have been a publisher. He is technically accomplished at pretty much every genre he turns his hand to.” And there is a reason why Davidar feels that Seth’s work finds takers. He says: “Vikram creates works of exceptional style but more importantly tells stories that are filled with depth, warmth, irony, compassion, insight, and that indefinable spark that lifts his best work to levels that are superlative.”
Seth’s 10th book of poetry, true to its name, resonates with the theme of the death of summer, possibly the passing of love or youth. While the word “Requiem” implies a service or mass said over the dead, Seth is quick to point out: “When summer dies, autumn comes on, which is a very rich period and winter, especially in India, is one of the loveliest seasons. And even if it is lost, there is at least a kind of reconciliation and the possibility of wisdom.”
The art of writing
But if one thinks Seth sets aside specific timeframes to write poetry, prose or even children’s or adult’s books, the author is quick to dismiss the suggestion. “I don’t divide my time between different genres. It just depends on what I have been inspired by, at that moment; I write that,” says Seth.
But for Seth, inspiration sometimes proves to be a bit troublesome. “I find that sometimes my inspiration is unruly. I am hoping to do something and then I get an inspiration to do something quite different. While you have to exercise a certain amount of self discipline, you can’t go completely against your inspiration.” What Seth does is to go with the flow and sometimes struggles against the current.
The fact that Seth dons both hats, that of a poet and an author with equal élan is also apparent in the frequent appearance of poetry in many of his novels. “Acrostic,” he recollects with pleasure when one points out the poems in A Suitable Boy and An Equal Music. He adds: “That is what this form of poetry, where the first letter of each line spells out a word, is called,” points out Seth.
While A Suitable Boy had the name of the protagonist as Lata, An Equal Music had the acrostic of Seth’s then-partner, the French violinist Philippe Honoré — to whom the book was also credited in the epigraph. And yes, a reader can watch out for more in his upcoming and much awaited sequel — A Suitable Girl.
The book, which was slated to be out by 2016, has been delayed and will not hit the stands before 2017. But Seth is nonchalant: “A book will take the time it has to take. There is no point in rushing things and compromising with quality,” he says categorically. The book will be a jump sequel set in the present times rather than taking it forward from 1952, where A Suitable Boy ended.
Davidar too is looking forward to A Suitable Girl. He says: “It is very rare for literary writers to write sequels to iconic novels. Yes, you have novels that are designed to take place over several books (like Anthony Powell's twelve volume A Dance to the Music of Time or Amitav Ghosh's recent trilogy) but it is rare for great standalone novels to have successors, so to speak. For this reason, among others, I think the response to A Suitable Girl will be quite extraordinary.”
Penning it down
When Seth decided to start writing, he wasn’t sure if he could make a living out of it. “I didn’t have money and my parents allowed me to stay in the house. There was food and a roof above my head. It was generous of them. Who would allow their children in their 30s to do that?” he says.
Gradually a book unfolded. His first was a travelogue — From Heaven Lake: Travels through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983), followed by one of poetry The Humble Administrator's Garden (1985). But it was with The Golden Gate, a novel written in verse, that the magic of Seth’s pen was really acknowledged.
The book was adapted into an opera, which had music by Conrad Cummings. However, Seth was not closely involved with the production and is yet to see it. “Cummings did send me CDs of the opera but I guess I am a little scared to watch it. When any of your work is cast in a different medium, whether it is films or opera, you are afraid you will lose your characters when you see them cast as someone else,” he reflects.
Seth does most of his writing in bed. “With a calm duvet or a razai which is not too busy with patterns,” he adds. When writing, he tries not to answer the phone, browse the internet or worse — play candy crush.
But yes he is particular about one thing while writing poetry — he always does it in longhand. Prose he can write either ways — on the computer or longhand.
The author-poet divides his time between India and the UK, and says: “If a book is set in India, it makes more sense to spend time here. But sometimes, one writes a book away from the place so that one can recollect in tranquility and with a certain amount of distance the events of that place.”
Besides writing, there are a variety of things the author loves (he quickly checks you if you use the word “dabble”) some of which have found their way into his works. Seth sings Khayal (a modern genre of classical Hindustani singing) as well as German Lieder, and was inspired by music and his partner Honore to write An Equal Music. Initially though, he resisted the idea. “I thought I would lose the immediacy of pleasure that I got from music,” he recalls. But as the image of Michael Holme and Julia became stronger in his imagination, he realised that he could not push it away. “And if I lost my love for music in the process — so be it,” says Seth, who has studied under Pandit Amar Nathji, a disciple of Ustad Amir Khan Sahab and understands a fair amount of Indian Classical music theory. He earlier played the flute, (badly, he says) and not the violin — which has been repeated often enough on the web to masquerade as the truth.
But where would one find Seth if not writing or singing? “I love singing, swimming and other things that begin with the letter S. Sleeping, I mean, of course,” he says, with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
Besides quick wit, Seth has many other talents — being a polyglot is one of them. He can speak Welsh, German and Chinese besides English, Hindi and Urdu. But don’t expect him to write his next book in any of these. “I don’t know these languages as well as a native speaker. Therefore, other than writing letters or other formal things, I don’t think I can express myself in those languages as a poet or as a novelist.” Although Seth has written some Hindi poems, he isn’t sure if they are good enough to pass muster.
Family matters
Not surprising, since the bar has been set high in the Seth clan, beginning with his mother, Justice Leila Seth, the first woman judge in India. The author is all praise for his father, whom he feels had an important role to play in his mother’s success: “It is indeed unusual for an Indian man to take such pleasure in the achievement of his wife where she becomes a VIP — where people know her better than him.”
It wasn’t just professionally that the Seth couple had high expectations of their children. “They set standards of hard work and of courage. My parents are generous people. My father has always been happy in other people’s achievements.”
The best known of the three Seth siblings (his brother Shantum leads Buddhist meditational tours, while his younger sister, Aradhana, is a photographer and filmmaker who has worked on Deepa Mehta’s movies such as Earth and Fire), Vikram clearly is setting his own standards.
Vinyl has seen a sort of global resurgence over the years, with more people interested in buying it than ever before. I jumped on the bandwagon recently and bought a turntable.
Project Elemental is a budget turntable with amazing sound quality. The turntable can be bought online for around Rs 18,500 approximately. Buying and setting up a new turntable can be a daunting experience, what with fine-tuning the arm, balancing the cartridge or figuring out which amplifier to match it to.
The Elemental Phono USB is a great example of a real plug-and-play experience. There is no hassle of doing these fine tunings and adjustments as they are already taken care of for you by the manufacturers.
All you need to do to set it up is unpack, unlock the arm, attach your speakers and enjoy your favorite vinyls.
The turntable is belt driven and can play LPs at either 33 rpm or 45 rpm. To change the speed you need to manually move the drive belt between the two-step pulley.
The only bug bear I found was the belt, which is attached to the platter. This, at times, tends to come off when removing or changing the side of the LP; with practice one tends to get the hang of it, however.
The cartridge of the turntable is high quality and is the Ortofon one. This gives you a nice warm sound without the danger of it damaging your records.
Connecting up the Elemental is simply a matter of connecting up a pair of active speakers or an amplifier – It hooks up via an RCA cable which is included. While your speakers will have a determining effect on sound quality, the Elemental produces a warm tone across all the speakers I tried it with.
As the name implies, the Elemental Phono USB also has a USB type-B connection. What this means is that if you want to rip your vinyls into a digital format such as mp3 or .wav formats, it’s a simple and convenient process. I downloaded the adobe audition, connected the turntable to my laptop through the USB cable provided, and ripped away. The process happens in real time and you get your favorite vinyl in a digital format, too. I did this with a few of my favourite vinyls and the quality was great.
The Elemental Phono USB is a capable turntable, for those new to vinyl, as well as for those looking to make a comeback into the analog world. It is easy to install and the need for investing in an expensive amplifier is lessened. Getting everything working is easy and the components are of good quality. The experience of listening to a record and the tangibility of music ownership are a bonus.
One thing that I feel is a must in India but lacking, is that this model comes without a dust cover. Now we all know the amount of dust we encounter everyday in India. This dust is a killer for turntables. I suggest you keep the turntable in a clean area or fabricate a dust cover with some transparent fibre glass or plastic.
Pros
Cons
Tech points
SO HOW many steps have you done today?” It was the son on his now daily phone call. No, this is not a back-to-the-womb regression phase, it’s filial love demonstrating itself in terms of mild — dare I say it? — bullying. Not that I can complain, for the son learns from example. And if I’d wanted him to not do as I did, I shouldn’t have bullied Appa for so many years to go for a daily walk.
For that was what this was all about. Going for a walk. Moving my butt. Getting from Place A to Place B, preferably as far away from each other as possible.Every single day. And the motivation was powerful. I had just had a painful visit to the GP and come back with a fatty liver and gall stones. The prognosis was, get rid of the fat, or else! Since the “else” seemed to hold a compulsory diet of boiled vegetables for the rest of my life, even I had to get off my chair and stand to attention. The GP had been kind, the son was not.
“I’m sending you my Fitbit,” he said once he had digested the news. “And you can start using it. Ten thousand steps every day.”
“Of course!” I breezed. “I can do ten thousand steps easy.”
Two months later, I can only say that at the time, I was still in shock that it was my liver that was misbehaving or I would never have said that. In my book of knowledge, livers were things that got cheeky if you replaced the blood stream in your system with alcohol. And if you studied the family’s drinking habits, my intake of half a pint of cider or beer once a month or so hardly qualified me as the obvious target for a recalcitrant liver.
For ten thousand steps were a lot of walking — four kilometres or more, as I found out when I set out on Day 1. “OMG!” I huffed into the mobile that evening. “I managed five thousand. That’s good, don’t you think?”
“Ma, that’s just half of what you were supposed to do!”
“But I tried, beta. And it’s only the first day!’ I could have reasoned further, but the only thing I could hear at the other end of the line was a disapproving silence. Hell, I’ve tried that one myself; I had no idea what it felt like at the receiving end. Poor Appa!
Let me stress here that I am not an exercise-minded person. Not even a movement-minded one. When the husband famously forgot me behind at a traffic light (I had stepped off the scooter to adjust my dupatta!), I took an autorickshaw home and called in sick at work. As a child, I have been known to study my legs, says Amma, and wonder what purpose they served till I discovered they could carry me to a cinema hall. And here I was, expected to move my legs along for five kilometres every day.
“I’m sure that creature is biased. I walked for so long today and it refuses to go above six thousand!”
“Ma, it’s a gadget. Gadgets don’t come with built-in biases.”
The husband was a tad more sympathetic. He took me shopping for walking gear. He knew that would ensure at least a week’s worth of walks. At the sports shop, we discovered that athletic clothes manufacturers don’t really cater to the, well, larger woman. “If they’re all that skinny thin, why do they need to walk?” I asked bitterly.
“You don’t get this, do you?” asked the husband wearily. “They are that skinny thin because they walk, actually run.” I forgave him. We’d just spent three hours rummaging around in the shop and come up with exactly two uppers and two lowers that would not creak at the seams when I put them on.
Luckily, I already had sneakers — a lucky buy from Noida. For the love of God, I could not see any sneakers that had Velcro fasteners in the Swansea sports shop. And there was no way I was going to be able to bend down and tie shoelaces on a daily basis. That was way more exercise than my back (or belly) could take!
But there were other things. “I need new, well, stuff,” I said to the husband, huffing and puffing into the room one day. “These, they chafe. I can’t walk in them.” My usual garb at home is a loose, freeflowing day gown. Oh all right, call it a nightie! I am a Malayali, what do you expect? So it was not surprising that I would find that most of my wardrobe chafed me in all the wrong places. But we were now up to a steady seven thousand steps every day, so the husband bore up manfully under the strain and we went shopping for new unmentionables.
There were really no excuses left, so I tried eight thousand steps. Oh the difference a thousand steps can make! My calves felt as if they’d been wrung dry. And God, it seems, took pity. The Fitbit stopped working.
“It just needs a new battery,” said the son sharply. The battery was changed and the Fitbit, taking umbrage at this slight, stopped working altogether. The son ordered a new one.
“I can rest meanwhile?” I asked hopefully.
“Of course not!” he said. “Just use S Health on your phone.”
So there I was out on my walks again, now with my phone. Unlike the Fitbit, the phone did not sit in my pocket all day, so my walks became longer just to measure up to the son’s step count.
“I’m so bored with same old walk,” I grumbled one day. “It’s all so same old, same old. I go to the beach every day, walk around it and then come back.” This was really me being ornery because the beach in question is Swansea Bay and one of the prettiest I’ve ever seen. “So go to the city centre,” said the husband in a weak moment. “And if you’ve done your steps, you can treat yourself to a cup of coffee.”
Then, at the beginning of June, Swansea decided to turn up the heat. “It’s so hot!” I gasped. The husband and I were out together on a walk and we were both dripping. “You need a hat,” he said. So my next walk was in search of a hat. By now, I was up to nine thousand steps a day and, though I was loath to admit it, I was finding my stride, even enjoying the achievement some days.
Then, one day, I did manage the full ten thousand. I was full of my achievement as I headed up the stairs. As I let myself into our flat. I could hear the husband on the phone. It could only be with the son. “Yesss!” I said to myself. Then I heard the husband saying, “At this rate, it might have been cheaper to get her a new liver!”
Just a month or so ago in May, a farmer from Maharashtra made a bizarre claim (and reported in many newspapers) that he received just Re 1 by selling almost a tonne of onions in the district Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC).
Given that the retail prices of onion has not fallen below Rs 15 a kg in the recent past, one would be driven to believe that the farmer must be under the influence of some intoxicant to make such outlandish claim. However, if we look at the math carefully, we may become less suspicious of the helpless farmer.
Here it is: He sold 952 kg of onions at the APMC market for Rs 1,523. Out of the earnings, the middlemen took away Rs 91 as commission, labour charge was Rs 78, and Rs 33 was miscellaneous charges. It cost him Rs 1,320 to transport the produce to APMC. After deducting all the charges from the amount it received for the onion, he is left with only Re 1.
The above incident (even if it’s half true) aptly summarises the various plights of Indian farmers -- middlemen, inaccessibility of markets and price volatility.
On slippery ground
The government has in this year’s Budget set a bold target for itself — doubling the farmers’ income in five years. However, it doesn’t give any roadmap for achieving this target. Probably, it knows the enormity of the task and therefore, did not want to be very specific about the promise it made.
Here is some statistics to prove why doubling the farmers’ income is no mean achievement. While agriculture accounts for 14 per cent of India’s GDP, it supports 50 per cent of its population -- way too many people dependent on agriculture. In upper-middle income group countries, the dependence is below 30 per cent. While agriculture supporting half of the country’s population itself is a big concern, the bigger problem is that in the first three years of the current five year plan, the sector has grown at a meagre 2 per cent compared the set target of 4 per cent.
For the farmer’s income to double in five years, it has to grow at a 14 per cent rate every year, which is unlikely unless the real growth of agriculture sector is 7-9 per cent a year. To achieve this target, we need to make unprecedented investment in the agriculture sector and create infrastructure of gigantic proportion.
Farm infrastructure
One of the biggest problems of India’s agriculture sector is its over-dependence on monsoon rains. Historically, we have been witness to the inconsistencies and vagaries of Monsoon. Since 1950s, we have so far had 16 drought years (five of which were in the past five years) and eight flood years. Both of which ruin crops and affect output.
In order to make agriculture more viable and profitable, we must increase the area of agriculture land under irrigation. At present, only 36 per cent of the agriculture land is under irrigation. This has to go up substantially in the years to come -- we do not expect this number to go up much in the next five years.
While better irrigation facilities are the crying need of the time, the government must remember that it should not over exploit the groundwater level for short-term increase in productivity. Instead, we must use more sustainable methods such as building canals, water harvesting and drip irrigation facilities to make sure that we do not sacrifice the long-term for instant gains.
Building infrastructure for irrigation is just one part of the whole jigsaw puzzle of sustainable agricultural growth; the other crucial part of the puzzle is creating a network of cold chains that keep the perishable agricultural goods. The need for cold chains can be gauged from the fact that while India produces 11 per cent of global vegetables, it accounts for around 2 per cent of the global vegetable trade in absence of sufficient cold chains. According to an estimate, India has a cold chain storage capacity of only 11 per cent of what is produced (including fruits, vegetables, fish and meat, and dairy products). Besides, the storage capacity is highly concentrated in two states -- Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the two accounting for 65 per cent of the capacity. Certainly, we can expect a lot of improvement in this area to minimise wastage of perishable agricultural goods.
Agricultural marketing
There is large scope for improvement and expansion in this area. We have already touched upon this issue of farmer’s inaccessibility to agriculture markets and their dependence on middlemen.
The good news is that we have already taken the first step towards digital mandis. Karnataka became the first state in the country to facilitate online trading of agricommodities. Online trading had been introduced in more than 150 main markets and 350 sub-markets across the state.
Under this system, a farmer posts the details of his produce and its quality (which is certified by an accredited agency) online through registered traders and commission agents. Licensed buyers from across the country then bid for the produce. The buyer then transfers the money online to the farmer through the trader/ commission agent.
Taking a cue from this model, the Centre has recently announced its ambitious plans to integrate 585 regulated wholesale markets, or mandis, across the country under an online platform. This system would reduce the number of middlemen and give a farmer access to markets across the country. This would also ensure that farmers get the right price for his produce.
Public-private partnership
As in other infrastructure sectors, the government must promote public-private partnership (PPP) for meaningful growth. Agriculture is too important a sector for the government to leave it at the mercy of private sector. A collaborative effort would indeed be helpful in modernising agriculture sector.
Although private participation is important in this space, given the private sectors proved efficiency, the government must continue to support the farmers through easier loans, insurance schemes and at times through “populist” measures such as minimum support price to insulate a farmer from drastic fall in prices.
I have not yet taken uttered the word “subsidy”, which is considered an unpopular thing in a market economy, but let us accept that globally, most countries support their farmers through one subsidy or another.
In the end, we have to think of ways to reduce the number of people dependent on agriculture. The best way to do it is to kickstart the other engines of the economy — construction industry (where most farm labourers can easily fit in) and manufacturing.
With the given pressures, trying to pack fitness into one’s routine isn’t exactly easy. Combine that with the number of gyms and spas that have sprouted up in cities and towns, and you are spoilt for choice.
But if fitness with style is your thing, we have found just the place for you. For Ozone clubs has certainly redefined luxury fitness. Ozone is country’s first chain of premier boutique health fitness, spa and saloon. And given its experience of more than a decade in the luxury fitness space, the club chain certainly knows what a refined client is looking for.
Ask Ishita Oberoi, a regular at the Ozone club. “I’d been to several gym and spas but the kind of experience at Ozone Clubs is unmatched. What is more, the experience stays as classy no matter which city one travels to.”
It is not difficult to understand why many such as Oberoi swear by Ozone Clubs. The clubs were conceptualised to integrate relaxation techniques such as yoga, group classes, spa and gym. So what you get is individual fitness with the warmth of personal touch and unmatched care. This makes every member not just a privileged guest, she also get personal attention to achieve her desired results when it comes to health and wellness.
The club’s success speaks for itself. Take for instance the fact the chain was also the first to be awarded the ISO 9001-2000 and ISO- 14001 certification. Ozone was also honored with The Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini award for best chain of ecofriendly health club in India.
One look at the genesis and the growth of the club and it is not difficult to understand why it is where it is. Ozone has been incorporated in the chairmanship of Mr S K Kandhari, who is also honorary consul of Grenada in India. Mr Kandhari has been a distinguish chartered accountant and on the board of directors of Taj Group of Hotels for 28 years. An advisor of the “Asian Business Network” House of Commons in London, he has also been financial advisor to Tata Consultancy.
Combine his experience with the vision of Mr Naveen Kandhari, MD, Ozoneclubs, and you have a health revolution of sorts. For, Mr Naveen wants Ozone clubs to provide the best international programmes to members.
What’s also interesting is to look at the growth trajectory. With just one club, Ozone is today a name to reckon with when it comes to luxury fitness.
And the experience is only set to get better.
Take, for instance, the following unique programmes to enhance members experience and fitness standards:
DNA Testing: Every individual is unique, so why suggest the same training routine? Genetic research techniques help the club to identify the type of exercise that suits you best, your risk of injury, how long you need to recover and what diet will be the best for you. And once all these are identified, you are set to achieve yourself fitness goal! Les Mills: It was initially developed as a series of exercise-to-music fitness programmes and caught the fancy of fitness enthusiasts all over the world. Today the concept has spread to 75 countries. Ozone Clubs has signed up with Les Mills trademark fitness program to provide best-inclass
GX Classes: Fitness industry is slowly shifting from treadmill and weightlifting. Ozone clubs acknowledge this and embrace the idea. Through GX classes, the clubs offer more than 200 classes per month to give a new dimension to fitness.
Loyalty Programme: Since Ozone believes in growing together, there is a unique loyalty programme underway to provide a delightful experience to loyal members.
What’s more, the clubs are expanding. For those in Delhi, UP, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab and Rajatshan, who already know the Ozone experience, there are more 25 more clubs that are scheduled to be opening in 2016. So even if you are travelling to west India, rest assured that you won't miss out on your favourite fitness club. For Ozone is looking at having a strong foot print there, starting with Mumbai.
With facilities like free wifi, valet parking, access control system, elevator,100 per cent power backup, cafeteria, ABT, HIIT, LBT, personalised training schedule, certified trainers, music channel and personalised entertainment one certainly has the best of facilities. What’s more, there is state-of-theart cardio and strength, shower and changing room with locker facility, in-house guidance of nutritionist and physiotherapist, assessment room; advanced body composition analytical equipments, wet zones for male and female with SPA-Sauna, steam, Massage suits, in-built shower and steam room.
A sure treat for the ones who understand the concept of luxury fitness!
When people ask me how I face difficult situations at work, I think of my mother and the strength it took her to overcome the challenge of bringing up four daughters singlehandedly,” says writer and environmentalist Sunita Narain. She recalls how she was eight when her father, Raj Narain, passed away and her mother was left with four daughters to bring up. She, against odds that also included going against the norm of a widow working in those times, took up her husband’s handicraft export business and fulfilled all our requirements. “This is the reason why I have always rejected the idea of gender disadvantage. If I did anything less with my life it would be a disservice to her,” she adds.
Narain’s diminutive figure belies the work she has done over the years. Her involvement with environment began with the Chipko Movement, while still in school. She happened to go to a conference in Delhi to discuss the movement where she met two other students from different Delhi schools with similar interests. They formed a student organisation called Kalpvriksh — the tree of life — in the field of environment. This organisation and its work took them into the Himalayas, where they saw the connection between livelihoods and environment. that environment was about development, about survival. People depended on it — land, water and forests — and without it, poverty would never be eradicated. I learnt that rejuvenating this natural asset was the way towards better economic growth. This gave me the motivation to pursue this work,” she says.
Today, Narain’s accomplishments and accolades in the field of environment are not just formidable but highly impressive as well. She is directorgeneral CSE, director of the Society the loss of tigers in Sariska. She was also a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change as well as a member of the National Ganga River Basic Authority, which were set up to implement strategies for cleaning the river.
An untrained and inexperienced Narain learnt everything about environment and working for the conservation and preservation of the same, from scratch. “CSE was a small organisation with just four or five people so I had to, perforce, learn to do everything: from marketing to sales to even postage. This was an invaluable experience. It prepared me for taking on the management of the organisation, and I also learnt from my mistakes, which still holds me in good stead,” says Narain.
If in her growing up years she derived inspiration from her journalist grandfather Sri Krishna, who had a keen interest in gardening, CSE’s Anil Agarwal gave her direction to pursue her interest in all things environmental. “In 2001, Agarwal lost his long battle with cancer. He was committed to the cause even till his last moments and it is his passion that keeps me motivated even today,” she says. Due to her husband’s ill-health, Narain had already begun running CSE but “Anil, with his formidable personality and environmental consciousness, was hard to replace,” she remembers. But she has managed, and how!
In 2002, the Supreme Court accepted the CSE’s demand for a transition to CNG following their campaign for right to clean air. “The transition happened and Delhi could see stars in the sky once again. This is also when I understood that Anil had left behind a powerful institution. And this institution had to keep making a difference,” she recalls.
Next was the issue of pesticides in bottled drinking water. The revelation that companies were not testing and cleaning the groundwater being bottled created uproar. The larger furore was when CSE began testing soft drinks and beverages for pesticides. That shook not just the companies but the country, too. “But the two ‘battles’ not only forced me to think on my feet and work with my colleagues but also compelled me to lead from the front,” remembers Narain.
But has she ever been scared of taking on bigger issues and challenges and has being a woman made the fight harder? Not really! “I strongly believe that we must not only remain committed to our convictions but also stay open to the ideas and positions of others. We cannot personalise issues,” she feels. According to her, courage in her and people like her comes from the conviction that they are not doing anything wrong. “And no I don’t get intimidated because I am working in a male-dominated industry. I do have to work harder to constantly prove my credentials and worth, but it also means that I cannot take my work for granted,” she says.
A self-confessed workaholic Narain’s work usually takes up the bulk of her time, but that does not mean she does not let her hair down and enjoy life. She runs, swims, read and hopes that she will, at some point, begin to travel. “As I grow older, I think of the way my mother lived her life to the fullest. That makes me want to do more to get the right balance between work, family and friends. I don’t think I have got that balance right yet, but there is still time,” she smiles.
For many youngsters today, Narain is an icon — someone they would like to emulate. So what would she like to tell all those eager youth out there who want to be the next Sunita Narain? “Learn from your mistakes. Believe strongly in your convictions, and have the courage to think differently and challenge the norm,” she says, signing off.
At the time of writing this, L Devendro Singh (49 kg), Gaurav Bidhuri (52 kg), Dheeraj Rangi (60 kg), Manoj Kumar (64 kg), Mandeep Jangra (69 kg), Vikas Krishan (75 kg), Sumit Sangwan (81 kg), Amritpreet Singh (91 kg) and Satish Kumar (91+ kg) are all in Baku, taking part in the boxing qualifiers for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. It’s the last chance to make it for some of them while, for Krishan, there’s one more chance, at the APB final qualifier in Venezuela in July. That’s it.
So far, only one Indian boxer — Shiva Thapa (56 kg) — has made the cut for Rio. Among men or women. In a world where countries build on their gains, spot areas of strength and make them stronger, India has chosen to be different. Boxing, one of the few sports Indians were improving at, moving up by leaps and bounds, has taken the downward spiral over the past four years. And all of it has to do with the rubbish the administrators have piled up around the sport. As a result, from eight boxers — seven men and one woman — representing India at the last edition of the Olympic Games in London, we might have just one this time. Or two. Maybe. How sad is that?
The story is an old one, and a familiar one, in which first the Amateur Indian Boxing Federation in 2012 and then Boxing India, the new governing body for the sport in the country, in September last year did their best to flout as many international norms as possible. What usually happens in the real world is that corrupt practices, though allowed to flourish for a while whether by design or otherwise, are eventually spotted and the corrupt are penalised. It’s obviously something Indians are not too clued in about, as news reports on a semi-daily basis confirm, and, therefore, both the bodies are out of favour as far as the international association is concerned. Indians do have the requisite training facilities and the coaches they need, but that’s about it. At Rio, Thapa might just be allowed to fight as an “India” boxer, but that’s not altogether certain yet. What that means, in terms of tangibles, is that these boxers travel without a proper team, only the head coach — Gurbaksh Singh Sandhu — and a handful of others accompany them. If there are decisions that go against them, they don’t have a management team to lodge a protest, take up the issue, nothing. “No one in the international amateur circuit takes us seriously because we are not representing India. We are losing the bouts which we should have won,” Krishan said on record recently. What he says may or may not be true, but there is a strong possibility of exactly this sort of thing happening along the way.
The story of Indian amateur boxing, which showed such remarkable progress in the first decade of the new millennium before dipping dramatically, is a shameful one. If you’d asked me after the London Olympics if India would be able to better its tally of six medals at Rio, I would have said a strong “yes”, and my opinion would have been based on the fact that I expected Krishan, Thapa, Devendro and Manoj to be in the medal fray by 2016. But, brilliant as they all might be, it’s difficult to focus on your studies when the parents are bickering around the clock. It’s an unhappy home in Indian boxing, and the result of the nonsense is clear for all to see.
Despite that, amazingly, India does stand a decent chance of matching or even bettering that tally of six medals, which, really, is the only question we Indian
“sports fans” are interested in. We don’t keep track of the achievements, or failures, of our Olympic athletes for four years, but then get all excited for two weeks when the Olympic Games are on, before going back to being indifferent and throwing in the occasional “One billion people and this, tchah!”
Such is life. But, if you have not been keeping track, you would be happy to know that Abhinav Bindra, still India’s only individual gold medallist, has been putting in the hard hours at training and in competition to get back to being at his best for Rio, as is Gagan Narang. The hot new shooting star, meanwhile, is Jitu Rai, the 2014 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games gold medallist in the 50-metre air pistol category and gold medallist in the 10-metre air pistol category at the 2014 ISSF World Cup in Maribor. He is currently the world No 1 in the 10-metre class, and fourth in the 50-metre category. As anyone in the know will tell you, rankings don’t always matter much in shooting, but you’d have to say that Bindra and Rai, as well as Narang, have as good a chance as any to get on the podium in Rio. And it’s not just them. Three women – Apurvi Chandela, Ayonika Paul and Heena Sidhu -- as well as six other men have qualified for the Olympics, and that pack of 12 should give India hope.
If Bindra is in the hunt for another Olympic medal, so is Saina Nehwal, the bronze medallist from 2012, who has moved up the charts by leaps and bounds over the years and won the Australian Super Series title in early June, showing that she is fit and in form. Only a fool would bet against Nehwal finishing in the top three in singles, and you’d have to back P Sindhu to be there and thereabouts as well. Ditto with the form of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa, the doubles specialists.
Like Nehwal, Yogeshwar Dutt would also fancy his chances. Dutt, whose qualification for Rio hardly made much news because of the tug-of-war between Sushil Kumar and Narsingh Pancham Yadav, which, according to the last update, Yadav seems to have won, with the Delhi High Court dismissing Sushil’s plea for a trial fight between the two to determine who should be going to Rio. Dutt has been outstanding in these four intervening years and there’s little reason to believe he won’t be among the contenders for a medal — even gold — in the 65 kg freestyle category at Rio.
Then there are the women archers; the individuals – Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Laxmirani Majhi, who also combine for the team event. Inconsistency has been the stumbling block for the trio, especially Deepika, but their ability is beyond doubt. Similarly, the ability of the teams of Sania Mirza-Rohan Bopanna and Bopanna-Leander Paes, for the mixed doubles and men’s doubles competitions, can’t be doubted.
Between the shooters and the tennis players and the wrestlers and Nehwal, then, there’s reason to hope. For those six medals, or more. One only wishes boxers had been given the right chance to do as well as they are capable of. Then the six-medal dream wouldn’t end with hope, but belief.
ADITYA SHARMA// Salman Khan says he felt like a raped woman during the grueling shoots of Sultan and you were outraged. Well, to put it straight, there is stupid, and then there is pure retarded. Congratulations to you for being the missing link.
The moment I heard that people were shouting themselves hoarse over the comment on the internet, my belief in the legitimacy of facepalm being the leading asana for international yoga day became as steadfast as Rakhee's faith in “Mere Karan Arjuna ayenge".
Moving on. Let me ask you this. Would you be outraged if say, a donkey starts braying? I shall assume a “no” for an answer, because if you know anything about donkeys it would be that they bray (in addition to the fact that they also look immensely cute).It's natural for them to do so.
Then why would you outrage when Salman Khan says something stupid? It's not like he's known for his pithy commentary on the state of economic disparity causing human rights violations in Africa. Or other stuff that requires any more mental capability than that required by a monkey throwing his poop at whatever the monkey wants to throw his poop at.
This is the same 50-year-old who has been dating some of the hottest women in India (and abroad) and still proclaims that he is a virgin. So either he is being honest and none of those women slept with him due to his repellant stupidity (since the man looks about okay), or he was stupid enough to not know what to do once they'd provided their assent, or he is stupid enough to believe that the audience will believe in the crap he was dishing out.
This way, or that, he is inarguably stupid. Stupid people do stupid. Also, stupid people get outraged when stupid people are doing their existential duty by being stupid. quoderat demonstrandum (Latin for “Which had to be demonstrated”).
Some of you denizens belonging to the feminazi party's wing handling the comments sections in various forums will say, “But as a human being…”.
Now, which aspects of human beings make them such a shining example of righteousness, citing which you plead the case?
We kill other species without an iota of guilt. We kill our own species without an iota of guilt. We've used rape and mutilation as preferred weapons of destruction. Hell, our very existence on this planet is the cause of slow and painful disappearance for all other life forms. So “as a human being”, I think it was a very human thing Salman Khan just said. He was just “Being human”.
Now for the sake of argument, we set this mythical not-once-did-a-wrong example of a human as a benchmark.
Please explain how Salman Khan comes even in the light-year vicinity of that mythical being?
From battered women to slaughtered wildlife to self-driving cars that run over people, I am sure you will find the man guilty of crimes of a much larger magnitude than a retarded quote in an interview.
So either you accept that he is the very sort of person who would say stuff like he said, in which case outrage would be an exercise in futility. Or you ensure a logical cessation of the earlier outrages. Failing which you’d be the person who didn't construct an efficient drainage system after an earlier deluge and now is cursing the clouds for a sprinkling of rain. That. Is. Stupid.
AARTI K SINGH// Love him or loathe him, you just can't ignore him. Bollywood’s unquestioned enfant terrible, Salman Khan has always chosen to live life over the edge and is rather blasé about it.
A couple of years ago, (I think on the sets of Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar), I had gone out of the set to seek a quiet corner to make a phone call and I saw Salman trading his Seventeen for All Mankind denims with a spot boy who was adjusting some lights, just because they were the right fit! Right there! They both just removed their jeans and wore each other’s! I asked Salman about this and all he said was “Usey meri achhi lagi mujhe uski- - bas adla badly kar li”. (He liked mine and I liked his, so we simply exchanged.)
There is a reason why he is called Bhai. I was a witness to his taking off his designer watch and handing it to an autowallah or when he gave his expensive bicycle to the sweeper's son. But he also takes his Bhai tag way too seriously — and not always with palatable results. Extreme demonstrations of his protective, possessive bhaigiri result in him assaulting girlfriends — right from publicly pouring a soft drink on Somy Ali's head to reportedly whacking Katrina with a stick on a film set for wearing a revealing outfit. He may have refused the lead in Abbas-Mustan’s Baazigar because the idea of playing a negative character didn't rock his boat, but he has shown marked villainous behaviour more times than can be believed. Such as boasting about his connections to the organised underworld criminal network and making derogatory comments about other actors over the phone to girlfriends. But as per his fans, he is allowed certain “mistakes” in his life.
Not to say I am ignoring his magnanimity at large. Magnanimity is certainly a quality to be emulated but murder and scant regard for law are character flaws!
All the spiel of “look at his charity” and “ignore the mistake” to me, is nothing but a by-product of celebrity culture! We would much rather pay obeisance to the image that Salman has created of himself as Robinhood (a fact he acknowledged in Dabanng as well) rather than acknowledge the fact that he broke the law on five counts just that particular night -- the night his vehicle ran over people sleeping on the pavement!
I would not want to misplace all the love and sympathy Khan is getting from the film industry — perhaps it is genuine — but the Rs 200 crore riding on him, thanks to his upcoming projects, also need to be factored in. Perhaps the “golden heart” would not be tom-tommed about if he was a fading star.
Neither taking off his watch, nor sleeping with a cuddly teddy bear, or calling his doggies MySon and MyJaan nor rushing off money to a dozen people for treatments take away from the gravity of killing a homeless man in a drunken state, trying to suppress evidence and lying in court.
Bhai may be genuinely a good guy, despite his various antics, but the crux of the matter is summed up by none other than Salim Khan. The father has made the best ever judgement that a father can about his son when once he told me (as he also told many other journalists) off-the-record and brutally honestly, “Salman is his own worst enemy.”
Salman reportedly asked Additional Sessions Judge D W Deshpande to “Treat me like an ordinary person, not the superstar”. Perhaps this is where the real journey of actually being human begins for Chulbula Salman.
From those to whom much is given, much is expected” says Mary Maxell Gates, American businesswoman and famously known as the mother of Bill gates. However, what you do of this gift makes the real difference. And that’s what Max India Foundation (MIF), the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of Max India Limited (MIL) has been able to achieve.
For the past couple of years, MIF has been working relentlessly in the areas of health awareness, pan India immunisation of children, providing healthcare and high-end surgeries to the underprivileged, and also working towards providing a healthy and cleaner environment.
In spite of having a small in-house team, in short time of eight years, MIF has been able to touch close to 24, 95,481 lives through 404 NGO partners covering 682 locations across India. All this has been possible due to its emphasis on quality, excellence and credibility. “Projects are taken only when we have all the things and teams in place. In the interest of numbers, we don’t compromise on quality,” says Mohini Daljeet Singh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), MIF.
According to her, the advantage lies in MIL’s model of employee engagement model with a back-up of world-class health care facilities. Max India Group companies actively involved in this process include Max New York Life, Max Healthcare and Max Specialty Products.
MIF’s key initiatives include: healthcare for underprivileged children; betterment of orphaned and abandoned children, support for cancer patients from disadvantaged backgrounds; free artificial limbs and polio calipers for the disabled; adoption of village schools and provision of education, and healthcare and health awareness in the Max Specialty Products unit area. It also organises different health workshops and awareness camps on varied issues such as oral and health hygiene, to cancer prevention, cardiovascular diseases, to women’s health issues.
These initiatives have not only helped MIL earn appreciation for its social service, it has also helped it bag the Golden Peacock award (GPA) four times. (Instituted in 2002, GPA helps reward exemplary enterprises for their pioneering efforts. The recognition also helps create models of inspiration for others to follow.) According to Singh, it is MIF’s approachability, openness, quick decision-making and compassion that has helped it reach this level.
Big difference, step by step
MIF was started in 2008, keeping in mind Max Group’s core value of “sevabhav” (service) in healthcare and health awareness, with a special focus on children in the underprivileged section of the society.
The first year was dedicated to spreading awareness about oral health and hygiene (in the nearby NCR region), tie-ups with credible NGOs and a data summary for immunisation. It also started making films on different health issues, which later helped it spread awareness among public.
In its pan-India immunisation program, MIF and Max Life Insurance Co Ltd, in partnership with local NGOs, reach out to underprivileged in remotest areas for providing vaccinations to children between zero-12 years of age for deadly diseases such as Hepatitis B, DPT, MMR, and measles.
At these immunisation camps, each child is checked by a pediatrician and the health status recorded in MIF health cards. Children below five years are also covered under the Vitamin A programme, the deficiency of which could lead to blindness.
The organisation is also committed to preventive health. Firmly believing that early prevention can help stop or detect many diseases, MIF runs health awareness programs through talks, films, counseling sessions, and specific events. The company regularly organises street plays, puppet shows, and road shows to educate and engage underprivileged on things such as hygiene (small but important things like the right way to brush teeth, washing hands or keeping the surroundings clean) or making them aware of not overlooking symptoms that can help detect diseases at an early age.
In addition, every month, MIF comes out with newsletters for its employees, touching on any particular issue such as illeffects of tobacco, women health, environment issue, pollution and so on.
Life-changing assistance
MIF also extends help to people in lifechanging procedures, which they would not have been able to afford otherwise. Pediatric cardiology, cancer treatment, reconstructive treatments are some of the major areas of treatment. Multi-specialty camps in remote areas of Ladakh, tribal and rural areas of MP, and Bodh Gaya have helped spread the foundation’s work across the country. Since its inception, MIL has supported large number of pediatric cardiac surgeries, brain tumor surgeries, reconstructive surgeries, neuro surgeries, orthopedic surgeries, cataract surgeries, oncology care and renal transplant. However, Singh points out that whenever possible, they ask the NGO partners to sponsor or encourage patients to contribute a little.
Cancer patients and their families need support and reassurance to cope with the long-drawn out treatment and its sideeffects. MIF has partnered with CanSupport to offer palliative care to advanced cancer patients from disadvantaged backgrounds. CanSupport offers free services such as home care, day care, counseling and therapy through centres across Delhi and NCR, by a team of dedicated nurses, doctors and volunteers.
MIF also sponsors artificial limbs and organises polio calipers camps, where artificial limbs are provided to underprivileged patients from across the country.
A better world
MIF is committed to spread awareness about environment-friendly initiatives and encourages sustainable practices for conservation of energy, waste management, and reduction in the use of paper, electricity and water across all its Group entities.
Under its village adoption programme, MIF has adopted two villages in Uttarakhand — Dhakrani and Chandrothi Gram Sabha for intervention on issues of health, hygiene and sanitation. The purpose is to create Dhakrani village in Dehradun as a model village, with the objective of significantly improving the villager’s quality of life by focusing on their health and sanitation needs with a broader focus on protecting the environment.
Due to Max Group’s special association with Uttarakhand, Dhakrani has been chosen as the first village to be covered under this five-year programme. Dhakrani is one of the largest villages (a cluster of villages) in the state with close to 15,000 people. The Foundation has also been organising multi-specialty health camps and stressing the need for “Swachh Raho Swasth Raho” on a regular basis in the village.
A solid waste management programme covering the entire village has been put into place, and the organisation is putting a network of sewage lines, taking care of waste segregation (with each house provided two dustbins and a waste collection fees of Rs 20) wherein they have provided tractor trolleys to collect waste from each house to take it to the treatment plant. The wet waste is used for compost and the plastic bags will be given to the PWD for road laying. After seeing the success in Dhakrani, MIL is doing similar kind of work in Mussorie too, where they have adopted a cluster of four villages.
In case of Chandrothi Gram Sabha, Dehradun, the foundation is working towards community welfare, improving education and providing solar street lights on dark stretches of hilly roads. Speaking on future projects, Singh is of the opinion that it’s better wanted to consolidate on the current projects before jumping on new project.
Isaw killings every day. My education was completed in January 1949, but I left Pakistan only after the last refugees had been transported… When I finished and moved to Shimla, where I stayed for four years, I began to paint man’s cruelty to man. So my first expressions became those of Partition.” – Satish Gujral
You don’t become an artist overnight. In fact, it isn’t uncommon to see that some of the best works of artists are a product of tremendous suffering that brings out the best in their work. In the case of Satish Gujral, the artiste extraordinaire, the close encounter with the horror of Partition led him to express himself creatively on the canvas. The angst, trauma and the sheer violence of this historical event repulsed Gujral who essentially found a release for his deeply disturbing feelings through painting. His first black and white work on Partition showing sad and wailing women received the national award – a fitting recognition for the young artist who was stepping into the realm of Indian art to create a place of his own. Not just the Partition but also his own personal challenge of being deaf could have, quite possibly, contributed to his artistic bent of mind. As a child, he would doodle while lying in his “sick bed” as he often explains.
In the six decades of his artistic career, Gujral’s name is recognised worldwide. His work has shown in galleries all over the world, retrospectives and auctions of several of his art has meant that in the global art market, his price (for want of a better word) has only appreciated. In an earlier interview to Democratic World Raseel Gujral Ansal, the daughter of Kiran and Satish Gujral, spoke of how her own design sensibilities were honed in her childhood days through her parents who were encouraging their children to understand and imbibe different cultures and artistic influences. On her father, Raseel had said, “He is a man who is extremely creative and nothing restricts him.”
Gujral, indeed, believes in the power of the material. “If you change the idea, the idea will find its own material,” he has said in an earlier interview. Any wonder then that he is not just a painter but also a muralist, sculptor and architect. Gujral celebrates the diversity of materials and surfaces with elan — for those who follow his work closely, a work of sculpture can translate into a painting with a language that’s similar but medium that’s different. The narrative can be constant in the artist’s work but he can push his boundaries in terms of the material, the medium, thus giving his art diversity.
The Beginning
Born in Jhelum, Punjab, in 1925, Gujral, being hearing impaired turned to drawing and reading Urdu literature at the age of eight. In 1939, he joined the Mayo School of Art in Lahore. In 1944, he joined JJ School of Art in Bombay where he came into contact with the Progressive Artists Group that was started by FN Souza and had members like MF Husain, Akbar Padamsee, SH Raza, KH Ara and SK Bakre. While Souza was very keen to have Gujral join the collective, the latter didn’t join, unable to to accept their techniques. “I went to Bombay to study at JJ School of Arts (from 1944-47), and the likes of FN Souza, SH Raza, VS Gaitonde and SH Bakre – who now occupy the centrestage of modern Indian art, were either with me in the same class or my senior by a few years,” reminisces Gujral. In the book, The World of Satish Gujral: In His Own Words, the artist explains his reason for not joining the collective in the context of the emergence of MF Husain as the “new star”. “His following had begun to grow not only on account of his merit but also because of the ethnic fervor that was spreading with each passing day. Unfortunately, this fervor entailed the dominance of Hindu myth and was coupled with the power of patronage that, since Partition, had become exclusive to the followers of this faith. This seemed to have lured Husain and his fellow Progressives to waste their gift in illustrating a mythology in which they had no roots, having been born into and brought up in another culture with its own distinct traditions.”
Later, Gujral would serve as an apprentice of Mexican Masters Diego Reviera and David Alfaro Sequiros in the early Fifties. From 1952 to 1974 Gujral had shows all around the world and has won numerous national and international awards. In Mexico, where he had gone on an art scholarship (1952-54) he also befriended Frida Kahlo. By the time he returned, Gujral’s name became synonymous with muralism. Before he left for Mexico, the artist had his first ever exhibition. Held in New Delhi, the show got a tremendous response. “The men who saw to it that the show received its due were Charles Fabri and SH Vatsyayan. The former… covered it in The Statesman. Vatsyayan wrote the introduction in the exhibition’s catalogue. Overnight, they transformed me into a celebrity,” writes the artist in The World of Satish Gujral.
The Master of Media
Through his experiences of apprenticing and imbibing various forms of styles, techniques and methods of art, Gujral became someone who defied categorization. Someone who ventured beyond conventional boundaries of individual art forms, the 90-year-old “master of media” has painted in oil and acrylic, sculpted using wood, bronze and granite, made paper collages, ceramic murals, designed buildings, worked in metal and glass and created burnt wood works. In fact, to coincide with his 90th birthday, Gujral Foundation, a non-profit trust founded in 2008 by Mohit and Feroze Gujral, presented A Brush With Life, an exhibition of 70 original works — paintings, sculptures and sketches — in New Delhi in January 2016. The month-long exhibition, which also showcased rare archival photographs of people like Ocatavio Paz, poet Faiz, Amrita Sher-Gil and his parents, who influenced his life and works, traced Gujral’s contribution to Indian modern art. From his Partitioninfluenced work to his abstract space paintings with tubular forms and textured background to his huge lyrical bulls in bronze, Gujral’s art continues to spellbound viewers. As Charles Fabri once said of the artist in his art column in The Sunday Statesman: “The word ‘genius’… is the correct term for Mr. Satish Gujral. This strikingly original artist… is a phenomenally sensitive observer, who, through his own sufferings and sorrows, has succeeded in conveying to us in dramatic canvases of elemental power what he feels about the world around him. His deep-felt humanity shines through the dark and bituminous hues of his compositions…’