CLIMATE// Brace yourself, India. The Indian Meteorological Department has forecast a hot spring and a much hotter summer this year, with the average temperatures likely to be above normal by more than 1 degree Celcius. Its April, summer has begun and the days are hot. And it is going to get a lot hotter soon before the cool rains arrive in June.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast heat wave conditions across most of northern India this summer. In states like Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, temperatures will be over a degree hotter than usual. A jump of 1°C doesn’t sound like a lot, but when it is already boiling hot at 44°C, a small increase can make a lot of impact. IMD says the regions where the temperature rise is likely to be moderate are south India and four north-eastern states. The outlook shos that the seasonal average mean temperature in Tamil Nadu, south interior Karnataka, Rayalaseema and north-eastern states of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura is likely to be less than 0.5 degree Celsius above normal.
It is going to be one of the hottest summers ever, say weather experts. This also means that northern India will be drier than usual with fewer summer showers. The good news for central and southern India is that temperatures will be the same as usual and possibly even slightly lower than normal in some places.
It’s the season when one feels most thirsty, the time when you fancy a dip in a swimming pool or nearby lake. However, this year, India is also facing a water shortage. Reservoirs are lower this year as compared to last and the searing heat may make the water evaporate faster too. The water situation has been party caused by low winter rainfall and snowfall. As many northern rivers are fed by ice melting in the high Himalayas, when it snows less, rivers run low.
So conserve water as much as you can, and stay out of the hot sun too!
SURVEY// Some of India’s cities rank among the most polluted in the world. The lists rarely remain unchanged but if a recent one is to be believed, Raipur, Patna and Gwalior are among the top ten in the world; Delhi is at number 11. The pollution of a certain region is gauged through the pollution index which is an estimation of the pollution in the overall region, with maximum weightage given to air pollution, followed by water and other types of pollution. To put matters in perspective, while the annual mean of PM 2.5 in (ug/m3) of New York and London is 9 and 15 respectively, that for Delhi is 122.
The most hazardous kind of pollutant is particulate matter which causes severe health hazards. The public tends to see vehicular traffic as a major pollutant but a study of Delhi revealed that vehicles contributed a mere 6.67 percent to particulate matter in the city’s air as against 52.5 percent from road dust. Road dust, the argument often goes, is stirred up by traffic but there need to be poor quality roads before vehicular traffic can stir up dust. The condition of the roads is poorest where there has been construction activity close by because that is when debris is left unattended and roads constantly dug up and not repaired quickly as they are required to be. As regards pollution by particulate matter in the cities, it would appear, civil construction is a major cause.
This may sound opinionated but rarely in any part of the world is civil construction activity in the city areas as visibly in evidence as in India. Cities in the West, Russia, China or South-East Asia — which are also growing — show no such evidence of perpetual transformation. Spaces in India are constantly dug up and structures being erected and this is not a symptom of the immediate present but something that has been going on for decades. To compound matters, new buildings are demolished within a few years and new edifices constructed.
DIPLOMACY// Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping have agreed to improve communication between the militaries of the two countries to maintain peace at the border, a top government official said today at the end of an icebreaking trip to China by PM Modi. On an informal discussion over tea recently, the leaders of the two Asian giants stressed on the importance to maintain peace in all areas of the India-China border region and that the two countries have the “maturity and wisdom to handle all their differences peacefully through talks”.
In six meetings in 24 hours, PM Modi and President Xi discussed trade, strategic military relations, tourism and other regional issues. However, there were no agreements or announcements. The informal summit between PM Modi and Xi Jinping was a “milestone in relations”, a Chinese official told reporters after the two-day meet. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou also said that Beijing will not stress on India joining China’s Belt and Road infrastructure project.
The two leaders took a long walk by China's iconic East Lake this morning followed by a boat ride and lunch, just before PM Modi left for New Delhi. These “informal meetings between the two leaders will continue,” Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said, briefing media on the summit.
In a move that could upset Pakistan, PM Modi and President Xi also agreed to undertake a joint India-China economic project in Afghanistan.
Inviting the Chinese premier for a similar informal summit in India next year, PM Modi said, “As India and China represented 40 per cent of the world's population, they need to try to work together to tackle global problems.”
“China and India are both important engines for global growth and we are central pillars for promoting a multi-polar and globalised world. A good China-India relationship is an important and positive factor for maintaining peace and stability in the world,” President Xi said.
Chinese state media has praised the tone of the "informal summit" in Wuhan. The news was splashed across front pages of several leading newspapers in the country. The extensive reportage indicates the importance being attached to this visit by the Chinese leadership.
Billed by both sides as an informal meeting rather than a summit, with none of the pomp and ceremony of a state visit such as 21-gun salutes, the two leaders held talks on Friday that lasted far longer than expected. It also included a personal tour of a major museum by President Xi. PM Modi gifted to Xi Jinping the paintings of Chinese artist Xu Beihong who taught in Visva Bharati University in West Bengal. “The friendship between the two countries should continue to grow like the Yangtze and Ganges flowing forward forever,” President Xi Jinping added.
WAR// Syria, a country in West Asia, has been gripped by war for a long time now. But last week, the war turned uglier as it appears that chemical weapons were used by the Syrian government to attack the rebels who are opposing the government.
Normal weapons such as guns and bombs cause physical damage to objects and people. Chemical weapons are absorbed by the body through the nose and mouth and cause internal damage leading to death. Workers from international organizations who are helping people affected by the war say that a chemical called Sarin was released through a bomb dropped on the city of Douma, which is controlled by the rebels. Around 60 people are feared dead due to the chemical attack, including children.
The attack is believed to have been made by the Syrian government but the government has denied the same. The United States and France have promised strict action against the Syrian government led by its President Bashar al-Assad but details of such action are not known yet.
Even before the conflict began, many Syrians were complaining about high unemployment, corruption and a lack of political freedom under President Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his late father Hafez in 2000. In March 2011, pro-democracy demonstrations erupted in the southern city of Deraa, inspired by the “Arab Spring” in neighbouring countries. When the government used deadly force to crush the dissent, protests demanding the president's resignation erupted nationwide.
The unrest spread and the crackdown intensified. Opposition supporters took up arms, first to defend themselves and later to rid their areas of security forces. Mr Assad vowed to crush what he called “foreign-backed terrorism”.
The violence rapidly escalated and the country descended into civil war. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group with a network of sources on the ground, had documented the deaths of 353,900 people by March 2018, including 106,000 civilians. The figure did not include 56,900 people who it said were missing and presumed dead. The group also estimated 100,000 deaths had not been documented. Meanwhile, the Violations Documentation Center, which relies on activists inside Syria, has recorded what it considers violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, including attacks on civilians. It had documented 185,980 battle-related deaths, including 119,200 civilians, by February 2018.
SPACE// Last month the Chinese space station Tiangong I crashed to earth. Luckily, it mostly burnt up as it entered Earth’s atmosphere, and whatever pieces made it through, fell into the Pacific Ocean where they sank to the bottom.
China sent up Tiangong I in 2011. In 2012 and 2013, crews of astronauts even went up and stayed aboard the space station for a few weeks. Over six years, the Chinese learnt all about what it takes to live on and operate an Earth-orbiting spacecraft. By 2016, things started to go wrong and China lost contact with Tiangong. Over the next two years, Tiangong started moving erratically, all the time moving closer and closer to Earth.
Because it was moving so erratically, scientists at space agencies had a hard time predicting when and where the craft would fall. There were worries that debris would fall on areas where people lived but luckily they fell into the Pacific.
COMMONWEALTH GAMES// India finished third in the medals tally at the Commonwealth Games 2018 with 66 medals (26 Gold, 20 Silver and 20 Bronze). Only Australia with 198 medals and England with 136 were ahead. India's 26 Golds was also third, behind Australia (80) and England (45). India's combined 66 medals is its third best showing in the history of the Games. India's best remains 101 in New Delhi (2010), followed by 69 in Manchester (2002). India bettered its showing in Glasgow 2014, , where we finished fifth overall, by just two medals. In Glasgow, India claimed 15 Gold, 30 Silver and 19 Bronze. India's best Gold tally of 38 came at home in 2010.
In table tennis, it was a memorable Games for Manika Batra as she picked up medals in all events she competed in -- Singles Gold, Women's Doubles Gold, Women's Team Gold and rounding off the Games with Mixed Doubles Bronze. Batra made history by becoming the first Indian woman to win an individual table tennis Gold at the Games.
India's maximum medals came from shooting (16), followed by wrestling (12) and weightlifting (9).
The 10-member Indian table tennis team secured 8 (3 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze) medals, which turned out to be their best-ever medal haul in the history of the Games.
In the women's table tennis event, the Indian team won its first ever Commonwealth Gold. Teenager Deepak Lather from Haryana became the youngest Indian weightlifter to claim a Commonwealth Games medal, clinching a Bronze in the men’s 69kg category. Indian shooter Anish Bhanwala, aged 15, created history by becoming the country’s youngest ever Gold medal winner in the Commonwealth Games, in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol.
Neeraj Chopra from Haryana became the first Indian javelin thrower to claim a Gold medal at the Games. His medal is only the fifth track-and-field Gold for India at the Commonwealth Games — the other four being Milkha Singh (1958), discus thrower Krishna Poonia (2010), the women’s 4x400m relay quartet of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Akkunji and Mandeep Kaur (2010) and shot-putter Vikas Gowda (2014). The Gold medal won by India's mixed badminton team is the country's first in that category at the Games. Saina Nehwal became the first Indian to win two singles Golds at the Games after defeating PV Sindhu. Saina had also won the title in 2010 in New Delhi. The Indian badminton contingent's total of seven medals (2 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze) turned out to be the best performance by any Indian badminton team at the Games. Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, who claimed India's first Gold, in the Women's 48 kg, broke three Games records in the ‘snatch’ section, the ‘clean and jerk’ and the overall Games record.
DEATH// Ram Kumar, one of the India’s most famous artists died earlier this month. Ram Kumar was part of a group of artists that included MF Hussain, SH Raza and Tyeb Mehta whose work brought them fame in the decades (a decade is 10 years) after India’s independence (1947).
The image above is typical of his work. It depicts the city of Varanasi that inspired many of his famous works. The painting does not directly represent the object-this is the style that Ram Kumar specialized in. The end result is a painting that reflects the feelings or emotions that the artist associates with the objects painted. In that sense the artist is sharing his own private thoughts and visions with the viewer. What is the sense that you get from this painting?
ENVIRONMENT// India has a beautiful 7500 kilometre long coastline. New rules for coastal areas suggested by the central government may destroy the coastal environment and hurt the rights of fisherfolk, feel those working for the environment.
What do the new rules say?
The new rules propose to allow development and construction closer to the shore in areas where more people live. For example, in areas where more than 2161 people live per square kilometer, construction will be allowed upto 50 metres from the high tide line. During high tide, the sea water comes closer to the shore. Under earlier rules, nothing was allowed for 200 metres from the high tide line. The fear is that tourism and commercial activities (such as shops) will take over beach areas.
No protection for mangroves
The new rules also provide for construction of roads in coastal areas, including those on stilts going over water. Worryingly, it also allows building of roads in mangrove areas. Mangrove forests near the sea are a special habitat home to many birds and animals. Plus these mangroves also prevent sand from being washed away and protect the coastline during cyclones and floods.
Fishermen worried
Among the people who are most worried are fishermen. They are worried that tourism and construction activities near the coast will hurt the environment of the beach areas and affect their fishing. Plus the areas near the shore where fisher folk used to park boats and dry nets may no longer be available if they are sold by the government to hotel and shop owners.
Although the rules are only being shared now for discussion before they are finalized, those who fight for the environment fear that beach and coastal areas will end up being sacrificed to make a few people rich.
SPACE// There have been so many space missions over the years that it is hard to imagine that a human being hasn’t stepped out of low Earth orbit (LEO) for the last 50 years. United States (US) space agency NASA is set to change that with Orion, a spacecraft that will take astronauts further into space than anyone has ever been.
What is LEO?
Low Earth Orbit or LEO refers to the movement of spacecraft around the Earth at heights less than 2000 kilometres above the Earth’s surface. Understand that the word ‘low’ here is relative. Regular airplanes fly at heights less than 12 km so a LEO orbit under 2000 km is still pretty high.
The last human to step out of LEO orbit was astronaut Eugene Cernan who stepped on to the Moon as part of NASA’s Apollo 17 mission. The Moon is at a distance of 384,400 kilometres from Earth so it’s a long way from LEO orbit.
What is the Orion mission?
The Orion spacecraft’s manned space flight will occur within the next five years. The craft, which can carry a crew of four astronauts, will go deep into space. It will circle Earth twice, go around the Moon and then head home. A test flight minus humans is planned for 2019. To travel so deep into space, Orion will need to be launched on a very special rocket. That is why NASA is working on the Space Launch System, a giant rocket that can produce the enormous thrust (force) that can propel it into deep space. Orion will be the first spacecraft to be launched using the new rocket.
Unusual build
Orion is unusual in more than its mission goals. Parts of Orion will be ‘printed out’ using 3D printers. In fact it will contain more than 100 3D-printed parts. Some of these parts are being made with a special plastic that can handle extremely high temperatures and the tremendous forces it takes to launch a spacecraft into deep space.
Hello deep space!
The Orion spacecraft is the platform on which NASA is planning manned space explorations to Mars and beyond. So, after fifty years of pretty much staying on our planet, we humans are set to make a giant leap!
WILDLIFE// There has been an unusually large number of lion deaths in Gujarat’s Gir National Park.184 lions have died in 2016 and 2017 and 32 of them died due to ‘unnatural’ causes like falling into wells or getting run over by trains. Wells without a surrounding wall or parapet have become a death trap for lions and although there is plan to get parapets built for wells around Gir National Park, the work is not complete. The main problem at Gir though is the increase in the lion population from 359 in 2005 to 523 in 2015. As a result, lions are leaving the park to find territories outside. This results in deaths and conflicts with humans as lions enter farmlands. Gujarat has failed to create new reserve areas for the lions. The state is also not agreeing to shift lions to new areas in Madhya Pradesh. Unless some action is taken and soon, the fate of many lions is uncertain.
She blazed across the tinsel sky for decades and then as if in a moment she froze like a star in the open sky. Yes, she was the star and she will always remain a star in the galaxy of cinema. That twinkling star was our beloved Sridevi, a rare woman actor who shouldered a film with the male actor as prop. She blazed the screen from a young age and was gone just like a candle in the wind. The Hawa Hawai girl lit up the screen for 50 of her 54 years of life, rode many a storm as she ruled Bollywood for years with her magic on screen.
But that star remained an enigma, glittering from far and nobody able to get close. In fact, it is that very image, the mystery that every fan and follower was able to take back a different image of their favourite star back home. While she touched hearts with her little awkward girl-woman role in Sadma, there was the ethereal Chandni in white. And who can forget the Hawa Hawai girl with the crazy headgear fruit basket with the dance only a Sridevi could have pulled off. It’s one of the most iconic moments of Hindi cinema and it stays with you for years.
And then the rain dance in Chaalbaaz or the onscreen seduction of an invisible man in a wet blue sari in Mr India, the morni song of Lamhe and the sexually charged Afghan sport of Buzkashi with Amitabh Bachchan in Khuda Gawah, the list goes on and on, every performance memorable every performance a la Sridevi.
Then to suddenly disappear from it all at the height of her career to settle down and bring up a family for 15 years. Then to return to the screen once again to what the grapevine says to bail out her producer husband Boney Kapoor from financial difficulty. She returned in fact in the role of a subdued housewife who finds her own footing in her quiet self-effacing way. English Vinglish was to prove once again that Sridevi was not just a glamour actor but in the simple role of a bullied wife and mother, she held her place and made it her own.
And as folklore goes Sridevi was a shy silent girl who kept to herself on the sets and transformed once the lights and camera started to roll. She slipped into whatever role her directors wanted with ease and panache. And once, the lights were off, she returned to the shy Sridevi, inaccessible. Surely an enigma, by design.
There were many stories about Sridevi’s early years as a child actor, of the circumstances that forced her to put on the war paint and look older than her tender years. It could not have been pleasant. She belonged to a time when young girls were pushed into the industry by zealous, parents. Some survived. Many didn’t. Rekha and Sridevi were among those who aced the test – perhaps at a great personal cost.
Rekha like Sridevi came from the Madras industry under the Bombay arclights as a young starlet but Rekha was soon to polish her act, her looks, her diction which finally turned into a diva that even today Bollywood is in the thrall of. But Sridevi walked a different path. When she first came to Bollywood she was not even able to speak in her own voice. But it did not take long for Sridevi to master the art and evolve into Bollywood’s ultimate glamour girl and yet a fine actress. If Rekha fashioned herself as the ultimate courtesan with the right adas and looks, Sridevi became the star that people worshipped.
In fact, Rekha mentored Sridevi in her initial years in Bombay and even dubbed for her in some films. Even though Rekha and Sridevi were both is a sense part of the male fantasy, it was Sridevi who never looked cheap or vulgar even doing sexy numbers on screen. She was able to de-sexualise herself; even when she set the screen on fire with her blue chiffon saree in Mr India, she was not sexual but sensual.
At the same time, Sridevi managed to create her signature moves, giving her male audiences and the front-benchers enough to keep coming back. Even when she was in her fifties, dressed in cotton sarees and making laddoos in English Vinglish. But there was always pressure on that little girl who grew up to be the fantasy of cine-goers and the idol of millions. The grapevines were full of stories about how she just wanted to be a normal girl living a simple life, to be just a wife and mother to her two daughters. But she had to return to the screen after 15 years once again, just to support her husband’s doomed projects.
It was not roses for this little child star who grew up to reign the silver screen. Sridevi never really opened up about her childhood or her life, but just quietly doing what was asked of her. There were times when she was body-shamed and called thunder thighs in her initial years in Bollywood but Sridevi never took notice.
But of late her face, which expressed so many feelings seemed to be a little blank devoid of any emotion. She looked like who was simply doing something she had to and going through the motions. Just before the release of her film she looked like she was trying to keep calm in the middle of fighting some of her own battles.
Sridevi’s face – one of the most expressive ones in the film industry ever – was pallid. Her eyes, which could narrate an entire film in the fraction of a second, were lifeless. She rarely blinked and kept administering eye drops to herself between interviews. Her words came out with tremendous effort. She was almost inaudible, but her hair was perfectly blow-dried, the elaborate white dress perfectly ironed and laid out in a white fluff, giving her the appearance of a swan. She did not care for the compliments.
Sridevi was always known to come alive only when the lights came on and the cameras started to whirr. She never sought the limelight it would seem but the limelight definitely sought her. And once the lights went out, the star was back to being a woman with her own baggage and pain which she never shared with the world.
Sridevi was born in Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu as Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan. She began her acting career at the age of four in the Tamil film industry and in her twenties moved to Bollywood in the mid-70s. She had already made her mark in Tamil and Telugu films and was to soon storm the Hindi film industry. It was Moodram Pirai in which she played a young girl suffering from retrograde amnesia she caught the industry’s eye and the film was such a big hit that later a Hindi version was made with her called Sadma. By the late 80s films such as Mr India, Chandni, Lamhe, Chalbaaz, Khuda Gawah had pushed her to superstardom, the first woman to get the title in Bollywood. There was simply no one like her.
In Chalbaaz, where Sridevi played a double role, she can be seen shifting between the two polar opposite characters, very convincingly. One where she becomes the goddess of power with some sort of Amazonian strength emanating from every gesture she makes, to the kind, childlike earnestness with which she addresses her old uncle. Her emotional and dramatic range was inspiring – astounding even. She was in her mid20s when she did Chalbaaz but her body of work and raw talent enabled her to be a star beyond anyone her age.
Her fans got another round of the star when she returned to mainstream films with the sensitive family comedy English Vinglish – a role she performed with grace and compassion. It was a different Sridevi, one wearing simple saris, hair in a braid and hardly any makeup and she aced it. Then she went on to make Mom a thriller with Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Adnan Siddiqi.
It reminds you of the time when growing up obsessed with movies and film stars, one was captivated by her big eyes and the big smile, her fantastic dances, her comic timing, the ease with which she transformed and slipped into her scene. She was one of the most powerful actors in Hindi cinema and surely one of the most memorable.
Her dances were why many flocked to the cinemas. Her portrayal in perhaps even the most absurd movies shone out like an odd ray of light in a very dark dungeon. Only Sridevi’s faultless dance and girlish charm could save horrible films from being pure torture.
And now the star of our youth was getting ready to watch her daughter Janhvi to make her debut in the industry with Dhadak under Karan Johar’s banner. The film is set to release in July this year but then it was not to be.
Sridevi’s sudden departure came as a shock to not only the film industry but to her millions of fans across the globe. Her death in Dubai’s Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel was sudden even as she was getting ready for dinner with her husband. But it was not to be. The curtain came down before the final call.
A RECENT SPATE of articles in the media tends to give the impression that India’s Armed Forces are increasingly getting politicised. From amongst the vast repertoire that has been published, I am taking out two for analysis and for giving an informed counter view.
Writing in Scroll, a web portal, Lt Gen. Prakash Menon wrote a piece titled “Indian military must remind politicians that it’s loyal to the Constitution – not the party in power”. This was published on March 5. The very title of the paper suggests that the military is kowtowing to the political establishment, which is far from reality. But the arguments given by Menon make for poor analysis and a lack of comprehension of the military ethos. This is surprising as the views have been articulated by a person who retired as a three-star rank officer from the Indian Army, and who, while in service, tenanted many senior command and staff assignments. He was also appointed the military adviser to the National Security Council Secretariat by the UPA regime and completed his tenure under the NDA dispensation.
The points made in Gen. Menon’s article are as under:
• Statements from the highest rungs of military leadership have cast a shadow on their apolitical character. This is distressing even if it is a case of misplaced interpretation, factual ignorance or the shenanigans of individuals on social media.
• The military’s apolitical nature is a cornerstone of India’s democratic foundation; diluting it could be disastrous.
• Its unending deployment for internal security in Jammu and Kashmir and the North East has resulted in the military becoming a permanent and key representative of the state’s coercive power in a politically charged atmosphere. Inevitably, most of the military’s actions are politically sensitive and it often finds itself in the midst of political controversies. Frequently, the military’s stand has been in opposition to a state government’s with the Central government supporting the military. The military thus becomes an object of Centrestate politics.
In support of the above points made in the article, Menon has given the following examples:
• The “human shield” incident in Kashmir in April 2017 was an unacceptable military act, sought to be justified by the military in the name of operational expediency and institutionally portrayed as an act of heroism. The military’s stance was supported by the Centre but decried by the state government, making it seem that the Army was taking sides in a domestic political battle and was, therefore, moving away from its apolitical character.
• The use of the armed forces for spreading yoga mats, spoiling the Yamuna riverbed, constructing railway footbridges and cleaning garbage from mountaintops is exceptionable. The military also needs to tell the government, behind closed doors, that it cannot be employed for the benefit of a political party or by a religious organisation it supports.
• The military’s deliberate leveraging of its operations on the Line of Control for domestic electoral purposes suggests that the armed forces serve the political party in power, like in China. Such a portrayal has given rise to speculation that the military’s apolitical nature is being increasingly compromised.
• The Army Chief’s comments about the All India United Democratic Front in Assam, suggests that the Army was taking sides in what is essentially a political battle between the ruling party and the opposition.
• The statement from the Army Chief that China and Pakistan are orchestrating immigration from Bangladesh must be assumed to be true as it has not been contradicted by the government. Greater circumspection is required while commenting on foreign countries.
• When the military has to express its views, it should be guided by the tenet that one of the greatest values it brings to India’s democracy is not taking sides in the domestic political discourse.
Just a week later, Karan Thapar, wrote an opinion piece, “An inglorious tradition that diminishes the idea of India,” which was published in the Hindustan Times on March 11, 2018. Thapar made the following points:
• Recent photographs of Gen VK Singh, now minister of state for external affairs, dressed in full RSS uniform and surrounded by other RSS members poses a threat to Indian secularism.
• This act of the former Chief raises doubts whether he was a secret RSS member during his years of military service. It also throws up questions on the army’s principle of religious neutrality and raises concerns whether other military officers are also supporters of the RSS.
Such articles cannot be ignored as they are presumptive, factually incorrect, divisive, potentially damaging and also hold forth the possibility that those who purvey them could have a possible agenda in promoting a certain political line, to shape public opinion against the present government and in favour of an earlier dispensation which afforded them patronage, power and prestige. But leaving innuendoes aside, let us look at the facts.
The Armed Forces have remained steadfastly apolitical since Independence, despite Nehru deliberately sidelining them, Indira Gandhi exploiting the brilliant victory won by the military in 1971 to the advantage of her party, and Rajiv Gandhi making the Army an instrument of his foreign policy through the Indian Peace Keeping Force between 1987 and 1990. The military leadership has consistently remained aloof from politics despite actions by some people to besmirch their reputation and honour. That tradition continues till date and signifies the strength of Indian democracy. Such questions are invariably raised with ulterior motives as the fake reports on the front page of a national daily some years ago suggested, which implied that the Army was preparing for a coup!
Menon’s angst is directed against the present chief for a lecture he delivered to a military audience, in which, amongst multiple issues, he also highlighted the growth of a particular outfit, which has an exclusive Muslim membership. The statement of the chief was factual and was made in the context of demographic changes taking place which have serious national security implications. Security concerns are routinely expressed in military conferences across the world, especially in mature democracies like the US, the UK and France. Nothing which the chief said was out of place and which could be faulted. Why then this display of alarm? Could the motives be different to what is ostensibly being portrayed? Or do some people care so little for national security?
I am not sure why Menon calls Maj Gogoi’s action as an unacceptable act, but he is entitled to his opinion. What is surprising, however, is his lack of understanding of counter-terrorist operations. Junior leaders in combat have to make split-second decisions, where the underlying principle is to act in good faith. The result in hindsight may be either right or wrong, but that is of little consequence as what matters is whether the act was carried out in good faith. In Gogoi’s case, there was no malfeasance, no preplanned desire to hurt a particular set of people. As an officer, he was tasked with a rescue mission which he accomplished without loss of blood in a very dangerous situation. He acted in good faith. Ethics here does not form a part of the narrative.
If officers are castigated for their actions taken in good faith, the upshot most likely will be that in future, young leaders will avoid taking decisions on the battlefield. The Army and the Centre rightly supported Gogoi as any other action would be playing into the hands of the terrorist narrative and would have dealt a serious body blow to the morale of the Army. The state government was playing to the gallery, to appease its constituency, but the Centre has to look into national interests. To construe this as the Army interfering in the political process is to stretch the imagination. It is also unfathomable why some who should know better, are so supportive of the narrative emanating from terrorist supporters and sympathisers.
The talk of the military being employed to lay yoga mats has been falsified. The Army laid the mats for its own personnel which is in order. Also, for decades, Indian Army mountaineering expeditions have been decluttering the pristine snow clad peaks by carrying litter back. Foreign expeditions do the same. At every step, let us not question the action of the Army chief, who is responsible for the morale and well being of the Force. In this day and age where news is carried across the globe in real time, it behoves retired generals and other veterans too, to exercise some circumspection when talking of the actions taken by the present leadership.
If the military’s success in the surgical strikes was exploited by the ruling dispensation, then so be it. It has happened earlier and will continue to happen in future. A military victory is the upshot of a political decision and the ruling party can rightly claim credit for the same. If a reverse is suffered, well then, the flak will again be taken by those in power. To suggest that the military is deliberately leveraging its operations to benefit the ruling party is nothing short of slandering the worlds finest Army.
Comments from the military the world over are orchestrated to achieve foreign policy goals. Why should it be different in India? It is also not clear why Menon seems to believe that the military is taking sides. The Armed Forces have to operate under the government in power as they are the elected representatives of the people of India. I do hope that Menon is not suggesting that the military take orders from Sonia Gandhi!
The comments from Thapar also need to be dismissed with the contempt they deserve. Thapar’s criticism of the RSS is unwarranted as is his castigation of Gen Singh for posing in an RSS uniform with the RSS cadre. This simply betrays his lack of knowledge of the RSS and the sterling work this organisation has done over the decades. Incidentally, many luminaries in the Indian scene have RSS roots and they include both India’s Prime Minister and the President! Gen Singh has also posed with members of different faiths and communities, so why should Thapar be perturbed if Gen Singh posed with members of the RSS? His view is prejudiced and jaundiced.
On a more personal note, it appears that Thapar holds a pathological hatred for Singh. In 2012, I saw him in conversation with a former NSA, Brijesh Mishra in a programme titled Devils Advocate. Mishra was perhaps not well and he was slurring his words as if he was under the influence of alcohol. And Thapar kept asking Mishra whether VK Singh was the worst chief the Indian Army had ever had! What disrespect to a serving chief! But perhaps the angst lay elsewhere. It was Karan Thapar’s father who as the then Army chief, led India to its most humiliating defeat against the Chinese in 1962. That perhaps is a memory that Thapar cannot shake off.
There is too much military bashing in recent times by a coterie which had prospered for decades under a different dispensation. Such articles, therefore, must be refuted and countered, to prevent the spread of a false narrative that can only weaken India and give strength and solace to our enemies.
Menstruation has always been a taboo with women being not even allowed to use certain spaces which might get ‘polluted’. There was a time, still prevalent in certain regions of India when women were not even allowed to stay in the house for the four-five days of ‘curse’ and made to live like some untouchable in an outhouse. Strangely, it is the women who have been responsible for passing on this ‘shame’ from generation to generation wrapped in brown paper and newspapers, disposed of off silently in the middle of the night as if it never happened.
Menstruation is a bodily function like so many others and yet it has been shrouded in silence and stigma. But finally this is changing and there are many women at the forefront who are trying to initiate a conversation around the subject to make it normal acceptable among everyone especially women. There is also a social battle going on to allow women to enter ‘sacred’ places during menstruation to fight the ‘unclean’ tag attached to it. There are many temples, the most famous among them being the Sabarimala temple in Kerala which does not allow women after puberty till menopause to enter its holy portals. But hopefully, all that will change with a legal battle on.
The Myna Mahila Foundation is one such organization that is making way for the much-needed conversation about women hygiene and health care. The foundation was started in 2015 by Saloni Jalota and named after the Myna bird which is known to be talkative. Jalota’s thrust has been to empower women to not only talk about their bodies and demand better health services but to also make those services available from door to door.
Working in association with Mahila Milan Sanghatan at Govandi, Myna manufactures high-quality sanitary napkins at an affordable price. They have also formed a trusted network that sells these pads door to door in Mumbai Slums. While the Myna Pads are sold door to door and public bathrooms, it also produces maternity pads that are sold to local clinics and hospitals. To spread awareness about menstrual hygiene, the foundation also gives a demo to the users by giving them instructions as to how to use the sanitary napkins. Making sanitary napkins affordable and accessible, Myna pads are marked at Rs 25 for 8 pieces and they also loan packets to families with five to six female members that can be repaid once the family is financially stable
A foundation that started with the idea to gain some extra credits through social work, Myna Mahila Foundation reaches over 10,000 women a month making sanitary napkins accessible to each and every woman.
The recent film, Padman, by Bollywood, has also attempted to make the subject more universal. Starring Bollywood hunk Akshay Kumar as the real-life Arunachalam Muruganantham the film tells his story of providing affordable sanitary napkins to rural women, to create awareness and help them liberate themselves from myths and taboos existing around the topic of menstruation is commendable.
Apart from successfully shifting the closed door conversations to the living room areas of middle-class families, the film also brought to the fore the statistics of sanitary napkins use in the country and behind-the-scene dynamics of the business - in terms of its production value and sale cost. It’s alarming that only 12% of women in India have access to or can actually use sanitary napkins. Equally alarming is the fact a large part of this minuscule number don’t even know what goes into the making of a sanitary napkin.
Deepanjali Dalmia is another woman who is battling the same problem. Deepanjali quit her high-paying job in Manhattan to come back to Delhi to start manufacturing what she claims are biodegradable sanitary napkins. Her initial research on the subject had revealed that 90% of sanitary napkins are made up of plastic that is harmful to a woman’s body.
Deepanjali set out to develop something natural by testing different plant fibres. That was the beginning of HeyDay, her sanitary brand, made up of organic materials such as bamboo and corn fibre. She used seven layers of bamboo and corn fibre to give the napkins softness and making it highly absorbent and antibacterial. Deepanjali went one step further and set up her production facilities abroad as she found that Indian soil was not free of chemicals.
Another brand Carmesi, led by Tanvi Johri, has also created pads out of bamboo and cornstarch. Their idea was based on the fact that the cornstarch eliminates the risk of skin issues like itchiness or harsh rashes while the bamboo fibre provides complete leakage protection along with a back sheet which is made of compostable bio-plastic.
Anshu Gupta is the founder of Goonj, which re-positions what urban households discard as a development resource for villages. Goonj deals with over 3,000 tonnes of material annually. At Goonj, they make pads from old cloth; nearly 40 to 50 lakh pads at their centre in Sarita Vihar, East Delhi. Gupta won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2015. He believes that the pad is just a product and the solution really is access, affordability and awareness.
Anshu Gupta is going back to promoting cloth — which large-scale commercial producers once rejected to build a case for gel-based pads — Sonal Jain of Boondh makes reusable menstrual cups of inert silicon, which has become cheaper over the years.
Suhani Mohan, an IIT-Bombay graduate, founded Saral Designs in 2015 with the aim of increasing access to highquality affordable sanitary napkins using innovative technology.
These young and enterprising entrepreneurs are doing their bit to help women deal with an important issue which was never even spoken about for generations. But this needs a greater government intervention at the policy level and also at the level of state-level official to take this forward. In 2015, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation released a document titled ‘National Guidelines for Menstrual Health Management’ that laid down guidelines for menstrual hygiene and management as a critical segment of the Swachh Bharat Mission. But how far it has really taken effect is anybody’s guess.
There are many government agencies and NGOs which are also trying to do their bit in the field. But a lot of the schemes are not followed up or are badly or ill-designed not keeping the end consumer in mind. Such as the Praveen Lata Sansthan in Rajasthan’s Ramgarh district which carries out awareness campaigns in the villages of Alwar district. The agency has installed napkin vending machines in the school but these are never refilled. Second, most girls in villages who attend such government schools will never be comfortable inserting a 10 rupee coin to get three pads in public view. Also, many of them may not even be able to afford two proper meals a day leave alone the money for the pads.
Apart from all the innovative ways, there are those who are trying to popularize the conventional method of using cloth and cotton. Most women in villages still use cloth as their only affordable means. And so some NGOs are teaching women to stitch their own pads using flannel and cotton while some are being imparted the skill of making such sanitary pads on a large scale to help other women to access these. But a lot more needs to be done to make it a game-changing movement.
But a revolution seems to be on its way with many a PadWomen leading the process of change in an area which is so crucial to every woman and yet has been silenced for centuries with stories of taboo and shame
These are such desperate times for journalism that S. Nihal Singh’s departure at 89, triggers memories about a phase in the profession that dreams are made of.
My personal journalistic trajectory trailed his rather closely. He was The Statesman’s Special Correspondent in Singapore when I entered the portals of that once great newspaper as a cub reporter.
I was, in fact, following Nihal’s footsteps because this was how he entered the profession a decade earlier – as a cub reporter. There were no schools of journalism then, but we received training of exactly the thoroughness which our respective letters of appointment had promised:
“We do not guarantee you employment at the end of the six month training period, but the training you will have received here will enable you to find work elsewhere.” It remained something of a puzzle why the pocket money Nihal was offered during the training period was infinitely higher than mine which was a meagre Rs.300 per month.
Like most of us who entered the profession after him, Nihal covered New Delhi courts, Tis Hazari courts, Municipal Corporation, Delhi State Assembly, Police Commissioner, Chief Minister. The drill of dwelling on nodal points of governance and power, moving upwards in measured step, imparted to the journalist that most precious of attitudes: an indifference to power, an ability not to be overawed.
As the profession expanded behavioural contrasts magnified. Untrained entrants at senior levels, who had romanticized political power from a distance, became unsteady on their feet because they found corridors of power too heady. A sense of balance was a frequent casualty.
This is where Nihal could not go wrong. In 1982, when the nation was convulsed by the Meenakshipuram conversions, Nihal, then Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Express, sent a teleprinter message to me in Madras where I was then posted as editor of five southern editions: “urgently need 700 words on Meenakshipuram.”
I put on my ultra-balanced hat and churned out the required wordage. It was a typical “while on the one hand” but “on the other” piece. Muslims shouldn’t be up to these tricks and Hindus shouldn’t get too excited. I mentioned “structural violence” in the Hindu social order: this was sacrilege and Nihal let it pass. Unaware of the gathering storm, he thanked me for having responded promptly.
What followed took him and me by surprise. We were both completely out of touch with the strength of feelings on the issue. Indeed, a certain indifference to religion which a whole generation cultivated as Nehruvian secularism was being jettisoned and we found ourselves flat-footed
After a brilliant career with the IAS and having established himself as a scholar of the Indus Valley script, Iravatham Mahadevan, had taken up a job as Executive Manager of the Indian Express’s southern editions. After reading my edit, he came charging to my room in a state of high agitation. “How could you have done it?” He looked at me in a daze, blabbering like someone in a motor accident. “How could you have done it?” I learned later he was from the RSS, shakhas et al. I commend to the RSS to keep more Mahadevans in its stable. He was exceptionally erudite on subjects of his choice.
In the Express compound, in Hick’s bungalow, Ramnath Goenka was bringing the ceiling down: “Hindu Kahan Javey?” (Where should the Hindus go?) “Tum to Makkay chale jaao; Hindu kahan javey?” (You can go to Mecca, but where should the Hindu go?)
He commandeered his chartered accountant, S. Gurumurthy, senior RSS functionary, to write a rejoinder to my editorial. My “balanced” approach to Meenakshipuram, it transpired, was misplaced.
It was now Nihal’s turn to face the music. The piece, authored by Gurumurthy, arrived at his desk in New Delhi. His job as Editor was on the line. What should he do? But Nihal did what he had learnt in The Statesman. In a newspaper, the prerogative for taking editorial decision rests with the editor. He consigned the article to the wastepaper basket. Ramnath Goenka too was larger than life publisher. He allowed his Editor’s line to prevail. But separation was clearly on the cards; they belonged to different cultures.
So did S. Mulgaonkar “apparently” belong to another culture but he was both, a craftier man and a finer writer. In the projection of his image, Mulgaonkar was exactly Nihal’s opposite. Never having been to school, Mulgaonkar cultivated all the airs of English aristocracy. He was adept at bridge, horse racing, angling, and, believe it or not, keeping Oxford and Cambridge cricket scores. He was a gourmet cook, a fad for which he cultivated junior French diplomats as sources for herbs and white wine. All of this impressed the Marwari in reporter. There were no schools of journalism then, but we received training of exactly the thoroughness which our respective letters of appointment had promised:
“We do not guarantee you employment at the end of the six month training period, but the training you will have received here will enable you to find work elsewhere.” It remained something of a puzzle why the pocket money Nihal was offered during the training period was infinitely higher than mine which was a meagre Rs.300 per month.
Like most of us who entered the profession after him, Nihal covered New Delhi courts, Tis Hazari courts, Municipal Corporation, Delhi State Assembly, Police Commissioner, Chief Minister. The drill of dwelling on nodal points of governance and power, moving upwards in measured step, imparted to the journalist that most precious of attitudes: an indifference to power, an ability not to be overawed.
As the profession expanded behavioural contrasts magnified. Untrained entrants at senior levels, who had romanticized political power from a distance, became unsteady on their feet because they found corridors of power too heady. A sense of 30-32-Politics_DW-CoverStoryTemplate.qxd 5/1/2018 12:50 PM Page 21
This is where Nihal could not go wrong. In 1982, when the nation was convulsed by the Meenakshipuram conversions, Nihal, then Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Express, sent a teleprinter message to me in Madras where I was then posted as editor of five southern editions: “urgently need 700 words on Meenakshipuram.”
I put on my ultra-balanced hat and churned out the required wordage. It was a typical “while on the one hand” but “on the other” piece. Muslims shouldn’t be up to these tricks and Hindus shouldn’t get too excited. I mentioned “structural violence” in the Hindu social order: this was sacrilege and Nihal let it pass. Unaware of the gathering storm, he thanked me for having responded promptly.
What followed took him and me by surprise. We were both completely out of touch with the strength of feelings on the issue. Indeed, a certain indifference to religion which a whole generation cultivated as Nehruvian secularism was being jettisoned and we found ourselves flat-footed.
After a brilliant career with the IAS and having established himself as a scholar of the Indus Valley script, Iravatham Mahadevan, had taken up a job as Executive Manager of the Indian Express’s southern editions. After reading my edit, he came charging to my room in a state of high agitation. “How could you have done it?” He looked at me in a daze, blabbering like someone in a motor accident. “How could you have done it?” I learned later he was from the RSS, shakhas et al. I commend to the RSS to keep more Mahadevans in its stable. He was exceptionally erudite on subjects of his choice.
He commandeered his chartered accountant, S. Gurumurthy, senior RSS functionary, to write a rejoinder to my editorial. My “balanced” approach to Meenakshipuram, it transpired, was misplaced
It was now Nihal’s turn to face the music. The piece, authored by Gurumurthy, arrived at his desk in New Delhi. His job as Editor was on the line. What should he do? But Nihal did what he had learnt in The Statesman. In a newspaper, the prerogative for taking editorial decision rests with the editor. He consigned the article to the wastepaper basket. Ramnath Goenka too was larger than life publisher. He allowed his Editor’s line to prevail. But separation was clearly on the cards; they belonged to different cultures.
So did S. Mulgaonkar “apparently” belong to another culture but he was both, a craftier man and a finer writer. In the projection of his image, Mulgaonkar was exactly Nihal’s opposite. Never having been to school, Mulgaonkar cultivated all the airs of English aristocracy. He was adept at bridge, horse racing, angling, and, believe it or not, keeping Oxford and Cambridge cricket scores. He was a gourmet cook, a fad for which he cultivated junior French diplomats as sources for herbs and white wine. All of this impressed the Marwari in RNG. Once an editor, devoted to the amber stuff, looked at his watch and dropped an obvious hint: “I suppose I will not get a drink here.” Pat came the reply from RNG “I keep, but only for English people.”
Nihal had no aristocratic pretenses of a Mulgaonkar. He was content with his buffalo undercut, marinated in garlic and pepper, roast potatoes and Dijon mustard on the side. He called it beef fillet. The Dijon, rather than English mustard was in deference to his warm-hearted Dutch wife, Ge. He had first come to know her when she was a young KLM hostess. I remember him flaunt his European affiliation before friends in London: “I prefer the continent”, he would say with a sort of flat, ineffective pomp.
His understanding of politics and International affairs was uncomplicated. He made up in clarity what he lacked in deep insight. He was, by habit, a perfect gentleman.
It was a mistake, I believe, for both Pran Chopra and Nihal Singh to be parked respectively in Kolkata as editors of The Statesman. The only Punjabi that Bengal has ever tolerated was K.L. Sehgal in New Theatre cinema. This elicited no more than a smile from Nihal.
In North Korea, and for all those nations and people who hate America’s gigantic and killing war machine, Kim Jong Un is nothing less than a rock star. Indeed, since he has changed his hairstyle into a punky design, round, “short and fat”, as Trump would call him, he has consolidated his nononsense, edgy, ‘I care a damn’ diplomatic posturing – though without the nuances or subtlety of basic international diplomacy. His maniacal laughter, or clapping with an admiring military audience, or happily watching a Korean opera, have been photographed by his loyalist media for the world to see, in a country, where no dissent or freedom of expression is allowed, and punishment is severe for little violations. However, most significant is his obsession with the nuclear missile launches which he celebrates with heightened pomp and glory.
His famous photograph of sitting in a launch field, with an empty landscape stretching into a horizon, his binoculars on the table, laughing his heart out when another of his alleged, maybe, mythical missiles fly off the handle, has become legendary. One of his missiles from an unknown island flew across a nervous Japan. Another flew in the distance, with him proudly proclaiming that it can hit any of the American cities he wants. In his own capital, Pyongyang, giant screens celebrate mythical and simulated explosions apparently rocking and exploding American cities, even as the audience claps and rejoice in a roaring collective.
Most funny has been the war of words between Kim and Donald Trump. Indeed, Kim was reasonably circumspect with Barack Obama, keeping his cool and a certain diplomatic distance. Not so with a belligerent and undiplomatic Trump, who, his critics believes, can use Twitter to utter any nonsense post-midnight, while watching Fox TV, or the first thing after he gets up in the morning.
Consequently, the war of words has become a dangerous portent for a huge conflict in the Korean peninsula, with Japan, South Korea and other countries in the neighbourhood, forever on the edge
Trump’s verbal duel with Kim has upped the fear of war across the globe, warned a desperate World Economic Forum recently. Seventy-nine per cent of experts polled for its Global Risks Report believed there was an increased risk of military conflicts in 2018. “The escalation of geopolitical risks was one of the most pronounced trends of 2017, particularly in Asia, where the North Korea crisis has arguably brought the world closer than it has been for decades to the possible use of nuclear weapons,” it said.
Amidst a barrage of slander and abuses, Trump threatened that he too has a nuclear button. On other occasions, he threatened to teach Kim a lesson of his life – even wipe out North Korea from the map of the world. Kim responded with equal candour.
“Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation. I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire,” he said in a statement. When Trump went on a two-week Asian tour, North Korea described it as a “warmonger’s visit”. It described Trump's speech in South Korea as “reckless remarks by an old lunatic”.
Backed tacitly by China, which overtly calls for a peaceful neighbourhood, strategic lessening of tension and conflict, restraint of words and action, Kim has been flexing his muscles since the time North Korea showcased his nuclear capabilities with so-called missile warheads which, he threatened, could wipe out American cities in a jiffy. Often, critics believe that the nuclear factory almost looks like an old, dilapidated tubewell station or a similar industrial unit. Others believe, however, that the missiles are not mythical, but real, and, thereby, are dangerous, especially for South Korea, which has a huge American military base.
Of late, diplomatic advances have moved in a positive direction. Observers believe that both Trump and Kim are biding their time, and looking for solutions, despite the apparent belligerence. It started with the Winter Olympics in South Korea, with Kim sending his gorgeous sister, who was treated as a state guest by the South Korean leadership. She was made to sit in the same enclosure with US Vice President Mike Pence, and, by the looks of it, she seemed to care a damn. So much so, her tough and nuanced diplomatic stance was widely welcomed by the South Koreans, even as she gifted a ‘special letter’ from her brother to the South Korean president. That, apparently, broke the ice, with more visits planned in the days to come, and Kim inviting the South Koreans to his country.
Then followed the secret journey on a long green train to Beijing. North Korea has an obsession with trains and long journeys, apparently loaded with luxury goods, the finest alcohol and other forms of recreation. Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, had an obsessive fear of flying. Anyway, he would never travel out of his country. He would only occasionally go on a long journey from Vladivostok in Siberia to Moscow, to meet his Russian allies. Kim, instead, went to Beijing.
He was grandly hosted by Chinese President Xi Jin Ping. Kim was rather subdued in front of the Chinese President, now appointed to the throne for his entire lifetime. The body language was clear; China was the big brother and it advised Kim to slow down, take his time, cut the belligerent rhetoric, and go for talks.
That is why, in the days that followed, Trump and Kim have agreed to talk via mediators. Kim has apparently already met the CIA chief. Sanctions are obviously hurting his country. And no one really wants a war.
With South Korea showing a generous and gracious streak, Kim has been obliging. Cultural exchange is one of the methods to heal old wounds. In both the countries, the wounds of division and partition are still simmering. People cry remembering each other’s past with great intensity. Unification, an impossible dream, is a deeply ingrained desire in the political unconscious across the heavily guarded borders and militarized zone. This might seem a distant dream as of now, but the longing itself can transform into a larger and peaceful social contract in the days to come. Indeed, that will be good news for both Kim and the world.
She is a grandmother of seven who looks better in skinny jeans and a pair of stilettos than most women half her age.
As the French president's wife, you might expect Brigitte Macron's (64) slim figure and ageless beauty to have had a helping hand from a rigid diet of green juices and turmeric lattes in lieu of actual food; daily hot yoga sessions and regular hydrafacials in her suite at the Elysée Palace. Or maybe not.
Because while Madame Macron's look is impressively age-defying, it was revealed this weekend that deep down she is a thoroughly old-fashioned girl. Her secret? Ten kinds of fruits and vegetables every day, and a healthy dose of cheese and wine when she fancies
Mme Macron isn't afraid of showing off her legs and appears to be slim and strong, without looking gaunt or over sinewy. When visiting Paris recently, Donald Trump commented she looked "in such good shape".
Creepy observations from world leaders aside, Mme Macron does, it has to be said, look to be in incredible shape. 'Le Look' Vogue has named her look "Chic Bobo aesthetic" (she's all slim-cut navy tailoring, low-heeled shoes, shiny-but-not-obviouslycoiffed hair) and Delphine de Canecaude, a Paris-based art director, described her as a "mega wonderwoman".
"She's rock 'n' roll," she told L'Express. "Not for a second does she say, 'I'm 64, so I cannot wear short skirts'. Twelve-inch heels, sleeveless dresses, leather trousers, she dares everything." Brigitte Macron's style has been classic and sophisticated through her recent trip to India.
French President and first lady, Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte Macron arrived in India on Friday, 9th of March, for a four-day visit. While Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and French President, Macron were busy striking deals, Brigitte Macron, former teacher turned French First Lady was making some statements of her own - except in the fashion world. Other than for all her philanthropic work, the first lady impressed many with her choice of outfits during her three days in New Delhi as well as her trip to the Taj Mahal in Agra
All through her trip so far, the French First Lady stuck to wearing clean, classic and straight silhouettes. Her wardrobe for the trip (that reportedly consists of a lot of Louis Vuitton), was made up of spring/summer colours and fabrics, ranging from pastels for the day to lace for the evening.
On her arrival in India, Brigitte Macron wore black pants and a shirt, with a powder pink blazer on top. She carried a pink bag to match her blazer. Even after a long haul flight, her perfectly blow-dried hair and chic yet simple choice of clothes had her looking faultless.
For their ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan followed by their visit to the Rajghat, Brigitte Macron opted for a pastel pink shift dress, yet again with a matching pink bag. She kept her hair and makeup simple and chic much like the day of her arrival as well.
Proceeding to the dinner hosted at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the First Lady chose a lace evening gown with cut out shoulders. She carried a cream stole and a black Roger Vivier clutch. Instead of leaving her hair open this time, Brigitte Macron opted for a side-parted elegant bun.
With the 71st season about to get underway, the international Festival de Cannes is one of the world's most widely publicized events and certainly the most important film festival in terms of worldwide impact
The Festival de Cannes has remained faithful to its founding purpose: to draw attention to and raise the profile of films, with the aim of contributing towards the development of cinema, boosting the film industry worldwide and celebrating cinema at an international level.
The Festival is very keen to discover new talent and act as a springboard for creation. The most important task is performed by the team’s ‘talent scouts’ who travel the world and scour film festivals each season to unearth the most promising directors. As the Festival has developed over the years, a number of initiatives designed to promote the talents of the future have already been introduced: the Caméra d’or is awarded to the best film presented either in the Official Selection, during Directors´ Fortnight or during the Semaine de la Critique, while the Cinéfondation presents film school works and organises the Residence and the Workshop. The development of 'Cannes Short Films' is another step in this direction. Together, these initiatives enable us to act as an observatory for the trends shaping the cinema of the future.
A film’s success and its director’s reputation depend above all on how it is received in cinemas. Despite being an event for film professionals only, the Festival is mindful of this reality and is taking steps to improve the way it reaches film enthusiasts.
Since 2011, the opening film has been released in French cinemas on the same day as its screening at Cannes and the opening ceremony has been broadcast in cinemas enabling audiences to experience the Festival launch night live.
At Cannes, the Cinéma de la Plage, an outdoor cinema, screens a different film each night - and, since 2010, even the occasional world première – as part of its theme-based programme. These open-air screenings are open to everyone and represent a strong link with the general public.
The secret of its lasting success is maintaining a solid connection with its past, the Festival is very ready to take on board new and original concepts. Over the years, it has evolved, all the while seeking to preserve its core values: a passion for cinema, the discovery of new talent, and the bringing together of professionals and journalists from around the world with the aim of contributing to the creation and distribution of films.
During every new edition, projects are conceived, experiences are shared and different cultures are discovered: it is this dynamism that makes the Festival de Cannes a true reflection of its time. The Festival is a key event on a global scale. We are constantly endeavouring to help our selected works benefit from this image, by supporting the promotion of directors and their films in regions of the world where they have less prestige than in France. For example, we are already involved in Buenos Aires in 'La Semana de Cine del Festival de Cannes' and with the 'Cannes Films in Bucharest' programme. At the same time, the smallest actions undertaken in Cannes itself can turn into major turning points further down the line, and it's by constantly asking ourselves questions about the various aspects of the event that we can best prepare for the future
Simla Sooboodoo grew up in paradise Mauritius but her life was far from beautiful. She grew up in a home struggling to survive, parents fighting over money, shortages and scrimping, constant tension. Help came in the form of her grandma who intervened in her life and took on the responsibility of a part-time caregiver. But that relief was also short-lived when her granny passed away, leaving young Simla devastated. She was only 16 and with few options left.
But then as they say when the door closes on you a window opens somewhere. And that window to the world came in the form of her aunt and uncle who offered to pay for her studies until she finished high school. Once she finished school Simla would have the biggest life-changing experience with her aunt deciding to relocate her to Australia where they lived.
It was a second chance that was to change Simla’s life forever. In fact, she took flight for the first time not knowing that her life one day will be so much travel and seeing the world. Growing up Simla always wondered where those little planes in the sky which flew above her little island were going and always dreamed that one day she would be on it.
Finally, she was on it, her literal flight to Australia, away from the hard life. As she puts it looking back at that moment she says that one thing changed my life forever. Simla went on to major in accounting and found a job which ended up with her working as a CFO in a large travel company. She was living out her childhood fantasy of travelling the world. Between her team and her, Simla has by now visited around 100 different countries.
But life does work in strange ways. Just when Simla thought she had dealt with her fair share, she was dealt one more tragic blow. She was struck down by a brain aneurysm and haemorrhage on two separate occasions. Simla fought a devastating prognosis of only 10 per cent chance of survival. But she miraculously came back and with that came a new passion for life, to live it differently. It was during her healing in bed that Simla decided to give other people some purpose in life too and what better than do it with a sense of fun and adventure – through travel. And so was born her foundation, the Hands On Journeys.
Today Simla has worked out packages for the traveller with a cause so that they come back with some sense of contributing to the society at large and not remain isolated in their insular lives. Journeys combine an exciting mix of cultural immersion, sightseeing, and an unique empowerment tourism concept. This means that for one day travellers can visit the Taj Mahal, the next morning learn from locals how to cook traditional dishes and by the afternoon, help developing communities open their own business or improve skill sets to grow their income potential.
The travels are meant to be a sensory overload which allows the traveller to maximize vacation time with touring and impacting and powerful experiences. Some of the most satisfying feedback that Simla has got from people who come back from a Hands On Journey is when they say that they would no longer want to travel any other way.
Until now, the focus has heavily been on the Asia region – with India, Cambodia and Vietnam being the core focus. But they are expanding to Fiji, Mexico and Queensland. It’s a massive achievement for the Hands On family and its core values remain to embrace various cultures and ideally, helping as many people possible.
Simla being a woman did come up against many challenges in some of the cultures and communities and so they focus on first the people they are going to work with. They differ from other such operators is that they make initial contact with the communities and work out a strategy on how they can actually support them.
Simla believes two-way conversation, open communication and finding common goals and beliefs are the best way forward. The heart of what she does is based on the local communities being happy and feeling the next steps will bring longterm and sustainable improvements to their day-today life. She feels that honest conversation is truly the key to anything in life.
Growing up, Simla remembers how she used to wave at planes in the skies above Mauritius thinking that she would never be in one of those magical machines in the sky. And strangely her life took such a turn that she took to the sky with so much passion and zeal. Simla truly believes that she has been very fortunate. Even before she started Hands On she had volunteered at many charities and projects around the world. It was during her second long time spent in the hospital that Simla realized that what she had been enjoying doing for a few weeks on vacation she wanted to turn that into her life’s mission. She never forgot that after she came out of hospital and went about to make her dream a reality.
Her venture in life has had a huge impact on Simla’s life and the way she lives it. She feels it has been two-fold, which makes it extra special. Seeing travellers come away from a project or tour with a new outlook on life is truly magical. Many extravellers also often return for other tours or have gone on to set up their own social enterprise in support of communities around the world. This she feels is the payback she cherishes the most.
One of the projects that gave her immense satisfaction was working in the floating villages of Vietnam. It brought together a small community and worked with them to develop the skills to make jewellery which they could sell. Weeks later they’d taken those materials and talents and turned it into nearly $2000! For a community used to earning a few dollars a day, this impact was resounding, and also reassuring that yes, people were actually being helped by what they set out to do.
Simla decided to focus on empowerment tourism and not volunteer tourism because she wanted to have a lasting impact on the communities and help them generate their own incomes and secure their lives rather than just benefit from some volunteer work to build their homes or barns.
In brief, while volunteers may go to build a school, we work with communities to ensure they have an income, so in turn, they can afford to secure their lives and future.
The whole journey has been quite overwhelming emotionally for Simla. But she is very clear that she is not here to save people or show them the right path but to work with them and help them towards a better future. It's just lending a hand not telling them how to lead their lives. Many communities have different ways of living and she does not believe in imposing what the west assumes to be the right way to live. She points out that all communities have worked out their own measure of happiness and live a day-to-day routine and if we share what is common then it is easier to focus on the positives and take the whole thing forward.
Looking back, Simla admits that she is a different person from the one growing up on an island. Today she feels the world is her family and waking up each day has a new meaning for her. She hopes she can inspire others to do the sam
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