Jaspreet Singh’s eagerly awaited second novel is rather unusual, disturbingly beautiful and hard hitting

RHEOLOGY IS the study of the flow of matter, primarily in liquid state, but also as soft solids or solids under conditions in which they respond with plastic flow rather than deforming elastically in response to an applied force. It applies to substances which have a complex microstructure, such as muds and sludges, and bodily fluids e.g. blood. Well, there’s a lot of the latter in Helium. Heluim starts with the narrator, a professor of rheology recalling his last sabbatical visit home to New Delhi to visit his father, who is recovering from surgery. He stops over in Brussels on his way to attend a rheology conference, and gets stranded by the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption. The situation, coming after a rheology student presented a paper on the AD79 eruption of Vesuvius, sends the narrator into a mood of reflection. Everything in this world of ours flows. Even so-called solids, flow. My own work focuses on the flow of ‘complex materials’, the ones with ‘memory’. And the line, pretty much, sets the tone of what is to follow. India is a place filled with bad memories for Kumar. In 1984, the professor he considered as his mentor was murdered as part of the anti-Sikh ‘pogroms’ that followed the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards. Kumar witnessed the murder, which colours his feelings regarding his homeland. But the author is in no hurry to reveal the wider details and implications of that horrific event, which haunts the novel, as it haunts its protagonist. Instead, Singh follows the unpredictable trajectory, the non-linear ‘flow’ of memory itself, spilling backwards and forward in time in the manner of human consciousness, tantalising us with historical arcana and titbits as he unfurls his leisurely but purposeful narrative. Raj recalls how, within minutes of meeting him, Mohan Singh became his mentor and friend, introducing him to many potent, philosophical, scientific and literary ideas outside the professor’s area of specialisation, which was helium, He, the so-called noble gas. It was from the professor too that Raj first learned of Primo Levi, whose famous autobiographical stories were about his experiences of the holocaust. The periodic table, his mentor once explained, connects the world of molecules to the world of humans. In some senses, Helium bears many of the hallmarks of Singh’s lauded 2009 debut, Chef, which used a dying cook and Siachen to examine the bloody India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir.

An emotionally distant narrator, haunting memories and a contested history—as well as an acknowledged debt to WG Sebald—are all packaged inside a profoundly poetic novel that unfolds with the leisurely, meditative pace of a travelogue. Like his debut novel, Helium is a short 284 pages. But unlike his debut, it is pointedly peppered with archival photographs and real-life names, along with the odd scientific image and artist’s sketch, that it is palpably suggestive of a documentary, a non-fiction exposé. Memory continues to drive the narrator when he lands in Delhi, just as it shapes and drives the novel, which is anchored both in the events of 2010 and in the more distant events of 1984. For what is tugging at our rheologist’s consciousness, jostling for his attention among other memories from his life in Delhi and the very real happenings of 2010, is his memory of the time he witnessed the brutal murder of his former university professor. He invokes the nature of helium and the words of Levi to help fathom the 1984 massacre, to make sense of what he calls our periodic table of hate. His own driving impulse—one which he tries, unsuccessfully, to resist—is to explain humans and human memory in terms of atoms, molecules and elementary particles, and it’s this that imbues this unusual novel with an eerie, almost sinister beauty. Unable to shake the memories of 1984, to make the past stay in the past, Raj finally, 25 years after his professor’s death, gets on a train to Shimla to search for his widow, Nelly. He finds her, armed with a lame apology and a handful of questions. As the novel picks up in pace and moves towards its shocking revelations and ultimate denouement, Raj, or rather Singh himself, cannot help but meander through the idiosyncratic colonial history of Shimla, deliver us a treatise on ornithology in India and its British civil servant founder, Allan Octavian Hume—also a co-founder of India’s Congress party—and point out that every slope, every tree in the area carries traces of colonialism.

It is an oddly-haunting, somewhat mysterious novel with something of the free-flowing consistency of hyperbeautiful helium-4. A novel that does not shy away from delivering a savage indictment of suggestion that Shining India, as one of its characters says, “works for a small minority”.

Key lessons for growth

THOSE WHO hunt rabbits are rarely able to rope in elephants, writes Subroto Bagchi in The Elephant Catchers. Elephant catchers come at a price that may raise eyebrows and change the status quo in your existing set-up. The difficulties of ‘catching an elephant’ is an euphemism for smaller organisations wishing to make it big. There are great success stories of organisations graduating from small game to large, but they all begin with the fundamental realisation that the social contract that brought everyone together in the beginning— with bows and arrows, drums and utensils—no longer works... step back and rethink the purpose of the organisation, and be ready to remodel its structure and functioning. In the chapter, The Cat and Dog Differential, the author says, “the key to winning a customer’s business is to be able to connect and to come across as hungry, willing, genuine, trustworthy and above all, interesting.” Bagchi compares the business decisions with the decision of choosing a life partner. It is imperative to make the right choice or face the consequence. “... in business, too, relationship choices have consequences. If you seek a marriage of convenience do so with your eyes open and always be aware that it just might become an unholy alliance.” Bagchi writes that a brand needs to be nurtured and reinvested for it to keep on succeeding. Branding is a very important aspect of an organisation’s future prospect. A brand literally takes birth, grows, and ages and, unless it is renewed, it dies and decays. The brand is an expression of an organisation’s mission, vision, values, its reputation and ambition, and it cannot change unless the core goes through a transformation. Bagchi writes that he learnt the essentials of branding from rather colourful man named Shombit Sengupta who founded Strategy Design, a brand advisory in Paris. When I first met him around 1996, his company had reported a turnover of $9 million, his brands sold for over $40 billion worldwide for companies like Danone of France and Lakme in India. Bagchi says, “Shombit taught me that a brand is not just a logo, a tagline, or a smart-sounding name. It is the perception of the value of a company, product or service in mind of a customer, and a perception is partly rational and partly emotional. The process of brand building, then, is the externalisation of the inner value of a corporation, product or service.”

Much like its favourite pineapple pastry, Taiwan is a perfect mix of two cultures

It was a first for me. Everywhere at the airport in Taipei, people with varying expressions were taking ‘selfies’ with their mobile phones. Had I but known it then, selfies was a kind of leitmotif of my trip. Wherever I’d go, I’d encounter individuals, couples, pairs of friends or whole families, smartphone angled expertly, their smiles perfectly synchronised.

I was on my way to Sunny Hills because of its fame as the best pineapple pastry on the island. I had envisaged a pineapple pastry as a squishy, cream-laden confection available at every corner bakery in my city, but the image soon was supplanted by oblongs of short-crust pastry with coarsely pounded real pineapple pulp in it. The pastry to pulp ratio was perfect, the textural interplay interesting and for the rest of the week-long trip, I did nothing but kick myself for not buying a kilogram or three of the Sunny Hills product. Pineapple pastry is an east-meets-west confection that embodies exactly what Taiwan is. You get it everywhere. Hotels in the rest of the world offer baskets of fruit: in Taiwan, you get two delicately wrapped pineapple pastries in a quaint box. However, the pastry was industrial and the ‘pineapple’ pulp too sweet and artificial to bear comparison with the masterpiece from the first day. Such was the popularity of the Sunny Hills pastry that their customers came to them: they did not have to go to their customer!

Slightly more than half the area of Sri Lanka, Taiwan sits between China, Japan and the Philippines. It’s a win-win situation: the north-eastern slice of the island has deep Japanese influences which the Taiwanese are proud of. In mainland China, on the other hand, the war memories of Japan are hardly pleasant. The seas around Taiwan have abundant seafood which finds its way into the remarkable cuisine. The beaches of the south have all the trappings of a carefree Filipino seaside, and while the entire island has a relationship with mainland China that would be categorised on Facebook as “it’s complicated”, the Taiwanese have an innate lightness that contrasts sharply with many other Chinese-speaking people. While China has had a giant’s share of culture in terms of painting, calligraphy, music and theatre, Taiwan’s National Palace Museum in Taipei has housed the finest artefacts of three dynasties from China: Ming, Tang and Song. With a roll of the dice, several tens of thousands of the imperial treasures from the Forbidden City in Beijing were spirited away for safe-keeping, first to Nanjing and then to a location in Sichuan Province, before being secreted away to Taipei. That is what history books tell us. What this translates into is the craftsmanship that is clearly visible all over Taiwan. You see, the three most precious artefacts in the museum include a cooking pot, a ‘pork stone’ and a jadeite cabbage. The pork stone is a piece of jasper that has been chiselled to heighten its resemblance to a piece of uncooked meat with a thick rind of fat. The jadeite rock was green at one end and had a marbling of white at the other. An unknown craftsman carved it delicately so that it looks like a Chinese cabbage. The stem is white, while the leaves become progressively green, just as the vegetable looks in a marketplace. Walk down any row of handicraft showrooms, and whatever else you find, you can be sure that their version of the pork stone and the cabbage will hold pride of place. It may not be museum quality, but just the discipline of identifying a lump of jadeite that has the potential to be carved into a vegetable trains the eye. And the actual process of uncovering the outer layers to lay bare a delicate vegetable with its fine tracery of veins is as much as a prayer as any other act of worship. What finally endeared me to the country was one similarity to my spiritual homeland, Kashmir. Sun Moon Lake, roughly in the centre of the country, is a vast natural lake ringed by mountains, a la Dal Lake. Sun and Moon were two separate bodies, shaped approximately like the sun and the moon. The Dal and the Nageen are separate bodies too, and they are spoken of in the same breath as well. What gave me a jolt were the floating gardens that I saw in one or two spots. Hu, my erudite friend from Taichung told me about the Thao tribe, who used to cultivate vegetables on the surface of the lake. However, now that has been declared illegal, together with their primitive methods of fishing, and the Thaos have dwindled in numbers, being merely a visible face for tourism. You could go on about the similarities with the boat people of Kashmir who still cultivate vegetables on the lake on beds exactly the Sun Moon Lake. They too are the most visible face of tourism in Kashmir. Travel for me is not just seeing the unfamiliar. It is seeing the familiar in the unfamiliar. Like looking at the Thao people and remembering the houseboat community in another part of the world.

Meet India’s hottest new independent director

Somewhere from the middle of 2013 there was a vague-ish buzz about a certain ship—or was it about a film about a ship? Slowly, sit-downs and chin-wags later, the context was clearer. Apparently, the vessel, the film called Ship of Theseus had sailed straight into its audiences’ hearts. Receiving rave reviews among Delhi, actually India’s intelligentsia, the film was about a paradox discussed by Greek historian and philosopher Plutarch, involving King Theseus. When the beloved king and his crew returned home from Crete after years, citizens preserved 30 oars of Theseus’ original ship. They kept on replacing its older planks as it decayed, putting in stronger timber. King Theseus’ ship became an example for a question of things that grow and change. Plutarch took this story to question whether an object remains the same if it is entirely replaced, piece by piece—30 years down the line, despite all the changes is it the same Ship of Theseus?

Inspired by this Theseus Paradox, Anand Gandhi’s film examines three stories. The first is about a blind photographer, the second, a monk, and the final, a young man whose profession is tied to meeting someone called Yamamoto. The three have one trait in common—they all have had or needed at some point, an organ transplant. Aaliya, the photographer, discovers sight when her corneas are replaced. Maitreya, the monk, campaigns fiercely against pharmaceutical industry’s practices of animal testing and discovers he needs a liver transplant but accepting the transplant would mean taking medicines made by very companies he has attacked in the past. Navin, who cannot meet Yamagoto, chances upon an organ trafficking racket when he realises he may have been given an illegally-procured kidney.

Before we delve into why Ship of Theseus is one beautiful and unconventional film, here’s a bit about the unconventional mind behind it.

Anand Gandhi, its young director, is truly an exceptional character. He dropped out of college and since then “pretty much designed his own education”. The statement seems flippant at first, but looking closely at the years that have gone into making this Indian director one of the most sought-after independent directors on a global platform, one realises just how true his sentiment is.

Gandhi is an old soul trapped in a young body. At the age of 13, he co-curated a philately exhibition with an expert. “I was interested in philately at that period. I had gone to the expert to learn more about stamps and their history—he said I should be involved in the exhibition to get an indepth idea. I wanted to pursue my passion for stamps in a way that was holistic,” says Gandhi. For Gandhi, being curious means to delve deep into any subject. It is his way to learn from doing. To know stamps he felt a need to curate an exhibition. By 17 (right after school) he was running a graphic designing firm (Cicero Graphics) with a businessman who wanted to invest in a meaningful venture. He convinced him that Cicero would be that meaningful venture. All along, Gandhi felt a lacuna left by the dearth of a “solid liberal arts education” in India. So, he gave himself a liberal arts education by pursuing all courses he could, and following inspirational figures who he met. One such person happened to be a certain Abhay Mehta. Mehta—if you remember—was an MIT-based molecular biologist who became interested in the economics of the Enron-Dhabol Power project after he returned to India in 1993. In India, he launched a website called altindia.net where Gandhi worked with him. He was a little older than 17 years then. His second-greatest influence was probably thespian Alok Ulfat, with whom Gandhi travelled the breadth of this country performing and staging plays. He took up several courses along the way—Gandhian economics, philosophy, physics—anything and everything that caught his fancy. But somewhere, the man who was to make a mark was yet to find a footing. “I was fortunate to have a family that was happy as long as I was positively engaged. Of course, there were worries. I would actively pursue a course/path and abandon it for something completely different. I have been like that. After my design studio, I began a printing firm with a friend who is now a partner in my production company (Recyclewala). I was always curious and wished to learn by working,” he muses. “I love learning,” he says as I prod further. “When I was a child I wanted to be a scientist, then a mathematician, then a philosopher. I wanted to write, act and direct. Somewhere I realised that a production company would give me an opportunity to do all that—be a scientist, philosopher, writer and director.”

But before he could settle down, his curiosity led him to play a few curve balls. His ambition to write led him to Ekta Kapoor and Balaji Productions. The young drama writer (yes, by then he had a few scripts and screenplays in his kitty) managed to impress Kapoor who was keen to work with a young team herself. She hired him as a scriptwriter for her famously regressive soap operas. Gandhi did write a sizeable amount of episodes for two of the longest-running Kapoor serials, till truth hit home. “It was regressive to say the least. I soon understood that. After a while it was not what I wanted to do.” So, he quit. Needless to say, the restless director returned to theatre and travelled extensively to unlearn information he had reluctantly assimilated and to concentrate on an idea that had been germinating for long.

It was a shot—Right Here, Right Now (2003) in which he explored the theme of causality (a topic that he keeps on revisiting) for the first time. The shot travelled to Tribeca and Syracuse, and in Syracuse it won an award. Though films are resource intensive, the time was right for Gandhi’s move. The digital filmmaking scene was slowly developing in India and his Right Here, Right Now was one of the first few films which was shot digitally.

We promised a bit more about the Ship of Theseus. Here it is. Like every baby, this one, too, took its time to arrive. After Right Here, Right Now there was an idea of Jhini which producers “loved” but none were ready to produce. The love it-but-can’t fund it-charade became so mundane that Gandhi opted out, shelving the project. “I decided that my next project, any project that that I ever do, will be self funded. Not to say, I did not understand the producers’ constraints.” Then, twin tragedies struck. The director’s grandparents both underwent major surgeries and he spend a year looking after the invalids. “That one year gave a lot of time for reflection and introspection and the idea of Ship of Theseus was formed,” says Gandhi after a pause. By then he had met some key players for the project. One of them was cinematographer Pankaj Kumar who’s lenses gave a fairy-tale-like quality to the busy Mumbai cityscape. In Kumar, also recovering from a debilitating accident (there’s a serendipitous connection here somewhere) Gandhi found a soul mate.

Together they embarked on a journey, no less important than that of the Greek King Theseus for Indian cinema.

AS I WRITE this piece, my mind wanders to the strife at Westgate Mall in Nairobi. My prayers for the 10 hostages reportedly stuck in the centre of a gun battle between Kenyan Army and (allegedly) al-Shabab militants. I cannot pretend to imagine what the 10 stuck hostages must be going through, just as I can only imagine the anxiety of their family members. As a news addict I have frequently regretted picking up the newspaper too early in the day, however, as my parents daughter, I have inherited an attitude that helps me to seize the positive out of the negative. I hope by the time this magazine reaches you, dear readers, Nairobi shootings would be a crucial albeit tragic lesson that will help the country to take a step forward in strengthening its security. And the men, women and children who went through the most harrowing time of their life, I can only hope they derive strength from their family, friends and faith, to make their way to emotional recovery.

But not all of this world is dark. There are citizens of this world who dedicate their lives to uplift others—the Kenyan army and Red Cross are merely two examples. Then there are those who’s existence must have made language specialists add adjectives such as “exciting, dynamic, interesting” to the English dictionary. We spoke to one such person for this month’s cover. He is one of the fastest Indians in the world—literally. We expected Narain Karthikeyan to be brave, 2013precise and focused—because a driver needs to be all that when laps fly by. However, we got a bit more—we spoke to a professional who was humble and tuned in to the demands of his unique life. A long Q&A with the man left us a little breathless—and his hopes to put India on the circuit map also made a lot of sense.

Read on to get to know the F1 Master just a bit better. As for the usual; we introduce yet another travel expert to our kitty—the more, the merrier we say!

Also read about the unique Lokatma initiative to boost rural Madhubani arts and of the unique Bambike. As I wrote earlier, some people refuse to bow down to negativity and strive to make the world a better place. We feel blessed when the magazine gives us the opportunity to put our focus on them. Do write to us and let us know of the magazine, the articles, and also of India’s entry to the Oscars—The Good Road. Do you think The Lunchbox would have been a better choice?

The first Indian in Formula 1, and the first athlete from motorsports to win the Padma Shri Award, Narain Karthikeyan can easily shift gears from being the fastest Indian in F1 to being a devoted family man. Days before the Indian Grand Prix, DW managed to talk to the man—who’s raised our collective hopes— on his passion and dreams...

Democratic World: Tell us how did your childhood shape your foray into racing, that one time when you really knew that this was what you would be doing for the rest of your life?

Narain Karthikeyan: I used to drive cars owned by my family, mostly an old and reliable Maruti 800. I would drive it sideways near my home. Racing (pardon the pun) ran in the family—my father is a former national rally champion and has multiple wins to his credit. There are several others in the family, including Late S. Karivardhan—who was a close relative—who were involved in racing. Honestly, it was all I knew as a child.

What drew you to racing?

Though it is difficult to dissect but I would have to say that pushing a race car to its limit is an extremely demanding task. And the satisfaction derived from getting get it right, is unmatched by any other sensation.

How did your family react to the news when you formally announced that you would be a race car driver, especially since it is one of the most dangerous sports in the world?

They would have been surprised had I not gone down this way to be honest, so it was just a matter of when! Tell us a bit about your father. How did he influence your actions and aspirations? If there is that one person who was responsible for making me into a Formula One driver, it is my Dad!

Tell us about your first race.

It was a Formula Maruti race at the Sriperumpudur track in Chennai. I was up on the podium. So it was an exhilarating and incredible feeling. The build-up to the race was intense. I was so nervous, but at the same time quietly confident, despite knowing that I would be racing with people with more experience.

What was the greatest lesson that you learnt in that race?

Don’t give up until you cross the finish line.

What were your thoughts—or what are your usual thoughts—when you grip the wheel right before the start of a race?

I must say that the beginning is the best part of any race. However, the mind becomes a bit Zen, and thoughts are sparse, as one concentrates on the various variables behind the wheel and tries to get the best possible start. If a driver is on the pole position, he would want to capitalise on it and make a clean getaway to protect his advantage. If one is a bit further off from the starting line, then one is thinking of making up places and getting through the first corner in one piece. The latter can be quite tricky!

You are the title contender after fourth win in Auto GP World Series—what are your expectations now?

I am only concentrating on doing my best and hopefully win both races. My title hopes depend a lot on how great my rivals do as well—a factor which is not in my control. So I will give my best shot. I will get the best possible result, and see how it goes.

If you could see one change in the history of Indian racing, what would that be?

The one incident I see as a huge setback to Indian racing, is the death of S Karivardhan. Had he not passed away in that aircraft crash, our domestic racing scene would have been much better-off. That I am sure off.

India’s growth prospects in the arena of racing—what are our chances do you believe? And what are our chances at this year’s Grand Prix?

The Jaypee Group has worked extremely hard in bringing F1 to India and running the show as flawlessly as it did last year. But, I believe that to make an event a complete success, the central and state governments’ support is cardinal. To make such a global event even more successful in the long run, we will need to put in that much effort. Most of the other Grand Prixes—barring a couple few—are all supported by local governments one way or the other whether the help comes in form of tax breaks or custom relaxations or hosting fee contributions.

The Indian government should understand that hosting the Indian F1 shows, throws a positive light upon our country and puts us on a global map. It also adds on to our tourism industry. Classifying F1 as a sports, instead of entertainment, in this country—I believe—will be a good place to start.

What helps you to be consistent in your performance?

Focus, dedication and self-motivation is what drives me and allows me to perform consistently. Of course without the support of my family and fans, nothing would be worthwhile.

What do you do for your physical fitness? To be a strong driver, you need strong neck muscles.Is there any other particular bit of fitness which is important to you?

When we drive, a lot of emphasis is on core strength and upon lower back muscles, especially in a singleseater car, which is extremely bumpy to drive and produces high g-forces. Thus, strong shoulders and neck are a given as well.

What do you do just before a race?

I tend to spend a little time with myself right before the race, and keep unwanted distractions away.

What are your plans for the future?

I am only concentrating on doing my best, and hopefully win both races. My title hopes depend a lot on how my rivals perform, as well—which is something which is not within my control so I will just it give my best shot, and get the best possible result. See how it goes.

How did you feel upon being conferred India's highest honour, the Padma Shri? Was it a recognition that you felt was long over due?

I felt great after receiving such an honour and I was naturally terribly happy. I consider the Padma Shri as a recognition not just for me, but for the entire motorsport fraternity. It was a great honour for me to receive the award from the President of India. The style in which the function was conducted itself provides an avid feeling. The sports that I am involved in requires a lot of skill, determination and consistent hard work. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the support of my family.

Do you consider yourself as a pioneer?

NK: I am not very comfortable with the label, but it has been put on me. But if it is a label that I have to bear then I bear it humbly. I am aware of the responsibilities that come with such an honour. Being a pioneer, I have to take that extra-effort, and I have to do more than expected. There was a time when racing was not recognised or seen as an accepted sport, I had to put in more effort and time into it. And look at the attitude towards the sport today. After I won the F1 title, people in India, especially those in the south of India, have become more aware about the motorsport racing. Many are now showing their interest in this sport and are coming forward, which is an appreciable act. In India, Coimbatore has produced a large number of racing drivers. Maybe that I was born and brought up here, I was so biased to motorsport from even my childhood. The people here are so supportive and encouraging.

Would you like to talk about your comeback to F1 which happened after a gap of five years?

I was very excited about getting the second opportunity. To be driving in front of the Indian crowd was an added bonus. I am driving for a small team now. It is going to be difficult to make a come back, but I believe in myself and believe that I have the ability to do better than what I have been doing.

Has the sports changed a lot in the past few years?

Not really. If you see lap times they are similar to what I was accustomed to. Over all I have a good feeling. My goal is to maximise what I have and get the best out of the car and if I can do that I am doing the best I guess. The reaction from fans have been phenomenal. The Tata Group, too, has been supportive of me all along.

What are the organisations or charities that you are currently involved with?

I am a trustee of the PSG Ganga Naidu and Sons Charities, formed by my great grandfather Sriman Ganga Naidu in Coimbatore some time in 1947. Through the organisation we provide free education and free residential support for girl students, especially those belonging to the backward and the underprivileged sections of the society. It is presently has a strength of about 2500 students, 175 staff and an orphanage of about 60 children.

Misappropriate Behaviour Started Fights?

RIOTS \\ Days after the Muzaffarnagar riot, which left 44 people dead and several more injured, people in the affected area started revealing the allegedly ‘real incident’ which triggered the violence. According to media reports, the riots allegedly started when a 17-year-old minor was stalked and harassed by a Muslim boy identified as Shahnawaz, a resident of Kawal. Later the girl’s brother and a relative allegedly beat Shahnawaz to death. Soon, a group of Muslims allegedly attacked and killed the duo within 45 minutes of Shahnawaz’s death on August 27, 2013. Allegedly, the deaths triggered a riot between Hindu Jats and Muslims. When Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav met the alleged girl she reportedly handed him a letter revealing her tale. Earlier it was reported that a controversial video, which showed how a group of men killing a boy, triggered violence in Muzaffarnagar. The video, which was circulated on social networking sites, reportedly was shot in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government submitted a report in the Supreme Court stating about the total loss that the state faced due to the riot. The report says, “There are 26,909 stranded persons in Muzaffarnagar and 14,920 in Shamli. In these incidents, people from both communities were killed and several people were injured. In these incidents, the families of such persons were targeted who were residing in those areas in limited numbers. Their houses, places of worships were subjected to arson, damage and demolition,” added the report.

Faces Racism Slurs

CONTEST \\ In September, for the first time in its 100 year pageant history, America’s top beauty queen was a woman of Indian origin. Nina Davuluri, a 24-year-old from New York, who wants to be a doctor, performed a traditional Bollywood-style dance during the contest. Even before the contest ended there were a plethora of “hate tweets” circulating about the contestant. “I have to rise above that,” Davuluri said at a news conference. “I always viewed myself as first and foremost American.” While many American saluted Davuluri’s victory, some online commenters described the beauty queen, a practicing Hindu, as an Arab, and one that looks like a terrorist. One user said, It’s called Miss America. Get outta here New York you look like a terrorist. #bye #americanforamerica. A person who apparently tweeted from Kansas wrote, Are you serious??!!! The Arab wins??!!! This is miss AMERICA!!! Not miss Arabia!!! Miss Kansas is in the army and is a country girl!!! C'mon. Others, like Jezebel, a feminist blog, denounced the comments, saying racists are being racist because Miss America isn't white. This world is so ignorant. #MissAmerica Indian or not had every right to gain the title of MissAmerica. This is why I want to leave America! chimed in @Cjlovebug. Davuluri competed on the platform issue of “celebrating diversity through cultural competency. I’m thankful there are children watching at home who can finally relate to a new Miss America.” The University of Michigan honor student will also serve as the official national goodwill ambassador for the children’s charity group Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Along with her much-prized title, Davuluri won a $50,000 scholarship to pursue her education.

UN Report States Use of Chemical Weapons

CIVIL WAR// The revolt against the regime led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad continued in September 2013 with world leaders gearing up to step into the civil war. Experts looking into the matter believe that several reasons led to the situation especially droughts, mismanagement of natural resources by President Assad, who subsidised water-intensive crops such as wheat and cotton farming and promoted bad irrigation techniques. The drought allegedly displaced 1.5mn people within Syria. Added to that, thousands of displaced immigrants travelled to Syria for safety after the Arab Springs. In this year allegedly 75 per cent of farmers suffered crop failure and moved to the cities. They all moved into urban areas that were already experiencing economic insecurity due to an influx of Iraqi and Palestinian refugees. As the civil war escalated, United Nations report on the usage of chemical weapons alarmed most of the developed nations of the world and talks were on to “disarm” Syria of its chemical weapons. Leaders in United States and Russia said they will try to revive an international peace process to end Syria’s civil war but only if they can reach agreement to disarm the Assad regime of chemical weapons. US secretary of state John Kerry described as “constructive” talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva as the two countries seek agreement around disarming Syria of chemical weapons. United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Kerry said the US and Russia were “working hard to find common ground” to resolve the wider civil war in Syria. “President Obama is deeply committed to a negotiated solution with respect to Syria, and we know that Russia is likewise,” the US’s most senior diplomat said at the UN headquarters in Geneva. The two foreign ministers agreed to meet on the fringes of a meeting of the United Nations general assembly at the end of the month to revive peace conference talks on Syria known as Geneva Two. Kerry and the foreign ministers of France and Britain also said they would not tolerate delays in dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons and would press ahead with a strong resolution in the United Nations Security Council to enforce the disarmament plan. “It is extremely important that there are no evasions,” William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said at a joint news conference.

Referring to President Bashar al-Assad, Kerry said, “If Assad fails in time to abide by the terms of this framework, make no mistake, we are all agreed—and that includes Russia—that there will be consequences.” A major question, however, is whether the United States and its allies are pursuing the short-term goal of dismantling Syria’s chemical arsenal at the expense of their ultimate objective of pressing Assad to relinquish power. The schedule for eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons is ambitious: all of them are to be eliminated by the middle of 2014. And experts say that meeting such a schedule will depend heavily on the cooperation of the Assad government.

Laurent Fabius, the French Foreign Minister, insisted that there was no contradiction between the disarmament goal and the longer-term diplomatic objective, because removing Assad’s chemical arsenal would undermine his military position and would eventually smooth the way for his ouster.

“It will be a weakening of his position,” Fabius said.

Asaram Bapu Allegedly Attacked Minor

ASSAULT // India’s self-styled godman Asaram Bapu managed to land himself in yet another controversy when a 16-year-old girl student of his gurukul alleged that he sexually assaulted her at his Jodhpur ashram in Rajasthan early in September. The godman had purportedly threatened to eliminate the victim’s parents if she revealed the incident to anyone. A zero FIR accusing the spiritual leader of rape (as defined under the new definition), molestation, illegal confinement, criminal intimidation and acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman under the IPC and sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and certain offences under the Juvenile Justice Act was registered. The judicial custody of self-styled godman Asaram has been extended for another 14 days in the sexual assault case against him. Asaram will have to stay in jail as the hearing on his bail plea has also been adjourned. The hearing on his bail plea will be argued by lawyer Ram Jethmalani. In mid-September a lower court had rejected the bail of 72-year-old Asaram.