A SALT-AND-PEPPER PORTRAIT OF XI IDEAS AND ARGUMENTS OF ELECTION 2019 ABOUT A CHARIOT IN PREHISTORY w w w o p e n t h e m a g a z i n e c o m m a r c h 19 / r S Ranveer Singh T H E T H E M A N M A N N E R T H E M A G I C contents 25 march 2019 48 open diary second coming By Swapan Dasgupta Inspirations, adaptations or mutations? Does it matter? 18 By Bhakti Shringarpure 12 LosT & FoUnd hisTories 52 The travels of a deity By Ranjit Hoskote Freedom oF impression Indian web series and Hindi films begin to defy sexual taboos 14 By Kaveree Bamzai open essay Dye another day 56 By Sunanda K Datta-Ray sTamp oF hisTory 18 56 30 The Nizam’s postage tells the story of a Hyderabad that was already modern a hero oF oUr Time By Avantika Bhuyan The rise of Ranveer Singh is the triumph of the outsider The new sensation of Hindi cinema on the thrills and travails of his journey 63 By Divya Unny a maTTer oF LiFe 26 Dr Ambrish Mithal Women at risk The hybrid sTar In a world of ageing Khans who’ve had a particularly terrible 2018, the whispers about Ranveer Singh being the new Khan on the block are becoming louder 40 52 a moveabLe FeasT Table for one By Kaveree Bamzai By Shylashri Shankar 30 66 righT on Time noT peopLe LiKe Us Nationalism is back as a persuasive theme in this general election Ice-breaker By Rajeev Masand By PR Ramesh and Siddharth Singh 36 The gender card 40 The outrage at the Pollachi sex abuse racket gives Opposition politicians a foothold in the battle to win the trust of women, a constituency methodically cultivated by MGR and Jayalalithaa The rediscovery oF india Recent archaeological studies shed some light on 1,500 years after the collapse of the Harappan civilisation The Dhoni question By V Shoba By Madhavankutty Pillai By Aditya Iyer 64 44 gUTs & baLLs Cover photograph by Errikos Andreou/DEU: Creative Management Cover by Saurabh Singh 25 march 2019 Tune into Saturday 9:30 A.M | Sunday 1:30 P.M Apollo Hospitals and Times Now present India's first reality based medical emergency series Inspired by true events at the Apollo Emergency, showing real challenges faced by the doctors and their medical teams who are running against time, fighting odds to save lives from the brink of trauma and death It's a gripping series with a collage of emotions that make you feel life is worth fighting for open mail editor@openmedianetwork.in Editor S Prasannarajan managing Editor Pr ramesh ExEcutivE Editor ullekh nP Editor-at-largE Siddharth Singh dEPuty EditorS madhavankutty Pillai (mumbai Bureau chief), rahul Pandita, amita Shah, v Shoba (Bangalore), nandini nair crEativE dirEctor rohit chawla art dirEctor Jyoti K Singh SEnior EditorS lhendup gyatso Bhutia (mumbai), moinak mitra aSSociatE EditorS vijay K Soni (Web), Sonali acharjee, aditya iyer, Shahina KK aSSiStant Editor vipul vivek chiEf of graPhicS Saurabh Singh SEnior dESignErS anup Banerjee, veer Pal Singh Photo Editor raul irani dEPuty Photo Editor ashish Sharma aSSociatE PuBliShEr Pankaj Jayaswal national hEad-EvEntS and initiativES arpita Sachin ahuja gEnEral managErS (advErtiSing) rashmi lata Swarup, Siddhartha Basu chatterjee (West), uma Srinivasan (South) national hEad-diStriBution and SalES ajay gupta rEgional hEadS-circulation d charles (South), melvin george (West), Basab ghosh (East) hEad-Production maneesh tyagi SEnior managEr (PrE-PrESS) Sharad tailang C letter of the week C Christine Fair’s essay hit the nail on America’s tacit condoning of Pakistan’s role in terrorism in India (‘Pakistani Hubris and American Cupidity’, March 18th, 2019) As she rightly pointed out, the American press is still stuck in its false equivalence between the perpetrator and the victim And by giving in to jingoism post-Pulwama, we are only confirming the image that the Pakistan Army has constructed for itself of an India unwelcoming to anyone except Hindus Fair is correct in saying that we are only helping the Pakistani forces and making things difficult for those civilians on both sides of the border who dream of their countries differently Anyone who believes a ‘strong and befitting’ response to Pakistan after a terror attack is going to be enough to deter them is forgetting the long history on our borders and our several futile attempts at convincing the international community, especially the US, to censure our neighbour in stronger terms than mere statements and formal condemnation Unless Pakistan’s global backers realise how mistaken their geopolitical thinking remains with respect to that country, Indian military responses will not lead to any long-term, substantive change in the situation Rupa Das managEr-marKEting Priya Singh chiEf dESignEr-marKEting champak Bhattacharjee cfo anil Bisht chiEf ExEcutivE & PuBliShEr neeraja chawla all rights reserved throughout the world reproduction in any manner is prohibited Editor: S Prasannarajan Printed and published by neeraja chawla on behalf of the owner, open media network Pvt ltd Printed at thomson Press india ltd, 18-35 milestone, delhi mathura road, faridabad-121007, (haryana) Published at 4, dda commercial complex, Panchsheel Park, new delhi-110017 Ph: (011) 48500500; fax: (011) 48500599 to subscribe, Whatsapp ‘openmag’ to 9999800012 or log on to www.openthemagazine.com or call our toll free number 1800 102 7510 or email at: customercare@openmedianetwork.in for alliances, email alliances@openmedianetwork.in for advertising, email advt@openmedianetwork.in for any other queries/observations, email feedback@openmedianetwork.in Disclaimer ‘open avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing initiatives and Open takes no responsibility for the consequences of using products or services advertised in the magazine volume 11 issue 12 for the week 19-25 march 2019 total no of pages 68 lessons from pulwama Pakistan keeps meddling in India despite being overburdened with internal conflicts between Punjabis and Sindhis, ‘natives’ and Muhajjirs, Sunnis and Shias and Ahmadis, Pakhtuns and the rest, the civilian government and military, and so on (‘Seven Minutes That Changed India’, March 18th, 2019) It has always turned a blind eye to terror factories on its soil for that sole purpose Imran Khan’s promise of ‘Naya Pakistan’ is hollow since it has led to no improvement on this front The Pulwama attack only reveals that Pakistan is uninterested in mending its ways Therefore, India’s focus should be on strengthening the intelligence machinery and improving defence preparedness rather than convincing an intransigent world about Pakistan MY Shariff Prime Minister Modi’s firm and path-breaking response to the Pulwama attack is commendable We should have updated our strategic thinking long ago But better late than never Besides, our response has not only consolidated Modi’s position but has also put the Congress and the rest of the opposition on the back foot If it wishes to not worsen its position, the opposition would be well advised to refrain from its ‘bleeding-heart’ criticism However, the BJP should also stay away from overplaying its hand and exploiting the Government’s response to Pulwama for the Lok Sabha elections Our forces are not for politicking Jaideep Mittra urban mess Bibek Debroy’s column was a timely reminder about the urban explosion this country is witnessing outside the metros that hog not only the media’s attention but also the policymakers (‘Out of Town’, March 18th, 2019) India’s ‘smaller’ towns are a ticking bomb B Kappagantula coalition or crowd? The opposition remains a divided house outside TV studios (‘The Illusion of Unity’, March 18th, 2019) With nothing more than an anti-Modi polemic to unite them, it does not look likely the BJP needs to worry much in the run-up to the General Election next month Radhika Ray bottom-up innovation Given that big capitalism only leads us to crashes la 2008 and excessive centralisatisation, it’s time we gave small capitalism a chance to prove itself (‘The Illusion of Unity’, March 18th, 2019) Varni Dhaka 25 march 2019 open diary Swapan Dasgupta A crAzy trip thAt began early in the morning with a car journey from Delhi to Kurukshetra in haryana culminated late at night in Santiniketan, the rural bliss that rabindranath tagore had sought for his centre of alternative learning Alas, there is not too much of the ‘alternative’ that is in evidence at VisvaBharati these days there is of course the overpowering presence of Gurudev and the tasteful campus he created But apart from the glass mandir, the china Bhavan, the bark shawls and the conscious cultivation of the fine arts, Visva-Bharati has become yet another central university—certainly better maintained and better funded than other universities in West Bengal, but by no means a centre of the alternative education tagore had envisaged i had travelled to Santiniketan to deliver a lecture on trends in contemporary indian politics that the Ministry of human resource Development in Delhi had sponsored the present Vice-chancellor Bidyut chakrabarty had been a doctoral student at the London School of Economics during the time i was at the SOAS he quietly told me that it would be advisable to make my lecture bilingual—a mixture of English and Bengali “the students will grasp it better,” he told me in the afternoon before the lecture, i requested him to organise an interaction with students and he graciously set up a meeting with the faculty and students of the history department the students were mainly drawn from Birbhum and the neighbouring Bardhaman districts Some even spent more than two hours each commuting they had almost all studied in Bengali-medium schools 25 march 2019 and a significant number of them were first-generation literates Nearly all of them professed an interest in history and had no complaints about the curriculum their anxieties centred on two concerns First, most students and teachers felt that the semester system imposed too heavy a burden on the students and prevented them from really coming to grips with any of the papers they felt that the system encouraged superficiality and made studies almost entirely examination-oriented it also meant that students lacked the necessary space to get involved in other, extracurricular activities on the campus they were consequently denied the opportunity to make the most of student life outside the classroom tagore would have been horrified the second problem they faced was even more serious it centred on linguistic incomprehension VisvaBharati permitted undergraduate students to write their examinations in either Bengali or English that seemed fair however, it so happened that an overwhelming majority of the prescribed books were in English that posed a serious problem because the levels of English comprehension of most students were inadequate history is not a technical subject and good history writing is often dependant on the historian’s prose Unfortunately, the subtleties and nuances of English were often lost on the students A second-year undergraduate explained to me she had to read one article thrice to get a sense of it Another lamented that in the paper on Ancient rome, he was unable to fully digest Gibbon’s classic work on the decline of the roman Empire All the students expressed their gratitude to the teachers for helping out, but obviously there was a limit to how much help they could provide given the pressures of the semester system What i found particularly distressing is that this problem of language, which is central to the quality of education, is largely left unattended ideally, the university should be organising special classes— at least in the first two years of the undergraduate degree—to elevate the levels of English comprehension i would even recommend that the first year of the degree course should focus principally on improving language skills, using the most appropriate pedagogic methods there is little point demanding that the standards of English at the school level should be improved, since that would instantly become a political issue in any case, there are just not enough trained English teachers to cater to such a requirement the alternative is for the university to accomplish what, ideally, should have been done at the school level the problems the students encountered at Visva-Bharati aren’t unique Similar problems are faced all over india they affect the quality of the graduates the country is churning out they are also inextricably linked to the skill deficit the government is set on tackling But can the problem of skills be tackled separately from the larger issue of higher education? n www.openthemagazine.com openings NOTEBOOK Face the Music I t starts with a thump, a big electronic drumbeat that gets louder and quicker as the track progresses the music goes on, one ear-shattering beat after another, building into a frenetic crescendo and then the relief as the first words drop it is a speech picked up from a political rally and played over the track “i want to tell you something,” the line goes “those who find Pakistan dear they should go to Pakistan it won’t last for long it won’t last for long.” the music plays this way, beat after electronic beat, interlaced with a communally-incendiary speech there are hundreds of such tracks, made by young DJs in small indian towns, combining electronic music with political speeches these tracks will be released online, shared over phones and played during political rallies and religious festivals Very often these rallies will pass by mosques and Muslim localities and occasionally, they lead to violence Various cities have attempted to ban this sort of music from being played during festivals Last year, for instance, the Vadodara police installed their own music systems in certain communally-sensitive parts to play police-approved devotional music during Ganpati Visarjan “we aren’t mixing these songs because we want to,” says Jainendra Kumar “there is a demand for it People want to listen to it.” Kumar, who goes by the moniker DJ JK Jhansi, is one of several DJs in Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh he is in his 20s and is a part of a group of around four DJs who create these tracks “when you live in small towns and cities, you have to understand, it is not as if you get a lot of different types of work (for DJs) You make tracks that people will want to hear.” Kumar is hazy in his explanation of who exactly places the order for these tracks his only explanation is that DJs like him are asked by various local groups to create tracks “all i is find the speeches and film dialogues and play it over a track,” he says “i have no control over where it is played.” Music traditionally has rarely featured in discussions around politics in india this is perhaps understandable Mainstream music in india is really film music, operating within the straitjacket of commercial considerations But as elections near and the country goes through its usual politically polarised moment, musicians are beginning to get involved Music by young DJs like DJ JK Jhansi that feed into the communal frenzy lies at one end of the spectrum at the other end are those taking place at concerts and tours well-known musicians from the classical music world such as tM Krishna, Bollywood personalities like Vishal Dadlani, sonu Nigam and abhijeet to a host of young indie musicians are all picking sides One such indie band, the Delhi-based six member group ska Vengers, sing about a vast number of things, from the Naxalite movement to alleged human rights abuses in Manipur During the 2014 General Election, they tweaked the popular ska tune, A Message to You, Rudy by the British band the specials by bringing out their own version, Modi, A Message to You “songs are often capable of saying things in ways that the spoken word can’t,” says rahul ram in his mid-50s now, ram is a member of indian Ocean, the band widely recognised as pioneers of fusion rock in india Five years ago, around the last General Election, ram became part of another, arguably far more unique band he teamed up with a lyricist and writer (Varun Grover) and a stand-up comedian (sanjay rajoura) to form aisi taisi Democracy in this act, the trio use music and humour to hold forth on a range of political issues there are songs on tV news coverage of the recent indiaPakistan skirmish, demonetisation and ‘Babri’ dolls according to ram, the three can get away with all this because they play the role of the shakespearean fool “the fool says things that nobody else dare(s),” he says, “but that is difficult to take offence to.” Over the last two years, although the group is active online, the trio have performed few shows But they will now be embarking on an all-india ‘aazaadi tour’ have they scheduled this to coincide with the There are hundreds of tracks made by young DJs in small towns that combine electronic music with political messaging These songs will be released online, shared over phones and played at rallies 25 march 2019 Yalgaar Sanskrutik Manch, a 15-member music and theatre group, performs songs on caste discrimination and politics General Election? “[it] has more to with the schedule of our members than the schedule of the Election Commission,” says ram “the fact that it’s time for the General Election is a bonus.” the inflection point in this trend of politically assertive musicians was the 2014 elections that was when several musicians began to speak their minds openly a few even stood for elections among them, the rotund Bollywood musician, Bappi Lahiri, did not let his inexperience as a politician and the jewellery around his neck weigh him down he would break into a song every few minutes in his rallies either from his then recent hit Ooh la la from The Dirty Picture or his older hit number, I am a Disco Dancer Lahiri contested from the small west Bengal city of serampore on a BJP ticket when asked about his reason to contest an election, he told the Indian Express, “My songs have kept me alive and kicking in Bollywood for so many years i can anything with my songs and this time i want the lotus [BJP’s poll symbol] to bloom with my music.” the lotus did bloom but elsewhere, and Lahiri lost that election Musicians were also employed for symbolic purposes For the 2014 elections, the senior classical vocalist Chhannulal Mishra proposed Narendra Modi’s name for the Varanasi seat although in later interviews, he claimed he’d have been willing to propose sonia Gandhi’s name too had he been requested During this period, Dhammaraxit randive, was still a young man who had recently moved to Mumbai from his hometown of satara the son of a lok shahir (people’s poet), a type of lyrical storytelling performance in Maharashtra, randive was already interested in activism on caste and gender discrimination then 25 march 2019 in the next few years, after the assassination of the rationalists Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar, people he had interacted with as a college student, randive realised he wanted to use culture as a form of activism in 2015, randive established the troupe Yalgaar sanskrutik Manch, a 15-member-group which performs across the country, to combat right-wing fundamentalism, and caste and gender discrimination a majority of the group are Dalits but there are also several Muslim and upper-caste members they perform wherever they can, often on their own expenses, in large and small cities, and even on train journeys between venues there is a need, ranadive says, for groups such as theirs with a more leftoriented ideology to reclaim cultural spaces they are trying to give lok-shahiri a contemporary spin to address more people, using elements foreign to the form such as qawwali and guitars “You can’t preserve lok-shahiri by keeping it in a museum,” he says “You have to things to it so you take your message to a larger audience.” they have been threatened sometimes although it has never escalated into physical violence During cultural workshops that they hold, police personnel regularly show up in plain clothes as volunteers “Every time a new person joins [our group], the police will make it a point to talk to them and jot down their phone number,” he says But even that they have gotten used to, ranadive says “it is a small price to pay for responding to what’s going on in the country currently.” n By Lhendup g Bhutia www.openthemagazine.com openings PORTRAIT Boeing 737 max Crash Course With two back-to-back crashes, Boeing has a disaster on its hands E very airline death is tragic but the recent ethiopian airlines crash has quickly turned from a local accident to something with farreaching global ramifications this is the second time in five months that a Boeing 737 Max jet has crashed after the indonesian lion air crash last year there are certain similarities between the two Both involved jets less than four months old; both occurred within minutes of take-off in generally clear weather conditions the entire aviation industry is now spooked Boeing’s stock prices have plummeted Several countries soon grounded the jets, from europe to China india followed later (SpiceJet has apparently 13 of these aircraft, Jet airways has five but they were grounded earlier for non-payment of dues.) Boeing has now said it would recall all 371 of the fleet the 737 Max was Boeing’s answer to airbus’ a320 neo it was an upgrade of its previous iteration, and was supposed to be more fuel efficient, less expensive to maintain, and could fly further and cram in more passengers than its previous iterations according to the science writer Jeff Wise in Slate, Boeing swapped out the engines of the previous iteration of the 737 for new models ‘in order to accommodate the engine’s larger diameter, Boeing sAuRAbh sIngh engineers had to move the point where the plane attaches to the wing this, in turn, affected the way the plane handled Most alarmingly, it left the plane with a tendency to pitch up to prevent this, Boeing added a new autopilot system that would pitch the nose down if it looked like it was getting too high,’ he writes according to a preliminary report, Wise claims, it was this system that apparently led to the lion air crash in the long run, Boeing may come out of this disaster the company is too big to global aviation to fail More than 5,000 of the new Max planes (most of them Max 8s) have already been ordered it is not as though airline companies have other options airbus has its own schedules to meet to be able to take up such a large order But Boeing’s public image is in a shambles People have an irrational fear of dying in an aircraft crash the odds of dying in such a scenario—as several statistics show—are minimal last year for instance, there were 500 estimated deaths in passenger airline crashes (this includes the lion air crash) that is still around one fatal crash for every three million flights even in the case of this particular jet, only two aircraft among 350 of them flying an average of 3.5 trips every day since 2017, led to a crash the percentage is still minuscule aircraft are boringly safe there’s a much higher probability from dying in a road or train accident But that’s not how people calculate risk We will worry if the aircraft we are travelling on could crash, yet think little of driving a car without airbags Many americans are believed to have switched from flying to driving, for instance, in the months after the 9/11 strikes airline passenger-miles reportedly fell between 12 per cent and 20 per cent while road use surged according to the German academic Gerd Gigerenzer, who specialises in risk study, this caused an additional road death toll of 1,595 deaths in the US a year after 9/11 ‘People jump from the frying pan into the fire,’ he told The Guardian ‘We have an evolutionary tendency to fear situations in which many people die at one time this is likely a holdover from when we lived in small groups, where the death of a small part of the group could place the lives of everyone else in jeopardy.’ it will be an uphill task for Boeing to regain trust it will need to overcome the psychological hurdle of passengers even if the Max jets are cleared, if people begin to fear the aircraft and book flights according to the model of the plane, Boeing will have a massive problem to overcome n By Lhendup g Bhutia 10 25 march 2019 CINEMA EssAy compare it to the caricature of brothel keeper Maharani in Mahesh Bhatt’s Sadak in 1991 Mainstream movies still have trouble dealing with these themes As Asrani notes, “It’s not easy from an exhibition point of view as these themes don’t generate great footfalls I remember feeling gutted after Aligarh saw a thin theatrical audience on its release Yet, I was getting so many messages every day from people who had loved the film I realised they were watching the film online; as they were afraid or embarrassed to be seen in a cinema hall watching the film They were afraid of being found out.” That is the point Onir underlines, noting how unfortunate it is that mainstream movies have still not moved from the Fire moment One of the problems is that stars not want to roles that question their sexuality Kapoor & Sons was famously offered to several leads in Bollywood who refused it before it was picked up by Fawad Khan The other issue is censorship For his last film, Shab, in 2017, Onir had to battle with the Central Board of Film Certification for six months “Their complaint was that I had shown a gay couple as normal, kissing, hugging, enjoying intimacy, just as a heterosexual couple would,” he says Yet another problem is that much of gay Bollywood is still firmly in the closet Or, as Asrani, says, most of them are out of the closet within the film industry— which is a kind of closet in itself “Their 2016 changed everythIng the lIberty to love ItselF Is a vIctory and a luxury For those who grew up gay In the 80s and 90s friends know, people on the set know, and everyone protects their ‘secret’ for them If anyone lets the cat out of the bag, they just won’t get work again, and the network is thick enough to cut them off People who are out of the closet and use their celebrity to bring attention to LGBTQ issues are often ostracised from all these camps So I don’t see actors coming out for a long time They are too invested in India’s obsession with family and fear losing out on that family audience Maybe the next generation of actors will find the courage to come out right now, there might be two-three film personalities who are out and proud.” he is delighted that he is in that minuscule minority One person who hasn’t had much of a problem playing a gay character is the fearless Mathur—this is the third time he is playing a gay man, the first being in a short film written by Zoya Akhtar and the cast of ek ladki ko dekha toh aiSa laga 54 directed by Mira nair, and the second was in I Am Onir In Made in Heaven, he plays a gay man who makes peace with himself and becomes an activist for the repeal of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code Though reality outstripped events in the series, Mathur believes it was important to show the struggle because social attitudes take time to transform he believes the strong female gaze in the series brings with it a great empathy to the characterisation “I’m a huge fan of women They should be running the world,” he says, pointing to his long collaboration with Akhtar “I worked with her in her first short film, her directorial debut Luck by Chance and now her first digital series.” reema Kagti, of Made in Heaven, says the new wave of actors is hungry for good roles and has no inhibition about the character’s orientation “Arjun was everyone’s first and only choice for Karan It was the same with Vikrant Massey We were pleasantly surprised with the other smaller characters too.” After all, as a character in Made in Heaven says: “homosexuality is not new to India Intolerance is.” Perhaps the answer to it all is authenticity and more storytelling For Asrani, Aligarh was a collection of pent-up thoughts, emotions and questions that found release after 37 years of being closeted “having been in two long-term relationships, the first was eight years and the other is now 12 years old, I felt like I had insights to share with others Why is a gay man shamed for having multiple partners or for having partners belonging to different ‘classes’ and economic backgrounds? Is it because he is an immoral creature, or is it because he is lonely and is denied the same right to love as everyone else? Why does he only find intimacy in the dead of the night, with a partner who will refuse to recognise him in daylight? That’s where the poem O Beloved Moon in Aligarh stemmed from A melancholic man is calling the moon his metaphorical beloved; one that will slip into the shadows once the first rays of sun come out.” It’s time for Bollywood to shine the light on the darkness n 25 march 2019 collection Stamp of History The Nizam’s postage tells the story of a Hyderabad that was already modern By Avantika Bhuyan I f you were to look closely, each stamp reveals a layer of stories—of powerful monarchs, architectural marvels, significant events, extraordinary narratives of ordinary people and rare nuggets of information These tiny bits of perforated paper end up acting as prisms for viewing facets of history And now, at the Bikaner House, in New Delhi, 120 of these have transformed into portals, taking one back to the 1860s, when the Nizam reigned over the princely state of Hyderabad Hailing from 1869 to 1949, the stamps are not just remnants of a bygone era but also shed light on the region’s material, economic and cultural heritage At one end of the show is the rare Penny Black, issued on May 6th, 1840, the world’s first prepaid postage stamp, symbolic of Britain’s standing as a colonial power At the other end is a stamp issued by Mir osman Ali Khan, the seventh and last ruling Nizam unlike the British stamps, which featured the image of the reigning monarch, the Hyderabad ones are devoid of human figures, as it was an Islamic state “However, there is a rare example of a human figure on a Hyderabad stamp, issued to commemorate the world war 56 II It shows the back of a man entering his house and being greeted by his wife The Nizam supported the British during world war II, and this stamp celebrated the return of his troops,” says Pramod Kumar KG, managing director, eka Archiving, who has curated this exhibition It is such interesting revelations that are held within Property of a Gentleman: Stamps from the Nizam of Hyderabad’s Dominions Presented by the Gujral foundation, the show features rare philatelic wonders from Hanut ewari’s collection These once belonged to his grandfather, Nawab Iqbal Hussain Khan, the postmaster general under the seventh Nizam “There are nearly three million stamps in the ewari collection, but I have seen only the Hyderabad ones,” says Kumar As one of the premier princely states in colonial India, with a 21-gun salute and the Nizam having the unique title of ‘His exalted Highness’, Hyderabad got to print its own stamps According to Kumar, most of the artwork for these was created in england Some of the earlier ones were even printed there, a task which eventually moved to Hyderabad, though the whereabouts of the printing press are still unknown These stamps compose a picture of a progressive and modern state, where inclusiveness was celebrated for instance, the post stamp and postage featured the value in the languages spoken across the Nizam’s domain: Marathi, Telugu, english and Persian—and, after 1930s, urdu “Because human figures couldn’t be depicted, stamps began to feature architectural monuments and natural wonders from across the state,” says Kumar These included landmarks such as the Ajanta caves, the Kakatiya Gate, Chand Minar and the Madrasa of Mahmud Gawan built in 1460s Towards the start of the 20th century, modern-day institutions such as the osman Sagar reservoir appear on stamps as well to showcase the state’s innovative outlook for the Gujral foundation, this exhibition marks a foray into design and architecture “This tiny object talks about notions of power, nation-building, empire creation, and more The design holds so many details within—the value, origin, who commissioned it and the scripts in use,” says feroze Gujral, founder and director of the foundation The exhibition also features rare postal memorabilia: postcards issued by 25 march 2019 THE FIRST STAMP OF HYDERABAD, 1869 A MuLTILINGuAL STAMP, 1905 COMMEMORATIVE STAMP, 1931 THE NIzAM’S SEAL A STAMP DEPICTING INDIA’S LAST EMPEROR, KING GEORGE VI, 1937 THE SALAR JuNG FAMILY CREST the Nizam’s government with ‘Nizam’s Dominions’ inscribed across and a crescent moon at the centre; envelopes with crests of nobility such as the Salar Jung family; blind stamps, monograms; and more “Hanut has managed to build on the collection by adding allied material,” says Kumar even though bulk of it is in good condition, eka Archiving got qualified conservationists to mount it “we had to make sure the ink on the stamps didn’t fade So, we had custom-made box frames, with LeD lights, to ensure zero damage,” he says Textile conservationist Why are stamps important? Deepshikha Kalsi created the mounts for the fragile stamps using superfine, strong silken threads It is coincidental that two exhibitions about the Nizam’s Hyderabad are taking place in the capital at the moment, both adding to the narrative of the princely state one is, of course, Property of a Gentleman, and the other is Jewels of the Nizam, on view at the National Museum “Both reflect Hyderabad of the 19th and 20th century, though the jewels are slightly older than the stamps Both reflect a progressive ruler, who “First and foremost, they are the repository of the sovereignty of a country,” says Devika Kumar, former deputy director-general, philately, India Post “For instance, the stamp issued on the anniversary of the First War of Independence [in 1857] peels off like an onion The cover design shows the soldiers setting off to Meerut There is also MF Husain’s painting of Rani Laxmi Bai and the Begums of Awadh,” she says In India, one has seen several such instances of artists designing stamps “For instance, there is a series on Mahatma Gandhi, a bulk of which has been designed by a single artist, Sankha Samant He has, incidentally, done most number of stamps—300—for India Post,” says Kumar Stamps have also shone the spotlight on the country’s cultural legacy with special series on dance, music and jewels of India “We also did a series on the Himalayan peaks, and one on the anniversary of the scaling of Mt Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay It was a pleasure to have the former present for the preview of the stamp,” she says 25 march 2019 clearly knew his mind,” says Deepthi Sasidharan, director, eka Archiving, and co-author of Treasures of Deccan: Jewels of the Nizams “He ruled over a domain the total area of which was close to modern-day uK The empire stretched from coast to coast, with flourishing trade at the heart of it In such a scenario, both stamps and jewels were alternate expressions of generous revenue.” The Property of a Gentleman also showcases just how systematic the postal system was back then for instance, there were strict rules about where the post of a deceased person was to be taken “we really need to pay attention to the philatelic history of our country As our lives are changing rapidly, we are losing out on knowledge of other vital means of communication we don’t look at how information was passed earlier we have to realise stamps have great symbolic meaning—there is an emblem, a seal, imagery The beauty and the history behind them needs to be conveyed,” says Kumar n Property of a Gentleman can be viewed at the Bikaner House in Delhi, till March 24th, 2019 www.openthemagazine.com 57 bookS A Political Thriller Two former Election Commissioners detail the grandeur of the largest democratic experiment on earth By Ravi Joshi V ote is to politics what money is to economics it is the foundational transaction that grants moral authority to our elected representatives to rule and legislate on our behalf it must however be noted that elections are only a process, they are not the product they are only a means to an end it’s a mechanism devised to filter and consolidate what Rousseau called the ‘General Will’ but how effectively the elections aggregate the General Will that is so fragmented and polarised, that is uneducated and ill-informed, so poor and open to corruption—is the challenge that faces the election Commission of india from the first election till date secondly, no ruling party has ever managed to secure a clear majority of over 50 per cent votes indian elections almost invariably put political parties in power with less than 35 per cent of electoral vote, which means that 65 per cent of popular votes have gone against it such being the case, is it correct for a leader of a party that comes to power with only about one-third of popular votes to speak on behalf of 125 crore indians? Well, such are the vagaries of democracy thirdly, if winning elections at any cost, or having lost elections and then forming coalitions with parties that have no commonality of vision or programme and grabbing power, does it still represent the popular will? the distortions of our democracy raise serious questions on its viability and authenticity the constant electioneering mode of the present times has led some analysts to call the present trend as more of a ‘psephocracy’ than democracy 58 the two books by our former Chief election Commissioners (CeC) detail the grandeur of the largest democratic experiment on earth wherein about 834 million voters cast their vote in 2014 and handed over the affairs of their life to about 550 members of Lok sabha making them the ultimate arbiters of governance The Great March of Democracy, edited every voTe counTS: The STory of InDIa’S elecTIonS Navin Chawla HarperCollins 376 Pages | Rs 699 The GreaT March of DeMocracy: Seven DecaDeS of InDIa’S elecTIonS Edited by SY Quraishi Viking 320 Pages | Rs 599 by former CeC sY Quraishi presents the views of an eminent bunch of experts, most of who have either been involved in conducting elections or researching into the subject one of the most fascinating accounts is by Dr ornit shani who writes about ‘the origins of trust in india’s electoral Process’ wherein she notes the diligence and meticulousness of the Constituent Assembly secretariat that went about collecting the first electoral rolls in september 1947, well ahead of the enactment of the Constitution some of their correspondence, particularly with the border states of Bengal and Punjab during the turbulence of Partition may still be relevant now as we face the momentous and controversial task of preparing a new National Register of Citizens in Assam today their sensitivity and diligence in an era when there were no emails and every letter had to be addressed and sent back by post reflects an unparalleled commitment to ensuring the right of every indian to vote, no matter what his religion, caste or region was And, of course, there is a write-up by tN seshan, the man who put the fear of god into our politicians, and the other by Christophe Jaffrelot on him Another fascinating article is by taylor C sherman on ‘the First and Last General election in Hyderabad state’ that brings out not only the uncertainty of elections in the Nizam’s kingdom but also the conflicting nuances between the Hyderabad state Congress, the communist Andhra Mahasabha and the Majlis-e-ittehadul Muslimeen and its Razakar volunteer force, as they fell upon each other to persuade the Nizam and one another to either join or remain out of the indian 25 march 2019 about 834 million voters cast their vote in 2014 and handed over the affairs of their life to about 550 members of the lok sabha making them the ultimate arbiters of governance getty images Union there are some illuminating essays by Bhiku Parikh, somnath Chatterjee, Yogendra Yadav, sY Quraishi and of course by Milan Vaishnav who is now the best-known expert on the role of money and muscle in indian politics A rather unexplored issue is the role of women in the indian electoral system and that gets highlighted by Naina Lal Kidwai and ela R Bhat who focus on the empowerment of women through vote the other book, Every Vote Counts by Navin Chawla, on the other hand is a labour of love, love of himself one feels that the author is constantly justifying his position in the election Commission, having been elevated to the position of CeC in April 2009, in the midst of an ongoing national election, under very controversial circumstances the widespread belief that he was a Congress appointee to counter the BJP-leaning Gopalswami did sully the reputation of the election Commission at that time Goplaswami, then CeC had alleged that Chawla discharged his duties as election Commissioner in a partisan manner, seeking to further the interests of ‘one party’ and also that Chawla ‘would take breaks during crucial meetings and secretly confer with Congress party functionaries’ and therefore sought his removal of course, neither the govern25 march 2019 ment of the day (of the Congress party) nor the supreme Court agreed with Gopalswami there is an unusually long chapter on this episode with several editorials by N Ram of The Hindu annexed in support of Chawla’s position Gopalswami’s subsequent appointment as head of a Rss affiliate Vivekananda education society amply substantiated Congress’ misgivings Coming back to the book by Chawla, one must commend his tenacity in covering every aspect of the subject at hand from electoral rolls, to the introduction of ePiC (electoral Photo identity Cards), to the controversy surrounding the eVMs and the introduction of VVPAt, the rise of paid news and the new social media channels and the role of Cambridge Analytica, etcetera He also dwells at length on the power of money and the role of criminals in elections and the need for electoral reforms that have been taken up by successive election Commissioners and the determined resistance by the political class in preventing the same While almost all these subjects are covered in the book by Quraishi, there are a few new chapters on issues such as Maoist Violence and elections, and the famous J&K elections of 2008, probably the last one with a record turn-out of voters and the most free and fair elections since then, despite violence and the threats of boycott by the Hurriyat Conference Chawla’s book is an elaborate examination of all the strengths and weaknesses of not only our democratic process but also of the problems inherent in the election Commission, particularly when a Chief election Commissioner decides to undermine an election Commissioner, a plight faced by the author the excessive details of his day-to-day fighting with N Gopalswami mar the value of the book which is otherwise an exhaustive compilation on our election process and its deep -rooted faultlines the fact that Chawla soon asserted his independence by his extremely professional and efficient conduct of duties and took action against the alleged malpractices of Congress governments in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Assam did much to establish his reputation as an impartial and independent arbiter of the two books, the one edited by Quraishi stands out as a more fascinating account of our grand democratic experiment with some magical moments in its history Chawla’s book on the other hand is more like a CAG Report that gives exhaustive details of an entire institution with the whiff of a scam in the end n www.openthemagazine.com 59 books The Tamil Mind A cultural study extending from Periyar to Cho By N Kalyan Raman W e have existed as a Union of states for 70 years, but our knowledge of people and communities other than our own or outside our state of domicile is meagre even tv news anchors in delhi get it reliably wrong about ‘far-flung’ regions like the North-east or the southern parts of the country as the neo-liberal juggernaut rolls on, access is far ahead of understanding and even the uberhegemonic pan-indian intellectual discourse on these regions remains shallow and wanting Neither we have a culture of encouraging scholarship across states in this reflexively provincial milieu, Tamil Characters by historian aR venkatachalapathy, which aims to fill an important gap in our public discourse, is a welcome first step the first section ‘Political Personalities’ includes short essays describing the life and achievements of Periyar, the founder of the dravidian movement; four chief ministers of the dravidian movement who ruled tamil Nadu between 1967-2016; and two other relatively minor figures, ‘Cho’ Ramaswamy and C subramaniam it is not clear why K Kamaraj, the architect of tamil Nadu’s saurabh singh Tamil CharaCTers: PersonaliTies, PoliTiCs, CulTure AR Venkatachalapathy Pan Macmillan 340 Pages | Rs 399 social and economic development during 1954-64 and the only tamil politician to have scaled the summit of power in delhi, failed to qualify as a tamil character worth writing about the writers covered in the ‘Cultural & Literary Figures’ section range from subramania Bharati and Pudumaipithan, giants of the preindependence era, to the triumvirate of sundara Ramaswamy, Jayakanthan and ashokamitran, along with chroniclers of the subaltern life from a younger generation, Perumal Murugan and Cho dharman articles on a host of social and cultural issues pertaining to tamil Nadu over the last decade are compiled in the third and final section the essays on major writers, rich in biographical information along with presenting an overview of each writer’s oeuvre, deliver splendid value through illuminating the exciting journey of modernist literature that tamils have pursued since the early decades of the last century the reader gets a vivid idea of the men— yes, it’s an exclusive parade of men—who have ‘educated our hearts and minds’ through their works of imagination, the contexts in which they functioned, their themes and concerns it is not a coherent story, however, given the gaps and omissions in the narrative it is best to read these essays as discrete profiles emerging from a collective history strangely, the essay on iyotheethos Pandithar, a dalit icon who pioneered the political mobilisation of dalits in tamil Nadu in the last decades of the 19th century, does not cover the nuances of his politics as extensively as his tryst with Buddhism Generally, the essays make an effort to collate a lot of available information and present it through a skein of narrative frisson, but the results are often mixed the breezy narration also leads to conclusions that are not rigorously drawn, or often downright tendentious at times For instance, the author’s claim that the Congress not getting a majority in the state assembly elections in 1952 was ‘in some measure due to the dMK’s undermining of the Congress’ legitimacy’ is unrelated to known facts similar is the statement that Periyar’s support to the Congress ministry led by K Kamaraj (which, incidentally, the latter never sought) ensured ‘that the tamil Nadu unit of the party was debrahminized’ about ashokamitran writing well into his 80s, the author writes: ‘Consistency was the hallmark of ashokamitran that recognition was late in coming might explain his longevity.’ it’s the kind of faux insight that Chalapathy might have spared himself and the reader that said, this collection can be read for what it presents in an unprecedented format and style, but there is a definite need for more properly contextualised and rigorously argued accounts of tamil Nadu’s politics, culture and personalities after all, like translation, discourse too is permanently improvable n 25 march 2019 Leïla Slimani alamy Smashing Stereotypes The rise of the anti-everywoman By Rajni George I N Adèle, LeiLa slimani’s new novel in english, a beautiful Frenchtunisian journalist with a doctor husband and young son leads a teetering double life hooked on a campaign of conquests which may never satisfy her desire to be used up, 35-year-old adèle is unable to keep her hands off men encountered in bars, at work, on the street her addiction is gross and gripping: ‘she wishes she were just an object in the midst of a horde she wants to be devoured, sucked, swallowed whole.’ From fleeting trysts in alleys to drawn-out affairs, a frenzy of sensation accumulates in her little black notebook and second phone Predictably, her hunger stems from childhood abuse Like married firebrand sabina of anaïs Nin’s 1954 novel A Spy in the House of love, adèle is ruled by the erotic imperative she, too, cannot live without her husband, but must satisfy her body elsewhere, in this macabre fairytale adèle is a sort of anti-everywoman her only ambition is to be looked at; she resents and neglects her child; she considers her husband’s potential death without emotion Perversely, she sings the virtues of domestic life to her only friend, an unmarried journalist friend 25 march 2019 whose lover she sleeps with she is terrified of exile to the countryside, without access to a supply of men, where she would become ‘a body without shadow’—or her oppressive mother a cruel reprobate who leaves her 10-yearold daughter in a hotel room for days to conduct her own Parisian affair, the woman sparks adèle’s obsession with ‘bourgeois perversion’, leading her to allow men to hurt her—quite violently, in a graphic scene wherein two drug dealers are asked to enter her as vigorously as possible adèle Leila Slimani, translated by Sam Taylor Faber & Faber 209 Pages | Rs 499 French-Moroccan Leila slimani won the Prix Goncourt last year with her bestselling second novel lullaby (The Perfect Nanny in america), the powerful story of a killer nanny and her employer her urgent narration, vivid imagery and lucid prose make her accessible and compelling on depravity, class, women’s rights, and earned her international acclaim Adèle is her debut (originally published in France in 2014 as dans le Jardin de l’Ogre), awarded the Prix La Mamounia and lauded as a brave choice indeed, a female sex addict of Moroccan origin is a refreshing protagonist, as is a woman’s rejection of the modern burden of having it all, recounted by this prominent commentator on women’s rights slimani is skilled in employing the killer detail: the condom that hangs off a lover, adèle’s waking up with her head in an ashtray, the donning of polkadotted tights to arouse What is missing here, however, is depth this story has been told many times—through emma Bovary and anna Karenina, and severine in the classic housewife-turned-whore tale Belle du Jour, whose premise this book imitates and alters slimani has updated the housewife to give her an interesting job, some degree of financial independence and political awareness ethnicity, class and race inform her alienation: adèle writes about politics in tunisia (though she misses the arab spring while on a bender), and at a stultifying dinner party, the hostess speaks of Muslims, immigrants and maids with casual prejudice in her three-storey villa (how satisfying to watch adèle ignore the remarks and seduce the woman’s husband instead!) her husband, when enlightened, ‘puts his hand over her vulva, the way you might place your palm over the mouth of a child who is about to scream’, in one of several metaphors that are perhaps too obvious but which problematise the idea of the martyred cuckold While it is satisfying to smash a stereotype, one looks for more in its stead Given her skill and precedent, slimani is likely to deliver on that front in her next novel, already keenly awaited n www.openthemagazine.com 61 books The First Victim No NatioN for WomeN: reportage oN rape from iNdia, the World’s largest democracy Priyanka Dubey Understanding systemic violence against women in India By Payal Dhar W hen a book claims to be a ‘reportage on rape from the world’s largest democracy’, you know that this isn’t one you are going to curl up with on a weekend so let’s get the unpleasantries out of the way—you got it right, Priyanka Dubey’s collection of violence isn’t an easy read in fact, chances are you will end up with troubling existential questions that have no answers Rape is more than just a crime it is a particularly heinous way of reinforcing the patriarchal edifice it is a systematic manner of claiming ownership of women by men, using women as symbols of masculine honour, and establishing the power structure that underpins every system in our world, from family to nation in a country like india, we know that violence against women stems from a complex web of interconnecting power structures and is widespread according to the national crime Records bureau figures quoted in the book, a woman is raped every 15 minutes The almost-900 per cent rise in crimes against women in the past five or so years may be because more such crimes are being reported, but these are still damning numbers The stigma that sexual violence carries, along with notions of ‘honour’ and ‘purity’, means victim-shaming is an almost certain accompaniment to rape Which points to an even more unimaginable number who suffer in shame and silence There is a point when the author compares the position of women in india to a black hole: ‘no one can see these black holes because of course no light is allowed to 62 Simon and Schuster 288 Pages | Rs 399 pass through us.’ Dubey, a seasoned journalist, set out to compile this chronicle to ‘add to our collective understanding of the crisis of rape in this country’ over six years, she travelled to less-known corners of india, sometimes just a few hundred kilometres from metro cities, but places stuck in a time and space that seemed out of sync with reality in these remote areas, she sought out women, some as young as 14, who have survived rape sanctioned by society The author spoke to survivors, their families and extended communities, sometimes the police officers investigating (or hindering) their cases The cops, politicians, military personnel, and other influential and connected men in these stories all raped because they could some walked away with impunity, some were brought to book but this book isn’t about them With supporting documents like FiRs, court cases, public interest litigations, victim statements, press reports and more, the stories are based on extensive first-hand reporting and field research From politically motivated rapes in West bengal and Tripura to the corrective rapes of bundelkhand; from custodial rapes in towns just a few hours from Delhi to sex-trafficking of young girls; from sexual violence within the police force to rape as a means of reinforcing the caste hierarchy, No Nation for Women is a varied collection some of the stories will jog memories—like the badaun sisters from Uttar Pradesh and the bhagana (haryana) gang-rape case—but many others are about those who may not have been consequential enough to have sustained front-page news This collection is a first of its kind— a reportage-based non-fiction saurabh singh volume that attempts to understand systemic violence against women in india Though the number of grammatical errors and typos like wrongly spelt place names—unacceptable from such a big publisher—mar the serious nature of the subject in places The matter-of-fact report-like writing is difficult to digest—this is a subject that needs no emotional padding to unleash rage some survivors and their families have got much-needed closure from the judicial system kicking into gear, but many others have had to live with a never-ending battle for justice but either way there are no happy endings There is nothing to celebrate here n 25 march 2019 A MATTER OF LIFE Women at Risk The gender bias of diabetes m arch 8th was International women’s Day It is a reminder to pay attention to the unique but often neglected issues faced by women with diabetes “No one suspected a heart problem, she did not have chest pain and she is only 45,” says the anxious girl sitting across Dr Ambrish Mithal the table, describing the plight of her mother “why did she get a heart attack, doctor?” the lady being discussed had poorly controlled diabetes for the last 15 years she complained of stomach bloating one evening her neighbourhood physician advised antacids when the symptoms did not improve and breathlessness became evident, she went to a hospital, where tests showed evidence of a severe heart attack Fortunately, she reached in time and recovered uneventfully from her cardiac event why was heart disease not suspected earlier in this 45-yearold woman? Unlike men, women don’t usually suffer from heart disease at a young age—their risk increases only after menopause, when their oestrogen levels decline Diabetes, particularly if uncontrolled, removes the heart protection conferred by oestrogen women with diabetes have a fourfold greater risk of heart attack than women without diabetes (the risk is twofold higher in men with diabetes as compared to those without) symptoms of a heart attack in diabetes may not be typical to make matters worse, as compared to men, women with diabetes have more complications and poorer recovery after a heart attack thus, women with diabetes must undergo heart checkups periodically and take measures to protect their heart the relationship of diabetes with women starts early Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PcOs), a common hormonal condition, characterised by weight gain, irregular periods, increased facial/body hair, acne and scalp-hair loss, is common during adolescence Often girls with PcOs have borderline glucose abnormalities which can progress to full-blown diabetes Diabetes can have a major impact during pregnancy In addition to those who have pre-existing diabetes, almost 20 per cent of pregnant women develop diabetes for the first time during pregnancy (gestational diabetes), which is detected by performing an oral glucose-tolerance test Pregnancy in a woman with known diabetes should never be unplanned Perfect 25 march 2019 blood-glucose control should be achieved prior to pregnancy women with diabetes are at greater risk of high blood pressure, caesarean section, miscarriage and stillbirth Uncontrolled blood sugar in the first eight to 10 weeks of pregnancy can result in serious congenital birth defects Later in pregnancy, high blood sugar can cause problems for babies resulting in premature or difficult delivery soon after birth, children born to mothers with uncontrolled diabetes can have breathing distress and low blood sugar, both of which can be serious when they grow up, such children are likely to be obese and at greater risk of developing diabetes Mothers who have gestational diabetes are very likely to develop diabetes later in life the good news is that all these effects can be prevented by proper planning and precaution It is rare nowadays to see a problematic pregnancy in diabetes patients who receive regular care Diabetes can decrease a woman’s libido at times intercourse can be painful and sexual pleasure can be reduced, due to nerve damage and reduced blood flow some women can have fluctuations in sugar levels during their menstrual cycle and may require adjustment of medication Menopause can also have an impact on blood-sugar level women often gain weight after menopause, sleep may get affected, sexual issues may surface—and heart risks may go up hormone replacement can be considered soon after menopause in some women and may possibly have favourable effects on diabetes, but, by and large, its use is limited to those with several menopausal symptoms like flushing, night sweats, irritability and sleeplessness Genital and urinary infections are more common in women with diabetes because of high blood sugar along with reduced blood flow and weakening of the bladder muscles In addition to controlling sugar well, drinking lots of water, ensuring hygiene and not waiting for the bladder to fill before urinating are ways to protect oneself talking to the gynaecologist about right exercises and lubricants will help Lastly, depression usually accompanies diabetes Dealing with a lifelong condition increases risk of depression among all diabetics, but even more so in women In India, women are often caregivers to the whole family and tend to neglect their own health adoption of a healthy lifestyle early in life can prevent diabetes and its saurabh singh complications to a large extent It’s high time we realise that while all women are special, women with diabetes are even more so, and require special care and support n Dr Ambrish Mithal is chairman and head, Endocrinology and Diabetes Division at Medanta, The Medicity, Gurgaon www.openthemagazine.com 63 a moveable feast Table for One The pleasures of eating alone in a public space I really enjoy eating alone sometimes, and I plan to write about it, I told a friend “don’t you think it is a very peculiar thing to advocate, that too here in India?” she asked, in a tone one usually reserves for the crazies It did not strike me until then just how odd the By Shylashri Shankar concept of dining alone would sound in a country that has not yet abandoned a communal (in the dictionary sense) living mindset a country where eating together is a sign of love, of family, of social bonding with the group, and where not eating with others is a sign of caste and religious hierarchy and exclusion “There is no joy in eating alone,” said the Buddha, and that for most Indians is the definitive word on the subject eating alone conjures up an image of a solitary, frowning creature reminiscent of the Hobbesian nasty and brutish variety or of a lone wolf “We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink, for dining alone is leading the life of a lion or a wolf,” said epicurus eating with others evokes the happy rousseauian gregarious soul, the noble savage, a free sprite giddy and burbling in like-minded company Well, I am neither a Hobbesian nor a rousseauian creature, and I eat alone some of the time, by choice, and I enjoy it very much a review of Geoff dyer’s White Sands illuminated why I like doing so The reviewer said the real action in dyer’s travelogue is in the lively intercourse between dyer’s mind and the outside world For instance, dyer writes: ‘‘Polynesia’ translates as ‘many islands’, all of which you wish you were on instead of the one you actually are on.’ That wish can be transposed to situations where you eat with others all the time Families that dine together stay together is an oft-repeated phrase that fails to resonate with me a dozen family members sitting around a table groaning under the weight of wine glasses, meats, cheeses, grapes and melons, and a grandfather raising a glass to toast success or happiness under a grapevine arbour on a sunny but cool afternoon looks great on TV or in a film but to it every day no, thank you Studies, in fact, show that these days even if families sit together at the dining table, they are not dining with each other Their presence is only physical but mentally they are elsewhere—checking 64 emails and messages on their smartphones, posting pictures on Instagram, commenting on Facebook and Twitter even when we eat alone, we treat it as a secondary activity to watching TV, or cruising through social media networks The social stigma attached to eating alone makes us long for company, and when that is missing, we turn to inanimate objects like the television or the phone to provide us with the illusion of company But society is right to insist that we don’t dine alone, you may say, pointing to some studies that the elderly eat lower-calorie food and eat less when they eat alone, and males among them are more likely to experience such nutritional deficiencies as compared to women other studies state that teenagers who eat with their families regularly are less likely to be overweight or nutritionally deficient as compared to those who ate alone also, we can create memories by dining together, you say The memory created in the act of eating and experiencing flavourful dishes acquires significance when you eat with a loved one, or when others enjoy the dish too or does it? after all, you can’t taste food through someone else’s palate you can see and admire, but the experience of taste is truly your own, and truly idiosyncratic I am not advocating dining alone all the time The experience of dining alone that I am referring to involves choosing to eat with yourself as the dinner guest, and having a civilised conversation, in your mind or aloud, with yourself research has found that if you eat alone regularly, not by choice, but because you have nobody to eat with, and you feel lonely, chances are you will have a higher fat-calorie intake per meal But if you actively choose to have a solitary meal and treat yourself as an entertaining dinner companion, you are more likely to favour a healthy meal The difference lies in making that choice in a conscious fashion yet, we are afraid to it, to eat with ourselves, and commune with our thoughts Writing in 1936, Marjorie Hillis, in Live Alone and Like It: The Classic Guide for the Single Woman, puts her finger on the problem—it is hard to justify taking the effort to make meals for one We don’t value ourselves How many times have you heard statements such as ‘oh, it is just me, so I eat anything I can find in the fridge’, or ‘Why bother to cook just for one person’, and so on While it is true that after a long day in the office, the last thing you may want to is cook a fresh meal, nevertheless, it is important, I think, to make the effort eating alone by yourself may be difficult, especially for those who also live alone yet, it needn’t be as Marjorie Hillis says, ‘Too much fuss is made over the drudgery of getting three meals a day—a fairly simple process that has been mastered by all sorts of brains the world over for a good many years.’ Follow her ‘hardboiled’ advice: ‘If you come to a stretch when you have 25 march 2019 saurabh singh found love, that they pity you, and so on These fears are about how others perceive you But how you think about yourself? eating alone brings to the fore how you perceive yourself, and the value you ascribe to yourself eating alone is like travelling alone (which I like too) yes, there are times when you long for company, especially when you see happy families at adjoining tables until you realise they are wearing the same fixed expressions you have seen in those dappled courtyards around the table groaning under the weight of plump grapes, steaming meats and bowls of salad When you eat alone, you will eat less than when you eat with others, say researchers writing in the Appetite journal who studied 78 predominantly White, obese women in a weight-loss programme one reason could be that when you eat with others, the duration of the meal increases Solitary diners may eat less and spend less time at the table as for eating alone in public, that too for a woman, it is not just a societal but also a self-inflicted taboo lunch is not so bad, but dinner alone for a woman, even in cosmopolitan cities like delhi and Mumbai, is not for the faint-hearted Solo womendiners often find themselves stared at or patronised, while solo male diners are given the civil inattention that accompanies societal permission The problem is that as a woman, when you sit alone if you actively choose to have a at a table and observe your fellow guests, you are solitary meal and treat yourself perceived as lonely and actively seeking strangers to join you The same behaviour in a solo male diner is as an entertaining dinner interpreted correctly and tolerated companion, you are more likely to But by choosing to eat alone in a public space such as a restaurant, you lay claim to belonging in favour a healthy meal that space, and enhance your sense of agency By allowing social taboos to restrict our behaviour, we also lose our sense of personal agency let me list some of the pleasures of eating alone: to get all the meals and get them as inexpensively as possible one, you need not pretend to live on salads or vegan or whatever besides, make this little chore your hobby and it with an air diet you claim to follow in company; you can eat what you want nothing can be duller (both in the getting and in the eating) than Two, you don’t have to talk or make conversation or listen to uninteresting food on a drab table The trick is to have a little real someone else’s chatter (or worse still, negative chatter) Three, knowledge about food and service, to put imagination into your you can, as MFK Fisher points out, reconnect with food meals, and to organize the time you spend on them.’ It is about lay the table, use good quality china, pour yourself a glass sitting comfortably with a plate of your favourite kebabs or pasta of wine or beer or cold water, keep a vase of flowers from your or salad at a small table in your study or dining room or balcony, balcony garden, dress up, perhaps some music, light a candle or gazing at the sky or your plants or a painting even better, abantwo, arrange the food on the table or on your plate, and then sit don the tracksuit or whatever you wear at home, and dress for the down don’t get up again until the end of the meal Gaze, smell, company you want, not the solitude you have, perhaps even in a taste, savour Chew slowly, imbibe in sips Try it and see how trailing negligee and a frou-frou as recommended by Hillis you feel Perhaps you will feel like the roman epicure lucullus This solitary diner is a far cry from the sad person in Bridget who told his cook to pay special attention to the dinner when Jones’s Diary who doesn’t have a plus one Banish thoughts such he dined alone “at such times you must remember,” he said, as nobody wants to be with you, everyone else is happy and has “that lucullus dines with lucullus.” n 25 march 2019 www.openthemagazine.com 65 NOT PEOPLE LIKE US RAJEEV MASAND Ice-Breaker At the teaser launch of Karan Johar’s multi-starrer Kalank earlier this week, there was a mix of young ‘uns (Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan), middling stars (Sonakshi Sinha, Aditya Roy Kapur) and the vets (Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Dutt) Not surprisingly, all eyes—and ears—were on Madhuri and Sanjay, starring in their first movie together in some 20-odd years and after their widely reported romance ended abruptly when Sanjay was arrested in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case Both were professional, friendly even, giving practically nothing to eager reporters It’s no secret Madhuri took the role in Kalank after Sridevi, who was originally supposed to star opposite Sanjay, passed away prematurely last year Sources from the set say there was stress and anxiety among the producers the first week the two actors were supposed to shoot together But their worries were unfounded Turns out it was Madhuri who broke the ice, enquiring after Sanjay’s children and sharing photos of her own boys, setting the tone for a comfortable schedule ahead Status Update Last weekend, any doubts anyone might have had about the ‘seriousness’ of Varun Dhawan’s relationship with his childhood sweetheart Natasha Dalal were quashed when his parents David and Laali Dhawan attended the big fat Ambani wedding with Natasha The Dhawans posed for pictures with their son’s girlfriend, making it clear the pair had their blessing Varun, shooting in London for Street Dancer, skipped the celebrations but reportedly insisted that Natasha represent him According to the Bollywood grapevine, it could be a 2020 wedding for Varun and Natasha Also expected to walk around the ceremonial fire next year are Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, who friends say have zeroed in on January next year 66 Every Actor’s Bugbear A prominent actress who has become particular about the projects she chooses here because it means dividing her time between two lives just wrapped work on a new film she was shooting in spurts and gaps over the last year or so It’s inspired by an emotionally wrenching true story personal to the film’s director, and while the actress says she was instantly inclined to make the movie, it’s also true she’d been sitting on the script for months before finally picking it up to read Sources say the director sent the script soon after it was ready, but the actress was too busy At that point the film still didn’t have a producer While waiting to land her leading lady the director shopped the script around to producers and quickly found a partner in a leading outfit floated by a former studio boss The pressure to cast the film was mounting, and repeated attempts to rush the actress to read the script had failed As it often happens in these scenarios, the director— with the producer now—was putting pressure on the actress’ team for a response Her manager, who couldn’t understand what all the rush was about (she wouldn’t be the first actor to have taken months to get back about a script), decided to read the script herself before increasing the pressure on her client Subsequently, things reportedly changed Convinced it was a script the actress would be foolish to pass up, the manager reached out to her and told her she had to give it a chance The actress said she would— soon Then the manager uttered the final threat: She said the filmmakers had decided to go to another actress (her arch rival, as it turns out) if she didn’t reply immediately The actress pored over the script on her next flight and in 24 hours confirmed the film She asked for the director to be flown to the US for a meeting and the project got a ‘go’ overnight Since then she’s been a dream to work with, both the director and the producer insist But was the threat to go to the rival a cleverly planned stunt? We might never know n 25 march 2019 ... East and West, and literally shared a wall with them On one hand, for me, were the affluent beings of this cosmopolitan 25 MARCH 2019 our time I was just a kid with a dream and it came true I understand... Modi’s position but has also put the Congress and the rest of the opposition on the back foot If it wishes to not worsen its position, the opposition would be well advised to refrain from its ‘bleeding-heart’... that big capitalism only leads us to crashes la 2008 and excessive centralisatisation, it s time we gave small capitalism a chance to prove itself (‘The Illusion of Unity’, March 18th, 2019) Varni