Tabla de contenidos para September 19, 2016 en Open Magazine

editor@openmedianetwork.in LETTER OF THE WEEK It is heartening to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign policy build Indian bridges with the West instead of alienating it (‘Who Will Shape the Asian Century’, 12 September 2016). India has the requisite potential to become a global power. It just needs that dynamic push to attract the right kind of international attention and for the right reasons. While China might make news for the mass production of various products, one cannot discount Indian talent, which should enable us to catch up with our neighbour. Additionally, what works in our favour is our political system, especially the fact that we are not a dictatorship. Sadly, over the years, governments have not focused on creating good infrastructure and a large enough human resource base. But…

WHEN MUKESH AMBANI complains of ‘dadagiri’, a term that conveys anything from benign bullying to oppressive overlordship, it could easily be taken as his sense of humour, the sort of self-parody he once displayed his mastery over while talking gleefully about which parts of Reliance his younger brother Anil got after the empire was split a decade ago. As owner-in-chief of India’s dominant polyester-to-gas-gusher conglomerate, he likes to wear his clout lightly in public. But this time, the elder Ambani is supremely serious, his company is new to the market he is addressing, and the laughter he has evoked is for the wit of what he wants dadagiri overthrown by—‘datagiri’. By that, Ambani implies an all-out disruption of the country’s telecom sector that his launch of Jio services intends to…

YOU HAVE HEARD this before, this angst-heavy indictment: fascists are at India Gate, all set to savage our secular soul. You have heard this whenever India was under attack, not by jihadists or other such angry men born out of historical injustices or social wretchedness (God bless them), but by the tridentwielding soldiers of Hindutva, the most militant religious fascist formation, we have been told. And, persistently, we have been shamed by the moral minority for our silence, and therefore our tacit collaboration—our conscience irredeemably frozen— with the stormtroopers in saffron. From the italicised pamphlets of wretched-India retailers and the dry, custom-made, Stalinist verbiage of apparatchiks, it has been an unsolicited flow of wisdom, reminding us of our culpability in legitimising the fascists of Weimar India—and look what we have…

LAST MONTH EcoWatch released an article fiercely titled ‘Fast Fashion is the Second Dirtiest Industry In the World, Next to Big Oil’. Needless to say, it caused a stir. Quoting directly from earth-friendly fashion designer Eileen Fisher’s speech while accepting the 2015 Riverkeeper award for her efforts towards a more sustainable future, the headline may have shocked people, but mainly because reports showed it was most likely true. Though more than 70 per cent of Fisher’s company’s clothing is made from organic and recycled fabrics, the head of the multi-million dollar company stood at the podium and apologetically lamented not being able to do more. She spoke repeatedly of how the fashion industry as a whole needed an upheaval in order to make the kind of impact required to reverse…

INDIA CONQUERED: BRITAIN’S RAJ AND THE CHAOS OF EMPIRE Jon Wilson Simon & Schuster 432 Pages | Rs 799 In 1816, Pandoorang Dhamdhere—scion of a wealthy Maratha family—embarked on a pilgrimage to Varanasi. Escorted by an armed guard, Pandoorang took a leisurely amble through central India before reaching the holy city. The trip made a hefty dent on his balances, leaving him almost half a million rupees in debt. Pandoorang insisted that all wings of his family should help repay the debt, including the branch led by his deceased brother’s grandson—a boy named Moro Raghunath. A protracted legal battle followed. By 1924, Pandoorang managed to convince the East India Company’s courts in Pune—a city under their control only since 1818—to order Raghunath to pay Rs 245,762 and to place him…

Jailhouse Rock It’s not even Diwali yet, but fireworks are on their way. There’s a good chance things could get ugly very soon between Nikhil Advani and the folks at Yash Raj Films. According to word on the street, both producers are currently developing projects that are sounding suspiciously similar. Advani is producing Lucknow Central with his former assistant Ranjit Tiwari as director and with Farhan Akhtar and Kriti Sanon slated to star in it. The film was announced recently, and those in the know reveal that it’s the story of jail inmates in Lucknow who start a music band. The script is said to be based on true incidents. At YRF, meanwhile, Daawat-e-Ishq writer-director Habib Faisal reportedly got a green light from Aditya Chopra for his script about—you guessed…

SACHIN TENDULKAR IS a Member of Parliament now, and, presumably, as a representative of the public (as against someone adulated by them, which is a one-way relationship), he is expected to weigh in on issues concerning society. Or at least do so in areas that he has some expertise, like sports. What have you heard from him in Parliament as the BCCI is being radically forced to reform by the Supreme Court? Nothing, and that is because you don’t see him often in the Rajya Sabha. His attendance is 8 per cent. You would think that is a number hard to beat, but there is someone even less interested. The actress Rekha clocked just 5 per cent attendance, which probably means a couple of days every session, just enough to…

IN THE TWENTY-FIRST century humans are likely to make a serious bid for immortality. Struggling against old age and death will merely carry on the time-honoured fight against famine and disease, and manifest the supreme value of contemporary culture: the worth of human life. We are constantly reminded that human life is the most sacred thing in the universe. Everybody says this: teachers in schools, politicians in parliaments, lawyers in courts and actors on theatre stages. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN after the Second World War—which is perhaps the closest thing we have to a global constitution—categorically states that ‘the right to life’ is humanity’s most fundamental value. Since death clearly violates this right, death is a crime against humanity, and we ought to wage…

ALARGE PICTURE window in TV Mohandas Pai’s office on Millers Road in Bangalore frames a canopy of trees. Plush brown sofas, a television flashing stock market news, framed memorabilia and Pai’s imposing frame sheathed in trademark rumpled kurta populate the space that one could easily mistake for just another office. This, however, is a modern approximation of the French salon through which many statesmen, thought leaders and plutocrats have walked, no doubt bracing for Pai’s brand of political incorrectitude. It has been a rallying point for some of India’s best startup ideas—business plans that withstood Pai’s savage criticism and were rewarded with the financial and strategic wherewithal to make it big. Great currents of thought have flowed through this open door of possibility. This is arguably the promised land for…

JACKSON HEIGHTS, LOCATED in Queens, is where you head when you yearn for the colours, sounds and smells of home. Indians in New York travel here to catch the latest Bollywood movies, source their monthly supply of ghee and hing, to window-shop blingy fashions and to get their eyebrows threaded (not waxed). With 167 languages spoken in this one New York neighbourhood, and with streets named Little India, Little Bangladesh, Little Pakistan and Little Colombia, everyone is bound to find a corner to call their own. Author and professor Suketu Mehta wanders here to overhear snatches of Gujarati conversations, to eat a samosa, and to polish off a plate of paranthas with his hands, without being asked questions. It is also here that Mehta’s character Mahesh from his latest novella,…

KNOCKINGS AT MY HEART: UNPUBLISHED POEMS OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE Compiled and edited by Nilanjan Banerjee Illustrations by KG Subramanyan Roli Books 112 Pages | Rs 295 The image the world in general has of Rabindranath Tagore is of the venerable sage, head bowed in contemplation of eternity; the mystic and prophet, with his piercing eyes gazing into other worlds known only to the poet. The Tagore family has been central to the cultural life of Bengal. Born in Calcutta in 1861 into this wealthy and cultured nexus of poets, artists and musicians, Rabindranath, the youngest of many gifted children, became the greatest of them. It is difficult not to be awed by the magnitude of his work which encompassed poems, songs, lectures, essays and paintings, as well as the multiplicity…

THE FLARE-UP in Karnataka over the sharing of water from the Cauvery river has the markings of an annual ritual. Every year, during the scarce season, release of water to Tamil Nadu—the lower riparian state—leads to a confrontation in the state’s border districts. Viewed thus, this seems to be no more than a squabble over resources. Except that all states in peninsular India are involved in some water-sharing dispute or the other with their neighbours. There are similar fights elsewhere in the country; Punjab and Haryana have been in a running battle for water since the two states were separated 50 years ago. What is being witnessed in India is tame by global standards. Water, viewed dispassionately, is a deadly resource. If one looks at the map of the world…

The appearance of forthrightness, even vulgarity, is a useful politician’s tool. It makes him look like the common man, someone who cuts through the dishonesty and dressedup niceties of a politically correct world, and speaks his mind. It may endear you to voters, even win elections. But it has its limitations. The Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who is known to curse and swear, is a popular figure in his home country for his tough-man approach. But earlier this week, he crossed a red line. During an ASEAN summit, Duterte called US President Barack Obama a “son of a whore” at a press meet. The 71-year-old president has in the past abused the Pope, called foreign dignitaries names, but his unnecessary comments have now strained US -Philippines relations. Both Duterte and…

To call Simon Napier-Bell a ‘living legend’ is probably an understatement—as a musician, songwriter, music producer, filmmaker, pop manager and chronicler of music history, he has been at the centre of it all for five decades now. From creating big hits in the 1960s, managing The Yardbirds who later morphed into Led Zeppelin, discovering Marc Bolan who, with his band T. Rex, kick-started glam rock, and going on to make Wham! the biggest pop act of the 1980s, well… what more can you say? Actually a lot. At the age of 77, Simon is still full of energy, works around the globe—as was obvious during a recent speaking tour in India. We got the exclusive opportunity to spend a couple of days with the man and watch him enthral audiences…

BEING THE OTHER: THE MUSLIM IN INDIA Saeed Naqvi Aleph 239 Pages | Rs 599 IT IS RARE to find friends, relatives and admirers question an author to whose book launch they have been invited—because book launches in our part of the world are ‘sacred’ and questioning is akin to public shaming. This was, however, the case at the launch of Saeed Naqvi’s Being The Other: The Muslim in India, where the author was grilled by his friends and relatives, apart from adversaries. And those who were ‘deeply disappointed’ by Naqvi’s provocative positions taken in the book as well as the ‘pessimistic views’ on India’s future and Muslims’ place in it included photographer Raghu Rai, the author’s daughter and senior journalist Saba Naqvi, former diplomat turned politician Pavan K Varma,…

COMMONWEALTH Ann Patchett Bloomsbury 322 Pages | Rs 499 Ann Patchett is one of those writers about whom I often find myself saying, “Let’s give her another chance.” After all, she’s won the Orange Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award, been a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist (all for Bel Canto, a novel I could barely finish), and in 2012, Patchett was on the Time 100 list of ‘most influential people in the world’. She’s the author of seven novels, and in each, admittedly, I’ve found tremendous technical dexterity. Commonwealth, her most recent, for instance, opens with a Christening party, on a blazingly hot California afternoon, and Patchett steers her gaze through the rooms and garden, a quiet all-seeing eye, plunging the reader into the action. We are there. Watching…