Table of contents for 05 November 2018 in Open Magazine

SOME PATIENCE PLEASE Dhiraj Nayyar’s article is a much-needed corrective to the recent pessimism in some sections regarding India’s economic growth (‘Modi in the Marketplace’, October 29th, 2018). Prime Minister Modi’s efforts are only just beginning to show results. While challenges remain, let us not be hasty in our judgement. A misled public discourse will make it even more difficult for the NDA Government to push ahead with its much-needed reform programme. Jai Tripathi Dhiraj Nayyar makes a cogent argument about why one should not lose sight of the context while appraising governments. While it is perfectly democratic to be critical of a current government’s achievements, let’s not forget India is still a developing country playing catch-up not only with developed economies, but also with its formidable neighbour, China. To…

IT IS A low-key Diwali in the nation’s capital. A squeeze on black money and a perceptible slowdown in business activity, especially in the hitherto cash-rich real estate sector, seem to have dampened the festival spirit. Dinner parties around this time of the year are no longer what they used to be till very recently. The tax-man’s fear aside, there is a cash crunch all around. Otherwise, for as long as one has known, upper-crust South Delhi homes used to be abuzz with festive fare, exchanging expensive gifts, holding dinner parties where it was not unusual for tens of lakhs in cash to change hands in animated games of flush or teen patti over gourmet food and salacious gossip. For sure, Modi has played the spoilsport. An old restaurateur friend…

SPORTS WRITERS WHO had the privilege of covering Indian cricket in the 90s often reminisce about the only pitfall of reporting on Sachin Tendulkar. Writing on his genius was first a breath of fresh air, until Tendulkar’s consistency made describing it a weekly headache. “How do we say what we had said only last week, but differently?” One generation on, Virat Kohli’s portentous career has found more victims than just dumbstruck writers; in this hyperconnected world, Kohli’s 27 million Twitter followers and the wider cricket blogosphere are left more amazed than articulate at their keyboards. On October 24th in Visakhapatnam, Kohli struck yet another ODI hundred. It was his second century in four days. Fifth of the calendar year in 11 matches, where he averages 150 runs a game. And…

THE ELECTION DREW to its protracted climax in the middle of May. Voting occurred in nine excruciating phases, staggered over several weeks. Benares was among the last to go to the polls. My final week in the city was unendurable. The white skies had arrived; the afternoons burned; the river in the evenings was swampy. The atmosphere was tense with the heavy presence of commandos and intelligence agents who patrolled the streets with sniffer Alsatians. One night, returning home, I came upon a street full of policemen and journalists. The electricity had gone out and the street was under a cloak of smoky summer darkness. In the revolving blue light of a police vehicle and the halogen white of a TV camera, I saw the bloodied face of a party…

AT THE EDGE of Sukma, along a road that leads to Konta, lies a mosque. Until some years ago, locals described it as the border between government-controlled territory and ‘their’ area. This third-person plural refers to the domain of Maoists, who at one point controlled a large swathe of territory in the Bastar region of mineral-rich Chhattisgarh state. Since then, things have changed. A cemented road now connects the 75-kilometre distance, reducing travel time from an unbelievable seven-odd hours to a mere one hour. Built of square concrete blocks, the road is now virtually Maoist-proof: even if it is blown up by explosives, the destroyed portion can quickly be relaid within a couple of days. The story of this civil engineering marvel is, of course, mundane for people in most…

Shreevatsa Nevatia’s essay puts the spotlight on men who need to learn to distinguish between desire and entitlement (‘The Future of Desire’, October 29th, 2018). Thanks to the MeToo campaign, men’s objectification of women can no longer be dismissed with that old adage, ‘That’s how the cookie crumbles.’ We have internalised a dominant form of masculinity that straitjackets both men and women, and reduces women to lesser beings, worth little beyond their bodies. It’s sad that we needed a West-inspired movement to rethink our gender ideals. Fortunately, Draupadi’s rage is finally making itself manifest in popular culture, thanks to all the courageous women who have come out with their stories. But the battle will remain only half won so long as men stay out of this. Getting sexual offenders punished…

ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, not so long ago abandoned and derelict, seemed ready for the demolition squad’s hammer blows. But the Opera House’s owners, the erstwhile Maharaja and Maharani of Gondal, proved that rulers of small states can have a large heart. The Opera House now is a thriving cultural hub, with weekends booked months in advance. This column has often mentioned the Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Rani Bagh. That too was abandoned and derelict, till the Jamnalal Bajaj Trust opened its purse strings and INTACH’s Tasneem Mehta restored it to its past glory. The moral of these two stories can be expressed in that old cliché, ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’, or in its modern avatar, ‘Where there is a probated will, there is a…

THE BURDEN OF solutions to problems that are acutely felt in Delhi have to be borne by the rest of the country. With the onset of winter, the air there is becoming a predictable smokehouse and, around this time, all institutions get into an annual frenzy to somehow fix it. In earlier times, emission-spewing trucks were ordered away from the city, an odd-even scheme was introduced and managing smoke from firecrackers was given a shot last year too without much success. The recent Supreme Court order mandating the use of low-emission firecrackers and restricting their bursting to only two hours will in all probability meet an ineffectual fate. The first hurdle is one of enforceability. As an illustration, take this portion of the order: ‘The Union of India, Government of…

LEKSHMY RAJEEV (RIGHT) IS the author of Attukal Amma: The Goddess of Millions. A writer, poet and translator, she is currently working on two new collaborative books on temples—the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple and the Tirupati Venkateshwara temple. Her research covers the Brahminisation of local religious practices and appropriation of lower-caste places of worship, especially in Kerala. Executive Editor Ullekh NP speaks to her about the ongoing protests in the southern Indian state over allowing women to enter the Sabarimala temple following a Supreme Court verdict. She herself has visited the temple twice in the past. How justified do you think is the argument that the deity in Sabarimala has special rights, by the exercise of which women in the age group of 10-50 years ought to be disallowed from entering…

“Visitors want a story to tell when they return home. Part of my job is to be able to facilitate that story through photo ops and correct information” DAWAN SYIEMLIEH 26 guide at Mawlyngbna Fossil Park “My father’s generation doesn’t understand social media marketing, attractive packaging or cultural tourism. They planted Urlong tea, we help take it to the right buyers” RIBAHUN UMSONG 26 tea entrepreneur in Mawlyngot THERE IS nothing special about the school in Mawlyngot. It’s a derelict one-room building where children dutifully line up every morning to learn maths and science in Khasi, and almost no one stops to give the place a second glance. But 26-year-old Ribahun Umsong doesn’t miss the chance to point out the premises to me. Peeking out from under the…

NOBODY THINKS OF jobs—or the lack thereof—as a fiery fuse hissing along to blow up the economy. India is always short of them. That’s a given. As a crisis, it’s not terribly spectacular, evoking the glub glub glub of going under rather than the kaboom of a blast. Yet, it calls for urgency in both analysis and action, argues Raghavan Jagannathan, a senior journalist whose The Jobs Crisis in India offers an easy-to-grasp lifebuoy to keep people afloat. The severity of Indian joblessness has been in dispute. This book examines various datasets and definitions of employment to explain why it’s such a big muddle, allowing one to contend that anything from 2 per cent to over a tenth (even upto half ) of India’s workforce is in dire need of…

Bollywood’s Hidden Inspiration According to Bollywood insiders, Akshay Kumar and his Padman director R Balki have roped in not one, not two, but as many as five actresses for their next film. Based on the inspiring true story of India’s Mangalyaan space mission or the Mars Orbiter Mission of 2014, the film reportedly celebrates the role and the contribution of a team of women ISRO scientists who were instrumental in pulling off India’s first interplanetary mission. The success of Mangalyaan made Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) the world’s fourth space agency to reach Mars and India the first country to reach that planet’s orbit in its first attempt. Balki’s Paa star Vidya Balan is expected to lead the cast of the film, while Sonakshi Sinha, Radhika Apte, Taapsee Pannu and…

THERE ARE PEOPLE who believe that ‘blind faith’ is not an oxymoron. Maybe ‘reasonably’ so. That’s faith. And there are the faithful who believe that faith is compatible with reason. Religion, though, demands the blissfulness of being blind. Certainly, the Book demands it. The Book teaches submission, a suspension of reason for the sake of God. Perhaps it’s the custodians of the Book who make submission a prerequisite for the reign of God. The big irony is that the Book is a user’s manual only when it’s misread by its custodians, the scripture cops. If you are not blind, the Book is an anthology of metaphorical stories. Literature is indebted to the Book. And some writers who tapped into the stories have suffered for daring. The stories persist. That’s the…

For an elected leader, a spouse who can help project a good image of his or her leadership can be a valuable asset. A wife, for instance—most heads of states usually being male—who is glamorous and who can present a kinder face to the world even as her husband takes unpopular decisions. It is no secret that Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ wife Amruta Fadnavis aspires to such a role. She regularly features in articles, hobnobs with celebrities and attends events. Earlier this year, she was part of a music video about saving Mumbai’s Mithi River. But there is a thin line between playing this part and becoming a victim of narcissism. Amruta often appears to cross that. Recently, aboard a cruise liner, she went over to the forbidden edge…

WHEN SOMETHING I’M listening to is really powerful—when that realisation hits that this music is going to stay with me for a long time—I get a distinct feeling of upheaval. It begins in my torso, as if I’m about to vomit orchids. And then it travels, like hot mist, towards the back of my neck. Where a slight flutter resonates absently. Then come the goosebumps—though they’re not absolutely essential. Some people start crying because it’s so overwhelming. It’s a moment or two of complete blankness (the good kind). While ‘spirituality’ in the real world remains debatable, there’s no doubt that listening to music is a profound physical experience. I’ve had hundreds—maybe thousands—of such epiphanies through the years, most of them while locked away somewhere inside my home. Earphones jammed deep…

CRITIQUING A government’s foreign policy does not necessarily require one to provide an alternative foreign policy framework. But that’s the ambitious project of Bharat Karnad’s book. Karnad is well known in the Delhi seminar circuit as a strategic analyst who always makes the contra point and not often in a pleasant manner. The foreign and defence policies of the first four years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s term are the scope of this book. It is perhaps a bit hastily taken up. For as the book comes out, Modi has upended one of the key assumptions of the book, that he is reflexively submissive to the mighty power of the US and has therefore sacrificed India’s longstanding relationship with Russia and Iran. Signing the contract for the S-400 missile defence…

ONE OF THE commonest conversations endocrinologists have with their patients is about weight loss. Weight gain leads to a host of health conditions, diabetes and heart disease being the most common. It is, therefore, a doctor’s job to encourage and promote weight loss. Most patients, however, want to lose weight for cosmetic reasons. The same patients who complain about the cost of life-saving cardiac surgery happily spend much more on losing weight to improve their appearance. Traditional advice on weight loss boils down to a balanced diet with less calories. Not sexy enough? Looking for an exciting magic remedy to make you slim and attractive again? The possibilities are endless. The General Motors diet, South Beach diet, Atkins diet and Palaeo diet have all been popular at different times, but…