AUGUST 18-24, 2013

FREE WITH YOUR COPY OF THE SUNDAY EXPRESS

Saranya Hegdes garlic halwa

PHOTO: DIPTI DESAI

Contents
AUGUST 18-24, 2013
VOLUME II, ISSUE 18

cover

Status Update: I am Home

A prodigal son returns to his family in Pune via Facebook

4
p6

TOP OFTHE MIND

Mini Kapoor on why we are the children of 1979

SUNDAY TALKIES
The SRK Express needs a new destination, says Shubhra Gupta p7

TECH
A lowdown on apps to book air tickets p23

Back to the Roots

Tired of the gustatory excesses of foreign food,young people in Indias metros are digging into their culinary heritage, and seeking out restaurants that evoke a taste of home

MIND GAME/ IN THE STARS

Curl up with the crossword; find out what the week holds for you p24

DOWN IN JUNGLELAND
Are exotic species always bad for the environment? p26

A FILM IS A CONVERSATION

I HAVE TO FIND ANSWERS

ITS A JUNGLE OUT THERE

Screenwriter Jaideep Sahni on words, love, writing and his new film Shuddh Desi Romance

14

On Walk the Talk, Rakeysh Mehra talks about being a Dilliwala in Mumbai

18

In Gujarat, a wildlife puzzle: is better conservation drawing animals to human habitats?

20

Printed and published by Vaidehi Thakar on behalf of The Indian Express Limited . Printed at Indian Express Press, Plot No.EL-208, TTC Industrial Area, Mahape, Navi Mumbai 400 710 and published at Express Towers, 2nd floor, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021. Editor: P Vaidyanathan Iyer * (*Responsible for selection of matter under PRB Act). 2013 The Indian Express Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in whole or part without the Publishers permission is prohibited R.N.I. NO MAHENG/2012/42380

DESIGN: Bivash Barua, Mridul, Mithun Chakraborty, Ranvir Singh AUGUST 18-24, 2013

eye

REUNION

A prodigal son returns to his family via a social network

BY ARDHRA NAIR

T THE Domales small flat in Pune, the family members are chatting in Marathi. Ankush, 24, wearing a crisp-white kurta and jeans, a large blue turban, a steel kada, and a thick beard, is the only Punjabi oddity in this Maharashtrian household. Besides his physical presence in the Domale home, Ankush is linked to the family through one more aspect: blood. Ankushs full name is Ankush Domale, a Hindu Maharashtrian born and raised in Pune, till a twist of fate landed him in Punjab and made him a Sikh. In the year 2000, when Ankush was nine, his father, Ramesh Domale, a steel factory worker, died of ill-health. The monthly widows pension of Rs 450 given to his mother, Hemalata, was the familys only income. In order to make ends meet, she had to rent out two rooms on the first floor of their house. Thus, Hemalata, Ankush, and his younger brother, Santosh, then seven years old, had to cramp themselves up in the lone room downstairs. But the loss of his father hit Ankush harder than anything else. I was very close to my father. When he died, all I wanted to do was run away. I didnt want to live in a place that reminded me of him, he says. While Ankush was close to his father, Santosh would cling to his mother, and the two brothers would often fight. He was close to mother. And that made me feel very lonely, especially after a quarrel, he says. To fight off such negative thoughts, Ankush started spending more time outside home. He was a very quiet child. Whenever we would go to a relations place, he would not leave me. We had to force him to go and play with other children. He would never wander off anywhere, and was deeply religious. Even though we are non-vegetarian, he would only eat vegetables. But his fathers death changed him completely. He started roaming around with friends and began coming home late. But he would always return, says Hemalata. Except for one evening in February 2002, when Ankush did not return. He had borrowed his uncles bike and rammed it into another vehicle. The enraged uncle beat him up. Hemalata talks of that fateful night, I was very upset. We were already reeling from financial difficulties, and then my brother came and complained about Ankush damaging his bike. In a fit of rage, I asked my son to get out, and threw at him the Rs 50 note that I was holding. But I never thought he would not return. Ankush did not have dinner at home, so he bought vada pav at a stall with the money. There, he met a Sikh truck driver, with whom he shared his story. The driver offered to drive him back home, but Ankush refused. So, the driver took him to Nanded, and left him at the Gurdwara Langar Sahib, instructing him to

STATUS UPDATE: I AM HOME

stay there for his safety. I ate and slept at the gurdwara for two days. Then, Baba Balwinder Singh, the in-charge of the shrine, gave me a white kurta and pyjama, and a 2.5-metre cloth for a pagdi. Some months later, I converted to Sikhism and baba changed my name to Gurubaj Singh, he says. Religion is not the only thing that has changed about Ankush. He speaks Punjabi fluently, and talks in Marathi with a Punjabi accent. With no regrets about his life, he misses the lush fields and butter-dipped rotis of Punjab. And when he recalls his 11 years in exile from his home, he does so with excitement. At the gurdwara, our day would start at 3 am and end late at night. I would work at the langar (common kitchen) and load sand into trucks. All this helped build my body, and even look like a Punjabi. All around me, people always talked about Punjab. I was fascinated by their tales, he says. Such was his fascination that Ankush volunteered to travel to the state with a devotee who was going there for two months. After much pestering, baba allowed me to go. Thats how I landed in Moga, a small town in Punjab, he says. There, Ankush started working at the local gurdwara under Baba Karnail Singh. Life was easy, and there was a lot to eat. I was given the task of collecting milk from all the houses and bringing it to the gurdwara. Since I was very good at my work, they began to truly accept me as one of them, he says. Ankush, too, began fully accepting his new identity. When the devotee who brought me to Moga was returning to Nanded, he offered to take me back with him, but I refused. Thankfully, Baba Karnail Singh agreed. He wanted me to study, but I was not interested. In Moga, I learnt everything, from driving tractors and trucks to catching snakes. I was also the
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

eye

ARUL HORIZON

youngest person there, says Ankush, with a sense of achievement. Meher Singh, who used to look after the langar at the Moga gurdwara, says Ankush was a child who did a mans work. He was obedient and religious. Nobody ever complained about him, says Singh. But Ankush also worked hard out of fear. I was alone and was afraid that if I didnt work, I would be asked to leave, he says. He later shifted to the nearby Khosakotla village, where he met his best friend, Harjeet. We met at the local gurdwara. After he would finish school, we would roam around together. We both watched movies and TV at his home. He was five years younger than me, and sometimes reminded me of Santosh, says Ankush. Harjeet introduced Ankush to mobile phones and Facebook. In between all of this, Ankush fell for a girl, whom he couldnt marry because he didnt have a family to ask for her hand. Did that make him feel homesick? Not even once. I was happy to be away from home even in such distressed times, he says. If Ankush never felt homesick, his family in Pune never made any serious attempt to trace him either. They didnt even lodge a missing complaint with the police. We only asked our relatives to find where he was, says his moth-

UNITED: Ankush and

Santosh Domale with their mother Hemalata (top left); Ankushs message to Santosh on Facebook

On the night of July 21, Ankush fought with someone. I couldn't sleep after the quarrel. So, I logged in to Facebook. Suddenly, it struck me that Santosh may have an account too. I typed his name and found him, says Ankush
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

er. But why did they not file a police complaint? Neither Hemalata nor Santosh give a clear answer. But fate would unite them. On the night of July 21 this year, Ankush fought with someone. I couldnt sleep after the quarrel. Through the night, it reminded me of Santosh. We used to fight all the time. So I logged in to Facebook just to pass time. Suddenly, it struck me that Santosh may have an account too, though I had been using the social network for three years. So, I typed his name and there he was. I could recognise him in his picture. I sent him a message, in which I gave my number and asked him to call me. I had tears in my eyes when I saw his profile, he says. Santosh, too, was awake that night. He had read the message at 1 am. At first, he didnt believe it. I thought it was a prank. Here was a Punjabi guy with a beard and pagdi, saying I was his brother. But then, he had also messaged in Marathi. So, I asked my mother if she could recognise him. She spotted the cut marks on his face that he had as a child. I immediately called him on the number he had given, and heard his voice for the first time in 11 years. We spoke for two hours, says Santosh, who missed Ankush a lot all these years. While Ankush had escaped from the life of struggle that visited the family after their fathers death, Santosh had to endure hardship. I had to start working at a young age, as the responsibility of running the house fell on me. My studies, thus, suffered, says Santosh, who runs a stationery shop, besides pursuing a B.Com degree. Ankush and Santosh look and speak differently one with a beard and a Punjabi drawl, the other clean-shaven and speaking Marathi and Bambaiyya Hindi, one carefree, the other serious. But they are both shy, soft-spoken and love travelling and watching movies. They now plan to support each other. He will run the shop, and I will study, says Santosh, as Ankush nods in agreement. Hemalata is disappointed that Ankush didnt study. My husband wanted him to study and get a government job. But whatever happens, happens for a reason. My son has returned as a better human being, she says. Ankushs change of religion had also jolted his mother, but she now sees it as a blessing in disguise. I was very angry at that driver who took him to the Nanded gurdwara. But then I thought of all the possibilities that could have happened. My son could have been kidnapped and forced to work in factories. Or worse still, he could have been maimed and forced to beg. So, I thank god that he landed up in a gurdwara instead, she says. For Ankush, Punjab will always be the most beautiful place I have ever seen. But Pune is home. And he doesnt want to return to the state. But he will keep two souvenirs from his 11-year journey: he will remain a Sikh and keep his new name, Gurubaj Singh.

eye

top of the mind

What is the secret of detecting world-changing events?
EMEMBER 1979? Did they who tracked events in the course of that year have a suspicion that its reverberations would continue to be felt down the decades? A recent book, Strange Rebels: 1979 and the Birth of the 21st Century, by Christian Caryl, hints that so many of our todays are well explained by events back then, primarily five: the Iranian revolution, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Margaret Thatchers election as prime minister of Britain (signaling a qualitative shift of the islands political economy and the start of change elsewhere), Pope John Paul IIs first Polish pilgrimage and Deng Xiaopings decision to kickstart economic reform in China. Like it or not, he contends, we of the twenty-first century still live in the shadow of 1979. Taken individually, each of the five markers to highlight 1979 is, especially in hindsight, of immense consequence globally barring, perhaps, Thatchers election. (In fact, perhaps, we in India need to dwell longer on the political developments of that year, as the Janata Party came apart and arguably set off the reconfiguring of the political landscape in a process that continues to this day.) But the grand claims Caryl makes so rivetingly beg the question, what is it like to actually live through and report potentially gamechanging events? How may we glean little hints about the enormity of an unfolding event? Another new book is especially illumining when read with these questions in mind. To mark its 50th anniversary, The New York Review of Books has published a sampling of reportage over the past five decades (The New York Review Abroad: Fifty Years of International Reportage). Taken together, the despatches provide a wide-angled view of how the global landscape has changed. There is Mary McCarthys report from Vietnam in 1967, profiling Saigon at a time when it appeared more of an American city, less exotic then to north Americans than, say, Florence. Skipping on to William Shawscrosss report (The Burial of Cambodia, 1984), it is a reminder of how easily we forget the price Southeast Asia paid for being caught in Cold War confrontations. To get its measure, he goes surveying a former Khmer Rouge interrogation centre in Phnom Penh that had been turned into a museum by the Vietnamese, who called it an Asian Auschwitz, all while the guerrillas were being revitalized as a form of antiVietnamese resistance. In A Letter from South Africa (1976), Nadine Gordimer, who later received the Nobel prize for literature, examines the significance of June 16 that year when schoolchildren in Soweto launched a protest against the imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. The date is now marked as Youth Day in South Africa and is a public holiday. Then, as Gordimer wrote, the end of Apartheid was a distant dream but it was clear that the regime could not hold. But who would effectively organise the resistance? Even then, it was evident whod be
THINKSTOCK

Mini Kapoor
mini.kapoor@expressindia.com

First Drafts of History

R

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 marked the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini

best suited to lead: Of the black leaders whom the vast majority of urban blacks would give a mandate to speak for them, Nelson Mandela and his lieutenants Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki, of the banned African National Congress, are still imprisoned for life on Robben Island. Did they know how long itd be another decade and a half before Mandela would be released or how effectively hed heed that mandate? Meanwhile, With the Northern Alliance by Tim Judah (November 2001) is remarkably prescient. In the aftermath of 9/11, when it was not clear how many personnel and resources the Americans were planning to commit to Afghanistan, he spent time in the north of the country, taking stock especially of the Northern Alliances strength after the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud. How would the overlap of the Wests and the Alliances anti-Taliban interests play out? If the aim of the war is to get rid of the Taliban, as opposed to trying to shut down Osama bin Ladens network and camps, and arrest him, then it would seem that the Northern Alliance members are the Wests strategic allies. The Alliance is clearly ready to fight; but it is not certain it is strong enough to take on even a weakened Taliban army spread out across the country. On the eve of the beginning of Americas retreat from this battle zone, the Karzai government clearly is not. There are many ways to read the first drafts of history, being written even as it is unfolding. One of them, recommended by a reading of The New York Review Abroad, is to imagine todays appraisals, despatched on the go, as if one were reading them five years hence. Try it.
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

The grand claims Caryl makes so rivetingly beg the question, what is it like to actually live through and report potentially gamechanging events? How may we glean little hints about the enormity of an unfolding event?
eye

sunday talkies

Shubhra Gupta
shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com

Khan in Chennai Express

Breaking Bad
Can Shah Rukh Khan go beyond self-aware send-ups and do something new?
NE TWO ka four. The math in this Shah Rukh Khan film title may be dodgy, but it seems like a signifier today: the problem with counting your pennies is that you cannot do anything else. Shah Rukhs new chug-a-lug Chennai Express, the latest enterprise from Bollywood Inc, is reportedly amassing oodles of moolah, if we are to believe all the breathless industry watchers. But it leads me to ask, is breaking box-office records all there is left for this superstar to strive for? Or has he come to such a pass that this is all he can do? For a filmstar who is just a couple of years short of that dreaded 50-year-mark, Shah Rukh Khan has never really had a terminal midlife professional crisis. Sure, hes had his early dips, when he wasnt super-starry enough. That was the time he was saying yes to directors who came to him with interesting ideas. Being okay, sort of, with playing second fiddle. But very soon in his 20-year-and-some career (in 1992, he came out in the movies via an intriguing double-bill: in a cameo in Mani Kauls Idiot, and Raj Kanwars Deewana) he knew exactly which way lay fame and riches. Not in art films which would gather acclaim but scant viewership, but in mainstream cinema which would allow him to leap around the screen, fizzing away, demanding: look at me, look at no one but me. I saw Kauls film at a festival (there was no other way to catch it, as opposed to Deewana which had a noisy theatrical release). Shah Rukhs was a tiny part but he had a face that demanded attention. He has built on that, armed with both luck and charisma, and that has been his mantra since. Kinesis of the kind Shah Rukh has is in the repertoire of a handful of stars. They blind you not with their actorly abilities, but with their propensity to throw light outward. Even when they share screen space with other stars, their outlines are sharper. In the films that have done well for him, Shah Rukhs light has been the brightest, even when he is busy rifling through his stated set of five expressions.

Kinesis of the kind Shah Rukh has is in the repertoire of a handful of stars. They blind you not with their actorly abilities, but with their propensity to throw light outward

My endeavour, as a film critic, has always been to look for that half-an-expression more. To see what this man, with a face that would definitely not launch a thousand ships even if it were to be slathered with his favourite brand of fairness cream, but adorned with a set of magnetic eyebrows, could do if it were pushed. Or if he pushed himself. Because he is now, and has been for several years, Brand SRK, all caps. Designer watches for the wealthy, mid-sized cars for the middle class, and plebian cool cool sar ka tel: hes covered all ends of the spectrum, ad-wise. The same wide swathe that sees him on TV transfers itself to theatres when his films release. In 2013, he is in the enviable position to choose what he will do. Or not. His choices have been dictated, as is evident from the films he has been doing (as a producer, he employs himself: no ones pushing him to the wall to do the films he does), by the box office. Which is not quite a bad thing, because no one is in it for nothing, especially a superstar whose fortunes affect the working of the entire industry. Do it for the money, by all means, but do your films have to be quite so desperately mined for a few laughs, so depressingly bereft of novelty? Yes, I did find some laughs in Chennai Express, but it was despite myself. Chennai Express is back to re-re-visiting the template of the 18year-old Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, that most beloved of Shah Rukh hits, which is also a monstrous albatross: how many more times can he credibly play a dulha wanting to take his dulhaniya away? Sending yourself up is a good way to do it. It means that you have a degree of self-awareness which makes the clowning somewhat palatable. But how much of it is too much? Self -mockery needs a smart parlay. Too much can tip you dangerously close to self-caricature, and thats really hard to roll back from. Time to read the right table. What is one two ka? Three. Yes, correct answer.

AUGUST 18-24, 2013

eye

COVER

Chefs, food lovers and homemakers are digging into their culinary heritage to seek out food that evokes a taste of home

Back to the

R
8 eye

ts
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

PRADIP DAS

HAUTE HOME FOOD Pali Bhavan

in Mumbai serves food that is disappearing from modern Indian dinner tables

BY V SHOBA WITH SHANTANU DAVID AND DIPTI NAGPAUL-DSOUZA

AKHI RAMANAN is on a mission to civilise. Tucking a rubber glove into the pocket of her apron, she calls out to her seven-year-old: Amma has made kozhukattai today. Come on in. Megha promptly abandons her perch in the balcony and comes into the kitchen. Made what? she asks, with a

hint of an American accent. In answer, Ramanan, 36, pops one of the steamed dumplings filled with a coconut-jaggery mixture into her mouth. Megha is impressed. Why didnt you show me how you made them? she asks. For the past four months, since the family relocated from San Francisco, California, to Chennai, where they live in an upscale gated community in Anna Nagar, Megha has watched her mother work her way through recipes published over 60 years ago.

Every day, Ramanan picks up her wellthumbed copy of Samaithu Paar (Cook and See), an iconic cookbook series by Meenakshi Ammal, widely regarded as the last word on Tamil Brahmin cooking. Inspired by The Julia Child Project, Ramanan, a former software analyst, hopes to cook over 350 of Ammals recipes in the next year or two, heritage food that she had been longing for since her move to the US as a student in 1990. Our family has had enough of European and American food.

AUGUST 18-24, 2013

eye

COVER

KASHMIRI GUCCHI VAR

INGREDIENTS Basmati rice (washed) 1 Cup Gucchi or Morels (washed and soaked in water for one hour) 100 gms Mustard oil 3 tbsp Shahi zeera Asafoetida water Dry ginger powder Kashmiri var masala tikki Salt to taste tsp 1 tbsp 1/4 tsp tbsp

METHOD Heat the oil in a handi and add the shahi zeera, gucchi and asafoetida to it. Stir for a minute. To this, add a cup of water, salt and ginger powder and cook until the gucchi becomes soft. Keep aside. Take the washed rice in a handi and

add one cup of water to it. Let it cook until the rice has the consistency of porridge. To this, add the gucchi and var masala and cook for five minutes. Check its consistency and serve hot.
COURTESY: ITC HOTELS CULINARY COLLECTION

TASHI TOBGYAL

PUTHARI CURRY
(Dry fish and seasonal vegetables curry, a Coorg speciality) INGREDIENTS Dry fish (Koyle) Beans Bitter gourd Rajma Green chilli Onion Garlic Salt Turmeric powder 1 Cup 1 Cup 1 Cup 1 Cup 6 50 gm 10 cloves To taste 1Teaspoon Chilli powder Coriander powder Zeera powder Grated coconut Zeera Ginger Coriander leaves Garam masala powder Refined Oil Kachampuli 1 Tblspoon 1 Tblspoon 1 Tblspoon Coconut Teaspoon 10 gm 1 sprig 1 Tblspoon 50 ml To taste

METHOD Broil the dry fish on a hot griddle for a while and cool it. Wash it lightly to remove dirt and sand. Cut the beans and the bitter gourd into inch-long batons and boil the rajma with little salt. Heat oil in a chatti (pot) and add the slit green chilli, sliced garlic and onion and saut till transparent texture. Add beans, bitter gourd, boiled rajma and dry fish, little salt and gently stir. Add turmeric, coriander, chilli and jeera powder and mix well. Add water to cover the ingredients

and simmer. Meanwhile grind the grated coconut, little onion, zeera, ginger and coriander leaves into fine paste. Add the garam masala powder which is a mixture of cinnamon, cloves and poppy seeds. Add the ground coconut masala and let it simmer for a while. Add the kachampuli (sour skin of a fruit from Coorg) and check the seasoning. The consistency of the curry should be thickish
COURTESY: KARAVALLI, TAJ

Now, I hunt for rare native ingredients like fresh sundakai (a berry used in tangy curries), jackfruit leaves and colocasia stems, she says. Its a sentiment that seems to waft through Indias metros, where young men and women, tired of the gustatory excesses of foreign food, are digging into their culinary heritage, taking pride in their mangodi pulao and their plantain podimas, and seeking out restaurants that evoke a taste of home. Indian food is making a big comeback, says Gautam Anand, vice-president, pre-opening services, ITC, entrusted with the role of visualising restaurant concepts for upcoming hotels of the chain. The luxury hotel chains research and development team has done exemplary work in documenting and preserving local recipes from across India. Chef Manjit Gill, corporate chef at ITC, says he still remembers how the winning recipe for the hotels famed Dum Pukht biryani, was arrived at in 1983. We collected recipes from Delhi and Lucknow, and learned from the Awadhi style of cooking. After four years of research and trials in the kitchen, the Dum Pukht biryani was born, he says. The menu at one of ITCs newest restaurants, the all-vegetarian Royal Vega at the ITC Grand Chola in Chennai, featuring rare delicacies like a pulao made with berries native to Kashmir, was born over four years in much the same way. Perceptions of Indian food as not being cool are changing, says Pooja Kamath, 27, a popular restaurant reviewer on Zomato, Bangalore. With the collapse of the joint family and its copious kitchen, diners now look to restaurants for heart-warming dishes, she says. Nostalgia is only half the story. At Esplanade, a Bengali restaurant in Bangalore,
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

10

eye

JYOTHY KARAT

DIPTI DESAI

OINAM ANAND

FLAVOURS OF INDIA (Clockwise from

above) Saranya Hegdes book on Bunt cuisine is a classic; chef Naren Thimmaiah of Taj Gateway Hotel shops for fish in Bangalore; Dzukou in Delhi serves authentic Naga cuisine; and Potbelly, a Delhi restaurant that serves food from Bihar
ing a book on Konkanastha Brahmin cuisine; last year, a book on the Franco-Indian cuisine of Pondicherry by Lourdes Tiruvanziam Louis, The Pondicherry Kitchen, showcased recipes like the mimosa muttai, a chilled, egg-based hors doeuvre named after mimosa blossoms. Saranya Hegde, a 70-year-old Mangalorean who wrote a book on Bunt cuisine, began to document the recipes of her community way back in 1978. I saw that some recipes were getting rarer to come by. People from our own community were no longer making many of the post-pregnancy dishes that have been with us for decades, says Hegde, who is flooded with requests for copies of her outof-print book. Despite authors and bloggers rooting to save Indias vast gastronomical heritage, recipes and methods continue to die out, says Michael Swamy, a Cordon Bleu chef from Mumbai. Swamy has embarked on an ambitious project with celebrity chef Vikas Khanna to document recipes, some dating back thousands of years, from across the country. The team has collected 500 recipes and hopes to bring many more between the covers of a book tentatively named The Epic. Chefs must travel and learn from home cooks to bring new interest in their menus, says Naren Thimmaiah, executive chef at The

chef Subhankar Dhar says his customer base has witnessed a slow but certain shift in the past five years. The ratio of Bengali-to-nonBengali diners has gone from 80:20 when we launched to 60:40 today, he says. There is interest among people who eat out a lot and want to discover cuisines. Ritu DSouza, a food writer from Mumbai, says there is a definite movement towards going back to our roots. Mumbai has always had food from across India, especially in the suburbs, but now some of these restaurants are opening up in south Mumbai and Bandra. Food walks are generating awareness about Goan, Sindhi and Bengali food. I recently chanced upon rare pounded spice mixes from
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

the Koli community at a shop in Dadar, and the owners told me that they had started to stock them after several requests, she says. We live in interesting times. Local food festivals in Mumbai, like the Koli food festival held every January at Versova and the KonkanMarathi jatras, have a cult following, which is growing every year. Several new cookbooks highlighting hitherto-little-known ethnic food, such as food from Karwar, and Sindhi recipes from across the border, are feeding this trend. Aais Recipes by Usha Gupte and Swati Gupte Bhise documents 70-plus recipes of the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu community of Maharashtra; Popular Prakashan is publish-

eye

11

COVER
Taj Gateway Hotel in central Bangalore, home to Karavalli, much awarded for its authentic coastal food. We replicate ageold recipes. We dont try fusion. Thats reserved for the coffee shop kitchen, says the chef from Coorg. Last year, he was in Ramassery, near Palakkad, Kerala, to unravel the secret of the Ramassery idlia special, larger idli that is cooked in mud pots and that keeps fresh for three days. He flew in a housewife from one of the four families in Ramassery that continue to make and sell this 200-year-old snack, and she set up a live idli counter at Karavalli for a few days the dish, a roaring success, was eventually subsumed into the restaurant menu. With discerning diners demanding fresh ethnic experiences, chefs at diverse standalone dining rooms, too, are going back to old ways and recipes. Chicken with bones is showing up on tables; seasonal produce is in vogue. If establishments like Kanua on the outskirts of Bangalore, with its rustic Konkani kitchen and beautiful traditional seafood curries, appeal to classic sensibilities, spunkier joints, like Potbelly rooftop cafe, a Bihari restaurant in Shahpur Jat in Delhi, draw firsttimers with inventive menus. Owned by Puja Sahu and Vivita Relan, Potbellys menu has colloquially named items like chicken/mutton ishtew, aloo McLalu chop, phish phingers, and dehati fish and chips, besides traditional Bihari fare like litti chokha and poshta dana machhli (steamed fish in poppy seed paste). Since its opening two years ago, Potbelly has become one of the hippest eateries in the city. According to Sahu, the head chef is Bihari and the entire menu is based on her mothers recipes. Another popular regional eatery in Delhi is Dzukou, which serves authentic Naga cuisine, with emphasis on pork. A number of dishes are smoked, whether as curries or in marinations like anishi or smoked yam leaves, a common Naga preparation. These are served in shallow teak bowls with sticky, glutinous rice. Given that Nagaland is home to the Raja Mirchi, the worlds hottest chili, most dishes are highly spiced. Karen, the owner, says, About 80 per cent of our clients are non-Naga diners who want to explore this palate. Other notable regional restaurants in the area include Yeti, a Himalayan restaurant which serves Sikkimese, Nepalese and Bhutanese food. Commercial success doesnt always come easy for such ventures. Anurag Talwar, a 32-year-old businessman and sushi enthusiast from Gurgaon, who eats out at least four times a week, says he goes to regional restaurants and food festivals only if assured of playful food. Restaurant food cannot be only about hanging on to an era. It should have an element of surprise. Ill go to a Bengali restaurant the day it serves me a raw fish dish, or at least, makes a curry look fabulous, he says. In Mumbai, Jiggs Kalra is readying to launch his latest brand of restaurants, Masala Library, that

PHOTOS: TASHI TOBGYAL

TASTEMAKERS The ITC R&D kitchen in

Delhi does extensive research on Indian food; a Tibetan thali (left) at Yeti, Delhi
year, with sepia-toned interiors and select dishes from Maharashtrian, Hyderabadi and Punjabi cuisines. Our clientele comprises working professionals who value dishes that are made well and may be vanishing from the Indian dinner table, Sanghani says. The menu features refreshing preparations like tandoori shakarkand (sweet potatoes crusted with pepper, herbs and chilly flakes and baked in a clay oven), bhareli vaangi (a Maharashtrian-style stuffed baby eggplant roasted in a clay oven and tossed in a tangy peanut gravy) and kaddhu khatta meetha (red pumpkin cooked with raw mango and chillies). Sunnys, a popular Euro-Italian fine dining restaurant in Bangalore, recently opened a smaller place, serving Sindhi and Mudaliar food. The menu, just like the customers, is a curious mix: fiery coconut-laden red curries from south India and delicate dishes like daag mein gosht and Sindhi kadhi, all recipes from owners Arjun Sajnani and Vivek Ubhayakars family kitchens. It isnt enough to popularise and glamorise ethnic food in Indias cities, says Savita Uday, who runs a cultural NGO, Buda Folklore, in Honnavar, north Karnataka. Uday uses tribals and locals as resource persons to engage with Bangaloreans about native ingredients and recipes. Between her and her mother, a cultural activist and author, they have revived over 300 buttermilkbased native drinks, and dozens of healthy steamed sweets from the region. It is when you take note of native food that the natives themselves see value in it, she says. Ramanan agrees. When I went to my village near Kumbakonam, I serendipitously learned about a sort of layered sweet with a jaggery-mango filling that our ancestors used to make for journeys. No one makes it anymore, but I thank god the recipe is still around, she says. Chennai isnt Kumbakonam, but when Ramanan breaks through the layers of this pastry from the past, she knows she is digging into her culinary history, and shaping her daughters future.
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

just might woo the likes of Talwar welltravelled young Indians accustomed to best ingredients and ever-new presentation. Kalras son Zoravar, who heads the project, says, We are still serving Indian food the way we did 30 years ago. We need to change that and make it contemporary. Masala Library will use molecular gastronomy and foreign ingredients to enhance Indian flavours. In pav bhaji, for instance, the green peas will be replaced by balls of pea essence, creating an unexpected burst of flavour. The restaurant, located in the Bandra-Kurla complex, will open in September. Anjan Chatterjee of Oh! Calcutta and Sweet Bengal says it wasnt always easy going for regional chefs. The regional food market, he says, was like Bollywood, where dialogues and songs are so often in Punjabi that people from other parts of India as well as the world have made that language and culture synonymous with India. When Chatterjee opened Mumbais first Bengali restaurant in 1990, he was storming the bastion of tandoori chicken, dal makhni and naans. An instant success, Oh! Calcutta set a trend for the industry that has since seen several mid-to-highend regional restaurants. Mishali Sanghanis is a similar story. Unhappy with the oily fare passed off as Indian cuisine, the co-owner of Pali Village Cafe, Mumbai, was keen to launch a restaurant that would offer authentic home-style food. Pali Bhavan, located in the hip Pali Naka neighbourhood of Bandra, opened last

12

eye

speaking for myself

Mera Wala Green
When a sophisticated art form like Kathakali is cheerfully appropriated by commercials and movies

Amulya Gopalakrishnan
amulya.gopalakrishnan@expressindia.com

ILM: CHENNAI Express. Song: Kashmir main, tu Kanyakumari. Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone jig their way into a green field, surrounded by Kathakali performers of every type. Theres a brief flash of Puli Kali, the tiger folk dance of north Kerala, followed by a few seconds of leaping, lithe Kalaripayattu artists. The splendid decorated elephants of Keralas temple festivals line the background. Im not sure, but there may even have been a Theyyam figure flitting across the scene Theyyam, which is not performance as much as a wondrous spiritual channelling, has been drafted in to provide some southern razzle-dazzle. Chennai Express is, of course, too goofy a movie to offend most people. But still, I nudged my mother, who had dozed by my side through the movie, to take in the scene. As a former practitioner and lifelong rasika, she is genuinely pained every time Kathakali is plucked out of context and commodified or used as gratuitous image which tends to happen pretty often. In her view, Kathakali is the sadhana of a lifetime. A performer starts as a child, his body is disciplined and made over. He refines each familiar role over the years. Even the costume and makeup process takes several hours, a time that becomes a passage to another time and place. A red cloth is first tied around the actors face, as the rice-paper frame is pasted on and in those quiet, solemn hours, he is transformed into the character. The face paint is meant to signify archetypal characters, and heighten the shades of facial emotion. Green is used for heroic characters, red and black for more complicated, vigorous men like Duryodhana and Ravana, a bearded red for the really despicable ones like Dusshasana, and so on. Kathakali characters dont speak, but the music and poetry, the language of gesture and footwork, and expression and costume make it an utterly immersive experience. After Kathakali broke out of traditional patronage structures in the last 50 years, it gained a wider audience in Kerala and outside. It usually works with librettos adapted from the Mahabharata and the Puranas. There have also been some interesting experiments, including The Killing of Hitler as early as the 1940s which the poet Vallathol helped create. Shakespeare has been adapted often, as has Goethes Faust. Of course, purists have bridled at these attempts, arguing that newness should come from within the tradition, and plays like Karnashapatham have done exactly that. There have also been wonder-

The Kathakali image has been used by advertising firms to sell all kinds of products. These appropriations are not about Kathakali, the magnificent art form it is, but about the arresting spectacle it makes

ful avant-garde explorations, including Maya Raos blend of Kathakalis physical language and Mantos dark materials. But on the other hand, Asif Currimbhoys 1961 play, The Dumb Dancer, deliberately ignored the liveliness of the art, and used the Kathakali performers silence and exotic appearance to explore ideas of madness and reality. In recent years, the Kathakali image has been picked up by advertising firms to sell all kinds of diverse things. Theres a 7UP ad, where a Kathakali figure offers a girl a soda and bursts into irrepressible bhangra. There was once an Asian Paints ad, where the heroic Paccha character falls down a building, right into a woman trilling mera wala green!. It has been used as background colour in Bollywood songs and beauty pageants. It was used in a Channel [V] promo, as a mudra became the channel logo. It was used to sell liquid whitener for clothes, in a commercial that played on the frothy white of the dancers skirt. These appropriations are not about Kathakali, the many-layered, magnificent art form it is, but purely about the arresting spectacle it makes. In one of its standout passages, Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things captured the grandeur of the art and pity of its trivialisation. She writes about the Kathakali man: He can fly you across whole worlds in minutes, he can stop for hours to examine a wilting leaf. Or play with a sleeping monkeys tail. He can turn effortlessly from the carnage of war into the felicity of a woman washing her hair in a mountain stream. From the crafty ebullience of a rakshasa with a new idea into a gossipy Malayali with a scandal to spread. In the novel, the Kathakali image is stamped on bottles of Paradise Pickles, and becomes a visual stand-in for Kerala. The Kathakali man performs an abbreviated travesty of his art for tourists, and becomes a bit of regional flavour. I dont share my mothers outrage at every instance of dumb appropriation. But occasionally, its worth thinking about what someone steeped in a certain context feels when things they sincerely value are toyed with. Recently, the US brand Victorias Secret created controversy by using a native American headdress, Urban Outfitters got into trouble for its line of Navajo hipster panties. These may seem like harmless borrowings to most of us, but its important to make the effort of empathy, to imagine how they appear to someone who takes them seriously.

AUGUST 18-24, 2013

eye

13

INTERVIEW

I send SMSes to myself in the middle of the night

Screenwriter Jaideep Sahni on his upcoming movie, Shuddh Desi Romance, and why he wants to get out of the language jail

DILIP KAGDA

BY HARNEET SINGH Why the gap of four years after Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year? I write when the subject grabs me. Ive written just seven-odd films in 13 years. I was working on an idea for Shimit (Amin) but Shuddh Desi Romance finished earlier. I see a movie as a conversation with my community. I cannot be bothered about release dates and peer pressure while writing. The starting point is always an interesting subject that makes you curious enough to want to dig into it, and then to share it with others. How do you interpret the title, Shuddh Desi Romance? Theres a bit of a mischief in it. The syllabus of relationships in our society is such that we are told that first this happens and then that happens; there is a shuddh or an approved way of being in love; there is a right kind of love and a wrong kind. In reality, our hearts are completely out of syllabus. Like the lyrics, Pyaar ko pyaar hi rehne do, koi naam naa do, from a song in Khamoshi. Somehow, this outof-syllabus part does not find a place in our films. Most relationship films that we make are not about relationships. In the last 10-15 years, when nobody was looking, the rules of love changed. What observations about love and youth prompted you to write your first romantic film? Before this film, my engagement with romance was limited only to three verses while writing songs like Maaeri (for the band Euphoria) or O re piya (for Aaja Nachle). I was involved only for days, sometimes hours, but I realised that a lot of what we show in films wasnt real. The people that we see on the roads are rarely seen in our films. Ive often wondered why people dont eat in films, or why dont they even go to the toilet. So I wanted to write about these people and their relationships. Its always the characters and their world that attracts the writer in me. Iss mein anthropology waali baat nahin hai, bas writers curiosity waali baat hai. So what has been your big takeaway about love? Is todays generation about hooking up or falling in love? I think for the previous generations, the concept of love was pretty monochromatic everything was included in a common thing called love. There were fewer choices and means to express, but now this so-called egg of love has split. For this generation, attraction is different from love; dating is different from love; commitment is different from love; marriage is different from love. Now people hook up, and spend a lot of time just talking about attraction. In our time, if you
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

The people that we see on the roads are rarely seen in our films. Ive often wondered why people dont eat in films, or why they dont they even go to the toilet
said that you were attracted to a girl but were not sure if it was love, you would be deemed shallow. Todays boys and girls spend a lot of time thinking about what being in a relationship entails Am I in love? Am I really in love? Am I ready to take it to the next level? Now that Im with him/her, am I done for life? Can I do better? When we have these kind of youngsters in our society which is fairly hypocritical, it is quite funny. In todays India, where tradition and modernity coexist, the youth and society are constantly rubbing against each other. So how free is our youth? This dynamic is very interesting.

meaning of love, attraction and commitment. They are not about obstacles, they are about the journey. I dont even know if its a romantic film, Ive treated it as a film about relationships. As a writer, you always try to search for what is the truth for your characters.

Tell me about your writing process are you a fast writer, or are you a slow, research geek? Im a fast writer but I write infrequently. Sometimes, I dont write for months. Unlike a lot of my writer friends, I dont have withdrawal if I dont write. I send SMSes to myself in the middle of the night. The writing depends on the subject, like I wrote Chak De! India in two to three quick bursts but I travelled a lot for the film. Khosla Ka Ghosla came from my personal experience, so it needed very little research. As a writer, what is that one thing you always try to get right in your films? I like to get out of what I call the language jail. As a Hindi film writer, I wish I could write in Tamil, Oriya or Naga, but I cant, so I try and dabble with different dialects to get out of the language jail. For Company, I experimented with Bambaiya Hindi; in Chak De! India, we made Lal sir speak in incorrect Hindi. Mujhe language ke slang mein maza aata hai. I like to travel to the place where my characters belong to. Thodi hawa khao, thodi mitti khao, ganne ka juice peeo, kissi ki moped pe baith jao all these are perks of being a screenwriter, I dont see this as research. Since you also write songs, are there any favourite words or expressions that you always end up using? Im not aware of this, but there are certain words that I vowed I would never use which Ive started using. For example, I never wanted to use words like mohabbat, gaal, zulfein. They were overused, so I started with Ganda hai par dhanda hai yeh. Over time, Ive come to realise that it was not the fault of the words but the fault of the people who used them in such a banal fashion. These days, my agenda is to preserve words that are going out of circulation. I want to get them back. Give an example of such a word. The word, gaflat. In the song Show me your jalwa (Aaja Nachle), I used an expression, teri chhaukein, teri daalein. Sometimes I get scared that some words will just get lost, so I want to use them. Which songs are you the most happy with? Maaeri re, Ganda hai par dhanda hai yeh, O re piya, Johnny Gaddars title track, Haule haule (Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi) and Pankhon Ko (Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year).

For a love story to connect, it has to offer a new definition of love. In Band Baaja Baaraat, the hero says, Tere bina kissi cheez mein mauj nahin hai; in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, he says, Tum sahi nahin ho, mujhse alag ho. What new definition of love have you offered in Shuddh Desi Romance? In this film, Im trying to say, Let people say what they want, but if you feel you are right in your heart, then you are right. Its very simple in your heart, you always know whether this relationship is right or wrong; whether this person is right or wrong; whether the people who judge you are right or wrong. It is believed that the bigger the obstacle/conflict in love, the greater the love story. In our films, weve had obstacles in the form of parents, richpoor divide, religion, etc. For todays generation, what is the big obstacle in love? I dont know. When I was writing Chak De! India, I was writing about sportspersons and they had to play, so it became a sports film. Similarly, when I was writing about organised crime in Company, it was about gangsters, so it came to be regarded as a gangster film. But I was just following the characters and their worlds. Im not motivated to write if you tell me to write a horror or an action film. It leaves me untouched when you tell me that in a story, somebody is a hero and somebody a villain. In Shuddh Desi Romance, Im just following three people Raghu, Gayatri and Tara, who are trying to find for themselves the

eye

15

ANNIVERSARY

COURTESY: CHEMOULD ARCHIVES

Work of Art
As it completes 50 years, a look back at how Gallery Chemould in Mumbai consolidated its position as the champion of new media
BY SANKHAYAN GHOSH

CONVERSATION with Shireen Gandhy is briefly interrupted when a visitor enters her office in south Mumbai. A collector from her countless acquaintances in the citys art circles, he is here to invite Gandhy for an upcoming show of his to be held in another gallery. Had it been the 70s or 80s, when the gallery was run by her parents Kekoo and Khorshed, the show would have likely been hosted in Chemould itself. My parents would allow a lot of these little things in the gallery. If a friend wanted to showcase some paintings, the gallery would be open for them. They werent strict. As a result, a lot of okay artists would come and go, says Gandhy, as she explains the difference in the way her parents and she ran the gallery. While Shireens clinical, professional approach has been markedly different from that of her large-hearted parents, what binds them together is the overarching position Chemould commands in contemporary Indian art in the 50 years of its existence. One of the oldest commercial art galleries

in the country, Gallery Chemould grew organically out of the frame-manufacturing business run by Kekoo. In 1963, Kekoo established the gallery on the first floor of the Jehangir Art Gallery, holding exhibitions there until 2007, when it moved to its current premises on Prescott Road. It became a primary force in Indian art, playing the role of facilitators to contemporary art practices. It also become a starting point in the gallery-artist synergy, building infrastructure for the commercial art market of the future. We played the role of tastemakers. There were artists at one end and collectors at the other and the gallery fed them both, says Gandhy. A gallerys history is intertwined with that of its artists, and for Chemould, it spans a few generations. From the Progressives of the early 60s like MF Husain and SH Raza to inter-disciplinary artists of the ilk of Vivan Sundaram and Atul Dodiya to more contemporary ones such as Jitish Kallat, Chemoulds list engages some of the brightest talents of the Indian art world. In 1969, Husain had an ambitious plan for his show 21 Years of Painting, to be held at the gallery. He wanted a car to be brought into the

gallery space and Kekoo obliged. Imagine bringing a car into a gallery in the 60s. It was a big expense and they were not making money out of it," says Gandhy. Husain had promised the couple that he would do his next show with them, an unwritten understanding that galleries and artists used to share before hardbound contracts came into the picture, but he later opted for its rival Pundole Art Gallery, started around the same time. Those days, the concept of a stable was still not strong, and artists often showed off-gallery. But in this case, Husain was a little deceitful, she says. Much later, her mother wrote a critical letter to Husain after his controversial portrayal of Indira Gandhi as goddess Durga. The letter will appear in a book that Jerry Pinto is writing on
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

16

eye

PRASHANT NADKAR

TALENT POOL (Clockwise from top, far left)

Husain and Bal Chhabda at the formers 1969 retrospective show; Kekoo Gandhy; Atul Dodiya; Shireen Gandhy
than a gallery. All shows wouldnt sell, one show would fund the other. We werent living like kings, but we were making ends meet, Gandhy says. Dodiya remembers his student days when he would visit the gallery to meet a friend, attend an exhibition or simply to chat with the couple. Kekoo would treat an art student like anyone else. He was always warm, honest and friendly, he says. One of the gallerys most important artists, he first participated in a group exhibition comprising 17 painters in 1988. The inaugural exhibition at the gallerys new space in 2007, Shri Khakhar Prasanna was also done by Dodiya. A panoply of Andy Warholesque busts of Bhupen Khakhar, it was a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the artist. Chemould was a seedbed for art across India. During Kekoos time, it was a platform for

Kekoo and Khorshed. While Gandhys business acumen has sharpened the gallerys operational skills, profits have never been the sole driver. Artist Atul Dodiya remembers an event before his solo show at Kolkatas CIMA art gallery. Gandhy was so impressed by his work that she organised a 10-day show in Mumbai, just so that people would get the chance to see them before they went on sale in Kolkata. Through such initiatives, Gallery Chemould, situated then at the heart of Kala Ghoda, Mumbais art district, became the nodal point of people and ideas, a cultural hotspot for art enthusiasts of the city. Just like its founder, who was a socialist with strong political views, Chemould was much more
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

social thoughts and ideas. It was always more than a gallery, a place for political activism," says art critic Ranjit Hoskote. It was towards the end of the 80s that the gallery started changing its stance. After completing higher studies on art administration in London, Gandhy took over from her father in 1989, instilling in the gallery professional dynamism and what she calls, a little more form and direction. Anticipating the herald of the new media in art, she shifted the gallerys focus to emerging contemporary artists. I was looking at the work of younger artists and installation art and slowly, the gallery began to find its own language, she says. The clash of old and new would result in losing one of its most treasured artists, SH Raza, who was getting increasingly critical of the new media work. Gandhy remembers a show in the late 90s, one of performance artist Pushpamala Ns early works, that triggered one such debate with Raza over its artistic validity. Raza had a certain old-school sensibility, an aesthetic for the abstract. He thought the artist was talented but confused, but I was interested in where she was going. New media was a new sensibility altogether, Gandhy says. In Raza, the gallery lost its biggest star-artist, who would bail it out during financial crises, but she decided not to compromise. Chemoulds emergence as an important breeding ground for new, contemporary artists coincided with the shift in Indian art in the early 90s, with the arrival of inter-disciplinary artists. Noted artists from the generation, including Shilpa Gupta, are all represented by the gallery. The first body of installation and video from India was shown at the gallery in the 90s. Chemould has constantly pushed the envelope for experimental art. From Rumanna Hussain, to Atul and Anju Dodiya, I have seen some of my favourite shows here, says Gupta. As it completes 50 years, the gallery will roll out a series of shows that mark its focus. Titled Aesthetic Bind, the exhibitions curated by noted critic Geeta Kapur, will start next month and run through spring 2014. The first exhibition, Subject of Death, starts on September 2 and will celebrate the spirit of the late Bhupen Khakhar, an artist strongly aligned with the gallery. While works of Khakhar are being borrowed from his estate to form the centrepiece of the show, the rest will be a curated collection of new works by artists like Anju Dodiya and others. Citizen Artist, the second show, will bring together works that emerge from the contours of urban life: Pushpamala N, Gupta, Jitish Kallat are a part of the show, along with Delhi-based Raqs media collective and last years Skoda award winner CAMP, that made the Radia tape artwork. The third show, Phantomata, on moving images, include artists like Tushar Joag and Sudarshan Shetty. The fourth, Cabinet Closet Wanderkammer, features Atul Dodiya and delves into the curiosity of the artistic mind, while the fifth, Floating World, centres on the ethereal, with artists such as Nilima Sheikh, Reena Kallat and Shakuntala Kulkarni.

COURTESY: CHEMOULD ARCHIVES

eye

17

WALK THE TALK

I have to find answers

In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7s Walk the Talk, director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra talks about being a Dilliwallah in Bollywood, taking risks and proposing to veteran actor Waheeda Rehman. Excerpts:
I am at Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi University with one of Indias most famous filmmakers. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, welcome to Walk the Talk. Welcome back to your college. Absolutely. What fun! So tell me, a Dilliwalah in Bollywood. There are not many of your type. Actually, I didnt plan it. I just kept doing what one had to do and one day, I found myself on the directors chair. Like any middle-class Indian, (I wanted) to find a job, contribute to the family income and keep going. But (I) got into advertising. That led me to filmmaking. Tell me about this rediscovery of Delhi by Hindi cinema. In fact, discovery of Delhi there has been so little of Delhi in the past and now, you cant make a film without it. Its basically the social, economic and cultural evolvement (sic) of Delhi. Whenever places in the world evolve, they start attracting various things. Delhi was always a very political place. It did not extend its warmth to other sectors. Were you disappointed by the way Delhi-6 did? It was a complex and interesting film. I was heartbroken. It was declared a flop and I could not take it. It was a complex film, but I didnt make it because it was complex. I made it because there is this crisis in me and I have to reflect that to the world. Ive grown up in Delhi-6 and there was this thing about HinduMuslim enmity. Ive never understood the concept of God, never understood ki mandir todke uspe masjid bana diya, masjid todke vaapas mandir banao (Demolish a temple to build a mosque, demolish that to build back a temple). And whatever is my own crisis, I have to find answers, make a movie about that. Thats the only way I can find out for myself. In many ways, the music and lyrics were the sutradhar in Rang De Basanti (RDB). And I think your friend Prasoon (Joshi, lyricist) was involved there. Absolutely. Masti ki pathshala, Khoon chala, Rang de basanti, Luka chhuppi... they were the soul of the film, the voice. Right from day one, I was very clear, the sound of the film has to be more poetry than song-song. And it has to be the voice... (For me,) it was Sahir Ludhianvi. You are a great fan of Sahir Ludhianvi... I realised late in life that whatever songs Ive
liked, grown up listening to, all belong to him.

Very few of us remember Har fiqr ko dhuein mein udata chala gaya... Unka ek sher hai (Theres a couplet of his), Bahut dino se hai mashkala siyasat ka/Jab jawaan ho bachche toh qatl ho jaaye. That became the inspiration for writing RDB. Since time immemorial, this is the tragedy of politics. That as your children grow into youth, they get killed. And thats what we saw in (the) Mandal Commission. Thats what I observed when the MiGs were crashing. Basically, you cannot suppress the spirit of sacrifice... So this led to RDB? This led to RDB. This college led to RDB. We used to hang out here and talk about changing the world, changing India. We would say, Saare politicians ko line mein khada karke goli maar denge (We will line the politicians up and shoot them). We will enter Parliament. Being typical middle-class Indians, everybody went about their jobs. Aur desh ko bhool gaye hum. Kyunki apni yaad aa gayi. (We forgot about the nation, because we remembered ourselves.) It was around RDB that your gang came into being Aamir Khan, Prasoon,

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra? AR Rahman and Waheeda Rehman, the gang leader. At our annual Screen awards, one year, she was the jury chairperson. I have to escort the chairperson to the stage. As we were climbing the rickety staircase, she gave me her arm and I said,I can now tell my grandchildren that I had Waheeda Rehman on my arm. She said,I am 67. I said, Doesnt matter.You could be 97.You are Waheeda Rehman. I actually proposed to her, you know. Oh, you did? Yeah! I said, You know if... will you marry me? And she laughed. I am totally in love with her; not with the persona but with the person. What is it that you find so fascinating about her? I think its her cinema. Its the choices she made in life. If I look at 10 films I love, or that have had an impact on me whether it is Pyaasa, Kagaz ke Phool, Mujhe Jeene Do or Guide, Reshma aur Shera I didnt go because Waheeda Rehman was there. But years later, I realised how much impact she has made with her performances. That means those were the choices she made. It didnt happen to her by accident. To me, she was the first Muslim film actor who insisted on not changing her name. That part of her personality gets extended to her work. These are the people who inspired me, the people who, when I got an opportunity to work with, made so much difference to my life. Whether it was Waheedaji, Rahman, the way they go about their work, it is worship for them. And heres a Delhi boy who has never gone to film school, saw a camera for the first time on a shoot Ive never assisted anybody this is my film school. With every film, Im learning. So, when I make Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (BMB) today, it feels like Ive finished my first year of film school. And now Im ready to go to the second year and understand more.

Ive never assisted anybody. With every film, Im learning. So, when I make Bhaag Milkha Bhaag today, it feels like my first year of film school
eye

For BMB, you didnt think of Aamir? I did think of Aamir. And we did test a lot of Milkha Singhs all over the world.But my instinct took me to Farhan (Akhtar). What was the thing that told you its him? Ek androoni awaaz hoti hai (Theres an inner
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

18

TASHI TOBGYAL

voice) that tells you something if you can shut off the noise around you. I started relating to it.

For a nafees Urduwala to become a hotblooded Sardar, its a turnaround. No, it just goes out to say that theres no Sardar and no Urduwala. We are all the same. We divide ourselves in the name of religion, caste, creed, surnames. Everybody is just human and if you are a little gora (fair), its because of the pigmentation of your skin and the weather. I noticed theres a little bit of Sikh prayer and scriptures, even in RDB. Spiritualism has always fascinated me. BMB was more about healing than about an athlete. So the beginning of the film is when he loses a race... So was an entire generation of Punjabis. Bengalis also, Punjabis, in particular. Absolutely. Ive never understood Partition. One day, you draw a line of hatred and you say, now this is one country, that is one country. But that doesnt mean you cannot interact. We have to grow up. Look at Europe. The number of wars France and Germany have fought... Now they are fighting on the football field. The end of the film is a healing process because when Milkha turns, he sees his childhood smiling and running with him. It was a lost childhood. Like (those of) the children of the Holocaust, the Rwanda genocide or the Apartheid. Whenever theyre oppressed, people have come out and set the pace for generations to come. The government of India should have set
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

up a memorial for the killing of Sikhs in 1984. Now we are fighting with a gurdwara setting up a memorial.You have to apply closure instead of being defensive. Sorry is the most meaningful and misused of expressions in the English language. At times, you say sorry when you really don't mean it. But to mean sorry, its the greatest virtue, because youre offering your ego on a platter. Are you going to continue staying close to young people? Because, in many ways, BMB is also a film about young people. It is for my 12-year-old son and my 13-and-ahalf-year-old daughter. To tell them its not about the facilities or the Nike shoes youre wearing or the laptop you have. Its about something which is inside you and unless you have that passion, you will not do it. Look at Milkha Singh. He didnt have his mother and father, he saw their massacre in front of his eyes; he didnt have shoes to wear, food to eat, stayed in a refugee camp, picked up a knife, became a thief. How does he become a worldbeater? When Vedant saw it, he was quiet for a day. He is a squash player, India ranking (in the) under-12 (category). He convinced his coach, and took all his friends, 30 of them, to see the film. Since then, I see a little more respect in my sons eyes for me. I hope it is clear that its not just about the facilities. I hope he remembers that for a while. Youre looking at some historicals or classical musicians and things like that? There is a part of me that believes in mythology; which wants to explore romance. When we make the movie, well discover what romance is, and how illogical it is. The way it has been fed to us that there is great sacrifice in not get-

ting the girl you loved, its none of that. Hamari training bahut convoluted hui hai (Our trainings been very convoluted). This lifetime will be about getting out of everything that has been taught to us.

I knew you were a risk-taker.You even persuaded Amitabh Bachchan to grow his goatee. What happened? Nothing, he resisted. We do resist change. Especially with a persona like his... And you were just a boy at that point. I would want to believe that Im a boy right now. Yeah, he resisted because I think he was so caught up in his image. All our actors are victims of that. Thats how the economics start working. The moment you try and transform yourself, people reject you, they spit you out. So when we gave him a goatee, there was resistance. But I insisted. I said this is it, its a deal-breaker. For Aks? On small things like this, I used to say dealbreaker. And it always used to work. But credit to him, he listened to you. Oh, complete credit. He painstakingly learned how to grow a beard. Now, that has become the image. So the next time I work with him, the first thing will be to shave off the beard. Rakeysh Mehra, risk-taker, keep doing more of it. I dont know whether to accept the risk-taker tag, but it feels good. Thank you very much.
Transcribed by Rajkrishnan Menon. For the full interview, visit www.indianexpress.com

eye

19

SPOTTED

ITS A JUNGLE OUT THERE

In Gujarat, animals and birds are increasingly sighted near human habitats
PHOTOS JAVED RAJA TEXT GOPAL KATESHIYA & LAKSHMI AJAY

LOOK WHOS HERE: (Clockwise from top) An Asiatic lion crosses a road near Amreli district;
this monsoon, black bucks were spotted in a village 28 km from the Gujarat capital; wild asses wander in the fields of Patdi, near Ahmedabad; and flamingos in Juhapura, Ahmedabad

FLOCK OF lesser flamingos descends on a pool of dirty water in Juhapura, Ahmedabad, their crimson-smeared white wings striking against the muddy brown of the sewage water. This rare migratory bird, which flies to Gujarat every winter from Central Asia, is spotted regularly in this colony. Chandola lake, in a lower middle-class neighbourhood of Ahmedabad, is another birder's paradise bang in the middle of urban squalor, with cormorants, painted storks and spoonbills making it their home. In the Gujarat capital, and indeed in other parts of the state, many animals seem to be straying close to human habitats, posing a wildlife conundrum: is it better conservation that is pushing them to cities? For instance, according to a 2010 census of Asiatic lions, there were 411 lions in the Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, the only natural habitat of the Asiatic lion (PanAUGUST 18-24, 2013

20

eye

thera leo persica), spread Ramesh, deputy conservator over 1,412 square kilomeof forest of Gir West division. tres. But forest officers Similarly, the numbers believe that the big cats now of the Indian wild ass (Equus roam in an area covering hemionus khur), locally more than 1,800 sq km, called khar or ghudkhar, had spread over four districts of once been reduced to a few Junagadh, Amreli, Porbandar hundreds. The 2010 census and Bhavnagar (known as placed their numbers at the Gir protected area). A 4,038. Their protected habisignificant portion of this is tat is the Wild Ass Sanctuary revenue land (land under in the Little Rann of Kutch, the collectorate, meant for over 200 km north-west of use by people). In fact, a few Ahmedabad. Groups of up to lion prides have settled as 40 wild asses wandering in far away as 80 km from the agricultural fields in DhranGujarat, say wildlife experts, has a rich diversity border of eastern Gir forests, gadhra, Lakhtar and Patdi in Bhavnagar. Lions roam of habitats and a history of humans coexisting with talukas of Surendranagar, almost every day in my manbordering the sanctuary, is a animals, with the local culture deeply invested in common sight. Many of the go orchard. I believe they wildlife conservation khars have settled in bushes come here in search of water near my farm for more than and prey, says Sardarsinh 10 years. They dont fear human beings anyChauhan, a farmer of Lusava Gir village in reduced to a smaller area due to habitat loss more and they can graze on crops even in the Talala taluka, bordering Gir West forests. and hunting. Now that their population is day, says Jayesh Vegda, a farmer of Vana vilForest officers say there are other reagrowing (the last three censuses have shown lage in Lakhtar taluka. sons for the lions to step out of the jungle. a rise in numbers), they are recapturing their Cereal crops are the most preferred feed Historically, Asiatic lions were found as far lost territory. This is the reason they are seen of this shy herbivore. Due to the nuisance of away as Iran and parts of Europe but were near human settlements, says Kasuladev
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

eye

21

SPOTTED

THIS LAND IS MY LAND: Black bucks in

Kanjari village are a common sight; (below) a flock of spoonbills near Chandola Lake in Ahmedabad

Lions roam almost every day in my mango orchard. I believe they come here in search of water and prey, says Sardarsinh Chauhan, a farmer of Lusava Gir village bordering Gir West forests
the khar, farmers had stopped growing cereals in this region many years ago, says Vegda, who owns 20 bighas of land and mainly grows cotton. Forest officers say it's common for wild asses to move out of the forest. Nearly a decade ago, large groups of wild asses moved to faraway places in search of food and water during droughts. Since those were available, they settled in those areas, says Jesing Chaudhary, district forest officer at the Wild Ass Sanctuary. Some wild asses are found as far away as Nal Sarovar in Ahmedabad district, some 40 km from the sanctuary. In the past, the species was spread across a much larger geographical area. So, this can be called their natural dispersal for the second time, says Chaudhary. While most environmental activists believe that expanding human settlements are swallowing up animal habitats, wildlife expert Bharat Jethwa believes that good conservation practices can also be a reason why wild animals are being spotted near cities. This is a unique phenomenon of Gujarat. While in other areas you hear of elephants and leopards straying close to human settlements and sometimes attacking people, very rarely do you spot a wild ass or a lion doing that in Gujarat. These are large endemic species characteristic of a particular region. The wild ass is endemic to the Rann of Kutch and the Asiatic lions are found in Gir and nowhere else in India. Increasingly, it looks like wild animals do not mind human presence. This is indicative of the rise in the number of lions and wild asses due to good conservation measures, he says. The support from people in the regions of Kutch, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar for conservation has helped further. Gujarat, says Jethwa, has a rich diversity of habitats and a history of humans coexisting with wildlife, with the local culture deeply invested in wildlife conservation. There is hardly any retaliatory killing of wild animals here. Since they dont get maimed by people when they stray near cities, they come more often, he says.
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

22

eye

SPOTLIGHT

FREE

Drawtopia , Windows Phone

If you love puzzle games, you will like Drawtopia.The objective is simple: draw lines on the screen to guide the ball towards the target.The obstacles make this challenging and collecting bonus stars further raises the difficulty level.This game is good for exercising your grey cells.

TECH

TAP TO FLY
A lowdown on apps to book air tickets
BY PRANAY PARAB

HE NUMBER of flyers is increasing and with it, the need for apps that help you book tickets with just a few taps on the touchscreen of your smartphone. Of course, one can book tickets through browsers on phones and tablets, but the experience is not half as smooth as using an app.

Expedia
iOS, Android
Expedia is a website that helps users book hotels and flights across the world. Their app is optimised for phones (both hotel and flight bookings) and works well only for hotel bookings on tablets. The app does a good job of finding hotels around you. It shows your location on a map and finds nearby hotels. The hotels are shown with fares, pictures and user ratings, but some of the information is not up-to-date. Booking flights is also a smooth experience. Before booking, it searches the internet for changes in price. While reviewing, a flight to Dubai became cheaper by Rs 700 just before booking. However, prices can increase too. they frequently take. You can even put some routes on watch, and the app will send you a notification whenever a better deal is available for it. Another good feature is that you can search for flights without specifying the location. Just tap the button called Explore on the search screen and you will see a map of the world with cheapest fares of flights to popular destinations.

Cleartrip
Free iOS,Android, BlackBerry,Windows Phone
Cleartrip is a popular website for booking flights, known for its clean interface and the absence of unnecessary promotional offers. Available on iOS and Android, Cleartrips app is easy to use and does not take up much space on your device. It can use your location to select the source city, thus eliminating one step from the booking process. So, select your destination and date, and you are ready to book. The app also shows a list of popular destinations from the source city, and can save your booking information (including credit card details) to further speed up the process. The only hitch is that the app is available only on phones, there is no tablet version.

MakeMyTrip
iOS, Android, Blackberry
MakeMyTrip is among Indias most popular booking portals and its app lets you book flights, hotels, buses and even holiday packages. It is available on all popular smartphone platforms, but does not have a tablet-optimised version. Although the interface should not present any problems to users, it is not as goodlooking as the apps mentioned above. It has all essential features like saving booking information, routes, etc. The home screen has a tab for deals such as cashback, discounts on hotel bookings, etc. Though useful at times, it is annoying for those who are not interested in these offers. Having said that, this app lets you book tickets with minimum fuss.

Skyscanner
Free, Rs 110 (ad-free) iOS, Android, Windows Phone
Skyscanner is a great app for those who are tired of using low-resolution apps on tablets. This app was tested on the iPad and the experience was excellent. The default screen asks you to search for flights, and shows popular international destinations in a neat box on the left. It uses your location to determine cities on that list, and shows the cheapest flight to that destination too. The search option works as expected, with a neat animation (a flight sliding from 0 to 100 per cent). It shows flight options in the bar chart format, making it easy for users to determine which dates have the cheapest flights. The booking process is fairly straightforward and users can save booking information and flights
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

23

mind games
The first worldwide bridge contest, The Epson Simultaneous Pairs, took place on Saturday, June 14, 1986. Organised by Jos Damiani of France, who was about to become president of the World Bridge Federation, the format was a single session 24-board game conducted throughout the world on the same day at approximately the same time everywhere. This meant, of course, that some areas of the world, mostly in Asia and the South Pacific, the game was being played in the early morning hours. All contestants played the same hands, and everyone received a booklet containing analyses by Omar Sharif at the conclusion of the session. The game was scored by Instant Matchpoints with 100 as top and 1,200 as average. The matchpoints were instant because they were predetermined based on play at an earlier tournament. Players from 80 countries participated in the contest. To illustrate the international flavour of the tournament, this hand played in the 1990 event won a prize for declarer Ehsan Abbasi, and for K Suri who reported it in Karachis Daily Star. Dlr: South; Vul: None NORTH : 9 4 : Q 7 4 : J 9 8 : A K 10 8 5 SOUTH : A K Q 3 : K 9 8 : A K : Q J 9 6 Abbasi opened a normal 2NT as South, and North, spurning exploration in his desire for a good pairs score, jumped straight to 6NT. When dummy went down, South could not have been overjoyed. The club slam is easy, because declarer can draw trumps, discard a heart on the spade Queen and lose only to the Ace of hearts. By contrast, 6NT looks shaky with 11 tricks on top, and no obvious way to get the 12th. However, as the cards lie, Easts diamond holding will always make life unjustly easy for South. The full hand: NORTH : 9 4 : Q 7 4 : J 9 8 : A K 10 8 5

CROSSWORD

1917

WEST : 8 6 : 6 5 3

SOUTH : 7 6 5 4 3 2 : A K Q 3 : 4 3 : K 9 8 : A K : Q J 9 6

EAST : J 10 7 5 2 : A J 10 2 : Q 10 : 7 2

Abbasi won the spade opening and cashed a diamond, on which East played the interesting 10. He then crossed to dummy by playing the club Jack to the King, and led a low heart. East could have given up the fight by taking the Ace and conceding two heart tricks to South, but he understandably, if optimistically, played low instead to set up two heart winners in hand. That was his death sentence. Abbasi cashed the diamond King, felling the Queen and cashed all his clubs and the diamond Jack, making 10 tricks in all. East now wished that he had taken the heart Ace. Forced to come down to three cards, he had the unenviable choice either of throwing the heart Ace away or of keeping only two spades. In either case, declarer had the remaining tricks, 1,020 points and a 100 p.c. score on the hand. Your problem for the week: Dlr: South; Vul: None NORTH : 8 7 6 : 8 6 : 5 4 3 2 : K Q J 5 SOUTH : A KJ : A Q 9 : K 7 : A 10 6 4 2

A simple auction saw South open 2NT and North raise to 3NT. How would you play to make nine tricks on a club lead?

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD
QUICK CLUES ACROSS 1 Accosts 5 Sedates 9 Sunni 10 Avalanche 11 Shares 12 Get a rise 14 Inert 15 Road tests 18 Gyroscope 20 Aisle 22 Snatched 24 Aerobe 26 Attaining 27 Spans 28 Surfers 29 Eastern DOWN 1 Assisting 2 Concave 3 Stilettos 4 Scan 5 Shamefaced 6 Diana 7 Tactics 8 Siege 13 Cryogenics 16 Traverses 17 Stevenson 19 Reactor 21 Storage 22 Scabs 23 Clive 25 Ogre CRYPTIC CLUES ACROSS 1 Capital 5 Classed 9 Adore 10 Forgiving 11 Thrown 12 Once more 14 Simon 15 Upcountry 18 Shemozzle 20 Infra 22 Bleached 24 Cocoon 26 Undertone 27 Ad-men 28 Badgers 29 Extends DOWN 1 Chartists 2 Program 3 Tae kwon do 4 Life 5 Chronicles 6 Anise 7 Spin out 8 Dogie 13 Guzzlepots 16 Unisonant 17 Yearnings 19 Emended 21 Footman 22 Blurb 23 Curie 25 Pete

1916

QUICK CLUES ACROSS 1. Instruments that precisely measure time (12) 8. Pinnacle, the highest point (4) 9. Pertaining to the 100th anniversary (10) 10. With ___ breath: extremely anxiously? (5) 11. Arabian sultanate (4) 12. Basketball targets (5) 14. Blind followers of their leader? (5) 15. Rooting out or complete destruction (11) 20. Causing to exist, begetting (11) 21. ___ in: subsides, yields to pressure? (5) 23. Able, ____, Charlie, dog ... (5) 25. Preliminary contest (4) 26. ___ on: founded on? (5) 28. Take the __ __ ___:refuse to put in an effort, look for a short-cut? (4,3,3) 29. So ____!: amen (2,2) 30. __ ___ of: much superior to? (7,5) DOWN 1. Centrifugal machines for separating solids (8) 2. He who fights and ___ ___, lives to fight another day? (4,4) 3. A lack or want of (4) 4. High IQ organisation means a change? (5) 5. Actor excelling in sad and tearjerking roles (9) 6. Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka (6) 7. Erased or rubbed out (7) 13. Grates, grinds or rasps (5) 14. Contemptuous expression (5) 16. Worsen, intensify or irritate (9) 17. Tedious, boring or monotonous (8) 18. Overwrought or disturbed? (8) 19. 26th January features (7) 22. Builds, constructs (6) 24. Cairo is its capital (5) 27. Ali ___ and Forty Thieves (4) CRYPTIC CLUES ACROSS 1. Satisfied buyer of an electric fan? (4,8) 8. American business contract with a Peruvian (4) 9. Mean people hide stones (10) 10. When the doctor has a young dog, you have to clean the mess from the

floor! (3,2) 11. Port is left in it, in more senses than one (4) 12. Marks supporter starts to need darning (5) 14. Make music in the street with spirit (5) 15. Only a personal impression, but admissible as evidence (6-5) 20. Extremely large destroyer in the main (6,5) 21. Cheerful sailor on board (5) 23. First half of June is very cold and wet (5) 25. At this stage, learn from listening (4) 26. Dubious doctor makes duckcall! (5) 28. Putting down some of the main dangers of war (4-6) 29. Chair, moving portion of speech to the end, has lunch (4) 30. Leaning, dogs are pacemakers (5,7) DOWN 1. When the plasters are gone, removes the stitches (5,3) 2. Could one get around with wings that might be held? (8) 3. Wristband that can make one smart (4) 4. The horse thats more timid? (5) 5. Pointing to examples of very large numbers Ive assembled (9) 6. Complete outfit for touring around, but not the north (3-3) 7. Thoroughly clean faculty members at university raising the bar (5,2) 13. Looking pinched at summit before end of July (5) 14. Tug goes into ship stores (5) 16. Until pool is improved, theres contamination (9) 17. Entailed altering the words and figures at the top of the paper (4,4) 18. A clergyman with strange genes hits back (8) 19. Rum load distributed in standard units (7) 22. Commander knocked over in a desire to see the stripper (6) 24. No backing with a thousand dollars taken from, US government plant (5) 27. Lure one into the club (4)

24

eye

AUGUST 18-24, 2013

in the stars
aries
MAR 21 - APR 20

BY

PETER VIDAL
taurus
APR 21 - MAY 21

gemini
MAY 22 - JUNE 21

BIRTHDAYS
AUGUST 18
If you are forging new partnerships, it is because of the goodwill you have earned. Have you realised the advantages of being clear about your intentions? Are you ready to discover the truth? The coming period should bring forth your final choices concerning a vital matter.

You just cant get away from monetary matters, however hard you try. Cost still seems to be the determining factor, and this is maybe why you are so aware of the need to increase your income. Those of you in the housing market, or making major domestic purchases, are on strong ground. In love, your doubts will be eased.

Please make a quick start at work, getting in there before colleagues and rivals can make their move. However, it may be that the best planetary aspects will assist partners, and that you will, therefore, have to link up with others in order to protect your interests. If there have been any rifts lately, see that you make peace.

You certainly have a great deal on your mind. In fact, the liveliest part of the day may take place when youre asleep. If you have any strange, uncomfortable feelings, it could be because your dream life is particularly active at the moment. Also, youll be much happier once a family mystery is resolved at long last!

AUGUST 19
The Moon fuels your appetite for adventure. You will be ready to tackle demanding tasks, although the last thing you want to do is rush into activities beyond your capabilities. Your intuitions will be working well, so you might follow a hunch.

cancer
JUNE 22 - JULY 23

leo
JULY 24 - AUG 23

virgo
AUG 24 - SEPT 23

Friendly stars are coming your way, and this is a useful moment to team up with other people in a new venture. It is also a perfect period for giving yourself over to social pleasure and putting aside the stresses and strains of the real world. Hopefully youll find someone who shares your fantasy!

A sensational alignment between the Sun and Mercury will endow you with sheer brilliance, so dont be slow to bring your ideas forward. However, partners will be ready with their awkward questions. The golden rule is, therefore, not to talk about stuff you dont know anything about!

Legal matters seem to be looming and, if at all possible, you should attempt to find a quick solution. Also, if you still have travel plans to arrange, do so as soon as you can. And if theres a mystery to solve, go back as far into the past as you can to find the answer. Your impeccable sense of timing will stand you in good stead, at last!

AUGUST 20
Therell be times when your confidence will be high. Listen carefully to others requests and opinions, but dont feel you have to take them seriously. In the final analysis, you should do what is best for you.

AUGUST 21
You will expect speedy results if youre hoping to get major improvements under way in your daily set-up. This is a favourable moment to finalise romantic plans and to raise financial support. Take one step at a time, and you should do just fine.

libra
SEPT 24 - OCT 23

scorpio
OCT 24 - NOV 22

sagittarius
NOV 23 - DEC 22

Curiously enough, if you wish to make the right financial decisions, the answer may lie in a dream, perhaps in a waking daydream. If an emotional tie is becoming too intense, try to keep your feet on the ground. Also, if a partner may be unable to give you the support you need, you may need to reply on yourself, just for now.

Its a positive week, so partnership questions need to be pursued as a matter of urgency, especially if there has been any bad feeling lately. It is domestic and family ties which are most important, although you may be perplexed by a colleagues changing ideas. At last, an older relation agrees with your ideas and offers you support.

The most important part of your life is work, which means that even relationships need to be worked at! Domestic chores should also be tackled, and if you get ahead of yourself now, youll have more spare time later. Extravagant stars are lingering in the background. So, when going out, aim for a bit of class, whatever the cost.

AUGUST 22
The general movement of the stars carries you from confusion to confidence, so your circumstances will show improvement. If you face challenges head on, youll triumph over adversity and boost your confidence.

AUGUST 23
Take the ethical high ground. There seems to be little point in subjecting others to your moral scrutiny, but you can lead by setting an example. Ethical questions should take a turn for the better; its important that you continue to do the right thing.

capricorn
DEC 23 - JAN 20

aquarius
JAN 21 - FEB 19

pisces
FEB 20 - MAR 20

Personal and professional planets are finely balanced, which is good news. Within your family, younger relations should be given first place. You should also try to be more youthful and young at heart. If artistic ventures are on the go, you should do well. And athletic Capricorns are in line for a prize, so go for it!
AUGUST 18-24, 2013

There have been threats to your stability recently, but these are more imaginary than real. The way to find your feet is to seek support from those who know you best the people you grew up with. An emotional tie may come unstuck, though, so take care and make sure that you offer partners support when they need it.

It is unlikely that youll be happy staying in one place, and there is much to be said for taking a few short trips. Emotional relationships require attention, and partners shouldnt be taken for granted. When all is said and done, a harmonious family life is vital for your happiness, so make sure that relations are on your side.

AUGUST 24
Tension is dropping, which has to be a good thing. A clash of wills should now be over and you should be seeing a very favourable resolution to old problems. Everybodys interests will be served by increasing good feeling, including yours.

eye

25

down in jungleland
The Truth about the Foreign Hand
Are exotic species always bad for the environment?

Ranjit Lal
eye@expressindia.com

THINKSTOCK

ELL AN environmentalist even with your tongue firmly in your cheek that you like exotics, and that they are beautiful and he or she will behave as though youve let loose a rabid meerkat in his or her khadi pajamas. What? What?! What?!! Are you insane? Cant you see the havoc wrought by exotics? Lantana, Congress grass (and party?), water hyacinth, the cane toad in Australia, Indian mynas in Hawaii, cats, rats, rabbits and goats everywhere see what theyve done decimated the god-fearing locals like a deranged terminator with RPGs in a primary school. Look what happened to the poor dodo because of cats and people. Off with their (and your) heads, youyou youProsopis juliflora you! Sure, but who can blame the exotics for their success? If you were a lantana sapling IMMIGRANTS STORY The lantana is now found in profusion across India living quietly in central America and a kind lady took you to India in a flower pot because she thought you were pretty, and you found the surrounddoesnt. When cattle were introduced to Australia, the continent ings salubrious and the butterflies, friendly...If you were a mangy was soon neck-deep in dung, because the local dung-beetles flouncat in the London docks and were taken by sailors to a paradisical dered and were rendered out of their depth by the volume and island where the rodents and birds were fat and stupidwell? If quality of the dung. So professional dung-beetles were imported you opened the fridge door and saw a resplendent, helpless box of and went about their task assiduously, and which is why you can Belgian chocolates reposing therewell? today also enjoy outdoors barbecues in Australia. (Otherwise, the Besides, its pretty much the story of human history. The United flies emerging from the dung everywhere would not have allowed States of America is full of exotics as is central and South America and this.) The cane toad, introduced to get rid of another pestiferous Australia. Do we dance about like dervishes and scream, Off with beetle, however, went rogue and attacked everything it could. Its their heads? The god-fearing natives of those lands have been drivpoisonous and not quite appetising itself. Actually, this is really en to extinction, so anyway, they wouldnt be able to do so. As for us playing politics with nature; you make a friend of your enemys in India, exotics of all hues came, saw, ripped us off royally and took enemy and hope it wont turn on you one day, jaws agape. Its away all our jewels and went back home always a dangerous business. because they couldnt stand the weather. And Actually, if you back up far enough, you will now, theyre trying desperately to push us out discover that every living creature yourself of their native places, lest we make the old included was once an exotic. Did my primirabbit-guinea-pig move on them two today, tive ancestors always live in old Delhi? Way a million tomorrow. back, some of them must have made the trip This phenomenon is just another manifrom Africa or wherever, once they had learned festation of Darwins survival-of-the-fittest how to walk, and thus, were exotic wherever theory. But it can overwhelm itself if it goes they settled. In fact, I feel very much an exotic too fast or the climate doesnt suit you. If cats here even after 30 years. We can get into a introduced on an island went berserk and killed and ate every bird sticky political situation if we continue along these lines: suffice to and animal in the place, within 15 minutes of landing, they would say, lets re-write those lines by John Lennon: soon have to turn on one another or become vegetarian and thus Imagine there are no exotics; Its easy if you try extinct. This is very likely, as it takes nature an awfully long time to Besides, some of them like the gulmohur, bougainvillea, pericome up with a fitting response say a cat-snatching roc or a kitwinkle, and frangipani are really very beautiful too. ten-killing mouse, so that the balance of power can be stabilised Ranjit Lal is an author, environmentalist and bird watcher. In this column, again. So, we step into the breach and let loose dogs and people he reflects on the eccentricities and absurdities of nature with guns to deal with the cats. Sometimes, it works sometimes, it

If you back up far enough, you will discover that every living creature yourself included was once an exotic

26

eye

AUGUST 18-24, 2013