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'He will be missed'

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Kannada film industry lost one of its most revered actor-directors, Kashinath, early Thursday morning. The vicissitudes that Kashinaths four-decade old career saw are as much a revelation of his multi-faceted talent as they are about Sandalwoods capricious ways. A few actors from the Kannada film industry share with Nina C George their memories of Kashinath.

UPENDRA, actor and director

"I was introduced to the world of cinema by Kashinath. I learnt the basics
of filmmaking from him. Acting in some of his films like Anantana Avantara gave me a good start. I have also assisted him as a director and thats
where I picked up the nuances of direction. What struck me most about him was his simplicity. He was a humble and a down-to-earth person and he will surely be missed among us."

RAMESH ARAVIND, actor and director

"Kashinath was a very interesting director and actor because he dealt with
subjects that were considered taboo. He could pull off any subject because he presented it in a humorous way. He was also popular for making good
cinema with economically viable budgets. He encouraged and promoted new talent. He broke the myth of a hero being tall, dark and handsome. That showed how confident he was about his skills."

SUNDAR RAJ, actor

"Everybody who was introduced by Kashinath into the Kannada film industry
were from middle class families. He spotted people who had the urge to make a strong footing in cinema. He always made his films with a clear mind and shot it within a reasonable budget. He never wanted to shoot in exotic places or import actors from other industries, but worked to promote, popularise
and propagate Kannada language, culture and cinema."

SUMALATHA AMBAREESH, actor

"I have never acted with him but I have been closely following his work. He managed to create an impact through his films and had a strong following
for the films that he made. His films largely dealt with the life and journey of the common man."

AVINASH, actor

"I acted with him in Chowka but I didnt know that he was suffering from
an illness because he never showed anything. I was very shocked and upset when I heard of his illness. I was very impressed after I watched his first film, Anubhava and it went on to become a big hit. He was a soft-spoken and dignified human being. He was lovable both on and off the screen."

(As told to Nina C George)


Spinning a sensitive story

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Actor Devaraj is playing a visually challenged and speech and hearing impaired person in 3 Gante 30 dina 30 seconds that released today. Devaraj was a little apprehensive when he was first offered the role but the directors faith in him is what gave him the confidence to carry off the role.

The actor says portraying the emotions of a person with all these three disabilities was a challenge. "I was a little doubtful at first because I didnt know if I would be able to pull off such an important role. I have never played such a role before but the director was confident that I could do it well," says Devaraj. He recalls that he would keep checking with the director to see if his scenes came out well.

Devaraj says portraying the character was an emotionally draining affair. "It is tough to live the life of someone who has all three disabilities because everything that the person wants to communicate is only through touch. I had to work extra hard to perfect my body language. I had to be convincing. I must say that I wouldnt have been able to pull it off without the directors support," adds Devaraj.

Devaraj and actor Sudha Rani have come together for this film after a long gap. And Devaraj says acting with good old friends like Sudha always offers interesting experiences. "Sudha is one among the most sensible actors that we have today. She knows exactly what she has to deliver and this makes it easier for the co-stars as well," he adds.

Devaraj was known for his tough-cop roles and the many negative characters that he has played so far. But now he seems to be choosing roles that give him a chance to explore the actor in him. "I have essayed all kinds of roles. More than me choosing scripts, the scripts are choosing me now. The offers that are coming my way are all different from whatever I have played before. I am happy not doing the regular thing," says Devaraj.

True colours come alive

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The Lalbagh Flower Show opened on Friday, offering a floral fiesta to the citizens. The show will be on for the next 10 days. The festival is based on the theme of Life of Bhagwan Bahubali. A 15-ft statue of Bahubali has been placed on a replica of Indragiri Hill made of flowers in the Glass House. Apart from this, the show has floral pyramids, stalls selling plants, vegetable and mini-landscape demonstration and many more attractions.

The show, organised by Horticulture Department and Mysore Horticulture Society, is a delight for all plant lovers as there are many nurseries to shop from. Venkatesh Y from Mallika Nursery has brought in varieties of Orchid, Anthurium and Mandevilla creeper among others. "We have a lot of indoor plants for people who want to beautify their homes. Bengalureans love orchids as it suits the climate here," he says.

For artificial plants, one can shop at Girish Ns stall called UR Dream Garden, which has versions of rose, bonsai and dahlia that vary from six inches to three feet in height. "We also have fruit plants," he says. Visitors and stall owners are excited to be at the show and say that they are abiding by the strict instructions given to them to maintain cleanliness.

Padma Hemachandra, kindergarten teacher with St Pauls English School says, "We instruct our students to carry food waste or plastic waste back with them. It is good to see the place clean and ready. I am sure the show will be a great educative experience for everyone," she says.

Siddaraju B, who has a fruit stall called Naturo there, says that the authorities are more stringent about maintaining cleanliness this year. "The staff are keeping a watch on what is being brought in, how we serve things and how garbage is being managed. Cargo vehicles are only allowed inside before 8.30 am or after 6.30 pm," he says.

Anjana Parak, a jewellery stall owner, is excited that the show will prove to be a good example to Bengalureans. "We are also telling our customers to keep the area clean," she adds.

More than 25 unique varieties of plants like Cymbidium Orchids, Poinsettias, Lilium and Hydrancia will impress visitors, says Chandrashekar M R, deputy director (Lalbagh), Horticulture Department.

To make the show more attractive and cleaner, the Horticulture Department has collaborated with Beautiful Bengaluru. "We have hired 50 waste pickers to be on the move and 15 security personnel to keep a watch on everyone. Fifty extra waste bins and pushcarts have also been added," he adds. Chellama Prabhu, one of the cleaners at the garden, has been instructed to be constantly on the move during her shift hours. "We have been told to keep a watch on the litter around. I am excited to see that people are also being more sensitive," she adds.

Big events like these always raise security concerns and ML Krishnamurthy, police inspector with the Bangalore City Police (South division) assures that there are enough security forces assigned. "The number of police officers on duty will change according to the footfall at the show. We have 200 police officers assigned on day shift and a skeletal staff of around 25 officers assigned on night shift. There will be more than 400 officers assigned from January 26 to 28," he says.

More than 50 policemen in mufti have been hired to keep a watch on the public. "Lalbagh already has 100 CCTV cameras installed and an additional 80 have been brought in for the show," he says. Chandrappa, sub-inspector, Bengaluru Traffic Police (Central division) says, "Vehicles can be parked at the BBMP complex near Minerva Circle and at the multi-storey car parking area at Shanthinagar BMTC Depot. Two-wheelers can be parked at Al-Ameen College Grounds."

'Coffee brewing is my life'

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Arnon Thitiprasert, a native of Chiang Mai, Thailand, literally wears his love for coffee on his sleeves. A tattoo on his left arm lays bare his love for coffee. Arnon, who is in the city for the India International Coffee Festival 2018, is the winner of World Latte Art Champion 2017 and World Latte Art Battle Champion 2017. His workshop, during the festival, demonstrated how effectively one could use latte art when making coffee. In an interview with Nina C George, Arnon spoke about his association with coffee.

How did your interest in coffee begin?

When I began working, I met a man who was a Latte art champion and every morning, I would watch him practice Latte art when making coffee. That was my first inspiration to learn Latte art. I began watching videos on YouTube and interacted with him to get a better understanding of what comprised Latte art.

Do you experiment when making coffee?

I have specialised in cappuccino involving Latte art which employs the science of milk. I experiment with everything to do with the coffee bean. The right temperature when roasting the coffee bean and the machine used are crucial to making a great cup of coffee. My experiments have helped me arrive at the right blend and taste. The technique of using milk, water and coffee bean cannot be compromised.

How did winning the Latte art competition help you?

Thanks to the competition, I got a deeper understanding of the perfect way of roasting the coffee bean, how to make a good Espresso and the right way of blending of different types of coffee beans.

Were your parents supportive of your decision to become a coffee brewer?

My parents never wanted me to become a coffee brewer and wanted me to become a doctor or an engineer. I chose to get into the coffee industry much against the wishes of my parents, but looking back I dont regret my decision because I am in my favourite space.

Tell us about the tattoo on your arm?

Coffee brewing is my life. I wanted a tattoo that showcased that love. It took me ten hours to get this done. The tattoo is a colourful mix of coffee flowers and leaves.

Inspired much

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His oeuvre is limited but near-flawless: Cheeni Kum (2007), Paa (2009), Ki & Ka (2016), and (as producer) English Vinglish in 2012. The only blot on R Balkis stainless record was the experimental Shamitabh in 2013. Add over two decades of glittering work in the ad world, and we know that while a great director can falter once in a blue moon, it does not in any way reflect upon his calibre and approach to work.

And Balki is so magical as a film-maker that he was the first and only choice when Twinkle Khanna, returning as a (reinvented) producer after mishaps like Action Replayy, Khatta Meetha, Patiala House and Tees Maar Khan, decided to make a story on one of Indias finest innovators: Arunachalam Muruganantham, a humble South Indian rural welder. This humble but daring man went on to revolutionise menstrual hygiene in India with economical sanitary napkins that he fabricated and distributed himself, fighting social and circumstantial obstacles, and coming up trumps.

Friendly vibes

Meeting Balki is a complete experience by itself: few souls in showbiz are as affable and
approachable as he is. He is always in an effervescent mood, guffaws very frequently, and sits in a new office that is a model of how a successful adman and a 2018 film-maker must design his sanctum sanctorum - cosy, warm and cool at the same time, and spaciously uncluttered, just like his movies.

We exchange normal chat and then get down to business. "Yes, Akshay Kumar and Twinkle called me, as it was Twinkle who had met Arunachalam. I was actually against doing biopics as I was nervous about their outcome. But then, I ruminated upon the fact that the story was fascinating and entertaining, and that no one had spoken about menstrual hygiene before. So, I thought I must go ahead. I like to make films that deal with something never seen before in our cinema."

The major change that Balki made in the story was to shift the milieu to the North, Madhya Pradesh to be precise, and so his past associate (only as a lyricist) Swanand Kirkire, who hails from Indore, was brought in to co-write the film. "I would say that this film is a dramatised entertainer inspired by Arunachalam rather than a biopic. Like Sonam Kapoors character does not exist in real life," he declares. "But yes, it has Arunachalams blessings and approval!"

Balki found it ironic as well as interesting that Twinkles book The Legend Of Lakshmi Prasad also has an interpretation of the pioneers life as one of the stories. "Though Akshay is also named Lakshmi in my film, interestingly, Twinkle ends up with two different interpretations of Arunachalam - as a writer and, in this film, as a producer!" he chuckles.

Balki dismisses the idea that Akshay Kumar was not the first choice for the role. "Twinkle was joking when she said that," he says. "There was no question of anyone else doing this role."

He marks off the reasons for this: "We needed a big star, but what was more important was that we needed Akshay, the actor. He is not someone who is interested in painting himself as a genius and so nothing is a big deal for him. Success, per se, does not matter to him, and he will never intellectualise anything - he is completely natural. You see, actors always bring a bit of them into every character, and so he did not copy Arunachalam, but he studied the man and incorporated some small things as well. And Akshay is so unassumingly creative. His fabulous comic timing and his mix of a straight face and his innocence are great assets."

What about Radhika Apte as his wife? "We all know how good an actor she is," he raves, adding, "And she has automatically changed herself here as she is shown to be from a North Indian state and a villager, which is a far cry from what she actually is. Even Sonam Kapoor has been a fashion diva of sorts, and she is mesmerising in the way she has transformed herself."

"A film-maker brings his own sensibilities to his work," he explains. "I like to write my scripts for the stars after fixing them. And its refreshing to look at them differently."

Who else plays important roles, apart from, as we are certain, Amitabh Bachchan, his good friend and lucky mascot, in a cameo? He laughs and says, "Yes, Amitji is doing a cameo, and an important one," he laughs. "The other important artistes are Sunil Sinha, Jyoti Subhash and Shruti Mahajan."

Why has he jettisoned his favourite Ilaiyaraja this time? "Oh, I wanted completely North Indian music this time, and I know Amit Trivedi very well. He has done a splendid job. Ilaiyaraja-sir is like my muse, and he will come in whenever I feel I need him. Even in my last film Ki & Ka, he had composed the background score and one song."

Films forever

One question that we wanted to ask last time but never got around to it: why did he quit the ad world? "Oh, I felt that it is when you are really enjoying something, thats the time to drop it to maintain your love for it," he says with a twinkle in his eye. He guffaws when we mention that we hope that he does not get to love film-making so deeply too! "I have hardly done work here, compared to over 20 years in the ad world," he says.

Quiz him on the PadMan-Padmaavat clash, and characteristically, he is open about it. "I find it silly," he notes. "When two or three big films all insist on the same date, it is unfortunate, and we had fixed this date months ago. As an industry, frankly, we are not that big, despite being next to Hollywood. In fact, our industry is much smaller than the ad film industry! There are only 5,000 theatres and its not so much a question of who loses more as about the fact that audiences will be divided, and so both will lose."

He goes on with quiet emphasis, "We, as an industry, should care about each other and talk to each other when such situations arise. The idea must be that all get their fair chance to succeed, and so we must help each other, not hinder each other."

Finally, is there any truth in the half-page story in a Mumbai tabloid that he is directing a film with Amitabh Bachchan and Kangana Ranaut? With typical direct brevity, he replies, "None at all."

There she goes, alone...

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Camila Cabello has only been in love once. But when it comes to crushes, shes a connoisseur. The pop singer and songwriter, formerly of the girl group Fifth Harmony, has filled pages of notes on her iPhone with ruminations on the sugar rush of embryonic infatuation and its aftermath - words of hunger and grit that her fans turn into Instagram captions and scream back at her in concert. A pair of suggestive duets in the past two years, I Know What You Did Last Summer with Shawn Mendes and Bad Things with Machine Gun Kelly, have been streamed more than 520 million times, according to Nielsen Music. Along with her breakout solo smash from last summer, Havana, which has led Billboards pop radio chart longer than any other song by a solo female artiste in the past five years, theyve helped turn her into an avatar for young girls on the cusp of steeper emotional terrain.

Young love

On a December afternoon in a leafy neighbourhood in Miami, Cabello, 20, revisited ground zero of her romantic vicissitudes. Ten years ago, in the butterfly garden at Pinecrest Elementary School, a young Romeo set a date with her among the Panama roses and gave her her first kiss, unlocking the source code for a bottomless trove of love songs. "It was this boy that I was obsessed with my whole time in elementary school," she recalled, standing in the garden. "He kissed me on the cheek and I ran away - I still do that when someone wants to kiss me."

Although not yet of legal drinking age, Cabello has come a long way from the schoolyard. At 15, she was beamed into the homes of millions of Americans as a contestant on the US version of the reality-singing competition The X Factor. The show placed her in a five-woman vocal group modelled on One Direction that the viewers at home named Fifth Harmony. Two albums and six tours followed in a span of five years, during which time Cabello was, if not officially the groups lead, a consensus favourite, with the biggest voice and those disarming eyes.

And then it all went to pieces. As manufactured pop groups tend to do. Only in this case, the split seemed sudden and surprisingly vicious: one day, Fifth Harmony was performing at the final stop of the Jingle Ball tour, smiling and hair-flipping. The next, contentious and contradictory statements were released, and Cabello found herself on the lonely end of a sharp divide.

That was just over a year ago. In the interim, Cabello has struck out on her own, putting her hands on the controls of her professional life for the first time. Her new album, Camila, will test her prospects as a solo proposition. The biggest stars to break away from groups - Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé - did so from stronger footing, in eras when the music industry was thriving. Today, Cabello is just one in a cacophony of voices aiming to break through in a harsh, post-streaming environment.

Cabello comes from a line of strivers. She was born in Havana to a Cuban mother and Mexican father and moved back and forth between CojÃmar and Mexico City until age 6. One day, her mother, Sinuhe, told her she was going to Disney World, and the two spent the next month together riding by bus to an immigration centre at the Mexican border with the United States. Sinuhe had been an architect in Cuba, but in Miami, where she and her daughter moved in with a close family friend, she found work in the shoe department at a Marshalls.

Cabellos father, Alejandro, emigrated later and earned money washing cars at the mall. Eventually, the couple saved enough to start their own construction company. "My parents story helps me to know whats important in life," Cabello said. "A lot of times you can be here and be on Twitter and you think that the world is the internet. But I know what its like in the places my family has come from and the struggles people go through."

It caught Sinuhe and Alejandro by surprise when, for her 15th birthday in 2012, Cabello asked them to drive her to audition for the second season of The X Factor.

In Fifth Harmony - with Ally Brooke, Dinah Jane, Lauren Jauregui and Normani Kordei - Cabello was living a dream. The group performed at the White House (twice) and released addictive hits like Worth It and Work From Home that alone racked up more than one billion streams, according to Nielsen Music, and earned them legions of fiercely loyal fans.

A tough break-up

But dreams can change. In a statement released at midnight on December 18, 2016, the four other members of the group suggested that Cabello had turned her back on them, communicating her intentions to leave "through her representatives." Cabello, in a subsequent statement of her own, said that she had long been open about her desire to explore a solo career and was blindsided by what amounted to a public excommunication.

Over a feast of Cuban food at one of her familys favourite restaurants in Miami, and in a subsequent interview in New York a week later, she agreed to speak at length about how things fell apart. She said that her collaboration in late 2015 with Mendes - the first time a Fifth Harmony member released music under her own name - had created tension; that she had asked to help write lyrics for Fifth Harmony songs and was rebuffed; that she initially wanted to stay in the group while working on a solo album but the other members shut her out instead. "I was just curious and I wanted to learn, and I saw all these people around me making music, writing songs and being so free," she said. "I just wanted to do that, and it did not work."

Cabello said that after the awkwardness of her collaboration with Mendes, things further soured when she began attending writing sessions with producers including Diplo, Cashmere Cat and Benny Blanco. Eventually, she said, she was given an ultimatum. "It became clear that it was not possible to do solo stuff and be in the group at the same time," she said. So she made her choice, basing it on what she said was her conviction that "if anyone wants to explore their individuality, its not right for people to tell you no."

Since the break-up, Cabello has tried to move on from hard feelings, throwing herself into Camila. But it hasnt always been easy. In August last year, the remaining members took a less-than-subtle jab at their former groupmate with a stunt that opened a high-profile performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. As the camera zoomed in on a dark, elevated platform showing five women in silhouette, one was dramatically yanked off the stage as if hit by a truck. Cabellos eyes welled up as she recalled watching it live. She had been at home with her mother. "It definitely hurt my feelings," she said. "I wasnt expecting it, I wasnt prepared for it - especially because at that point Id moved on from it. I was just like, What? Why?"

She gathered herself. "I have to make space for the good stuff to happen in my life," she said. "I dont like holding onto the past, especially when its stuff that, in my opinion, is just petty."

A breakthrough came while she was working with producer Frank Dukes, born Adam Feeney, who has made his name as a prolific but low-key co-conspirator of self-styled stars like Drake and Lorde. Many potential collaborators had come to the studio armed with sleek, brassy Top 40 munitions in the style of Fifth Harmony hits. But Feeneys approach was more nonchalant. Over sushi during an early session with Cabello last winter, he played her a deceptively simple instrumental with a prominent salsa piano riff. It reminded the singer of her birthplace, and she wrote the chorus for what became Havana on the spot.

In an under-lit, overpriced restaurant in midtown Manhattan after her break in Miami had ended, Cabello, who has lately imagined herself as a vegan, ate a kale salad while bopping along to Michael Jacksons The Way You Make Me Feel. The song had been a highlight from a recent Christmas Eve karaoke night with her family.

In 48 hours, she would perform before Mariah Carey at Dick Clarks New Years Rockin Eve With Ryan Seacrest in a bejewelled, ankle-length coat and metallic jumpsuit that made her look like a glamorous conquistador. Then she had a tour to design, and music video concepts to finalise and a social media campaign to figure out. She started to explain why things were trickier now, how she no longer had anyone to pick up the slack. "Even when theres a day off, theres never really a day off, because theres so many decisions to be made and youre always rushing to make stuff," she said, as Jackson ad-libbed in the background. The music kept making her lose her train of thought. Finally, after a few vain attempts to catch it, she gave in and stopped explaining herself and sang along.

Passionate & proud

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Mysskin, one of Tamil cinemas finest film-makers, has always impressed audiences with his storytelling abilities. No wonder then, the man has been able to deliver hit after hit at the box office. His last three films Onaayyum Aatukuttiyum, Pisaasu, and the recently released Thupparivaalan give an idea of how successful the man has been, both as a director and a scriptwriter. All three films have gone on to emerge as superhits. More importantly, all three films have been critically acclaimed too.

In the spotlight

Sitting down among neatly stacked piles of books, Mysskin discloses details of his next film with a smile, "My next film will be Savarakkaththi. I have written the script for this film and it has been directed by my assistant director G R Adithya. I also play one of the leads in the film."

The film, which has also been produced by Mysskin, has been garnering a lot of attention as it features director Ram, another highly rated film-maker, along with actor Poorna. "This is the first time I have tried writing humour. The movie is full of humour but at the same time, it is emotionally driven. It is a very passionate and intense movie; a complete entertainer. Savarakkaththi is about a barber who is an incorrigible liar. Director Ram plays this role in the film. The story begins when this man crosses path with a petulant man whose nature is exactly the opposite of him. I play the petulant guy," Mysskin explains.

Mysskins scripts usually mirror real-life events. Ask him if this film is also based on a real-life incident and he says no. "It is not based on a real-life incident. But some of the sequences may have been inspired by real incidents," he says.

Mysskin is moved beyond words when he talks about the contributions that his co-stars Ram and Poorna have made to the film. Talking about Poorna, who plays the character of Subhadra, a hearing-impaired mother of two children, who is about to give birth to her third child, Mysskin says, "I modelled this character on my mother. Adithya and I approached four or five heroines, but they all backed out on getting to know that they would have to play a pregnant woman, who is already the mother of two children. It was then that we spoke to Poorna. Although her face suited the role, she had a Malayalam accent, and we needed her to speak in a particular dialect in the film. But you wont believe it, she came for an audition and for almost three weeks, she sincerely attended all the training sessions. At the end of it, she delivered a flawless performance."

Filmy brotherhood

Mysskin has the same admiration for director Ram. "When my brother Adithya (Mysskin refers to his assistant directors as brothers) wanted me to write this script for him, I could not see myself in the lead role. But Rams face kept appearing before me every time I had to write about this character. So, we decided that he was the best person to play this role. The first day, we had a few hiccups as he is a different kind of director. But from the next day, when we became more comfortable with each others working styles, he delivered a beautiful performance," says Mysskin.

He narrates an incident to show how committed and dedicated Ram was as an actor. "We were shooting this climax scene in which Ram suffers a fall and his leg gets broken. While shooting the sequence, Ram actually broke his leg. But he still continued to act. He completed the sequence and only then went for treatment. It was only later when he was treated by the doctors that we got to know that of the 16 tendons in his leg, 12 had been torn. He was in so much pain and yet he never showed it," he signs off.

His saga in musical notes

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It has been a dream come true for actor Adhyayan Suman as a singer. His debut single Main Saariyan Nu Chaddeya has crossed over four million views on YouTube in 10 days. "It has been absolutely overwhelming, though for me, it was never about the numbers but about being accepted as a singer," he enthuses. "What I am happy about is that two of my icons, singers Sonu Nigam (he describes my debut as unbelievable) and Sunidhi Chauhan (who calls it a pleasant surprise), have deeply appreciated my song and my voice," says the young star who has delved into singing now.

While the good-looking son of actor Shekhar Suman never tasted commercial success in movies (with Haalâ€"eâ€"Dil, Raaz â€" The Mystery Continues, Luckhnowi Ishq, Heartless), he has come into his own with his passion for music and expressions in lyricism that has won hearts across the country. "I have not taken up music because three of my films have bombed, I did it because I felt it was something I wanted to do," he quips honestly.

So, is he naturally fluent in Punjabi or has it been an acquired skill for the song? "I absolutely love Punjabi. There is something about the language that draws me. I feel Punjabi words can sound very romantic as well. Yet it was not a conscious decision to have a mix of Hindi and Punjabi in Main Saariyan Nu Chaddeya. It happened organically," he says.

Adhyayans inspiration for the song comes from life itself. "With the failures and depression and trials and tribulations that I have been through over the past couple of years, my bandwidth of emotions has evolved: something I was unaware of till I began singing," he shares.

After working on the song for four months, he shot for it with the lissome Italian model Jeniffer Piccinato and director Shakti Hasija in Goa. "I felt that I had certain rawness in my voice which I wanted to retain," he says candidly, showing off his tattoo of a musical note with wings. "The idea was to shoot at the beaches and make it look very vintage in order to keep the old-world charm intact. I played my guitar round the clock. The moment I felt the emotion, we went ahead and recorded it. I actually feel very nervous, anxious, and happy, as I get to live each dream of mine."

Of course, Senior Suman has motivated him constantly to rise above the challenges life throws. "One thing I have learned from dad is to nover give up, no matter how disappointed you are with life. He has taught me that every day is a new day and you have to get up and fight. Frankly, I think it is insane the kind of things he has achieved because of his sheer passion for work. And I follow the same rules: if my heart wants me to do something, I simply pour myself into my goal and move ahead," says Adhyayan.

He counts his failures as his biggest learning experiences. "I have learnt to turn my failures into my strengths. Being a star kid, the pressure to deliver on screen is absolutely enormous and unfair. I am often labelled a rich spoilt brat who does not want to work. That is a cruel judgement, but I have proved people wrong by working hard."

As of now, Adhyayan is training vocals with Suzanne Demerol as he has started preparing for his stage shows that roll out from January this year. "I am forming a band, so I am training in live singing," he states. "I used to sing at private family gatherings. Though my friends and family kept telling me to sing for the longest time, I felt that raw emotions were missing in me. And maybe I had to experience life more."

And yes, he counts it as a total ittefaq (coincidence) that his professionally sung debut single has released exactly 10 years after his dads.


Memorable encounter

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Im thinking back on my Dickensian early life … The loss of my mom at 5. Her bank robber-boyfriend riddled with bullets in the back of a trunk a few years later. My childhood apartment, robbed more than once. My grandmother working two jobs, bringing home $100 a week, while my sister and I rolled pennies and lived on peanut butter and spaghetti. But moving ahead, happier memories stick with me like glue traps.

One of those was waiting on John Belushi in 1976 at the Greenwich Village restaurant my father managed. John was quite possibly the biggest star in the world at that time. And I may have been his most ardent fan.

I was starstruck

I watched him religiously on Saturday Night Live. He made me belly laugh and fall to my knees in sidesplitting pain. So the day he came into the restaurant, heads immediately turned and stared, like the pope himself had walked in. I was in a state of shock. My hero was 10 feet away. I couldnt believe it! I was just 15 and a busboy, so I wasnt permitted to serve customers just yet. But I did notice how everyone treated John differently, almost like royalty. As Billie Holiday sang As Time Goes By on the jukebox, I pondered fame. It all seemed magical, like skywriting.

I wanted to become an actor, too. I had no idea how anyone did such a thing, let alone become a star. I so wanted someone to look at me the way they looked at John Belushi - with admiration, fondness, respect and, dare I say, love. But I knew that was a pipe dream. He was hilarious, smart and bigger than life. I was awkward, painfully skinny and partially mute.

Several Sundays after that first appearance, Dad gave me my big chance to wait on John. I slipped on some sawdust and almost landed in his lap. My father shook his head and disappeared into the office with a tall glass of vodka. I knew he couldnt bear to witness what would inevitably be a disaster.

After all, I had clumsily on purpose/by accident broken most of his most recent wedding gifts. He had just married the playwright Eve Ensler, who thankfully adopted me and literally saved my life. Eve saw something in me I didnt even recognise in myself. She was the one who encouraged me to become an actor, and I ran with it.

Unfortunate happenings

Dad was relieved it was August, because I would be returned to my grandmother in Connecticut for the school year. I couldnt quite blame him. My Dorothy Hamill hair, white dance shoes and red tuxedo jacket had long outstayed their welcome. I was clearly channelling David Bowie and the New York Dolls … desperately searching for an identity.

John Belushi looked at me with a combination of confusion and disappointment.

"Youre not Jimmy," he said.

"No, Im not," I immediately apologised.

"Wheres Jimmy?" John said.

"Sick," I offered, lying through my teeth.

"What can I get you?" I stammered.

"Bacon and eggs," John said, diverting his attention to the script he was reading. "And I want them runny."

"Runny?" I repeated.

John looked at me the way one looks at a dog whos missing a hind leg: sympathetic yet strangely curious. I shuffled off and placed his order. Russell, our drunken chef, dropped some cigar ash into Belushis meal, which was not uncommon. I dutifully pointed it out. Russell groaned and wiped off the ash with a filthy cloth. I cautiously picked up the plate, weighing whether to run outside and hail a cab to some exotic destination, or deliver this pile of slop to his highness. As I passed the bar, Benny the bartender was putting his glass eye back in after dousing it with club soda. I delivered Johns breakfast and sprinted away.

"Wait!" John shouted.

Damn, did I not get it right? I thought he said bacon and eggs? I was sure of it!

I raced to his table, praying there wasnt a dead cigar stuffed under his hash browns.

"Yes?" I mumbled.

"Ketchup," John said.

"What?" I politely asked.

"Ketchup!" John exhaled, annoyed that he had to repeat himself.

I fetched some and gingerly placed it on the plastic green checkerboard tablecloth, the kind used at Irish bars and wakes.

John finally looked at me and smiled.

"Thanks, kid." Egg yolk proudly dripped down his famous protruding chin.

How pathetically wonderful, I thought to myself: John Belushi acknowledged my existence. However brief this strange encounter, it gave me what I needed to hold on to.

I ended up waiting on many celebrities. Most were dismissive or irritated. But when I hosted SNL years later, John Belushis ghost seemed to tap me on my shoulder with his sword for good luck. I was standing on the same stage where he performed Samurai Delicatessen! I said a prayer of thanks to him for inspiring me. My father and Eve were in there that night, both happy and confused I had made it so far. But most important, they looked at me with admiration, fondness, respect and, dare I say, love.

Battling real-life fears on-screen

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Get Out, the box office smash and awards season honey, almost didnt get made, because its writer and director Jordan Peele figured it couldnt happen. The broad strokes of the story line - white girl brings black boyfriend home to meet her family - evoked Guess Whos Coming to Dinner, but with a crucial and sinister twist (spoilers ensue): the boyfriends suspicions about the white folks having it in for him become increasingly, and terrifyingly, justified.

Peele, 38, is known for his subversive comedy sketch show with Keegan-Michael Key, and had never before seen a movie like the one he desperately wanted to make. But he worried that its themes of white villainy and black victimisation would keep people away in droves. Also, being biracial, he felt discouraged by the lack of people of colour in the industry.

"I didnt have enough role models telling me this movie could be made," Peele said during a chat in mid-November at the Whitby Hotel in Manhattan. "But to me, it was the missing piece of the conversation. Id never seen my fears as an African-American man onscreen in this way."

Around 2014, five years after he first began kicking the idea around, Peele started working on a script and brought it up with the producer Sean McKittrick (Donnie Darko), hedging all the way. He recalled telling McKittrick that it was his favourite movie that had never been made, and probably would never get made, and that he understood why. But McKittrick surprised Peele by telling him that he was on board.

Three years later, in February 2017, the movie opened just as the racist ugliness attending the election of Donald Trump dashed lingering Obama-era delusions that America was a post-racial place. And Peeles worries about the movies reception were knocked down like pins.

Peele had fretted that the films skewering of white people might set off boycotts, but instead Get Out proved to be medicine that audiences didnt realise they needed, and worldwide they made a $254 million hit out of Peeles $4.5 million dream.

Now, to Peeles delight and surprise, Hollywood prize-givers are showering the movie with love. At the Gotham Awards, Peele won best breakthrough director, best screenplay and the audience award. The National Board of Review named the film best ensemble picture and one of the years Top 10, while Peele took best directorial debut. The New York Film Critics Circle awarded it best first film. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named it best screenplay.

This kind of awards attention is unusual for a picture that could easily be pigeonholed as comedy or horror, genres that have a history of falling flat with the august members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. There have been exceptions, among them Natalie Portmans best actress win for Black Swan (2010), Kathy Batess similar win for the 1990 Misery, and, most prodigiously, The Silence of the Lambs (1991), which swept up five Oscars - best picture, director, actor, actress and adapted screenplay.

Yet overall, scary or scary-ish movies that manage to land Oscar nominations tend to win in categories like best makeup or costume, if they win at all. Though it is still early in the awards race, Get Out is projected to earn Oscar nominations for best picture, best screenplay, and possibly best director and best editing.

The academy is also increasingly diverse, and nominations for Get Out, along with Mudbound, among other contenders,would be a bulwark against an embarrassing repeat of #OscarsSoWhite.

Universal Studios submitted Get Out in the Globess best comedy or musical category, kicking off an internet kerfuffle, with critics saying "comedy" minimised the films critique of racism. The Carpetbagger has heard arguments backing the decision: "Funny" was the first word of the films synopsis on Rotten Tomatoes, and hackles might not have been raised had the category been "satire" instead. Peele responded to the fracas with a tweet,"Get Out is a documentary," though all along he has called it a "social thriller," a category that he says includes The Stepford Wives and Rosemarys Baby, where society and humanity are the monsters.

He is also in full awards-campaign mode. He shares the cover of Vanity Fairs special Awards Extra! print issue with Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) and was featured in The Hollywood Reporters Writer Roundtable. When he met to chat with the Carpetbagger, he was plowing through a full schedule of media interviews, and the Bagger was whooshed away after 50 minutes because another reporter had arrived.

The whirlwind of it all seems to have left Peele a little stunned. "This is crazy," he said, while collecting one of his prizes recently at the Gothams. During our interview, he spoke deliberately and carefully, giving off the sense that he might at any moment be, as it were, woken up. "Its all kind of a pinch me thing," he said.

Of course, Peele is finding the fuss deeply gratifying, not least because Get Out was cathartic for him, a mirror of the micro-aggressions hed long experienced, as well as his fears. Among them, he said, are "the fear of being viewed as your race but not as a human being. The fears of abandoning your roots and stepping out of your blackness to, say, date someone of a different race. The fears of your own neglect of your race."

Come what may, March 4, the night of the Academy Awards, Peele can take comfort in knowing that he already won. Get Out opened the Friday before last seasons Oscars, and while the ceremony was hurt by a best picture snafu and low ratings, Get Out was on its way to breaking box office records.

Flawed, yet a paradise

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Baramulla, in Kashmirs North West, is mainly known for terrorist encounters. So is Sopore, a city in that district. The area also witnessed the worst looting and destruction by Lashkars from across the border in 1947. Is it any wonder then, that theres hardly been any tourist footfall there since Independence.

So, when I decide on a weekend trip, many eyebrows are raised. People joke that I would probably hear the rhythm of gunshots accompanying birdsong in the crisp morning air. My cousin, who is a co-traveller, threatens to shoot me if we get abducted by terrorists.

All this banter amuses my host, a Mumbai-based art director, who has a family home in the district. I am the biggest don here, he grins on FaceTime… and then on a more serious note, says, "I want you to come and see for yourself how normal life is over here and that Kashmiri hospitality is very much intact." His earnestness disarms my cousin, too, and we take our early-morning flight to Srinagar with less trepidation.

Well-guarded

My friend receives us at Srinagar airport and drives us through the VIP area of Rajbagh and Gupkar roads, which is dotted with the mansions of the chief minister and other politicians. You cant see the houses because they are concealed behind thick foliage and security guards.

We tuck into some delicious cakes at a grand old property nestling against a hill and facing Dal Lake, which was once the Oberoi Hotel. Many childhood memories come rushing back to me as I recall the famous terraced gardens where we now enjoy our tea.

Later, we take that inevitable shikara ride and watch the empty floating markets, the docked and lonely houseboats and listen sympathetically to the complaints of the hawkers who mourn the loss of visitors, as they float alongside us.

Snacking on some tender water-lily bulbs, we hop off the boat and start for Baramulla.

We drive through Lal Chowk, the main market, some of whose buildings still bear the scars of the pitched battles between civilians and the police. We speed past Jahangir Chowk, the rambling High Court, the Secretariat, with the Indian and the State flags fluttering high on the top, Batmaloo bus stop and finally catch the highway to Baramulla.

The drive takes about four hours. En route, our host takes a picturesque detour, so we can drink in the beauty of the Jhelum Valley.

This is an international highway, he informs us. If we continue on this, we will enter Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). He points out a portion of the old Silk
Route that traverses the area.

Spotting locally grown maize, we stop to taste it.

At lunchtime, we reach Baramulla city, and stopping our car in front of a womens college, we cross the dirt road to eat biryani and rasmalai at Lovely Sweets, a local dhaba. It is full of working men, busily eating their midday meal. We are the only women around, and obviously outsiders. Instinctively, we cover our heads.

After lunch, we head in the direction of Uri, about 27 km away, the location of one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in 2016. Uri is about 10 km away from the Pakistan border. We overtake army vehicles that are ubiquitous in Baramulla and Srinagar, their occupants standing with cocked rifles, ready for instant action, if required. It is a routine sight that gets special attention only from us, the wide-eyed tourists from the capital.

We cross sheltering walnut trees and stop to taste some fallen on the road. Scraping off their green covering, we crack the brown shell and get to the tender and sweet kernel.

Bunches of schoolgirls walk past us….in white salwar kameezes, with hijabs covering their heads. Older women wear abayas, revealing only their eyes. The men never stop to gape or stare or make lewd comments, so common in our metropolises. The houses are drab and falling apart, even though the surrounding foliage is fresh and green. The inhabitants are just as poor and dusty as their homes, but their beauty, like nature, is lustrous. The skin is burnished, the noses sharp, and the eyes are hazel under thick, knitted brows.

Soon we come upon the village of Boniyar and its hydropower project that harnesses River Jhelums current.

From there we retrace our steps through Sheeri village. I spot a tree with gigantic, ripening pears rising majestically behind a brick wall. When I get off to photograph it, the lady of the house, a Gujjar, spots me and invites us into her house. We are fed freshly harvested, juicy pears. Her brothers come out of the house and ask us in for a cup of tea.

Our host is nervous and swivels his eyes in admonition. Yes, the traditional Kashmiri hospitality still exists, but suspicion has also set in. Though they invite us in, we notice their narrowed eyes. Who are we? Where have we come from? Our host tells a white lie and bundles us off into the car.

We return to Baramullah, and heading towards Sopore, we catch another highway to Bandipora district. We climb the mountains and the stunning bejewelled valley of paddy and apple orchards falls away beneath us. This is the Wular Valley. It looks like a river but is really a lake, the largest freshwater one in Asia. It winds its way like a glistening snake through the valley. At the top of the hill is the shrine of one of the areas patron saints, Hazrat Baba Shukurâ€"Ud-Din Sahab. It is one of the several Sufi shrines in North Kashmir. There is a breathtaking view of the valley from here.

It is dusk and we havent yet reached the end of our journey. We zoom down the hills at top speed and finally reach our destination… his family home in Janwara village. A traditional Kashmiri welcome full of smiles and hugs awaits us, as does the mouth-watering wazwan!

The rista, and gustaba, meatballs in red and white sauce, have been beaten for hours to become as tender as they are. They are delicious.

So is the yakhni, which is lamb spare ribs in yoghurt sauce and haaq, their traditional spinach dish. We compliment our hosts mother and sister, who have been working since the morning to make us our first major meal of the day.

We spend the night under soft comforters and embroidered bedsheets, and leave for Gulmarg the following day. That is perhaps the only conventional part of our trip. We decide to see it because it is completely bereft of snow, which is a novelty for me. The ski slopes are soft and green, making Gulmarg look like the English countryside with its gently sloping hills and wooden houses with vertical roofs.

We sip delicious kehwa (Kashmiri tea) at a spanking-new resort and then lunch at Hotel Hilltop, before starting our journey towards Srinagar again. We cross Tanmarg, a town and a tehsil, just below Gulmarg, and take a turn towards Bandipora, via Haji.

Keeping a secret

We finally reach Bandipora and move towards our secret destination, a quiet resort in the lap of mountains and streams, hidden by nature. This is Aouthwooth, where we stop for toast and tea. Only locals know about this stunning area, surrounded by peaks. From the resort, we return to Bandipora and take in many picturesque villages - Astingoo, Aloosa, Quensa - all nestled within green paddy fields, finally reaching Janwara. If there is beauty in poverty, it is here, I muse.

On our third and final day, we start our journey towards Srinagar, via Sopore. This time, we enter the ill-reputed town. It is crowded and peaceful, with people going about their businesses. Reaching Srinagar, we go shopping at Koker Bazaar, where we buy embroidered stoles and fresh dry fruits. We return to Delhi exhausted but wiser, having left behind some broken myths and preconceived notions.

(With inputs from Rashid Sheikh)

Yes, this too is Mauritius

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Are you travelling to Mauritius with your parents?" asked the stewardess. "Why, yes, of course!" I beamed. His question surprised me, to say the least. But soon, the plane started to fill up, and what do I see? An entire army of married couples! Across aisles, blood-red bangles jingled on mehendi-laden hands and the gold on wedding bands shone brightly as ever.

And there we were - my mom, my dad and me - stuck in a honeymooners aeroplane. Like aliens in a strange land, we stood out from the crowd. But, a husband in tow or not, I was determined to enjoy my vacation. After all, how often would I get to swim in crystal-clear waters, share a meal with dolphins, relish fresh tropical fruits every day, visit a soon-to-be-active volcano (wait at least 1,000 years for that), or experience a melting pot of cultures and cuisines, and that too, all in one place?

Yes, Mauritius isnt just the Indian honeymooners most-preferred getaway; it is a portal to heaven for all its visitors.

The divide

Tourists look at Mauritius in two parts: the North and the South. But mind you, you are never too far away from the ocean. North is where the capital city of Port Louis lies, along with Le Caudan Waterfront, a seaside commercial complex that houses many shopping units, eating joints, and a casino. South is where the tallest Shiva statue in the world looks down upon his devotees, a waterfall enlivens the area, and a river snakes through a national park before emptying itself in the ocean.

Our Mauritian journey began with the South tour. Fair warning: you have to drive for quite a while to get from point A to point B here. But you will have no reason to complain as the intermittent views of the big blue ocean and green villages and towns will keep you satiated.

At 9 on a bright early morning, we found ourselves in a small setup housing wooden miniature boats. At different corners, men were busy at their craft. While one was weaving together threads to connect the mast of the ship to the deck, another one was carving out little windows in a half-finished ship. After the miniature ship factory tour, our wallets were lighter while the bags were heavy. We left the city behind as we headed to our next stop: a dormant volcano crater in Curepipe village. While the crater itself is inaccessible, many come here, to the top of the hill, to enjoy 360-degree views of the town and the coastal plains. Dont leave without an ice-cream or a plate of spicy-sweet fruits.

Many generations of Indian families call Mauritius their home. Which is why at around noon, we found ourselves at Grand Bassin, also known as Ganga Talao, a crater lake sitting pretty at 1,800 feet above sea level. Symbolically linked to one of the holiest rivers of India, Ganga Talao is an oasis of calm.

Moving on, as our van made its way through hilly terrains, honeymooners got busy clicking selfies. Taking pity on the only unhoneymooning couple in the group, our guide took us on a Get to Know Mauritius talk that brought us a little closer to this wonderful country.

"Mauritius is a country dominated by villages, almost 170 in number, and it enjoys a spectacular coastline of 390 sq km. Since ours is a French colony, our main languages are Creole and French," he said.

We are in a country whose population is dominated by Hindus, 1.4 billion to be exact. So, dont be surprised to find temples and little shrines in every nook and corner.

A quick stop for lunch and we were off to Chamarel, a village located right next to the Black River Gorges National Park. We were there to see Seven-Coloured Earth, a world-famous natural wonder, and Chamarel Waterfalls, a jaw-dropping water beauty. A signboard told me that the Seven-Coloured Earth dunes contain traces of ancient activity of geoclimatic events.

The basalt from the intermediate-period lava flow has been leached by the humid climate, leading to gullied clay. The decomposition has left iron and aluminium oxides, which repel each other, resulting in colourful stripes. "Heavy rainfall doesnt erode this unique formation, nor does any plant grow here," said the guide. The waterfall, on the other hand, is dominated by dense vegetation and is apparently perfect in the monsoon. But for now, its just two narrow strips of water from River St Denis falling from a height of 270 feet.

The next day, I couldnt help but think that the North Island tour was mainly targeted at shopaholics. If not, why would anyone want to spend almost four hours at Le Caudan Waterfront, the seaside shopping complex?

This spacious conglomerate is also where many actors have proclaimed their love for each other on the silver screen. If you are a shopaholic, this is the perfect place to pick up souvenirs: sugar packets (Mauritius is known for its sugarcane), artefacts, and more.

Or, if you are feeling lucky, you can also gamble at the casino here. But dont leave the place without visiting the Blue Penny Museum, a brightly lit setup that will give you a glimpse into the history and art of Mauritius.

Behind the lens

Now, the sympathetic looks werent the only disadvantage of travelling with my parents. Since I didnt have a husband fawning over me, I unofficially became the official honeymoon photographer for the group. But I couldnt complain, as I, in return, often got treated to the delicious Mauritian vanilla yoghurt every now and then.

As we bid goodbye to this blue jewel of the Indian Ocean, we realised that Mauritius isnt just about beckoning beaches, casuarina-lined coasts or thrilling water-sports adventures.

The tiny nation holds within its folds many fascinating cultural aspects that turned our beach vacation into something much more. Be it the Apravasi Ghat, which served as the islands immigration depot for indentured labour from India, or the Champ de Mars Racecourse, which is the oldest horse-racing club in the Southern Hemisphere, or the Rhumerie de Chamarel, a rum distillery whose carefully concocted spirits might just be the cure for all your stress, Mauritius is full of surprises.

Anytime fare

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"Bhaijaan, kya khilau?" the familiar Punjabi-tinged Hindi drew me in a foreign land. I was in Malaysia, exploring the little-discovered state of Selangor when the hunger pangs struck. I decided to head into one of the bustling restaurants lining the streets of Kuala Kubu Bharu when I heard these words. Inside was a cornucopia of activities as busy Malaysians scooped up platefuls of delicious-smelling food, while a multitude of servers hustled about.

I turned to Amjad, an immigrant from Lahore, Pakistan, who had apparently recognised my subcontinent face and called out to me. The initial hesitance of being an Indian passed as I mentioned I was from Delhi and he enveloped me in his arms like a long-lost brother. Here I was in a foreign land, making a friend across the border for the first time, who was willing to feed me some of his specialities. I had entered a mamak, a 24-hour restaurant where the strict definition of borders and cuisines had ceased to exist.

Gutsy game

The Malaysian way of eating is quite simple: eat frequently, and eat outside. With most of the Malaysians relying on these 24/7 restaurants to take care of their five to six daily meals, they have become a hotspot of activities. The colonists from an era gone by, the Chinese traders and the immigrants from India have combined their cuisines together to create a unique blend of dishes.

As the job opportunities flourished, more people from (especially) the Indian subcontinent poured in, bringing with them their own condiments and techniques. This made the mamaks a potpourri of cultures and flavours alike.

After the initial surprise of the place, I decided to check on the menu and a tightly bound spiral of plastic sheets was plonked down in front of me. The menu extended to more than 300 items and covered the gamut from Chinese to Indian, from Malaysian to Indonesian, and everything in-between. What I mean by everything in-between is that the traditional boundaries of the different cuisines have been dissolved to create dishes which borrow heavily from multiple ones at the same time.

Although the physical menu did have me confused on what to order, the visual menu had me pondering even harder. Not a single inch of the restaurant lay unused as dishes upon dishes lay on display, the visual cues causing my salivary glands to activate. Large fish heads, chicken legs covered in marinated, skewered pieces of meat, and a multitude of seafood lay in covered containers as the chefs hustled to finish up the orders. Seeing my dilemma and Amjad already having approached our table twice in hope of an order, my host Sharmila Valiasamy decided to take pity and order.

A plate of nasi goreng and a glass of cold tea were ordered for me, while she planned to consume a plateful of roti canai curry. As Amjad headed off, happy that his awestruck customer had finally ordered, I ventured out to explore the other parts of this 200-seater restaurant.

All around I saw people of various ethnicities sitting with their friends, partners, and colleagues, devouring platefuls of noodles, rice and a variety of gravies. The restaurant doubles up as your neighbourhood 24/7 store with cigarettes, sweets and other knick-knacks also available with the cashier.

The Goreng Paprik Seafood (RM 9.50 = INR 150) in itself was a cornucopia of flavours. The slightly sticky rice had been fried in a typical nutty Indonesian sauce and was covered with chicken and seafood of all kinds, before being topped off by an omelette. A single bowl meal that was quite filling. The Roti Canai Curry (RM 8 = INR 128), on the other hand, was quite reminiscent of my trip to Kerala. The roti canai was heavily influenced by the flaky Malabari parantha that was constructed of multiple layers akin to a filo pastry. The accompanying mutton curry could have been found in the by-lanes of Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi.

There was a warm umami taste to the mutton curry as it warmed me up. A tinge of creamy coconut cream in it added a typical Malay touch to it. The menu had a litany of other things to keep one occupied; masakan à la Kampung (Kampung-style cuisine) and nasi kandar, originating from Penang, which consists of steamed rice along with a variety of curries.

Drinking chocolate

A surprising addition to the beverage menu here was Nestles energy drink, Milo.

Found all over the country from five-star hotels to roadside stalls, the country seems to be in love with its warm, chocolatey taste. Malaysians love their tea, too, almost as much as the Indians. But the tea here is used in quite a different avatar. The use of sweetened condensed milk instead of the regular skimmed version gives it a richer, sweeter taste that eliminates the need for a dessert.

But being a Bengali, it is pretty much sacrilege to let go of any kind of dessert, and I absolutely fell in love with the Malaysian kuih dadar (made out of coconut shavings stuffed in a crepe of sticky rice). It was pretty similar to the paatishaptas I used to roll out in my childhood.

I had gone into the Shaaz Curry House in search of something to assuage my hunger pangs, instead, I came out with a discourse on the intertwining of food and culture that defines Malaysia.

Abetting abbreviations,

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Im incurably addicted to abbreviations. I use them as an aide-memoire on the big calendar in my study and, having coined them myself, I can easily decipher them at a glance. However, the cryptic entries cluttering each month often leave my better half flummoxed, quite understandably.

The other day, peering at the calendar with knitted brows, she asked, "What do IPL and ICC stand for? Are you looking for an administrative job in cricket?" "No," I clarified, "Its to remind me that our damaged idli patram lid and the fridges ice cube container need to be replaced." She chuckled.

"And what about VOA and BBC?" she persisted, her curiosity aroused. "Are you trying to outsource some work from them?" I replied in the negative and painstakingly explained, "I need to verify our account with the provisions store and bring back curtains that have been stitched by the tailor. My wife didnt conceal her amusement.

"Surely, theres nothing wrong with your DNA," she remarked, a trifle alarmed, seeing this abbreviation over another date. I hastened to explain it stood for do not argue with anyone as suggested by my astrological forecast for the day. Then she was shocked by the expletive SOB, until I told her it innocuously expanded to sound out boss on a new proposal I had. She giggled appreciatively.

"But whats this?" she demanded next, eyeing me suspiciously on finding the abbreviations POT and TNT.

"Are you messing around with drugs and explosives on the sly?" Smirking, I dispelled her fears: the first was a reminder to pay our taxes and the second signified toenails trimmed. I told her that I liked to know how often I needed to trim my lower extremities.

"SOS seems to imply youre in some danger," she observed next. Then, getting used to the flow of the tide, she added, "But I suppose its something harmless." I replied rather irritably, "It stands for sell our shares - especially that worthless bunch thats brought us more queries from the income-tax department than financial returns!"

"You appear to be updating yourself with the assistance of RTI," she said, spotting the prominent abbreviation. A feeling of déjà vu seemed to be settling over her. Once again, I patiently explained, "Its a reminder to ask the sweeper to remove trash immediately from our front yard."

"I really dont see how you could be involved with any PTA or UFO," the lady of the house persisted, her eye running down the calendar. "Im not!" I snapped, my patience wearing thin. "I just need to paint the almirah and urgently fly over to Chennai for an important meeting tomorrow."

"And now, theres just one more abbreviation that needs to be added," I muttered. Rising from my chair, I added GNN to the medley adorning the calendar. "But, for heavens sake, those are your initials," my wife remonstrated.

"Yes!" I agreed and added, "They also indicate that Im going nuts now!"

'Taken' for granted

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Now, I dont for a minute want to ring any alarm bells. I dont even want to imply that I have stumbled on a Yossarian-like campaign to slowly, inexorably remove words from the English alphabet. But the truth has to be told. Something dire is underway. And its so subtle, so below the radar, most of us dont even know it is happening until well after it has finished happening. Im talking about how the word taken is being taken from us.

I first noticed it some years ago in a sweet little Irish town called Drogheda. Our hosts had invited a covey of Irishmen and women over to meet us, and the room was flowing with wit and repartee. Listening idly, a state that usually happens when I am a few Rieslings down, I noticed that every time people had to use the simple two-syllable word taken, or the one-syllable one of take, they were not. Instead, they were substituting brought and bring.

At the end of the dinner party, the hostess asked a friend, "And would you like to bring home some of that meatloaf? I have so much left." As I gaped on in much mystification, the friend happily assented and took home a very generous helping of the aforementioned meatloaf. Yes, took home.

This evening of epiphany shook me to the core of my English-thinking, English-speaking, English-dreaming (so sue me!) heart. Why were all these people, who looked to have been the beneficiaries of a good education, using the wrong word at the right place? With so much confidence, too. Was it me or was it them?

What started in Ireland didnt stay in Ireland, though. All too soon, my alert ears were constantly picking up on the sharply felt absence (at least by me) of taken/take/took, all over the Western world, and yes, specifically in the US of A. Soon I was obsessed and obsessing. I had become a collector of strange sentences, sentences that ran like this: she was brought to the aerial yoga class by Matt. Will you be bringing Lana to the prom, then? He brought the bike away last night. Are you bringing that apple crumble to the party?

All of this fell so harshly on my tender ears, they (my ears, not the sentences) fairly jangled. It was clear that my education had failed me.

This was also a tricky situation. How tricky, I soon realised, when in the momentary grip of wanting desperately to fit in, I found myself saying, "Did Joe bring the car along the longer route?" The utterly dumbfounded expression on my listeners face brought home to me that bring and its variants were not to be used lightly. But, how then were they to be used, dash it? There was, not so obviously, some trick to this. This was language racism, and I felt very much the outsider.

A casually uttered sentence like, "Im going north and bringing the car with me" fairly scrambled my brains. As did, "The bellboy brought me to my room in the hotel." Elsewhere when asked, "May I bring you home," I replied in all politeness that I could and would take myself off home, which, as you can guess, didnt make me any new friends. "Hop in, Ill bring you to the store," someone offered brightly and I just couldnt stop my wincing in response.

He then gave me a strange look and drove off. "Could you bring this to Mr S upstairs," yet someone else asked me, and taking, yes, a deep breath, I replied stoutly: "Of course, I will take the tea to Mr S upstairs." I tried to be cool yet firm, but it was clear that the other person thought I was slightly off. Shaking her head, she hurried off into her kitchen.

Some amount of psychological damage was being done to my psyche, too. Where was I when this memo was sent out, obliterating taken from the language? Would I have to pussyfoot through life, forever avoiding that word? When the next Liam Neeson film in the series was released, what would I have to call it? When the next alien invasion happens, will they say, "Bring me to your leader?"

Imagine my immense relief then, to be back home in India and hear someone say, "My girlfriend just took off, yaar, without a word to me." "They say bring for take out West", I murmured softly to him. He looked astounded. Then burst out: "Bring? Take? Ki farak painda? What difference does it make?"

Take that, you insidious word thieves. You will never succeed in India. Simply because most of English falls under the ki farak painda category to most of us Indians!


Book Rack (Jan 21)

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Memories of Fire

Ashok Chopra

Penguin, 2018, Rs 599, pp 416

Five childhood friends, four of whom are meeting after a gap of 54 years, embark on a journey into the past, laden with nostalgia and humour, and encompassing all the ugly and wonderful things life has to offer. This is inspired by true events and interspersed with the dark history of the Partition.

Gleanings of the road

Rabindranath Tagore, translated by Somdatta Mandal

Niyogi Books, 2018, Rs 295, pp 220

What was Rabindranath Tagores perception of the different facets of Western life, diverse and philosophical issues that crossed his mind as he journeyed from one continent to another? This travelogue holds some answers.

Parineeta

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, translated by Subhransu Maitra

Niyogi, 2018, Rs 195, pp 95

The duo of Shekharnath and Lalita, also neighbours, shares a bantering relationship. As time passes, they understand each others feelings. Meanwhile, there are tensions among the families with regard to an old loan. The differences between the lovers increase
with the arrival of Girin.

Early Anti British Revolts in Andhra

KSS Seshan

Gyan Books, 2018, Rs 699, pp 209

This is a study of the numerous struggles carried out in Andhra region against the British, much before the outbreak of the 1857 Revolt. As appropriation of surplus and monopoly of trade were the dominant factors during this phase, the opposing elements in these revolts were the revenue-collecting chiefs.

Shivaji

Ranjit Desai, translated by Vikrant Pande

Harper Collins, 2018, Rs 799, pp 574

Young Shivaji reaches Pune, a dying fort city, with his mother Jijabai, and lights the first lamp within its ruins. While his father Shahaji Bhosale is away on deputation by the Adil Shahi sultanate, Shivaji learns how an empire is built from the ground and begins the life of the Great Maratha.

Imperfect

Sanjay Manjrekar

Harper Collins, 2018, Rs 699, pp 209

The author uses his famous analytical powers to look back on his own career as a cricketer. His photographic memory takes the reader along his journey from the dusty maidans of Mumbai to the world stage as the combative batsman faces up the fearsome attacks.

The Wife Between Us

Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen

St Martins Press, 2018, Rs 1,100, pp 352

You will assume you know the motives, history and anatomy of relationships. Assume nothing. This novel by the dynamic duo explores the complexities of marriage and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love.

Limca Book of Records, 2018

Hachette, 2018, Rs 550, pp 424

This is a record that introduces you to the countrys best in human endeavour, education, defence, government, adventure, cinema, literature and the arts, along with additional chapters on science, economy and natural structures. Its also reader-friendly with infographics, charts and tables.

Beastly love

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Naga writer Easterine Kires works - poems, short stories, novels and novellas - are rooted in the folk tales, myths and culture of her native Nagaland - one of the seven sisters among the North Eastern states of India. The misty isolated rural woods and mountains of this region seem ripe to produce literature in the genre generally known as magic realism. This novella is one such - a charming insightful read that ends up being a bit of a thriller, a race against time.

The book jacket is attractively illustrated, throwing out hints, persuading the reader to dip in and test the waters.

Dont Run, My Love is a simple story told with poetic, deceptive calm and grace. There are tranquil sections sandwiched between storms - a rainstorm in the first chapter and a hailstorm in a penultimate climactic chapter. The story thus becomes a metaphoric portrayal of an agrarian arcadia being bedevilled by an unexpected upheaval.

It is a folksy fable about an ancient Naga village Kija, peopled by the Angami tribe, home to a mother-daughter peasant family - a widowed mother Visenuo and the 18-year-old daughter Atuonuo. The hardworking duo have their daily routine cut out, doing whatever the season dictates - be it hoeing, ploughing, planting, harvesting, or using help as needed. When the story opens, the mother and daughter are seen carrying the paddy harvest to their shed beyond the field, all on their own. Suddenly they are being helped in this burdensome task: the helper, Kevi, a handsome self-assured young man - "Anyone who set eyes on him... had to admit that he was a beautiful creature indeed." Kevi turns out to be a hunter with a certain animal magnetism, quite unlike the awkward village youth known to them. Surprisingly and soon enough, the handsome hunter showers the mother-daughter pair with gifts of fresh meat - initially accepted hesitantly. By and by, the mother catches on that the self-proclaimed motherless Kevi is probably in search of a wife, a family. The mother Visenuo is quickly in tune with the young man, agreeable to the idea of his union with her daughter Atuonuo - who is intrigued, drawn to Kevi, yet unsure. In a short while, though, she too comes round to accepting him.

The story simultaneously canters along, speaking of inquisitive relations and neighbours, family histories, the impending harvest festival with its bizarre practices (like frogs being cooked). Its a pastoral setting - suddenly disturbed by high drama. There is rejection of an impassioned suitor, extreme anger, hurt, Atuonuos attempts to accept again, and unexpected happenings that turn the bucolic setting into a nightmare for the simple farming family. The reader, too, is caught unawares; there is a sharp turn into the realm of the metaphysical; understandable though when one recalls myths about the beastly primal nature of man.

It is a layered story, almost a morality tale. Right from the beginning, the author makes things clear: "...a girl has the right to refuse if she didnt like a suitor." Looks do not make a man; inner beauty matters more. And rejection can unleash inner demons - as currently revealed in true stories from our present, our medias horror stories about spurned love and acid attacks.

The story is told in a manner that leads quietly and purposefully to a climax that is other-worldly and magical, yet believable. "They could recognise the great wood apple tree even in the dark. It stood hulking over the forest, darker than the darkness itself." Incidentally, the author has revealed that the novella is based on a folk tale related by her mother, about tekhuemevi (a mythic Naga figure, a half man, simultaneously tragic and heroic). However, the tale is best enjoyed by not delving into this subject beforehand, lest the hints act as a spoiler.

The author does a good job of creating the right ambience - "They had heard too many stories of spirits waylaying field goers on their way home." As Atuonuo enters the harvest hut at the crucial moment -"There was a powerful stench in the air." The line intrigues.

Other lines reveal the authors lyrical felicity and economy with language: "Fortunately the violence with which the storm broke meant that its energies were soon depleted." And quite frequently, local words are deployed in a manner that makes the meaning apparent. "In the kichukis, the young men were talking loudly after having started off on the homebrew early."

What lingers beyond the simple tale is the authors love for her homeland, as well as judicious use of her simple rural and very humane characters. Particularly significant is the character of the friendly woodcutter Keyo, who makes his appearance twice, just when required, bringing closure and justice.

Ultimately, Nagaland is shown as an enchanting blend of nature and supernatural elements. The remote state of Nagaland thus comes alive through its daughters book.

The murky scape

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At the very first sight, Seoung Wook Sims work attracts and disturbs at the same time. His sculptural pieces are dark, stark, menacing, unhinged, and anxious. Things seem to be falling apart. They hang precariously from the ceiling, spread venomously on the floor, or stick perilously on the wall. Time and space stand suspended unsteadily. Borders and addresses appear and blur quickly. Aspects of illusion and reality melt, and ominous signs of gloom and doom, fear, and even death seep through. No two viewers are likely to feel and respond to Sims art in the same way.

The young and genial artist from South Korea says that his work is principally about imagined landscapes, objects, people and physical constructs. They are clearly not attractive illustrations but thought-provoking reflections of a sublime, if tragic, reality of an unstable world. They present signals of psychological stress and a silent call for deeper understanding of the hazardous world we have ourselves created.

Sims work has been exhibited widely, receiving critical admiration. In 2014, his piece titled Construction and Deconstruction was awarded the grand prize in the sculpture section of the Prudential Eye Awards in Singapore. The artist was at the Incheon art platform, South Korea, recently. Here are excerpts from a freewheeling discussion...

On his background/art education

My father, who worked for the government, was supportive of my decision to pursue art. He probably saw the limitations of a well-paying but a tedious bureaucratic job. My mother, however, worried about the risks of a career in art. Anyway, I graduated from Hongik University, Seoul before heading to complete my masters at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA. Art education has been helpful to me in many ways. In remembering how Mary Jane Jacob, the dean of the Institute at Chicago, encouraged and inspired me to explore ways and discover a visual language to convey my ideas.

On his choice of material

From the very beginning, I was not very keen on conventional materials like wood, stone, steel, etc, although I appreciated their inherent qualities. I was more interested in unconventional materials that represented a modern
aesthetic and also brought a new challenge which suited my kind of work. I have been a professional artist since 2007, and in these 10 years have explored the exceptional qualities of plastic and in particular, glue sticks. My sculptures are sometimes large and appear complex, but I have found a rather simplified process which helps make them.

On the dark themes his work seems to address

From an early age, I possessed a streak of protest and dissent. Since my father was in the government of the past regime, I had to suppress them to a large extent. Things have changed substantially now, and we can freely express ourselves. My views and concerns about social, political and cultural issues have always remained strong. I do not,
however, consider myself to be an activist, or that my work to be overtly ideological. I believe that a good artwork provides broad hints about the artists ideas, concerns and motivations. It is up to the viewers to interpret these hints and suggestions in their own ways.

On his Black Gravity series...

I have worked on the Black Gravity series for almost a decade, using hot-melt glue sticks. In doing so, I fabricate and pile up dark ornamental forms, which look like a big black and weird sculpture. These works come through a meditation about the imaginary and unreal worlds. I have always had this curiosity about this strange world where one feels isolated in a constricted space. Black Gravity is a physical manifestation of a psychological response to an imaginary world that differs vastly from a physical one. For instance, one cannot measure the weight of shadows by using a conventional method; but it is possible for an artist to create shadows that appear light or heavy. All these may sound a bit ridiculous, but they aid and encourage me to traverse into the unknown.

On the importance of the viewers response

Very important! The viewer, in many ways, brings a closure to the artwork by conveying his interpretation. I am always curious to know the viewers reaction even if I dont concur with his interpretation. Same goes for the critic. In my view, a critic can bring in a new perspective or reading to my work, which can be useful to my artistic growth.

About international exhibitions and venues

It is a great experience to show ones works at different venues. My works have featured in shows in the US, the UK and elsewhere. Being sculptures, there are many challenges , but in the end, it is all satisfying and educative to expose them to different audiences. Although Im a Korean artist dealing basically with local issues, my work could also be relevant to other people on a global level.

On size & scale of his work

I feel size and scale are not so important as long as the theme is properly addressed. I have, of course, worked on varying sizes depending upon the theme, curatorial briefing, space availability, etc.

About the larger context driving his recent work

My recent work basically looks critically at this cycle of construction, destruction, reconstruction, and deconstruction, which happens continuously and rampantly everywhere. I try to observe the borders or edges of this everyday phenomenon. Curiously, at some points, there seems to be no difference between construction and deconstruction! I seek to examine this aspect of reality - not just from a mechanical or representational point of view - but as something which has long-term socio-political implications for everyone. Ultimately, I see all these as a manifestation of human desires and greed, not restricted to one community or country, but spread across universally. I try to present this stark reality through my work.

On his future projects

I dont know. Tomorrow is always a mystery. Better to be concerned about today, right?

Leather need not be dull...

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For those with a penchant for leather craftwork, head off to the Blue Lotus town of Pushkar, to be precise, to Jawaja village in the district of Ajmer, around 150 km from Pushkar.

The Jawaja block enjoys the distinction of preserving the traditional camel-leather craft that dates back to more than three centuries. Made of close to 200 hamlets, its a drought-prone area. But there are nearly 2,000 craftsmen who work here, and most of them belong to the Regar (means dyeing in Rajasthani) community.

The craftsmen are primarily involved in dyeing and tanning of camel-skin hides. But both men and women are involved in the cutting and stitching of hides. Some of them also make shoes. It takes a couple of days time to make 10 leather bags without machines.

Raw material is procured from the Jodhpur and Barmer regions of Rajasthan.

First, theres the processing of leather from raw hides, which takes about a month. The hides are embossed with various designs (this takes a few hours), chemically painted on, sun-dried for four hours, and then polished with oil. The processing of these camel-skin hides takes nearly a month.

One can walk down the Sadar Bazaar area (which forms the main market in Pushkar) to buy the best of the leather goods. Their prices in Pushkar are comparatively cheaper than in the other cities of Rajasthan.

Embroidered purses cost Rs 40, colourful pencil boxes Rs 160, and a ladies handbag may cost you Rs 1,000!

The more eye-catching but expensive goods are the diaries embossed with the images of Lord Ganesha, at Rs 1,500. But there are other motifs like flowers and gemstones to choose from.

Other leather-craft goods to be bought here are belts, bags, portfolio bags, school bags, etc. They have an unending stream of buyers as the holy town of Pushkar is frequented by tourists. Its also known that these goods are exported to the United States, Australia, and Europe.

Field of dreams

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What is the importance of the Indian constitution? It is true that all constitutions are products of their own histories and the specific circumstances of the societies in which they were germinated. If so, then, isnt each constitution equally unique and specific in its own way? Why should then the Indian Constitution be privileged with compliments such as unique and special?

The journey to the making of the Indian Constitution was neither smooth nor uniform. It was complex, varied, multi-stranded and contested. A large number of ideas, positions and ideals competed with one another to find a significant place in the holy-legal-foundational-axial book containing the collective aspirations of the people of independent India. The Indian Constitution, as it emerged from the three-year-long proceedings of the Constituent Assembly, was much more than simply a book of legal code, or a treatise on Indian politics, or a governing manual for Indian state. It was also a blue-print for the transformation of a large Indian society in a modern direction. One important quality of this blueprint was that it was not created by one or two exceptional minds, but a fairly large number of political leaders chosen indirectly by the people.

The Indian Constitution was a product of many encounters among a large number of ideas and ideals that sometimes clashed with, and sometimes complemented, each other. All of them fed into the Constitution in some way or the other. It was thus founded on multiple ideational sources. For instance, there was the traditional Indian idea of maximum autonomy with least control, which was tremendously enriched by the modern liberal idea of freedom and choice in political and entrepreneurial life with limited governance. The synergy of the two played an important role in curbing the tendency towards absolutisation of state power at the time of Constitution-making.

Not all the ideas complemented each other. Some actually clashed. There was a British colonial idea of gradually preparing the Indian society for constitutional advance so as to prolong the British rule. The idea was to use the façade of constitutionalism which would enable the alien British rule to establish a firm footing on the Indian soil. According to this idea, an illusion of constitutional advance was to be maintained in order to create legitimacy for British rule in India. In the light of this imperative, the British carried out a series of constitutional measures since 1858. Each measure introduced some change, and was an advance over the previous measure. Each was intended to delay or defer the ultimate change from an alien British rule to a representative rule of Indian people.

This British idea of introducing change in order to prevent a larger change came into clash with the Indian idea of greater Indianisation and democratisation of the political structure. The Indian leaders critiqued the British initiatives and took their critique to a new height in the 1920s when they prepared an alternative constitution for India, popularly known as Nehru Report, named after Motilal Nehru, one of the main architects of the Report. Nehru Report was the first serious attempt by Indians to prepare a constitution for India, and it differed from the British initiatives in some crucial respects.

Their ideas combined...

The British had attempted to modernise Indian politics by legitimising and perpetuating differences - particularly along religious lines - in the Indian society. They created democratic openings and separate political domains for Hindus and Muslims. In a way, they created separate and competitive democracies for Hindus and Muslims. They did so by dividing elected candidates, constituencies, and even voters along religious lines. In the British version of democracy, Hindus and Muslims were politically completely segregated from each other and were constituted into separate political domains. The Indian leaders offered a more imaginative system of weightage, safeguards and reservations as against complete political separation between groups and communities. This alternative idea was codified in the Nehru report.

There was thus an interesting encounter between the British idea and the Indian alternative on reservation versus separate electorate, and which of the two was a superior idea. However, the British-Indian debate was conducted over religious communities. It took an interesting turn in the 1930s and manifested itself on the question of caste. This debate was conducted mainly between Gandhi and Ambedkar, two of the greatest leaders of the 20th century. The debate was on how to distribute political power under democracy among groups and communities, but in such a manner so as to not accentuate political divisions among them. This, indeed, was an important question. Indian traditional plurality was of an unequal kind. A small numerical minority of upper caste Hindus had traditionally dominated over a majority of the lower castes and excluded them from social benefits and entitlements. They were able to do it by invoking the sacred authority of religious doctrines. This social domination by the minority, over the majority, on the basis of divine sanctions, was possible at a time and in a society that had not experienced either democracy or secularism. It was also hoped that under modern conditions - engendered by democracy and secularism - such domination and exclusion would be unsustainable. But a delay in the introduction of these two great ideals created doubts in the minds of Indian leaders on how to eliminate social hierarchy, yet maintain unity and diversity. This, really, was the essence of the debate between Gandhi and Ambedkar.

Gandhi believed that it could be done by opting for a democracy in which political representatives would be responsible and accountable to all, irrespective of caste. The burden of responsibility would moderate and dilute the impulse to dominate and exclude. Ambedkar, on the other hand, felt that a system of separate representation - only Dalits representing the Dalits - would create better conditions for justice and would eventually lead to social and political equality.

The two ideas - of separate political representation and accountability, and a system of joint accountability, were prima facie opposed to each other. But each had its merit, and both the ideas eventually found their way into the Constitution, albeit in a modified form.

Perhaps the most important idea in the constitutional journey developed in the 1930s. This was the idea of a constitution to be made, not by the tiny minority of the best minds alone, but by a Constituent Assembly chosen by the people. Jawaharlal Nehru was the main proponent of the idea. He married the constitutional idea with the democratic idea and argued that nothing short of a Constituent Assembly would satisfy the nationalist aspirations for a constitution. The British eventually conceded the demands. It was in 1946 that a Constituent Assembly, elected indirectly though restricted franchise, was created, which started deliberating on what kind of a constitution was best-suited for the Indian people and society. The members debated for over three years - from December 9, 1946 till January 24, 1950 over virtually every aspect of the collective political life of the people. The 12 volumes of the Constituent Assembly Debates, spread over nearly 5,500 pages, are an ample testimony of the kind of challenges that were confronted by the makers of the Indian Constitution.

When the slightly-over 200 members of the newly constituted Constituent Assembly sat down to deliberate, they knew the supreme importance of the task they had been entrusted with. People drawn from different cultures, regions and backgrounds had to create consensus among themselves and prepare a document that would serve as the guiding principle for the future. It was no easy task. The members had to set aside their personal and group interests, their rivalries, ideological predilections, and strive towards general agreement through engaged reasoning.

A large number of contentious issues confronted the members. One of them was the conflict between the modern impulse for equal opportunity and the idea of positive discrimination for those who had been historically discriminated against. This dilemma was obviously most conspicuous on the question of caste and how to deal with it. It was recognised by all that caste as an institution had been a source of great injustice to the lower castes. This injustice had to be removed by working towards the removal of the institution of caste, and by providing safeguards to the victims of caste oppression. However, the dilemma was that the two goals could not be pursued simultaneously.

Ambedkar himself may have experienced this dilemma when, on the one hand, he argued forcefully for the "Annihilation of Caste". But, on the other hand, he also proposed, during the deliberations in the Constituent Assembly that caste be made the criterion for the practice of positive discrimination. On the face of it, the two appeared contradictory: you cannot wish to annihilate caste, while at the same time make it the basis for a whole range of institutional arrangements. Caste could be annihilated when it was removed not simply from the social structure, but also from the minds and the consciousness of the people. But how could it be removed if it became the bedrock of the official policy on the distribution of jobs and other benefits?

This certainly was a huge dilemma. It was simply not possible to wish it away. However, it was addressed by making a distinction between short-term priorities and long-term goals. It was certainly a priority to promote a policy of positive discrimination to compensate for historical wrongs done to the lower castes. It was then hoped that the short-term measures would eventually feed into the long-term goal of the removal of caste from our social life. Whether the short-term measures will feed into the long-term goal, we do not know, and it is too early to conclude either way. For the moment, it does seem that caste-consciousness, instead of diminishing, has shown a revival in recent times with a degree of stridency. However, the resolution of this question lies in the womb of time.

Yet another issue of debate was on the role of the State as the centralised decision-making institution, and the distribution of power between the central government and other federating units. On this issue, the members were pulled in both the unitary and the federal direction. Pressures of national security, imperatives of national unity, and the recent anxieties created by Partition and the making of Pakistan, tilted the balance towards greater centralisation. On the other hand, the impulse of maintaining diversity and the fears of an authoritarian Centre justified the need for a federal framework with enough distribution of power. In the end, a consensus developed through a compromise which created a strong Centre (to maintain security and unity), and also balanced it by vesting enough power in the federating units (to preserve diversity and democracy).

One big question is: how could all this be possible? How was it that the representatives from a traditional, Brahmanical, upper-caste-dominated, male-oriented society were able to rise above their inherited traditional baggage and create a blueprint which contained the possibility of a modern transformation? Some part of the answer has to be found in the very nature of the Indian nationalist movement which created a huge ideational churning during the initial decades of the 20th century. The national movement was not simply a struggle against the alien British imperialism. It was also a great project which mobilised the Indian people and harnessed their creative energies towards a modern direction. The national movement triggered many debates around the nature of the future, which were eventually taken up in a systematic manner by the members of the Constituent Assembly. In this sense, the Constituent Assembly represented more of a continuation and a culmination of the national movement, rather than a separate process altogether. It may be argued that the Indian people and their leaders had begun preparing their constitution much before the convening of the Constituent Assembly. A mammoth transformational experience of the national movement eventually culminated in a transformational document, the Constitution of India.

There is no doubt that the Indian Constitution has withstood the test of time and thus lived up to the expectations of the makers of the Constitution several decades ago. However, one should also remember the Constitution for some crucial omissions and missed opportunities. One such missed opportunity was the question of gender justice. Even though women were granted the equality of citizenship by the Constitution, this equality in a deeply unequal society could only serve to perpetuate inequality. It is truly unfortunate that the principle of positive discrimination, which was applied to the question of caste, was not extended to the question of gender. It turned out to be naive optimism to believe that the creation of equal opportunity would create conditions for gender equality. The great reluctance of our current political class to take up the issue of womens reservation in the parliament is ample testimony that the Constitution makers placed a certain faith in their political successors, which turned out to be completely misplaced. It is undeniable that the Constitution makers made a huge mistake in leaving this question to be settled by the future generation of political leaders. The failure to institute a proper mechanism to ensure gender justice must be ranked as one of the great failures on the part of the Constitution makers.

The failures and silences notwithstanding, it has to be recognised that the period 1946-50 is truly an axial period of our constitutional history. It was during this period that around 200 representatives of the Indian people got together to create history. By any reckoning, they were normal, unexceptional people â€" mostly middle-aged men, drawn from traditional backgrounds, and from the privileged upper strata of society. Nonetheless, they knew that they had been entrusted with a great task. And, to paraphrase Nehru, the greatness of the task was so overwhelming that it cast its shadow on them and, in the process, they also became great. They transcended their group interests, class location, inherited privileges, and got involved in creating a blueprint for Indias modern transformation. They gave themselves a project â€" how to transform a large (ly?) traditional society with multiple diversities into a modern society, without endangering the diversity, but by removing its undesirable, hierarchical aspects. In other words, they took up the challenge of how to retain the positive elements of Indian traditions and yet create a transformational pull in a modern direction. There is no doubt that they were largely successful in preparing the road map. It is now for the people of India and their representatives to work towards translating that road map into reality.

(The writer is a historian and is currently the pro-vice-chancellor of Ambedkar University Delhi)

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