Outlook TruePDF 25 february 2019

INDIA-SAUDI ARABIA TIES POISED FOR GIANT LEAP February 25, 2019 Rs 60 www.outlookindia.com Web of Seduction LAW IS A BULLY Indiscriminate use of draconian laws puts citizens’ freedom in peril R N I N O 4 / 904150 800010 07 www.outlookindia.com navigator Volume LIX, No EDITOR Ruben Banerjee MANAGING EDITOR Sunil Menon EXECUTIVE EDITOR Satish Padmanabhan FOREIGN EDITOR Pranay Sharma POLITICAL EDITOR Bhavna Vij-Aurora BUSINESS EDITOR Arindam Mukherjee SENIOR EDITOR Giridhar Jha CHIEF ART DIRECTOR Deepak Sharma WRITERS Lola Nayar, Qaiser Mohammad Ali (Senior Associate Editors), G.C Shekhar (Associate Editor), Jeevan Prakash Sharma (Senior Assistant Editor), Prachi PinglayPlumber, Ushinor Majumdar, Ajay Sukumaran, Probir Pramanik (Assistant Editors), Naseer Ganai (Senior Special Correspondent), Preetha Nair, Neel Shah (Special Correspondents), Salik Ahmad, Siddhartha Mishra (Senior Correspondents), Arshia Dhar (Correspondent) COPY DESK Rituparna Kakoty (Senior Associate Editor), Anupam Bordoloi, Saikat Niyogi, Satyadeep (Associate Editors), Martand Badoni (Assistant Editor) PHOTOGRAPHERS S Rakshit (Chief Photo Coordinator), Jitender Gupta (Photo Editor), Tribhuvan Tiwari (Deputy Photo Editor), Sandipan Chatterjee, Apoorva Salkade (Sr Photographers), Suresh Kumar Pandey (Staff Photographer) J.S Adhikari (Sr Photo Researcher), U Suresh Kumar (Digital Library) DESIGN Saji C.S (Chief Designer), Ashish Rozario (Design-consultant), Leela (Senior Designer), Devi Prasad, Padam Gupta (Sr DTP Operators) DIGITAL Neha Mahajan (Assistant Editor), Soumitra Mishra (Digital Consultant), Jayanta Oinam, Lachmi Deb Roy (Special Correspondents), Ipsita Pati (Senior Correspondent), Satata Karmakar (Correspondent), Adil Rashid, Mahima Monga, Ritika Dubey (Trainee Journalists), Suraj Wadhwa (Chief Graphic Designer), Rupesh Malviya (Video Editor) EDITORIAL MANAGER & CHIEF LIBRARIAN Alka Gupta BUSINESS OFFICE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Indranil Roy PUBLISHER Sandip Kumar Ghosh SR VICE PRESIDENT Meenakshi Akash VICE PRESIDENTS Bindu Dhawan, Shrutika Dewan SR GENERAL MANAGER Kabir Khattar (Corp) GENERAL MANAGERS Debabani Tagore, Sasidharan Kollery, Shashank Dixit, Shailender Vohra ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER Diwan Singh Bisht CHIEF MANAGER Shekhar Kumar Pandey MANAGERS Shekhar Suvarana, Sudha Sharma CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTION Raj Kumar Mitra, Anindya Banerjee, G Ramesh (South), Vinod Kumar (North), Arun Kumar Jha (East) DIGITAL Amit Mishra HEAD OFFICE AB-10, S.J Enclave, New Delhi - 110 029 Tel: 011-33505500; Fax: 26191420 Customer care helpline: 011-33505533, 33505500 e-mail: outlook@outlookindia.com For editorial queries: edit@outlookindia.com For subscription helpline: yourhelpline@outlookindia.com OTHER OFFICES MUMBAI Tel: 022-33545000; Fax: 33545100 CALCUTTA Tel: 033 46004506; Fax: 033 46004506 CHENNAI Tel: 42615224, 42615225; Fax: 42615095 BANGALORE Tel: 080-43715021 Printed and published by Indranil Roy on behalf of Outlook Publishing (India) Pvt Ltd Editor: Ruben Banerjee Printed at International Print-O-Pac Ltd, C 4-C 11, Phase-II, Noida and published from AB-10, S.J Enclave, New Delhi-110 029 ENRAGED Protests for the release of student activist Kanhaiya Kumar in Delhi, 2016 12 Snowed Out Of Service Snow chokes the vital Srinagar-Jammu highway to a shutdown again 22 Good For Hearts The heart stent market, an unregulated space for long, is going to be under stricter watch from the NPPA In a first, Kerala will shortly open its own stent monitoring system 26 National Insecurity Act The NSA and other laws around sedition are being invoked way too frequently by the State and, at times, for minor, even bizzarre offences What’s with the insecurity! 44 The Gulf of Tech Saudi Arabia’s ties with India come into greater focus as the kingdom, under the guidance of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, prepares for a tech-driven future 70 Soft-core Subscription Route A look at the range of over-the-top video streaming platforms attracting audiences in small towns and villages through titillating content LETTERS 10 DEEP THROAT 78 BOOKS 80 GLITTERATI 82 DIARY Cover Design: Ashish Rozario Published for the week of February 19-25, 2019 Released on February 16, 2019 Total no of pages 84, Including Covers Powered by POINT AND SHARE Now, open Outlook magazine on your smartphone instantly Point your phone’s scanner on the code and align it in the frame You will be guided instantly to our website, www.outlookindia.com This is useful to share our stories on social media or email them Get Started Saving For Your Retirement Right Way To Ample Retirement Savings Turn to page 62 25 February 2019 OUTLOOK letters Lost In The South ON E-MAIL Vijai Pant: This is with tle resonance here The BJP needs to visibly change its positions while campaigning in states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala But then, that would need them to get rid of the arrogance they have accumulated from an anti-Congress wave in the last five years or so reference to your cover story Deccan Can They? (Feb 11) BJP’S north Indian roots, its overwhelmingly Hindutva image, lack of regional leadership down south and the mistrust the party carries among the people of the south are hurdles which will not be easy for the saffron party to surmount, irrespective of its focussed southward push The only way forward for BJP is to groom leaders, bolster its organisational structure in the south, stitch umbrella alliances with regional parties and, most of all, dilute its strong Hindutva image A long-term strategy with loads of patience is the need of the hour for this party which has always been in fast forward mode CHENNAI Kangayam R Narasimhan: The BJP, by its very nature, is prone to rub the Tamils the wrong way The party has failed to read the pulse of the people over a raft of issues such as the Salem-Chennai green corridor project, oil and natural gas exploration and the neutrino project The common refrain is that PM Modi does not want to give Tamils what they want, but thrusts down their throats what they don’t want We ask for a halt to Karnataka’s plan to build a new dam across river Cauvery at Meketadu but what we get in return is the neutrino project—a wild goose chase for God’s particle! The political untouchability practised against the saffron outfit by the Dravidian majors and half-a-dozen fringe groups runs so deep that they don’t lose opportunities for blaming the BJP for anything going wrong in Tamil Nadu AIADMK’s Namadu MGR has blamed the BJP for its failures to act on promises like providing two crore jobs a year or giving Rs15 lakh to each citizen from the black money retrieved from safe havens The Last Gandhi NOIDA Bal Govind: This refers to The February 11, 2019 abroad BJP’s corruption outcry has few takers because corruption is never a major issue in a state that has gained notoriety for scientific corruption, and where most people sell their ballots for a price Amid all these conundrums it is surprising how the BJP is pushing for a coalition with strange bed fellows like the AIADMK—T.T.V Dinakaran or PMK—to fight the Lok Sabha polls ON E-MAIL Shailesh Kumar: Political vocabulary is developed over decades and can only be used effectively if those being addressed are in on the words and phrases The BJP simply hasn’t one for the south The Ram mandir catchphrase may still stir up an agenda storm in the northern mainlands but speeches down south are nuanced and local And identities in the southern states are more confident about their origins and evolution, so, a broad-based, flimsy Hindutva bid just doesn’t get you the mandate Even the carefully crafted cult of Modi finds lit- Face For The Other Side Of U.P (Feb 11) The Congress remains a fringe player in the politics of the most populous state in the country It seems to be trailing far behind the SP-BSP alliance and BJP in UP Having said that, by sending Priyanka Gandhi to UP east, the Congress has pitched her directly against both the CM and the PM—both have won from this belt Though she may not be able to fetch her party their old bastion back, she can definitely put a dent in the hopes of the SP-BSP alliance and ruling BJP in that region Till date, she has restricted herself to her mother and brother’s constituencies, but now she will have to dig deep into dirty politics and prove that she can be a serious contender in future And, mind you, she is no small fish SECUNDERABAD K.R.Srinivasan: The Congress under Rahul Gandhi is still struggling to come to grips, but Priyanka’s entry into politics should give a fillip to the rank and file of the party and enthuse them to work with greater vigour in UP As general secretary UP east, she has a tough task cutout ahead of her Her oratory skills and mass appeal appear to have a greater edge than Rahul’s NEW DELHI Aditya Mukherjee: Indian politics undoubtedly tends to be red in tooth and claw come election time These days the only debate that is reverberating in the corridors of one-liner PUNE Anil S The southern palate is too diverse to be coloured a single shade of coercive saffron OUTLOOK 25 February 2019 power concerns is Priyanka Gandhi’s sudden entry into politics While the BJP, as expected, is busy unleashing a stream of vitriol against the Congress by invoking the dynasty trope, a frisson of hope and euphoria has gripped the Congress After being out to dry by the SP-BSP alliance, the Congress has had no option but to fall back on the charismatic Priyanka It is obvious that she has been made to draw the short straw, being asked to take charge of a tough and volatile eastern UP to improve the political fortunes of the party Priyanka is no babe in the woods in matters political as she has campaigned successfully in previous elections for the party Now having decided to cross the rubicon, Priyanka has to punch above her weight to take the fight to the opposition led by BJP and SP-BSP alliance At the same time, while Priyanka is personally incorruptible and enjoys a relatively clean image, her husband Robert Vadra’s involvement in dubious business deals can become an albatross around her neck Can she turn things around in what looks to be one of the most tough and nerve-wracking election battles of UP in recent times? BANGALORE K.S Jayatheertha: So, has Congress eventually realised that it will take more than a Rahul Gandhi to revive itself in a state widely believed to hold the key to Raisina Hill Either way, it is an admission that the party stands virtually decimated in UP, and is so politically distraught that it has been pressured into playing its last “Gandhi card” to ward off being reduced to a marginal player Whether the Congress president’s “front foot strategy” and Priyanka’s entry actually revives the party’s prospects are the big imponderable of the 2019 election However, the BJP has certainly been impacted, its revival of the ‘dynasty’ criticism proves precisely that The Age of Freedom BANGALORE Minati Pradhan: Your story, Last of the Nation’s First, on freedom fighters reminded me of my freedom fighter grandfather, Sachindra Pradhan, who passed away in 2001, at the age of 84, after a brief age-related illness (Feb 11) I cherish my childhood days when I was keen on listening to him as he narrated his experience as a young freedom fighter At the age of 12-13, he joined a group of freedom fighters led by a fierce village leader, Pranabandhu Awasthi They were arrested and jailed by the British government The leaders were left on Freedom fighter K.C Narayanappa the trail of red ants in the scorching hot sun with all their limbs tied They were beaten and tortured by the police He used to show the scar he had below his nose—a cut mark from a hunter Despite of all this, they used to meet in the dark of the night to discuss their letters plans, prepare pamphlets etc Thanks Outlook for bringing out the stories of these people Don’t Lose Faith ON E-MAIL Milind Jaswal: This refers to Heer, Ranjha and a Mom’s Hitman (Feb 11) The details of this murder were hair-raising It’s the kind of thing that makes you lose your faith in humanity But then, that wouldn’t have landed the survivor in this case— Jassi’s husband Mithu—anywhere He fought a tough battle for justice and it’s heartening to see that Punjab cops have extradited the accused murderers to face trial Hope justice is done swiftly now, after this long delay Our Soul Food ON E-MAIL Yusuf Shariff: Every country has its own specific art forms and culture, but India is blessed with enviable and unmatched fountains of art, culture, heritage, rituals, music, dance, theatre and cinema (India: A Dance Penumbral Feb 4) Our diversity has been our biggest strength Without it, India would have been a barren soil without soul and would have adopted western forms of arts and culture which not at all suit our country Pilfering the Pledge GOA M.N Bhartiya: This refers to the article We The People At The Crossroads (Feb 4) After the end of the monarchical system and freedom in 1947, the introduction of the Constitution in 1950 sought to make pluralism the cornerstone for democracy in India All adults, irrespective of their properties, caste and creed or gender got the right to franchise The rule of law’ and ‘principles of equity’ got supremacy in governance It was OUTLOOK 25 February 2019 INBOXED The Outsider’s Mischief ON E-MAIL Bipin Ram: This refers to The Angry Citizens (Feb 11) The backlash after the BJP’s citizenship bill that the party is pushing in the Northeast is telling of the makeshift arrangement it had managed in the region devoid of any real influence Mainstream political outfits have, at best, acted as brokers for the peculiar politics in the Northeast which is very region specific BJP had won a great deal in the past few years But they forget that they don’t have any real significance anywhere out of the cow belt The Sangh tried to single out Muslims in the Assam, thinking that would be enough to appease the people facing a sustained demographic crisis Some would say that it worked to some extent However, when the BJP tried to bring in other identities in order to rejig the population equation with the ultimate aim of creating a vote bank from, literally, thin air, the locals saw through the cunning strategy immediately and are now up in protest They are making Modi’s caravans realise that they are ultimately outsiders in the seven sister states who can be kicked out of the political equation if they try to play too smart Also, the next time Modi visits a Northeast state, he should leave the traditional headgear alone It’s obnoxious and is winning him no votes once “assaulted” by Emergency during 1975 - 1977 by then PM Indira Gandhi to save her chair and save the country from internal anarchy This was the turning point in the history of Indian polity People proved worthy of democracy; it survived But now, secularism is at stake We already live under an undeclared emergency The civil rights of citizens, pluralism, autonomous constitutional institutions, rationality and scientific tamper in public life are under seige The lower middle and the weaker class are confused with various ambiguous tax concessions and grants declared in the latest budget The Opposition too is acting most irresponsibly They are not united—their selfish ambitions are getting an edge over saving the fibre of democracy They are trapped in the tone and tenor of the agenda fixed by the government and Hindu organisations for electioneering debates VARANASI R Raman: Mahesh Rangarajan’s article on the current socio-political scenario of the Republic is in fact a call to the reason of the discerning What happened in 2014 was inevitable Such was the disillusion with the then ruling dispensation that Modi’s triumph was less of his own than of the failure of his adversaries The perception about a Congress hollowed by corruption put paid to their fate The present dispensation is on an overdrive to the opposite Their shrill, tall claims of social reforms (‘sabka saathsabka vikas’), and the upliftment of the economy with ease of business and job creation have fallen flat with the BJP doing no better than their ‘paralysed’ predecessors Yet the powers that be, and their crony officialdom, have been spinning spools of lies and myth to paint a rosy picture by debunking the standard methods of evaluation The present dispensation’s interference with institutional autonomy is increasing with every passing day But what threatens to devastate the fabric of the country is the agenda of majoritarian writ on life of the citizen The whole discourse on social, political, religious, even scientific, matters is so dramatically and emphatically driven towards a thinking that not only militates rational thinking but runs counter to the centuries old ethos of Indian life And that plague, one fears, will become an epidemic if not turned around immediately The next election, therefore is indeed a watershed election where choices are limited but they need to be made, and decisively I am reminded of a famous mastline of earlier years that once adorned the top of a newspaper, “Freedom is in peril, defend it with all your might” IN & AROUND THE SUBCONTINENTAL MENU GOLDEN PENGUINS HEY are from the frozen land of peeny-weeny, piffling piccolini, piddily-diddily pooft, until the Happy Feet gang of eight waddled into Byculla zoo in August 2016 And ever since they put their flippers up for the public next March, all footfalls have been directed to their water-and-pebble, climate-controlled corral Their hippity-hoppity is keeping the till jingling for keepers Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation— Rs 11 crore at the last count How is this penguinely possible? You may ask Donald, Daisy, Popeye, Olive, Flipper, Bubble, Mr Molt and Dory from the Humboldt family Well, they are bending to the fetid fantasies of a miserable species T HANUMAN’S REVENGE MRS BHUTTO 1, 2, 3, H IT’S A TREET! B RING your old jeans and take home a baby Deodar Sounds like an advert for a plant nursery or a supermarket, right? Not quite When just-married Bhupen Rabha and Babita Boro of Assam’s Baksa district invited guests to their wedding feast, they dropped a request to bring old clothes and books for the poor The couple gave Deodar saplings as return gifts The clothes will be distributed and the books will find place in a library in the couple’s village—No Kataligaon, one of the cleanest in Baksa We congratulate Rabha, who teaches English at a government college, and his wife for choosing this ‘Service to Mankind’ theme for their wedding Sometimes one can make a loud and memorable statement without the DJ’s assistance E is the chief of a political party, an Oxford graduate, a good-looking bachelor and, importantly, a Bhutto If that doesn’t make him the most eligible Pakistani, who else? And then, Bilawal Bhutto also has the casually sexist sense of humour of the average Pakistani male He exhibited that in good measure in a riposte to a recent query on his marriage plans “We are having detailed, comprehensive strategic meetings about this…if I should marry one woman or four one from each of Pakistan’s provinces,” he said, with a big grin to a chortling home audience But the world frowned upon his remarks—a person of Bilawal’s education and exposure should know how to better navigate gender politics Illustrations by MANJUL OUTLOOK 25 February 2019 T HE odds were 400:1 and the lone monkey won For the vanquished—an entire village in coastal Tamil Nadu’s Nagapattinam— their conqueror embodies the Kiplingesque nature of monkeys Grotesque, rabid and lawless Many fled their homes and some took shelter in a temple on the outskirts as the rogue shank his sharp canines on more than 20 villagers as well as livestock in 20 days Foresters are now camping with nets, traps and darts to catch the slippery simian which, it seems, has escaped from captivity and had suffered horrific abuse Or is he waging a war to avenge his kind in a world where men are pushing animals to the margins? “All of human history has led to this moment.” Sounds familiar? Ah, the Planet of the Apes! THE TRANSCENDERS AT THEIR GARDEN T HE Kama Sutra calls them the ‘third sex’, they were royal servants for the Mughals, but prudish British morality upturned centuries of acceptance Transgenders now live on the fringes of society, begging or prostituting So, it makes for a rare welcome sight when you see eight of them toiling hard at a farm—their 4.5- acre window to a suitable life They grow their own food at a village in Karnataka’s Chikmagalur district But acceptance didn’t come easily, recalls Anju, as sceptical villagers took her for a sorcerer Change came when they donated Rs 25,000 to Kodagu flood survivors They are raising funds for a toddler battling cancer CANDY MEN TO HANG IN LANKA W HEN you meet one who rough-talks like “give me salt and vinegar and I’ll eat his liver”, and follows each warning shot with body hits, the enthusiasm rubs off on you So, high on a hands-on with Rodrigo ‘Death Squad’ Duterte, Sri Lanka’s Maithripala Sirisena warned replicating the Filipino leader’s take-no-prisoners approach on drug dealers Which means a decades-old moratorium on the death penalty will end with the hanging of five drug convicts But Lanka needs a hangman, as the last one retired in 2014 and his three successors quit too, bored by the unused gallows A DAILY NUTRITIOUS DOSE OF BEETLE T HE best pest control is organic and nutritious Just cook and eat the baby beetles bugging your harvest That’s what many villagers in Majuli island, a dollop of land bound by the Brahmaputra in Assam, are doing to the white grub beetle larvae that are chomping away at their spuds, greens and major crops These are root-eaters, hiding in the soil The adults don’t attack the plants The juicy babies—fried or roasted— are adding to the nutrition of villagers And you can order some in a ‘pestaurant’ on a sandbar Now, most of us will turn up our noses at the idea of eating insects—Pumba and Timon food But crickets, for instance, outrank livestock meat in protein and vitamin content per gram A Watertight Gag N EPAL has brought a proposal to gag its civil servants from expressing critical views of the government in public The restrictions, interestingly, would be in place even after the officials retire from service A new bill tabled in the Nepalese House of Representatives proposes to restrict civil servants from expressing their views through the media, including micro-blogging sites that many officials had put up to air their opinions on developments in the country that were of interest to them According to the Nepalese media, the Federal Civil Service Bill proposes strict provisions for civil servants, which will remain in effect even after their retirement Though the Civil Service Act, 1993, has similar restrictions in force, the new bill has strengthened it further Media reports have quoted Clause 75 of the bill as saying, “No civil employee shall, on his/her real or pseudo name or anonymity, publish any feature article, provide any news to the On pain of press, broadcast a speech through their pensions radio or television etc, make any being stopped, public speech or publish any stateNepal’s retired ment via broadcast or social media in such a manner as to be contrary public officials to the policies of the Government are barred of Nepal or to undermine mutual from sharing relationship between the Governinformation or ment of Nepal and the people or criticising the the relationship with any foreign government—a country.” It adds, ”This restriction blanket ban will also apply to a person who has been relieved of government service for any reason whatsoever.” The new bill that replaces the existing Civil Service Act has a provision that restricts retired public officials from sharing the information they are privy to It also adds that pension of retired civil servants could be stopped if they violated the new provision, which was included after retired civil servants made critical comments in the media against the government Nepal’s Prime Minister, K.P Sharma Oli, and his advisors had on a number of occasions been critical of such comments by former civil servants On October 31 last year, Nepal’s ministry of education, science and technology endorsed a policy barring all staff and teachers from criticising the government and political parties or posting comments to that effect on social media Serving bureaucrats in all countries are often prevented from publicly criticising policies of the government they serve But such gag orders are not valid once they retire Former civil servants have been allowed in most democracies to express their views on policies once they are out of service Nepal’s new law certainly doesn’t take any chances 25 February 2019 OUTLOOK Image of the Week GETTY IMAGES THE NIGHT’S CATCH A fisherman attracts young Yoshino river Shirasu eels, delicacies in Japan, with a lamp deep throat NO-FLY ZONE Sachin Pilot is often found dodging questions on the Gujjar quota stir But the Rajasthan deputy CM, who is a Gujjar, couldn’t wriggle out of an ambush at a recent media briefing in Jaipur with CM Ashok Gehlot by his side This happened when a journalist asked about the stir Pilot enq­ uired if the question was for the party or the government, to which the journalist pointed to the latter Pilot then steered the microphone towards the CM, who turned it back to the young leader and said: “You are both, the party and the gov­ ernment So, you will have to answer.” Pilot, the state Congress chief, saw through the trap and laughed 10 OUTLOOK 25 February 2019 PLENTY PROBLEM The AIADMK has the comfort of 37 of Tamil Nadu’s 39 MPs in the Lok Sabha But this cushion is giving the party the heebie-jeebies ahead of this summer’s elections as it might have to ‘sacrifice’ the re-election hopes of at least a dozen of its current parliamentarians if it finds prospective allies and shares seats That could lead to a mutiny, a situation an AIADMK without Jayalalitha’s charisma can’t afford The party can’t ignore the possible partners as well The BJP, PMK, Vijayakanth and G.K Vasan are keen to come on board with their own numbers and choice of seats The BJP is insisting on ‘winnnable’ seats in AIADMK strongholds such as Krishnagiri, that Lok Sabha deputy speaker M Thambidurai represents No wonder he is spewing anger at the NDA government SAHIB BAHADUR J&K governor Satya Pal Malik courts controversies at the rate of almost one every week The latest is about Kargil’s demand to ‘share’ the head­ quarters of the new Ladakh division Leh is the HQ cur­ rently but Kargil wants it to be rotated between the two The governor is facing criticism over his stand, or the lack of it And in a riposte to barbs from political leaders, he said he is the governor as well as the CM The PDP responded by calling him Sahib Bahadur “Beg your pardon Excellency! Wrongly advised You are only constitu­ tional head running makeshift administration Pl recall LK Jha, NN Vohra for guidance,” the PDP tweeted EDGY DIGITAL Anniversa ry Surpri FORMULA EROTICA se Singaardan Beyond Netflix, web TVs crack the audience code in the countryside akurpo Dupur Th ed XXX:Uncensor THE ‘HOT STUFF’ ON AIR Gandi Baat ffee Black Co Anniversary Surprise on Ullu The story of a boss having an affair with his secretary while apparently maintaining a “balanced” relationship with his wife, says the show’s blurb One of them gets murdered when the married folk head over to a resort on their anniversary XXX:Uncensored, ALTBalaji Six episodes with around 20 minutes of content each is erotica with a bit of a twist Singaardan on Ullu A sex worker’s makeup box is left with the married man she was having an affair with who takes it home “The box turns his wife and daughter into a prostitute,” says the blurb of the six-part series Dupur Thakurpo on Hoichoi The story of boys attracted to older women in their neighborhood on Hoichoi got wings with the addition of former Bigg Boss contestant and Bhojpuri star Antara Biswas aka Mona Lisa Black Coffee on Ullu This two-episode story is of an intern who falls for his older boss who seems vaguely intrigued by him, enough to sleep with him Foreplay involves an odd scene where the former sprays perfume on the latter Because, why not One Night Stand on Addatimes A five-part show on Addatimes.com, this Bengali web-series starts off with the premise of three strangers meeting on a lonely night Wanna Have A Good Time on Ullu Another one from the Ullu stable involves wife (Flora Saini) going off to visit her parents while her husband calls for a sexworker who ends up looking like his wife Or does she? Gandi Baat, Season and 2, ALTBalaji The second season of ALTBalaji’s popular offering had four episodes with close to 50 minutes of runtime The first one, titled ‘Bai-Sexual’ by Siddhartha Mishra The OTT HE plot opens with the risqué, setting a platforms straightforward tone as to the nature of offering a the content you’re about to consume— four thugs barge into a house where range of a couple is having sex The scene that titillating follows details the couple, in various content have stages of undress, now bound by the thugs, cheaper giving a total of eight minutes of screen time subscription to the actress caught in the situation But even before, what made you click on that link rates than, had squarely cracked its target audience’s say, a Netflix T doesn’t leave much for the imagination and the stories target sexual taboos that women from villages face in their daily lives Spotlight on Viu The 10-part episodic mini-series on Viu looks at Sana Sanyal, a famous Bollywood actress who has lost her way Directed by Vikram Bhatt, Spotlight also depicts a queer relationship Twisted on VB on the Web An erotic thriller which has two seasons out, Twisted was one of the first offerings by Vikram Bhatt on his own app and also streams on Jio Cinema Starring Nia Sharma, the story begins with a murder and a chase interests This short-film, available on the OTT (over the top) platform Ullu, is suggestively titled Ghapaghap It’s just one of the many titles crafted to suit an emerging market that, as of now, bypasses the proverbial scissors of the censor board Netflix and Amazon Prime appear to be on top of the OTT pyramid Last year’s Netflix web series Sacred Games showcased frontal nudity, a first for a mainstream Indian production, with Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane as co-directors The two big platforms, though, prize their products on being ‘quality’ content 25 February 2019 OUTLOOK 71 E DGY D IGITAL “OTT platforms give a boost to individual viewing where people will look at edgy content.” Darshan Ashwin Trivedi Media head, MICA Beyond these two, lower down the pyramid, but with promises of a broader base in terms of audience numbers, a few other OTT platforms have sprung up They offer quick productions under a controlled budget that can be consumed as quickly by audiences On account of time-tested sellability, erotica and innuendo have become key themes of most of the content on these other platforms The subscription rates of these services are way cheaper than Netflix and Prime and target audiences have been focused upon too—viewers in tier 2-3 towns and those beyond the demographic that pays for more expensive OTT platforms in urban India U LLU has been around since the fag end of December last year and has already crossed over five lakh downloads “There are three kinds of audiences in India that can be targeted,” explains 28-year-old Harshvardhan Joshi who heads the digital and IT infrastructure at Ullu “The first are the ‘classy’ folk who binge on Netflix and may venture towards an Amazon Prime Then there’s the middle segment They want to see content akin to a movie and ‘above’ a TV serial That kind of audience goes to Amazon Prime and few others We have targeted the masses, who want to watch edgy and bold topics.” The intelligent owl forever on the lookout at night, is what Joshi likens Ullu’s audience too, one that will not have to shell out a fortune every month to stay hooked While a single-screen Netflix subscription starts at Rs 500 and Amazon Prime sets one back by Rs 129 for a month, Ullu has an introductory price of Rs 36 Joshi says the most watched shows on Ullu are Singardaan— the story of Guptaji and a sex-worker starring Amar Upadhyay (the once-famous Mihir of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi) and Shraddha Das—with over 50k views in a week and Wanna Have a Good Time, starring Flora Saini, which has already crossed 100k views “It’s clear that there are two ways to go about it,” says Gaurav Sharma, a Mumbai-based writer and director who is shooting episodes for an up-coming web-series on Eros Now’s OTT platform Sharma says that now, creators who thought on the lines of “raw and edgy” content don’t have censorship to deal with and can picture it how they imagined it “The other side goes out with the brief that sex sells,” he adds Another writer from Mumbai who wishes to remain anonymous says that “creators know what is selling—they are finding ways to make content within this brief They are trying to be quirky “It’s not just a ‘bhabhi’ story anymore, they are finding ways around it while surrendering to the ‘sex sells’ dogma.” The terms of acceptability on internet TV have already been tested by Sacred Games and Prime’s web series Mirzapur, both have nude scenes But they have claims to quality content too, where bold scenes are part of a much larger plot under a much bigger budget Shows on other OTTs are yet to cross those boundaries, strictly visually speaking “As far as Prime and Netflix are concerned, they show much bolder content, they’re on the next level of edgy,” says Joshi The OTT number game is still not clear, with the players unwilling to divulge such information But a detour to torrent land helps in providing a basic picture According to 1337x, one of the most popular torrent sites around, aside from Sacred Games, the most downloaded OTT content over the past few months has been from ALTBalaji, the OTT arm of Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms, and now, content from ULLU ALTBalaji has been blunt with the formula here too The titles XXX:Uncensored and Gandi Baat speak for themselves While the former looks at different kinds of sexual relaTHE BIG BOLDS A still from Mirzapur (above, left); Sacred Games 72 OUTLOOK 25 February 2019 tionships over five episodes, the latter tackles themes from rural India with erotica providing the backdrop in all eight episodes Industry insiders believe that Kapoor has cracked the OTT market like she did with television “Ekta is a very intelligent content producer and she has been vocal about making a strong foray into the digital space She knows the pulse of Indian audiences,” says Darshan Ashwin Trivedi, media and entertainment head at MICA, Ahmedabad “She knows her market very well,” says a producer who has worked on multiple web-offerings for ALTBalaji and wants to remain anonymous “Ekta has strong marketing skills For instance, she knows sexual content sells and she has put the scenes accordingly So you’ll go through the entire web series to locate that one scene in the trailer that has sold you the show She markets it that way,” he adds RISQUE VENTURE A still from Amazon Prime’s latest show Four More Shots Please T RIVEDI was the lead author in a 123-page report for 2018 titled ‘Indian OTT platforms’ The study mentions that by 2020, Indians will become the second-biggest video-watching audience worldwide The report hints at the massive potential of the rural markets: “Thirty per cent of the total internet users live in the rural area in spite of having close to 70 per cent of nation’s population.” A report by Boston Consulting Group which came out in November last year said that India’s OTT market size, currently at $0.5 billion, is estimated to grow to ten times by 2023 While the urban, ‘classy’ folk, as Joshi puts it, have, more or less, been snared in, the rural market is far from saturation “Even satellite TV did not penetrate rural areas like mobile phones now with unlimited data have OTT platforms give a boost to individual viewing and when there is individual viewing, people will look at edgy content,” says Trivedi The MICA report highlighted that YouTube takes 48 per cent of the media and entertainment space in terms of unique visitors from India, followed by the song-platform Gaana.com Video analytics firm Vidooly analysed what India consumed on YouTube in 2018 and the top-20 mostviewed platforms were Hindi music related or entertainment channels If erotica is a sure-fire seller, it looks like regional content will be taking a lot of storylines forward Ullu already streams content in Gujarati, Marathi, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Tamil, Kannada and Bengali There is a big demand for Gujarati, says “Most of our content is spread across four genres: crime, thriller, detective and erotica.” Vishnu Kant Mohta Co-founder, Hoichoi Joshi OTT platform Hoichoi caters to a predominantly Bengali audience “I’m looking out for the likes of Hoichoi These are the ones who will be defining the regional space,” says Trivedi “About 75 per cent of overall watch-time viewership for originals on Hoichoi is spread across these four genres, namely crime, thriller, detective and erotica Therefore we try to maintain a balance to cater to the needs and wants of the audience,” says Vishnu Kant Mohta, Co-Founder of Hoichoi, an OTT platform Mohta says that the platform sees the Tier and Tier cities to be a good space to target audiences as well “We get a number of requests from the market there showing the popularity of the platform and its original content,” he says Mohta however feels that regional language content has already done its bit of “exploding, especially the Bengali language-driven content”, pointing to the “half a billion minutes of streaming duration” so far on Hoichoi The platform also experiments with edgy content with the OTT platforms being unregulated so far Regulation and censorship may not be that far away with some platforms reportedly considering self-censorship Joshi and Mohta are clear about it too “From its inception, we’ve had an internal self-regulatory committee to QC the content produced and acquired to make sure sentiments are not hurt and any unnecessary sexual content is not used to run the platform,” says Mohta Joshi says they “self-censor certain projects.” Already a strong contender, the OTT market will undoubtedly take on a life of its own in the time ahead What will the landscape look like though? “The family space will always make for hugely popular content But adult content will keep emerging The segmentisation of visual spaces has made for an interesting landscape.” Speaking of the future, he says that it wouldn’t come as a surprise if the same film has multiple levels of existence—one on OTT platforms, one on the big screens and one on TV, all with different implications.” He explains that consumption is going to be more dependent on the connections people have made with various platforms “It’s a reverse engineered process Some mediums have strong access and that’s why people are sampling them In the long run, the strong players will be those who are subsets of the TV players, with the engagement on TV being pushed to the OTTs So the Hotstars, Zee5’s and SonyLivs of the world will be strong.” O 25 February 2019 OUTLOOK 73 AT HOME Room With A View Music, storytelling, poetry, dance and pop-ups get a snug corner—the living room by Lachmi Deb Roy I N the beginning, there was the family parlour—where a thousand stories unfolded, family legends were birthed, regional myths cemented, gossip abounded around ample proportions of aunts and uncles Further on, the artist’s atelier and the literary salon were specialised extensions—sites of untrammeled debate and intellectual ferment If late 20th century living rooms had curdled into sterilised areas of polite talk and genteel entertainment, another spell of warm spring is here—a much-needed thaw As you approach the living room of Swagata Majumder Bhattacharya in her Bangalore home, you hear the sound of singing: Itti si hansi/ Itti si khushi… (A bit of laughter/ a bit of gaity…) You’ve just bumped into a ‘living room gig’—which combines the authenticity of a performance with the flower vase cosiness of a 74 OUTLOOK 25 February 2019 drawing room, and it’s catching on with singers, bands and their fans Referring to the song, now in its dying refrain, Swagata says, “This is a favourite song of mine for a gig It transports you to a different world.” Swagata’s ‘Boyaam’ is an event curation plat­ form featuring relatively new performing art­ istes “We choose artistes carefully Our target is to find a fresh ensemble of performers who are screened and handpicked They could be singers, elocutionists, thespians, instrumental­ ists, stand­up comedians, even mime actors— all performing arts are welcome.” Boyaam is a Bengali word for a large glass jar that stored, for generations, savouries and pickles—now largely confined to literary mem­ ory and period films, and redolent of pre­plastic childhoods Swagata says, “It relates to the sheer joy of a jar full of eatables, to be enjoyed of a sultry summer afternoon Boyaam is a metaphor for the unadulterated joy found in a A music session in Swagata Majumdar Bhattacharya’s living room gig Boyaam Home Concert in Bangalore TRIBHUVAN TIWARI musical space like this.” Every weekend, Swagata’s living room sheds its mundaneness; near at hand are musical instru­ ments like the didgeridoos from Australia, abo­ riginal clapsticks, tongue drums, percussion shakers, guitars, the tabla—all collected by Swagata and her husband Her home is the go­to place for people passionate about music—those who create it and those who devour it “We have hosted impromptu concerts for a couple of years now This year, we gave a name to it, and Boyaam Home Concert was born,” says Bhattacharya Youngsters enjoy an evening of stories at Ruchika Rastogi’s living room in Delhi; below, a dance recital at Gurupriya Atreya’s place in Bangalore O N a concert day, the furniture is rearranged, string lights are Sofas make way for colourful durries that can seat about 35 people The dining table beyond becomes a food counter laden with fritters, samosa and coffee mugs However, the pleasures of that table can be partaken only after the two­hour concert The Bhattacharyas’ spare bedrooms become control rooms; the master bedroom mutates into a green room People write their comments on the chart­paper covered ‘Boyaam Wish Wall’ Says Swagata, “We have some professional home studio set­up like microphones, audio interfaces, focus lights, the rest is rented The concert is recorded live, so that we can make videos.” People know that at Boyaam they can listen to fresh and live music Though not every Saturday is concert day, musicians gather for rehearsals on most weekends “We have had people coming over to sit through rehearsals too,” adds Swagata Naturally, the Bhattacharyas’ living room gigs aren’t confined to music—they have become a venue for food and fashion pop­ups as well as for theatre, storytelling and recitation per­ People know they can get live, original music at Boyaam They turn up at rehearsal sessions too formances Swagata’s poems of choice are those that embody strength and resilience—Amrita Pritam, Srijato, Joy Goswami, Tagore, Neruda and Gulzar Language is no bar “I am requested to read Amrita Pritam’s Main Tenu Phir Milaangi, kithhe kis tarah pata nai par main tenu phir mil­ aangi, a poem about unrequited love, in every concert.” Manu Mathew of House Concerts India started living room gigs four years ago at a musician friend’s basement in Gurgaon “It was started as a fun community project at a time when Delhi didn’t have dedi­ cated spaces which encouraged original music and artistes had to fight for attention between sizzlers and TVs screening live sports,” says Manu House Concerts India is a first­of­its­kind, artist­focused initiative aimed at creating nooks for art within our urban cacophony Each concert brings together music, arts and culture to the intimacy of private spaces The movement is volunteer­driven and strives for a different fla­ vour to each session, derived from inputs by the participating community “We started off in Delhi and have chapters in Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune We started with live music; now we host monthly events around art forms like poetry, theatre, film­screening, live art and classical dance like Kathak,” says Mathew The vibe of the performing space and the musi­ cal inclination of the hosts create an alchemy of sorts—an idea takes amorphous shape, then an event is curated The House Concert Delhi team works on a voluntary basis “There is a suggested donation amount of minimum Rs 300 per person All the money collected goes to the artistes at the end of the evening,” adds Mathew Ruchika Rastogi from Delhi, who conducts sto­ rytelling and book reading sessions from her living room, says, “I started my storytelling sessions from my living room a year back They help us to return to our roots before television supplanted drawing room conversations.” It is indeed a wel­ come substitute for the unrelenting drone of a saas­bahu regime, or a break from the diminishing pleasures of pubs, malls and restaurants Ruchika says a book reading session is more interesting if one plans the entire session beforehand Stories are humanity’s oldest entertainment and, when arranged around a theme, are irresist­ ible Toys and other props are important compo­ nents of a session if children are involved The 25 February 2019 OUTLOOK 75 AT HOME stories themselves can be lightly­spiced real­life events to entirely cooked­up ones, and one can slip in a moral at the end when there are kids in the audience, though tales shouldn’t ever bear the cross of value education Rastogi states that she prepares by setting up a book corner that displays and stores books “You can also prepare the corner with small cardboard boxes Flowers, plants, a carpet and cushions make the session more attractive and inviting Then I pick a story that I intend to tell; sometimes the audience demands a certain type of tale.” A Baul song being sung at Gurupriya Atreya’s living room; below, a pop-up at Ayandrali Dutta’s Noida home, and the fish kalia (left) and dim posto she cooked G URUPRIYA Atreya’s The Living Room Kutcheri in Bangalore hopes to restore the glory of chamber music An RJ and a classical singer, Gurupriya is trying to revive chamber concerts, which feature a small ensemble of musi­ cians It’s a revival of the Indian home jalsa, or its Western equivalent of a quartet, quintet, or a singer at the piano playing in a living room Says Atreya, “We launched in May 2017 It’s been a good run of over 20 performances Our kutcheries take place one Saturday a month, based on the artiste’s con­ venience My amma, Padmavathy Shrinivasan, was a singer and my father, a composer My parents hosted bhajans and satsangs at home during Navratri and Shivaratri My brother and I grew up in a musical ambience.” The Living Room Kutcheri, thus, is an example of the successful transmission of parental interest “My husband Akhil Atreya and I decided to open up our home for the performing arts and build an intimate informal community to celebrate music and musicians who passionately pursue it.” Transforming her living room into a musical space came natu­ rally too: “I keep it simple We connect 76 OUTLOOK 25 February 2019 Living Room Kutcheri seeks to restore the practice of home jalsas of chamber music with people through social media We ensure we retain the warmth of a home I just clear the fur­ niture from the living room, some marigold flowers adorn the floor, walls and entrance, fairy lights are put up and we are good to go.” Food pop­ups have been here awhile, but those in the domestic space is a late variation, and the road to a delicious weekend meal no longer leads to a fancy restaurant Noida­based Ayandrali Dutta’s food pop­ups have made a mark The best meals, she feels, are spiced with stories and wrapped with memories As a Bengali who grew up in the indus­ trial town of Rourkela, her forte is Bengali and Odisha cuisine If the theme for her pop­ups dep­ ends on the season, it’s for authenticity “Though these days all ingredients are available throughout the year, there is a special taste to cauliflower dur­ ing winter and hilsa fish during monsoon,” she says When she throws a hilsa­themed pop­up, Ayandrali makes four to five preparations of the fish This winter, she made koraishutir kochuri (peas kachuri) with aloo dum using baby potatoes at a pop­up Other dishes included fried brinjal, fish kalia (fish cooked in rich onion and tomato gravy with freshly ground spices), a curry made with spinach and peas, tempered with Bengali paanchforon, and deem posto (egg curry with poppy seed paste) At the root of these delicacies lay the difficulty to adjust to a new palate—years ago, when she moved to Delhi, Ayandrali found it difficult to eat typical north Indian food “My friends used to come home to eat food cooked by me and one of them sug­ gested that I should organise pop­ups I had my first pop­up a few years back with very basic Bengali food; it was a big hit.” Ayandrali’s living space is as inviting as her food—a Buddha corner, a spatula with ‘awara’ written on it, her gramophone and books on travel and food And all this in a warm, domestic orderly disorder, rather than spit­ and­polish kemptness Furthermore, Ayandrali is warm and hospitable, qualities that communicate themselves well to food But there are lines she has drawn—wastage of food is one “I hate the idea of people wasting food I always tell my guests that they can eat as much as they want, but never waste food at my place,” she says Plus, Ayandrali belongs to that rare tribe of stellar cooks who don’t stand on mystique—she opens her kitchen to everybody, so that people can have a look at, say, how she is frying the frit­ ters Starting from the kashundi (Bengal’s tangy mustard sauce) to the spices, Ayandrali only uses authentic stuff And, since good food is life, it is a complete experience to savour Likewise, at other living room gigs and artistic performances: Meeting people, exchanging ideas, glorying in the music, poetry or stories, a perfect communion with kindred souls Oh, the joy of it! O PSIT Kanpur: hub nurturing excellence in education PSIT Kanpur, Pranveer Singh Institute of Technology is a haven for more than 6300 students currently aspiring Professional Education in Engineering, Management, Computer Application, Pharmacy & Law It gives ample prospects to students for the overall development of one’s academic, technical, managerial and leadership skills Students aspiring for a career in Defense Services or PSUs get opportunities here Incubation centres at PSIT help students to establish their start-ups PSIT is a gateway to the corporate world, 250+ MNCs like Infosys, IBM, TCS, Wipro, L&T, MRF, ERICSSON, Flipkart, Windmoller & Holster hire students with lucrative packages Students keen in Research & further studies are mentored well The college has 27 clubs for students, catering to their passion in sports, dance, writing, music, media, Public Speaking etc With state-of-art-Infrastructure, Centrally AC, Wi-Fi Campus, Hostels to accommodate 1300 boys and 700 girls PSIT is a sought-after place With Persistent efforts by able academicians, the institute has bagged top ranks in the state university B Pharm is ranked 2nd, B.Tech was ranked 3rd, MBA was ranked 4th and MCA was ranked 5th as per the Performance Analysis Report by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow (U.P.) Other than this PSIT is ranked 10th among all IITs, Government and Private Engineering Institutes across North India by Times of India survey Dataquest ranks PSIT 65th among Top Private T-Schools Survey 2018 across India The success attributes to the consistent effort of the Chairman PSIT, Mr Pranveer Singh, who holds a vision to make PSIT amongst the top institutes of India and persistent endeavour of Managing Director PSIT, Ms Shefali Raj, who has left no stone unturned in making PSIT a preferred college in North India CA Naveen N D Gupta President, ICAI Conducting of Disciplinary proceedings through e-hearings T he Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is gearing up to cross another milestone in its long historical journey towards technological advancement by adopting the e-hearings in its Disciplinary processes which is instrumental in bringing out cost-effective disciplinary mechanism The newly introduced e-hearings would pave the way for expeditious disposal of Disciplinary cases The Institute, for the first time, fixed to conduct e-hearing of disciplinary proceedings on February 9, 2019 through Video-conferencing in terms/compliance of the recent amendments made to the Chartered Accountants (Procedure of Investigations of Professional and Other Misconduct and Conduct of Cases) Rules, 2007 The e-hearings are earmarked to provide an edge/ incentives to the parties also which would cut down their associated travel time and costs CA Naveen N D Gupta, President, ICAI said “ICAI always strived to embrace the technological progress and innovations to achieve its long cherished objectives And by enabling hearing of disciplinary case through electronic mode we have moved one step ahead in achievement our objectives.” The Council of ICAI approved the proposal for conducting of e-hearings of Disciplinary proceedings in May, 2018 and to implement the decision moved the Ministry of Corporate Affairs with proposed amendments to the aforesaid disciplinary Rules and modalities thereof which are in addition to the extant procedure The proposed amendments were considered, approved and notified by the Ministry in the Gazette of India on October 29, 2018 Consequent to the Ministry’s nod for e-hearings, ICAI as a pilot project decided to commence, initially from its five regional headquarters located at New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Kanpur which would be gradually extended to other locations 25 February 2019 OutlOOk 77 books Yuval Noah Harari 21 Lessons for the 21st Century | Penguin Random House | 368 pages | Rs 799 Life Hacks In Vale Of Tears As tech takes over, deepening misery, battering the human spirit, subduing truth, Harari advocates a meditative resilience, a constant debate by Sudhirendar Sharma T HE trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt And, it is becoming increasingly so as machine intelligence powers its way beyond intelli­ gent minds and algorithms begin to guide emotions Far from maximising human potential, such technological transformation is upgrading compu­ ters to the extent that it will empower a handful of tiny elite over most others who not only stand to be exploited but are being made irrelevant The cumu­ lative impact of the emerging infotech revolution is fuelling global inequa­ lity like never before, while increasing social tensions and dividing human­ kind into hostile camps Unless the situation is peeled to its last layer, it may not be clear where the world is headed and how we should protect ourselves and future generations From ecological cataclysm to the fake news ep­ idemic and from chauvinistic national­ ism to underrated bioterrorism, the world is fast becoming a theatre of the absurd where the bull of progress is rag­ ing wild with anxiety and anger In the emerging social milieu internal lives of individuals are being compromised Lit­ tle we realise that an unprecedented pressure on our personal lives had ignited the Arab Spring, and has now sparked #MeToo movement There is more to come, as our internal psychological mec­ hanism remains under duress In his clear­eyed and searingly realistic assessment, Yuval Noah Harari draws lessons that celebrate human wisdom but without discounting human stupidity Enlisting 21 carefully distilled lessons into five over­arching themes, the his­ tory professor at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, traverses the world of despair emerging from unresolved technological and political challenges to underscore the significance of meditative resilience 78 OUTLOOK 25 February 2019 in a world of post­truth ignorance It is a curious and reflective analysis of the existential challenges, lessons that are borne out of our complicity in political biases, unabashed privileges and institu­ tional oppression Harari keeps it simple, locating lessons in our everyday acceptance of the so­ called inevitable Many social and politi­ cal disruptions of our time can be located in ever more lonely lives we live in an ever more connected planet Irrespective of how many virtual friends one may boast, If you want to know the truth about the universe, about the meaning of life and your identity, explains Harari, the best place to start is by observing and exploring suffering it is an accepted fact that one cannot know more than 150 individuals The fa­ cade of generating likes on social media is not without serious psychological reper­ cussions Humans may have got every­ thing under their control, but in the new age they are finding it hard to make sense of all that technology has on offer As the title suggests, this is a collection of essays written over time to grapple with the present­day predicament of existence Much of what Harari writes emerges in response to the nagging question, ‘why there is so much suffer­ ing in the world and in my own life?’ Harari contends that we are living in an age of bewilderment, when myths of all kind are collapsing—from religious myths about god and heavens to nation­ alist myths about the motherland and the nation­state, and from romantic myths about love and adventure to capitalist myths about economic gro­ wth and consumerism Yet, society continues to nurture myths Truth is a casualty in the process The truth is that truth was never high on the agenda of Homo Sapiens; instead, they have been busy constructing stories Be it religion or politics, the focus is to fit our­ selves into some readymade story so that we stay away from truth This is how life has continued from generation to gener­ ation, making each animal play its part in the story But without getting to know ourselves more, we will continue to beli­ eve stories So if you want to know the truth about the universe, about the mea­ ning of life, and about your own identity, explains Harari, the best place to start is by observing and exploring suffering While one might not concur with all the lessons on offer, the infectious en­ thusiasm with which Harari writes makes it impossible not to be carried away The author of the global bestseller Sapiens has rooted his essays in every­ day realities; however, this book re­ mains ambitious in scale The essential message is to join the debate about the future of humanity History is unlikely to give us any discounts or exempt us from the consequences if we continue to pursue our busy schedules The more people join the debate the better The globalised world is in dire need of the empathetic imagination In spite of its capaciousness, Harari’s book espouses a fundamental truth about our scarred times: that nothing can insulate us from the vagaries of a violent and vengeful world O (Sudhirendar Sharma is an independent researcher and academic) Valay Singh Ayodhya: City of Faith, City of Discord | Aleph | 383 pages | Rs 799 Tunnel To Kosala A sober account of the Ram Janmabhoomi issue is also a long look into actual, pre­Ram Ayodhya by Shiv Sethi A veteran journalist, who asked trenchantly in one of his thought­stirring articles in 1995: “Did Babri Masjid exist in public conscious­ ness prior to its demolition on December 6, 1992?” had raised a very pertinent question In fact, Ayodhya is now a veritable Berm­ uda or Welsh Triangle of Ram Jan­ mabhoomi, Babar’s makeshift mos­ que and shoddy politics Faith is a very delicate issue and as Yuval Noah Harari rightly remarks, at this particular juncture of human civilisation, mankind is embroiled in faith­related issues and turmoils Thus unraveling the conflict of fai­ ths, Valay Singh’s debut book Ayo­ dhya is a deep exploration into the evolution of the city The author also throws a harsh light on the nef­ arious religious politics and the macabre massacre that claimed the lives of thousands of humans in the name of hollow faith during the tumultuous times after the demoli­ tion of Babri Masjid In the first part of the book, the writer meticulously attempts to stitch the scattered threads of the city with the needle of historical facts and details Since the demoli­ tion of Babri Masjid, Ayodhya has become a tinderbox and an ever­bur­ ning cauldron of conflict, which has been shrewdly embedded in the Valay refrains from offering any solution to Ayodhya acceptable to all He sticks to the facts of the case, providing a fresh perspective, leaving it to readers to decide psyche of the nation as Ram Janma­ bhoomi (the birth place of Rama) Consequently, our wily politicians woo voters and take recourse to abominable political practices by tac­ tfully exploiting the religious senti­ ments of credulous devotees who are forever thronging the city But rising above narrow dogmas, Valay Singh introduces us to those pre­historic phases of the city of Ayodhya, when it had nothing to with Ram and his dynasty Known as Kosala and Saket, the city contains the remnants of many civilisations and cultures, like Buddhism and Jainism, which once held sway over this place, even though the proponents of the Ram temple movement are loathe to buy any other version of Ayodhya Undoubtedly, a lot of literature on Ayodhya has already been written with a tilt to a particular standpoint and thus it fails to present a com­ pletely unbiased account of the town Unlike most of those writers, Valay Singh does not adhere to any pre­con­ ceived notions and neither does he thrust any old, ossified ideology upon his readers Therefore, Valay’s description of Ayodhya has not fallen prey to the unauthentic beliefs of a particular community.  Some books have also appeared with a view to dealing with this vol­ atile matter and finding a solution acceptable and amenable to all Tha­ nkfully, Valay refrains from offering any solution but sticks to the facts of the case which provides a fresh perspective, leaving the readers to decide for themselves He must be applauded for his candour and intre­ pidity, and for the richness of detail that is certainly the fruit of his schol­ arly research Therefore, this book should be regarded as a reliable sou­ rce for those who want to know about this prickliest of issues sans any pre­ judice and presupposition O ON THE RACKS Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan The One Who Had Two Lives | HarperCollins The tale of Amba­Ambika­Ambalika, and that of Shikhandi, are among the most enticing of the Mahabharata— that supremely capacious of epics In this age of mining it for retellings, Madhavan adopts a first­person voice for intimacy, ploughing the inner lives of Amba and Shikhandi The result is finely drawn characters who drive the narratives, though more could have been done on vivifying an imagined ancientness Edited by Shreerupa Mitra Energising India: Fuelling a Billion Lives | Rupa As India marches towards economic superpowerdom, its energy needs have increased salience This book, through its galaxy of contributors, deals with the subject threadbare: our energy challenge (Anil Kakodkar), a gas­based future (Dharmendra Pradhan), energy dip­ lomacy (S Jaishankar), role of LPG in household energy (Kirk R Smith and Abhishek Jain) etc Beautifully printed, with accessible graphs Robin Sharma The AM Club | Jaico Sharma is one indefatigable collater of snackworthy anecdotes: bits of wisdom­laden goodies featuring the great (Picasso, Vonnegut, Seneca…) and framed by stock characters in earnest confab The messages are as old as the hills (work detached from thoughts of gain, a disciplined, early­to­rise lifestyle), though the crispiness would appeal to those who approach reading cautiously 25 February 2019 OUTLOOK 79 glitterati Baby’s Back If ever there was a sudden, sucked out vaccum of absence from Bollywood glam­ our, it was Nargis Fakhri’s six­month sabbatical Pouting afresh like a rare blood moon, she emerges from the shadows, stunning poise intact, in Amavas Was it tough out of the spot­ light? Look at her; the query dissolves into irrelevance Happy Knot The greatest politi­ cal question in Tamil Nadu, amidst a back­ drop of unsettling rumbles, might be Rajinikanth’s final affiliation At his daughter Soun­ darya’s wedding to actor­businessman Vishaghan, every Dravidian stripe was represented—from Stalin to CM Palaniswami Right, you don’t take chances with Thalaivar! GETTY IMAGES THIS TOO HAPPENED In the league of extraordinary gentleman between the bars, along with Russian Lev Yashin and Italian Dino Zoff, England lost their World-Cup winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks to a long battle with cancer Banks, famous for that save from Pele’s header, was 81 80 OUTLOOK 25 February 2019 PTI His Red Carpet Time Has Come Whether the world premiere of Gully Boy at the Berlin Film Festival reiterates Bollywood’s hold more than it indicates the Berlinale’s decline is another matter, but the irrepressible Ranveer was in character as his goofy rapper: shockingly meretricious tux­ edo, blown­up hair, machine­gunning away to everyone’s delight Beside him Alia was a soothing balancing act, her silkily trailing train a rival to that of a British princess on her wedding day GETTY IMAGES Faerie Queene Forget Gaga’s dress made of hunks of meat and other assor­ ted attempts to shock and dazzle by divas at the Grammys Cardi B’s outfit is a miraculous fusing of two separate ideas: the opening petals of a flower in bloom, and the enduring fantasy of a mermaid She was, indeed, a rare fish in exclusively male­swum waters—the first woman to win the Best Rap Album award No Stunts Danny Denzongpa looked a natural amidst his generation actors as they grew seadily angrier; his son Rinzing, who combines heavy­lidded fresh­ ness with massive biceps, might be just the dose of diver­ sity we need His debut action film will have seven stunt teams under Keir Beck (Mat­ rix, Mad Max: Fury Road) Yeah, take care of this boy, AP “I said to Chris, my husband: ‘Thank God it’s [due at] the end of January – that means I can vote.’” – Hampstead and Kilburn MP TULIP SIDDIQ was due to have a Caesarean section on Brexit vote day and was at Parliament to vote ‘remain’ 25 February 2019 OUTLOOK 81 BRAHMAPUTRA diary in the states, is facing criticism of being Fast-paced Laahey, Laahey co-opted by the establishment and batGuwahati, it seems, has largely ting for governments, Assam presented shrugged off its image of a city of laahey, a refreshing change As everywhere else, laahey (slowly, slowly) The drive from the state boasts of a boisterous media Borjhar airport into the city after with half-a-dozen television channels sixteen years starkly unfolded how and dozens of print publications—newsdrastically Assam’s capital has changed papers included—jostling for attention The road that once wound through the But unlike in other states, media in leafy campus of a sprawling Gauhati RUBEN BANERJEE Guwahati is overwhelmingly anti-BJP, University has been abandoned, or the party in power in the state rather, bypassed through a detour of ( The writer is editor, Outlook) Always driven by a desire to protect flyovers The Guwahati-Shillong Road, and promote Assamese identity, the the main thoroughfare, has undergone Guwahati media is stridently critical of the BJP for pushing a makeover too through a parliamentary bill that seeks to grant Indian Names of old neighbourhoods rang a familiar bell Paltan citizenship to immigrants of religious minorities such as Bazar, Pan Bazar, Uzan Bazar—they were all there But none Hindus and Sikhs from neighbouring countries fleeing perof the landmarks were recognisable for a journalist who once secution Inhabitants of Assam have always been fearful visited the city every fortnight to cover the tumult of the vioof being swamped by immigrants—no matter what their lent ULFA days Quintessential Assamese houses—the pretty religion is—and the BJP’s move to shoehorn the legislation match-boxy homes with sloping tin roofs—are more of a rarity has reignited street unrest Though it is too early to write now Multi-storey residential complexes, glitzy malls and the obituary of the BJP government in the state—the party glass-fronted showrooms stand in their place Having shed performed creditably well in the December panchayat its tranquility, Guwahati today is more happening Iconic elections and subsequent tribal council polls—there is palhotels such as Belle Vue have shut down, only to be replaced pable strife on the streets with rallies and bandhs Sensing by swankier hotels, discotheques and pubs The city stays the prevailing mood, the media has joined the chorus and awake longer and late But the transformation to a fast-paced is not pulling its punches Accustomed to a generally fawnlife has had consequences: more cars, terrible jams (even on ing press, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was forced to weekends) Only the traffic moves laahey, laahey now take note of its hostility at a rally in Kamrup He wondered aloud whether the large turnout would be reported by local Change, But No Change journalists, an act that their counterparts in the rest of the The change that Guwahati has undergone over the past country cannot even dare to dream one-and-a-half decade has been profound Most politicians and officials who held sway are no longer around World of Words Old-timers who are still persevering, such as former None of the ethnic upheaval was in evidence at Srimanta chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, are battling Sankardev Kalakshetra, the sprawling venue for the third irrelevance with a younger generation But one senior is edition of the Brahmaputra Literary Festival Hosted by holding his ground and that is Samujjwal Bhattacharya, the state government, the meet that concluded this week the leader of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), the was in line with Assam’s efforts to stamp its presence on organisation in the vanguard of the Assam agitation of the the literary map There were several authors and 1980s Bhattacharya was the president of AASU panel discussions as is the fashion with such in the 1990s Now in his fifties, a far heavier events but what set the Guwahati one apart Bhattacharya with a balding pate is still was its focus on ASEAN countries with the best-known AASU leader despite brainstorming over literature from the hermitic title of chief adviser He Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore was at the forefront of a black flag I, however, made the cut as a demonstration last week against biographer of a reigning chief the visiting prime minister Though minister and did my best to an important voice which cannot promote the idea of holding the be ignored, the ageing leader also mirror to ruling politicians Why invites derision, with some locals not a no-holds-barred biography saying that Bhattacharya could on Himanta Biswa Sarma, the be the oldest student leader of the controversial Assam minister tasked country if not the world with expanding the BJP’s footprint across the Northeast, I asked the The Alt-narrative audience Hope it finds a taker At a time when the media, both in Delhi and MANJUL 82 OUTLOOK 25 February 2019 HOLY JOURNEYS NOW NON-STOP FLY NON-STOP FROM HYDERABAD TO JEDDAH ON YOUR VERY OWN FRIENDLY AS WELL AS POCKET-FRIENDLY AIRLINE FLIGHT* ARRIVAL DEPARTURE 11:05 07:10 Hyderabad – Jeddah # 12:05 20:25 Complimentary Priority Services (Check-in, meal 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