talk - september 6, 2012

Volume 1 | Issue 4 | September 6, 2012 | Rs 10

talkthe intelligent bangalorean’s must-read weekly

* Bus conductor whowrote 550 novels

* Hit ‘mass’ writers, sceptical publishers

* Gods as dudes:Someone help!

* In praise of the lurid

Pages 12-19

LEARNINGBangalore gets aGoogle-supported‘love laboratory’ 7

TEA TIMEThree concoctionsto bring warmthinto your life 26

AYYOTOONS Life and crimesof JanardhanaReddy 32

BACK FROM LONDONNo 1 high-jumperSahana on losing atthe Olympics 10

2talk|6 sep 2012|talkmag.in

I would like to thank Savie Karnelfor providing insights into the so-called organic world. The article wasan honest effort to give the views ofthe main stakeholders. As agraduate in agriculture with someknowledge about organic retailing, Iwas able to gauge how muchattention you had given todetail. I expect moresuch pieces from you.

Dilip Kumarby email

Love the formatAbsolutely superb! Reallyfresh, and I love theformat and the articles. Agreat departure from thecrap put out by our dailynewspapers.

Pradeep G NJayanagar

Best wishesI was surprised to receive acomplimentary copy of Talk. Thelook, the paper and the printing aregood. The coverage, which rangesfrom light reading to politics to

personalities to food to fad totheatre, is impressive. The articleson centenarian ProfVenkatasubbaiah and SatyamevaJayate need special appreciation.Wish you all the best.

Shankarnarayan Bhat JP Nagar

FantasticSaw the mag.Fantastic. Wishingyou the best. Let meknow how tosubscribe.

Srinivas R,Basaveshwaranagar

(Please call 080 49332100,and we’ll help).

Mature and classyI enjoyed reading

the first issue of Talk. The contentsare mature and classy. The cartoonstrip on Mallya was hilarious andtimely. I hope you grow fromstrength to strength. Talk scoreshigh when it comes to print andpaper quality. The glossy paper and

clear images are a treat. It would begreat if you could enable onlinesubscriptions and present yourcontent in an iPad-readable format.You must reach out toBangaloreans all over the world.

Maj Jojo Jacob Vannarpet

Interests all readersTalk is a very good attempt, andcontains articles that interest allreaders. The quality of the paper isgood, too. I like the pagination andthe pictures you have used in thelaunch edition. Talk should be the‘voice of the voiceless’, and I’msure it will definitely win the heartsof readers. Lakshmi Narayana Reddy, by email

Kids’ column, pleaseTalk has surely become the talk ofthe city! It has piqued the interest ofreaders of all ages. It would bemore interesting if it had a columnfor kids as well.

Praveenby email

mail team talk

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EDITORIAL S R RamakrishnaEditor

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Sajai Jose Chief Copy Editor

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Bhanu Prakash E S Senior Reporter

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What do you think of this edition?Write to [email protected]

Insightful story on the ‘organic’ lifestyle

OK SOUND HORNH D Deve Gowda

flanked by sonKumaraswamy (to

his right) and seniorparty leader

M C Nanaiah (holding pipe)

3talk|6 sep 2012|talkmag.inparty watch

BASU [email protected]

The Janata Dal (Secular) isbusy putting together awing for physically dis-abled people, proving toits rivals that it is not

short on ideas. No other party has tapped into

disabled people as a voting bloc,although they have wings for minori-ties, women, and the scheduledcastes. The JD(S) has called a meetingthis month to finalise the office-bearers of its new wing.

Once such a wing is formed, andthe JD(S) can convince this new con-stituency that it will fight for itsrights, it will naturally win their

votes, and perhaps those of theirfamilies as well.

According to the 2001 census,Karnataka has 9.4 lakh disabled people, of whom 6.6 lakh live in the villages. According to an article inthe Disabilities Studies Quarterly,persons with disability constitute 10per cent of the population in India,and 3 per cent of funds in all poverty alleviation programmes are reserved for people with disability.

Talk spoke toveteran JD(S)leader M CNanaiah on thepreparations,strategies andprogrammes ofhis party.

How prepared are you for the 2013elections?Our party has always been an alter-native to the BJP and the Congress.People are fed up of the corruptadministration of the BJP. TheCongress lacks good leaders. I’m sure

our party will definitely gain fromthe fight between the two. And thepeople are definitely looking for analternative.

They say you will just be a marginalplayer. Your party has just 28 out of224 seats now.The JD(S) gave good governance inthe past and the public are aware ofit. We lost power after our stint in1994-99 because of internal fightsand differences of opinion. But wehave understood our mistakes andwon’t repeat them again.

How is the response to your rallies?We have already arranged large ral-lies and you will see more in thecoming days. Wherever we go, wehave received a warm welcome frompeople of all castes and creeds. Weknow the pulse of the people.

What if the BJP government disinte-grates and elections are advanced?Whether elections come today or inApril next year, our party is ready. Wewill face the battle under the leader-ship of Deve Gowda and

Kumaraswamy. In fact,Kumaraswamy enjoys the support ofyoung people in the state, and thatwill combine with Deve Gowda’s richpolitical experience.

Who is your choice of chief minister?We hear there’s some rivalry betweenKumaraswamy and his elder brotherRevanna.If we manage to win 120 to 130 seats,as we think we will, Kumaraswamywill be our chief minister. If there’s afight within the family, it’s DeveGowda’s problem. And we’re sure hewill solve it.

H D Deve Gowda’s party is nowforming a wing for disabled people,and talking about Kumaraswamy asthe next chief minister

Who’s a disabledperson?According to the Persons withDisability Act of 1995, disabilitymeans people affected by:

Bold new strategy for JD(S)

BlindnessLow visionLeprosyHearing impairment

Movement impairmentMental illnessand retardation

4talk|6 sep 2012|talkmag.inchit chat

Social activist and former TeamAnna member Swami Agniveshwas in Bangalore earlier this weekto deliver the keynote address atthe Social Justice Night organised

by St Joseph’s College. Agnivesh comes fromthe reformist Arya Samaj tradition, andholds degrees in law and economics. Hetaught business management for some time,and is best known for his work to free bond-ed labourers. On several occasions, he hasmediated between the Maoists and the gov-ernment. In a chat with Talk, the 73-year-oldsanyasi spoke about his life, his equationwith the Maoists, and his new movementwhich he says is a better model for changethan Anna Hazare’s. Here’s a quick round-upof his ideas:

On his childhoodAs a kid I was very observant and used toquestion my grandfather about things overand over again. I used to ask him questionssuch as ‘How can Gods with three heads goto sleep at night? Which language do Godswith monkey and elephant faces conversein?’ I have always wondered how while Godhas created the entire universe, we restrictour worship to puja rooms. My grandfather

would make sure that we recited theHanuman Chalisa every night. I was inter-ested, and used to recite it without fail, butmy siblings were lazy and ask that I recite iton their behalf, too.

On being called ‘anti-Hindu’To begin with, I don’t think there is anythingcalled ‘Hinduism’. It is amorphous and it isbasically a way of freedom. If people call meanti-Hindu because I am connected to theMaoists, let me tell you that even they areHindus. Besides, don’t you see how I amdressed?

On MaoistsThey have taken up a cause and are identify-ing themselves with tribal people. You and Imight know when we will head back homeeach day, but not the Maoists. They kill andget killed. They are uncertain about theirlives and I appreciate their commitment.But, I stand for peaceful transformation andnot for guns and bloodshed. If they continuewith their carnage, they will never win.

On Bharat Mahan Maha Abhyan Let’s keep aside the Quran, Bhagavad-Gitaand Bible for some time and accept the

Indian Constitution as our dhar-mashastra (sacred code). Through this wecan fight for our causes better. As a mem-bers of the human family, we shouldhelp the voiceless millions. Ibelieve today’s youth cando things far better thanpeople of my time. Besincere to yourcreator and get into social work.Each of you canadopt a village or award, talk to people ineach household,understand theirproblems and be thealternative yourself.Stop identifying yourselfwith cult figures likeAnna Hazare, SoniaGandhi or BabaRamdev. Through BharathMahan Maha Abhyan let’sremove the norm of a cultfigure and fight to create aworld of equity and justice.

MARIA LAVEENA

Agnivesh now banks onvolunteers, not heroes

6talk|6 sep 2012|talkmag.ingovernor vs government

BHANU PRAKASH E [email protected]

When Talk carried thestory of RajendranKannan, whose fateis caught in the bat-tle between the

state government and governor H RBhardwaj, the extraordinary natureof his case evoked sympatheticresponses from many quarters.

A murder convict who has com-pleted his life sentence four years agoand is eligible for release, Rajendranis still languishing in BangaloreCentral Prison at ParappanaAgrahara. Now it seems some con-crete action may be forthcoming, andthe authorities may take up his case,as well as those of other prisonerslike him.

Alerted about Rajendran’s storyby the Talk (Issue 2) report, KAmarnath, a lawyer who fights forpublic causes, has taken up his case.On August 28, Amarnath filed a writpetition in the Karnataka Hight

Court, seeking Rajendran’s release.The court is expected to issue ashow-cause notice to the state gov-ernment, which it will have a month’stime to respond to.

Speaking to Talk, Amarnathsaid, “After going through your story,I found that Rajendran definitelydeserved his freedom. I have decidedto fight for him, and I promise not totake any fee from his family for myservices. I haveacquired a copy ofthe High Courtjudgment in hiscase, and havealso contacted theminister of pris-ons and someofficials. I havealso collected thenecessary docu-ments, includinga copy ofRajendran’s goodconduct certifi-cate from the jailsuperintendent.”

Amarnathsaid if the jailauthorities failedto respond to theshow-causenotice, he wouldpray for summons to be issued to theminister.

When Talk contacted ANarayanaswamy, minister for pris-ons, he said, “I’ve seen your story andalso got a copy of the High Courtjudgment in Rajendran’s case.”

He said he was aware

Rajendran’s name hadbeen appearing on thelist of prisoners eligi-ble for release onspecial occasions for the past fewyears.

Narayanaswamy is now explor-ing ways to break the deadlock withGovernor H R Bhardwaj. “I reallydon’t know why he has rejectedRajendran’s name this year, too. The

state governmenthas no power toconvince him inthis matter, andpersonally I haveno option but tokeep quiet.” Hedescribed the gov-ernor as “toostingy” in releas-ing prisoners, andnarrated theplight of anotherprisoner in thesame jail, whodied inside jaileven after the jailauthorities hadrecommended hisrelease. Due forrelease in twomonths, the pris-oner had fallen

critically ill. After doctors warnedthat he had very little time, the jailauthorities submitted a health cer-tificate to the governor, andguaranteed that he was no threat tosociety and was eligible for release.

But the governor rejected therequest, and within a few days, the

prison-er died in his cell,as predicted by doctors.

“About last year’s list, the gover-nor said even if a prisoner has arecord of good conduct in jail, he canonly be released if the victim’s familygives a consent certificate. This iscompletely ridiculous. Each time thestate government sends a list, thegovernor comes out with his own listof constitutional powers,”Narayanaswamy said.

On Rajendran’s case, he said hewould take legal advice and help him.Since Talk’s meeting with him,Narayanswamy has announced thathe is submitting a petition toPresident Pranab Mukherjee, seekingthe release of prisoners who havecompleted their terms.

S Suresh Kumar, minister forlaw, justice and human rights, said hewas not familiar with the details ofRajendran’s case, but would consulthis colleagues about it.

“I agree there has been somemisunderstanding between our gov-ernment and the governor, but Iwouldn’t like to put all the blame onhim. The governor might have actedin haste,” he said.

Surprisingly, despite govern-ment ministers and officials havingtime and again blamed the governoras being entirely responsible fordenying freedom to eligible prisonerslike Rajendran, no clarification hasbeen forthcoming from Bhardwaj orhis office. Talk repeatedly tried tocontact him and his under-secre-taries to get their view on the case,and was even assured a response, buthas received none.

Meanwhile, Rajendran’s familyhopes things get moving and hereturns soon. His wife Sumathi said,“I don’t know how to read, and mychildren are unable to read Englishproperly. But I’m happy if you havewritten about my husband, and jus-tice will be done. We want nothingexcept to have him back home.”

Two weeks ago, Talkcarried the sadstory of Rajendran, languishing in jailfor years after he became eligible forrelease. A sympathetic lawyer has fileda public-interest petition in the HighCourt, and if all goes well, the wheelsof justice may finally turn in his favour

THREE PLAYERSJail minister

A Narayanaswamyblames governor H RBhardwaj (centre) for

the delay. Law andjustice minister

Suresh Kumar (farright) has promised

Talk he will call forrelevant files and help

Rajendran

talkimpactGlimmer of hope

for red tape victim

FUN LESSONSBangalore’s science

gallery, now scoutingaround for a site, will

test your memory,give you the feel oflife in a bubble, and

tell you why you liketo dance

7talk|6 sep 2012|talkmag.inpopular science

A world-class science gallery, networked with New York, London, Moscow andSingapore, is coming to Bangalore. Supported by Google and run by a Dublingroup, it will explain memory, happiness, and even the chemistry of romance

A LOVE LABFOR OUR CITY

PRASHANTH G [email protected]

BANGALORE will soon bepart of an internationalnetwork of science gal-leries linking New York,London, Moscow and

Singapore. The galleries are beingestablished by Global Science GalleryNetwork, Dublin, Ireland.

Talk discovered that the networkis talking to major science institu-tions in Bangalore, and scoutingaround for a site. Given the scale ofthe gallery, it will take eight years tofully materialise, but we managed toget fascinating details about how it isgoing to be structured.

Memory, for example, is some-thing the gallery will explain. If youthink you have a good memory, youcould put it to the test here. You couldalso participate in experiments thatinvestigate how good your short-termmemory is, and how humans evolvedmemory. Remembering names andfaces requires your memory to makeassociations between different piecesof information. How about being partof an experiment that testsyour associative memo-ry, which involvesan area in thetemporallobe of

your brain called the hippocampus? Then take the fascinating world

of bubbles. What does a bubble soundlike? Can you wrap yourself in a bub-ble? What is the physics of foam?Experiments let you learn aboutshapes and colours, and fantasticbubble structures with soap films.

If you are a music buff, you'llfind answers to some very curiousquestions in this gallery. What makesus dance? Why do we sing the blues?Could there be a formula for the per-fect hit? Music is a central part of thehuman experience, but what is thenatural force that drives us to sing,strum, drum and dance? What is thescientific basis of whistling, hum-ming and toe-tapping? From anacoustic bed to sonic tables andexperiments on your emo-tional response topop music, the newscience gallery willallow you to feelhow musicmoves yourbodythrough

an interactive bazaar of unique sonicexperiences, installations, experi-ments and performances frommusicians, engineers and neuroscien-tists from around the world.

The gallery project is prestigiousas it puts Bangalore in the league ofbig science cities. Building on the suc-cess of Science Gallery at TrinityCollege, Dublin, which will welcomeits millionth visitor this year, theGlobal Science Gallery Network wasofficially launched at the EuroscienceOpen Forum in July this year.

The launch of the Global ScienceGallery Network followed theannouncement of a one-million eurogift from US-headquartered Google.Michael John Gorman, FoundingDirector of Science Gallery, Ireland,told Talk: “This is a momentous step

towards our goal of becomingthe world's leading network

for involving and trans-forming curious minds

through science…We’re hoping to

ignite

the creativity of over four millionpeople annually through the collisionof art and science.”

Science Gallery is an award-win-ning initiative pioneered by TrinityCollege Dublin that delivers a dynam-ic new model for engaging 15-25 yearolds with science. It encouragesyoung people to learn through theirinterests and move effortlesslybetween diverse fields. Discussionsare on with prestigious UK universityKing’s College London, to become thesecond member of the planned net-work. The college is among the top 30universities in the world and thefourth oldest in England.

Dr Patrick Prendergast, Provostand founding member of TrinityCollege, Dublin, said: “We are excitedto see these links extend beyondDublin.” John Herlihy, Head ofGoogle Ireland and Vice-President ofInternational SMB Sales at Google, isexcited, too. He told Talk, “ScienceGallery has already enjoyed fantasticsuccess in inspiring and engagingpeople across the globe through tour-

ing exciting exhibitions such asElements, Biorhythm and

Surface Tension.”

Continued onpage 8


SAVIE [email protected]

Ionce visited a

house in a remotevillage. Theentrance had a

picture of awoman withbobbed hair. Shewore a sari with asleeveless blouse.There was a garlandaround the picture andvermillion was smeared on it.When I wondered aloud who shewas, the matriarch of the housesaid, “She is our guru.” The wordonly confused me. ‘Guru’ is nowused to denote so many kinds ofpeople. The woman could be asaint, a political leader or even anexpert in a certain subject. Thematriarch added, “She is my sons’teacher. She taught them inschool. My sons owe everythingto her. So we worship her pictureevery Guru Poornima.”

Here in a village, ‘guru’ stillmeant a teacher or mentor.Unaffected by modern Englishusage, for the family, the wordhad retained its age-old meaning. ‘Guru’in Sanskrit meansheavy or weighty. Itcould also translateinto ‘someone whois knowledgeable’, perhaps thereason it was used to describe ateacher. ‘Guru’ is also used for theplanet Jupiter, said to be the heav-iest of the planets. In mythology,Brihaspati or Jupiter is consideredthe supreme teacher, or the Guruof the Gods.

The Advayataraka Upanishadsplits the word into two toexplain its meaning. It says thatthe syllable ‘gu’ stands for dark-ness and ‘ru’ for the one whodispels it. So, the one who has thepower to remove darkness is a‘guru.’

The Skanda Purana, thelargest of the puranic texts, says“Guru Brahmaa Gurur Vishnu,Gurur Devo Maheswara, GururSakshat Param Brahma,Tasmai Shri GuruveNamaha.” These lineshold the guru in aposition equal to thatof the creator, pre-

server and destroyer ofthe universe.

This devotion for the guruprevailed across castes and creedsin ancient India. The mystic poetKabir writes, “Guru Govind donohhade, Kaake lagoon paaye.Balihari guru aapne, Govind diyobataaye.” (If my guru and Godwere to stand before me, whoshould I bow to first? Well, Ichoose my teacher because it is hewho introduced God to me’).

A guru is not necessarilyrestricted to a teacher in child-hood, but one you can meet atany point in your life. In that

sense, the wordrefers to anyonewho guides andinspires. In theMahabharatha,though

Dronacharya was Arjuna’s guru inchildhood, it is Krishna whobecomes his guru on the battle-field. He not only drives Arjuna’schariot in Kurukshetra, but alsoboosts his morale and inspireshim. Among Kannadigas inBangalore, ‘guru’ is even used toaddress a friend.

Starting in the middle of the20th century, ‘guru’ is being usedin English for both mentor andexpert. In 1966, the word wassimilarly used in CanadianEnglish. Some attribute this usageto communications theoristMarshall McLuhan. It gainedpopularity in the 1990s when itwas used for computer experts.We now hear about gurus in every

walk of life (managementguru, fashion guru and

even love guru). Theword is used soloosely that it is con-sidered part of slang.

K EW O S

YR D

Continued from page 7

Why Bangalore?Global Science Gallery Networkhas already initiated talks withBangalore’s leading science insti-tutions such as the IndianInstitute of Science (IISc) andNational Centre for BiologicalSciences (NCBS). DirectorMichael Gorman told Talk thatBangalore was anatural choice forIreland because ofits strength in thesciences.

“Bangalore isa city with hugedynamism. It hasfantastic scienceinstitutions andits strength in information tech-nology is well known. I considerBangalore a positively disruptivecity in many ways. The quality ofscience and scientists is so high,we naturally would like the cityto be one among the eight citiesin the world with a unique inter-active science gallery.”

The galleries, including theone in Bangalore, are expectedto be completed over the next 8years.

More in the galleryThe Bangalore gallery willbe path-breaking. “Visually itwill make a difference andimpact when someone entersthe gallery. They must be madeto feel that here is a space wherewe need to do something withour hands and ourselves,” saidGorman.

The Science Gallery inDublin had organised an exhibi-tion, Elements, that capturedthe beauty of interactive chem-istry, with fascinating objectsranging from a flaskimmersed in gases to shiningcopper and gold, with explana-tions of the chemicals thatinhere the objects most val-ued by humans. Theexhibition was launched tomark the International Year ofChemistry.

Water will be a crucialsubject addressed by thegallery. “An exhibition onwater is just not aboutdepicting water shortage.It will bring togetherwork by artists, design-ers, engineers andscientists to explorethe future ofwater, playingon its physicalproperties,its role in

politics and economics and waysin which it may be harnessed,cleaned and distributed,” saysGorman.

The chemistry of loveThen there’s the Love Lab exhi-bition. “What lies behind thosebutterflies you feel when you fallin love? What makes one per-son’s dream date a nightmare for

another? Doesromance reallyexist or do ourgenes precondi-tion us to seekout particularpartners? Lovehas been theinspiration forsongwriters,

poets and artists from the begin-ning of time but now scientistsare suggesting that it’s all a mat-ter of chemistry. Is Cupid ascientist? Love Lab draws onresearch from a number of dif-ferent disciplines, includingneuroscience, psychology,genetics, physiology and bio-chemistry and has been curated

by some of Ireland’s leading sci-entists including Boyle Medalwinner Professor Luke O’Neill,geneticist Dr Aoife McLysaghtand Professor Fiona Newell,”points out Gorman.

Other ExhibitionsScience Gallery Dublin’s flagshipexhibition Human+ invites youto consider a future of augment-ed abilities, authored evolution,new strategies for survival andnon-human encounters througha range of installations and labo-ratories exploring the future ofour species. This internationalexhibition has drawn together arange of installations rangingfrom a euthanasia roller coasterto the prosthetic head ofAustralian performance artistStelarc. Human+ also includes achildren’s book illustrating thequestion on where babies comefrom in the IVF era to a vision ofeternal life through digitalmeans. It also features artistEduardo Kac’s “plantimal” calledthe Edunia - a hybrid plantwhich includes the artists ownDNA. Human+ paints

a somewhat ambigu-ous picture of thefuture of our species.

What enhancementswill we choose to becomebetter humans? What hap-pens when we live side by

side with our robotic com-panions?

Happy? Take a SecondLook was an exhibition on hap-

piness. Happy? presented peoplewith a series of real researchexperiments exploring the caus-es, correlates and consequencesof happiness through a livingpsychological laboratory. Theexperiment was looking at thecomplexity of factors that affecthappiness - from experimentsthat explore the influence of lan-guage, emotional attachmentand moral acts of kindness onone’s well-being to happinessthemed events. Happy? aimed touncover the true mood of theIrish nation. Can happiness belearned? Happy? was part ofScience Gallery’s ‘lab in thegallery’ series developed in part-nership with Trinity CollegeDublin School of Psychology tomark 50 years of teaching,research and training.

The Talkcolumn on

word origins

From an equal of godsto the expert next door

Guru

Google hasalready offeredthe project amillion euros(Rs 7 crore)

ART MEETSSCIENCEThe gallerybrings youthe theory ofdance

10talk|6 sep 2012|talkmag.instadium view

BHANU PRAKASH E [email protected]

Participating in therecently concludedOlympics 2012 inLondon was a dream-come-true for national-

record holding athlete SahanaKumari. A resident of Jnana Bharati,she had hired a foreign coach withthe intention of bringing home amedal, but things didn’t go the wayshe had planned. Sahana hails fromMangalore, and now lives with herhusband and daughter in Bangalore.

She failed to clear even in thequalifying round, following one ofthe worst performances in her high-jump career. Sahana, who holds thenational record in women’s highjump at 1.92 metres, could barelymanage 1.80 metres in London. Oneof nine state athletes who took partin the event, she was the only one torepresent India in high jump. But forall that, the state sports authoritiesadded insult to injury by not turningup to receive her on her return.Sahana tells Talk even friends andneighbours are treating herdifferently because shefailed to win a medal.Excerpts from aninterview:

First of all, let uscongratulate you onbeing among the rare

mom-athlete Olympians.For that, I can thank my family. Myhusband and parents have supportedme, emotionally and financially, tohelp me realise my dream.

You told the media that you didn’tclear the qualifying round because ofthe severe cold in London…I did complain of the severe cold. Itled to my worst performance. Butthere were other reasons as well. Forinstance, I didn’t get enough time fora last round of practice. If I had man-aged at least two hours of practicebefore the qualifying rounds, I

could’ve warmed up and performedbetter. To warm up on Indiangrounds is easy, but in that hos-tile weather it was difficult.

Why didn’t the OlympicsAssociation fund you?

Indian Olympics Association (IOA)funds only the individual athleteand not the coach. Even that was

so tight that an Olympianhaving an extra cup of

coffee or sandwich hadto pay from her ownpocket. Athletes fromother countries werenot only funded well,but their coacheswere funded, too.That’s why I decidedto fund my own trip,mostly with help

from my husband and my parents.

Is it tougher for women athletes whohave children?I don’t think so. If an athlete says shecan’t achieve anything because shehas a daughter or a son, then it’scompletely untrue. Whatever I’veachieved today is because of my fam-ily’s support.

You said there was no one to greet youat the airport on your return…Yes, it was the mosthumiliatingmoment for me.The same peoplewho wished megood luck when Igot selected werenot concerned withme after I failed towin a medal. Theyweren’t interested.There was no one present at the air-port except my family.

How about friends and neighbours?There’s been a drastic change in theway my neighbours and friends aretreating me now. In our country, par-ticipation in a big sports event is notgood enough. It feels horrible to facepeople who think that I’ve brought abad name to the country by not win-ning a single medal. The questionsasked by my neighbours and friends,even when I am in public, are hurtful

and incredibly difficult to deal with.They don’t even know that it I didn’tparticipate in the Olympics with thegovernment’s money.

Before you left for the Olympics, thesports minister had announced thatOlympians from the state would get Rs10 lakh each…Such statements are gimmicks, purepublicity stunts. If they are so con-cerned, they should have picked upour training bills over these years. I’m

not complainingonly about money,but the lack ofmoral support. Allthey do is, when weare departing for abig event, comewith garlands andmake speeches asthough they havebeen taking care of

us all these years. I’m sick of theirfalse promises.

Do you blame cricket mania for thepoor support for athletes?No. Look at England and Australia,who do well in cricket but also treattheir athletes with respect. Here wewatch cricket throughout the year,but are not excited about theOlympics, organised once in fouryears, or about the athletes who par-ticipate. Frankly, people’s attitudetowards sport need to change.

National record holder Sahana Kumariexplains the hardships she faced inLondon, and the humiliation she livesthrough after returning from theOlympics without a medal

BAR NONESahana Kumari is the

national record holder, and was the

only one torepresent India in

high jump at London

Olympians havingan extra cup ofcoffee had to payfrom their ownpockets

A loser’s brave story

Igrew up in California, readinga lot of American science fic-tion, fantasy, and horror as akid. Later on I got into hard-boiled crime writers like

Dashiell Hammett and JimThompson. I read “literary fiction”somewhat rarely, and when I did, theauthors I liked best were the trippier,more experimental ones, like Beckettor Borges. For some reason, I find I’mgenerally bored by the kind of thingthat wins Booker prizes—I have lowpatience for realist novels that chron-icle the relationship dynamics in afamily, or follow a character’s innerturmoil during periods of politicalunrest. For a long time, whenever Ipicked up a book by an Indian author,that was the kind of book it was, andI came away disappointed. I wantedrobot werewolves, weird sex, fantasticcloud cities. It seemed like Indiansjust didn’t write like that.

So when I moved toChennai in 2002 I got allexcited by the slim Tamilpulp paperbacks thatused to hang on aclothesline at the teakadai where I’d go formy morning coffeeand cigarette. I was justlearning to read theTamil script, and I’d standthere slowly trying to soundout what was written:“Rajesh Kumar – BestNovel, Super Thrill.”“ P a t t u k k o t t a iPrabakar – DetectiveSpecial.” Many of thecovers were decoratedwith gruesome pho-tomontages of mon-sters and demons taken

from heavy metal album covers andvideo game screen grabs. The bookswere really awesome-looking, and Iwished I could read them. But thoughthe titles had a high proportion ofEnglish words in them, the same was-n’t true of the stories—and my Tamilwasn’t anywhere close to goodenough.

A few years later, I met PrithamK Chakravarthy, who had grown upreading Tamil pulp before gettinginto theatre activism and academia.She was very gung-ho about the ideaof translating this stuff and bringingit out in English. She shared my sensethat these Tamil pulp writers (whooutsell—still!—practically any IndianEnglish author in terms of number ofcopies) were being unfairly ignored bycustodians of regional-language liter-ature like the Sahitya Akademi.

We also thought they might wellhave a market among people whoread in English, both Indians and for-eigners. Pritham did a ton of researchand reading and gave me synopses ofdozens of short novels. Together wedecided on a set

of ten authors, travelled aroundChennai and to Madurai andCoimbatore to sign them all up, andin 2008 we published the first BlaftAnthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction. Thebook got a lot of attention, helped inno small part by the sexy babe on thecover holding the gun (drawn byShyam, a prolific Tamil pulp maga-zine illustrator, with additionaldesign by Pritham’s daughter,Malavika P C).

In an early piece onthat book that appeared inthe Deccan Herald, reviewerVijay Nambisan asked if wecould do a similar projectfor other regional Indianlanguages. Actually, Blafthad already been scoutingaround, and had gottenrights to the Jasusi Duniya series byUrdu crime fiction legend Ibne Safi.

Though he’s considered a pulpwriter, Ibne Safi gets some respect,even in Urdu literary circles. Thesame isn’t true for most Indian lan-guage pulp writers, and unfortunate-ly, it hasn’t been easy to find peoplewho could do for other languageswhat Pritham did for Tamil. Whilethere are many people who can trans-late from Telugu or Malayalam orMarathi, few are well-versed enough

in regional pulp to be able to rec-ommend good authors and sto-ries, and even fewer who are will-ing to do the research (which,

requires wading through a lot ofnot-so-great writing to find thegems).

Another complication—and thisis an issue especially with Hindi—isthat some Indian language publish-ers aren’t as careful about avoiding

plagiarism and maintain-ing clear rights con-tracts as they shouldbe. We did meet aHindi translator whowas very excited to do

research; but what hediscovered is, while

there’s lots of cool Hindipulp fiction out there, it’s

impossible to figure out who ownsthe rights. Some of it is just trans-planted from English novels by CliveCussler or Donald E. Westlake, trans-lated line-for-line into Hindi, withthe names and locations changedfrom American to Indian ones.

Then there are the ghost writers.There are apparently lots of differentpeople who write mysteries under thenames Reema Bharati and Keshav

Pandit; some of them aregood writers, some quitebad, and some plagiarists.Some write novels whereReema Bharati and KeshavPandit are characters as wellas authors. Others writeunder different pen names,still using Reema Bharati asa character. Several differentpublishing houses might

bring out books ostensibly in thesame series. It’s too shady to get intoas an English publisher—and that’sreally too bad, because Reema-Bharati-the-character is totally awe-some. She’s this slutty superspy who,on at least one occasion, drives asports car outfitted with machineguns and an invisibility switch.

Things have changed drasticallyin Indian English fiction publishingin the last few years. It’s not all aboutBooker-style “lit fic” anymore. There’sa profusion of “metro reads”, collegenovels, filmy urban romance and his-torical Indian chick lit. These booksdon’t seem very interesting to me,and I haven’t read many of them.Most seem rather soulless, like they’rewritten as business propositions, totarget some readership niche that amarketing team has identified.

I still find what’s going on inregional language popular fictionmuch more fascinating. I was inAizawl recently where I discoveredthat there’s a big supernaturalromance/vampire fantasy fictionscene in Mizo. I’m trying to learnmore about that. We’re also bringingout a translation of a Islamic feministpulp romance from Nigeria this year,which I’m very excited about.

Rakesh KhannaFounder-editor ofindependent publishinghouse Blaft

Soulless ‘metro reads’ and collegeromances, written like business plans,are no match for the lurid attractions of truly inspired pulp

Slutty spiesand robotwerewolves


CHEAP THRILLS(Top) Jackets of pulp

thrillers in Telugu,Tamil and Hindi.

(Right) Blaft’s anthology of Tamil

pulp translated intoEnglish, features

cover art by a pulpspecialist

SAVIE [email protected]

While regional Indianliterature boasts awild and richly sor-did tradition filledwith gun-toting

detectives, voluptuous spies andlovelorn ghosts, Indian English writinghas very little to offer in comparison.

Instead, what it does offer forthe most part is a blandaffair called ‘popular fic-tion’. Says Mita Kapur,founder of literary agencySiyahi, “We still have tolearn how to churn outpulp. There are no Indianpulp fiction writers inEnglish.”

Pop fiction books, or‘mass market’ books, are a mixed bagof college romances, cubicle battlesand the odd mythology-inspiredthriller. A good majority deal withurban relationships or life at the IITsand management schools, their plotsclearly implying that they are aimedat the new English reader living in ametro with a corporate job (or aspir-ing to one), and looking for stories hecan relate to.

The strategy has worked andsales have broken all records. Now,every publisher wants a share in the

profits and is promoting these books,usually priced between Rs 100 to 150.

Writers like Ravinder Singh, whostart with publishers like Srishti, whoseem to publish almost everythingthat goes to them, have now beenpicked up by Penguin for theirimprint Metro Reads.

There is no doubt these booksare selling, but a consensus amongpeople in the publishing business isthat most titles are mediocre. Butwhat’s surprising, as Talk learned, isthat even enthusiastic promoters ofthis genre share that view.

Ahmed Faiyaz, founder ofBangalore-based Grey Oak WestlandPublishers, which has released severalsuch titles, is candid in his assessmentof the genre his imprint specialises in.“It appears there’s a rat race in the

publishing industry whichis bringing to fore heaps ofmediocre paperbacks.There is an unprecedentedfocus by even the biggestnames to churn out these‘affordable bestsellers’.When there is a dispropor-tionate focus on sales, thequality of the book definite-ly suffers,” he says.

Faiyaz, who has also authored acouple of titles along these lines (Love,Life & All That Jazz… and AnotherChance) firmly believes the majorityof what gets published is sub-stan-dard in terms of plot, quality of writ-ing and editing.

Faiyaz suggests that these bookscontinue to sell for the same reasonbad movies become hits. “If Housefullor Singham are blockbusters, it’sbecause they are affordable entertain-ment options to a mainstream audi-ence who prefer logic-defying enter-tainment. Many people in India needa break from their difficult andmonotonous lives, and these booksgive them a breather. They’re accessi-ble, affordable and written in a lan-guage they’re used to speaking in. Thewriting is not necessarily good, but itworks with the target audience,” hesays.

Samit Basu, who has writtenwell-received sci-fi and fantasy bookslike Turbulence and The SimoqinProphecies, too resorts to a movieanalogy to explain the success ofbadly written books. “I find the mostcommercially successful Bollywoodmovies of the last few years unwatch-able, despite being a great lover oflowbrow material, action and comedyin general. It’s an issue of poor quali-ty, not the nature or subject of thestory being told,” he says. He is opti-mistic that over the years the writingwill improve.

Tuhin A Sinha’s books ThatThing Called Love, and The Edge ofDesire have been bestsellers. Yet, thewriter today laments that the boomhas led to a decline in quality.

“A lot of people have turnedauthors just for the kick of beingcalled authors. Similarly new publish-ers who don’t know a thing aboutediting have come up. Most of thesebooks make for good display on

Facebook walls rather than on bookshelves,” he says.

Siyahi’s Mita, who has been a lit-erary agent for both literary writersand popular fiction writers, feels newwriters and publishers lack patience.“Instead of improving their writingand evolving as writers, they want towrite quickly and get publishedquickly. The publishers too are look-ing at immediate sales,” she says.

She vouches for many good edi-tors, but also says bad editors getaway with shoddy work. Manymediocre authors she rejects manageto get published later, and send hercopies of their books. “It was theirway of making a point and saying thatI am a first class bitch!” she told Talk.

However, she admits to enjoyingreading popular fiction. “I don’t wantto act like a pseudo-intellectual andsay that I only read literary fiction. Asa reader, I enjoy mass market books aswell. Some of the writing is good andthe plots are racy and gripping,” shesays.

Tuhin feels the new English-lan-guage reader is not discerning. Mitathough, takes a big picture view andblames the readers’ consumeristimpulses. “We live in a world thatbelieves in use and throw. Peoplewant a quick two-hour read,” shesays.

She is afraid the attitude of thepublishers may mar the image of theIndian publishing industry globally.“We should not compromise on stan-dards. Instead of being myopic,Indian English publishing should stepback and take a long, hard look atitself.”

The most startling thing about ‘mass’Indian English fiction is not that it’smediocre, but that the very people whowrite and promote it also find it so

Let themread crap


What pop?Talk asked writer Jeet Thayil,whose book Narcopolis has beenlong listed for the Man BookerPrize this year, what he thought ofpopular fiction in India.

His reply: “I don't think of it at all.”

What is disconcerting is theconservative, rightwingnature of novels that areblatantly repackaging Hindumyths. Just like higherconsumption of potato chipsdoes not mean as a societywe are eating better, therecord sales of these novelsdoes not mean we as asociety are reading better.

S Anand, publisher of the independent imprint Navayana

BROWSING(Top) A reader

checks out second-hand books at

Blossoms on ChurchStreet

RAMESH HUNSUR

BASU [email protected]

As writing giants go, thisdiminutive man is as big asthey get. N Narasimhaiah(1925-2011), the man whoalmost single-handedly sus-

tained the genre of detective fiction inKannada from the 1950s till the late1980s, created some of the most popularpulp fiction in Kannada.

But Narasimhaiah’s own life wasmore poignant than thrilling. Born onSeptember 18, 1925, to a family of Dalitfolk singers in Bangalore, Narasimhaiahhad to drop out of school when his fatherdied, and he was still in the fourth stan-dard. The family was forced to move tohis mother’s village in Chikmagalur,where they got a place to stay, but had tostruggle for their daily sustenance.Narasimhaiah took over the responsibili-ty of running the family at the age of 13,and started doing odd jobs.

For some time, he worked as a tailor,construction worker and salesman at ahardware shop. When the family foundthat their earnings were not enough even

for their basic needs, they moved back toBangalore, where Narasimhaiah foundwork as a bus cleaner, and was promotedto the post of conductor.

It was normal for his bus to accom-modate more people than the prescribedlimit, a practice that led to his transportcompany being fined frequently. It wasNarasimhaiah’s duty to go to court andpay the fine, which soon became a rou-tine for him. Narasimhaiah was so fasci-nated by the goings on around him—cases involving theft, murder and con-spiracy—that he would look forward tohis court visits. He didn’t know it then,but those idle days would prove a richsource that he would latermine for his popular inves-tigative thrillers.

However, Narasimhaiahwho had received a ‘best con-ductor’ certificate from theBritish-run administration in1944, did not last long in thatline either. He soon foundhimself a job as an assistant ata publishing house owned by T Narayana Iyengar, where his main dutywas to keep the bookshelves dusted. Anunlikely beginning, but it was in thesehumble circumstances that Kannada’sgreatest pulp writer would first start toread books.

Iyengar’s titles were not doing aswell as he hoped they would. One day, thefrustrated publisher burst out inNarasimhaiah’s presence, “What’s thisrubbish they write? These books won’tsell even at three paise each!” Withoutthinking, Narasimhaiah responded, “Ifyou had asked, then I would have writtensomething for you.” Iyengar was takenaback, but replied, “Nothing wrong withit. Go ahead and write one.” But evenIyengar, a veteran of the pulp fiction busi-ness, was not prepared for what was tocome. Within no time, Narasimhaiahproduced Pattedaara Purushottama(Detective Purushottama), a book thatbecame an instant hit, its first printrun having sold out in just 15 days.

Encouraged by Iyengar,Narasimhaiah produced some fifteenmore novels over the next sixmonths, without ever getting paidfor it. His success was unprece-dented, and what started off as afavour to his employer, soonturned into a full-fledged career.His simple but carefully con-structed stories won him manyardent fans, the then chief minis-ter Devaraj Urs, poet Nissar Ahmed,and actress Tara being among them.

Narasimhaiah soon gained fame,and publishers started approaching him.Nevertheless, they took full advantage ofhis lack of celebrity status. The highestroyalty he received in this period was Rs15, a pittance given that his books wereselling at Rs 3 each.

Some of his best known works areVichitra Vilasini (Strange Woman),Mayanganeya Marma (The Seductress’sSecret), Raginiya Rangata (Ragini’s Gameof Colours) and Madhusudhanana NooruSaahasagalu (The Hundred Adventures ofMadhusudana). His most successfulnovel, Bhyankara Bairagi,(The FearsomeAscetic) ran into a record eight editions at

one stretch, and remains inprint to this day. Some of thecharacters he created, such asGaliraya, Pattedara (detective)Purushottama, Madhusudhanaand Arinjaya acquired iconic sta-tus. While his less talented con-temporaries found it more lucra-tive to translate works of Westernwriters such as Agatha Christie

and Earl Stanley Gardner,Narasimhaiah instead turned his atten-tion to creating credible homegrownthrillers. He looked to thriller writers H KAnanta Rao and T K Rama Rao as his lit-erary inspirations, but what ultimatelydrove him was sheer desperation. ‘Povertyprodded me to write detective fiction,’ heonce said.

Narasimhaiah’s productivity wassuper-human. His son Ravindra recalls aday when four publishers came home torequest his father to write thrillers forthem. Incredibly, Narasimhaiah said yesto all of them. For one of them, hewrote a 20-page thrilleron the spot

so he could publish it right away. Withinthe next four days, Narasimhaiah hadcompleted writing the thrillers for allfour, just as he had promised.

Ravindra also recalls an instancewhen a publisher pleaded with his fatherto give him a thriller urgently.Narasimhaiah asked for 24 hours, and

turned out a 200-pager on time, just ashe had promised! But for all that, he wasnever careless with his craft. Ravindrarecalls an incident which reveals

Narasimhaiah’s meticulousness andattention to detail. “My father was writingKeralida Kesari (The Taunted Lion), anovel in which both hero and villain werewrestlers. My father knew a bit aboutwrestling but not its nuances. To under-

stand them better, he got twowrestlers to come home and put up a

fight in front of him. Only after learningthe minute details did he proceed todescribe it in his novel.”

Narasimhaiah was fascinated byincidents of robbery, murder, sorcery andcrime, and did not hesitate to pick others’

brains to get the information he wanted.Ravindra names a police inspector, K L

Singh, and a lawyer, Nagaiah, as twoof close friends who were also richsources of raw material for him. Anothersource was the well-travelled freedom

fighter H S Doreswamy, whose stories ofthe Chambal Valley’s dacoits and theirdaring exploits would thrill Narasimhaiahno end. Narasimhaiah also read withfocus, and was knowledgeable about theIndian Penal Code and modern forensicscience.

Narasimhaiah wrote about 550books, the bulk of them detectivethrillers, and some less successful socialand biographical novels. Copies of some480 of his books have been collected byRavindra, who is proud of his father’slegacy. Ravindra also says that many ofNarasimhaiah’s publishers secured rightsfor his books at a pittance, while filmproducers used sequences from his booksand never paid him the promised money.

The author remained poor to thevery end, earning a meagre governmentpension of Rs 1,000. Mainstream literaryfigures hardly acknowledged his exis-tence. He used to remark television hadmade him stop writing. Towards the endof his career though, he received severalawards including a felicitation atKannada Sahitya Sammelan at Davangerein 1992, and the Karnataka SahityaAcademy award in 2008. But the truemeasure of his success, perhaps, is thefact that 25 of his titles remain in print tothis day, decades after he wrote them.


N Narasimhaiah, a conductor forced tosit in court halls to pay traffic penalties,absorbed every detail of what heheard and saw. He went on to sustainKannada detective fiction single-handedly, for decades

ExcerptsBefore killing her, he had usedchloroform and made everyonein the house unconscious. Hehad probably murdered herafter making her unconscious,too. There was so much fineryand jewellery around, and hehadn’t touched a thing.Detective Madhusudanadeduced the killer just wantedto commit a murder, and thenwatch the fun.

From Entu Kolegala Banta (Killer of Eight), 1960

It was nine at night, and thepolice investigators were busyat work. Inspector Chandranathwas at the station. When willdetective Purushottama arrive,he wondered. He was restless,with no other thought in hishead. As he brooded, henoticed Purushottama walk upto his house in the dark, allalone, and open the lock.

From Keralida Kesari (The Taunted Lion)

It’s hard to imagine now, but detectivefiction was a flourishing genre inKannada letters, and was devoured byenthusiastic readers across social stra-ta. Stalwarts of the genre, like the lateN Narasimhaiah, were an inspirationto scores of others in whom heinstilled the urge to write.

Among the new generation ofpulp authors who emerged in the ’60sand early ’70s, Maa Ramamurthy, inwhose honour a layout near K RPuram is named, wrote 25 detectivenovels. H K Ananthram, who lived inHyderabad, wrote 34. His Antha (TheEnd), about an honest policeman whorebels against a corrupt political sys-tem, was published in the weekly mag-azine Sudha and became an instant hit.Ambareesh played the lead in themovie adaptation, which ran to packedhouses and inaugurated the politicalthriller genre in Kannada cinema.

Sudarshan Desai, who diedrecently, took detective plots in a dif-ferent direction. His Yellow Scorpion isa psychological thriller. T K Rama Raoand Vijay Sasanur wrote thrillers asserials for the Kannada weeklies. MaBhi She, Jinde Nanjundaswamy,Kakolu Ramaiah, M Shivajirao, Saska

Murthy were the mostpopular among detec-tive fiction writers,

and were followed by H K Ananthrao,T K Ramarao, Koundinya andSudarshan Desai. Then came anothergeneration of writers like G Prakash, BV Ananthram, C S Rao and VijayKumar.

After Narasimhaiah’s generationstopped writing, the genre went intodecline. There isn’t a single publicationhouse today bringing out detectivenovels cheap. (Earlier you could getone for less than Rs 15).

Pulp author G Prakash says thereis no demand for detective fiction.“Books were the biggest source ofknowledge and entertainment for us,whereas today, people have all kinds ofoptions,” he says.

‘The genre is not selling. Bookslike those by (tabloid journalist andwriter of ‘real-life’ thrillers) RaviBelagere are now in demand,” saysSreenidhi, a publisher.

“Books by Narasimhaiah are stillavailable, but others’ books are noteven in print. But for him, Kannadapulp is dead,” says K R Sundar Raj, whohas been running wholesale book storeGeetha Agencies in Balepet for 60years. Vidyaranya, who publishes amonthly magazine dedicated to pulpfiction called Spy, points out how pub-lic libraries, which used to purchasedetective thrillers in bulk, stopped thepractice nearly a decade ago, deliveringa financial blow to the genre.

Younger readers, educated inEnglish, have migrated to that lan-guage. The Kannada TV channels rundaily crime shows that draw on themurders reported the previous day.The Kannada reader has now shiftedto television for those spine-chillingmoments, and in the process, has lostthe taste for the whodunit.

BASU MEGALKERI

HIT TELUGUWRITERMadhu Babu, who

works as a school headmaster,wrote more than 100 booksbetween 1970 and 1990. Hisbooks are priced between Rs 8and Rs 10. Two publishing houses,one in Chennai and the other inVijayawada, vie to publish him.

The dailycrime showon TV is theprimesuspect, butit isn’twithout itsaccomplices

Who killed the Kannada

pulp novel?

KING OF PULP(Top) Jackets of

books by detectivefiction pioneer N

Narasimhaiah(below).

Ambareesh in themovie version of pulp

classic ‘Antha’ (Top right)

16

RAMESH HUNSUR

THE ONE-MAN WRITING FACTORY

Once upon a time, long,long ago, I used to saythat there were no badbooks; there were onlybooks that one might not

like personally. But the other day,having tortured myself till page 84 ofa 'bestseller', I decided some books arejust bad. One just cannot be political-ly correct about them all the time.

Growing up with a grannymeant I was given large doses ofmythology at bedtime. That, and the1990s phenomenon that wasRamanand Sagar’s Ramayana, left mewith no choice but to know the sto-ries that make up that family drama.But time blunts the edges of even themost beloved memories, and when itbegan to so happen that names anddetails from the epic began to slipfrom me, there sounded the gong ofmythological novels in English. But Isoon realised I had rejoiced too soon.

God as dudeGiven the frighteningly bad quality ofwriting, an even worse quality of edit-ing, I am not so sure anyone ought tobe reading these books. AmishTripathi’s The Immortals of Meluhawas flying off the shelves at the sametime that everyone was condemningthe bad writing in it. The cover waseye-catching, Shiva as this cool dudeof a God and all that. I picked it upand finished it at one go.

For a pulp fiction book, it hadalmost done its job, being racyenough. But good heavens, the prose!Here you have Shiva, in an avatarbefore he became God; cool, flirty,insecure. He is just another tribalchieftain from the Himalayas andexcept for his broad shoulders and anair of leadership, there is nothing spe-cial about him until he escapes con-flict with another tribe and arrives inMeluha. Wracked with guilt about anold incident, the chillum and conver-sations with his bestfriend Bhadra keephim going even afterhe is unwillinglythrust into a God’srole by a fawningpeople who see himas a saviour.

In the book,Nandi is a ManFriday of sorts, not Shiva’s vehicle thatmy grandmother taught me the bullwas. Ganesha is a grotesque, disfig-ured warrior from the unruly regionsof the south of Deccan.

It was old man Scott Fitzgeraldwho said an exclamation point is likelaughing at your own joke. Clearly,Amish Tripathi is okay with that—countless exclamation points are

scattered throughout this book, act-ing as cues for you to think, ‘Howcute of Shiva!’ or go ‘Aah!’ at his wit.

Assembly-line booksFor all you know, the ‘boring banker’,as the bio describes him, just hasn’tbeen able to shake off his office

prose. Why elsewould a charactertell Shiva thatsomething hadbeen done “as peryour instructions?”

I was once amember of alibrary. That washow I came to bor-

row Ashok Banker’s book The Princeof Ayodhya. The writing is miles betterthan in Amish Tripathi’s Shiva trilogy,but that still didn’t get me past thefirst chapter. Too verbose for me.

Author as marketerAt my favourite bookshop the otherday, I saw a book I first mistook to beAmish Tripathi’s new release. It

turned out to be yet another trilogy,called Kaal, by Sangeeta Bahadur. Herwebsite is swanky and makes all kindsof ‘exotic’ sounds on every page. Inher blog, she writes about how sheand her publishers decided on thename Kaal because they wantedsomething ‘exotic’ and‘zingy’. I couldn’t read thefull blog post, and I alreadyknew that I wouldn’t bepicking up the book.

An ocean of slushI have saved the worst forthe last. I picked upNilanjan P Choudhury’s Baliand the Ocean of Milk during a shortholiday. Indra, who loses his virility,and Bali, who is on his deathbed.churn the ocean for amrutha, formutual use and benefit.

I first balked when Urvashibegan to call Indra ‘fuddy-duddyIndy’. This, on the fourth page. Thingsgot steadily worse, with referencesaplenty to daily soaps on televisionlike Balika Vadhu (a play on ‘Bali ka

vadh’, the killing of Bali!), to shame-less plugs for luxury resorts likeAnanda in the Himalayas to invoca-tion of kasams of friendship a la Veeruin the film Sholay. A character is evencalled Viru (and that is the GodVishnu for you)! After page 84, I sim-ply couldn’t go on.

Nilanjan Choudhury’s prose isladen with messy metaphors (“squashthat pest like an overripe grape”).Passages describing sex and death and

most else are too crudeeven for pulp fiction.Conversations have toomuch slang, and the narra-tive is flat.

Who are the culprits?Do I blame the editors of thebooks for the shoddy writ-ing? Maybe I ought to blamethe publishers, all reputed

ones at that, for their slipping stan-dards. Or maybe I can blame the eco-nomics of this trade?

Amish Tripathi left off his sec-ond book at a very crucial point. I ruethe day I started his trilogy. I will bereading his third book when it comesout: I want to know what happened.And guess what, this is why he andothers like him win.


OLD GOLDWriters are mining

ancient Indian myths for their

city-slicker themes

Get a grip on your prose, dude

Many recent best-sellers are based on mythologicalthemes. The bulk of the prose churned out in thispublishing manthan is just plain toxic, finds Dharithri

Here’s how it goesFFrroomm TThhee IImmmmoorrttaallss ooff MMeelluuhhaa* What does Shiva say when heis exasperated (which is at everysecond page)? “This bloody bluethroat of mine...", "What the..."

* We are talking of a story set in1900 BC. Yet, when Shiva andhis tribe arrive at the gates ofSrinagar, who does he meet? AnOrientation Executive at theForeigner's Office, his 'singlepoint of contact for all issueswhilst you are here'.

* Every time the blue throat ofShiva is revealed, the proseexplodes in a series ofexclamation marks. Someoneasks, "Where the hell have youbeen?"

BBaallii aanndd tthhee OOcceeaann ooff MMiillkk

“TLC? What’s that?” Indrahasked.

“Tender Loving Care, forheaven’s sake,’ she (Urvashi)giggled. ‘Indy, you are becomingsuch a boring old fuddy-duddy.”

***

Viru, aka, Lord Vishnu to Indrah,refers to a hair dye product:‘Molten Midnight by So’Real, Ibelieve it is called’.

I first balkedwhen Urvashibegan to callIndra ‘fuddy-duddy Indy’

BYE BYE BANGALORE?Metallica (top),

Bryan Adams andAkon are just three ofthe big names to have

performed at PalaceGrounds, arguably

India’s top musicvenue

PRACHI [email protected]

For Bangalore’s musiclovers, the bad news isconfirmed, and they canonly brood about it.Palace Grounds has offi-

cially shut its gates to mostcommercial activity, including exhi-bitions and music concerts, followinga directive issued by the commission-er of police on August 3. A day earlier,Housing Minister V Somanna hadannounced it in the LegislativeCouncil, after opposition leadersaccused the state government of vio-lating Supreme Court guidelines onthe property, and illegally renting itout for commercial use.

The directive also resulted inthe demolition of permanent struc-tures erected in the venue, andbanned any construction of tempo-rary structures for events. However,Palace Grounds continues to playhost to weddings and other suchevents.

Mayor D Venkatesha Murthytold Talk that the ban is “beyond ourjurisdiction”, and denied having got

any official intimation about com-mercial activities being banned at thevenue.

If prompts are anything to goby, one of the first suggestions forauto complete when you google‘Palace Grounds’ is the bandMetallica. The venue played host tothe cult band in October last year andhas been the venue for many interna-tional acts, like Bryan Adams, Akon,Backstreet Boys, Michael Learns toRock, INXS, AR Rahman and manymore. The linkbetween the city’smusic history, espe-cially rock music,and these sprawlinggrounds, has beenseamless and nearlysynonymous.

And that hasnow changed. OnAugust 25, nearly 10,000 fansreturned disappointed from PalaceGrounds after the star of the evening,singer SP Balasubramaniam, wasallowed to sing only two songs aspart of a corporate event.

Many organisers are movingbigger shows to indoor venues with-in the city or outdoors, in theoutskirts. Finnish band Poets of theFall was spotted performing to athronging crowd at Hard Rock Café afortnight ago. Singer Lucky Ali per-formed at the same venue last week.Vasu Dixit, vocalist of city-basedband Swarathma, is positive that

indoor venues can’t replace thecharm of an outdoor one, whileIndian Ocean guitarist Susmit Senwho performed solo in the city agreesthat “outdoor shows have more ener-gy”. “Indoor venues also have theirown restrictions,” adds Vasu.

Apart from being a blow to thecity’s status as the country’s rockmusic capital, the decision has alsoseverely impacted the events indus-try. Event organisers are scamperingall over town to find venues with

similar specifica-tions. Internationalacts are going out-side the city andevent managers aregrappling with adecline in thecrowds. “It hasaffected the eventindustry in a big

way. No other venue can match thespecifications or approachability ofPalace grounds. Also, we end up pay-ing more rent for other venues,” saysVilas G V, managing director ofCommon Colours, the company thatorganised the large-scale music eventOctoberfest. “I am unable to planmany events for want of options. Thealternative venues suggested by thegovernment in Tumkur and Hoskoteare impractical for us”, he adds.

Some in the industry believeotherwise and say the ban has hardlyaffected them. Music entrepreneurArpan Peter says, “Nothing really has

changed for us. People went to PalaceGrounds because they were used toit. Every organiser has found alterna-tive venues. My last show, the Lambof God concert, was at Clark’s Exoticain Devanahalli. Though the crowdwas smaller, the venue gave me otheradvantages, like ample parkingspace”.

Artistes Talk spoke to expressedthe hope that Palace Grounds wouldopen its gates to music events again.“It has been a discouraging move forartistes. For musicians like SonuNigam and Jagjit Singh, it was per-haps the only venue in town. Also, ata time when the independent musicscene in India is booming, a movelike this will do it no good.Eventually, even internationalartistes will be discouraged from per-forming in the city,” says Vasu Dixit.

The solution according to him isto have schools and colleges openingtheir grounds to concerts. SusmitSen is open to the idea of newer ven-ues. “I remember playing at IIMBangalore and thought it was a goodvenue too,” he says. Playback singerVijay Prakash was unaware of thedirective until Talk told him. He wasshocked into silence for a fewmoments. “Palace Grounds is a greatvenue. But, when I look at it from theperspective of somebody stuck intraffic, I suggest we should look forother venues.” Sometimes you haveto leave things behind, he adds philo-sophically.


Artistes discuss the impact of the ban on music at the popular venue,and say alternatives, such as Hoskote and Tumkur, are too far from the city

death metal

In memoriamPALACE GROUNDS

Event organisersare scamperingto find venueswith matchingspecifications


Tickle your funny bone:Cartoons by the renownedartist R K Laxman, ShankarPillai and Mario will be on dis-play this weekend at the MegaCartoon Exhibition. Head tothis exhibition as the cartoonswill leave you in splits. Indian Cartoon Gallery, 1Midford House, M G Road, tillSeptember 1, 9980091428

Film festival: The 7th edition of 'Voicesfrom the Waters' is back inBangalore. The film festivallike every year, aims to reachout to maximum number ofpeople to spread awarenessabout the methods they canimplement to save water. Alliance Francais de Bangalore,Max Mueller Bhavan and ChristUniversity, till September 2

Odissi dance performance: Watch Ranjana Gauhar per-form live as she portrays thecomplete woman, one who issensitive and embodies loveand courage, in her perform-ance. She pays homage toRabindranath Tagore throughher presentation of his dancedrama Chitrangada. Gauhar isa leading Oddissi dancer andhas performed all over theworld. Chowdaiah Memorial Hall, 16thCross, Malleshwaram, August31, 6 pm 23445810

Bharathnatyam perform-ance: Watch Padmashri recipientMalavika Sarukkai, aBharathnatyam dancer, per-forming Sakthi Sakthimaan.This dance production invokes

energies that are both auspi-cious and fearsome and haschoreography inspired byVaranasi. She will be accom-panied by the Zowe Madrigalchorus group from Nagaland.Chowdaiah Memorial Hall, 16thCross, Malleshwaram,September 2, 6.30 pm

23445810

Art for all: Sophie Christopher's art workswill be on display at the Twoslow cats and a Rooster exhi-bition this weekend. Head outthis weekend for some quirkyart.Kynkyny Art Gallery, #104,Embassy Square, InfantryRoad, till September 5

40926202

L I S T I N G S

art & danceSax by Kadri G:

Bangalore International ArtsFestival (BIAF) brings to you arecital by saxophone artistKadri Gopalnath this weekend.So head out to watch thePadmashri recipient performlive at the BIAF. Chowdaiah Memorial Hall, 16thCross, Malleswaram, August31, 6 pm 23445810

Young talent at its best:Catch young musicians fromNathaniel School of music dis-playing their skills this week-end. Watch the 16th graduat-ing batch as they perform onrhythm guitar, bass guitar,drums and vocals. bFlat, 100 Ft Road, HAL 2ndStage, Indiranagar, September2, 8 pm 25278361

Duo at work: TL Mazumdar and JivrajSathya Singh perform live thisweekend in city. Mazumdar amusician of Indian origin hasbeen nominated for theGerman National AwardBremer Jazzpreis this yearand Percussionist JivrajSathya Singh on the otherhand will enthrall the crowdwith the beats. Counter culture, 2D2,Dyavasandra Industrial Area,Whitefield Road, August 31, 8pm 41400793

Fusion of different worlds:Book your weekend and headto watch Jataveda Banerjee

perform along with KarthikMani on drums, NikhmalGartaula on rhythm and leadguitar and Leslie Charles onbass guitar. Enjoy a fusion ofBlues, Ghazals and worldmusic.bFlat, 100 ft road, HAL 2ndStage, Indiranagar, August 31,8.30 pm 25278361

Add a dash of orange: Mad Orange Fireworks, aBangalore based band is all setto enthrall the crowds thisweekend. Their music is anamalgamation of genres likejazz, pop, funk and rock. WithMichael Dias on vocals andguitar, Kaushik Kumar on Bassand vocals, ShravanBendapudi on drums and

vocals and RamananChandramouli on guitars,watch them play some originalcompositions.bFlat, 100 ft Road, HAL 2ndStage, Indiranagar, September1, 8.30 pm 25278361

Carnatic ragas by Aruna Sairam : The renowned vocalist will beperforming live this weekend.A Padmashri recipient, ArunaSairam has performed at venues across the world,and for various events such asthe Commonwealth Games inNew Delhi.Chowdaiah Memorial Hall, 16thCross, Malleswaram, September 1, 6 pm

23445810

music

Party all day andnight:Dance to DJ Elisha and DJKarthik's tunes this week-end as they bring somehip hop, Bollywood, houseand club remixes fromtheir console. Groove tothe rhythm as happyhours get better.Fusion Lounge, Teenacomplex, 2nd floor, Brigaderoad, September 1, 12 pmonwards 25091160

Get into a trance:Experience the spiritualtrance dance as United bymusic featuring Goa Gilperforms live in city.Experience an eight hourspiritual performance thatyou wouldn't want to miss

at any cost. Entry at Rs1000 per head. Eclipse, Level 2, Kodihalli,Airport road, August 31, 4pm onwards

9632632541

Foot tapping music: Catch Albin Myers per-form live, churning outsome of his signatureelectronic dance musicthis weekend. Born inSweden, he plays remixesthat will set your feet tap-ping. His latest project isMyBack, along with DJSwede John Dahlback. Pebble, Princess #3,Bellary Road,Sadashivnagar, September2, 8 pm onwards

23614109

nightlife campfoodFive reasons to smile:

Taste an exotic five-coursemenu and jumpstart yourweekend. Enjoy delicacies suchas ricotta kebabs, seafood hot-pot, biryani arancini , applejalebi and more. Vegetarianmenu starts at Rs 1,350 plustax and non-vegetarian menustarts at Rs 1,650 plus tax.The Pink Poppadom, Ista Hotel,Swami Vivekananda Road,Ulsoor, till August 31

25558888

Food for all: 'Breakfast with pets' is aunique opportunity for all petowners to dine with their petsthis Sunday. The doggie platterconsists of steamed chickendim sums, mince meat balls,Ragi balls and biscuits. Thedoggie platter costs Rs 100whereas the continental break-fast for owners is at Rs 250. Under the mango tree, #3,Laurel Lane, Richmond Town,September 2 9686601021

Perfect way to celebrateonam: This festive season enjoy thetraditional delicacies on abanana leaf. Chefs from Kerala,will display their cooking skills,and bring you a typical tradi-tional meal in light of the festi-val that just went by. Ente Keralam, #12, New no.1road, Ulsoor, till September 2

32421002

Kebabs for all: Enjoy mouth watering kebabsat the Kebab festival this week-end. Non vegetarians canchoose from a wide range suchas tandoori lobster, pudinaneze kebab, stuff tandoorimurgh, nashili tandoorimurgh tikka and morewhereas vegetarians canrelish on navarathnaseekh kebab, lazeezpaneer tikka, tirangapaneer tikka andmore. Paprica, 95/3, 1st floor, Kote M R Plaza,Marathahalli, till September2 30208899

Learn the tricks ofbaking: Baking just got

easier and more fun. Clear allyour baking doubts at theDemistifying Bread workshopthis weekend. Organized bySinamon, this workshop willcover areas such as basic stepsto make bread, the sciencebehind bread and chocolatebabka and pita bread. Fee forthe workshop is Rs 3000. Chaipatty, Koramangala, on September 2, 10 am onwards

8277603490

Yoghurt for all:For all fitness freaks, there isreason to smile. Yogurtbay hasintroduced its latest offerings.Delicious frozen yoghurt avail-able in different flavours suchas strawberry, chocolate, peachand mango and their signaturesuch as chunky monkey andjack sparrow is up for grabs. Yogurtbay, Level no.2, UB City,

Vittal Mallya Road, tillAugust 31

9980087932

Doodle maniaGet set with your paints andstationary and spend theSunday doodling with the draw-ing bootcamp Pencil Jam. Beinspired by sculptures from theancient Vijayanagra empire andcreate your own doodle mas-terpiece. Pencil Jam is a week-ly jam up for artists and thosewho love to draw. These like-minded people can be seendrawing at various nooks andcorners every Sunday.Bull Temple, Basavangudi,September 2, 9 am to 12.30pm

Zowe Madrigal chorus group

Mad Orange Fireworks

23talk|6 sep 2012|talkmag.inL I S T I N G S

film

retail therapydanceAnother Landmark in town:

The surprises keep pouring inand in this case it happens tobe books. Landmark hasopened its second book store inthe city. The store has a widevariety to offer in the cate-gories of books, toys, sta-tionery, music, movies andmore. Avail special inauguraldiscounts on books and gamingproducts till August 31. Landmark Store, Orion Mall,Malleswaram, www.landmarkonthenet.com

Foot fashion:Choose from a range of peeptoes, flats, sandals, and casualcanvas footwear. Available indifferent colours, you canmatch these with your outfit,for a formal or casual evening.Prices start at Rs 1,795. Available at Crocs, Mantri Malland Phoenix market city

Ritu Kumar’s collection: This monsoon season, designerRitu Kumar is presenting a col-lection of kurtis, shirts, kaftansand more that haveprints of paint.Phulkari embroi-dery on yourtunics andshort dressesand lego, aprint on yourdresses and topsare what you can

expect from the new range.Availble at all Ritu Kumarstores

Sale at Crossword:Crossword is back with its sale.Get attractive discounts onbooks, stationery and more.Members get 15 percent flat onall non discounted books. Available at all Crosswordsstores, till September 2

Happy feet: Waiting to buy those beautifulpair of heels or that comfort-able pair of flats, avail a flat 50percent discount on all yourpurchase at Bata stores.Choose from a wide variety of

footwear and keep your feethappy.

Avaiable at all Batastores, till August

31For your

eyes only: Titan Eye+ is

offering a new rangeof spectacle frames. The collection, named'Trendz', features framesin different colours andmaterial, with pricesstarting at Rs995. Available atTitan Eye +stores, tillAugust 31

Folk talesculptures: Each sculp-ture tells itsown tale.Simi Nirula'sworks, now ondisplay, are adepiction of thefolk life.Sculpted withceramics, hercreationsinclude folkwomen sitting in theirtraditionalattire andwomen groom-ing themselves.

Eka, #19, 2ndfloor, Pyramidhouse, GangadharChetty Road, Ulsoor,till August 31

25544371

Joker HindiPitted as an ‘out of the world’comedy, this movie is the storyof an NRI who returns to thecountry to realise his village hasno place on the map of the coun-try. The villagers think of waysto get their name back to themap and soon turn the villageinto a crazy place with aliens,pranksters and all things odd.The film is directed by ShirishKunder and stars Akshay Kumarand Sonakshi Sinha in the lead.Fun Cinemas, CunninghamRoad- 10.20 am, 12.30pm,2.50,7.30,9.45, CineMAXOuter Ring Road- 10.30, 11.30,1 pm, 3.15, 5.30 7.45, 9, 10,INOX JP Nagar- 10 am, 10.55,

12.45 pm, 3, 5.15, 7.30, 9.45,INOX Magrath Road 10 am,11.10, 12.30 pm, 2.45, 5, 7.15,9.30, Gopalan CinemasBannerghatta Road10 am, 1 pm, 3.45, 6, 8, 10,INOX Jayanagar 10.40 am,12.10 pm, 3.30, 5.40, 7.50, 10,INOX Malleshwaram- 10 am,1.15 pm, 3.05 5.10, 7.20, 10,Fame Lido Ulsoor- 10.35 am,1.30, 3.05, 6.50, 9.50, GopalanCinemas RR Nagar MysoreRoad- 10 am, 12.15 pm, 6, 8,10, Innovative MultiplexMarathahalli 11 am, 1 pm, 3.15,7.45, 10, Q Cinemas ITPLWhitefield- 10.20 am, 1 pm,5.30, 7.40, 9.55, VisionCinemas- 10 am, 12.15 pm, 5,

7.15, 9.45, Eshwari Cinema,Banshankari- 11.15 am, 2.30, 6.15, 9.15,Gopalan Mall Sirsi Circle MysoreRoad- 10 am, 2 pm, 6.15, 10,Urvashi Digital 4K Cinema- 11am, 2.30 pm, 6, 9.30, LakshmiTheatre Tavarekere- 1.15 pm, 5pm, 8, Rex Theatre- 11 am, 4pm, 7.50

Shark Night 3D EnglishA bunch of college friends headto a Lake house on vacation.Everything seems fine until oneof them rips his arm due to anattack by a shark. They soon dis-cover the lake is infested by 15species and they have nowhereto run. The plot thickens whenthey realise a group wants tofeed them to the sharks to makeinternet videos.INOX Malleswaram- 1.55 pm, 3,Q Cinemas ITPL Whitefield -10.30 am, 5 pm, 9.30, Fun

Cinemas Cunningham Road - 10am, 4.45 pm, 10, Fame LidoUlsoor- 12.55 pm, 10, GopalanCinemas Bannerghatta Road -2.05 pm, Gopalan Mall MysoreRoad - 8.15 pm, InnovativeMultiplex Marathahalli - 1.45pm, 8.15

Naavika KannadaTwo youngsters Shravanth andManishchandra both with onefilm each to their credit are inthe lead roles in ‘Naavika’.Shravanth playsthe cop while the quasi negativeshade is part of Manishchandrarole in the film.Anupama- 10.30am, 1.30, 4.30,7.30pm

To get your event listed, write to us [email protected]

talk picks

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DVD releases. Courtesy: Flipkart

The Best ExoticMarigold Hotel (English)Directed byJohn MaddenStarring Judi Dench, BillNighyPrice: Rs 499

Supermen of Malegaon(Hindi)Directed by Faiza AhmadKhanStarring Shakeel Bharati,Farogh JafriPrice: Rs 269

The Lorax (English)Directed by ChrisRenaud, Kyle BaldaStarring Zac Effron,Danny De VitoPrice: Rs 539

Bombay Our City(Hindi)Directed by AnandPatwardhanPrice: Rs 449

Immortals (English)Directed by TarsemSinghStarring Henry Cavill,Mickey Rourke Price: Rs 449

Wah Astad!:Sangeet Natak Akademi AwardeeAstad Deboo will be in town withhis form of dance and dance the-atre. After many years of succes-ful performances across the coun-try in his unique self-devised style,Deboo has now taken to Tagore’spoetry. In this latest performanceas part of the BangaloreInternational Arts Festival (BIAF)

titled ‘Interpreting Tagore’ Deboowill use masks and puppets topresent three pieces of Tagoreinterpreted through dance. Theshow will also include a solo per-formance by Astad Deboo.

Chowdaiah Memorial Hall, 16thCross, GD Park Extension, 2ndmain rd, Malleshwaram,September 3, 7 pm 23445810


Little Bangalore, a five-minute film on Bangalore,made by a bunch of youngBangaloreans, has becomesomething of a YouTubesensation, drawing nearlythree lakh views.Composed mostly of longand panoramic shots froma height, it gives a bird'seye view of the city and itspeople. It is this resultant‘shrinking’ of the city tominiature proportions thatthe title refers to. Startingoff with a dramatic visualof clouds moving overfields, the film goes on toshow many familiarlocations in the city, fromthe bustling Majestic busstand to the evergreen

Cubbon Park, but all ofthem rendered a littlestrange by the unusualcamera angle. This 'aerial'survey of the city'sprominent landmarks alsohas some amusingmoments, especially whenit depicts a football matchand people out pedal-

boating on Ulsoor lake.Released under thebanner of 1st DecemberFilms, Little Bangalore isdirected by ad filmmakerAtul Kattukkaran, with asoundtrack by Rahull Raut.The filmmakers havecalled the short their “littletribute to little Bangalore”.

Little Bangalore: short and sweet

Held on the thirdThursday of everymonth at thecultural venueJaaga, this eventbrings togethertravellers and travelenthusiasts. Initiated and supportedby Bangalore-based outdoor andtravel outfit Getoffyourass, TravellersThursdays has evolved into avolunteer-driven community eventthat brings together travellers fromaround the world for a range of funactivities. These include watchinginspiring journeys captured oncelluloid and video, and sharingexperiences and tips with thecommunity. The groups' attitude totravelling is summarised in thisamusing quote, displayed prominentlyon their website: “The whole purposeof climbing something like Everest isto effect some sort of spiritual andphysical gain. But if you compromisethe process you're an a****** whenyou start out and one when you getback.”

- Yvon Chouinard, from the film 180South

For details, visit: travellersmeet.in

Travellers’Thursdays

…Dosa! No better placethan this blog to launchyour quest for thatperfectly crispy delight

Love, Sexaur…

Peace and Solidarity Forum, acoalition of around 50 rightsgroups and individuals, wasformed on 20th August toextend support to people fromthe North East, Nepal andTibet, many of whom recentlyleft the city in the wake ofrumours.

The forum is all set toorganise neighbourhoodmeetings and public events inNeelasandra and Hennur, twoof the most vulnerable areasin Bangalore. To refresh yourmemory, about 30,000people from the North-Easternregion left Bangalore over

three days, as rumoursspread on social networkingsites that they would beattacked immediately afterRamzan. The forum plans tofollow up on cases of attacks,and reach out to North-Easterners through visits toschools, colleges, religiousinstitutions and work places.A helpline is also active to

provide information andassistance. It will remainfunctional round the clock forthe next two months. Callthem if you need help, or ifyou would like to volunteer.

Helplines:9845967545/9482396178 For more details, visit:northeastsolidarity.blogspot.in

The 109 Helicopter Unit of the Indian AirForce, popularly called The Knights,completed 50 years on August 26. TheKnights have organised a series of eventsto celebrate the milestone. Withoperations all over the subcontinent, fromSiachen in the north to LakshadweepIslands in the south, and from Jamnagarin the west to the jungles of Mizoram inthe east, The Knights have lots ofadventures to talk about. They have taken

part in overseas operations in Sri Lanka,Maldives and Male. The unit received theprestigious President's Standard in 1991.As part of The Knights' golden jubileecelebrations, a special postal cover wasreleased by Air Marshal PP Reddy, SeniorAir Staff Officer, Headquarters TrainingCommand, at the Yelahanka Air ForceStation. Also on the cards: A motorcycleexpedition, trekking expedition and volleyball and cricket tournaments.

IAF Knights enter their golden year

Support for North-Easterners

Three dosa addicts havetaken over the city andhow! Watch and learn

from their dosa escapades asthey are out to attack the harm-less-looking city snack. Theyare chronicling every discoveryon their website, scandalouslycalled Love, Sex aur Dosa. Thesite is run a bunch of amateurfood writers and professionalfoodies (better than the otherway round!) who visit everydosa haunt they come by andwrite a somewhat simplistic

review of the place and its fare,complete with ratings. It alsofunctions as an open forum forother dosa lovers to taste andwrite about their goldenfavourites. The writers postlinks of serious newspaperreviews of dosa joints, besidespictures that can make yourtummy grumble. In its nascentstage though, the site is suffi-ciently navigable and lookspromising enough to be theone-stop-shop for Bangalore’sdosa-crazy folks.

More at: lovesexaurdosa.tumblr.com

PAPAYA-LEMON

A crazy idea sometimes may resultin an interesting brew, and fruitbases are the easiest to work with.And believe me, nothing beatsstress like smashing papaya.

What you need:Lemon tea leavesPapaya pieces (smashed)

How to go about it:1. Brew the lemon tea2. Add the papaya mash to it so

the flavour soaks in3. Once the mixture is ready, pour

it into a teacup4. Add sugar to taste

The taste makes you feel…You’re sitting on a beach soakingup that sun!

HONEY-PEPPER

Something you could keep sippingon all day, this tea is light andzingy. Try not to overdo the pepper,a sneezing-fit that lasts the rest ofyour day is no one's idea of fun.

What you need:HoneyPepperTea leaves

How to go about it:1. Brew the tea leaves2. Add a little pepper to it so the

flavour soaks through3. Pour some honey into a teacup4. Pour the tea mixture in and stir

The taste makes you feel…You’d like to get some work done!

MINT-GREEN-VANILLA

Many people dislike green tea,enough to refuse to acknowledge itsmany medicinal values. If you areone such, this concoction would bethe one to change that.

What you need:Vanilla essenceGreen teaMint leaves

How to go about it:1. Brew the green tea leaves.2. Toss a few mint leaves in and let

the flavour and scent seepthrough

3. Pour a few drops of vanil-la essence into a teacup4. Add the green tea and

mint concoction to it and stir

5. Add sugar to taste

The taste makes you feel…You’re sitting on top of a hill, with

a meadow stretching all the waydown!

26talk|6 sep 2012|talkmag.inwarm comfort

Three uncomplicatedbrews—no less tasty forbeing so—that can beprepared in less than 10 minutes

SHUBANGI SUNDER

Ahappy person always drinks tea. Itimproves mood and spirit, andnot to forget, hydrates the body

immensely, keeping you cosy in the

monsoon. As the season changes fromhot to cold, and back to hot, these threebrews could shield you from the change.What’s even better? It takes less than 10

minutes to have that deliciously steam-ing cup warming your palms!

TEA

Tea factsA cup of black tea has onlyhalf the amount of caffeinein a cup of coffee.

A large amount of caffeine isreleased from tea after the first30 seconds of brewing.

Dumping this content out andpouring new hot water is aneat trick for the caffeine-conscious.

is for tasty

28talk|6 sep 2012|talkmag.inmemoirs

In our village, it was a customamong farmers to go hunt-ing to the forest after everyharvest. On an expedition ina dense forest, you might

come across leopards, wild boarsand other animals, but we lived inthe plains where we only chancedupon rabbits, and on rare occasions,

on a wild boar or deer.People from every com-

munity—the Vokkaligas,Lingayats, Brahmins,

Dalits and thosebelonging to the

hunting caste,took part in

these expeditions. During such out-ings, the prevailing custom ofuntouchability was only partiallypractised.

I would be exhilarated themoment a hunting trip wasannounced. The reason was that Icould walk freely with my Dalitfriend Guddayya, which I otherwisecouldn’t. He was of my age, and Iloved to go with him, with my armslung over his shoulder. I used tothink how wonderful it would be togo hunting all round the year,instead of during just three shortseasons in a year.

The cowherd boys, who didn’tgo to school, would be the heroes ofthese expeditions. In school I wasconsidered intelligent, but on anexpedition, I would meekly followthese boys. Their keen sense of theforest riled my sense of superiority. Iused to admire Hanuma, a Dalit boywhose understanding of naturesurpassed everyone else’s. Heknew many tricks. He couldidentify any bird just by its

cry. He could even make out thenumber of birds in the vicinity. Hecould look at footprints and tellwhat animal they belonged to. Notonly could he identify an animal bylooking at its dung, but he couldalso pick a lump and figure out theday and time when the animal hadbeen there!

When confronted byHanuma’s superior knowledge,Guddayya would introspect and say,“I think he was born with this intel-ligence.” Since people from neigh-bouring villages would simultane-ously go on such expeditions, theforest would be filled with scores ofhunters. On hearing the laugh-ter, whistling anddrum beats that

accompanied the arrival of a group,others would mark off their territo-ries or change direction. Yet, onoccasion, an animal chased by onegroup would escape and fall into thenet of another.

As soon as an animal wascaught, the group would place it atthe foot of a hill. If no game wascaught even after a long hunt, theparty would go looking for snakes.The hunters believed killing a snakewould make their vision sharper,and it would become easier for themto spot other animals.

After offering prayers to godAnjaneya, the hunting expe-

dition would start fromthe temple. The

d r u m m e r ,

An early lesson in village justicecomes from an exciting huntingexpedition

Fabled ranconteur andBangalore’s top-notchcriminal lawyer bringsyou moving and bizarrestories from 40 years ofhis practice

C H HANUMANTHARAYAcrim

e fo

lioThe bullet hits anunexpected target

VIVE

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who had to keep his rhythm, would sweatprofusely. Boys like me would standaround him. His every pore would danceas he beat his drum, and that would raiseour pulse rate. I’m sure it affected the girlsas well. All the women would gather atthe temple. Some men would bring alongdogs they had raised to look after theirsheep, and the hunters would arrive withtheir hounds. Others, who didn’t havedogs of their own, would bring alongstreet dogs lazing about in front of theirhouses. The hunting dogs would growl atthe street dogs. As the drum beats becamelouder, the street dogs would escape,prompting someone or the other toremark, “How can dogs forced here evergo on a hunt?”

The hunting party would march on,dancing, and waving spears, axes, knivesand country-made pistols. The processionwould pass through the main street. Bythe time it left the village, many menwould drop out of the expedition.

It was common to see women dragtheir husbands away from the procession.“Don’t I know you? You are struttingabout like a great hunter. Come home, I’llshow you,” was what one woman told herhusband. Another would say, “Instead ofdoing your work, you follow people who

waste their time. You must be a wastreljust like them.”

As for boys my age, they would hidefrom their parents and sneak on with theprocession when it passed their homes. Ihad no such fear, though. I would alwaystake permission from an uncle. Afterwalking 7 km from our village, we wouldreach the Vaddarapalya forest.

Once, Hanumagripped my hand, andpointed to the earth.“Look, these are rabbitdroppings. Still warm.Not even a minute haspassed since it went thisway. It’s hiding aroundhere,” he said.

A little ahead, hetold the elders about thedroppings. They dis-persed, looking for therabbit. Within a few min-utes, we saw one of thehunters emerge holdinga rabbit by its hind legs. I was stunned byHanuma’s skill at spotting animals.

Once they captured game, thehunters’ enthusiasm would wane. I oftenheard elders tell the others not to shootwithout reason. But the men holding

country-made pistols were trigger-happy.I once asked Goorappa, who held onesuch pistol, “Why do elders warn themnot to shoot? Why bring these pistols at all?”

He told me a story: “This happenedbefore you were even born. We had cometo this very forest for an expedition. Likeus, a group had come from a neighbour-

ing village. TirumalaGowda was an ace shot.When our group wasscattered, I ended up withTirumala Gowda. Therewere just four of us, andthe hunting dogs werebusy elsewhere. Wefound footprints of a wildboar. Tirumala Gowdasaid to me, ‘The animal isabout to give birth to ayoung one’. He could fig-ure that out from thefootprints and he couldgauge the animal’s

weight. “Exactly at that moment, a preg-nant boar sprang out of a bush and brokeinto a run. Like I said, there were no dogswith us, and Tirumala Gowda fired a shotin the direction of the animal. It wentdown squealing. Simultaneously, there

was a loud cry from a hunting groupsomewhere ahead of us. TirumalaGowda’s bullet had pierced through theanimal and lodged itself in the body ofsomeone from a neighbouring village. Bythe time we rushed to his side, he haddied.

“It became a big issue: the hunterhad become the hunted. The panchayatsof the two villages met, and took a deci-sion not to go to court. After thatTirumala Gowda never touched a gun.Since then, hunters in the area are carefulto use their guns. The pistols we carrynow can’t even kill rabbits”.

It dawned on me why some villagewomen stopped their husbands fromjoining hunting expeditions. Even after Ijoined college, I would visit my villageduring the hunting season, and get mythrills. I now understand how these tripstaught us obedience to teachers, concen-tration, and patience.

With age and maturity, I also came torealise — not without some amazement—how the village elders of those times,with their feudal attitude, blocked murderand suicide cases from reaching thecourts.

Translated by Basavaraj Urs

29talk|6 sep 2012|talkmag.inmemoirs

Tirumala Gowdasaid, ‘The animal is about to givebirth’. He couldmake thatout from thedepth of thefootprints.


1st Cross

By Mark ParisiOff The Mark

Talk’s weekly crossword for Bangaloreans who know their way about town

Across3 State Cabinet Minister in charge

of Law, Justice and Human Rights(6,5)

4 American metal band who will beperforming in the city on the 9thof September (4)

7 Communal violence recently dis-

rupted life in this Karnataka city(7)

9 Gold mines 100 kms out of thecity (5)

12 Agency responsible for the imple-mentation of the Namma Metro(5)

15 State Cabinet Minister in charge

of housing (1,7)17 Where 4 Across will be performing

(6,7)18 Historical figure known as the "Tiger

Of Mysore" (4,6)19 Theatre on Varthur Road (7)20 The central government has denied 20

state ____ colleges permission to enrolstudents for the 2012-13 academic year(8)

21 50 kms from Bangalore, this area is afavourite for rock climbers (8)

22 Tourist destination home to theRanganatha Swamy Temple (1,1,5)

DOWN1 National park between Mysore and

Ooty (8)

2 Cinema in the Banashankari area (7)5 Sharmila ____ : Bangalore based Golfer

doing well on the Ladies European Tour(8)

6 The JD(S) has promised quotas forthem if voted to power (6)

8 Crisis which recently led to the ousterof the BBMP Commissioner (7)

10 Royal Challengers Bangalore keeper(1,1,2,8)

11 Bangalore's Nature Cure Institute cur-rently treating Anna Hazare (6)

13 The ____ Room : One of Bangalore'supmarket continental restaurants (6)

14 Vegetarian Italian joint at Jayanagar(6)

16 Restaurant at the Leela Place (7)17 Club on Church Street with live salsa

and saxophone performances (6)

Across:

1 Nool puttu, 3 Bengaluru, 5 Milk, 8Ghulam Nabi, 11 Samarkand, 13Annigeri, 15 Karwar, 19 Exodus, 20Chola, 21 T M Dilshan.

Down:

2 Pvr, 4 Lalbagh, 5 Moipei, 6 JackPalmer, 7 Mysore pak, 8 Ghats, 9Tibetan, 10 MGNREGA, 12 Deccan,14 Naik, 16 Anshi, 17 Wards, 18 Toit.

Last week’s solution

ProfGood Sense

I am going through a terri-ble stage in my life. My girlfriend of 6 years is calling itquits. I always thought wehad an intense relationshipand wanted to marry her. Wehave had our share of fightsbut I never thought it wouldreach this point. I don’t wantmy affair to end. Please help.

Govind, BTM Layout

It is a tricky tight spot thatyou are in. Well, when youleave something unattendedfor a while, it tends to wiltaway. Your relationship hasbecome like that, I presume.But, have you ever asked herwhy she wants to call it a day?Is it possible that you couldget over it? Or did she findout something about you thatshe doesn’t want out in theopen? If you really love herand are capable of con-fronting the truth, ask herdirectly. Don’t lose yoursense of balance or blame herfor calling it quits.

I am a 20-year-old BE stu-dent living as a tenant in abuilding owned by a 38-year-old woman and her husband. Iam attracted towards her, butI'’m not sure if she likes me.My exams are only a fewweeks away and I have notbeen able to concentrate.

Mahesh, Mysore

You are unnecessarily worry-ing about something unim-portant. I suggest you keep acheck on your thoughts andstop fantasising about whatyour landlady feels for you.Don't complicate your life andthe lives of people around youby letting your imaginationgo berserk about a lady who isold enough to be your mother.As for your studies, keep inmind that lost time can neverbe regained.

Prof M SreedharaMurthy teachespsychology atNMKRV First GradeCollege. He is also awell-knownphotographer.

Write to him: [email protected]

T I M E P A S S

Let’sprioritise!In my math

tuition class,there was a geeky

guy who I thought could be of helpwith notes etc, and had exchangednumbers with. The other boys gotto know about it, and spread arumour that I fancied him. One day,this guy calls me up and starts talk-ing about some notes. Then, with-out warning, he said, “Hey, I heardthat you like me.” Before I couldsay anything, he said, “You know,now is not the right time. We needto concentrate on studies. It will betoo distracting”. I was speechless!Anusha, by email

Share the humour in your life, multiply thefun! Keep those anecdotes coming to:[email protected]

Stylus with WendersFollow the tablet buzz? Okay, Samsunghas just unveiled its second genera-tion tablet, Galaxy Note II. The Koreanelectronics giant is describing theNote II as a ‘phablet’. Is that their wayof calling it a fabulous tablet? Notreally. It’s short for phone plus tablet.Samsung has roped in Wim Wenders,whose eccentric films are a hit withworld cinema buffs, to promote thenew device. Samsung’s slick video

postedonYouTubeprominentlyfeatures the SPen, its light-weight stylus. Theidea is to promote thepen as an added attrac-tion that enhances yoursketching creativity.

Curiously though, on the eve ofthe launch, the specifications

were leaked in SouthKorean newspaper.

Hmm. Smell some-thing fishy,

anyone?

Who would have thought,but apparently there’smoney to be made teachingMicrosoft Excel, the spreadsheet software we all loveto hate. And tons of it too, going by the experience ofPurna Duggirala, founder of Chandoo.org, a websitethat helps you “Become awesome in Excel”. This IIMIndore MBA-holder started the website as a hobby,but found so many takers that he quit his job to workfor himself. Duggirala, who has given himself thedesignation of Chief Excel Officer, earned more than

1,00,000 US dollars in 2010, mostlyselling project management templatesand e-guides for multiple versions ofExcel. This year, he expects to maketwice that amount from the website,which he runs with his wife from hishometown Vizag. And consideringwhat he must do to earn that money, wecan only say that it’s richly deserved.


A chill pill for men? Excel millionaire!

Over with the top If Lady Gaga and her OTT outfits weren’tmaking enough news, she hasnow decided to drop them. Yes, it’s theoutfit we’re talking about. Gaga recentlyposted a nude picture of herself onTwitter where all she had to guard herprivates was her hands. She has also beenrecording tracks for her to-be-releasedalbum ARTPOP naked we hear. She thinksher voice sounds better naked. Now,anyone who has ever sung in the showerwill know that’s oh-so-true, don’t they?

Researchers at the Collegeof Medicine in Houston, whoconductedexperiments onlab mice mayhave chancedupon acontraceptive forhuman males. Acompound that wasinitially consideredas capable ofblocking cancerhas been found tostop sperm generationin mice, they were quoted assaying. Once they stoppedgiving the drug, the rodentsrecovered fertility and wereable to produce perfectly

healthy offspring. The drugis known by its lab name JQ1,after a chemist, Jun Qi, whodevised it, initially with theidea of disrupting acancer-causing gene.Presently, malecontraception is limitedto the condom orvasectomy, so an easy-to-use reversibleoption ought to bewelcome news to theworld’s overcrowdednations. No one’s

asking, but we happen tohave a mildly evilsuggestion for them: aregular dose of JQ1 in thewater supply.

VIPFLASH/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

talk - september 6, 2012

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