Mere Face Valueapropos ‘My Experiment with Facebook Activism’ (30 May 2011). Facebook has about 20-30 million users in India. That’s barely 2 per cent of India’s population. Now, of these 20 odd million, very few would be sensitive to issues like Naxalite operations in Dantewada. Even fewer would be ready to convert that sensitivity into real action. Facebook, Twitter and the likes are primarily a platform to chat up with friends, or a stage for an annoying display of amateur exhibitionism. One can’t expect it to change the socio-cultural construct around us. It never can. Some television channels refer to live tweets to understand the mood of their audience. This mood is further extrapolated to claim, for instance, that “90 per cent of our readers feel that Singur should go to Tata”. Is there any science/logic to such a projection? The answer would be ‘No’.

LASH

do you expect the 1,545 ‘Likes’ on your Facebook post to be converted into 1,545 activists on the ground? If everyone leaves his daily work, who is going to run those hospitals, drive those autos or deliver that early morning fresh milk? I don’t see anything negative with Facebook activism: the message reaches a broader audience, and if at all a fraction converts, it’s a huge bonus. So, do continue your Facebook activism, and do get on the ground if possible.

SAGAR

Give Dais Their Due traditional often gets bundled with outdated (‘A Cut above Modern Medicine’, 30 May 2011). Over-medicalisation of pregnancy is now a recognised malady the world over, and increasingly the shift is towards giving more control to midwives within the commu-nity, and having women deliver at home unless they are at high risk because of any illness. Again, this threshold of

what constitutes ‘high risk’ is a problem area, but this article is more pertinent than the writer realises, and only bolsters the current sentiment within the fraternity that childbirth can and should be achieved with minimal medical intervention. I thought a decade ago Rekha’s portrayal of a dai in Lajja was pretty evocative. The individu-al episodes of how women are marginalised and must struggle to assert themselves were highly convincingly.

KARAN

Pesticide versus Pests banning endosulfan at Stockholm has more to do with spirited public green cam-paigns in some parts of the country in general, and in Kerala in particular (‘Kerala Versus Endosulfan’, 23 May 2011). But the ban is fraught with problems of crop protection for a developing country like India. First of all, no viable alternative is in sight to substitute the agrichemical. Secondly, organic alternatives may be prohibitively expen-sive and might push up food prices, which are already going north.

BICHU MUTTATHARA

Why Vote?this is a brilliant essay (‘Why Politics Matters’, 23 May 2011). The observation about the ‘Congressification’ of different parties over time is truly remarkable. But my favourite part of the essay is this: ‘The voter votes not for an idea or an ideology but for the possibility of individual benefit’. It’s a classic!

SAMEER

Open Mail | editor@openmedianetwork.in

PRASHANT SAREEN

Apropos ‘My Experiment with Facebook Activism’ (30 May 2011). The failure in your case to translate, via Facebook, the identification with an issue into tangible action is in part because the subjects of that exploita-tion and subjugation do not have a presence on Facebook. We do not hear their narrative. We do not hear from them their personal struggle and exploita-

tion. And for that reason, I think it is difficult for people to empathise. Those who join your page on Facebook understand the issue intellectually.

They understand your point of view, but in the absence of a strong connect with the exploited, they do not feel it strongly enough to join the cycle yatra. In Egypt, it worked because those leading the agitation and those joining it were groups both on Facebook, and both belonged to the oppressed. letter of the week

EDITOR Manu JosephDEPUTY EDITORS Rajesh Jha, Aresh ShiraliPOLITICAL EDITOR Hartosh Singh BalBUSINESS EDITOR Adam MatthewsCREATIVE DIRECTOR Divya Saxena SPORTS EDITOR Akshay SawaiSENIOR EDITORS Kishore Seram, Haima Deshpande (Mumbai)MUMBAI BUREAU CHIEF Madhavankutty PillaiASSISTANT EDITORS Jatin Gandhi, Elizabeth KuruvillaSENIOR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS Dhirendra Kumar Jha, Rahul Pandita, Anil Budur Lulla (Bangalore), Shahina KKSPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS Rahul Bhatia (Mumbai), Shubhangi Swarup (Mumbai)PRINCIPAL CORRESPONDENT Pallavi PolankiSENIOR CORRESPONDENT Avantika BhuyanCOPY EDITOR Alok SinghSENIOR SUB EDITOR Sohini ChattopadhyayASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Monica GuptaASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Chetan SinghSENIOR DESIGNER Anup BanerjeePHOTO EDITOR Ruhani Kaur

SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHERS Ishan Tankha, Ritesh Uttamchandani (Mumbai), Manjunath Kiran (Bangalore)STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Ashish Sharma, Raul Irani EDITORIAL RESEARCHER Shailendra TyagiASST EDITOR (WEB) Arindam Mukherjee

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Deepa GopinathASSOCIATE GENERAL MANAGERS

(ADVERTISEMENT) Rajeev Marwaha (North and East), Karl Mistry (West), Krishnanand Nair (South)MANAGER—MARKETING Raghav ChandrasekharMANAGER—SUBSCRIPTION PROMOTIONS

Shailesh KhandelwalHEAD—CIRCULATION Rajeev GandhiREGIONAL HEADS—CIRCULATION D Charles (South), Melvin George (West), Basab Ghosh (East)HEAD—PRODUCTION Maneesh TyagiPRE-PRESS MANAGER Sharad Tailang

CFO Anil BishtHEAD—HR Naveen Prakash SharmaHEAD—IT Hamendra Singh

PUBLISHER R Rajmohan

All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. Printed and published by R Rajmohan on behalf of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd., 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad—121007, (Haryana).

Published at 4, DDA Commercial Complex, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110017. Ph: (011) 30934199; Fax: (011) 30934162

To subscribe, sms ‘openmagazine’ to 56070 or log on to www.openthemagazine.com

Or call our Toll Free Number 1800 300 22 000 or

email at: subscription@openmedianetwork.in

For corporate sales, email rajeev@openmedianetwork.in

For marketing alliances, email alliances@openmedianetwork.in

For advertising, email advt@openmedianetwork.in

Volume 3 Issue 9For the week 31 May – 6 June 2011Total No. of pages 64 + Covers

COVER PHOTO-IMAGING Divya Saxena;John Abraham pic: Subi Samuel

In Egypt, it worked because those leading the agitation and those joining it were groups both on Facebook

4 OPEN 6 JUNE 2011

small worldLooking at It This WayTHOSE DAYS Poet laureate K Satchidanandan remembers the Kanimozhi he knew and admired

I am entering this firenot to prove my truth,but to cleanse myselfof the stains of your touch— Kanimozhi Karunanidhi Agnipravesam (The Fire Test)

Writing about a beloved acquaintance in deep trouble is sheer agony, especially when one is unsure of the truth and untruth of what has caused her suffering. I have known Kanimozhi for about 18 years now, not Kanimozhi the politician, the Rajya Sabha member and now said to be a willing collaborator in a scam that has shaken the whole nation, but the sensitive poet, a feminist interrogating patriarchal values through her powerful poetry, an activist particularly sympathetic to the women’s cause and, above all, a modest, dignified and intelligent woman.

I had heard of Kanimozhi as a promising poet from my Tamil friends and Tamil-knowing Malayalee friends while I was still in Kerala (now I live in Delhi) . However, I met her for the first time, if my memory serves me right, in November 1997 at the International Poetry Biennale at Ivry-sur-Seine in France, which had brought together poets from across the world with a good representation of Indian poets, India, along with China, being one of the countries in focus that year. The festival had been organised by Des Poètes en

Val-de-Marne, a leftist literary organisation headed by Henri Deluy. Besides Kanimozhi, it had other young writers like Kanaka Ha. Ma. (Kannada), Anuradha Mahapatra (Bengali) and Udayan Vajpeyi (Hindi), besides senior poets like Jnanakkoothan and Vijaya Mukhopadhyay. (That was where I also first met Bei Dao, the great Chinese poet, now denied entry to mainland China for having favoured the Tiananmen Square demon-stration. Bei, in later years, got much closer to some of us.) I read poetry with Kanimozhi in many locations in and around Paris, including the women’s ward of Paris Central Jail. Even in her worst nightmares she might never have thought she too would be a prisoner one day like those unfortunate women we met there.

All of us liked Kani. She was modest, never showed off, why, she would not even take her father’s name. We also liked her jovial husband, Aravindan, with whom she was then living in Singapore. I particularly remember the ball on the last day of the poetry festival, when we, both of us dance novices, danced together, maybe prompted by the Dutch courage the French wine had momentarily provided us.

In time, I read more of her poetry, published her in English translation in Indian Literature, the Sahitya Akademi journal that I was

editing at the time. Later, Attoor Ravivarma, the eminent Malayalam poet, translated some of her poems into Malayalam and included it in his anthology of modern Tamil poetry, Puthunanooru (The New Four Hundred), modelled on the Tamil classic Purananooru. I particularly recall, besides the short poem with which this piece opens, a poem called ‘Shelter’, where she says: ‘Weary with toil throughout the day, I await the dreams on the silver screen I can hire. Following my father’s advice, I joined the school, combed my hair, avoided some friends, clothed myself well, cleaned my teeth, prayed, married and am now waiting for my turn.’ (Open Space on page 66 carries another translation of the same poem.) In another poem, she, or the speaker in the poem, recalls his/her house that has changed little since his/her birth, with the red marks of paan left by predecessors and the walls with their plaster come loose.

I also met Kani four or five times later, at poets’ meets in Delhi and elsewhere or during my visits to Chennai, and once she came home to see me when she had come to read at the Akademi and I was at home, down with fever. She invited me to release her book of poems, an invitation I had to politely refuse as I was otherwise engaged; but I did respond to her invitation last year to inaugurate the poets’

meet at the Chennai Sangamam, a folk arts-cum-lit-erary meet that she has been organising on a big scale for the past three years or so.

But I was surprised that she had finally taken the plunge she had so carefully refrained from so far, into the soiled DMK politics with all the family feuds that went with it. That was when I began to hear those unfortunate tales about her, about the Kalaignar TV channel that she part-owned and all the rest. I know the law of the land will take its course and even hope against hope that she is proved innocent: so that I may be able to retain that image of the simple, sensitive, imaginative and intelligent girl that I had met in Paris, Delhi and Chennai. Poets have committed suicide in many ways, but should one go this far, I wonder.

To those many Facebook friends who have disowned her poetry after the scandal broke: please remember the innocent and indignant girl who wrote those verses of anguish and anger; that youthful poet lives on in her words even if the person has fallen prey, may be a willing prey, to the dark and lawless power games that every political party seems to be playing in India today.

K Satchidanandan is a noted poet, translator, playwright and

critic. He is former Secretary of the Sahitya Akademi

OPEN www.openthemagazine.com 5 6 JUNE 2011

6 OPEN 6 JUNE 2011

Bowled MonkB L A N K Open once thought of doing an article on Indians who did not know Sachin Tendulkar. Our project was shortlived. The task was near impossible. The few people who claimed to not have heard of the cricketer were on the margins of the poverty line or living in remote places. We concluded that no one who lived in the modern world would not have heard of Tendulkar.

We were wrong. One globe-trotting, knowledgeable celebrity with an India connection was unaware of Tendulkar. That person is the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan spiritual leader attended the King’s XI Punjab vs Deccan Chargers match in Dharamshala. Asked if he knew of “a certain Sachin Tendulkar”, he replied: “No, I don’t remember.”

W E L F A R E For those who thought that wildlife conservation efforts in India focused solely on the tiger, here is some news. The Government has finally decided to create a National Elephant Conservation Authority (Neca).

At the ‘Elephant 8 Ministerial Meet’, Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for

Environment and Forests, said, “The tiger faces a crisis of extinction. There is

increasing pressure on the elephant habitat, most of which comes from mining activities in Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. We have to find a way to maintain a balance between

the development aspirations of the local population and the sanctity of the elephant’s habitat.”

The event also saw the launch of a nationwide campaign, Haathi

Mere Saathi, that aims at sensitising people about the welfare prospects of our national heritage animal.

Ramesh, in a chatty mood, said, “I recall a very famous Bollywood film

(Haathi Mere Saathi) in which the actor is raised by elephants. He wins the heroine with the help of the elephants, etcetera. We hope that we can entice Rajesh Khanna to join the campaign. He has now grown older and doesn’t venture out that much. However, the heroine of the film, Tanuja, is still very active. Maybe we can get both of them together sometime.” AVANTIKA BHUYAN

rtlived. The task was near ble. The few peoplemed to not havethe cricketerthe margins of rty line orremote places. luded that no one d in the modern ould not

ard of ar.

ere Oneotting, dgeable y with annnectionware lkar.son is i Lama. The Tibetan spiritualtended the King’s XI Punjab

Ch h i

P I S T O L Shooter Rahi Sarnobat qualified for the London Olympics by winning bronze in the 25m air pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in Fort Benning, US. In Mumbai, the 20-year-old gave some insights into her weapon.“It’s a German-made Feinwerkbau AW93,” she said. The gun costs nearly Rs 90,000. Asked how many she carries to an event, Sarnobat

says, “Like most shooters, I carry only one gun to tournaments. Changing guns is a big decision. It takes time to adjust to a new gun. You don’t do it in the middle of a tournament.”

Sarnobat is supported by the Pune-based Lakshya Sports Foundation and practises at the Gun for Glory shooting academy in the same city. She plans to change her gun after the next World Cup a few weeks later. “It will be the same model, but as usual I will get the grip customised by the academy gunsmith (Anatoliy Fedorchenko).” AKSHAY SAWAI

Sarnobat’s German Friend

Jumbos and Jairam

AR

IND

AM

MU

KH

ER

JEE

contents

ANGLE

The bully on the pitch

GUEST COLUMN

How India is sleeping through the IMF successor deliberations

34

HUMOUR

Sex and stand-up comedy

16

18

COVER STORYWhere do we Indians come from?

TESTIMONY

David Coleman Headley at the Chicago trial

30 38CONSERVATION

How to save a sanctuary

8

OPEN www.openthemagazine.com 7 6 JUNE 2011

E X P E N S E The Bombay Parsi Panchayat (BPP) is globally recognised as the administrative body of the community. The organisation deals with all kinds of issues related to the community, from marital discord to land disputes. Since 1911, there has been an election procedure for posts of the trustees. This year’s polls are expected to cost around Rs 1 crore. The dinner itself, for 200 people, is expected to cost Rs 1 lakh. Parsis love their food and will leave no fish uncaught for the meal. As such, the budget is on par with that of some political elections. But money has never been a problem for Parsis. Gathering a quorum might be one, though. UFAQUE PAIKER

N O B E L If you were born on 21 May or 28 February, you might be destined for greatness. These two days have seen the most number of Nobel laureates celebrating their birthdays, seven for each date. Something about being born in the sweltering heat of 21 May obviously makes one want to make the world a better place. For, this is the birthday of four Nobel Peace Prize winners—Louis Renault, Charles Albert Gobat, Leon Victor Auguste Bourgeois and Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov—and three winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine. The last day of February has a mix of winners for Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and for the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in 2008, Paul Krugman.

Parsis and Parsimony? Never

NOBEL FAVOURED BIRTHDAYS

Honour Killings, a Call to the PMA C T I V I S M The murder of two young girls— Zahira and Husna—by their mothers in Uttar Pradesh shocked the nation. They had been killed because they wanted to marry individuals not of their religion. Incensed by the increase in the number of honour killings in UP and by the lackadaisical attitude of the police, the Delhi-based organisa-tion Love Commandos decided to get involved. It sent a letter to the Prime Minister on 15 May, requesting him to do something.

Sanjoy Sachdev, chairman of Love Commandos, says, “In Punjab and Haryana, the high courts have taken welcome steps such as creating shelters for couples whose lives are in danger. But in UP, the Allahabad High Court takes two to three months to hear a case.” What enrages him even more is that implementation agencies and the Judiciary are sometimes biased towards the parents. “The Supreme Court has been sensitive to the situation. It is the lower judiciary and the police that are the problem,” says Sachdev. For now, Love Commando awaits a letter from the PMO. AB

CH

ET

AN

SIN

GH

L O U I S R E N A U LT

C H A R L E S A L B E R T G O B AT A N D R E I D M I T R I E V I C H S A K H A R O V

L E O N V I C T O R A U G U S T E B O U R G E O I S

50CINEMA 62Anees Bazmee: the monstrous hit maker

ARTSA tribute to

Badal Sircar (1925-2011)

p

aARTS

54Abir

Abdullah’s acid

chronicles

KERALA

The terror of wedding raggers

p

The persistence of Amisha Patel

c

g gg

42

a

NOT PEOPLE LIKE US 65