Innholdsfortegnelse for March 13, 2017 i India Today

U S President Donald Trump’s recent address to Congress was his most ‘presidential’ speech in a presidency that has been ‘unpresidented’. He has excluded certain media houses from White House briefings, blamed the military for the death of a soldier, instituted a travel ban on citizens from seven nations and made several claims not supported by facts. His campaign promises have also run up against reality—building the US-Mexico wall requires money that doesn’t seem to exist, repealing Obamacare is not easy and prevailing trade deals are difficult to dispense with. In his pronouncements and actions, President Trump has reversed many things that make America great: its history of openness to immigrants, of tolerance for other races and religions and of freedom of press. Nowhere is this deep-seated toxicity towards ‘non-Americans’…

@ShougatDasgupta Raging Bullies Having heard about the violence her friends were subjected to at Ramjas College on February 21, Gurmehar Kaur put up a Facebook post the next day with the hashtag ‘Students Against ABVP’. It was a self-serious gesture, easily ignored. But the hysteria of right-wing Twitter trolls turned it into a cause celebre. The virtue signallers circled, wringing their hands. Meanwhile, the trolls found a video Gurmehar had made last year in which she said, or rather revealed on cue cards in her preferred Dylan-inflected style, that Pakistan hadn’t killed her father in Kargil, war had. Her critics’ collective brain exploded. Former cricketer Virender Sehwag made a puerile joke. Less forgivably, a BJP MP compared her to gangster-terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, while a government minister implied her mind was…

$6.2 trillion Total wealth in India in 2016 $820 billion Combined wealth of Mumbai. Delhi has $450 billion. With Bengaluru, the three cities hold a combined $1.6 trillion 264,000 Number of US dollar millionaires in India, of which 46,000 live in Mumbai 95 Number of dollar billionaires in India, compared with 536 in the US, 251 in China and 77 in Russia 28 Number of dollar billionaires in Mumbai. Delhi has 18 and Bengaluru 8. Hyderabad with 6 and Pune with 5 are the other two in the top 5…

It’s been a rough time for Himanta Biswa Sarma, whose heavyweight ministerial portfolio in the Assam government includes the departments of finance, education, and health. Recently, an Assamese daily published an allegation that the Assam High School Leaving examination papers had been leaked. Despite the lack of evidence, Sarma rescheduled the exams and then offered to quit the ministry. Students, Sarma said, should not have to bear the brunt of his rivalry with the newspaper’s owner. On the heels of this embarrassment, the annual report of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, 2015-2016, revealed that Assam, on Sarma’s watch, had the highest maternal mortality rate in the country. Ouch. And with no nefarious enemy to blame. ELECTION FALLOUT After the BMC elections, the buzz was that the Shiv Sena…

The arrest of Mohammed Akhru Zaman Khan on February 21 in Patna has revealed how small-time counterfeit currency smugglers have cashed in on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation move. The huge cash-hole left in the wake of the government’s November 8 decision to discontinue the higher denomination currency notes saw fake currency peddlers like Khan flooding the market with counterfeit, lower denomination notes of Rs 100 and Rs 50. Given the shortage of cash, the fakes were soon lapped up with almost no scrutiny. Detained in a joint operation of the Delhi and Bihar police, Khan has told his interrogators that his gang had pushed at least Rs 4 crore in fake Rs 100 and Rs 50 notes (procured from Nepal) in Delhi, Bihar and poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. With the…

I LIKE THINKING BIG. I ALWAYS HAVE. TO ME, IT’S VERY SIMPLE: IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE THINKING ANYWAY, YOU MIGHT AS WELL THINK BIG. MOST PEOPLE THINK SMALL, BECAUSE MOST PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF SUCCESS, AFRAID OF MAKING DECISIONS, AFRAID OF WINNING. —DONALD TRUMP, THE ART OF THE DEAL (1987) T rump thought really big and look where he is now: in the Oval Office at the White House, occupying the most powerful chair in the world and presiding over the future of not just the USA but of the world, including India. To understand what drives Trump and how to negotiate with him, Shalabh ‘Shalli’ Kumar, a Chicago-based Indian-American businessman and founder of the Republican Hindu Coalition, advises all policy-makers to buy a copy of Trump’s book, The…

ELECTION CELL 1. State committee 2. Divisionmandallevel committee 3. District committee 4. Assembly committee/ zonal committee with 25 assembly committees 5. Sector committee 6. Boothlevel committee BAMCEF Started by Kanshi Ram in 1978, All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation is a shadow organisation today since government employees can’t be members of a political party. Bamcef helps BSP mobilise supp orters, organises late-night meets YOUTH ORGANISATION At least 50 per cent youth representation at all levels of the party BHAICHARA COMMITTEES Several bhaichara committees among Muslims, Brahmins, Thakurs, OBCs, among others SOCIAL MEDIA CELL Run by young scholars, which includes PhD, MPhil and MA students as well as young intellectuals from JNU, AMU, University of Hyderabad, Lucknow, Allahabad etc; primarily relying on WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter BAHUJAN VOLUNTARY…

India has few cultural spaces like Jaipur’s Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK) in Jaipur. Designed by Charles Correa, the sprawling sandstone complex only became a hub of cultural activity in January this year, after an extensive makeover that began in 2015, when the Rajasthan government appointed Pooja Sood as its director. A curator and institution-builder par excellence, Sood has revamped the JKK. Currently, it is host to the Jaipur Photo Festival, and in March it will host an exhibition on the life and work of theatre director Ebrahim Alkazi. A multidisciplinary arts festival, Navras, begins March 18, featuring performances by Shubha Mudgal, Zila Khan and Adishakti, among others. Besides these events, the JKK also hosts workshops and programmes through the week…

I n Zhang Yimou’s new film, Great Wall, Matt Damon (pictured) plays a mercenary hoping to become the first person from the West to get his hands on a supply of the valuable gunpowder newly invented by the Chinese. The plot could well have been an allegory for Hollywood’s ongoing scramble for China. At $7 billion, China’s is the second-biggest box office market, more than three times India’s. China’s is also one of the most restricted and heavily censored movie markets. The government only allows 34 foreign films a year. For those that make the cut, vast riches await. Hollywood has, however, found a loophole, financing ‘co-productions’ with State-backed film companies. Great Wall is the biggest to date, produced by Legendary Pictures and the official China Film Group. It is…

Gear VR with Controller Samsung’s latest boasts 42mm lenses with a 101° field of view. The controller has a touchpad and buttons to point, drag and drop, tilt and shoot and features a trigger for gaming HP Pro X2 616G2 This 2-in-1 detachable has a generation 7 Intel processor, and features presentation mode, inking mode for taking notes, tablet mode for data collection and notebook mode BlackBerry KeyOne Features a 4.5- inch display, and runs on Android Nougat (v7.1). Has a fingerprint sensor under the home button, and the keys can be assigned as shortcuts for apps Nokia 3310 HMD Global gives the Nokia 3310 a new lease of life. This feature phone has a 2.4- inch QVGA display, a 2MP camera with LED flash and 2100mAh battery. It has…

Amyt Datta Guitarist, composer, and producer from Kolkata. Was part of the band Shiva from mid-1980s to the early 1990. He’s also played cameos in Anjun Dutt’s films Ranjona Ami Ar Ashbo Na and Madly Bangalee Susmit Sen Co-founded fusion rock band Indian Ocean in 1990. Worked on the soundtracks for Black Friday and Peepli [Live] Sanjoy Das ‘Bapi-da’ in his hometown Kolkata, he’s Ram Samapth and Sonal Mohapatra’s go-to guitarist. Has worked in Bengali films like Rituparno Ghosh’s Raincoat Amit Heri Jazz fusion guitarist Amit Heri has composed for films including Morning Raga and Mango Souffle, as well as worked with many internationally acclaimed musicians…

US-based singer Vidya Iyer, popularly known by the name of her YouTube channel, Vidya Vox, will travel to India in March, performing in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai. This is the first time that she will be performing live in India. Born in Chennai, Iyer grew up in the US state of Virginia, where she and her sister Vandana continued lessons in Carnatic music they had begun here. But it wasn’t until she met and collaborated with composer, clarinetist and producer Shankar Tucker that Vidya considered taking up music seriously. With her fashionably Indo-Western outfits and casual dance moves, the sassy musician with a silken voice has garnered over a mill ion subscribers on the channel she set up in 2015. She has developed a knack for combining popular western and…

STRIVING TO BE HEARD PARNO MITTRA 31, ACTRESS Actress and social media star, Parno Mittra undermined her star power until quite recently. The actress who made her reel debut with Anjan Dutt’s Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona took a strong stand against body-shamers and cyber bullies when she started receiving unsavoury comments on her Instagram page. “I hardly read the comments but something made me do so this time. I thought I had to do something and to ignore it is to incite these misogynists,” she said. She put up another picture in the same clothes saying “amazed to see the comments on my last picture. Does social media give the right to a man/a woman to blurt anything they feel like?? Hell yeah I am a woman and I have…

What made you take up civil services? I never really set out to take it up as a career. I was teaching English Honours when I realised I wanted to focus on something with a wider scope. My brother suggested me to take the civil services exams. I did, and luckily I cleared it in the first shot. I found the work rewarding and interesting. From land revenue and water supplies to crime and law, the portfolio of work can be quiet diverse. One common complaint is that officers flit from one job to another without becoming specialists. But I do not think that is true. One learns so much at the field level and you get to judge the efficacy of a policy later because of those experiences. What…

When does a fetish become a footprint for the future? When you decide to walk the talk. Quite literally, in the case of our three shoe entrepreneurs, for whom, putting their best foot forward underscored passion as much as fashion. For all those who imagine an obsession with footwear to be the sole domain of the vain, the vacuous and Imelda Marcos need to book an appointment with the cult of bespoke; hand-made, handstitched shoes that are an ode to serious foot lovin. Heavy on the wallet and high on whimsy, here, every shoe fantasy can come true, from leather that weathers to styles that stray from the straight and narrow. While hue is the clue for Saurabh Goyal’s Amorio, for Sunil Mehra, bespoke is a holistic experience, while Aamir…

If innovation, individuality and artistry are the hallmarks of a fine watch, luxury watch brand Breguet is a top scorer on all three counts. The Classique “Grande Complication” wristwatch in 18-carat rose gold is no exception to the brand rule of aiming to please. It’s a splendid watch with minute attention to detail. With twin rotating tourbillons affixed by a bridge to a centre plate completing a rotation in 12 hours, balance springs with Breguet overcoil and a manually engraved hand-wound movement, it is worthy of every sigh it invokes. It boasts a sapphire caseback and is water-resistant up to 30 metres. There is another model variation available in platinum for those who prefer the quiet style statement of the snowflake metal.…

If Akhilesh Yadav emerged from the conflict with his father and uncle as a newly decisive political figure, seen by supporters and opponents alike as formidable, his wife, Dimple, appears also to have come into her own. Like her husband, 39-year-old Dimple has until recently been seen as something of a political lightweight, a nice girl who was unprepared for the cut and thrust of Indian politics. In a draining assembly campaign, she has been unflagging, the Samajwadi Party’s most reliable performer, her husband apart. Once mocked for fumbling through speeches in Parliament, Dimple’s delivery has been a revelation, confident, funny, and unafraid to take opponents, including the prime minister, to task. As the campaign swings into its final phases, she has been particularly prominent. In a rally in Badlapur…

As to the CBFC’s blocking of Lipstick Under My Burkha, there seems to be an ignored elephant in the room. Possibly this elephant is wearing an invisibility cloak, if not a burkha. Half our population is under the age of 25, 65 per cent are under 35. These Indians are mostly poor, uneducated, without reasonable jobs, prospects or healthcare. What do these youngsters have on the other side of the tarazu, the scale of life? Well, dreams and ambitions. A lust for life, unevenly spread across the demographic but vibrant nonetheless. Then straightforward lust, often leavened with ideas of love, but not always. This genie is now out of the bottle: a mass of sexually activated youth are questioning, as never before, the boundaries of caste, marriage and gender taboos.…

We live in an age of jingoistic ultranationalism, and a book on Pakistan by a former top Indian intelligence officer raises expectations of a high measure of rancour and stridency. Instead, Devasher approaches his subject with extraordinary calm, but is unblinking in his gaze on Pakistan’s endless courting of the abyss. Devasher touches upon India, Kashmir and Pakistan’s ‘war of a thousand cuts’, but these elements do not overwhelm. With an absorbing abundance of anecdotage, detail and an urgent realism, the book goes beyond the transient, to look at the ‘multiplier effect of successive crises’ pushing Pakistan towards ‘multiple-organ failure’. The deepening engagement with Islamism and terrorism are widely known, but Devasher also details the relentless evolution of ‘WEEP’ factors—water, education, economy and population— that embody Pakistan’s most enduring dangers.…

It was déjà vu time. Amit Baruah, a former student of Ramjas College, dropped in for lunch. On his mind was his daughter Anushka, now a student at Ramjas. She was trapped in the seminar room under attack. Through the afternoon, as we reminisced about the 1980s, when Amit had been a student, she kept texting her father updates as the afternoon turned more violent. Even though she was under siege in a room with shattered glass panes, she kept reassuring her father that she was fine. I’m sure she will be. This baptism by fire will leave her stronger, more enlightened, as it did her father and his contemporaries years ago. When I joined Ramjas in 1973, it was by far the roughest college on campus. Overrun by rival…

In November 2016, when Union mini ster Dharmendra Pradhan reached Naxal-infested Malkangiri district, where a hundred children had died of Japanese encephal itis, he got a warm welcome. Just over three months later, the BJP won 297 of 854 seats in the zila parishad elections. Significantly, nearly half the party’s wins came in Odisha’s most backward districts. It won 34 of the 36 seats in Kalahandi, 24 of 34 in Bolangir, 10 out of 15 Malkangiri seats and 49 of 56 in Mayurbhanj. Pradhan crafted the BJP’s zila parishad campaign around PM Narendra Modi and central schemes like free cooking gas connections, crop insurance and loans to the poor. The party also used the local Oriya news media well, working hard to contrast this with the “poor delivery” of state…

VISAS Trump: ‘America First’ approach—wants reduced H1B visa quotas and to make it expensive for offshore companies; also wants tougher immigration rules How to handle: India should not make it an issue, and instead push for more skilled entrants TRADE Trump: ‘Buy American, Hire American’ line, which urges Americans to buy and hire locally, runs counter to Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Make in India’ to attract manufacturing and investment How to handle: Trump’s proclivity for bilateral agreements could be leveraged for a new bilateral Indo-US trade treaty to lower export tariffs CHINA Trump: Taking a hard line on China, from reducing the trade deficit to ensuring Beijing does not exercise sovereignty over South China Sea How to handle: Tread cautiously. Supporting the US against China could backfire because of Trump’s recent…

SATISH CHANDRA MISHRA General secretary, Rajya Sabha member, ex-cabinet minister, lawyer; handles party-related litigation; most prominent Brahmin face of the party NASIMUDDIN SIDDIQUI General secretary, MLC, party’s most prominent Muslim face; key coordinator for Lucknow Mandal, Paschim UP RAMACHAL RAJBHAR BSP UP state president; former MLA from Akbarpur; prominent OBC face of the party MUNQUAD ALI Rajya Sabha member, a key Muslim face of the party; got Muslim clerics, both Shia and Sunni, to support BSP GAYA CHARAN DINKAR Leader of Opposition, and party’s Dalit face in Bundelkhand, is a Jatav; has been asked to connect with Dalits in Bundelkhand and eastern UP ASHOK SIDDHARTH RS member, key Jatav leader, youth face of the party, coordinator for south India and key mandals such as Lucknow and Farrukhabad LALJI VERMA Important…

The key is to stay calm,” says 20-year-old Shubhankar Sharma, enunciating each word slowly, as if to internalise his own gospel. “This is a difficult golf course, the conditions can vary dramatically, and literally anything can happen. You’ve got to be level-headed when you lose shots, or have a bad day,” he says. He pauses for a moment, thinking. “And even more so when you have a good day,” he then adds solemnly. Sharma is being considered a top contender at the Hero Indian Open 2017, which tees off March 9. This is not because he’s won on tour, but because his performances have been steadily gravitating toward that outcome. In 2016, he consolidated his position on the Asian Tour by notching up a couple of top five finishes and…

The Japanese fan convention of ‘cosplay’, or costume playing, made inroads into India in 2011 at the first Indian Comic Con in Delhi. Eleven people turned up for the event dressed as comic, animation or gaming characters. “Five years later, that number has grown to a few thousand,” says Jatin Verma, founder of Comic Con India. Passionate fans in India are finding new wings (or capes or crafty headgear or swords) for their cosplayer avatars. The winner of a recently held cosplay championship at Delhi, Sameer Bundela, was dressed as Skywrath from Dota 2, while 20-year-old Akhil Macharla of Hyderabad won the fan favourite award for his Daedric armour from Skyrim. The VFX artist decided to construct a costume using fiberglass and resins, and it took him about five months…

Q: What do you like most (and hate most) about acting? A: I like that I get to earn the love of so many people while pursuing my passion. The worst is that family time takes a hit; it’s a very time-consuming profession. Q: Your latest ‘epic fail’? A: Turning up a day early for a party. I was terribly jetlagged when it happened. It was very embarrassing, but thankfully no one was around to see it. Q: The last picture you took with your mobile? A: My sister made a surprise visit to Mumbai. She got cake and decorated home the way we used to for birthday parties in our childhood. This was for Kaabil’s success. I wanted to capture the moment. Q: If you could do a film…

Shiny Happy people All that glitters may not be golden but you sure can have a splendid time at Gold, JW Marriot’s newly opened 7,000 sq feet night club. The club is themed around the concept of a gold mine and has dull gold interiors. It also features mining caps, lamps and funky mine-inspired artefacts. Gold has a detailed finger food and drinks menu. Tuck into Ajwaini fish tikka or Lucknowi Gosht ki Seekh and try their signature cocktail that has sparkling wine and passion fruit juice for that liquid gold feel At JBS Haldane Avenue Tel 66330000 Dress Up Designer Surbhi Pansari brings a young and vibrant collection of menswear with Geo-MEN-Trix. The collection features smart silhouettes that make use of hand embroidery on a disparate colour palette that…

Just as a tree can be identified by its fruit, a civilisation can be recognised by the traces it leaves behind. India offers an incredible patrimony, especially when it comes to luxury. The armament of luxury bares its ethnic roots as proudly as it wears a globalised aesthetic. Toasting India shining abroad, Spice chronicles the myriad faces of Indian fashion that have catapulted India Inc on global catwalks whether it is Indian designers flaunting a contemporary twist to traditional whimsy or dusky Indian models, who are finally seizing the moment on international runways and global magazine covers. As ethnic becomes an intellectual sensibility as well as a fashion statement, Spice catches up with Mac Duggal, America’s top prom and pageant designer. At the recently concluded New York Fashion week, Mac…

Nature as muse has almost been a moral imperative for jewellery designers and the Celestial collection from Nirav Modi is no exception to the rule. The only difference is that they chose to look skyward for inspiration this time around. An ode to the shimmering night sky, the collection represents planets and other celestial bodies that revolve around central elements in grand orbits. A spin on typical diamond jewellery, they feature solitaires surrounded by a ring of diamonds, simulating the halo seen around the sun or moon. The innovative craftsmanship ensures that the solitaire diamond is placed within the halo without its metal seat being made visible so that it appears that the solitaire is suspended from the sides making it float. This allows for the passage of light, making…

FASHION I PHOTO ESSAY “It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple; one must be woman-manly or manwomanly... Some marriage of opposites has to be consummated.” Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own In a brave new world that thrives on inner and outer split, fashion is no longer a preoccupation of the vain, the vacuous and the wealthy. It is a statement, an expression; a commentary and reflection of our times. And like art, it delves in abstraction and layered questions of identity and existentialism. Here genders collide and diffuse, while identity becomes a personal quest rather than a societal imposition. Fashion is freedom. It is this collusion of glamour and choice that we celebrate via six trends that will define the fashion landscape of…

NARENDRA MODI “If you ask a Dalit, he says Akhilesh gives what is my right to OBCs,” said Modi, on discrimination. “OBCs say he gives only to Yadavs, Yadavs say he gives only to his family and Muslims.” A Kanpur lawyer has raised this with the EC. Modi argues he’s speaking in general terms, but those who hear dog whistles will draw their conclusions AMIT SHAH “What I mean by KASAB is ‘Ka’ for Congress, ‘Sa’ for Samajwadi Party and ‘B’ for BSP.” Just in case, the PM was being too subtle, the BJP president left no doubt about the direction in which he wanted to take the UP campaign SAKSHI MAHARAJ “The population rise is not because of Hindus. [It’s] due to those who support the concept of four…

INNER CIRCLE Senior Advisor Jared Kushner Trump’s son-in-law and among his closest advisors, especially on foreign policy and West Asia Senior Advisor Kellyanne Conway Republican party campaign manager, who ran Trump’s campaign Chief Strategist, Senior Counselor Steve Bannon Former navy officer and head of right-wing website Breitbart Chief of Staff Reince Priebus Lawyer-politician, previously chairman of the Republican National Committee Senior Advisor Stephen Miller Communications director for Republicans before joining Trump; key mover in travel ban OUTER CIRCLE Vice President Mike Pence Lawyer and politician. Earlier served as governor of Indiana between 2013 and 2017; deeply conservative Secretary of Defense James Mattis Retired Marine Corps general. Headed Central Command or Centcom from 2010-13 National Security Advisor (designate) Lt Gen. H.R. McMaster Serving officer Trump that chose to replace Michael Flynn…

Q. These are interesting times to talk about collective choices and you refer in your new introduction to the book to the ‘plurality winners’ of the 2014 general elections in India and the 2016 presidential elections in the US as cautionary anecdotes. Should we take this as a critique of electoral democracies? A. There are two quite distinct issues which should be separated. The electoral systems used in America, Britain or India are not really aimed at majority rule, though they are often misdescribed as majoritarian. The first issue is electoral reform, and the second, which arises if appropriate reforms cannot be carried out, is not to give the minority winners (such as Donald Trump in the US or Narendra Modi in India) the status of victors with majority support.…

It’s not surprising that Hari Kunzru—the son of a Kashmiri Pandit father and an English mother—finds his richest material where racial streams intermingle. But while the transformation in his debut novel, The Impressionist (2002), is relatively superficial—a brown man impersonating white behaviour in order to ‘pass’—in his latest, White Tears, the process is far more visceral. Seth, the narrator, spends his days wandering New York, listening to and recording the accidental music of the city. On one of these walks, his equipment picks up a stray line of an old blues song, “Believe I buy a graveyard of my own.” When he plays it for his friend Carter Wallace, who is obsessed with pre-war blues recordings, the two are hooked. But the closer they come to the truth, the more…

THALASSA This Greek taverna run by Mariketty Grana has had a rather mercurial trajectory. After starting off as a Goa-based souvlaki delivery service, it became a small moussaka-selling stall at the Anjuna flea market, then a permanent cliffside restaurant in Vagator YAKINIKU Introduced for the first time ever in Chennai in December 2015 for 10 days as a pop-up, Yakiniku has now found a permanent home at the Hyatt Regency Chennai as a dinner-only yakitori restaurant. At the helm of things is chef Shohei Nakajima DESI DELI Lolita Sarkar knew she had a winner on her hands when she began selling desi hot dogs at her pop-up stand at some of Mumbai’s most happening weekend flea markets. Soon, her mutton boti kebab-studded jungli dog and chicken 65 burger found a…

BEYOND BOUNDARIES March 14 to 19 Twelve artists from eight different countries will express their art through different mediums at the exhibit, We Don’t Want To Draw The Line. The exhibit requests observers to have an open outlook towards art forms and not judge the artist on the basis of academic merit and awards won, or discriminating against the nationality or religion of the artists. It believes that art must be enjoyed for art’s sake. At Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Southern Ave, Lake Terrace Tel 24666802…

Panchakanya literally means five maidens—Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara and Mandodari. In Hindu mythology, it is believed that reciting their names will wash away all sins. Theatre group Oihik takes the five protagonist angle forward and for each character, it prescribes an element of nature and through it, a representative moral value. The values and their individual stories are given a context with the story of a present day girl. Born to a poor debt ridden farmer the girl is sold off to the village moneylender. She faces tremendous torture in the hands of the money lender and his brother and finally passes. No one comes forward to cremate her except four brave women who are moved by her plight. The play then employs the narrative device of a play-within-aplay structure…

2016 was a landmark year for Singapore- born, NIFT, Delhi-trained Nepali designer Prabal Gurung. It was the first time he voted in a US election since he became a citizen three years earlier. In case you are wondering, Gurung was part of #ImWithHer brigade. “She knows who I am,” said Gurung, 37, like an excited teenager recounting a meeting with Hillary Clinton at a Twitter chat conducted by Mumbaibased concept store Le Mill in October. “I always believed that more women in positions of power and decision-making makes (for) a better world,” said Gurung who identifies himself as “a vocal feminist.” It didn’t pan out the way Gurung and millions of other voters would have wanted, but Clinton remains the woman that Gurung looks forward to dressing someday. That shouldn’t…