Innholdsfortegnelse for December 18, 2017 i India Today

In 2005, we asked of Rahul Gandhi, newly-elected MP from Amethi, and clearly his mother Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s successor, ‘Is he ready’? It was a curious echo of the question we had posed to his late father Rajiv Gandhi, another reluctant politician, in 1981, ‘Will the cap fit’? Both men have been well documen ted by india today, with 13 covers on Rahul and 30 on Rajiv. And rightly so. Whether in power or in opposition, the 132-year-old Indian National Congress is a significant political party, still in control in eight of the country’s 29 states, despite Amit Shah’s vision of a Congress-mukt Bharat. It may not be the default party of power, as Rahul Gandhi once described it, but it is the party that propelled the freedom movement,…

According to the latest figures collected by the Unique Identification Authority of India, several states now have reached saturation point in the distribution of Aadhaar cards with entire populations and more now registered. The explanation for how over 100 per cent of people in a given state can have Aadhaar cards is that the population figures come from 2015, so any excess is a result of population growth. More sinisterly though, analysts contend that some figures are so anomalous, as in Delhi, that there might be a large number of fake Aadhaar cards in circulation. The Aadhaar card, apparently voluntary but mandatory, is being pushed by the government as ubiquitous. But are all the gremlins ironed out and will the government take questions on those issues? 1,190,663,350 INDIANS, OR 99%…

@ShougatDasgupta Deshdrohis Unite For all the confidence that the BJP projects, and arguably should project, about retaining power in Gujarat, party leaders are becoming increasingly jittery as the elections draw near. Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, unable to talk in detail about his own political achievements, has been relying instead on wrestling Bogeymen. Writer Arundhati Roy flustered Rupani by donating Rs 3 lakh to young Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani who is crowdfunding his independent campaign. At a rally on December 1, Rupani accused Mevani of being a “JNU product”. While on social media, BJP bots threw around favoured pejoratives such as “commies” and “anti-nationals” and muttered darkly about the “liberal ecosystem.” Of course, neither Mevani nor Roy have ever been to JNU, unlike many senior members of the Gujarat bureaucracy.…

What better way to think things through than do so at a hill station? This is precisely what Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis did, when he and his bureaucrats retired to Khandala bet ween December 1 and 2. The two-day sojourn came at a time when the administration stands accused of failing the CM on a number of issues such as farm loan waivers and revenue losses. The trip was meant to brainstorm on the planning and implementation of schemes. The cool climes would surely have helped.…

On November 29, the historic Teja Singh Samundari Hall, at the far end of Amritsar’s Golden Temple complex, saw more than the usual intrigue that accompanies annual elections to the executive of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC)—the apex committee that controls most Sikh shrines and institutions. In a move that surprised eve ryone, the 170-member SGPC general house effected a purge, dropp ing all but two of the 15-person executive panel, including incum bent president Kirpal Singh Badungar, a long-time loyalist of the Badal clan. Gobind Singh Longowal, foster son of the early 1980s Shiromani Akali Dal president Harchand Singh Longowal, was anointed the new president. But the 60-year-old Longo wal’s appointment to head Sikhism’s most powerful body could turn out to be problematic. Although he entered politics as…

On November 24, the West Bengal finance department issued a notification announcing Rs 2 lakh in post-retirement benefits to all contract workers in the unorganised sector. Former Left Front labour minister and CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Unions) state president Anadi Sahoo promptly cited his government’s Rs 1.5 lakh package and sundry benefits for superannuated workers. He claimed the Mamata Banerjee government had merely repackaged the old scheme as its own. With panchayat polls slated for early 2018, the Trinamool Congress government is racing to ensure that a significant majority of the state’s 100 million residents benefit from its schemes. This includes some 40,000 contractual workers in various government departments and nearly 15 million in the unorganised sector. But there’s a problem. Left-affiliated unions have a membership of 1.7 million…

AGE 47 YEARS MPhil (Development Studies) from Trinity College, Cambridge, BA from Rollins College, Florida, US RISE IN ASSETS... IMMOVABLE ASSET: Indira Gandhi farmhouse in Sultanpur village, Mehrauli, New Delhi, with sister Priyanka Robert Vadra …BUT DECLINE IN ELECTORAL POPULARITY % of votes in Amethi and victory margin OTHER SKILLS Black belt in Japanese martial art Aikido FAVOURITE FOOD Momos CURRENTLY READING Books on Swami Vivekananda…

“My mother came to my room and cried... because she understands that power is poison.” January 20, 2013, Jaipur “It (Congress) is a funny party. It is the largest political organisation in the world but does not have a single rule or regulation. We create new rules every two minutes and then dump them. Nobody knows the rules in the party.” Jan 20, 2013 “Poverty is just a state of mind. It does not mean scarcity of food, money or material things. If one possesses self-confidence, then we can overcome poverty.” August 7, 2013, Delhi “People call us an elephant. We are not an elephant. We are a beehive. It’s funny but think about it. Which is more powerful? An elephant or a beehive?” April 4, 2013, Delhi “The Opposition…

In India, comics have always been treated as infotainment for kids On November 30, DC Comics dropped the trailer for Batman Ninja, much to the delight of comic geeks. Directed by Junpei Mizusaki, it’s the first full-length anime feature for the Dark Knight. There’s no mistaking the classic characters, yet they’ve been reinvented in Japan’s signature style. Try imagining a desi Batman, however, and it strikes you: Despite a long history of visual storytelling, India has yet to develop a distinctive, contemporary aesthetic in comics. The first golden age of Indian comics was in the 1970s and 1980s, when homegrown heroes like Bahadur, Nagraj and Chacha Chaudhary held their own against the likes of Mandrake, Phantom and Tarzan. What we’re seeing could be the second burst of creativity, but though…

Cosplay Contest Dec. 15, 5.30 pm With the right costume, anybody can be a superhero. And win up to Rs 50,000 India’s Youngest Superhero Dec. 16, 1.30 pm Tinkle comics editor-in-chief Rajani Thindiath and writer Sean D’mello discuss the creation of Wingstar— India’s youngest crime-fighter, from Amar Chitra Katha Age of Immortals Dec. 16, 3.30 pm Holy Cow Entertainment unveils new issues from the Age of Immortals series based on Hindu mythology Dinosaur Talk Dec. 17, 3 pm Ryan North on art, life and his inspirations for Dinosaur Comics and the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Archie’s Artist Dec. 17, 4.30 pm Dan Parent, artist for the Archie Comics series for many years, unveils a special Archie in India issue—free to Comic-Con guests…

Perhaps trying to be intellectually impressive, Taneja fails to connect with the audience Touted as a contemporary Indian retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear, Preti Taneja’s ambitious novel, We That Are Young, fails to deliver on that promise. Despite some lovely language and original expressions, the novel lacks the intensity and passion of the original. The primary characters aren’t even introduced until quite late. The novel opens when Jivan, half-brother of Jeet and the son of Ranjit, returns home after a decade in the US. Nearly the first hundred pages comprise his long and winding reflections about his dead mother, his altered relationship with his father and half-brother, and his life thereafter. That gives the impression that the book is about Jivan or Ranjit or both. But it’s not: None of…

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Go Away, Closer This is the best time to head to the hills, considering less tourists rush, excellent discounts offered by hotels and ample space to walk and contemplate as you beat the rush. Tosh World cuisine and a thick green cover sprinkled with fresh snow—this is the place to go with all those books on your reading list. Not just for the asocial, this serene spot in Himachal Pradesh offers enough for those who don’t like to be holed up in a hotel room on a vacation. From rave parties, undiscovered picnic spots to trekking trails, Tosh stands tall and untouched, far from being the clichéd ‘hill-station’. What to do? Make the most of your camera and go for a walk in the forest areas. Love those loose clothes…

FILMMAKER BORNILA CHTERJEE OFFERS NO LIGHT ON HER FILM, BUT IS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE FUTURE OF INDEPENDENT CI NEMA IN INDIA Under the cloud-eclipsed grey sky, she sits quietly. Black envelops her. With sunglasses covering her eyes, it’s difficult to decipher where she is looking. Perhaps towards the two small cottages engulfed by woods on her right. She says she has not been sleeping well. That her eyes are swollen. Bornila Chatterjee, 31, is elegant, the kind of a young woman who speaks in whispers, moves her hands delicately but firmly. Sometimes you have to strain your ears. Her lips quiver, and it has nothing to do with the nip in this tiny hill-town. Or maybe that is what you would like to believe. But her film The Hungry based…

Congress leader and seemingly chief sycophant MANI SHANKAR AIYAR appended these lines to an ill-conceived commentary about the difference between the ‘democratic’ Congress party and the patrilineal Mughals. Never one to spurn an open goal, prime minister Narendra Modi twisted Aiyar’s remarks to “congratulate the Congress on their ‘Aurangzebi raj’.” That said, what was Aiyar thinking? Can a process in which Rahul Gandhi is made Congress president without a hint of a challenge be considered healthy?…

Five editions of The Wealth of Nations (the original one) were published within 13 years, at a time when readership must have been a fraction of what it is today. Bhalla changes his mind as fast as Adam Smith; but it is unlikely that this book will go into a second edition, for he writes a new book when he gets a new idea. Those who appreciate the elegant old classic may not be enchanted by the breathless prose of the new work. But they need not reflect so long over it, for it races on its hobby horses, leaping from saddle to saddle. That is fun; Bhalla’s brilliant ideas are exciting, intriguing, and sometimes thought-provoking. And thankfully, they do not form an unbroken chain of logical arguments; so it…

With all the spending to keep growth ticking over through the GST disruption, 96% of the full-year fiscal deficit target has been reached in 6 months The macro-economic data for July-September 2017 (Q2) indicates that the Indian economy may be pulling out of a trough after five successive quarters of lower GDP growth. GDP grew at 6.3 per cent in Q2, having fallen to 5.7 per cent in Q1. The pullback is attributed to the manufacturing sector climbing 7 per cent year-on-year versus Jul-Sep 2016. This is a considerable improvement over the 1.2 per cent growth in Q1. The other big gainer was mining, which rose by 5.5 per cent after declining in Q1. Agriculture remained in the doldrums, though, with growth at 1.7 per cent, which was even lower…

It’s raising quite a stink. A probe ordered by Patna district magistrate Sanjay Agarwal has unearthed a scam involving officials of the state public health engineering department (PHED) who allegedly misappropriated Rs 15 crore meant for construction of toilets in poor homes under the Centre’s Swachh Bharat Mission. Carried out between May 1 and June 16, 2016, the reported swindle may have gone undetected but for an internal audit this September, which found procedural irregularities in the withdrawal of funds—Rs 15 crore had been transferred in a month in violation of norms. Alerted, Agarwal ordered a physical verification of the toilets and individual beneficiaries. State government officers, NGOs and bankers were allegedly in cahoots. The main accused, executive engineer Vinay Kumar Sinha, and PHED accountant Biteshwar Prasad roped in four…

October 9, 2017 Modi ji, Jai Shah-‘Zada’ kha gaya Aap chowkidar the ya bhagidar? Kuchh to boliye Modi ji, Jai Shah had a bit too much. Were you guardian or participant? Say something October 16, 2017 Mausam ka haal: chunav se pehle Gujarat mein aaj hogi jumlon ki baarish Weather report: Before the polls, it will rain false promises December 6, 2017 For all my BJP friends: unlike Narendrabhai, I am human. We do make the odd mistake and that’s what makes life interesting. Thanks for pointing it out and please do keep it coming, it really helps me improve. Love you all. October 11, 2017 2028 mein Modi ji Gujarat ke har vyakti ko chaand par ek ghar denge aur 2030 me Modi ji chand ko dharti par le…

The first reference to the Babri Masjid occupying the site of the Ram Janmabhoomi was by a Faizabad court official, Hafizullah, almost two centuries ago in 1822—the “mosque founded by Emperor Babur is situated at the birthplace of Ram”. In the 1850s, the Nirmohi Akhara, a religious denomination of sadhus belonging to the Vaishnava sampradaya, made its first legal claim on the disputed land. In 1885, Mahant Raghubar Das of the Nirmohi Akhara filed Suit No. 61/280 in the Faizabad court against the Secretary of State for India, seeking permission to build a Ram temple on the Ram Chabutra (raised platform), adjacent to the Babri Masjid. The court refused, fearing public disorder. The dispute took a dramatic turn in 1949 when on the night of December 22, an idol of…

A daily hearing is on in the Special CBI sessions court in Lucknow for the criminal cases relating to conspiracy (under section 120B of the Indian Penal Code) and other charges in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case. In the past, there were two separate criminal cases. Case no. 198/92 against Lal Krishna Advani and eight others, including BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti. (Two of the accused—VHP leaders Ashok Singhal and Acharya Giriraj Kishore—are dead.) The case was previously being pursued in Rae Bareli. The other criminal case (no. 197/92) was against Pawan Pandey, the UP chief of the Shiv Sena, and 23 others. There have been no convictions yet in either of the cases. According to All India Muslim Personal Law Board counsel M.M. Haq, who…

1990 PM Chandra Shekhar, UP CM Mulayam Singh and BJP leader B.S. Shekhawat make an abortive attempt at a negotiated settlement 1992 PM Narasimha Rao makes another stab at talks with VHP and HMS via Congress leader S.K. Sahai FEBRUARY 2015 Mohd. Hashim Ansari, oldest litigant on the Muslim side, meets Nirmohi Akhara chief for an out-of-court resolution plan to place before the SC APRIL 2015 HMS president Swami Chakrapani’s dialogue with Mohd. Hashim Ansari collapses at the very first meeting MAY 2016 Mahant Narendra Giri, newly elected president of All India Akhara Parishad, meets Hashim Ansari, but Ansari passes away before talks make any headway MARCH 2017 SC bench, headed by then CJI J.S. Khehar, advocates a negotiated settlement of the dispute; even offers to mediate NOVEMBER 2017 Sri…

RAJKOT WEST, Saurashtra In just his second assembly elections, Chief Min i ster Rupani has been challenged by Cong ress candidate and businessman Indranil Rajyaguru, the richest candidate in the Gujarat polls, who had earlier won from Rajkot East. The Congress is banking on the support of the Patidars, who dominate the constituency. Incidentally, PM Modi won his first elections in 2002 from here MEHSANA, North Gujarat If the sea of humanity that turned up when Jivabhai Patel, a former Congress MP from Mehsana, went to file his nominations is any indication, it will be a tough challenge for the deputy CM. It will be interesting to see how Nitin Patel counters the anti-BJP feeling among Patidars in this Patel citadel RADHANPUR, North Gujarat Alpesh, an OBC leader, joined the…

Graphic novelist Orijit Sen turned his hand to history for an upcoming exhibition called Mapping of Mapusa Market, which will form part of the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa, December 15-22. Working with students from the visual art programme at Goa University, where he is a visiting professor, Sen sought to capture the essence of the bustling Mapusa Market as a construction project threatened to displace many of the vendors. “I’ve been fascinated by the complexity of this market, which is like a microcosm of Goa,” Sen said. “But it also has to respond to economic changes.” The installation includes comics, videos and photo projects, created over three years. The main piece—in comic book style—is a map of the market with 12 large artworks displayed horizontally. “You can walk between…

Rohan Chakravarty calls his series of comic strips ‘Green Humour’, but his subject is often no laughing matter and the joke is often on us, the inhabitants of a planet we seem determined to destroy. This May, the 30 year old received the World Wildlife Fund’s International President’s Award for his vivid illustrations—which are equal parts educational and entertaining. But for him, the richest reward is seeing his cartoons influence the lives and attitudes of readers around the world. A reader in Peru, for example, scrapped plans to buy a pygmy marmoset after he learned from a Chakravarty comic that the pet trade had them on the verge of extinction in the Amazon. “That’s exactly the kind of impact I had planned,” says the artist. Published in newspapers such as…

JIM & ANDY: THE GREAT BEYOND Jim Carrey’s portrayal of the bizarre-but-beloved comedian Andy Kaufman may be his best performance. This documentary looks at the making of Man on the Moon. Netflix SEA OAK Glenn Close returns from the dead in this surreal black comedy adapted by Man Booker Prize-winning author George Saunders from his own short story. Amazon Prime THE SINNER Jessica Biel stars in this creepy and compelling eight-episode neo-noir. She brutally stabs a man to death in a fugue state in episode one. The mystery is why. Netflix…

When welcoming winter one looks forward to embracing warm palettes so that your home looks and exudes warmth through decor. WINNING COMBINATIONS Think hot chocolate and maple syrup; it is a delicious mix that tantalises your taste buds and serves as the perfect colour combination. You can use an eye-catching chocolate suede and team it with glamorous gold silk. Or combine rich cognac wood tones and mustard gold velvet. THE COLOUR CODE This is also a good time to add a sumptuous red to the palette. A burnt red on the main couch is a stunner with hot chocolate and maple added to balance the hues. Besides red, greens have also been huge hit this year. Pantone says Shaded Spruce and lime are the colours to look at, but I…

The year was 2002, a final year student, Smitha Murthy, from Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore visited Assam for her graduation project on Bodo weavers. She was introduced to ANT (The Action North East Trust) that provides a platform to the women and artisans of the North-East to generate sustainable livelihoods and also tells inspirational and peace-filled stories of this region’s many communities. It left a lasting impression. After her graduation, Murthy started working in Bangalore but quit one-and-half years later to join ANT. In 2007, the ANTS Store and Café was launched in Bangalore and Murthy became its managing and creative director. “I always tell our artisans that skills and processes that were once new are tradition today and what’s new today will be tradition tomorrow.…

Last month, when the water of the Siang river in Arunachal Pradesh suddenly turned black, many in India cried foul, saying it was upstream construction work in China that had muddied the water. A conspiracy theory started doing the rounds: China, it was heard, was planning to divert the water of the Brahmaputra—known as Siang in Arunachal Pradesh and Yarlung Tsangpo in China. China denied the allegations, saying that it would never damage its own river. Kaushik Deka caught up with PEMA KHANDU, chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, to get the official position of the government on the controversy. Q. Is this the first time the Siang has turned black? Pema Khandu When this matter came up, I directed the Deputy Commissioners of East Siang and Upper Siang districts to…

On November 28, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued its outcome report from its consultation paper on network neutrality, “the result of a long, multi-stage process” over the past three years. TRAI’s report completed another pillar on the regulatory structure it began building in February 2016, when it issued its Differential Data Pricing Regulations which banned ‘zero-rating’ arrangements between telecom service providers and internet firms (such as Facebook’s Free Basics programme, partnered with Reliance Communications in India). TRAI’s most recent recommendations focus on direct forms of technical discrimination that telecom service providers could use to preferentially treat web content to favour their own monetary benefits over those of users. TRAI has recommended that service provider licences be amended by the government to include an explicit ban on preferential…

Of late, there’s been a spate of memoirs, bio graphies and autobiographies (the latter often ghost-written hagiographies of a self-congratulatory kind). Perhaps they provide forgetta ble has-beens an opportunity to justify their past actions and briefly reconjure their own Camelot. Jaya Jaitly’s memoir is written in a different register: she gracefully acknowledges that women like her, born in elite families, educated in exclusive boarding schools and universities are de-toothed early on. She would like the reader to believe that the scorpions she encountered in her political life destroyed her political career. While that may be true, what comes across in Jaitly’s memoir is that she was unable to balance her political ambitions with her deep commitment to promoting and creating a network of craftspeople and handloom workers. By temperament and…

When Akhilesh Yadav called on West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s two-room residence in Kalighat recently, he came bearing with him a gift for her: a shawl in a shade of peacock blue, Didi’s favourite colour. There was much bonhomie between them, Didi treating Akhilesh like a favourite nephew. Akhilesh, too, returned the favour, blasting the Modi government, as soon as he emerged out of the meeting, of tampering with EVMs, an allegation Didi has been making for a long time now. Precursor to a mahagathbandhan for 2019? Sandeep Unnithan with Anshuman Tiwari, Kiran D. Tare, Romita Datta and Amitabh Srivastava…

December 1, the day poll results for Uttar Pradesh’s 652 urban local bodies were declared, was one of those rare occasions when Yogi Adityanath did not venture out of his 5, Kalidas Marg residence in Lucknow. Not till after 3 p.m., that is, when the BJP was officially declared winner in 14 of the 16 big city municipal corporations. Only then did the chief minister emerge to celebrate the victory with other party leaders. Riding piggyback on a campaign in which Adityanath crisscrossed the state addressing more than 30 public meetings, the BJP won all the four new corporations—Ayodhya, Saharanpur, Firozabad and Mathura—besides existing older corporations in Lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Agra, Bareilly, Ghaziabad, Moradabad and Jhansi. The BJP’s Rishikesh Upadhyay trounced the SP’s Gulshan Bindu in Ayodhya’s first…

The neelakurinji (strobilanthes kunthianus), a plant endemic to Kerala’s Munnar hills, which is due for its once-in-12 years flowering in July 2018, is back at the heart of intense politicking in the state. Back in 2006, the then Left Front government led by V.S. Achuthanandan had proclaimed 3,200 hectares of the neelakurinji habitat in Munnar as a sanctuary on the lines of the country’s national parks. This came after over a million people flocked to witness the colourful spectacle. While environmentalists hailed the move, local owners and land sharks met it with protests. Under pressure, Achuthanandan agreed to exclude title-holders of land from the kurinji sanctuary. Among those who benefitted was Idukki MP Joyce George and his family who claimed ownership of 58 acres. Like him, many other politicians also…

Will he, won’t he? After keeping the Congress as well as the country guessing for the past 13 years, Rahul Gandhi finally put that uncertainty to rest on December 4. He will now become the sixth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to take charge of the 132-year-old Grand Old Party of India. On paper, at least, the Nehru-Gandhi scion is well-placed to lead the party: at 47, he has interned under his mother, Sonia Gandhi, for 13 years, four years as No. 2 in the organisation. Sonia herself was a political novice when she became Congress president at 52; father Rajiv was younger at 41 when he was forced to take charge of the country and the Congress after the assassination of his mother Indira Gandhi in 1984. However, Rahul…

RAHUL KNOWS HE MUST FOCUS ON A CONGRESS OUT TO MAKE HISTORY, NOT THE HISTORICAL CONGRESS Often when I am at loss of what to write about in politics, or more how to write it, I have an imaginary conversation with my old colleague, the late Rajni Kothari. As a political scientist, Rajni was acute. He was a remarkable listener. He could listen for hours, taking notes on the back of envelopes. Most of all, Rajni had a way of giving wonderful advice. He told me once, “Don’t listen to the expert. The expert is the master of the predictable. Go out for a walk and gossip with a fresh face. Make that the beginning of your thinking. Remember, you have an advantage. You are not a political scientist.” Invited…

In the 1980s, the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute catapulted from a local issue in Faizabad to national centre stage. Politics in other parts of the country, too, was in a churn, with identity-based conflicts rearing their heads. Four major developments in the country coalesced into one, challenging the ruling Congress. Meenakshipuram, Tamil Nadu, 1981: The first ripples of social churning were felt in February 1981 with a mass conversion in Meenakshipuram, where an estimated 400-800 Dalit families adopted Islam. Anti-Sikh riots, 1984: The massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of the country following the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards. The alleged complicity of some Congress politicians in the pogrom would remain a significant blot on the party under its…

India’s top secret nuclear submarine project reached another decadal milestone last month with the launch of a second ballistic missile submarine, the Aridaman. On November 19, Union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman cracked the auspicious coconut on the fin of the submarine in the drydock of the Ship Building Centre (SBC) in Visakhapatnam in a low-key ceremony. Following this, the SBC’s drydock was flooded and the submarine quietly floated out. It will be at least another three years before the navy commissions the Aridaman. The event skipped the high-profile public ceremony of the Arihant’s launch in 2009 even as the fourdecade Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project to field a series of ballistic missile firing nuclear submarines is now moving at a furious assembly-line pace. Two new units, the S4 and S4…

Being the Nice Guy of the Indian screen made him a magnet for lovelorn women Shashi Kapoor’s crooked canines saved him. Without them he would have been too perfect—and boring, like the impossibly handsome heroes of the silver screen. Despite this tiny imperfection, he was never quite given his due as an actor in Indian cinema until much later in his career: the Padma Bhushan in 2011 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2015 when he was so ill and could only smile feebly. (Strangely, when his elder brother Raj Kapoor was being presented the Phalke award in Rashtrapati Bhavan, he collapsed and was rushed to a hospital, where he breathed his last some weeks later.) Women lusted after Dharmendra and Vinod Khanna, penned fan letters with their own blood…

“Growing up, my favourites were Harvey, Archie and DC Comics” Q. You must know by now that Archie has a long and popular history in India. Does this surprise you? Yes, we’re well aware of the love India has for Archie Comics, and we love India back! It’s not all that surprising. Indian people have good taste!! Archie is also popular in other countries, most notably Canada, where Archie is huge! Q. Have you watched the Riverdale serial? What do you make of it? The Archie-Ms Grundy hook-up! I do watch Riverdale, and I like it! I think it’s well done, and the cast is stellar! The Archie-Ms Grundy thing was definitely a TWIST, did not see that coming! Q. What were your favourite comics when you were growing up?…

Who the hell is Lewis?” “Why am I watching this guy?” That’s what you’ll be asking yourself over and over again for the first half dozen episodes of Netflix’s The Punisher. Fans of their other series, Daredevil, already have a healthy dose of Frank Castle’s backstory. A former elite Special Forces operative, Castle watched his whole family murdered before his eyes after retiring from active duty. With nothing left to live for, he seeks vengeance against those responsible. His “sidekick” Micro is established early on. Micro’s family is still very much alive, but he has to allow the world to believe he’s dead in order to protect his family from the people who attempted to kill him. You get a pretty good handle on their allies and enemies. But five…

It’s easy to be seduced by patterns, persuaded by motifs and hypnotised by textures; three things that one finds in abundance in carpets and rugs. Whether you like the classics (the undeniable beauty of a Suzani and the elegance of a kilim), or prefer more contemporary options (the feel of a shag rug and the colour profusion in a synthetic carpet), no home is complete without a stylish floor covering. Now, as more and more designers and manufacturers are looking beyond the traditional and thinking past modern imitations, they have ended up reinventing the wheel. Hhere’s a look at what’s making the ground beneath our feet a lot more interesting this season. FROM SARIS TO RUGS While Aladdin’s magic carpet was coveted for its flying ability, Ishrat Saghal’s enchanting floor…

METAL BRINGS IN AN EXCITING DIMENSION OF TECHNOLOGY AND MODERNITY TO THE PROCESS AND END PRODUCT In a world that is obsessed with Scandinavian aesthetics and a country that keeps getting it wrong, finally there seems to be an answer that marries Indian ingenuity with functional and simple Nordic design. The brand in question, Delhi-based SPIN. The brainchild of Avenish Jain and managed by family members Ashish Jain, Manish Jain and Neeraj Ajwani, they ventured into furniture design only in 2014. Why? “ It was a need based deficit for the kind of furniture we wanted for our personal spaces,” says Avenish, who was disappointed by the Indian furniture market, which had products that were either low on quality or too expensive for his pocket. So they began brainstorming…

There are two things that Delhi-based decor store Handmade World wants to be known for. Creating entirely handmade pieces, and giving the old a new lease of life. Case in point: the Funky Scooter Table. The brand took an old, discarded scooter and simply upcycled it. Careful modifications like adding a wooden table top, removing the wheels, and creating a metal stand-like base, allowed the scooter to transform into a stylish console. Clearly, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. PRICE 42,500 AT 146, New Mangla Puri, MG Road, Opposite Metro Pillar No 46-47, New Delhi…

WHEN he combined Bhangra with R&B, no one ever thought that the boy who sold freezers on the streets of Birmingham during the day and mixed Reggae, Soul and Disco till wee hours of the morning in his tiny room would develop a sub-genre of music and take music lovers by storm. The purists dismissed him, some still do. But he proved everybody wrong. Bally Sagoo, 53, made late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan sing to his tunes in 1991 in Magic Touch. In the 2000’s, his music supported major films like Gurinder Chadha’s Bend it Like Beckham and Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding. Visiting Chandigarh in November, the music director, who has given hits like Gur Nalon Ishq Mitha, Dil Cheez and Tum Bin, insists that he always keeps his ear…

Lights Camera Action Stop motion films, time-lapse videos, underwater and drone cinematography are spicing up the traditional wedding photo album. Save-the-date shoots at exotic locations or hidden heritage crannies top the couple’s to-do list months before the wedding. “The trend is to travel to exotic locations abroad just for the pre-wedding shoot,” says Namit Narlawar of Pune-based wedding photography firm Knotty Affair. But with technology sweeping across all fields, weddings too are going high-tech. With family and friends scattered around the world, live web streaming of the celebrations allows people from around the globe to participate without clocking air miles. “Wedding apps and websites are trendy and this is making weddings more digital and accessible to people around the world,” says Amritaa Khurana, owner, Royal Elephants. Apps allow couples the…