Innholdsfortegnelse for March 12, 2018 i India Today

The year 2017 was one when women were enraged. As stories emerged of powerful men exploiting positions of authority to prey on women sexually, #MeToo and #TimesUp articulated the anger women were feeling. From US President Donald Trump’s “locker room” chat with TV host Billy Bush to explosive revelations about movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, women seethed at having had to tolerate abusive behaviour for so long. In India, too, there were cases of men of power and prestige abusing the trust of women who worked for or with them, creating an atmosphere of heightened tensions in the workplace. Against this backdrop, it was only natural that India Today commissioned a survey on sex at the workplace, its prevalence and dynamics and what people think about it (we asked 25 questions…

Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan, better known as Sridevi, was born in 1963 in Sivakasi in what was then Madras State. By the time she was a teenager, she was already a film veteran, transitioning to the Hindi film industry in 1979. In the mid-1980s, Sridevi was a bona fide superstar. Over the next decade, she cemented her position, alongside Madhuri Dixit, as Hindi cinema’s most bankable heroine, marrying her commercial success to critical acclaim. Inevitably, her performance in English Vinglish, her 2012 comeback film, after an eight-year absence, was hailed as among the best that year. Her untimely death in Dubai last week meant she would not see her daughter follow in her footsteps. 4 SRIDEVI’S AGE when she appeared in the Tamil movie Kandhan Karunai (1967) 72 THE NUMBER…

The India visit will hopefully have given PM Trudeau a glimpse of the machinations of Khalistani elements back home The seven-day, five-city state visit to India by Justin Trudeau, Canada’s popular 46-year-old prime minister, can be best summed up (with apologies to Julius Caesar) in six words—‘He came, he saw, he noted’. That is not how it should have played out. The atmospherics were impacted from the word go, due to high expectations, an unusual itinerary and the Khalistani issue. For some inexplicable reasons, our Canadian friends presumed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would receive Trudeau on arrival and also accompany him in Ahmedabad. That such exceptional departures from protocol happen only in the rarest of cases was not factored in. In the past four years of NDA rule, visiting…

Some 20,000 orphan children in Kerala could lose their only shelter with the state government moving to implement the February 5 Supreme Court order to register all orphanages in the state. As many as 504 orphanages have notified the government that they will have to shut down after March 31. Some 150 such centres have already closed since the Juvenile Justice Act was passed in 2015. “It’s a serious situation,” concedes Kerala’s social justice minister K.K. Shailaja Teacher, even while giving the assurance that no child will suffer because the state government is looking at alternative means of care. There are 1,184 orphanages registered with the state Orphanage Control Board, which accommodate some 40,000 orphaned or destitute under-18s. The orphanages started shutting shop after it was decided to implement the…

The Silence Breakers… Bhanwari Devi’s gangrape by upper-caste neighbours for resisting child marriage in 1992 fostered Vishakha guidelines in 1997; case still on IAS officer Rupan Deol Bajaj brought Punjab ‘supercop’ K.P.S. Gill to book on charges of molestation after 17 years, in 2005 Courtmartialled for accusing three superiors of sexual harassment in 2005, Indian Air Force pilot Anjali Gupta committed suicide in 2011 Airhostess Geetika Sharma charged Haryana minister Gopal Kanda of sexual harassment in her suicide note in 2012; case on In 2016, Shreya Ukil won a £1.2 million lawsuit against Wipro (for discrimination) and executive Manoj Punja (for forcing her into an affair). Wipro sacked both for not reporting the relationship Law student Raya Sarkar published her Facebook ‘list’ in 2017, naming and shaming over 50 Indian…

“GENDER ROLES ARE SO ENTRENCHED IN OUR ‘COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS’ THAT GENDER NEUTRALITY IN THE WORKPLACE IS FOR NOW JUST A WONDERFUL CONSTRUCT” During a recent conversation with a young girl looking to work from home, I asked why she did not consider going out to work. “My family is very conservative. They feel workplaces are not safe for women. If they had their way, they would stop me from doing any job...,” she said. With all the uproar and pervasiveness of the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns and the conversations around sexual harassment, it may appear that workplaces today are sexually charged environments and women have to constantly watch out. This couldn’t be further from the truth. So does the new openness in sexual relationships at work lead to more cases…

“SOME RELATIONSHIPS HAVE AN INBUILT POWER INEQUALITY. THIS INEQUALITY OF POWER MAY RENDER CONSENT, EVEN IF ARTICULATED, MEANINGLESS” Debates about sex— its frequency, appropriateness, consensual aspect, morality and ethics—have been the source of endless fascination for humankind. Recent events that have sparked off allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment in pretty much all walks of life—from the entertainment industry to academia—have served to focus attention on the appropriateness of sexual conduct. The debates have put the spotlight on one of the main issues—an examination of the nature of consent. A part of the debate has focused on the bravery of the survivor of sexual harassment in articulating the distress of the experience and making a public disclosure and, by corollary, an allegation. This has generated a discussion on the ways…

Cradling a cappuccino at Koregaon Park’s Starbucks café in December last year, a 32-year-old IT engineer desperately scans new job opportunities that would—she hopes—bypass a check with her former employers. She had jumped three jobs in two years compelled by sizzling sex gone sour. “I couldn’t go back and work in the same team as my ex. It was painful to see him cosying up to another girl knowing they’d make out in the same secret spots where we usually went for a quickie,” says the Bengaluru-bred woman who moved to Pune in search of “freedom and fun”. From canoodling with colleagues and kissing under the CCTV cameras to dating the boss who can up the career graph, sex at the workplace is an open secret in Pune. Clearing the…

It’s 2018, and ‘kissing ass’ has come to mean a lot more than currying favour by flattery. Rimming or rim job, essentially oral stimulation for the anus, isn’t something young India is speaking about in hushed tones any longer. As millennials open up about exploring their sexuality, raise rallying cries against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises consensual homosexual sex and other penetrative acts in the bedroom, the nerve-endings that surround the anus and the perineum have found their place as favoured sexual touch points. And terms such as “that’s gross” or “that’s so gay” have fortunately become relics of the past. In its 16th year, the india today sex survey reveals that there is a new standard for what the country considers ‘normal’. The days of…

Sparkling, effervescent and bubbly, Sridevi was like soda fizz in front of a whirring camera. But the moment the camera went dormant, the bubbles evaporated. Her features reconfigured into an expressionless face, enlivened only by her endearing saucer eyes. When not acting or dubbing, India’s first superstar actress was like a walkie-talkie doll whose battery had suddenly run out. To describe her as a private person or an introvert would be an extreme understatement: most of her interviews reveal precious little. You always got the feeling that she wanted to fade into the background at public functions, her vulnerability hidden behind her star persona. So, the irony of Sridevi’s very public, publicly dissected and, actually, quite surreal death in a bathtub in a hotel room in Dubai is all the…

Every once in a while comes a film like English, August that effectively captures the lives of English-speaking India. But Dev Benegal’s adaptation of Upamanyu Chatterjee’s classic novel is the exception. More often, the realities of the English-speaking middle class shine brilliantly in novels and poetry, but seem imitative and derivative in films and TV series (e.g. A Mouthful of Sky). Though it has some excellent moments, comedian Kenny Sebastian’s Die Trying—a new Amazon Prime series about a band trying to make it in 2004 Bengaluru—is for the most part a case in point. The screeching sound of a dial-up connection firmly locates it in a time when Orkut was on the rise and when buying pencil-size cells for your grandmother’s Walkman was within the realm of possibility. For a…

WHILE THE THE CHAPTER ON CHAPPELL IS A DISAPPOINTMENT, HIS PASSAGES ON SACHIN ARE A DELIGHT TO READ Sourav Ganguly was one of India’s most successful captains. But he did not always play the gentleman’s game like a gentleman. That made his cricketing career exciting, colourful and often controversial. His seniors, contemporaries, juniors, coaches and fans—as well as the media—all painted him in different shades. By turns, he’s a “snooty” newcomer or an inspiring leader, a “selfishly slow” batsman or a self-sacrificing captain who gave up his batting slot to accommodate Virender Sehwag. Naturally, his memoir comes loaded with great expectations. We want to know his side of the story—from making mighty Steve Waugh wait for the toss to getting unceremoniously dropped from the team. He starts with a big…

Head to Toe AROME Products Lotions, bath salts, face scrubs, body butter, bath bombs, body polishers, sugar scrubs and more. The Story Kinnery Garg, 27, founder, Arome, was always particular about the skincare products she used. But it was an allergic reaction to a store-bought that made her sit up and notice the ingredients used in commercial products and their harmful effects. It was then that she started making her own concoctions at home. “Unfortunately it was hard to find suppliers for most ingredients at that time in the country. I would source them from the USA,” she says. A few courses in handmade skincare products, and Arome was born with its first exhibition in Jaipur in 2013. She shifted base to Bangalore in 2015 and the brand moved with…

Bloggers “Every woman should accept her skin tone” SHREENANDA SHANKAR Dancer & Actor Facebook Page - Makeover Madness Followers - 20,000 First Stint Shankar's earliest childhood memories are of watching her mother Tanusree Shankar get ready before a dance recital. “It was as early as then that my interest arose. I used to hide in the dressing room and curl my eyelashes before going to school,” says the talented dancer. Though Shankar took a course in makeup while in London, she did not pursue it further. “It was only when I found myself relatively free in the USA that I started Makeover Madness. I posted a lot of tutorials on the page initially and provide makeup consultancy via the page." Reality Check Shankar advocates body positivity and pushes people…

The finance ministry has instructed public sector banks to investigate all bad loans above Rs 50 crore for indications of fraud. Banks have been given 15 days to come up with a blueprint. This, as the Punjab National Bank disclosed the strong likelihood that Rs 11,400 crore understates the damage done by the Nirav Modi scam. The Reserve Bank of India data suggests that the exposure of public sector banks to bad loans is so high that the prime minister’s recapitalisation programme, designed to revitalise banks and force them to enact reforms, may be too little, too late. In the face of so many scams, how will public sector banks restore their credibility? 7.9 LAKH CRORE The nonperforming assets (NPAs) of Indian banks as of March 2017, says the RBI.…

The Supreme Court ban on all iron ore mining in the state has come as a big blow to the Manohar Parrikar-led coalition government in Goa as it nears its first anniversary in office on March 14. On February 7, a division bench—of Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta—ordered the cancellation of all 88 mining leases renewed in 2015. The bench also directed the state government to get all environmental clearances before issuing any fresh lease and constitute a special investigation team, including chartered accountants, to recover the cost of ore extracted in violation of The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957. Their livelihoods in peril, some 15,000 miners staged a protest at Panaji’s Azad Maidan on February 22. Demanding that mining be permitted on ‘humanitarian’ grounds,…

Ashok Chavan is smiling again. With his party showing signs of a revival, the Maharashtra Congress chief has been in talks with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders to cobble together a common front against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly elections next year. Four years after they snapped ties in 2014, Congress and NCP leaders have decided to set aside differences to take on the BJP. The Congress is intent on correcting what Chavan and others see as the party’s two main weaknesses—poor booth-level management and a sluggish social media campaign. The party has sought out professionals to train its cadre, and Chavan, who has already completed an organisational review in half the districts of the state, is looking confident: “Don’t forget I was the only leader after Sharad…

This is the first time the INDIA TODAY annual sex survey has been conducted in two parts. This is also the first time a separate survey has been commissioned on the prevalence, perception and practice of sex at the modern workplace. The reasons are not hard to find: 2017 has seen an explosion of rage worldwide about sexual harassment at the workplace, triggering a new social media movement to name and shame the abusers. Hence, the first part of our survey is sex at the workplace, in which 25 purposive questions have been asked to 2,500 people, an equal number of them men and women. At the same time, we did not wish to lose track of the sexual preferences and habits of Indians, something INDIA TODAY was the first…

Sexual harassment, as defined by the International Labour Organization, is a clear form of gender discrimination based on sex, a manifestation of unequal power relations between men and women. The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) urges for “measures to protect women from sexual harassment and other forms of violence or coercion in the workplace”. Sexual harassment can take various forms. It includes verbal or written forms such as comments about clothing, personal behaviour or a person’s body; sexual or sex-based jokes; requesting sexual favours or repeatedly asking a person out; sexual innuendos; spreading rumours about a person’s personal or sexual life; threatening a person, sending emails or text messages of a sexual nature. It may be physical in nature and take the…

At a workplace one has to always recognise the differences in power and hierarchy between the sexual predator and the victim. That difference in power goes a long way in the victim submitting to unwelcome behaviour. It is very rare that you see a change in that hierarchy, and it’s unlikely that a woman in a much higher position is sexually harassed or assaulted by someone junior. By and large, the pattern is to do with the person in a position of authority and trust. It is that kind of fiduciary relationship, whether you are in a private organisation or government set-up, which is inevitably exploited. Difference in power and status dictates the terms of engagement. In almost all the cases I have seen, it is the more powerful preying…

Movies are now set in non-metros, sports such as cricket and shooting—once described as elitist because of their public school roots—are now dominated by small-town boys and girls. The hinterland has emerged as the engine of economic growth for the country, with its residents providing the bulk of the workforce for the service industry. No wonder all the ‘action’ in the sex survey is found in places that till recently were small towns and are now at the cusp of the city and metropolis. So what is giving these men and women in cities such as Chandigarh, Pune, Guwahati and Indore such licentious libidos? Anonymity, it seems, is the single biggest factor in ushering in a revolution of sorts. The traditional restraint that characterises a Pune or an Indore was…

Dear Diary, Let me make an honest confession. I am becoming increasingly jittery about writing a piece based on a ‘startling’ nugget of a statistic. According to the india today Sex Survey 2018, 86 per cent of those who have had sex with colleagues in Guwahati (27% of the city’s total respondents) reported that they did it in office. And, what’s more, during work hours. It’s not that I am facing a moral dilemma because my parents in my home city, Guwahati, will get to read it. After all, I began my writing ‘career’ with a short story that delved deep into the sex life of a widow. I was 19 then and it was published in the Cotton College magazine. It’s also not that the number has offended…

LAST WEEK, THE Mumbai Movers out-rumbled the Volga Stormbringers. Delhi Dynamite blasted the Riga Magicians. The Marseille Migraines gave the Stockholm Snowballs a headache. The Webster Windmills blew away the Minnesota Blizzard. And the San Jose Hackers axed the Chengdu Pandas. Welcome to the Pro Chess League, a 12-week online tournament between teams featuring most of the world’s elite players—including world champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway Gnomes), former world champion Viswanathan Anand (Mumbai Movers) and most of the present Top 20. THE FORMAT ENCOURAGES NEOPHYTES AS YOUNG AS 14 TO TAKE ON GRANDMASTERS. AND UPSETS ARE COMMON When it comes to spectators, a virtual chess tournament league is destined to be a niche product. But it’s a refreshingly approachable format designed for easy engagement. Commissioner of the league Greg Shahade says,…

POWDER Hailed as India’s answer to David Simon’s iconic series The Wire, Atul Sabharwal’s crime drama centres on a team of driven agents out to nab a drug lord. Netflix BAREILLY KI BARFI As a naive guy bullied and dragged into a romance, Rajkummar Rao is a scene-stealer in this romcom, which gives the love triangle a nifty spin. Zee5 HEAVEN IS A TRAFFIC JAM ON THE 405 Nominated for an Oscar in the best documentary short category, the film is a portrait of LA artist Mindy Alper who uses her drawings and sculptures to highlight her prolonged battle with depression. YouTube Indiewire…

At the outset of Race Course Road, an assassin poisons the Indian prime minister, triggering a swirling political crisis. His son seems certain to succeed him at first, but, like another famous son, he immediately calls an election so as to rake in the sympathy votes. Touted as the ultimate insider’s political thriller, Seema Goswami’s novel will delight a certain kind of journalist reader—whose world is bounded by Lutyens’ Delhi, and whose idea of “studying ground realities” is a chat with the milkman or a foray into Ghaziabad or Gurugram. It will also entertain the kind of reader who triumphantly identifies thinly-veiled stock characters—a shouting TV anchor, a leader of a West Bengal party, a Dalit party leader who commissions giant statues of herself and a loyal Malayali personal secretary.…

1. Place of publication :New Delhi 2. Periodicity of publication : Monthly 3.Printer’s name :Manoj Sharma Nationality :Indian Address :A-3/723, Tower-8, Silver City, Sector-93, Noida-201 301, Uttar Pradesh 4.Publisher’s name :Manoj Sharma Nationality :Indian Address :A-3/723, Tower-8, Silver City, Sector-93, Noida-201 301, Uttar Pradesh 5.Editor’s name :Kaveree Bamzai Nationality :Indian Address :B-2/101-B, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi-110 029. 6. Names and addresses of individuals who own the newspaper and partners or shareholders holding more than one per cent of the total capital : Owner: M/s Living Media India Limited, K-9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110 001. Shareholders holding more than one per cent of the total capital of the owner company: 1. Mr. Aroon Purie, 6, Palam Marg, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi-110 057. 2. Mrs. Rekha Purie, 6, Palam Marg, Vasant Vihar,…

1. Place of publication :New Delhi 2. Periodicity of publication : Monthly 3.Printer’s name :Manoj Sharma Nationality :Indian Address :A-3/723, Tower-8, Silver City, Sector-93, Noida-201 301, Uttar Pradesh 4.Publisher’s name :Manoj Sharma Nationality :Indian Address :A-3/723, Tower-8, Silver City, Sector-93, Noida-201 301, Uttar Pradesh 5.Editor’s name :Kaveree Bamzai Nationality :Indian Address :B-2/101-B, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi-110 029. 6. Names and addresses of individuals who own the newspaper and partners or shareholders holding more than one per cent of the total capital : Owner: M/s Living Media India Limited, K-9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110 001. Shareholders holding more than one per cent of the total capital of the owner company: 1. Mr. Aroon Purie, 6, Palam Marg, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi-110 057. 2. Mrs. Rekha Purie, 6, Palam Marg, Vasant Vihar,…

Profit over Principle? Baba Ramdev is celebrated as a homegrown tycoon, willing to take on and beat the multinationals at their own game. “Buying Chinese products,” he once tweeted, “is like helping the enemy.” So Twitterati were quick to seize on the irony when the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized 50 tonnes of red sanders logs bound for China from a Patanjali representative. Ramdev’s company had permission to sell a particular grade of sandalwood but were suspected by customs officials of mixing in a higher grade alongside the product for which they had a licence. China is the world’s largest buyer of both legal and illegal red sanders and the high grades are particularly prized. Could smuggling higher grade red sanders to China be called anti-national? The Papon Pile-on A…

Information and broadcasting minister Smriti Irani’s mass transfers have her babus on the warpath. In just three months, 155 Indian Information Service (IIS) officers have been shunted out. In her defence, Irani says that before she took over in July last, 872 transfers took place (between 2014 and 2017). Regardless, the IIS association has complained to the prime minister’s office about colleagues being dumped in regional stations and Tier II and III cities. Deploying officers who do not have the ability to read and write the local language to a regional station, they say, is a complete waste of manpower and taxpayers’ money. Now they have a genuine excuse for not working. Pawar’s Hardik There’s more to MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s 90-minute open-house interview with NCP chief Sharad Pawar than…

Flying in the face of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to double farm incomes by 2022, the recent annual budgets of two BJP-ruled states—Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat—give short shrift to the farm sector. Gujarat, the prime minister’s home state, also continues to look away from health and education as state priorities. 3.3% of budget expenditure is Gujarat’s allocation to agriculture and allied activities in 2018-19, down from 6 per cent in 2017-18; Uttar Pradesh has allocated 3.5%, down from 12.3% in 2017-18. The average allocation of 18 states* is 6.4 per cent (BE 2017-18) 13.9% of total spend is Gujarat’s allocation for education, down from 16.7% in 2017-18; in UP, the education budget is unchanged from last year (14.5%); the average of 18 states is 16.1% 4.5% of Gujarat’s total…

Incarcerated in Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Jail since his conviction in a fodder scam case in December, Lalu Prasad Yadav may have been denied bail to be with his family on Holi, but the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief will have ample company on the day. Besides party colleague R.K. Rana, three Jharkhand politicians are lodged in neighbouring cells. Congress’s Sawna Lakra is serving a life term for murder, while BJP’s Sanjeev Singh and the Janata Dal (United)’s Gopal Krishna Patar aka ‘Raja Peter’ are in for plotting to eliminate political rivals. And many more politician-inmates are around. Two incumbent legislators have already been disqualified on being convicted. On January 31, a local court sentenced Yogendra Mahto of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha to three years for stealing coal to run his coking…

Do you think it’s alright for colleagues to engage in sex? No, it’s a bad idea It’s okay, if done discreetly Yes, what’s wrong with it? The answer is “no” for the majority, but it’s not a simple majority. In fact, as many men believe colleagues should be allowed to have sex as those who oppose it Is it okay to have sex with colleagues who don’t work in the same team? ‘No’ is the collective response. But check out the fine print. Almost one in two men say it’s fine Do you approve of sex between bosses and subordinates? About 7 out of 10 say ‘No’. But there are significant differences between women and men: one-third of men (35%) and one-fourth of women (23%) do not think it’s a…

It was a long-overdue reunion with peers from a company I left years ago. We were all top management, some still with the same multinational. Stories came spilling out—deals, power games, office politics. The dissection veered to the shenanigans of two male members of the senior management who were having blatant ‘affairs’ with junior staff. The liaisons, officially not disclosed to management as policy dictated, had spawned favouritism, mistrust and a series of exits in the affected teams. So why did the discomfited company leadership prefer to ignore the problem instead of nixing it? Indeed, why do organisations hesitate, or look the other way when certain relationships are open secrets? Simple. Sanitising sex in the workplace is a Pandora’s box. It takes enormous spine, persistence and institutional will. For starters,…

One of the remarkable impacts of the internet is that there is a blurring of boundaries at the workplace. Work has percolated into private spaces while private spaces have turned into work. These days, employees call managers by their first names, collaborate with colleagues all the time and connect with each other through the internet in a manner that diminishes social restraints. There is growing informality and a trend to find intimacy at work. In this context, an understanding of sexual consent is crucial. In simple words, sexual consent is an agreement to participate in sexual activity. It is about setting personal boundaries and respecting those of the partner. For example, if A wants to have sex with B, A should obtain consent from B. A should find out if…

From October 5, 2017, a whole lot of women started coming forward, accusing Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein, of decades of sexual abuse. Ever since, as a result of what is being called the ‘Weinstein effect’, hundreds of high-profile men have been accused of sexual misconduct, and named and shamed across the world. Some of them have had to step down from positions of privilege and power. Corporates are desperately going out of their way to stamp out anything that can even remotely be construed as “hostile environment” for women, fearing lawsuits. If the allegations against him are true, Weinstein is a sex offender. But he has also claimed that he is suffering from sex addiction. A sexual offender is driven by anger and control, reward and punishment. Sex just happens…

No one belongs to this place, everyone is a migrant here. Chandigarh, with its straight lines and concrete, and people boxed in Soviet-style housing, designed by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier in the 1950s as the first planned Indian city, is a buzzing, fast emerging metropolis forever seeking roots that don’t exist. It has become the hub of IT, telecom, call centre and hospitality industries, which draw young employees from across the country. A heady cocktail of youthful energy that works in Chandigarh’s service sector is redefining the ethos that was once overshadowed by the culture of the surrounding states, Punjab and Haryana. The india today Sex Survey 2018 shows that 55 per cent of Chandigarh’s working population was fine with the idea of sex with colleagues and around 35 per…

It’s hard to imagine the horror genre without women. From Rebecca and The Innocents to Rosemary’s Baby and Alien, American cinema has thrived on terrorising women. In Bollywood, too, women have borne the ghostly brunt, be it Ram Gopal Varrma’s Raat and Bhoot to Pawan Kripalani’s Phobia. Going by the trailer of Pari, Anushka Sharma’s third home production and Prosit Roy’s directorial and writing debut, Sharma gets to be both the source of scares and a scream queen. Roy remains tight-lipped about the plot of the Kolkata-set film, starring Parambrata Chatterjee and Rajat Kapoor. All he will divulge is that he has attempted to make an “atmospheric horror [film], using sound, background score, shot-taking and colour palette” rather than special effects to make it frightening. “It’s like we want to…

Seeing Allred is a fascinating introduction to a figure who ought to be better known outside the US: the lawyer Gloria Allred. Allred, whose website describes her as a “feminist lawyer” and “discrimination attorney”, is known for having battled some of America’s most powerful men, across the political and social spectrum. She has represented Paula Jones against Bill Clinton, Summer Zervos against Donald Trump, murder victim Nicole Brown’s family in the O.J. Simpson trial and 33 women who accuse comedian Bill Cosby of sexual misconduct—some of whom appear in the film. However, Allred has also fought many cases away from the limelight, on sexual harassment, child support and workplace discrimination. She has been a long-term advocate of same-sex marriage and equal rights for transgenders. Filmmakers Roberta Grossman and Sophie Sartain…

A volume of interconnected short stories set on the fictitious island of Neverness, Zoe Gilbert’s Folk is a captivating debut. Loosely inspired by the United Kingdom’s Isle of Man, it begins and ends with a small community of weathered, enchanted people standing around a gorse labyrinth, waiting to set it aflame. Gorse is an evergreen shrub with leaves that harden quickly into thorn-like spines. The burnt gorse’s roots re-grow and its seeds germinate after being set ablaze. And Gilbert’s characters, too, are hardened by hardship and determined to survive. Remote and wrapped in damp mist, Neverness is a difficult place to live, untouched by modernity and laced with sinister enchantment. What strikes you first is the island’s strangeness, particularly for those of us unfamiliar with the twists of rural English…

Tell us about your childhood and your influences? I was born in the town of Nemmara in Palakkad district of Kerala and continue to live there. It is a small, mountainous town famous for its paddy fields and close proximity to the Neliampathy Forest Reserve and Pothundi Dam constructed in the 19th century. My family home is in Pezhumpara, which literally means ‘big stone’. It is here in our home atop a small hill that I began seeing the transformation of the mountains. I grew up looking into an excavated valley, thanks to stone quarrying which illegally continues to this day. The transformation of the landscape around me forms the basis for my inspiration. Tell us about the work you will be exhibiting in Zug The opportunity to dedicatedly work…