Innholdsfortegnelse for 31 October 2022 i India Today

Vasundhara Raje may not be the most popular leader with the BJP high command but there’s no denying her place among the people in Rajasthan. The former chief minister was in Bikaner district in the northwest of the state on October 9-10 on a pilgrimage-cum-personal visit and was attracting crowds in the thousands even as the local BJP apparatus—including local MP and Union minister Arjun Singh Meghwal—stayed away. Meanwhile, two heavyweight opponents were trying to challenge her in her den, Jhalawar and Baran, in southeast Rajasthan, in her absence. Raje represents Jhalrapatan in Jhalawar in the assembly and her son Dushyant is the Jhalawar-Baran MP. On October 10, state BJP chief Satish Poonia, who is eyeing a second term, did a roadshow in Baran while Congress leader and former deputy…

Politics is the art of timely appropriation. And who could be more artful in the craft than the BJP, which has now turned to anti-Emergency icon Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP? On October 11, Union home minister Amit Shah reached Bihar for the second time in 18 days. Obviously, the state, which has 40 Lok Sabha seats, is high on the BJP’s electoral calculus after chief minister Nitish Kumar dumped it in August to form an alternative government with the RJD, Congress and four other parties. Time and place are key symbolic tools. Guess when and where Shah arrived, with Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath in tow? Day: JP’s 120th birth anniversary. Venue: Sitab Diara village, Saran district, JP’s birthplace. As Shah unveiled a statue of the socialist…

After a long lull due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the wheels of Rajasthan’s ailing tourism sector are finally turning again. Its popular luxury train, Palace on Wheels—which offers weeklong trips, with fares starting from almost Rs 3.5 lakh per person—returned to tracks as Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot flagged off the train at Gandhinagar railway station on October 8. “We have already got bookings to run two trips in October, three in November and four in December,” says Dharmendra Rathore, chairperson of the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC). The train, which has been running since 1982 and has been rated one of the 10 best luxurious train journeys in the world, had an average occupancy of 60-70 per cent before 2020. With the Gehlot government announcing concessions worth Rs 1,300 crore,…

REVIVE THE PARTY ORGANISATION and get the Congress ready for elections in 10 states, including Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh, and the Lok Sabha election in 2024 BUILD A NARRATIVE to counter the ruling BJP and emerging challengers such as AAP PROVE HIS INDEPENDENCE, show that the new Congress chief is not remote-controlled by the Gandhis RESOLVE THE BIG INTERNAL FRICTIONS—Gehlot vs Pilot in Rajasthan, Baghel vs Singhdeo in Chhattisgarh and Siddaramaiah vs D.K. Shivakumar in Karnataka STOP FURTHER ATTRITION in the party, create a balance between the old brigade and the young turks. Nurture regional leaders…

BIG LITTLE LIES (2017-2019) Disney+ Hotstar Starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern and Zoe Kravitz, this show revolves around a group of five women in California, held together by a dark secret that pushes them to the edge. VALERIA (2020—) Netflix Having hit a block with both her writing and her husband, Valeria, the protagonist of this Spanish comedy drama, finds comfort in her three friends—Carmen, Lola and Nerea. BAD SISTERS (2022) Apple TV Your sisters can sometimes be your most trusted friends. Based on the Flemish show Clan and set in Ireland, this dark comedy sees four women plot to save their sibling from her abusive husband.…

The club dance floor is often thought of as egalitarian—an immersive space where the DJ, the music and the energy and euphoria of the dancers are equally important components. The dance floor has also been a historically safe space for marginalised identities and sexualities. But this reputation is increasingly at odds with the realities of commercialised contemporary club culture. In DJ Mag’s top 100 DJs list for 2022, for example, there were only 13 women. And that’s the highest it has ever been. Closer home, at India’s premier electronic music festival Sunburn, women make up less than 10 per cent of the lineup most years. Indian women looking to build a career behind the decks face many challenges, from social censure for participating in a late-night entertainment industry to the…

Consider good food, good company and good decor as the holy trinity of a Diwali table. No longer falling under the realm of formal events, the tablescape has raised the bar and become a fundamental in any get-together. So, here are my go-to hacks to curate a well-laid festive spread. 1 If you are using a table cloth, use table pads or double tablecloth, it protects the table and minimises noise when placing items. Set a charger plate before anything else, as that is the centrepiece of the setting. Here the beautiful illustration in Pichola dinner plate offsets the food with flair. 2 A centerpiece is the foundation of the look and delivers a statement. Here the Leopard and Lake vases in clear glass are accented with flowers and candles.…

That chair you sit on, the table you lean against, the bed you lounge on, for most they are merely functional pieces, necessity fuelling a need. However, for 27-year-old Jenny Majmudar they represent the art of craft. Majmudar’s story starts with her working as a designer at Hirsch Bedner Associates, Los Angeles, after graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design, US. While she was able to explore design at an international standard, her roots lay in India. “I always envisioned my design practice to be associated with the Indian crafts sector. So, I returned to India equipped with a global outlook yet more in love with our Indian traditional craft practices,” she says, adding, “With the sudden emergence of the pandemic, I was pushed to change gears and…

AUGUST 27-28, 2022 KUTCH Projects worth: Rs 7,000 crore The 357-km Kutch branch canal of Sardar Sarovar project to provide water for irrigation to 182 villages and drinking water to 948 villages and 10 towns in Kutch Smriti Van memorial and earthquake museum in Bhuj Eye on polls: PM Narendra Modi has often talked about making water from Sardar Sarovar reach each village in Gujarat. The canal project helps the BJP project him as a ‘man of his word’ SEPTEMBER 28-30 AMBAJI, BANASKANTHA Projects worth: Rs 7,200 crore Two new sections of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor from New Palanpur Financial aid to gaushalas; development of pilgrimage facilities at Ambaji temple Eye on polls: The BJP wants to further strengthen its base in North Gujarat. The aid to gaushalas is an…

MALLIKARJUN KHARGE IS A STUDY in contrasts. Of the 13 elections he has contested, including the recently-concluded one for Congress president, he has won 12. Yet, he doesn’t have the flamboyance of a mass leader. Thanks to his “gigantic physique”—as a close relative puts it—he comes across as a serious person, but his wicked sense of humour has one in splits during conversations. Most of his political colleagues find him polite and sober but, at home, he is a disciplinarian. “Whenever he is at home, even the grandchildren are on their toes. He asks them questions about everything, from global warming to local civic issues to check their awareness levels. He’s also particular about not wasting food, water or electricity,” says Priyank Kharge, his son and a Karnataka MLA. But…

HOW COVID IS MUTATING INTO A MORE INFECTIOUS BUT MILDER VIRUS ALPHA Infectivity: 30-50 per cent more infectious than the original Wuhan-Hu-1 strain. Emerged in India around Dec. 2020 Severity in India: 1,000 daily deaths at its peak, but soon overthrown by Delta Common symptoms: Fever, cough, breathing difficulty, bodyache, fatigue BETA Infectivity: 50 per cent more infectious than the original. Started doing the rounds in India in Mar. 2021 Severity in India: No data Common symptoms: Fever, cough, breathing difficulty, bodyache, fatigue DELTA Infectivity: 80-90 per cent more infectious than Alpha. India reported first cases in Dec. 2020 Severity in India: 400,000-plus deaths a day when the wave was at its worst in May 2021 Common symptoms: Fever, cough, fatigue, lung disease, bodyache, sudden hypoxia OMICRON Infectivity: Twice as…

A RUNNING COMMENTARY ON THE loudspeaker punctuates the crowd’s cheering—shrill, loud and spirited—as two sides line up against each other, one ready to raid and the other to defend. When a player from the raiding side crosses the mid line, drawn crudely on the ground, the cheering only grows louder. The charger lunges towards her four opponents, chanting ‘kabaddikabaddi’ without pausing for breath. The defenders are ready, swiftly averting each of the raider’s attempts to tag them. Finally, one leaps forward and holds the raider tightly by the waist. Another grabs a leg. The remaining two block her way back to safety. The game is over. Smiling and laughing, the members of the two teams—in red, blue, green and other colourful cotton saris—greet each other as a bunch of kids,…

In 1957, the year that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences first instituted the award for Best International Feature Film, India almost struck gold. Not only was Mehboob Khan’s epic saga Mother India nominated, it lost out to Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria by just one vote in the end. Nominated in 1969 for Best Documentary (Short Subject), Fali Bilimoria’s The House that Ananda Built follows a successful businessman in Nagpur, looking at his life and beliefs. In 1979, K.K. Kapil’s documentary, An Encounter with Faces, was again nominated in this Oscar category. Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi won eight Oscars in 1983. But the one that India celebrated most keenly was its win for Costume Design. That year, Bhanu Athaiya became the first Indian to bring back a golden…

In popular culture, especially Bollywood, there’s a sense of urgency that accompanies the act of elopement: couples hatching swift plans to sidestep family diktats or religious restrictions, rounding up their most precious belongings and running away in the dead of night. This wasn’t the case with Neetu Rani and Dawinder Singh, a Hindu-Sikh couple living in neighbouring houses in the Kakheri village of Haryana. Two nights after Dawinder dropped off a bottle of sleeping pills for Neetu to spike her parents’ food with, he helped her haul four suitcases containing clothes to last a month, old family albums, stuffed animals, and a life-size poster of herself she’d had taken in a professional studio. “There’s a certain lightness that you associate with elopement. Neetu had friendship bands, albums and her clothes…

Late last month, Pakistani DJ Lyla—or Mahnoor Saifi—brought the house down at District 19, a creative community space in Karachi. As many as 400 women danced along to her set on a special Girls Night event. “I just did straight Bollywood, or throwback Britney [Spears], that kind of stuff. My goal was to keep a happy level to this night. And I wanted that happiness to infiltrate the rest of these people’s weekends. All the feedback I got, they were like, ‘Oh you brought this song back into my life. I left so happy that night, I woke up happy,’” says Lyla. With her father in the United Nations, Lyla has moved across the world all her life. “Every three years, we’d move to a new country.” The only things…

GLASSHOUSE A ROARING COMPETITION So intense is the competition between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee that one cannot even rule out ‘cat fights’. Days after Modi flew down African cheetahs to India, Mamata’s forest minister Jyotipriya Mallick announced plans to create four more zoos—the state already has 12—and get African lions from the Hyderabad Zoo and a black panther too. Mamata is also planning tourist safaris at the new animal enclosure in New Town. State capital Kolkata is already buzzing with stories of how the marauding Bengal tigress (Mamata) plans to drown out the roar of the Gujarat lion (Modi). SELF-YATRA Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is planning to release his biopic before the assembly polls in 2024. Last time around,…

If there is one thing the BJP poll machinery never takes for granted, it’s the support of any vote bank. It constantly works on either retaining existing support, or breaking fresh ground among communities. Which is why even as it bans the radical Muslim organisation Popular Front of India (PFI) and is coming down hard on ‘illegal’ madrassas, the party, and the parent organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), are simultaneously reaching out to what they consider the moderate sections of the Muslim community. Thus it was that on his customary Vijayadashami address on October 5, RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat highlighted the organisation’s commitment to a sustained dialogue with the minority community. Alleging that a false narrative of minorities being in danger is being propagated, the RSS chief said the Sangh…

FOR OVER A DECADE, THE SHARE OF MANUFACTURING in India’s GDP has remained in the 15-17 per cent range, with various measures by the present and past governments barely helping the needle move. A recent effort to give manufacturing a fillip has been the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman between March and November 2020. Targeting 14 key sectors, the scheme, with an outlay of Rs 1.97 lakh crore, aimed to create national manufacturing champions, 6 million new jobs and additional production of Rs 30 lakh crore over the next five years. Over two years after it came into effect, the scheme has come under intense scrutiny, with critics like former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan viewing them as loopholes that end up in the central government…

Rohit Bhatt was all set to accompany Savita Kanswal to conquer Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in Russia, later this month. Kanswal is well-known as the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest and Mount Makalu in just 16 days, a feat she accomplished in May. The two climbers were part of a group of 41 trainee mountaineers and instructors hit by an avalanche near the Dokrani Bamak glacier, barely 100 metres short of their objective—the 5,670-metre peak of Mount Draupadi ka Danda 2 (DKD-2) in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand. Bhatt is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Tehri Garhwal and Kanswal is among the 29 fatalities in the biggest-ever tragedy to strike Indian mountaineering. “While we were on our way to summit this peak (DKD-2), we were already excited about going…

Back in 2020, when producer Rangita Nandy called ad filmmaker Joyeeta Patpatia to helm season three of Four More Shots Please! (FMSP), Patpatia admitted that she hadn’t seen the series. But so popular was FMSP, she knew enough to join some dots. As Patpatia began her monthlong preparation—watching 20 episodes, each lasting at least 30 minutes—she empathised with the Mumbai-based female quartet of Damini (Sayani Gupta), Siddhi (Maanvi Gagroo), Umang (Bani) and Anjana (Kirti Kulhari). It helped that she is part of a quartet herself. “When the show dropped, there was a gap in content that celebrates female friendship. We had seen a lot of movies, but most of them were male-led or seen from the gaze of a man,” says Patpatia. “For the first time, we were seeing the…

How far can you go for love? What sacrifices can you make at its altar? These are some of the questions Thrity Umrigar stretches to the extreme in her latest novel, Honor. Smita Agarwal, an Indian-American journalist, is forced to cut short her holiday in the Maldives to cover a story in India for the American newspaper she is employed at. She returns to her country of birth, 20 years after she and her family had to leave, under desperate circumstances. Past wounds now reopen and cut deep. At the heart of Agarwal’s investigation is Meena Mustafa, a young Hindu woman whose brothers burn her Muslim husband to death in Birwad, a village on the Gujarat-Maharashtra border. In trying to save him, Mustafa loses parts of herself. What’s left are…

From hanging a carpet on the wall to using bold paints and wallpapers—walls have always been a used to tie the entire room together. Over the years, concepts like accent walls, showstopper murals and creating floor to ceiling artworks have shaken things up. After all wall art and murals can instantly transform any space by creating a dramatic statement. Besides being one-of-a-kind pieces, they are also bespoke and special for your interiors and exteriors. CUSTOM MADE Currently, painting custom murals for residences, retail and hospitality sectors, is trending. From customised murals and wall textures to painting on furniture—I’ve done it all. This leads to immersive spaces with architects, interior designers and clients. Every wall is tailor made as per the client, which is why every work is different and never…