Innholdsfortegnelse for 06 February 2017 i Open Magazine

editor@openmedianetwork.in LETTER OF THE WEEK It is still hard to believe that Donald Trump has become the leader of the US. As Tunku Varadarajan writes in ‘Welcome to Trumpistan’ (January 30th, 2017), it is going to take everybody some time to get used to the elitist and conservative policies and comments made by the new US government, especially after the sophistication and care that was seen during the Obama regime. What’s for sure is that minorities, be it women, the differently-abled, Muslims or immigrants, are not going to be in for a smooth ride. As made clear in his inaugural speech itself, Trump has some hard thoughts on religion and economics, and these will come into play over the next few months. One can speculate endlessly about what these may…

ONE OF THE first decisions taken by US President Donald Trump was to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an ambitious trade grouping of 12 countries, albeit one that was yet to take off. It is a sign of our times that the world’s top champion of free trade is now backing away from it. One way to look at this distrust of trade would be through the lens of claims that America has lost its manufacturing mojo, costing millions of jobs in the US, and that the political consequences are being felt now. Trump’s opponents argue that trade results in wider gains for all and it is under-educated, mostly White, voters who harbour negative sentiments. This is a rather short-sighted view of a ‘problem’ that has been brewing since…

Shah Rukh Khan is easily one of the biggest superstars in Bollywood today. So when he succumbs to publicity gimmicks on a monumental scale, the consequences can be dire. His recent promotional stunt for the movie Raees of travelling from Mumbai to Delhi aboard the August Kranti Express was a bad idea to begin with. The Indian Railways is burdened as it is, and its safety track record has gone off the rails of late. It does not need the additional responsibility of hosting a superstar whose sole purpose is to ask fans to catch his latest movie. The platform stampede at Vadodara railway station is an example of how one man’s hubris can prove fatal to others. WORD’S WORTH ‘He that is proud eats up himself: pride is his…

AS AN UNDERGRAD in the US , Pernia Qureshi had studied Criminal Justice, English literature and Dance, but when it came to internship, she went for fashion styling stints in Harper’s Bazaar and Elle. Soon, she landed her first “adult paying job”, a rather plum project— that of costume designer for Sonam Kapoor-starrer Aisha in 2010. The subsequent adulation and critical acclaim for the film’s costumes—which still tops the list of the most fashion-forward films Bollywood has ever produced—meant that Qureshi could afford to take risks with her career. And she did. She launched her own luxury e-boutique PerniasPopUpShop.com from a basement with a staff of three. It went on to revolutionise designer e-commerce in India. For someone with neither a technical background nor experience in online retail, Qureshi was…

AND THEY SAID Ahmed Patel has lost out with the new bosses in the Congress Party? If the truth be told in this post-truth age, when ‘alternative facts’ have acquired more heft than mere bare facts, the younger Gandhis continue to rely on the experience and skills of the low-profile politico from Bharuch. Sonia Gandhi may well have slowly withdrawn from running the affairs of the Congress, but son Rahul, and, increasingly, daughter Priyanka as well, do turn to their mother’s longtime political secretary for advice. For example, just when most TV anchors had speculated that the Congress’ proposed tie-up with the Samajwadi Party had collapsed over seat-sharing, Patel was quietly busy sewing up the deal. Managing a respectable 103 seats for the Congress, leaving the other 302 for the…

PK, THE ALIEN who lands on earth in the eponymous film, tries to find God in his search for his stolen transmitter. He never doubts that there is a god, and in his television debate with godman Tapasvi Maharaj, he argues that people should remember to worship the God who made us, not the one we made. In the world of cinema, where aliens believe in God, can humans be atheists? Tim Whitmarsh, in his brilliant book, Battling the Gods, examines the history of atheism in the ‘ancient world’, meaning in the Greek world. Atheism usually means the absence of belief or disbelief in a god or gods. India has its own traditions of atheism, called nastika, meaning not accepting the authority of the Vedas rather than not believing in…

We’re all Trumps today. Or that’s exactly what professional anti-Trumpistas have become in their shrillness. It is as if the best way to confront the un-presidential president of the Benighted States of America is to borrow from his book: be more visceral than cerebral. Even hallowed media institutions known for their liberal restraint have declared war on the man who doesn’t belong here. Pitted against a president who tweets from the hip is the pundit who fires from the op-ed page. Set against his 140-character outburst is his inquisitor’s 800-word counteroutburst. Invariably, the difference is only in size and syntax. In the simulated mood of the Apocalypse, what we are witnessing is the last gasp of freedom, and what is in store for us is a racist, militarist, navel-gazing, insular,…

YOU CAN HEAR the students laughing from the driveway. They drown out the sound of the SUVs that are slowly collecting outside; dispersal time at Sesame Street Schoolhouse in Ghitorni, Delhi, is only a few minutes away. One driver gets out of his Mercedes SL 63 to click selfies. As he poses and preens, he’s oblivious to the faces of Sesame Street’s star muppets, Boombah the lion, Chamki the Indian doll and Google the blue monster, staring down at him from a wall behind. The children have now started to sing verses from Elmo’s 12 days of Christmas—“On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me, three great friends, two yummy cookies and one red monster up in a tree.” It’s the week before winter vacation and…

KEEPING THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN: THE BRITISH BETRAYAL OF INDIA Walter Reid Viking 224 Pages | Rs 599 KOHINOOR: THE STORY OF THE WORLD’S MOST INFAMOUS DIAMOND William Dalrymple and Anita Anand Juggernaut 264 Pages | Rs 499 INDIA WAS THE jewel the crown lost in 1947. The Kohinoor is the jewel still embedded in the crown that the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, wore. Linked by a gem that is uniquely Indian, the two books bear witness to a continuing fascination with an institution that came to an end nearly 70 years ago. There is satisfaction for a stricken Britain in savouring the triumphs of its imperial achievements. For Indians, those years of foreign control, when a modern nation crystallised out of the ruins of the Mughal…

EXCEPT FOR THE odd occasion when a bunch of start-up investors and entrepreneurs gang up to con India into not accepting free internet access to the poor, usually we are smart enough not to refuse anything offered in the name of a public good. And that is necessary in a country where the system is designed to override the needy in favour of the cunning. Facebook’s Free Basics lost the public relations battle because the rural men and women who were actually going to be its beneficiaries had zero voice in the debate. Precisely because they had no internet access, they continue to not have it. Imagine if the fate of Free Basics had been on the principle of one person one vote? Indian elections stand out as the Christmas…

NOW THAT THE over-hyped, over the top, self-referencing change of government celebrations in Washington—carried by the Indian electronic media in the fawning manner the fledging Indian press reported the 1897 festivities commemorating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria’s reign—have ended, the United States and the world enter gingerly upon the ‘America First’ era promised by President Donald J Trump. There’s much apprehension everywhere, reflected in the iconic ‘Doomsday clock’ published by the venerable Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which, until now showed three minutes to Midnight (denoting nuclear apocalypse), being advanced half a minute or so. But the populist Trump, it must be noted, is in his outlook, demeanour, and in his outlier’s political experience and trailblazing journey to the centre of power, not unlike the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.…

Clash of Egos According to well-placed sources at the studio, there is discontent brewing within the walls of Yash Raj Films. Insiders are saying that there has been a clash of egos between ‘boss man’ Aditya Chopra’s two blue-eyed boys, directors Maneesh Sharma and Ali Abbas Zafar. Apparently, Ali is not thrilled that Maneesh has been promoted to producer and was invited to set up his own production slate at the studio by Adi, while Ali remains strictly a director. Ali reportedly feels shortchanged, especially since his last two films (Gunday and Sultan) outperformed Maneesh’s most recent projects (Shuddh Desi Romance and Fan) at the box office. With Maneesh producing films (like Dum Laga Ke Haisha and the forthcoming Ayushmann Khurrana-Parineeti Chopra starrer Meri Pyaari Bindu) at YRF in addition…