Hospitality at Base Camp

Percy Fernandez
29 April 2013, 05:43 PM IST

When it comes to hospitality at Base Camp, few can match the Indian Army under the leadership of its young Major Jamwal, affectionately called Jamie by his buddies. Jamie is a trained mountaineer and a specialist in high altitude rescue and the leader of the Indian side of the Indo-Nepal Army Everest Expedition. I first met him in Kathmandu when he came to meet our team members at the hotel, Mall and Raghu. They were all part of the Manaslu Expedition in 2011. Humble and affable, he is caring when it comes to his team members, echo Raghu who has been with him on the Manaslu expedition. The Indian Army team was the last one to walk into Base Camp. Along with Col.Sharma and Wng. Cmdr. Kutty, I was invited to lunch at his camp. The Indian Army Expedition Camp is located far end of the camp occupying a vast area alongside Seven Summits Camp. I was startled at the incredible way his camp was organised. I soon realised I was part of a large number of climbers he had invited. The boys from Lawrence School, Sanawar led by Col. Rana were there, the twin girls Nungshi and Tashi from Dehradun were there, an young Sikkim cadre IAS officer from Bihar was there, Nisha Adhikari, a Nepali actress who is attempting to summit Everest was there and so many of them. The spread was lavish. You can't imagine you could be served a range, from Indian to continental with bearers turned out in aprons at 5400 M.  I didn't know as I was leaving that I was to be there for the lunch the next day as he had invited all the Indian members for lunch to his camp. The boys enjoyed rajma, rice, chicken curry, fresh salad. Kutty was quite surprised where the fresh salad came from. I jokingly responded Jamie must have ferried from Kathmandu in a helicopter.

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Get the E! in your healthy day

Rachna Chhachhi
29 April 2013, 06:02 PM IST

It is oil soluble. And it protects against serious disorders or side effects. Here's the lowdown on the most powerful anti oxidant and what it does for you, along with warnings.

Vitamin E is a vitamin that dissolves in fat. It is found in many foods including vegetable oils, cereals, meat, poultry, eggs, fruits, vegetables, and wheat germ oil. It is also available as a supplement. It's used for treating vitamin E deficiency, which is rare, but can occur in people with certain genetic disorders and in very low-weight premature infants. Other benefits of vitamin E:

Cancer prevention: It is used for preventing cancer, particularly lung and oral cancer in smokers; colorectal cancer and polyps; and gastric, prostate, and pancreatic cancer. Scientists at the Center for Cancer Prevention Research, at Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, believe that two forms of vitamin E -- gamma and delta-tocopherols -- found in soybean, canola and corn oils as well as nuts do prevent colon, lung, breast and prostate cancers.

Treating and preventing heart related risks: Heart and blood vessels including hardening of the arteries, heart attack, chest pain, leg pain due to blocked arteries, and high blood pressure.

Treatment of diabetes: Vitamin E is also used for treating diabetes and its complications.

Brain related disorders: Some people use vitamin E for diseases of the brain and nervous system including Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, Parkinson's disease, night cramps, restless leg syndrome, and for epilepsy, along with other medications. Vitamin E is also used for Huntington's chorea, and other disorders involving nerves and muscles.
 
Reversing PMS: Women can avoid and reverse premenstrual syndrome (PMS), painful periods, menopausal syndrome, hot flashes associated with breast cancer, and breast cysts if they combine vitamin E with good fats like fish oil, flaxseed oil and primrose oil.

Fight against liver disease: The Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Cornell University, discovered the essential nutrient vitamin E can alleviate symptoms of liver disease brought on by obesity.

Post smoking supplementation: Taking a specific form of a vitamin E supplement can accelerate the health benefits that occur when people quit smoking, new research suggests. In the small study, improvement in blood vessel function associated with the added vitamin E potentially translates into an estimated 19 percent greater drop in future risk for cardiovascular disease, which is high for smokers and erstwhile smokers due to hardening of arteries as an effect of smoking.

Reducing side effects of conventional treatment: Vitamin E is used to lessen the harmful effects of medical treatments such as dialysis and radiation. It is also used to reduce unwanted side effects of drugs such as hair loss in people taking doxorubicin and lung damage in people taking amiodarone.

As an anti-oxidant: Vitamin E is sometimes used for improving physical endurance, increasing energy, reducing muscle damage after exercise, and improving muscle strength. Some people apply vitamin E to their skin to keep it from aging and to protect against the skin effects of chemicals used for cancer therapy (chemotherapy). The American Heart Association recommends obtaining antioxidants, including vitamin E, by eating a well-balanced diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains rather than from supplements until more is known about the risks and benefits of taking supplements.

Other benefits: Vitamin E is also used for cataracts, asthma, respiratory infections, skin disorders, aging skin, sunburns, cystic fibrosis, infertility, impotence, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), peptic ulcers, for certain inherited diseases and to prevent allergies.

Despite concerns that have been expressed about possible health risks from high intake of vitamin E, a new review concludes that biological mechanisms exist to routinely eliminate excess levels of the vitamin, and they make it almost impossible to take a harmful amount. No level of vitamin E in the diet or from any normal use of supplements should be a concern, according to an expert from the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. The review was just published in the Journal of Lipid Research.

How to take it: Daily dosage should be 200 IU unless you are suffering from any condition listed above or otherwise. In that case, consult your doctor or nutritionist. Never take vitamin E with any medication, and combining it with food or good fats like fish oil assures best absorption. Never combine vitamin E with any of the B-vitamins as absorption of both is compromised.

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1984: justice at last?

Minhaz Merchant
29 April 2013, 06:50 PM IST

Tuesday, April 30, 2013 could be the most important day in the lives of the relatives of the victims of the worst genocide in independent Indian history: the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom. District Judge J. R. Aryan will pronounce his long-awaited verdict on Sajjan Kumar and five others accused of inciting a mob against Sikhs in the Delhi cantonment area.

The trial court had framed charges under several provisions of the IPC, including Section 302 (murder) which carries a minimum punishment of life imprisonment.

Several other politicians accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom could go on trial as the 2014 Lok Sabha poll approaches – with cruel irony exactly 30 years after the horrific genocide. Bigger leaders than Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar will probably also be named once witnesses depose in cases still pending in various courts.

As television journalist Sunetra Choudhury wrote recently: "Jagdish Tytler was number six in the very first report of citizens' groups like PUCL and PUDR called Who Are The Gulity? soon after the riots in November 1984. The report named 198 Congress activists and 15 Congress leaders, but even at that time the report says, 'H K L Bhagat, Lalit Maken and Jagdish Tytler have been given tickets – and thus clean chits by the PM.' "

In an election year, comparisions with the post-Godhra 2002 Gujarat communal riot are inevitable. There are three principal differences between 1984 and 2002.

One, in 1984, typical of a pogrom, all the 3,000-plus victims in Delhi and elsewhere were Sikh. In 2002, of the over 1,000 victims, around 250 were Hindus, 200 were policemen (killed in the crossfire) and over 550 were Muslims. This distinction between a pogrom and a communal riot must be made even though both obviously are reprehensible. 

Two, in 1984, the top leadership – from Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to Home Minister Narasimha Rao – escaped censure during their lifetime. In 2002, Narendra Modi has not – rightly – escaped responsibility. He remains answerable.

Three, in 1984, cases against mid-level leaders like Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar have been consistently derailed by the government-controlled CBI. A miniscule few, after 29 years, have only now come to some degree of closure due to the persistence of the victims' relatives – most of whom have over the decades been threatened or bribed into silence. In 2002, in sharp contrast, an entire cottage industry of activist-NGOs has succeeded in bringing a semblance of justice to some of the victims in Gujarat and convicting some of the guilty.

Though he hasn't been personally charged with wrongdoing, what about Narendra Modi's moral responsibility? Should he apologise? Must he show contrition?

There is little doubt that Modi should accept moral responsibility for the communal carnage on his watch – and in some of his speeches over the past year he has done so though less equivocation would serve him better. 

The fact that he was Chief Minister for just 3½ months and that Madhya Pradesh (whose Chief Minister then was Digvijay Singh), Rajasthan and (to an extent) Maharashtra denied him paramilitary forces to help quell the riots, despite official requests, is not relevant. The outcome – a horrific communal carnage – is what history will record and judge the administration by.

And the apology? I believe one should be forthcoming as I wrote here on December 20, 2012:

It took Modi three days to end the 2002 carnage in which over 1,000 people died, nearly three-quarters of them Muslims. He must express regret at what happened on his watch. That does not mean accepting the charge of complicity. But expressing regret is necessary – not because it may or may not double the percentage of Muslims who voted for him in the 2012 assembly election (22%) but because it is the honourable thing to do.

Modi rightly says he works for six crore Gujaratis – not Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs or Parsis. It is the Congress that seeks to divide communities by segregating them into silos for special treatment. That is not secularism but communalism masquerading as secularism.

The fact that Rahul Gandhi has not expressed regret for 1984 should not be a factor. Sonia has apologised though, again, less equivocation would have served her family and party better.

Finally, contrition. I believe it is both necessary and overdue. It should not however take the form of token Muslim "inclusion". There are dozens of Muslims in local BJP councils in Gujarat though none regrettably in the assembly.

Identity politics, however, must end. An Indian's religious, regional and ethnic identitics are personal. Nationhood has primacy. That is not tantamount to jingoism. It is simply a necessary unifying force in a diverse and plural nation. 

It is also why, following Justice Aryan's verdict on April 30, the battle to deliver justice to the victims of 1984 will only have just begun. 

Follow @minhazmerchant on twitter

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Germane problem for Shikhar Dhawan

Amit Karmarkar
27 April 2013, 01:45 PM IST

Brace up for a Bayern Munich vs Borussia Dortmund Champions League final. I'm not elated because no Spanish Club nor a Premier League Club feature in the summit clash. But to respect someone is not out of fashion, still.

And the Germans command that: Respect.

However, my own estimation of them has gone down of late. The reason being their pathetic show in the 2010 World Cup semifinal against Spain after showing Argentina their place in the quarterfinals. The Germans just refused to counter-attack in that game despite getting enough possession while battling tiki-taka. Such an overly defensive game was a slur which can't be washed away easily.

Let's hope that both Bayern and Dortmund won't try and sit on the lead in the second leg, though one looks forward to seeing attacking variations from Barca and Real.

***

I'm not convinced that the IPL-6 would be good for Shikhar Dhawan's Test prospects in South Africa, though it's a long way off. The opener owns an unbelievable Test debut knock against Australia. But a possible combination of sudden highs and sudden lows in the IPL cannot be good for a player's state of mind.

He has missed many games in the IPL so far, and possibly earnings of Rs 10 lakh per match too, but if India are to win a Test series in South Africa (one of the two countries where India have never won a Test series, Australia being the other), his role will be vital.

But then, even missing out on the IPL can make him vulnerable. And that's a tricky part.

*** 

If losing out the services of his trusted second Peter Heine Nielsen was not troublesome enough, chess king Vishy Anand is set to lose the services of former Fide knockout champions Rustam Kasimdzhanov too. The latter revealed that during the Fide GP in Switzerland. 

Under the circumstances, it is safe to assume that Anand will stick with his other two seconds - Surya Ganguly and Poland's Radoslav Wojtasek - for the World title match against Magnus Carlsen. But during the Maharashtra Chess League team allotment ceremony in Pune, he said: "There is always a first time. We started with this team in 2008 (for the Kramnik match). But we have to start (building the team) again."

Though Anand enjoys the advantages of experience against Carlsen, he is facing other odds: younger, ruthless and world No. 1 opponent, the Indian's own dip in form and quality of play. And now, the lack of familiar team of seconds.

But then, many more moves are left to be played before Black presses White's clock in Game 1.

***

And finally, something on Chris Gayle's 175 and Sachin Tendulkar's 40th birthday. When someone in the future scores 176 in a T20 match, he would better Gayle's record. If that's obvious, take this: on April 24, 2014, Tendulkar will complete 41! It's time to declare that as India Celebration Day with a government holiday!!

For the common man, that could be a better excuse to avoid work rather than participate in various political Bandhs on offer.

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Reciprocity, dignified dignitaries and the Common Man

Veeresh Malik
27 April 2013, 04:07 PM IST

 

The fact that a dignitary from India was mis-treated by the authorities in the US, despite them being fully aware of who he was, is something that I do not like as an Indian.

I myself have been to the US, what, dozens of times? Great country. Love the people there. Love the vibrancy. But I am not going to go there again. The authorities there have made it something many of us do not recognise anymore. I don't know how the American people have let this happen.

Likewise. I don't know Mr. Azam Khan. I have only read about what happened to him at Boston's Logan Airport a few days ago. I do know that he has been duly elected by the people of his constituency, and for me, that is enough in the democratic system that we Indians live under. In that context, during any sort of official visit anywhere else, he shoulders and represents our flag, the honour of our country, and nost of all he carries our self-respect. He also has our respect, because he is our elected representative, and we have to therefore also respect those who elected him.

Treatment of official visitors of any sort from and to any country is always on reciprocal basis. Whether invited by the other government, or whether on invitation by people and entities of other countries, there are protocols and there are dignities so that dignitaries are treated equally by both countries. This is an established fact of life.

Some countries have their own rules. The US, for example, fingerprints all aliens - their nomenclature for foreigners who have still not cleared inward immigration - while in most other countries, showing a valid passport and visa is enough. So, when Brazil started fingerprinting all visiting Americans only, it was done on a mutually reciprocal basis. That may have upset a lot of Americans. But it was reciprocal.

Likewise, the US exempts hardly anybody in their own country from security checking, at airports and elsewhere. India, on the other hand, has a long list of people being exempted from security checks. However, in the US, protocol may be extended to dignitaries, who will be taken for security checking under private conditions where feasible, as long as it does not impact the sanitising of the relevant areas. In India, on the other hand, we extend this exemption from security checking to all and sundry coming from abroad, without worrying about how the security sanitised areas are impacted.

It may not be out of place to say that there may well also be a built in slave gene in us, which makes us extend this exemption more to people of a particular ethnicity and colour hailing from certain countries, and not do this for others. There is also the neo-colonial aspect, where we continue to bow and cringe before dignitaries from our past colonial masters, and mistresses.

But long and short of this article is this - can we now atleast expect reciprocal behaviour from our authorities, towards bringing in equivalence in the way we treat dignitaries from other countries visiting India, the same way they treat our dignitaries?

And more importantly, taking things one step further, can we now expect equity and equal behaviour by the authorities towards all in India, also, in the first case?

Oh yes, the honour of the Nation is at stake.

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The cyber faithfuls

Kim Arora
27 April 2013, 06:57 PM IST

Here are short profiles of three people, popular on Twitter for their strong political stance. They often steer the conversation and debates on the microblogging platform – before the conversation devolves into abuse and name-calling, that is. Here they talk about why they do what they do, how they evolved their political leanings and how they think the Internet and the social media impacts political discourse.

Sanjay Jha

(Twitter followers at the time of writing: over 15,000. Supports the Congress)

Remember the #Feku and #Pappu hashtags that trended on the Indian Twitter-verse not so long ago? Well, #feku came from Sanjay Jha and a team of volunteers. Or so he claims. For those who get their news from television, Jha is no stranger. At prime time when the screens on TV news channels are transformed into chessboards, he is often seen occupying one of the many small boxes. He started out appearing as a cricket expert on these panels. But over time, he has made an increased number of TV appearances defending the Congress position. And that is something he extends on to his Twitter feed and blog as well.

A Mumbai-based "executive coach", Jha has been writing for mainstream newspapers and magazines since 2004. Though he began blogging much earlier on issues and policies in favour of the Congress, it was only in 2009 that online presence took off in a big way for him. That was when he launched the Hamara Congress website with IIM Bangalore professor Rajeev Gowda. He admits to have been in touch with very senior Congress leaders in strategizing the party's presence on social media. However, he refuses to come on record with names.

A look at Jha's tweets (from the handle @JhaSanjay) show him in various Congress v/s BJP debates and arguments which have him saying things like, "You guys have lost the war; I can sense the frustration and loss. #TeamCongress is unstoppable. Quit it!", and even, "You are so funny!  Your #Feku is called a mass-murderer by many! And you talk of " aukaat"?? Calm down, face the faucts!"

Officially, Jha admits, he has an "advisory role" on the AICC sub group on "Communications and Publicity". But money is a dirty, dirty thing. "My company does not have any contract with the Congress. I don't do this for commercial benefit," claims Jha, who spends almost three hours a day online.

In such a case, a question about why he does what he does is only natural. Ask him and he laughs, "I am a Bihari. Politics and political debates is in our DNA." On a serious note, he credits his mother with shaping his political worldview. "My mother was a strong Congress supporter. She would tell me stories about Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri when I was a child. I was fascinated. Some people in the Congress may not have held the same standards as these two leaders, but at a larger level, it remains a progressive party," says Jha, who used to run a cricket website CricketNext.com.

As for the #Feku tag, Jha says it was made over the weekend after Rahul Gandhi's speech at a CII meet. "Some senior leaders from the BJP made very childish remarks about his speech. We then came up with this over the weekend before Modi's speech. His facts are often exaggerated. I had a chat with my team to come up with something along these lines. I said, let's see if we can put him in his place," Jha told TOI Crest over phone. Feku is a colloquial Hindi term that refers to a person who exaggerates a lot. "It's a flippant and sarcastic term. It got very popular," says Jha, who concedes that the BJP presence is much stronger in the online space. "They are very well organized. They were extremely over the top in the way they ridiculed Rahul Gandhi recently," he says.

Jha hasn't ruled out a full time political career for himself. "If I need to make a full time transition to active politics at a later point, I will," he says.
 
Shivendra Singh Chauhan

(Twitter followers at the time of writing: over 3000. Supports the Aam Aadmi Party)

If you have been following the anti-corruption movement online, chances are, you've read Shivendra Singh Chauhan without realizing it. He is the man behind the movement's online presence on Twitter and Facebook. For a campaign that relied so heavily on social media – with tangible results, too – Chauhan has a rather modest Twitter presence. He tweets fairly intermittently to his 3,000-odd followers from the handle @shivendravats.

A former journalist, Chauhan now works with Greenpeace in Bangalore. However, he still devotes a fair amount of time to managing the India Against Corruption and Janlokpal accounts on Facebook and Twitter. That is when he is not promoting the anti-corruption cause and Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from his own personal handle. He is "Deputy Director, Mobilisation".

Online political engagement for him began back in 2010, when he started a Facebook page themed on the Commonwealth Games scams. "It was a small initiative. There was no long-term vision," says Chauhan. In October, that year, he came in touch with Arvind Kejriwal through a friend. "We were discussing the Lokpal campaign and that's when the name 'India Against Corruption' came up," says Chauhan, who dates his first "big action" online back to 30 January 2011. "We managed to mobilize a lot of people across the country with that. There is a constant focus on corruption and Lokpal in our pages, but we also write about tribal rights and land rights," says Chauhan.

Chauhan counts himself among the urban middle class who he says is "disenchanted" with the current political scenario. "None of the mainstream political parties have delivered what they should have. The urban middle class wants a radical shift," says Chauhan, who is reluctant to classify himself in a particular political category. "I'm neither with the Right, nor the Left. I'm not even centrist…I'm just looking for change," says Chauhan, who provides his services to AAP entirely voluntarily.

There is one department where most other online political junkies online would envy Chauhan – he gets nearly no abusive trolls. "We hardly get trolls. It could be because the whole movement generated a lot of goodwill," he says. However, Chauhan admits he once received a lot of negative comments by people of his own team, when he expressed a difference of opinion with Arvind Kejriwal. This was entirely at odds with the reverential manner in which most supporters speak of their leaders on such platforms. "We are very sarcastic in our tone. We ask a lot of questions. So when Arvind went on a fast, I questioned the legitimacy of that as well. The party was supposed to be founded on the premise that such things don't work. But AAP supporters online did not take it too well," he says.

Evaluating the results of such campaigning can be tricky. A recent study claimed that social media could influence 160 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats this general election. Chauhan feels the number is inflated. "One needs conscious work and mobilization to make people come out and vote. The effect of social media would be significant, and can go up in the future. But 160 is too high a number," he says.

Besides his new-found day-job, Chauhan currently spends five to six hours a day campaigning for AAP online. What compels him to take this on? "It has become second nature. It's a calling that I have found," he says.
 
Vijay Chada

(Twitter followers at the time of writing: over 12,500. Supports the BJP)

When not mining data for analysis and collation, Bangalore-based Vijaya Chada, better known as @centerofright on Twitter, can be seen holding forth on right-wing policies on the microblogging website.

He stands out amongst various others on Twitter who are on his side of the political spectrum, for lack of name-calling and anger in his tweets. "I have seen much in life. I have been an avid news follower since the 70s. Also, I don't have young hormones raging through me," says the 39-year old freelance consultant.

Chada says he is not officially employed by the BJP, but that his family has been a supporter of the party for generations now. He counts that as the main influence shaping his political convictions - discussions in family gatherings with his grandfather and father. Chada actively participates in the activities of a group called "Friends of BJP". "They organize talks and debates. Sometimes they call leaders from the party to come and speak on various issues of the day. It is a group for professionals who are not a part of the political mainstream," says Chada, also a part of another similar group called "Jignasa".

As a part of his day job, Chada says he ends up spending a lot of time online, going through documents, reports and other data on government websites – a source he invariably ends up getting his news from. He has several bones to pick with mainstream media, especially English television news channels. "There are very few right wing journalists in mainstream media, by design or chance I can't say. Right wing has never been given a space. It is tarred as bad without a rational discourse on why it is considered so. Mainstream media often picks up the weakest argument made by right wingers, shove it under a microscope and paint the entire Right as wrong," says the Modi supporter, explaining why he prefers getting his news from alternate media. 

He also feels that the mainstream media missed the blogging revolution that preceded the social media boom, and now finds itself struggling with being questioned online. "Barkha Dutt once complained of being abused online. I made a list of all her Twitter mentions and sent it to her. If there is abuse, there are laws in place to deal with it.
Otherwise, such trolls can be ignored or blocked. I do the same," says Chada, who spends close to 4-5 hours a day online. In its role as an alternate information source, Chada feels social media really could swing the upcoming general elections. "Social Media's influence in elections would not be felt in a direct but an indirect way. This will hold the mainstream media accountable and see that they do not get away with lies," says Chada, who has been an active netizen for 11 years.

However social media may or may not influence elections, the recent hashtag wars are definitely not high on Chada's agenda. "Hashtag wars are interesting and juvenile at the same time. I have not participated in it. When folks feel strongly about an issue they do join in. It is time not to pick sides, as it suits them. There were umpteen hashtags that were against the Congress, but they were hardly reported," he says. There is one place where it sure will be reported. And Chada has long been there.

(Portions of these interviews were carried in a story in the TOI Crest edition, on April 27, 2013)

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Midnight to the Boom: Blue chip Indian Art at Peabody Essex Museum

Uma Nair
26 April 2013, 02:36 PM IST

Between independence from Britain in 1947 and the economic boom of the 1990s, a revolutionary art movement in India took form. For the first time curator Susan Bean has called some of India's contemporary artists and called them a symbolic Midnight's Children. At the Peabody Essex Museum at MA in USA she presents a historic suite of rare and  vintage toned Indian art from the collection of Chester and Davida Herwitz and other private collectors.

Midnight to the Boom: Painting in India after Independence, From the Peabody Essex Museum's Herwitz Collection, is an exhibition spanning three generations of Indian painters who changed the way we think of Indian art. Nearly 70 works by 23 leading artists were selected from PEM's Chester & Davida Herwitz Collection -- internationally recognized as one of the largest and most important assemblages of modern Indian art outside of India.

MF Husain's 1951 painting "Man" opens the exhibit. A black man, with his hand on his chin, sits amidst an array of Cubist figures—what might be a goddess and incomplete female sculptures, an upside-down man, a bull. Susan Bean explains , "A kind of tale of what it means to be a creative artists in the new India, with this swirl of East and West, ancient and modern, good and evil."

MF Husain's, Man

In the 1980s, Bikash Bhattacharjee rejected traditional themes in pursuit of emotionally charged and visually direct depictions of contemporary life, such as street scenes of Calcutta. After graduating from art school, Bhattacharjee encountered American artist Andrew Wyeth's paintings for the first time, recalling the way "...the differences of country, period and characters melted away." Bhattacharjee became an avid collector of books on Wyeth, and he continued to explore Wyeth's brush techniques and thematic preferences. Bhattacharjee shared Wyeth's dramatic handling of light and shadow, creating scenes sympathetic in their compositional techniques and tonal gradations. This show has Bikash's poignant work Durga (1985)-a masterpiece in the art of the portrait. 

Bikash Bhattacharjee, (1940 – 2006) The Lady with the Gas Cylinder, (1986 oil on canvas).

Bikash Bhattacharjee,Durga

Of equal vintage value is Jogen Chowdhury's Gaanpati the Warrior (1977) and another work called Couple. The charismatic contour of Jogen Chowdhury always has this ability to draw you into its maw `There is a tremendous power in the stillness of the subject, a force which is no less than apparently a matter in great speed. Stillness is a form of speed while not in force. A certain tension is most essential in artwork which is the result of the total effect of composition, colour, rhythm or sensitive lines", said Jogen Chowdhury to this critic years ago. His Gaanpati the Warrior executed in 1977 is a jewel beyond compare for its fluid lines and its attractive fervor of blending the spiritual and the sensuaIn Sequence (1981) Tyeb Mehta's flat colours and his shifting planes create a corollary that reflects the resonance of an all time genius who created for his own journey of inner and outer references. Inspiration from real life in volatile regions, can bring new meaning to what it feels to be a troubled artist. And Tyeb Mehta has spent many years in the contemplation of suffering. He has condensed long histories of violence and melancholia into the most austere forms; he has delivered the freight of trauma through isolated figures delineated in planes of flat color that vibrate against one another without discreet intervals of tonal shading.

Jogen Chowdhury, (b. 1939) Couple, 1982, Pen, ink, pastel, and lacquer on paper

Tyeb Mehta, (1925 – 2009) Sequence, 1981, Oil on canvas

Ranbir Singh Kaleka's 1983 painting "Family—I" is the image on the banner and poster. This is a cryptic, dreamlike painting of a boy surrounded by two women and a man amidst a floating fence, arch and foliage. He renders it in radiant reds, verdant greens, passionate browns and stunning blues for a hallucinatory effect. Ranbir has been a master in his translation of the human figure and one recalls a brilliant solo of his at Art Today many years ago.

Ranbir Singh Kaleka, (b. 1953), Family - 1, 1983 Oil on canvas

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Chinese intent behind the intrusion into the Indian territory

SD Pradhan
26 April 2013, 03:16 PM IST

The recent Chinese intrusion in Burthe in Dault Beg Oldi on the 15^th April, 2013 and two Chinese helicopters entering in the Indian territory on the 21^st April in Chumar as also continued stand-off at Raki Nala have generated a lot of anxiety in the security establishment in India as also among the security analysts. While most agree that this intrusion is different from the earlier intrusions as this time the Chinese soldiers have not retreated like earlier times, they also see that it is not likely to escalate further. However, when seen in the perspective of pattern of intrusions and China's act of issuing stapled visas to the Indians from J&K and stating that people from Arunachal Pradesh did not require visas as also how Chinese are behaving in other areas claimed by it, this action of the Chinese assumes a serious dimension and can not be regarded as a localized affair.

First, let us examine whether this action had the approval of the higher leadership or not. If the higher leadership had not approved the action, the troops would have been withdrawn immediately. In addition, it is naïve to assume that the PLA follows an independent policy. The Chinese system is well known that the Party controls the PLA and all decisions are taken by the President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission in consultation with other top leaders. The Chinese actions are invariably parts of well considered grand strategy decided after taking into long term objectives. China had been intruding into the Indian areas for long but had been retreating whenever asked to go back. Last year, there was increased aggressiveness visible when an Indian bunker was destroyed in Laddakh. Then the Chinese objected to a military delegation led by Lt Gen. B.S. Jaswal the then Commander of the Northern Command on the ground that the area commanded by him falls under the disputed region. China had also objected to the visit of our PM to Arunachal Pradesh. China had also opposed an Asian Bank project in Arunachal Pradesh. These acts reflect Chinese lack of diplomatic sensitivities and protocol as well as a plan to acquire areas claimed by it.  

Second, the Chinese have been following a policy of aggressively asserting their claims in all areas along the border since the last couple of years. China had formed a committee of 13 departments to devise methods and fabricate evidences to claim the all the areas along its land and maritime borders. Soon after the recommendations of this committee were made, China began to stamp on visas the Chinese map showing all the disputed regions as the Chinese territory. This step generated strong reactions in the neighbouring countries.

Third, China is now displaying its intentions that it would not mind using military means to acquire the areas what it feels belong to it. The Chinese military budget is increasing in double digit for the last several years. It has modernized its armed forces to fight localized wars in the current security environment. China in fact had been preparing for this for quite some time. Its concept of "no contact war" deserves special attention in this context. Not only China has acquired highly sophisticated weapon systems buy also deployed its troops along the areas which it claims. In the Indian context, it has deployed a number of units along the border. In addition, nuclear capable missiles have been deployed which can hit easily areas in India's north-east- an area which Chinese are claiming aggressively in the recent times. The stridency and frequency of the Chinese claims over the entire Arunachal Pradesh have substantially increased along with the reported deployment of DF 31 and DG 31A missiles in Delingha. In addition, China has built/upgraded 27 airfields in Tibet. A similar policy has been adopted in the South China Sea. It has established a military garrison at Shansa and has given rights to its coastal surveillance units and naval force to search any ship in its own nine dotted lines which may have entered illegally. China is also making efforts to have better coordination between its naval force and Chinese maritime units for effective actions. In the past it had sent its boats and jets to Senkaku islands, displaying its military might and intent to use military means to resolve the issue. The recent military exercise near James Shoal has been seen as yet another evidence of Chinese determination and strategy to use military means to acquire territories in the bordering areas. This also negates the Chinese claim of its peaceful rise. The Chinese double standard was visible when it objected to the Indian company's exploration in the Vietnamese area, while inviting international bids in the areas which are claimed by Vietnam.

Fourth, China also is able to divert the attention by the intrusions both along the Sino-Indian border and the South China Sea of International Community and locals from the incidents inside China. Chinese regime is facing problems from those who are demanding separate states. There have been several cases of suicides in Tibet and violent incidents in Xinjiang.   

In view of the forgoing, the designs of China become palpable. The current intrusion is a part of well calibrated and calculated plan of China. China feels that it is now possible to assert its claims over the bordering areas and given the policies of its neighbours who do not go beyond a point to press their claims with a view to maintain relations with a country which is important from the commercial point of view. India feels that by accepting its demands for not sending in the military delegations led by officials from J&K or north east, China is being 'managed'. India's too much reliance on the agreements made in 1993 (Agreement on Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility), in 1996 (Confidence Building Measures) and in 2003 (Declaration on Principles for Relations of People's Republic of China and Republic of India) do not allow it to see the Chinese game plan. That China is acting against these agreements is now clear demanding a change in India's China policy. Indian leadership should stop stating that Tibet is an autonomous part of China. Recently at the sidelines of BRICS meeting the Chinese newspapers have reported that Indian PM on its own stated this and also assured that Tibetan would not be allowed to indulge in any anti-Chinese activity. It is not known what the need to state this was. China takes this as an accepted fact and not as a concession from India.  The ASEAN members too feel that maintenance of good relations is important. Besides they have not been united in their approach towards China. Such policies have in fact whetted the appetite of China to aggressively act and acquire the areas in the bordering regions. Coupled with the display of military prowess, China has also hinted that it may use nuclear weapons to get back its territory. China is taking advantage of lack of unity among ASEAN and their reluctance to firmly stand up against China.

This also clearly establishes the fact that the new leadership, which was expected to concentrate more on economic reforms, is not going to adopt a different policy towards the neighbours. The new President Xi Jingpin after taking over as the Chairman of the Central Military Commission paid the visit to areas in the South China Sea was intended to convey the regimes continued aggressive policy towards the South China Sea disputes. Similarly, the current intrusion into the Indian territory, just before the visit of the Chinese PM Li Keqiang to India and India Foreign Minister's visit to Beijing, is meant to convey its hard-line attitude towards the Sino-Indian border issue.

The new Chinese leadership should note that the continued pin-pricks by China have sown the seeds of mistrust and this should be given due attention as this would have lasting impact on its relations with all its neighbours. This would not only disturb the peace of the region but would also adversely affect the Chinese development.  

The accommodating policies of China's neighbours are encouraging China to act aggressively to assert its claims on the disputed territory. While it is not suggested that they should act equally aggressively, they should use economic leverage to deal China in a united manner. Dexterous use of trade relations with China by all concerned can be an effective means to checkmate Chinese sinister designs. Pragmatism demands that India develops multiple levers to checkmate China. India needs to counter China not only along the border but also in the South China Sea which is strategically important for India. For this purpose, cooperation with Japan, US, Vietnam and Philippines are central which must be expanded and strengthened further to deal with common concerns. A firm response from India as also from other neighbours can check the aggressive policy of China. The need to re-examine its policy towards Taiwan and Tibet with a view to develop a strong lever to deal with China can hardly be under-estimated.

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Samsung Galaxy S4: First impression

Javed Anwer
26 April 2013, 05:15 PM IST

This is the biggest smartphone launch of the year. Literally. Today Samsung is launching Galaxy S4 globally, with plan to sell it in over 50 countries by the end of this month. For a smartphone, this sort of big-scale launch is rare. Even iPhone hits the markets in only a handful of countries before reaching people outside the US and Europe.

In India, Galaxy S4 will be available from tomorrow and at TOI we intend to review the device in the coming days. We will put it through our usual tests and determine if it is worth the hype (and its price). But today I can share what I feel about the device after using it for a few hours.

The first thing that I noticed with Galaxy S4 when I picked it up was how light it felt. Despite its big size (it has a five-inch screen) it is surprisingly light. While in terms of looks it is similar to Galaxy S3, it feels different in the hand. It has edges that are more squared off compared to the rounded ones on its predecessor. We feel Galaxy S3 has a more natural fit in the hand. But the reduced width and thickness (it is very slim) of Galaxy S4 means it is not at all awkward to hold.

Galaxy S4 will be available in India in Black Mist (read black) and White Mist (read white). I tried the black one. Both the back cover and the front bezel use glossy plastic with a fine diamond-shape pattern. The pattern gives the device a feel of premium finish though it is clear that the build material is one area where Galaxy S4 can't match the likes of HTC One or iPhone 5 that use aluminum.

Overall build quality of Galaxy S4 is great and is definitely a bit better than that of Galaxy S3 in terms of finishing and look, largely due to the slim profile and a strip of plastic with faux metal finish that adorns the sides of the device.

Galaxy S4 uses a micro SIM. Its battery cover can be opened to access the SIM slot and micro SD card slot. The front of the device is almost all screen as Samsung has managed to reduce the bezel area significantly. Unlike HTC One that uses an unconventional button arrangement and discards home key, Samsung has stuck to its three-key (home, menu, back) arrangement.  

Galaxy S4 is powered by Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean). As it is the norm for Samsung devices, when you power on the phone you are greeted with Touchwiz user interface. This is a phone packed with tens of unique features. Do they make the smartphone experience better or are likely to overwhelm the consumer? We will find out in the coming days.

The Galaxy S4 available in India is powered by 8-core processor. In terms of performance, I found user interface on the device to be incredibly smooth. Though I need to spend more time with the device before I can talk about the performance of Galaxy S4 in detail. I did, however, managed to run GeekBench 2, a program that checks the performance of processor, on the device. It scored 3592 points, which easily makes Galaxy S4 theoretically the fastest smartphone in the world.

Galaxy S4 is a flagship device. It is packed with new technologies and features. On first impression, I can say it looks very good. But can it match HTC One and iPhone? How is the battery performance? Can it play demanding 3D games? Are all the extra features worth the premium price Samsung is asking for the device? You will have to wait a few days before I can answer these questions. 

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Black money issue precipitates a crisis among Swiss bankers

LK Advani
25 April 2013, 10:35 AM IST

Earlier this month I had written a blog captioned "White paper on black money notwithstanding, not a single paisa has been recovered"
 
This blog had highlighted how the BJP's sustained campaign against black money had forced the UPA Government to present a white paper on the issue. This white paper rightly affirmed that success of the country's "inclusive development strategy critically depends on the capacity of our society to root out the evil of corruption and black money from its very foundations."
 
The BJP regrets that there has been absolutely no follow up to the white paper. Both corruption and black money continue to corrode India's polity and governance, more particularly in the last nine years.

In sharp contrast to India's indifference to this matter, there are reports about a virtual crisis having been precipitated in the banking sector of Switzerland because of the global campaign against banking secrecy laws initiated by some powerful western countries. The international news agency Reuters has recently circulated an article written by its bureau chief in Switzerland Emma Thomasson bearing the caption: Battle for the Swiss Soul. The thrust of the article is summed up in the words:

"Even today, few Swiss would like to discuss the fact that much of the country's prosperity was built on the bankers helping foreigners evade taxes."

This article opens with a quote from a James Bond film of 1999 "The World is Not Enough", where Bond asks "If you can't trust a Swiss banker, what's the world coming to?"
 
Emma, the learned writer of the article goes on to reply to James Bond's query thus,

It has come to this : Swiss banks, under pressure from countries such as the United States, France and Germany, have been giving up their secrets, in some cases handing foreign tax authorities the names of their account holders. To avoid being blacklisted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Swiss Government has agreed to share more information with foreign authorities hunting tax cheats.

Emma writes in her article:

"Swiss bankers have long adhered to an unwritten code similar to that observed by doctors or priests. Bankers do not acknowledge clients in public for fear of exposing them as account holders; they often carry business cards with just a name, rather than bank or contact details; and, at least until the 1990s, they never advertised abroad.."

The right wing Swiss People's Party sees in the loosening up of banking secrecy laws a kind of surrender. This surrender, the party holds, is a "betrayal not just of the clients but of core Swiss values". Thomas Matter, a banker and politician of the Swiss People's Party put it very bluntly: "Swiss people love freedom; the State was always for the citizen and not the other way round".
 

However, Swiss banks have lately been under such immense pressure from Washington, Paris and Berlin that in 2009, UBS, the country's biggest bank, agreed to give the United States names of more than 4000 American clients and besides, pay a $780 million fine to avoid prosecution for helping Americans evade taxes. Two other major banks, Credit Suisse and Julius Baer also have handed over to Washington information on their employees engaged in U.S. business, while Credit Suisse has made provisions in its accounts for hefty fines.
 
While Zurich and Geneva are the main financial centres of Switzerland, the country's close-knit banking fraternity has had its roots in the ancient hermitage city of St Gallen. Until recently St Gallen was home to Wegelin & Co., Switzerland's oldest private bank. In 2012, the U.S. Justice Department indicted this Wegelin bank on charges that it enabled wealthy Americans to evade taxes on at least $ 1.2 billion hidden in offshore accounts.  In January this year, the Bank pleaded guilty. Wegelin executives who had already sold all their non-U.S. business to a fellow bank Raifeissen, announced that they would wind up what remained of their Bank.
 
The guilty plea was a crucial turning point in this entire Swiss debate because without saying so, Wegelin's executives had by implication incriminated all their fellow bankers as well. A prominent conservative politician Christoph Darbellay publicly called Wegelin executives "traitors".
 
Sergio Ermotti, Chief Executive of U.B.S. however said: Bank secrecy, as we knew it till a decade or so back, is now over. The St Gallen banker who bought Wegelin's non-U.S. business also said: "We are in a real transformation process."
 
Raifeisen boss, Pierin Vincenz has broken off with the conservatives, and said that Switzerland would have ultimately to accept transparency and comply with global standards.  More and more bankers and academicians are veering round to this view.  In the global war against black money, this would be a great help. One can only hope that India takes full advantage of these developments.

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Is public anger against the police misplaced?

Brijesh Kalappa
25 April 2013, 01:14 PM IST

What would you make of a set of people who have never ever received a word of appreciation - they are in fact reviled by the public at large. They are also the most underpaid and overworked. I'm speaking of the average policeman. 97% of the police force in India comprises the constabulary. The constable is the inheritance of the British whose role came into existence with the Indian Police Act, 1861. The Indian constable is a poor cousin of the British constable. In Britain, every officer begins his career as a constable. In India, however, the word 'constable' can well mean a term of abuse as in 'thulla'. They are overworked, abused, treated badly and poorly paid. The average salary of the constable is less than that earned by a skilled worker. By virtue of Section 22 of the Indian Police Act, the police officer (including the constable) is deemed to 'always' be on duty.

In addition, they are frequently transferred - though the Indian Police Act did not contemplate the general transfer of beat constables, it thus become impossible to develop and activate his sources if he has less than three years on a beat. If the beat constable does not generate his own set of informants, petty crimes cannot be curbed. In instances of rape and other sexual crimes, there is no source of information, unless the victim complains herself.

In India today is a set of people for whom it is trendy to hate politicians, administrators and policemen alike. An incident such as the brutalizing of the 5 year old child has given new impetus to their and their follower's dim world view- who are baying for the blood of the Delhi police commissioner and all policemen alike.

It is said that in the Solomon Islands, the natives who could not cut down a massive tree given its girth stood around it and cursed it and cursed it yet again and so on. In a month, or less, the tree would naturally die out. Nature does not allow living beings to tolerate abuse and being hated. Criticism is said to have caused the sensitive Thomas Hardy - one of the greatest novelists of all time to give up forever, the writing of fiction.

A lasting image of the resolution of crisis which arose by the terrorist attack on marathoners in Boston is the standing ovation the citizenry gave to police officers who returned after successfully apprehending the remaining terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

In the rape of Gudiya, it is trite to say that no police force in the world could have prevented the crime since 97% of rapes take place behind closed doors.  A policeman has an intrinsic limitation that does not permit him to prevent crimes within private domains.  But that is also how society intends it, since a private citizen has the liberty to lead his life with the degree of privacy he desires.  Under the circumstances, it is impossible to break into the private peoples' homes, even if there is some vague suspicion of the possibility of crime - the degree of probability of such crime ought to be of a very high degree.  Only a detailed enquiry will reveal what exactly transpired with the parents of the traumatised child.  If, however, it is eventually found that the policemen were indeed attempting to protect the criminals involved in this heinous act of brutalising a 5 year old child, indubitably such policemen also have to face a full onslaught of the legal process. 

The debate over the slap to the young woman protestor by the Delhi Police's ACP has instead been the biggest debating point. What has however been missed entirely was that the young woman, with her unnecessarily aggressive demeanour was liable to be hauled up for obstructing a public servant in the discharge of public functions.

In these tough times, the Delhi police may well keep these words of Theodore Roosevelt  in mind "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

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Telling the story of India

Team TOI
25 April 2013, 03:21 PM IST

The Times of India has been a chronicler of the India story, documenting every twist and turn of this great country's journey from bondage to freedom for the past 175 years, mainstreaming, even in its early days, distant areas of the country, bringing alive the story of the common man.

What started as the biweekly Bombay Times & Journal of Commerce is now a global institution. The Times of India is the world's largest-circulated, English-language broadsheet with more than 7 million readers.

Always a voice of readers and mirroring their concerns, one of the earliest campaigns the paper undertook was for the setting up of the Bombay Stock Exchange. The paper won this battle on 16 October 1874. It noted the culmination of its dogged struggle thus: "We are glad to learn that the suggestions made in these columns… have taken definite shape…There can be no doubt that an open stock exchange, organized on the model of those in Europe, will be of great benefit." Today, the BSE is the world's tenth largest exchange in terms of market capitalization.

Once the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi burst upon the national scene and transformed the complexion of our drive to freedom, the paper followed his every step. It welcomed the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 with the following words: "Surely, never had so important and comprehensive an assemblage occurred in recent times on the soil of India."

Watershed events in the struggle for independence were reported evenhandedly. The Dandi Salt Satyagraha, for instance: Extensively covered, reports in the paper described the day Mahatma Gandhi reached Dandi and lifted in his hands a lump of clay laced with naturally-occurring salt – a symbol of his resistance to the patently unfair tax on salt.

Bhagat Singh Rajguru and Sukhdev's valiant struggle of 1931 consumed many columns of this newspaper, the heroic trio's trial being reported virtually on a daily basis. In documenting the court hearings, it famously reported how Bhagat Singh never appealed for mercy. The only petition the freedom fighter moved before the judge was a plea that he be shot and not hanged, the paper mentioned in its columns. The judge was taken aback. You call that a petition for mercy, he exclaimed.

A trawl through the pages of this great newspaper, that celebrates 175 years of its existence on November 3, is rich and rewarding. Probably none other has been as close and faithful to the story of India as Times of India has been, justifying its motto: "Let truth prevail".

On August 15, 1947, on the birth of a free India, the Times of India celebrated with the nation, a banner headline exulting: "Birth of India's freedom, nation wakes to new life." The British had been sent packing. "Union Jack hauled down," the paper's first page said. It shed tears with the common man the day the Mahatma fell to an assassin's bullets on 30 January 1948.

From then on, India went from strength to strength with the framing and adopting of the Constitution, the reorganization of states, Five Year Plans, the Green Revolution and our achievements in food self sufficiency. Our democracy bloomed and matured. The Times of India was witness to these seminal experiences in our national history. It was also witness to some reverses we suffered, the China war for instance. Never one to shy away from controversies, this paper talked of the blows our soldiers took and candidly delved into the policy blunders that led to our defeat.

When Bangladesh was born in 1971, The Times of India was there on the frontlines documenting the triumphant Indian Army's march into Dhaka. Through its columns, proud Indians got to read of the day a shaken Lt Gen AAK Niazi unloaded his revolver and handed over the bullets to Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora in a humiliating surrender ceremony, how the people of Bangladesh embraced the liberating Indian forces and the infectious joy and glory of a nation's birth.

The Times of India also lived through the difficult days of the emergency, press censorship and was witness to the turbulent times that followed the collapse of the Congress government and the Janata experiment. Other devastating moments in history have figured prominently – the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the 9/11 attacks and the nightmare 26/11 strikes on Mumbai for example.

Along this long journey, there have been times when this paper has experienced and mirrored pure joy – that of our Cricket World Cup victories in 1983 and 2011, that of our achievements in the field of science, Amartya Sen and Mother Teresa's Nobel wins.

Today, we are a modern multi-media organization that celebrates economic liberalization, free market and a robust integration with the world order.

Other than becoming a global institution and the world's largest-circulated English-language broadsheet newspaper with 7.64 million readers, it has also embraced the newest in technology and has a bold footprint in virtually every corner of the country.

The Times of India's Internet edition is India's most popular news website today, and is available on Mobile phones as well. In December 2012, these resulted in a combined 470 million page views of which Mobile was 38% of the total. The unique visitors for digital TOI added up to 25.5million readers, of which 26% had accessed TOI via Mobile.

The Times of India truly showcases Brand India to a huge domestic and global audience -over 33 million readers- through its Print, Online and Mobile editions. Not surprisingly, the newspaper, which is the flagship of India's largest media company, Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd, has made an immense contribution to the life and times of the Indian subcontinent over these 175 years.

It has helped shape our vast history even as it has chronicled every major event in the Indian sub-continent --even before the idea of India as a separate country was born. Throughout this time, it has kept one major interest above all else –to best serve its millions of readers with news and information that empower them. Amalgamating the newspaper with cutting-edge digital technology, this newspaper has celebrated India's journey to a global superpower.

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The making of Narendra Modi, unmaking of India

Anand Soondas
24 April 2013, 02:47 PM IST

Ayodhya is an unusually sleepy town with a slightly overpowering population of monkeys. It generally goes about with its existence unmindful of its place in either ancient or modern history. But the early months of 2002 were different. Its people were then wide awake – a few in anticipation, a majority in anxiety. Much of India, too, was on its toes. The VHP had threatened to launch a 100-day yagya to press for construction of the Ram mandir and, by February 17, sadhus, mahants, sanyasis, party workers from across the country affiliated to various saffron fronts had begun converging at Karsevakpuram for the great prayer, to god and to government. The air crackled with the fire lit by hundreds of volunteers. Copious amounts of ghee flung into the flames made it seem like summer inside the camps. Something was bound to singe.

The place had been turned into a fortress, crawling with jawans and officers from the paramilitary forces and sundry intelligence men in mufti from the local and central units. There was talk of the army being called in if the VHP and the akharas did not back down. On the face of it, they didn't. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's repeated entreaties to everyone to wait for the court's order on the impossibly vexed temple tangle were summarily dismissed by the yagya organizers. Ramchandra Parmahans, the eccentric president of the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust, often boomed that it was not a matter to be decided by the judiciary as it concerned faith, the religious sentiments of Hindus. He accused the BJP of selling out. VHP president Ashok Singhal was equally vituperative and unmoved. This is India, this is Ram lalla's birthplace, he said. "Nothing will stop us from making the structure."     

The momentum kept building up. The fires kept burning. Truckloads of kar sevaks kept pouring in. To get the logistics right – food and accommodation, after all, were not unlimited and had to be dispensed with care – individual groups were advised to stay at Karsevakpuram for a stipulated period of time and then head home so that everyone interested in the 100-day programme could get a chance to participate in what the sadhus were calling a historic turning point for India. 

It was one such group returning from Ayodhya that got caught in Godhra on February 27. Fifty-nine Ram sevaks, many among them women and children, were locked inside the blazing compartments of the Sabarmati Express by a Muslim mob to suffocate and burn. 

Something was bound to singe. 
 
Those were initial days of my reporting career and I was posted in Lucknow as the Uttar Pradesh correspondent for The Telegraph. Though I had come back to base, I wanted to go to Gujarat to see the train for myself and the trail of death and destruction it had triggered off. My editor at that paper finally relented and on the first anniversary of the tragedy, I was on my way to Godhra. It was February 27, 2003. S-6, the roasted and ravaged compartment of the Sabarmati Express, was still there at Signal Falia, the station. It looked sullen and angry at its own fate.

In a report from there, I had then written: "In the one year that has passed, Godhra has changed. Everything is divided — people, loyalties, business, bus stops, hospitals, schools. Even truth. Inquire about any incident and you are bound to get a Hindu truth and a Muslim truth…The Hindu and Muslim populations of this town were already divided, roughly in half, making it one of the most dangerous and communally sensitive hotspots in the country. Now, even the geography seems to have split vertically…Being a predominantly Muslim locality has not helped. Business in Signal Falia, which lies next to Godhra railway station, has collapsed. The rows of shops that lined the wall adjoining the periphery of the station have been razed. There were 180 shops in all, the bread and butter of more than 2,000 people. Now, there is only one long line of rubble."

Then, in a dispatch dated February 27, 2003: "The platform wore a deserted look. A quick scan of railway records at Godhra station showed nobody had bought a ticket to board the Sabarmati Express, scheduled to arrive at 2 am. Yet railway security officials patrolled the platform and guards stood outside the station. Five jawans huddled near a bonfire at the station entrance, listening to the commentary of the India-England match. As Ashish Nehra took another wicket, they cackled. At 1.25 am, India's path to the Super Six stage was looking easier. "Bas, aaj India match jeet jaye, kal ka kal dekha jayega," a jawan said softly…The train pulled in ahead of time and lingered at the platform for 15 minutes. The few inside S-6 fidgeted nervously. Suresh Yadav, travelling with six family members, was not interested in the score. "Why isn't the damn train moving" he muttered. His brother, Ramesh, who was peeping furtively through the closed shutters, didn't volunteer an answer. There was a general sigh of relief when the train moved, hesitantly, at 1.56 am."

As I left Godhra and returned to Ahmedabad, traveling to a few other places along the way, there had been one constant refrain from Hindus everywhere – in Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Surat. "Sabak ho gaya." (They have been taught a lesson.) "Garv hai humko." (We are proud.) Almost all of them said their anguish had been heightened by the unwillingness of mainstream political parties and the media to condemn unequivocally and in categorical terms what was a most inhuman, unthinkable act of cruelty.

Finally, though, the marauding Muslims had been dealt a blow for all of history's crimes. From Chengiz to Babur and Jinnah to Dawood, everything had been avenged in one fell swoop. And for this they gave credit to one man. Narendra Modi. For once a Hindu had stood up, and how. In the ten years since the horrific violence startled and shocked Indians with its sheer malevolence and systematic intent, the adulation has hardly ebbed. 

To some extent, I suspect, this lies at the heart of a fair amount of support for the Gujarat chief minister and the man who could be the BJP's prime ministerial candidate for 2014. Though there is no evidence yet to prove Modi let the severe reprisals against the Godhra killings go on unabated – something that would eventually take more than 1200 lives – that's what common folks believe. And sensing the Hindu mahapurush sentiment, Modi hasn't really gone out of his way to disabuse that notion. If anything, he has worked on that image. His 'Gujarat model', he has quietly and subtly signaled, is not just about keeping the economy in place.

Introducing the Vibrant Gujarat campaign a year after the post-Godhra riots was a political masterstroke. This man was a doer. People could do business with him. Faith and finance came together perfectly to photoshop further the portrait. Soon, the Tatas were happy, then the Ambanis, then industry bodies. Even Bollywood. Amitabh Bachchan, not known to be too finicky while choosing his friends, is clearly in love with Modi. His ad campaigns have brought in thousands of more tourists to Gujarat. It helps industry to support, and to be seen supporting, Modi – a man unlike the passive Manmohan Singh or the befuddled Rahul Gandhi. It will be a huge bonus if in future he heads the cabinet in New Delhi and there is need for collaborations with and investments from governments and business houses abroad.

Some foreign powers seem pleased with the prospect already and have ended their excommunication of Modi. Ethics seldom come in the way of enterprise. In the largely scripted interactions he's had – at SRCC and FICCI – in Delhi, no one has grilled him on Godhra. He has instead talked about his vision of India, its powers – both real and imagined – and its potential. Of how it is a nation of mouse-charmers. In any case, the Modi juggernaut now ensures he needn't go any place where there'll be uncomfortable questions to answer. That won't fit in with the painting under construction – of the man on a white horse. He is all about 'listen', not 'ask'.

That no data on Modi's Gujarat outshining the rest of the country has stood the test of time – or compared better with stats coming out of some of India's now-performing states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and even Bihar (Hooda would insist Haryana, too) – has become irrelevant and ceased to matter. A TOI article pointed out how there's growing unemployment in Gujarat, how women and children don't do too well, how dalits are still being victimized, how – far from the promise of farmers selling petrol – large sections are facing acute shortage of water. In 2005, when the US denied him a visa, Modi said he would make Gujarat such a destination that one day the state will be compared with America. He said farmers would be like Arab sheikhs and will have crude oil pouring out of taps in their fields. That hasn't happened, and most likely it never will.

But if there is anything equally responsible for the Modi wave apparently sweeping the nation – fuelled, of course, by a fawning, amoral industry and a core Hindutva vote bank – it is the disastrous rule of the UPA government, its PM and an annoying bunch of Gandhi-worshipping, directionless and out of sync ministers. On every front the country has only gone down the ladder in this past one decade. The economy is in tatters, security is too casual, transparency is hardly visible and administration is non-existent. The lot of our women has worsened. Even as I write this, there have been four rapes in Delhi in the last 24 hours. A 19-year-old was gang raped and a 5-year-old girl brutalized so badly that she is struggling to stay alive. And this coming after the Nirbhaya case following which the government had vowed to increase police presence and patrolling. Only corruption and disparity have grown. If the number of billionaires and millionaires has gone up, so have the poor and the hungry.

In the hands of UPA 2, India has seemed too large to handle, too diverse to unify, too discontented to be mollified. Latest international rankings show that India fares poorly on all human development indicators such as education, child mortality sex ratio, environment, human rights and gender equality. The situation is actually worse than the indices indicate. India ranks at 136 out of 187 countries with comparable data in the Human Development Index. It was at number 94 out of 176 countries in Transparency International's 2012 Corruption Perception Index, slipping from number 72 among 180 countries in 2007. Our gender inequality index is shameful too – at number 129 out of 147 countries. From the absence of food security to custodial torture, and from large-scale displacement of the poor to malnourishment, the Working Group on Human Rights and the UN recently came out with a damning report on India's rights track record. Not taking into account uprooting due to armed and ethnic conflict, India was estimated to have the highest number of people displaced annually by 'development' projects. That's a whole load of bad news.

The other, quite incredible, move by the Congress and its Gandhi loyalists has been to pitch Rahul as the answer to Modi. They have to understand that the poor guy is just not interested in the top job. In fact, he keeps hinting that he's trapped in a wrong body. For a party and alliance in disarray, it would be suicidal to have someone so confused helm it. There can be nothing worse than pushing on stage a leader who does not want to lead. It sends out all the wrong signals. Manmohan Singh says he doesn't discount a third term for himself. That's a chilling thought. Even for Congressmen. 

If the BJP and its allies do come to power, riding on the back of Modi's popularity and the disenchantment with the UPA, the Congress will know exactly who to blame. The Congress.

Indians haven't been so despondent, listless and impatient as they are today. All that large sections of the public want to do is vote out the present government. But if that rage and hope coalesce into a movement that's ready to have Modi as India's prime minister, the country, its politics and its people will have a lot to answer – to itself and to the world watching it. Because then we will never be able to hold any politician accountable for the wrong that he does or oversees or fails to stop. And that will be too much of a price to pay – even if it is in the name of development. Or the promise of it.

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Everest Base Camp

Percy Fernandez
24 April 2013, 04:14 PM IST

It has been snowing since we left Pheriche and we have been walking in a near whiteout condition.  Not the best of the weather to walk but the upside of it is that you don't have an idea where exactly are you heading and as a result, we crossed Tukla pass, en route Lobuche and the Lobuche Pass, en route Gorakshep without any grunt or grumble. We walked into Base Camp in snowfall two days ago. We've had two bright and sunny mornings since, followed by cloudy afternoons and mild snowfall in the evening. Night temperature is close to minus 15 degree Celsius.

Everything inside the tent freezes and there is nothing like the warmth of your sleeping bag. The good thing about a pre-monsoon expedition is you move into warmer temperatures as you near the summit window, says Col. Satish Sharma.  Trekkers who saunter into Base Camp, take pictures at the mani wall and get back but for those who are part of Everest Expeditions, it is home. It is not the most hospitable place to live for two months at 5637 M but you have to get used to it. It is nothing short of being spectacular surrounded by Pumori, Lola, Lhotse and the magnificent and intimidating Khumhu icefall. The air is thin and so are the luxuries that you wake up to in New Delhi or whichever city you live. But you almost get what you want. If you have the money, you could even fly out of the BC to Kathmandu in a B3 Eurocopter, rest and recuperate and get back to BC before your summit attempt. I am slowly trying to gather information about the number of expeditions at BC, but I can tell you there are an incredible number of people climbing Everest this year being Everest's diamond jubilee.

The NCC Everest Expedition camp is a good 30 minute walk as you reach the Base Camp. You may curse, but we are closer to the Khumbu icefall. The North East Everest Expedition camp is close by and so is the Indo-Nepal Everest Expedition Camp. We had a long puja with the typical Sherpa seeking the blessings of the weather gods and from Chomolungma herself, followed by long revelry. The boys have walked up to Kalapathar for height gain as I write this post from Gorakshep. It will be a good two hours or more before I walk into our kitchen tent for lunch.

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China in Ladakh - A frozen state takes time to react to an aggression

Tarun Vijay
24 April 2013, 04:18 PM IST

A polity too frozen in scandals, agitations, elections, promises and having factories to churn out new slogans and charming lines to woo voters suddenly can't be woken up to a People's Liberation Army platoon, pitching tents on a land that poses direct threat to our position. What should we do? Before the politicians could make use of their wisdom; our jawans, under the guidance of officers at ground zero, in consultation with the MEA, pitched their tents too and asserted that they were watching and resisting. It is eye ball to eye ball at 17,000 feet high altitude.

But why was the government sleeping all these years when everyone was trying to wake it up? Last year, a serious breach of security occurred. The district administration wrote to the government about the Chinese direct intervention. Nothing happened. See my note, released last year.

"3rd September, 2012, New Delhi - The Chinese intrusion in Ladakh region has increased manifold just before the India visit of Chinese defence minister.

India's defence ministry must take up this issue strongly with the visiting Chinese minister and ensure that such intrusions are stopped immediately. So much has been the pressure of Chinese armed forces on Indian border villages that for the first time the tricolor was not allowed to be unfurled at Demchhok, near Line of Actual Control (LAC).

I have just returned from Jammu & Kashmir and where I met a delegation of Ladakhi people who complained that for the first time Indian tricolor was not allowed to be hoisted at Demchhok, near line of actual control, where every year Independence Day is celebrated. Instead villagers were asked to unfurl tricolor in a hall near ITBP post, at a distance from LAC.

Chinese Army Personnel have also forced development work stopped in border village Koyul in Leh. The silence of home and defence ministry in this regard is mysterious. In a communication to divisional commissioner, Srinagar (Kashmir), the deputy commissioner of Leh wrote on 22nd August, 2012, '….work is being executed on the bonafide Indian side and the Chinese have no locus standi on the land which belongs to the people of Koyul. Besides, large chunk of an un-irrigated land to the tune of 400 hectares could be converted into pasture area as most of the nomads are dependent on their live-stocks and their main earning is by sale of raw Pashmina wools'. The letter to DC Srinagar by DC Leh clearly mentions, 'The contractors and the labourers have been reportedly threatened by the Chinese security personnel numbering 15-16 on 12th July, 2012. These Chinese personnel were reportedly carrying weapons with them and asked them to abandon the civil works in progress, although it was an ongoing scheme under BADP.'

The DC had further requested Government, 'in order to resolve this contagious issue the matter needs to be taken up with the external affairs ministry and also with Ministry of Home as the people are strongly showing their resentment for unnecessary harassment and stoppage of the developmental work……The work is being executed on the bonafide Indian side and the Chinese have no locus standi on the land which belongs to the people of Koyul.

In another letter by the deputy commissioner of Leh on 22nd August, 2012 sent to the DIG, ITBP (Force), it is stated that, 'it has been reported by the executive engineer that the I&FC Division Leh that the Chinese have threatened to stop the work forthwith otherwise face the consequences….."Since the ITBP is supposed to give protection to the border villages from any such interference from across the border, you are requested to give all necessary assistance in ensuring full protection to the executing agencies in implementing an important project under BADP scheme and to ensure speedy completion of the ongoing working so as to build confidence among the border villages"

(http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/bjp-to-government-raise-intrusion-issue-with-chinese-defence-minister_100642603.html.)

The Chinese didn't allow our engineers to work, they didn't allow our villagers to unfurl a tricolour, yet nothing happened.

The deputy commissioner of the Ladakh region alarmed the govt, the govt silenced him. The Member of Parliament, me in this case, raised the issue in the House, the govt again avoided the direct answer. The people of Arunachal and Ladakh send SOS to Delhi, but the Prime Minister says, we have nothing to fear from the dam building exercise of the Chinese on Brahmaputra and the Ladakh sector is fine, not a single bullet has been fired there, and we hope Chinese will go back.

No they will not. Their statement, from Beijing, is a clear indication that they believe their soldiers are on their territory and its India that is unnecessarily poking its nose into a purely Chinese internal matter.

But what we had been doing all these thirty years post 1962 in this sector? Simply watching and maintaining a status quo, that defies any logic. Are we really governed by Indians who care for the Indian nation and her people and can go to any extent to protect the territorial integrity, keeping the lives of our border people safe and boosting the morals of jawans?

Did the rulers and the non-ruler politicians care for the jawans and spare some time to listen to their woes, complaints, demands and their voices of anguish and hopelessness? How many discussions and seminars saw our worthy politicians sitting in the in the audience and listening to the mistakes and major follies that shook the nation in 1962? It was necessary. It was needed because then alone one could have understood the real face of the 1962 action, so different from what we think we know just seeing the Haqeeqat movie.

There is no other country on this earth that sings so many popular songs eulogizing the soldier on national days, yet treats them like dirt when it comes to provide much needed facilities and honour in the society. One rank, one pension demand was met not even the half way, it was in reality an insult to them as many of the stalwarts described it, yet the govt didn't accept my notice for a short term discussion on this subject in the parliament. Not a single district headquarters can claim that the families of the soldiers and their wards are treated with respect and honour. The way old archaic traditions are still in vogue, refusing to change with the times and the average officer and the jawan is burdened with unbearable stress and harsh, meaningless duties being performed under the barrage of abuses and insults from political rulers like in J&K, is a reflection of the callous, ruthless and insensitive attitude of our politicians.  A CM forgets (?), no, ignores to receive the dead body of a slain jawan in Mathura and makes an amendment only when criticized in the media.  We live for the media and not for the nation indeed.

Another minister had no hesitation to host a discredited Prime Minister of a country that had sent headless bodies of our sons, who had prided to become jawans in the India army. None had the guts to utter the word-revenge and get the heads of the Pakistani savages. If the govt, the rich, arrogant, castiest, parochial, political leaders, for whom Indian has shrunk to their vote constituencies, think the jawans are only paid employees , like any other govt servant, and hence they get paid to get killed, the matter should end there, with some awards on the 26th January parade, they are grossly mistaken.

The soldier is a tradition, a civilisationally cherished, celebrated and worshipped dharma of the warrior. Much higher and much revered role than those who are members of parliament or state assemblies or become some 'stiff upper lip' babus of the stinking class. It's a khandani parampara, the tradition of many generations in our families to become a soldier. The govt is now also doing away with the time-tested tradition of giving weightage to such family of soldiers in recruiting new boys.

The same un-uniformed babus are put over the uniformed soldiers to decide what should be given to them and how much. It happens nowhere else. The uniformed officer is the one who decides the facilities and perks and the equipments for the uniformed tribe. But the old, fossilized system, of the colonial British is still ruling South Block.

Just one example of the Pengong Tse lake, near Chushul, not very far from the DBO post where the Chinese have pitched their tents. For years, the Indian army is provided only three patrol boats, old and junk like. The Chinese have 22 state of the art patrol boats in the same lake region. Why the new, better, and I would say, better than we purchase the Chinese boats can't? Dearth of money? You must be joking. It was the sheer babudom of the defence ministry, tenders, foreign visits to inspect the boats, again tenders, again visits, again files and notings on them. endless journey that made life impossible for the jawans asked to patrol the lake. But this delay will never happen if the babu has to buy a new Ambassador car for his use.

The jawan resisting the Chinese in Ladakh needs nation's full support. Forget the electioneering; focus on saving the Indian territory.

Also read: Endangered Ladakh

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Secret of a happy marriage? It’s a secret, of course!

Rumy Agarwal
23 April 2013, 11:48 AM IST

Marriage is on my mind… Heck no, that's not what I meant… I mean, of course I meant that but not in the way you mean it… Gosh, this is so-o-o confusing! Anyway, let me try to keep it simple. Today is our wedding anniversary—memories of years and years of putting up with each other and believing that we are happily married—the partner is HAPPY while I am MARRIED (both of us think exactly the same, we are in perfect agreement on this one!) So I decided to be slightly pontifical on the lighter side of the (damn) serious business called marriage because, after all, laughing your woes away is perhaps the best way to deal with them! To begin with, I firmly believe that love is totally, incurably blind and marriage is definitely an institution… Following this premise, does that make marriage an institution for the blind? Ah, well…

My husband and some of his married friends (Compatriots? Hmm… sounds good!) were discussing marriage and women with a colleague who, despite being very marriageable in every which way, had eluded the matrimonial "noose" so far , when this guy (my husband and others enviably called him "lucky&rdquo told them that he knew much more about women than they did and they actually protested! Good heavens, but why? The bachelor boy was telling the truth, after all! Because look, if his repertoire of knowledge about women wasn't so rich, wouldn't he be married too? See, we women are so big-hearted that we can occasionally have a good laugh at ourselves too—the rest of the time the laugh is on you guys! It's not mere coincidence that Oscar Wilde (and he was a man, remember?) said, "The man who says his wife can't take a joke, forgets that she took him."  No, not all husbands are humourless all-knowing jackasses—most are actually quite cute and don't think the sun shines out of their backsides either! Jokes apart, one thing is absolutely certain—husbands are a  priceless lot; may their blessed tribe increase!  (I hope that statement takes care of peace on my marital front at least !)

Actually, I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you can annoy for the rest of your life and even get away with it! He puts up with all my idiosyncrasies, my kinks, my urge to splurge,  my bad hair days, my sullen moods and even my lousy cooking at times—and all with that Toblerone smile of his, and he even manages to look happier than King Happy of Happyland ! Yeah, I know he can charm the tusks off a rampaging elephant but, to tell the truth, age isn't mellowing me either—I am as scatterbrained as I was when he met and married me. Psst…if he weren't a surgeon, I'd suspect that he was an archeologist because the older I get, the more interested he is in me! Ha, ha!

Y'know, if I remember correctly, I had read somewhere that Robert Frost had said, "It's a funny thing that when a man hasn't anything on earth to worry about, he goes off and gets married." Tut-tut, Mr. Frost, that was not a very polite thing to say! After all, we women bring joy and colour to you guys' lives and even make humdingers out of mere mortals, don't we?  And we are so amazed at what we achieve that Maryon Pearson was prompted to say, "Behind every great man there is a very surprised woman." The cynics say that this is the fact behind the cliché "Behind every successful man stands a woman". Aw c'mon, some people just can't let a good thing lie, can they?

Well, it takes two to tango, guys, and the marital relationship needs to be fine-tuned from time to time. Actually, marriage is a unique ball game which needs you to give it your 100%. It is a baptism by fire, no doubt, but it is also a marvellous state to be in. And yes, God certainly has a place in this equation. Guys, take my advice (I don't use it anyway—ah, a PJ if ever there was one!) and don't run away from the altar; marriage is not about three rings—engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering. Marriage is about sharing your life, your joys, your troubles, your achievements, dreams and even disappointments with that one person who you love and care for, and who will love you even when the going is tough, who will understand and support you when no one else will, who will tell you that you are up excreta street even if you hate him/her for it, and who will  be around not only when the going is good, but also when the party ends and the music stops.

Whew, I was beginning to sound sombre—my, my! Hey, you know what, getting married is a lot like getting into a tub of hot water. After you get used to it, it ain't so hot. Now make what you will of that—and enjoy!

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RIP Sir Robert Edwards, and thanks for all you did for the humanity

Rita Bakshi
23 April 2013, 11:53 AM IST

The morning of April 10, 2013 came with sad news of the demise of Prof Sir Robert Edwards, the pioneers of the In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). A lot of water has passed under the bridge since he declared the success of the first test tube baby; way back in 1978. As an infertility expert if I look back at the accomplishment of the IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) one of the buzzwords of today, then it is certainly not less than a fairytale.

Born in September 1925 at the calm and cool place called Batley in Leeds, Sir Edwards graduated in 1951 and completed his Doctorate in the year 1955. He was surely the father of In Vitro Fertilization, the revolutionary method that raised the expectations of millions of childless couples worldwide. Dr. Edwards always considered childbirth as the most important thing in life. It was one of the biggest breaking news of the medical field when he and his colleagues Dr. Patrick Steptoe and Dr. Louis Browne revealed the success of IVF to the world.

The process of fertilization had always been a marvel to him and he was always very much thrilled about the most critical moment when the sperm meets the egg to trigger another life. More than the successful cases, he was more inquisitive about the cases where this miracle does not happen. By that time, there had been many experiments and studies published regarding the fertilization of the egg in the laboratory instead of the womb in the female animals. The Professor thought in the same direction and tried to achieve the same thing in the human beings. The hard work and dedicated efforts started showing faint colors of success in the year 1968 when the fertilized egg indicated the signs of development and reached up to the stage of a blastocyst in a week. He peeped through the eye-piece of the microscope and thrilled to see a human blastocyst looking same curiously as him. The journey, however, was not that smooth and it actually took another 10 years of blood and sweat before the first test tube baby.

The entire thing caused a lot of turmoil and there was a worldwide agitation and criticism regarding the "supremacy of the humanity" over the "act of god". Interestingly, the research was never funded by the governments and there was a donation from common people that kept the research alive.

It was a revolutionary year of 1978 when Lasely Brown and Jon Brown were feeling the swing of emotions after getting success in conception after a long wait of nine years. The couple and Sir Edwards were immensely tense and the couple was moved to an unknown place in order to provide protection. After a successful full term of nine months, a tiny baby was introduced to the world and a new era of medical science started. There was no reason for a couple to remain childless and frustrated forever, just because of a minor mistake of Mother Nature!

Isn't it really ironical that the biggest invention of the modern medical science got recognition so late and the mastermind got Nobel Prize in the year of 2010?

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Shootout at Wadala

Meeta Kabra
23 April 2013, 02:11 PM IST

Shootout at Lokhandwala, set in the early 80s sets us up for a crime drama with much too much potential for action. The trailer itself points to typical Sanjay Gupta stylisation of fight sequences as John Abraham yells at the top of his lungs.

The only intriguing fact remains that the film is based on true life events. The problem though is that as far as films are concerned a mafia film is a mafia film is a mafia film. And when its set in Bombay, it can only be so much different from what we have seen earlier.

Then, it all boils down to the atmosphere of the 80s, the dialogue and the manner in which everybody shoots everybody. We saw some gruesome action in Shootout at Lokhandwala. I am expecting nothing less or nothing more than that.

Yet, as always, I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Meanwhile, the music seems to have a 80s feel to them, but it hasn't appealed too many.

Music Reviews:
IBN Live - "3/5"
Milliblog - "NW1W" (not worth one word)

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