Indholdsfortegnelse for January 29, 2018 i India Today

I am not a very religious person, though I was born a Hindu. I do celebrate the festivals and follow most of the rituals. My father was a follower of the Arya Samaj and we had havans on all auspicious occasions, a tradition I continue to this day. I was born in Pakistan and growing up in newly ind ependent India, differences of religion, caste or ethnicity were not something I was aware of. We were taught to respect everyone, regardless of their roots. Some may call me deracinated, and I have to confess I still do not know my gotra, but I believe the greatest quality of Hinduism is its liberalism and its plurality. It is those qualities that are under threat today, as who we pray to and…

In more tit-for-tat firing, at least four Pakistani soldiers were killed on January 15 by Indian forces along the Line of Control. Tensions have been rising, with both sides reporting violations and incursions. On the same day, also along the LoC, Indian forces killed five terrorists trying to sneak over the border. “If we are forced,” said General Bipin Rawat on January 12, “then we may escalate our military action... the army is using its might to teach them a lesson.” The army chief’s sabre-rattling was met with an equally belligerent response from the Pakistani foreign minister, who described Rawat’s comments as an “invitation to a nuclear encounter”. 771 VIOLATIONS OF THE CEASEFIRE ALONG THE LOC BY PAKISTAN IN 2017, SAYS THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT—A 230% RISE SINCE 2016 1,300 CEASFIRE…

ARM’S LENGTH Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn’t show up for army chief General Bipin Rawat’s ‘At Home’, a tea party organised at the latter’s official residence on Army Day, January 15. Apparently, it was because he was hosting his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, at Hyderabad House, a short distance away. Even defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was in her office in South Block, chose to skip the event where President Ram Nath Kovind was chief guest. With earlier no-shows at the air force chief’s At Home on October 8 last year and the navy chief’s on Navy Day, December 4, PM Modi has completed a hat-trick. The view from the services? The PM doesn’t believe in playing favourites. EATING CROW The Ashok Gehlot-Sachin Pilot feud is out in the open…

When those of limited scientific understanding oppose efforts to introduce a cervical cancer vaccine, the situation is bound to turn murky In December 2017, the Union ministry for health and family welfare decided to cancel the introduction of a vaccine for the sexually transmitted Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). The vaccine is used to prevent cervical cancer among women and, ideally, should be administered before the woman becomes sexually active—to adolescent girls. The decision to cancel its introduction in the public health system was reportedly taken after the RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi arguing that it was of doubtful utility, with adverse effects, will divert scarce resources from worthwhile initiatives, will erode confidence in the national immunisation programme and thus expose children to the risk of…

The current controversy has dented the image of the apex court, of the Chief Justice of India and the collegium. And it will take a long time for confidence to return. The political class has never been comfortable with the idea of the collegium. But after a long time, there’s a government with an absolute majority. Coalition governments, despite their desire to bring laws, do not dare to. This time, the government tried to bring in the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) and a constitutional amendment, but they were struck down. I doubt much can be done by this government. If they bring in a new law, it will again be tested on the touchstone of the Constitution. Politically sensitive matters always come before the Supreme Court. There have been…

A WAY OF LIFE, an ancient tradition of religious thought and diverse practices. A uniquely inclusive culture and the source of shrill and polarising rhetoric. How can the rich legacy of Hinduism be squared with the fractious politics that surround it today? While the appropriation of Hindu identity by the ‘Hindutva’ politics of the Sangh Parivar has gathered momentum and helped propel the NDA government to power at the centre—and now in 19 states—recent months have seen an unprecedented attempt by ‘liberal’ political forces to reclaim the lost ground. From Rahul Gandhi’s temple tour on the Gujarat campaign trail to Rajinikanth’s manifesto of ‘spiritual politics’ and Siddaramaiah’s war of words with Yogi Adityanath or the latest posters depicting the PM as Ravana in Amethi—the battle of ‘Hindu versus Hindutva’ has…

HINDU DHARMA GRANTS THAT MALEVOLENCE EXISTS, BOTH AS A MEGA PRESENCE AND IN INDIVIDUAL MANIFESTATIONS OF IT MY FIRST ‘RELIGIOUS’ memory is shrouded in death. And is yet more alive than most things I know. Its ‘home’ is a photograph, black and white as photographs used to be in that era, of a man’s, an old man’s, prone figure on the floor. He is covered in white, his chest bare. Mourners are huddled beside it. It. How quickly, in a single moment, a man or a woman becomes ‘the remains’, ‘the body’, ‘it’. Vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya Navani grhnati naro ‘parani Tatha sarirani vihaya jirnany Anyani samyati navani dehi (As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul gives up the old and accepts new ones.)…

DESPITE THE WANTON EFFORTS TO PAINT IT AS A DEVIANT CONSTRUCT, ‘HINDUTVA’ SIMPLY MEANS BEING A HINDU LET ME FIRST CONTEXTUALISE this concept ideationally. ‘Hindutva’ is to ‘Hindu’ what ‘Christianity’ is to ‘Christian’. This is elementary grammar—an abstract noun formed from an adjective/ noun by adding the derivative particles—tva, ity respectively. As such, it connotes ‘the essence/ the principles thereof’. The particles denote ‘ness’. So what is the problem? The problem is India—specifically political, and globally civilisationalacquiring and retaining political power by rubbishing Hinduism and thereby dividing the Hindu society into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Hindu(ism). The Hindu is ‘good’—he is submissive even in the face of rampant abuse because his perennial virtue is ‘tolerance’. But when he rejoins or fights back for his values, he is ‘Hindutva’—‘bad’, ‘exclusivist’ Hindu. The…

DISEASE & RISK BREAKTHROUGH IN CANCER RESEARCH: AN INDIAN STORY In a first, 24 researchers from eight labs in India, with contributions from Indian scientists at the University of Liverpool, UK, have designed ‘Disarib’, a drug which induces the death of cancer cells. The Department of Biotechnology, Union health ministry, has approved this collaborative effort to produce the first home-grown targeted cancer therapy, that does not set off any side effects. The results have been published in Biochemical Pharmacology. Who took part in the multi-crore project? Mumbai • Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer Thiruvananthapuram • Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology Bengaluru • Indian Institute of Science • Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology • KLE University Pharmacy College In collaboration with University of Liverpool, UK Now detect…

Writer Namita Gokhale hates the term vernacular, a condescending relic of colonialism that doesn’t do justice to India’s rich literary heritage. Fortunately, “that prejudice towards Indian languages is now gone”, says the co-founder and director of next week’s Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF). With publishers devoting bigger budgets and authors famous for their own works turning their hand to translation, works originally written in Indian languages are beginning to break the stranglehold of so-called ‘Indian writing in English’. Last year, Srinath Perur’s English translation of Vivek Shanbhag’s Kannada novella Ghachar Ghochar (Penguin) made it to The Guardian’s list of Best Books of the Year and The New York Times Critics’ Top Books of 2017. Tamil writer Perumal Murugan’s Songs of a Coward: Poems of Exile also won global accolades. “While the…

The humour disappoints, but the lead actors and soundtrack stand out I’m James. I’m 17. And I’m pretty sure I’m a psychopath,” are the first words we hear in The End of the F***ing World; one way of looking at this darkly offbeat show is that it’s about a young man learning that the world is more twisted than he could ever aspire to be. It must be deflating at that age to realise you aren’t all that special or dangerous; that even if you tortured animals as a kid and scalded your own hand in oil, there are much worse, less self-reflective people than you around. This tightly constructed, easy-to-binge-watch British series (eight episodes of around 20 minutes each) centres on James and Alyssa, his restless and depressive new…

GURPREET LAAD, 27, Fatehgarh Sahib Fan Base A professional horse rider, an Instagram sensation and a model—Laad has been enjoying a steady fan following for the past 15 years. Being Royal It is his royal look that seems to draw people to his Instagram feed. “I choose a collection of rich and regal clothes to sport. Some people have told me that I sport a look similar to Nabha’s Maharaja Kahan Singh Nabha,” he says. Singing Debut Laad is all set to make his singing debut with song Tola Yaaran Da. Instagram followers 195K Follow instagram.com/gurpreet_laad/ SANTWINDER SINGH WARAICH, 24, Chandigarh Sikh Blogger Waraich claims to be the first Sikh blogger to have started his fashion blog Singh Flash in 2015 along with his friend Aman Preet Singh Virk. “We…

1 TRADE ON BOOZE Fancy a bar conceptualised on the lines of stock exchanges? Chandigarh's latest entry, Peddlers Stock Exchange (by Peddlers night club) promises an exciting experience for visitors. With PSE, customers get to experience how a stock exchange functions because alcohol prices here go up and down as per demand. What is the Bar Stock Exchange? It is a stock market-based drink pricing system where the alcohol rates change based on real-time demand. In other words, it is essentially the customers who control the prices of all the drinks. How does it work? When a patron orders a drink, the proprietary bar stock exchange software uses a comprehensive algorithm to determine and change the price of that drink for the next customer based on demand. Consumers can compete…

Thugs on Film Another week, another gang of goons finds someone to bully to soothe their injured pride and compromised manhood. In Muzaffarnagar, four men filmed themselves beating a young Dalit man with sticks and forcing him to chant the names of gods and goddesses. The video was widely shared on social media. Police suggest the attack could be connected to a recent incident in which some Dalit men chose to replace idols and images of gods in their own homes with those of Dr B.R. Ambedkar. The assailants were said to be connected to a right-wing Hindutva outfit. In other recent attacks in Uttar Pradesh this month, a mob led by a priest shaved the heads of two Dalit boys as a punishment for apparently stealing stray calves. The…

Bitcoin valuations tumbled nearly 20 per cent between January 5 and 12 on news that South Korea was planning a trading ban on digital currencies, even as the cryptocurrency continued to be under the scrutiny of Indian authorities. A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange. The income tax department, which had conducted searches at the offices of bitcoin exchanges in India, is now assessing the overall size of the cryptocurrency market. Its survey revealed 0.6 million active cryptocurrency traders in the country (unofficial figures put this at several times more) in nine cryptocurrency exchanges. Up to Rs 17,800 crore has been traded on these exchanges. Reports quoting the survey said a 25-year-old, who had invested Rs 25 lakh in bitcoins, has seen the…

“I am being targeted for a decades-old case... Rajasthan police came to arrest me. Someone told me [a] plan was being made to kill me in an encounter... When I realised the CM and home minister are denying the police action, I switched off all my mobile phones...” Vishva Hindu Parishad chief PRAVIN TOGADIA told a story out of an airport thriller to assembled media, having re-emerged after a brief and deeply mysterious ‘disappearance’. A Rajasthan police team had been trying to arrest him on January 15 after a warrant was issued on charges from an old case. He was found unconscious and with low blood sugar later that night. No one is quite sure how he escaped his Z-plus security detail. In a press conference, Togadia alleged efforts to…

The water issue can influence poll outcomes in 25 of the 224 seats in Karnataka. Polls are due in May BJP president Amit Shah’s attempt to force a settlement of the two-decade-old water dispute between Goa and Karnataka ahead of the assembly elections in the southern state seems to be backfiring. Coming in the wake of a December 21, 2017, meeting between Manohar Parrikar and Karnataka BJP chief B.S. Yeddyurappa—at the instance of Shah—the Goa chief minister’s proposal to release 7.56 TMC ft of water from the Mahadayi river to Karnataka is being vociferously opposed, not just by voluntary groups but also members of Goa’s tenuous coalition government. Yeddyurappa let the ‘politics’ of the move out of the bag in pointing out that the additional water would “end the thirst”…

THE JUDGES’ LOUNGE AT THE OFFICES OF THE Supreme Court is a no-man’s land. No one can get close, except the 25 black-robed justices. Every day, at 10.15 a.m., they convene, drink tea and discuss matters of the moment for 10 precious minutes, before the gavels get going. A gracious court ritual that clears the cobwebs but also decides judicial contours of the nation, say court insiders. Lawyers would fantasise about being a fly on the wall here. Now, after January 12, the entire nation is straining to catch their whispers. Somewhere within the colonnaded vaults of the Supreme Court, there’s a slim document, ‘Restatement of Values of Judicial Life’, published in 1999. It lists out 16 canons: a judge should not contest elections, be close to the Bar, hear…

DUSHYANT DAVE Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India To the sceptics, retired judges and senior lawyers who have questioned the bold step by four distinguished and respected judges I ask: what have you done for the institution? Have you stood up and publicly taken a stand against corruption and nepotism in the judiciary? Today, hundreds of bright young lawyers are practising in courts across the country. But they don’t have much work. The kith and kin of many judges garner a lot of the work. The government is the biggest litigant and it routinely appoints relatives of judges on various panels. Even appointments of senior law officers are dished out on a purely political basis. Recently, a report alleged that a sitting Supreme Court judge used his clout to get…

AS A HINDU, I BELONG TO THE ONLY MAJOR RELIGION IN THE WORLD THAT DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE THE ONLY TRUE ONE I GREW UP IN A HINDU HOUSEHOLD. Our home always had a prayer room, where paintings and portraits of assorted divinities jostled for shelf and wall space with fading photographs of departed ancestors, all stained by ash scattered from the incense burned daily by my devout parents. I have written before of how my earliest experiences of piety came from watching my father at prayer. Every morning, after his bath, my father would stand in front of the prayer room wrapped in his towel, his wet hair still uncombed, and chant his Sanskrit mantras. But he never obliged me to join him; he exemplified the Hindu idea…

RATHER THAN A WOUND-BASED MYTHIC STRUCTURE, HINDUISM IS BASED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF TYAGA, OF LETTING GO HINDUS ARE AT ODDS with the world in terms of its underlying mythic structure. By contrast, Hindutva is very much aligned to the dominant global discourse. We realise this if we meditate on two myths: the myth of equality and the myth of the wound. Myth here does not mean fantasy, a 19th century misunderstanding that continues among those who prefer binary thought and cannot handle nuance. It means the subjective truth of a community shaped by inherited stories, symbols and rituals. Myth of Equality In nature, there is diversity. There is also equality in the sense that no creature is nature’s favourite. Every living organism has to fight for its survival using…

LET’S FOR A MINUTE look at the title chosen for this series by the editors of the magazine. The meaning of Hindutva, as we all know, is ‘the quintessence of Hindu thought, dharma, and belief system’. If that was truly the case, the title of this piece should have been the conjoined pair ‘Hindu and Hindutva’. But there is a good reason why the title was split with the word ‘vs’ or ‘versus’. Quite simply the reason ‘Hindu versus Hindutva’ is so apt is because despite its flaws and shortcomings, the former is open-minded and inclusive while the latter is fanatical and has no room for Dalits, Muslims, Christians or any other faith barring Hindutva. One other thing, let’s never forget that the idea of Hindutva is the preserve of…

Care Today A/C TV Today Network LTD (FY 2014-15) Summary Total CSR funds received in FY 2014-15: Rs 93,25,944 Total CSR funds incurred: Rs 93,25,050 Total household toilets constructed: 463 TV Today Network Ltd. has donated Rs 93,25,944 to the Care Today Fund for the FY 2014-15, consistent with Section 135 of Companies Act, 2013. The Care Today Fund established Care Today A/c TV Today Network Ltd. (FY 2014-15) and deployed these funds to implement three projects aligned to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The Care Today Fund implemented one of these three projects in partnership with U-Respect Foundation, an NGO based in Mumbai. U-Respect Foundation received a grant of Rs 35. 86 lakh, which was utilised to construct 163 household bio-toilets in Aliyani village of Shahapur taluka, Thane district, Maharashtra.…

Janice Pariat walks up fast to the first floor of the café-cum-bar in Delhi’s Khan Market. It’s evident from the sound of her boots. She is heaving. She is carrying many bags. She sits and orders her coffee. She likes it black. She does not stop smiling. Fresh off the launch of her latest novel, The Nine Chambered Heart, the Sahitya Akademi Award winning author and poet says the idea for the book came to her on the streets of London. It was late evening. She was walking with someone who she thought she would have a long-term relationship with. “I wondered how would it be to look at the world through love,” she says. Then she pauses. In her book, characters remain unnamed, and so do the cities. There…

MC MAFIA Nawazuddin Siddiqui does a turn as Dilly Mahmood, an Indian business partner of Alex Godman (James Norton)—who has strived to build a legitimate business despite his parents’ ties to the Russian mob—in this eight-part BBC drama. Amazon Prime. DEVILMAN: CRYBABY A Japanese high-school kid gets sucked into the world of demons in this controversial, not-suitable-for-children anime series featuring sexual violence and other brutality. Think Hieronymus Bosch meets Fullmetal Alchemist. Netflix. SHAITAN HAVELI The Ramsay Brothers horror films of the 1980s are an obvious target for parody. But maybe too obvious, this eight-episode series shows. As in most gags, the punchline only works the first time. Amazon Prime.…

Precious Connect Ananya Fine Jewellery Having grown up surrounded by fashion and design, it wasn’t surprising that young Ananya Malhotra, 26, found her passion in jewellery. She studied jewellery design at Central Saint Martins in London and went on to learn gemology at Gemology Institute of America (GIA). “I always wanted to create jewellery that celebrated the profound bond between the wearer and the piece, and that is the philosophy of Ananya Fine Jewellery,” says Malhotra talking about her design ethos. The brand takes its inspiration from Hindu and Buddhist philosophies and her first collection was titled Celestial Lotus. “Lotus is represented in each chakra and I wanted to explore how a piece might influence the wearer when connected to chakras and colours,” she explains. Besides retail, Malhotra also caters…

After announcing on January 10 that national carrier Air India would be opened up to possible foreign direct investment (FDI), the government now says it will be sold as four different companies. While the core airline business, consisting of Air India and Air India Express, will be off ered as one company, AI’s regional arm, ground handling, and engineering operations will be sold separately, Union minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha has said. “Aviation is a very fast growing sector, with really exciting opportunities for all participants, so we felt all of this will unlock growth and the competitiveness of the Air India group,” Sinha said, adding that management control will be with local investors. The sale process is expected to be completed by end-2018. Although the sale…

Pilling underlines the need to replace GDP with a yardstick that maps the well-being of citizens more accurately India’s GDP is expected to grow at well over 7 per cent next year onward and maintain those rates for a decade or more. The Union government takes pride in the fact that we’ll be the fastest growing major economy and probably grow faster than China. Some economists, in fact, advise aiming for a higher GDP growth rate—8, 9 or even 10 per cent plus, arguing that we be more ambitious, especially since we have the potential and the so-called ‘demographic dividend’ in our favour. David Pilling says they are worshipping a false god, and both the concept of GDP and the obsession with GDP growth are useless pursuits—a provocative argument put…

KCR SAYS HIS PARTY WILL NOT SEEK VOTES IN 2019 IF MISSION BHAGIRATHA FAILS Bracing for the assembly polls slated in May 2019, chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is pushing to complete infrastructure projects in the state. Reflecting his sense of urgency, cabinet subcommittees have been tasked to expedite development projects, particularly initiatives to benefit the rural population. Declaring intent, information technology minister K.T. Rama Rao and irrigation and legislative affairs minister T. Harish Rao have begun touring the districts to supervise these projects. In another big push, the state’s power utility is working overtime to ensure 24x7 electricity supply for agriculture. The move, packaged with appeals to farmers to do away with automatic starters on pump sets in order to end wastage, will cost the government an estimated Rs…

Protests by tribal leaders and opposition parties have forced Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh to withdraw a contentious amendment to the state’s Land Revenue Code days after it was passed by the legislative assembly. The legislation enabling tribal landowners to sell their holdings for public projects was retracted after BJP leaders sensed it could alienate the tribal communities—who constitute 32 per cent of Chhattisgarh’s population—ahead of the November assembly elections, where the party is looking to pull off a fourth consecutive victory. Section 165(6) of the Land Revenue Code proscribes transfer of land owned by tribal people to non-tribals, unless approved by the district collector. Last month, the revenue department piloted a legislative amendment diluting the provision and making it easier to transfer or sell off such land after mutual…

Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer once said that the threat to the independence of the judiciary is more from within the judicial system than from outside. Last week’s unfortunate revolt by a few judges of the apex court against the Chief Justice of India substantiates his observation. The public trust and respect built over the years by great men who sat on the high bench have been shattered by the thoughtless actions of a few. Meanwhile, the alleged selective allocation of “sensitive cases”, if true, is a serious matter as it affects the impartiality of judges and integrity of the institution. If the public gets the impression that the allegation of impropriety is not only against the CJI but also against the so-called junior judges, can they be faulted? The letter…

WHEN PARALLELS ARE DRAWN between Hindu and Hindutva, I’m reminded of my days in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in the early 1980s. My mentor then was Yashwant Rao Kelkar, who had earlier been a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak. He would say that Atal Bihari Vajpayee has his idea of Hindutva, L.K. Advani another, K. Sudarshan and Ashok Singhal have their own ideas of it, as do Vinay Katiyar and the Bajrang Dal, and so on and so forth. Why were these varying shades of the Hindutva spectrum at 180 degrees from each other? He said this would cause trouble in the future. Kelkar said that we are all situated in our respective resolve to protect and nurture four facets of being Hindu: its dharma, culture, society and…

ANANTDAS, A VAISHNAVA sadhu, wrote the first biography of Kabir around the turn of the sixteenth century. At one point in the story, he recounts how a delegation of pundits and maulanas of Kashi went to Sikandar Lodhi to complain about the waywardness of Kabir. Being an argumentative Indian, Kabir, the faith leaders complained, refused to believe in the putative divinity of any holy book, and insisted on assessing all propositions and practice against the touchstone of common sense and wisdom derived from everyday life. Naturally, they were upset with him. Sikandar, who had not heard of Kabir, was perplexed. What possible harm could a humble weaver have inflicted on the high and mighty of the city? Had he seized a piece of land or robbed someone perhaps? But, of…

 I AM NOT A HINDU and will probably never be one. In the same way, I am also not a Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Jain or Sikh. It is unlikely that I will ever be any one of these either. But I believe that I have a right to think about and admire and mull over what these great traditions tell me about how to live in the world, what it means to be human, how to be good. I care what they teach me about dying and what comes after; I am interested in what they think the great truths are. THE EXQUISITE TENSION BETWEEN KARMA AND DHARMA LIES AT THE VERY HEART OF HINDUISM I can honestly say that I am enriched by all the religions that I…

When the World Rapid Championships concluded in Riyadh last month, the winner, Viswanathan Anand, wasn’t sure how many times he’d won a world rapid title. He thought about it, tried counting, ran out of fingers, and shrugged, “Quite a few times.” The popular website Chessbase later worked out that it was title #13 for the 48-year-old. That includes winning the first formal World Rapid Championship in 2003, and 11 wins in 15 unofficial world rapid championships preceding the 2003 event. The first of those victories came in 1997, when the Riyadh silver medallist, Vladimir Fedoseev, was just two years old. It is an incredible record, and winning a rapid title at age 48 borders on the miraculous. Speed chess is one of the fastest and most physically demanding of sports.…

Crème Brûlée Martini This drinkable, ‘martinified’ version of a traditional crème brûlée is a custard and vanilla flavoured cocktail infused with vanilla vodka, complete with a hard-caramel shard to replicate the glassy top of the French dessert. Available at Scribble Stories, 21B, Santhal ONGC Complex, Opposite Lilavati Hospital, Reclamation, Bandra (W), Mumbai Call 022-26400754 Cost 475 The Peche Melba While the classic dessert was itself invented by French pâtissier Auguste Escoffier in honour of famed Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, this homage to a homage is a cocktail made from strawberry coulis, peach extract and some vanilla ice cream, all shaken with vodka. Available at Pandora Gastronomy and Bar, Nyati Unitree, Nagar Road, Yerwada, Pune Call 020-30189820 Cost 375 Toblerone This cocktail is the deceptively potent sum of its…

Years after he hit his peak in action movies, Jean-Claude Van Damme, aka “JCVD”, is back. And in a strange twist of fate, he’s playing a has-been JCVD attempting to make a comeback on the silver screen. How glorious is that? Like the Belgian movie JCVD, in which the actor also plays himself, the plot of this Amazon Prime original show, Jean-Claude Van Johnson, sounds like something that Jason Alexander or Jerry Seinfeld would pitch network executives. It works. But only if you remember that the self-aware action-comedy is a parody and not meant to be real, like that video where JCVD does a split between those two moving big rigs. In the show, Jean-Claude Van Damme comes out of a seemingly boring life of retirement to take care of…

Q. What’s your favourite place in Jaipur? Personally, I love Galta Ji, outside the walls, up in the hills. It’s where the old tantriks and sadhus used to hang out. It’s a mountain filled with 18th century havelis and temples, tanks and burial grounds and cremation grounds and it’s wild and unvisited—which I long for in India. Q. What book excited you the most in 2017? Probably Maya Jassanoff’s The Dawn Watch. It’s an extraordinary biography—or study—of Joseph Conrad. It’s part biography, part criticism, part travel book, written in beautiful prose. She’s one of my favourite non-fiction authors. She’s one of the Jaipur stars I’m most looking forward to hearing. Q. JLF has been a huge success. Anything you hope to change in the future? It’s more than a huge…