Indholdsfortegnelse for September 3, 2018 i India Today

“Efforts for peace have been made in the past as well. The late Vajpayeeji had taken the ‘dostibus’ to Lahore and invited Musharraf. PM Modi invited Nawaz Sharif to his oath-taking ceremony. He also went to Lahore without a plan... No one is questioning PM Modi.” Under fire, Punjab minister NAVJOT SINGH SIDHU sought to defend himself in front of reporters with a convoluted explanation for the exuberant warmth he displayed at Imran Khan’s swearing-in as Pakistan’s 22nd PM on August 18. His embrace of the Pakistani army chief has turned into a political squall, with even the families of soldiers killed in action criticising the gesture. Despite his injudicious comparisons with the official diplomatic efforts of prime ministers past and present, Sidhu’s bonhomie as a private citizen was not…

Both as political history and personal memoir, the book is disappointingly limited to a string of racy yarns Much of Karan Thapar’s life has revolved around people in high places. This is not surprising considering his top family connections, Oxbridge education and the need as a television show host to chase down celebrity guests. To carp that this made him elitist, as some of his detractors have, makes little sense since Thapar has unabashedly and quite justifiably used his access to those who matter to make a vocation. Indeed his proximity from an early age to movers and shakers in political circles and beyond is what makes Thapar’s first book named after his show, Devil’s Advocate, a good read. Some of it is undoubtedly trivia like him being named by…

The Srikrishna panel report makes no real attempt to justify its departure from a (fundamental) rights-based approach to data protection August 24 marked one year since the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in the Right to Privacy case. A watershed moment for India’s constitutional jurisprudence, the judgment unequivocally recognised that privacy was essential to the core human values of dignity, liberty and autonomy. This was also the first time the judiciary took notice of contemporary, technology-related privacy threats and expressed the importance of individuals having a choice in, and control over, how their personal information was collected and used. Despite being articulated by six different judges, the court was unambiguous in its assertion that the individual lies at the centre of the right to privacy. It is, therefore, not only surprising…

The Marriott hotel in Goa, nestled in a quiet leafy lane by the banks of the River Mandovi in Panaji, would hardly be seen as the ideal locale to decide the course of India’s contemporary political history. In the land of sun and sand, siesta and susegado, the hotel prides itself on offering visitors a classic Goan holiday experience. In April 2002, however, the hotel was not the venue for beach-loving tourists but for the BJP national executive, a high-profile meet that was seeking to quell the political storm that was raging within the party and beyond. The executive was being held against the backdrop of the Gujarat communal riots, which just weeks earlier had claimed more than 900 lives. Speculation was mounting that the BJP leadership piloted by prime…

Most people tend to have a random approach toward personal finance. They either invest whatever is left after spending rather than the other way round. Or they invest in multiple instruments rather than in a product suited to their needs. As a result, they are unable to meet their life goals. Financial planning gives you a bird’s eye view of your future goals, helps you pace your financial journey and enables you to achieve your goals optimally and efficiently. However, while investing is an important aspect of financial planning, a financial plan is much more than just investing. To embark on this journey, you need to do the following: KNOW YOUR FINANCIAL POSITION Drawing up a budget is the first step toward financial planning as it gives you a clear…

Kajol wants you to know that she is nothing like the overbearing mother she plays in Helicopter Eela, which releases on September 7. But her Instagram posts do sometimes embarrass her teenage daughter, Nysa, who leaves comments disapproving of her schmaltzy captions to family pictures. “She said, ‘I cannot be associated with this. I am not your admin anymore’,” says Kajol with a laugh. There’s still a lot in common between mother and daughter. “We tend to find a lot of things irreverent,” she says. “We laugh at the weirdest things and bitch a lot together. Manis and pedis do that to you.” The single mother Kajol plays in Helicopter Eela doesn’t share any manicures and pedicures with her teenager—a son played by the National Award-winning actor Riddhi Sen. Written…

It’s been done before on shows like The Dewarists, Sound Trek and Sound Trippin. The tried and tested formula: a popular musician travels to a city or town in India to collaborate with a counterpart from the classical or folk tradition. In the new Amazon Prime series Harmony with A.R. Rahman, directed by National Award winner Sruti Hariharan Subramanian, India’s most eclectic composer does the same, but with a twist. He meets lesser-known instrumentalists and singers striving to keep a particular style of music alive. Over the course of four episodes, we learn about the mizhavu from percussionist Sajith Vijayan in Kerala’s Cheruthuruthy; the rudraveena from Hindustani classical musician Bahauddin Dagar in Mumbai; the panthong palith from flautist Mickma Tshering in Gangtok; and the folk song form of Khunung Eshei…

Q. What’s the story behind your latest book, Shyam: An Illustrated Retelling of the Bhagvata? After writing about the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, the third great Hindu epic, the Bhagvata Puran, was an obvious next step. Besides, I haven’t come across anything else that tells the story of Krishna from birth to death. Q. How did you start illustrating your books? Drawing comes naturally to medical students. But 90 per cent of the people don’t realise that I’m the illustrator of my books. A lot of artists have been generous in praise. Q. How do readers respond to your work? I have readers telling me that I make things simple and accessible, that my writing is highly informative, that it’s a pan-Indian view and a refreshing perspective. That the books…

HEMA ARAVIND Manager, Nutrition and Dietics, Ramaiah Memorial Hospital 1 Avoid dining out and stick to fresh home-cooked meals. 2 Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables but make sure they have been washed properly. 3 Keep yourself hydrated. Have green tea or just warm water. 4 Start the day with warm lemon and honey water if you are not diabetic. 5 If you have to eat out, avoid fried food and stick to safe options like idli and soup. SHIREEN FURTADO Consultant Dermatologist, Aster CMI Hospital 1 Humidity and warm temperature are breeding grounds for fungus. Dry your clothes as best as you can for semi-dried clothes can cause fungus to remain and propagate. 2 Wear loose light-coloured cotton clothes as they allow the skin to breathe. Synthetic clothes…

For the first time, Indian women can go on the Hajj pilgrimage unaccompanied by their husbands or a male relative with whom Islamic law does not permit marriage. While in Saudi Arabia, for some years now, middle-aged women travelling in a small group can make the pilgrimage unaccompanied, India has only just adopted the rule change. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Union minister for minority affairs, says it has led to a record number of women going on Hajj. He added that despite the end of government subsidy, more Indians have gone on Hajj this year than ever before. The government claims the Hajj funds will now be used towards the education of Muslim girls. Some, like parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi, contend the subsidy has long been unpopular among Muslims, who view it…

#HimToo? The Harvey Weinstein scandal, which exposed the producer as a serial sex offender, even rapist, gave fresh impetus to the already decade-old #MeToo ‘movement’. But the backlash against actress Asia Argento for paying to silence a teenage actor on whom she had allegedly forced herself, in much the same way she says she was raped by Weinstein, has become a backlash against the movement itself. But #MeToo is critical of power and the ways in which it enables sexual predators. That includes Argento. And the likes of New York University professor Avital Ronell whose toe-curling ‘intimacy’ with a graduate student appears to be a textbook case of abuse. Except that Ronell had the written support of such ‘radical’ academics as Gayatri Spivak, Slavoj Zizek and Judith Butler. They were…

One of the defining moments of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure was his Lahore bus yatra in February 1999. It was a decision that had the potential to fundamentally alter relations between India and Pakistan and, ever the consummate politician, Vajpayee was astute enough to see it and bold enough to convince the naysayers. As the joint secretary dealing with disarmament and international security affairs in the Union ministry for external affairs, I had been involved with all the rounds of foreign secretary-level talks that had taken place, somewhat intermittently, since 1990. The current format of the Composite Dialogue, agreed upon during Prime Minister I.K. Gujral’s tenure in 1997, had been interrupted by the nuclear tests in 1998. After the tests and the ensuing rhetoric, Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif…

1 PREPARE YOUR BUDGET Write down your income and expenses, cut down on discretionary expenses 2 GET PROTECTION Create an emergency fund, buy health and life insurance 3 SET YOUR GOALS IN MONETARY TERMS Calculate the future value of your goals after accounting for inflation 4 DECIDE THE ASSET MIX Choose how much to invest in debt and equity, based on your risk appetite and goals 5 ESTIMATE EXPECTED RATE OF RETURN Based on your allocation to different asset classes, calculate the return you can expect from your investments 6 DECIDE YOUR INVESTMENTS Based on the goals, tenure and expected rate of return, calculate how much you need to invest monthly 7 UPDATE YOUR FINANCIAL PLAN Do so every year in accordance with changes in your income and liabilities…

Contemporary art in India is mostly championed by the private sector. From August 28-30, the India Habitat Centre will play host to the second Delhi Contemporary Art Week (DCAW). Not to be confused with the India Art Fair (which is an annual event in January/ February), this is an initiative founded by seven galleries—from the veteran Vadehra and Espace, Nature Morte to the more recent Latitude 28, Exhibit 320, Shrine Empire Gallery and Blueprint 12. While it may appear unusual for galleries to pool their resources in what continues to be a thin domestic art market, Peter Nagy of Nature Morte underlines the respect that this group has for each others’ programming and the quality of art that they show. Bhavna Kakar of Latitude 28 tells us that the idea…

Anew report on GDP growth for years prior to 2011-12, calculated using a methodology introduced after the NDA government came to power, has stirred a hornets’ nest. The report, published on the statistics and programme implementation ministry’s website on July 25 and prepared by a government-backed panel led by economist Sudipto Mundle, says India grew at an average 8 per cent under the UPA regime led by Manmohan Singh. GDP growth touched a record 10.8 per cent in 2010-11. Without doubt, this was a major embarrassment for the Narendra Modi government as it blunted its argument of the economy stuttering under the previous government. The Modi government changed the method of assessing GDP January 2015 onwards, broadening the definition of manufacturing to include manufacturing services and giving more weight to…

Part of belonging to a nation, of sharing, however nominally, a national identity, is the ability to rally round your compatriots in a crisis. But from the dankest, most fetid corners of social media emerged the ugly cawing of those apparently unhappy not at the plight of their fellow Indians in Kerala, but at the sympathy their suffering was generating. People in Kerala are mostly Muslim and Christian, they don’t deserve your charity, went one argument. They’re mostly rich, went another, so they don’t deserve your charity. And from S. Gurumurthy, newly appointed to the board of the RBI, came the absurd notion that the floods had to do with the Supreme Court’s observation last month that girls and women of all ages have the right to enter the Sabarimala…

With Lok Sabha elections round the corner, the BJP has woken up to its 2015 assembly poll promise of building a memorial to socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan. Two buildings, one by the Centre and the other by the state government, have come up at Sitab Diara near JP’s birthplace in Bihar’s Saran district. Saran MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy has requested PM Modi to inaugurate the memorial on JP’s birth anniversary on October 11. Considering Rudy has been in the wilderness since he was dropped as a minister last year, it could be his moment in the sun again. —Sandeep Unnithan, Anilesh S. Mahajan, Amarnath K. Menon, Amitabh Srivastava…

In the supercomputer that our brain really is, there are terabytes of memories—a conglomeration of billions of experiences packed seemingly randomly into grey matter. Those that are unimportant lie forgotten in its deep recesses. But the ones that matter—the day you proposed to your partner, a tremendous success or failure, the death of a leader you revered—can be played back at will, in slow motion and in vivid detail. Ace athlete Milkha Singh once said that despite the lapse of over 50 years when he came fourth in the 400 metres event in the 1960 Rome Olympics, he could still run the entire race in his mind and even experience the sadness he felt at missing the chance to be the first Indian to win a track and field medal.…

Last year, when the Tata Group decided to restore their global headquarters, Bombay House, they sought out the best in the business. Chairman N. Chandrasekaran approached architect and urban conservationist Brinda Somaya with a plan to restore the 94-year-old building. “He had a clear directive and vision, and a deadline (July 29). It meant that after getting all permissions in place, we had about seven months to work on the heritage building. It was tough,” says 69-year-old Somaya. Somaya and her team at SNK (Somaya & Kalappa Consultants) swung into action. The external façades—AC vents, pipes and ducts —were removed and taken into the chowk. The stone walls cleaned; the tiled roof recast; glazed windows added to bring down the decibel level by half; and the interiors fitted with state-of-the-art…

BEING PAKISTANI by Raza Rumi Billed as ‘a riveting account’ of Pakistan’s arts, literature and heritage, these essays range from close readings of vernacular poetry to more journalistic reflections on the influence of Ekta Kapoor across the border, arguing that Pakistani culture can only be understood as part and parcel of a broader South Asia. POINTS OF ENTRY by Nadeem Farooq Paracha This collection of essays focuses on the cultural Pakistan rarely depicted in the breathless-yet-censorious tomes decrying its struggles with extremism and militarism. The result both humanises and edifies. THE BEGUMS OF PESHAWAR by Najma Yusufi There’s an self-exoticising side to this debut novel about the Durrani sisters—descendants of the erstwhile rulers of Afghanistan. But that’s tempered by their clashes with the conservative traditions that circumscribe them, and the…

HUMANS A remake of the Swedish series Äkta människor (Real Humans), this sci-fi series looks at exploitation of labour (and immigrants) through the lens of lifelike robots. Hooq INSATIABLE In this controversial black comedy, an overweight teen, ‘Fatty Patty’, gets skinny after she’s punched and her jaw is wired shut. Then she takes her revenge. Netflix BALLERS Dwayne ‘Don’t call me The Rock’ Johnson stars in this Entourage-meets-Jerry Maguireseries centred around a successful agent and the superstar athletes he represents; now in its fourth season. Hotstar…