Innehållsförteckning för November 18, 2019 från India Today

In his seminal 1859 essay ‘On Liberty’, the English philosopher John Mills outlined three dangers to an individual’s personal freedoms. The oldest of which was the tyranny of the one over the many. A newer form (at the time) was the rule of the many over the few; in other words, the tyranny of the majority, which democracies are increasingly becoming subject to. The third was the rule of custom and tradition, which straitjacketed individuals and forced them to conform. Mills’ concerns have persisted over the years and continue to manifest themselves even today, 160 years later. The 21-month Emergency between 1975 and 1977, where personal freedoms were suspended, the opposition jailed and the press muzzled, was our democracy’s darkest hour. It was a reminder of why the world’s largest…

My grandmother had eight siblings, my mother, two, and I, none. This familiar pattern is indicative of the demographic transition that every society on earth has gone or is going through—from a regime of high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates. Since death rates tend to plummet first, societies experience a surge in population growth rates, after which they stabilise or even turn negative, as in Japan, where death rates now outstrip birth rates. The empirical regularity of this phenomenon has attracted the attention of demographers for nearly a century and made its way to the general public, usually in apocalyptic terms. In 1973, Paul R. Ehrlich wrote The Population Bomb warning against the consequences of rapid population growth, then being experienced around the world. More…

General Bipin Rawat may be a hardcharging army chief but of late seems to have a troubled relationship with military veterans. A series of moves to restrict canteen facilities has not gone down well with ex-servicemen. The result has been expressions of outrage among the retired fraternity. When social media trolling of Rawat peaked last year, the army issued orders to serving personnel to stay away from WhatsApp groups populated by ex-servicemen. Army headquarters is now believed to be contemplating a move to draw up a code of conduct for veterans. How such a code could be enforced on personnel no longer governed by the Army Act is a moot point. —Sandeep Unnithan with Ashish Misra, Kaushik Deka and Rohit Parihar…

Devendra Fadnavis seems to be the loneliest politician in Maharashtra today. The fall in the BJP’s numbers in the assembly election means Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has refused to give him a pass for a second term as chief minister. Fadnavis describes Thackeray as a “close friend”, but in an unusual situation finds it difficult to reach out to a Sena chief adamant on getting an equal share in power. Indeed, it was Fadnavis’s stand—that the BJP and the Sena had never discussed sharing the chief minister’s post—that gave Thackeray solid reason to doubt the BJP’s intentions. Soon after, he sent trusted aide Sanjay Raut, the party leader in the Rajya Sabha, to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar to discuss a possible alliance between the two parties.…

HOW IT WORKS The malware is sent via text message or missed call to the target phone. It is especially dangerous because it does not need a link to be clicked or the call to be answered to break into the smartphone Can target Blackberry, Android and iOS phones WHAT MAKES IT SO LETHAL The malware remotely and covertly collects information from infected phones, including calls, text messages, location data, calendar information and the like It can intercept and monitor voice and VOIP calls from the device It can extract contacts, saved files and passwords from an infected phone It can break through encryption and proprietary protocols It can be used to track targets, with accurate positioning information using GPS It does not require the cooperation of local mobile service…

The civil liberties and legal protections of the ordinary Indian citizen are in alarming retreat today. The internet and our new digital way of life have opened new battle frontiers. And targeted misinformation, spread via popular internet platforms, by both state and non-state actors, has multiplied this threat manifold. The essays that follow map the many dimensions of this vulnerability, some already exposed and in plain view, others lurking round the corner…

THE IDEA OF citizenship has become uncertain and insecure. In a strange twist of law and logic, all people living in the territory of India are suddenly on trial to establish their citizenship. This is not what it always was, not even in the tumultuous years of Independence, Partition, the amalgamation of the princely states, and the making of a Constitution for India. As the country was being carved up, citizenship was recognised in every person who was domiciled in the territory of India, was born in the territory of India as it was then emerging, or either of whose parents was born in the territory of India, or who had been ordinarily resident in India for not less than five years immediately before the Constitution was promulgated. At that…

IN APRIL 2018, MORE THAN A DOZEN DALITS lost their lives when they descended on the streets to protest a Supreme Court order, diluting certain provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. With no credible research data to back its assertion, the court had, in its concluding observation, referred to “misuse” of the Act by “vested interests”. An order, passed on March 20, 2018, had set guidelines to prevent said misuse, banning, for example, a provision that allowed arrest on complaint, and allowing anticipatory bails for the accused. For Dalits, this was a low blow. They had not expected this from the country’s highest court, especially when they had never veered from the path of non-violent, constitutional methods of resistance, as advocated by their…

ON THE FACE OF IT, being Hindu in a ‘Hindu rashtra’ might sound good to Hindu ears. You might think you are in a rashtra (nation) that is in sync with your faith, values and way of life. However, closer examination and some reflection on the nature of Hinduism as it is lived by hundreds of millions of Hindus will present a very different picture. To put it bluntly, for the sahaj Hindu, being Hindu in a Hindu rashtra is more likely going to be a nightmare. Etymologically, the word sahaj means something one is ‘born with’. In usage, it connotes something done ‘with ease’, which is to say unburdened by diffidence or false pride, self-deprecation or arrogance. Hinduism, as it has grown organically over the centuries, is not a…

Songwriter and rapper Raja Kumari, aka Svetha Rao, recently took a day off. It was mostly to pamper and train Kush Kumar, a French bulldog that she affectionately refers to as her child. “I’m in full mom mode, just watching him and training him. He has already learned to sit, so I’m very proud,” she says. This year, the 33-year-old rapper, based out of Los Angeles and Mumbai, has been busy. She levelled up with the release of her new EP Bloodline and her cameo in Zoya Akhtar’s hip-hop film Gully Boy in February. She was also a judge on the recently concluded hip hop reality TV contest MTV Hustle, alongside desi electronic music producer Nucleya and rapper Raftaar. “It brought me into [people’s homes], especially in the smaller cities.…

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame in the United States, has built on themes dispersed in many of his books to produce Out of Our Minds—a scholarly yet legible journey through history, science, religion, philosophy, politics and economics. Human development and innovation have always relied on imagination, the capacity to see what is not there. While humans may not match the brute strength or skills of many animals, they stand out because they are able to refashion the world after the vision in their minds. Fernandez-Armesto, who is editor of The Oxford Illustrated History of the World, says our Ice Age ancestors explored their surroundings and developed ideas since they had all the food they needed and, therefore, all the time to observe Nature.…

Q. So what comes after the Star Trek series? I just finished filming India Sweets and Spices, which is set in Atlanta. It’s a take on the NRI’s dirt, filth, hypocrisy and bigotry. Then there is Pareeksha, Prakash Jha’s next directorial venture. I’m in talks with around half a dozen production houses for feature films, Amazon series and Netflix films. Q. The Indian film industry is often compared to Hollywood. Is there a major difference? The one thing I think is great about the Indian film industry is that people here don’t become fanatical about perfection. The downside of that is that it may result in a mediocre film, but you don’t lose sleep over it. It’s just a film; it’s not the end of the world. Q. You often…

According to a popular adage, “You can buy history, but you can’t buy a culture.” Clearly, the writer had never really had occassion to attend an art auction. Culture, art and excitement come together at the Prinseps evening sale with an auction of some never-seen-before artworks. Hugh Edmeades, one of Christie’s leading auctioneers will lead the event on November 17, comprising 25 lots. The curated sale includes a selection of sculptures from the stalwarts of Indian modernism—Dhanraj Bhagat, Somnath Hore, Akbar Padamsee and Amarnath Sehgal among many others. The highlights include a rare Bikash Bhattacharjee painting, unseen before on the open market, two N S Bendre paintings, and a K H Ara still life. If that doesn’t represent an ode to the love of art, what does? For more information…

Taking on the future is as much a clarion call for disruption as it is the new anthem for creativity. And the Zenith Oscillator is a much touted icon of this brave new world with revolutionised mechanical watchmaking at its heart. Beating at an extremely high frequency of 18 Hz (compared to the usual 4 Hz usually) and boasting a comfortable two-day autonomy, the Defy Inventor owes its exceptional properties to a disruptive technology: the single-piece Zenith Oscillator developed and patented by the Maison. It has replaced the sprung balance used in mechanical watchmaking for three and a half centuries. This major innovation for the industry—a unique ultra-thin element (0.5 mm) made of monocrystalline silicon that replaces the 30 or so components of a standard regulating organ—offering increased reliability; the…

The Himalayas The first trek of her life as a young child was to Triund where all they saw was beautiful white snow and stayed in a guesthouse which had rat holes in their bedsheets. Konkan With its rustic charm and simple life, the Konkan coast spells home. Eastern and Southern Europe For its stunning beaches, laid back life, food, architecture, culture and theatre. “I want to end up living there,” she says. Egypt Its overwhelming history, culture and the pyramids and the experiences of meeting and connecting with strangers. Northern England and Scotland A memorable road trip while studying in England and the journeys in winter and spring that “changed my life.” The Galapagos Islands Sharing a dive with hundreds of sharks and various species of marine life.…

Spread over two floors, Dublin Writers Museum (No. 18, Parnell Street) narrates the 300-year history of Irish literature through books, artefacts and statues. Entirely devoted to the literary giants of 20th century, the story in Room 2 starts with the Irish Literary Revival—from William Butler Yeats’ mettle in founding the Abbey Theatre to Easter Rising and the publication of Joyce’s Ulysses in 1922. On display is a signed copy of the Ulysses, James Joyce’s typewriter; a letter of refusal from Bernard Shaw to provide an autograph; a specially designed telephone of Samuel Beckett, among other literary treasures. Interestingly, living writers do not find space in the Museum, only the dead do.…

The name Rumbah rolls easily off the tongue, evoking Afro-Caribbean hip-swaying, the memory of plantation slaves fermenting molasses from sugarcane to invent rum, and rolling waves that carried pirate ships and sailors. In a city better known for tech and beer, Rumbah at the Ritz Carlton is a modern exploration of that timeless spirit. For those who want to sample rums from afar, there’s Kraken from Trinidad and Tobago, Bacardi Ocha from Puerto Rico, and the highly acclaimed Diplomatico from Venezuela to be had. But the real experimentation is with the mixes, which Rumbah has down to a science and an art. They make in-house bitters with herbs from lavender to eucalyptus and use sous vide—more commonly a cooking technique for meat, to create flavour infusions, including hibiscus, raisins, starfruit,…

Rajasthan BJP president Satish Poonia fished in troubled waters when he stoked the rivalry between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot. He lauded Pilot for standing up to Gehlot, and said the CM was frustrated with the emergence of the new BJP opposition in the state. Poonia had better watch out. Former CM Vasundhara Raje, who had stayed away from campaigning in the bypolls in which the BJP performed below expectations, recently returned to meet her supporters in Jaipur. There’s talk of her replacing current incumbent Gulab Chand Kataria, who turns 75 soon, as leader of the opposition.…

The killing of four Maoists in the Manjakandi hills of Attappady, the state’s largest tribal settlement, and the arrest of two youth under the draconian UAPA or the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, have triggered a political storm in Left Front-ruled Kerala. The Congress-led Opposition, the CPI (a partner in the ruling front) and civil soci ety groups have blasted the government over the incidents. They allege the Maoists were killed in a ‘fake encounter’. The police, in their defence, have released a video of the October 28 encounter, but the fact that the victims had bullet marks in the back and head hasn’t helped. Close on the heels of the encounter controversy came more bad news for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The home department, which is under him, slapped the…

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s move to rid the jobs and education quota for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of riders and consider an annual income of under Rs 8 lakh as the sole eligibility criterion appears to have paid off, with upper-caste votes in the state swinging towards the Congress. Signals of the shift were evident in the assembly bypolls held on October 21, in which the Congress wrested the Mandawa seat from the BJP by 32,000 votes and reduced the margin of defeat in Khinswar dramatically from about 50,000 votes in the 2018 assembly election to just 4,500. The Narendra Modi government introduced the 10 per cent quota for EWS in the general category in January 2019—a decision that is thought to have immensely benefitted the BJP in the…

The Punjab government is pulling out all the stops to make the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev—the founder of the Sikh faith—a memorable event. The government is in the process of completing a number of projects that will ease the journey for the thousands of pilgrims—from within the country and abroad—that are expected to throng the holy sites of the Sikh faith including Sultanpur Lodhi, Dera Baba Nanak, Amritsar and Kartarpur. The Punjab government has already spent over Rs 550 crore on infrastructure works in these cities, apart from setting up institutions and museums to commemorate the event. Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh, who is personally supervising the arrangements, says his government is willing to spend any amount to ensure that the 550th anniversary celebrations will be…

PEGASUS, THE ICONIC WHITE winged horse of Greek mythology, was almost unknown in India. That name has suddenly become famous, as a piece of crafty spyware that snooped on Indian citizens. On November 1, the Indian Express reported that the Israeli spyware Pegasus was used to snoop on at least two dozen Indian journalists, activists and others, via their phones. WhatsApp and its parent Face-book were suing the spyware’s creator NSO Group Technologies of Israel in a federal court in California, for hacking 1,400 smartphones via WhatsApp servers. They had traced the source of an extraordinary cyberattack detected and blocked in May 2019, that targeted over 100 human-rights defenders, journalists and others across the world. Wait, isn’t WhatsApp securely encrypted, end to end? Yes: others can’t snoop on a message…

THE SECOND-TERM Modi government has signalled its intention to deepen centralisation within India’s federal system. This agenda, already seen in outline in its first term in office, seeks to empower the central government to coordinate, finance and implement policies even in areas where states have been leading players. Simultaneously, it seeks to bolster the competition between states, by strengthening the idea of India as a single national market, in which businesses, consumers and workers are mobile. These are the central themes of ‘cooperative’ and ‘competitive’ federalism, as promoted by the BJP since coming to office in 2014. In the second-term Modi government, attempts to create a national market and reduce the barriers to inter-state trade (One Nation, One Tax) and encourage labour mobility (for instance, through the portability of ration…

ACCORDING TO A 2019 PEW RESEARCH, two-thirds of Indians perceive corruption to be as big a problem as terrorism and crime, and rank it just below unemployment and rising prices. This fits in with the popular narrative. Corruption is easily our most popular topic of conversation. Wherever and whenever two or more Indians meet for a serious discussion on the nation’s ills, they invariably underline corruption as the main reason for our national plight. Paradoxically, the perceptions of corruption are so endemic that we no longer seem to attach any particular opprobrium to it. Indians are curiously ambivalent about the foibles of others. We keep electing corrupt politicians and there is no particular social stigma attached to wealth accretion by dubious means. Take the case of two former Test cricket…

AS CONVERSATIONS ON everyday issues shift online, people are increasingly sharing their views and opinions on social media. This has also given rise to an unfortunate culture of trolling and spamming. But a far more sinister trend is the increase in the number of criminal cases against ordinary people for their online posts. A one-week span in June 2019 saw the arrest of eight people, including journalists, in four states, for their posts—some satirical, others serious—against political leaders. Whether it is to disagree with someone, or critique government policy, or satirise a stuffy politician, or express an unpopular opinion, our Constitution protects every person’s right to hold and express views. Article 19(1)(a) guarantees the freedom of speech and expression, with some clearly defined exceptions—in the interest of sovereignty and integrity…

For the past six weeks, Arif Chaudhary—aka b-boy Flying Machine—has set everything aside for the ultimate goal in a breaker’s life: winning the Red Bull BC One World title. Chaudhary is already a three-time champion of the Indian edition of the competition. What makes the 16th World Final special is that it’s happening on his home turf, Mumbai. This is the first time that India will see the best breakers— men and women—coming together. “I’m prepping every single day, both, physically and mentally,” says the 23-year-old. “I think about my goals every day, and every day I train for four hours after breakfast.” After that, he adds another two hours of training with members of his crew, Beast Mode. He’s not the only Indian competing at the biggest breaking competition…

Far from the bustling, big-ticket shows of Dutch Masters or Camp fashion, beyond the high-ceilinged galleries of large American canvases, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is a maze of jewel-box galleries. Hosting exhibitions like Sita and Rama: The Ramayana in Indian Painting, these dimly lit chambers hint at the museum’s even vaster subterranean collections. When airing out its cache of South Asian miniature art, the Met has periodically shown groups of paintings from the Ramayana—most recently in 2005 and 2010. This current exhibition, on view in two rotations until August 2020, includes 30 paintings and a couple of textile pieces. Mounted in a room painted deep vermilion, Sita and Rama is accessed via a landing—installed with the dome and balconies of a 16th century Jain prayer hall…

WHILE FILMING ONE of his travel shows, English actor, writer and television presenter Sir Michael Palin found himself celebrating a festival in an Amazonian village. As a special treat for an honoured guest, he was offered some potent wine. He wondered where the sugar had come from since he hadn’t noticed any sugarcane fields around. He was later informed that when sugar was scarce, the grapes were fermented with saliva, generously donated by the resident old women! Of course, not all travel is imbued with such unexpected experiences. To celebrate the seeker of enchanting experiences, Spice explores journeys that challenge boundaries to explore a life beyond the familiar. Critically-acclaimed actor Radhika Apte, who recently bagged the Best Actress nomination at the 2019 International Emmy Awards for her performance in the…

In 1980, Chopard launched the St Moritz—a metal bracelet timepiece with a unisex appeal. It was designed and envisioned by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele at 22. The idea was to encapsulate all things dear to the family, especially the Swiss Alps. It ran its course and did exceptionally well but somehow died over time. Just as we heard the end of this nearly lost fable, we heard the sound of an eagle flying in and before anything else was said, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele let out his arm covered in a rustic leather glove, and that’s exactly where the eagle landed. It was beautiful, poetic and so majestic. He said, “This is a clue, you will soon know why” with a warm reassuring smile. A spitting image of St Moritz, 39 years later, the…

Polymath: that’s the only adjective which seems appropriate for the FTR 1200S—Indian Motorycles’ do-it-all 123 horsepower, raised-on-its-haunches steed—that manages to straddle all kind of terrain with a surefootedness that belies its 220-kilo heft. The chunky rubber performs magnificently in dirt and manages to hold its own on the tarmac. In India, the FTR’s deftness on the road, and superb ground clearance make it, for lack of a better word, utilitarian. Now that is a luxury. Prices start at ₹14.99 lakh…

With government departments in Uttar Pradesh running up unpaid electricity dues amounting to Rs 13,583 crore, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered the state to cut power supply to departments that have dues over Rs 1 crore. BSNL, with unpaid dues of over Rs 200 crore, is the top offender. Since the deep-in-debt PSU telecom provider can hardly afford a power cut to its towers, Union minister for communications and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad has intervened, dashing off a missive to the UP chief minister asking till March 2020 to clear dues. Prasad’s call is on hold—the chief minister has forwarded his letter to the UP Power Corporation.…

Mamata Banerjee is switching tactics to fight the BJP ahead of the 2021 state election. Overruling her partymen’s suggestion to counter the BJP’s Jai Shri Ram slogan with Joi Ma Kali, the West Bengal chief minister is advocating complete silence on Lord Ram and the Ram mandir instead. The change in strategy is reportedly at the behest of election strategist Prashant Kishor. Now, each MLA has been asked to be accessible to his voters and spend 10 nights in the villages of his constituency by the end of December.…

With less than a month to go for the five-phase assembly election in Jharkhand, scheduled from November 30 to December 20, the anti-BJP opposition alliance in the state has suffered a jolt with the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P), led by former chief minister Babulal Marandi, deciding to go it alone and contest all 81 seats in the state. Marandi said on November 3 that the ‘insignificant number of seats’ offered to the JVM-P by the opposition allies had prompted the decision. The Congress, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and JVM-P had announced their tie-up ahead of the Lok Sabha election, but the BJP-led NDA walked away with 12 of the state’s 14 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP won 11 seats and ally All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU)…

WE LIVE IN A TIME OF INFORMATION ABUNDANCE, and with explosive growth in mobile internet access, more Indians have access to more information than in any point in history. With an estimated over two billion websites, search engines to find them, billions of users of social media and messaging applications, and several billion videos hosted on video-sharing sites, Indians who are online have access to an amount and variety of information that was unthinkable in a pre-digital age. The problem is that much of that information is crap, that some of it is outright dangerous for both individual citizens and society at large, and that the platforms we rely on to find the islands of information in this ocean of crap struggle to protect their users from abuse and sometimes…

TRAGEDY AND ABSURDITY ARE today the sun and the moon on our mediascape. On Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, India’s largest-selling English daily carried a full front-page ad for Bard of Blood, a gory revenge war film streaming on Netflix. It surprised very few. Some of our top academics, artists, social workers, lawyers, human rights and civil liberties activists and senior Opposition leaders have been charged with sedition for raising questions about the state of affairs. Many still languish behind bars, their bail pleas refused more than once. At the same time, several who were jailed for mob lynching, and rapists said to be close to big political leaders, have been bailed out and the complainants put behind bars instead. We are becoming more and more vulnerable each day because a…

IT MAY SURPRISE MANY that the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) prayer invokes ‘Hindu Rashtra’ only once. It says: “vayam Hindu rashtraanga bhoota (we are all part of ‘Hindu Rashtra’)”. The RSS does not say we will create a new Hindu Rashtra. Nor does it say we will amend the Constitution of India and declare this country a Hindu Rashtra. Yet, the Sangh’s commitment to a Hindu Rashtra evokes everything from fear to anger to dismay. Opprobrium is heaped on the RSS even as an overwhelming majority praise and welcome the ‘creation’ of Hindu Rashtra. There is ignorance or lack of clarity on both sides. Where the mention of Hindu Rashtra causes any apprehension or a sense of unease, it is really a fear of the unknown—an unknown that also unites…

ON A HERITAGE WALK IN DELHI a while ago, I was with some friends waiting to get into Humayun’s Tomb. Among them was a woman journalist, and as we waited to enter this historical, world heritage monument in central Delhi, she turned to her college-going son to share a bit of personal history. Across the road from where we stood was the Nizamuddin police station. “Daddy was kept there, when he was arrested during the Emergency,” she said, pointing in the direction. Her husband, now a well-known politician, was at the time a student leader at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Talking later to young lawyers in my office, I narrated this mother-and-son exchange. And tacked on a question: “Imagine I have been detained in similar circumstances, and you have filed…

When the Booker committee broke its rules to award Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other a joint prize with Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, we knew it had to be a special book. Evaristo has many novels to her credit, and her work is sometimes described as ‘fusion fiction’. In this instance, her text looks like poetry on the page, the lines broken so that each ends with a punch. But her story is always fluid. While maintaining the emotional control of a poet, she creates a novelist’s universe. Before we know it, we are deep in the story of Amma, an actor, playwright and director from up north with Scottish, Ghanaian and Nigerian ancestry, whose work has steadily marched from the fringes of English theatre into the spotlight. She is staging…

IN FOCUS: LAKSHMI Asia Society, New York On view till January 5, 2020 You will find see a painting of Kichijoten, the Japanese Buddhist version of Lakshmi, and contemporary collages by Roberto Custodio, who was inspired by images of the Hindu deity. GATEWAY TO HIMALAYAN ART The Rubin Museum of Art, New York On view till June 8, 2020 The exhibition conveys the rich traditions of Himalayan art with objects like a stupa, a prayer wheel and a Tibetan hangingscrollpainting(thangka). TREE AND SERPENT: EARLY BUDDHIST ART IN INDIA, 200 B.C.–A.D. 400 The Met Fifth Avenue, New York On view till February 14, 2021 Celebrating 150 years in 2020, the Met will be putting on display 150 objects that will together elucidate how the religious landscape of ancient India was transformed…

1. RADHIKA RAJE GAEKWAD MAHARANI OF BARODA Born into the princely family of Wankaner, Gujarat, she worked as a journalist before marrying Samarjirsinh Gaekwad and moving to Baroda. She is a regular contributor to leading magazines and dailies. Radhikaraje and Samarjitsinh have two daughters, Padmajaraje and Narayaniraje. 2. SUDARSHAN SHETTY ARTIST Born in 1961 in Mangalore, Sudarshan Shetty completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai. The artist strives to escape from the social framework, and at the same time, tries to collect scattered fragments of daily life. Shetty is currently based out of Mumbai. 3. SUVIR SARAN CHEF New Delhi-born Saran is the chairman of Asian Studies Centre at the Culinary Institute of America. His Michelin star New York restaurant Devi, was a popular…

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The Konkan coast is where she went on trips as a child, ate food, cooked on wood fires, drew water from a well, bathed in river waters and brought home caterpillars to watch them grow into butterflies. “It is special because it is close to how I was brought up,” says actor Radhika Apte—the poster child for a life filled with adventure. She is a non-conformist, who thrives on new challenges, savours unconventional experiences and relishes pushing the boundaries. Revelling in a journey in the performing arts spanning almost two decades, the Pune-bred actor has seamlessly transitioned from theatre which is a “meditative process and passion” for her, to her highly acclaimed and diverse roles on the big screen to extremely popular web series. The star recently won a Best…

CHANDELIERS ARE TO LIGHTS WHAT what frosting is to cake; a glamour frill that you could do without, but given the right occasion, it can add that nuanced flavour your room needs. From loud patterns that scream statement to dramatic forms for the art lover; a retro revival for the old soul; and traditional lighting, straight from royal palaces, for those who prefer classic designs- there’s something for everyone. Take your pick from Baccarat and Lladro’s classic chandeliers, Bent Chair and Brand Van Egmond’s drama-drenched designs or Timothy Oulton and John Pomp’s vintage options to bring some glitter home. THE CLASSIC The chandelier may have evolved in size, form and function but it’s still the glamour puss of the lighting world, especially the traditional chandelier that continues to stand out…

There is a certain magic to celebrating the ‘first’ of anything; it heralds the beginning, a departure, sometimes even a revolution. Purists consider the chronograph a queen among fine watchmaking complications; it may not be a rare complication but it is challenging to come up with an original aesthetic with so many variations already existing. As the monopusher chronograph makes its grand entrance into the Jaquet Droz stable, it’s time for the watch marque to boast the swagger. It was one of the few complications yet to grace the Grande Seconde, and now the brand presents this creation in two versions: a highly limited inaugural edition (numerous clausus of only 88 pieces), as well as three permanent additions to the collection. The red gold limited edition offers a striking Grand…