Length of Sweet

In the busy commercial center of Old Delhi, a worker outside a shop twists a length of syrup that will be used to make sweets

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Red fort- Delhi

In 1638 Shahjahan transferred his capital from Agra to Delhi and laid the foundations of Shahjahanabad, the seventh city of Delhi. It is enclosed by a rubble stone wall, with bastions, gates and wickets at intervals. Of its fourteen gates, the important ones are the Mori, Lahori, Ajmeri, Turkman, Kashmiri and Delhi gates, some of which have already been demolished. His famous citadel, the Lal-Qila, or the Red Fort, lying at the town's northern end on the right bank or the Yamuna and south of Salimgarh, was begun in 1639 and completed after nine years. The Red Fort is different from the Agra fort and is better planned, because at its back lies the experience gained by Shahjahan at Agra, and because it was the work of one hand. It is an irregular octagon, with two long sides on the east and west, and with two main gates, one on the west and the other on the south, called Lahori and Delhi gates respectively. While the walls, gates and a few other structures in the fort are constructed of red sandstone, marble has been largely used in the palaces.

From the western gateway after passing through the vaulted arcade, called Chhatta-Chowk, one reaches the Naubat- or Naqqar-Khana ('Drum-house'), where ceremonial music was played and which also served as the entrance to the Diwan-i-'Am. Its upper storey is now occupied by the Indian War Memorial Museum.

.The Diwan-i-' Am ('Hall of Public Audience') is a rectangular hall, three aisle deep, with a façade of nine arches. At the back of the hall is an alcove, where the royal throne stood under a marble canopy, with an inlaid marble dias below it for the prime minister. The wall behind the throne is ornamented with beautiful panels of pietra dura work, said to have been executed by Austin de Bordeaux, a Florentine artist. Orpheus with his lute is represented in one of the panels here. Originally there were six marble palaces along the eastern water front. Behind the Diwan-i-' Am but separated by a court is the Rang-Mahal ('Painted Palace'), so called owing to coloured decoration on its interior. It consists of a main hall with an arched front, with vaulted chambers on either end. A water-channel, called the Nahr-i-Bihisht ('Stream of Paradise'), ran down through it, with a central marble basin fitted with an ivory fountain. The Mumtaz-Mahal, originally an important apartment in the imperial seraglio, now houses the Delhi Fort Museum.

The Diwan-i-Khass ('Hall of Private Audience') is a highly-ornamented pillared hall, with a flat ceiling supported on engrailed arches. The lower portion of its piers is ornamented with floral pietra dura panels, while the upper portion was originally gilded and painted. Its marble dias is said to have supported the famous Peacock Throne, carried away by the Persian invader Nadir Shah.

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Delhi shivers

On Gurgaon-Mehrauli road, Delhi: After a warm December, the sudden chill saw several people out in the city, specially school children making the most of the remaining days of their winter vacation.

At India Gate: Delhi shivered as thick blanket covered entire city and whole of North & North-East India.

Most trains from north & eastern part of India where running late by 8-12 hrs.The city was left shivering, since the maximum temperature had dipped to 15 degrees Celsius (20.2 on Friday) by the afternoon though the minimum was slightly higher than Friday at 5.4 degrees Celsius. So, it was officially declared a ‘cold day' by the met department and people couldn't agree more.

Those driving home on Friday night weren't surprised to see day struggling to break out on Saturday. Many were lucky to stay home but those who had hit the road faced an ordeal with visibility at 10 am only 100 metres.

The morning scene at Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi on Saturday where United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi was to lay the foundation stone for the new airport building complex.

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World AIDS Day

Indian students and youths hold candles after a procession held to mark 'World AIDS Day', in New Delhi, 01 December 2008. India is home to 8.2 million patients of HIV/AIDS. As the globe marked world AIDS Day an estimated 90 million people are living with HIV worldwide. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people, United Nations reports that somebody in the world is newly infected with HIV every 8 seconds

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Let Peace Prevail

There is a savage irony to the fact that the horror in Mumbai began with terrorists docking near the Gateway of India. The magnificent arch, built in 1911 to welcome the King-Emperor George V, has ever since stood as a symbol of the openness of the city. Crowds flock around it, made up of foreign tourists and local yokels; touts hawk their wares; boats bob in the waters, offering cruises out to the open sea.
Mother of NSG Major Sandeep Uninarayanan grieves at his funeral
The teeming throngs around it daily reflect India's diversity, with Parsi gentlemen out for their evening constitutionals, Muslim women in burqas taking the sea air, Goan Catholic waiters enjoying a break from their duties at the stately Taj Mahal Hotel, Hindus from every corner of the country chatting in a multitude of tongues. Today, ringed by police barricades, the Gateway of India — the gateway to India, and to India's soul — is barred, mute testimony to the latest assault on the country's pluralist democracy. The terrorists, who heaved their bags laden with weapons up the steps of the wharf to begin their assault on the Taj, like their cohorts at a dozen other locations around the city, knew exactly what they were doing. Theirs was an attack on India's financial nerve-centre and commercial capital, a city emblematic of the country's energetic thrust into the 21st century. They struck at symbols of the prosperity that was making the Indian model so attractive to the globalising world — luxury hotels, a swish cafe, an apartment house favoured by foreigners. The terrorists also sought to polarise Indian society by claiming to be acting to redress the grievances, real and imagined, of India's Muslims. And by singling out Britons, Americans and Israelis for special attention, they demonstrated that their brand of Islamist fanaticism is anchored less in the absolutism of pure faith than in the geopolitics of hate. Today, the platitudes flow like blood. Terrorism is unacceptable; the terrorists are cowards; the world stands united in unreserved condemnation of this latest atrocity. Commentators in America trip over themselves to pronounce this night and day of carnage India's 9/11. But India has endured many attempted 9/11s, notably a ferocious assault on its national Parliament in December 2001 that nearly led to an all-out war against the assailants' presumed sponsors, Pakistan. This year alone, terrorist bombs have taken lives in Jaipur, in Ahmedabad, in Delhi and (in an eerie dress-rehearsal for the effectiveness of synchronicity) several different places on one searing day in the state of Assam. Jaipur is the lodestar of Indian tourism to Rajasthan; Ahmedabad is the primary city of Gujarat, the state that is a poster child for India's development, with a local GDP growth rate of 14%; Delhi is the nation's political capital and India's window to the world; Assam was logistically convenient for terrorists from across a porous border. Mumbai combined all the four elements of its precursors: by attacking it, the terrorists hit India's economy, its tourism, and its internationalism, and they took advantage of the city's openness to the world. A grand slam. Indians have learned to endure the unspeakable horrors of terrorist violence ever since malign men in Pakistan concluded it was cheaper and more effective to bleed India to death than to attempt to defeat it in conventional war. Attack after attack has proven to have been financed, equipped and guided from across the border, the most recent being the suicide-bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul, an action publicly traced by American intelligence to Islamabad's dreaded military special-ops agency, the ISI. The risible attempt to claim ‘credit' for the Mumbai killings in the name of the ‘Deccan Mujahideen' merely confirms that wherever the killers are from, it is not the Deccan. The Deccan lies inland from Mumbai; one does not need to sail the waters of the Arabian Sea to the Gateway of India to get to the city from there. In its meticulous planning, sophisticated co-ordination and military precision, as well as its choice of targets, the assault on Mumbai bore no trace of what its promoters tried to suggest it was — a spontaneous eruption by angry young Indian Muslims. This horror was not homegrown. The Islamist extremism nurtured by a succession of military rulers of Pakistan has now come to haunt its well-intentioned but lamentably weak elected civilian government. The bombing of Islamabad's Marriott Hotel proved that Frankenstein's monster is now well and truly out of that government's control. The militancy once sponsored by its predecessors now threatens to abort Pakistan's sputtering democracy and seeks to engulf India in its flames. There has never been a stronger case for firm and united action by the governments of both India and Pakistan to cauterise the cancer in their midst. Inevitably, the questions have begun to be asked: ‘‘Is it all over for India? Can the country ever recover from this?'' Of course the answers are no and yes, but outsiders cannot be blamed for asking existential questions about a nation that so recently had been seen as poised for take-off. India can recover from the physical assaults against it. It is a land of great resilience that has learned, over arduous millennia, to cope with tragedy. Within 24 hours of an earlier Islamist assault on Mumbai, the stock exchange bombing in 1993, Bombay's traders were back on the floor, their burned-out computers forgotten, doing what they used to before technology had changed their trading styles. Bombs and bullets alone cannot destroy India, because Indians will pick their way through the rubble and carry on as they have done throughout history. But what can destroy India is a change in the spirit of its people, away from the pluralism and co-existence that has been our greatest strength. The prime minister's call for calm and restraint in the face of this murderous rampage is vital. If these tragic events lead to the demonisation of the Muslims of India, the terrorists will have won. For India to be India, its gateway — to the multiple Indias within, and the heaving seas without — must always remain open.

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Mumbai terror attacks: Economy braces for short-term shocks

The terror attacks that rocked India's financial capital may depress stocks, slow new investment, but are unlikely to inflict long-term damage on the nation's economy.The Confederation of Indian Industry believes that the attacks in Mumbai will not have a long-term impact on Indian business and the Indian economy but as CII President K.V. Kamath, points out, the attack highlights the threat to the institutions of business that are an integral part of India's growth and its relationship with the world.Though the terrorist attacks are targeted at the commercial capital of the country with an objective of disrupting the economy as law and order is an important determinant in any investor's decision. The attacks are likely to register a small and extremely short term blip on the economic radar of the country. According to L.K. Malhotra, President, PHD Chamber, such isolated incidents do not adversely affect the sentiment except in the very short-term. The attacks will affect adversely the capital market sentiment, tourist inflows, etc. in the extremely short term and all these will bounce back within a few days and it will be business as usual.The Indian economy has been doing well in recent years and is one of the top performing economies in the world. No doubt, on account of the global financial crisis, the Indian economy is currently feeling a strain which may get accentuated in the coming months and needs to be dealt with urgently in the economic arena by the economic policy makers of the nation.

Capital market analysts feel that short-term postponement of people's investment plans and a rethink by people on relocating to Mumbai is a possibility. As foreign tourists were held captive in top hotels, there might be a downgrade on the big and reputed names in the hotel industry.The real fear dawning now is that the attacks would impact India's stature as an investment destination. As it is the corporates are finding it tough to raise money through external commercial borrowings. However, experts while admitting that people would be scared, rule out companies considering a hasty exit.A Merrill Lynch analyst points out that foreigners understand Indian economy and India is a good place to invest in during crisis.

However, there are other economic implications of the attack spinning out from bilateral trade ties between India and Pakistan. With Pakistan militants reportedly behind the attacks, a proposed movement on the removal of the ban on FDI from Pakistan to India and vice versa looks likely to be put on the backburner. At stake is also the lack of telecom connectivity between the two countries which is to be addressed by the optical fibre link becoming fully functional by 2009.Moreover, both India and Pakistan had allowed two banks from their countries to set up branches in either country. While the basic decisions in this regard have been taken, the implementation can only kick off once the banks send an application to their respective central bank for the go-ahead that may suffer.Onkar S Kanwar, Co-President, India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Past President, FICCI, had underscored the need for liberalising the visa regime between the two countries by issuing of non-police reporting and long term multiple entry business visas. Few see that happening now.

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Who was in charge?

Mumbai did not have one man in charge sitting in a command centre, directing operations. Instead, reflecting the diffused nature of the graded and gradual response, it had a multitude of security agencies who took over storming operations soon after the situation began slipping out of the Mumbai Police's hands around midnight of November 26.Here's who they were:Lt General Nobel ThamburajGeneral Officer Commanding in Chief Southern Command, based in Pune. The Maharashtra and Gujarat (M&G) area commanded by Major General Hooda reports to him. Thamburaj is the army's next vice chief designate. When the troops of the M&G area and Marine Commandos could not break the siege, the southern command deployed army commandos flown in from outside MumbaiJ.K. Dutt, Director General, NSGHeads the 7,000-strong National Security Guard which is the union home ministry's special response unit. Has two arms – the Special Action Group (SAG) staffed entirely by army personnel on deputation and the Special Ranger Group (SRG) staffed by police and paramilitary forces on deputation. The NSG deployed two units of the SAG – 51 and 52 – tasked with counter-assault and anti-hijack to break the siege at the Oberoi and Taj hotels and Nariman House.. Vice Admiral Jagjit Singh BediFlag Officer Commanding Western Naval Command based in Mumbai. Received a call from the Maharashtra chief secretary around Wednesday midnight requesting for Marine Commandos. Eighteen marine commandos were rushed into Taj Hotel and they began an encounter with the terrorists holed up inside around midnight. The force was increased to around 30 later in the day and assisted the NSG in operations for the next 48 hours.

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When Mumbai was at Gun point

Armyman take guard at Colaba.
Policeman walks outside the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station
policeman walks outside the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station

Investigating officers look at the wreckage of a vehicle destroyed in one of the terror strikes in Mumbai on Wednesday, November 26, 2008.

Mediapersons keep to the ground to avoid bullet injuries during the commando operation at Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai on Saturday, November 29, 2008.

Policemen outside the Mantralya

Policemen outside the Oberoi Hotel

Policemen take guard in front of the Mantralaya due to the rumours of fresh attack on Friday, November 28, 2008

Security personnel take guard during the operation to clear the Taj Mahal Hotel of terrorists in Mumbai on Saturday, November 29, 2008

Smoke engulfs the Taj Hotel in Mumbai on Saturday, November 29, 2008. Commandos killed the three terrorists holed up inside and reclaimed the historic building after a 59-hour gunbattle

For more pics of blasts click Here

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Mumbai Whispers

What I hear from the gasps of Mumbai, and what I read from the multiplying notations of blood: a) The willful victim state of terror that is India learns nothing, and gives its cheapest commodities—we, the citizens—to the marauders of radical Islam.
b) Lives are dispensable in an India where political expediency triumphs over national interest.
c) The politician has abdicated the nation. He looks into the microphone—or the television camera—when he should ideally be looking with guilt and remorse into the savaged soul of the nation.
d) We know who the enemy of the nation is; we know the religion of terror; but we have problem with nomenclature; we are not politically prepared to name the Evil.
e) We think winning an election would be problematic if we dared to utter 'Islamic' or 'Muslim' as an adjective to the terror that strikes at the foundation of the nation.
f) What is at work is not political correctness but political cowardice, for even the terrorist would feel hurt if we denied him his religious honour. Jihad is the war of radical Islamism. Isn't it?
g) The most dangerous place in the world is our neighbour, but we refuse to identify Pakistan, whose fastest growing industry is jihad, as the source and sponsor of terror that challenges India's existence.
h) Learn from Israel, the nation that never sleeps, how to be alive when you're surrounded by people who deny you your nationhood.
i) For the sake of the greater national good, let's be prepared to compromise a bit on our civil liberties. Harder times require harsh laws.
j) Let's live, and let's not let the soldiers of an angry god take away our freedom—our freedom to walk on the street, check into a hotel, shop in the mall…let our lives be not subordinated to the nihilistic fantasy of a few.

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New terror strategy

Just as 9/11 entered the dictionary of terror, so too will 26/11, the day which will go down as Mumbai’s darkest hour, when terrorists laid siege to the city’s roads, airports, railway station, hospitals and two of its best known luxury hotels, leaving a trail of death and destruction and taking hostages. The scenes were devastating: explosions, raging fires, dead bodies, heavily armed terrorists with rucksacks containing grenades and explosives and firing indiscriminately at people on the streets, and a metropolis on its knees. The most heart-rending sight was Mumbai’s most iconic and beautiful building, the 106-year-old heritage wing of the Taj Mahal Hotel, reduced to a blackened ruin. By daybreak, almost 11 hours after the attack started, the official death toll was 102, with another 300 injured.That this was the best planned, organised, financed and most successful terror attack in India was evident from the fact that 20 hours after the first shots rang out, the terrorists, were still holed up in the Taj Hotel, the Oberoi Trident and a residential building in Nariman Point housing Jewish tenants. The two dozen terrorists held hostages and kept security forces at bay. Mumbai is no stranger to terror but this was the most devastating in terms of scale, preparation, targets and global impact. Everything pointed to the involvement of a major international terror group (the claims by Deccan Mujahideen were dismissed by police), probably the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba but orchestrated by Al-Qaeda.Hostages who managed to escape said that the terrorists asked hotel guests whether they were American or British before taking them hostage. The Taj and Trident are two of Mumbai’s most recognisable landmarks, akin to New York’s Twin Towers, and attract the majority of high-profile guests from India and abroad. European diplomats, American and British tourists, top industrialists and executives were among those in residence. Their eyewitness accounts after they emerged from the Taj showed what a meticulously planned and cold-blooded operation this was, bearing the hallmarks of an international outfit with access to boats, inside intelligence, sophisticated weapons and explosives. The terror drama started shortly after 9 p.m., a time when restaurants and hotels are at their most crowded. The suicide squads who had arrived in the city via rubber boats from the sea opened fire and lobbed grenades at 10 different locations. After the 1993 serial blasts, this is the most audacious strike. From diners and residents at luxury hotels to commuters at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, and people on the streets, everyone had become a target. Within minutes, the station resembled a graveyard.
The terrorists entered from the Gateway of India and Nariman Point in boats and launched a triangular attack. One team entered Trident Hotel and opened fire in the restaurant’s lobby; another team fired indiscriminately at Leopold’s Café in Colaba and then entered the Taj Hotel.
As confusion reigned, the terrorists hijacked police jeeps to create more mayhem. An Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) team led by its head Hemant Karkare chased them to Cama Hospital, where he, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and another colleague were killed.terrorists were killed in a chase near Girgaum as they were trying to escape in a silver Skoda. One was reportedly arrested the next morning. Guests, including six foreigners, and hotel and kitchen staff are among the dead. Panic-stricken guests tried to escape from windows— one used a bedsheet to climb down from his third-floor room at the Taj, but slipped and fell. At 1.30 p.m. on Thursday, Mumbai Police chief A.N. Roy announced that the Taj Hotel had been sanitised and all guests were evacuated but an hour later explosions were still being heard. The damage, however, was equally psychological. All through the night, vehicular traffic was paralysed and the city seemed to have imposed a curfew on itself. By midnight, the biggest anti-terror operation in Indian history was underway. “Hardcore, highly trained, and motivated,” is how Vice-Admiral J.S. Bedi, flag officer commanding-in-chief, Western Naval Command, describes the terrorists. At the time of going to press, the hostage crisis had not ended, showing just how serious this latest attack is and its larger implications. As one police official said, “They (the terrorists) have succeeded, we have failed.” India Today is in possession of an intelligence report from the Mumbai Police which warned of attacks from the sea based on interrogations of terrorists arrested earlier (see box). How the boats ferrying the terrorists managed to evade the coastguard, navy and customs officials who patrol the harbour is a gross security failure and raises some serious questions.
WHO IS BEHIND THE ATTACK?
The strikes have shaken the country’s intelligence and security agencies like nothing before. They were unprepared for such an unprecedented commandolike operation.
“The meticulous manner in which the operation has been planned and the guerrilla tactics that have been used has footprints of Al-Qaeda, making it perhaps their first operation in India,’’ said a senior intelligence official, pointing to the fact that places frequented by foreigners were targeted. Sources said that the Research and Analysis Wing had received inputs six months ago that a group of terrorists—part of the Al-Qaeda’s Islamic Jihad Union—was being trained along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to carry out attacks in India. “The issue was discussed at a Joint Intelligence Committee meeting but was treated as unactionable,’’ says a high-placed official. The terrorists landed in small dinghies each carrying four to five persons. “Terrorism in India has reached a new level with these attacks. This is terror in the real sense where common people in public places can be sprayed with bullets or have a grenade lobbed at them any time,” says a Home Ministry official.
THE PAKISTAN FACTOR
The attack on Mumbai will impose fresh strains on Indo-Pakistan relations. It came just after a meeting between the two foreign ministers where India talked tough on terror. While intelligence sources see an imprint of the Lashkar-e-Toiba in the attack, interrogation of an arrested terrorist confirmed that they were Pakistani nationals. It comes after the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul where a Pakistani link has been proved. This strike was intended to damage the ongoing peace process. The Lashkar continues to run its operations in Pakistan, and recently, much to India’s anger, Pakistan had cleared the purchase of a bulletproof Land Cruiser for Jamaat-ud-Daawa supremo Haafiz Mohammed Syed, who is the ideologue for Lashkar and has been holding rallies asking followers to hit Western targets.
TERROR'S NEW STRATEGY
The strategy is clear: cripple India’s economic nerve centre, create fear among tourists and foreign investors and undermine India’s global image. The suicide squad has chosen high-profile five-star hotels to capture international attention since they are frequented by Western delegations and tourists. Apart from sending a message to the Government of India, it was a signal to the international community about the strength of terror groups in the region and was also intended to target opinion makers and movers and shakers who frequent these hotels. “It was a daredevil act and certainly had collusion of a terror group like the Al-Qaeda, along with some Pakistan-based terror groups aimed at creating high visibility with panic,” remarked a senior official. Given the size and scale of the hostage crisis, this will go a long way in setting India back economically in the short-term. Says former director-general of police, Dr. P.S. Pasricha, “This was an aggression meant to hurt the psyche of an entire nation. They wanted to ignite trouble in the country and hurt our economy.” That was partly achieved on November 27, as the Bombay Stock Exchange shut down. The prime minister made it clear that Pakistan was behind the attack. In his address to the nation, he said that groups behind the attacks were based “outside the country” and used unusually strong words to add that there will be a cost if “suitable measures” are not taken by the neighbours.
HOW SHOULD INDIA RESPOND?
It requires an extraordinary response from the Government to deal with this situation. The attack came as a shock for the UPA Government still battling the worst ever year for terror attacks. There is a growing feeling of insecurity and vulnerability in the country.
At the cabinet meeting called by the prime minister on November 27, the overwhelming view was that the UPA will have to take a tougher line on tackling terrorism with a combination of stringent anti-terror laws and better ground level intelligence, even if it means curbing human rights and democratic freedom. “The police, the security agencies, the investigators and even the intelligence will have to reorient themselves to cope with the new phase in terrorism. Security agencies will have to go beyond treating terrorists as criminals. They are using the highest level of military tactics and we have to respond accordingly with effective measures,’’ says a Home Ministry official. The prime minister has proposed the creation of a federal investigation agency to deal with terrorism and that existing laws be tightened to ensure that there are no loopholes for terrorists to escape the law. India also has to ensure better coordination among security and intelligence agencies and tighten up controls on the borders and the coastline and close coordination between state and Central intelligence agencies. India now needs to seek the help of international security agencies. Immediately after the attack, the messages of support for India from the international community, including the new leadership in America, suggest that the time for focused international cooperation has never been more opportune. US President-elect Barack Obama conveyed to Indian ambassador to the US Ronen Sen his strong resolve to fight terrorism. India also has to demand tough action through the UN and bilaterally for punitive actions against countries that support, finance and shelter terrorist groups and, in case of noncompliance even explore sanctions on them. Till that happens, Mumbai remains a city under siege, its citizens traumatised, its political leadership lacking resolve and credibility and two of its iconic structures gutted. Mumbai is to India what New York is to America. The attack on the Twin Towers was an attack on the entire free world and was a pivotal moment in the global war against terror. Mumbai’s 27/11 needs to elicit the same response. Anything less would be inviting a bigger disaster

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Sadhvi of the block

She is astonishing in her violence, fascinating in her militant womanhood and tedious in her love for revenge. She is the new face of the woman politician in India. And she provokes both awe and revulsion.
That's the current image of sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, the key accused in the Malegaon and Modasa blasts. Nobody knows for sure if she is guilty or not. But the reports doing the rounds have thrown up enough (truth or falsehood) to send shivers of apprehension down the nation's spine.We've seen women politicians in all hues of the rainbow and heard them in all notes of the octave: the reluctant entrants who talk softly and carry a big stick; the rabble-rousing sanyasins who try the nation's patience; the next-door didis who dance atop cars to get their way; the moody ammas who proclaim "I am my party"; the behenjis who mercilessly purge comrades that dare dissent; the hysterical bahus who take unladylike steps at the drop of a hat. But we haven't quite seen anyone like the new sadhvi on the block. Identity politics might be the mantra today, but until now we have not come across the potent combination that she cooks up: womanhood, violence and religion.Track her journey: Pragya Singh Thakur grew up in small town, Bhind, MP, as daddy's little girl. "She's my brightest girl," says her father, Chandrapal Singh Thakur, an Ayurvedic doctor. Can one assume that as his political philosophy swung from the centre to the far right, as reported, daddy's girl made him proud by doing one better and taking it to the extreme? Not surprisingly, she did a Master's in history (that much-maligned subject for justifying all shades of "nationalism"), was active with the rightwing student body, ABVP, since her school days and then joined the Durga Vahini, the VHP women's wing.All in the name of "justice", of course. "We can't stand injustice," her father has gone on record. An average student, she dressed like boys, kept short hair like boys, could fight like boys and had a great passion for bikes like boys. But all that just to get back at boys. Her father says that she was a much-feared student leader, roaming around on her bike and beating up eve-teasers. She and her sister once thrashed up some pesky Congress goons so hard that they, apparently, had to beg for mercy.Politics gave her a new let out. Over time, her speeches for rightwing outfits became ultra inflammatory. "Destruction leads to construction," she would invoke gods to justify violence and seek "justice" for Hindus. But she found her niche after setting up the Jai Vande Mataram Jan Kalyan Samiti in 2002. "They would rescue girls who eloped with boys of another community," her father proudly says, "sometimes bringing them back to their parents." Terrorising, kidnapping and coercing? One wonders.One step up and she got into spiritualism, that ultimate channel of legitimacy in this ancient land. Last year, the 30-something woman decided to renounce worldly life (detractors, however, say that her parents didn't allow her to marry a prominent BJP leader from Bhind and this was her revenge). Under Swami Avadheshanand Giri, a guru with major political following, she reinvented herself in a new avatar—Sadhvi Purna Chetanand Giri Sharma. Backed by her status as a sanyasin, driven by her hatred for other communities and powered by her gender, she apparently formed a group to avenge the bomb blasts carried out by Islamic terror groups. The Mumbai Police holds that she had a mission of carrying out bomb blasts across the country.As the hurtling incoherence of the story unfolds, the sadhvi stands all alone. Most political parties have dissociated themselves from her. She has had to go through invasive narco tests and is now holding her own brief at the chief judicial magistrate's court in Nashik. A nationwide consensus is yet to emerge: is she innocent or being victimised? What was she trying to do? Is she entirely in control of her own imagination? Popular mandate will depend on how much of a taste one has for a looking-glass universe that reflects nothing beyond personal obsessions.Meantime, her father continues to light an incense stick or two at the family altar, where her photograph has found place. At least, Pragya Singh Thakur has become an object of worship for her father. How many daughters can achieve that?

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Tiara trio

Kareena Kapoor is in Dubai shooting round the clock for Main Aur Mrs Khanna with Salman Khan. “They only have me till the end of the week, so we have to wrap up work,” she says briskly. Priyanka Chopra is in and out of cinema halls with director Madhur Bhandarkar checking audience reaction to her new film, Fashion. “I was really nervous about shouldering a film on my own, so I’m glad it worked,” she says as she walks away from the event. Katrina Kaif, just back from a shoot in Philadelphia, is in the middle of shooting an advertisement for Nakshatra, a brand where she has replaced Aishwarya Rai. “My own time? What’s that? I guess only when I’m in the car, listening to my iPod in between shoots.” With 18 days for endorsements and four movies a year, it’s clear why. They’re Bollywood’s tiara trio, women who are opening movies, pushing brands, making public appearances, and keeping news television and colourful tabloids alive. All in between fittings for movies, photo shoots for magazine covers and power partying. Kareena’s latest release, the Rs 25-crore Golmaal Returns, a no-brainer comedy which starred four men, had her at the forefront of the publicity, powering two music videos for the movie’s promotion. The movie has already made Rs 35 crore in the first week. Priyanka’s new film, released in the same week, had her in almost every frame, tracing her arc from a small time wanna-shine to supermodel and back. The film has practically no recognisable male lead, and those who are well-known play gay. Yet the Rs 17.5-crore Fashion made Rs 20 crore in the first week. Katrina, who has successfully played arm candy to Akshay Kumar in a series of blockbusters, Namaste London, Welcome and most recently Singh is Kinng, is now practically the face of Subhash Ghai’s new film Yuvvraaj.
Even as she looks very fetching in an updo and a cello, it’s almost easy to forget that the movie features three male stars, Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor and Zayed Khan. It’s not unusual. Four years ago, Aishwarya Rai, Rani Mukerji and Preity Zinta were the gilded lilies. Between them, they had the finest directors, the best endorsements and the tabloid space. But that was then. Now Kareena is working with Rajkumar Hirani in 3 Idiots opposite Aamir Khan, Priyanka is wrapping up a film with Vishal Bhardwaj and about to start one with Ashutosh Gowariker, while Katrina, in a huge departure from her sensuous swan image, is playing a “very simple girl” in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Ajab Prem ki Gazab Kahani and a “no make-up part” in Prakash Jha’s Rajniti. Kareena has seven brands, Priyanka is the face of another seven while Katrina pushes six products.It’s not been easy. All of them often work 14-hour days, if not more, and make sure they’re surrounded by the right people to advise them. Priyanka’s “fantastic four” has a manager to handle her films, another manager to look after her ads, a publicist and an assistant for “the personal stuff”. Kareena and Katrina share the same media company and endorsement agency, apart from separate secretaries who manage their film schedules.
Clearly, they’ve learned to delegate to keep their brands alive. As Priyanka says, “There was a time when I would try to do everything on my own, whether it was reading a film script, looking at the ad storyboard or checking a poster. But I make sure I have the right people to advise me now that the scale is bigger.”
Indeed. Kareena has waited eight years to get to a point where she can carry a film, and is now looking for her very own Erin Brockovich. She’s also smart enough to know not to accept the blank cheques that are sometimes offered to her. “They’re a lot of people out there who’re ready to make a glamorous Rs 40-crore Kareena Kapoor movie. I’ve got to be careful. I’d rather work in something like A Wednesday,” she says.
So careful she says that she hasn’t had a holiday in a year-and-a-half. “I haven’t met my dad in nine months and he’s a little upset with me. Even when I’m in Mumbai, where I live with my mother, I get home at 2 a.m. and am out again by 8 a.m. Sleep is a luxury I can’t afford.” Which is why come December 25, she’s going to unplug her phone and take off for a vacation with her family. It’s the same with Priyanka, who says sleep is such a waste of time. “I work 18-hour days. I’m lucky I have such an understanding family and friends. They’re always dropping by on the sets. And when I’m outdoors, there’s nothing more I like than my mom waiting for dinner in the hotel room,” she says. Ditto Katrina.

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India’s most successful and instructive marketing

You step into your neighbourhood shop to buy your weekly loaf of bread, say Modern Bread. The shop owner tells you about a new Britannia bread that, he claims, is better and worth trying. He even offers to take back the open pack of the bread if you didn’t like it. You decide to try it out.All these days that you had been routinely picking up Modern Bread, you were exposed to a simple “sales” activity. In agreeing to try—and possibly switch to—a new brand, you also experienced “marketing”. This rather simplistic explanation of the difference between sales and marketing lies at the heart of the corporate world’s biggest and most interesting battles—battles that decide the fortunes of companies and influence the purchasing patterns of consumers. That’s why, starting 2004, has been profiling some of India’s most successful and instructive marketing initiatives every year. This year, we decided to expand and deepen the exercise and present it as our cover story. You will find stories of a company daring to take on video piracy, an iconic soft drink brand’s strategy to capture market share, an individual redefining how cricket is marketed and played and a politician marketing his state brilliantly to counterbalance his discomforting political legacy.As you go over these fascinating stories, keep two things in mind. List is not the exhaustive and final list of all good marketers. And not every successful marketing strategy leads to financial success—though most eventually should and do result in financial gains. Neither of these two conditions takes anything away from the relevance of our 11 case studies. In fact, their relevance is enhanced in times such as these when marketing challenges are going to get tougher, courtesy the still-raging global financial crisis.The crisis continues to churn economies around the globe. It’s time now to estimate where this ever-changing economic landscape is likely to take us in the coming months. Five leading players from corporate India answer precisely this question (Meltdown Impact). Also, don’t miss our stories on the great FII exit and the soundness of Indian financial institutions.In our Reporter’s Diary section, we present a feature that is every marketing genius’s challenge (Losing Steam). The story is about a business that is teeming with customers and yet, running into staggering losses. In fact, its sales are less than 5 per cent of its expenses. Maybe lessons from our cover story can turn around this 100-year-old business located in one of the most picturesque places in the country

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Delhi Haat -My Fav

At delhi haat you will find handicrafts of high quality. No one disturb you here and is a really nice place with the sky as ceiling.Entrance 15 Rs & is open every day. Its one of my favorite places for shopping in Delhi, I went there 6 times and if I had been more days I would have gone more days ... everything is so good and of good prices, not as cheap as other markets but is just because the quality is higher. I bought paper figures, scarves, miniatures draws ... everything beautiful The money you take the money you will spend, specially if you are woman, you will find here textiles of wonderful work.
There is no debating the fact that Shopping is fun in any part of the world. However, most shoppers would agree that shopping in Delhi is incomplete without a trip to Dilli Haat - rightly known as a "Shoppers' Paradise".
Situated in the heart of South Delhi, on what was earlier considered as wasteland, Dilli Haat (Hastshilpi) is a perfect blend of culture, handicrafts and cuisines from different parts of India. All this coupled with green, open surroundings make a perfect ambience for shopping to your heart's content. Visitors are allowed entry on purchasing an Entry Ticket available in two categories - Adult and Child. On stepping inside, you feel like you have entered a haat (mela) with hut like structures made of brick. Each hut gives you a feel of a state of India. There is so much available that it is recommended to take plenty of time off, before you decide to visit Dilli Haat! Price bargaining doesn't really work here but when has that stopped us from trying!

What's Available in Dilli Haat (Delhi Haat)?
Anything and everything that you can think of! Handicraft items from various states of India like Wooden figurines, terracotta wall hangings, masks, colorful mirror work door & wall hangings, Rajasthani cloth toys, Madhubani paintings from Bihar, clay pots, tie & dye work, ceramic utensils, paper mashe items etc.

Home Furnishings like embroidered Bed Sheets, Bed covers, beautiful Carpets, Wooden and Cane furniture (rocking chair), lamps and lamp shades etc. Clothes & Jewelry Cotton Kurtas, long skirts, Zardozi work, silk saris and scarfs, Paschmina Shawls from Kashmir, Mysore silk sarees, South cotton, beaded & silver earrings, bracelets, belts, junk jewellery etc.

Other items include Incense sticks (agarbattis), bags, brass decorative items, bangles and more. If you feel you can't shop anymore and need a breather, relax - there's lots more for you - look around and you will find numerous food stalls from various states of India. This is a Food Court of sorts - there is a lot of choice here too! Authentic delicacies from Kerala, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Goa, West Bengal, Punjab, UP, Rajasthan, and of course Delhi. From Fish fries to Chole Bhature, Dosas, Chowmein, Momos and the very popular Fruit Beer! Very close to the entrance is a Souvenir Shop from where you can pick out some amazing gift items like rajasthani wall hangings, greeting cards etc. As night falls, Dilli Haat is lit up with numerous lights and has a life of its own!

If you happen to visit Delhi, make sure to check out Dilli Haat!

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The Sweet Aroma of Value Investing

There is a sweet aroma in the air flowing from many individual stocks in almost every sector of the USA stock market. The latest stupidity coming out of the negative mouth of so called stock mavens is...
"How do we know what a stocks PE (price to earnings) will be worth in the future."Well, there is no doubt that we are in a recession right now and it may get worse in the coming months. However, with PE's at historical lows, only folks who believe the end of the world is near will talk about PE's that may never go up again. After all is said and done, here is an example, from many questions, a six year old will have no difficulty answering but may stump clever negative experts who cannot see the woods for the trees.With three million people in the USA... Will digital TV take the place of analogue TV in February 2008. If so, which companies make the insides of the flat screen TV's and how low are their stock prices? With six billion people in the world ... Will people in work stop buying computers, and cell phones? Also, who are the companies that make the best? Also who are the companies that provide the best service and do any pay good dividends?
Will people still need to put gas in their car and how cheap are the leaders in that industry?
Will people still need to eat, if so, how cheap are stocks in that industry?
Will people still be living in houses in two years time, will their circumstances change and will they need to move to bigger or smaller houses... Or do you think houses are going to disappear?
These questions are only a small sample of many. They may seem a little dumb to a six year old but clever experts are giving their negative slants as though people are going to stop enjoying themselves with all the modern day trappings. Money may be only the icing on the cake for describing a successful lifestyle but people will always have a sweet tooth.Most folks will still have a job in six months time and the mayhem and confusion will pass. The smart people who understand you have to time the market to buy low and sell high will be enjoying the aroma of prosperity that started when they bought stocks from a low point and averaged down if the stocks went lower... They also understand when to sell them when the stocks reach a level that they are satisfied with without waiting for a home run. The time to sell is usually when the doom and gloom experts all start to say it is time to buy because the future looks bright and the PE's are trading at the low level of 18 times future earnings ... Enjoy Sweet Aroma of Value Investing!

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The financial crisis and its ramifications

The international financial crisis has assumed panic proportions. It originated in the sub-prime mortgage crisis which surfaced over a year ago in the United States. Once interest rates started rising and home prices started falling, there were defaults and foreclosures. However, it would have remained a purely mortgage market crisis, had it not been for the fact that these sub-prime mortgages were securitised and packaged into products that were rated as investment grade. Once doubts about these assets arose, they not only rapidly turned illiquid but also became very hard to price. As a result, the mortgage crisis started affecting a host of institutions which had invested in these products. Since these assets had become globally distributed, many banks and other financial institutions in Europe and to a much lesser extent in East Asia also had such assets on their books. With the failure of a few leading institutions, the entire financial system was enveloped in an acute crisis. The crisis in the financial system has now moved to affect the real sector. At this point it is not very clear how deep the recession in the U.S. and Europe will be and how long it will last and to what extent direct and indirect effects will erode growth prospects in India and other emerging economies. However, there is no doubt that this will be the deepest recession in the U.S. since the first half of the 1970s.Two characteristics The severity of the crisis in the developed world has taken by surprise everyone, including the regulators. The regulators failed to see the impact of the derivative products which clouded the weaknesses of the underlying transactions. Quite clearly, there was a mismatch between financial innovation and the ability of the regulators to monitor. Regulatory failure comes out glaringly. Two things stand out of the crisis. First, there was imperfect understanding of the implications of the various derivative products. In one sense, derivative products are a natural corollary of financial development. However, if the derivate products become too complex to discern, where risk lies, they become sources of concern. In the present case, rating agencies played havoc by certifying the derivative products as investment grade, trapping many financial institutions into investing in these products. Even as the authorities deal with the immediate problems arising from the crisis, the regulators need to pay attention to how to deal with derivatives.

The second issue relates to leveraging. The institutions that have fallen into trouble are those which are highly leveraged. In fact, the entire U.S. economy is highly leveraged. Almost every segment of society including households is a net borrower. The net savings rate of the household sector has turned negative. It is true that in a globalised system a country’s investment rate is not determined by its own savings rate. Nevertheless, the extent of leverage is an issue to which regulators and policymakers have to pay attention, if financial stability is to be achieved.

Fixing the system In a situation such as the one faced by the developed countries today, the most immediate concern is to provide liquidity to institutions which are locked into assets that cannot be easily realised. That is what the U.S. and the European countries have done. The recovery package of $700 billion approved by the U.S. Congress is a massive effort in this direction. These funds are being utilised to inject capital into banks. They may also be used to buy distressed assets. Injection of capital into banks will provide additional liquidity and improve solvency. Buying of assets will lead to revival of markets such as housing. Only if housing prices start to rise, there can be a solution to the basic mortgage crisis. Since the tail of the financial system is wagging the dog of the economy, the primary focus has to be on fixing the financial system.

Impact on India The crisis is no longer confined to the developed world. The heat is being felt by the developing world, including India. The impact on India can be both direct and indirect. The direct impact comes from exposure to the ‘toxic’ or ‘distressed’ assets by Indian banks and other financial institutions. This is expected to be minimal. Indian banks, in general, have very little exposure to the asset markets of the developed world. Indian banks have very few branches abroad. The indirect impact will be through trade and capital flows. With the fall of international commodity prices such as crude oil, the import bill will come down sharply from earlier estimates.
On the other hand, export growth will be adversely affected by the recession in the developed world. It will have an impact both on merchandise exports and service exports. Taking exports and imports together, the current account deficit will moderate and may be in the range of 2 per cent of GDP in the current year. The deceleration in export growth may sharply affect some segments of the economy which are export-oriented. Given the nature of the crisis, it is only to be expected that capital inflows into the country will dry up. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) have already disinvested and taken out close to $10 billion. This has had the most serious impact on the stock market. Stock prices have fallen by 60 per cent from the peak they had reached 10 months ago. Apart from the loss to stock-holders, this will have the most serious impact on the primary market. Inability to raise fresh funds will affect investment and capital formation in the corporate sector. Conversion of positive flows to negative flows on portfolio capital can also lead to a fall in the value of the rupee.
Disinvestment by FIIs will put additional pressure on dollar demand. The availability of dollars is affected by the difficulties faced by Indian firms in raising funds abroad. This, in turn, will put pressure on the domestic financial system for additional credit. Though the initial impact of the financial crisis has been limited to the stock market and the foreign exchange market, it is spreading to the rest of the financial system, and all of these are bound to affect the real sector. Some slowdown in real growth is inevitable. The first priority should be to ensure that the financial system is liquid and is able to meet the legitimate credit needs of different segments of the economy. As external sources of funds dry up, the pressure on the domestic banking system will increase. The Reserve Bank of India’s decisions to reduce CRR and Repo rates are in the right direction and taken on time. As the reserves come down, this will also suck out liquidity. It is, therefore, important for the RBI to keep a watch on liquidity and take such actions as reduction in CRR and Repo rates to enlarge the availability of liquidity. The RBI’s ability to help other institutions such as mutual funds and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) directly is limited right now. It can only help them indirectly by reducing the pressure of the corporates on them for redemption through the enlargement of liquidity of the banking system. The pressure of the corporates will come down only if banks use the additional liquidity made available to them to provide the needed credit to corporates. It has been argued that along with the measures to support the financial system, we must increase public spending. There can be no dispute with the contention that public spending should remain at a high level in a situation like the present one. With the Supplementary Grants approved recently by Parliament, it is almost apparent that the fiscal deficit of the Centre in the current year may touch 4 per cent of GDP, at least 1 per cent above the fiscal responsibility and budget management (FRBM) target. While it can be argued that the fiscal deficit target should be an average over the cycle, we need to remember that even in boom years we have not been able to hold the deficit at the target level. The level of public spending currently envisaged is appropriate and should be adequate to meet the situation. What is needed at present is to focus on the financial system and enable it to fulfil adequately its functions in terms of the provision of credit to productive sectors. The domestic credit system must also fill the gap created by the drying up of external sources. We ought to be thinking of a scheme to provide additional funds for long term capital requirements, since the ability to raise funds from the capital market is bleak. There will be some tendency for the rupee to depreciate, which cannot be avoided. In relation to the exchange rate, the monetary authority should use the reserves to prevent extreme volatility in the market.

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Mass Media with the Masses and the Politicians!

A country like India with the population of one billion where direct democracy holds no existence, here the media’s roles begin to bridge the gap between the masses and the politician’s. What is direct democracy? Direct democracy is a political system where the citizens participate in the decision making personally, contrary to relying on intermediaries or representatives. India with the population of one billion out of which 25% of people live below poverty line and other half is largely rural population. Masses of a country like this would ever know what their so-called representatives or politicians have in store for them. All the act, laws, bills, and amendments made by Indian government are hardly known to the masses.
Media can play a vital role in taking up these rules and regulations from the government to the masses. Until unless people know about the policies of the government, masses can’t interact with government therefore firstly media has to make the masses aware about the laws and the rules pertaining to their rights so that masses get power to raise their voice. Media should take up the problems of the general public to the government. If media does this it would give power to the general public to make their problems heard to the government. The things which are on paper as rule but are hardly applied to our daily life one such example is about the bribe which always government officials ask for. And on the other hand a government official never forgets to write the note “if some ask for money please call on this number……..”But are these numbers really functional? The answer I got is no, these phone number when dialled are never received or a voice will hamper you saying “the no. you are trying does not exist”. In democratic country where media has whole-sole power can get applied these on paper rules into reality.Corruption-free governance is a basic human right and the media has a big role to play in helping citizens enforce this right. Programs like citizen journalists recently launched by network 18 should be encouraged in other channels also so that people can come up with their problems and media could act as a middleman between the governments the masses in getting the problems solved. In this way media can prove itself also as problem solvers rather than problem makers.It is also important to study the interaction between the structure of the society, the political institutions and the mass media. The media appears to have a significant role in the formation of political opinions. The mass media have the power to support or to shake the institutional power of political institutions. The 'public opinion' of political decisions is influenced by the media. The amount of programmed time and column space, as well as the quality and nature of the publicity that a political line or argument gets, are important factors in modern politics. The media can also directly influence the degree of ideological and organizational power that political institutions have. If they choose to support the political elite, they may form, together with the decision-makers of the country, a very powerful machinery of political propaganda. The mass media, and especially the press, are traditionally seen as the opposition of the power elite. What institution or which parts of the society take the media's place in this important social play, if the media decide to "go over to the enemy"? The media can either be active, relatively independent actors of the political communication or the governments' marionettes.

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Chath Puja

Colourful festoons, slick banners, welcoming gates at Yamuna's ghats, music, bhog and a nip in the air started Chatth puja festivities in the capital on a grand note. The elaborate month-long preparations took off with lakhs of men and women congregating at various ghats in Delhi on Tuesday evening to offer prayers. Performances by Bhojpuri artists added a special zing to the celebratory spirit. The ghats resounded with folk music, bhajans in Mathli, Magadhi and Bhojpuri. Explaining the rituals of the centuries-old festival, Rajkumar Pandit at Yamuna Bazaar ghat said," On the first day, devotees gather at a riverbank, take a dip in the river in the belief that this will purify their bodies and souls. The second day is a daylong fast which is broken late in the evening with the offerings of sweetened rice, puris and fruits.''

But Chhath in Delhi has its drawbacks. The Yamuna's dirty waters for one, about which many complained. Most confessed that they miss the Chhath puja back home. One of them said, "Things are very different in Bihar. For one, preparations are on in full swing at least a month ahead and the river is much cleaner," said Anant Pandey, a resident of Lakshmi Nagar at ITO ghat. The major ghats where Chhath puja was celebrated were Wazirabad Purbi Ghat,Rajiv Camp (Old Railway Bridge), Gita Colony (Pantun), Kisan Kunj, ITO, Bhairo Marg, Ramghat, Radhakrishna Ghat, Kudsiya Ghat, Badarpur Khadar and Bhalsawa Jhil.

Chhath Puja has its origins in the Vedic age and it is often seen to have a connection with the famous Gayatri mantra and the yajna (sacrifice) associated with it. Gayatri mantra, which finds first mention in the Rig Veda, is dedicated to the Savita god i.e. Sun god. Sun is considered as the God of power, radiance and life. By performing this Puja people thank the Sun god for the gifts that he has bestowed upon them. Chhath means six. Chhath is named so because it is celebrated mainly on the sixth and seventh day of the Hindu month of Kartik. But the whole of Chhath Puja lasts for four days. Like any other Indian festival, it is full of colour, spirit and life. On the first day, devotees gather on a riverbank, the banks of the Ganges is traditionally linked to this ritual. They take a dip in the river water with the belief that this would purify their bodies and souls. They bring Ganga water to prepare the offerings. Second day starts with a day long fast gets over late in the evening with the offerings like sweetened rice, puris and fruits. Third day is the day of fasting and devotees observe a fast of 24-hours during which even water is not consumed. In the evening, devotees collect their offerings, earthen lamps, vermilion, flowers, and coconut in a bamboo basket. With these things they head for the riverbank. They hold their baskets high to avoid the impure touch of any other human being. People reach on the riverbank just before the Sunset and pay their reverence to the setting sun. On the final day the rituals start even before the sunrise; devotees gather once again at the riverbank. Just as the first ray of the Sun appears in the sky, devotees take a plunge in the river with their baskets of offerings. With this, ritualistic flavour of the festival comes to an end, so does the fasting of devotees. And, this is the time for feasting for everyone. A variety of folk dishes comprising every seasonal, agricultural item and vegetables are prepared. The fast is broken with the offerings (Prasad), which is distributed among family members, relatives and friends. Singing the devotional folk songs devotees return to their homes with the renewed vigour and belief that Sun god will take care of all their worries and He will give them health, happiness and prosperity

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Sari, Indian Culture and Shashi Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor, who I believe made a major faux pas in his column on the Sari two weeks back (about which I have written here), has now responded to the various brickbats he received from the blogging world here. To a large extent I believe Shashi's response was confusing and amusing. Given the amount of criticism he received it seems as though he is desperately trying to make the best of the worst situation he already is in. Even as he concedes that all the points raised by his critics were indeed valid, he tries to get off by saying whatever was stated in the article was his opinion and that he is entitled to one. Somehow the whole argument does not hold water, especially with me. First, he advocates this whole theory about Indian women and the Sari, and when he is cornered he hides behind the whole notion of individual opinion and getting a male perspective to the table. In my opinion, without saying so, he does seem to admit that his views were indeed patriarchal; but then, he opines, that shouldn't really bother anyone else because those are only "his" views.

I find that terribly problematic. When you stand up there and ask a group of professional women journalists why they are not wearing a Sari, it is not an individual opinion any more. When you get all preachy about it, and write in the newspapers saying in the decline of the Sari as a attire you see the decline of Indian values and traditions and cultures, you have put the personal in the public sphere. And then, you cannot just get away saying "this is my personal opinion; and if you do not want to agree that is your problem". The fact is Mr Tharoor, Sari or any other feminine attire does come with a history, a history of burden and stereotyping more than anything else. And when you stand up there on a pedestal and promote the very same attire, questions will be raised, fingers will be pointed; you can't just get away now saying - oh this is all very personal! You obviously weren't looking to just state your views, else you wouldn't be elated by the response of individuals who said they were going to switch to wearing a Sari. You wanted the column to make an impact, as you yourself said, in the response of such people "lies the hope that my column will not have been entirely in vain...". And as to why the same emphasis is not paid to men and their dhotis/mundus, even in his response Shashi is more or less silent, except to say that a "whatever the aesthetic merits of the dhoti or mundu, they pale in comparison with those of the sari". Again, in his first article about the Sari itself, the emphasis throughout was not on the "aesthetic merits" of the Sari alone in comparison to the dhoti, but on the intrinsic link between the Sari and Indian culture. If that is the main argument of your article, Shashi, I don't see how the dhoti or mundu doesn't fit into the picture. Isn't the dhoti a traditional attire of Indian men?

In Shashi Tharoor's response he also talks about why he is always seen in a western attire. He says he does so because "if I was to represent the United Nations to the world, I was expected to do it in a suit and tie." How conveniently does he forget the example of Mahatma Gandhi that he himself gave us in the last article! Let me quote his own words: "Gandhiji demonstrated that one did not have to put on a Western suit to challenge the British empire;" and then this, "Our clothing has always been part of our sense of authenticity". These words and statements and examples are used easily to suit his argument about why women should wear a Sari but are happily forgotten when asked about why he adorns a Western suit? Is that hypocrisy or what? If you are an Indian representative at the UN and to the world, isn't the onus to "wear" your authenticity on you?
At the end of the second article, I am even more disappointed and angry than I was before. Mr Tharoor, you come all out and say that everything you said about the Sari was a personal opinion - as though individual views and ideas are indeed important. Yet, you have a major problem when about half the population of this country makes a choice about what they would like to wear or not wear. Isn't it ironic?

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Design Feature - Good Earth Flagship Store, Delhi

Good Earth just opened the doors to its enigmatic flasgship store in Saket, New Delhi. The products lend it the same air of familiarity, but the subtle yet mammoth design differences take you into a new space altogether. Designed by the immensely talented Lotus Design (Mehrangarh museum shop, Levi’s Rivet, Xylys, Khaja Chowk…),

it’s dazzling, and definitely worth stopping by.The minimalism is retained, but there is more grandeur now - the there-but-not-really-there jaalis and the sparkling starlights are striking.Designed by Lotus Design. Good Earth Delhi Flagship, Select Citywalk Mall, Saket, New Delhi 110017, Tel: +91-11-29565600, +91-11-29565601 www.goodearthindia.com

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