views on news 07 january 2016

VIEWS ON NEWS `50

THE CRITICAL EYE

www.viewsonnewsonline.com

Governance Section

VIEWS ON NEWSJANUARY 07, 2016 `50

THE CRITICAL EYE


2015 AT A GLANCE ISSUES THAT MEDIA COVERED IN THE YEAR GONE BY 48

COMIC CON Ticket to a wonder world 28

STUMBLING BLOCK Keeping the net free 40

12

CHENNAI FLOODS Where the press went wrong 18

UNDERRATED GENIUS A tête-à-tête with Kiran Nagarkar 36

TMM Special

12

Her Pak visit could be the first feather in Modi’s foreign policy cap

Sushma Scores

PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI’S financialand governance initiatives in parliament may wellhave laid a big fat egg so far, but his peripateticdiplomacy, I am compelled to proclaim, has begunto yield dividends. The successive parliamentary fiascos—the abysmal failure to make progress onthe GST bill and other crucial economic reformmeasures dear to the prime minister’s heart—mirrorthe atmosphere outside parliament.

There’s constant political street fighting amidstcharges and counter-charges of vendetta politics,victimization, intolerance, tit-for-tat use or abuse ofinvestigative agencies and strident invective. Thestreets simply pour into parliament and all legislationcomes to a standstill because legislators are in nomood to cooperate or to make the government inpower look good. This, sadly, has been the leitmotif

of Indian politics over thelast few decades.

While devoting exten-sive, wall-to-wall coverageto the political warfare be-fore, during and after theBihar elections in whichModi and his image as aserial winner suffered a se-rious setback, the mediadid not appear to pay ade-quate attention to one solidwin scored by Team Modinot in India but outside it. InPakistan.

A nation’s foreign pol-icy is usually consideredan outcome of nationalconsensus. No matter how

crudely opposing politicians may go after eachother’s throats on domestic issues, they usuallystand united in the cause of nationhood in dealingwith neighboring countries and the world. This un-spoken compact can be broken only at great peril toany government that steers dangerously away fromit. Changes, therefore, are incremental and greatcare is taken by foreign policy bureaucrats and thesecurity establishment to take the Opposition intoconfidence.

It was because Modi stuck to this tradition that hewas able to dispatch his foreign secretary to Pak-istan to negotiate a return to some form of nor-

malcy with that country. The stark differencebetween Modi’s inability to steer domestic policythrough parliament while managing to parley a rela-tively successful path in foreign affairs stems froma stark reality. The domestic paralysis stems fromthe perception that Modi and his party’s real agendais to turn the nation away from Nehruvian consen-sus into an agenda set by reactionary Hindutva ad-vocates; the successes abroad are proof that whena leader of a diverse nation like India cultivates good-will instead of confrontation at home, he will be rewarded.

It is laudable that Modi sent Sushma Swaraj toPakistan by herself along with a professional dele-gation from the Ministry of External Affairs, insteadof trying to hog the limelight for himself. That in itselfdemonstrated that he was more interested in creat-ing a serious outcome rather than a gala event fea-turing Rockstar Modi.

And Sushma delivered the goods with great finesse and professionalism. The ongoing compos-ite dialogue process between the two nations was

SUSHMA’S FIRSTTRIUMPH

EDIT

OR

’S N

OTE

4 VIEWS ON NEWS January 7, 2016

termed “comprehensive dialogue”. It remains es-sentially the same as before—a menu of issues including Kashmir, Sir Creek, Siachen, counter-ter-rorism, trade, visas and confidence-building meas-ures. An add-on is religious tourism.

It represents continuity and gives due recognitionto what was achieved previously by Congress andBJP governments through this process—the Delhi-Lahore bus service, India-Pakistan trade, a new visaregime, a mechanism on prisoner exchange and the2003 ceasefire on the Line of Control. Of course,there’s the odd chance that this could come undonethe moment the next terrorist attack takes place.

Nobody, but for pathological hawks, wantswar and bloodshed and wastage of preciousresources that can be used for fighting

poverty in both countries on an arms race. And no-body expressed this sentiment better than formerpremier Manmohan Singh who wished that one day“we should have breakfast in Delhi, lunch in Lahoreand dinner in Kabul”.

The supreme challenge before Indian and Pak-istani leaders is not to give in to rabid elements orto back off when terrorists try to disrupt solutionsand talks aimed at resolving the biggest security andforeign policy challenge for both countries. And theyshould be strengthened in their resolve because this

new initiative—which will facilitate Modi to attendthe SAARC meet in Pakistan in September 2016—has been openly welcomed by the UN Secretary-General, the US, Russia, China, and above all, thePakistani media which has echoed Sushma in dub-bing the outcome as a “breakthrough”.

Even though the Congress has been publiclychurlish about Modi’s new Pakistan initiative, itsleaders have privately welcomed this move becausethe party’s stated position has been that a strongand stable Pakistan under a civilian government isin India’s long-term interest because it is the bestdefense against terrorism as well as a positive factorin India’s land route trade relations with Afghanistanand Iran.

Our cover story reveals that Sushma’s visit wasa carefully choreographed and calibrated move.

It is laudable that Modi sentSushma Swaraj to Pakistan by herself along with a professionaldelegation from the MEA, rather than hog the limelight for himself.

MEA

ON THE RIGHT TRACKExternal AffairsMinister SushmaSwaraj with her Pakistani counterpart Sartaz Aziz in Islamabad duringher recent visit

5VIEWS ON NEWS January 7, 2016

C O N LEDE

A Fragile Modus Vivendi

Editor Rajshri Rai

Managing EditorRamesh Menon

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18

22

Nature’s Eye-Opener

12


GROUND ZERO

The government and the media misread the Chennai flood situation and

were slow to respond to the crisis. The deeply ingrained North-South divide

in the Indian psyche may have prejudiced them. BIKRAM VOHRA

Social Media Saved the DayWhile mainstream media lingered, bloggers and Twitter users stepped

up to the plate, disseminated vital information and coordinated rescue

efforts. SUNIL SAXENA

New Delhi’s move to resume talks with Islamabad was a carefully choreo-

graphed one. But whether it will achieve justice for the 26/11 victims and

lasting peace is the big question. RAMESH RAMACHANDRAN reports

R E G U L A R S

Cover design: Anthony Lawrence

Edit..................................................04Grapevine........................................08Quotes.......................................10Media-Go-Round...........................11As the World Turns.........................17Web-Crawler....................................27Design Review................................44Breaking News...............................46Vonderful-English............................54

BOOK REVIEW

RIP, Ravanand Eddie

32

42

50


Comics and Culture SPOTLIGHT

28The fifth edition of Comic Con Delhi elicited

more footfalls and sales showing the increas-

ing creation and consumption of the graphic

art form nationwide. SUCHETA DASGUPTA

T E N T S

The heroes of Chawl No. 17 traipse

through the City of Dreams one last

time. Here’s a tribute to the never-say-

die attitude of the Mumbaikar.

EDITORS’ PICK

Train toNowhere?The `98,000-crore Mumbai-Ahmed-

abad Bullet Train reduces commute by

two hours but comes at the cost of rail

safety, toilets, schools, highways and

public health. SHOAIB DANIYAL

ADVERTISING

Don’t Block Us!Digital media is under threat—from

ad blockers. If their use becomes

pervasive, most online businesses

will wind up. Content on internet

will no longer be free. MR DUA

SPECIAL STORY

The Spirit ofthe MahatmaTrustees of Navjivan Publishing

House which prints Gandhian litera-

ture, have given the

building a

makeover, complete

with an art gallery,

cafe and Wi-Fi so

that it becomes a

thinkers' hub.

KAUSHIK JOSHI

INTERVIEW

36

40

Better Late than NeverNovelist and play-

wright Kiran Na-

garkar recalls his

advertising days,

his forays into

writing, his run-in

with the Censor

Board and how he

won the Sahitya

Akademi award.

KRISH WARRIER

THE MEDIA MONITOR

2015 at aGlance

48An issue-based review of what the

electronic media covered in the

year gone by


Grapevine

Sharad Pawar’s birthdaycelebrations on December

10 at Vigyan Bhawan were ashow of strength for the NCP.The president, prime minister,vice-president and leaders of allother parties milled around towish the septuagenarian. ManyMPs, ministers and MLAs wereleft standing due to theover-crowding of well-wishers.The award on the occasion forthe best speech definitely goesto Madam Gandhi who shedlight on some little-known factsabout Pawar and his father-in-

law, who was a test cricketer.She mentioned that Pawarmust have imbibed his spinning tactics from him. The prime minister too foundit appropriate to praise theleader of the party that he onceunceremoniously referred to asthe “Nationalist Corrupt Party”.PM Modi praised the leader’sknowledge in agriculture andsaid that like a true farmer, hecould gauge which way thewind would blow and takesteps accordingly. Are we looking at a consensuspresidential candidate for 2017?

Pawar Power

Protesting CMs

Recently AAP’s beleaguered MLA Som-nath Bharti was at Dwarka Police Sta-

tion with his famous dog, Don, accused ofbiting Bharti’s estranged wife Lipika Mitra.Is minister Maneka Gandhi, who is knownto take up animal rights, aware that the dogis being dragged to the police station timeand again? It seems that Bharti is stickingout his thumb saying, “Don ko pakadnamushkil hi nahin namumkin hai. (CatchingDon isn’t only tough, it’s impossible.)”

Visitors to parliament, whichinclude MPs, officials and

media persons, are in for a shock.The price of food in the various canteens is set for a steep rise. A 25percent rise has been proposed aftera campaign by select MPs to endthe ridiculous pricing—`6 for adosa, ` 4 for a plate of rice, `18 for avegetarian thali, `51 for a plate ofchicken biryani and so on. In thepast five years, the canteen has got a

subsidy of `60.7 crore—all drawnfrom taxes. The subsidy actually goes up by `3 crore everyyear. Meanwhile, all parliamentregulars will brace up for the pricehike from January 1, 2016.

Price Rise Hits Parliament

Catching Don

There has been a deluge ofprotests by CMs against gover-

nors. After Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal’s nasty spat withLieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung,chief ministers of ArunachalPradesh, Assam and West Bengalhave joined the chorus. ArunachalChief Minister Nabam Tuki claimsthat Governor JP Rakkhowa isusing the Raj Bhawan as a BJP office. Assam Chief Minister TarunGogoi has a similar complaintagainst Governor PB Acharya, whohas an RSS background. MamataBanerjee’s government too has conveyed its dissatisfaction aboutGovernor Keshari Nath Tripathito the center.


The Capital was abuzz with oddand even numbers gossip. Ac-

cording to one gossipy birdie, themove by the Delhi government togive 10,000 permits to additional autos to deal with thecrisis seems to be less about pollu-tion and more about politics. Afterall, issuing 10,000 auto permits intwo weeks is not easy. Even basic

checks like license, nationalityand criminal record will take agood deal more time. What’smore, the move will leave Delhiites at the mercy of the auto drivers on foggy, polluted winterdays. Is it mere coincidence that“auto kings” Rahul and RajivBajaj are the best of pals with theDelhi CM? All said and done, cur-tailing cars and adding autos shallend up being a zero-sum game!

Odd and Even Gossip

Government media offices havebeen on an overdrive. A photo-

shopped image of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi posted by the over-zealous Press InformationBureau(PIB) on the official websiteshowing him in a helicopter duringan aerial survey of flood-hit Chennai

was hurriedly removed after ques-tions were raised in social mediaabout its authenticity. Apparently,the PIB had been photoshoppingimages earlier too during the Manmohan Singh and Atal Behari Vajpayee dispensations, toboost PR drives.

In a similar vein, in a sarkari adof the Telangana government’sachievements, the media team hasrandomly photoshopped variousphotos—Vrindavan widows, protest-ing farmers at Jantar Mantar, vil-lagers of Coimbatore and so on. Ofcourse, none beats Censor Boardchief Pankaj Nihalani, whose videoeulogizing Prime Minister NarendraModi has caused much embarrass-ment to the government.

Even as the magni-tude of the Chennai

floods was unfolding,senior BJP leader Sub-ramanian Swamy tookthe opportunity to takea jibe at his bete noire,former finance ministerP Chidambaram.

Swamy approached hisfollowers via Twitterand made an objec-tionable post saying:“Chennai rain waterflooding is actually dueto PC’s Uzbekis tearsat the loss of theirbusiness. Blame EDand IT for it.” He wasreferring to the legalcases he has filedagainst Chidambaram.

Photoshop Woes

Illustrations: UdayShankar—Compiled by Roshni Seth

Record Transfers Babus of central and

state governments areused to being shuntedaround on the whims andfancies of their politicalbosses. But this time, arecord has been created.Beating Ashok Khemka ofthe “Haryana land deals”fame, 2000-batch IASofficer Amit Gupta hasentered the Limca Book ofRecords for having servedas a district magistrate in14 districts of UttarPradesh, (excluding repe-titions), the most by anIndian civil servant. Between March 8, 2005,and February 10, 2014,Gupta had served inHamirpur, Lalitpur,Jalaun, Kannauj, Pratapgarh, Etawah, Maharajganj, Firozabad,Shravasti, Lakhimpur-Kheri, Badaun, Bijnor,Pilibhit and Rae Bareli.Some of the terms lastedbarely a few days.

Politics in theTime of Deluge

U O T E S

Arvind Kejriwal,chief minister ofDelhiA CBI officer told me yest thatCBI has been asked to targetall opp parties n finish thosewho don't fall in line.

Amish Tripathi,author#AryanInvasionTheory is dgreatest piece of fictioncooked up by Europeans sinceShakespearean plays.

Shekhar Gupta,senior journalistUPA handed over policy-mak-ing to publicity-crazed NGOswith no accountability & paidfor it. AAP is doing so nowwith the #OddEvenPolicy.

Chitra Subramaniam,senior journalistWhich Indian politician isn’tafraid of Sonia Gandhi? Tele-vision debates and legal fi-nesse don’t count.

Minhaz Merchant,journalist and authorIf Sonia can make India’shighest paid lawyers like@DrAMSinghvi & @KapilSibalrun around court like errandboys, imagine her moneypower.

Suhel Seth, author, columnistUtter rubbish. But nothingabout AAP surprises me anymore (on what the AAP issaying about Arun Jaitley inthe raid case).


I do not think there is intolerance…the question that was asked, for

which people pounced on me, was‘what would you say to the future

generation?’ because I now fallunder the seniority zone... Every-thing is very nice in our country.

God bless India, long live us, longlive us Indians.

—Shah Rukh Khan, a day before the releaseof his recent film, Dilwale, to ABP News

If you feel insecure workingwith people who are betterthan you, it pushes you to dobetter. If you’re comfortable,you don’t push yourself.—Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, at ShriRam College of Commerce, Delhi

I really like how this will upset Delhi’sneatly arranged pecking order. Imagine,on any given Wednesday, an even-num-bered Nano is more desirable than anodd-numbered BMW! I like that tworich kids will have to share the backseatof a BMW instead of racing one anotherto school in two.

— Anuja Chauhan, author, on the forthcoming odd-even car scheme in Delhi, in The Week

The Congress is a private limited com-pany in which the shares are held by

one family. In the Congress, no matterhow talented the individual, he or she

must be resigned to the fact that the toptwo jobs will never be open to anybody

other than the family members.—Aakar Patel, in Outlook

EDIA-GO-ROUND

The year 2015 was all-and-all aboutcomedy. This is evident as 5 out of the top

10 most-viewed videos on YouTube werecomedy, reports Bestmediainfo.com.

Grabbing the first spot is the amusingcomic music video by AIB called Every Bolly-

wood Party Song Feat. Irrfan.

Amongst the other top trending comedyvideos are AIB’s Honest Indian Weddings (Part

1), PK movie spoof, TVF’s Barely Speaking

with Arnub - Arvind Kejriwal and Baahubali 2-

The Ending Spoof by Srikanth Reddy. Theother videos in the list are Chhota Bheem Aur

Krishna Jodi No. #1, Crime Patrol – Sting Op-

eration 3, Sujoy Ghosh’s epic thriller Ahalya,Kapil Sharma Rocks in Star Guild Award with

his Anchoring, and Splitsvilla.

Taking the lead in the list of top 10 musicvideos on YouTube is Dheere Se Meri Zindagi,

followed by Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan.

BJP PR driveturns costly

–Compiled by Shailaja Paramathma

The BJP government in Haryanaspent a whopping ` 17 crore

within a fortnight on advertise-ments highlighting its achieve-ments on completion of a year inoffice. The information was pro-cured by Panipat-based RTI ac-tivist PP Kapoor, reports The Indian

Express. The Haryana governmentdefended the spending, saying theintention behind the advertise-ments was to inform people aboutschemes that are for their benefit.Kapoor’s query on the number ofnew jobs created during the yearyielded no result. He was quotedby the newspaper as saying: “Thegovernment did not provide anydetails of the employment providedin the last one year. It shows thatthe government did not make anyrecruitment.”

In an international media conferenceorganized in Moscow to commemo-

rate the 10th anniversary of newschannel Russia Today’s launch, Times

Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswamisurprised his audience by openlychallenging what he perceived as thehegemony of western media.

While 90 percent of Indians followcross-border news, in the US and the

UK, this figure is 44-46 percent.But the US and the UK togethercontribute to 74 percent of the sourceof global news even while all ofAsia contributes only 3 percent.“Indians are the least insular people,(and) the most open-minded.Americans are the most insular,”Goswami concluded. “India will be thenext media capital in the world,” hewent on to assert, adding that “it willbe from countries like India whichspeak English, which havedemocracies, that the challenge tothe global news hegemony is aboutto come.”

Arnab snubswesternmedia

Journalist KG Sureshmay become DG, IIMCJournalist KG Suresh, an authority on

right wing politics, could replace SunitTandon as the next director-general of theprestigious Indian Institute of Mass Com-munication. Suresh’s name has been pro-posed by the Ministry of Information andBroadcasting to the Department of Per-sonnel as the next DG, The Indian Express

said, quoting sources.KG Suresh is serving as an editor for

the website and in-house publications ofthe Delhi-based think-tank VivekanandaInternational Foundation.


What did India watch in 2015?

Pakistan jointly issued a statement saying that they

had “agreed to a Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue

and directed the foreign secretaries to work out the

modalities and schedule of the meetings”. Peace

talks were first suspended in the aftermath of the

26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai and a second time

in 2013 after the beheading of an Indian soldier fol-

lowing tensions along the border. The December 9

decision was agreed upon at a meeting between

Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj

and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ’s foreign

AS the recent decision

to resume a compre-

hensive bilateral dia-

logue between India

and Pakistan a sudden

and dramatic step as

the government would have us believe? While any

resumption of talks must be welcomed, it must be

seen as a well-thought-out move and not as a spon-

taneous flow of diplomatic emotions.

Here are the facts. On December 9, India and

WSTATEMENT OF INTENT?

(Above) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj

addresses the media alongwith Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan

prime minister’s foreign affairs adviser, in

Islamabad

The recent decision toresume a comprehensivebilateral dialogue with our “belligerent” neighbor was not as spontaneous as it was made out to be. It was a carefully choreographed and calibrated move BY RAMESH RAMACHANDRAN

Modi’s Pakistan Gamble

LedeIndo-Pak talks

Diplomacy


channel negotiations had taken place (with a little

help from the US and some European powers) be-

fore calibrated steps towards resuming the stalled

peace talks were taken. That the series of meetings

followed a script is all the more remarkable because

the public discourse in both countries had begun

degenerating into mutual recriminations within

months of Modi’s invitation to Sharif for the for-

mer’s swearing in as PM on May 22, 2014.

An appreciation of the outcome of the Ufa talks

in July this year is the key to understanding the evo-

lution of Modi’s Pakistan policy in general and the

December 6 meeting between the NSAs and the

December 9 decision to resume bilateral peace

talks, in particular. The joint statement issued at Ufa

committed India and Pakistan to a meeting in New

Delhi between the two NSAs to discuss all issues

connected to terrorism, among others. Equally sig-

nificant was Sharif ’s reiteration of his invitation to

Modi to visit Pakistan for the SAARC summit in

2016. It was subsequently decided that the NSAs —

Aziz and Doval—would meet in New Delhi on Au-

gust 23. However, India’s insistence that the talks

would be confined to terrorism and that Aziz

affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz in Islamabad.

The joint statement read that both Swaraj and

Aziz “condemned terrorism and resolved to coop-

erate to eliminate it. They noted the successful talks

on terrorism and security related issues in Bangkok

by the two national security advisers (NSA) and de-

cided that the NSAs will continue to address all is-

sues connected to terrorism. The Indian side was

assured of the steps being taken to expedite the

early conclusion of the Mumbai trial.”

“Both sides,” it continued, “accordingly, agreed

to a Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue and di-

rected the foreign secretaries to work out the

modalities and schedule of the meetings under the

Dialogue including peace and security, CBMs

(Confidence Building Measures), Jammu and

Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage/Tul-

bul Navigation Project, economic and commercial

cooperation, counter-terrorism, narcotics control,

humanitarian issues, people to people exchanges

and religious tourism.”

How the announcement came about was

supposedly dramatic. If the official In-

dian narrative is to be believed, all it took

was a two-odd-minute meeting between Prime

Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif in

Paris on November 30 to break the ice. And in less

than a week, both countries sprung a surprise on

their unsuspecting peoples by letting it be known

that NSA AK Doval and his Pakistan counterpart

Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua (Retd) had met in

Bangkok. A joint press release issued on December

6 said that the two NSAs, accompanied by their for-

eign secretaries, had concluded discussions which

“covered peace and security, terrorism, Jammu and

Kashmir, and other issues, including tranquility

along the LoC (Line of Control).”

That neither government acknowledged that

the move was choreographed in detail and the

meetings were carefully planned after high-level de-

liberations was diplomatic secrecy at work. They

were indeed not chance encounters. A lot of back-

BOLD INITIATIVEIt is believed that theModi-Sharif meetingduring the Paris climatesummit triggeredIndo-Pak talks at various levels


was not welcome to meet the Kashmiri separatists

led to the cancellation of the talks.

Here the subtext becomes important. One rea-

son why the Aziz-Doval talks failed to materialize

was the protocol mismatch between Aziz, who en-

joys a cabinet minister’s rank, and Doval, who

started out as a secretary-rank official but has since

been elevated to the rank of a minister of state like

his immediate predecessors. While Aziz had the

mandate to discuss political issues such as Jammu

and Kashmir, Modi felt that Doval, by virtue of hav-

ing been a career intelligence officer with an envi-

able reputation, was ideally suited to discuss

counter-terrorism. Two months later, on October

22, Pakistan announced the appointment of Lt Gen

Naseer Khan Janjua (Retd) as the national security

adviser “with the status of minister of state” (on a

par with Doval) who will be “based at the prime

minister’s secretariat” (like Doval who functions

from the PMO).

With this asymmetry out of the way, India and

Pakistan came good on their Ufa commitment of

holding a meeting between the two NSAs to discuss

The Express Tribune“The Indian decision to resume the composite dialogue is a clear departure from its earlier

stance that it will not enter into meaningful talks with Pakistan on Kashmir and other

issues unless its concerns on terrorism are addressed.”

Dawn“India is part of the Heart of Asia process, but Ms Swaraj’s visit was made possible because of an

ice-breaking meeting between Prime Minister Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi

in Paris on the sidelines of the Climate Change summit. The brief meeting was facilitated by

the UK.”

Pakistan Today“Adopting a cautious approach over the agenda of talks between Swaraj and Aziz, Indian

officials said they will see how the meeting goes and if there will be any point of convergence.”

Pakistan Observer“Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj landed in Islamabad on Tuesday evening with

a message of goodwill and hope to improve Pak-India relations. Though, apparently her visit

is to attend Heart of Asia Conference, but diplomatic sources have termed it a major

breakthrough in tension-ridden ties.”

The Nation“The visiting minister said the two countries were talking to each other on the ways to improve

their ties and move forward. When asked what message she had brought from India, Swaraj

said her country wanted good relations with Pakistan.”

The News“Imran Khan said that Modi was afraid of his “own right wingers” and Sharif was worried about

Pakistan’s army, which holds sway over matters of internal security and foreign affairs. He called

for the end of “this stupidity of harking back and riling up anger and hatred toward each other.”

Daily Times“India is looking for a substantive engagement with Pakistan during Swaraj’s visit to

Islamabad. The Indian government had officially confirmed on Monday that she would visit

Pakistan to attend the Heart of Asia conference.”

Pakistani media on Sushma’s visit

THE DECISION

MAKER?Pakistan

Army ChiefGeneral RaheelSharif

LedeIndo-Pak talks

Diplomacy

— Complied by Sherien Kaul, Priyvrat Singh Chouhan


all issues connected to terrorism when Doval and

Janjua met in Bangkok. Their meeting marked a

departure from the previous practice of mandating

the home secretary of India and the interior secre-

tary of Pakistan to discuss terrorism. Now, not only

have the talks about “all issues connected to terror-

ism” been elevated to the level of the NSA (minister

of state) but New Delhi could open a line of com-

munication with the military establishment and by

extension its chief of army staff, currently held by

the Pakistan prime minister’s namesake General

Raheel Sharif.

Anew architecture of the India-Pakistan

talks, rechristened as Comprehensive Bi-

lateral Dialogue, as opposed to the ear-

lier labels of Resumed Dialogue (2011 to 2013) or

Composite Dialogue (1997 to 2008), was slowly

emerging. India and Pakistan could be expected

to hold parallel or simultaneous talks, one be-

tween the NSAs (the Pakistani military establish-

ment will be on its board) about terrorism and the

other between their respective foreign ministers

or diplomats.

While the semantically different Comprehen-

sive Bilateral Dialogue will retain the flavour of its

previous avatars (What’s in a name, you might won-

der? A lot, if India and Pakistan are in question),

what Modi and Sharif have done is to unbundle the

eight subjects under the erstwhile Composite Dia-

logue and bring some more issues under the ambit

of the bilateral talks. So in addition to the twin pil-

lars of peace and security including CBMs and

Jammu and Kashmir, terrorism and drug traffick-

ing, commercial and economic cooperation and

promotion of friendly exchanges will now be dis-

cussed. Humanitarian issues, people-to-people ex-

changes programmes and religious tourism have

also been included in the ambit.

While it indicates that the two countries have

reached a modus vivendi, it is not clear whether

under the new terms of engagement Pakistani in-

terlocutors would be welcome to hold talks with the

Hurriyat as before. (Pakistan High Commissioner

to New Delhi Abdul Basit says, “there is no change

in our policy towards them.”) It is also not clear

whether the leaders of India and Pakistan will meet

in each other’s countries or will go back to the old

pattern of meeting in neutral venues.

For its part, India maintains that implicit in the

December 9 joint statement is that the talks are

being resumed on the basis of Pakistan’s assurance

that steps are being taken to expedite the early con-

clusion of the Mumbai trial. At the same time, it

It is not clear whetherunder the newterms of engagementPakistani interlocutorswould be welcome tohold talkswith the Hurriyat asbefore.

LEADERSHIP SKILLSModi's Pakistan visit in 2016will give him a chance to pickup the threads in Indo-Pakties from where former PMsManmohan Singh and Vajpayee had left them


echoes that of some others in the Indian strategic

community who insist that India ought to develop

an effective asymmetric defence doctrine and im-

pose costs on Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism di-

rected at India.

Modi would become the first Indian prime

minister after Vajpayee in 2004 to visit Pakistan for

the 2016 SAARC summit. Although Sushma

Swaraj told parliament that the peace talks have

been resumed with the modest objectives of explor-

ing cooperative ties and promoting better under-

standing and mutual trust, it could offer Modi an

opportunity to pick up the threads from where

Manmohan and Vajpayee had left them. As former

Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Ka-

suri told this writer last year during a visit to New

Delhi, India and Pakistan had come very close to

an agreed framework on the Kashmir issue during

the tenures of Manmohan Singh and Gen Pervez

Musharraf . It remains to be seen whether Modi is

able and willing to get the backing of the BJP and

the RSS to forge the broadest possible consensus on

reconciliation with Pakistan. For Sharif, the chal-

lenge would be not to squander the handsome

mandate that swept Modi to power. But the ques-

tion is: Will Pakistan play ball?

cannot be said with any degree of certainty that the

latest round of talks would survive another 26/11.

India is proceeding on the assumption that with

Rawalpindi becoming a stakeholder in the NSA-

level talks, the Pakistani army and its affiliates

would tread that much more cautiously.

While Mani Shankar Aiyar of the Congress

party reiterates his oft-quoted position of “uninter-

rupted and uninterruptible dialogue”, some such as

Rajesh Rajagopalan take a nuanced position. The

professor of international politics at Jawaharlal

Nehru University believes that although the re-

sumption of talks are only to be welcomed but one

would do well not to expect much by way of out-

comes, particularly a halt to the terrorism emanat-

ing from Pakistan. Rajagopalan maintains that

India should seek to develop its military options to

counter terrorism. Rajagopalan’s formulation

The meetings were not chance encounters, but carefully planned after

high-level deliberations. A lot of back-channel negotiations took place before the peace talks were resumed.

THE KASHMIR TANGLEMilitary operations in J&Kcontinue to be one of themain agendas in bilateral

talks. But, other issues needto be discussed now

LedeIndo-Pak talks

Diplomacy



S THE WORLD TURNS

—Compiled by Anuj Raina

Anewspaper cartoon in Australiashowing starving Indians attempt-

ing to eat solar panels with mangochutney has been criticized as racistand drawing on “a stereotype from the1950s”, reported The Sydney Morning

Herald.

The cartoon by Bill Leak, one ofthe nation’s best-known cartoonists,appeared in The Australian, a daily

broadsheet published by Rupert Mur-doch’s News Corp, which has taken askeptical approach to action onclimate change.

The cartoon prompted a tirade ofcriticism on social media as well as inthe Indian press. A comment piece byAdita Iyer in The Hindustan Times at-tacked the cartoon for “focusing on astereotype of Indian poverty straightout of the 1950s”.

“It’s plausible that the emaciated,rag-clad villagers from his cartoonwould be able to teach Leak a thing ortwo about solar energy,” Iyer wrote.

Alibaba to buy SouthChina Morning Post

MTV helicopter crash kills two

Ahelicopter which was being used forfilming an MTV reality show crashed

into a reservoir in Argentina, killing the pilotand a technician, reported NBC Chicago.

The aircraft came down at thePotrerillos de Mendoza dam in westernArgentina. MTV said the helicopter was fly-

ing to a shooting location for theshow The Challenge. Neither of those killedwas part of the cast or the film’s crew,the US channel said. The wreckage lay at adepth of 60 metres. This is the secondhelicopter accident this year in Argentinainvolving a reality show.

Chinese internetgiant Alibaba will

pay HK$2.06bn for thetakeover of Hong Kongnewspaper South

China Morning Post.

The newspapergroup revealed the saleprice in a statementfiled to the Hong KongStock Exchange.Besides the Englishlanguage newspaper,Alibaba will also ownsister publications,websites and maga-zines of thepaper.

Questionshave beenraised regard-ing the editorialindependenceunder the new

dispensation. Askedabout critics whosay Alibaba would feelthe pressure fromChinese leaders tochange the newspa-per’s coverage,Alibaba Group HoldingLimited executivechairman Jack Masaid: “I think thosepeople think too little ofus.”Alibaba has said itcould leverage on itstechnology expertise todevelop the paper.

Cartoon on Indialabeled “racist”

Egypt’s bestselling author Alaa al-Aswany has saidthat the authorities put pressure on a cultural

center to cancel an event where he was scheduled totalk about how the Egyptian government manipulatesthe public with theories that the world is conspiring

against Egypt.The Guardian reported that Al-Aswany said the

cancellation of his event in Alexandria follows othermeasures in the past year, which have prevented himfrom appearing on TV channels or getting publishedin Egyptian newspapers.

Al-Aswany has been quoted by the media as say-ing that “freedom of expression is at its lowest point,worse than in the days of Hosni Mubarak.”

Egypt clamps down on author’s event

Lost in Translation?

HE fact is cruel. India did not

rally around Chennai and

understand or register how

bad the situation was. Not

until it was far too late. For

some reason, “torrential rain”

does not have the same resonance as a hurricane

with a female name or a typhoon or a tsunami.

So, it was unfairly underplayed in the mind

and certainly the media suffered from the same

myopia and did diddly to emphasize the terrifying

onslaught by the weather. As a nation we made a

“hmmmmm, how sad” sort of acknowledgment

and carried on with our lives.

I’d like to think the flaw in the first few days

was not one of indifference. And then, a well-

known Indian-born Australian, now an expert on

media, writes to me and articulates what I had

squeezed away into the attic of my mind and

locked the door.

Having read my indictment of the Indian

media thoughtlessly allowing itself to carry stories

T


FLOOD OF DISTRESSResidents wade through aflooded street in Chennai

The media as well as the government were slow in responding to the cataclysmic floods in the city. Was it dismissed initially becauseof a gross misreading of the situation or did it reflect inherent north-south apathy and prejudices?BY BIKRAM VOHRA

Ground Zero Chennai FloodsMedia coverage

be one of the most beautiful places on earth

but is juxtaposed with some of the largest

social boundaries.

“Let me explain, one of the things I hear Indi-

ans ask other Indians is ‘where are you from?’ To

the untrained ear, this might sound like a seem-

ingly innocent question. But it is laden with an

agenda to reduce your existence to a stereotype,

the shallowest depth of field and to create another

point of difference between one Indian and an-

other. From state to province to village to tehsil to

district to which side of the street.

“In Australia, no one really gives a bee’s behind

where someone from Australia really comes from

because if you’re Aussie, you’re Aussie—true blue.”

Sadly in India it is different; it is sad that these

walls exist and are so deeply ingrained in our psy-

che. Is it that someone from Delhi or Mumbai is

superior than someone from Chennai or

through audio-visual and in writing that India and

Goa were off the “safe destination” list in Russia

(irrelevant that Moscow rescinded the official

statement), Ivor Vaz is not surprised that no one

thought to say, “Hey, wait a minute, Goa is part of

India”. In fact, it has been since 1960.

The same analogy goes for seeding the

Chennai cloud.

It is the way we think that catches us out so pa-

thetically. Hear Vaz on it: “I think that the problem

stems from something far more sinister. I’m cur-

rently on a tour of south-central India. Visiting

places that were at one point or another colonized

or occupied by Chinese, Dutch, French, Por-

tuguese and eventually by the British. This has to

TOO LITTLE,TOO LATEFlood-affectedpeople scamperfor free foodbeing distributedby theIndian Navy


The Chennai deluge was underplayed in themind and the media suffered from the samemyopia. As a nation, we made a “hmmmm,how sad” sort of acknowledgment and carried on with our lives.

Kochi? You even hear them gasp and look at you

like you're backward if you assume that they are

from somewhere else. The truth is that, yes, you

are from Goa, or you are from Bengaluru—but

you are Indian. This sense of national identity is

yet to be established with a significant sense

of togetherness.

How often we have been told, “Oh you don’t

look like a typical Bengali or Malayalee or what-

ever”, the word “typical” soaked in derision.

This sense of national identity is what existed

during the 19-20th colonial centuries under the

“divide and rule” regimes but unfortunately this

split has been further eroded by our tendency to

BLINKERED VIEWIndian media was quick to

carry stories that the touristhaven Goa was off the “safe

destination” list in Russia

exclude and discriminate or, by that token, to con-

gregate, club and become a cadre. This love for di-

vision is ruining any further potential that India

as a country might have to truly grow and subse-

quently prosper.

So, we come to the big question. If it had

rained in Mumbai or in Punjab, would the nation

have been more involved? Did the great North-

South socio-cultural divide really manifest itself

even during the worst floods in memory in Chen-

nai? Did we need Nature to come and indict us for

our parochial prejudices?

WHAT CAME INTO PLAY?

Could it be the historical northern state arrogance

towards the southern states?

It is the attitude that everything and everyone

below the Hindi belt belongs to Madras or are

Madrasi. The parodies of cinematic characteriza-

tion and the “aye aye yo” mockery reflects the

great Aryan-Dravidian debate.

Does the fact that northerners are relatively

fairer in skin and, therefore, by some foolish

chemistry, contributing to this thinking? Or is it a

response to the reactive South Indian “cliquish-

ness” and their intellectual snobbery that makes

them see the northern brethren as crude and

unrefined?

Slivers of all these elements makes Chennai a

bridge too far to really bother. It is worth more

than a think because if we fail each other, what

price is the future? It is time to take the prejudices

of the past and throw them out with the

flood waters.

The first reaction to all this would be one of

furrowed annoyance. Don’t be so silly, it is not like

it was cataclysmic from Day One, like an earth-

quake. It was just rain. The drainage system failed

the city—no one thought it was going to be

a crisis.

Partly true. Rain didn’t make for much of a

story on the TRP Richter scale. Not in the first 72

hours. Oops, it’s raining in Chennai, oh okay, fine.


How often we have been told: “Ohyou don’t look like a typical Bengali

or Malayalee or whatever”,the word “typical” soaked

in derision.

Ground Zero Chennai FloodsMedia coverage


Even the print media put it on the inside pages.

It was much later when the death toll crossed

300 and the rains did not let up that there was a

national realization, albeit a little slow off the

mark, that the city was reeling. The morphed

Modi shot of deep introspection from a helicopter

port window did little to underscore the

seriousness. How desperate can it really be if

pictures have to be photo-shopped to underscore

the devastation?

Even the NRI community, so swift to wave

flags and fling clods of patriotic fervor, seemed

mired in inertia. Did the Tamil Nadu government

fail so miserably to send out the right messages

or did the northern and central belts not under-

stand the language of the message and lost it

in translation?

On two fronts, the analysis demands to be

studied. In anthropological terms the North-

South equation has to be placed under scrutiny. It

is awry and needs to be corrected. If we allow the

chasm to widen further, there may be no bridge

long enough to span it.

In the second instance, it is necessary to make

amends for the slackness in the rebuilding of

Chennai. Shashi Tharoor writes: “The city, home

to five million people, has virtually shut down,

with roads flooded and nearly 5,000 homes under

water. More than 450 people have died. Air and

rail services have been suspended, power and

phone lines have been disrupted.”

I am not privy to his facts but I believe they are

far more horrific. A 10-minute documentary

shows all of the high-end Defence Colony in

Chennai submerged to the level of the first floor.

There was debris of garbage, floating animal

carcasses and stagnant pools which will breed dis-

ease. The need for water and food and medical

supplies and aid became paramount. As it was to

stave cholera, dysentery and malaria, the unholy

horsemen of the crisis.

There is no count yet of how many are home-

less but it will be several hundred thousand. The

aftermath is often more damaging than the actual

flooding. Now is the time to get there and lend a

hand, to provide technical and skilled support, to

look after the children who have lost their homes,

to be Indian for Indians.

POSTSCRIPT

I studied in Chennai and worked there and, un-

fortunately, have no skill sets to offer except to

send out these signals that you are needed pro

bono as doctors, nurses, engineers, electricians,

plumbers... and if you need our time or help to

sponsor a family in dire straits, let us know... thou-

sands of us would stand up and be counted, we

just wallow in ignorance and good intentions and

time passes and we end up doing nothing.

“The city, home to five million people, hasvirtually shut down, with roads flooded andnearly 5,000 homes under water. Over 450people have died. Air and rail services havebeen suspended.”

—Former minister Shashi Tharoor

Ground Zero Chennai Floods

Bridge where the Adyar river had overflowed, in-

forming viewers that the city was under water. Yes,

there were shots of a few flooded localities such as

Kotturpuram, of residents trying to reach safety, of

submerged cars and rescue boats ferrying people.

An image that was shown repeatedly was of a fam-

ily using drums to ferry their son to safety.

LITTLE INFORMATION

For two days, those outside Chennai did not know

how much of the city was under water. Nor how

OR three days—from

December 1 to 3—Chen-

nai was marooned, and

there were heroic efforts

by residents, NGOs and

absolute strangers to res-

cue people in trouble. But did you see any of this

on national TV?

More importantly, did you get a sense of the

flooding or the scale of the disaster? You only saw

reporters standing near the airport and Saidapet

After Chennai Floods…the Media Deluge

Social Media Coverage


While nationalmedia was deficient

in its coverage offlood-ravaged

Chennai, its placewas taken over by

social media which became a tool for

information and rescue efforts BY SUNIL SAXENA

F

deep the flooding was. We were repeatedly told that

the streets were flooded, that lakes were overflow-

ing, that water had entered homes. But the images

did not give a sense of how bad the situation was.

Was the entire city flooded or was the flooding lim-

ited to areas located on the banks of the Adyar river?

Reporters and camera crew seemed to be shooting

from select locations and not across the city. There

was little effort to venture into localities that faced

the main brunt of the flooding.

It was only on the afternoon of December 3 that

we got a real sense of the calamity. TV crews boar-

ded IAF choppers that were pressed into service to

drop food packets. The aerial shots shook viewers.

Street after street was under water. One could only

wonder how people were coping. Most single-sto-

ried homes were submerged. There were no roads,

only sheets of water.

Later in the evening, one saw TV crews piggy-

backing on army boats. On one boat, the TV re-

porter raised his hand to touch overhead electricity

wires to show how deep the water was. Why were

the reporters avoiding the heavily flooded areas ear-

lier? How well are TV teams anyway equipped to

cover such calamities?

Some of the questions that come to mind are:

�Why were there no maps to show which parts of

Chennai were flooded? And why couldn’t the TV

crews interact with the administration and prepare

a map that showed how deep the water was in dif-

ferent localities?

�Why didn’t cameramen climb buildings and take

aerial views of the flooding? Or venture deep into

areas that were heavily flooded?

�Viewers were informed that water had entered a

government hospital and that patients had to be


Chennai would have suffered many moredeaths had it not been for social media. Itgave the marooned a voice, a platformwhere they could tweet their appeals forhelp. The tweets did not go in vain.

In those crucial three days—December 1 to 3—

the nature of the tweets changed as flood waters

rose, giving a scary picture of the sheer terror

Chennaites underwent:

� Twitter as a warning board: As the clouds

opened up and streets got submerged on De-

cember 1, alarmed residents tweeted pictures

and videos. These tweets acted as warnings to

fellow citizens to avoid places where the water

had started collecting. December 2 saw more

such photographs being tweeted—submerged

cars, fallen trees, Saidapet bridge under water,

flooded railway tracks…. These images pro-

vided the first clues of how parts of Chennai

went under water.

� First offers of help: Images of stranded cars

brought immediate offers of help. Volunteers

tweeted phone numbers, offering help to repair

cars or tow them to safety. As the flooding had

not sunk in fully, the offers were limited to res-

cuing people who had got stuck on roads.

evacuated. But barring one picture of a woman in a

wheelchair, there were no shots to show the state of

the hospital or places where the patients had been

taken.

� There was considerable coverage of the airport.

But what about the railway station? Thousands

must have been stranded there.

�There were no shots of homes or schools or shel-

ters where the rescued had been taken.

�What about officials or NGOs who were working

to reduce the misery of the people? Why were they

ignored?

�Why were there so few interviews of people who

had been rescued? Or of the rescuers?

There were so many gaps in the coverage. To

make matters worse, the TV channels, instead of

pushing their reporters and cameramen to report

better, were busy asking their internet desks to

report how social media was covering the tragedy.

And that is where social media scored over national

media channels.

TWITTER’S APPEAL

In fact, Chennai would have suffered many

more deaths had it not been for social media

which connected people in their hour of need.

It gave the marooned a voice, a platform where

they could tweet their appeals for help. The

tweets did not go in vain. Each message on

Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp was read,

retweeted and shared, and people responded.

The most powerful SOS helpline was Twitter

with its 140-character one-liners. Some of the

hashtags that relayed the woes and needs of

Chennai were: #chennairains, #chennaifloods,

#chennarainshelp and #chennaifloodsairport.


The tweets for help had an instant response. Some Chennaites in fact

offered to accommodate many people.Marriage halls, community centers and

schools also opened their doors.

Ground Zero Chennai FloodsSocial Media Coverage

� First tweets for information: By the after-

noon of December 2, the situation had changed.

There was now worry and concern. People in

Chennai as well as outside wanted to know if

their near and dear ones were safe or not. There

were tweets requesting information on hashtags

built around Chennai rains and floods.

�First appeals for food, water, material, emer-

gency supplies: With every passing hour,

people’s woes mounted. There was no electricity

and water had started entering homes by the

afternoon of December 2. People were forced

to move to higher floors or to safer places.

They were also running out of food, water

and emergency supplies. The nature of tweets

changed; they now asked for food and water and

this continued for the next few days.

� Call for volunteers: The scale of the tragedy

required more hands. Volunteers were getting

stretched. They also needed transport and emer-

gency supplies. Tweets were now put out seeking

more volunteers and information regarding food

and water. Surprisingly, there were no tweets from

the administration asking people to come out

and help. The government seemed to be avoiding

social media.

� Chennaites tweet to open doors for needy:

The tweets for help produced an immediate re-

sponse. Some offered one room, some two,

some willing to accommodate many people.

There were tweets about marriage halls, com-

munity centers and schools that could accom-

modate flood victims. There were also offers

to provide food. Nothing could have been more

heart-warming than seeing a whole city rise

to help.

�Acts of heroism: There was one video that stood

out. It was tweeted to show how people joined

hands on a flooded street to save a man from being

washed away. There was another first-day tweet


Facebookactivated itsSafety Checkfeature on December 3,making it possible for its users in Chennai toreach out tofriends, relatives andloved oneswith one click.


friends, relatives and loved ones with one click. All

that they needed to do was to click the “Safe” button

that appeared on their Facebook page. Facebook in-

stantly notified the individual’s network that their

friend or relative was safe.

Google too used its search expertise to deploy

the Crisis Response page, and its robots roamed the

net to pick up all rescue-related information and

put them up on a single page. The page also con-

nected the latest tweets by Chennaites.

The net-savvy people of Chennai also showed

how crowd sourcing could be a great way to pool

information. Chennairains.org was started as a

Google spreadsheet where people were asked to put

in helpline numbers, offers of accommodation,

food, etc. Forms were provided so that people could

provide full and complete information. The spread-

sheet was soon upgraded to a full website.

Compare this to the way social media was used

during the Srinagar floods last year. One key differ-

ence was the lack of organized effort in Srinagar.

While there were tweets and Facebook pages, these

were individual posts where pictures of flooded

streets, submerged homes and army boats rescuing

people were shown. The people of Srinagar did not

turn to the web to provide help in an organized way.

There were only a few tweets of people inquiring

about the well-being of their loved ones. In fact,

Twitter did not turn into a helpline as in Chennai.

Even coverage by TV channels during the Sri-

nagar floods had a patriotic spin. National anchors

baited Kashmiris saying that they must at least now

realize how soldiers were putting their lives at risk

to rescue the flood-hit. The question that was re-

peatedly raised was: Will this be a turning point in

the way the Kashmiris view the Indian army?

It seems like the location of a calamity and the

net savviness of people residing there have a lot to

do with the way rescue efforts are conducted. And

social media will become a vital platform for relief

in future.

The writer is dean, School of Communication, GD Goenka University, Gurgaon

of a policeman directing traffic at a flooded under-

pass, though he himself seemed to be in danger of

going under water.

� Companies offer help: Private companies too

took to Twitter to broadcast messages of free serv-

ices and support. Airtel offered free talk-time credit

up to ̀ 30 to all prepaid customers in Chennai, while

Paytm launched a Stay Safe initiative. Vodafone of-

fered to reach out to all its customers. Food delivery

app Zomato came out with a customized offer,

“Meal for Flood Relief ”, where, if a customer buys a

meal for the people of Chennai, the company will

add another to it.

� Too many retweets: There was a flip side too.

There were several good-hearted citizens who

retweeted each tweet for help. These retweets

foxed volunteers and often led them to areas

where help had already been provided. This led

to a call to remove all those tweets that had al-

ready been catered to. Not an easy task. To avoid

confusion, Twitter India put out a message as to

how the Twitterati should be using Twitter.

SAFE BUTTON

Facebook, on its part, activated its Safety Check fea-

ture on December 3. With this, it became possible

for Facebook users in Chennai to reach out to

Why were reporters

avoiding theheavily

flooded areasearlier? How

well are TVteams anyway

equipped tocover suchcalamities?

HOW THE VALLEY RESPONDED

When large parts ofJammu and Kashmir

were flooded in 2014,social media was used

sporadically for organizing help

Ground Zero Chennai FloodsSocial Media Coverage

In a bid to create awareness about sexualharassment among men and boys, human

rights organization Breakthrough haslaunched a social media campaign “shareyour story with your son”, reported TOI.

The campaign seeks to fight sexual ha-rassment by inculcating empathic values inyoung boys and men towards a harassedwoman and has been popularized withhashtag #shareyourstory. It calls for moth-ers to share their stories of sexual harass-ment with their sons so that aninter-generational dialogue can be built up.

Speaking about the campaign, Break-through country director Sonali Khan said:“Conversations about sexual harassmentdon't happen within Indian families. I havea 19-year-old son and I thought, did I everhave such a conversation with him? If aparent has such a conversation, what willbe the impact?”


Web Crawler What Went Viral

UK social mediawants Trump barredDonald Trump’s claim that parts of

London are “so radicalized the policeare afraid for their lives” has sparked offa social media storm.

While the Republican frontrunner wasroundly condemned by British politicianscutting across party lines, there has beena surge of signatures on the British par-liament's petitions webpage calling forhim to be banned from entering the UK,BBC reported.

A petition calling for Trump to bebanned attracted more than 1,00,000

signatures in about a day—a number thatclimbed to more than 4,00,000 by mid-week—making it eligible to be consid-ered for debate in parliament. The petitioncalls for Trump to be barred for “hatespeech”.

Labour home affairs spokesmanJack Dromey and Green Party leaderNatalie Bennett have both backed thepetition. On Twitter, many mockedTrump for his comments. The hashtag#trumpfacts trended in London, with30,000 messages.

—Compiled by Sucheta Dasgupta

California shooter Tash-feen Malik sent at least

two private messages onFacebook to a small groupof Pakistani friends in 2012and 2014, pledging hersupport for jihad and say-ing she hoped to join thefight one day, reported Los

Angeles Times.The new info indicates

that US law enforcementand intelligence agenciesmissed warnings on social

media that Malik was a po-tential threat before she en-tered the US on a K-1fiancee visa in July 2014.

The two Facebook mes-sages were recovered byFBI agents investigatingwhether Malik and her hus-band, Syed Rizwan Farook,received any financial sup-port or instructions fromforeign terrorist organiza-tions before they carriedout the December 2 attacks.

State snooping,beware: Twitter

TashfeenmessagedFB friends

“Tell your sonyour story”

Twitter has warned a number of users thatthey may have been the target of a state-

sponsored attack. The company has appar-ently sent the warnings by email to more than20 users, reported The Guardian.

The warning reads: “We are alerting youthat your Twitter account is one of a smallgroup of accounts that may have been tar-geted by state-sponsored actors. We believethese actors (possibly associated with a gov-ernment) may have been trying to obtain in-formation such as email addresses, IPaddresses and/or phone numbers.”

Among those who have publicly said thatthey received the warning are: Winnipeg-based information security nonprofit Cold-hak, Minnesotan encryption activistmyriadmystic, privacy and security re-searcher Runa Sandvik and Austrian com-munications consultant Marco Schreuder.Twitter is following both Google and Face-book in sending out warnings to perceivedtargets of state-sponsored hacking.

T WAS a bright and balmy Sunday morn-

ing on December 6. Goddesses and em-

presses chatted away on the Okhla National

Small Industries Corporation Exhibition

Ground, sharing puffs from slim, black cig-

arettes with villains and headless ghouls. A

little distance ahead, Gandalf, Hulk, Harry Potter, Hit-Girl

and Joker posed for a photograph before cheering fans.

Young, artistic and free-spirited, they came in groups and

pairs, many dressed as their favorite superheroes. By the

time the fifth edition of Comic Con Delhi had closed, there

had been around 35,000 visitors.

Started in 2011, Comic Con India travels to three

cities—Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru—annually, with

Hyderabad being the new addition. While footfalls

have doubled since its launch, the sale of merch—the

cool word for comics-related merchandise—has

risen manifold having crossed one crore two years

ago. What then are the various cultural elements

and trends driving this phenomenon?

Fandoms, cosplay: Fanfiction (fiction characters

used in different settings) writers, poets, artists and

cosplayers (those indulging in costume play which

is dressing up as in a fancy dress party or carnival)

together constitute a particular fandom. Members of

this subculture are united by a camaraderie born of

shared devotion to a particular comic strip, movie or tele-

IThe fifth edition of Comic Con showed the rising popularity of comicsamong young and free-spirited souls and the boom in the graphic art form,be it in comic strips, movies or television showsBY SUCHETA DASGUPTA

Just for aSpotlight

Comic Con Delhi

Laugh!

FEEL THE FORCE!Superhero Hulk makes an

appearance at Delhi Comic Con

an instant hit and sparked off a wave of such work.

Successive Indian comic cons have seen a few of

these maverick writers, including Nicolas Wild of

Kabul Disco fame. This year, there were Ram Devi-

neni (Priya’s Shakti), Sumit Kumar (Amar Bari

Tomar Bari Naxalbari) and Dalbir Singh, all Indi-

ans. In their 40’s, the trio has a diverse set of prod-

ucts to offer and their subjects are the same —

politics and society — and they all have a message.

In Sikh Park, for instance, Singh has attempted

to start a dialogue on the issues faced by the Sikh

community in the US and Canada. Asked for his

vision show. Love for their hero often impinges on

their lifestyle.

Fans of Sherlock Holmes are said to have com-

prised the first modern fandom, publicly mourning

his “death” in 1893 and creating some of the first

fanfiction as early as 1897. Moving on to the here

and now, it is the lure of being photographed as

one’s fav hero that drew many a fanboy and fangirl

to the Delhi Comic Con.

A selfie with toons: With the amount of care and

intent that goes into their get-up, it is no wonder

that one handsome Smurf, who was mistaken for

Santa because of his red hat, got offended: “Chhee!

All my effort gone to waste!? Do I look like a Santa?

Santa blue hota hai kya? Come, take a selfie with

me by your side!” The person who erred complied

and so did many others.

Serious comics: In 2003, Iranian-French graphic

novelist Marjane Satrapi published the English

translation of her critically-acclaimed memoir,

Persepolis, where she chronicled her run-ins as a

child with society and the law in post-Revolution

Iran. Written in the 70s feminist style of under-

ground artists like Aline Kominsky-Crumb, it was

GEEKS AND GODDESSES(Clockwise, fromabove left) Cosplayersdressed asCleopatra,Neytiri andAthena. ‘Hit-Girl’and ‘Kick-Ass’.Rob Denbleyker, co-creator ofCyanide AndHappiness

Photos: Siddhartha Samaddar


SpotlightComic Con Delhi

stance on the controversy surrounding Sardar

jokes, he said, confessionally: “One evolves. As a

child, I did find them offensive. Not anymore. I

could draw a parallel with the blacks in America.

Because they have integrated into mainstream so-

ciety, they can laugh at jokes about race today. So

this issue need not be taken seriously.”

Writers like the creator of Angry Maushi, Ab-

MORE POWER TO GRAPHIC ART (Below right) Visitors to theCon took time off to doodle

and paint on this wall. Don’tmistake these Smurfs for

Santa Claus

hijeet Kini, felt the market must move on from re-

doing and overdoing mythology. “It’s been done to

death,” he said. If you ever thought comics are

meant for only children, think again.

Webcomics wave: Black humor is the foremost

characteristic of this no-holds-barred genre and

encompasses everything under the sun. Some

strips are character-driven like the absurdist

Achewood wherein the protagonists are talking an-

imals with personalities — “I am Middle Cat, not

Ray (Smuckles), not Pat (Reynolds)”. Others, like

the self-deprecating Oatmeal aren’t. Some have

story arcs, others don’t. But all are intellectual,

which is why geek is chic and their appeal

universal.

Take SMBC (Saturday Morning Breakfast Ce-

Fanfiction writers, poets, artists and cosplayers are united by a camaraderie born

of shared devotion to a particular comicstrip, movie or television show. Love for

their hero often impinges on their lifestyle.


real) which, many say, is NSFW (not safe for work).

One of its gentler cartoons, which still does not

miss a dig at the Anti-Evolution League of Amer-

ica, consists of a picture of three newspapers run-

ning the headlines: “Will the world end in six

months? Is a universal cure round the corner? Was

Darwin wrong?” The caption says it all. “New rule

for Science Journalism. If your article can be sum-

marized as ‘no’, do not write it.”

Asked for a desi edition of his strip at the Delhi

Comic Con, Rob Denbleyker, co-creator of

Cyanide And Happiness, said to big applause: “It al-

ready exists. This version of Cyanide And Happi-

ness is already the Indian version of Cyanide And

Happiness.”

Star power: Would anyone let slip a chance to rub

shoulders with Rana Daggubati, Ayushman Khu-

rana, Baba Sehgal and Nawazuddin Siddiqui? Pass

up a chance to meet Sherlock creator Mark Gatiss?

Be cold to the prospects of shaking hands with

Kristian Nairn aka Hodor of Game of Thrones

renown? All of them as well as other eminent

celebs have attended India’s different comic cons.

Fun, games and merch: Other interesting facets

of this comic con included colorful coasters with

Bugs Bunny and Garfield pictures, “I Am Sher-

locked” T-shirts and purple, turquoise and pink ar-

tificial hair. Never mind if they cost a bomb. Sales

of posters, mugs and artwork hit a high at the con

this year and scores queued up to pick up designer

items signed by their idols. Meanwhile, those who

wanted to go easy on their pockets could volunteer

for a spot of boxing or participate in a pop quiz,

free of charge. All in good fun.

Other interesting facets of this comic con included colorful coasters with BugsBunny and Garfield pictures, “I Am Sherlocked” T-shirts and purple,turquoise and pink artificial hair.

MERCH MARCH!Sales of merchandise at Comic ConIndia havecrossed the `1 crore mark


Book ReviewRest in Peace

TRACING A LIFEThe book captures the

resilience and theresignation of people living

in Mumbai’s chawls

The Adventures of

Ravan andEddie

This is the third book in the trilogy writtenby Kiran Nagarkar and gives a close-up of

life in Mumbai’s chawls. It has everything—drama, action, suspense, disbelief...

BY KRISH WARRIER

ATAN, said GK Chesterton,

fell by the force of gravity. So

it was with Ravan. He fell

from the arms of the volup-

tuous Parvatibai and got

caught by Eddie Coutinho

who died in the bargain. Parvatibai named the boy

Ravan to ward off the evil eye. So begins the first

book, Ravan and Eddie, in the trilogy of books by

Kiran Nagarkar about life in Mumbai’s CWD

Chawl 17. The second book, The Extras, traces the

parallel lives of Eddie and Ravan, who, at the con-

clusion of the book, collaborate to become ... don’t

want to be a spoiler! The third and final book in the

trilogy, Rest in Peace, which is being reviewed here,

is a sort of rencontres hasardeux (hazardous en-

counters) of Ravan and Eddie in the film world—

and a detour in their career.

Let me digress here and mention about the back

cover of the book. It has the bodies of Ravan and

Eddie, wrapped like corpses, laid on a cart. Ravan

S


is asking Eddie: “Are we dead, Eddie?” To which

Eddie replies: “If we are, Ravan, I promise we’ll take

that damned author with us.”

Sounds almost like an ad? Thereby hangs a tale.

TALES FROM ADVERTISING

It must have been around 1982 when I was a rookie

copywriter at Mechanix Marketing Associates

(MMA), an advertising start-up (that word had not

yet entered the common parlance then) founded by

Gopal Balani (one of the nicest persons I have met

in advertising—may his soul rest in peace). We

were handling the Zenith Computers account then

and Balani had assigned me to the project. Zenith

Computers was launching a new computer and, sad

to say, my efforts in creating a concept for the cam-

paign and punning came to naught.

It was then that Gopal approached a copywriter

from Chaitra, one of the “creative” agencies in the

business. We met the copywriter who was clad in

kurta-pajama, and his art director at Kwality Res-

taurant in Worli. While I scalded my hand trying

to pour tea into my cup from a tea-cosy covered

pot, the copywriter had cracked the campaign in

his head.

Two days later, I saw an impactful,

photographic execution—a man with

his head on the guillotine and a head-

line in Eras typeface that said: “Zenith

Computers puts its neck on the block

with...” The pithy body copy went on

to extol the computer’s salient fea-

tures. The overall effect was mesmer-

izing. The client loved the ad. The

copywriter was Kiran Nagarkar (the

art director was Sunil Mahadik).

Cut to 2015 at the Tata Literature

Live panel discussion at Prithvi The-

atre in Mumbai. After the one-hour

session, I had my fan-boy moment. I

accosted Nagarkar and asked him to

autograph my copy of Rest in Peace.

He obliged happily.

CINEMATIC REFERENCE(Below) Harold Robbins penned atriology on the American entertainment industry

(Bottom) A Bollywood movie set.Nagarkar’s book takes off fromthe point when the main characters are discovered by thefilm industry

So, the first time I met Nagarkar, he was a copy-

writer. The second time I met him, he was a Sahitya

Akademi Award-winning author (for Cuckold). It

was the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach

(DDB) which turned all the rules of advertising up-

side down to produce the brilliant Avis campaign

which said: “Avis is only number 2. So why go with

us? We try harder.” Just as DDB put forth its weak-

ness as a strong point, so too Na-

garkar names his protagonist

after a villain, Ravan challenging

the status quo.

AUDACIOUS CONCEPT

Nagarkar shows a similar bent of

mind when he dares to name the

protagonist of his book Ravan.

Ravan, as we all know, is the vil-

lain in the epic, Ramayana. To

name the protagonist of your

novel after a villain is audacious.

Having said that, to call the Ra-

van and Eddie books a trilogy

would be a misnomer. They are

more like a series—The


REST IN PEACEBy Kiran Nagarkar Publisher: HarperCollinsPrice: `450, 364 pages

Adventures of Ravan and Eddie.

There have been other trilogies.

Harold Robbins’ three books—The

Dream Merchants, The Carpetbaggers,

and The Inheritors—could qualify as a

trilogy based on the American enter-

tainment industry. There is also Ami-

tav Ghosh’s The Ibis trilogy—Sea of

Poppies (2008), River of Smoke (2011)

and Flood of Fire (2015.)

Rest in Peace takes off from the

point when Ravan and Eddie are “dis-

covered” by the film industry. They

have arrived. Nagarkar grabs your eye-

balls from the first page itself. Savor

this description of opportunistic Bol-

lywood film producers and directors

who are making a beeline for Chawl

17: “The chauffeur got out, opened the

rear door on the right and a man in white, the size

of three polar bears, struggled to come out. It took

the driver and another helper to ease the triple

polar bear from the car.” (Baby boomers are sure to

be reminded of the classic James Hadley Chase line

from the book, No Business of Mine: “Go jump in a

lake,” I said, “Jump into two if one won’t hold you.”)

From here on, the book is a series of haps and

mishaps of the duo in the world of entertainment.

CHAWL LIFE

Nagarkar is at his best when he is irreverent and

sticks to the chawls. A scene when Ravan and Eddie

have to return to the chawl captures both the re-

silience and the resignation of those who live there:

“Ravan was discovering that when you have noth-

ing to do, one way of occupying yourself was to

scratch the stubble on your face or move south and

give the goods there a good jiggle, rub and scratch.

(Who can forget the famous scene from the movie,

Piya Ka Ghar when Keshto Mukherjee does a sim-

ilar number?) Still, I cannot say the same when he

writes about the hi-life (Nagarkar lives in one of the

tony parts of Mumbai).

Then, again, the shooting scene (pun unin-

tended) in the Chambal is pure kitsch. The corrupt

cop and the deviously scheming villager all add to

the comedy-quotient of the book. Take the chapter

when Ravan and Eddie discover a new career for

themselves. Again, Nagarkar gives you a close-up

of life in the chawls, redolent with black humor.

So, as they go from one risky encounter to an-

other, one feels sorry, angry, happy, for the duo.

Their innocence is their salvation. The book ends

in a Tom Sharpe-meets-Priyadarshan fashion.

There’s a little bit of drama, melodrama, action, sus-

pense, disbelief.... Nagarkar brings back all the im-

portant characters from his previous two books of

the trilogy in this finale. Each one is neatly tied up

and put in his or her place. Ravan and Eddie will

go down as two memorable characters symbolizing

the never-say-die attitude of the Mumbaikar.

The cover design of the book is by Nagarkar

(once an ad man, always an ad man) and the cover

photo and illustration are by Prashant Godbole.

Rest In Peace is a post-script to a post-script. How-

ever, if you like a rollicking romp through the lives

of Ravan and Eddie, pick it up.

As they go from

one risky encounter toanother, one

feels sorry,angry, happy

for Ravan andEddie. Both

will go downas characters

who mirrorthe attitude

of theMumbaikar.

Book ReviewRest in Peace

HISTORICAL FICTIONWriter Amitav Ghoshis known for his Ibis trilogy


When did you start writing?I started writing in 1967 or 1968. That’s when I

wrote my first book in Marathi, 7 Sixes are Forty

Three. I was trying to get into advertising being

unfit for anything else. I must have applied to at

least 12 ad agencies and all of them refused. One

of them asked me to come on a Monday. I turned

up early. I waited in the reception area but no one

turned up. At about 11.30 am, I told them, ‘I am

supposed to work from today.’ They went inside

and told the copy chief. He came out and said they

were very sorry as there was going to be a new tax

on advertising and so I was not going to get the

job. (Laughs) The entire government was conspir-

ing against me. I obviously must be a very impor-

tant person.

Then what happened?

Ultimately, I got a lucky break in MCM (Mass

Communication and Marketing) with Kersey Ka-

trak. Arun Kolatkar (the celebrated poet) was

working there. So that’s how we got together.

Working for MCM was not easy. It pitched for

every single thing…accounts that had been

with other agencies for 10-15 years. It was

sheer madness.

What about your first book?In December 1974, my first novel, 7 Sixes

are Forty Three, was published in

Marathi. Then around 1977, I finished

my play, Bedtime Story. It is based on

“I am not an authorpeople know at all”

KIRAN NAGARKAR needs

no introduction. A novelist,

playwright, film and drama

critic and screenwriter, he

has written a trilogy of which

Rest in Peace is the last book.

In a conversation with

KRISH WARRIER, laced

with sardonic humor, he

speaks about his early

days of struggle in the

advertising world, his

forays into play writ-

ing, his troubles with

the Censor Board

and how he finally

won the Sahitya

Akademi award

InterviewKiran Nagarkar

the Mahabharata and took 38 years to be pub-

lished. Initially, it was legally banned and then

extra-legally banned. As a play, it got 74 or so cuts

from the Censor Board. Around that time, a di-

rector asked me to write a screenplay, so I started

with Ravan and Eddie. He thought I would be

writing something melodramatic. By the second

meeting he must have realized that I wasn’t his

kind of writer. He didn’t even show up to tell me

he was not interested in my work. Fortunately, I

pursued it.

What was this period like?Those were very difficult times. On rare occasions

when we got work and if it did not pass with the

client, we didn’t even get rejection fees. So earning

`1,500 every two or three months was very diffi-

cult. This went on for a very long time. I think

somewhere around the late eighties, I started get-

ting work. In 1995, Ravan and Eddie got published.

In 1997, Cuckold came out. Then I took a very long

time for God’s Little Soldier. Actually, Cuckold died

immediately the day it was published.

Why do you say that?Because it just didn’t take off despite very good re-

views. I was fortunate that in 2000, I got the

Sahitya Akademi Award for Cuckold. It’s not a

bestseller at all. Even The Extras completely

flopped. No, I am not an author people know

at all.

Who were your early influences as far as

your reading is concerned?As Coleridge has said so pithily, you have to be a

rock or someone dead not to be influenced by

books. I can tell you the books that were very im-

portant in my life but I can’t trace how they in-

fluenced me. I love Graham Greene, and Joseph

Heller’s Catch-22 was an important book for me.

The book that left an indelible impression on me

was The Plague by Albert Camus. Then there was

French author Louis-Ferdinand Celine. He was a

peculiar character, a doctor who practiced among

the poor in localities where you have small-time

thieves and prostitutes. He found that a Jewish

doctor had discovered that French women died

during childbirth because the midwives or the

doctors don’t wash their hands…so they got eas-

ily infected. Celine took up this message in his

books. There is dark humor, his style is so differ-

ent. It’s completely staccato, sometimes he doesn’t

finish his sentences…but he’s a remarkable au-

thor. Perhaps there’s black humor in my books

also but I can’t trace it directly to him. It’s impos-

sible not to be influenced at all. How can one not

be influenced by Tolstoy? There’s an Italian au-

thor called Curzio Malaparte whose book on


WRITER’S CORNERA bouquet of books written by Kiran Nagarkar

or writing a book?

Everything.

What’s your method of working? Do

you have a schedule?Most authors are disciplined. I am entirely lacking

in that, which is why I have no work to show re-

ally. And I am extremely ashamed of it. You need

two things…imagination and hard work.

How do you write… do you use a computer?

The laptop is a recent thing. I wrote God’s Little

Soldier entirely by hand and revised it eight times.

The book didn’t catch on here, but in Germany,

it’s a bestseller. But my works don’t sell.

But you have a Sahitya Akademi Award.Yes. The Akademi always had eminent personali-

ties and with integrity. The moral standing of writ-

ers like UR Ananthamurthy who got the award is

so great. As a writer, you have to be responsible.

What do you think of recent writing?I don’t read much. At least four or five authors are

making crores. My problem is that I don’t read. So

if at all I want to read, shouldn’t I read the greats?

war was amazing—it’s called Kaputt.

How did you begin with the concept of

Ravan and Eddie?I had an image of a boy falling down. When I was

in MCM, the copy department secretary called all

of us from her department for lunch at her place.

And without realizing it, I found that all the

Catholics lived on the top floor, which was the fifth

floor. All the others, Hindus, stayed from the first

floor upwards. And that was the case in all the

chawls there.

So when I was writing Ravan and Eddie, it must

have come back to me as I was trying to follow the

formula of that time. I had seen it like this in my

mind’s eye: the fall (of Ravan) was there, the titles

came and then you saw them as grown-ups.

Which do you find difficult—advertising

“Most authors are disciplined. I am entirely lacking in that, which is why Ihave no work to show really. And I am extremely ashamed of it. You need twothings…imagination and hard work.”

PEN POWER(L-R) Nagarkar has a special

liking for authors like GrahamGreene and Joseph Heller

InterviewKiran Nagarkar


Whatever I say will be hindsight. So just don’t

trust it too much. It did bother me that they had

banned Satanic Verses. One of the pre-conditions

of censorship is that hardly anyone has read it. We

banned it and then the Ayatollah put a fatwa.

How can a religious head …a president of sort,

do something like this?

Which city do you consider home?

Bombay. I was born here. But it’s unfortunate that

the climate here has now changed. Why should

one be at odds with the powers that be? Many au-

thors have returned their awards because they are

worked up about atheists being murdered. I

would think that the center would at some time

ask, ‘What’s going on?’ After all, this is Bharat, the

home of Kalidasa and Vatsyayana who even ana-

lyzed sex.

INDELIBLE INFLUENCE(L-R) The Plague by AlbertCamus left a deepimpression on Nagarkar; healso liked French author Louis-Ferdinand Celine’sdark humor

I still remember your campaign forretrofit machines for Pratibha, the ad agency.Is there life after death—I think that was the

headline.

You have a terrific memory.No, no, I don’t. The nature of advertising has

changed. The same person sells 15 or 16 items si-

multaneously…there’s no creativity at all. Then

there’s testimonial advertising with celebrities…

so boring. I mean Kalyan jewellery? Amitabh

Bachchan’s whole family is selling it! But then it

must be working…otherwise why would they do

it over and over again. I am totally obsolete.

What’s your take on God?

I am an agnostic. I am clueless. There’s grace in

the Catholic sense, having been to a Catholic

school. I still don’t know “Our Father….” It’s a dis-

grace because it’s such a fine prayer. And

throughout my stay in the Catholic school, I

would mumble my way through.

Where did you get your inspiration forGod’s Little Soldier, a book on faith?

“The laptop is a recent thing. I wroteGod’s Little Soldier entirely by hand andrevised it eight times. The book didn’tcatch on here, but in Germany, it’s a bestseller. But my works don’t sell.”


RE you experiencing impedi-

ments while logging in or surf-

ing your favorite websites on

your cell phone, tablet or com-

puter? Have you ever wondered

why? That’s because popular sites are replete with

advertisements for all kinds of goods and unso-

licited services that you neither need nor wish to

buy. Yet, these unwanted commercials engage our

attention, waste our time and consume our devices’

batteries, thereby increasing maintaining cost.

However, solutions are at hand to protect you

from these cumbersome ads—ad blockers. Though

they have been in existence for nearly a decade, it

was only in 2010 that their form and design was

perfected. They are now available widely.

Ad blocking is a technology which allows ads to

This could well be what

publishers andadvertisers telldigital users asthey block ads

on mobiles,tablets andcomputers.

Without ads,the future of

free content onthe internet is

under threatBY MR DUA

Stop Being a Blockhead!

A

be blocked before they are loaded by the browser,

thereby saving bandwidth and making the page load

faster. Ad blockers automatically block cookies, im-

ages, resources, pop-ups, and other content and are

fast and effective. According to Apple Inc.: “Once

installed, it’ll work continuously.” But the truth is

that despite all these newly-proffered technologies,

all ads can’t be effectively blocked or barred.

Currently, the most popular ad blocker tech-

nologies are: Purify, 1Blocker, Blockr, Crystal, Ad-

blocker, Adblock plus, Ghostery, Ad Muncher,

Peace and NoScript. In some sites, such as Facebook

and Google, ads can’t be blocked as these are inte-

grated in the webpage. In such cases, ads are tech-

nologically hidden but are being loaded and band-

width can’t be saved.

However, a newly designed technology by Ap-

ple, Adblock Plus, is the most popular. It’s available

for Firefox. It works to the satisfaction of internet

users. However, advertisers and publishers are un-

happy as it’s believed that there are over 200 million

monthly users of ad block software worldwide.

Some of the well-known anti-blocking compa-

nies are PageFair, StatCounter and Sourcepoint. Ac-

cording to a 2014 PageFair-Adobe company report,

these companies “provide off counter ad block so-

lutions to web publishers… help over 3,000 websites

free measures and recover revenue lost due to ad

block…offer technology solutions to enterprise

publishers to recover lost advertising inventory”.

Blocked ads generally include display, video, so-

cial and search ads. Their ranks are multiplying by

the day. On September 9, PageFair reported a 69

percent increase in ad block users in the last 12

months in the US. The company found that there

were over a billion ad blocking hits every month

Advertising


Amitava Sen

Mobile Medium

across some 3,000 of its client websites. Ad blocking

now poses a threat for the future of free content on

the internet.

In the UK also, ad blocking reportedly grew 82

percent to reach 12 million active users in 12

months up till June 2015. In Europe, ad block-

ing shot up by 35 percent during 2014-15. Mean-

while, by 2016, the global cost of ad blocking is

expected to touch $41.4 billion. And with the release

of Apple’s new device, iOS, ad blocking will become

more common, while its Safari—a smaller pro-

gram—will support smaller companies. It will block

cookies, images, pop-ups and other content—com-

mon tools for online advertising.

According to a June 2015 PageFair and Adobe

study, the ad blocker industry will hit online busi-

nesses, particularly publishing and advertising. The

report highlights some of the serious threats to the

global digital media industry whose mainstay is web

advertising. It estimates that if ad blocking becomes

the order of the day, the net loss to digital concerns

in the US alone could escalate to nearly $21.8 billion

by 2017. The revenue loss in 2014 was $5.8 billion.

Incidentally, Washington Post recently reported

that “companies that make money from ads have

complained about ad blockers”, but Google noted

recently that “it was looking for ways to make better,

less annoying ads to reduce customers” desire to get

rid of them. Google, incidentally, earns nearly 90

percent of its revenue from online ads, which stand

at $7 billion, followed by Facebook at $3.5 billion.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Apple earned

$487 million in mobile advertising in 2014. How-

ever, overall mobile earnings are likely to double in

value to $42 billion from 2014 to 2016, according to

eMarketer, a media researcher. The mobile share of

all digital ad revenue will grow to 62 percent from

38 percent. Incidentally, it’s estimated that print

media ad earnings will mop up only around $28 bil-

lion in 2016.

Commenting on the hazards of ad blocking, the

report adds: “It’s tragic that block users are inadver-

tently inflicting multi-billion dollar losses on the

very websites they most enjoy. With ad blocking

going mobile, there’s an imminent threat that the

business model that has supported the open web for

two decades is going to collapse.” Incidentally, nearly

71 percent of all users surveyed are said to be sup-

portive of ad blocking devices.

Almost all publishers and content providers en-

tirely depend on ad revenues from the digital indus-

try. But if ad blocking becomes pervasive, most of

the digital firms will wind up. With a view to saving

their businesses, they have been consistently urging

digital media device users to not to block ads, just

as print media establishments don’t. Publishers and

content providers had hoped that internet users

would sportingly accept online ads in the same spirit

they had accepted ads on television or in the print

media. The Guardian newspaper has politely, albeit

sweetly, appealed to readers: “We notice you have

got an ad blocker switched on. Perhaps you’ll like to

support The Guardian in another way?” It directs

visitors to a link to become a “supporter” or donor

to The Guardian. Even though The Guardian has

urged: “Without ads, we will not survive”, the appeal

hasn’t really cut much ice. The newspaper has kept

reminding readers of its “high quality journalism”.

And, finally, it has realized that its efforts are futile.

“Given that the use of ad blockers comes down to

fairness than legality, the question is whether beg-

ging for mercy actually works,” it said. Perhaps not.

Until bold alternatives are found, the digital in-

dustry may have to rely on its inherent strengths.

NUISANCE VALUE?Unwanted commercialswaste our time and consume our devices’ batteries, jacking upmaintenance costs


Anil Shakya

MISPLACED PRIORITIES

A bullet train willbe exorbitantlycostly and will

serve only a smallsegment of the

population

Incredibly, the government of India will spend moreon the Mumbai-Ahmedabad line than it does on railsafety, Swachh Bharat, schools, highways or health

VON brings in each issue, the best written commentaryon any subject. The followingwrite-up, from scroll.in hasbeen picked by our team ofeditors and reproduced forour readers as the best in thefortnight

a Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train link.

Politicians overpromising things while campaigning

is a fine Indian tradition but the enormous cost of just

this one line should serve as a shock: the estimated project

expenditure has come to `98,000 crore.

To put that in perspective, here’s a chart of how this

figure compares to other expenditure by the government

of India on absolutely vital sectors such as rail safety,

health, roads and schools (see the chart on facing page).

Narendra Modi has made cleanliness a key part of his

government’s message. And indeed, India desperately

needs it being one of the countries with the worst rates of

N every which way, Narendra Modi’s

2014 campaign was spectacular.

From communication to ground

management, the Bharatiya Janata

Party electoral machine, it is widely

acknowledged, got it right. However,

a year and a half after Modi took office, one aspect of his

campaign seems to have been a bit too spectacular alto-

gether. As part of its manifesto, the BJP promised what it

called a diamond quadrilateral: a network of bullet trains

crisscrossing the country. The first step in that plan has

gone through. India just signed a deal with Japan to build

I

Editors’ PickShoaib Daniyal

Bullet Train, Necessityor Accessory?


open defecation on the planet. 44% of Indi-

ans do not use what is probably the most

basic marker of modernity: a toilet. Even

Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh beat big

brother India with corresponding figures of

32%, 13% and 1%, respectively.

India should be on a toilet overdrive, yet

the government of India is going to spend

41X of its Swachh Bharat Mission outlay for

2014-’15 on building a somewhat fast train

line between two cities already superbly

connected by road, rail and air.

BULLET TRAIN > HEALTH, SAFETY

OR SCHOOLS

There’s more: the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train cost

is almost 4X the amount the Centre is going to invest in

rail safety in 2015-16. Just a week ago, India saw two train

accidents claim 14 lives and the Indian rail system is one

of the most unsafe in the world. Yet, precious money is

being diverted from safety to needless luxuries like a bullet

train. In fact, shockingly, the bullet train budget is 2.4X

the entire amount the government of India is going to

spend on the Indian Railways in 2015-’16.

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train budget is also

2.3X the entire spend of the Centre on schools. The cor-

responding figure for health and highways is 3.3 and 2.3,

respectively.

There is an interesting contrast here with healthcare.

Like bullet trains, the BJP manifesto had also promised a

plan for universal healthcare. This is much needed. India’s

healthcare system is shambolic and according to a World

Health Organisation study, ranks 112th in the world (for

context, eastern neighbour Bangladesh ranks in at 88, a

good 24 places ahead). Yet, in March 2015, the Modi gov-

ernment decided to scrap plans for a universal healthcare

scheme due to a “constraint on India's financial resources”.

This plan, which could have changed India dramatically,

had a budget which was just 25% more than the Mum-

bai-Ahmedabad bullet train link.

The razzmatazz of a bullet train might help him

politically but can Prime Minister Narendra Modi justify

reducing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad commute by two

hours as a more important public goal than rail safety,

ending open defecation, schooling, building highways

across the country or public health?

Shoaib Daniyal is a Mumbai-based writer and

a political commentator

The absurdly wasteful bullet train line

Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet trainCentre spend on highways, 2015-16

Centre spend on schools, 2015-16Centre spend on railways, 2015-16

Centre spend on health, 2015-16Safety investment in railways, 2015-16

Centre spend on Swachh Bharat, 2015-16

All figures in ` ’000 crore Amount

Data: Government of India budgetsScroll.in

98434242

3025

2.4


LET’S MASTERBASICS FIRST Can Indians first get accessto housing,health and education?

DESIGNS THAT MADE IMAGINATIVEUSE OF PHOTOGRAPHS, FONTS,COLOR AND WHITE SPACES TOLEAVE AN IMPRESSION By ANTHONY LAWRENCE

Design


Earth is in emergency ward. Is anyone taking acue from this illustration?

These politicians not only play with fear, they prey on it. US pres-idential candidate Donald Trump, French National Front leaderMarine Le Pen and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, withtheir hawkish postures on the refugee crisis and terrorism con-cerns, project themselves as the best bet for their countrymen’ssafety. Quite subtly captured by illustrator David Parkins

Even as she mulls tightening norms for refugees inthe face of growing opposition at home, German Chancellor Angela Merkel finds herself pro-jected as the “Chancellor of the Free World” by Time

magazine. Will this soften her heart once again?


Installation artists aregetting ambitious by the day. In this case,Chiharu Shiota uses aboat, red wool and50,000 keys to cast aweb. Part of the VeniceArt Biennale, 2015, thiswas titled “The Key inthe Hand”. The keyswere collected frompeople across the worldsymbolizing access tomemories of day-to-dayliving.

What are these shoes doing amid stones from the river? These are an artist’s footprints on nature, done in acrylic, with great attention to every minute detail.

There’s no limit to human creativity and imagination as this photograph byLou Blanc shows. The photographer does wonders with the human body,capturing it in various forms. It’s not just depth of field in photography parl-ance, it’s depth of understanding of anatomy and aesthetics.

NEWSDATE NEWS CHANNEL TIME

6/12/15

7/12/15

7/12/15

8/12/15

9/12/15

9/12/15

PM releases commemorative coins of`10 and `125 on the 125th birth anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.

NSAs of India and Pakistan—AjithDoval and Naseer Khan Janjua—meetin Bangkok.

Terrorists strike in Anantnag; weredressed in army fatigue. Five CRPFmen injured.

Sonia and Rahul Gandhi directed to appearin Patiala House Court on December 19 inthe National Herald case.

9/12/15

8:00 AM8:00 AM7:57 AM

11:00 AM10:59 AM

11:09 AM 11:09 AM


11:00 AM 11:01 AM

11:10 AM 11:11AM

1:00 AM

9:03 AM

12:59 PM 1:02 AM 1:02 AM

6/12/15There’s no intolerance against any com-munity in the country; there are politicalissues involved in this debate, says ChiefJustice TS Thakur. 10:30 AM10:29 AM 10:31 AM 10:32 AM

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swarajmeets Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad duringthe Heart of Asia conference.

10:51 AM10:51 AM 10:50 AM 10:52 AM 10.54 AM

Bedlam in Rajya Sabha over SoniaGandhi’s appearance in NationalHerald case 11:04 AM11:03 AM 11:04 AM 11:04 AM 11:05 AM

Rahul Gandhi claims National Heraldcase is 100 percent political vendettaagainst him.

11:31 AM 11:3 2AM11:30 AM 11:30 AM

Here are some of the major news items aired on television channels, recorded by our unique 24x7 dedicated media monitoring unit that scrutinizes more than 130 TV channels in different Indian languages and looks at who breaks the news first.

DATE NEWS CHANNEL TIMENEWS


12/12/15

12/12/15

13/12/15

15/12/15

Japan PM Shinzo Abe at the BusinessLeader Forum; hails Modi’s policies asreliable and safe like bullet trains.

9:45 AM 9:45 AM 9:46 AM 9:46 AM

11:00 AM 11:01 AM

Abe announces high-speed train dealwith India, along with defense andnuclear agreements.

11:01 AM 11:01 AM

Railways demolishes 500 jhuggis inShakur Basti slum cluster; Railway landhad been encroached upon.

10:00 AM 10:00 AM 10:01 AM9:59 AM

10:02 AM 10:02 AM 10:03 AM

11:31 AM 11:30 AM 11:31 AM 11:32 AM

Dhoni picked up by Sanjiv Goenka’s Pune franchisee for `12.5 crore. SureshRaina joins Rajkot team for the sameamount.

15/12/15Political controversy over CBI raid on the of-fice of Rajendra Kumar, principal Secretaryto Delhi Chief Minister. Kejriwal calls it anundeclared emergency.

14/12/15Politics over Shakur Basti demolition anddeath of a baby girl. CM Arvind Kejriwalcalls Rahul Gandhi a kid for questioningAAP over its protest against demolition.

10:32 AM 10:30 AM 10:31AM

13/12/15Vetaran actor Dilip Kumar conferredPadma Vibhushan Award. Home MinisterRajnath Singh presents the award at hisresidence in Mumbai. 2:07 AM 2:06 AM 2:06 AM

13/12/15Nation remembers martyrs of Parliamentattack 14 years ago; Sonia Gandhi, Man-mohan Singh pay tributes. 10:54 AM 10:52 AM 10:53 AM 10:54 AM

2:07 AM

Media Monitoring Year-enderTMM Survey

2015 at a GlanceIssues that media covered in the year gone by

TMM surveyed seven major channels, Aaj Tak, ABP News, India TV, Zee

News, IBN7, India Today and Times Now, to determine which

issues dominated news space on the electronic media. Of course M&M (Modi

and Peter Mukerjea) figured prominently


15%34%

15%

21%

19%

Top five political developmentshighlighted by TV channels

AAP’s victory in Delhiand its performanceModi’s foreign visitsParliament sessionsBihar electionsIndo-Pak relations

11%

25%

12%

29%

18.5%

Top five generic issues coveredby TV channels

Radhe MaaOROPPollutionIntoleranceAward Wapasi

15.5%

17%12%

32%

5%

Top five legal cases coveredby TV channels

Hardik Patel CaseNational Herald ControversyVyapam ScamMurder Case of UPjournalist JoginderSingh

34%

Yakub Memon DeathPenalty

15.89%20.17%

23.19%

7.94%

Top five criminal cases coveredby TV channels

Sheena BoraMurder CaseSomnath Bharti Domestic Violence CaseUdhampur Terror AttackChhota Rajan’s ArrestDalit killing in Sunpedvillage of Faridabad

32.81%

39%

9%

44%

4%

Top five sports events and developmentscovered by TV channels

LalitgateCricket World CupIPL Match FixingBoxer Vijender SinghTurning ProWimbledon, US Openand International Tennis Premier League

4%

8.35%

37.54%

32.41%

2.53%

Controversial cases involvingfilm celebs on TV channels

FTII and Gajendra SinghAamir Khan on intoleranceAnushka Sharma andWorld Cup-2015Salman Khan’s hit-and-run case

19.17%

Maggi ads involvingAmitabh Bachchan,Madhuri Dixit and PreityZinta


Special StoryNavjivan Publishing House


NSTITUTIONS like the iconic Navji-

van Publishing House and the Gu-

jarat Vidyapith, founded by Mahatma

Gandhi in the 1920s in Ahmedabad,

stand out for their inclusiveness, sim-

plicity and an accommodating Indian spirit—values

that are fast vanishing in today’s world. Such places

may appear anachronistic to technology-obsessed

modern youth, who are used to a faster pace of life.

I

A makeover drive,complete with a Wi-Fizone and a smart café, aimsto popularize Gandhianthought among youth BY KAUSHIK JOSHI IN AHMEDABAD

To encourage youth to appreciate the values of

the past that nurtured the nation, we need to take a

re-look at our heritage spaces that once served as

strong inspirational forces. While history has moved

on, the values need to be cherished.

To make the legacy of the past relevant to the

modern world, the trustees of Navjivan Publishing

House, that publishes Gandhian literature, decided

to give the Navjivan building a makeover with the

A Touch ofGandhi

help of architect Samir Shukla. The endeavor is to

invite people to Navjivan House and make them

slow their pace of life and reflect on the values and

sensibilities that Mahatma Gandhi lived and died for.

The overhaul took two years and the building

was inaugurated by Chief Minister Anandiben Patel

in January this year. In its new avatar, it is expected

to become a cultural hub for thinkers and youth, and

has within its confines the Karma Café, the avant-

garde Satya Art Gallery and the Navjivan Center for

Sustainable Development (NCSD).

COFFEE AND CONVERSATIONS

The Karma Café is unlike any other place for tea and

snacks. It was conceived by the trustees as a warm

and inclusive cultural space where everyone feels

welcome, regardless of background or economic sta-

tus. What lends distinction to the café is the absence

of a menu or a rate list. Visitors can pay whatever

they like; a drop-box serves for such donations.

Explains 67-year-old Kapil Raval, a trustee: “We

do not want to make profit from the café. We are

guided by Mahatma Gandhi’s robust faith in human

goodness. The thrust is to invite the young and the

old to connect with Gandhi.”

The café has a selection of books published by

Navjivan Trust and authored by Gandhi, as well as

tomes on subjects like health, philosophy, ayurvedic

cures, teachings of Swami Vivekananda, speeches of

Sardar Patel, the Ramcharitmanas and Bhagvad Gita.

There are also two rare gems—The Trial of Gandhi,

containing the court proceedings in 1922 against

Gandhi for his articles in Young India, and 100 Trib-

utes by artist Ramesh Thakkar, containing his

sketches of Gandhi, each accompanied by a tribute.

The wealth of knowledge and history that can be

gleaned at Navjivan House is difficult to tabulate.

How do you place a value on an iconic space that

takes you away from the frenzy of everyday life?

Ace photographer and managing trustee Vivek

Desai says: “It’s hard not to fear what all we shall lose

if we don’t preserve it in time. So to keep Gandhiji’s

ideas alive and throbbing, we started this endevor.”

As visitors absorb the aura of the once-vibrant

place, flipping through books that shaped the nation

in its transitional years, it is hoped that the legacy will

continue to live. Says Vinod Gajjar, a lawyer, who vis-

ited the complex recently: “I felt as if I had met

THE LEGACY LIVES ON(Facing page) Visitorsat the Satya ArtGallery; (above)Karma Cafe providesa meeting ground toshare and introspect


The trusteeshave left nostone unturnedto popularizethe place. Visitors canbuy books atthe café. Organic mealsare served. Visitors canchoose to paywhat they feelcomfortable.

Gandhiji in person. What’s more,

I got the book, The Trial of

Gandhi, which I had been look-

ing for since the 1990s.”

The café will soon become a

center for ike-minded people. “It

is the only place I liked at once in

Ahmedabad,” says Chaitali Joshi,

who recently moved to the city

from Bangalore.

“The efforts of the Trust are

laudable. However, the task be-

fore it is formidable since it is try-

ing to attract the young, whose

restless spirit is not in conformity

with the Gandhian way of life,”

observes Dinesh Joshi, a vernac-

ular journalist.

The trustees have left no stone unturned to pop-

ularize the place. While earlier, visitors could buy

books between 10:30 am to 5:30 pm only, now they

can be bought till the time the café shuts, at 9 pm. Be-

sides tea and coffee, the café serves healthy drinks and

Gujarati delicacies. There is the option of mint or gin-

ger tea (made with cow’s milk) or herbal sherbets

spiked with basil, fresh turmeric, ginger or fennel

seeds, and lime juice with jaggery. Refined sugar is

not used here. The Gandhi lunch platter is available

on weekends. All meals are made with organic prod-

ucts only. To ensure better turnout among the youth,

the café will be converted into a wi-fi zone shortly.

TAKING THE LEADTrustees Vivek Desai

(top) and Kapil Rawal(above) aim to

popularize Gandhianthought among youth


ART GALLERY

The Satya Art Gallery, adjacent to the café, held an

exhibition of rare pictures of Gandhi during the in-

auguration. Explaining the vision of the gallery, Desai

says: “It will play an invaluable role in providing space

for painters, writers, filmmakers and others to share,

introspect, and work in a conducive atmosphere.”

The gallery too is expected to evolve into a forum

for encouraging egalitarian and secular thought, just

the way Gandhi would have liked it to be. He had

once said: “The art which does no good to humanity,

does not uplift man and connect him with his soul

through enlightenment has no meaning.”

INFRASTRUCTURE AND PLANNING

NCSD will play a crucial role in connecting Gandhian

approaches with infrastructure development in rural

and urban India. It will look into areas such as com-

munication, planning, execution, engineering, skill

upgradation and analytics. Explains Shukla, who is

looking at it from the architecture and design per-

spective: “Our focus will be to work as technical serv-

ice providers in rural and urban planning,

eco-friendly architecture, use of alternate energy

sources and so on.”

In the March 7, 1936, issue of the weekly journal

Harijan, Gandhi wrote: “The tasks before every lover

of the country is… how to reconstruct the villages of

India so that it may be as easy for anyone to live in

them as it is supposed to be in the cities. Indeed, it is

the task before every patriot.”

Shukla, who is also a big data analysis enthusiast,

says that the NCSD shall employ data analysts to

frame policies for development planning. “For exam-

ple, if the city municipal corporation goes in for rapid

transport service, we may analyze the data of new ve-

hicles registered in a given period to find out if the

service has succeeded or not,” he adds.

Thus, Navjivan Publishing House is one of the few

remaining spaces in Ahmedabad where people forge

relationships, find purpose, expand horizons and

construct meanings.

Special StoryNavjivan Publishing House

INDIAN MEDIAPOLISRamesh Menon tracks the changes that are rapidly expanding the industry’s space into an exciting new global dimension 10

AJITH PILLAI TV news hype over nothing 30

SUDHA J. TILAK Ajith Kumar, the new Rajinikanth 26

DINESH SHARMA Murdoch’s takeover of NatGeo is bad news 18

BIKRAM VOHRA Letting stories hang 22

VIEWS ON NEWSDECEMBER 22, 2015 `50

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GOVERNMENT FUMBLES AS PUNJAB BURNS By Vipin Pubby 50

WILL THE PARIS CLIMATE SUMMIT CLEAN UP THE AIR? By Papia Samajdar 38

Governance Section

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INDIA, CANNY UNDERDOG IN CLIMATE TALKS? By Darryl D’Monte 44

WILL THE BIHAR LIQUOR BAN WORK? By Vipin Pubby 50

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Views On News (VON) is India’s premier fortnightly magazine that covers the wide spectrum of modern communication loosely known as “the media”. Its racy, news and analysis oriented story-telling encompasses current global and Indian developments, trends, future projections encompassing policy and business drifts, the latest from inside the print and electronic newsrooms, the exciting developments in ever-expanding digital space, trending matters in the social media, advertising, entertainment and books.

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CONFUSING PAIRSDROPPING NAMES�Plain Jane = a plain girl�A Simple Simon = someone easily taken in�An Adonis = a young man of striking beauty�A Silly Billy = a foolish fellow�Tommy-rot = Utter nonsense�Play Judas = to be a traitor�To play Cupid = to play matchmaker�Like a Sphinx = expressionless face concealing a secret�David and Jonathan = inseparable friends�Not on your Nelly = Never

WHO ARE THEY?�Croupier = a person incharge of a gambling table�Coparcener = joint heir�Funambulist = a tight-rope walker�Cicerone = a tourist guide�Spelunker =an explorer of caves�Twitcher = a dedicated bird watcher�Coiffeur =a male hair-dresser�Geriatrician = a doctor specializing in the care of aged people�Rentier = a person living on rental income�Sexagenarian = a person aged 60 to 69 years

SPECIAL ADJECTIVES

FOREIGN EXPRESSIONS WRITING IN STYLE

English is one of modern India’s 22 official languages, and is widely learned as the second language in most countries. Enjoy it and avoid falling into some common error traps. BY MAHESH TRIVEDI

�Annus horribilis = horrible year�Annus mirabilis = wonderful year �Novus homo = upstart, new man�Hakuna matata! = no worries!�Frappe = chilled drink�Mon cher = my dear�Trattoria = Italian restaurant�Tchin tchin! = cheers!

�The fire of passion�The depths of despair�The heights of happiness�The school of life�A flash of inspirations�A flow of words�The dawn of history�The book of nature�The key to the mystery�The crux of the problem

�Priest – sacerdotal�Smelling – olfactory�Old age – senile�Rain – pluvial�Throat – guttural�Hair – crinal�Floods – diluvial�Cattle – bovine�Cats – feline

�Abrogate = abolish�Arrogate = claim presumptuously�Barbaric = crude, uncivilized�Barbarous = cruel�Chafe = make sore�Chaff = tease�Defective = damaged�Deficient = short of�Deprecate = argue or protest against�Depreciate = fall in value


Like it or lump it, infusion of foreign expressions intobooks, magazines and newspapers is a fact of life.

Some nouns have special adjectives:

views on news 07 january 2016

News & Politics