Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
TMM Special
Section
2015 AT A GLANCE
ISSUES THAT MEDIA COVERED IN THE YEAR GONE BY 48
VIEWS ON NEWS
www.viewsonnewsonline.com
Sushma Scores
Her Pak visit could be the first feather
in Modis foreign policy cap 12
CHENNAI
FLOODS
Where the
press went
wrong
18
UNDERRATED
GENIUS
A tte--tte
with Kiran
Nagarkar
36
STUMBLING
BLOCK
Keeping
the net
free
40
COMIC
CON
Ticket to
a wonder
world
28
EDITORS NOTE
SUSHMAS FIRST
TRIUMPH
PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODIS financial
and governance initiatives in parliament may well
have laid a big fat egg so far, but his peripatetic
diplomacy, I am compelled to proclaim, has begun
to yield dividends. The successive parliamentary
fiascosthe abysmal failure to make progress on
the GST bill and other crucial economic reform
measures dear to the prime ministers heartmirror
the atmosphere outside parliament.
Theres constant political street fighting amidst
charges and counter-charges of vendetta politics,
victimization, intolerance, tit-for-tat use or abuse of
investigative agencies and strident invective. The
streets simply pour into parliament and all legislation
comes to a standstill because legislators are in no
mood to cooperate or to make the government in
power look good. This, sadly, has been the leitmotif
of Indian politics over the
last few decades.
While devoting extensive, wall-to-wall coverage
to the political warfare before, during and after the
Bihar elections in which
Modi and his image as a
serial winner suffered a serious setback, the media
did not appear to pay adequate attention to one solid
win scored by Team Modi
not in India but outside it. In
Pakistan.
A nations foreign policy is usually considered
an outcome of national
consensus. No matter how
ON THE
RIGHT TRACK
External Affairs
Minister Sushma
Swaraj with her
Pakistani
counterpart
Sartaz Aziz in
Islamabad during
her recent visit
MEA
termed comprehensive dialogue. It remains essentially the same as beforea menu of issues
including Kashmir, Sir Creek, Siachen, counter-terrorism, trade, visas and confidence-building measures. An add-on is religious tourism.
It represents continuity and gives due recognition
to what was achieved previously by Congress and
BJP governments through this processthe DelhiLahore bus service, India-Pakistan trade, a new visa
regime, a mechanism on prisoner exchange and the
2003 ceasefire on the Line of Control. Of course,
theres the odd chance that this could come undone
the moment the next terrorist attack takes place.
obody, but for pathological hawks, wants
war and bloodshed and wastage of precious
resources that can be used for fighting
poverty in both countries on an arms race. And nobody expressed this sentiment better than former
premier Manmohan Singh who wished that one day
we should have breakfast in Delhi, lunch in Lahore
and dinner in Kabul.
The supreme challenge before Indian and Pakistani leaders is not to give in to rabid elements or
to back off when terrorists try to disrupt solutions
and talks aimed at resolving the biggest security and
foreign policy challenge for both countries. And they
should be strengthened in their resolve because this
VIEWS ON NEWS
January 7, 2016 5
VOLUME. IX
ISSUE. 07
Editor
Rajshri Rai
Managing Editor
Ramesh Menon
Deputy Managing Editor
Shobha John
Executive Editor
Ajith Pillai
Associate Editors
Meha Mathur, Sucheta Dasgupta
Deputy Editor
Prabir Biswas
Art Director
Anthony Lawrence
Deputy Art Editor
Amitava Sen
Graphic Designer
Lalit Khitoliya
Photographer
Anil Shakya
News Coordinator/Photo Researcher
Kh Manglembi Devi
Production
Pawan Kumar
Head Convergence Initiatives
Prasoon Parijat
Convergence Manager
Mohul Ghosh
Technical Executive (Social Media)
Sonu Kumar Sharma
Technical Executive
Anubhav Tyagi
C O N
LEDE
12
New Delhis move to resume talks with Islamabad was a carefully choreographed one. But whether it will achieve justice for the 26/11 victims and
lasting peace is the big question. RAMESH RAMACHANDRAN reports
GROUND ZERO
Natures Eye-Opener
18
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
22
T E N T S
THE MEDIA MONITOR
SPOTLIGHT
BOOK REVIEW
RIP, Ravan
and Eddie
Better Late
than Never
Novelist and playwright Kiran Nagarkar 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
ADVERTISING
STORY
32 Dont Block Us! 40 SPECIAL
The Spirit of 50
INTERVIEW
48
2015 at a
Glance
36
the Mahatma
R E G U L A R S
EDITORS PICK
Train to
Nowhere?
42
Edit..................................................04
Grapevine........................................08
Quotes.......................................10
Media-Go-Round...........................11
As the World Turns.........................17
Web-Crawler....................................27
Design Review................................44
Breaking News...............................46
Vonderful-English............................54
Cover design: Anthony Lawrence
VIEWS ON NEWS
January 7, 2016 7
Grapevine
Pawar Power
Catching Don
ecently AAPs beleaguered MLA Somnath Bharti was at Dwarka Police Station with his famous dog, Don, accused of
biting Bhartis estranged wife Lipika Mitra.
Is minister Maneka Gandhi, who is known
to take up animal rights, aware that the dog
is being dragged to the police station time
and again? It seems that Bharti is sticking
out his thumb saying, Don ko pakadna
mushkil hi nahin namumkin hai. (Catching
Don isnt only tough, its impossible.)
8 VIEWS ON NEWS January 7, 2016
Protesting CMs
Photoshop Woes
Politics in the
Time of Deluge
Record Transfers
January 7, 2016 9
U O T E S
The Congress is a private limited company in which the shares are held by
one family. In the Congress, no matter
how talented the individual, he or she
must be resigned to the fact that the top
two jobs will never be open to anybody
other than the family members.
Aakar Patel, in Outlook
Arvind Kejriwal,
chief minister of
Delhi
Amish Tripathi,
author
#AryanInvasionTheory is d
greatest piece of fiction
cooked up by Europeans since
Shakespearean plays.
Shekhar Gupta,
senior journalist
Chitra
Subramaniam,
senior journalist
Minhaz Merchant,
journalist and
author
Suhel Seth,
author, columnist
Utter rubbish. But nothing
about AAP surprises me any
more (on what the AAP is
saying about Arun Jaitley in
the raid case).
EDIA-GO-ROUND
Arnab snubs
western
media
I
BJP PR drive
watch in 2015?
T
turns costly
Journalist KG Suresh
may become
DG, IIMC
J
January 7, 2016 11
Lede Diplomacy
Indo-Pak talks
Modis
Pakistan
Gamble
STATEMENT OF INTENT?
BOLD INITIATIVE
It is believed that the
Modi-Sharif meeting
during the Paris climate
summit triggered
Indo-Pak talks at
various levels
VIEWS ON NEWS
January 7, 2016 13
Lede Diplomacy
Indo-Pak talks
Dawn
India is part of the Heart of Asia process, but Ms Swarajs 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
Pakistans 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 Swarajs visit to
Islamabad. The Indian government had officially confirmed on Monday that she would visit
Pakistan to attend the Heart of Asia conference.
LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Modi's Pakistan visit in 2016
will give him a chance to pick
up the threads in Indo-Pak
ties from where former PMs
Manmohan Singh and
Vajpayee had left them
It is not
clear whether
under the new
terms of
engagement
Pakistani
interlocutors
would be
welcome to
hold talks
with the
Hurriyat as
before.
VIEWS ON NEWS
January 7, 2016 15
Lede Diplomacy
Indo-Pak talks
Cartoon
on India
labeled racist
hinese internet
giant Alibaba will
pay HK$2.06bn for the
takeover of Hong Kong
newspaper South
China Morning Post.
The newspaper
group revealed the sale
price in a statement
filed to the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange.
Besides the English
language newspaper,
Alibaba will also own
sister publications,
websites and magazines of the
paper.
Questions
have been
raised regarding the editorial
independence
under the new
dispensation. Asked
about critics who
say Alibaba would feel
the pressure from
Chinese leaders to
change the newspapers coverage,
Alibaba Group Holding
Limited executive
chairman Jack Ma
said: I think those
people think too little of
us.Alibaba has said it
could leverage on its
technology expertise to
develop the paper.
Egypt clamps
down on authors event
against Egypt.
The Guardian reported that Al-Aswany said the
cancellation of his event in Alexandria follows other
measures in the past year, which have prevented him
from appearing on TV channels or getting published
in Egyptian newspapers.
Al-Aswany has been quoted by the media as saying that freedom of expression is at its lowest point,
worse than in the days of Hosni Mubarak.
Compiled by Anuj Raina
VIEWS ON NEWS
January 7, 2016 17
Lost in
Translation?
FLOOD OF DISTRESS
Residents wade through a
flooded street in Chennai
TOO LITTLE,
TOO LATE
Flood-affected
people scamper
for free food
being distributed
by the
Indian Navy
VIEWS ON NEWS
January 7, 2016 19
BLINKERED VIEW
Indian media was quick to
carry stories that the tourist
haven Goa was off the safe
destination list in Russia
exclude and discriminate or, by that token, to congregate, club and become a cadre. This love for division is ruining any further potential that India
as a country might have to truly grow and subsequently 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 NorthSouth socio-cultural divide really manifest itself
even during the worst floods in memory in Chennai? 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 characterization 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 cliquishness 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. Dont be so silly, it is not like
it was cataclysmic from Day One, like an earthquake. It was just rain. The drainage system failed
the cityno one thought it was going to be
a crisis.
Partly true. Rain didnt make for much of a
story on the TRP Richter scale. Not in the first 72
hours. Oops, its raining in Chennai, oh okay, fine.
January 7, 2016 21
While national
media was deficient
in its coverage of
flood-ravaged
Chennai, its place
was taken over by
social media which
became a tool for
information and
rescue efforts
BY SUNIL SAXENA
OR three daysfrom
December 1 to 3Chennai was marooned, and
there were heroic efforts
by residents, NGOs and
absolute strangers to rescue 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
Bridge where the Adyar river had overflowed, informing 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 family 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
January 7, 2016 23
First
First
tweets for information: By the afternoon 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.
Facebook
activated its
Safety Check
feature on
December 3,
making it
possible for
its users in
Chennai to
reach out to
friends,
relatives and
loved ones
with one click.
VIEWS ON NEWS
January 7, 2016 25
Why were
reporters
avoiding the
heavily
flooded areas
earlier? How
well are TV
teams anyway
equipped to
cover such
calamities?
UK social media
wants Trump barred
Tashfeen
messaged
FB friends
Angeles Times.
The new info indicates
that US law enforcement
and intelligence agencies
missed warnings on social
media that Malik was a potential threat before she entered the US on a K-1
fiancee visa in July 2014.
The two Facebook messages were recovered by
FBI agents investigating
whether Malik and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook,
received any financial support or instructions from
foreign terrorist organizations before they carried
out the December 2
attacks.
Speaking about the campaign, Breakthrough country director Sonali Khan said:
Conversations about sexual harassment
don't happen within Indian families. I have
a 19-year-old son and I thought, did I ever
have such a conversation with him? If a
parent has such a conversation, what will
be the impact?
State snooping,
beware: Twitter
January 7, 2016 27
Spotlight
Comic Con Delhi
Just for a
Laugh!
The fifth edition of Comic Con showed the rising popularity of comics
among young and free-spirited souls and the boom in the graphic art form,
be it in comic strips, movies or television shows
BY SUCHETA DASGUPTA
T WAS a bright and balmy Sunday morning on December 6. Goddesses and empresses chatted away on the Okhla National
Small Industries Corporation Exhibition
Ground, sharing puffs from slim, black cigarettes 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
citiesMumbai, Delhi and Bengaluruannually, with
Hyderabad being the new addition. While footfalls
have doubled since its launch, the sale of merchthe
cool word for comics-related merchandisehas
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-
GEEKS AND
GODDESSES
(Clockwise, from
above left)
Cosplayers
dressed as
Cleopatra,
Neytiri and
Athena. Hit-Girl
and Kick-Ass.
Rob Denbleyker,
co-creator of
Cyanide And
Happiness
January 7, 2016 29
Spotlight
Comic Con Delhi
hijeet Kini, felt the market must move on from redoing and overdoing mythology. Its 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 animals with personalities I am Middle Cat, not
Ray (Smuckles), not Pat (Reynolds). Others, like
the self-deprecating Oatmeal arent. Some have
story arcs, others dont. But all are intellectual,
which is why geek is chic and their appeal
universal.
Take SMBC (Saturday Morning Breakfast Ce-
MERCH MARCH!
Sales of
merchandise
at Comic Con
India have
crossed the
`1 crore mark
VIEWS ON NEWS
January 7, 2016 31
Book Review
Rest in Peace
TRACING A LIFE
The
Adventures of
Ravan and
Eddie
So, the first time I met Nagarkar, he was a copywriter. 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 upside 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 weakness as a strong point, so too Nagarkar names his protagonist
after a villain, Ravan challenging
the status quo.
CINEMATIC REFERENCE
(Below) Harold Robbins penned a
triology on the American
entertainment industry
(Bottom) A Bollywood movie set.
Nagarkars book takes off from
the point when the main
characters are discovered by the
film industry
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 villain in the epic, Ramayana. To
name the protagonist of your
novel after a villain is audacious.
Having said that, to call the Ravan and Eddie books a trilogy
would be a misnomer. They are
more like a seriesThe
VIEWS ON NEWS
January 7, 2016 33
Book Review
Rest in Peace
As they
go from
one risky
encounter to
another, one
feels sorry,
angry, happy
for Ravan and
Eddie. Both
will go down
as characters
who mirror
the attitude
of the
Mumbaikar.
REST IN PEACE
By Kiran Nagarkar
Publisher: HarperCollins
Price: `450, 364 pages
Interview
Kiran Nagarkar
I am not an author
people 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 writing, his troubles with
the Censor Board
and how he finally
won the Sahitya
Akademi award
the Mahabharata and took 38 years to be published. 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 director 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 wasnt his
kind of writer. He didnt 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 didnt even get rejection fees. So earning
`1,500 every two or three months was very difficult. This went on for a very long time. I think
somewhere around the late eighties, I started getting work. In 1995, Ravan and Eddie got published.
In 1997, Cuckold came out. Then I took a very long
time for Gods Little Soldier. Actually, Cuckold died
immediately the day it was published.
Why do you say that?
Because it just didnt take off despite very good reviews. I was fortunate that in 2000, I got the
Sahitya Akademi Award for Cuckold. Its 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 important in my life but I cant trace how they influenced me. I love Graham Greene, and Joseph
Hellers 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
WRITERS CORNER
A bouquet of books
written by Kiran
Nagarkar
VIEWS ON NEWS
January 7, 2016 37
Interview
Kiran Nagarkar
PEN POWER
(L-R) Nagarkar has a special
liking for authors like Graham
Greene and Joseph Heller
or writing a book?
Everything.
Whats 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 really. And I am extremely ashamed of it. You need
two thingsimagination and hard work.
How do you write do you use a
computer?
The laptop is a recent thing. I wrote Gods Little
Soldier entirely by hand and revised it eight times.
The book didnt catch on here, but in Germany,
its a bestseller. But my works dont sell.
But you have a Sahitya Akademi Award.
Yes. The Akademi always had eminent personalities and with integrity. The moral standing of writers 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 dont read much. At least four or five authors are
making crores. My problem is that I dont read. So
if at all I want to read, shouldnt I read the greats?
INDELIBLE INFLUENCE
(L-R) The Plague by Albert
Camus left a deep
impression on Nagarkar; he
also liked French author
Louis-Ferdinand Celines
dark humor
January 7, 2016 39
Advertising
Mobile Medium
Amitava Sen
This could
well be what
publishers and
advertisers tell
digital users as
they block ads
on mobiles,
tablets and
computers.
Without ads,
the future of
free content on
the internet is
under threat
BY MR DUA
Anil Shakya
NUISANCE VALUE?
Unwanted commercials
waste our time and
consume our devices
batteries, jacking up
maintenance costs
VIEWS ON NEWS
January 7, 2016 41
Editors Pick
Shoaib Daniyal
MISPLACED
PRIORITIES
A bullet train will
be exorbitantly
costly and will
serve only a small
segment of the
population
LETS MASTER
BASICS FIRST
Can Indians
first get access
to housing,
health and
education?
open defecation on the planet. 44% of Indians 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.
98
January 7, 2016 43
Design
These politicians not only play with fear, they prey on it. US presidential candidate Donald Trump, French National Front leader
Marine Le Pen and Hungarys Prime Minister Viktor Orban, with
their hawkish postures on the refugee crisis and terrorism concerns, project themselves as the best bet for their countrymens
safety. Quite subtly captured by illustrator David Parkins
VIEWS ON NEWS
January 7, 2016 45
DATE
6/12/15
6/12/15
7/12/15
7/12/15
8/12/15
9/12/15
9/12/15
9/12/15
NEWS
Theres no intolerance against any community in the country; there are political
issues involved in this debate, says Chief
Justice TS Thakur.
PM releases commemorative coins of
`10 and `125 on the 125th birth
anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.
NEWS
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DATE
12/12/15
12/12/15
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15/12/15
NEWS
Japan PM Shinzo Abe at the Business
Leader Forum; hails Modis policies as
reliable and safe like bullet trains.
NEWS
CHANNEL TIME
9:45 AM
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Political controversy over CBI raid on the office of Rajendra Kumar, principal Secretary
to Delhi Chief Minister. Kejriwal calls it an
undeclared emergency.
10:02 AM
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2015 at a Glance
Issues 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
48 VIEWS ON NEWS January 7, 2016
15%
11%
34%
21%
15%
18.5%
29%
25%
12%
20.17% 15.89%
Radhe Maa
OROP
Pollution
Intolerance
Award Wapasi
4%
4%
39%
44%
2.53%
34%
12%
17%
Lalitgate
Cricket World Cup
IPL Match Fixing
Boxer Vijender Singh
Turning Pro
Wimbledon, US Open
and International
Tennis Premier League
5%
32%
32.81%
23.19%
AAPs victory in Delhi
and its performance
Modis foreign visits
Parliament sessions
Bihar elections
Indo-Pak relations
Sheena Bora
Murder Case
Somnath Bharti
Domestic
Violence Case
Udhampur
Terror Attack
Chhota Rajans Arrest
Dalit killing in Sunped
village of Faridabad
32.41%
19.17%
8.35%
37.54%
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January 7, 2016 49
Special Story
Navjivan Publishing House
A Touch of
Gandhi
I
NSTITUTIONS like the iconic Navjivan Publishing House and the Gujarat Vidyapith, founded by Mahatma
Gandhi in the 1920s in Ahmedabad,
stand out for their inclusiveness, simplicity and an accommodating Indian spiritvalues
that are fast vanishing in todays world. Such places
may appear anachronistic to technology-obsessed
modern youth, who are used to a faster pace of life.
A makeover drive,
complete with a Wi-Fi
zone and a smart caf, aims
to popularize Gandhian
thought 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
The trustees
have left no
stone unturned
to popularize
the place.
Visitors can
buy books at
the caf.
Organic meals
are served.
Visitors can
choose to pay
what they feel
comfortable.
VIEWS ON NEWS
January 7, 2016 51
Special Story
Navjivan Publishing House
ular journalist.
The trustees have left no stone unturned to popularize 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 caf shuts, at 9 pm. Besides tea and coffee, the caf serves healthy drinks and
Gujarati delicacies. There is the option of mint or ginger tea (made with cows 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 products only. To ensure better turnout among the youth,
the caf will be converted into a wi-fi zone shortly.
ART GALLERY
The Satya Art Gallery, adjacent to the caf, held an
exhibition of rare pictures of Gandhi during the inauguration. 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 communication, planning, execution, engineering, skill
upgradation and analytics. Explains Shukla, who is
looking at it from the architecture and design perspective: Our focus will be to work as technical service 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 example, if the city municipal corporation goes in for rapid
transport service, we may analyze the data of new vehicles 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.
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English is one of modern Indias 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
DROPPING NAMES
CONFUSING PAIRS
Abrogate = abolish
Barbarous = cruel
Chaff = tease
Defective = damaged
Deficient = short of
SPECIAL ADJECTIVES
FOREIGN EXPRESSIONS
WRITING IN STYLE