Author: The Metrognome

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Diaries

Politician of the year

Prithviraj Chavan learnt the ropes very quickly in Maharashtra. He was a key player in the State’s politics this year.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Part 5 of the Yearender Diaries

Prithviraj Chavan took over as Maharashtra’s Chief Minister at a really tumultuous time in the State’s political scene. The other Chavan – Ashok, of the Adarsh Housing Scam – had just been removed as CM, several names in the Government were tumbling out of the closet for their complicity in the Scam, and the Congress urgently needed to appoint a new, squeaky clean CM.

The question was: who was non-controversial enough to take over the CM’s post?

Reportedly, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was upset over the idea of sending his trusted lieutenant, Prithviraj Chavan, to head Maharashtra. Chavan had been Singh’s main troubleshooter for the longest time in Delhi, but the decision was finally made and Chavan left for Maharashtra.

Says a Government official who worked with Chavan when he first assumed the CM’s office, “He actually wasn’t well-versed with Maharashtra and its ways. He didn’t know most of the State’s politicians, apart from the very prominent ones. It took him a while to match the faces to the names.”

Satish Lalit, the CM’s chief PRO says, “He came from a very structured working background in Delhi, where everybody met him only after prior appointment. Over here, people just barge into ministers’ offices, and any appointments happen by sending a visiting card to the CM five minutes earlier. He (Chavan) found this really strange.” Adds another official, “He still does not like to meet people all the time, but he has made his peace with it.”

Those in the know will testify that Chavan works very late nights – Satish says his staff works till 10.30 pm daily – and that he watches the news on TV till the wee hours of the morning, before sleeping awhile and waking up for a game of badminton before starting work. “I have not seen too many politicians in his position keep abreast of the latest happenings the way he does,” Satish says. “He is always reading and researching; I think this comes from his BITS Pilani background, but there is no denying that he is uncommonly astute and a very quick learner.”

There is no doubt that Chavan has not only learnt the ropes of a gigantic State quickly enough, but he has also become a dependable face in Maharashtra politics at a very testing time – the Congress in the State is increasingly at loggerheads with its ally, the NCP (despite Chavan’s good ties with NCP chief Sharad Pawar), the irrigation scam is still an unresolved issue that Chavan will have to answer for sooner than later, and he is said to have several enemies within his own party. There are also rumblings, on and off, about him being recalled to Delhi.

Overall, this year belonged to Chavan, with a number of important decisions and incidents to his credit. He took a couple of tough decisions that impacted the builder lobby in Mumbai, but overall, showed remarkable keenness to drive foreign investment to the State. Another development that can be credited to him was the long-pending Indu Mill land transfer early this month. But his biggest achievement this year was the total secrecy he and his office maintained over the hanging of 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab till it actually happened; this made Chavan an instant celebrity all over the country, with the media marvelling at the two-week silence over the operation. His Government was also credited for its efficiency during the mammoth funeral for Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray in November.

Observers say that Chavan has mastered the trick of being highly visible while at work, without appearing to do so, and that he knows how to capitalise on an issue and muzzle his detractors.

Besides all of this, there’s something about the man that inspires confidence. He is tremendously fit at age 65, he is a sharp dresser, he is extremely articulate (he switches easily between Marathi, Hindi and English, unlike most State politicians) and he is not known to pass flippant comments or be anything but politically correct. “You have to read between the lines when you’re speaking to him,” says an official. “He is not given to verbosity at all. And if something false or derogatory is written about him in the papers or shown on the channels, he doesn’t get rattled by it.”

One thing people do fault him for, however, is that he almost always reaches late for any event. “He is always late,” chuckles a journalist. “But it seems that he is constantly working, always travelling, sometimes covering two or three places in a day.”

‘Diaries’ is a series of stories on one theme. The Yearender Diaries seek to capture the most telling moments, happenings and people in the city this year. Watch out for Issue of the Year tomorrow.

(Picture courtesy jaimaharashtranews.com)

 

 

Categories
Do

A basket and a girl’s first great moments

‘Girl Gift Basket’ celebrates the birth of the girl child; you too can replicate the idea and take it forward.
by The Diarist | thediarist@themetrognome.in

Let’s face it, we really didn’t need Aamir Khan and his TV show Satyameva Jayate to tell us that the sex ratio in our country is  skewed in favour of boys. But it also took Aamir Khan and his TV show to focus the spotlight on an issue that has taken centrestage in our collective consciousness, especially in the light of recent events.

Girls are raped. Girls are killed at birth. Girls are given a secondary upbringing as compared to their brothers. And till society considers girls a burden on the family’s resources, girls will continue to be short-changed, sometimes by their own parents.

This is where the Girl Gift Basket comes in.

The Girl Gift Basket is a project kickstarted this month in Mumbai, in which a team from Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), an advertising firm, goes to partner hospitals in the city to distribute free gift baskets to mothers of girl children. Speaking to The Metrognome, Russell Barrett, Managing Partner BBH, says, “This project was part of a BBH Worldwide brief, where the idea was to do something good, famously.” He adds, “We are an ad agency, not an NGO, so we are able to put out the word on something pretty quickly. But for this project, simply putting the idea out there is not enough – we want it to be replicated all over the country.”

At the core of the idea is the thought of celebrating the girl child, and to help minimise the gender bais. “So many mothers are extremely disappointed to give birth to girls. A new mother is at her most vulnerable, and at that point, to have somebody come in and gift her a basket – it changes the vibe in the ward. People have been so moved to receive the baskets,” Russell says.

As part of the project, a team from the agency goes to hospitals’ maternity wards and gifts a previously put together pink basket of goodies for both the girl child and her mother. “The team hands out the baskets and sometimes explain to the mother how to use the products inside. Doctors and nurses also pitch in during the interaction,” Russell says. The agency has partnered with its current and ex-clients for the products, which includes body lotions, diapers, soft toys and hair oil, among other things.

The idea took over two months to execute. “We brainstormed on what the baskets should contain. We obviously couldn’t charge for the baskets, and there could be no perishable products inside. Plus, we needed to set a timeframe on getting the project started. But those we approached for help helped us a lot. We contacted hospitals, got the required permissions, and our dedicated team of six got the baskets organised, besides working out delivery schedules.”

Russell comments on the dedication of the team that is currently working on the project. “We have to get this work done without sacrificing our work at the agency,” he says. “But the team is extremely committed – they plan the distribution work in the early mornings, before office starts, or during their lunch breaks, or after work. I’ve even seen them work Saturdays and Sundays on this.” He says the biggest high for the firm has been in watching the team return after a round of distribution. “They’re so charged up, so filled with a sense of achievement. That’s driving them to continue.”

Thus far, the agency has generated funds for 500 baskets. “Our target is 500 baskets, and we’re hoping the idea really takes off by then. For those who want to replicate the idea, we’ve put up a downloadable kit on our website. The kit contains the letter for the hospital and ideas for the basket, among other things,” Russell says.

“It’s not about what we’re doing, it’s about taking it forward. The great thing is that help is pouring in. We realise it’s a very miniscule step, but if we can even plant a small thought in a young mother’s head, tell her, ‘See, it’s great to have a daughter, you even got gifted for it!’, it is a chance for us to do good at a very early stage in that child’s life. We’re hoping this project will start a fresh, positive conversation on girl children altogether,” he explains.

For details on how to get involved with the Girl Gift Basket and for a list of partner hospitals, look up www.girlgiftbasket.com.

Categories
Diaries

Personality of the year

Sailesh Mishra, senior citizen activist, went to the UN, participated in Satyameva Jayate, and helped lost elders find their homes.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Part 4 of the Yearender Diaries

A disclaimer: at The Metrognome, we don’t subscribe to the idea that year-ending lists must comprise only the famous and the newsy. The man we chose as Personality of the Year was a walk-in for the title, anyway. Incidentally, Sailesh Mishra, elder care activist based in Mira Road, Mumbai, is both famous in his circle, and this year has certainly been a newsy one for him.

We featured Sailesh in October this year, days after he was back from a fruitful stint at the United Nations’ Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Ageing Convention. The interview with him took place at a suburban cafe, and Sailesh bubbled over with enthusiasm about the Convention, and the chance he’d been given to speak on the floor of the House – a lucky chance indeed, because Sailesh got the opportunity to refute the Indian ambassador’s remarks. “The Ambassador had said, ‘Why do the elderly need rights? Their development is the responsibility of the society and their families. What can the government do?’ When I got the chance to speak, I gently refuted what the gentleman had said, and I stressed the need for the government to be more proactive in implementing several schemes for the elderly in India,” Sailesh grinned.

We’ve met several activists over the years, and have been repeatedly disappointed when so many of them have lost their way after being involved with some truly marvellous initiatives. However, Sailesh continues to hold steady in his work, mostly because he does not ever speak of himself or his NGO. “It is the cause of elder care in the country, and how the present policies are unfriendly for our elders, that is important. I don’t ever talk about my NGO, even when invited to address conferences, because I don’t want to focus the spotlight on myself or on Silver Innings,” he says.

Sailesh’s philosophy is to look at senior citizens in a positive, happy vein. “Why do we treat our elders like they are useless, or like they need to be protected? We make no effort to integrate older people in our daily activities, we keep them away from most things. I am against this isolation that is imposed on our elders,” he says. His NGO, hence, organises events where senior citizens can register to dance, sing or participate in other social activities, while also mingling with others like themselves.

Last year, a woman from the creative team that put together Aamir Khan’s TV show Satyameva Jayate, contacted Sailesh for inputs on an episode dedicated to senior citizens. “After I heard the brief and what they were looking to discuss, I flatly said to the lady that she could tell Mr Khan on my behalf, that I was not interested in doing a show that would become a sob story about senior citizens. If they wanted to discuss the positive aspects of ageing and tell some inspiring stories, I could help them,” Sailesh says, adding that not only did the team tweak its narrative to include his idea, they also took his inputs on the rest of the episode as well.

He is also a part of the think tank that is pushing the Government of Maharashtra for a legislation that will give elders in the State a set of rights. “What you must understand is that whatever we push for at the present moment, is not about to benefit the current crop of senior citizens. Unfortunately, their time is gone. When I reach out to youngsters, I emphasise that all our present efforts towards securing elders’ rights will actually help when we become senior citizens ourselves.”

With life expectancies rising in India every year, naturally, the numbers of its senior citizens are also dramatically rising. “We must push for employment opportunities for able senior citizens, architecture and infrastructure that is easy to use for them, better communication with the police and support groups, and of course, activities that help keep them occupied and in touch with their peers,” Sailesh says. When he’s not touring the country delivering lectures and helping like-minded individuals and NGOs set up elder care facilities, his NGO runs an elder care counselling centre, organises activities, and most recently, helps in the search for senior citizens who have inadvertently wandered out of their homes.

‘Diaries’ is a series of stories on one theme. The Yearender Diaries seek to capture the most telling moments, happenings and people in the city this year. Watch out for Politician of the Year tomorrow.

Categories
Deal with it

Where in the world is JB Talleu?

This Frenchman came to Mumbai in 2007 and vanished without a trace. His family and friends still look for him.
by Vrushali Lad | vrushali@themetrognome.in

It is a story that continues to baffle me, five years after it happened. I used to be a correspondent with a Pune-based paper in 2007, when the news of French national Jean Baptiste (JB) Talleu’s disappearance first broke out. Apparently, the 27-year-old was to embark on a bicycle tour of India, starting from Pondicherry, and he arrived at Mumbai on December 7 that year. The only evidence of him being in Mumbai at all was that he withdrew money from an ATM near Film City, Goregaon.

Nobody’s seen or heard of him since.

Somehow, I still write about JB every year.

The Talleus, especially his mother Marie-Claire, continue to fly to India and follow up every possible lead, of which there have been many. The Talleus and their friends here have made trips to several places in the South and North of India, while always passing through Mumbai to appeal to the authorities to help find their son. And yet, his mother, despite not knowing the fate that met her son five years ago in Mumbai, feels better the moment she gets here, because “this is where he was.”

I met a friend of the family, Dominique Hoeltgen last week in Mumbai. Dominique is a journalist who has lived in Mumbai before relocating to France two years ago; she met JB’s mother when the story first broke out, and quickly became friends with her. She has even helped in the search for the missing cyclist. “People have been writing to Marie-Claire on her email, telling her that they have seen a man who looks like JB. Whenever possible, I’ve followed up those leads myself, but all of them were dead ends.”

I ask her what she thinks happened when JB arrived at Mumbai. “I’ve thought about it and thought about it, and I think he was harmed by somebody here, may be for money. I find it strange that there is no trace even of his bicycle, so maybe he was mugged and his money and belongings were stolen. But I keep thinking that he is alive, he is just lost somewhere and that we have to find him.”

But why would JB, normally in the habit of contacting his mother whenever out on one of his trips, not contact her in five years? “I think he must have lost his mind,” Dominique suggests. “The people who have told us that they saw him, all of them insisted that the man they saw didn’t have any belongings. One person in Gujarat, a doctor, said that he spoke to the man who he thought was JB, and that the man told him that his belongings were all taken away from him when he came to India. The man had been sitting alone near a temple, and had a French accent,” she explains. Nothing came of that lead, either.

Even more puzzling is the police and French Embassy’s inaction in cracking the murder. “We made several trips to the cops, we pleaded with them to follow up the lead in Gujarat, but they didn’t do anything,” Dominique alleges. “We were even more surprised that the French Embassy did nothing, continues to do nothing, to trace its own national.”

Christmas approaches, and JB, a deeply spiritual person who is very close to his family, is still out there somewhere, lost. It’s another Christmas for the Talleus with no answers. Let’s hope they hear something before the next festive season.

If you have any information on the disappearance of Jean Baptiste Talleu, write to mctalleu@gmail.com. 

(Picture courtesy indiamike.com)

Categories
Overdose

A taste of two Indias

Jatin Sharma writes about how we’ve spoken enough about taking control, and that now’s the time to actually do it.

I live in two countries now. No, I don’t travel a lot. In fact, I don’t travel at all. My passport is still a virgin. But yes, every now and then, I feel that I have been teleported to a country where I don’t belong. I stay in India but every now and then, reality strikes me and lets me know that I am also in Bharat.

A Bharat where people judge others what they wear, a Bharat where girls don’t have any power and the boys are the laadlas, a Bharat where if girls enjoy their liberty, they are being ‘adventurous’ and if boys down a few pegs, they have become adults.

I live in a Bharat where people are biased and the leadership is weak. I live in a Bharat where my leaders can classify a rape as a ‘rarest of rare’ rape. And this last statement can come from a State whose Chief Minister is a woman.

I live in a Bharat where the police don’t shy away from hitting women who are protesting and asking for justice. I live in a Bharat where the Government’s precautionary measure to reduce rapes is to ask people to confine themselves in their homes post-1 am. I live in a Bharat where those in power think that the best way to control crime is to make the victim understand the anatomy of the crime, and not the criminal.

Bharat has committed a lot of mistakes. Grey hair and bodies corrected by surgery are deciding, time and time again, how the country is to run. I am not asking for anything more but for the powers that be to realise that the majority population of my nation is young and raring to go; it is the real India.

But enough has been said by all quarters about how India needs to unleash itself now. It’s time that we start controlling Bharat; for once I feel that we do need retirement houses for these old people who are just a step away from sitting in wheel chairs permanently, but who are presently running Parliament.

But how does that become a reality? By sitting in protest at India Gate? By descending on Jantar Mantar? By sitting in front of your laptop and sharing a few pics and videos? Or by really going out to achieve our kingdom, our country, a country where the shameless are shamed and criminals are punished hard?

We need to repair Bharat so that it becomes our India. And that would be possible when India reclaims Bharat. Today, these leaders are in their high offices only because India sits or goes out on a vacation when elections are announced. They are ruling us, because we only raise our voices when something really gory things happen to us, and not when things  go wrong in other spheres. We don’t raise our voices when a criminal fights an election, we don’t say much when a Facebook user is arrested. We don’t raise our voices when we have to give a tenner to get a cop off our backs.

We’ve theorised enough. Let’s go out and do something that makes a difference, and not something that is merely symbolic.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because he feels that if he grows up, he will be like everybody else.

(Picture courtesy antarmukhi-ashu.blogspot.com)

Categories
Hum log

The maestro in his home

Humra Quraishi met Pandit Ravi Shankar at his Delhi home before he moved to the US. This is her story.

I can never forget my first meeting with sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. It was around the time of his 70th birthday, and as I sat sipping my tea at his Lodhi Estate home, I got so terribly nervous that the entire cup crashed to the carpet of his living room. With that disaster, my nervousness peaked to such an extent that I could barely ask more than the basic, customary questions.

But  Panditji had simply smiled and tried his best to make me feel at ease.

It was only after a longish gap that I’d mustered enough confidence to try and meet him again. This was in early 1993. He’d looked frailer and quite sad. He’d told me that he’d been left totally devastated by the recent death of his only son Shubo. That was the time he and his second wife Sukanya were planning to shift base from New Delhi to San Diego, California.

When I asked him why he was moving to the US, the couple gave me a set of reasons. “The mess in the country is painful for me. Even a place like Delhi is becoming unfit for living. With everything else, the pollution here is killing,” he said. Sukanya stood close by and added, “The politicians and pollution have finished the city. We have already bought a Spanish villa in California and now I’m doing it up my way.”

To that he’d added, “For me, the house is a very important place. Since I was 10, I have been travelling, living in hostels, so I value my home. That feeling of warmth, coupled with a comfortable middle class lifestyle. Nothing gaudy or vulgar. Somehow, I totally dislike the Delhi concept of showing off. A dignified, balanced and comfortable way of life is what I like.”

He went on to tell me details of the very first house he had built for himself in Benaras. “I don’t know why I decided to build that house in Benaras. Probably because I was born and brought up in that city…and though I’d built it in the early ‘70s, within years I decided to abandon it. All sorts of crude elements had sprung up around me, those decaying values stifled me, so I decided to shift out of Benaras. I’m not a fighter. I’m a musician and I can’t stand vulgar people, besure log.”

Their Lodhi Estate home was really simple. There wasn’t a trace of any ornate furniture, no porcelain ware, no elaborate bedroom bandobast. In fact, the only room which looked well done up was the music room; with sitars, surbahaars , tanpuras neatly placed in stands and the walls of this particular room adorned with prized photographs capturing Panditji with John Lennon, Uday  Shankar, Baba Allauddin, Pablo Casals, Mariam Anderson, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

The maestro’s bedroom had only a double bed and a fax machine in it. As we neared the puja  room, he told me, “This isn’t just a puja room but my private corner. This is where I meditate, do riyaz, pray. For me, religion is a very personal thing. I am certainly not ritualistic. In fact, like me, most musicians are broad-minded.

When I was 18, I went to live with my ustad, Baba Allauddin, and though he was a devout Muslim, his home in Madhya Pradesh’s Maiher was full of photographs of Kali, Krishna, Christ, Mary…music makes you more tolerant. I only wish our present-day politicians were more musically-inclined; then there’d be more harmony and not the present-day cacophony!”

I asked him, “If religion is so personal to you, why is there such a bold ‘Om’ inscribed on the very entrance gates to your home?”

He didn’t just explain this with words, but he also wrote in my notebook. I quote him, “Om or Aum is the primordial sacred sound that has been uttered, chanted and sung by yogis, musicians and the common man for thousands of years. In music, Omkar plays a very important and a very great part. Mian Tansen and his family gave great importance in their singing to the aalap, which starts with the words ‘Hari Om’. This gradually changes to nom, tom etc…To me, as a musician, this sound signifies a deep spiritual vibration, mentally as well as physically.”

 (Picture courtesy guardian.co.uk)

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