‘It is the pen that transforms me into Manto’

(New Delhi, Jun 30, 2014) A collection of non-fiction writing from iconic Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto showcases his brilliance while dealing with life’s most mundane things – graveyards, bumming cigarettes, a film crew with motley characters from mythology – and a sharp dissection of what ails the subcontinent.

 

“Why I Write: Essays by Saadat Hasan Manto” is translated by journalist-writer Aakar Patel and published by Tranquebar Press.

 

“Those who have read him (Manto) in the original, or even heard his words recited by Naseeruddin Shah’s magnificent troupe which performs his works, will know Manto’s language as that of Bollywood: simple and plain Hindustani. He is an easy man to translate in that sense,” says Patel.

 

“Most of the pieces in this collection were written for newspapers, and except for two, so far as I know, none have been translated before. I have edited, clipped, trimmed and rewritten a few of them, perhaps more than I should have,” he says.

 

In the opening piece “Why I Write”, Manto answers the questions which most authors face.

 

“The most important reason is that I’m addicted to writing, just as I am to drinking. When I don’t write, it feels I’m unclothed, like I haven’t had a bath. Like I haven’t had my first drink,” Manto had written in what was published as “Main Afsana Kyon Kar Likhta Hoon”.

 

“I don’t actually write the stories, mind you, they write themselves. And that shouldn’t be surprising. You see, I haven’t had much education. I have, however, written 20 books and I’m often astonished as the thought of who their writer could possibly be,” he wrote.

 

“When the fountain pen is not in my hand, I’m merely Saadat Hasan. A man who knows and is able to express little. It is the pen that transforms me into Manto,” he wrote.

 

One of the greatest raconteurs of the 20th century, Manto declares that he was forced to write when his wife routinely demanded that he put bread on the table for the family. He doesn’t attribute any genius to his skills as a writer and convinces his readers that the stories flowed even as he minded his daughters or tossed a salad.

 

Equally, he treats his tryst with Bollywood with disdain and unmasks the cardboard lives of tinsel town when a horse is painted to double up for a zebra or multiple fans rotate to create a deluge.

 

Two of Manto’s favourite and recurring themes – women and Partition – find special mention.

 

In “Save India from its Leaders”, Manto wrote, “India doesn’t need many leaders, each singing a different tune from the other, but those who sing together suing the same words.

 

We need only one, as wise as the Caliph Umar and as brave as Ataturk. Someone who will rein in the runaway horse of the State. Who will lead us manfully towards Independence.”

 

He also had a dislike for Bollywood movies.

 

“What an effective fraud is this business of films, that it should have also defrauded the one who helped make it,” he wrote in the piece “Why I Can’t Stand Bollywood”.

When Army Headquarters recommended cancelling ’72 R-Day parade

(New Delhi, Jun 29, 2014) The Army headquarters had recommended that the Republic Day parade in 1972 be cancelled but the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wanted the pageant to happen to celebrate Indian Army’s stupendous victory in the 1971 War against Pakistan.

This and several other anecdotes find mention in a new book “Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw:  The Man and His Times” on the charismatic military leader, fondly called Sam, written by his long-serving aide Brigadier (Retd) Behram Panthaki and his wife Zenobia.

After the victory in the 1971 war, the country was euphoric.

 

“The Indian Army had vindicated itself and the demons of the 1962 Chinese debacle had been exorcised. With units still in forward location, Army headquarters recommended that the Republic Day parade be cancelled, but Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wanted the pageant. There was a victory to celebrate there were tributes to pay,” the book says.

 

The Amar Jawan Jyoti was erected at short notice by the CPWD under the canopy of India Gate.

 

“On January 26, 1972, before the commencement of the parade, Gandhi drove down Rajpath in an open jeep, followed by the three service chiefs, to pay homage to the fallen. A scaled-down version of the parade followed. Contingents marched down Rajpath in battle fatigues rather than ceremonial uniforms,” the Panthakis write.

 

The authors also say that Gandhi was seriously considering appointing Manekshaw Chief of Defence Staff on Republic Day in 1972 but the move was opposed by Congress politicians led by Defence Minister Jagjivam Ram and by Air Chief Marshall P C Lal.

 

“The proposal was dropped and still eludes the services today, 42 years later,” they say.

 

The book, published by Niyogi, is an anecdotal account of Manekshaw who changed the map of the subcontinent. Replete with photographs, citations,notes and personal correspondence, it highlights his character, sense of humour, moral and professional courage, honesty, humility and respect for men in uniform.

 

The book also says that Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to consult the UN before sending the Army to Kashmir when Pakistani raiders were approaching the valley in 1947 and was coaxed by Sardar Patel to order movement of the troops.

 

“The Defence Committee of the Cabinet looked to Prime Minister Nehru for a decision. Nehru hesitated. He was concerned about world opinion and talked about consulting the United Nations until an impatient Sardar Patel wrested the initiative from him. ‘Jawahar, do you want Kashmir or do you want to give it away?’ ‘Of course, I want Kashmir,’ was Nehru’s indignant response. The Sardar turned to Sam and said, ‘You have your marching orders’.”

 

At 11 am on October 26, the airlift commenced from Delhi’s Safdarjung airport with six IAF and 50 Dakotas that had been requisitioned a few days earlier from private airlines.

 

“A total of 800 sorties were flown for a fortnight. By November 16, the raiders had been repulsed from the valley and Srinagar and the airport were secured although engagement with infiltrators in the rest of Kashmir and along the border continued for another 14 months,” the book says.

 

Interestingly, this reported reluctance of Nehru was mentioned by BJP leader L K Advani in his

blog last year.

 

Quoting from an interview of Manekshaw by senior journalist Prem Shankar Jha, Advani said that as the tribesmen, supported by Pakistani forces, moved closer to Srinagar, a decision had to be taken on moving Indian forces there. However, Nehru appeared reluctant and felt the issue should be taken to the UN.

 

However, Jha later clarified that the “real disagreement” between Nehru and Patel was not over sending the army but when and under what circumstances.

Four Chughtai novellas now in a collection

(New Delhi, Jun 27, 2014) In good news to Ismat Chughtai fans, four famous novellas, offering valuable insights into the ways the inimitable writer develops her characteristic themes revolving around the lives of women, are now available as a collection.

A Chughtai Quartet comprises the novellas, spanning Chughtai’s literary career from its early stages to the last years of her writing life — The Heart Breaks Free (Dil ki Duniya) written in 1918; The Wild One (Ziddi) in 1939; Obsession (Saudai) and Wild Pigeons (Jungli Kabutar).

The novellas have been translated from Urdu by Tahira Naqvi, a lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University.

Like many others in Chughtai’s stories, the protagonists in these four novellas are despairing in love and faced with tragedy when they try to cross social boundaries, seek and find agency in the exercise of an obdurate will that cannot be bent; and they cannot therefore be regarded as tragic figures.

At first, struggling against society’s harsh mores, suffering its blows, these women appear to be hapless victims. However, even as they pass through fire they do not let it consume them. They achieve what we may not regard as “triumphs” in the usual sense, but which do translate into a victory of sorts; tragedy pursues them, but in the end they swim against the tide.

Chughtai berates the social ills that inflict tragic consequences on the women, but she does not allow the reader to pity them or feel they are a lost cause. She does this by highlighting festering mores and the maladies that infect society in such a manner that the relationship between victim and oppressor remains clear in its dimensions and implications.

The works in the collection, published by Women Unlimited, offer valuable insights into the ways Chughtai develops her characteristic themes revolving around the lives of women.

According to Naqvi, The Heart Breaks Free, in which Chughtai draws on her childhood memories of life in Bahraich, is one of her best stories.

“Here, society is made up of the women in the narrator’s household, aunts, mothers, mothers-in-law, housekeepers. Chughtai has repeatedly brought to our attention the cruel treatment that women dole out to each other,” she says.

Together, the women of the household proceed to ruin the life of Bua, a free spirit who “had created a free world of her own where she ruled”.

All seems to be lost, but in a cleaver twist, Chughtai stirs up the dying embers. A strange and unexpected exchange takes place, a masterful turn of events in terms of plot development that culminates in a tour de force. Qudsia Apa, docile and weakened by attacks of hysteria as an abandoned wife, suddenly gains ownership of her life even as Bua loses control over hers.

The Wild One seems to be a traditional love story complete with a love triangle, but of closer examination we see the plot has been complicated by Chughtai’s critique of class differences. She revisits this trope repeatedly in screenplays like Sheesha and Buzdil and novellas Saudai and Badan ki Khushbu.

Obsession actually reads like a screenplay an here Chughtai’s continues with her trope of master-and-servant romance.

Wild Pigeons is an exploration of feelings and emotions that wrack both the person who betrays and the one who is betrayed.

Each one of the novellas develops the author’s central preoccupation with the lives of women as they experience love, tragedy, societal prescriptions and proscriptions, in collision with their own rebellious spirit.

A keen sense of their individual subversive potential and a willingness to take the consequences of obduracy in the face of overwhelming odds, ensures that these women are neither hapless nor victims.

Through them, Chughtai delivers a scathing critique on the hypocrisy and cant of social mores, and the festering maladies that infect society.

Chughtai’s characteristic mastery of form and technique, her vivid imagery and richness of language make for marvelous story-telling, and create some of the most memorable female protagonists in Indian literature.

Naqvi, however, says Chughtai is never a comfortable read.

“She jolts the reader out of any sense of complacency, creates havoc and practically bullies the reader into digging deep into the many meanings concealed in her powerful idiom, her tapestry of images and her rich symbols and metaphors,” she says, adding, “but she never disappoints”.

A ready reckoner on mammals in India

(New Delhi, Jun 26, 2014) Did you know that rhinos are one of the most dangerous animals to come across on foot as they can clock 55 km an hour when they chase?

This and several interesting facts find mention in a new book “Indian Mammals: A Field Guide” by noted naturalist Vivek Menon.

Covering the rich diversity of mammal species in India, from tigers, elephants, rhinos and whales to primates, rodents and bats, “Indian Mammals”, published by Hachette India, is a comprehensive, field-ready and illustrated guide to the mammals of India.

Accompanied by full-colour photographs and distribution maps, and based on scientific research reviewed by experts, it records details of virtually every mammal known to exist in India. There are about 400 mammals in India.

The in-depth text describes key identification features, biometrics, behaviour, social strategies, habitat and distribution.

The Malabar civet is one of the rarest mammals in India. With virtually no recorded sightings or any sort of evidences emerging in the past 20 years, it may be extinct or hanging on in very small numbers in the country.

The pygmy hog exists in small populations of a few hundred individuals in Assam while the Namphada flying squirrel is isolated in and around Namphada National Park in Arunachal Pradesh. Other smaller species include the Andaman white-toothed shrew, Nicobar white-tailed shrew, the Kondana rat and the Elvira rat.

The author says that there is an important behavioural difference between the black rhinos of Kenya and the famed one-horn species of India.

“The African rhinos butt with their horn and ours bite with their powerful incisors,” he says.

According to him, rhinos are one of the most dangerous animals in India to come across on foot.

“Beware, especially if a mother that you have been careful to avoid is separated from its calf, which you have not seen in the tall elephant grass of rhino habitat. Rhinos can clock 55 km an hour if they chase you,” he warns.

Menon, founder and executive director of Wildlife Trust of India and an advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare and its regional director (South Asia), says that mammals change coat colour and quality depending on climatic conditions, and this is striking in subspecies that live in
colder climates.

“In winter, the coat of many mammals becomes thicker, while in summer it becomes sparser. In some cases, this also results in a change of colour; for example, the Himalayan Stoat or Ermine goes from chestnut brown in summer to pure white in winter. The look of an animal changes with age and geography as also the seasons,” he writes.

“Many males turn more colourful and grow spectacular appendages during breeding season, none more than the males of the deer family. In the non-breeding season, stags may be antler-less or may have small velvet knobs that grow into antlers, but in the rutting season, they sport the most impressive headgear among mammals,” the book says.

Diet, according to the author, is a major factor that influences physiology, and mammals have developed specialised aids to gather food and to feed.

The powerful forelimbs of a tiger help it hunt, primates uses their opposable thumbs to forage, the large molars of herbivores help them chew, while the complex stomach of leaf-eating species helps them in digestion.

Now, Ramayana retold in graphic format

(New Delhi, Jun 25, 2014) The allegorical and engaging story-line of the Ramayana has inspired many versions and now a black-and-white graphic novel attempts a retelling of the epic from Hanuman’s point of view.

“Simian” by Vikram Balagopal is a gritty reimagining of the Ramayana that brings to life the scars -physical, moral and spiritual – borne by Hanuman, as he replays history, exploring the decisions one has to make in life and war.

The story is contained within the often glossed-over episode in the Mahabharata where Hanuman and Bhima meet. When Bhima chances upon an ailing monkey blocking his path in the forest, little does he realise that he is meeting his brother Hanuman. As the brothers settle in for a night of exchanging stories and notes, Hanuman tells a surprising tale: of the great war between Ram and Ravan.

“When I made the decision to create Simian, I dived into researching as many versions of these epics as possible and discovered a side to the Ramayana I hadn’t known – that it evolved with every version to reflect the sensibilities of the period and the people who produced it,” says Balagopal about the book.

The illustrator-cartoonist’s source and guide for the Ramayana was a translation of the epic by Ralph T H Griffith, and for any references to the Mahabharata, he used the translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguli.

The book, published by HarperCollins Publishers, is only the first two parts, in a trilogy, of the entire story and confines itself to the events surrounding the search for Sita.

The author says the characters’ motivations, relationships or even substantial portions of the “main” plot changed from telling to telling.

“In a Jain version, all the characters are depicted as Jains and in the end it is not Ram but Laxman who kills Ravan. A Buddhist versions called the Dasarata Jataka depicts Ram and Sita as siblings who marry, and though Ram, Laxman and Sita are exiled, the abduction of Sita did not finds a place in this version,” he says.

Balagopal, who has trained at the New York Film Academy, made some changes of his own for his version ranging from tweaking minor characters and plot details to the addition of new scenes. He chose to depict Jambavan as part of the vanar clan and not as the king of bears, a not- very-uncommon practice; and having Hanuman leap up to grab the moon instead of the sun.

“I have tried to stay true to the story in Griffith’s verse translation, occasionally going so far as to retain a turn of phrase or a line that did not seem capable of improvement,” he says.

Balagopal also made the choice to represent the different ages, centuries apart, of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in the character names and have split the usage between the two tales to the shorter Ram, Laxman, Ravan in the Ramayana and the longer Arjuna, Duryodana, Bhima in the Mahabharata for the sake of the storytelling, and not as a whim.

“It isn’t my place to offer definitive answers about the Ramayana, a text sacred to hundreds of millions of people. What you have here is a young man, of this time and place, trying to understand these characters the best he can, and tell the story pumping through his heart and veins, nothing more,” he says of his effort.

Failed start-up inspires Bangalore techie to pen book

(New Delhi, Jun 24, 2014) With his business running into rough weather leaving him almost broke, entrepreneur Vishwas Mudagal was in need of no less than a miracle to start life afresh when a strange idea struck him, that of writing a book on the situation he was in.

And thus Losing My Religion was born.

“I decided to make the protagonist (Rishi Rai) of my book go on a journey; I could live that life and that freedom through him, I reasoned. On May 22, 2009, I wrote the first chapter, and, I’d like to believe, my life changed that day,” Bangalore-based Mudagal told PTI.

“I literally lived with the characters, created a parallel universe, wrote-rewrote-bled through 14 versions of the story with 150 plus drafts. Storytelling became my passion,” he says.

Rishi, the main character in the book published by Fingerprint, draws heavily from the author’s life and his experiences.

“The beginning of the story is autobiographical because I made Rishi to be in the same situation that I was when I went bankrupt. But it ends once he decides to quit everything and go with Alex on an uncharted journey across India. Rishi later became a character of his own,” says Mudagal, currently CEO and co-founder of technology firm GoodWorkLabs.

“Rest of the story after they reach Malana is pure imagination, but influenced by people I have met, places I have visited, incidents in my life or my known ones, or stories I have heard growing up. Also there were years of research. Losing My Religion involved a lot of research, from Malana to Om Beach to Kumbh to reality shows, and so on,” he says.

According to him, Losing My Religion is a story of the global youth, written in a perspective never attempted before.

“It cuts across several genres, and has adventure, thrill, romance, bromance, suspense, entrepreneurship, business, reality shows, enmity and revenge all wrapped into a powerful story. And it’s a book that inspires people to never give up, never be afraid to fail, and never stop having fun in your life. It’s a book of hope,” he says.

Encouraged by the response to his debut book, Mudagal says he will continue to write “meaningful stories that entertain the heck out of the readers”.

He also says he will continue to build innovative companies and products as entrepreneurship is in his blood and gives him great adrenalin rush.

Losing My Religion was born in very interesting circumstances.

“It all started five years ago, in 2009, when my Internet start-up went through a rough phase. Although we had managed to get good user traction to our website, we couldn’t monetise it effectively. I was almost broke. It wasn’t easy to just move on and I didn’t have the energy and the money to start a new venture,” he recalls.

“One of those days, I happened to talk to an ex-colleague, who told me that he was taking a sabbatical and going on a year-long journey on his bike across India. I was left amazed listening to this, and instantly wanted to do that myself… go away, kill all the tension inside me, and look at everything else later on. But I couldn’t do that for a host of reasons.”

And then the strange idea of writing book on the situation he was in struck him.

Book explores architectural legacy of Srinagar

(New Delhi, Jun 23, 2014) Srinagar is home to an extraordinary range of social, cultural and economic assets in its traditional knowledge systems, oral traditions, and in skills of art and craft and now a new book explores the history and architectural heritage of the 500-year-old city, bringing to life its rich past.

In Srinagar: An Architectural Legacy, theatre director Feisal Alkazi attempts to place the city’s built tradition in a specific cultural context, where environment and history combined to create a unique style.

The book, published by Roli Books in collaboration with INTACH, is divided into two distinct parts – the first attempts to bring alive the rich past with its alternate eras of sorrow and celebration, and place the style of Kashmiri architecture in a specific context.

The second part lays out a series of walks, each of approximately three to three-and-a-half hours duration that give one a chance to discover the city, book in hand, and get a sense of the architectural heritage, as well as the dynamic interplay of civic life, religion and trade.

Alkazi discusses the development of the city along the meandering course of Jhelum with structures like mohallas, galis and traditional wooden bridges called ‘kadal’. He provides a glimpse of Kashmir through the years.

From Zain-ul-Abidin’s process of urbanisation, man-made island Zaina Lank, Zaina Kadal (first permanent bridge at Ala-u-dinpura), to Nallah Mar Canal followed by Pathar Masjid, built by the Mughal empress Noor Jahan, to the mosque built by Dara Shikoh for his spiritual mentor Mullah Shah on Hari Parbat, the city under the Sikh and Afghan rulers followed by the modernization that happened under the Dogra ruler Maharaja Pratap Singh, he focuses on all of these.

According to Alkazi, Srinagar is rapidly changing: malls replacing colonial structures, glass and concrete replacing wood, bay windows replacing the dub.

“Much of the beauty of Kashmiri residential architecture can be still seen in several houses around Ali Kadal and Zaina Kadal bridges in the old city, but this is a building traditional that may not survive,” he writes.

“Over the past five years, the Srinagar chapter of INTACH, on the request of CHEK (Centre for Heritage and Environment of Kashmir) has worked assiduously at documenting the building tradition, covering 838 homes, religious buildings, commercial and administrative complexes, gardens and canals to create an impressive five-volume set of listings. This book is based entirely on these listings and additional research in the field and in libraries,” he says.

The author also says the unique architectural heritage of Srinagar is under threat today, and it can easily turn into just any other faceless city, with no reflection of its surrounding landscape, local building material or indigenous traditions, in much of its contemporary architecture.

But fortunately, he says, the city continues to be home to an extraordinary range of social, cultural and economic assets in its traditional knowledge systems, oral traditions, and in the skills of art and craft. It is only by documenting and harnessing these living traditions that steps can be taken to preserve and conserve its unique character.

The book has 10 chapters with the last dedicated to six walks INTACH has devised – From Medieval to Colonial Srinagar, A Walk along the Bund, A Garland of Gardens, Exploring Hari Parbat, Of Mosques and Khanqahs and Moving back in time from Ali Kadal.

The ‘From Medieval to Colonial Srinagar’ walk starts from Khanqah-I-Mualla, goes to the Hammam, Mohammed Ramzan Krall’s house, Pathar Masjid, Zaina Kadal and ends at Shri Ranbir Gunj Shopping Complex.

The walk ‘Moving back in time from Ali Kadal’ is from Ali Kadal Bridge and Chowk to Bulbul Lankar via Ali Kadal Chowk.

Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi through Raghu Rai’s lens

(New Delhi, Jun 22, 2014) “The one who did not speak a word, his silence was deafening and the other who spoke much and it was deafening,” photographer Raghu Rai says of Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi as he compares their personalities by using a series of photographs in his new book.

The Tale of Two, An Outgoing and An Incoming, Prime Minister, a self-published work (AuthorsUpFront), brings together images of contrast of Singh and Modi in public and their positions in their parties.

According to Rai, since a prime minister is the supreme leader of a nation, there is “no room for us to look for the detractors who might have been the cause of his failure”.

He says in Singh’s case, his “failure to give us the kind of government we wanted might have been because of the high command’s final decision or the scams caused, but the sole responsibility falls upon the prime minister of the day”.

Rai says similarly when Narendra Modi takes over, “his performance as prime minister will have to be judged by his actions and decisions in performing his rajdharma”.

The veteran photograph themed his book on two sessions of Congress and BJP held in the capital in January.

“It was after 25 long years, I found the courage to photograph once again the sessions of two leading political parties during election season, the Congress and the BJP,” he says of the initiative.

“Though it was the month of January, the weather outside was pleasant but during those four hours I spent inside, there was a strange kind of stuffiness in the arenas… A strange kind of sycophancy and personality cult is entrenched in both the parties; as if the other members are lesser beings who seem entirely accepting of their lowly status,” he writes.

On January 17, Rai spent four hours at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session held at Talkatora stadium in the capital and photographed the mood with a special focus on the then Prime Minister Singh.

The photographs used in the book were taken between 9.30 AM and 1.30 PM on that day. Next day when Rai went through the pictures on his computer, he says he was “pained by what I saw”.

“Earlier on I have photographed and experienced in various political sessions of leading parties, relationships, manipulations, sycophancy and power play. But the prime minister of the day used to be the focus of attention and interest and everyone in the party looked up to him for an interaction or even a smile,” he writes.

“In Mr Singh’s case, he walks in behind Sonia Gandhi at 10.30 AM, and sits a few feet away looking lonely and isolated. There is only a tinge of a reluctant smile on his face when he stands between Sonia and Rahul Gandhi sharing a big garland meant for the trio,” Rai writes.

He says that every moment he photographed Singh, there was the “same fixed expression of gloom on his face, as if he was living a nightmare”.

According to Rai, the other sad part was, “in those few hours that I was there at the Congress session, nobody came to discuss or share anything with him as if he did not matter anymore. He looked isolated, ignored and deserted”.

Rai was then at the BJP’s National Council meeting at Ramlila Grounds on January 19 again from 9.30 AM to 1.30 PM.

“All senior leaders of BJP were presiding under larger-than-life headshots of Narendra Modi which formed the backdrop of the main stage… Each of these leaders got up to speak, Modi’s image looking out over their heads. It was clear that Modi was to be the projection of the day.

“Then Modi stood up to speak. A newly programmed, well-designed, well-worded campaign declamation came pouring out of him with proper emotional punctuations. The audience listened spellbound. He projected himself as a comprehensive and well-aware leader of a party that was missing ever since Vajpayee withdrew from active political life,” Rai recalls.

“Now that he takes over as the new prime minister, apart from his hardcore critics, many in India have great hopes of him taking the country towards good governance,” he says.

Film on Assam girls who are ‘bending it like Beckham’

(Guwahati, Jun 20, 2014) At a time when the country is in the grip of World Cup fever, a film brings out the inspiring tale of 40-odd girls from poor, agrarian families who are ‘bending it like Beckham’ in the hope that football will kick them out of drudgery.

Soccer Queens of Rani is about the passion of these girls from Rani area near here along Assam’s border with Meghalaya. And they have to thank Hem Das, a veteran coach from here, who spends his own money to teach football to girls like them.

Das had initially gone to the area in search of young boys interested in playing football, but found that more girls were in fact flocking to him to learn the sport.

While narrating the stories of the girls, the film also captures the socio-economic life of the area they come from, thereby trying to show how fruits of modern development have not been equitably reached all the people.

The film’s subject is also important in the context of North-East India, where football is a passion and states like Manipur and Mizoram and clubs like Shillong Lajong FC have excelled on the national scene.

The documentary by critic-cum-filmmaker Utpal Borpujari is made for Rajya Sabha Television. The 26-minute film was commissioned by RSTV channel as part of a series on developmental and inspirational stories of modern India.

The girls come from poor, agrarian families from villages in the Rani area, which despite not being very far from Guwahati still lacks basic amenities like electricity.

The mother and a brother of one of the girls work in stone quarries to make ends meet. Another girl’s father digs sand from the river to earn his family’s household expenses. One of the girl’s mother pulls a hand cart and sells snacks in the weekly local market.

“For these girls, football provides an outlet to go beyond their mundane lives, and as the film reveals, quite a few of them also see it as an opportunity to get a better life in the future. They walk or cycle several kilometres every day to practice football, which speaks volumes about their dedication. And they practice football in time they find after attending school and doing household chores,” says Borpujari.

The film is also about the dedication of Das, an ex-Assam player who runs the Young Star Football Coaching Club.

“Das spends a major portion of his earnings in going about 20 days a month to Rani to teach football to these girls, and even buying kits for them,” says Borpujari.

A number of these girls have made it to the state squads for Under-14 and Under-17 national school tournaments.

The film, apart from focusing on the story of aspirations of a bunch of young, underprivileged girls, also focuses on how individuals can play a role in giving shape to the nation’s future, even if in small ways.

When Kosygin called Lal Bahadur Shastri ‘super Communist’

(New Delhi, Jun 11, 2014) Late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri during his ill-fated Tashkent visit in 1966 lent a coat gifted to him by his then Soviet Union counterpart Alexei Kosygin to one of his accompanying staff members, prompting his host to dub him a ‘super Communist’.

This is among several anecdotes about India’s second Prime Minister that find mention in a book Lal Bahadur Shastri: Lessons in Leadership, co-authored by his son Anil Shastri and writer Pavan Choudary.

When Shastri left or Tashkent on January 3, 1966 for his meeting with Pakistan President Gen Ayub Khan, it was very cold and he was only carrying his usual khadi woollen coat, the book says.

Kosygin realised that the coat Shastri wore was not warm enough to ward off the snowy winter winds of central Asia and wanted to present him a Russian overcoat but was not sure how to do so, it says.

“Finally at a function, he presented a Russian coat as a gift to the Prime Minister hoping that he would wear it in Tashkent. Next morning, Kosygin noticed that Shastriji was still wearing the khadi coat which he had brought from Delhi. Hesitantly, he asked the Prime Minister whether he liked the overcoat which he gave to him,” the authors say.

“Shastriji replied in the affirmative and said, ‘It is really warm and very comfortable for me. However, I have lent it to one of my staff members who was not carrying a good woollen coat to wear in this severe winter. I will surely use your gift during my future trips to cold countries’,” they wrote.

Kosygin narrated this incident during his welcome address at a cultural programme organised in honour of Shastri and Khan.

He remarked, “We are Communists but Prime Minister Shastri is a super Communist.”

The book, published by Wisdom Village Publications, carries tidbits encapsulating Shastri’s childhood, growing up years and political life. Each anecdote is narrated by his son Anil.

In a chapter titled ‘Simple Living, High Thinking’, the authors mention how Shastri’s sons, studying at St. Columba’s School in New Delhi, complained to their father, who was then the Home Minister, that children of government officials were coming by cars while they used to go to school by a tonga (horse carriage).

Shastri told them that they would get this facility of drop by a car only as long as he was the Home Minister and it would “perhaps be worse” to switch back to the tonga. The children realised the significance of their father’s philosophy and decided to stick with the horse carriage.

Anil Shastri also recalls how punctual his father was and once left him at the airport after he failed to reach on time to accompany him on an outstation visit in a special plane.

The book contains accounts of how Shastri handled issues of governance and politics and dealt with crises like the 1965 war with Pakistan.

In another chapter, Anil recalls on how his father dealt with the resignation of then Finance Minister T T Krishnamachari, popularly known as TTK.

“I remember that my father spoke to the then Congress president Kamraj over the telephone who was in Chennai and informed him that he had accepted TTK’s resignation and appointed Sachindra Choudhury the new Finance Minister. My brother-in-law Kaushal Kumar, was also there in the room and wondered whether the Congress president would be upset with Shastriji for not having consulted before taking such a decision,” he writes.

Shastri said to him softly but firmly, “Who should or should not be in his Cabinet was the prerogative of the Prime Minister and he would not want this prerogative to be diluted in any way. Pt. Nehru gave power and authority to the office of Prime Minister which I will ensure does not get eroded.”