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03-09 July, 2012
small world
Stubbed
All You Can Puff Here Is Clean Air
Jatin Gandhi

KINNAUR ~ For the record, there is a road that leads to Rakchham—the last but one Indian village on this side of the Chinese border in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh. But practically speaking, only for the record. For most parts of the 15 km stretch from Sangla to Rakchham, the road is just a track of loose gravel and mountain dust slit frequently by flowing streams fed by freshly melted snow.

In such picture-postcard surroundings at 10,500 feet above sea level, you care little for roads or amenities, but once you get here, the village throws up a bunch of surprises. It is lined with cobbled paths and solar-powered street lights. Not only does every house have a modern toilet—nationally, less than 30 per cent village homes have access to a toilet—the gram sabha has constructed 12 public toilets fitted with solar water heaters and an open air washing area with a steady supply of hot water for visitors. These distinctions have earned Rakchham a few national awards and the title of a ‘modern village’ from the state government.

Yet, what is likely to surprise visitors most is that as of 1 January, Rakchham has become a no-smoking zone. Residents—around a thousand in number, with more women than men—are not allowed to smoke even in their homes. In October 2002, a devastating fire destroyed most of its wooden homes. No one knows what caused the fire but a short circuit or smouldering cigarette stub could have been the reason. The village has been reconstructed now with more stone than wood. “In our 1 January village council meeting, we resolved to do away with smoking, making Rakchham the first no-smoking village in the state. I was a regular smoker too. Now, I smoke occasionally—when I travel,” says Tikam Singh, the village head.

Visitors to this tribal village, besides adhering to its customs, also have to make sure they don’t light up. Else, they are fined. Compliance is near total. The council has fined nearly half a dozen households so far, among them one where guests at a wedding broke the rule. Singh’s latest worry is that he is getting married next month and expects a few hundred guests from his bride’s village.

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Take Two
Impossibly Heavy Baggage
It’s unfair to make Tendulkar’s son carry the legacy of his father
Madhavankutty Pillai

For someone making it to a list of probables for the Mumbai Under-14 team, Arjun Tendulkar has found himself receiving an extraordinary amount of publicity and approbation. The immediate comparison is with his father Sachin Tendulkar. The assumption behind such comparisons is a ‘what if’. Can it be that Sachin’s cricketing genius has passed down the bloodline?

It is actually an unfair thing to ask of anyone to be extraordinary. Across India, millions of parents fondly watch their children put on their whites and head for daily coaching sessions. The chances of any one of these kids becoming a Tendulkar is almost nil. It is not something anyone can design. It’s the equivalent of making a child study 15 hours a day and expecting him to come up with another Theory of Relativity when he’s 26 years old. Or making him play chess from morning till night and expecting a Vishwanathan Anand to break out of the shell. Either you have some quirk in your brain or body that makes you spout grand insights or anticipate a ball better than anyone else, or you don’t. In other words, the maximum that anyone can realistically expect from childhood conditioning is moderate achievement.

The chance of Arjun Tendulkar becoming a Sachin Tendulkar is also slim. Take any of the great sports personalities across time—Pete Sampras, Edwin Moses, Sergei Bubka, Michael Phelps, Maradona and so on—and then ask who their parents were. You won’t know without help from Google. Or ask who their sons are. And you won’t know that either. Sons of super achievers usually become moderate achievers. All the training and home advice could not get Rohan Gavaskar anywhere near his father’s records.

Tendulkar made the best comment on his son’s induction into the Mumbai team’s probables. He hoped that the boy would enjoy his cricket. And that is all that someone with heavy baggage like that should be doing. To try living up to a legacy that normal human beings find impossible to emulate is to guarantee yourself dejection. What matters is what you do with what you have, not the shadow of your father.

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Unstoppable
Rose Goes On
Chinki Sinha

Rose Venkatesan, India’s first transgender talk show host, also has many other firsts to her credit. She tried without much success to launch a political party, called Sexual Liberation Party, which would focus on transgender issues. She has also recorded a music album called Chocolate Roses but shelved the project after failing to find an audience. Undeterred, she is now planning to direct a feature film called Cricket Scandal. Rose, who’s based in Chennai, says she had wanted to make a movie for a long time. And since she wanted to target a mainstream audience, its plot is based on cricket, sex and betting. The part where the film deals with sex and intrigue is where she would like to bring in the issue of transsexuals. She will also be playing a role in it. Rose says she has found a producer. Let’s hope that her latest venture works out. Despite her celebrity status, Rose has had to deal with financial problems, and does freelance speech and accent training to keep herself going. But she says she won’t give up.

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Overhit
When You Smash a Little Too Hard
Akshay Sawai

Vishnu Vardhan, the Indian tennis player chosen to partner Leander Paes in the Olympics, must be the first world No 300 in history to have a flashy website of his own. The site has ornate fonts and design, not to mention flowery language. The first line of his profile reads—‘It was at the tender age of 8, that Vishnu Vardhan was introduced to his wand—the tennis racquet—and ever since, the duo have created magic each time they’ve been paired together.’ Further on, there are other grandiose claims.

True, Vishnu has promise and seems sincere. And maybe the website is the handiwork of a well-meaning but ill-informed media advisor. But whoever is responsible for the content should remember that Vishnu is almost 25, the same age as Novak Djokovic, ranked world No 1 and winner of five Grand Slams. There is no harm in having a basic website that provides information. But words like ‘magic’ and ‘wand’ can wait till he wins something major.

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Implausibility
The Benefits of a Potbelly
Alok Singh

The Moai statues of Easter Island are giant human representations which can weigh as much as 80 tonnes. The local legend about the statues is that they walked to the spots where they are today. Recently, Terry Hunt, an archaeologist at University of Hawaii, and Carl P Lipo, an anthropologist at California State University Long Beach, showed how this might have been possible. They made an experimental Moai walk using three long ropes and 18 people divided into three teams. Three ropes were tied to the statue’s head and two teams rocked it from its left and right side. The Moai have large potbellies, so the sideways rocking makes it fall forward, never backward. Behind the Moai was the third team tugging at a rope to keep the statue upright.

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Appointment
The New New Delhi Anthem
Aanchal Bansal

It started out as a regular gig for a private Holi party thrown by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit at her residence. Little did the five band members of Astitva know that one of their songs would impress her so much that she would make it the ‘Delhi Anthem’ three months later, replacing Euphoria singer Palash Sen’s song Dilli Meri Jaan. The soon-to-bedeclared Delhi anthem is called Somewhere I Belong and is essentially about the joys of living in Delhi. According to band drummer and percussionist Ayush Gupta, the song reflects the eclectic influence of jazz, rock and Hindustani classical music that has come to define the band’s music in the last couple of years. “But more than anything else, it is about apni Dilli and its people, which is what I think impressed the Chief Minister,” says Ayush. The Chief Minister did recommend some changes in the lyrics, though. “She asked us to add a few lines about the Delhi Metro and infrastructure development, as that has come to define Delhi in the last few years, which we did happily,” says Ayush.

The anthem is yet to be released and is currently being re-mastered in London. All expenses are being borne by the Delhi government.

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03-09 July, 2012