june 16, 2020, tuesday, 24 pages r4, mumbai | phone : 6831 ......devendra fadnavis cases show 50%...
TRANSCRIPT
June 16, 2020, Tuesday, 24 pages R4, Mumbai | Phone : 6831 4800 | Fax : 2642 6812 | www.mid-day.com
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NO. OF CASES DIPS IN CITYBut death toll in Maharashtra was at an all time high at 178 on Monday, with 68 deaths in Mumbai alone » P02
EXAM ROW: ICSE OFFERS WAY OUTBoard tells court students can either sit for exams in July or opt for results based on earlier tests » P03
After league boss Brijesh Patel says hosting it overseas was an option, teams bat for local tourney ‘for fans’ » P20
BMC FUDGED950 DEATHS:FADNAVIS
WANT IPL HERE:FRANCHISES
June 16, 2020, Tuesday, 24 pages R4, Mumbai | Phone : 6831 4800 | Fax : 2642 6812 | www.mid-day.com
Locals resume, social distancing forgottenCrowding worries authorities as suburban trains start after an 84-day break, but only for those working in essential services
BMC in race against time to buy equipmentBMC says demand for ventilators and ICU beds remains much higher than supply
Man slips inquarantinecentre, diesMalad family allege they tried desperately to get an ambulance but no help came » P05
Prajakta kasale
WHILE the city has been re-porting between 1,200 to 1,400 COVID-19 positive patients every day for a month, since the Unlock 1.0 began, it has been observed that the epicentre of cases is moving to the sub-urbs. Many areas in the north of the city, such as Malad East, Jogeshwari East, Andheri East, Bhandup are reporting a high number of cases. For the first two-and-a-half months, the majority of COVID-19 cases had been reported from south and south-central parts. » P02
arita sarkar
OVER the past couple of months, the state and BMC have set up healthcare facilities to accom-modate the growing number of COVID-19 patients in the city which require medical equip-ment in bulk. But, this has been an uphill task for the civic body as many kinds of medical equip-ment are imported from foreign countries and adjustments are constantly being made to the tendering process to deal with the challenges. » P07
rajendra B. aklekar
MUMBAI’S lifeline, local trains resumed on Monday after an 84-day COVID-19-caused break amid drama and con-fusion. There was confusion on the ground about who ex-actly is an essential worker.
While passengers were being checked and scanned at sta-tions, commuters complained that people got on to the trains from the tracks. » P05
Trains became crowded towards the evening as news of the resumption spread
While daily cases in parts of south and central Mumbai are going up by 25%, many wards in the western and eastern suburbs have been witnessing doubling since June 1
WITH UNLOCK, CASES SHIFTING TO SUBURBS
4,076No. of cases in K East (Andheri, Jogeshwari) ward by June 14
60No. (in thousands) of commuters on train on Monday
‘While we declared slum pockets as Containment Zones, movement began after the unlock. There are hundreds of lanes in these areas and it is difficult to control all accesses’ Sanjog Kabre, assistant commissioner, P North
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Civic doctors and health workers check residents of Michaelwadi at Kandarpada, Dahisar. PIC/SATEJ SHINDE
BJP leader alleges civic body changed cause of death to non-COVID related reasons in violation of central guidelines » P02
02 CITY mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
A CORRESPONDENT
THE dreaded novel Coronavirus con-tinues to claim lives in Maharashtra, which on Monday recorded an all-time high of 178 deaths, taking the state’s toll to over 4,128. As many as 68 of them died in Mumbai. The number of cases, however, dipped after sev-eral days. State reported 2m786 new COVID-19 infections, including 1,067 in the city.
The mortality rate due to COVID-19 is at 3.7 per cent. Besides 68 in city, 20 died in Vasai Virar, 14 in Pune, 13 each in Mira Bhayandar and Dhule, 12 each in Navi Mumbai and Thane, nine in Kalyan Dombivli, seven in Panvel, three in Jalgaon, two each in Solapur and Jalna and one each in Palghar, Raigad and Ratnagiri.
Among the deceased, 91 patients were senior citizens and 95 suf-fered from other ailments. Officials said while 29 died over the past two days, the rest succumbed to the virus earlier.
State health department officials said Maharashtra now has 1,10,744 cases, and Mumbai has reported nearly 60,000 infections. In the state, among the total patients, 50,554 are currently being treated at various healthcare facilities. Additionally, 144 patients from Mumbai and 140 from Thane have tested positive but their names are yet to be added to the official tally, said officials. More
than 5,000 patients were discharged after a full recovery on Monday, and the recovery rate in the state stands at 50.61 per cent.
According to the civic officials, while nine administrative wards have more than 3,000 cases each, only three wards (B,C and R North) have less than 1,000 cases each. In the city, while K East continued to have the highest number of COVID-19 pa-tients and have more than 4,000 cas-es, G North also saw fresh infections. There were 25 new cases in Dharavi, 25 in Dadar and 33 in Mahim.
Civic officials added that five wards continue to have a growth per-centage higher than 4 per cent and R North had the highest at 6.4 per cent. Despite having the highest number of cases, K East ward has a growth per-centage of 3.9 per cent. Officials say the average growth rate of COVID-19 in the city dropped to 2.65 per cent.
MuMbai Meri Jaan BY ManJul
All-time high of 178 virus deaths reported in state
COVID-19TICKER
1,10,744TOTAL CORONAVIRUS CASES IN MAHA AS OF TODAY
Continued from page 01
WORLI from G South, Byculla, Tar-deo, Malabar Hill and then Dharavi became the hot spots as the cases increased here sharply. mid-day had reported this on May 28, 'COVID-19 spread remains in certain wards'. But for the past 15 days, the epicen-tre of the positive cases has shifted to the north of the city. While the city’s south shows around 25 per cent growth in cases, in the northern parts, the cases have been increasing by more than 50 per cent.
They have doubled in a few parts in the period. Malad, the areas be-tween Andheri and Vile Parle in the western suburbs and Bhandup, Kurla, Ghatkopar in the eastern suburbs are rising in the top 10 wards with COV-ID-19 cases.
K East (Jogeshwari E, Andheri E and Vile Parle E) reached the first spot from the eighth among wards with high cases within 15 days. The cases increased by 78 per cent in K East in two weeks.
“The area of K east is more than double in size and population in com-parison to south wards. The area has an industrial belt and after the city reopened the industries asked em-ployees from nearby places to come to work,” said Prashant Sapkale, assis-tant commissioner of K East.
K West (Jogeshwari W, Andheri W, Vile Parle W) is already in the top
five and cases in P North (Malad) have more than doubled since June 1. “While we declared slum pockets as Containment Zones, movement began after the reopening of the city. There are hundreds of small lanes inside the areas and it is difficult to control all the accesses,” said Sanjog Kabre, assistant commissioner of P North.
On the other hand, L ward (Kurla) which was on the higher side till the last month is showing a slow trend. But adjacent wards like S (Bhandup) and N (Ghatkopar) are showing a higher per cent of growth. The cases in Bhandup have increased by 80 per cent in the past 14 days.
After sealing the east side of West-ern Express Highway for five days from June 11, the P North ward ex-tended the complete lockdown in the area for another five days. All the activities excluding milk booths, ra-tion stores, banks/ATM and medical stores, will be closed till June 20.
DHARMENDRA JORE
OPPOSITION leader Devendra Fad-navis has accused the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) of hid-ing over 950 COVID-19 deaths. He has asked CM Uddhav Thackeray wheth-er the officials concerned would be punished.
Fadnavis has said in a letter that the BMC’s death audit committee had changed the cause of death in 451 cases to non-COVID in violation of the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) guidelines. He added that around 500 COVID deaths in private hospitals were not brought before the
audit committee. “This is very serious and criminal act. We want to know un-der whose pressure the death audit committee made such blatant chang-es. We also want to know the action to be taken against the officials con-cerned,” said Fadnavis in a statement on Monday.
The ex-CM further alleged that the state government was trying to cover up the irregularity. “The ICMR has also pointed out the irregularity. The cause for these deaths should be immediately reported as COVID-19 on the official portal. There are 356 rejected cases and the remaining have been kept pending. The ICMR has clearly given three segments for classification of deaths, but the audit committee seems to have conspired to hide the COVID deaths,” he said.
Fadnavis has demanded a probe. “These deaths should have been re-ported and certified, but some people prompted the decision of hiding these 500 cases,” he stated.
BMC officials point to the relaxation of the lockdown as the cause of the rising cases. REPRESENTATION PIC/BIPIN KOKATE
Devendra Fadnavis
Cases show 50%rise in north of cityWhile south of the city shows 25 per cent growth in cases in 15 days, cases have doubled in a parts of city’s north during the period
BMC hid 950 COVID deaths, says Fadnavis Demands probe into discrepancy to find out who put pressure on audit committee
2,348No. of cases in K West ward till May 31
3,322No. of cases in K West ward by June 14
Cumulative cases in wards
Wards Cases Cases % of till till rise in May 31 June 14 cases
K West 2,348 3,322 42
K East 2,292 4,076 78
P North 1,426 2,898 103
S 1,619 3,047 88
L 2,668 3,458 30
N 1,892 3,027 60
G north 3,065 3,834 25
E 2,616 3,254 24
G south 2,110 2,815 33
F N 2,622 3,221 23
F S 2,033 3,070 51
Swab test being conducted at the Dhareshwar Temple compound in Dharavi, which reported 25 new cases on Monday. FILE PIC/ SURESH KARKERA
03 CITY mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
DHARMENDRA JORE
THE state government on Mon-day decided to allow schools in non-red COVID-19 zones to reo-pen in a phased manner, starting July. Physical classes will begin first for Stds IX to XII, then in August students of Stds VI toVIII can return to schools and Stds III to V classes will resume in Sep-tember.
Meanwhile, virtual lessons for students, which started on Mon-day, in unsafe zones will contin-ue. Several schools in Maharash-tra on Monday started teaching online without any government guidelines in place, but hence-forth, they may have to abide by
some restrictions.According to the government’s
decision, there will be no online classes for students of Std I and Std II. School education min-ister Varsha Gaikwad said this decision was taken after consid-ering parents’ opinion. For Stds III to V, classes should only be of one hour, and two hours for the rest. Schools have planned classes of two to six hours daily. So, it would be interesting to see whether the aided, partially aid-ed, unaided schools and schools affiliated to other boards comply with guidelines when issued.
The government also stressed that Std I and II students should be told to return to schools only after the respective school man-
agements have reviewed the lo-cal situation. The Std XI classes will kick off after the SSC exam results next month.
For online learning, the gov-ernment has tied up with Tata Sky and Jio to launch a pilot pro-ject immediately. Doordarshan and All India Radio will also be roped in for time slots.
The decision was announced on Monday after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray approved the school-opening schedule at a meeting with the school edu-cation department. He said in a press release that the academic session must begin even if the schools are not functional. “Peo-ple concerned should ensure healthcare where schools start functioning,” he said.
Gaikwad didn’t clarify wheth-er her department will release a comprehensive guideline.
It was also decided that the local Corona Committee, which is already in place everywhere, will collaborate with teachers to disinfect classrooms and make other facilities available as most schools expected to start are in the COVID-19-free rural areas.
The teachers and commit-tees will work together to create awareness among the parents as they are expected to be reluctant to send their children back to schools. The teachers and gram pachayats will have to make ra-dios and TV sets available for digital classes and also experi-ment with webinars and Google classroom.
Schools may start reopening in non-red zones from JulyState government decides to resume physical classes in a phased manner during the next three months
Online classes that started on Monday across state will continue in unsafe zones. REPRESENTATION PIC/ASHISH RAJE
ISE Council ofers students two options for pending board papers
PALLAVI SMART
IN a major development for students of Indian Certifi-cate of Secondary Education (ICSE) Class X, the Council for ICSE has decided to offer two options – either appear for the examination as per the given schedule of July or opt for a result based on an internal assessment or pre-board examinations taken by the respective schools in those subjects.
The Council presented the options to the Bombay High Court, which is hearing a petition challenging the Council’s decision to con-duct the examination in the month of July.
Later in the day, on Mon-day, the Council issued cir-cular giving details regard-ing its stand in the court. The circular, signed by the Chief Executive and Secre-tary of the Council, Gerry Arathoon, states, “The para-mount interest of the Coun-cil is to protect the safety, wellbeing and academic en-deavours of students sitting for the ICSE and ISC exam-inations. The Council has decided to offer all students in India and abroad with ICSE and ISC examinations pending in some subjects the option to either take the pending exam in July as per the time table issued on May 22 or have their final results in subjects where examina-tions have not been held, based on their performance in the internal assessment or pre-board examinations conducted by their own schools along with results of board papers in subjects already taken in accordance with such methodology as may be prescribed by the Council.”
The circular adds that students and their parents
are expected to submit their decision in writing to the respective schools be-fore June 22. Moreover, the circular also mentions that if for any reason it is not possible to conduct any or all of the final examination papers in July 2020, then the Council shall declare the final results of the stu-dents in those subjects for which examinations could not be conducted based on the second option offered in the first scenario.
Meanwhile, the HC has also asked Maharashtra state government to re-spond if it is in a position to permit the Council to hold examinations in July. “This was stated after the Coun-cil argued that the state governments per se have no control over this cen-tralised board. Meanwhile, the HC has also mentioned
how there are more similar petitions challenging the ICSE board examination in July and all are going to be clubbed as an intervention in the same case in the next hearing on Wednesday,” said Arvind Tiwari, a lawyer who has filed the petition chal-lenging the exams He also said it was now important to see the state government’s response on Wednesday.
Reacting to the options, Herald Saldanha, a con-cerned parent, said, “This is unfair as it is difficult to select between the two. The second option suggests that pre-board examination marks will be considered if we opt out of the exam. But they purposely had strict evaluation during the pre-lim examinations because schools wanted children to prepare more before the fi-nal examination.”
Council presents both options to Bombay High Court; seeks reply from parents about their choice
Bombay HC is hearing a petition challenging the Council’s decision to conduct the exams in July. FILE PIC
‘This is unfair as it is difficult to select between the two. The second option suggests that pre-board examination marks will be considered if we opt out of the exam. But they purposely had strict evaluation during the prelim examinations because schools wanted children to prepare more before the final examination’ Herald Saldanha, a parent
PALLAVI SMART
CHIEF Minister Uddhav Thac-keray along with school educa-tion minister Varsha Gaikwad on Monday approved Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for digital learning.
According to the SOPs, there won’t be any online teaching for children till class II, while schools can’t have online class-
es for more than six hours.The SOPs also mention about
plans of reopening of schools in a phased manner.
The guidelines for reopening of schools include innovative options such as having students divided in odd-even days to at-tend schools, conducting mul-tiple shifts of short durations in a day to avoid crowding and to follow one student per bench policy.
Students will have to bring masks, handkerchiefs, wa-ter-bottle from home while parents have been asked to pre-pare children to use masks, and
cultivate the habit of washing hands constantly. On the day when many schools started their new academic year on-line, the state government, is-sued a government resolution (GR) stating that the motive is to continue learning of children offline or online.
“We realise the confusion among parents due to current uncertain times. These SOPs have been released to bring clarity with a motive to ensure that learning continues across, even as state plans to reopen schools in a phased manner,” Gaikwad said.
‘We realise the confusion among parents due to current uncertain times’ Varsha Gaik-wad, School Education Minister
No online classes for students till Std IIState government issues GR to bring clarity among students and parents while continuing academic learning oline or online
LOL, it’s a quizWe had reported in these pages in May about Kvizzing, a unique quiz contest for comedians. In its second edition, comedian Rohan Joshi was declared winner in a close final over the weekend. “We had 32 participants in this tournament. This edition was about Hollywood and Bollywood,” quizmaster Kumar Varun told this diarist. “I’ve been a quizzer since I was a child. When the lockdown was imposed, I had to take the offline quiz with comedians online. For me, quizzing is about awareness and deducing answers and not simply about cramming answers,” he added.
04 mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
daily dossier @AbijitG: That whole being kind to others thing lasted for whole of 30 seconds I think.
I DIDN’T FURGET YOUA youngster cuddles her canine by Carter Road, Bandra, on Monday. pic/atul kamble
If you’ve watched movies like Billy Elliot, The Hours and The Reader, you’d know the sort of master auteur that Stephen Daldry is. But the man doesn’t restrict himself to directing movies, and has helmed TV shows and Broadway and West End musicals including The Inheritance and An Inspector Calls, too. Daldry will share some of the wisdom he has gained in the process at a talk that the NCPA will screen on June 19, titled Straddling Three Spheres: Working in Theatre, TV and Film. “In this session, he will be highlighting aspects such as change in audience expectations with a change of medium, and focus on technicalities involved in all the three mediums,” an NCPA spokesperson told this diarist. Log on to the centre’s YouTube channel to listen to the talk, which will be available till June 26.Ever wonder if people would
want to step into a cinema hall again?According to a recent survey by a leading ticketing platform, the answer is yes. With responses from over 4,000 people across 235 cities and towns in India, 54 per cent Indians said they were eager to step out and watch their favourite films within 15 to 90 days of the lockdown being lifted. People aged between 55 and 64 were more eager than the rest. The top two safety measures expected, though, are seat sanitisation and disinfectant tunnels. And 99 per cent respondents want the staff to be trained in safety and hygiene guidelines. It also looks like e-ticketing is the way forward.
The Peek A Book Literature Festival for Kids and First Mom’s Club (FMC) is working to launch an e-magazine where kids between seven and 16 years can share their experiences from this moment in history via features, interviews, poems or cartoons. “All week we will air tips from professionals like journalist and author Shabnam Minwala on feature writing and cartoonist Abhijit Kini on news cartoons. Entries have been requested in specific categories like ‘people’ stories, features, school, etc,” festival founder Lubaina Bandukwala told this diarist, while Ruchi Dar Shah of FMC added, “This not only acts as a chronicle of these rather unusual times, but also assures kids that they aren’t alone.”
Since the past couple of weeks, the alumni of National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, and Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, in partnership with the Akshaya Patra Foundation have managed to distribute over 80,000 packets of food and water to migrant workers who have boarded trains from Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram and Ahmedabad. The initiative, Serving the Shramiks, includes a team of eminent lawyers Rabindra Jhunjhunwala, Poornima Sampath, Yash Ashar, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sameera Vasudeva and Sai Krishna Rajagopal. “The biggest challenge is that the Shramik Special schedule is typically
known six to eight hours in advance — both to us and the travellers,” Sampath told this diarist, adding, “Although it is an effort to organise and deliver food kits at railway stations in this time, I would imagine this is much harder for those who have to pack everything they have in this time and leave. When we arrived at Borivali station where 1,800 passengers were boarding a train to Gorakhpur, it seemed like there were hundreds or thousands more. So the other priority is to ensure social distancing while distributing food kits. For now, we will continue to support the Shramiks. We hope this initiative will be the first of many.”
Stepping in at the right time
Lubaina Bandukwala; Ruchi Dar Shah
Rohan Joshi; Kumar Varun
Farokh Irani, partner at WIBS and Honeybell, distributing free cakes and bread in his personal capacity at Borivali station for the Shramik train heading to Villapuram
Bring out that journal Missing the
movies
Daldry in the house
pic/afp
05 CITY mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
SAMIULLAH KHAN
A 46-YEAR-OLD man allegedly died on Saturday after falling on the bathroom floor at a quaran-tine centre in Malad where he and his family were quaran-tined. The man’s wife and two daughters kept calling for an ambulance and the police con-trol room but no help came and the man died.
The man was rushed by his wife and elder daughter to Shatabdi hospital in Kandivli where he was declared dead on arrival. The family has demand-ed action against responsible officers and local MNS workers have written to the BMC de-manding action and compen-sation for the family.
The family resides in the Kumbharwada, Chincholi Bandar area in Malad west. Janardan Sarang, his wife Ja-gruti, 44, daughter Radhika, 20 and Pallavi, 18 along with their neighbours were quarantined at a BMC school in Malad on June 10 by officials of the P North ward after a 25-year-old wom-an from the area tested positive on June 8. “We all used to use common bathrooms. After the woman tested positive, BMC officials made us move to the quarantine centre instead of sealing the area and sanitising the bathroom,” said Radhika.
“We asked to be allowed to be in home quarantine but BMC refused and two days later, they came with the police and warned that if we refused to go, we’d be fined R20,000 per per-son and no help would be given to any COVID-19 patients in fu-ture,” added Radhika.
The family was apparently told that they would be kept at the school for seven days along with good food and doctors who would check up on them regularly. “However, in those few days, neither were we given food nor snacks on time. We did not have clean and hot water to drink. The food quality was very bad. We even found a dead fly in the food once,” Radhika said.
Janardan has sprained his foot and was having difficul-ty walking. “While going for
a bath, he slipped on the wet floor outside the bathroom and sustained an injury to the head,” Radhika said.
“We called for an ambulance, the police control for help but none came. When we decided to take him to the hospital, the se-curity guard would not let us go. Others at the centre helped get the gate opened. It took around 30 minutes to reach Shatabdi hospital in an auto but he died on the way. Had there been help on time, my father would have been alive. The authorities are responsible for his death,” Ra-dhika said. Officials said that Janardan tested negative for COVID-19 after his death.
The BMC released all quar-antined citizens on the day Ja-nardan died. His brother-in-law, Amol Tondwalkar, said, “If they had to release everyone like this, why did they quarantine people in the first place? Strict action should be taken against the of-ficer and the family should get the compensation.”
Local MNS leader Sushant Malavade said, “The govern-ment does not care about pa-tients living or dying. I have submitted a written complaint to the Malad police, chief minis-ter, commissioner of police, the municipal chief and state health minister for action against the municipal officers.” Yogesh Rao, president of Yogdeep trust, has also written to the BMC de-manding action and compensa-tion. Malavade said that Assis-tant Municipal Commissioner of the P North ward, Sanjog Ka-bre told him that there would be a probe and action against the officer responsible. Despite re-peated calls by mid-day, Kabre was not available for comment.
‘No one responded to our repeated calls for help’
Continued from page 01
PASSENGERS were able to get on to trains from the tracks owing to porous borders along the tracks.
As a formal announcement on their resumption came late on Sunday night, many were unaware and coaches were empty in the morning. But as the day progressed, crowds increased, with people having to stand inside coaches on the Central Railway.
As of Monday, the railway has allowed journeys only if passengers have a valid iden-tity card issued by municipal corporations (suburban ar-eas), Mumbai police, BEST, Mantralaya and all govern-ment and private hospitals. The state government is yet to release a proper list of which employees are allowed.
Crowds on CR
“While returning from work, all social distancing on Central Railway (CR) went for a toss. Three people sat on one seat and a few were even standing. The government is taking the initiative but people need to have basic civic sense,” said Deepak Dubey, a project man-ager with Health Management Information System. “The sta-tions have been managed very well with single entry/exit and no crowds, but distancing in trains is a matter of concern,” he said.
Member of the National Railway Users’ Consultative Committee, the official pas-senger representation body of the Indian Railways, Subhash Gupta said he travelled in the train from Kurla to Mankhurd and found people boarding trains from the tracks on the other side of the platform on the Harbour Line.
There was over whether bank employees were allowed on trains and with no clari-ty, guards and ticket check-ers at some stations allowed bankers. “At Bhayandar for example, police said only na-tionalised bank staffers were allowed and sent back co-op-erative bank employees. At Churchgate, a ticket checker objected to a passenger having arrived in an Andheri local al-though he had been cleared by the RPF for travel at Andheri,” Ranjan Kamath, a banker said.
What Railway board says
Railway Board Chairman Vi-nod Kumar Yadav said on Mon-day that they received a for-
mal request on Sunday from the Maharashtra government about restarting local trains and they promptly cleared it. “As of now, all essential work-ers were being allowed inside trains after checking their ID cards, but in a week’s time, the state government will dis-tribute QR codes to all eligible staff,” he said.
Of the 56 ticket windows open at 20 stations on West-ern Railway, (WR), 3,251 sin-gle-journey tickets were sold and 1,496 season tickets were freshly issued with 190 pass extensions in the morning shift. On CR, till 3 pm, on the 41 ticket windows open, 7,592 tickets were sold. A rail-way spokesperson said that around 1,000 security staff, 550 ticket examiners, 250 booking clerks were deployed on Monday and that they will plug all loopholes on CR.
In all, 60,000 people- — 30,000 on CR and 30,000 on WR — travelled in local trains on Monday.
Season tickets extended
Railways have decided to ex-
tend the validity of season tickets by the number of days lost.
Officials said that due to the lockdown, season ticket holders lost a number of days. The same shall be permitted at UTS counters at stations for those allowed to travel by the state government. UTS counters may also issue fresh tickets/season tickets to those eligible.
The first motormen
On WR, the first local train which departed from Churchgate at 5.30 am for Virar was run by motorman Vilas Pawar, while the first train that departed from Vi-rar at 5.30 am for Churchgate was manned by motorman Ashok Tiwari. The first train to depart from Virar at 5 am for Dahanu Road was manned by motorman Mahesh Bukka along with motorman S K Mourya.
On CR, Jaison P T was the first motorman, who operated the 4.03 am train from Panvel that arrived at Mumbai CSMT at 5:29 am.
VOICES
Rushikesh Chavan,
BMC employee
‘Buses would carry limited passengers, there were
long queues. A one-hour journey would take three hours. With trains back, this will now be easy’ sheela singh,
nurse at a govt hospital
‘We are happy. We worked for almost 24 hours due to
commuting issues and now this problem looks resolved’
vilas shankaR
DhavtaRe,
posted at the office of deputy collector (encroachment)
‘I travelled from Kalyan to Mulund. It is good that
trains have begun again. I am able to save money and time as travelling by bus would take three hours’
Rohini RavinDRa
khaDe,
BMC employee travelling from Mulund to Matunga
‘I went to the highway first to board a bus, but as
usual, there was too much crowd. Then someone told me trains had begun so I came to the station. You cannot imagine how happy I am’
A crowded coach of a train on CR on Monday evening
A local train arrives at Kandivli station on Monday. PiC/sateJ shinDe
Crowd increased in the evening but people happyWhile issues about social distancing remain, after having travelled three hours one-way on the bus, passengers say resumption of trains is welcome
Janardan Sarang’s wife and daughters
‘We asked to be allowed to be in home quarantine but BMC refused and two days later, they came with the police and warned that if we refused to go, we’d be fined R20,000 per person and no help would be given to any COVID-19 patients in future’
Radhika Sarang, Janardan’s daughter
VINOD KUMAR MENON
ON the night of June 12, a couple in Raigad district was blessed wwith a boy and she had only one person to thank — police constable Aarti Raut, who for they was a ‘god-sent angel’. Anasuya and Vinay-ak Khalu, both aged 22, hails from Washi Havelli in Tala ta-luka and stay with his mother, handicapped father, and two sisters in a small kachha house. On June 3, the day Cyclone Nisarga ravaged the district, Anasuya was in labour pain.
“It was windy and raining, and my wife was unable to bear the pain. I have a two-wheeler, but I couldn’t have taken her on the bike in such a weather and in the advance state of pregnancy,” Vinayak told mid-day. “I ran towards the main road, hoping to get some mode of transport to take my wife to a maternity hospital in Mhas-la taluka, 65 km away, , but I could only see falling electric poles and uprooting trees.”
“But, from nowhere, came a car and stopped right in front
of me. I saw a lady cop and her husband. They came as god-sent angles. On hearing my plight, they agreed to drop my wife and my mother to the hospital.”
“She was very kind. She and her husband would move the debris on the road to make way. She also told Anasuya that if need arises, she would help with the delivery, as she had a medical kit,” Vinayak’s mother Parvathi said.
“They dropped my wife at the hospital and left. We nev-er saw or spoke to the couple again,” said Vinayak. Aarti got the news only after this jour-nalist informed her and she said she would definitely ring
the couple soon.
Not a routine duty
Police Naik Aarti, a resident of Tilak Nagar who is posted at the Welfare Department of Alibaug police Headquarters, was headed to Digha Mohana costal police station for the cy-clone bandobast.
“My husband Mandar Raut decided to drop me. We left house at 6.30 am, and had to take several shortcuts as roads were blocked,” recalled Aar-ti. “A few kilometres ahead, we took another shortcut, and that is when I noticed a helpless man.” On hearing his plight, we instantly agreed to
help them.
‘I could sense her pain’
The woman was in labour pain and I could sense it, as I am mother of two. “She was scared. Her husband joined us on his two-wheeler. They insisted on going to Rawoot Maternity and Surgical Hospi-tal, Mhasla, as her name was registered there,” said Aarti.
“We dropped them at the hospital around 2.30 pm, then we left for Digha as I was get-ting late for duty. I reached around 3.30 pm and had to narrate the incident to my su-periors.”
The next day, Aarti was awarded a certificate of ap-
preciation with a cash reward by Raigad Superintendent of Police Anil Paraskar. He told mid-day, “We are proud that the police go beyond the call of their duty and display the hu-man side of the uniform. They have always been the frontline warriors, helping those in dis-tress anywhere and anytime. And as the team head, I am proud to be amid such brave men and women.”
‘Was a false labour’
DR M K Rawoot, senior gynae-cologist running Rawoot Ma-ternity and Surgical Hospital, told mid-day that it was a false labour pain. “We kept her un-der observation. A few hours later, her pain vanished. We did a sonography and found that the foetus was doing well and sent her back home.”
On June 12, she again de-veloped labour pain and was rushed to a primary health centre in Tala Taluka where she gave birth to Soham 11.54 pm. They wish he grows up to become a police officer.
Vinayak now is worried about his future, as he has no livelihood. He used to earn R150 a day doing odd jobs on fishing boats, but there has been no work since the cyclone alert was issued. Their house was also damaged in the cy-clone.
06 CITY mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
HEMAL ASHAR
AT a time when the world has slowed down, the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) at Ballard Estate has been buzzing. Despite 342 employees and former em-ployees of the Port Trust test-ing COVID positive and receiv-ing treatment at the Port Trust hospital, (the Port Trust has converted its 100-bed hospital into a 120-bed COVID and 25-bed non-COVID facility), the Ballard Estate hub is fully op-erational.
The following fortnight will see its 1,200 staff — which is approximately 25 per cent of its workforce — handling thou-sands of disembarkations of
Indian crew members stranded in different parts of the world.
Sanjay Bhatia, Port Trust chairman, said, “Mumbai Port has been at the forefront in supporting Indian seafarers by helping them sign off (disem-bark) at the Mumbai Port. In fact, just 10 days ago, the mam-moth cruise ship Ovation of the Seas was docked in the port and more than 1,100 crew members disembarked.”
Dock at Anchorage
Officials explained that these huge liners, a majority from Europe and the USA bring in In-dian crew into the country. The ship is told to dock at a place called Anchorage, at least five miles into the sea. A team with
medical professionals in full PPE gear is despatched in fast boats to Anchorage. Every crew member who is on the luxury ship is tested for COVID, and the ship is allowed to come into the berth at Mumbai Port once the results are negative.
After they disembark, they can make their way back to their state, following guidelines. Bhatia said, “The seafarers are mainly from Maharashtra but we see a significant num-ber from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Goa too.”
Cruising to Mumbai
Officials stated that from June
12 to 28, eight cruise liners have called or are set to call at the Mumbai Port to disembark some 10,000 Indian crew stuck on the ‘floating luxury hotels’ at various places across the globe.
Celebrity Infinity owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, arrived at the port recently with 907 crew members. An-them of the Seas, also owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises, is in Mumbai to drop off some 3,000 Indian seafarers and Car-nival Splendour is in Mumbai to disembark 920 crew.
Carnival Ecstasy is to arrive on June 18, followed by Carnival Liberty on June 20 to sign off 1,450 crew. Carnival Fascination is to anchor on June 20, to sign off 400 seafarers, while Horizon
Pullmantur arrives on June 23 to drop off 65 crew and on June 28 it will be Norwegian Escape making her way to the city with 1,250 crew.
Repatriation on sea
Earlier, Mumbai Port Trust had facilitated the arrival and disembarkation of the crew from Marbella Discovery, Sev-en Seas Voyager, Viking Orion, Angriya and Karnika. Some 20,000 Indian crew working onboard cruise ships, are now coming home. While the focus has been on repatriation in the skies, relatively little is known about this repatriation from the high seas to rescue Indians and the city’s pivotal role in bringing them back.
Mumbai Port Trust enables home-coming for thousands strandedCruise liners dropping of Indian crew members from all over the world aided by fully operational port in big repatriation on the high seas
The ships Anthem of the Seas (left) and Carnival Splendour
Alibaug cop goes beyond duty’s call to help pregnant womanReceives appreciation after ensuring the woman, who was in labour on June 3 when ‘Nisarga’ struck Raigad, get medical help; reported for cyclone duty after dropping her at a hospital
Anasuya and Vinayak Khalu with their son Soham; (right) police Naik Aarti Raut receives certificate of appreciation from Raigad SP Anil Paraskar
‘I ran towards the main road, hoping to get some help when a car stopped right in front of me. I saw a lady cop and her husband. They came as god-sent angles for us’Vinayak Khalu from Washi Village
On June 12, Anasuya
again developed labour
pain and was rushed to
a primary health centre
in Tala taluka where she
gave birth to a boy . The
couple wish he grows up
to become a police officer
For full report log on to www.mid-day.com
07 CITY mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
Just imagine...Sushant Singh Rajput’s death has reiterated a truth that it is not money and fame but deep human connections that most of us need yet ind very diicult to develop
IMAGINE the pressure if su-perman had to tell people that he was sad or lonely? He wouldn’t be SUPER any more.
Most people believe that achieving success and fame is what makes them happy and the whole world is striving to achieve this, but the death of Sushant Singh Rajput is a reminder that that’s not the case. All types of theories are emerging as to why he took his own life. Most are saying he was depressed or had financial issues, however that seems far from the truth. I have worked with over 6,00,000 people in 49 countries to help people understand themselves so that they can move in the right di-rection and I can safely say that the majority of people who are classed as “depressed” are not and that they have underlying emotional needs that are not being met.
Is there a difference be-tween depression and some-one whose emotional needs are not being met? Yes, most depressed people end up tak-ing no action, they become isolated and believe that it is almost impossible to get out of the situation they are in, whereas people who are get-ting emotionally drained con-tinue with their lives and most people will never notice any-thing wrong. Such people are desperate for people to notice that something is wrong with them and help them.
So why did Sushant take his own life? It could not have been money; as he was a suc-cessful actor and up to his last days was donating money to causes; it could not have been fame, as he was still rising as a star and recognised by almost everyone in India; it wasn’t that he was not growing as a person, he had recently done a movie which was successful; and finally it wasn’t that he did not have a chance to give back to society, because he did that often. So what is it? Most people undervalue the need for connection and love and underestimate its signifi-cance and the significance of their life.
I have coached many people in Bollywood and I can tell you that it is very lonely at the top. Relationships appear to be in-authentic in many cases as it is the “star” who is loved and not the person. The social pressure
to be a certain type of person and to never show weakness because it will damage the im-age is unimaginable. Not being able to be vulnerable is the greatest weakness of a human being, as vulnerability gives mental freedom.
Deepika Padukone coura-geously spoke out and in that time of vulnerability she must have helped hundreds and thousands of people to speak. Speaking out is a gift that most people do not have and it is the most crucial part of human ex-istence.
This wonderful man had everything, but did he have anyone to open up to? It is said that his relationship with his family was not solid and that there was no sign of a strong relationship. So imagine com-ing home to nothing, that is painful. Having a social life and friends is not the same as having a deep connection with a person or people. Bol-lywood and Hollywood stars are human beings and like all human beings we crave mental freedom and that only comes from having a deep and inti-mate connection with others.
People assume everyone with money and fame have reached the pinnacle of life, but the truth is that you reach the pinnacle of life when you are in pursuit of emotional happiness.
I hope Sushant’s death does not go to waste and maybe it will make people realise the value of others and the need of non-judgemental people in their lives. The COVID 19 virus has caused a mental pressure outbreak which is bigger than the virus itself and the solu-tion to this is not anti-depres-sants. The solution to this is to have deep connections with people and to never let people feel lonely.
There are seven billion peo-ple around the world, and yet it seems ironic that so many people are alone even though they have people around them.
The writer is a
peak performance coach
Arfeen Khan
BY INVITATION
Deepika Padukone
courageously spoke
out and in that time of
vulnerability she must
have helped hundreds
and thousands of people
to speak. Speaking out is
a gift that most people
do not have and it is
the most crucial part of
human existence.
Continued from page 1
SENIOR civic officials said that the demand for medical equipment including patient warmers, ventilators and pa-tient monitors is unpredict-able and comes up suddenly based on the number of cases and acquiring the equipment takes at least 10-15 days.
“A lot of the specialised equipments come from for-eign countries and transport-ing them takes time. Ventila-tors are coming from Ireland, the US, Turkey, China and Hong Kong while Bipap (bi-level positive airway pressure ventilators) machines come from Germany. There is a sup-ply time lag and we are taking measures to procure the items as quickly as possible. Instead of taking out a single tender, we have aligned the quantity in multiple tenders,” said addi-tional municipal commission-er, P Velarasu.
Bipap are breathing ma-chines for COVID-19 patients
experiencing severe symptoms like breathlessness and until last week, tenders have been invited to purchase 181 of them.
Velarasu explained that cur-rently, the demand for medical equipment is much higher than the supply coming in. “Since there is a growing demand when floating the tender, we try to plan for a time-wise dis-tribution and ask for roughly 50 per cent more than the current
requirement. By the time the equipment arrives, we hope that it would match the cur-rent requirement and if there is need for more, we float an-other tender,” he said adding that despite the planning, they often fall short. He added that ventilators are the need for the hour and currently, another 50 adult ventilators are expected in the next two weeks while the supply of another 100 ventila-tors have been lined up which are expected to arrive 30 at a time every week.
Unlike other tenders, con-sidering the urgency of the situations, Velarasu said these tenders typically close within
2-3 days while one of the ten-ders for ventilators was given an extension for five days.
“We are trying to stream-line the process as much as possible. For tenders where the bidders have already been approved, the financial bids are directly opened. No time is wasted in vetting the same contractor for every tender.”
There is a need for ICU beds as well. Until last week, tenders have been floated for the pur-chase of 960 motorised ICU beds, 420 manual fowler beds along with hospital furniture for new ICU facilities includ-ing 4,000 beds, 3,450 bedside lockers.
‘Wait for urgent equipment
is a minimum 10-15 days’
FAIZAN KHAN
THE Bandra police, who are investigating the alleged suicide of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, have confirmed that he died due to hanging. The initial post-mortem report by Cooper hospital said the provisional cause of death was asphyxia due to hanging. The police have also launched an inquiry into leaked pictures of the de-ceased actor on social media.
DCP Zone IX, Abhishek Trimukhe said, “A provisional PM report has been given by doctors to the Bandra police station. A team of three doc-tors conducted the autopsy of Sushant Singh Rajput. Pro-visional cause of death is as-phyxia due to hanging.”
Six peoples’ statements re-corded
The viscera samples have been preserved and sent for chemical analysis to JJ hospi-tal. The police have recorded the statements of six people,
five of whom were present in the flat where Singh com-mitted suicide. These include his sister, two managers, cook and a key maker. “Both the managers’ and sister’s state-ment indicate suicide, which will be ascertained in further probe,” said a police officer.
Actor Mahesh Shetty’s statement was also recorded, as Singh made the last call to him before his death.”The actor confirmed that he re-ceived a call but didn’t an-
swer. He called Singh later but there was no response from him. Shetty also mentioned that they had been very good friends since their struggling days,” said a police officer.
“The family is mourning, but we have approached them to see if they have any complaints. The detailed statements of his sisters and other family members will be recorded soon,” the officer added.
The investigating team also reached out to the senior psychiatrist whom Singh con-sulted after being diagnosed with depression six months back.”There is very privileged information between doctor and patient. We have initial details from the doctor but we cannot share them unless we reach a certain conclusion to establish the reason behind his death and depression,” the officer added further.
Another inquiry begunThe Mumbai police have
also launched an inquiry to ascertain how photographs
and videos of the deceased actor were leaked on social media. The Maharashtra cy-ber police have issued a state-ment on Twitter after social media bashing by netizens and Bollywood celebrities.
The Maharashtra cyber cell has said. “A disturbing trend has been observed on social media platforms by Maharashtra Cyber Cell, that pictures of deceased actor Shri. Sushant Singh Rajput are being circulated, which are disturbing and in bad taste. It is emphasised that circulation of such pictures is against legal guidelines and court directions, and are lia-ble to invite legal action. Ma-harashtra Cyber exhorts and directs all netizens to refrain from circulating the aforesaid pictures. The pictures already circulated should be deleted henceforth.”
“We are looking into it, to find how the photos got leaked,” said DCP Pranaya Ashok, spokesperson, Mum-bai police.
Actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in his flat on Monday. PIC/Rane aShISh
Currently, the demand for medical equipment is much higher than the supply. PIC/ISTOCK
Sushant Singh Rajput hanged himself to death: copsSay initial autopsy report points to provisional cause of death as asphyxia due to hanging; to launch another inquiry to ind how pictures of the deceased actor were leaked on social media
‘Since there is a growing demand, we ask for roughly 50 per cent more than the current requirement. By the time the equipment arrives, we hope it would match the cur-rent requirement and if there is a need for more, we float another tender’ P Velarasu, additional municipal commissioner
08 NATION mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
BROWSERIndia, China continue
Army talks
New Delhi: Looking to resolve the dispute over Chinese military buildup India and China are holding talks at the Brigade Commander and Battalion Commander level in Eastern Ladakh in Galwan valley area and Hot Springs. Army sources said there has been disengagement between Indian and Chinese troops at more locations where they had been in standoff positions for past many weeks now. Sources said that after the June 6 talks between Military commanders followed by other rounds of talks, there has not been any considerable build-up activity by both sides and Chinese aggressive behaviour has also been toned down, they said.
Aftershocks rattle Kutch
post earthquake
AhmeDAbAD: As many as 14 aftershocks were experienced in Gujarat’s Kutch district, a day after an earthquake of 5.3 magnitude hit the area, officials said on Monday. No casualty or damage to property was reported, they said.
Bihar Legislative
Council polls on July 6
New Delhi: Elections for nine vacant seats in the Bihar Legislative Council will be held on July 6, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said.
New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Mon-day that there was no plan for another lockdown in Delhi even as the number of novel Coronavirus cases continue to rise.
“Many people are specu-lating whether another lock-down in Delhi is being planned. There are no such plans,” Ke-jriwal tweeted. It comes a day after Union Home Min-ister Amit Shah held meetings with Kejriwal, Lieu-tenant Governor Anil Baijal and three may-ors to discuss the strategy to deal with the COVID-19 sit-uation. Delhi recorded 1,647 fresh cases on Monday, taking the COVID-19 tally in the city to 42,829, and the death toll due to the disease climbed to 1,400, authorities said.
Bury differences: Shah
All political parties in Delhi
should forget their differences
and join hands in the COVID-19 battle
of the national capital, Shah said on Monday after chairing an all-party meet.
Leaders of the BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress and the BSP attended the meeting.
Shah appealed to the four parties to ask their workers to help in ensuring the ground implementation of the Del-
hi government’s coronavirus guidelines.
These steps will enhance public trust and the COVID-19 situation in Delhi will improve soon, Shah said.
He said, “We all have to stand united under the leader-ship of Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi in this fight against the pandemic.”
“We will have to increase COVID-19 testing in Delhi by adopting new solutions,” the home min-
ister said.The meeting was held in the
wake of a spurt in novel Coro-navirus cases in Delhi.
Agencies
Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the all-party meeting where he also said they will have to increase testing in Delhi by adopting new solutions. PiC/PTi
No plan for another lockdown in Delhi: KejriwalThe CM’s statement comes on the day the union home minister held an all-party meet urging leaders to bury their differences and come together to fight COVID-19 in the capital
COVID-19TICKER
TOTAL NO. OF CASES IN INDIA AS OF NOW
3,32,424
42kNo. of COVID-19 positive cases in
Delhi
Two officials of Indian High Commission arrested in PakislAmAbAD: Two officials of the Indian High Commission were arrested on Monday for their alleged involvement in a hit-and-run incident in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, according to media reports here.A BMW car hit a pedestrian who was walking on the city’s Embassy Road at around 8 am and its occupants allegedly attempted to flee the spot, Geo News reported, quoting some eyewitnesses.
The pedestrian was criti-cally injured and shifted to a hospital for treatment. The car was stopped by a huge crowd of people who handed over the two men to Islama-bad Police, it said.
After they were arrested,
police discovered that the two persons were officials of the Indian High Commission, it said. The Express Tribune newspaper identified the two Indian officials as Silvades Paul and Dawamu Brahamu.
Earlier on Monday, In-dia summoned the Pakistan charge d’affaires in New Del-hi and lodged a strong protest with him over the reported
arrest of two officials of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.
Monday’s incident comes two weeks after India ex-pelled two Pakistan High Commission officials here on charges of espionage. In-dia had declared Abid Hus-sain and Muhammad Tahir as ‘persona non grata’ after they were found obtaining sensitive documents relating to movement of Indian Army troops from an Indian na-tional, according to author-ities here. Following their expulsion, Pakistani agencies started harassing a number of Indian High Commission officials in Islamabad includ-ing charge d’affaires Gaurav Ahluwalia. Agencies
‘Temperature over India may rise by over 4 deg Celsius’New Delhi: The average tem-perature over India is pro-jected to rise by 4.4 degrees Celsius, while the intensity of heat waves is likely to increase by 3-4 times by the end of the century, according to a govern-ment report on the impact of climate change on the country.
India’s average temperature has risen by around 0.7 degree Celsius during 1901-2018, large-ly on account of Green House Gases-induced warming, states the report by the Ministry of Earth Sciences. It is likely to be published by Science and Tech-nology Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday. The report has been prepared by the Centre for Climate Change Research, under MoES’ Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune.
“By the end of the twen-
ty-first century, average tem-perature over India is project-ed to rise by approximately 4.4 degrees Celsius,” the report states. By the end of the cen-tury, the temperatures of the warmest day and the coldest night are projected to rise by approximately 4.7 degrees Cel-sius and 5.5 degrees Celsius, respectively, according to the report. Agencies
Lockdown in
Chennai again
Chennai and adjoining areas will be under lockdown from June 19 to June 30 sans present relaxations and a full scale shutdown on two Sundays, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said on Monday. During the 12-day period, only essential services will be allowed with restrictions, he said.
‘Increase testing
capacity’
The Delhi government on Monday issued an order to private and government laboratories, asking them to work with their full capacity and increase their COVID-19 testing capacity.As per the order, private labs will have to give results within 48 hours. Samples will be collected on ICMR guidelines and not without RT-PCR App. There are 42 labs in Delhi including 18 government and 24 private ones.
TWEET TALK
Arvind Kejriwal
@Arvind Kejriwal: ‘Many people are speculating whether another lockdown in Delhi in being planned. There are no such plans’
earlier on monday, india
summoned the Pakistan
charge d’affaires in New
Delhi and lodged a strong
protest with him over the
reported arrest of two
officials of the indian high
Commission in islamabad
The frequency of summer heat waves over India is projected to be 3 to 4 times higher. RePReseNTATioN PiC
We are bound by roti and beti: RajnathNew Delhi: Rejecting Nepal’s territorial claim, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh as-serted on Monday that the Lipulekh-Dharchula road falls very much in India and conveyed the Modi govern-ment’s willingness to sort out the “misunderstanding” with Nepal through dia-logue. “Our relations are not only of this world, but also of the ‘other world’ and they cannot be changed even if someone wishes so,” he said at BJP’s virtual rally for Ut-tarakhand. “These are no or-dinary ties and we are bound by ‘roti’ and ‘beti’ (livelihood and marriage). No power in the world can break it,” Singh said. Agencies
09 WORLD mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
Europe repoens border as COVID-19 return forces China to tighten curbs in Beijing Border checks for most Europeans were dropped overnight in Germany, France and elsewhere, nearly two weeks after Italy opened its frontiers; mass testing begins in Beijing in a bid to stem the spread of deadly novel CoronavirusBerlin: Borders opened up across Europe on Monday after three months of novel Corona-virus closures that began cha-otically in March, even as China started blocking more areas in Beijing as COVID-19 returns to the country.
China has begun mass testing of hundreds of people who had visited a Beijing wholesale mar-ket that sparked a fresh bout of cases even as the country re-ported 67 new COVID-19 infec-tions, including 42 in the capi-tal. The Beijing authorities have conducted the nucleic acid test on 29,386 people who had visit-ed the Xinfadi market since May 30, Gao Xiaojun, spokesman for the Beijing Health Commission, said on Monday.
Borders checks gone
Many restrictions persist, it’s unclear how keen Europeans will be to travel this summer and the continent is still closed to Americans, Asians and other international tourists. Border
checks for most Europeans were dropped overnight in Ger-many, France and elsewhere, nearly two weeks after Italy opened its frontiers.
Announcing Monday’s re-opening of borders and Paris restaurants, French President Emmanuel Macron said it’s time “to turn the page of the
first act of the crisis” and “re-discover our taste for freedom.”
But he warned: “This doesn’t mean the virus has disappeared and we can totally let down our guard...The summer of 2020 will be a summer unlike any other.”
2 million cases in Europe
That caution is widespread after more than 1,82,000 virus-linked deaths in Europe. The region has had over 2 million of the world’s 7.9 million confirmed infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Greek Prime Minister Kyr-iakos Mitsotakis acknowl-
edged that “a lot will depend on whether people feel com-fortable to travel and wheth-er we can project Greece as a safe destination.” On Monday, Greece was welcoming the first international flights whose pas-sengers didn’t face compulsory COVID-19 tests to Athens and Thessaloniki. Direct interna-tional flights to regional Greek
airports, including those on its islands, will begin on July 1. Vis-itors will be subject to random virus testing. Britain, which left the EU in January but re-mains closely aligned with the bloc until the end of this year, reopened non-essential shops across England on Monday after nearly three months of being in lockdown. Agencies
Washington: A makeshift me-morial has popped up at a fast-food restaurant where a black man was fatally shot by a white Atlanta police officer, one of the latest deaths of black men that have ignited a new wave of anti-racism protests in the US.
Roughly 150 protesters marched outside the Wen-dy’s restaurant outside where Brooks was shot, reigniting demonstrations that had large-ly simmered in the Georgia capital nearly three weeks af-ter George Floyd, another black man, died after a white Minne-apolis police officer pressed a knee to his neck. Both Rolfe and Brosnan are white.
Meanwhile, the rapidly unfolding movement to take down Confederate statues in the US grew over the weekend.
Protesters in New Orleans tore down a bust of a slave owner on Saturday who left part of his fortune to New Orleans’ schools and then took the remains to the Mississippi River and rolled it down the
banks into the water.Protests also erupted over
the weekend in Palmdale, Cal-ifornia, where hundreds de-manded an investigation into the death of Robert Fuller, 24, a black man found hanging from a tree earlier Wednesday near city hall. Agencies
Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu is on trial for accepting $2,00,000 in gifts from two billionaire friends. But, that has not stopped him from seeking an-other gift from a wealthy friend to pay for his legal defense.
The awkward arrangement opens a window into the very ties with billionaire friends that plunged Netanyahu into legal trouble and sheds light on the intersection of money and Israeli politics. Netanyahu has asked an Israeli oversight
committee to allow a 10 million shekel ($2.9 million) donation from Spencer Partrich, a Michi-gan-based real estate magnate, to fund his legal defense.
Because Partrich also hap-pens to be a witness in one of the cases, the panel has asked the country’s attorney general for his opinion on the matter.
The request for financial aid from a friend is not illegal, and Israeli politicians have a long tradition of hobnobbing with wealthy Jewish support-ers abroad. But to some, the optics of Netanyahu’s request are sketchy. “It is a problem that we have prime ministers who have ties to moguls,” said Tomer Naor, of the Movement for Quality Government in Is-rael, a good governance group.
“When the borders blur, you are blinded by the big money. You want more of it. Then all of a sudden the friend asks for a little favour and that poses a problem.” Agencies
PM sets up new
commission to
fight racism in UK
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday announced a new cross-government commission to tackle racism and all other forms of inequality in the UK, in response to the worldwide anti-racism Black Lives Matter protests. Johnson said it is not possible to ignore the many thousands who joined the protests in the UK over the past few weeks in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.“It is no use just saying that we have made huge progress in tackling racism. There is much more that we need to do; and we will,” Johnson said.
German police officers stand on a platform as French passengers step out of the tram at a station in Kehl on Monday as borders between France and Germany repoens; (right) a woman with a child walk by people lining up outside a health centre for COVID-19 test in Beijing on Monday. PiCs/aFP/aP
Protesters gather at the Lee statue in Richmond for the 5,000 Man March on Friday. PiC/aFP
the eu’s 27 nations and those in the schengen
passport-free travel area aren’t expected to start
opening to visitors from outside the continent until at
least July and possibly later
Atlanta shooting, statues new focal points for protests
Charged for taking gifts from rich friends, Netanyahu turns to another to fund $2.9mn fees
Israeli PM Benjamin
Netanyahu PiC/aP
37 new infections in
S Korea, 5.2K in Pak
South Korea has reported 37 new cases, bringing its caseload to 12,121, including 277 deaths. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s COVID-19 cases reached 1,44,676 after 5,248 new infections were detected, while 97 more people have succumbed to the virus, pushing the death toll to 2,729, the health ministry said on Monday.
‘Self-swabbing test
accurate, safe’
Samples collected by people who swabbed their own nasal passages yielded result for COVID-19 and were as accurate as those collected by a health worker, said a small study. Researchers said allowing people who suspect they may have COVID-19 to collect their own sample has many advantages.
29,386No. of people Beijing has tested for virus since May 30
67No. of new COVID-19 infections China reported on Monday
US apex court rules in favour of LGBT workersWashington: The US Su-preme Court ruled on Mon-day that a civil rights law protects LGBT people from discrimination in employ-ment, a resounding victory for LGBT rights from a con-servative court. It by a 6-3 vote that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons, encompasses bias against LGBT workers.
“An employer who fires an individual for being ho-mosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a nec-essary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what the Act forbids,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court.
The outcome is expected to have a big impact for the esti-mated 8.1 million LGBT work-ers because most states don’t protect them from workplace discrimination. Agencies
It’s not often in a writer’s life that something they wrote goes viral. There is no definition of viral for
when it is not being used in an epide-miological sense but I assume that it means lots and lots and lots of people have seen it. More people than you could fit into a legislative assembly or convocation hall. More people than a rock concert.
It turns out that my column last week, Where women lead, the virus loses, was widely shared and elicited what is known in French as a kickass response. It is unusual to get notifi-cations on Facebook about any post even 48 hours after it has been posted but I have been receiving share noti-fications of this story till today, a full six days later.
According to SharedCount.com, the story was seen a total of 33,800 times. About 3,400 people shared it and about 3,000 people posted com-ments about it. That’s about as viral as a small journalist like me could hope to get.
Today’s column, however, is not about how splendid a writer I am but about a couple of comments that caught my eye. While the majority of readers sounded chuffed that women were wiping the floor with men as far as the coronavirus went, some were terribly upset. A few were bothered that I was applauding women; others were fuming that I had praised other countries when I should have been singing elegies to my motherland, India.
One reader called Sumit (his real name) bludgeoned me with an email asking if I was a beta male hoping to get brownie points from women by bashing men.
Another fellow, called Harsh, also his real name, sounded pretty worked up that I was bad-mouthing his fa-vourite country, India. “Just com-pare the population of these coun-tries compared to India or rest of the
world. In spite of such big population the percentage of patients [in India] is much less, deaths are much less and recovery is about 50%.”
There was a sting in the tail: “Only positive people can appreciate India’s efforts.” I was not positive people.
I responded on Facebook to Mr Harsh, explaining that India, despite
its massive 1.3 billion population, had only 4,186 tests per million persons, and so the numbers were bound to look rosy with fewer infections and fewer deaths. In fact, stopping counting the damage is a world-fa-mous way of proving that a situation is improving.
You’d have thought that Mr Harsh would have been humbled, or perhaps illuminated, by this. But I had only aggravated him further. He doubled down on my treasonous behaviour.
“Some people are never proud of India and always feel proud of fair skin only,” he retorted. “If US and other countries you are praising are so efficient then why so many deaths occurred? At least I’m proud that our deaths are much lower and recovery rate is about 50 percent. Still you don’t feel proud, who cares?”I’m sure you’re familiar with this
kind of conversation. Someone makes a sweeping false assertion (example: “India has managed coronavirus won-derfully”). Or perhaps he makes an openly bigoted statement (example: “Muslims will over-run this country if
we don’t take steps to control them”). Being reasonable, you wait till he fin-ishes ranting and then present him with facts and figures that show why he is terribly, terribly wrong. To your horror, he seems now to be even more convinced that he was right and that you are slime.
Alas, such arguments are common-er than ever these days, where Google cheerfully points you to websites that can prove anything you already be-lieve, such as the earth is flat, vaccines are part of a global plot to kill babies and 5G phones are an underlying con-dition for infection by coronavirus.
If you search for ways to deal with an unreasonable or misguided per-son, enough websites will advise you to be calm, react to the argument rather than the person, present evi-dence, be logical, try to understand the other person’s point of view and so on. I’ve come to realise that none of these techniques works in today’s bizarro world.
These days, therefore, I recom-mend dealing with it somewhat dif-ferently. Since logic is useless against opinionated minds, the better way to handle a bigot, racist, nationalist or bhakt is to mercilessly bait them. Here are some questions guaranteed to get under their skin —
Beaten up any Dalits recently?What’s the fifth line of the Gayatri
Mantra?I heard you steal mutton from Mus-
lims. Really?Is your wife still beating you? For the coup de grâce —I am so proud that India will soon
be the world’s number one again — in coronavirus infections. We’re #4 now, but no one can stop us.
Mr Harsh ought to be happy with that.
10 mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
comment What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy? — George Orwell, British author
ThoughT
for The Day
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LETTERS
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper
The closure of a road in one of the bylanes of Borivli saw a tense back and forth between
municipal authorities and MNS lead-ers, a report in this paper stated. Af-ter a stand-off, municipal authorities eased restrictions in one part so that one person could pass at a time.
While this is one case, a similar scenario is playing out at various areas of the city, where citizens are taking on municipal honchos over certain closures, claiming that access
has been cut off.This is especially true in impossi-
bly crowded areas, with their maze of lanes, and hundreds of people trying to access certain parts. While argu-ments on both sides may have merit, there has to be dialogue and under-standing when trying to resolve knot-ty problems like these. Municipal workers cannot be seen as adversar-ies or some kind of monstrous ene-my on the other side of the frontline, determined to make life even more
difficult than it currently is.Today, the need of the hour is con-
ciliation and a long fuse. Overwrought officers and workers under strain, stressed citizens worrying about work and an uncertain future, local leaders who intervene on behalf of citizens, all this seems to be a combustible mix. Try to see a way out if roads are blocked. If absolutely impossible then, first decide among yourselves how best one could resolve this prob-lem. While local party leaders may be
mouthpieces, one should be aware too that the first responsibility is to tackle the problem in the locality itself.
Today, we see banners warning of restricted access thrown to one side; outside certain areas, poles have been broken and removed. People are confused whether the area is con-tained, whether they can use a par-ticular road or not. Let us battle the ‘c’ with another incredibly powerful C in these times — which is cooperation. Together we win.
How to make a bigot feel really bad
Health workers check the temperature of other civic staff near Kurla court. PIC/
SAYYED SAMEER ABEDI
Forget about being cool, reasonable, logical, evidence-based,empathetic and tolerant. Those don’t work. I have a better idea
Here, viewed from there. C Y Gopinath, in Bangkok, throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai, the city that raised him. You can reach him at [email protected]
Send your feedback to [email protected]
COVID-19 must be dealt with cooperationHard to accept that such a
fine personality is no more
This refers to ‘The sense of an ending’. The untimely demise of Bollywood’s most promising actor Sushant Singh Rajput has brought tears to my eyes. It is hard to accept that an astounding personality with an evergreen smiling face and cheerful nature is no more. Sushant was the pride of Bihar and a source of inspiration for thousands of youngsters. His suicide owing to any sort of financial crisis seems to be ruled out. A thorough probe is needed.
tuShAR AnAnD
Stigma around
depression must go
This refers to your editorial ‘In an increasingly lonely world, please seek help’. It had been predicted that the continued lockdown may increase the rate of mental disorders. We need to remove the shame attached to it. Most people don’t talk about depression or do not seek medical help because of the stigma. Let’s stop judging and start helping.
AShOk GOSwAMI
Money, fame do not
guarantee happiness
Apropos the report ‘Remove shame in seeking help: doctors’, 34 is too young for anyone to die and popular actor Sushant Singh Rajput committing suicide is a shock beyond words. Depression is a killer disease and money and fame do not always guarantee happiness. Sushant’s act is testimony that inner peace only comes from good mental health. May Sushant’s soul rest in peace.
SAtYAnARAYAn kABRA
C Y Gopinath
I.M.H.O
today’s column is not about
how splendid a writer I am but
about a couple of comments
that caught my eye. while the
majority of readers sounded
chuffed that women were
wiping the floor with men as
far as the coronavirus went,
some were terribly upset. A
few were bothered that I was
applauding women; others were
fuming that I had praised other
countries when I should have
been singing elegies to my
motherland, India
mid-dayTuesday
16.06.2020
11REACH OUT »P12
UMA RAMASUBRAMANIAN
We have all witnessed Hindi film heroes sin-gle-handedly beat-ing a dozen goons to pulp, on screen. For an industry that thrives on big-budget actioners, Bollywood is surpris-ingly starved of female action heroes. That, Ali Abbas Zafar informs, was the starting point for his yet-untitled super-hero film with Katrina Kaif.
“Personally, I feel it’s high time we made a larger-than-life action film with women in this country. This story has stayed with me for a long time,” says the filmmaker, who has displayed his expertise in the genre with Gunday (2014), Sultan (2016) and Tiger Zinda Hai (2017).
In fact, the climax of the 2017 hit made him believe that Kaif deserved a movie to showcase her action prowess. “After watching Tiger Zinda Hai, sev-eral people told me that her fight sequence was the best part of the film. They suggest-ed that I explore a full-blown action project with her. That’s when I started writing for Kat-rina. She has the body type to pull this off.”
Any hopes of prepping for the physically demanding role were dashed due to the
current restrictions. But Za-far says that his leading lady
is “keeping herself super fit”. “Her prep during
the lockdown entails staying fit and in-jury-free. Since the film is high on ac-tion, she will have to undergo rigor-
ous training closer to the shoot,” says the director, who hopes to
scout for locations soon. “It’s the kind of movie where the lo-cations play a crucial role. We are waiting for things to return to normal. A lot depends on the state of international flights as we have a foreign crew.”
‘Prep entails staying fit and injury-free’Director Ali Abbas Zafar on how Katrina is gearing up for her action film during lockdown
UPALA KBR
eVeR wondered what a day in Salman Khan’s life looks like? If all goes well, his legion of fans might be privy to it. The super-star — who has been holed up at his Panvel farmhouse, Arpita Farms, since the lockdown was announced in March — is appar-ently in talks with a leading tele-vision channel to develop his stay as a series.
What was supposed to be a work trip with director Abhiraj Minawala and brother-in-law Aayush Sharma had quickly turned into a mini-lockdown when Jacqueline Fernandez,
Waluscha DeSousa and Niketan Madhok, among others, joined them at the Panvel estate. While some of his friends returned to the city earlier this month, Fer-nandez, Iulia Vantur, DeSousa and her kids, and Khan’s manag-er stayed put. Khan too returned to the Panvel farmhouse after visiting father Salim Khan in Mumbai.
A source reveals, “During their stay, Saajan Singh would often film their daily activities. Salman is planning to develop the mate-rial as a reality show for Colors TV, almost like the superstar’s personal Bigg Boss house. The footage will show how the cote-rie spent their days, their weekly treks together and their candid interviews. It will also focus on how Salman and his friends made the three music videos.”
even as discussions with the top brass at Colors TV are un-derway, Khan has apparently requested his team at SK TV, the television arm of his studio, to be-gin editing the raw footage. “Bigg Boss could be delayed due to the current crisis. In such a case, this could be the perfect weekend watch,” adds the source.
THE third season of Inside Edge, Amazon Prime Video’s tentpole show, was to tentatively drop in December 2020, exactly a year after its second edition. With web offerings grabbing eyeballs
during the lockdown, it is learnt that the suits at the streaming giant have requested the makers to speed up the post-production work on the
sports drama. The third
season reportedly revolves around Zarina and Vikrant, played by Richa Chadha and Vivek Oberoi respectively, joining forces against Aamir Bashir’s Bhaisahab.
A source informs, “The second and third editions were shot together. As soon as the sophomore season opened last December, the production house trained its attention on the next instalment. With several shows witnessing a
slowdown due to the work-from-home policy, the head honchos are hoping that the cricket drama may release earlier than it was slated to, thus helping the platform maintain its momentum. Given the series’ popularity, the top brass of the streaming service also want to dedicate three weeks to the promotions to generate enough interest around the show.” Mohar Basu
SO IS THE BUZZ
With web shows grabbing eyeballs during lockdown, sources suggest post-production of Inside Edge 3 expedited for early release
LET THE GAMES BEGIN?
Now, Sallu creates his own Bigg Boss
Ali Abbas Zafar
‘After watching Tiger Zinda Hai, several people suggested that I explore an action film with Katrina’Ali Abbas Zafar(From top) Iulia Vantur, Atul Agnihotri and Jacqueline Fernandez in Panvel
Khan in talks with Colors TV to turn his three-month lockdown at Panvel into series, featuring real footage, interviews
SPOTTED
Hello, DoodleOn Monday, Riddhima Kapoor Sahni shared details about the new arrival in the Kapoor home — a pet dog named Doodle. The New Delhi-based jewellery designer, who is with mother Neetu after dad Rishi Kapoor passed away in April, called it the ‘furry new family member’. The Kapoors’ other pet pooch is an English Mastiff.
Mithunda’s quiet 68th birthdayMithun Chakraborty turns 68 today. The veteran actor is in no mood to celebrate his birthday in the prevailing conditions. Son Namashi, who makes his debut with Rajkumar Santoshi’s Bad Boy, says, “Given the current scenario due to the
pandemic and the untimely demise of colleague Sushant Singh Rajput, we prefer to keep things quiet.” Mithunda has urged people to stay safe and stay indoors.
Seek help
Deepika Padukone has opened up about the necessity for people to reach out in order to fight depression, in the wake of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. She reminded that it was important to talk and seek help. Dippy also wrote that “people do not ‘commit’ suicide, they ‘die’ by suicide. Their actions arise out of deep anguish. Criminals ‘commit’ a crime.”
Sushant Singh Rajput was to feature in Shekhar Kapur’s Paani, which never took off. The two had spent a lot of time together discussing the project. Kapur posted that he was aware of the pain Rajput was going through. “I know the story of the people who let you down so badly that you would cry on my shoulders. What happened to you was their karma. Not yours.” Netizens wondered who the filmmakers were.
Who is he referring to?
Kangana Ranaut refuses to label Sushant Singh Rajput as a “mentally weak” person. On Monday, in a video shared by her team, she said that his work in Chhichhore (2019), Kedarnath (2018) and MS Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016) were not acknowledged when “a bad film like Gully Boy [2019] bagged all awards.” Ranaut pointed out that in his last few posts, “he was literally begging, ‘Watch my films. I have no godfather. I will be taken out of the industry’. Outsiders like us may not get big projects but at least recognise the films we get on our own merit.” She also lambasted those who referred to Rajput “as a psychotic, neurotic and an addict. But you find Sanjay Dutt’s addiction very cute.”
SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT (1986-2020)Under ireKaran Johar and Alia Bhatt faced flak on social media for their condolence post for Sushant Singh Rajput. Netizens slammed them for their ‘hypocrisy’. The filmmaker wrote that the actor’s death is a “wake-up call” for him. He blamed himself for not being in touch with Rajput. KJo wrote, “I felt at times that you may have needed people to share your life with, but somehow I never followed up on that feeling. I will never make that mistake again.” KJo’s production, Drive (2019), starring Rajput, was stuck for over two years because he reportedly did not like the end product. Instead of a theatrical release, it was released digitally. Netizens could not also digest Bhatt’s tweet, “I’m in a deep shock. You’ve left us too soon.” They reminded her of her comment on Koffee with Karan. When she was asked to rate Rajput, Ranveer Singh and Varun Dhawan, Bhatt had retorted, “Sushant who?”
have you heard? DESPERATE
MEASURES
12 mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
Divyanka Tripathi Dahiya came to the rescue of a critical patient who was unable to find a hospital bed. The TV star put out a ‘desperate’ tweet to the BMC, which immediately sprung into action
Mentor Ekta Kapoor described Sushant Singh Rajput as an “odd different genius”. The actor, who got noticed in her TV show, Pavitra Rishta, recalled how her team spotted him at Prithvi cafe. “You always spoke about the discoveries of stars at NASA. Odd for an actor. Odd different genius, bon voyage,” she posted.
Drastic stepsSushant Singh Rajput’ssuicide has made many B-Town folk open up about how the industry drives people to take drastic steps. Babumoshai Bandookbaaz (2017) director Kushan Nandy has confessed that he thought of killing himself many times. “Yoga and medication help. But it’s a thin line between being able to pull the plug or not,” posted Nandy.
Tiger Shroff makes sure that he carries a bottle of water to stay hydrated on the go. Now, he also has to ensure he wears a mask while stepping out. PIC/YOGEN SHAH
Kangy hits outThe odd genius
LETTY MARIAM ABRAHAM
With supporting roles in Gun-day (2014), Sultan (2016) and tiger Zinda hai (2017), he has become a regular fixture in Ali Abbas Zafar’s films. Now, actor Anant Vidhaat is set to make his digital debut with MXPlayer’s upcoming series, Pati Patni Aur Woh.
“i went with my gut feeling,” says the actor, who essays the role of a man caught between two wives —one dead, other alive. “it’s not [only] a horror-comedy, there are elements of romance and drama too. the sto-ry doesn’t go back to the archaic concept of Pati patni aur woh. it is
scripted without [highlighting] the other woman. i loved the perspec-tive of my character, which is why i leapt at the offer,” says Vidhaat of the comedy that sees him alongside Riya Sen and Vinny Arora.
On the big screen, the actor has often been seen in supporting roles. When choosing parts, he asserts that screen time is not a parameter. “What matters is whether your char-acter is crucial to the story; the num-ber of scenes does not determine the value of the role. i’ve always searched for a role, which is essential to the screenplay. if you remove my character from Sultan or tiger Zinda hai or Mardaani, the story will not progress.”
Cracking the game with a comedyAfter a spate of ilms, Anant Vidhaat to make his digital debut with horror comedy Pati Patni Aur Woh
SLAMBOOKRasika Dugal
If you had a superpower, what
would it be?
the power to create vaccines overnight.
Your celebrity crush?
Shah Rukh Khan.
Your guilty pleasure movie?
Die hard 4 (2007).
Your last nightmare?
that i was chopping my favourite books like vegetables. An overload of housework might have inspired this.
One secret that no one knows
about you?
that i have zero will power when it comes to food. if it’s in the same zip code as me, i will eat it.
Which same-sex actor are you
crushing on?
Shibani Dandekar.
Your worst project?
Lollypop Since 1947 (2016). You can Google it.
‘Hope this translates into more choices’Bollywood’s most underrated actor and the toast of the town Jaideep Ahlawat on life after Paatal Lok
UMA RAMAsUBRAMAnIAn
In college, he was an Akshay Ku-mar fan, often deliberately miss-ing a bus only so he could chase it like his screen idol did in a se-quence in Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996). He has, for so long, played the part of the avid admirer that Jaideep Ahlawat is surprised to find himself on the other side of the table today. Since Paatal Lok dropped online, there has been a constant celebration, and a deserving one at that, around Ahlawat, who plays inspector Hathiram Choudhary in the Ama-zon Prime Video offering. “I don’t understand the term ‘overnight stardom’. I don’t know how to re-act when people acknowledge me as a star,” says the actor candidly.
But describing Ahlawat as the product of overnight stardom would be lazy, if not uninformed. The actor, who graduated from the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) in 2008, has been quietly laying the foundation of a solid career all the while as Bollywood obsessed over its next six-pack-abs hero or rolled out the red carpet for the next star kid. It’s not surprising then that his first breakout role was in Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wassey-pur (2012), followed by Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi (2018).
“Raazi was the turning point in my career. It brought me respect, and that happened only because Meghna believed in me,” recalls Ahlawat, who hails from a world far removed from showbiz. “I come from a family of farmers in Kharkara, Haryana. However, when I told my parents I want to be an actor, they supported me.”
Life may have witnessed a turn-around post Paatal Lok, but going forward, the actor hopes to con-tinue finding compelling stories. “One must continue to look at the world from a lens that gives you a reality check. An actor must not get swayed by the praise. The idea is to tell different stories while exploring them from different angles. But that will be possible for an actor only if he has a variety of offers. So, I hope this translates into more choices.”
One would imagine that he is flooded with offers, but he re-mains tight-lipped. “nobody knows what the next move is. I am in talks with a few people, let’s see how things work out.” A second season of Paatal Lok, perhaps. “Anushka [Sharma, producer] had said it is a possibility. They have yet to decide. I hope it happens because I would like to be part of the second season.”
The Sudip Sharma-created se-ries won much acclaim for holding a mirror to society and showing how it plays an active role in creat-ing criminals. However, a section of viewers felt that the nine-part
offering normalises violence. “There are barely four violent
scenes,” defends Ahlawat, adding, “Unless you are
shown the other side of the coin, you will never be able to figure out the bitter truth. Unless we show Hathoda Tyagi [the character played by Abhishek Banerjee] killing a few people, how can we give him the tag Hathoda? The show was not made to glorify violence.”
television/web amidst the ongoing tussle between shweta Tiwari and abhinav kohli, the latter posted a message on social media for son Reyansh. He wrote, “i will get arrested as many times to give you growth and happiness my pyaaru.”
REAL OR
FOR SHOW
13 mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
Jaideep Ahlawat in Pataal Lok; (above) Raazi; (top) Gangs ofWasseypur
North
verus
South
Nair says the typical North Indian paratha is made of whole wheat flour while the parotta uses maida or refined flour.
There’s a difference in layering. Most North Indian parathas are rolled out, then folded to get the layers, while for the parotta, one needs to make a ball, turn it into a rope and then into a spiral-shaped base. The parotta is similar to lachha paratha, she adds, in terms of the physical texture.
Malabar parotta
Preparation time: 40 minutesCooking time: 15 minutes
Yield: 5 to 6 parottas
Ingredients Flour - 3 cups Suji/rawa - 1/4 cup Sugar - 4 tbsp Salt as required Lukewarm water - as required Butter - 50 gms Ghee - 2 tbsp
Method
In a bowl, mix the dry ingredi-ents. Little by little, add warm
water while kneading, till the dough is made. The dough needs to be kneaded well till it is neither loose, nor very tight. It should be soft and pliable. Cover it to prove for 15 min-utes. Mix the butter and ghee, and keep it aside. After 15 min-utes, divide this dough into balls of equal portions. For this, take the entire dough in your ghee-brushed hand and push the quantity needed for each ball between your thumb and forefinger.
Roll out each ball of dough as thin as possible. Make thin slits vertically that are close to each other across the breadth of the rolled-out dough. Then, carefully fold each of the slits on to the next one and pile it all on top of each other to make a cylindrical roll. Next, twist the cylindrical roll into a spiral-shaped base. Now, us-ing the base of your hand, start flattening the spiral-shaped base into a parotta. Cook the parottas one by one on a me-dium flame till they are golden brown and slightly crisp. Once cooked, take the parotta and stack it up. Beat the sides to release the steam and bring out the layers.
STAN’S THEMAN »P15
mid-dayTuesday
16.06.2020
14
SUKANYA DATTA
WHO would’ve imagined that the unassuming, flaky flat-bread that is every Mallu’s pride would end up turning the heat on Twitter? Last week, the Kar-nataka bench of Authority of Advance Ruling held that since ready-to-eat Malabar parottas need to be heated or processed further for consumption, unlike a roti or chapati, they attract 18 per cent GST. While #Hand-sOffParotta trends online, Sara Jacob Nair, co-founder and chef of the Bandra-based catering and delivery service NairOn-Fire, shares that the flatbread has always been a household favourite. She adds, howev-er, that it’s her “nemesis”. “We’d beg my mother to make it. She would, but with a lot of grum-bling, as it’s so much work!” she says.
The trick is in the kneading. “The more you knead, the flakier it is,” she explains, adding there are dif-ferent methods. What is it best paired with? “While most love it with Kerala chilli chicken, I have it with chai, too.” she admits.
THE GUIDE TEAM
LOOKING to pick up a musical talent that doesn’t require you to invest in an instrument? You can give beatboxing a shot, with this workshop by The Dharavi Dream Project facilitated by beatboxer Gau-rav Gambhir aka D-Cypher.
Gambhir has been practising the form for over eight years and was also a part of the first Indian beatboxing challenge held at Nagaland in 2016.
While these sessions were started for lesser-privileged kids in Dharavi, they are now open online for everyone. Gambhir admits it isn’t a for-mally designed course and
what he teaches de-pends on the participants and their understanding of beatboxing. “For instance, if there is someone who doesn’t know what beatboxing is, I get to the basics. For those who’ve been attending these classes, I teach them more pieces. I make it a point to figure if they know about beatboxing or if they
have been beatboxers,” he says. Gambhir start-ed these workshops two months ago, and has had participants from countries like
Bangladesh and Nepal. One can sign up for a sin-
gle session, too. “I start with the history of beatboxing, and then move into the basic beats — kick-drum, hi-hat and snare drum. As the level goes up, they practise advanced beats,” he explains.
ON June 18, 19 and 20, from 3 pm to 4 pm
LOG ON TO insider.in
MUSIC
Sara Jacob Nair
One beat at a timeAt a workshop, learn the art of beatboxing with D-Cypher and create your own compositions
D-Cypher at a session before the lockdown
(From bottom left) Make balls
out of the dough; roll it
out, make slits and fold them
in; twist the cylindrical roll into a spiral-shaped
base; the parotta should be flaky
FOOD &DRINK
As the Malayali household favourite creates a stir on social media, thanks to GST norms, a Keralite chef tells us how to get the layers right
Everybody loves a good parotta
Everybody loves a good parotta
15 THE GUIDE mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
On Stan Laurel’s birth anniversary, three leading comedians tell us what made one half of Laurel and Hardy such an enduring character
Resting on his Laurels
In a theoretical workshop, learn about the permaculture movement, its place in ecosystems and hacks for your garden
In harmony with nature
PRACHI SIBAL
COineD in 1978, the term per-maculture is a philosophy that draws from natu-ral ecosystems and working with them for cultivation. The sustainable design practice demands observation of nat-ural surroundings and use of renewable energy resources. now, you can get a first-hand understand-ing of these concepts through a beginner’s course in per-maculture design by Panch-gani-based farm, The Odd Gumnut.
instructor Laura Christie Khanna has always worked in the food industry, donning many hats as chef, activist and finally, permaculture expert. The two-hour long session takes participants through the basic concepts behind the movement through a class that is primarily theoreti-cal. “This one is meant for everyone, but targets be-ginners, essentially peo-ple who have heard about the concept but want to learn more. We go over all the main concepts; what is the movement, where it comes from and all of the design concepts, rather than how to plant a seed and other such prac-tical solutions. it comes with some practical ideas though,” explains Khanna.
Having conducted several such workshops in the past on the farm in Panchgani, Khanna decided to take these courses online during the pandemic. “The biggest difference is that on the farm, we use real exam-
ples, but here we are restrict-ed to images. it is the same but without the touch, feel and smell,” she says, admitting
that for a participant the knowledge absorbed at
the end of a session remains the same.
it begins with an introduction to the origins of the phi-
losophy in Australia and the ethics and
principles of it. “Water and soil take up two big
sections and then we go into integrated pest management, orchards and garden bed de-signs. We also cover different zones of permaculture and areas of energy efficiency and touch upon urban permacul-ture too. We also talk about natural building techniques,” Khanna says about the flow of the session, adding that que-ries specific to regions and farms are also addressed in a Q&A session.
ON June 18, 3.30 pm LOG ON TO insider.in
COST R499
Authenticity is key
i think the beauty of Stan Lau-rel’s work was his self-depre-cating humour. The other beauty of his comedy is that it is without words, which helps it transcend everything — any age group, background and any country, which also highlights the universality of humour. He portrayed the human condition through comedy.
What is also important for a comedian is to be au-thentic — you have got to do what feels right to you, and is in line with your take on the system and what you think is funny. initially, you want the confidence to make people laugh, so you will go for the easy jokes. Later, you’ll want to be edgy, so you use bad language and include polit-ical stuff. There is a quote i often use, “Stand-up comedy is an outward expression of an inward journey.” That ap-plies to most art forms, and we need to work and perform to express, not impress. Suc-cessful people don’t change themselves because of their audience, and that is also something we can learn from Laurel.
Papa CJ
Injecting positivity
One thing i love about Stan Laurel is that he was the writ-er among the duo, Laurel and Hardy. And as the writer, he understood what Hardy’s
strong points were. He understood that Hardy
was the stronger ac-tor and while Laurel had deadpan British humour, he left the loud movements to
his partner, who was American. What i also love about
them is that they take so much time to deliver just their expressions, which are most-ly in mime. As a performer, i always speak to fill the silent gaps on stage. So, to write a sketch without using words is fabulous to me because i have nev-er experi-enced an-ything like that. The
sketches were also positive in nature. Comedy changes across generations, and right now, it’s all about edginess. even though Laurel and Har-dy’s sketches are physically violent in terms of chairs top-pling over and all that, they are never mean. As modern co-medians, we don’t realise the damage that we sometimes do with our words. Laurel,
on the other hand, glorified even something like failure, showing us that it’s not something to fear.
i watched the videos of Clean Sweep and Busy-body, and these came at a time of the Great Depression in the US. With the Coronavi-
rus, we are head-ing in the same direction. So, maybe it’s time that we brought the same sort of happiness to the stage that Laurel did. it’s time that we brought posi-tive comedy back again.
Kajol Srinivasan
The economy of words
eVen before they did or said anything, just the physical manifestation of seeing one large and one thin person to-gether [in Laurel and Hardy] was in itself funny. it’s like Tom and Jerry, where you have a cat and mouse who are sworn enemies, but when you see them together as friends, it’s funny. So, the broad sense of humour came from that physical disparity.
i used to watch a lot of Lau-rel and Hardy as a kid, but then they kind of dis-appeared from the pop culture con-sciousness, at least in india. i started rediscovering them when i was studying mass media and film studies, and that’s when i also learnt more about icons like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. When i re-watched the shows, i real-ised that there was always a one-liner that followed their physical comedy. For exam-ple, if one of them slipped on a banana peel, there would be a punch line to draw the curtains on that gag. Writing comedy is about the economy of words, and they taught me about that.
They also taught me how two people can riff off each other, and i have incorpo-rated that learning into my routine where i play the roles of both, my dad and myself. i took tips on how to modu-late the two voices, among other things.
i would like to recommend a film that was launched in 2018, called Stan and Ollie. it’s directed by Jon Baird and talks about the last tour they did in the UK. it’s a must-watch for anyone interested in comedy.
Abbas Momin
Permaculture demands observation of natural surroundings
WORKSHOP
SHUNASHIR SEN
TRIBUTE
‘As modern comedians we don’t realise the damage we sometimes do with our words’Kajol Srinivasan
‘The workshop is for everyone but targets beginners’ Laura Christie Khanna
THE GUIDE TEAM
If there is a positive side to music festivals being can-celled on the ground and shift-ing operations online, it is that the entire world can now log on to view the acts on the line-up. The audience is no longer restrict-ed to a few thousand people, as is the case with the Cambridge Rock festival (CRf) in the UK, which is be-ing staged virtually this weekend for even Mum-baikars to enjoy.
Speaking about the pros-pects of an offline event in the future, festival director Dave
Roberts says, “Al-though we have been
considering resched-uling the fest to autumn,
this is too dependent on the uncertain progression of the pandemic, the onset of winter for campers, and the availa-
bility of the venue and artists. Therefore we have settled on June 2021, with the aim to bring you an even better fes-tival experience.”
Meanwhile, recorded shows of the acts will be streamed on the festival’s website and face-
book page so that punters can enjoy the performances seated in their homes. The music falls mainly under the ambit of clas-sic rock and blues, and some of the outfits include veteran British rockers Wishbone Ash, young singer-songwriter Ben Poole and keyboardist Don Airey, among over 60 others. All these bands have played at CRf at previous editions, and the recordings are of those performances. The physical manifestation of the fest was supposed to be held at a new venue in Peterborough this time around. Let’s hope that the organisers succeed in mak-ing that plan possible one year down the line.
ON June 18, 19 and 20, 6.30 am to 6.30 pm
(Indian Standard Time) LOG ON TO allevents.in
16 THE GUIDE mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
Docked in culture
DALREEN RAMOS
A SUNLIT corridor greets you. Along with two men by a brown boat reading the introductory panel of Kashti Ki-nara, an exhibition put together by the students from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangraha-laya’s (CSMVS) post graduate diploma programme in museol-ogy and conservation. Although it is their first virtual exhibition, it certainly feels real.
The 360-degree tour is fo-cused on coastal communities, boats and boat-making in India. Did you know that our coast-line spanning over 7,500 kilo-metres is home to 14 per cent of the country’s population? It’s a question the students approach, making the show
more community-centric than object-driven. It’s also what the
title Kashti Kinara, a com-mon poetic metaphor
translating to ‘the boat and shore’ alludes to. Vaidehi Savnal, assis-tant curator, interna-tional relations and
education, says that the idea of the exhibition is to
piece together everything the students have learnt in
the course — from writing la-bels to researching objects. “In february, they were given a broad theme to work with, and it would ideally be a physical event. But given the lockdown,
it had to be moved into the digital space,” she says, adding that since some students hailed from a copy-editing and design background, the shift was easy.
You first get to see a map of the Indian seaboard with a key detailing boat distribution — the Kattamaram, log boat, sewn plank boat, Vadhera planking, single outrigger and balance board — shedding light on our geographical diversity. The section on India’s maritime past serves as a good overall introduction to the subject since the country’s maritime ties date back to the Harappan Civilisation. This, you get to see via a recreated illustration of the dockyard at Lothal, a tidal port town in present-day Gu-jarat that could have possibly been a hub for trading.
Next, check out the vessels of the Indian coast from different regions such as the V-shaped Chott from West Bengal or the Bombay Machwa with its
lateen (triangular in the fore and aft direction) sails. The exhibition also offers a peak into traditional boat-making as well as a detailed look into ceremonial rites and rituals conducted by coastal commu-nities. for instance, during the Narali Pournima, Kolis clean and decorate their boats and offer a coconut to Varuna, God of the Sea, for protection from unforeseen events. There are multiple advantages to putting
together a virtual show, Savnal explains. “There are no restric-tions on the number of objects. Also if an object had to be fab-ricated in reality as opposed to 3D design, it would take at least a month. Besides, it’s also easier to collaborate with other muse-ums and institutions online as you’d have to sign loan agree-ments otherwise,” she adds.
Kashti Kinara comprises 11 scenes and intrigues you more with each click. Learn about the
Lascar War Memorial and nau-tical elementals in Indian lit-erature, before the show ends on a thought-provoking note: how do we sustain the legacy of these communities who find themselves adversely affect-ed by the ravages of climate change? That’s the homework for today or whenever you catch the exhibition in three months.
LOG ON TO csmvs.in
Keep on rocking, virtually
EXHIBITION
UK rock act Wishbone Ash is part of the line-up
The fest hopes to return in its on-ground avatar next year
The exhibition will be on view for three months
The objects were made by the students using a 3D software
The graduating students of CSMVS’ PG diploma programme have launched their first online exhibition that focuses on coastal communities, boats and boat-making in India
‘It’s easier to collaborate with other museums online as there are no loan agreements’ Vaidehi Savnal
MUSIC
The Cambridge Rock Festival in the UK has gone online this year, meaning even Mumbaikars can watch it from home
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Tenders, Notices & Contracts
18 TIMEPASS mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
Can you ind the words connected in one way or the other with the theme indicated by the title in today’s Word Search? The words may be read horizontally, vertically or diagonally either forwards or backwards, but always in straight lines. Use a ruler to cross them through as you ind them.
Acetylene, Ammonia, Black damp, Butane, CS gas, Cyanogen, Ether, Ethylene, Firedamp, Helium, Ketene, Krypton, Methane, Neon, Nerve gas, Nitrogen, Ozone, Propane, Radon, Tear gas, Town gas, Xenon
WHAT TO DO Fill each empty cell with a digit from 1-9, ensuring that no digit is repeated in any row, column or 3x3 square.
WHAT TO DO Place the numbers 1-9 exactly once per row, column and 3 x 3 bold-lined box. Additionally the sum total of the squares in each dashed-line shape must match the total given in that shape, and you may not repeat a number within a dashed-line shape.
WORDSEARCH Gases
MEDIUM SUDOKU
FIENDISH SUDOKU
I have been in love with
the same guy for two
years, and we have a
great relationship. I know
he has some serious
issues though, and these
have caused us a lot of
problems in the past. He
says I should accept him
the way he is, because he
accepts my flaws, but I
don’t know if I have any
serious problems the
way he does. I want to
help him change for the
better, but don’t know if
he ever will. Should I just
do as he says and learn to
live with his issues? What
if he never changes?
It’s presumptuous and unfair to think of oneself as flawless in a relationship. Your partner may have serious issues that need addressing, but it makes sense to first accept that you may both have to make changes for your future together. You don’t have to ask him to change. What you should do is tell him what you like and
don’t like, so he starts to understand you a little better. When you both make accommodations based on each other’s likes and dislikes, there will come a time when you find a balancing act that allows your relationship to evolve. This takes time though, so it really is up to you and how prepared you are to wait for this to happen.
This may sound shallow,
but I have been having
second thoughts about
dating a doctor since
the COVID-19 virus
lockdown. He never
tested positive, but I
keep worrying about
him getting some kind of
infection, and it makes
me feel awful as I didn’t
have these thoughts
before the pandemic.
It’s normal to feel the way you do, given that no one on the planet was prepared for the pandemic, let alone its aftermath. Assuming you still love this person, it may help to tell him how you feel. He is better qualified to put your fears to rest. You can also consider speaking to a counsellor.
The inbox is now open to take your most carnal and amorous queries. Send your questions on email to [email protected]
He has serious issues but refuses to change
Ideas come aplenty to you today. Implementing these shall add vastly to your eiciency.
Your workload is likely to be so heavy today that instead of getting ired up, it could actually slow you down.
You may enrol your name in some competition or activity today. Also, some good news may lead to celebrations.
You are most likely to learn some important lesson from your experiences today. Take it in a positive sense and move on.
You all likely to have a gala time in social events and occupy the centre stage, gaining attention of one and all.
Taking risks is a double edged sword! While it may lead to handsome returns, it may also be a cause of something undesirable.
AR
IES
CA
NC
ER
LE
O
SC
OR
PIO
SA
GIT
TA
RIU
S
PIS
CE
S
You may not want to do it, but circumstances may force you to cede ground to your adversaries.
Your workload is going to increase, but since you are feeling very energetic and full of zest, you shall enjoy doing all the extra tasks.
All your past labours, even the ones you may have forgotten, shall bear fruit. So you can put up your legs, and count the cash.
The entire cosmos is moving in your favour, so make the best of it. Be positive and look at the bright side of things.
The extrovert in you shall come to the fore today and the desire to socialise shall be irresistible for you.
People may try to dump their problems and responsibilities on your shoulders. This may irritate you a lot but stay calm.
TA
UR
US
CA
PR
ICO
RN
LIB
RA
VIR
GO
GE
MIN
I
AQ
UA
RIU
S
DR. LOVE
19 TIMEPASS mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
CLASSIC CROSSWORD
SOLUTIONS
WORDSEARCH MEDIUM SUDOKU FIENDISH SUDOKU
CLASSIC CROSSWORD 10103
ACROSS
1 Irish clan5 French article8 Tides that attain the least height12 Famous cookie13 __ __ mode: in this fashion or style
(1,2)14 Paul ___: famous pop singer of days
gone by?15 Feshwater turtle of N. America17 Mila 18 author Leon ___18 Required Navigation Performance19 Despot21 Apples, pears, etc24 Fasten with cord? (3,2)25 South African currency26 Indian leavened bread27 Small child30 Apply lubricants to31 ___ on the lips of: listens to very
attentively?32 Old Mideast ints.33 1051 in Roman numerals34 Jason’s vessel35 Irish36 Tie the knot38 Quality of being pious, holy, etc.39 Stain41 Pixy, for one42 Dorothy’s dog!43 The sport of rope-pulling? (3,2,3)48 South Yemeni capital49 Rock musician Brian50 Gain by work51 Group of people52 Female sibling, in short53 Alkaline solutions
DOWN
1 An habitual drunkard2 Previous to3 For each, or for every
4 Hot and emotional5 Scandinavian6 A high priest of old7 Capital of Chile8 Pacific island republic9 Delight10 Similar11 Gone by16 A busy insect20 Hankers after21 Beginning at22 Line of track or fence23 Unrestricted24 Piquant26 Gives an account of28 Hop-drying building29 A low card but not the deuce31 Damage35 French tower37 Pain or distress38 Party to a 1993 ME peace accord39 Strike with a knife40 Commotion41 Freudian terms44 “One”, as a prefix45 By the ___: incidentally?46 To be - a change of “era”?47 Hospital workers: abbr.
THE BRILLIANT MIND OF EDISON LEE – JOHN HAMBROCK
CALVIN & HOBBES – BILL WATTERSON
ZITS – Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman
BETWEEN FRIENDS – Sandra Bell-Lundy
Scribble pad
TEASERThis is a test to gauge your mental flexibility, creativity and cunning. Good Luck!
(Example: 16 O in a P. Answer: 16 Ounces in a Pound)
25 Y of M for a S A
TEASER
25 Years of Marriage for a Silver Anniversary
mid-dayTuesday
16.06.2020
20RON’S GUILTY PLEASURE »P22
A general view of the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Pic/Getty imaGes
How about The Gulf?Conducting the Indian Premier League in UAE during September could be fine since the weather will be hot but predictable unlike Sri Lanka; three stadiums and world-class facilities in the region are a sure plus
THE Australian government’s announcement that they are planning to have about 10,000 people at some sporting ven-ues from July, has given a new twist to the possibility of having the ICC Twenty20 World Cup there in Octo-ber. Sure, at the moment, it’s probably got to do with only Australian spectators in July, but if things look good then the government might be encouraged to have overseas spectators too.
The main problem with the event though is that it has 15 other teams besides the host and as of now, only Trans Tas-man neighbours New Zealand is a COVID-19-free country. The 14 other teams may not be COVID-19 free before they land in Australia and with each team likely to have a squad of around 40 including support staff, if not more, the health authorities are going to have a tough time, indeed.
As it is, Australia and New Zealand are very strict about what visitors can bring into their countries and if this virus is still around in coun-tries, where the participat-ing teams are from, then the health authorities may be
very choosy who they allow into Australia.
Before that announcement from the Australian govern-ment, the BCCI looked gung-ho on having the IPL in Sep-tember-October but may now have to revise their plans.
The better chance is to have it in the UAE in September be-cause not only will the weath-er be hot but predictable un-like in Sri Lanka, where it can rain anytime but also because there are three stadiums in UAE, all within less than two-hour driving distance from each other. Also, world-class hotels and health precautions are second to none there.
Truncated IPL?
In those hot conditions, play-ing a double-header may not be possible, so a truncated IPL with each team playing each other once could be the answer. Since the time differ-ence between UAE and India is only 90 minutes, the broad-caster also shouldn’t have an issue. Besides, the UAE has shown that they can or-ganise it successfully as they did in 2014.
If the T20 World Cup does happen, then most of the Indian team that will play a four-Test match series from December will be in Austral-ia and won’t have to undergo any quarantine and crucially, will have got used to the time difference which can make a big impact as we saw recently in New Zealand, where many players had not got their body clocks to the local time even after being there for a month. While that is not an excuse, the fact is, if a player has not had adequate sleep he is going to be just a bit disoriented and that’s never good for his game.
If the ICC Twenty20 World Cup doesn’t happen, it’s im-portant for BCCI to arrange one, if not two, three-day practice games before the first Test match. This obvious-ly means the players may have to get to Australia early No-vember if the quarantine pe-riod is still in operation, but to give the team every chance of repeating its stupendous feat a couple of years back, that is a must. Also, there is a 10-day gap between the second and the third Test, where also a
three-day game needs to be arranged to give the out-of-form players and the reserve players a chance to get some form and match time.
Sourav Ganguly has been to Australia four times and knows how tough it is to get used to the pitches there and so no doubt, will try and arrange these practice games to give the team a greater chance of success.
First-class match fee hike
The BCCI is understandably concerned about finding a slot for the IPL because it’s not just another tournament but a massively revenue-generat-ing event for not just India but other Boards whose players are part of it. It’s also a great mood-enhancer for people who have been confined to their homes for so long with not much to do.
So, one can understand the BCCI giving it lot of mental energy but hopefully an eenie winnie tiny bit has also been given to increasing the fees for first-class cricketers too. Sourav mentioned that as his priority when he took over as President and even if it didn’t quite happen last season it should happen this season. After all, better late than never.
Professional Management Group
in those hot Uae conditions, playing a double-header
may not be possible, so a truncated iPL with each
team playing each other once could be the answer.
since the time difference between Uae and india is
only 90 minutes, the broadcaster also shouldn’t have
an issue. Besides, the Uae has shown that they can
organise it successfully as they did in 2014
Sunil Gavaskar
STRAIGHT DRIVE
Franchises want IPL to happen in IndiaNew DeLhi: The IPL franchis-es are clear that they want the 13th edition of the T20 tournament to be held in In-dia. This, after IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel said that host-ing the league overseas could be a solution if the situation doesn’t improve in India.
Speaking to IANS, an official of an IPL side said that it was impor-tant that the tourna-ment be held in India, not just for the franchises but also for the millions of cricket lovers in the country.
“Leave alone the logistics for a minute. Just think of the message you give out when you take the IPL out of the country. So, is the situation not good enough to have the tournament in India? That
means life isn’t getting back to normalcy. At this point in time, having the IPL in India will be like just the hope that people in the country need. Cricket is a religion here and
you cannot ignore the positive impact an
IPL in India will have on the minds which have been dealt some sad blows in these
tough times.“Now, coming to
the logistical part. It will be a nightmare.
In India, we will need just for-eign players that come into the country to quarantine be-fore they can join the group. But if we are going outside, that would mean ensuring every team would need a group of 30 people going into quarantine,” he added.
IANS
Brijesh Patel
Scrap Hazare, Duleep and Deodhar Trophy: Wasim JafferFORMER India opener and domestic stalwart Wasim Jaffer feels Vijay Hazare, Duleep and Deodhar Trophy should be scrapped this sea-son in the wake of the COV-ID-19 pandemic and instead that time should be used to conduct Ranji Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali T20.
Jaffer wants a rejigged domestic season to ensure that the players get enough breaks and are not rushed into tournaments.
“As and when the season commences, the priority is to have the IPL first. The BCCI can look to start with the IPL as the first tourna-ment,” Jaffer told PTI.
“Once the IPL finishes, the BCCI can look to start the domestic season with the Irani Trophy [Cup] as Sau-
rashtra deserves to play it. Then
the Ranji T r o p h y . B e f o r e
the [IPL] auction, we should have Mushtaq Ali
T20 and scrap Vijay Hazare, Duleep Trophy and Deodhar Trophy.”
PTI
‘Can allow use of saliva if players test negative’New DeLhi: Former India pacer Ajit Agarkar under-stands that saliva-ban is a “safe option” in prevailing situation but urged the cus-todians of the game to be flexible if players test nega-tive before the start of any series.
Agarkar said saliva is as important for bowlers as bat for a batsman. “My only contention is that players who will play, will eventual-ly be tested before the game starts. If they are found to be COVID-19 negative then I can at least consider that it will be then safe to put saliva on the ball,” Agarkar told PTI.
“This is my opinion and probably someone from the medical field can give us a broader view on the subject. It is very important to shine the ball and there are no two ways about it,” added the Mumbai stalwart.
PTI
Ajit Agarkar
21 SPORT mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
MADRID: Playing a home game but not at its famed Santia-go Bernabéu Stadium, Real Madrid resumed its Spanish league campaign with a 3-1 win over Eibar to keep pace with leader Barcelona.
The game on Sunday saw Marcelo take a knee during a goal celebration in apparent support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Brazilian veteran de-fender put his left knee down and raised his right fist into the air after scoring the third goal for Madrid.
Marcelo’s gesture made him one of the few players in the Spanish league to make public their support for the move-ment which has protested police brutality after George Floyd’s death in the United States. Valencia’s players last week had also taken a knee be-fore a training session to show their support.
Toni Kroos and Sergio Ramos also scored as Madrid won the game at the club’s training center while major
renovation work takes place at the 80,000-capacity Bern-abéu, about 10 kilometers (six miles) away.
Eden Hazard, who had been expected to miss the rest of the season because of a foot injury sustained before the Corona-virus pandemic, thrived on his return and set up two of the goals in the game. There were no fans at the 6,000-capacity Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium, which is used mostly by Ma-drid’s ‘B’ team..
“This is completely differ-ent to what we experienced before, you have to adapt,” said Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane, who completed 200 matches in charge.
The victory kept Madrid two points behind Barcelona.
“We couldn’t wait for the league to start again, to com-pete again, and the best way to do that is with a win.” AP/PTI
Marcelo takes a kneeReal Madrid’s Brazilian star shows support for Black Lives Matter during goal celebration as Spanish giants resume La Liga campaign with 3-1 win over Eibar
Real’s Marcelo kneels to celebrate his goal v Eibar on Sunday. PIC/AFP
Bundesliga previewBERLIN: Bayern Munich coach Hansi Flick wants his side to “seal the deal” and wrap up an eighth consecutive Bundesliga title on Tuesday with victory at relega-tion-threatened Werd-er Bremen.
Top scorer Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Mueller, one shy of the record for assists in a single season, are both available again after missing Bayern’s 2-1 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach due to suspension.
Victory at Bremen, where Bayern have won all 12 games over the last decade, will clinch a record-extend-ing 30th league title, and the first leg of a potential treble
in Flick’s debut season in charge. “We want to finish the job on Tuesday. That is our goal. We have an excel-lent run and want to contin-ue our winning streak,” said Flick, who stepped in when
Niko Kovac was sacked last November. “The target is to win again in Bremen. We want to just seal the deal.”
Bayern have won their last 10 league
games and another victory on Tuesday would leave them an unassailable 10 points clear before second-placed Borussia Dortmund. AFP
Let’s seal the deal tonight: Bayern coach Hansi Flick
Hansi Flick
LIVE ON TV TONIGHT
Werder v Bayern
Munich: Star Sports 1 & Select 2, 00:00 (Wed)
Hima Das nominated for Khel Ratna NEW DELHI: Country’s top sprinter Hima Das, who had a stellar 2018, has been nom-inated for the prestigious ‘Khel Ratna’ by the state gov-ernment of Assam.
Assam sports secretary
Dulal Chandra Das sent the letter of recommendation to the sports ministry on June 5.
Hima, 20, is one of the youngest nominees for Khel Ratna this year. PTI
LA LIGA TONIGHT
Barca v Leganes: Live on Facebook, 01:30 (Wed)
NAREDCO recently or-ganized an online meet with the recently formed MoEF Expert Committee members to discuss long pending MOEF issues for fast tracking and framing model conditions for hous-ing and construction pro-jects requiring prior envi-ronmental clearance. The suggestions for Conditions or pre certifications to qualify for fast track and Framing model conditions for EC to housing and construction projects were presented by Mr Kishore Bhatija, Vice President, NAREDCO Maharashtra and MD, K. Raheja Corp. The meeting was attend-ed by all the 4 members of the committee includ-ing the Chairman, Shri. Sunil Kumar Singh, I.A.S, MoEF Expert Commit-tee, MOEF&CC, Govern-ment of India along with Shri Sanjay Seth, Senior Director – Sustainable Habitat Division, Shri S. Karthikeyan, Principal Counsellor and Dr.Vinod Kumar Singh, Additional Director, MoEF & CC. 25 Developer from NARED-CO including Dr. Niran-jan Hiranandani, Nation-al President, NAREDCO
and Mr. Rajan Bandelkar, President Maharashtra were also a part of the meeting.
KEY POINTS DISCUSSED:
• The rules which are ir-relevant in current digital age should be changed/updated accordingly.
• Separate set of rules for Housing & Construction sector projects should be defined, as these projects affect environment only during their construction period.
• Multiple and redundant appraisal should be avoid-ed. For e.g. Green building projects should be ex-empted from obtaining pre environmental clearances.
• Project Amendments should not be treated as new projects and separate provisions should be there for such cases.
• The project appraisal should be done based on conceptual plan for full consumption of FSI, in-stead of approval in phas-es from Planning Author-ity.
• The validity period for any project should be linked to its size.
• The Criteria for prior EC
for Building Construction projects shall be revised.
• Delay in forming State Authorities should be avoided and the frequen-cy of hearings should be increased to ensure less back log.
• The RE projects should not fall under the umbrel-la of obligation towards CER activities.
• The SEAC/SEIAA ap-praisal should focus on environmental parame-ters and should avoid rec-ommendations relating to planning of the buildings.
Addressing the queries Shri. Sunil Kumar Singh,I.A.S, Chairman, MoEF Expert Committee, MOEF&CC, Government of India said, ”We are glad that NAREDCO organ-ized this meet to discuss the issues, we assure to take the inputs into con-sideration in finalizing fast tracking and fram-ing model conditions for housing and construction projects requiring prior environmental clearance. We also assure that com-mittee will work towards making Environmental Clearances simpler and easier”
A MEDIA MARKETING INITIATIVE
NAREDCO meet MoEF to clear project issues
England footballer Kyle Walker’s ex-partner Annie says legal tussle between Coleen and Rebekah affects her friendship with them
ENGLAND and Manchester City footballer Kyle Walk-er’s former model partner Annie Kilner, has backed Coleen Rooney in her pri-vacy row with Rebekah Vardy, but said that she is caught between the two as she is good friends with both ladies.
“I’m stuck in the mid-dle—I get on with both of them—and it’s not nice to see this play out. My kids are friends with Coleen’s kids and I get on with Becky so I’m literally stuck in the middle but I feel sorry for Coleen that she was having to watch out for friends, and I don’t blame her for wanting to air her issues,” said Annie.
Coleen, 34, wife of former England foot-baller Wayne Rooney, is embroiled in a legal battle with Re-bekah, 38, wife of another English footballer Jamie Vardy, over leak-ing of Instagram stories about the Rooneys to the media last October. “I don’t blame Coleen for doing what she did. If
someone was doing that to me, I would be exposing them in the same way,” Annie told British tabloid, The Sun.
However, she felt that even if the issue is resolved, Coleen and Rebekah won’t be able to see eye to eye again. “I can’t ever see a time when they could be in the same room as each oth-er. The friendship they had is over even if it is resolved in the High Court.”
FORMER England batsman Nick Compton has revealed that he was sledged by Virat Kohli during the team’s tour of India in 2012.
Nick, who made his Test debut in that series, said that Virat didn’t like the fact that the England opener had chat-ted with his ex-girlfriend.
Nick said he had bumped into Virat’s ex-girlfriend be-fore the series during an outing in Ahmedabad where former cricketers Kevin Piet-ersen and Yuvraj Singh were also present. “I definitely got a few words from Virat during the series. I think I bumped into his ex-girlfriend at the time before the series when out for an evening with Kevin Pietersen, Yuvraj and myself...all of us were there, and she was there,” Nick said on the Edges and Sledges cricket podcast.
“I just chatted to her and the word got back that I was speak-ing to her, and I don’t think Vi-rat was very happy with that. He had a few words to say to me every time I walked out to bat. He was trying to say that it was his girlfriend, and she was saying that it was her ex-boy-friend. It was like, ‘Who’s got
the story right here,’ you know what I mean?” he
added.IANS
22 SPORT mid-day Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com
Postal Registration Number MCE/263/2015-2017
close of playRon’s guilty pleasure is feasting on pizza with sonPORTUGAL’S superstar footballer Cristiano Ronal-do has said that his guilty pleasure is eating pizza with his son.
The Juventus footballer is one of the fittest athletes in the world and regularly shares pictures of his toned physique.
And despite adhering to a strict diet, the five-time FI-FA’s best player award win-ner occasionally takes out time for a pizza with his son Cristiano Jr.
“The key is to take care of your body, train, do your re-
covery and eat properly, al-though sometimes I do eat pizza with my son. Otherwise, it would be boring,” Ronaldo, 35, was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
Meanwhile, the for-mer Real Madrid star said he was skinny when he joined Manchester United in 2003.
“It’s true, I was skinny. I had no muscle. So I made a decision at 11, I knew I had a lot of talent, but I de-cided that I was going to work harder than everybody,” he added.
Wife felt I was cheating on her during transfer talk: Braithwaite BARCELONA footballer Martin Braithwaite described a funny episode when his wife sus-pected him of cheating on her while he was securing a deal with the Spanish giants.
Barcelona signed Braith-waite, 29, for 18m euros (R154 cr) from La Liga team Leganes in February.
“I didn’t tell anyone [about the Barcelona deal]. I felt that if my wife was not the first person I told, it would be sort of lack of respect because we share a life together,” Braith-waite told Britain’s the Daily Mail. “But I know my wife felt something was going on because I was having to take a lot of phone calls, sneaking out of the house, and it was freez-ing outside. She was wonder-ing…she was almost asking if I had a mistress or something,” he added.
Braithwaite scored the first goal in Barcelona’s 4-0 win over Real Mallorca in a La Liga match on Saturday played after a three-month gap due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vanessa Bryant blocks Kobe fan pages on social media THE late basketball great Kobe Bryant’s Vanessa Bry-ant has revealed she and her elder daughter Natalia have blocked the NBA star’s fan pages on social media for their own healing.
Bryant, 41, and his daughter Gianna, 13, lost their lives in a helicopter accident in January.
Vanessa, 38, took to Instagram and ex-plained to fans the reason behind the decision. “Thx so much for all the [love]. @na-taliabryant and I have unfor-
tunately had to block fan pages because it’s been really hard to go online and constantly see pics
of our beloved Gigi and Kobe under every
single square of our explore pages. Blocking the fan pages has helped change the algo-rithm,” she wrote.
When Nick was sledged by Virat over ex-girlfriend
Annie Kilner
Coleen Rooney (left)
and Rebekah Vardy
Nick Compton
Stuck in a WAG war!