the beat, march 2013

February 2013 | The Beat

The BeatFebruary 2013

February 2013 | The BeatPhotos: Ajit Krishna


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Down the memory lane among graves and those old lanes

Cemeteries in India with historical importance are losing their ethnic charm as the government fails to maintain them.

Touts tarnish Tatkal ticketing scheme

Indian Railways’ scheme to make traveling convenient seems to have backfired, thanks to touts.

Killing them slowly

E-shopping for books has led to the closure of some landmark book-stores in the city.

Doctor looks to heaven and earth to find cure for patients

In a new development in medicine, ayurvedic practitioners are using astrology to diagnose and cure dis-eases.


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Bangalore, the best Indian city!Really?

Doubts are being cast upon the sta-tus given to Bangalore as “the best Indian city to live in” by a global survey.

We review...

...a recent Bollywood film and a restaurant in the city.

Cover story: Rape nation

This section gives an insight into issues related to rape and rape vic-tims.

Younger generation falling prey to heart disease

The IT city is soon becoming the hub for heart diseases.


The Beat Editor

Pushkar Banakar

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Cover photo:Pyusha Chatterjee

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From theeditor’s desk...

Rape today in India has become as com-

mon as a car in the street. The number of reports of rape since the sensational disclosure of the Delhi gang rape has gone up ex-ponentially. The reporting of the rape also led to massive protests whose epicenter was Delhi.

The protests spread far and wide across the length and breadth of the country, and they prompt-ed us, the editorial team of The Beat, to come out with an issue dedicated to the rape victims.

So, as a mark of tribute to the rape victims across the nation and to get Bangalore’s perspective on the issue, we have themed the first issue of the magazine on rape. We hope to give you an insight on the different kinds of rape and the hardships the victims face.

With rape being the most sought-after topic of discussion at present, it would have been very easy to fill the whole issue with features on rape. But that not being fair to our esteemed readers, the issue has other interesting pieces on a wide range of subjects.

As the subject of rape is a sensitive and a serious one, the challeng-es my team and me faced were skillfully overcome. The magazine is thus a result of numerous ideas coming to the table and their being refined through very fruitful discussions. I sincerely thank my team for their sincere efforts to bring out a great edition and I hope we are able to satisfy you as a reader.

Happy reading!

(Pushkar Banakar)

February 2013 | The Beat0106

Down memory lane among the Britishers’ graves

Any moment of importance turns itself into a history in the future. History is scattered around us, it can be

inherent in a very old tree or it can be possessed in an ordinary old parchment. But as history is measured in time, time alone has the authority to weigh any moment and to approve it.

I came across one such piece of history in form of graves in Agram Cemetery: graves, dating between 1808 and 1992 and belonging to British soldiers, priests, judges, administrators, city notables and residents. Covered with moss amid thick vegetation, these graves stand out like some ancient graceful remnants of a bygone era. An era which left a very different and multifaceted impact on our history and society, the few cemeteries in the city are struggling to keep pace with Bangalore’s radically altered demographics.

Agram Cemetery which is located behind the ASC Officers Mess off Trinity Road and spreads over an area of 4.8 acres, is one of those few war cemeteries in the city that is dying out slowly with time. The Karnataka State Reserve Police have encroached upon some of its land.

The Fort Cemetery, which used to be located in Kalpalli, has been bulldozed and no trace of any grave can be seen there.

St. John’s Cemetery at Kalapalli is another war cemetery, and apart from military personnel’s graves, the graves of families who lost their battles with epidemics like cholera and plague which hit the city in the 1820s can also be seen. This is the only cemetery which has been maintained and is in good condition.

Many of the graves in these old war cemeteries have beautiful ar-chitectural and sculptural features. There are many wartime cem-eteries in India. Cemeteries in Delhi and Kohima are significant in many terms. Two 40-feet-long pillars and obelisks stand out like guards watching over the cemetery. The tombs are laid out in an orderly fashion. One tomb belongs to a John Robson, who was chief inspector and secretary of the Bengal Smoke Nuisance Com-mission, Calcutta. He died in July 1933. Another is “in affectionate remembrance of William Thipthorp, pensioned colour sergeant, 4th King’s Own Regiment who departed this world on the 23rd of April 1892.” There are a few graves of “pensioners,” who retired from the railways, the army and telegraph services after serving her majesty and settled in Bangalore.

Some graves can’t be identified because the granite slabs have lost their sheen and texture with the passing of time. Thick foliage and moss have grown over the granite tombs with their roots firmly entwined around the structures giving an eerie touch to the whole area. Some graves have been vandalised as many brass and metal inscriptions are missing, leaving behind a pale mark of their pres-ence.

Late Admiral O.S. Dawson, Rtd. Chief of the Indian Navy, waged a war to maintain and save these cemeteries. He documented the graves and a logbook was maintained to keep the records of the graves. His contribution for the maintenance and relentless effort to save the cemeteries was acknowledged when state government declared Agram Cemetery as a heritage site.

After his death other war cemeteries have returned to their previ-ous state of negligence by the concerned authorities. Almost all the channel of funds has stopped and it’s the usual apathy we observe. It’s the responsibility of War Graves Commission to pro-vide funds for the renovation of graves. Only war cemeteries in Delhi and Kohima got funds allocated for restoration and main-tenance.

Many graves are missing from these cemeteries in the city, though they are documented in the survey report of 1988 which was maintained by St. John’s Church, but now they exist only in re-cords. More than 170,000 British servicemen and women, who sacrificed their lives in the first and the second world wars, are commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.Graveyard tourism

In Europe, especially in Britain, grave tourism is catching on. Britons come to India in search of their ancestral tombstones to sketch their family tree. An increasing number of Europeans visit the Christian cemetery at Hosur Road from the past few years for this purpose and it’s very hard to guesstimate how many such tours happen in a year, it’s nearly impossible to trace the graves unless there has been a proper documentation.

After the British withdrew from India the Commonwealth War Photo: Sidharth Shekhar

HERITAGE

February 2013 | The Beat 0207

Graves Commission took up the task to take care of scattered graves of the soldiers who laid down their lives while serving in India. In total there are 856 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War—in Agra Cantonment, Allahabad New Cantonment, Bangalore Cantonment (Kalpalli), Bangalore (Hosur Road), Bar-rackpore, Bellary Military, Aligarh Civil, Calcutta (Lower Circular Road), Calicut New Beach, Cannanore General and Chikmagalur.

These cemeteries should get support from Archaeological Survey of India but they don’t. S. Dhandapani, assistant superintending archaeological engineer, said, “ASI doesn’t provide any funds to these war cemeterie—it’s under the church’s jurisdiction and they take care of it and its maintenance too.”

These relics of the past are waiting amid weed and neglect to be resurrected and restored but except few some of them will wither with time. We Indians are historically uneducated; we love to des-ecrate our own heritage and monuments. When I visit any place which has some connection with past I get nostalgic in spite of having no connection with it, this feeling of respect lingers deep in my heart.

When I was in Delhi I regularly used to visit any historical place

every weekend, few months before I visited Tughlaqabad Fort, and I was shocked to see that some eccentric lover had carved his name along with his partner on the tomb of Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, the founder of Tughlaq dynasty. Love is really blind—that’s what I thought after having this cruel visual experience, other than that many red stones from the fort were missing. When I asked a shep-herd who had brought his goats inside the monument from the backside’s broken fortification he said that the people took them away for construction and that they are also sold in the black mar-ket because the red stones are costly.

If this is the respect and care for our heritage I don’t know what will happen to these war graves. For now I am optimistic that at least they will survive for some more time, I don’t know whether this time will be in years or centuries or ages.

By Sidharth Shekhar

Photo:Sidharth Shekhar


In this country, getting your work done from the backdoor is not a big prob-

lem; all you have to do is to grease some-one’s palm. This fact is applies on railway tickets too. People who want to travel at short notice to other cities stand for hours in queues for getting their ticket booked but still they fail to get tickets.

The word tatkal literally translates to im-mediate in English. The Tatkal scheme was introduced for Indian railways by Nitish Kumar, the then Railway Minister, in 1998.

Any individual can get tickets under Tatkal scheme a day in advance of the journey by paying some extra charges excluding the cost of ticket either through websites or through authorized railway counters, but like all the other schemes, brilliant minds of this country devised a ‘noble’ method to corrupt this scheme too.

Touts are there to save the travelers from despair— just pay extra and you get the ticket hassle free. Touts have become an in-tegral part of the Indian railways.

They have taken over the reservation sys-tem of the Indian Railways which is the common man's transport. An online res-ervation system was introduced so that the people could get rid of the long queues and seamless booking, but the common man still struggles to buy a confirmed ticket

Touts are highly organized and work in tandem with the railway officials to pur-chase the tickets from the railway counter and then sell them back at higher rates to the needy travelers. This unholy nexus of the railway officials and the touts is thriv-ing.

Swarup Chandra, a tout said: “Howrah is

the best place in Bengal where any broker can gain maximum profit. I am involved in this business from 2011. I have a small printing press which is not enough to sup-port my family. I purchase Tatkal tickets from the counter and then I sell them back to the customer.”

He also added: “People, who are not get-ting tickets in case of any emergency, buy tickets from us. If I purchase 10 Tatkal tick-ets from the counter of a particular destina-tion, I sell those tickets to the people who are standing at the end of the queue. The Tatkal scheme opens at 10a.m., but people like us purchase tickets between 9.30-9.45a.m. from the ticket seller”.

During the peak season festivals, summer and winter vacations touts reap rich divi-dends by selling railway ticket at exorbitant rates. If a single Tatkal ticket costs Rs.700,

Photo: Nijhum Rudra

Touts tarnish Tatkalticketing scheme

NEWS ANALYSIS


touts charge Rs.1, 500 which most of the people cannot afford but as they have no other option they buy the tickets.

Indian Railway has taken several measures to prevent touts from cornering berths at passenger reservation system (PRS) centers.

In an effort to minimize the role of touts in buying Tatkal tickets, the rail-ways reduced the window for Tatkal bookings from 48 hours to 24 hours.

It had also made it mandatory for a per-son to show his or her identity proof while buying Tatkal tickets at railway reservation counters. But in spite of all these rules and regulations, touts still have managed to find a way out.

Apart from purchasing tickets from the counter people can also purchase tick-ets online from Indian Railway Catering Transport Corporation (IRCTC) websites, but getting tickets booked online is more cumbersome, because of slow servers it takes a lot of time to get the ticket booked, so many times people wait for booking but peak hours and slow response from the server lands them into trouble.

General Manager of Eastern Railway, G.C. Agarwal said: “The ministry of railways is

doing their best to prevent the misuse of Tatkal tickets. If there is a particular com-plaint regarding any ticket seller the railway board will act strongly against it and the ticket seller will be arrested”.

Agarwal also added: “The government has planned to set up CCTV cameras at every ticket counter so that the touts cannot pur-chase tickets or lure passengers. The plan is under progress and all the ticket counters will be equipped with it very soon”

But we all know that in India rules and eth-ics exist only in the pages of law, left to be forgotten. Every railway minister sees it as his right to experiment with the Indian

railway in the name of reforms, but these reforms are deformed at times.

When Mamta Banerjee was the railway minister she overhauled the Tatkal quota

scheme, ordering reduction in the rate of Tatkal charges.

Further, she ordered the Tatkal fare to be charged only till the distance traveled, and not till the final destination.

These decisions led to some serious problems, since the cost of the tickets were reduced, the demand for Tatkal tickets increased, due to which many travelers were left in lurch, waiting at the stations.

The Indian Railways claims to conduct routine checks and special drives to bust such illegal networks but for now the travelers are getting bust.

By Nijhum Rudra


Killing them slowlyThere was a time when if you entered a bookstore,

it would be crowded with book lovers going through the store collection. You had to wait in a long queue be-fore you could pay for the book and head out to enjoy reading. Not anymore.

Bookstores are much less crowded these days, and there are hardly any queues at billing counters. Most youngsters buy books online.

Online bookstores are giving local bookstores tough competition, so much so that some have even been forced to shut down.

Since Flipkart, the e-commerce company, entered the Indian mar-ket five years ago, a lot of book lovers have shifted their loyalties from regular bookstores to their online counterparts.

In the last couple of years, Flipkart has taken over the Indian read-ing market by surprise. More and more young readers now prefer to buy books online than actually going to a local bookstore to grab one.

Shariq Mohammed, 24, an entrepreneur, said: “Buying books on-line saves time and is so much more convenient. Also, I have the facility to pre-book when a new one releases.”

However, bookstore owners are still hopeful about the generation that is not very internet friendly, for their sales.

Mittal Sanghvi, head of the on-line department of Sapna Book House, a Bangalore-based chain of bookstores said: “It depends from person to person. Some prefer buy-ing online, others prefer to walk into a bookstore to pick one up. It is usually the younger generation who know online bank-ing that buys books on-line. The comparatively older generation still pre-fers to buy books from retail stores.”

Most bookstores are being negatively affected because of sale on books online.

Ravi Menezes, co-owner of Goobe’s Book Republic, said: “To a certain percentage, our sales have been affected. The popularity of websites like Flipkart and Amazon is unhealthy for regular

bookstores. We are only able to survive at the moment because of the regular client base that we have. We also sell secondhand books, so that also gets us some customers. But yes, the way Flip-kart is working, it is a little bit scary for us.”

Page Turners, a bookstore on M.G. Road that opened only three years ago, held a large, monthlong clearance sale in order to clear up its stock before permanently shutting down business last month. The owners complained that they were unable to compete with the online market.

Rajesh Penguin, owner of Page Tuners, said: “Online sales have been killing us. Nowadays, people even prefer to read online, though e-books haven’t really affected the Indian book retail mar-ket yet as much as online stores have. Retail became tough for us with the expansion of Flipkart. We weren’t making enough prof-its and other problems like metro construction and parking con-straints for the customers were just adding to our woes.”

Anmol Ratan, 26, an MBA aspirant, said: “We can get almost every book online now and they will make sure it is delivered to me at my doorstep, without charging me extra. Also, online stores usually offer me better deals than the regular bookstores.”

A lot of readers are attracted to Flipkart because of the attrac-tive deals and discounts they offer. A lot of books online are

available at a cheaper rate as compared to the regular book stores.

Penguin said: “Flipkart offers high dis-counts on new and popular books

whereas unpopular books are priced high by them. Many books are ac-tually available at retail store, but Flipkart offers them at the origi-nal price.”

He added: “However, as on-line stores are able to advertise more, customers are not aware that they are being cheated on unpopular and old books. Basi-cally, if Flipkart is losing mon-ey on some books, they make sure to gain that money back through other books.”

A few other bookstores feel that Flipkart is able to afford high dis-

count rates due to funding system within their organization.

Menezes said: “Flipkart is able to afford higher discounts due to venture funding and a

high turnover. They can afford to undergo losses

TRENDS


to get more customers. I think their objective is to change their strategy once FDI comes in and Amazon enters the market.”

He added: “They give dis-counts on primarily the bestselling books, which constitutes majority of their sales. If we start giving those high discounts, we’ll be forced to shut down.”

A Crossword bookstore in Residency Road recently closed down due to losses, but officials could not point out any one particular rea-son for the losses.

Some bookstores believe Flipkart is aiming for some other motive altogether to gain more and more customers.

Sanghvi said: “Flipkart is funded and so has a large capital to spend. They can afford losses on a few books and still offer huge discounts in order to increase their clientele. Right now, they are in their fourth round of funding and have a 550 crore (Rs.5.5 billion) investment, and they will eventually in the future sell their com-pany to a bigger company probably.”

If one compares the prices of books available in local stores and online, one can clearly understand why people prefer to buy books online.

Let’s take the example of Shashi Tharoor’s Pax Indica. This book, with the original price at Rs.799 is available at Crossword book-store at its MRP. At Sapna Book House you can get the book for Rs. 719, and Goobe’s will give you a higher discount and sell you the book at Rs.639. Yet Flipkart will win the show by selling the book for Rs.503 only.

As more readers are moving towards the online market, the read-ers are losing the “human touch” they could have with books, as

Sitanshu Shekhar, co-owner of Goobe’s, says.

“In bookstores, you don’t just come, buy a book and go,” he said. “You also get to meet different people, share stories, talk about books with other customers and maybe even make friends.”

Earlier a lot of bookstores in the city used to run reading session, with fewer readers coming in to buy, the culture of book reading in book stores is also fast fading.

Menezes said: “In a physical bookstore, people can experience, feel, look and touch. This is a very Indian thing, and so I don’t think that all bookstores will die.”

Ritu Singh, 22, a student of psychology, said: “I used to love going to a bookstore, walking through the different sections and going through books before actually buying some. I still do. But it’s so much convenient, ordering a book online. I save transport cost and the time I would have taken to commute.”

“Though Flipkart has affected our sales, especially of our fiction section, I don’t think all book stores will shut down,” Sanghvi said.

Flipkart officials did not respond to requests for comments for this article.

Online bookstores may have largely affected the sales and profits of regular local bookstores, but the latter are still optimistic about their existence in the Indian market. At least, most of them are.

By Udita Chaturvedi

Photo: Udita Chaturvedi


Doctor looks to heaven, earth to find cures for patients

India has often been referred as the land where ayurveda originated. It continues to live up to its reputation

of being the “land of wonder cures” with ayurveda in its backyard. Ayurveda has been successful in the past in curing a plethora of diseases that other forms of medications have failed to amelio-rate.

Along with this medical magic wand, India also boasts of a rich and ancient culture in astrology. The Indians are said to have mas-tered the art of astrology over the years, and there is a profound amount of astrological knowledge that has been trickling down from generation to generation among Indians.

Today, ayurvedic doctors are using their skills of ayurveda in union with skills of astrology that they have acquired to treat diseases that were previously thought to be incurable.

Although the use of astrology seems strange in the field of medi-cation, it has borne significant results and continues to fascinate young and upcoming ayurvedic doctors. More and more ayurvedic doctors are looking forward to honing their skills as an ayurvedic practitioner in combination with the skill of using the horoscope of a person as a diagnostic tool.

Presently there are around 25 doctors around the country who practice this form of treatment, according to the registrar of the Ayurveda Rasashaala, an ayurvedic school. Each doctor has to reg-ister with the organization before he or she is cleared or authorized to practice this form of treatment. The registrar says that the num-

ber of applications for registration goes up by 200 at least, each year.

One such doctor who has perfected his skills in both the depart-ments is Dr. Ajit Limaye. Dr. Limaye has been practicing this form of medication for the past 12 years in Pune. He has acquired knowl-edge in ayurveda from one of the country’s top most ayurvedic schools, Ayurveda Rasashaala, Pune. He attributes his expertise of astrology from his predecessors, whom he fondly calls his gurus.

With a twinkle in his eye and a smile spreading from ear to ear, he describes how he has been using astrology as his powerful and almost never failing diagnostic tool. He starts off with a reality check to say the least, “This is by no means any superstition that is being followed nor am I tricking anyone into believing that every disease can be cured.”

He starts his elaborate explanation by gracefully opening the horo-scope chart of one of his patients who has been totally cured of arthritis. He goes on to explain how the positions of the planets play a vital role in deciding the best possible medicine at that par-ticular point of time.

He is quick to state that horoscope is a diagnostic tool, but the medication depends purely on the disease and not on the planets’ positioning.

“I don’t prepare the ayurvedic medicines myself, but there are companies with whom I have tied up and they make the medicine

as per my prescription,” he said.

Elaborating on the cost of the preparations, he is of the opin-ion that many people do not prefer ayurveda as they have a preconceived notion of it be-ing expensive. He charges a pal-try amount as consultation fees and the preparations do not cost over Rs.200. He also levies the consultation fees for poor peo-ple and if the company permits him he also waives the cost of the preparations.

With a gleam of pride on his face, he elaborates on how one patient came to him as a last re-sort and how now after his treat-ment she very happily goes for her evening jogs. The patient, Mrs. Pratima Deosthale, is very ecstatic with her lifestyle.

With a tear of joy rolling down

HEALTH

Photo: Pushkar Banakar

Dr. Ajit Limaye


her cheek, she told The Beat: “I was least expecting this change in my life. I think God had saved the best for me in the end. The fact that I am not bedridden today is because of Dr. Limaye’s expertise and supreme diagnostic skills.”

Limaye says there are numer-ous happy stories like Pratima’s, but immediately cautions that the treatment is not a foolproof mea-sure for each and every disease. As though reading my mind, he elabo-rates on his not successful or failed cases.

“The cases I treat which are mar-ginally cured are my not successful cases and the cases which I fail to cure even minutely are my failed cases,” he said.

Evident disappointment grips his face and he disappointedly admits that not all his cases have been successful. As a matter of fact he states how one of his cancer pa-tients failed in his battle against the disease in spite of his treatment. He suggests that all his failed cases have always been a learning curve.

“If any of my patients fail to respond to my treatment, I consult my colleagues who are in the same profession,” he said.

His colleagues include Dr. Vinayak Rao Bapat, a doctor based in Bangalore who has to his name the credit of synthesizing an ayurvedic preparation, Tantu Pashan, which is the only ayurvedic drug to be clinically tested. Dr. Bapat follows the same diagnostic procedures and specializes in detecting the root cause of epilepsy

in patients. He has, till date, cured many cases of epilepsy. His pa-tients come from all across the country.

One such patient he is still treating is a housewife from Hydera-bad, Mrs. Ujjwala Banakar. Although she has not been completely cured of the disease, the frequencies of the seizures have drasti-cally reduced. A not so happy but optimistic Ujjwala said: “My family tried all forms of medication for the last 10 years to get rid of the epilepsy. Nothing seemed to work till I decided to give this treatment a chance.”

Her expression changed from dejection to sheer optimism as un-expectedly as the London rains. With a wave a joy rushing in her she exclaimed: “I had almost resigned to be an epileptic for life but since the past six months I have been recovering well and my lost self confidence is returning. I hope to return to my old normal self again in the near future.”

With the advent of new and fascinating types of medication, there may be a day in the future where these presently unpopular meth-ods will rule the medical industry and be the cause of treatment for dreaded diseases like cancers and epilepsy.

By Pushkar Banakar

Kundali, the Hindu horoscope, is being used as a medical diagnostic tool.

Photo: Soumya Rao


India woke up to the horrific news of a Delhi-based nurs-ing student being gang-raped in a moving bus on

Dec. 16. Ever since that day the anger, anguish and the frustration of the people towards rape and rapists has reached new heights, and the government is under a lot of pressure to amend the rape laws and make them harsher.

It seemed like Dec. 16 is a date that India can never forget. Firstly, the winning of the Pakistan war and now the Delhi gang rape. Although the Delhi outrage has struck a chord with the majority of the population in the country, the psychological aftermath of a rape victim has been constantly ignored. Yes, she is traumatized

physically but the emotional trauma she undergoes is far worse.

The conservative Indian society constantly keeps pointing a finger at her. As though the humiliation caused by rape was not enough, she has to bear the brunt of societal humiliation. A major section of society does not accept her, and she draws herself more into her shell. A lot of times more than the physical trauma, the mental trauma drives the victim to suicide.

The toil to find a rape victim and convince her to speak on her psychological trauma is great. The quest inside to bring to the fore the mental trauma was too big and led me to two such victims. One based in Pune and the other in the city of Jaipur.

Sushma (name changed) was a normal college going girl and her life was at its very best. Today, Sushma cannot tell her tale of a happy childhood or her trauma of being brutally victimized as she has lost complete mental balance after being raped on the night of Oct. 14, 2011. Her mother, tears in eyes, reluctantly agrees to speak. “I lost my daughter on that night. She never recovered from the trauma,” she says.

As tears begin to well in her eyes and she starts to choke on her own breath, she takes a pause and continues telling her daughter’s tale. She is of the opinion that a dead daughter is better than hav-ing to see her daughter in this condition every day of her life.

Sushma cannot talk and nor does she allow anyone to come close to her. Her mother tries to get her into the living room, but all that is heard behind closed doors is the shouting of Sushma in refusal to let her mother come close to her. Her mother tearfully returns to the room and almost apologetic in her tone for her failure to bring her daughter out.

She narrates that the culprit was inebriated when he committed the crime and he was sentenced to jail. She has resigned to the fact that although the culprit has been sentenced she cannot get back her daughter. She breaks down completely and her last words before excusing herself.

“I hope no one has to bear such a hardship, can someone please feed this in people’s brain that rape not only affects the physical

RAPE NATION

Rape leaves mental scars deeper than physical scars


and mental state of the victim but also of the victim’s family,” she says.

At this juncture, it is convincing that the mental trauma associated with rape is great and hard to tolerate. To throw some more light and calm the fire in the belly the search continues and leads me to a hospital in the city of Jaipur.

Lata (name changed) is lying on a bed adjacent to the bed where my grandmother is. On the second day of my grandmother be-ing in hospital, Lata was admitted in the hospital. Her constant screaming with pain made me inquisitive. I wondered to myself as to what was troubling her so bad that her anguish would not subside all through the day or the night. I was later informed that she was a victim of rape.

With sweaty palms and a sweaty forehead I approached her to try and calm her down. Her glance got more fear-filled the moment she saw me approaching her. Finally with a load of phlegm gulped down my throat I started my conversation with her. He first words told me a story of her grief. She said, “Don’t harm me please—I won’t tell anyone what happened to me.”

Her comfort with me slowly increased and she began to open up. She had been gang-raped and the night refused to leave her mind. Although she had held onto her mental balance with great courage she confessed to not becoming normal ever again and the mistrust of men had stuck in her head like glue on paper.

I saw her scream day in day out for the five days she was in the hospital and wished a speedy mental recovery before she left the hospital. This is another example of how women are traumatized mentally more rather than physically when a heinous act of rape is committed on them.

Psychiatrist and rape victim counselor Dr. Anitha Laxmikanth voiced her concerns to me on how rape victims are left to fend for themselves after they have physically recovered.

“I have seen a lot of rape victims recover physically, but very few of them overcome the mental trauma,” she says. “The society needs to look into the rape victim’s mind and try and get rid of the fear inside them.”

The protests and the agitation surely help the victims in preventing the crime for being committed, but in doing so are we ignoring their psychological trauma? The victims of rape are in need of more psychological help which they are not granted in today’s In-dia, but hopefully they will be in coming times.

By Nupur Gour


RAPE NATION

Faiza has been living somewhere with her sister, some-where far from her home for last three months—

somewhere where her uncle cannot find her. Her mother prays to Allah for the safety of her daughters.

It all started 20 years ago, before Faiza was born; when her mother got married at an early age of 13 to Saiyad Munnir, an autorick-shaw driver.

“My husband was a drunken lout who used to come home and beat me up for petty reasons” says Ishra Bano. Ishra never com-plained of what she was going through. She bore him seven kids and Faiza, 16, is the second of the seven.

Ten years back Faiza used to stay with her family. Those were the days they went through grievous torture and she witnessed her mother’s helplessness in making ends meet.

Salman was a good cricket player, Ishra recalls.

“I remember him always talking about the Indian cricket team and his dream to become a part of it; until one day when we all realized that my husband has shattered the dreams of my son and he can-not ever walk properly,” she says.

One day, when Salman came back home and told his father that he had not scored well in his final exams, Saiyad took an iron rod and started beating him.

“I tried to stop him but he would not stop. I kept begging and cry-ing” says Ishra. After few days she noticed that Salman could not walk properly and thus she took him to hospital. Salman had to get one of his legs amputated that day. After a month of this tragic incident, Salman left home and never returned.

But this incident led to quarrels and fights every day, leaving bruis-es all over Ishra’s body.

“I wanted to revolt against my husband’s cruel deeds but I was defenseless” says Ishra.

Once she started to pack her bags to leave for town, but Saiyad would not let her do that. He threatened to kill them all. The fights only worsened until one day he poured petrol over his wife and all his children. She cried out for help and listening to her cries a few neighbours came and helped them.

“He would have killed me and my kids 10 years back,” she says.

The neighbors made a complaint to the police, which prompted Saiyad to flee.

“He left home but I was happy, I knew I was capable enough to feed my kids and keep them safe” says Ishra.

Saiyad left home that day and was never to be seen anymore. Ishra started working in a tailor’s shop and was able to send her children to school. But little did they know their joy was about to be en-tangled in a turbulent storm.

A month later, Ishra’s sister and her husband came to visit her and asked her to come with them and stay in a house nearby.

“I thought it would be safer to stay near my family, so we all shifted to our new house,” says Ishra.

Faiza’s aunt, too, was nice to her. She purchased her new clothes and gave her food to eat. Finally, one day she asked her whether she would like to stay with her.

Faiza couldn’t say no to her aunt and found her affection genuine. So she started living with her uncle and aunt. Slowly they started provoking Faiza against her own mother saying that Ishra wanted to have an illicit relationship with her uncle.

“Faiza believed them and couldn’t help hating me for this,” says Ishra.

Faiza started staying with her uncle and had no idea about what was going through her family in her absence and most importantly with her mother. Her uncle stopped sending her sisters to school and forcefully got Sabiha, 13, married.

“She gave birth to a baby girl a year back and since her pregnancy she has been suffering from health complications. She was too young to get married” says Ishra.

Faiza came to know about all these developments after a year and it was too late to do anything. The sense of guilt was choking her from within. She could neither stay with her uncle nor could she return to her mother. So what she did was leave her uncle’s house and go to the railway station.

Reaching there, she had nowhere to go and nothing to do. A man approached her and enquired if she was alone. He had a gleam of slyness in his eyes and the shadow of his soul cast across his face. On learning that Faiza was alone he assured her that he would pro-

‘Allah will keep them safe’


vide her a house to stay and also get her a job—all she had to do was to listen to him. The man asked Faiza that if police enquired about who he was, then she was to say that he was her mama (uncle). Faiza was scared and knew that something wrong is going to happen. After some time a police woman approached them, as she got suspicious about the man. She asked Faiza whether he knows the man or not. Her reply was “no” and then began another journey in Faiza’s life—a journey to a juvenile home.

Every day the police asked her where her house as, who her family members were and what her name was—questions for which she had no answer. She didn’t want to go back home.

The government juvenile home was no better than her uncle’s house, Ishra says Faiza told her. She was made to clean the toilets and sweep floors. There was a group of women guards who used to beat the girls up if the job was not done properly. During the month of Ramzan, when Faiza had to observe a fast for a month, the juvenile home authority sent her to government home for women. She caught herself pondering over different methods of torture that might be inflicted upon her during her stay. There they made Faiza work and promised her a monthly salary of Rs.1,000. Rekha Begum was in charge of the home and she used to take Rs.900 from her.

“For many days at the government home my daughter lived with-out any food,” says Ishra.

Nine months passed at the home and she made friends, who, un-like her, wanted to go back to their mothers. It was one day a rela-tive of Ishra happed to visit the home and see Faiza. Faiza knew her mother would be coming anytime soon to take her.

“I stood far away from my child and we gazed forlornly at each other,” Ishra recalls.

As they came close Ishra hugged her daughter tightly and said, “All these nine months I prayed to Allah to keep you safe wherever you were.”

Fiaza understood her mother’s happiness, but she knew she was returning back to the miseries for which she had no solution. But this time it was something more than just agony waiting for her. She had no clue why on seeing her, her uncle dragged her to his room. Her uncle was creeping about the room in blackness. He removed his clothes and said to her that he has every right on her

izzat (virginity). Faiza remembers the night when her body burned in the pits of hell.

Ishra kept crying outside, pleading with her sister to save her child. But she refused to help and said, “My husband provided food and everything necessary to you and your useless daughters, so my hus-band has every right over your daughters.”

Silence.

After that horrifying day in Faiza’s life, she had no other option but to run away and take Aisha along with her. Her mind was muted under the spell of its own silence. Faiza handled the matter then and there, assuming the burden of responsibility, as she knew 10-year-old Aisha would be next. She knew her mother was helpless and perhaps this was the only way she could help her.

“I don’t want my husband to show up ever in my life. He never cared about me but at least he could have cared about our chil-dren”, says Ishra. She now stays in a small shanty with her four kids and hopes for the return of her two daughters.

By Debanti Roy

Photo: Debanti Roy

Ishra Bano (left) and Faiza


“If I am a woman, and if I walk nude on the road, then also you don’t

have any right to rape me,” read one of the placards held by two girls participating in one of the protests organized by women activists against the recent Delhi gang-rape-murder at India Gate.

This catchphrase writes volumes on the wall about the angst and despair of women over the numerous cases of sexual violence against them in India now and in the past.

It manifests an outcry from deep within that upholds the basic human right to free-dom and the fundamental right to life.

Why is rape a heinous crime?

“Life is pre-cious. No person has the right to take the life of another. Leave that alone, no-body has the right even to take one’s own life too,” said B. Anand, a senior practicing advocate at the Karnataka High Court.

If someone attempts a suicide and survives, a case will be booked against him or her in the criminal court of law under Section 309 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Such being the case, a brutal incident of rape leading to the death of a person is a serious violation of the right to life and the accused should be punished severely, with

the death penalty.

An occurrence of rape or any sort of sexu-al assault, whether it leads to extermination of life or not, is a breach of basic human right to freedom.

Laws related to rape and other sexual crimes

Section 375 of IPC defines rape as sexual intercourse through penetration without a woman’s consent or will. The question is, what about outraging the modesty of a

woman? And what punishment does the law prescribe to these?

“As far as laws relating to rape or sexual violence against a woman are concerned, they are severe enough. But what matters is the enforcement and execution of them in a proper way,” Anand said.

“The law defines rape as the sexual inter-course of a man with a woman through penetration without her consent. And if the girl happens to be below 16 and the

penetration takes place with her consent also, it is considered rape.”

“Under such circumstance, even if the court says that she is the consenting party, it is an offense,” he added. Section 354 of the IPC includes all other forms of sexual violence against a woman under “outraging the modesty of woman.”

As far as outraging the modesty of a wom-an is concerned, it is a bailable offence and is to be tried under a magistrate.

In certain states like Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, they have made it non-bailable, and such a case must be tried in a court of sessions.

The issue here is that the law sounds very le-nient as far as out-raging the modes-ty of a woman is concerned.

“As ‘outraging the modesty of a woman’ is a bail-able offence, the accused can be released on bail

immediately after he is produced before the magistrate. And he can be free until the case is called for hearing. The trial would take place after a year. So what is required is a stringent enforcement of IPC 354 and that too as non-bailable all over India,” Anand said.

According to the Indian Penal Code, the law advocates a minimum punishment of seven years and if the situation demands the sentence for the rape-convict may go upto life imprisonment.

RAPE NATION

Swift proSecution would deter crimeS againSt women

Photo: Ajit Krishna


In the rarest of rare cases, such as rape resulting in death, there’s a provision in the law for death penalty to be meted out to the convicted.

Procedural delay in implementation of law

According to legal experts, to deter rapes and sexual crimes the need of the hour is proper and efficient enforcement of law.

“The law has to be implemented in a strict manner to render appropriate punishment to the accused,” said Mr. Krishnamurthy, the former director general of police of Bangalore.

The vernacular Malayala Manorama, in its Sunday Special column published Jan. 20, ran a story about the injustice done by Kerala High Court to a Bengali girl by de-laying the trial over her rape. The girl, who was just 16 at the time, was raped brutally by a gang of three men on Dec. 24, 2011. She was so traumatized that she is suffer-ing psychological shock and is kept in a girls hostel at Trivandrum. The trial con-tinues a year later.

In the present system of Indian law, the police have to investigate a rape case and file the charge sheet within 90 days. If that is not done, the accused can file an ap-plication saying that the police have not completed the investigation, in which case the accused will have to be granted statu-tory bail without argument. There are also cases, in which the accused manage a bail by bribing the police. According to Sec-tion 167 (2) of the Code of Criminal Pro-cedure (CrPC), in the rape case of a girl of 10 and above, police have to complete the investigation and file the charge sheet within ninety days. And in cases of the victim being below 10, the charge sheet has to be filed within 60 days.

Advocate Mr. B. Anand sounded furious while speaking about the procedural delay in the Indian legal system: “Why are 90 days required to conduct an enquiry into a rape case and submit the charge sheet? The maximum number of statements re-quired in the charge sheet of a rape case is five, and the most important in that is of the victim and of a doctor. The rest of the statements can be attained from the locali-ty where the crime takes place. Police don’t have to go abroad to conduct the investiga-

tion. When just one week is required, why do you want 90 days? At the most grant 30 days—why 90 days?”

If the trial takes place immediately after the incident, conviction or acquittal in a just manner is inevitable because the vic-tim and witnesses will be able to reiterate the happenings from rather fresh memory and there will be less chances of manipula-tion.

“If the harassment has taken place really and the victim deposes it before the court, how can the accused escape? In a time gap, many unwanted things take place,” Anand said. “Much more than an amendment, what is essential is an appropriate execu-tion of the law for which the time period to file the charge sheet be reduced to at least 30 days from 90 days. Ninety days is a waste of time and invites unnecessary mis-management,” he added.

The flaw of the present-day legal system is that most of the investigating officers are inefficient and they do not conduct the in-vestigation in a proper manner. Even if the victim files the complaint, they do not reg-ister the case immediately. Some officers insist that the victim get a medical report from the doctor to the effect that she has been raped.

There can also be instances of witnesses turning hostile if trial is delayed. This is be-cause the accused party will have sufficient time to reach a compromise with the vic-tim by bribing or even threatening her.

Of late, the Supreme Court has rendered a judgment to the effect that the evidence of prosecutrix (victim) is sufficient to convict

the accused, because normally a woman would not implicate the offence of rape under the cast of her character. In Indian society it is very unusual for a woman to go to the extent of admitting that she has been raped.

Considering all the above, what is the ne-cessity of delaying the trial and judgment in a case of sexual offense?

Anand, the advocate, said: “Often enough, the excuse we hear is that courts are very work-bounded and that they have many cases to deal with at a time. If that is the case, why can’t they introduce the system of having a special judge to deal with sexu-al crimes against women? As it may not be required for every district, depending on the crime rate, let them constitute a spe-cial court for four or five districts together. And if the crime rate is high and required, have special courts in every district.”

A legal system that ensures immediate trial and accurate punishment to the ac-cused would deter crimes against women to a great extent. It should be further guaranteed that trial takes place on a day-to-day basis without any adjournment till the judgment is pronounced. All kinds of sexual offenses against a woman have to be made non-bailable that no accused get out on bail before the judgment is pro-nounced.

By Vintu Augustine


“Rubbish.” That’s how the leading activist in women’s rights group Vimochana de-

scribes the data that the National Crime Re-cord Bureau holds on rape cases in Karnataka.

The NCRB, whose is tasked with collat-ing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code. The bureau tries to provide accurate information about crimes. How-ever, in the last few years, there have been widespread claims that the data the agency makes available cannot be trusted.

Shakun Mohini, the Vimochana activist, said the NCRB presents “useless facts” and that its statistics are “irrelevant.”

“It is avoiding the real picture of rape cases happening in the state,” Mohini said, adding that the media also misrepresent the reality of male sexual violence against women.

“Tell me one thing—is it really possible to know the statistics of rape cases in India? So I am sorry to say that none of the research-ers in India will know about the millions of rape cases which have been destroying the portrait of women in India” she said.

Mohini who has been working for the rights of women from the last 10 years, told The Beat of her and her fellow activ-ists’ deep anger about the way the authori-ties and the media treat the issue of rape.

Sexual harassment of women is very deep-seated in India. Women are not safe at all even in the most crowded public places. It seems that almost ev-ery family has a rape victim. There is a rape in this country every 20 minutes.

The media do not pay enough attention to rape cases and tends to follow the official NCRB line on the incidence of rape and other forms of sexual assault. They neglect the increasing number of crimes against women in cities including Bangalore.

Let’s take the example of the Jnana Bhara-thi campus rape case, in which a South Asian student of the National Law School of India University was gang-raped by seven or eight drunk men. The attack was reported in only a few newspapers, and was out of the news after a few days.

“As social activists, we have been

Police, media doing a poor job of

handling rape problemfacing many negative responses from me-dia,” said Kalpana, another member of Vimochana. “The media need to be alert.”

“Whatever happened in Delhi (where a 23-year-old woman was fatally gang-raped on Dec. 16), the media was just a part of the outrage,” Kalpana said. “Just think, if the rapists had been politicians’ sons or relatives of other high-profile personali-ties then would the outrage by media have been like this? The answer is a big no.”

According to the recent survey by the NCRB, Bangalore ranks fourth in the num-ber of rape cases among Indian cities is placed in second position in the more loosely defined category “crimes against women.”

Number of rape cases in Karnataka 2007 2008 2009 2010 201120,737 21,467 21,397 22,172 24,206

Source: NCRB

Crime against women has increased drastically in Karnataka, especially rape cases. Most rape cases are not record-ed because rapists are usually found to be one of the family members.

A rape victim’s family often does not file a criminal complaint. The NCRB has the data for cases that have been registered in local police stations, but it does not have data for solved and unsolved cases.

Police attitude lackadaisical

Officers at Cubbon Park and Chamrajpet police stations bluntly told The Beat that they do not register complaints about rape. Asked about this careless attitude on the part

of the police, Anand Kuma, a subinspector at the City Crime Record Bureau, told The Beat: “It’s not like that we are not registering complaints. If there is a case, we have to file the case because this is a very burning issue.”

The police authorities do not seem to be taking their duties seriously. The Bangalore City Police and the CCRB’s attitude seem not to care much about the high incidence of rape in the city. They admitted that the real number of rapes is likely to be far high-er than the number of reported cases, but blamed victims for not coming forward.

Kumar said, “We have records, we are also doing the investigation on some rape cases such as the one which recently happened in Jnana Bharathi Campus, but I myself am ac-cepting that hundreds of cases are haven’t been recorded because the victims are not taking initiative towards reporting the crime.”

According to the Bangalore police, there are not enough officers to tackle the rising rate of crimes against women.

“For every 17,000 people there is only one police officer,” Kumar said. “Hence it is very difficult to provide overall security.”

There are many reasons behind the in-creasing number of rapes in the state. A major cause for concern is the increas-ing number of slums, whose residents are to blame for the spike in crimes against women, according Kumar and Mahesh, a subinspector at Chamrajpet Police Station who spoke to The Beat.

Secondly, many schools and colleges, including engineering and medical col-leges, are situated on the outskirts of the city where there are very few police sta-tions. The authorities of four colleges that The Beat contacted declined to di-vulge any information about rape cases in which their female students were vic-timized, apparently judging that doing so would harm their college’s reputation.

By Reshma Tarwani

RAPE NATION


RAPE NATION

Last December, while having a friendly chat with my maid Sushila, I noticed a few marks on her body. There were

scratch marks and a few bruises and one of her eyes was a little swollen. Out of curiosity, I asked her how she got those marks. Her reply was “This is what my husband did to me when I refused his advances. I was instructed by the doctor to take precautions as I was pregnant but he forced himself on me.”

When I asked her if she filed any complaint against her him she said nodding her head in disappointment: “Who should I complain to and about what? People will laugh at me if I complain against such a thing. He is my husband and he has a right on my body, I cannot do anything about it; after all he is a man.”

I was completely taken aback by her reply, but what was even more shocking for me was to realize that there was no law against marital rape in our country.

“In our society men have always been recognised as being superior to women and women are taught to be submissive and obedient to them, especially in the case of husbands. This is one of the reasons why marital rape is such a common offense in India,” said Debashree Bhattacharjee, a sociologist.

I asked her why this issue prevailed even within the educated class. She replied that at times, men use it as a tool to mark their supe-riority when they feel threatened or insecure about the changing roles of women in the country.

P. Chidambram of Ashraya Women’s Centre said: “Many of the women in our NGO said that they were often victimised by their husbands. In fact, I was utterly disgusted to know that some of them were raped while menstruating and even during their preg-nancies, which resulted in a miscarriage for a few. It is shameful that we cannot take any strict action against it due to an absence of law.”

Dr. Karan Sahni, who practices at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences said, “It is extremely difficult to make people understand the severity of this issue in India as the idelogy of the society is still chauvinistic in nature, especially in the backward areas. Due to lack of awareness men often refuse to use protections before having an intercourse which has fatal effects on the health of the wife due to frequent pregnancies and child-bearing. If the wife refuses, the consequences are thrashing, beatings and rape.”

I asked Ms. Madhu, the secretary of Vimochana, a helpline for women in Bangalore, about her take on marital rape.“Sometimes we receive complaints against husbands ruthlessly raping their own wives but hardly anyone takes the issue further,” she said.

“Even if they did there isn’t much we could do as there is no law against marital rape, it can only come under the Domestic Violence Act 2005.”

Legal action against marital rape can be taken only through the Domestic Violence Act, which has proven to be sheer disappoint-ment. Most of the cases of domestic violence are pending in the civil courts. Over half of the cases are pending in Bangalore alone.

Recently, there was a huge protest in the nation after the Delhi gang-rape-murder incident to make the laws against rapists more serious, but what about the millions of rapes taking place legally under closed doors?

Over 75 countries around the world have outlawed marital rape and recognize it as a crime as horrible as any other form of rape, including countries like Bhutan and Nepal. Whereas on one hand India wants to be recognised as a progressive country such crucial issues are constantly being avoided.

Manhar Hosea, a lawyer at the Karnataka High Court, who spe-cializes in marital issues, said, “Marital rape is not a crime in India according to the Indian code of law. Under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, sexual intercourse by man with his own wife is not rape if the wife is above 16 years of age.”

Mr. Radhakrishnan, another lawyer said that it was not very easy to criminalise rape within marriage as a lot of factors come into play while deciding on this particular issue.I asked him what were the obstacles that would come up if a law were to be passed.

“Firstly, sexual intercourse within marriage is a natural phenom-enon, therefore, it is very difficult to prove that such an offense has taken place. Secondly, at times such accusations can be false as well.”

Dr. Chandrashekhar, a psychiatrist, said: “The wife has to go through a lot not just physically but mentally in such cases as it results in a low-self-esteem, depression and at times suicidal ten-dencies. The incident makes an extremely negative impact on her mind for the rest of her life. The effects become more severe after a while as she has no one to share it with which can lead to a feeling of constant suffocation.”

Kanika Shah, a housewife, said marital rape “is a heinous crime. The body of the wife is not the husband’s private property—she needs to be respected and not treated as an object. If tomorrow my husband does that to me I would not tolerate it, but there needs to be a law to take an action against it.”

By Amrita Ray

India’s dirty secret: Marital rape


When the heart ails, the body fails. And if this ailing heart is a young one, it is a matter of serious con-

cern.

A recent study conducted by Deloitte and Assocham shows that the average age of people suffering from heart diseases in India has gone down by a big margin in the last decade. Heart attack is no longer a pensioner’s predisposal.

Today, an outwardly healthy looking youth may be suffering from a heart ailment without even knowing it. “Silent killer,” as a heart attack is termed by most of the doctors, has delved its roots into the younger generation.

Looking at the demo-graphics of this biggest democracy called India, and you will notice that it contributes 17.5 per-cent to the world’s popu-lation.

A major portion of this population is below 25; 50 percent to be approxi-mate.

The study conducted by Deloitte and Assocham mentioned above shows that the average age of Indians threatened by heart and related diseas-es has come down from 45-50 (a decade ago) to 25-30 (present).

What has caused this paradigm shift?

If we go by the words of Dr. C. N. Manjunath, director of Jayade-va Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Researchin Bangalore: “There are two main reasons for this. The first one is a change in food habits of people and second and more important one is the high level of stress.”

With the increasing opportunities in the field of work, aims and aspirations of people have risen. This, in turn, has increased the pressure on an individual. According to the records maintained at the Jayadeva Institute, out of the 1,000 cases under heart diseases

in 2012, 25 percent of patients were below 40 years of age.

India thrives on such social framework where a family generally looks up to one breadwinner. This is one of the main reasons for the ever-increasing pressure on an individual.

Dr. Manjunath says, “Today there is a pressure from every side on the young generation. They have to look after their families, their parents, excel at work place and at that too in the same time frame. It creates a tremendous stress.”

This stress makes the youth of today prone to various diseases, heart ailments being one of the main ones. Also, the lack of physical activities has worsened the scenario.

What looks like a mere health problem can turn into a haz-ard in no time.

The work culture that today’s generation faces is lot more different than what it was a decade ago.

Piyush Tiwari, a software en-gineer with Accenture finds it a very competitive structure.

“We have to compete with one another and at the same time with other companies in the market,” he says.

But Piyush agrees that what-ever may be the work pres-sure, the corporate houses insure their health.

“We have free access to the gym and also regular awareness camps are organized by the com-pany. Health insurance is done at the time of induction,” Piyush says.

But, can insuring the health of an individual guarantee him a healthy life? Navjyot Kaur, a senior software professional at one of the leading IT companies in Pune, has a different take on the issue.

“Competition is prevalent everywhere in the society and again, a person can die in any way,” she says. “Why should any organization

Younger generation falling prey to heart disease

LIFESTYLE

Photo: Sumit

Dr. C.N. Manjunath


should be blamed for this?”

Has it, then, anything to do with the work culture in India? Dr. Manjunath once again rescues us from this question.

“In India, we find that the average age of heart patients is com-ing down, whereas in the West we have a different scene. People diagnosed with heart ailments still fall largely in the age group of 55-60,” Manjunath says.

So let’s compare the work culture in India with our counterparts in the West. Sanghmitra Singh, currently working for a Software major in Minnesota has seen both sides of the coin.

“Work has always been the same, be it in India or onshore. It’s only that the culture here is very flexible,” says Sanghmitra.

Now, what sort of flexibility is she speaking about? Does it involve lesser number of working hours or is it about a comparatively decentralized hierarchical structure? Sanghmitra feels that it is all about the pressure one is introduced to.

“We have a lot of work pressure but than we also have the flexibil-ity of logging on to work from our homes,” she says.

Maybe in breaking down the work pressure into fragments, a solu-tion can be bypassed.

On the sixth bed of ICU II in Jayadeva Cardiovascular Research

Center lies Ravi. A cab driver by profession, Ravi was operated on Jan. 22 after he suffered a heart attack. Asked whether he knew he suffered from a heart disease prior to the attack, Ravi said, “I never got the time to think about my health. I have a family to look after, sir.”

Will life be the same for Ravi again? Doctor Shilpa doesn’t think so.

“He will be living on medicines now. Precaution is a must for him,” she says.

Ravi, it seems, has aged by a decade in these couple of days. Visibly tense, Ravi looks at his wife and then at the monitor from which wires emanate and end somewhere in his body. He will be moni-tored for 36 hours before being discharged.

India is a young country and its youthful heart is under threat. To reinvigorate the body of the nation, its heart has to be kept healthy.

By Sumit

Photo: Sumit

Ravi


Bangalore, the best Indian city!Really?

Once nicknamed the “Garden City,”

Bangalore has not only become a dump yard for garbage, but also a hub for crime. It is also facing huge water and electricity crises. It is no more surrounded by greenery due to metro construction. To add more to the list, the traffic and pollution is driving Bangaloreans crazy, yet it has been called “the best Indian city to live in” by a global survey.

The parameters under which these surveys rank cities include political, social, sociocultural and economic environment, medical and health considerations, schools and edu-cation and more. What about the other important criteria like safety, physical environment and so on?

The global HR consultancy firm Mercer recently ranked Bangalore as the best city to live in in India, specially because of the number

of international schools. It ranks fifth with respect to infrastructure, Mumbai being first. How can a city be ranked as the best city to live just because of a high standard of living and availability of good international schools whereas on the other hand it is safe neither for those school-going children nor anyone else?

Crime rate on the rise

According to a crime report from the Office of the Commissioner of Police there has been an increase in various types of crime over the years. The number of murders has increased from 414 in 2011 to 430 in 2012. The number of house theft cases has increased from 2,593 in 2010 to 2,690 in 2012 and 466 cases of robbery were reported in 2012. There were 160 reported cases of rape in 2012. There were 618 cases of kidnapping in 2012. It is a fact that that there are many cases ly-

ing unregistered in police stations. These are just some of the crimes and their respective statistics; there is more to the list.

Pollution getting worse

Apart from being a crime hub, Ban-galore has other problems, as men-tioned earlier. In November, Ban-galore was listed among the most polluted cities in the world accord-ing to a study conducted by NASA. Bangalore is also called “India’s Sili-con Valley” due to the increase in the number of industries, but it is not a misnomer like “Garden City.” Interestingly, the most polluted ar-eas in Bangalore are the ones near hospitals like Lady Bowring and Curzon Hospital. Harmful gases have been found in the atmosphere near these areas. One reason may be that this hospital is next to Shivaji-nagar Bus Station. The plight of the patients can easily be imagined, but

CITY


unfortunately the hospital did not have any record of patients having trouble due to pollution although the staff accepted that it was a mat-ter of concern.

Traffic a nightmare

Along with pollution, comes traf-fic. It is really annoying for people to stand in buses for hours due to huge amount of traffic. It becomes distressing especially those people who are in a hurry. Kingshuk Kar, a software professional from Allaha-bad who has been living in Banga-lore for two years, said: “The traffic situation in the city is most prob-lematic and affects almost every one of us. A city with such a population cannot just rely on road transport alone. The metro has hardly done any help in this regard, only time will tell whether the expansion plans improve the situation.”

Commuters also get confused due to lack of signboards on roads, while those from outside the state who cannot read Kannada are not helped by the fact the many signboards do not have English as well as Kannada on them.

Infrastructure crumbling

Water and electricity are other issues of concern. There is huge shortage of water in Bangalore, and frequent power cuts have become a part of everyone’s daily experience in Ban-galore—specially people living in the outskirts of Bangalore. There may be frequent so-called load-shed-ding in the summer months due to a shortage in power. With respect to the water problem, Kingshuk said: “Reliance on private tankers is quite a worrisome fact. The entire city can be taken to ransom by these operators (which have been the case number of times in the past). For far-flung areas, tankers are OK, but

for places in the heart of the city, this shouldn’t be the case. Some im-mediate steps need to be taken with respect to Rain water harvesting, improving the underground water level and regulating private opera-tors is needed.”

Garbage a curse

Garbage has become the most wor-risome issue in Bangalore in the past few months. Times of India re-ported the news for garbage under the head “The muck stops here.” It is worth wondering when the muck will stop. According to Navin Chopra, a solid waste management expert, the government lacks insight regarding proper waste manage-ment, especially for solid waste, and the citizens are also least bothered and do not follow the instructions even if the government takes steps towards a clean Bangalore.

Some believe in Bangalore

However, some people believe that Bangalore is a little better than other cities, such as Delhi and so on. Nan-dita Bannerji, an agriculture research associate who visits Bangalore quite often believes that the people of Bangalore are helpful and well man-nered, especially the bus conductors and passengers compared with the situation in Uttar Pradesh Although many people currently staying in Bangalore disagree with this view-point. The only problem, she faces being a North Indian is that most of the hoardings are in Kannada and very few are in English, which makes her stay in Bangalore difficult when it comes to locate places.

Samir Mukherji, a longtime resident of Bangalore, believes that Banga-lore is a good place to live especially due to its climate and the availability of job opportunities, although he agreed that due to traffic and pol-

lution the situation is Bangalore is worsening.

“It may not be safe but at least it is better than Delhi,” he said.

One woman’s disenchantment

Pooja Mukherji, an MBA student who is currently working in Ac-centure, is deeply disheartened. Her portrayal of Bangalore in her imagi-nation has turned out to be wrong. She wants to leave it as soon as pos-sible. Not only she but almost ev-eryone is irritated with the way the autorickshaw drivers behave—rou-tinely overcharging customers. She hates traveling by buses especially after her wallet was stolen in a bus. She lost all her important cards due to the theft and on top of that the police asked her to run from one office to another, which she firmly refused to do. With respect to the auto drivers she said: “According to the rules laid down by the govern-ment, auto drivers cannot say no to a woman after it is dark, but recently I saw on television that over 20 auto drivers refused to pick up an under-cover journalist.”

She also added that the Banneghatta Road was a forest, but now it has become a full-fledged residential area with huge buildings and malls.

This gives us a clear picture of Ban-galore. After getting an insight into the minds of some Bangloreans and having a look at the statistics is it re-ally correct to say that Bangalore is the best Indian city to live in?

By Pyusha Chatterjee


Full-on drama

26

A white limousine is parked in front of a local liquor booth. There is farmland

all around it for miles. Next scene, the limo drives through the structure, just seconds after the owner manages to run for his life. Imran Khan and Pankaj Kapoor fill their car with crates of desi daaru.

This first scene of the Matru ki Bijli ka Mann Dola, basically sets the tone for the rest of the film. There are some really stu-pid and crazy scenes that happen during the two hours of the film from a drunk nov-ice trying to fly a helicopter to a suspected UFO landing in the farms.

Unlike other Vishal Bharadwaj films, which you will love instantly if you are a fan of the dark comedies and adaptations of Shakespeare that he makes, when you leave the theater after watching this new film of his, you are left confused. Not sure whether you liked it or not.

The story is of Harry Mandola (Pankaj Kapoor), a rich and powerful man of the Mandola village. However, he faces some-thing similar to multiple personality disor-der. The mean, inaffectionate, arrogant and money-minded Mandola becomes timid

and compassionate when drunk. His driver, Hukum Singh Matru (Imran Khan) is hired by Mandola to keep him away from alcho-hol, which he purposely fails to do every evening.

Mandola’s highly bubbly daughter Bi-jlee (Anushka Sharma) is engaged to her goofy college love Badal (Arya Babbar). His mother (Shabana Azmi), a powerful politician is only interested in the alliance for financial reasons vested in the Mandola family fortunes. She manipulates Pankaj Kapoor to buy the lands of the farmer by tricking them.

Soon the young lead cast realizes there is a love triangle running and together they try to save the farmers’ lands.

The movie, as evident from the trailers and posters, is highly colourful and energetic. Infact, it seems overenergetic and over-enthusiastic at most places. Instead of a movie, it’s more like a nautanki street play being performed in villages.

Bharadwaj has tried a hand at commercial satire with this film, a genre he had not at-tempted so far. However, his well known

love for Shakespeare can be seen in this film as well, if only when the characters are reading out a scene from Macbeth.

You won’t really get bored watching the movie but at the same time it’s not some-thing you’ll expect when you go to see a Vishal Bharadwaj film.

By Udita Chaturvedi

The moment you enter Little Italy, the persistent aroma of food and cozy ambience takes

you in. Located at Indira Nagar, 100 Feet Road, next to the Reebok showroom, this place offers authentic Italian cuisine from pastas and spaghetti to pizzas.

Little Italy truly represents the taste of Italy. I ad-mired a great deal of dishes they served and the best part is that you can ask the chef to prepare any dish in a way you want to have. They have a wide range of spices and condiments to choose from. For starters, I ordered fruit dipped in red wine, fruits such as peach, pear and figs gelled well with wine.

I have always craved for Italian salad. The menu presented me with an opportunity to taste tickle my taste buds with this exotic dish. The appearance was simple with sun dried tomatoes, fresh mozza-rella, basil leaves and grounded pepper with fine sea salt as embel-lishment on the top. It was perfect.

Chef Pundallik suggested that I try spaghetti with pepper-fried meatballs. The dish took just 15 minutes and it was on my table. Meatballs literally melted in my mouth and the taste of dried pep-per went well with spaghetti. In the meanwhile I talked to the man-

ager Mr. Atul Shetty, as I was curious about the authenticity of the ingredients they use and he obliged by taking me

to his store, he said that they source majority of their spices and other ingredients like semolina from Ita-ly, including olive oils.

The best thing about Italian cuisine is their choice of herbs and condiments, from dried coriander

and cilantro to nutmeg and saffron; everything looks and tastes so earthy.

The service is fast and the waiters are attentive. For people who like their food with drinks, Little Italy has maintained a wide range of fine Italian wines. I ordered a glass of white wine and chocolate pastry with pineapple ice cream as dessert. The dessert was mildly sweet and the pineapples were freshly cut.

Overall it was a wonderful experience to get the taste of Little Italy in Bangalore. Although a little on the expensive side (Rs. 900 for two) I would personally recommend it to Italian foodies.

By Nupur Gour & Sidharth Shekhar

Restaurant Review - Restaurant R

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The government

should punish the guilty as fast as possible. The

laws should be more stringent. The guilty of the Delhi rape case

should be hanged immediately.

The use of Rape-

aXe, an anti-rape de-vice must be intensified. The

guilty of the Delhi gang rape case must not be given the death

penalty as it will free them of their misery. They should be given

slow death punish-ment.

The victim’s family

needs to be supported by the government. the cul-

prits should be given the harsh-est form of capital punishment and

the public must be given a chance to vent out their frustration on

the culprits.

The government

should provide financial aid to the Delhi rape victim.

The guilty should be given life imprisonment. Such antisocial ele-

ments have no right to walk free on the streets.

Bangalore’s outrage...

Tresseta D’cruz, 20, Student

Priyanka Sriram, 28, Software company employee

Kaushik Vijaykumar, 26, Research Assistant

Joshua Npassanha, 20, Student


The Beat team

Printed by: Lotus Printers, 32/25, 2nd Main Road, Sir M.V. Industrial Town, West of Chord Road, Bangalore.

An IIJNM Publication

the beat, march 2013

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