Feature writers wanted

After seven years at Forbes India in Network18, I've just moved to The Hindu. I'm part of the team launching the new Bombay edition that comes out for the first time this Saturday.

Part of my brief is to source great feature stories.

My immediate focus is the city of Bombay* and all its myriad facets (though later I will be looking for work from and about other parts of India and the world as well, so bookmark this and come back later if Bambai* isn't your thing). I'm looking for freelance feature writers who know the city intimately and write with skill, passion and insight, who can inform and entertain the intelligent reader. I'm looking for stories about the arts, culture, entertainment, sports, city life, education, business, politics.. anything and everything that makes Mumbai* tick, really. And if it's in some way linked to current events, so much the better.

If you don't know me, please check out my bonafides on LinkedIn, but don't message me there please; I rarely check that godawful site. And then email me (my name at Gmail) links to a few (not more than four) of your best pieces of writing and a reasonably detailed pitch that includes your credentials to do the piece. You could also tweet at me.

* I don't care what you call the city, as long as you don't get uptight about me calling it Bombay, as old friends can.

#SanskariJamesBond titles

a.k.a. [Invented in India] [Invented in India] 7

I set myself the task of doing ALL the Bond films, in order, in one burst on Twitter (where the hashtag mocked the Censor Board's shenanigans with S.P.E.C.T.R.E., so, well, uneven quality, to put it mildly. Please feel free to come up with better versions of the really lame ones.

Daaktar Sahib! Nahin!
From Russia With Dowry
सोने की ऊँगली
ठंडा Balls
You Only Live Ninety-Seven Times
Get Job In Indian Administrative Service
Diamonds Are Suitable Substitute For Scooter
Live And Let Reincarnate
The Man With The Gold Chain On Hairy Chest
The Spy Who Eve-Teased Me
Muckraker
For Your Aai Only
Octo[censored]
A View To A 2BHK
The Art Of Living Daylight Robbery
Licence To Kill Available After Staff Returns From Lunch Break
Kohl In Eye
कल वापस आना
One Paratha Is Not Enough
Dei. Another Dei.
Good Indian Girls Do Not Go To Casino
Sola Ghanta
ASCII Fail
Inispectre

Vagrant thoughts

(I live in a quiet neighbourhood. At least it’s quiet 355 days of the year. But during the days of the Ganesh festival, evenings and nights are cacophonous. There is a visarjan pond one lane away, where all of Vashi seems to converge to immerse their idols. I’m sound-sensitive, and find it difficult to even think straight when there’s a racket going on, so it means ten days of headaches for me. But it's also always a great time for people-watching, with the masses being present in no uncertain terms.)

...

This evening, gazing at the silent moon rise through the mango tree branches actually drowned out the visarjan drum-synth racket.

...

Speaking of drum-synth racket, was out watching the processions, and I see that there’s not a single ‘traditional’ drum there. The only traditional element: hand-cymbals. Otherwise just kettle drums, big bass drums, and over that pounding rhythm, the synthesisers.

My lane is where the music has to stop, for some reason. So what we get is the drummers giving it their all, really pounding the drums.

..

Two lanes away, the two kirana guys are open way past their usual time. There’s a brisk trade in water and soft drinks. The Maharashtrian chap who runs the local hole-in-the-wall restaurant has an extra counter selling vada-pav & bhajias; Rs 15 per bhajia-pav. The Sikh whose tandoori and kabab joint is usually open late (lots of drinkers pop by for oily protein) isn't selling today. Instead he has set up a counter to give away free tea. He, his family & staff are brewing it up in huge vessels, filling plastic cups, handing them to passing processionists. The proffered cups are taken without as much as a thank you and, chai drunk, discarded on the road, though the Sikh family has put out open cartons as dustbins. The wee commercial compound next door (garages & stuff) has a counter giving away water which is also grabbed by those passing by without thanks. Some gargle & spit first. The road is a wet mess.

..

Three political parties have set up elevated platforms; party dignitaries and family members sit there. Every time a big idol passes, one of the worthies takes to the microphone & greets them, loudly. Between idols, their kids shriek into the mic instead. The Congress Bhavan is next to the visarjan pond: their platform occupies prime position. The Shiv Sena is at the top of the road, the beginning of the final straight stretch. Between them sits the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, in front of a hospital. Their loudspeakers are tied to a lamppost, under and over a sign that says, "Hospital: Silent Zone."

...

Older neighbours, gentle middle-class folk from many communities, have brought out chairs and are chatting, watching the processions. This spot is where the band-boys are paid off, where they break into absolute frenzy to ensure they get tipped well, I guess. A young(ish) woman is standing next to the group currently thundering away on its drums. Younger family members are grooving to the beat. The young(ish) woman is wearing skin-tight jeans & blouse, high heels. And, incongrously, a Gandhi topi over her poker-straight hair. Her figure is.. Kardashianesque. The elderly gentlemen sneak quick looks. The elderly ladies murmur to each other, but not disapprovingly. A little girl comes running up to the young(ish) woman, excited, pigtails bouncing, and is borne aloft. Everyone goes Awwww. The young(ish) woman & her little girl walk away, towards the pond, accompanying their idol. I follow. To see the immersion, you understand.

...

Stray observation amidst many stray observations, Every singke one of the idols I saw this evening had its skin painted some shade of pink. And that's a skin tone I've seen in Indians only in Kashmiris and people from Garwahl.

...

The pond is just off the road, accessed by a narrow lane, just wide enough for a lorry. Two landing areas have been prepared, at opposite ends. A makeshift pier, rafts made from sealed plastic drums with a platform tied on top: four of them, two large, two small. Young men, dripping wet, man the rafts. The big ones are attached to ropes, which are pulled from a point midway around the pond's shore and added momentum is provided by the boys: some paddle with their feet, sitting on the platform, others swim, pushing the raft.

The area is a little miracle in crowd-management. Somehow the cops keep everything moving smoothly. The lorries queue up next to the pond. Even as they wait, the lorry crews are dismantling the decorations around the idol. Drapery and support columns are taken apart. Flowers are gathered and deposited in huge fibreglass dustbins designed to look like urns, and in the waiting municipal dumpster. The queue inches forward. A forklift navigates the throng, miraculously not impaling anyone with its extended claws. It shambles up to the lorry and sticks its claws under the huge idol’s platform. Men on the lorry push the idol forward, inch by inch. Then, with ease (the idol is twice its height) the forklift lifts the idol off the flatbed, backs up, does a slow, sharp U-turn, and trundles the twenty-odd feet towards the slipway. It lowers the idol, platform & all. Men slide it down to the raft. It is steadied and then its seven-manpower engine churning the water, it glides out to the middle of the pond.

The smaller idols are decanted with some dignity. A swimmer receives it into his arms, and he lets it gently into the water, submerges ut once, then up to the surface once, then he and idol slowly sink below the green water. He then comes up, is pulled on to the raft, and all paddle back to shore.

With the big idols, the crew just shoves mightily, tipping them off. They fall in sideways, upside-down even. The hollow plaster interiors fill up, their unfinished surface visible. (Many of the idols are elaborately painted and decorated in front, but the backs are unfinished too; sometimes you see unpainted plaster.) The boys raise themselves off the sinking idol, pushing it downwards, and it disappears into the murk.

One idol proves tougher to deal with. It is an equestrian Ganesh. The horse is in the ‘salient’ pose (or is it 'rampant?' I'm not sure; but it's the one with front hooves in the air), but the sculptor’s skills did not extend to making the idol stable in that position, so a green mountainish surface support the horse's midriff. (The horse in this position in statues, if I recall correctly, indicates the rider died in battle. I guess the sculptor wasn't too concerned with that. Also, this steed kind of resembled the horses you see in merry-go-rounds. Kind of cute rather than martial.) The equestrian Ganesh was particularly unwieldy. When they finally managed to get it off the raft, it sank upside-down. Rather an undignified departure for the noble-but-cute animal and its divine rider.

...

At midnight, the throng is still dense, with no end in sight. But the cops have enforced the rules: no more frenzied drums and synths. The processionists, though, are still raucous, dancing away without music to dance to, just their own whistling and yelling. And the police whistles are plenty loud too. There’s a long night ahead for our guardians of the law.

At the pond, one more large idol is being ferried to the middle. As the raft drifts out, the people who brought the idol raise their hands to the sky. Not in prayer; the older people are singing their bhajans, sure, but the raised hands are holding cameras-that-also-make-calls and the glowing devices are bearing witness, recording videos of their Ganesh’s last voyage.

...

Time to stroll back home, through the sea of plastic cups and other trash. Tomorrow, the municipal trash collection folks have extra work. But my sleepy little neighbourhood will be quiet again, as it is 355 days of the year.

Why I haven't written much about John over the years.

I've been asked, recently, both by people who haven't known me for long or who don't know my family and by people who have known us for decades, why I haven't written about John.

The reasons are not that easy to explain. But I'll try.

(I speak only of places we've lived in and we've visited with John: Visakhapatnam, Secunderabad, Madras, Bombay and New Bombay, Ooty. Other people's mileage may differ.)

John's disabilities are cerebral palsy, mental retardation and a heart disease. The heart condition doesn't manifest visibly, but the palsy is, of course, clear to see. His legs are stick thin, bent a little. More so his right leg, which thanks to muscle atrophy and a hip joint which disintegrated, is bent a little more and cannot straighten. Because he has the use only of one hand, he has been unable to support his body evenly when sitting, so his spine has curved to the right. His right hand is small; he has very limited control over it: just a little movement at shoulder level and the ability to twitch two fingers. It mostly would just be folded, palms and fingers hanging. When he was younger, before the curvature became pronounced, he could manipulate his own wheelchair by propelling the left wheel and then reaching over to propel the right wheel. Later, this became impossible, and he needed extra support on one side whenever sitting up.

Other manifestations of the palsy are in slurred speech. He had a pronounced gagging reflex, so we were never able to clean his teeth properly, and he couldn't gargle, so he wound up losing all his teeth eventually. There is a slight squint in one eye. He can't wink, though he does 'wink his eyebrows' as he says, which is basically a very big blink when he tries to wink. One side of his face is more mobile than the other, so except with a wide grin, his smiles have always been a bit lopsided.

The retardation is not immediately evident in conversation, in the subjects he can talk about. He was always coherent within those, though sometimes approaching topics from very different perspectives which needed deciphering. We tried to teach him to read and write, but he could not. He could count up to three.

So yes, long story short, he is visibly disabled.

Wherever we've lived, in public spaces John attracts curiosity. At best it's mild double-takes, sometimes, often, a nudge to a companion asking companion to gawk as well, sometimes open pointing. I've heard, often, in different places, the local lingo for 'mad.' This made me furious as a child. It still gets to me, even though I tell myself that this is just a result of poor education in this country about mental disability, that you can't blame individuals for culture they've imbibed.

In closer interaction, he's often talked at or talked around or talked about rather than talked to. Sometimes this is awkwardness: people don't know if he understands and ask us, his caregivers, about him. Mostly these questions are 'what is wrong with him' and 'was he born like this' and the like. This would inevitably then go to pity. They see the disability, recognise that it handicapped him, but they so very rarely look beyond the condition at the person

(All John's favourite people always talked to him, never condescending or dumbing down, but adjusting the topics of their conversation to him, as some people have the gift of doing naturally with children. You know who i mean: that favourite aunt or uncle who you were hugely fond of as a child and who will always be special to you, the one who always talked to you straight, never made you feel like a child.)

Over time, you reach a point where you don't want to explain any more. You don't want to be angry. You definitely don't want concessions. All you want is acceptance, for your loved one, for your family. That this is just their normal, that it doesn't need pity, or sorrow.

Another reason I haven't spoken publicly (by which I mean on some public platform; of course I've spoken to friends) is kind of related. You don't want to be seen as seeking attention, seeking pity or concessions.

You don't want the attention. You're not brave, you're not extraordinary. You're not a saint, heaven knows. This is just your life. This is his life. This is our life. You would do the same, but these just don't happen to be the circumstances of your life.

From where I sit, your fight against the financial circumstances you have risen above, or the loss of a parent early in life or of a child, or a bad marriage or broken heart or rebellious children, they are all strange to me, perhaps. Are you a hero? I don't know; perhaps you are. But it could be just that you are playing with the cards you have been dealt. There is no divine plan, I'm sure.

This isn't happening to you or me "for the best."

It is what it is.

You live the life you find yourself in, the best way you know how.

---

When I re-read this, perhaps I'm not clear. So let me try again, with a little help from a friend who I won't name, for reasons that, I hope, will be apparent.

This is mostly unedited from a Twitter DM chat a couple of years ago.

Friend:
My daughter goes to [school name]. She is learning disabled. We deal with a lot of discrimination, so didn't want to make it public :-) [school name] is the first school where she is welcomed. And treated as "normal". For parents, that alone is good enough.

Me:
My brother has cerebral palsy and what was called retardation when he was diagnosed. So I know to some extent what you mean when you talk about dealing with discrimination.
Friends know, but I don't usually talk about it publicly. Different reasons than yours. Don't want it to be seen as sympathy-seeking.
Because it's really not something I want. Sympathy, I mean. It's just a fact that he has a child's mind & a body that has big limitations.
And that he needs care to take care of even basic needs.

Friend:
Same here. I totally understand. All parents like us want is acceptance. No sympathy or special favours.

Me:
Autism, from what people have told me, is a really tough disability to deal with. The kids have no outward signs of any disability.

Friend:
Yes. That is correct. My daughter is borderline autistic. But if you see her, she's like the most intelligent kid. Hence, untrained teachers can't deal with such kids. That leads to even more conflict between student and teacher. Ultimately results in low self esteem.
Same with ADHD.
The discrimination in the previous school was heartbreaking. We finally pulled her out last year when she was in [schooling year]. Short of beating her up, they did everything possible, including humiliating her every day. So much that she refused to go to school.

This is all we want, the families and caregivers to people with disability. (I deliberately do not try to speak for people with disability, because I do not know that world.) To not be 'special.' To not be a symbol for courage. To not be the disability.

The Bridge

When Mum died eight years ago, I tried to help John understand, to get it to him that she would not be coming back. In the roundabout way that conversations with him would go, we finally got around to him telling me that he knew mum was in pain of some kind and that she had been coughing and then she wasn't so she must not be in pain any more. Across the bridge, he said. Since he never used metaphors, I wondered what he meant. Then slowly it came to me. He loved Jim Reeves's soothing baritone, so Jim Reeves got played in the house a lot. And there's a song of his that has a chorus that goes like this:

Across the bridge there's no more sorrow
Across the bridge there's no more pain
The sun will shine across the river
And you'll never be unhappy again

I asked him whether that was what he meant, and he told me "that's what I said," as he often did when I finally managed to nail down something he was approaching in his own way.

If you know me, you know I have no religious faith. And that John's conditions were the thing that first started me doubting, when my prayers for his becoming 'normal' never got answered, when this boy without evil in his heart still stayed helpless and dependent.

But today, I wish, how I wish, I could believe those lyrics.

Godawful Poetry Fortnight - Year Eight

Godawful Poetry Fortnight was founded in 2008. It starts on the 19th August and runs up to the 31st August. This blog is its literal and spiritual home. All previous posts on the subject here are tagged thus.

Our Patron Saint is William Wordsworth.

And he gets this signal honour for saying that poetry "is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." Way too many aspiring poets have rallied behind that banner, too few going so far as recollecting those emotions in tranquillity, let alone reading the rest of the preface to Lyrical Ballads (which can be found on Bartleby, for those interested).

Godawful Poetry Fortnight isn't a competition. But we do invite all poets—beginners, much published, academics—to have a bit of fun and deliberately write bad poetry. As opposed to, you know, writing it accidentally.

The True Believers Challenge: post thirteen Godawful Poems, one on each day of the Fortnight.)

For those who need them, I'll post prompts here, or on Twitter, one for every day.

A Walk

Out for a walk. We stop near a little stairway that leads to the highway, to watch the busses. These stairs wouldn't deter a motorcyclist wanting to ride up — it's a gentle gradient, long steps, more terraced than steps actually — which is, I guess, why it has steel stanchions at the top and foot of it, spaced wide enough to let pedestrians through (unless magnificently obese), but not a scooter or mobike. Or a wheelchair. John doesn't mind staying at the bottom, as long as he can see the bustle. So there we are, him intent on the traffic, me thinking to myself how our pavements and roads are so fugging wheelchair-unfriendly and why the fug did the powers that be want to stop two-wheelers from using this perfectly sensible lane anyway.

People pass by, intent on their thoughts and lives, some chatting in pairs and trios, in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, English. Mostly the middle-class folk that live in this neck of the city, returning from weekend visits to family, perhaps. Some pause to gawk, in a way that still irks me after all these years, but doesn't bother John at all.

Then an elderly gent, slim, white-haired, impressively moustached, slightly grubby dhoti and kurta, stops and asks in Marathi if we we want to go up. No, I said, we're good. He carries on his way. It suddenly strikes me that he was offering to help. (This had not occurred to me, since it would be a three-person operation: one to carry John, two to lift the chair over, then the same at the top of the stairs.) I call out a thank you to him as he walks away. He turns to smile.

A few minutes later, a young man, talking on his cellphone, passes by. Again, not in the newest or cleanest of clothes. He pauses, mumbles to his interlocutor, lowers the phone, and asks me, first with a movement of arms and shoulder, and then in Hindi that has a feel of the north to it, if we want to go up. This time I get it immediately. I thank him and say no, we're just sitting.

Then we head home. I'm smiling.

Two-year-old child

He almost died several times in his first few months. Gran made Dad put his finger in that tiny palm, and that tiny hand clung on, and that tiny hand's owner clung on too. And they took him home.

Several more times, convulsions, extreme emetic episodes drained him and took him to hospitals and almost took him away.

When he was around eight, a cardiologist refused to operate on his heart, a surgery that would have given him better health. He's a vegetable, he said; he won't live into his teens; put him in an institution and forget about him; have more children. Mum and Dad were horrified. He was a smiling, laughing little boy who would always stay a little boy in his head, always need to be taken care of like a little boy, but also always stay smiling and laughing. It was unthinkable that he would be anywhere else than with them.

It's true that he almost died several more times in the years to come. Those occasional convulsions, that rare vomiting episode, the possible ulcerated colon, the curved spine that caused internal problems, that hip that dislocated and disintegrated without anyone noticing. He's had several stints in hospitals. He loves the damn things. All the attention from all the staff! His perpetual smile and easy laugh are magnets.

Mum and Dad never planned for a life for him after they were gone, because he was so fragile it would be silly to expect a normal lifespan for him. It worried Mum no end in her later years.

The little boy turned 51 today.

===

Why do I want to tell his story? There are many reasons. For now, just one. He's here. he defied the odds. He's still smiling.

Maybe I'll write later about the anger that boils up in me when I hear the suffix '-tard' as an insult. And how that makes me never want to talk to you again.

Maybe I'll write about how little this world, this country, this city, does for those whose bodies aren't 'normal,' whose minds will stay, always, childlike.

Maybe.

Not today.

But here, there's this. An attempt to let you look into his world. Some years old now, and neglected. But here.

From left field

My mother told me that as a little girl in school, she would instinctively do things with her left hand. But apparently that was not considered 'right' in those days; kids would be beaten for being left-handed, and forced to write with their right hands. She wasn't thrashed, but she was forced to use her right hand, and it became her dominant hand for most things. But toss her something without notice - a key or something like that - and she would instinctively catch it with her left hand.
By the time I was in school, the belief, the superstition (or whatever it was) that left-handedness was bad had long vanished. Lefties were still a minority and still are and will continue to be (statistically we are a right-handed species: only about 10% of people are left-handed).
The world is more hospitable to right-handed people on seemingly trivial things like the hand we use to for handshakes, through any number of utensils and tools, computer keyboards and mice, even for potentially dangerous power tools.
The bias against lefties remains in our language (in Latin, left is 'sinister,' in French, 'gauche,' and left itself meant, in Old English, weak, while right, as I've used it several times here, is correct), and in some customs (for instance money, in some parts of India, I have been told, must be handed over with the right hand, and parts of some religious observances must be performed with the right hand) but we no longer think left-handedness is evil or against the way of god. We accept that some people just ARE lefties. They don't choose it, they aren't tempted into it by bad company or decadent western morals or whatever someone's pet bias is. People aren't refused jobs if they're left-handed; we're okay with our kids associating with them, or, heck, even being lefties themselves. Lefties are 'normal' members of society in every way, even though the world we make around us is, quite literally, not always 'designed' for their needs.
All of which is to say, I wonder when we'll reach the same societal consensus on people who are sexually attracted to the same sex as themselves. (The stats are roughly the same, if I remember right: around 9% to 10% of humans are same-sex oriented.)

Oh, I'm right-handed, for the record.

Mumbai Press Club's Red Ink Awards: short-listed and winning stories

Not endorsed by or asked for by the Mumbai Press Club. This is just me and Google doing our thing. List reproduced from a Mumbai Press Club document I had access to because I was helping them out with live-Tweeting the event. The short-lists were displayed to the audience t at the event, so no secrets are being leaked.

P.S. No links for some print stories because I couldn't find them. And none to the TV stories because, ditto, I gave up after the first few. (Comment, tweet, or text me if you have them?)


BUSINESS

Print Shortlist

Rigged, Krishn Kaushik, The Caravan Magazine

Why The Jackfruit tree had Everything & Nothing to do with the CEO'S AS Murder, Anuradha Sharma, Yahoo Originals

Inside the network 18 takeover, Ashish K Mishra, Mint

Infy after Murthy, Goutam Das, Business Today

Winner

A Shah Overthrown, Dinesh Narayanan, The Caravan Magazine

Television Shortlist

MQ2- Ground Report : Jan Dhan Yojna, Lakshman Roy, CNBC awaaz

Chinese bullet train, Dibang, ABP News

Shah Commission Report on Illegal Mining - Operation Loot , Santosh Kumar & Deepak Upadhaya, Zee Business

Winner

China ke achche din kaise aaye, Dibang, ABP News



HUMAN RIGHTS

Print Shortlist

Why the Andaman Islands are headed for disaster, Madhusree Mukerjee, Grist Media & Yahoo Originals

Beware you could be next inmate at Beggars home (Series), Vinod Kumar Menon, Mid Day

Buddha's Orphan, Sohini Chattopadhay, Open Magazine

Budaun won PM award, Pritha Chatterjee, The Indian Express

Winner

Blood in the water, Salil Tripathi, The Caravan Magazine

Television Shortlist

Children of war, Jugal Purohit, TV Today Network

Winner

Koi Laut De Mere - Syed Wasif Haider - Series, ShaTahir Khan, Aaj Tak


POLITICS

Print Shortlist

Irregularities in cement nala bandh construction series, Tushar Kharat / Govind Tope, Sakaal Media Group

In the Mahatama's Footsteps, Niranjan Takle, The Week

Winner

RSS 3.0 - Mohan Bhagwat a resurgent Sangh to the cusp of political power, Dinesh Narayanan, The Caravan Magazine

Television Shortlist

Gujarat Loksabha Election - series, Alka Dupkar, IBN Lokmat

Winner

Kashmir Ki Kashmakash, Jitendra Dixit, ABP News



ENVIRONMENT

Print Shortlist

Western Ghats Series, Anahita Mukherjee, Times Of India

Far Valley, Anosh Malekar, Caravan

The Oppressed Ark, Allia Allana, Fountain Ink

Battle Over oil, coal &; forest, Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava, Down to Earth

Winner

Danger Factories Ahead / Mumbai's Ticking Bombs, Sharad Vyas, Mid Day

Television Shortlist

Marathawada Ki Haqeekat, Umesh Kumavat, ABP News

Save Aravali or Delhi will become a desert, Rajat Singh, Aaj Tak



SPORTS

Print Shortlist

Haryana IAS officer daughters national champ in Absentia, Saurabh Duggal, Hindustan Times

How Germany pulled off its football renaissance, Sopan Joshi, Grist Media and Yahoo Originals

The Wind in his willow, Devendra Pandey, Indian Express

Gopichand Factory, Lhendup G Bhutia, Open Magazine

Winner

Beyond the Boundary, Rahul Bhatia, The Caravan

Television Shortlist

Arjun Award story for Manoj Kumar, Rakesh Saran, Zee Media

Little Wonder, Subodh M Mayure, Jai Maharashtra

Winner

Story of Rajkumar Tiwari India's First Gold Medal Winner, Suprita Das, NDTV



BIG PICTURE

Print Shortlist

The Poisoned Land, Narendra Bisht, Outlook Magazine (Not sure if I have the right link)

Runner-up

Indian Museum ship Vikrant, Hemant Padalkar, DNA Newspaper

Winner

Where would you go if you were dying?, Hari Adivarekar, Yahoo Originals



LIFESTYLE & ENTERTAINMENT

Print Shortlist

The Revivalist, Thanuleho Hakokip, The Caravan Magazine

The Orewellian State, Shreevastva Nevatia, Blink

The Pleasures and Horrors of the digital afterlife, Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia, Open Magazine

Reeling in th Raj, Thanuleho Hakokip, The Caravan Magazine

Winner

The colourful and disturbing world of Guddu Rangila , Tanul Thakur, The Big Indian Picture

Television Shortlist

Love story season - Jiah Khan, Yaseer Usman, ABP News

Interview Vishal Bhardwaj, Pragya Tiwari, The BiG iNdian Picture

Winner

Art Talk : Pandit Jasraj, Jujhar Singh, News X



HEALTH & WELLNESS

Print Shortlist

Maha FD A writer to NPPA, Shardul Nautiyal, Chronicle Pharamabiz

The Neglected version Of Drowning, GBSNP Varma, Fountain Ink Magazine

Carcinogenic banned chemical used to ripen mangoes APMC market vashi, Vinod Kumar Menon , Mid-Day

Winners

Life after liver transplantation, Johnson Poovanthuruth, Deepika

Smokescreen, Nikita Saxena, The Caravan



CRIME

Print Shortlist

Hell on the high seas, Madhavankutty Pillai, Open Magazine

Andheri Man's Daring Escape From Human Slavery Mafia In Malaysia, Bhupen Patel, Mid Day

Winners

The Believer, Leena Reghunath, The Caravan Magazine

Dangerous new drug hits Mumbai market worst it is not covered under NDPS Act unless exposed by Midday (series), Vinod Kumar Menon, Mid Day Infomedia Ltd


Television Shortlist

Moin Qureshi - Operation Hawala, Tarun Nangia / Dipu Rai, Zee Business

Phoolan Devi Murder, Vikas Mishra, ABP News



SCIENCE & INNOVATION

The Mirror Man, Srinath Perur, Mosaic

Snow Business, Peter Griffin, Forbes India

Why is Hari Chasing a lizard in the Andaman's, Deepika Sarma, Yahoo Originals

Game changer Lifesaver, Mini P Thomas, The Week Magazine

Winner

How a wasp won the great papaya war, Shamsheer Yousaf, Fountain Ink Magazine



JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR

Truth vs Hype, Sreenivasan Jain, NDTV



IMPACT EDITOR OF THE YEAR

Arnab Goswami, Times Now



LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Prannoy Roy, NDTV

Observations from a hospital

#WriteWhatYouKnow & all.

In random order.
Senior male docs are referred to as Dr [Surname] or [Surname] Sir. Senior female docs are referred to as Dr [Firstname], even by themselves.
Juniorish docs referred to (across genders) as Dr [Firstname].
Nurses are never Nurse [Name] just Sister or, increasingly now with more male nurses, Brother.
The family references also apply to the orderlies, who are Maushi or Maamaa, never their names.
Interesting that those lower in the hospital pecking order get to be more senior 'relatives.' So it's amusing to see, say, a senior nurse addressing a younger orderly as Maushi, and being addressed in return as Sister.
And older patients in bigger hospitals get called Madam or Sir. In smaller neighbourhood hospitals: Aunty or Uncle.
(Must sadly confess that the nurses in my neighbourhood hospital call me Uncle. Or rather, them being mainly Malayali, Ungle.)
Also, while the nursing profession seems to be attracting more men now, the Malayali dominance continues!
(On a recent Kerala trip, I had this happy feeling of being in familiar territory, though I've barely spent time there. It was only when I was in hospital recently did it click together: that's the only other place where I have been surrounded by thick Malayali accents!)
The ironic thing about being in hospital as a patient is how you become part of the furniture. Staff around you discuss the details of their personal lives without inhibition. You're just .. background. Like the water-cooler, or the photocopier. Not a person. And, at the same time, you are understanding them as people, individuals with normal concerns & hassles, not their job functions.
Right then. This is your Ungle signing off for now. Gotta go to the hospital for post-op follow-up visit.

Even More Animal Passions

On V-Day, one male honeybee gets to mate, but at a sad price
Ejaculation ejects sperm. And genitals, which can't bee nice

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Echidna males have something that would make you scratch your forehead
The male valentine equipment comes with, you guessed it, four heads

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With anglerfish, the love-bite is for keeps, and that's no metaphor
The male literally stays attached: it's V-day for ever more

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You think your.. Valentine is big? Mate, you're actually quite thrifty
The male barnacle has a thing that's his body length times fifty.

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The Valentine antics of the antichinus are worthy of a talk at TED
They do nothing but bonk for weeks until the males go blind & drop dead

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Banana slugs are hermaphrodites, so each one can do & be done
But occasional apophallation can end the Valentine's fun of one

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Squid celebrate Valentine's day at arm's length, you could say
The male throws sperm packets, the female caches them away

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Dolphins don't have hands or feet, they're not 'manipulative'
But their prehensile male organs make V-day, um, creative

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According to @realscientists, nurse sharks are prone to hi-jinks
Their Valentine celebrations are a physical form of group-think

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Feline males have keratin barbs on their Valentine equipment
Withdrawal is painful, so females are quite vocal post delivery of shipment

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The water boatman's Valentine song's sung in a way that's all its own
It vibrates its penis against its abs, the loudest animal sound known

(in proportion to the critter's size)

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Harpactea sadistica ladies have no vagina-like place for.. deposits
So the gent drills one in her body & opens his Valentine faucet

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Turkeys meant for eating are for enormous breasts breeded
Which makes natural breeding tough, so artificial Valentinisation is needed

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Flatworms are hermaphrodites, they.. come with TWO 'swords' on the tummy
They fence each other for V-day, & the loser gets to be mummy

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Giant pandas don't seem to KNOW exactly how to get it on
So for Valentine season researchers have to show them panda porn

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Bonobos don't fight much; they resolve conflict with sexual play
In other words, for bonobos, every day is St Valentine's day

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Male marsupials have two-pronged penises which seems like too many for one
But the females have two vaginas, so they're ready for Valentine's fun

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Male 'gators don't need Valentine viagra, they have permanent erections
Excessive amounts of collagen there explain the constant distension

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Snakes & lizards have two sets of valentine tackle
But they use them one at a time, which is practical

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Amphibian Valentine play does not involve a nexus twixt the sexes
Daddy semi-leapfrogs Mummy, and then performs amplexus

Subtle sexism

Hello Genderlog fans :)

I'm doing a stint behind the wheel at @genderlogindia on Twitter next ^this^ week.

The topics I plan to focus on are women in the workplace in professions that on the surface seem to have a fair amount of gender balance, but which nevertheless see discrimination happening. From conversations I've had, this can be of a more subtle nature than what one would see in more traditionally chauvinistic work areas, but it exists all right.

The professional areas that came to mind:
• Journalism including broadcast journalism, photojournalism, criticism, opinion, editorial cartooning, and design and tech in their journalistic avataars
• Publishing including writing, art and design in their book avataars, aside from the business of publishing
• Advertising, Marketing, PR, including social media handling, Event Management
• Art commercial, creative, design
• Technology (yes, there is quite a decent ratio at least in the younger age groups, and then many women seem to drop out, and examining why that happens is part of that discussion) and Science
• Academia and Education
• Entrepreneurship across categories
• Maybe Banking and Financial Services too, since so many women are at the top of this field
Edited to add:
• Entertainment, including cinema, music, stage, stand-up

I was wondering whether (a) you have any suggestions for things I should read on the topic, and link to, connected with gender and these area of work and (b) whether I can call on you to chip in on the discussions when they happen?

Let me know, and also do please pass the word?

Leave suggestions here, or tweet me at zigzackly or email me.

Free offence

It is possible to hold these views simultaneously:

• Free speech is critically important; on it rest many other liberties

• Free speech can offend; many DO offend using free speech; that is okay; in fact it must be defended

• Offensive speech must be defended even if you disagree vehemently with what is being said; defending it does not mean you agree with it

• Offensive speech can be countered with more free speech, which can be as, or more, or less — your choice, it's free, remember? — offensive

• Rational, contemplative, evidence-backed responses work better

• It can be fun to mock too, but this usually winds up preaching to the choir and alienating those who agree with the idea you're ridiculing (but humour, mockery, satire, and even crude satire is free speech too, so go for it, and try, pretty please, to be actually funny so I can defend you with my heart in it)

• There is learning to be had from even very offensive speech

• Countering offensive speech with violence is wrong

• Islam is getting vilified for the misdeeds of its radical fringe

• Dig deep enough, try hard enough to understand, and you'll find that inequality — economic inequality — lies at the root of much religion-based conflict, and that these inequalities are being exploited by leaders who use religion as a cloak for their lust for power and money

• People who take offence at slights to what they call an omnipotent being are risible

• All religion is crap

• If religion helps you sleep well at night, I have no quarrel with you

• Bacon is tasty