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Time travel in books

These instances, and in early literary manifestations — “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) by Washington Irving and of several others, who sleep through the ages to awaken in the future — are more cases of time dilation than time travel. But that would soon change as science fiction emerged and flourished…writes Vikas Dutta

The most plaintive words, across languages, could be “If I could turn back time/the clock”. While what the future will bring hangs heavy on most people, and many may not forgo a way to plumb its secrets; while human science has yet to devise a way to enable time travel, human culture, especially its literature, has no such limitations.

Time travel across various media — from “Dr Who” to “Star Trek: The Original Series” (TV, films, spin-off novels), from Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone” to “Back to the Future” series, and from Harry Potter (remember the third installment?), to an array of science fiction masterpieces — shows that the trope has flourished for more than a century now, and become a staple of science fiction.

However, the earliest occurrences crop up in some unexpected places.

The Vishnu Purana tells us of the solar dynasty monarch Raivata Kakudmi, who travels to the abode of the celestial creator Brahma to consult him on a pressing matter. He only spends a day there but is surprised to find, on his return to the mortal realm, that several aeons have passed.

There are similar stories in other traditions too, especially of the “Seven Sleepers”, who hid in a cave to avoid persecution of the Christians in the then Roman empire, went to sleep, and woke up centuries later. A version is also found in The Quran (“Sura Al-Kahf”/”The Cave”).

These instances, and in early literary manifestations — “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) by Washington Irving and of several others, who sleep through the ages to awaken in the future — are more cases of time dilation than time travel. But that would soon change as science fiction emerged and flourished.

The idea of a device, or some unknown natural or supernatural occurrence, propelling the user into the future, or the past, is generally held to begin with H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” (1895), though Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” (1843), in which the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is confronted with his past and future, and given a choice to change the latter, is an earlier example in some respects.

Among the earliest known works of time travel, by means of a device rather than supernatural power, is American journalist-author Edward Page Mitchell’s short story “The Clock That Went Backward” (1881), in which two boys go back in time and space, courtesy of the device, and make a mark in history.

As the story was targeted at younger readers, it did not create much of a splash.

Though Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” (1889), about the eponymous hero travelling back to the era of the Knights of the Round Table and bringing in elements of the future, came first, it was Wells who laid the basis for the sub-genre of science fiction.

But to be considered a time travel story, a work must contain a few defining elements, such as a mechanism by which to travel through time, usually a time machine.

There is one more key element, which we’ll return to soon.

Time travel stories also come in various flavours.

One is about the inevitability of fate where the protagonists go to the future, only to find a dystopian world which is a consequence of happenings in their own time, and return to their time and try to prevent what they saw from happening.

They may or may not be successful, and if it is the latter, well, you can’t fight fate. The “Time Scout” books by Robert Asprin and Linda Evans are a good example.

Then there are the ones where a trip into the past shows that history is different from what they thought it was, and then they change it so that it conforms to what they “know” as history — they think they “changed the past”, but this has already been done. “There Will Be Time” by Poul Anderson, Eoin Colfer’s “Artemis Fowl”, Robert Heinlein’s “The Door into Summer” and some of his stories serve as examples.

Another variant sees the heroes go to the past because things went wrong there and they want to change it to make a better “present”. This throws up some sub-variants, especially when villains go to the past to change it so that the present is better for them (Austin Grossman’s uproarious superhero novel “Soon I Will Be Invincible”), and thus, bad for the heroes, who might follow them to foil the attempts (Terry Pratchett’s “Night Watch”).

And then, even sometimes well-intentioned time travellers heading to the past to try and make it “better”, may end up making it worse, either by altering the future for the bad, creating a situation where the cause-effect paradigm or even the fabric of reality is threatened, or drawing the adverse attention of entities who would like time to go as it was.

Then, there is what is known as “Hitler’s Time Travel Exemption Act”, where it is impossible to go back and stop a real-life bad thing from happening — say, killing Adolf Hitler before he comes to power, or savingJohn F. Kennedy from an assassin’s bullet. Either it makes things worse — the villain is replaced with an even more evil, but efficient, one or saving a hero has unwelcome consequences, or time itself will prevent this.

Stephen Fry’s “Making History” is what happens when you go back to eliminate Hitler, Stephen King’s “11/22/63” (about saving JFK), and Ben Elton’s “Time and Time Again” (about averting the assassination that led to World War I).

Getting trapped leaves our heroes stuck in the past, and they now have to find how to get to their present in the future, or wait for someone to rescue them. If they can’t, they have to choose between living a quiet life and trying not to interfere with the past, or using their future knowledge to make the past better.

Or they might discover that they’re in a situation and can’t change anything even if they wanted to. An example can be found in Books 2 and 3 (“The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe” — for the trapped part — and “Life, the Universe and Everything”, for the chancy rescue part) of Douglas Adam’s “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. Isaac Asimov’s “The End of Eternity” is about being unable to change anything.

Taking from the multiple worlds theory view of quantum mechanics, some stories presage a visit to the past and changes made there, creating an alternate timeline where the future will have changed, for better or worse, due to their intervention and they might not even be able to return there. (Asimov’s Norby series deals with this as well as Eric Flint’s “1632”, and its sequels by other writers too.)

Then there are the ones about organisations that patrol time and prevent changes which could affect the past/present/future, or threaten causality, space-time, or existence. Poul Anderson’s “Time Patrol” series is among the best.

The temporal paradox element focuses on time travel so affecting causality that it may lead to the time travellers not being able to make the trip at all, and this could lead to the end of time/the world, or their own existence, at the least.

If all this leaves you confused, don’t doubt yourself. It’s now time for one most essential feature of time travel stories left to be revealed — the mind games it entails. Our minds are so attuned to the unidirectional, unispeed movement of time, that the paradoxes and mess of causality that permeate and define it, leaves many struggling to grasp the leaps in logic demanded.

If you still are interested, begin with the anthologies by Mike Ashley for the Mammoth Book and British Library Science Classics series, or for Kindle readers, the Wildside Press Megapacks of time travel stories (four at the last count) for the shorter version, and a whole galaxy of the longer form. Indian examples are virtually absent, with just Shovon Chowdhury’s “The Competent Authority” or Trisha Das’ “Kama’s Last Sutra” qualifying.

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21 February 2022
The Comrades and the Mullahs: Chasing the evolution of Beijing’s Afghan policy

Co-author Stanly Johny notes that the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, after 20 years of war, was one of the defining moments of Asian geopolitics in the 21st century…reports Asian Lite News

This is possibly the first book to look at China’s growing role in India’s neighbourhood via its engagement with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and what it means for India.

The withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan has left a lasting impact on both Afghanistan’s future and on Asian geopolitics. It has also brought China into focus. Tracing the emergence of China as a key player in Afghanistan and the evolution of China’s Afghan policy especially with respect to its relations with the Taliban the book says that Beijing’s dominant role in Afghanistan’s future is a potentially game-changing development in Asian geopolitics, even if questions remain about the former’s appetite to step in to fill the void and the limits of its ambitions.

In “The Comrades And The Mullahs” (HarperCollins), Ananth Krishnan and Stanly Johny examine what Beijing’s interests are and the drivers of its foreign policy, and, more specifically, how its new Silk Road project – the Belt and Road Initiative – is shaping China Afghan relations.

They look at how Afghanistan has emerged as a key point on the corridor heading west from Xinjiang, and discuss the Xinjiang factor, drawing on their travels to China’s western frontiers, as well as the internal dynamics that are pushing Beijing’s westward march.

Another factor is the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the terror groups that are leading to an increasingly securitized approach to China’s western regions and beyond, including possible Chinese plans to deploy special forces along the China-Afghan border areas in the Wakhan corridor and Badakhshan region.

China’s Afghan engagement has also deepened its ‘all- weather’ alliance with Pakistan – with Beijing increasingly leaning on Islamabad, particularly in its outreach to the Taliban and other elements in Afghanistan that have long been supported by the Pakistani state – and is a perennial source of tension between Islamabad and Kabul. The authors show how this increasing closeness is alarming for India, and might have far-reaching consequences, especially in Kashmir.

“China, both as an immediate neighbour of Afghanistan and as a superpower-in-waiting, stands uniquely placed to shape Afghanistan’s future,” says co-author Ananth Krishnan, adding: “Yet curiously, the China-Afghanistan relationship remains little understood.”

“This book, the first to focus on this crucial relationship, helps separate the hype from fact and lifts the veil on how Beijing sees its western neighbour. The US exit brought celebration in Beijing, seen as an example of Western decline. Yet it also brought deep concern on what Taliban rule may mean for the region’s security and stability. China does not want to repeat the mistakes of the West. More than ever, Beijing is willing to insert itself as a power player abroad. This book tries to capture this fascinating and evolving dichotomy,” Krishnan says.

Co-author Stanly Johny notes that the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, after 20 years of war, was one of the defining moments of Asian geopolitics in the 21st century and that the pullback and the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul took place at a time when the global contest between the United States and China was already heating up.

“For Beijing, the withdrawal of the United States from one of its backyard countries is welcome news. But when it’s preparing to chart a new path of engagement with Afghanistan’s new rulers, the biggest challenge before the comrades in Beijing is Afghanistan’s history itself. This book tells the story of both Afghanistan’s complex history and the challenges it offers to China at a time when Asian geopolitics is undergoing a paradigm shift,” Johny adds.

Ananth Krishnan is the China correspondent for The Hindu and is currently based in Hong Kong. In 2019, he was a visiting fellow at Brookings India. He was previously the Beijing-based associate editor at the India Today Group. He has reported from China for close to a decade and his reporting has taken him to all but three of China’s thirty-three provinces and regions. He is the author of “India’s China Challenge” (2020).

Stanly Johny is the international affairs editor with The Hindu. A PhD in international studies from the Centre for West Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, he has been writing on international affairs and Indian foreign policy in The Hindu Group publications for nearly a decade. An IVLP (International Visitor Leadership Programme) fellow of the US State Department and an India Australia Youth Dialogue alumnus, he is the author of “The ISIS Caliphate: From Syria to the Doorsteps of India” (2018).

ALSO READ-‘Soul Catcher’ of resilience and grief, magic and violence, love and loss

17 February 2022
‘Soul Catcher’ of resilience and grief, magic and violence, love and loss

To her, it meant selling a certain number of pieces, i.e., getting published. She wanted to write about topics that made a difference, and this helped her define her market..writes Vishnu Makhijani

Imagine setting out as a writer by penning your own obituary to “find out who I really wanted to be” and close to two decades later, being the award-winning author of 11 books on food, culture and inspiration, being featured in four “Best Food Writing” anthologies, being named by the Chicago Tribune as “one of the seven food writers to watch in 2012” and being in equal parts storyteller, globe-trotter, accomplished literary coach, and educator.

That’s exactly the path trodden by Virginia-based Monica Bhide, born in New Delhi and raised in the Middle East, with a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Bangalore University and two master’s degrees from George Washington University (Washington, DC) and Lynchburg College (Virginia), who feels fortunate for her rich, multicultural education, enjoys giving back to the global community and is hopeful of “leaving a loving legacy of beautiful stories for my children and my readers”.

“I wrote my obituary to find out who I really wanted to be. Sound far-fetched? It really is not,” Bhide, whose magical, fantastical, and hauntingly written new novel, “The Soul Catcher”, is packed with resilience and grief, magic and violence, love and loss, told IANS in an interview.

“In 2003, my dear friend Beth died tragically in a freak accident. We were all devastated; Beth was thirty-seven years old. My heart ached for her three young children. Her death shook my very roots. Selfishly, I turned inward and to God for guidance. What if that had been me, I wondered? What was I doing with my life? I was 34 at the time and I wondered what would happen if I, too, died at 37.

“So I sat down with a sheet of paper and wrote my obituary. This was who I want to be remembered as, I thought. There were obvious things like wanting to be known as a good mother, a loving daughter and a helpful human being. Common phrases surfaced such as making a difference and leaving the world a better place. It occurred to me that what I had just written was my personal vision. And I knew for a fact these values I held so dear were not reflected in my life choices,” Bhide added.

At that time, she had spent 12 years “in a job wearing the golden handcuffs. The pay was excellent, of course, but I worked 60-hour weeks, travelled endlessly, and rarely got a moment with my family. I did not hate my job, but just never felt satisfied” she explained.

“It was personally and culturally important to me to gain my father’s blessings. I greatly admire my father, and the man who taught me how to walk certainly deserved a say in how I defined my life. He agreed. The first thing I did was to turn my home office upside down to find the two pieces of paper on which I had written the personal vision and the professional vision.

“I then put my engineering hat on and compared the two notes, looking for a solution to the problems they presented. There were similarities. Some phrases appeared on both pieces of paper (making a difference and making the world a better place). I wrote those on the left hand side of a new page. These would later become the foundation of my new path. These were the things on which I would not compromise. Everything else was built up from these factors,” Bhide said.

“Saying I wanted to be a successful writer is like saying I wanted to be a movie star! So what does a successful writer do; what did it mean? My consulting self came alive and I created a sheet with the word successful and its attributes – what did it mean to be successful – qualitatively and quantitatively,” she wondered.

To her, it meant selling a certain number of pieces, i.e., getting published. She wanted to write about topics that made a difference, and this helped her define her market.

“The scribbling that emerged from the above exercise became my one year plan. Writing things down helped me make a commitment to them. I tacked the sheet on a board right above my computer so that I could see it each day. I began a new journey” and was triumphant when she sold her first print piece to The Washington Post in 2004.

Creating your personal vision, Bhide maintained, “is not just a creative exercise, but an exercise in commitment to yourself. It’s about actually doing something and not just paying lip service. It’s as much about finding out who you really are as it is about staying true to what you find”.

Today, she works a fulltime job “that I love; I make a difference at work and with my writing as well. I have travelled the world and taught writing seminars in London, Dubai, India and many other places. I get to share stories of food, love and longing. I have been a literary coach and a lifelong learner. I am hopeful that I will leave a loving legacy of beautiful stories for my children and my readers”, Bhide said.

Her output features bestsellers like “Karma and the Art of Butter Chicken”, “The Devil in Us”, and “Modern Spice”.

Author, activist, model, TV host and top chef Padma Lakshmi picked “Modern Spice” as one of the “Best Books Ever” for Newsweek. “The Devil in Us”, a short story collection, topped the list on Kindle as a bestseller in its category of Literary Short Fiction. Bhide’s memoir, “A Life of Spice”, was picked by Eat Your Books, a global community of cookbook lovers, as one of the top five food memoirs.

Bhide’s new novel, “The Soul Catcher” (Bodes Well Publishing), set in a real, yet magical, modern-day India, has its roots in 19th century New Jersey, where one of the most influential inventors in American history, Thomas Edison, lived and worked. Legend has it that Henry Ford asked Edison’s son to catch his father’s dying breath in a test tube now on display at the Henry Ford Museum.

“This idea that the breath of life can be captured – and shared with those who need it most – inspired me to embark upon a mystical journey, transcending time and space. I researched this book for well over five years before writing it. There was so much to think about – I wrote it as a novel first, then as a collection of short stories and then scrapped it all and started again! In the end, it is a novel told in stories – like a mosaic or a puzzle that comes together. I hope I have done it justice,” Bhide declared.

As an extension of this, she has a word of advice for people who are trying their best to do what needs to be done in these trying times.

“Don’t lose hope and focus on what you can control. We are living in times that are, well, challenging to say the least but there are still sunsets and sunrises, babies are being born, lovers are getting together, new friendships are forming and flowers are blooming there is hope! I have a podcast called Powered by Hope that focuses on this very topic, It is free on my site, www.monicabhide.com,” she said.

This is in line with how Bhide had set out as an author.

“By definition, obituaries signify an end, but for me they signified the beginning of a new life. I remind myself constantly that the journey is the key here, not the destination.”

Amen!

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17 February 2022
A book to find the ‘best version of yourself’

These distinguished people have achieved amazing success by passionately pursuing their goal-based journeys and have underlined the ideas shared in the book…reports Asian Lite News

Here’s a step-by-step guide to defining and achieving your aspirational life goals – from age 15 onwards.

“Achieving Meaningful Success – Unleash the Power of Me” by Vivek Mansingh and Rachna Thakurdas (Penguin) is an adept lifetime mentor faithfully by your side to guide you through various stages of life. It guides you in achieving meaningful success including tremendous professional success through multidimensional and balanced life goals, which are the key to happiness and fulfilment.

The book first focuses on defining the person you aspire to be through a step-by-step process to define your aspirational life goals. Then it guides you in becoming the best version of yourself and worthy of realizing your aspirations.

The ideas shared are relevant to people of ages fifteen years onwards, from high school students to early and senior professionals to CEOs. It also includes insights from exclusive interviews with Ratan Tata, Narayan Murthy, Kiran Majumdar-Shaw, John Chambers, Dr Devi Shetty, Rahul Dravid, Prakash Padukone, Vinita Bali, Vani Kola, and more.

These distinguished people have achieved amazing success by passionately pursuing their goal-based journeys and have underlined the ideas shared in the book.

“I have always tried to do the right thing even if that wasn’t the easiest choice, whether it was related to manpower or shutting down a business. My guiding principle is that one should be able to sleep at night without wondering if he’s done something wrong,” says Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata.

“I am often asked how I would like to be remembered. I answer that I want to be remembered as a fair person who practises the golden rule: do unto others what you want them to do unto you,” says Infosys founder and Chairman Emeritus N.R. Narayana Murthy

“Everyone needs a mentor to realize their potential. Best wishes to Dr Mansingh as attempts to throw light on this important aspect through this book,” says cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar.

Vivek Mansingh is a mentor par excellence and is in pursuit of “Mentoring A Million”. He is a global leader, entrepreneur, author, technology visionary, innovator, international speaker and philanthropist. His mentoring strategies have helped thousands of people around the world.

He has had the privilege of working with David Packard, Bill Hewlett, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and John Chambers. He is currently a GP at YourNest VC Fund and sits on the board of several global organizations. Previously, he served as president, Cisco & Dell R&D; MD, Ishoni Networks (acquired by Philips) and Portal Software (acquired by Oracle).

Before returning to India, he held management positions at HP and Fujitsu in Silicon Valley. He was also the founder of ATTI (Aavid) in the US. He is a Gold Medallist from NIT Allahabad, PhD from Queen’s University, Canada, and EMBA at Stanford University. He has six US patents, and vital contributions to two technology books. He is listed in the National Who’s Who of USA, received Chanakya Leadership Award, and IT Man of the Year 2016 from Enterprise Connect, the US.

Rachna Thakurdas Singh has published several books. Her debut novel “Dating, Diapers and Denial” remained on the bestsellers stand for over a year. The New Indian Express hailed her as a “part of the new wave of genuinely funny, smart and self-aware women writers in the country”.

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16 February 2022
Books behind ‘battling films’

Brickhill, however, is unique in having two other works become successful films — “The Dam Busters”, based on an RAF bombing raid on German industry (book, 1951; film, 1955) and “Reach for the Sky” (book, 1953; film, 1956), on the disabled British fighter ace Douglas Bader…reports Vikas Dutta

The ‘egg or chicken’ conundrum is not required to establish whether books or films came first, but it is indisputable that a whole host of blockbuster movies — from the James Bond to the Harry Potter series, from “Dracula” to “Gone With the Wind”, and from “Ben-Hur” to “Jurassic Park” — owe their origin to books. War movies are no different.

A constant occurrence in human affairs from the earliest time, wars, given their effect on a society’s present and the future, the sacrifices they demand, and the moral issues they raise, figure in all forms of literary works. With the advent of cinema, their cultural depiction got a new — and much wider — display.

Since the First World War, war films of all shades, from jingoistic to pacifist, have been a staple of global cinema, being made right even as the conflict they depict rages on, down till the present day. Cinema traditions across the Americas, Europe and Asia have their masterpieces, but it is Hollywood, whose sheer scope and influence makes it predominant, that is most known for its repertoire.

While it has filmed a wide swathe of wars down the ages and around the world, from the Trojan War to the War against Terror, as well as some lesser-known conflicts (the 15th Moorish-Christian battles in Spain known as ‘El Cid’), the pride of place belongs to those set in the Second World War.

But, be they broad-spectrum retellings of major battles like the D-Day (“The Longest Day”, 1962), or the Battle of Arnhem (“A Bridge Too Far”, 1977), or episodes of PoW breakouts such as “The Great Escape” (1963), focused experiences of smaller formations (“Cross of Iron”, 1977, or “Squadron 633”, 1964), or even varying degrees of fiction (“The Bridge on the River Kwai”, 1957, “The Dirty Dozen”, 1967, “Where Eagles Dare”, 1968, and “The Eagle Has Landed”, 1976), all are based on books. Also, most made the transition from the page to the big screen in a considerably short span of time.

Irish-American journalist Cornelius Ryan’s eponymous military histories, which draw on the experiences of as many survivors as available from all sides, came out in 1959 and 1974 — three years before the films based on them; American author E.M. Nathanson’s “The Dirty Dozen” came out two years before the film; and Scottish novelist Alistair Maclean’s “Where Eagles Dare” and Jack Higgins’ “The Eagle Has Landed” just a year before.

There was, however, a lag for “Cross of Iron” based on German author Willi Heinrich’s “The Willing Flesh” (German 1955, English 1956), “Squadron 633” on former RAF officer Frederick E. Smith’s 1956 book of the same name, and most for Australian fighter pilot-turned-author Paul Brickhill, whose work on the PoW escape — of which he had first-hand experience — came out in 1950.

Brickhill, however, is unique in having two other works become successful films — “The Dam Busters”, based on an RAF bombing raid on German industry (book, 1951; film, 1955) and “Reach for the Sky” (book, 1953; film, 1956), on the disabled British fighter ace Douglas Bader.

But there are major differences between the printed and the reel versions. Some are due to the limitations of the form, say, the need for a condensed narrative, or the inability to delve into the background or to represent the thought processes of a character on screen, but most are instances of artistic licence, driven by the need to create a compelling or dramatic scene even if it is made up.

In “The Longest Day”, the scene showing a group of French nuns, led by the Mother Superior no less, hurrying into a war zone to minister to their injured compatriots makes for splendid viewing, but never happened in real life. Then, at the end of “A Bridge Too Far”, the actor playing the role of a British General, who masterminded the campaign, is shown speaking the phrase from which the book and the film’s title is drawn — he did say that but at a different point, in another context. Then, the motorcycle chase towards the end of “The Great Escape” makes for thrilling viewing, but never happened in real life.

Political and commercial reasons may also play a role in changes. “The Great Escape” was heavily fictionalised, with all its protagonists being composites of the real-life inmates and their roles jazzed up for the stars playing them. American officers, moreover, were given prominence, despite the fact that the PoWs who broke out were British and other Allied personnel.

The Americans were involved in planning and preparations for the escape, but their entire contingent had been moved to a different camp more than half a year before the escape.

On the other hand, some of these books do not make it easygoing for the filmmaker.

“The Dirty Dozen”, the film that is, shows the selection and training of the personnel for about two-thirds of the running time and the operation in about the final third. Guess, how much the book, over 500 pages in most editions, devotes to the denouement? Just the last two dozen-odd pages, with most of this being a report for the general concerned, and spending the rest as a character study. You won’t even recognise most of the film’s ‘Dirty Dozen’.

There are more examples of divergences, but let’s now look at another half-a-dozen war books and their film adaptations, which are lesser-known, but deserve both reading and viewing.

Less known than his contemporary Nicholas Monserrat of “The Cruel Sea” (1951; film, 1953), British naval officer-turned-writer Denys Rayner’s “The Enemy Below (1956; film, 1957) is a fictional but authentic tale of a cat-and-mouse game between an Allied destroyer and a German U-boat somewhere in the South Atlantic Ocean, spread over five days and ending with both in the same boat (figuratively and literally).

On land, much drier land, is British novelist Christopher Landon’s “Ice Cold in Alex” (1957; film, 1958), about two British soldiers and two nurses, pulling back after an advance by Field Marshal Rommel’s Afrika Corps, getting separated from their convoy, and forced to make the arduous drive across the desert to safety.

While Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” (1961; film, 1970) is the defining satirical novel of World War II, American novelist William Bradford Huie’s “The Americanisation of Emily” (1959; film, 1964) is a no less barbed look at how some officers will go to any extent to achieve glory, even as some seek to avoid it at any cost.

German novelist Hans Helmut Kirst’s “The Night of the Generals” (1962; film, 1967) is the incongruous tale of a dogged German military policeman seeking to catch a serial murderer of prostitutes, believed to be one of the three generals in the vicinity, even as indiscriminate massacres go on all around.

Start with these and note the differences.

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15 February 2022
Reading a passion for shining stars of B’town

Alia Bhatt stated on her Instagram that she took time out for a quick read before a shoot because it was her favourite thing to do as a child, getting lost and fascinated by the colours and characters…reports Olivia Sarkar

Bollywood is always busy filming or working on projects, rarely do celebrities have time to do what they enjoy the most. Still, between shoots or the occasional quiet evening at home, they choose a book over everything else. If you haven’t read in a while, this might motivate you:

Mouni Roy

Mouni Roy, is a voracious reader in addition to cooking various delicacies and spending time with her loved ones. During her honeymoon in Gulmarg the actress passed time reading and posted this picture stating, “The rooms were very still, while the pages were softly turned and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads & happy faces with white greetings.”

Alia Bhatt

Alia Bhatt stated on her Instagram that she took time out for a quick read before a shoot because it was her favourite thing to do as a child, getting lost and fascinated by the colours and characters.

Twinkle Khanna

Twinkle Khanna went on to become a successful author after her acting career. She is a constant reader. The actress is currently reading “The Appeal,” posting a picture on Instagram stating, “I put together a list of mysteries that had me hooked, booked, and helped set the kitchen on fire as I cooked.”

Sonam Kapoor Ahuja

Sonam Kapoor is a bookworm who has spent most of her time reading. She is so passionate about books that she encourages everyone to read them and develop good reading habits. She posted a picture of herself reading a book with the caption, “However long or short the read, however different the story may be, between every page, happiness exists!”

Soha Ali Khan

The library proves Soha Ali Khan loves to read. The actress also encourages one to develop a reading habit and to have a good book collection.

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14 February 2022
Order of magnitude: Between cosmic and terrestrial

Since the beginning of 2021, Kallat followed a ritual of making one daily drawing as part of a durational study in graphite, aquarelle pencil and gesso stains…writes Sukant Deepak

Artist Jitish Kallat’s ‘Order of Magnitude’, his first major solo exhibition in West Asia and the Levant will be presented by Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai, from February 16 to July 1. It will be accompanied by physical and virtual tours, educational and public programmes, a newly commissioned text by Amal Khalaf and artist conversations over the duration of the exhibition.

Presenting new works that include paintings, multimedia installations, drawings and site-specific interventions, the exhibition reflects Jitish Kallat’s profound deliberations on the interrelationship between the cosmic and the terrestrial.

The artist’s oeuvre sits between fluid speculation, precise measurement and conceptual conjectures producing dynamic forms of image-making. Using abstract, schematic, notational and representational languages, he engages with different modes of address, seamlessly interlacing the immediate and the cosmic, the telescopic and the microscopic, the past and present. In ‘Order of Magnitude’, one finds a contemplation of overarching interconnectivity on the individual, universal, planetary and extra-terrestrial dimensions.

The viewer is first confronted with Integer Studies (Drawings from Life), which run through the space resembling both the horizon and the equator. Since the beginning of 2021, Kallat followed a ritual of making one daily drawing as part of a durational study in graphite, aquarelle pencil and gesso stains. Each work comprises diverse forms anchored by the same three sets of numbers: the algorithmically estimated world population, the number of new births, and the death count noted at the particular moment of the work’s creation. Human life and death are abstracted in drawings that are both graphic and painterly, prompting questions of extinction and evolution.

Seen alongside these studies is a wall-sized painting titled ‘Postulates from a Restless Radius’, whose perimeter takes the form of the conic Albers projection of the Earth. The work begins as an unstable, cross-sectional grid (in aquarelle pencil) that opens up the globe on a flat plane. There is no cartographic intent here; in place of planetary geography it assembles signs and speculations, at once evoking botanical, suboceanic, celestial, and geological formations. ‘Postulates from a Restless Radius’ is an exploratory abstraction of forms that suggest signatures of growth and entropy.

Placed centrally are four double-sided and multi-scopic photo works titled ‘Epicycles’. This series began during the early days of the pandemic in 2020 with a hand-drawn journal capturing minute changes in Kallat’s studio — such as cracks surfacing on walls. The artist embeds these chance encounters with iconic pictures from the ‘Family of Man’ exhibition organised by photographer Edward Steichen at the MoMA, New York, in 1955. The resulting prints combine the artist’s everyday observations with archival images of human solidarity taken by photographers from around the world. Meticulously composed on a lenticular surface, the depicted figures appear and disappear as one moves around the work, yielding a complex portrait of time in its transience and ephemerality.

Finally, a site-specific intervention by the artist titled N-E-S-W serves as an allusive clue to reading this exhibition. Embedded within the foundation’s architecture, a functional magnetic compass is inset within the flooring. N-E-S-W summons the cardinal directions of the Earth, aligned to invisible force fields, rendering both the exhibition and Ishara into planetary surveying devices.

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14 February 2022
‘Awakening the rainmaker’: A guide to gender equality

The real trigger for action came three years ago when she was pregnant for the first time, during which period she got a lot of well-meaning advice – most commonly: “You should take a break to focus on pregnancy…writes Vishnu Makhijani

Her first pregnancy got her wondering whether she would ever be a ‘Rainmaker’ – someone integral to the success of an organisation – says investment banker Nishtha Anand, who feels gender neutral upbringing by parents and teachers plays a big role in shaping the trajectory of the lives of women and who has devised a five-point Power Punch for negotiating the corporate maze.

“One of the key things which always bothered me throughout my career was can I be a ‘Rainmaker’ – someone who is integral to the success of an organization, who is a key decision maker and is a role model to others,” Anand, who has detailed the journey in ‘Awakening the Rainmaker’ (Bloomsbury), told in an interview.

“When I started out in investment banking, this term describing superstars was added to my vocabulary. It didn’t take me long to notice that these superstars were always men. I switched two organisations after my first job, but the situation was the same everywhere. Not once did I come across a woman in a powerful role.

“This absence of female rainmakers bothered me. Could I ever become one for my organisation? I was not sure,” Anand added.

The real trigger for action came three years ago when she was pregnant for the first time, during which period she got a lot of well-meaning advice – most commonly: “You should take a break to focus on pregnancy.

“Most women go through this, I was scared if this will be one of the reasons, I will never be a rainmaker. That’s when I decided to understand the key issues impacting career progression for women and started doing my research – quick research revealed a few facts, among them that less than three per cent of Chief Executive Officers in India are women, that among women in the prime working ages of 30 to 50 years, more than two-thirds are not in the workforce and are only attending to domestic duties and that in 2021, India ranked 140th among 156 nations in The Global Gender Gap Index,” Anand explained.

A KPMG study has shown that only 22 per cent women feel that they are taught the value of self-confidence as children. What problems does this create in the long run? How can parents and teachers encourage future female leaders?

“While parents have the best interests of their children at heart, they inadvertently end up advocating beliefs based on their own experiences. The inherent assumption that household work is a woman’s responsibility makes them feel it is onerous for women to take on careers.

“It is not only an Indian thing. Warren Buffet also noted the same thing in one of his interviews – how in their younger years, his smart sisters were advised to marry early and well while he was taught that the sky was the limit for him,” Anand elaborated.

Upbringing, she said, “plays a crucial role in shaping the trajectory of our lives and influencing the choices we make in the future and this is where the first signs of gender differences start showing up. Girls are taught hard work and respect while boys are taught self-confidence to take more risks in life”.

“Childhood conditioning is an essential reason why many women shy away from taking bigger risks in furthering their career, thereby missing out on a number of opportunities. This lack of self-confidence also manifests itself as the ‘imposter syndrome’, where women question their talents and abilities,” Anand added.

Asserting that these “chinks” in upbringing need to be addressed with gender neutral upbringing, she said most successful women she had interacted with stressed upon the role their parents and teachers played during their upbringing – and “there was a special mention of parents and teachers focusing on gender neutral upbringing and motivating them to pursue their career of choice”.

Then, there is the question of conscious and unconscious gender biases.

“Unconscious bias is like jealousy – nobody likes to admit it and often we are unaware of it. People tend to hide conscious bias but often they are unable to. Biases creep in from a very early stage in a woman’s career – even from people who mean well,” Anand said.

“Sadly, typecasting of women is omni-prevalent – you see this across fields. Let’s look at India’s start-up ecosystem, for instance, just 20 per cent businesses are run by women,” she added.

With the participation of women in India Inc being distressingly low at about 23 per cent – and narrowing as one goes upward, how can this be improved?

“Many women enter the workforce but we see a high attrition rate around mid-management levels. It comes as no surprise that this stage coincides with women experiencing an increase in their domestic responsibilities after marriage and motherhood.

“Thus, it is important to find a balance and make your own support system – delegate more, rely on your family/spouse/ help so you can give your passion a chance. Many women find it difficult to do this but this is extremely important,” Anand said.

And, at the organisational level, there’s her Power Punch approach.

“Imagine a boxing match where you have to deliver the perfect punch to win, and it’s not just one punch, it’s a series of perfect punches. For this, you need to form a solid fist with your five fingers, backed by your boxing skills and winning spirit. Similarly, for winning in the corporate playfield, there are five influencers who need to be in sync with corporate ethos – Leadership, Reporting Mangers, Peers, Juniors and Human Resources.

“I call this combination the Power Punch. Each of these influencers plays an important role in any employee’s work life and need to operate with a gender-neutral approach.

“Leadership endorsement for a bias-free and inclusive culture is a key aspect of The Power Punch framework. There are three steps here – vision, objective targets and monitoring/ accountability,” Anand explained.

So, if you are at the crossroads of life, here’s a practical way forward.

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14 February 2022
‘Sisterhood of Swans’ brims with emotion, experience and invisible gravity abyss

Adding that though she cannot speak to the universality of womanhood, by and large, women still yearn for a mate with whom they’ll find fulfilment… Selma Carvalho speaks with Sukant Deepak

For a long time, the idea of a woman in early adulthood making disastrous decisions had been knocking in her head. The scene where Anna-Marie and Sanjay are waiting at the bus stop and Anna-Marie decides to go home with him is the genesis of the book. “Perhaps people can relate to the base instinct which informs our desires,” she smiles.

There is a conscious style at play that comes effortlessly in the book. There is a certain trust in the reader to understand the radical acts that seem so effortless. In British-Asian Selma Carvalho’s exquisite fiction ‘Sisterhood of Swans’ (Speaking Tiger) brimming with emotion, and not just experience, somewhere exists an invisible gravity abyss you cannot resist.

This may be Carvalho debut fiction work, but even her non-fiction floated in a lyrical style. “Most Goan histories emerge from academics, as they should, where the writing is often dense. I wanted to write accessible narratives about my particular area of research which is the Goan presence in colonial East Africa,” she tells and credits writer Maria Aurora Couto, who took her under the wing and encouraged Carvalho to venture into fiction.

Believing that the short story is the gateway form into literary writing as it allows one the opportunity to hone one’s craft and validates the writer fairly quickly, she remembers being consistently shortlisted in literary contests in the UK, to the point where she had about forty-odd long/short listings on my writer’s bio.

“The publishers of this book acquired the rights to my collection of short stories which had been a finalist for the SI Leeds Literary Prize. They then encouraged me to write a novel. Sisterhood of Swans is my first long-form publication,” she says.

Adding that though she cannot speak to the universality of womanhood, by and large, women still yearn for a mate with whom they’ll find fulfilment.

“‘We belong to the sisterhood of swans seeking to pair for life our species is doomed to disappointment.’ The second line from where the title emerges is the more telling line. Given the complexity of the human condition, a soulmate or even a long-term mate is often a fiction of the imagination. Human relationships are complex organisms with a myriad of conflicting desires. Long-term monogamy is a many-tentacled monster,” she says.

Even though she has lived in the United States for several years, and now in the UK for almost fourteen years, the author says she essentially belong to the Arabian Gulf diaspora, which doesn’t allow for any sense of citizenry. Thus, she grew up within a Goan milieu, always with Goa as her centripetal location, and yet from infancy informed by the diversity which prevails in the Gulf.

“I wanted to create characters very different from the tropes that occur in Goan literature, typically the bhatkar (landed gentry) pitted against the mundkar (tenant/underdog). I wanted to write about modern characters, women who are university-educated feminists and men who are charming cross-cultural philanderers. These characters live within the canon of Goan literary endeavour but exist universally.”

Ask her who is Carvalho essentially– fiction or non-fiction, and she feels that both are disciplines of discovery. Adding that while a lot of documentation of Goan history and culture has to take place in order for it to survive as a record of their collective narrative, she says, “In the past five years, the old guard of Goa’s intelligentsia has been fading and it’s time for my generation to carry the baton. I feel a tremendous responsibility to be in the service of my state, to chronicle and document, and so I find myself returning to this process as a moral obligation.”

Carvalho’s first book ‘Into the Diaspora Wilderness’, which was published 12 years ago by the independent press Goa, 1556, founded by the journalist Frederick Noronha, laments, “There’s a vile literary hubris that dismisses independent publishers which is ironic, given their role in discovering Booker prize listees, preserving regional histories, and works in translation.”

Having finished writing new novels, ‘Horton’ and ‘And Thus to All Tyrants’, which explore relationships, truth-telling, and the immigrant as the ‘other.’, she has started on a non-fiction book titled, Goans of Zanzibar, 1865-1910.

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13 February 2022
Chitwan Mittal: Biographies can be powerful tools to inspire and uplift

The company has added several award-winning authors just in the last one year including Nandini Nair and Pervin Saket. Chief Editor and resident poet is Sarita Saraf, a writer with an intense passion for philosophical literature…writes Vishnu Makhijani

Growing up in Kanpur, Chitwan Mittal heard “wonderfully imaginative stories” from her ‘dadi at mealtimes and from her convent-educated mothers’ vast collection of storybooks. Moving to Boston for an undergraduate programme in English Education, she spent her weekends browsing the childrens section of giant bookstores longing to connect with her home and culture, to “someday stumble upon books with pictures and stories native to South Asia” but sadly, it never happened.

After she chose to pursue a masters in Values in Education in London, she was determined to be involved in curriculum development for school children and for the past decade-and-a-half has been doing just that, culminating in the establishment of AdiDev Press, an independent publishing house that has just released two new titles that celebrate the diversity, values and unique inner selves of children and has lined up another 20 books for release during the year.

“Since 2005, I have been actively involved in children’s education and served on the committees that established Indian Institute of Teacher Education and Children’s University for the Government of Gujarat. Both institutes are focussed on experiential learning and holistic development through innovative education tools. In addition, I set up an education consultancy – ‘Educational Innovations’ to empower schools in Tier2 cities, to make curriculums more holistic and engaging.

“In 2015, we moved to Singapore and as a young mom and I started my hunt for culturally relevant content for my two boys – Aditya and Dev. I soon realized that not much had changed and South Asian storybooks were still hard to find. I decided to stop looking and start creating the very books that I always missed stories that represent South Asian people and culture. And, AdiDev Press came into existence, based on the names of my sons,” Mittal told IANS in an interview.

Its two new books are certainly the right fit.

“My First Hanuman Chalisa” is an illustrated translation of the devotional hymn, each page including the original text in Awadhi with an English transliteration that children can read, understand and enjoy. There is also a QR code on the back cover that enables parents and children access verses and word meanings being read aloud.

“Are Your Emotions Like Mine?”, with its simple text and magical illustrations, not only helps young children identify their emotions, but also teaches them how to cope through the simple strategy of taking a deep, deep breath.

Mittal has managed to put together a pretty formidable team, with social media being a great boon.

“It was due to platforms such as Instagram and Behance that I was able to identify so many talented South Asian illustrators living in India and different parts of the world. Today, we work with illustrators from Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Goa, Chennai and even Singapore and France. We have recently commissioned samples from South Asian illustrators based in the Caribbean, UK, and Sri Lanka,” she explained.

Mittal was “lucky enough” to be able to work with award-winning illustrator Debasmita Dasgupta and equally fortunate to have collaborated with architect and urban designer Shruti Hemani who created the picture book on emotions using traditional forms of line art and drawing on her experience of urban design.

Ambika Karandikar created such fun illustrations for the upcoming “J is for Jalebi”, that she was signed her on for a set of bilingual books. Art Director Aparajitha Vaasudev “took on the challenge of illustrating Hanuman in a completely original manner, adding elements of magic, fantasy and pop culture to create unforgettable imagery. It is unlike any other depiction of Hindu gods that have been seen before”, Mittal elaborated.

The company has added several award-winning authors just in the last one year including Nandini Nair and Pervin Saket. Chief Editor and resident poet is Sarita Saraf, a writer with an intense passion for philosophical literature. Ashwitha Jayakumar is the historical researcher who ensures that the text and visual representation for each book, especially those based on historical characters, is based on thorough research and analysis.

“We have a very exciting line-up of books releasing in 2022,” Mittal said adding: “We are launching our series of biographies for children called ‘Learning TO BE’ that introduces young children to big values in an engaging manner.

The first three titles to be released in February are “Kindness with Mahavira”, “Service with Guru Nanak” and “Peace with Buddha”. There is a series on Women in Science that includes “Passion” on oceanographer Aditi Pant, “Courage” on Anandibai Joshee (one of the first female doctors of Western medicine), “Perseverance” on botanist Janaki Ammal, and Commitment with physicist Bibha Choudhuri. The set on sportswomen includes “Trust” on P.T. Usha, “Resilience” on Bhakti Sharma (the first Asian woman and the youngest in the world to set a record in open swimming in Antarctic waters), “Adaptability” with Arunima Sinha (the first female amputee to climb Mt Everest), and “Transformation” on (Revolver Dadi) Chandro and (sister-n-law) Prakashi Tomar.

“We believe that biographies can be powerful tools to inspire and uplift. And we are committed to developing this series by writing books on performing artists and change makers,” Mittal explained.

In addition, there are a plethora of other books on South Asian mythology, festivals and culture under development.

“The stories we are told form the fabric of our childhood. And, I want to ensure that we at AdiDev Press play a role in giving our children the head start they need in discovering their roots, appreciating their culture and defining their values as they embark on their life journeys,” Mittal concluded.

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13 February 2022