In 1885, Indian physician and feminist Rukhmabai was caught in what is now considered a landmark case involving her own marriage at the age of 11 to 19-year-old Dadaji Bhikaji.

When Rukhmabai hit puberty, she was to go and live at her husband’s home to consummate their marriage, as was the norm at the time. Cultured, educated and independent, she was terrified at the prospect of having to confine herself to a traditional marriage at an age where she could be pursuing her dreams. So when she refused to go to her husband’s home in 1884, Bhikaji petitioned the Bombay High Court for restitution of conjugal rights of a husband over his wife.

Her simple refusal stirred up a giant storm, and became one of the biggest cases India had ever seen in the 19th century. It received immense attention from the British press and Indian reformers who had been working to abolish archaic structures of child marriage and the ban on widow remarriage.

Rukhmabai’s case eventually led to the passage of the Age of Consent Act, 1891, which changed the age of consent for sexual intercourse from age 10 to age 12.

A number of forces were involved in the passing of this Act, which was monumental at the time. For example, it also involved the tragic death of 10-year-old Phulmoni Dasi, who died after she was raped by her 35-year-old husband. Alongside, the legislation was passed due to a significant role played by a social reformer named Behramji Malabari, whose role in the women’s rights movement was extremely prominent, yet unspoken of today.

A simple childhood marred by death

Behramji Merwanji Malabari was born in Baroda, Gujarat on 18 May 1953. His father, Dhanjibhai Mehta, was a clerk who worked for a meagre sum of Rs 20, and died when Behramji was only seven or eight years old. In an unusual act at the time, Behramji’s mother was married again to one Merwanji Nanabhai Malabari, who was an importer and ran a pharmacy. However, he suffered many losses in business, and Behramji and his mother spent most of their time battling abject poverty.

Behramji’s mother Bhikhibai was “no ordinary woman”, said judge, poet and social reformer Dayaram Gidumal Shahani in his book The Life and Life-work of Behramji M. Malabari: A Biographical Sketch. Shahani was Behramji’s friend in his later years. Together, they co-founded the Seva Sadan organisation in Mumbai.

Bhikhibai, a housewife, was always on her feet in the service of the poor, running from house to house to tend to sick children with medicinal herbs, with little Behramji often accompanying her. She was a shoulder to lean on for the women in her locality and did not care for the barriers of religion and caste when it came to lending a helping hand. Behramji was much inspired by her life.

He was 12 years old when his mother passed away. Before her death, he liked what most young children do — playing, loitering, and making merriment. After her passing, he became much more serious and focussed, and he eventually channeled his grief into songs and poetry. As he told Shahani later, the morning after she died, “I became an old man. All my past associations were discarded.”

Behramji took to reading to cope with the loss of his mother, and spent hours engrossed in the passages of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Premanand and more. Struggling to make ends meet on his own, he knew a good way to find his way out of poverty was to be enrolled in a university once he was out of school. After finishing his schooling at the Irish Presbyterian Mission School in Surat, he arrived in Bombay at the age of 15 and took up a tutoring job and teaching jobs, starting at Rs 20. Eventually, he earned up to Rs 150 per session.

When he came to Bombay, Behramji had carried a few poems in Gujarati and English that he had written back home. Around 1876-77, he published them under the title The Indian Muse In English Garb. This caught the attention of renowned names such as Florence Nightingale, Max Muller, and Alfred Tennyson. Despite the sudden attention his work was receiving, which could have catapulted Behramji to literary stardom at a young age, he chose to stick to writing occasional pieces for local newspapers, especially in the form of appeals and memorials of the poor.

His journalistic career truly began when he met eminent Parsi businessman Sir Cowasji Jehangir, who introduced him to Martin Woods, then editor of Times of India. After his stint there, he became the editor of The Indian Spectator, which was praised as being “the voice of the natives”. Over time, he became close friends with Dadabhai Naoroji, with whom he would go on to edit the monthly magazine Voice of India. Through his work, he advocated the rights of widows, the reason for abolition of child marriage, and other such issues through his written work and meetings with senior politicians.

Behramji was not Hindu, but “felt vividly the sin, the folly, the unnaturalness of this custom of Infant Marriage, and traced the woes of widowhood to this cause. How this pernicious custom could be abolished was a question that long perplexed him,” Shahani wrote.

Quiet champion of women’s rights

Wondering how he could take his ideas forward, he penned his thoughts on issues plaguing Hindu women in a long document named Notes on Infant Marriage and Enforced Widowhood.

He sent it to over 4,000 Englishmen and Indians in positions of authority, including then Viceroy Lord Ripon and other members of the British government. In it, he detailed the social evils of ‘baby marriage’, the prohibition on widows to be remarried (blaming the “priestly class”, i.e, the Brahmins, and “social monopolists” for their “vulgar prejudice), and the superstitions that prohibited women from leading lives of freedom and agency.

His Notes were met with lukewarm response by leaders — while they were sympathetic to women having to deal with such abhorrent practices, alongside Behramji’s efforts to deliver justice, they felt they could not take action without “having…full information as to the sentiment and opinion of the community interested”. So Behramji circulated his notes widely, and they caught immense public attention, dominating the press over the next seven years or so.

When Rukhmabai’s case gained traction in the press, discussions regarding the amendment to certain parts of the Indian Penal Code began brewing in social circles. Meanwhile, Behramji travelled to London for the first time around the same time and set up a series of meetings with leaders to appeal for the “rights of Indian daughters”. He raised the subject of “raising the protected age” for girls to engage in sexual intercourse, and while it was met with strong agreement in London, back home, these reforms were opposed on the grounds that the British government was “interfering with Hindu culture”. He called this opposition and its reasoning “suicidal”.

An Indian above all barriers

Behramji’s detailed editorials and pursuance of Rukhmabai’s case gave it the prominence it so required. Upon his return from London, he met Indian advocate Kashinath Trimbak Telang to discuss the amendment to the Penal Code to change the age of consent, alongside issues of infant marriage and widow remarriage. The meeting ended with common consensus that the protected age should be raised from 10 years to 12.

Thanks to Behramji’s consistent efforts since Rukhmabai’s case first came to light (which he himself played a role in), the government passed the Age of Consent Act in 1891, which raised the age of consent for girls in both Britain as well as India. He also played a similar role in the passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885 in the UK, where the age of consent was raised from 13 years to 16 years of age and strengthened the guidelines for penalties for sexual offences against women and minors.

Over the course of his life, Behramji held the strong belief that the Hindu priesthood was “misinterpreting the Vedas and Upanishads”. Needless to say, that he was not a Hindu and yet so strongly opposed age-old Hindu practices — even going so far as to have them amended by the government. This invited the strong ire of many renowned leaders, including Bal Gangadhar Tilak and other nationalists, who opined that Behramji should “focus on his own community”. But in reality, Behramji’s advocacy for women’s rights also led to Parsi Zoroastrians voluntarily turning away from practices such as underage and forced marriages.

In her preface to Shahani’s biography, Florence Nightingale, who remained an admirer of Behramji, wrote, “His work as a reformer of Indian social life cannot fail to set Englishmen, and especially Englishwomen, thinking of their duty towards their Indian brethren and sisters.” His role remained that of a mediator of sorts between Indians and the British, and he never formally joined politics with the Indian National Congress, for his focus was more on changing archaic structures in Indian society than ridding it of British rule. He also declined the British Viceroy’s offer of bestowing upon him the knighthood.

His later work involved his translation of Max Muller’s Hibbert Lectures in Indian languages, including Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil and more, for which he travelled and researched extensively to fund the translation. His life and experience of British life were recorded in The Indian Eye On English Life, or Rambles of a Pilgrim Reformer. He also edited a monthly magazine named East and West from 1901 until the year he passed away.

As a writer, Behramji also knew when he could employ sarcasm and humour to drive his point across. While writing about his life in Britain, he expressed his innate exasperation at the noisy and peculiar lifestyles of Englishmen with a slight twist of words here and there. Of Madame Tussauds, he wrote; “We do not care to visit Madame’s Chamber of Horrors, to be introduced to many of the criminals and cut-throats known to history. We have just had our throats cut by the waiter at the restaurant, who charged us half-a-crown for two plates of mudwater, which he passed off as mulligatawny soup. These were horrors enough in that costly repast.” With a surprising sense of dignity, he mocks the instances of racism he faced for his naturally Indian appearances, without losing his cool.

On his passing in 1912, King George V reportedly wired a tribute to then Viceroy of India and said, “Please convey to the family of Malabari the sincere regret with which the Queen and I have heard of the death of our old friend. His death will be a loss to the country.”

A summary of his entertaining encapsulation of Indians among British can be read here.

Edited by Yoshita Rao

As India dons its monkey cap to welcome the winter chill, regions across the nation are finding their own delicious ways of keeping warm with delectable food, including Punjabi, Maharashtrian, Bengali, Hyderabadi and Gujarati cuisine.  Traditional recipes are revived and seasonal produce is celebrated, from sarson ka saag and matar nimona to undhiyu, kollu rasam and nolen gurer paayesh.

This is also a time when, grandmothers willing, jaggery-scented til laddoos can be found in most Indian homes. Warm, chewy and deliciously toasty, sesame compliments the sweetness of gur, just the way the food itself compliments the winter.

But did you know that this traditional winter staple is a super healthy way of reaching your weight loss goals?

According to science, here is a list of reasons why you should be eating a lot of til laddoos this winter.

1. Sesame seeds contain two powerful compounds, sesamin and sesamolin, that have been proven to boost metabolism, lower LDL cholesterol (the bad kind), control high blood pressure, and help burn belly fat. When 38 people with high cholesterol levels ate five tablespoons of sesame seeds daily for two months, they experienced a 10% reduction in their LDL levels and an 8% reduction in triglycerides.

Moreover, Lignans like sesamin and sesamolin also function as antioxidants, helping fight oxidative stress — a chemical reaction that damages cells and increases the risk of several chronic diseases.

In fact, studies have shown that sesamin’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant action may protect your cartilage. In this study, people suffering from arthritis in their knees consumed five tablespoons of sesame seed powder every day alongside medicines. They experienced a 63% reduction in knee pain when compared to only a 22% decrease for the group solely using medicines.

2. Sesame seeds are packed with dietary fibre that aid in digestion and help keep your tummy fuller for longer, thereby preventing hunger pangs and binge-eating. In fact, three tablespoons of sesame seeds supply 12% of the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for fibre.

The same fibre also helps the sugar and fat in your meal enter the bloodstream at a steady rate, so that your blood sugar levels stay in check.

3.  Sesame seeds have low sodium content, so they help in preventing fluid retention and regulating fluid flow in the body. They are also high in magnesium, which helps lower blood pressure levels.

4. Sesame seeds are also rich in heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, fibre, B-vitamins, zinc, iron and Vitamin E. Many of these nutrients are vital to bone health, immunity, blood formation and healthy cell function.

5. If you are trying to build muscles while on a low carb diet, sesame seeds are a great choice. Rich in protein, til seeds help you maintain muscle mass. Moreover, they are high in methionine and cysteine, two amino acids that are not provided by dals (legumes) in large amounts.

Note: Roast sesame seeds to maximize protein availability — the roasting process lowers the content of oxalates and phytates that hamper digestion of protein.

If reading sesame’s long list of health benefits convinced you to prepare some til ke laddoo for your family, here’s a quick recipe you may find handy:

Things you will need: 

1. Til (sesame seeds) – ½ kg
2.Gur (jaggery) – ½ kg
3. Desi Ghee – 2 tbsp
4. Powdered Cardamom – 1tsp

On a medium-low flame, roast the til seeds in a heavy pan while stirring frequently. Take care not to burn them, roasting only till they turn light brown. Once they cool, use a mixer to grind them into a coarse powder.

Grate the gur or break it into small pieces using a pestle. On a low flame, heat the ghee in a pan and add the gur. As soon as the gur melts, turn off the flame.

Add the crushed til seeds and the cardamom powder. Blend well to help them release their flavour and bind to the gur. The mixture is ready to be rolled into laddoos which can then be stored in an airtight container for up to 10 days.

Edited by Divya Sethu

Two worlds come alive as the cold begins to settle on Delhi. As the festive season and stubble burning continue to worsen the air quality year-on-year, one world holes up at home under thick blankets, sweaters, and air purifiers, while the other is left out on the road or in structures barely passable as homes, struggling to breathe under the weight of the cold and thick smog.

On one such cold winter morning in 2011, Kushal Raj Chakrovarty (48), a resident of Gurugram, witnessed a glimpse of this when he was dropping his two daughters to school. On his way, he spotted two children, dressed in uniform, walking to a local school near a temple. They had no winter wear, socks or even shoes as they made their way through the harsh winds.

“It was a jarring moment. In my arms, I had my own two kids, who were well taken care of, and then there were these children, who didn’t even have the basics they needed to survive the cold,” Kushal recalls in conversation with The Better India.

The very next day, Kushal went to the school near the temple, and found that what he had witnessed the previous day was the case of all the 250 children who studied there. So he handed out shoes and socks to the children to keep them warm.

This one act of kindness eventually transformed into a number of small gestures, wherein Kushal began supporting local charities, NGOs, and schools with requirements such as water, electricity and automated kitchens.

This, he says, was the informal inception of his NGO, Lotus Petals Foundation, which he funded from his pocket at first, and then took a loan for.

Over the years, Kushal’s social work made him privy to a common problem among children of low-income groups. He found that many of them who were in school were studying in classes that were far lower than their actual age.

“For example, a 14-year-old would be studying in Class 3. One boy had been in Class 5 for almost five years, and he was around 15-16 years old,” he explains.

A Future Worth Dreaming Of

Kushal found that these children had become comfortable in non-profit schools, unwilling to go to government ones because the latter had poor infrastructure. “The kids would hang in the education system till they came of age, and then go on to join their parents in whatever jobs they’re doing. They are essentially fodder for the underbelly of society. They live in the ‘millenium city’ and aspire to one day live or work in the tall glass buildings they see around them, but they don’t have the means to.”

He adds, “Moreover, once someone starts doing manual labour, it’s a sentence for life. As you grow older, your income decreases as your physical strength does.”

So, Kushal set up a programme called Pratishthan, an English medium school where children aged around 12 and 14 years could fast-track their education in a five-year programme. Those who might be lagging in the education system due to fractured schooling are provided with vocational training, as well as courses in personality development and language ability. They are also given soft-skill training and etiquette development to make job hiring easier on the basis of education.

Kushal rented a room in a shopping arcade near his house, and began with around six children, one math teacher, and three computers. The school follows the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) board.

Teaching the children helped Kushal realise a few things. “I found that their basic education was so weak that we had to start from scratch. So I took PG accommodation in the nearby slum for the boys to start a full-time school from kindergarten onwards. I also learned that when these kids fall sick, in many cases, they’re treated only when their condition deteriorates. So a cold will not be treated, but pneumonia will. So the children would have to miss school when they were sick, and I’d take them to the hospital to be treated. But this gap in healthcare inspired me to get a doctor who would conduct regular check ups to make sure everything is in place,” he explains.

By 2016, Kushal as well as his six students hit a milestone. The children graduated Class 10, and he quit his corporate job for good to dedicate all his time for their welfare. “I had the option to move to Sweden for my job, but I decided to stay back,” he says.

In 2018, the six students passed out from Class 12. Four of them are now employed as cashiers and in similar jobs, and one works in an MNC, having managed to move his family out of their tin home into a pucca house with a toilet and kitchen for themselves. The other student is currently a second-year medical student.

Around this time, more programmes began taking shape, and neighbouring schools began approaching the foundation for help.

These included Jeevika, a skill development programme that focuses on senior secondary students to make them ready for the formal job market after they leave Class 12.

Another project, Aarogya Wellness, is a healthcare programme that provides hygienic and nutritious meals, mental health counselling, yoga sessions and more to the children. The Sahyog Project collaborates with government schools to improve pre-existing infrastructure and assistance in academic learning. Lotus Petals also has various scholarships in place for students to pursue higher education in medicine, engineering and more. “We also provide help for those who want to start scholarships in, say, the memory of their loved ones,” Kushal notes.

In 2014, Kushal was joined by an old friend, Saloni Bhardwaj, a writer and journalist who moved back home from the US to help his cause. She is the co-founder and CTO of Lotus Petals.

Million Bricks Project

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organisation also provided devices and full-day data packs to their students so they would not miss out on education. As many non-profits had to shut down, Kushal and his organisation took in their students. “We transitioned into hybrid schooling, where teachers teach from a cubicle, and students have the option of either attending from home or coming to the class,” he says. “Currently, we are directly supporting around 1,200 students and 14 government schools under our programmes.”

Lotus Petal’s teacher-student ratio is 1:13, and their average attendance hits 96%. Kushal says approximately 2,000 students are benefiting through their government school programmes, and 28 students are under scholarships to pursue higher education.

Kavita (42), who works in housekeeping, enrolled her son Aman with Lotus Petals in 2017. Before this, she was sending him to a school that was located at least 5 kilometres away from their house. “So everytime he left, I’d be riddled with worry till he returned home,” she says.

But since Aman was taken into Lotus Petals, both Kavita and he agree that his life has been transformed. He’s currently in Class 12 and studying computers, which he plans to pursue in his higher studies as well. “There have been many changes in my life since I came to Lotus Petals — it’s been almost miraculous. I’m able to talk to you so confidently thanks to my teachers who stood by me. They have shaped my personality,” he says.

In 2017, a friend’s donation helped Kushal buy five acres of land on the outskirts of Gurugram, where the organisation now plans to construct a new campus for the kids.

“The idea is to scale up our existing infrastructure and programmes and widen our reach. The campus will be big enough to provide education to at least 17,000 students. To raise funds for this, we started a campaign called the ‘Million Bricks Project’, because we will need a million bricks to build this. We’re currently seeking donations for the same.”

Speaking of the gaps and challenges in making education more accessible to children from low-income families, Kushal notes, “The biggest challenge currently is the digital divide, which the pandemic has only widened. There is the problem of hidden costs such as the price of the device and the data packs. There’s also economic instability in the families, especially due to the pandemic, and this greatly impacts the children because they are then expected to drop out of school and take up jobs to help their families survive.”

He adds, “We have to create awareness among parents that education can lead to a better life, but requires investment from a family. The child needs to be in the system for at least 12-14 years to be employed; it’s important to attend school everyday. Parent counselling needs to be better. Another challenge we face is that when the child starts speaking in English and can start doing basic jobs, both the parents and the children become complacent, but fail to realise that these basic jobs are not feasible in the long term.”

Regardless, Kushal’s labour of love powers on. It has been five years or so since he quit his high-flying career to fulfil his dream of seeing a better world, and he says the learnings from his journey have been immense. “We’re dealing with the development of human beings, and not products. In the corporate world, a robust system exists to determine your performance — market feedback. That’s not true for the social sector. So how do you know when you’re making an impact? You just have to keep at it. What I have learned in this experience, and through my transition, is that I have to be long term in my approach,” he notes.

You can support Lotus Petals’ Million Brick Project by clicking here. For more information, you can visit their website.

On 10 November, Falguni Nayar, founder of beauty startup Nykaa, became India’s wealthiest self-made female billionaire. Nykaa’s IPO (Initial Public Offering) was listed on Wednesday, and as shares of the firm surged to a whopping 89 per cent, Nayar, who owns half of the company, is now worth $6.5 billion.

As Nayar now joins the ranks of the wealthiest across the world, it is important to note that Nykaa’s parent company, FSN E-Commerce Ventures, is the country’s first woman-led unicorn to hit the stock exchange.

Nayar’s journey began around nine years ago, when she quit her job as the managing director of the Kotak Mahindra Group to start something of her own. She was just shy of turning 50 at the time.

In an interview with Film Companion, Nayar recalled that when she was ending her 20-year career in investment banking to make a shift to the beauty industry, everyone was a naysayer. “I think they thought that because I already had such a successful career in a company that was growing well, there was no reason for disappointment with what I was doing…I asked my son, ‘Do you think this can look like a midlife crisis?’ He said ‘Definitely’.”

When Nykaa made its debut, the beauty segment in India was fragmented, to say the least. Brick and mortar stores had a limited collection to offer, and men’s beauty products did not include the wide range they do today. But Nykaa gave Indians a unique mix of affordable brands, alongside rare and luxury brands, as well as cruelty-free products and the like, all under one ambit.

And it’s not just products — Nykaa, which is the sanskrit word for ‘one who is under the spotlight’, has a large repository of informative blogs, articles and forums for readers to access and share knowledge, questions, answers, news and updates as well.

Nayar said she jumped into starting her own venture with limited knowledge of technology, retail or beauty. “I tell a lot of young entrepreneurs that business is like a roller coaster ride. Do it only if you think you will enjoy it, because there will be ups and downs,” she said.

While keeping these ups and downs in mind, we take a look at some other lessons that budding entrepreneurs can learn from Nayar’s meteoric rise.

• Where there’s a gap, there’s an opportunity: In a 2018 interview with Bloomberg Markets and Finance, Nayar recalled that at the time she quit her job at Kotak, the beauty industry in India was lagging far behind the rest of the world. “[But] with the coming of e-commerce, I thought the timing was right,” she said. “I could build the beauty market in India the way it should be built.”
• Take advantage of a diverse demographic: Shopping for beauty products has evolved in the country since Nykaa stepped in. Using a Sephora-like model, where many brands are available under one umbrella, as opposed to brand-specific stores, Nayar decided to capitalise on the large demographic of a country like India in a way that offered adequate information about competing products, alongside providing a large number of choices to empower the customer.
• ‘The online world is the future’: “I always believed in the online business, and was convinced that the new generation will rely more on reviews and peer recommendation rather than going to stores,” she told Peacock Magazine.
• ‘You’re not the first one facing this problem’: As Nayar told Elle, “[During tough situations] I look very hard for comparisons, case studies and go deep into reading and researching that subject. I also discuss my thoughts with the colleagues and mentors whose views I trust. Based on those inputs, I make the right decision.”
• It’s important to dream’: In a world where women face additional barriers for wanting to fulfill their dreams, Nayar said, “For young women, I would say that you are the centre of your own life. I see women trying to meet the requirements of their families and not chase their own dreams. You are the most important person in your life. It’s important to dream.”

Currently, Nykaa offers 4,000 beauty, personal care and fashion brands online, and has around 80 retail stores across the country.

At the listing ceremony, Nayar said, “To everyone across India who ever had a dream, especially women with a dream, I hope the Nykaa journey—an Indian-born, Indian-owned and Indian-managed dream come true—can inspire each of you to be the Nykaa of your lives.”

Edited by Yoshita Rao

‘Chai toh loge na?’ (You will take tea, right?)

This gentle question is the first thing you’d be most likely to hear when you visit any home in Shimla, the beautiful hill station I have come to call home in the last two years. In my time here, I’ve learnt that the question is mostly rhetorical, because the answer is always yes, no matter what season, or what time of the day it is.

This holds especially true for the family that I became part of after marriage — for them, chai is an all-day sidekick with endless versatility. From fueling a busy morning to wrapping up an evening of festivities, everyone here is always up for another cup of chai. Every family gathering, I watch in amazement as my in-laws consume tea in gallons, cup after cup, even wondering if I should suggest some sort of a chai de-addiction project.

Needless to say, my outlook towards tea could be best described as middling… until one memorable winter day when I was handed a steaming cup of special masala chai made by the family’s resident tea master, Nani-in-law.

As the hot, spice-infused concoction made its way down my throat, I realised that this tea-induced nirvana was something truly special. Paired with some crunchy namak-ajwain biscuits, this heavenly brew is now the glue that binds my day together.

And since winter is the season of spreading warmth, here are Nani-in-law’s signature recipes for both masala chai and pudina chai to help you make yourself a delicious cup of comfort. After all, as someone said, “Life is like a cup of tea. It’s all in how you make it.”

Masala Chai

½ cup Laung (Cloves)
½ cup Elaichi (Green Cardamom)
½ cup Kali Mirch (Black Peppercorns)
2 tbsp Saunf (Fennel Seeds)
2 pieces of 6-inch Dalchini (Cinnamon)
4 tbsp Ginger powder
2 Nutmeg (grated)

Roast all the spices for a minute on a hot skillet and let them cool. Except for the nutmeg, grind all of the other ingredients in a mixer to make a coarse powder. Add the grated nutmeg to this blend, mix well and store in an airtight jar for up to a month. For one cup of masala chai, use just ¼ tsp of this spice mix. For a splash of punchy freshness and medicinal benefits, add some grated ginger and tulsi leaves while brewing.

Tip: Sprinkling a pinch of this chai masala into your cake/cookie batter will give the most heavenly aroma to your bakes.

Pudina Chai

1 bunch of Pudina (Mint leaves)
2 tbsp of Jeera (Cumin Seeds)
1 tbsp of Kali Mirch (Black pepper)

Wash the pudina leaves well after discarding the stems. Drain out as much water as possible and spread them out on a large newspaper. For 4-5 days, keep them under the sun for 6-8 hours until the leaves dry up completely and turn crumbly. Roast jeera and kali mirch lightly in a pan and let them cool. Then grind them with the dried pudina leaves to make a powder you can store in an airtight container for six months.

For one cup of pudina chai, use just a pinch of this spice mix in milk-free tea that’s been simmered to the right shade of amber. Remember to add an invigorating dash of lemon and black salt, but only after you have turned off the gas.

Tip: This flavour-packed masala also makes a great garnish for raita, dahi vada and grilled finger food.

(Edited by Divya Sethu)

The internet is full of inspiring stories about cracking the much-coveted UPSC exams, which lakhs upon lakhs of students sit for every year. We at The Better India have our own repository of material on the subject, along with success stories, essential points, tales of grit, and more.

However, we, or even others well-versed with the world of civil service, don’t have tips on how one can fail the UPSC. As odd as it may sound, a recent viral video on Twitter, posted by IAS officer Awanish Sharan of the 2009 batch and Chhattisgarh cadre, has used a unique way to drive home the point of what not to do while preparing for the UPSC.

Earlier this year, another one of Sharan’s posts had gone viral, in which he discussed a popular photo that detailed how he scored less while in school and still managed to crack the UPSC with a rank of 77.

Now, he’s back with some more UPSC-related material, albeit with a unique twist. In a video that’s slightly reminiscent of Apple’s ‘Don’t Blink’ video, Sharan details what to do if you want to fail the UPSC, and the results are hilarious.

Take a look for yourself:

How to fail UPSC Civil Services Exam.

Well explained. pic.twitter.com/IftbagsJA5

— Awanish Sharan (@AwanishSharan) November 8, 2021

Despite what some might say today, the mutual admiration between Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel has been well-documented. This is not to say that political disagreements did not exist, but their camaraderie was a good example of two leaders working despite their differences for the greater cause of the nation.

Perhaps The Hindu put it best when it said, “What is the truth? Nehru and Patel often disagreed, and furiously so. But such was the beauty of the relationship that they rarely kept a secret from each other. They wrote to each other almost every other day, expressing their doubts and differences honestly and openly, and concluding in the end that their mutual affection and regard outweighed any difference they felt with regard to state policy. In their letters, the two great men agonised over the rumours surrounding their relationship and the constant attempts to create a divide between them.”

This mutual affection can perhaps also be encapsulated in Patel’s 1949 letter, which he wrote to pay tribute to Nehru on his 60th birthday.

He began the letter by saying, “Jawaharlal and I have been fellow-members of the Congress, soldiers in the struggle of freedom, colleagues in the Congress Working Committee and other bodies of the Congress, devoted followers of the Great Master [Gandhi] who has unhappily left us to battle with grave problems without his guidance, and co-shares in the great and onerous burden of administration of this vast country.”

“Having known each other in such intimate and varied fields of activity, we have naturally grown fond of each other, our mutual affection has increased as years have advanced, and it is difficult for people to imagine just how much we miss each other when we are apart and unable to take counsel together in order to resolve our problems and difficulties. This familiarity, nearness, intimacy and brotherly affection make it difficult for me to sum him up for public appreciation, but, then, the idol of the nation, the leader of the people, the Prime Minister of the country, and the hero of the masses, whose noble record and great achievements are an open book, hardly needs any commendation from me.”

Much has also been debated about how Nehru wrested the position of the PM from Patel to lead an independent India.

However, Patel makes his feelings about this abundantly clear in the letter. “…It was in the fitness of things that in the twilight preceding the dawn of independence he should have been our leading light, and that when India was faced with crisis after crisis, following the achievement of our freedom, he should have been the upholder of our faith and the leader of our legions. No one knows better than myself how much he has laboured for his country in the last two years of our difficult existence …. As one older in years, it has been my privilege to tender advice to him on the manifold problems with which we have been faced in both administrative and organisational fields….Contrary to the impression created by some interested persons….we have worked together as lifelong friends and colleagues, adjusting ourselves to each other’s point of view as the occasion demanded, and valuing each other’s advice as only those who have confidence in each other can.”

You can read Patel’s full letter here.

Edited by Yoshita Rao

For all of history, Indian women have been championing social change, pioneering important movements, and making invaluable contributions to society. But as can be seen from our history books, their contributions are all too easily forgotten.

One such forgotten heroine is Rani Rashmoni, a ‘rani’ who wasn’t really a queen, and yet ruled the hearts of the people to such an extent that they bestowed the honor on her.

From fearlessly taking on the East India Company to founding the iconic Dakshnineshwar Kali temple, Rashmoni left an indelible mark on the history of Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta).

A Woman Entrepreneur Ahead of Her Time

Rashmoni was born on 28 September 1793 in the small village of Halisahar in Bengal into a kaivarta (fishermen community) family. Her father was a poor labourer, who married his daughter to Raj Chandra Das — the scion of a wealthy zamindar family from Jaan Bazaar — when she was still in her teens.

Das was a progressive husband; educated and unconventional for those archaic times. Impressed by how astute she was, he encouraged his young wife to follow her heart and gave her unfettered access to his trade business.

Together, they built up a great fortune, channelling much of their wealth towards public welfare, from building pyaus (reservoirs of drinking water) for the abandoned to setting up soup kitchens for the hungry. The couple also built two of Kolkata’s oldest and busiest ghats, the Ahiritola Ghat and the beautiful Babu Rajchandra Das Ghat, or Babughat.

However, Das passed away in 1830, and the years after his death saw Rashmoni passing through her toughest time. Battling patriarchy and the then-prevailing societal stigma against widows, the mother of four young daughters took over the reins of the family’s sprawling business – something that was virtually unheard of in those days.

When her husband’s adversaries and acquaintances heard this news, they were delighted by the prospect of an easy takeover, assuming that the kind-hearted widow would not provide much resistance. They would soon learn otherwise.

Displaying astute business sense, Rashmoni fended off these attempts, managing her work with exemplary pragmatism and the help of Mathura Nath Biswas, an educated young man married to her third daughter. For the rest of her life, Mathura babu (as he was called) would remain her trusted confidante and right-hand man in all dealings.

In the years that followed, Rashmoni raised her voice for two important causes — one, to fight against prevalent social ills like polygamy, child marriage and sati; and two, to support trailblazing social reformers like Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, even submitting a draft bill against polygamy to the East India Company.

She also built the famous Dakshineswar temple near Kolkata, braving taunts from Brahmins who refused to become priests at a temple constructed by a woman from a lower Shudra caste. Eventually, religious leader Ramakrishna Paramhansa would go on to serve as the Chief Priest of the temple.

While such constructions and business acumen earned her much respect in Calcutta’s administrative circles, it was her compassion and solidarity with the downtrodden that endeared her to the underprivileged. No incident reveals this better than when she out-maneuvered the British to help beleaguered fishermen.

Taking on the Cunning East India Company

In the 1840s, East India Company had turned its profiteering focus towards the long stretch of river Ganga, which flowed through the Bengal Presidency. These thriving waters were a lifeline for the fishing communities of the region, who depended on it for survival as well as their livelihood.

Arguing that the fisherfolks’ small boats were impeding the movement of ferries, East Indian Company imposed a tax on fishing boats, a cunning way of raking in extra revenue while reducing fishing activities on the river.

Scores of worried fisherfolk travelled to Calcutta to plead their case with their elite landlords, but they didn’t receive any support. So as a last resort, they appealed to Rashmoni.

What happened next is truly remarkable. Rashmoni gave Rs 10,000 and procured an ijara (lease agreement) from the East India Company, for a 10-km stretch of river Hooghly (Ganga’s distributary the flows through Calcutta). She then proceeded to place two huge iron chains across the Hooghly to barricade her leased area and asked the distraught fisherfolk to cast their nets in this zone.

The impact of this smart move left Company officials bewildered and rattled — it brought all riverine traffic on the Hooghly to a grinding halt. When they asked Rashmoni for an explanation, she said that it was necessary to protect her income from the property as commercial steamships were affecting fishing activities in her ijara.

The feisty woman also quoted British law to point out that she was entitled to do so, and was happy to fight it out in a court if the company thought otherwise!

With boats piling up on both sides of the shackled zone, East India Company was compelled to come to an agreement with Rashmoni. The tax on fishing was abolished, protecting the rights of fisherfolk and giving them unrestricted access to the Ganga.

And that’s how a widow outwitted the famously insidious Company.

Over a century later, in 1960, eminent Bengali writer Gauranga Prasad Ghosh clicked a picture of the sole remnant of this historic moment — that of a gigantic iron peg, which was once used to fasten Rashmoni’s chains across the Hooghly.

The peg may have remained uncelebrated all those years, but the grateful fisherfolk never forgot their ‘Rani’. For them, as Bengali author Samaresh Basu wrote in his ‘Ganga’ (originally published in the magazine Janmabhoomi in 1957), the river forever remained ‘Rani Rashmonir Jal’ (‘the waters of Rani Rashmoni’).

This article has been published in partnership with Nokia.

For 7-year-old Siddharth Subba, “school is where home is”. It is a place where he indulgently dreams, plays football, learns poems, eats his meals and feels safe and belonged.

After being orphaned at a young age, it is the school and its regular routine that provided him with the much-needed stability. He is one of the many who are sheltered in a rural government school in a small village called Numla, Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh.

But last year, during the lockdown after the shutdown of all schools across India, their home began to feel empty. The routine was fractured as no classes were being held. But beyond missing over a year of education, they stood to lose — the company and connection to the only family they knew, their teachers.
Unlike few other students in the village, Siddharth or his fellow classmates living in this school did not have access to any technology to bridge that gap. With no laptops or smartphones at their disposal, they couldn’t attend online classes or video call their teachers to clear doubts.

But they were not alone. Another government school in Igatpuri, Maharashtra, was facing a similar situation. “The last couple of years have been extremely difficult not just for teachers but also the students. More than missing lessons, we were worried about drop-outs. With the schools closed, many parents who were barely able to make ends meet, began considering removing their kids from school. It took me years of work to convince the people about the importance of education and school and then all of it was on the verge of collapsing,” shares Nanda, who has been teaching and handling all the administrative work at the school since 2018.

“Giving up was never an answer for teachers,” reminds Vinod, another Zilla Parishad school teacher based out of Gujarat. He is the sole teacher in a government school located in an island village called Aliabet, Bharuch district, since 2005, and has been taking leaps and bounds to educate his students.

No stranger to challenges, he travelled more than 30 km and crossed a river, daily, to reach the remote island school. In a community that was completely cut-off from the outside world and one that only spoke a language called ‘Kutchi Boli’, he managed to communicate the importance of education and helped his students learn different languages like English, Hindi and Gujarati.

However, the sudden lockdown threatened to dismantle all their efforts. “These were young minds brimming with imagination but their wings were clipped and the window to the outside world bolted shut during the lockdown,” he says.

And it would have stayed that way for longer, if not for a social impact initiative that empowered these teachers with a solution.

Organised by @NokiamobileIN and The Better India, under the social impact campaign several teachers, including Vinod and Nanda, were selected from across the country. As agents of transformation they were entrusted to bridge the digital divide plaguing rural India, especially in the education sector. For this, each of these teachers were equipped with a number of Nokia smartphones that were to be used to aid online learning both remotely and in the classrooms once schools reopened.

This initiative opened up a new world for these kids and helped them not only cope with the missed lessons but also learn new skills and overcome their inhibitions. Talking about his learning experience through the smartphone, a Class 5 student, Yakeen Bin Yaseen says, “I was always very shy and nervous about speaking up in front of the entire class. But then our teacher encouraged us to explore new ways of learning. I would go around the house and click photographs of the things I saw and make a story presentation through a mobile application called Kinemaster. Then during the online classes, through video conferencing and screen sharing, I would confidently present my work. It is a lot of fun and doesn’t feel boring or scary at all.”

With access to smartphones, students like Yakeen and Siddharth are discovering new ways of connecting with the world around them and learning on the go. Their story and that of the hundreds of students impacted by this initiative is a reflection of the positive change technology can bring about. And this Children’s Day, we are sharing these stories of transformation to celebrate the beautiful bond between teachers and students that blazed through the tough times and overcame all odds.

With #LikeTeacherLikeStudent, The Better India is joining hands with Nokia Mobile to bring forth incredible stories of such teachers. To honour their passion for the profession, we will be donating Nokia smartphones to teachers to support them in creating an even greater impact with technology. Stay tuned to find out how these amazing teachers will use the devices to increase the impact they are already creating.

#LoveTrustKeep

Challenging the long-held notion that continents first emerged from the ocean 2.5 billion years ago, scientists in India, Australia and the US have found that this phenomenon occurred much earlier — 700 million years prior, in fact. 

In a recent paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers said, “Understanding when and how subaerial continental crust first formed is crucial, as it likely played a critical role in establishing Earth’s habitability. Although debated, the broad consensus is that the subaerial rise of continents began nearly 2.5 billion years ago and was driven by plate tectonics. Here, we integrate the igneous and sedimentary history of Archean cratons to demonstrate that stable continental landmasses started to emerge above sea level 3.3 to 3.2 billion years ago (i.e., over 700 million years earlier than most models predict).”

The earth’s ‘first’ beach

What’s interesting to note is that the researchers believe this land to be what is now the Singhbhum region in Jharkhand. The team analysed sandstones that had geological signatures of ancient river channels, tidal planes and beaches that date back to over 3 billion years ago, representing the earliest crust exposed to air. 

Scientist Priyadarshi Chowdhury, the study’s lead author, told The Indian Express, “We found a particular type of sedimentary rocks called sandstones. We then tried to find their age and in which conditions they have formed. We found the age by analysing the uranium and lead contents of tiny minerals. These rocks are 3.1 billion years old, and were formed in ancient rivers, beaches, and shallow seas. All these water bodies could have only existed if there was continental land. Thus, we inferred that the Singhbhum region was above the ocean before 3.1 billion years ago.” 

He also told The Telegraph that this is the “most direct, unambiguous date yet for the emergence of continental land”. 

Another interesting thing that emerged from this finding was that the widely-considered notion that plate tectonics contributed to the emergence of the landmass did not hold true in Singhbhum’s case. 

According to Live Science, the chemical composition of the rocks provided information about the pressure and temperature at which they first formed. Taking these into consideration, the scientist team built a model to recreate the conditions that formed the rocks and eventually thrust them to the ocean’s surface. 

Remember, this was a time when the earth did not have the plate tectonics mechanism that is needed to push land to the ocean’s surface. “We have plate tectonics today to control elevation. When two continents collide, you form Himalayas, you form Alps. That wasn’t the case three billion years ago,” Chowdhury told The Guardian. 

So in Singhbhum’s case “hot plumes of magma beneath the crust caused portions of the craton to thicken and become enriched with buoyant, lightweight materials, like sicilia and quartz. This process left the craton ‘physically thick and chemically light’, as compared to the denser rock surrounding it, and thus buoyed the land mass up and out of the water”, Live Science noted. 

The emergence of this landmass would also have contributed to the formation of early life on land, as well as weathering and nutrient runoff into the ocean. These nutrients might have helped early photosynthetic life flourish, which in turn produced oxygen that helped create the rich atmosphere we currently live in, the scientists said.  

“The delivery of these essential nutrients to the oceans on the early Earth was critical in establishing and maintaining the earliest life-forms. The emergence of the first landmasses was therefore a pivotal event in our planet’s history,” Chowdhury said. 

Meanwhile, other areas that contain sedimentary rocks of similar ages include the Kaapvaal Craton in South Africa, and the Pilbara Craton in Australia. How much land was exposed at one time and how long these landmasses remain above water, however, remain a mystery for now. 

Edited by Yoshita Rao

This article has been sponsored by Cerebra Green

An old laptop, a phone with a broken screen or even headphones and chargers — every time we discard electronic items like these into the bin, a mountain of e-waste is created. A 2017 report by the Global E-Waste Monitor confirms that this is not an exaggeration. It states that India generated an annual e-waste of about 2 million tonnes and ranked among the top five e-waste producing countries.

If this wasn’t bad enough, in the next few years our numbers skyrocketed to an annual 3.23 million tonnes [2.9 million metric tonnes (MT)] of e-waste generation in 2020. This time India ranked third highest in generating e-waste, after the USA and China.

While these numbers claim to portray the real picture of the e-waste situation in India, Ravi Neeladri from Bengaluru-based Cerebra Green advises us to take it with a grain of salt.

“In a country like ours where the waste management sector is largely unorganised, a lot of transactions take place off the books. So, we might be generating a lot more than what’s being depicted by these statistics,” says Ravi, the CEO of Cerebra Green — the e-waste division of Cerebra Integrated Technologies Ltd.

Finding a Diamond in the Rough

A 32-year-old company, Cerebra’s journey to creating a sustainable solution has created a massive impact today.

“We used to be generators of e-waste. We were manufacturing PCs and servers in the late 80s and 90s. But with time we evolved and began to focus on electronic manufacturing services, like manufacturing printed circuit boards(PCBs) and that led to a sustainable shift in the outlook towards e-waste,” he says.

Like any manufacturing company, Cerebra too had manufacturing snags. Hence, the PCBs that did not meet the prerequisite standards of quality or defective pieces were discarded as rejected in the inventory. Over time the pile of e-waste in the inventory began to rise, making way for another revolution.

After several trials starting in 2016-2017 from their Peenya base, they finally started a collection facility in Narasapura, Kolar, in 2018.

“We realised that we were simply sitting on a huge pile of value disguised as e-waste. At Narasapura we started with recycling 2,136 metric tonnes (MT) per annum and now can recycle 40,000 metric tonnes (MT) of e-waste,” adds Ravi.

Stages of E-waste Management

To understand the stages of e-waste management, one needs to first understand the concept of ‘end of life’ of electronic products, says Ravi.

“Any electrical product that reaches its end of life is considered to be e-waste. But how do you determine what is the true end? To clear confusion, there are specific government norms to define the end of life for different products. For instance, smartphones have four years of life, a fridge has 10 years, a laptop has five years while a TV has nine years. But in reality, it doesn’t go this way because as a society we discard electronic products after they are completely unusable. Often the number of years of usage of a product exceeds the end of life time span,” explains Ravi.

However, once the electronic product is rendered unusable, post the end of life period and winds up as e-waste, it is collected by formal or informal e-waste collectors. Cerebra Green through its collection centres is trying to ensure that all the e-waste collected is accounted for at every stage.

Once the collection is done, it is transported to recycling centres where the waste is segregated and dismantled into various materials. “For instance, a TV’s plastic part is recycled into a plastic product or goes into road making. The mild steel, copper, or speakers, glass, magnets etc, also gets dismantled and then recycled through authorised recyclers,” he says.

The next step involves using these materials to make a finished product for final consumption.

From a product’s end of life to creating a new product out of its parts, Cerebra is involved at every step to ensure the valuable e-waste isn’t wasted and realises its full potential.

Guided by the principles of establishing a circular economy, they provide end-to-end services and even a warranty on recycled products. But Ravi is quick to point out that owing to the idea of a circular economy, for every e-waste collected, the first goal isn’t recycling but refurbishing. Only after the e-waste product is deemed unfit for refurbishment that it reaches the recycling units.

Embracing Refurbished Tech

“Our primary goal after the collection stage is to recognise the value in the e-waste and try to refurbish it to extend its life. Only when that is not possible do we move on to recycling. Through this we are encouraging customers—individuals, startups and large tech companies—to embrace refurbished products by providing end to end services,” says Ravi.

From delivery and installation of a new product, maintenance, to picking up the device after its end of life period and refurbishing it to extend life — they do it all.

Additionally, Ravi adds, “Once the refurbished product also reaches its end of life, we pick it up from the customers and bring it back for recycling and replace it with another refurbished product. We provide end-to-end lifecycle management of the e-waste products with a goal to encourage a market for refurbished electronic products. More refurbished products in the market would also mean a lesser requirement for new products to be made, thus generating less e-waste as well.”

He adds how reintroduction of refurbished electronic products in the mainstream market can accelerate digitisation of the masses.

“Not every family can afford to buy a smartphone and a laptop. But with the world going online due to the pandemic, it is the need of the hour. Refurbished electronic products, which are considerably more affordable, can help bridge the digital divide in India and help many embrace technology readily,” he concludes.

Hyderabad-based Gujjari Priyanka was born with a locomotor disability to an underprivileged family. Her cerebral palsy worsened when she suffered an epileptic episode when she was nine months old.

“I was unable to use the left side of my body optimally and would stammer. Up until middle school, I had no friends and company outside my family members. Often my classmates made fun of me. The repeated occasions of neglect and rejection coming from the outside world shattered my self-confidence,” she tells The Better India.

Priyanka says that multiple treatments and visits to different doctors did not yield expected results. “I doubted if I would ever be able to become an independent and confident woman,” she says, adding that multiple appearances for job interviews resulted in rejections and disappointment.

But today, the 28-year-old has overcome all odds to become a successful tele-caller, a dream come true for her.

A Platform to Succeed

Priyanka gives credit to Youth4Jobs (Y4J), an online training platform that helped her learn life skills.

“I received the attention and care that helped me develop effective communication skills. I also found a group of peers who accepted me with my disabilities. The acceptance gave me confidence and enabled me to interact with them comfortably,” she says.

Priyanka adds that she equipped herself with voice modulation skills and went through a series of priming sessions and mock interviews. She fought against the societal pre-sets of success and her disabilities with unmatched grit.

The girl who would once stammer is today placed at a call centre with a salary of Rs 10,000 a month.

“The earnings ensure that I am not a burden to my family and proved society wrong, especially those who mocked and rejected me,” she says.

Youth4Jobs is a social enterprise established by Meera Shenoy, which helps youth with disabilities gain professional skills and set up placements in companies aiming to make them financially independent.

Meera launched the initiative in 2012 after working closely in the rural and tribal employment sector. After learning about the suffering of the vulnerable communities — how they get rejected for their disabilities, Meera decided to help them.

To date, the organisation has helped over 17,800 persons with disabilities.

‘I Am Living My Dream’

Another success story is of Nagaland based Samlam Chulo. Born with a speech and hearing disability, Samlam experienced challenges all her life.

Interacting via a translator, the 24-year-old says, “Despite being popular amongst my peers, I have felt unaccepted and isolated. It distressed me on multiple occasions. At times my family felt ashamed about my disabilities.”

Samlam says that eventually, her parents accepted her and started supporting her. “However, I could only complete my Class 10, owing to the poor financial conditions of the family,” she adds.

Samlam, however, neglected the negativity around her and sought shelter from parents and loved ones who helped her brave the odds.

Today, she works at KFC, a global food chain in Guwahati and earns Rs 10,000 a month.

“I always wanted to make a career in fashion and beauty, but my disabilities did not allow me to pursue the same. So, I decided to pursue a different career and become independent,” Samlam says.

Samlam came across Y4J through a cousin. “I was determined to work for a reputed company with a good salary. I received some offers after completing the training with the organisation at Kohima. However, my parents felt a bit sceptical and worried about my well being. They refused to give their permission,” she says.

However, the counsellors at Y4J convinced and built trust with her parents, which enabled her to bag her first job. “The staff at the outlet is equally supportive, and I note down food orders on paper to prepare them as demanded,” she explains.

“Today, I am happily placed at KFC, Guwahati. I am living my dream. My parents have also found more confidence in supporting my career as an independent woman,” she adds.

More compelling stories on human grit can be found in their recently published book — Jobs for Disabled in COVID Times.

Edited by Yoshita Rao

A quick internet search on the best international festivals will give you some expected results — Germany’s Oktoberfest, Ireland’s Saint Patrick’s Day, and Spain’s La Tomatina, among others. India finds a mention here, of course, with Holi, perhaps the most vibrant celebration the country has.

But there’s a lot more to India’s festivals than just Holi, and each tells the vivid story of ancient history, tradition and culture. So it’s no wonder that people from all over the world come to witness this greatness for themselves, and catch a glimpse of what truly is an incredible India.

So, if you’re looking to jet off to your next adventure, you don’t need to look further than the Indian subcontinent. Here’s a list of five festivals in India that are a must see for the adventure of a lifetime:

Cherry Blossom Festival — Mao, Manipur

Every year, the small hill station of Mao in Manipur begins to resemble a perfectly cut out scene from a movie — there’s a sense of tranquility that is only occasionally punctured by the occasional chirping of birds and crickets, and a blanket of purple and pink for as far as the eye can see. In this town, which is home to a number of tribes that come from all across Manipur and neighbouring states, the festival marks the beginning of the pink season.

#CherryBlossoms #ManipurCherryBlossomFestival
It’s Cherry Blossoms All over Northeast Right Now
Manipur to organise the 1st Manipur Cherry Blossom Festival at Maohttps://t.co/XHrlPSi0UL pic.twitter.com/MBomcvX9Vu

— NORTHEAST TODAY (@NortheastToday) November 23, 2017

The flowers that bloom are known as Sakura in Japan and represent peace and prosperity. These cherry blossoms bloom for about 10-15 days, which are marked with celebrations — a showcase of local cuisine, arts and crafts, dance forms, music, and more. This is perhaps the most peaceful escape in the lap of nature.

Purushwadi Firefly Festival — Purushwadi, Maharashtra

A small village named Purushwadi near Nashik, Maharashtra, is famous for its ecotourism and home to a number of tribes such as the bails, kolidhors, paradhis and more. But what makes it so alluring to visitors is its annual Firefly Festival, held in June. Here, over 2,000 species of fireflies make their way out of hiding, and since the village is not contaminated by artificial lights, these little jugnus are a sight to behold.

Be a part of the spectacular Purushwadi festival, and enjoy your summer nights with a million fireflies. #Maharashtra @mtdc_official pic.twitter.com/ANHe7a9Tmy

— Incredible!ndia (@incredibleindia) April 17, 2017

Besides watching nature perform its most wonderful tricks, you can also stay with locals of Purushwadi, eat delicious home cooked and local food, hike to nearby hills and help farmers out on fields.

Hot Air Balloon Festival — Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Ever wondered what it would be like to be propelled into the sky? If yes, then Varanasi’s hot air balloon festival is the answer to your prayers.

Kicked off by the UP government on 17 November, this festival saw vibrant and colourful balloons bobbing up and down in the sky, standing out against the clear blue sky and offering a bird’s eye view of the River Ganga. The holiest of the seven sacred cities of India, Varanasi is a sight to behold even from land, so the experience is all the more heightened from several feet above the ground.

#HotAirBalloons are ready to take off any moment. The Bird’s-eye view is breathtaking. #Varanasi #DevDeepawali2021 #देव_दीपावली #UPNahiDekhaTohIndiaNahiDekha #VaranasiBalloonFestival pic.twitter.com/E2gBE2d9Q0

— UP Tourism (@uptourismgov) November 18, 2021

“Eleven hot air balloons will be part of the event…Efforts are on to turn it into a regular event,” said district commissioner Deepak Agarwal, adding that each balloon can house 30 people, and will fly upto 1,000 feet.

Hornbill Festival — Kohima, Nagaland

The festival is one of the biggest and most important celebrations of Nagaland’s indigenous warrior tribes. Named after the Indian hornbill, which is part of most of the state’s folklore, the fest is held in December every year, and aims to revive and protect Nagaland’s rich culture.

Hornbill festival in Nagaland offers an exclusive opportunity to witness the distinct cultures, communities located in remote locations however so incredibly beautiful, that you can experience wholesome and worth it. Book with @InduslndB to save more.https://t.co/K4Dj9s8Qzt pic.twitter.com/877raoFiVa

— Yatra.com (@YatraOfficial) November 22, 2021

For about a week, locals come together to sing, dance, eat, drink and more, exhibiting enthralling performances, crafts, sports, games, and ceremonies. You can learn about herbal medicine, traditional archery, wrestling, and religious ceremonies, as well as watch beauty contests and how different parts of the region assimilate.

And if you’re a fan of headbanging, you can head to the festival for one of its major highlights — the Hornbill International Rock Festival, which sees captivating performances from local and international rock bands alike.

Hemis Festival — Hemis, Ladakh

One of the most important Buddhist festivities in Ladakh, Hemis Festival marks the birth of Guru Padmasambhava, a legendary Indian Buddhist mystic who introduced tantric Buddhism to Tibet and established the first monastery there.

Held in June or July every year, the two-day festival sees traditional dance performances in the Hemis Monastery to the tune of Tibetan music, as well as the unfurling of giant thangkas (Buddhist paintings).

#WATCH | The symbolic mask dance of Ladakh’s Hemis Monastery monks at ‘Hemis Festival’, a two-day event commemorating the birth anniversary of Guru Padmasambhava, also known as the second Buddha. (20.06) pic.twitter.com/X5rKNUpxmG

— ANI (@ANI) June 21, 2021

These ceremonies are believed to give spiritual strength and good health, and mark the Guru’s life mission to improve the spiritual condition of all living beings. The highlight of the festival are the Cham Dance performances, which are lively productions of masked and costume dances, accompanied by music played by monks, and offer moral instructions on compassion.

Edited by Yoshita Rao

Snuggled up under thick fluffy blankets, sipping a strong cup of coffee is how I grudgingly welcome winter mornings. Almost nothing can force me to jump up from the bed instantly, except the sinful woody aroma of Jhola nolen gur (liquid date jaggery) served with rotis or pancakes for breakfast. Freshly sourced for local markets, this is liquid gold packed in earthen pots that can fill you with a comforting warmth just with a few drops.

But wait, sweet for breakfast? That’s a common reaction from anyone who has never experienced the wonders of eating nolen gur dipped pancakes early in the morning. Although it might sound weird for some, this is how most Bengalis ward off their winter-phobia — earthen pots of Jhola nolen gur and peas kachuri, in addition to stock-full of thick woolens and tubes of Boroline.

Like Bengal, almost every state in India has a unique culinary tradition associated with the cold season.

Be it sweet or spicy, India has a long list of flavourful foods that are specially prepared during the winters. While the map above lists 40 such foods out of hundreds, here are a few of my favourite ones:

Gajar Ka Halwa (Carrot Halwa)

An all-time-favourite, ghee dripping luscious gajar ka halwa is lovingly prepared across the country. With added dry fruits like almonds, cashew nuts and pista, this sweet delicacy is predominately prepared in the Northern region of the country, during the winters as it is the time for the best carrot harvest.

Skyu

One of the lesser-known winter specialities, Skyu is a traditional soup-like Ladakhi delicacy prepared with vegetables and wheat dough, that has been kneaded into flat thumb-size balls. These flat balls are cooked with water and root vegetables like carrots and turnips on low-heat, and served with meat. Said to be high in calories, this is a staple in the region to beat the temperature that often drops below the freezing point during winters. Another version of Skyu involves replacing water with milk as the main ingredient and is called oma (milk) skyu then.

Gushtaba

Another culinary marvel from one of the colder regions of India, Gushtaba is a prominent dish in Kashmiri cuisine. Refusing a bowl of Gushtaba is considered to be a huge insult to the host and part of it is because of the love and patience that goes into preparing this savoury speciality. Made with minced mutton balls that are slow-cooked in royal spices like cinnamon, cardamom, asafoetida, etc. along with curd, this is a rich preparation that is often served at the end of the meal. While the curd balances the heat, it is the spices, the meat and the mustard oil that makes it the best warm food during the winters.

Jhola Nolen Gur

The crown-jewel of Bengal’s sweet indulgences, Jhola nolen gur is the freshest batch of liquid date palm jaggery that has a complex sweet texture with woody and caramel undertones. It comes in two forms, the liquid one is called Jhole nolen gur, while its solid version is called Patali gur. While both can be consumed singularly without any accompaniment, it is also used to prepare an array of desserts like Pithe, Sandesh, Payesh. One of the must-have desserts is Nolen gurer roshogolla and payesh.

Undhiyu

A labour of love and time, Undhiyu is a Gujarati cuisine’s winter delight that takes hours to prepare. A healthy indulgence away from the rich foods often consumed in other parts of the country during winters, Undhiyu is a traditional curry that is made of mixed vegetables, spices and lots of ghee. It gets its name from the vernacular word ‘undhu’, which means upside down, as it is traditionally prepared upside down underground in matlu (earthen pots) with constant fire from above.

Nihari

Originated in the Awadhi kitchens of Lucknow, this lip-smacking meat-based delicacy is sure to warm up your winter mornings. A slow-cooked meat stew traditionally made with beef or mutton, Nihari is usually consumed for breakfast. This rich and spicy dish takes a lot of time to prepare and so is cooked overnight and served with puris the next morning. The meat melting the mouth wrapped with a mélange of flavours is a must-try.

Daulat ki Chaat or Malai Makhan

A sought-out sweet delicacy found in parts of alleys of purani (old) Delhi, Daulat ki Chaat or Malai Makhan is an iconic dessert that melts in the mouth in a moment. With cloud-like consistency the light sweet is prepared by churning milk, cream, khoya or mawa until the point it turns into soft foamy peaks. An early morning delicacy, this is served with a topping of dry fruits, sweetened mawa and saffron.

Chi Al Meh

Most of us have had our share of Thukpas but this northeastern delicacy is a flavour-packed bomb that is bound to ward off all winter chills. An authentic Manipuri dish, this delectable soup stew is made with vegetables like onions, capsicum, mushrooms, spinach with a lot of ginger, chillies and other seasonings. Usually served on its own as a wholesome dish, Chi Al Meh can also be paired with noodles.

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)

Much has been written about the legacy of industrialist Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy (JRD) Tata, whose shrewd business sense ensured that the Tata Group became what it is today — one of the largest and longest-running conglomerates in India, which successfully diversified into chemical, automobile, tea and software industries during his chairmanship of 52 years.

While the impact he left on the socio-economic scenario of the nation remains clear even 28 years after his death, a closer look at the lesser-known chapters of his life give us a glimpse into the roots of his dedicated work ethic.

‘My guiding principles’

A letter penned by Tata in 1965 offers a perspective that goes beyond his business acumen and shines a spotlight on his sensibility, kindness, and humility instead. Highlighted by Harish Bhat, brand custodian of Tata Sons, the letter is a response to the one sent by K C Bhansali, a school teacher from Kolkata. In it, the educator had asked the businessman to share the guiding principles that “kindled” his personal and professional journeys.

Denying the school teacher’s label for him of being an “illustrious personality”, JRD, who was 62 years old at the time, said that he considers himself “only an ordinary businessman and citizen who has tried to make the best of his opportunities to advance the cause of India’s industrial and economic development”.

Summarising the ideals that unconsciously governed his way of life, the industrialist said that he believes nothing meaningful is achieved without reflection and hard work.

“That one must always think for oneself and never accept at face value slogans and catchphrases to which, unfortunately, our people are too easily susceptible,” the letter states.

“That one must forever strive for excellence, or even perfection, in any task however small, and never be satisfied with the second best,” the letter reads. “That no success or achievement in material terms is worthwhile, unless it serves the needs or interests of the country and its people, and is achieved by fair and honest means.”

Tata concludes his response by highlighting the importance of “good human relations”, which bring about “personal rewards” and also play a prominent role in a given organisation’s growth.

This thoughtful letter by the business tycoon is only one among many that he regularly wrote to people from all walks of life — loved ones, revered colleagues, bureaucratic officials and even commoners he didn’t know personally. Some three hundred of them have been compiled into a book by Rupa Publications and provide a closer look at his lifestyle, temperament, passions and values, and relationships.

Among the most-well known of the letters he received, perhaps, is the one handwritten by Indira Gandhi, India’s third and only female prime minister. Addressing him as “Dear Jeh”, Gandhi wrote the letter in February, 1978, when the Morarji Desai government removed JRD Tata as the chairman of Air India.

“I am so sorry that you are no longer with Air India… You were not merely chairman but the founder and nurturer who felt deep personal concern,” the letter reads. “There was some misunderstanding between us but it was not possible for me to let you know of the pressures under which I had to function and the rivalries within the ministry of civil aviation.”

Notably, author and social worker Sudha Murthy had also sent a postcard to JRD Tata in April, 1974, addressing the culture of sexism at TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO), India’s largest auto manufacturer. Subsequently, the industrialist did away with the company’s “only male employees” policy, and Murthy went on to become the first woman engineer to work for TELCO.

You can read the full letter here.

In the 14 years since she has taken up social work and activism, Yogita Bhayana, a well-known name in the field of women rights, has seen many incidents that have left her appalled at the state of affairs in India. Rape, brutality and injustice are rife in the nation, and Yogita has spent years watching closely how this leaves the most vulnerable section of society struggling.

But before she arrived at this point in her life, she was just a young girl from Delhi pursuing a glamorous career in aviation.

Born and raised in the capital city, Yogita’s life was that of a Delhi girl, who completed her education from Delhi University and got a Master’s degree in Disaster Management from Guru Gobind Singh University. But even in school, her inclination towards doing good for weaker segments of society was ever-present.

“When I was in Class 9 and 10, I used to teach children under a tree outside my house,” she recalls in conversation with The Better India. “I also used to raise funds for senior citizens in school. So my involvement in social activities goes way back.”

‘Justice is a slow process’

As she grew older, she found a lucrative career with Kingfisher Airlines. But in 2002, when she was all but 22 years old, she had her first brush with the broken reform and justice system that continues to plague the country.

“I witnessed a horrible road accident where the perpetrator ran away, and no one came forward to help the victim. I took him to the hospital and called his family. By the time he received treatment, it was already too late. Even at the site of the accident, it was only my friend and I who came forward to help him. The government hospital was not equipped to help him either, and took hours before the treatment began. He died, leaving behind a wife and a bunch of children, aged between one and five years,” she says.

“I was just a young girl with no prior exposure to something like this. I couldn’t sleep for nights after the incident. I was left wondering, ‘What is the life of a poor man in this country?’ That was a big awakening for me. I tried to organise awareness programmes, but pushing the government to make a change is a very slow process,” she explains.

Yogita stood by the family of the accident victim — she stood as a witness in court, got his wife and children compensation, and provided them overall support. This, she says, gave her insight into how complicated the issue of justice really is. “It’s not just one issue — several problems intertwine and you tend to get carried away and confused about where to even begin.”

Meaning of “me too” in conversation with Grass root level working women.Workshop on sexual harassment at workplace and SOPs pic.twitter.com/cJpldUsJJK

— Yogita Bhayana योगिता भयाना (@yogitabhayana) October 31, 2018

After a slow and gradual transition, Yogita quit her glamorous job in the aviation industry to take up social work full time. This, she says, was her calling. “Quitting my job was the happiest moment of my life. I could have started much earlier, but I take my time in aviation as a learning experience as well,” she notes.

In 2007, she formed the Das Charitable Foundation to help victims of road accidents, spread awareness about the need for hospital reform, try to bring them justice, and more. Alongside, she was conducting employment generation programmes for women. The NGO does not take government aid and relies on networking and corporations for funding. Yogita notes that over the years, she has become more involved with activism than running the NGO.

She worked with Das till 2011, but the next year, as news of the horrific gangrape of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi swept the nation, Yogita began her vociferous activism.

Nine years later, the internet has plenty of images to show how she stood by Nirbhaya’s parents, spent months at the protests, and spoke up against the need for urgent justice. Regardless, it took nine years to deliver justice, she notes.

She adds, “When I took up Nirbhaya’s case, I had about eight or nine more cases of rape and brutality. I was spending all my days in court, going from one hearing to another. Nirbhaya’s mother had the world’s attention and aid, but there were many others that people were not even looking at. Standing up for them was the realest blessing for me, and I noticed how much they need someone to offer them that support at all times. You can’t promise them justice, but you can promise that you’ll be there with them.”

After Nirbhaya’s case came to light, Yogita started People Against Rape in India (PARI), an organisaton that aims to provide rehabilitation, justice and safety to victims of rape and their families.

Not above, not below

“When we were protesting at Jantar Mantar, we received many calls from other victims and their families. I had met a few people at the protest and after Nirbhaya passed away, we decided to stay back, receive these SOS calls and work to help them. One time, I went to the hospital to meet a victim, a little girl who was around four or five years old. At the hospital, I ended up meeting several such babies. This was an eye-opener — we don’t even know how many such girls are languishing in hospitals, or are probably dead,” she says.

Yogita began conducting research, filing RTIs, and conducting ground work for rape victims — medical aid, police intervention, legal process and more.

PARI runs a number of key programmes such as We Men, which works to involve men in the cause of women safety, gender sensitisation and more. Meanwhile, Project Ummeed deals with promoting safe driving and adherence to traffic rules by Blue line bus drivers by working for the overall mental well-being of drivers through counselling sessions and workshops.

Project Utthhan works for poverty elimination, with their target audience specifically being widows, single women and other vulnerable groups. Through skill development programmes, PARI trained and placed over 1,000 women from economically weaker sections of society as cab drivers, housekeeping staff and car cleaners.

Alongside, the organisation works with hundreds of rape victims, survivors and their families to help them with legal aid, compensation, rehabilitation and justice. They also conduct preventive work via sensitisation workshops, awareness campaigns and more.

“It’s important to help the survivor, but it’s equally imperative to work on prevention. If you don’t, these cases will continue till the end of time,” Yogita says, adding that they receive at least 10-15 calls a day from aggrieved personnel.

Having spent years working closely with rape victims, she has become privvy to a number of issues, she says. “We’re failing at two levels here,” she explains. “Firstly, at the policy level — many laws and reforms exist to benefit women and victims, but what’s lacking is effective implementation. Then there’s a problem at the society level — how do we see our women? We see them as either goddesses, or as whores. The projection of women has to be as an equal, not above and not below.”

आज की शाम @pariforindia के युवा #Volunteers के साथ बीती,हमारे द्वारा महिला सुरक्षा पर जल्द ही शुरू होने वाले राष्ट्रीय जागरूकता अभियान पर टीम के सदस्यों के साथ विस्तृत चर्चा हुई !!

…..if you also want to join this Noble cause pls come forward and message#PARI pic.twitter.com/uro54iR8XB

— Yogita Bhayana योगिता भयाना (@yogitabhayana) September 23, 2021

“Nirbhaya got justice after nine years, but I have cases that have been pending for 15 years or so. There’s a lot of sensitivity lacking in courts when it comes to sexual violence, so these cases aren’t treated as seriously as they should be. We need enough patrolling and facilities for women’s safety even at night,” she adds.

As a woman, that Yogita speaks out about such a sensitive issue invites its fair share of challenges. “Threats and counter cases have become normal. Perpetrators and their families will try to have you attacked, or create additional problems in the process of justice. Many false cases of intimidation have also been filed. But I’m okay with that, that’s part of what I do.”

She adds, “There’s a lot of pressure. I can’t fight the judicial process and how slowly it moves. And I can’t promise someone or their family justice. But I do what’s in my control. I wish I could do more — whatever assistance I offer comes from my own resources, and they’re running out.”

Yogita says she repeats only one line to whoever she works with — “I can’t promise you justice, but I will be there with you in your fight.”

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)

Two revolutionaries. Two rebellions. Two significant chapters of Indian history. How do they intertwine?

In 1922, Indian revolutionary Alluri Sitaram Raju led the Rampa Rebellion against the British raj for their imposition of the 1882 Madras Forest Act, which severely restricted the free movement of the tribal community within their own forests. Under the implications of this Act, the community was unable to fully carry out the traditional Podu agricultural system, which involved shifting cultivation.

The armed struggle came to a violent end in 1924, when Raju was captured by police forces, tied to a tree, and shot by a firing squad. His heroics resulted in him being titled manyam veerudu, or ‘the hero of the jungle’.

Close by, another revolutionary by the name of Komaram Bheem, had escaped from prison to a tea plantation in Assam. Here, he heard about the rebellion being led by Alluri, and found a new sense of inspiration to protect the Gond tribe to which he belonged.

Now, a hundred years later, National Film Award-winning director S S Rajamouli is tying these two historic threads in his upcoming film R R R. The movie has a stellar cast that includes N T Rama Rao Jr and Ram Charan in the lead roles, accompanied by Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Olivia Morris, Alison Doody, Ray Stevenson, Shriya Saran and Samuthirakani.

The film is to be set outside the sphere of their contributions in leading rebellions against oppression. Instead, it seeks to paint a fictitious timeline where the two leaders might have become friends, and how their lives would have overlapped. Set in the 1920s, the movie will explore a brief period of oblivion before both figures took on the role of revolutionaries.

Alluri has been the subject of much deserved adoration; he became the subject of a popular Telugu movie, and his birth anniversary is marked as a state festival in Andhra Pradesh. Meanwhile, Bheem has become a key figure in Adavisi groups and Telugu folk culture.

A Nomadic Existence

Born in Telangana’s Adilabad district in 1901, Bheem was a member of the Gond community and grew up in the populated forests of the Chanda and Ballalpur kingdoms. During his childhood, he had no exposure to the outside world and received no formal education.

Instead, he grew up listening to stories about the struggles his community faced at the hands of the zamindars, police officials, and businessmen. As Mypathi Arun Kumar wrote in his book Adivasi Jeevanna Vidhvamsam (2016), “In order to survive, Bheem kept moving from one place to another, trying to protect himself from exploitation…Crops produced after podu farming were taken away by Nizam officials, janglaats [forest police] arguing that the land was theirs. They’d cut the fingers of Adivasi children, accusing them of illegally cutting down trees. Tax was collected forcefully, otherwise false cases were registered. After being left with nothing in hand from farming, people started moving out of their villages. In such a situation, [Bheem’s] father was killed by forest officials for asserting Adivasi rights. Bheem was agitated by the murder…and after his father’s death, his family moved from Sankepalli to Sardapur.”

In Sardapur, the gonds took up subsistence farming on land owned by one Laxman Rao. Journalist Akash Poyam detailed in Adivasi Resurgence that one day, “Patwari Laxman Rao and pattadar Siddique saab came along with 10 people, and started abusing and harassing Gonds to pay taxes at the time of harvesting. Gonds resisted and in this tussle, Siddique saab died [at] the hands of Komaram Bheem.”

As a consequence, Bheem was forced to go on the run to avoid capture, and found refuge with Vitoba, who was running a magazine against the Nizam and the British. Bheem learned English, Hindi and Urdu with Vitoba. However, the former was arrested by the police, and Bheem was forced to run away once again — he landed up in a tea plantation in Assam, where he heard about Alluri leading a rebellion against the British. Inspired by this, alongside by the struggles of chief Ramji Gond, Bheem decided to organise a struggle for the cause of the Adivasis.

Jal, Jangal, Jameen

After a brief arrest, Bheem ran away and returned to Ballalpur. He worked with head of Devadam village Lacchu Patel in settling land agitation against the Asifabad estate, which made him a well-known figure in neighbouring villages. After some time, he and his family moved to a region named Bhabejhari, where they were harassed by police officials for clearing a piece of land for cultivation under the claim that it was the Nizam government’s land. Bheem tried to set up a meeting with the Nizam to discuss the woes of his community.

However, the appointment was never made, and he realised the only way to move change was to launch a revolution. So he mobilised Adivasi youth and commoners from 12 districts, and together they formed a guerilla army to protest for land rights. He also proposed the plan to declare the group as a separate Gond kingdom, and Poyam noted that this was the first in a series of demands for an autonomous Gondwana state for the community.

As the revolution slowly swelled, making its way through Babejhari and Jodeghat, the Nizam government finally responded with an attempt at negotiation, which Bheem denied, insisting that the Nizam release those arrested on false charges and make a graceful exit from the Gond region.

It was at this time that the now infamous slogan of Jal, Jangal, Jameen (water, forest and land) was raised, and Bheem encouraged members of the community to fight for their rightful ownership over land, food and freedom. Meanwhile, Poyam wrote that the Nizam, unwilling to give into the Gonds’ demands, organised to have Bheem killed.

At first, an army of 300 men was sent to hunt him down, but failed. Then the Nizam bribed a member of the Gond community to become an informant.

Based on the information received, Bheem and his army were hunted down in September 1940, after the Nizam’s forces failed to get the leader to surrender. Apart from the Gond leader, as many as 15 warriors were martyred when the forces opened fire, and Poyam noted that many bodies were burnt unceremoniously, including that of Bheem.

He wrote, “Assuming that Bheem knew traditional spells, they feared he would come back to life…They shot him until his body became like a sieve and unrecognisable. They burned his body at the instant and left only when they were assured he was no more. A gond star had fallen on that day of Ashauja Porunima….The entire forest resounded with slogans like, ‘Komaram Bheem amar rahe, Bheem dada amar rahe’ (Long live Komaram Bheem).”

On The Silver Screen

Jr NTR will essay Bheem’s role in the upcoming movie, which is set to release in January next year. It is pertinent to note that portrayal has been met with controversy over a recently released clip of the movie, in which the actor playing Bheem walks into the frame dressed in white, with a skull cap and surma. While some have claimed that this is “portraying a Hindu nationalist as a Muslim”, Gond members, while denying that Bheem was a Hindu leader, have also expressed their displeasure over “warped portrayal” of the leader.

However, writer Vijayaprasad Prasad asserted in an interview with Film Companion the clip only represents a scene where he dons the attire because he is being “hunted by the Nizam, and is trying to escape [them]” and that the outfit is “camouflage”. Alongside, makers of the film continue to emphasise that this movie is only a fictional portrayal of the two leaders.

Meanwhile, jal, jangal, jameen remains the slogan of many Adivasi groups still struggling over land rights. Bheem’s rebellion sustained long after his death, and eventually merged with the Telangana Rebellion of 1946.

Edited by Yoshita Rao

In 2014, one-and-a-half year old Rukhsar Khatoon unwittingly became a symbol of India’s arduous fight against—and eventual victory over—polio. The little girl, a resident of Howrah district in West Bengal, was the last-ever reported case of the deadly virus, and three years after her diagnosis, India was declared polio-free.

Up until a few years before, the country was contributing to more than half of the worldwide cases of polio. The road to success was to be an 18-year-long rollercoaster with many ups and downs.

“The global community had lost faith in India’s ability to eliminate polio,” recalls Anuradha Gupta, then additional secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and director of India’s National Health Mission. “There was a great sense of despondency globally, because transmission here was very intense, particularly in UP and Bihar. Everyone thought we would not be able to get rid of polio.”

She adds, “Within the country, there was immense fatigue. The programme [to tackle polio] had been going on for years, but we were still unable to get rid of the virus. People were getting tired. Communities started to push back. They felt like all that the government’s health department cared about was polio vaccination, whereas they had many grievances that needed addressing — water, sanitation, and the like. There was massive hesitancy and confusion.”

At the time, Anuradha, now deputy CEO of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, had just been asked to join the Health Ministry after a long stint in the Indian Administrative Services, working for a range of issues including urban development, health, poverty alleviation, and women and child welfare, among others.

She joined the 1981-batch of the Haryana cadre, and began her career as a sub-divisional magistrate in Mahendragarh. “Working in Haryana, which performs well in terms of economic indicators, but lags far behind when it comes to social indicators, was an educational and thrilling experience,” she says in conversation with The Better India.

Anuradha, who helmed India’s battle against the virus as the mission director, explains what it took to help the nation eradicate polio, despite a rocky start.

A lifelong dream

Going back to what set her on this career trajectory, she recalls, “When I was a kid, I’d always wanted to be a doctor — I thought I would heal people, bring them out of their misery…My father, who was a professor of Math, had his own vision of what his children should grow up to be. My oldest sister became a doctor, so he pushed me for IAS. I sat for the exams with much reluctance, but I was happy when I began working. I have always been driven by the idea of helping people who are not as fortunate as me.”

As an IAS officer, Anuradha made this very drive her mission. “I used whatever power I had to veer towards the social sector. I worked in many sectors, including education and women and child development, but it was in health that I found my true calling,” she smiles. “I’d always wanted to be a doctor, and my work experience in the sector brought it all together.”

Shortly after Anuradha began working as the health secretary in Haryana, there was a polio case in Mewat. “That’s the time I began to understand just what polio is, and how poor the immunisation rates in Mewat were. I went by the book — I tried to understand the protocol, how to convene meetings, what a mop up involves, etc. It all happened at a rapid rate. In the end, that was the very last case in Haryana.”

It was then that Anuradha received a call from Sujatha Rao, former secretary at the Ministry of Health, Government of India, who invited her to join the ministry as the secretary. “When I joined the GOI in early 2010, I was put in charge of women and child health, including polio. It was here that I truly realised how much India was contributing to the global polio burden.”

Anuradha realised that the way to tackle the nation’s polio crisis was not by looking at how many children were being covered in every round of immunisation. Instead, it was to factor in how many children the government was missing. “I think that was a radical shift. We were able to carefully monitor how many households had refused the vaccine, and how many kids were missing out. Otherwise, the programme was repetitively going back to the children we had covered, but constantly excluding the kids we had missed,” she says. “We completely repositioned the programme.”

A courageous step for the nation

At the time, there was a bivalent (stimulates an immune response against two different antigens, such as two different viruses or other microorganisms) polio vaccine that had been developed in India, Anuradha explains. “But globally, a monovalent vaccine was being used. There are three different strains of the virus — P1, P2, and P3. P2 was under control, but we were struggling with the other two. There was one vaccine to address P1, but when that was administered, the P3 variant would go out of control, and vice versa. There was nothing to address both.”

At the time, India was receiving funding from the World Bank for procuring vaccines, with the condition that the manufacturer should be WHO-qualified. The bivalent vaccine seemed to be working, but a massive roadblock came when India’s global tender for it failed. “WHO delisted all global manufacturers of the vaccine after a quality audit. So we suddenly had no manufacturer that was WHO-qualified. That’s where the big question of ‘What do we do?’ came in,” she recalls.

As per the agreement with the World Bank, if India decided to tie up with manufacturers not listed by WHO, they would stand to lose their funding.

“In the usual scheme of things, we might have just given up, because what else was there to do?” she says, smiles and pauses, and then adds, “But I was made of different stuff.”

At this time, Bharat Biotech had also bid for the global tender, and was manufacturing the bivalent vaccine in India. “I took the time to study how the process takes place, and I realised that this Indian company had received approval from the National Regulatory Agency, which was WHO-prequalified. So if the company was prequalified by our own agency, it meant that they were meeting the required standards of WHO as well,” she explains.

This realisation invited a lot of pushback, she notes. “But I asked the authorities to give me one good reason. In our routine immunisation programmes, we were using vaccines produced by our own manufactures. Our NRA is WHO-approved. So why should this be any different? It was the first time that a spotlight was thrown on how illogical it is to have two sources of procurement, different pricing, etc. It also highlighted how global institutions can have unreasonable insistence, and how that does not account for the country’s voice. There’s a massive disconnect between the thinking of global institutions and a country’s reality.”

With this thought in mind, Anuradha approached Dr Naved Masood, then financial advisor in the Ministry of Health. “Naved and I had worked together in the past, when I was working in education. I said to him, ‘We definitely need [the World Bank’s] money, but here is a choice to be made. Either we get rid of polio—and we are very hopeful that this vaccine will give us the required results—or we just wait it out and children continue to suffer.’ We were already putting in close to Rs 1,000 crore annually to fight polio. It was like we were being held hostage.”

Dr Masood scrutinised the overall budget of the ministry, and realised there was unspent balance from another project that year. “We received the go ahead, and you know, the rest is history,” Anuradha says.

A quest to find ‘missed children’

Despite losing the World Bank funding, India strengthened its immunisation programme. The bivalent vaccine, combined with increased focus on “missed children”, got India over the hump.

Wasn’t it a massive risk to stick their necks out in such a manner? “Yes,” Anuradha nods. “But it was also the ability to grapple with detail. Sometimes, we bureaucrats and civil servants don’t pay attention to detail, we don’t find the time to dissect issues and get to the core of the problem. But we had to ask ourselves, ‘Why are we procuring immunisation from two sources for our children? Especially if this vaccine is good for them under routine immunisation?’ Of course, it did involve a lot of courage and thinking out of the box.”

“I used to joke, if the World Bank had its way, we would never be able to get rid of polio,” she laughs.

Recalling Rukhsar’s case in Howrah, Anuradha says, “Howrah was not even a hotspot. Everyone was taken aback. When we probed the matter, we realised there was a cluster of unvaccinated children we had missed. So that was my learning — you have to be much more targeted, and you cannot have a macro-statistics approach, which masks the realities of the neglected population.”

A rapid emergency mop up was conducted and was completed within a record six days, despite the fact that these sort of procedures can take weeks due to the sheer number of population that needs to be vaccinated.

In 2011, Anuradha asked the Union Health Minister to declare Polio as a Public Health Emergency, which put all states and UTs on high alert. Rukhsar’s case became the last polio case reported, and on 27 March 2014, the WHO declared India polio free.

In 2015, Anuradha joined Gavi. Since then, she says, “India is the world’s largest and most precious lab. It’s a combination of the best and the worst and most challenging. When I joined Gavi, I brought my learnings of how to use data to identify marginalised populations that need to be prioritised, and how to bring in equity in immunisation.”

Under Anuradha’s leadership, Gavi had developed a programme to identify ‘Zero Dose Children’, wherein they analysed data to find that one-in-ten children in Gavi-supported countries have not received even a single dose of routine immunisation.

As far as vaccination programmes in India are concerned, Anuradha opines, “India has many gaps in terms of vaccination. We’ve made progress in coverage, but inequity is a huge challenge. The country has the largest number of zero dose children at 3 million, a number that increased last year. The pandemic has hit routine immunisation services, especially for marginalised communities. That means that India needs to focus more on these children, lest they begin seeing outbreaks of diseases like measles, or the return of polio — a vaccine-derived virus, not the wild polio. Gavi is working to introduce new vaccination and immunisation programmes with India. There are a lot of gaps to be covered.”

Edited by Yoshita Rao

“We as parents are very…upset. We have been confronted with this overwhelming situation…I lost my four-month-old baby and two-year-old son….It’s very difficult for us to survive and lead our lives…”

In 2011, Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya, an Indian couple living in Norway, put out this tearful plea to Indian authorities, asking them to help bring their children back home. In May that year, the Norwegian Child Welfare Services (CWS) had “confiscated” the couple’s children, Abhigyan and Aishwarya, citing “neglect” and “emotional disconnect” between the mother and the kids.

The children were forced into foster care by CWS, where it was ruled they would remain till they turned 18. Anurup and Sagarika were not allowed to see them.

What followed was two years of chaos and arduous custody battles, the intervention of the Indian government, several protests, and a sharp spotlight on a number of issues — cultural differences, racism, reception and treatment of mental health in women and children, and more.

Ten years on, Sagarika’s painful fight to have her children returned to her is being made into a movie starring Rani Mukherjee. Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway is set to release in May next year, almost exactly 11 years after Sagarika’s ordeal began.

So, in anticipation of the movie, here’s a look at what went down all those years ago, and how a mother finally emerged victorious in her lone battle for her children against a biased and broken system.

‘What if your children are taken away from you?’

In 2007, geophysicist Anurup Bhattacharya married Sagarika, and the two moved to Norway to start their new life. In 2008, Sagarika returned to Kolkata when she became pregnant for the first time with Abhigyan, and would remain here for a year. In this period, her child began to show “autism-like” symptoms. The two returned to Norway in 2009 to join Anurup.

By 2010, the couple placed Abhigyan in a family kindergarten and Sagarika became pregnant with her second child. Because Anurup was working long hours, she spent a lot of time alone with the boy.

At this time, Abhigyan began to show “concerning” characteristics, wherein he would start banging his head on the ground whenever he was frustrated. He also showed many signs of difficulty in communicating, and would often not make eye contact. Being heavily pregnant and weak, soothing Abhigyan became tougher and tougher for Sagarika.

To put things in perspective, Norway has an extremely strict child protection system, and a strong history of blanket regulations for all citizens living in the country, irrespective of cultural differences. For example, even a mild slap in the region is illegal.
The regulations fail to consider that in many countries and cultures, parents believe in the ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ approach.

Regardless, in Norway, an anonymous tip is enough to send a CWS team to your doorstep. In the worst case scenario, you will be declared as an unfit parent and have your child taken away from you — a fate that was soon to fall upon Sagarika.

In November 2010, a team from the CWS showed up at Sagarika’s house after “receiving disquieting alerts about Abhigyan and his relationship with mother”. However, they left without further action upon seeing that she was pregnant. Next month, Aishwarya was born, and Sagarika took on a slow recovery process. At this time, Abhigyan began showing more signs of frustration when he would watch his sister be breast-fed, and taking care of the two kids, while managing a home while her husband kept busy with his job, got increasingly taxing for Sagarika.

Eventually, the kindergarten where she was sending her children began sending out alerts to CWS, and she was asked to sit for Marte Meo counselling for being “disorganised, unpunctual, lacking in structure and unable to establish a proper daily routine for herself or her family”. Meanwhile, the parents alleged that the social worker assigned to their case, Ms Middleton, was contemptuous, rude, and interfering.

“The lady officer from the agency used to often come to observe us. She used to come at any odd time, while I was cooking or feeding my baby. She just used to sit and keep looking at me. I didn’t understand their language very well so [I] wasn’t able to talk too much. But they never even indicated to me at any time that there was any problem, never gave me any warning about what they were writing. I never imagined that they could do such a thing as taking away my children. I was shocked when that happened,” Sagarika said.

She added, “Both of us knew about the counselling and observation part and we had openly agreed to it for the sake of our son. But I remember very clearly that when I did request a cancellation or a rescheduling of the home visits, I was told that this would not be possible. Even on days when I wasn’t feeling well, they insisted on coming. I remember being extremely uncomfortable on such occasions and I wanted to be alone with the baby, wanting to rest when the baby slept, but they sat there through everything, just sat there and observed everything, constantly writing down things in their files. On some days, I felt awful, I didn’t know what to do.”

On 11 May 2011, Sagarika left her son in the kindergarten and returned home for a meeting scheduled with the social worker and two others, where an argument reportedly broke out between the two parties. One of the care workers took Aishwarya under the pretext of taking her out for a walk till the situation cooled down. Some time later, the care workers called up the parents and informed them that both children were now in CWS custody. For two days, Anurup and Sagarika were forbidden from seeing their kids.

Two days later, when they went to the police station to see their children, an emotional Sagarika was unable to contain her outburst, which only made things worse for the couple.

“I don’t have words…I cannot explain what I felt…I remember I was crying, hysterical, shouting…Later, I heard they had recorded my behaviour as hysterical and taken that as further proof of my unsuitability as a mother. Tell me…how would you react if your children are taken away from you?” she had told this blog.

Until this time, Abhigyan had received no medical attention for his behaviour, despite the CWS’s involvement. An evaluation was reportedly conducted in March 2011, and the CWS gave the boy the diagnosis of an attachment disorder. Anurup and Sagarika claimed they were not aware of when and how their child was examined for this condition.

In November that year, the local County Committee on Social Affairs ruled in favour of the CWS, which was adamant that Sagarika should not get custody of her children. Abhigyan and Aishwarya were separated from their parents and placed in foster care. Anurup and Sagarika were allowed only three visits per year, for a duration of an hour each. All follow up appeals by the parents fell on deaf years.

A year-long battle comes to an end

By this time, Sagarika’s marriage began to deteriorate as well. In early 2012, the news hit headlines across India and Norway, and the Bhattacharyas put forth their side of the story. Several allegations of cultural differences and bias came to light. The couple claimed that the CWS had flagged issues such as the parents sleeping in the same bed as the children, using their hands to feed them, etc. However, Norwegian authorities were seemingly unaware that in Indian culture, these practices are more than normal.

The CWS continued to cite problems between Sagarika and her children, as well as Sagarika and Anurup, as an argument to keep Aishwarya and Abhigyan in Norway while their parents were in India. In February 2012, it announced that the children would be handed over to Arunabhas Bhattacharya, the children’s uncle and an unmarried dentist. Meanwhile, Sagarika and Anurup’s marriage had broken down, and an ugly custody battle was rearing its head.

Sagarika would go on to endure months of slander and hostility by several people, especially her husband and in-laws. Alongside, several reports began to surface detailing Norway’s implicit bias against NRIs, and the gaps in its child welfare system.

In April that year, in a small win, after intervention by the Government of India, the Norwegian court handling the case allowed the children to return to India, under the condition that they would live with Arunabhas.

But the battle was far from over for Sagarika, who filed a petition with Burdwan’s (West Bengal) Child Welfare Committee to have her children transferred to her care. She alleged that her husband’s parents had been reluctant to let her visit her children, and that the kids were not being looked after. The Child Welfare Committee seconded this claim in their report. In November 2012, Sagarika was declared psychologically fit to bring up her children.

NDTV reported that despite the ruling, police officials refused to let Sagarika reunite with her children. After months of back and forth between police officials, the Child Welfare Committee and the Kolkata High Court, Sagarika reunited with her children in April 2012.

On her reunion with her children, she said, “I am overwhelmed…as I am able to kiss them and [hold] them in my lap after one full year. I can’t express myself.”

In another interview, a beaming Sagarika told NDTV, “I have finally got my children back. My ordeal is over. Finally, I’m getting justice.”

Now over a decade later, Sagarika’s story is finding its way into the mainstream, after years of having been forgotten.

Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway is said to be “an untold story about a journey of a mother’s battle against an entire country”, and will be directed by Ashima Chibber. Rani announced the movie this Sunday on her birthday and said that the movie is “one of the most significant films” of her 25-year-long career. “I started my career with ‘Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat (1997)’, which was a woman-centric film, and coincidentally in my 25th year, I’m announcing a film that is also centred around a woman’s resolve to fight against all odds and take on a country,” the Hindu reported her as saying.

Meanwhile, Sagarika, who had once gone 18 months without seeing her children, now lives a low-key and peaceful life with her kids in Kolkata.

Edited by Yoshita Rao

Indian-origin physician Anil Menon is among the ten people chosen by NASA as astronauts for the organisation’s upcoming missions. He is also a lieutenant colonel with the US Air Force.

In a press release, NASA announced that it has chosen 10 new candidates from a pool of more than 12,000 applicants to represent the US and work for humanity’s benefit in space.

“Today we welcome 10 new explorers, 10 members of the Artemis generation, NASA’s 2021 astronaut candidate class,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.

Anil, in an interview with The Indian Express said, “You can never be too confident with 12,000 people applying for 10 jobs. There are definitely a lot of qualified people. It came as a big surprise, surprises are good.”

“I was in California and got a call. The person started talking about the Dragon capsule because I was working at SpaceX at the time. I thought it was a business call. And halfway through, it turned out to be a joke. The Chief of the Astronaut Office said ‘I’m just kidding, do you want to be an astronaut?’ and I said, ‘Sign me up’,” shared Anil in an interview.

When asked about his fondness for India, he said, “As someone from India, I’m happy to represent the larger world. Spending time in India really helped set me up for this job, because it is those same skills that I’ll need to apply as an astronaut in the future.”

The candidates will report for duty in January 2022 to begin two years of training.

Meanwhile, here are some interesting things to know about the 45-year-old genius:

• Anil was born to a Malayali father and Ukrainian mother in Minneapolis, US.
• According to his LinkedIn profile, Anil holds multiple degrees, licenses and certifications including medicine and engineering.
• He is a graduate in Neurobiology from Harvard University (1995).
• Even though he completed his education from various universities in the US, he went to India between 1999 and 2001 as a Rotary Ambassadorial Fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
• During his period in India, Anil also participated in the country’s anti-polio drive.
• He attained MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and MD from Stanford Medical School between 2000-2006.
• He also holds degrees in Aerospace Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Public Health and Wilderness Medicine.
• He was among the first respondents during the earthquakes in Haiti (2010), Nepal (2015) and 2011 Reno Air Show accident.
• He was SpaceX’s first flight surgeon from 2014-2018, who helped to launch the company’s first humans to space during NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission.
• He also helped SpaceX build a medical organisation to support the human system during its future missions.
• In the Air Force, Menon supported the 45th Space Wing as a flight surgeon and the 173rd Fighter Wing, where he logged over 100 sorties in the F-15 fighter jet and transported over 100 patients as part of the critical care air transport team.
• He is the recipient of the Theodore C Lyster Award, presented for outstanding achievement in aerospace medicine, NASA JSC Award, and the US Airforce Commemorative Medal.
• He has also published more than 20 scientific articles.
• If he successfully completes the programme, Anil could be the first Malayali in space.

Jack Hathaway, 39, is a U.S. Navy commander from Connecticut who holds degrees in physics and history form the U.S. Naval Academy and flew with Navy Strike Fighter Squadrons 14 and 136, with more than 2,500 flight hours in 30 aircraft types. pic.twitter.com/nJhJ02lI7l

— Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz) December 6, 2021