Booking the Net

eBooks are kind of like the garage bands, but without the girls and guitars. But wait a while

It is said there is a murderer in each of us. And a book (not necessarily a murder mystery). But very few of us get around to doing one or the other, because the odds are high. Actually, that’s true only for writing. Murder is easy, and could land you a book deal (you don’t have to know how to write).

Looking to publish his first book, Delhi-based businessman Aditya Berlia, 28, found few takers. No one wanted to bring out a novel about a leather-clad, vampire hunting heroine, in the Lisbeth Salander mould. “They were just not interested,” says Berlia. “They thought I was some foreign returned, rich kid looking to indulge a hobby’’.

Undeterred, Berlia decided to publish Tantra himself, and went virtual to publicise it. For the launch he chose Google Hangout, skipping the customary wine and cheese affair. “We figured out our target audience and tailor-made the promos. One of our promos on Facebook said, `All men are boys until they get married’, and was aimed at men between 20 -26 years. There was a massive jump in the number of people who wanted to know what this post was about’’

 The FB page, Adi claims, had 4,000 likes within the week; the book trailer on You Tube — 180,000 hits in ten days. “The struggle was to get the first 500 people to like us’’, he adds. “Once you hit that, their friends check it out and the word spreads. This is where the Net pushes frontiers”.

One, a growing number of writers in India is increasingly starting to explore. To call out a recent few: Amish Tripathi, Ashwin Sanghi, Devdutt Patnaik and Ashok Banker, all are among those whose books were promoted on the Net through trailers.

“The net has reduced entry barriers,” says Tripathi, 38, whose first novel “The Immortals of Meluha” was rejected by publishers. The former banker decided to put his business degree to use online. “We felt we could convey the book’s feel through a trailer. We did not have the money to take it to cinema halls, so we took it to the internet. It’s no longer the case that you need a certain amount of money or the right connections to get published. You can speak your voice on the Net.”

Now, thanks to the profusion of tablets and smart phones flooding the Indian market, those voices are more likely to get heard.  A potential the Rs.10, 000-crore Indian publishing industry has woken up to as well. Publishing houses like Penguin India, Rupa Books and Zubaan Books are digitizing content to explore newer areas that today’s consumers are zoning into.

“We have 510 titles on sale, and we are adding approximately 50 titles a month,” says Ananth Padmanabhan, Vice-President Sales, Penguin India. “This includes all new titles published in 2013, simultaneously along with their print edition.”  The revenues though are negligible so far. “We are currently spending a lot of energy on having all our titles available as e-books, and creating new e products.”

The problem, Padmanabhan says lies in the lack of adequate Indian retailers. Penguin currently retails through Flipkart.com, which entered the e-book market last year by launching 100,000 titles through its digital store Flyte. Google Books and Amazon offer Penguin e-lists to Indian readers as well. “One of the primary concerns with other Indian retailers is the lack of strategy and marketing, and the absence of foolproof security mechanisms’’, he says.

While publishing houses are testing the waters, self-publishing sites have got a shot in the arm after the entry of e-books. “We mostly deal with new content and individual authors who are finding their audience online”, says Jaya Jha, co-founder of Pothi.com, a self-publishing platform. “Offering digital content makes total sense for them. Sometimes e-books are offered for free by those looking to market something else, or want to spread their ideas. Print would make such experiments costly. Since nowadays books are in any case written on the computer, there is no additional cost associated with digitisation’’.

Many believe this could see new and hopefully talented voices emerging online. “In our country we need the opening up that e-books offer if one is looking to make more discoveries in the world of literature,” says Amit Chaudhari, whose latest book “Calcutta: Two Years in the City”, has been brought out in print and e-book format.

“Right now, it is sportsmen and chefs who are publishing the most anyway. Because costs are lower, it will allow fresher and more interesting voices to publish’’. 

“It is exciting to see that writing is expanding across so many genres, chick lit, lad-lit, etc.’’, adds literary critic Sunil Sethi. “These IIM grads-turned-novelists are applying those very same models and techniques they learned in business school to writing or publishing to reach audiences. They are unlikely to produce a literary masterpiece but they are ratcheting up the numbers and that is heartening”.

 Will this spell a rise in readership? In the US, e-books now account for nearly 23% of the publishers’ total revenue, according to the latest report of the Association of American publishers .Back home, the prognosis is not so bright. “It’s a myth that India has a huge market for books, print or digital”, says Padmanabhan.

 “It is a discerning audience that buys books on a regular basis, who are a small number, and within them there is a shift between formats”, Jha agrees. “In the US, the reading culture was already much stronger than it is in India. E-books took it further by offering convenience. The Indian publishing industry has to generate demand in the first place. Until then, e-books will have to play in the same small market as physical books. By themselves, they will not make non-readers read’’.

 We no longer make the kind of long-term commitment required for a relationship with War And Peace, or display the rigour for Possession. On the frontiers of the World Wide Wilderness, we’re always ridin’ the bitstream, imbibing light, sound and word in short bursts. But that’s not to mean we’re not reading. Just that the reader and reading itself has changed. Maybe the book too needs to change. And maybe the eBook is the first barefoot step down that dusty road.

A version of this article appeared in the newspaper Livemint

http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/vML66YepI5244f6aTs5pnM/Booking-the-Net.html

 

Bollywood’s Women: Caught between Idol & Item?

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, April 21st, 2013.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/536686/bollywoods-women-caught-between-idol-and-item/

The darkened cinema is the space where desire is explored without fear. Each member of the audience can privately lose themselves in the moving image projected onto the great glowing screen in front of them. And over the decades, Bollywood has given us symbols of desire that have ranged from the siren to the scrubbed village lass to the struggling young widow.
Indeed, as Talaash (2012) proved, we can even be lured into the arms of a phantom even as we fear annihilation lurking beneath her papery skin.
But desire has its daemons too.
And the other end of frustrated desire is the social crime of rape. Bollywood has certainly not shied from this type of violence. The symbols are familiar, repeated in film after film — the broken anklets, the ripped sari blouse at the shoulder, the clap of thunder and shards of lightening. A shaking hand stretched across the mandir’s threshold.
A rape scene was invariably part of any commercial Bollywood film from the 1970s onwards. It was plotted as the villain’s final, unforgiveable act that then neatly dovetailed into a justification for the hero’s subsequent obsession with vengeance.
“The social fabric at the time was such that people were identified [by] the part they played within a family — husband, father, son, and wife,” explains popular poet and scriptwriter Javed Akhtar, who along with Salim Khan, scripted some of the blockbusters of that time such as Zanjeer (1973) and Deewar (1975). “In that context, what [could] be the greatest source of humiliation other than hurting the hero’s sister in the most vulnerable circumstances?” The hero’s moral outrage allowed us to forgive the slaughter that would follow.
The portrayal of rape mirrored the morality of the day. “Earlier, [at] a certain level, the morality was very black and white,” says Reema Kagti, who is among the new generation of filmmakers and has directed Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd (2007) and Talaash, both of which feature offbeat plots with strong female characters. “The rape scenes were there for titillation,” she adds. “That’s why every film had one. In today’s films, the item number is the equivalent of [the] rape [scene].”
A strong indictment but simply an accurate analysis that while times may have changed and there may be fewer rape scenes in Hindi films today, the industry continues to objectify women. How else, argues film editor Deepa Bhatia, who has worked on My Name is Khan(2010) and Rock On!! (2008), can we explain Katrina Kaif dancing to ‘Chikni Chameli’ like a Barbie doll? “She is saying look at me. It is commodification and that is the way it is,” says Bhatia. “You needed to show flesh under some pretext. Now heroines are item girls so everything is up for grabs.”
The problem though, many believe, goes beyond that. It lies is in the subliminal message packaged in suggestive songs and saucy dialogue. It persists in the age-old picturisation of romance: the man relentlessly pursuing the woman, who after rejecting his advances, finally gives in. “Films unintentionally give respectability to the term eve-teasing,” admits Javed Akhtar. “It makes the act seem innocent when it is not. They show the hero singing and following the woman to woo her even when she says no and that gives credibility and sanction to the act of eve-teasing; [showing] that this is a part of love.”
The mixed message is part of the problem — not just because the woman dressed in western clothes is ‘asking’ for trouble but also because the ‘sati savitri’ innocent woman is also a target. This conveys that no matter what your persona, as a woman you are vulnerable to assault. As sociologist and film buff Shiv Viswanathan puts it: “The equation of western to immoral bothers me. The rape of the innocent, or not so innocent, this double gradient is what worries me.”
The objectification of women came under the scanner after the horrific Delhi bus rape in December. Some actresses, among them Kareena Kapoor, Neha Dhupia and Ayesha Takia, have decided, according to industry sources, against doing item numbers in future projects.
In the very least, the tragedy has precipitated debate. On one end of the spectrum are the directors who have reacted sharply to discussion linking films to the incidents of rape and sexual violence across India. “Cinema has only been around for a 100 years; men have been treating women badly for much longer than that,” argues filmmaker and choreographer Farah Khan. “So how can one blame cinema for what is going wrong in our country today?” Kagti is equally dismissive and uses an example to question people who say viewing informs behaviour: “How come people don’t [emerge from the cinema] a little [more] honest [after] watching Munnabhai M.B.B.S. (2003)?”
Other voices in the industry, albeit smaller in number, call for greater introspection. “Cinema is such a huge influence, so how can you say attitudes are not shaped?” counters Deepa Bhatia. “It has such an impact when it comes to clothes or syntax. So it does affect the way you view women. In the 1980s, when Karisma sang ‘Sexy, sexy sexy, mujhe log bole’, it changed the way women were viewed in this country.”
It appears that filmmakers who wish to challenge the dominant themes can do so elegantly (see Not Herd Mentality). Javed Akhtar for one believes that Indian audiences are ready for films which show a more nuanced portrayal of women and relationships. He cites the success of films like Kahaani (2011), Zindagi na Milegi Dobara (2011) and Band Baaja Baarat (2010)
It appears, however, that a few films do not a successful trend make. “It is difficult to find financial backing for films that tell women’s stories,” says Kagti. “There may be one Kahaani, but there are thousands of male-oriented films. Audiences, and not just in India, are not interested in watching women-oriented films.”
Cinema is, after all, a business, a big business in India. And as Bhatia argues, as long as box office success remains the goal change is unlikely. “You can’t hold a gun to filmmakers and force them to change their perspective.”

Honey I Froze the Kid

This article appeared in the Livemint newspaper. to view the link

http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/5xBdq6q0BO9z835fwYoUiL/Honey-I-froze-the-kid.html?ref=ms

 

Forty may be the new 16, Sridevi may be the new Priyanka, but time is unforgiving for women. Come 40, your eggs will dry up. That tick-tock of the biological clock sounds much closer, shriller. But modern medicine has changed the rules of the game.

For Mumbai-based banker Nandini, who does not want to disclose her last name, it was never a question of choosing career over motherhood, but of waiting for the right person before having children. “I always wanted children. I just wanted to have them with the right man,” says the 43-year-old. “My career was going great and I did not want to rush into marriage. I would look at pictures of these post-40s celebrities having babies and dismiss the warnings about delaying babies.” All that changed when she met up with an old college friend. “She told me of her struggles to conceive after marriage and that frankly got me panicked,” she recalls.

Her friend’s experience pushed Nandini to seek what is medically known as oocyte cryopreservation or egg freezing, a technology that helps women freeze their healthy eggs—“just like sperm banking, only that is simpler,” says Bina Vasan, head, reproductive medicine, Manipal Andrology and Reproductive Services, Manipal Hospital, Bangalore. “Here the ovaries have to be stimulated to produce the eggs and they are later retrieved under general anaesthesia.” Worldwide, as in India, egg freezing is medically recommended for infertile couples, those with poor ovarian reserves, or for women with early stage cancers who are exposed to chemotherapy, which destroys eggs.

Of late, fertility experts say, a large number of those coming forward are women with “social” reasons; those who haven’t found the right man yet or want to put motherhood on hold while they focus on their careers. “We are seeing as many as three-four single women every month, in high-profile jobs, who have not yet found the right partner, coming forward,” says gynaecologist Duru Shah, who consults at some of Mumbai’s top hospitals.

Egg freezing is not new in India, but it has become more effective in recent years with the introduction of vitrification, a specialized freezing technique which ensures ice crystals do not form within the egg and damage the cell structure. “Eggs, unlike sperms, are fragile and the earlier method of slow freezing would damage them,” says Dr Shah. “Now with vitrification we are getting good results.”

Until late last year, egg freezing was termed “experimental” by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. That was lifted after several studies established that pregnancy rates with frozen eggs were similar to that with fresh eggs. Few of these studies, however, have looked at women over the age of 40.

“With the refinements in technology coming in, a large number of IVF clinics which have mushroomed across the country are pitching this method to women who want to delay babies for non-medical reasons,” says Kiran Coelho, head of gynaecology, Lilavati Hospital and Research Center, Mumbai. “And because we don’t yet have clear guidelines on assisted reproductive technology, they are going unmonitored,” she points out.

 

Choosing the right time

There is no study as yet in India to show how often the eggs yield babies. At Rs.2 lakh, the procedure does not come cheap, with hormonal injections making up the bulk of the cost. “These days many women don’t find a partner until they are in their late 30s,” says Nandita Palshetkar, infertility and IVF specialist at Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital and Delhi’s Fortis La Femme Hospital. “Sixty per cent of women over the age of 40 find it difficult to conceive. So they come and bank their eggs. I have a couple of patients who banked their eggs when they were in their 30s. They still haven’t found a partner so they are now planning to have a baby with a sperm donor. With awareness growing about this technology, many women are coming forward,” she adds.

Dr Shah meets at least three women every month who want to freeze their eggs for social reasons. “Not many follow through given the cost and the complexity,” she says. “The average age of menopause for Indian women is 47. The fact is that 10 years before you reach menopause, good-quality eggs are gone. We have women coming to us at the age of 37-38, and by then there are hardly any eggs left. Or they are not of the best quality, so we discourage them.”

A message that experts say fertility centres need to be more upfront about. “Last October, I attended a conference in Los Angeles (US) organized by American Society for Reproductive Medicine, where a number of experts talked about how egg freezing makes sense when the woman is at her peak fertility, which is below 30,” says Dr Coelho. “These methods are still under research. We need more information on this. The point is that most IVF clinics in India rarely accept eggs from a 40-year-old. Most women post 40 have a low anti-mullerian hormone (the hormone that estimates the remaining egg supply or ovarian reserve). This means they will produce lower amounts of eggs or oocytes. Women who come forward for egg freezing need to be made aware of this.”

That awareness did not discourage Nandini when she froze her eggs two years ago. “For a month I felt like my life was on hold,” she recalls. “I was given injections every day for a fortnight as I was over 40 and not producing enough eggs. I had severe water retention and hot flushes.” Nandini, who is still single, thinks it was all worth it. “Well, I stopped being madly stressed out about it. When I am ready I will have my baby. This way I feel that I have a small chance at the very least.”

“Ultimately it’s all about choice and that is what this technology gives you,” says Mumbai-based journalist Anjali, 34. She plans to monitor her egg count every year and opt for the procedure when the time is right (the egg count can be checked through regular ultrasound tests which cost about Rs.2,000). “I am not married but I definitely want to have kids. This empowers women in a sense. You don’t feel so trapped by your biological clock.”

Among the numerous variables that a woman juggles with, career and children are probably the toughest. While this remains as hard as ever, technology has now given women a bit more control.

The Pink Rupee

Entrepreneur Inder Vhatwar was studying in London when he was struck by a business idea. The city, he saw, was full of fashion stores that catered to the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) community. But back home in India, he thought to himself, stores catered solely to straight people.

So in 2010, two years after he returned to India, he opened D’Kloset, the country’s first apparel store for LGBTs, in Mumbai. “We put a rainbow flag outside the store and there were tags inside which said ‘Queer’. The colours and cuts made it obvious too,” says Vhatwar, 30.

The shop was opened a year after a Delhi High Court order decriminalising homosexuality. A 2011 study by the Hamsafar Trust, a group dealing with gay rights, says that since the verdict, harassment of the LGBT people has decreased and they are more comfortable expressing their sexuality. “The verdict forced the subject out of the closet,’’ asserts Harrish Iyer, an equal rights advocate.

Not surprisingly, business catering to the community in the metros is on the rise. In the last few years, restaurants, tourism, stores and books are celebrating all that is gay. Among them are the first LGBT online store Azaad Bazaar in Mumbai and gay tour packages.

Perhaps the most visible impact over the years has been on the gay party business, which was earlier largely underground. At least five gay parties were held this New Year’s Eve in Mumbai. Even mainstream clubs and cafes in the city have opened their doors to the community, hosting events such as the Pink Rupee Fridays, which are advertised openly.

“We host LGBT parties once a month,” says Kaviraj Thadani, director, Cool Chef Cafe, Mumbai. “The response has been great.”

Sibi, co-founder of Gossip, a company that has been organising such events in Mumbai for over five years, says his group now holds two gay parties a month. “Earlier it was twice a year at the most. Last year when cops tried to stop a party, we went viral on Facebook and a lot of people spoke out openly, forcing them to back down.”

The growing openness finds expression in sectors like publishing as well. Fiji-Indian Shobhna S. Kumar who started Queer Ink, India’s first online queer literature store in 2009, says most of the enquiries she gets are from small towns. “People still want to remain anonymous but the number of callers has virtually exploded.”

Many believe the growing visibility, even if largely confined to the metros, underlines the potential clout of the “pink rupee”. Worldwide, pink money — the worth of the industry catering to the community — is valued in billions of dollars. Consulting firm Deloitte estimates that the purchasing power of the US LGBT community will be $835 billion in 2014.

It is time India cashed in, says a recent report by MSL, the strategic communications unit of Publicis, among the world’s top advertising and marketing agencies. Titled Out of the Closet and into the Marketplace: The birth of India’s ‘pink economy’, the report looks at the economic potential of the community.

The National AIDS Control Organisation believes that the LGBT community is 2.5 million-strong, though other studies hold that 2-13 per cent of the India population — or 20-130 million people — are gay. “As of now, there is no formal estimate of the size of this market,” says Harsh Bijoor, marketing and brand strategy consultant. “But it does exist and the potential for marketing is reasonably big.”

Ashraf Engineer, content head, MSL India, says that globally, the pink economy is worth $200-$600 billion. “Even if India were to account for a fraction of this pie, the pink economy would amount to thousands of crores of rupees.”

For many business concerns, it makes financial sense to zero in on the community. “This community comprises individuals with more disposable incomes,” says equity research editor and gay rights advocate Nitin Karani. For instance, most don’t have expenses incurred on raising children. “They are good spenders too,” Karani adds, “especially on clothes, gadgets, travel, grooming, alcohol and entertainment.”

Dynamic big businesses in the West, such as Ikea and Benetton, have been quick to make the most of the emerging market. Financial services firms including Merrill Lynch even have services tailor-made for the community. India lags light years behind.

Take advertising, where references to LGBTs are mostly mocking. Bijoor refers to a Quikr ad which has a man speaking in a so-called gay and effeminate manner. “This is a classic example of how the LGBTs have been used to cater to the non-LGBT community which is unfair.”

R. Balki, chairman, Lowe Lintas ad agency, agrees. “It’s stereotypical because marketers think the audience is not mature enough,” he says. But adman Prahlad Kakkar is not surprised. “The gay community is the butt end of jokes. Why would anyone address them at the cost of alienating a larger section of the society,” he asks.

However, some businesses are now seriously looking at the gay community as a viable market. The MSL report says the sunshine sectors are travel firms targeted at a gay clientele, such as “Indjapink” and “La Passage to India”.

A businessman, who does not want himself or his company to be identified, is not so sure. The 42-year-old Mumbai resident started a gay tours company in 2010 but soon found that he had to expand his business because there were not enough gay takers. “Barely 5 per cent of my earnings are from the LGBT community,” he says. “Travel companies are frankly not doing much business.”

Clearly, the scale of India’s pink economy as of now is hard to gauge. That is because of the scattered nature of these businesses. The report also points out that the boom is restricted to affluent, urban sections in the metros, leaving out a sizeable chunk of the gay community.

There are also questions about what makes a business pink. Is it one that caters only to gay people? “I never meant to exclude non-queer people. But I want to create a space where our crowd can walk in and feel free to be themselves,” says Vhatwar, adding that his sales have risen by 40 per cent over the years with many customers coming from the straight community.

Kumar too stresses that her business is open to everybody. “The pink economy is hard to define in India. We will have to wait a few years as there are many who do not openly say they are LGBT. But they are part of the mainstream and living successful lives as gay people.”

Karani says he would define the pink economy as the potential consumption power of the LGBT people plus others they can influence. “Certain products can be tailored to their needs alone (like gay-friendly travel companies). However, it includes products or services that anyone needs and would pick among the options available, if the associated brand is perceived to be more supportive of equal rights.”

Everybody agrees that for businesses catering to the LGBT community to grow, mindsets have to change. “We have to come out of our own prejudices. Any economy goes in sync with the contemporary mindset of the country and there is a lot of change needed there,” says Sylvester Merchant, director of the Gujarat-based Lakshya Trust which works with sexual minorities. “We still have a long way to go.”

Where the Crescent meets the Star

This article appeared in the Express Tribune. To view the newspaper source go to :

http://tribune.com.pk/story/487948/where-the-crescent-meets-the-star/

A green kippah, traditional Jewish cap on his head, Isaac Talkar cuts a striking figure as he winds his way through the crowded by-lanes of Dongri in the heart of Mumbai city. 80-year-old Talkar, a Bene Israeli Jew is headed to the local synagogue, a daily ritual. Dongri, a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood in south Mumbai, has been his home from birth.

‘’I have lived here all my life’’, says the retired bank manager. ‘’My entire family, including my parents and siblings, migrated to Israel thirty-five ago. I have no relatives left here. They kept calling me but some attachment keeps me here. I want to die and be buried here.’’

Once a sizeable presence, today there are barely 4000 Jews left in India. Most have migrated abroad. Those who have stayed on are largely concentrated in Mumbai, in the old Muslim neighbourhoods. They wear their Jewish identity openly; their homes display the mezuzah, a decorative doorpost containing passages from the Torah openly.

There are two distinct Jewish communities with deep roots in the city. The Bene Israelis, who claim to be descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel, arrived in India about 2500 years ago, shipwrecked off the Konkan coast, near Mumbai. Then there are the Baghdadi Jews who emigrated from Iraq as merchant traders during the British Raj.

‘’Traditionally Jews and Muslims have occupied the same neighbourhoods in Mumbai’’, says Judah Samuel, a Bene Isareli and trustee of the Shaare Raason synagogue in Dongri. Samuel’s great grandfather Abraham Reuben Kamarlekar was president of the Jewish association in Karachi before Partition. His mother’s family migrated to India after 1947. ‘’It was natural the Jews and Muslims would cluster in the same areas’’, says Samuel. ‘’Both are religions of the book. They have halal, we have kosher. Both do not eat pork. They pray five times a day while we pray three times’’.

Not much has changed since those early days. Most of Mumbai’s eight Jewish synagogues are located in the Muslim neighbourhoods of Byculla, Mazgaon and Dongri. The Gates of Mercy, the city’s oldest, is popularly called juni (old) masjid. The Magen David synagogue in Byculla, had a Muslim custodian for decades. ‘’Even today the caretaker of the Bene Israeli cemetery in Mazgaon is a Muslim’’, says well-known film critic and Mumbai historian Rafique Baghdadi. ‘’and 98% of the students attending the Jewish schools in the central Mumbai area are Muslims’’.

It’s not that the association has remained totally unaffected by the larger conflict playing out between Israel and the Arab world. ‘’During the 6-day Arab-Israeli war, Moshe Dayan’s effigy was burnt in my neighbourhood’’, remembers Judah Samuel. Dayan was a prominent Israeli military leader. ’’ I was 10 years old and my family was scared because we were the only Jewish family in that area. But no one said or did anything to us’’.

What has helped keep the harmony intact is the manner in which the Jewish community has assimilated. ‘’They speak Marathi and have a very distinctive Indian identity’’, says Mumbai-based writer Sameera Khan. Khan has spent the last decade researching old Muslim neighbourhoods in the city. ‘’ If they had been vocal about their affiliation with Israel, had taken out morchas (protests) supporting Israel then perhaps there would have been an issue. As a result Indian Muslims have never felt uncomfortable or antagonistic towards them’’.

 

Is the reticence perhaps born out of a desire for self-preservation? I put the question to Albert Talegawkar, a solicitor whose family migrated to Israel many years ago. ‘’ Our community is very microscopic’’, he says. ‘’ We are not affected by what is happening in Israel. We do feel bad that there is a lot of publicity being given to the Israeli attacks while no one talks about the rocket attacks from Gaza. But it’s not like we support Israel blindly’’.

Isaac Talkar’s friend, Menahim Asher, once captain of Dongri’s Mohameddan XI cricket team says, ‘Our relatives are in Israel but our hearts are in India. Israel is imposed on the Arabs. Just because our forefathers were there at some point does not mean we have the right to take over.’’ ‘’It is sad that Arabs and Jews are fighting because we come from the same father, Abraham’’, adds Solomon Sopher, a Baghdadi Jew and a prominent figure in the community. ‘’I raise horses and most of my trainers are Muslims. They are also bosom friends. Many of my business partners are Muslims’’.

The close ties of cooperation and commerce help explain why ties between the two communities remained intact even after the 2008 Mumbai attacks when terrorists stormed into the Chabad House, a Jewish outreach centre in Colaba. Six of its occupants, including the rabbi and his pregnant wife, were killed. Their two-year-old son Moshe survived the attack, rescued by his Indian nanny. The attacks brought the world spotlight onto Mumbai’s Jewish community. There were fears of a possible backlash.

‘’I was concerned how the local Jewish community would react’’, says Sameera Khan. ’’The expat Jews did. But the local population did not get involved. Perhaps they felt that being a small minority they should not draw attention to themselves. I am glad they did not identify Indian Muslims as being the same as Pakistani ISI-supported terrorists. Similarly Indian Muslims don’t see Indian Jews as being the same as Israelis. They see them as another local community around whom they live and work’’.

‘’The Chabad people were not Indian Jews’’, says Talegawkar. ’’They were here to advance religious matters. The terrorists were targeting foreigners’’.

Even today, four years later, the reminders of those attacks are all too visible. Synagogues in Mumbai now have CCTVs and there is a heavy police presence. Equally visible and eloquent are the expressions are brotherhood.  ‘’We love the Indian Muslims very much’’, says Sopher.’’During Ramzan and Eid we give our grounds without charging a fee. We let our compounds out to the Bohri community for their festivals and marriages’’.  ‘’Post 26/11 nothing has changed. Even today I get biryani’’, adds Talkar laughingly.

 

 

Mother India

For those of you who thought Marissa Mayer wouldn’t be able to handle being a new mother and CEO, it’s time to eat your words. Less than a month after her return from a two-week blink-and-miss maternity leave, the Yahoo CEO has announced several aggressive moves to turn around the troubled company. Yahoo has also posted some pretty promising first-quarter results under her watch. Clearly Mayer means to prove the naysayers wrong. No doubt, though, one little misstep will set those tongues wagging again, speculating whether women are up for motherhood and work at the same time.

At 37, Mayer is the youngest CEO to head a Fortune 500 company. In appointing her, Yahoo has created history. Not very often is a pregnant woman given the top job. But will she be, as many would like to believe, a game changer for working women across the globe?

Gazing at the line-up of women leaders in corporate India, one has reason to hope.

“When I started my career about 25 years ago, motherhood mostly meant an end to careers for women,” says Mumbai-based Meera Sanyal, chairperson and country executive (India), The Royal Bank of Scotland Group. “Today, it is not so. We are trying to create a supportive culture through flexi-time and reduced work weeks. But I believe we still have a long way to go.

“Banking and financial services sector has seen the presence of more women on top than any other industry,”  Sanyal adds. “In fact, women CEOs in this space among private and foreign banks would almost outnumber men. However, scaling the ladder continues to be a big challenge for women across most industries.”

Ground reality

Reports show just how big a challenge this can be. Deloitte’s November 2011 report, ‘Women in the boardroom: A Global Perspective’ revealed that out of the 1,112 directorships of 100 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, just 5.3 percent were held by women. India’s biggest competitor, China at 8.5% had more women in the boardroom. Earlier this year a Grant Thornton International Business Report titled, Women In Senior Management: Still Not Enough, gave a global perspective on women in top jobs. With just 14% representation, India is followed by Germany (13%) and Japan(5%). Russia, Botswana, Philippines and Thailand are among the top three. Interestingly, at 17%, the US fares just somewhat better. Clearly even for the US, Mayer’s elevation is a landmark moment.

“Here, if you are pregnant you won’t be hired easily,” points out a Mumbai-based head-hunter who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Why would someone hire you knowing that you will be on leave after six months? When I interview women candidates I ask them upfront about their plans to start a family.”

It’s not just the companies that are reluctant. “Internationally, attitudes are very different,” says Mumbai-based K. Sudarshan, managing partner of global executive search firm EMA Partners International. “We had a client from South Africa who was in an advanced stage of pregnancy and she was open to relocating to another country soon after the baby was born. It’s an attitude I don’t see so much here where attitudes are still traditional. Here women tend to withdraw their candidature the moment they realize they are expecting. They would rather stay in a company where they are already working so they can try and negotiate for greater flexibility at work.”

It’s what may happen after the baby comes that explains some of the reluctance to hire a pregnant woman. There is this concern that she may be unable to do justice to the demands of a full-time job. “Companies invest in these individuals,’’ says Sudarshan, “and they start paying back 2-3 years later and then these concerns do come up.”

Most companies now offer three-six months of paid maternity leave, with the option of extending it up to a year without salary. However it’s the lack of support and options thereafter, when it is most required, that makes it difficult for women to continue working.

Accenture’s report, THE PATH FORWARD: INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2012 GLOBAL RESEARCH RESULTS found that 64% women held flexible work schedules as the main reason for continuing to work. “The maternity leave is not enough”, says this Mumbai-based senior journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity.  She quit her job in a leading English news channel recently, within six months of returning from her maternity leave. Like banking, the media, especially television, has a large number of women in senior positions. “Television is an unpredictable profession. It’s the hardest to manage with a young child, especially in a senior position. I found it hard to say “no” even if my child was sick. And unlike the head office, the bureau did not have the infrastructure to support working mothers. Even in a women-dominated organization I found it difficult to find empathy.”

A Mumbai-based banker  who also wants to remain unnamed, who had spent four years with a leading bank stuck it out for two years after her first child was born. Finally, in 2009, she stepped down as associate vice-president. “When I came back from my maternity leave, I had a lot of pending leaves which I would take when my child fell sick. But that was an issue”, she says. “I would manage my clients from home, but that was not good enough as my male peers with kids were in office 12 hours a day. I was denied a promotion despite meeting targets. My boss would say things like, ‘Why do women have to work? I tell my wife she should stay home’.”

“It is natural that you will have a child who will fall sick, ageing parents to care for, and parent-teacher meetings to attend,” says Sanyal. “In our country, and in many other countries, women carry the load of social responsibilities. Many women willingly opt out of the active working force due to social pressure. You can only reach a senior level when through the years you have been provided with equal opportunities and supportive policies to see you through those critical phases.”

Make a difference

“Companies have recognized the need for adapting to changes that are being introduced in other markets to help women ease back into work after having children”, says Mumbai-based Nita Joshi, director, K&J Search Consultants Pvt. Ltd, an executive search firm. “Some corporates now offer flexi-time and day-care centres at work. But it is not the norm yet.”

Among the exceptions – Bharti Airtel which offers day care facilities, Accenture which offers flexi time and has tied up with crèches, Godrej which has an in-house crèche and offers the GROW Godrej revival of opportunities program for women and Tata’s Second Career Internship program that offers flexi time.

Sarbani Sengupta, director, customer service at DHL Express (India) Pvt. Ltd, who’s based in Mumbai, credits company policies like flexible timings and work-from-home options for being able to do justice to a demanding job which requires considerable travel. Sengupta, mother to a 5-year-old, says, “They understand benefits that a woman brings, in terms of a different perspective.”

Women bring a higher emotional quotient, believes Sanyal. “A better balance in stressful situations, ability to forge strong client-customer relationships, and a high effectiveness in crisis management situations. What I am happy is that Marissa Mayer’s appointment is encouraging intelligent debates about women in the workplace. I hope it ushers in further changes in our attitudes as well.”

Mayer is generation Y’s radically cool poster mom. But that is cold comfort for the construction workers, peasants and numerous other women who struggle daily with motherhood, home-making and earning a living. The road for mother India is long and stony and she’s walking barefoot.

This article appeared in the Livemint, November 11, 2012 under the title ‘Women and the Workplace’. You can view it at

http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/Zju55mRpBTspT5icVeNaTM/Women-and-the-workplace.html

 

Grave Inequity

Days after a controversy broke out over its decision to ban women from entering the sanctum sanctorum, Haji Ali Dargah’s website still proclaims: “People from all parts of the world without restrictions of caste, creed and religion visit to offer their prayers…”　 The statement is a reminder of the inclusive, all-embracing spirit that one of Mumbai’s most famous landmarks was known for.

Built in 1431, the shining marble dargah, floating off the Mumbai coast and immortalised in many a Bollywood film, houses the tomb of 15 th century Sufi saint Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari. The shrine attracts thousands of visitors every day — men and women across faiths. Therefore the move has come as a shock, and many are calling it “anti-Islamic” and “unconstitutional”.

“Our fear is that if this can happen in Haji Ali, which is an iconic dargah, then it can happen anywhere,’’ says Noorjehan Safia Niaz, founder-member of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), which has openly challenged the ban. “It goes against the spirit of what Sufi saints preached. There is a larger issue of not respecting diversity, disrespecting women and moving away from the spirit of Islam,’’ says Niaz.

The Haji Ali Trust, on its part, claims it is upholding this very spirit, and that the ban is not a new one. “Women were never allowed to enter the room where the tomb is kept as the Sharia law does not permit women to touch the tomb,’’ says Haji Ali Dargah chairman and managing trustee Abdul Sattar Merchant. “One of the rooms, at a distance from the sanctum sanctorum, is reserved for women.They can do the namaz there. But the shariat does not allow them to enter the room where the tomb is,” adds Merchant.

Not true, say activists. “I visited the dargah last year in a group and we were all allowed into the mazaar ,’’ says Niaz. “But when I went again this July, there was a steel barricade and we were told we could not enter the sanctum. The president of the committee told us some woman had visited the dargah dressed inappropriately, but that does not mean you ban the entire community of women. Besides, what Sharia are they talking about? What about those dargahs that allow women? Is their Sharia different,’’ asks Niaz.

“The debate regarding entry into shrines is an old one,’’ says Dr Zeenat Shaukat Ali, professor of Islamic studies at Mumbai’s St Xavier’s College. “There is no clear specification regarding the matter relating to entry into shrines, for men or women. Some say that there is a tradition of the Caliph Omar, which mentions that women should not visit graves. Others hold that this was specified under certain circumstances. As gender justice is an important part of Islam, it was not considered a general rule as it would prevent women from visiting the graves of their loved ones.’’

After all, as Dr Ali points out, Muslims, both men and women, visit the Prophet’s grave. “The Prophet’s own daughters visited his grave. So many women visit the grave of the Prophet’s grandson Imam Hussain in Iran. The Taj Mahal is also a makhbara (mausoleum) like the Haji Ali Dargah. Are you now going to say women cannot visit the Taj? This attitude of women as un-equals　is going to precipitate Islamophobia and convey a sense of misogyny that is totally alien to Islam,” she says.

Other religious scholars agree. “The dargah’s decision has nothing to do with the Sharia,’’ says Maulana Shoaib Koti from the Darul Uloom Deobandi University. “It is an administrative decision. The Sharia allows men and women equal access. All that it says is that women and men should be in separate enclosures.”

Hasan Kamal, a senior journalist and editorial advisor to Rashtriya Sahara Urdu, sees the ban as an attempt by certain groups within the community to gain the upper hand. “They want to give the message that they command the community. I am connected to many dargahs and none has such rules. If Mecca and Medina, the two places most sacred to Muslims all over the world, don’t ban women, how can any other?”

But the powers that be at Haji Ali Dargah are sticking to their guns. “Eventually, this will be done in every dargah, as the Sharia law will have to be upheld,” says Suhail Khandwani, trustee of the Haji Ali Dargah and managing trustee of the Makhdoom Baba’s Dargah in Mahim, Mumbai. Incidentally, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board too has come out in support of the Haji Ali Dargah Trust.

Activists fear the ban could set a precedent. The BMMA has found that seven other dargahs in Mumbai already deny women access to the mazaar . The BMMA has also tried to get the Maharashtra government to intervene, but so far, its attempts have been futile. The government has refused to get involved in the issue on the ground that being a religious matter, it falls within the Haji Ali Trust’s purview and not the government’s. There is now talk of looking to the courts for redressal.

“Legally, it is a tricky issue’’, says human rights lawyer Mihir Desai. “On the one hand you have a personal law. On the other, there is the matter of discrimination against women. It is a fundamental rights issue but vis-a-vis a private body — not the State. But it is also a question of freedom of religion guaranteed under the fundamental rights in our constitution.”

Watching the debate play out from the sidelines are writers like Sameera Khan. “When my grandmother died several years ago they did not allow her three daughters to witness the burial or visit the site later. Even today we stand on the pavement outside the graveyard, separated by a fence and say a prayer for her.” Though Khan did not contest the stricture then, activists like Niaz are in no mood to meekly accept the ban on women entering the Haji Ali Dargah. Clearly, this is a debate one hasn’t heard the last of.

This article also appeared in The Telegraph

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