KARMA CHAMELEON I The Man Of A Thousand Chances by Tulsi Badrinath I

During the reign of 17th century emperor Jehangir, gold coins were minted for the king’s beloved wife Nur Jahan. She became the only empress to have her own coinage without ascending the throne. One of the biggest Mughal coins, the 1,000-mohur, weighing around 12 kilograms was also minted in this period.

This coin found its way to the coffers of the Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali, and is now locked away in a Swiss vault. It is one such coin that becomes the karma leash of Harihar Arora in Man of a Thousand Chances.

Weighing two kilograms and worth millions, the coin is in a Chennai museum where Harihar works and hatches the plan to “borrow” it. As Harihar’s colleagues watch mahouts trying to control an enraged elephant, he steals the Jahangir coin and rushes straight to the pawnbroker.
Having pawned the invaluable piece for `2 lakhs, guilt-ridden Harihar goes home to his wife Sarla and soon-to-be-married daughter Meeta. Harihar is determined he will return the money and restore the coin soon after Meeta’s wedding. Harihar notices his wife’s crumpled sari and preoccupied look. He resents her transformation from the shy woman who would greet him at the door wearing fresh clothes and a special smile. He recoils at sight of her tooth that had turned blue and could not be cured because of the money involved. As his daughter displays before him the purchases of the day he is drawn into a labyrinth of memories. The story of how his father had moved to Chennai for business unfolds. Harihar’s estranged relationship with his elder brother Ashok had led him to move out of the family business and the family house. He had then found a job at the museum and a mentor in his boss Mahadevan.
From Sarla’s angle, the world looks different. The fact that she trades in shares has been kept hidden from her husband all these years. He believes she spends her time trying to sell plastic kitchen boxes and “getting nowhere”. That, however, is far from truth. She has a mind and flair for business and is able to earn some money out of it. Another hidden name arises as we hear Sarla’s story: Ratan, the son who had gone missing and was never found. Despite all the years Sarla grieves for her lost son and somehow holds Harihar responsible for him.
A second generation north Indian in Chennai, Harihar’s household is a queer mix of traditions and language. Sarla’s learns bits of Tamil from her maid and the family works out a part-Tamil part-north Indian menu for the wedding. With sufficient cash at hand now, Harihar buys his wife and daughter saris of their choice. He has invested in a fund which will come to maturity soon after Meeta’s wedding. From this Harihar plans to buy back the coin. While the wedding is in progress Harihar gets to know that the fund managers are unable to pay back investors. On the other hand, the coin is spotted by a collector who recognises it’s real value and takes it from the pawnbroker. The pawnbroker tells Harihar the coin had been melted down. Dejected and beaten, Harihar is sure the loss of coin will be discovered anytime soon. Fate, however, has several surprises in store for him. Not only does he escape being accused of theft but is also able to mend his decaying relationship with his wife.
While one might think a second chance can make a world of a difference, this is the story of the man who gets a thousand. Caught in the storm of affairs surrounding his life, Harihar makes desperate attempt to make sense of it. His boss and mentor Mahadevan helps him connect the dots between karma and destiny. As Mahadevan takes him through a tedious journey from Gita’s karma to Schopenhauer’s will, Harihar emerges a man ready to take charge of his tumultuous life.
The Man of a Thousand Chances is Tulsi Badrinath’s second novel. She has made an attempt to bring together aspects of karma and art. She is unable, however, to weave the theme into the story. The exploration of karma and art by Mahadevan towards the end stands aloof from the rest of the narrative. It is also hard to believe that a mere lecture could induce a major change in Harihar. However, Tulsi has a keen eye for detail and her portrayal of family life is seamless. Be it Meeta stealing glances at the picture of her fiancé or the husband, wife and daughter filling their weekly store of water; the descriptions are warm and colourful.
One finds it hard to reconcile how a man may get so many chances while the others struggle for a single go. If we were to believe the words of Harihar’s mentor Mahadevan, that’s where karma comes into play. The story moves through pensive scenes without breaking into a common laugh at the face of destiny. While to a simple man like Harihar Schopenhauer may be too much to understand, humour can provide the perfect umbrella to take shelter from the moods of karma. After all a coin is as much a slave of karma as the man who carries it.

Truly Asia: Love in times of turmoil I THUNDER DEMONS by DIPIKA MUKHERJEE I

What goes into the bitter-sweet broth of an Asian tale? Fry a pinch of radical politics with a subversive plot. Add a spoonful of mystery. Marinate some individuals in love and mystery and throw them into the political frying pan. Whip the beans of mystery with past till they are a smooth cream. As the soup comes to a boil, add a piece of tragedy and let the broth sizzle. Garnish with desi flavour and serve. Conceived on these lines, Dipika Mukherjee gives us a perfect Asian tale in her novel Thunder Demons. The novel was long-listed for Man Asian Literary Prize (2009).

The mixed Malaysian culture of Chinese, Indians and Malays provides the perfect ground for the action to unfold. The sensitive ethnic equation of the country and a constant political simmering are the backbone of the novel. Incidents like the Malay authorities seizing 20,000 Bibles for referring to God as Allah, find an echo in the story.
As the book opens we find a sinister Colonel S tying explosives onto a Tibetan model who is thereafter executed. Issues of attire and conduct of women are a part of the brewing social upheaval.
Jayantha or Jay, a professor at an American university, is called back to Malaysia by his mentor Colonel S. For Jay, Malaysia is a bank full of memories. He writes to his dead friend Shanti’s daughter Agnibina. In Agni’s honest reply Jay sees the prospects of an exciting visit. Meanwhile, Colonel S is hatching a terrible plot for which he intends to enlist the help of his best recruit, Jay. A stent filled with super-explosives in place of drugs, is the project for which he needs Jay’s help. Though aware of his ulterior motives, Jay decides to go back and lay at rest the “demon tooth” of Shanti.
On his arrival Jay finds himself in the midst of a mass protest. A large number of Indian men have gathered to protest the “growing arrogance of a Master Race of Malays.”
Jay’s visit rattles Agni’s bedridden grandmother Shapna and so a trail of secrets begins to spill out. Through her gurgling sounds Shapna tries to warn her granddaughter about Jay but is unable to.
Agni, recently back from a long affair in the US, knows Shapna hadn’t told her the real story of her birth. Though back in Malaysia, Agni isn’t sure of her relationship with the land where her mother lost her life for love.
Abhik, the son of Mridula and Ranjan, is a lawyer and is the voice of minorities in the country. Agni and Abhik are in love.
A multi-layered story unfolds as grandmother Shapna tells us about her journey from India to Malaysia. A child bride Shapna was taken by Nikhil, 40 years her senior. As a stunning Shapna looks the groom’s side in the eye, everyone knows she is an unusual bride. Brought to Malaysia, young Shapna finds little comfort in her marriage. As she loses her first child during the years of First World War her best friend Siti (a Malay) nurses her with Malaysian magic. Siti evokes charms for a child to come to Shapna and soon the duo “find” Shanti. This story of Shanti being a fairy child is passed onto her daughter Agni.
However, what Agni does not know is why years later Siti is shocked to see her vagrant husband Zanial’s shadow merge with that of young Shanti. Why Shapna refuses to let Shanti become Zanial’s second wife. Why do Zanial and Siti vanish from the scene? Shanti drowns to her death after Jay, spurned in love by her, reveals the Oedipal truth of her birth.
Still burdened by the death of Shanti, Jay now falls in love with her daughter Agni and watches as death strikes Agni’s life.
The shifting point-of-views of Shapna, Colonel S and Jay reveal the complex story of three Indian and one Malay family. While Shapna hates Jay and holds him responsible for the death of her daughter, Jay grudges her liaison with his father. Colonel S, on the other hand, is embroiled in a political plot and driven by the idea of Malay supremacy. The most powerful of the three is the voice of Shapna: “I was brought up hearing that a woman’s life is like that of a Koi fish, hanging on to life despite all odds. Such was the idiom of acceptance for other women, never for me.”
Dipika Mukherjee, who is currently Professor of linguistics at Shanghai International Studies University, is a gifted story-teller. The narrative moves forward in a mystery maze as characters emerge in bits and pieces. Though the story has a distinct cultural flavour one can’t help asking for more. You also miss the picturesque life of Malaysia which gets nudged out in bid to make room for a complex story.
Malaysia’s tourism logo “Truly Asia” works as a foil as the country is seen falling apart over the question: who is “Bhumiputra”. A past muddled by invaders a present plagued with poverty and a future that asks poisonous questions makes this story of Malaysia truly Asian in spirit.

Meeting of flames of unconditional love I LONEY GODS by Shivani Singh I

THE WORLD of love stories is full of oxymorons: cloying yet irresistible, predictable yet thrilling, dumb yet inspiring. Shivani Singh’s Lonely Gods is a love story with a mystic twist. You may relate “Unconditional Love” to a romantic’s toilet dream, but in the novel it has a radically scientific avatar. UCL (Unconditional Love) is the

huge quantum of energy released when “Twin Flames” or two energies vibrating at the same frequency, come together. UCL, the most refined form of energy must be created to balance out the end-of-the-world scenario of 2012. Of course, the twin flames (who are people actually) find each other after thousands of painful lives.
Making love the ultimate weapon to protect the world from destruction, Singh walks the thin line between farce and humour. She dishes out the clichéd “throbbing of heart” and “look in the eye” but adds to it a touch of out-worldly magic. While the story moves towards a very predictable end it does so in the style of one powered by divine force.
The VNP is a secret society in Delhi to which Kamini has found an easy entry. A top-level project is on and Kamini finds herself a part of it. But unlike other members who specialise in forms of occult, Kamini is just another girl. Mira, Kamini’s landlady who brought her into the society, is a master of the Vedas and an astro-palmist. Carlos a “Caucasian swami” is an expert at ashtanga yoga and is said to have a range of supernatural powers from levitating to becoming invisible. Rita, Kamini’s boss, heads the quantum mythology wing of VNP. Ali, the brat, is the son of a filmstar and a powerful sorcerer. Hari, who is the keeper of the project’s flame and conducts its meetings, falls in love with Kamini. Rudra, a young boy who couldn’t talk is the last member of the group. While everyone else seems to know what the secret project is about, Kamini is the only one in the dark. As the members of the group join their energies to help her understand, she finds herself increasingly attracted to Hari, on one hand, and facing threat from “negative energies” on the other.
From Mira’s “Machu Picchu” house in Delhi where the members are holding their meeting, the story rolls back several years to Kolkata. In Chowringhee Apartment, young Raj meets Aparajita. Both are unable to sleep that night knowing all the while that the other is awake too. Aparajita is a married woman with a baby. Raj finds a way to meet Aparajita who is also a psychic. Strangely, both are able to connect in their minds even when they are physically apart. No words signalling love are exchanged in the physical realm but the two are perfect lovers in the world of thought. They find themselves together in their dreams, taking acute pleasure in each other’s bodies. Both are disconcerted by what is happening to them. Unwillingly, they feel the other within physical reach, the minute they shut their eyes.
As Aparajita gets up sweating hard from the feel of Raj’s hands on her thighs, she is unable to resolve the conflict in her dreams and real world. As their social positions make it impossible for them to meet, they drift apart and Aparajita moves out with her husband. The only physical evidence of love between them is the ring that Aparajita had chosen for Raj’s fiancée. Years later as Raj is on his deathbed and still pining for Aparajita, the ring assumes the power of his love for her. The “negative energies”, characterised by the villains in the story, fight to gain the ring. Needless to say, the villains too are masters of occult and magic.
As the VNP’s plan unfolds before Kamini, the real reason behind her being made a part of the project is disclosed. Inspite of her lack of magic, she is the most powerful weapon of them all. The climax takes place at a cosmically sacred site, where the twin flames will regain their power. A massive cyclone, brewed up by the villains, rages in the physical world while the final battle is fought in the non-physical realm of dreams. No magic and contraptions can win this war but forgiveness.
The suspense is kept up as the answers to who is the chief of the VNP and what is the relation of Kamini and Hari are reserved for the end. While the beginning of the book is listless, the end marks its culmination. The scene alternates between the VNP members preparing Aparajita for what is to unfold and the Raj-Aparajita love story.
Singh is aware of the love-sickness that her novel may induce and she adds a generous dose of humour to neutralise the effect. Kamini is the foil who makes fun of the magic percepts that are doled out to her making the reader relate to her. There is a little bit of everything here: Mills and Boons-style high-voltage romance on one hand and Chicken Soup for Soul-style eternal undying love on the other. Mysticism and occult form the mainstay of the novel making it appear different from the browbeaten mould. Yet, it’s not hard to figure that the basic format of the story is not too imaginative. “All love stories don’t come with pink accessories,” Hari tells Kamini during one of the VNP lessons, but this one definitely does qualifying it as a perfect romantic gift.

THE HEAD THAT WEARS THE CROWN... I Empire of the Moghul: Ruler of the World by Alex Rutherford I

There is something immensely fascinating and heroic about a warrior king. While history is replete with tales of such monarchs, we never seem to get enough of them. Empire of the Moghul: Ruler of the World is the third in the series of fictionalised accounts of the Mughal empire. Diana and Michael Preston, writing under the pen name of Alex Rutherford, pick up the reign of King Akbar in this work. Their focus, however, is not the exploits of the warrior king and the giant expanse of his empire but also the single strain of weakness in his rule: his sons.
Indian history commonly evokes the image of the hunt: King mounted on a tusker vanquishing a tiger. Akbar himself is believed to have a fascination for cheetahs and is known to have kept a large number of them in captivity. At the opening of the book too we find the 13-year-old Akbar on such a perilous expedition complete with drums, elephants and gunpowder. While he is still celebrating the kill the news is brought in that he had lost Delhi to King Hemu.
As the first “real” action faces him, the boy is coaxed to leave Delhi and move to safety. Minutes later, we are at the boy-king’s war council. But it is the commander-in-chief Bairam Khan, who calls the shots while Akbar sits and waits for his turn to speak. As the council begins to mull ways of retreat, a dramatic speech by young Akbar brings the chiefs back to onslaught mode.
At Panipat, Akbar with his 1,00,000 men faces a stronger army of Hemu. This is the battlefield where 30-years-ago his grandfather Babur had defeated the Lodhi Sultan. A mix of manoeuvres, grit and courage sees him bring down Hemu. It is a landmark win for Akbar but as Bairam Khan chides him for his brashness we know the king has yet to lose his commander-in-chief and his boyhood.
It’s a quick climb for Akbar into manhood as Mayala, a concubine, gives Akbar his first lessons in lovemaking.
Years later, when he has built a huge harem with several wives, Mayala continues to be one of his favourites. However, what stays missing is the bond he had seen his mother share with his father.
After defeating Hemu, Akbar begins to find Bairam Khan increasingly irksome. The king easily falls prey to a court plot to get rid of his right hand man. As the royal conspirers are brought to justice Akbar regrets his own gullibility. The echoes of this episode are felt much later as over the years Akbar trusts few, not even allowing his own sons the privilege to know his mind.
After recovering from the loss of Bairam Khan, Akbar turns his attention to Chittorgarh. Rajput warriors of Chittor prove worthy opponents. Akbar has his victory but only after losing an equal number of his own troops and witnessing the women throw themselves into live pyres. He decides it would be better to have the Rajputs fight for him than against him.
A Rajput princess, Hirabai, becomes his first wife. The alliance is a great success for the king but to the man it brings little comfort.
In Akbar, Hirabai sees a ruthless conqueror, someone who had to be driven away. In the author’s version Hirabai could never get reconciled to the marriage, beginning from the first night when she tries to stab her husband. Despite his vast harem, Akbar could not ignore Hirabai as he sees in her eyes the expression of a wild leopard. He promises, however, to leave her alone once she gave him an heir. After the birth of Salim, he keeps this promise.
Salim’s birth comes after much delay. A hostile Hirabai is suspected of using ways to keep off childbirth. However, after the blessings and predictions of Sheikh Salim Chishty, a son is born and consequently named after the saint.
Hereon, Akbar gradually fades as the story veers towards Salim. While he sees in his father a tolerant, generous king, his mother’s views are different. The father meanwhile, suspects that his wife is turning his son against him.
Unable to bank on his family, Akbar finds a faithful in Abul Fazal, who grows from being a mere chronicler to the king’s right hand man. In the course of time he meets the same fate as Bairam Khan at the hands of a jealous Salim.
No problem is insurmountable for Akbar, be it the Ulemas, the Christian priests or the queen mother’s displeasure. But it is a strange stalemate when he finds his son unable to control his desire for his prized dancing girl Anarkali. On discovery, the image-conscious king sentences the girl to death while the prince is banished to Kabul. Unlike the popular Salim-Anarkali lore there is little love in the affair. The authors give us a peep into the sexual jealously between the father and son that culminates into an open rebellion.
While Salim with all his ambitions and faults seems lifelike, Akbar begins to appear a mere fixture. Salim’s insecurity on sensing the odds of his own son superseding him is acute whereas, Akbar’s misgivings for Salim look insipid. The story deals numerous aspects of Akbar’ reign, reminding you of the history book subheads: Akbar as a warrior, builder, administrator, religious head etc. However, none of these are the core of the novel which essentially deals with Akbar as a family man. An excess of angles douses out the focus.
Hirabai, for example, is an intriguing character, but over the 36 years of Akbar’s reign that the story traces, her case stays the same. The authors make an attempt to pare down the King, his queens and princes and show us their human side but too much history is piled on and the men, women and boys in the royal corridors stay hidden.

PERFECTIONISTS

Half-a-woman
she was
no beauty
no coy
no mystery,

and half-a-man
was he
no grit
no rich
no logic.

No people these,
wandering
in their world
of no words
no language

and yet, look,
in the arms
of a shameless
night,
they weave

Our world of
full women
robust men
and clever
things to say.

NAUGHTY AT SIXTY I Pure Sequence by Paro Anand I

Munching biscuit-namkeen, clicking cutlery and trading dirty jokes at a card game are not activities one associates with 60-year-old Indian women, but that is what Kunti, Satya, Sheila and Tosh do and that is what makes them worthy of being the leading ladies of this novel. The setting for Pure Sequence, Paro Anand’s first venture into adult fiction, is unique yet familiar. Anand styles her characters after the aunties next-door: the retired, unmarried schoolteacher (Satya), the wife shackled to a bed-ridden husband (Sheila), the lonely grandmother longing for her foreign-settled brood (Tosh), the temperamental mother suffocating in a house full of grandchildren (Kunti). But she gives them all that one special thing — joy of living.
We are familiar with one half of the stories of such women who fill our mundane afternoons with drama and gossip: A past full of beautiful memories, a present plagued with pain and a future holding little promise. But Anand’s aunties are not brooding, oldies resigned to fate and gods. Their chatter spiced with popular Punjabi slang and gaalis, these women struggle to beat old age, and sometimes they win.
Anand cuts into a card game and traces the shadows of pain on their lives. Like most old women, they too regret not having led a life of their choice, so, it’s catharsis time when they meet. The result is obscene jokes, ingenious swear words and nasty rounds of bitching. From struggling to get a hang of email, to screaming out “bitch”, they try hard to stay relevant in the changing times. Often realising that they can’t.
Anand switches montages quickly. We find ourselves in the middle of a brawl as Kunti screams “F**k! F**k! F**k!” in her son’s face. She then faints while attempting to call him up to say sorry. Tosh is called in to stay the night. When alone with Tosh, Kunti confesses, “You can’t imagine the gandi, gandi gallis I gave my son”. Tosh admits her own burden, “I did wish, they, my own family, would just go away”. Relieved of their guilt, the two women have a whale of a time eating chips, watching Jungle Book and singing aloud. Sheila and Satya watch with envy the change in the other two and wish for a similar getaway.
The next jolt comes when Sheila’s husband passes away. Satya steps in to help, also hoping that she will find some relief from her own loneliness. The hard life of a single woman has left Satya scarred and she finds herself unprepared for the delicate situation that unfolds at the house of her bereaved, widowed friend. With her successful attempt to make Sheila smile, the ice in Satya’s heart begins to melt. As they lie down for the night, Sheila talks of her dead husband while Satya reveals her secret: Why she never married.
As days pass, Satya finds years of bitterness lifted from her voice while Sheila is freed from the death of husband. Satya breaks the mourning period declaring, “Bhad mein jaye this dakhiya noosi thinking”, and revives the card party.
Soon, Sheila asks Satya to come and live with her and the deal is sealed with a hug. The four eventually plan a weekend at Sheila’s house. They christen themselves the “Bitchy Biddies Bunch” — BBBs, and swear to have no rules. The weekend also being Satya’s 70th birthday, she is promised a surprise. The weekend is a riot. Drinks are “seduced”, porn DVDs stolen and Playboy copies distributed.
But the book is no fairytale, and the joy seems to be on a short fuse as Sheila’s house is put up for sale, Satya survey’s old age homes and the others return to the lives they were living. As the story runs its full course, Satya gets her birthday surprise and crowns it with her first real kiss. The old women are brought together again to complete the Pure Sequence, the perfect life.
Kunti, Satya, Sheila and Tosh may seem empowered, even liberated, but a feminist reading of these characters is less appealing. These are upper middle-class women, their sense of freedom fuelled by the money left by their husbands. Even the “poorest” of them, Satya, has a flat of her own. Also, they use a lot Punjabi words, even complete sentences, which puts the book out of bounds for readers not from  Delhi.
Yet, Pure Sequence is an interesting read for the position it takes on old age. Old characters usually end up pitiable or dead. Hemmingway’s Old Man, for example. You would never want to be in Santiago’s shoes. But here, you want to be a part of Paro Anand’s old biddies. They are profane and naughty, and determined and spirited, and you want to grow old like them.

THE MIGHT OF MISCHIEF I Small Acts of Resistance By Steve Crawshaw and John Jackson

When King Gyanendra dismissed Nepal’s Parliament in 2005 and declared a state of emergency, the country quickly turned into one of the most strictly censored nations in the world. As elected politicians were put behind bars and telephone lines severed, journalists fought to spread the news. Broadcasters at Radio Sagarmatha hit on a novel idea and decided to call news haalchal instead of samachaar. As the authorities caught on to the ploy, the broadcasters re-disguised news as entertainment and called in a well-known comedian to sing news in his comic style. Even as popular radio stations were shut down, innovative and defiant ways of taking information to the masses continued.
Steve Crawshaw and John Jackson’s Small Acts of Resistance is a compilation of such inspiring incidents. While the stories are brilliant for the sheer courage and innovation, their outcome may have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Crawshaw, who was in Delhi recently, admits however, that the brief incidents in his book “may not be the end of the story”. “But acts such as these or say Burmese protests of 2007 or more recently China’s Jasmine protests are significant steps that set in motion wheels of change,” he said in an interview, adding, “Our aim was to come up with a compendium of inspiring acts where people have come out of their fears to speak against injustice, and not venture into a political statement.”
Crawshaw is international advocacy director of Amnesty International. He was also a journalist for several years. Jackson is currently vice-president of social responsibility for MTV Networks International.
The incidents narrated in the book are grouped into 15 broad chapters. Each episode is in not more than a brisk 250 words. Asked about emphasis of the title on “small acts of resistance”, Crawshaw explained: “We were looking at putting together protests that were fundamentally non-violent, and yet could make a difference. Revolution, in its nature, is not always non-violent. In change that comes through a violent revolution it becomes difficult to eliminate violence and violence leads to more violence and more violence leads to yet more violence. Hence we put together these seemingly small examples of exemplary courage of ordinary people.” The episodes range from popular ones like Zhao Ziyang whose posthumously published book Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang made waves in 2010 or the social ostracism of Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott in 1880 from which the word boycott came into being, to lesser known ones like Afghan woman Malalai Joya who stood before a loya jirga packed with men and asked them to throw out the warlords present at the meeting.
Crawshaw said he found Burma’s monks led-”saffron-protests” as the most inspiring. Two instances from those protests find mention in the book. Among those he witnessed he recalls 1989 protests in Leipzig, then East Germany. People organised peaceful protest marches every Monday, demanding change. As the protests began to swell, the authorities sent out a warning that the protesters would be dealt with firmly. Around the time for protests “sixteen trucks with armed workers’ militia stood waiting in one side of the street alone.” Heavy security blanket was thrown around yet 70,000 protesters came out defying the threat of gunfire. “Watching those people walk into the face of death… I don’t know if I would have the courage to do that. I don’t think I would have it in me,” said Crawshaw.
Quite relevant to the uprising in the Arab world, a whole chapter in the book is dedicated to “Digital Dissent”. Crawshaw said it is not easy to tell if the modern technology has made it easier to express dissent or if it has made us a slave of convenience. “It is what we call slacktivism or activism at the click of the mouse,” he said. A portmanteau word,slacktivism is formed out of “slacker” and “activism”. It is used to describe “feel-good” measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction. Yet, given the fact that in the context of Arab uprisings digital world has played a major role, he said “Protests in Tunisia or Egypt or Iran have a lot in common with armed protests but the way of being able to get the message out to the outside world and to each other has changed. It does amount to a significant change but it does not make a world of a difference. Solidarity protests in Poland would have happened anyway and the Latin American banging of pats and pans would have happened nevertheless.”
What makes Egypt protests special were their largely non-violent appeal, said Crawshaw. “The fact that protests in Egypt have managed to remain fundamentally non-violent brings hope for revolution there. Yet there is more change that is needed there and is to come. Even as we hope for the best we know that the story of Egypt is not yet over. Same could be said of East Europe in 1989 which had seen great churning but the more momentous events were yet to unfold. A number of Egyptians I have spoken to of late say that they feel more confident in last few weeks simply because of the sense of power and pride.”
Asked about how to make out a genuine protest from an attempt at propaganda, Crawshaw suggested a scale of moral compass and courage. “I met quite a few officers who in the Bush-era stood up against the excesses of the administration. Such people keep the moral compass of the society right.”
India also finds frequent mention in the book. NDTV’s SMS campaign in Jessica Lal case, pink-chaddi campaign against SRS chief Pramod Muthalik among the more recent ones. On his first visit to India, Crawshaw said Amnesty report on Kashmir (released on Monday) was among his latest projects.
One of the most interesting ideas in the book is about Sudanese women in 2002 practising “sexual abandoning” on the lines of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. “Women decided that by withholding sex from their men they could force them to commit peace-and it worked.” The result may sound exaggerated but as the writers put it “some people are deluded enough to believe that they can change things, and right wrongs. They think that change is worth taking risks for-even when there is no certainty of the outcome.”