Michael Keegan, where art thou?

This is what the new design of HT looks like, says ContentSutra.

Pretty cool, I think.
But will the Mario Garcia-designed paper survive the sub-editor? My guess is if the Design Department cannot hold its own, the paper will be twisted, turned, upturned, bettered, worsened by the subs on KG Marg and Mahim.
HT is one of the best-looking newspapers in India, all thanks to Michael Keegan, and Ashutosh Sapru and his team. Will Garcia change all that?

A little more to the Right, please. Or we blow your brains off

The only place you'll find tolerance these days is in a dictionary.
The world's going flat and everybody is scared. Scared that followers of their faith will be exposed to other cultures and might end up liking them. Scared that youngsters these days do not believe in stereotypes and judge a person for what he or she is -- and not because she or he is a Yusuf, Suresh or a Cindy. Scared that in the pursuit of wealth and fame they will not bother about what this society was built on -- faith and intimidation.
Found a wonderful article written by Johann Hari, which, by the way, appeared in The Statesman and the editors were arrested because it "offended sensibilities of the minority community". Here's the link to the piece.
Back in Delhi, few of us bothered about the left- or the right-wingers. In fact, some of us in the newspapers had decided not to give publicity to the incredulous threats that were held out by the Bajrang Dals, Shiv Senas or the RPIs. But here in Karnataka, things are very different. The Karnataka Rakshana Vedikes, the Hoysala Senes, the Sri Ram Senes have been given a free run and you can't help but take note. If you don't, they beat the shit out of you.
Ultra-nationalism and patriotism is returning, guys. The last time it happened, we saw a World War breaking out. What will it be this time?

Mehngi hui sharaab toh, toddy toddy piya karo

Got my first real taste of Karnataka the other day when we dusted an old bike, tanked up a brand new Bullet and hit the highway at 60 kmph. We were on a mission -- a toddy mission.
All plans of leaving Bangalore by around 6 am had to be abandoned as some of us in the group (mainly, yours truly) are not morning persons and had to drag themselves out of bed.
Some 45 km from Bangalore, the small town of Anekal takes you back in time by about 10 years. By the time we reached Anekal, it was afternoon already -- and we were running behind time.
It was quite an experience to move through fields and come upon a tentshack where the toddy man had kept his stuff in an earthen pot. He dished out the stuff in mugs -- not the ones you get in an upmarket bar, but the ones Indians use in toilets to wash their sorry asses after eating a whole lot of chilli and fried food through the day. The taste was odd -- drinking toddy in the afternoon is not a good idea as it gets fermented. It was a cross between buttermilk and beer, but it tasted okay. Half-a-mug was enough to make me lose sensation in my hands and legs and I was sort of flying all the way down to Pearl Valley.

A couple of beers at Pearl Valley (which, by the way, has a small stream where water drops fall like pearls) and we were all set for a hearty lunch. Saw a lot of monkeys (not just the simian kind, but also some right-wingers who were berating the V-Day culture).
All in all, it was a good day trip and I was riding a bike after a really long time so it was kinda nice (even though my ass gave up and even now I have to check once in a while if it's still on).

Mutalik the Brutalik?

The day freedom dies its slow and painful death in India, Pramod Mutalik’s name will be etched in gold on the epitaph. The self-appointed custodian of Hindu culture and the Sri Ram Sene’s national president (his calling card says “Margadarshaka”— the guiding star) has turned Karnataka — Mangalore, in particular — into a Hindutva laboratory and also unleashed a monster that will devour many before it is tamed (if ever).
And Mutalik’s monster has already tasted blood — and it’s loving it. On Friday, a group of radicals attacked a Kerala MLA’s daughter and her Muslim friend who were travelling in a bus together. The radicals had been tipped off allegedly by the bus conductor. Mutalik has denied involvement and he could be telling the truth. He is too busy visiting the corridors of power and ensuring that nobody in Karnataka celebrates Valentine’s Day. No wait, it’s okay if Valentine’s Day celebrations are confined to churches, he says.
And then there is this preposterous threat of getting couples married or made to tie rakhi on the spot, depending on what plea you take when confronted by Mutalik’s goons. The idea of a no-cost, no-frills wedding in these times of economic slowdown may sound like a good one, but frankly, the joke has stretched a bit too far.
What is it that Mutalik doesn’t like about Valentine’s Day?
“It destroys the family structure,” he says, as he sits down in my office for a cup of coffee. “The West has short-term relationships and that is why they need a specific day to celebrate love. We should not follow Western culture. In India, marriages are for a lifetime and love for your partner is a never-ending affair. And it should be shown in your home,” he adds.
In order to understand how Mutalik gets the courage to say such outrageous things and get away with it, one needs to look at the number of outfits clamouring for attention in Karnataka today.
The state bears testimony to the fact that as the world becomes flat, more and more cultures are looking inwards, insecure about their future.
There is the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, the Hoysala Sene and the Jai Karnataka, which basically fight for Kannada, its borders, culture and the “ill effects” of outside influence.
Then there are the Sangh Pariwar outfits and the Sri Ram Sene, which claim to uphold “Hindu dignity”.
In Mangalore, the Jamiat-i-Islami is forcing Muslim women to cover up — youths go around colleges threatening girls to wear burqa or face the consequences.
Karnataka Forum for Democracy (KFD) fights for Dalits and the minorities. Recently, one of the terrorists arrested for the Surat bombing plot revealed how he had tried to infiltrate KFD.
In such a competitive scenario, the attack on women — the lot that could offer least resistance — was the easiest way to get noticed.
Prasad Attavar, the state vice-president of Sri Ram Sene and the first man to justify the storming of Amnesia (the Mangalore pub), had been leading a crusade of sorts against beef — but the campaign was not going anywhere.
The attack on churches last year against “forced conversions” got them a lot of publicity and now the battle against “pub culture” seems to have completed the circle for the Ram Sene.
“There is a mafia out there which wants to exploit girls and we will not let that happen. Women need to be protected. In our culture, women have to be respected like the Gods,” he continues.
Hang on a minute. Isn’t this the same man whose goons beat the living daylights out of girls at the pub in Mangalore?
“What we did in Mangalore was widely appreciated. The other day, a lady called up Prasad Attavar and thanked him for beating up her daughter.”
Mutalik claims that the lady said she did not know that her daughter frequented pubs and the Sri Ram Sene’s daring act had opened her eyes.
Of course, Sri Ram Sene had not planned it that way. Mutalik and his men had thought that they were taking on helpless girls.
What happened instead was that wards of many VIPs (one of them is said to be close to a central minister) were present at the pub.
None of the victims has come out to lodge a formal complaint for obvious reasons (the man who came to the girls’ rescue has said that he is receiving threatening calls), but a war is already on between the minister and everybody else who matters.
“It’s the sex and drugs mafia that is promoting Valentine’s Day,” he says to bring me back from my thoughts.
Pray, how?
“So many girls and boys gather in colleges to celebrate Valentine’s Day. This is what the sex and drugs mafia want.”
By this time, one of Mutalik’s cronies launches into a tirade against Western culture and values.
The paradox is too glaring to miss — he is the only one dressed in Western wear.
“Earlier, only Western women figured in pornographic movies. Now, you can find videos of girls from Mangalore and many other districts of Karnataka.”
Somebody has been doing his homework. Some time back, a wave of MMSes of young girls strutting their stuff flooded the airwaves. It was a mafia all right, but then all women visiting restaurants and hotels in the coastal town of Mangalore got branded.
The music has died at most Mangalore hotels and the regular clientele can hardly be seen now.
Mutalik was able to bring about this change in a matter of days (many had been trying it for years) because he learnt his craft early. Sangh blood runs in Mutalik’s arteries. He spent his childhood in Hukkeri, a small town in Belgaum district, where his father was a teacher and an active Jan Sangh member.
Mutalik moved to Belgaum to pursue B Com and joined Navnirman Kranti and then the RSS. He idolised Praveen Togadia, the VHP’s International General Secretary. He made a name for himself in the BJP by leading the struggle every Independence Day to hoist the tricolour at the controversial Idgah Maidan in Hubli. But when Mutalik asked for his pound of flesh, the BJP refused to give him a ticket. He then parted ways with the party. Soon, he fell out with Praveen Togadia also over the construction of a Hindu Bhawan in Hubli and floated the Hindu Rashtriya Sena. He even fielded candidates in elections, but with disastrous results — nobody polled more than 300-400 votes.
In 2004, his followers gathered at the Maruti temple in Belgaum where the Sri Ram Sene was born. Mutalik and controversy intertwine like vines.
In September last year, he raised quite a few eyebrows when he announced that he had an army of 700 suicide bombers ready to protect Hindus from Islamic terrorism. That number would be raised to 5,000, he said.
Last month, a gang of hardcore criminals led by Basavraj Jambagi, an associate of Mutalik, was arrested for planning and executing the blast in Hubli court in May 2008. The other members of the gang are also alleged to be Sri Ram Sene activists. They wanted to assassinate certain Karnataka MLAs and police sources say that they killed their associate — deliberately — as part of the dry run.
Mutalik, who for years struggled to be identified as the custodian of Hindu culture, has, with one bold stroke, taken away the Hindutva cause from the BJP. The government in Karnataka may not be as radical as Mutalik, but both Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and Home Minister V S Acharya could not help but agree with him over the “detrimental effect” of pub culture.
“So what is it about pub culture that you particularly dislike?”
I ask him as he prepares to leave my office.
“Are you okay with drinking at home?”
“It’s not only about pubs. Alcohol is anathema to our culture. If women drink during pregnancy, their children suffer from birth defects. If they are habitual drinkers, their ability to bear children is affected. Women cannot be allowed to drink.”
Medically, there is nothing to argue about here.
But who gave Mutalik the right to be Brutalik?