12 AN ECSTASY OF IDEAS THE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABAD

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2017

A thought for today

Failures of urban renewal reflect a
failure at all levels of government
EDWARD L GLAESER
The Futility Of Conquests
Wars have always been about land, but how important is that today?

City, Interrupted
Dipankar Gupta In terms of actual warfare, land can
also be misleading. In 1968, American
John Dryden once wrote, and South Vietnamese soldiers won the
Beware of the fury of Aap Bia mountains on their 10th
the patient man. And attempt, and after wasting hundreds of
Rains disable Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai there cannot be a man lives. Yet, within a fortnight it had
more patient than one lost its strategic significance and the

A
s a parting shot from the monsoon, many Indian cities have
who has gone to war, American led forces abandoned what
been brought to a halt by heavy rains that completely faced bullets and seen his comrades die. they had fought so hard to claim. It was
overwhelmed urban infrastructure and caught residents And when they come back from battle, nicknamed Hamburger Hill by US
off-guard. On Thursday, Bengaluru was battered by the highest nearly all are enraged: Wasnt there a soldiers for their enemies, with their
rainfall for a day since 2007. Earlier this week, a cloudburst wreaked better way for both sides? accurate ambushes, sliced bodies
havoc on Hyderabad. Two weeks ago Mumbai saw mayhem on The recent series on the Vietnam like a hamburger machine grinds
two days of continuous rain. It is with disturbing regularity that war produced by Ken Burns and Lynn meat, even of those who had just
Novick and written by Geoff Ward slicked back their hair.
we are seeing city after city being brought to its knees, complete (a long time India friend and wildlife Indian soldiers walked up the
with roads waterlogged, transportation jammed, people stranded, lover), makes just this point. After Icchogil Canal to the gates of Lahore in
houses flooded, power disrupted, and lives lost. Vietnam, America may still be looking 1965, but came back soon after for
While there is no way to avert natural disasters, India can prepare for a war to win, but each time it must territory was not on their minds. To this
its cities to stay standing through them. depend on hawks on the sidelines to send day people in India rue this decision, but
With increasingly common extreme innocent young people to fight, die, and did we really want to sit in a Pakistani
sometimes return. city? Land was precious in history, but
weather events, the country cant afford Donald Rumsfeld, George Bushs not today. Our brains have yet to process
to be lax. Recent rains have exposed secretary of defence, never saw real war. what our hearts already know. This is
two particular shortfalls. First, early- That did not keep him from supporting why Chinas ambition to create islands

Chad Crowe
warning and communication systems Americas Vietnam involvement. Vice- in its southern seas is pure vanity;
need serious upgrading. Second, storm- president Dick Cheney evaded the extravagant, but also anachronistic.
water drainage systems need urgent Vietnam draft five times, but later his The current series on the Vietnam
company, Halliburton, made masses of war turns this poignant lesson into a
fixing. Its unacceptable that despite money from hostile engagements in the front office; the real action happens metaphor. As land in this engagement
years of town planning experience, Middle East, including Iraq. Many army elsewhere, globally, in this case. Toyota was so far away, its irrelevance now
drains continue to be designed without personnel who breathe hell fire never has sold more than 5 million of its prized It is in this context we must stood out dramatically. This fact is
factoring in local topography, and even simple solutions to avert really had the experience of fire raining hybrid automobiles across the world place Sushma Swarajs otherwise hidden by homegrown
silting and solid waste deposits that choke inlets and reduce from hell, or combat duty. The Greek and not just in Japan. It employs more prejudice and conceit. On the other
tragedian, Aeschylus was right: the first than 3,50,000 employees and most of publicised comment that while hand, such is the story of all wars and no
drainage capacity arent being implemented.
If cities cant deal with rains, an annual occurrence, their vulnera-
casualty of war is truth. them are not Japanese. The largest Pakistan was funding terror true soldier has ever sung in praise of
After all is said and done, after the market for Rolls Royce cars, till recently, bullets and blood. The experience of
bility to other calamities may be worse. So there must not be any delays war is lost or won, the futility sets in. was China, not the United Kingdom.
groups to conquer Indian death up close and very personal makes
in rigorous execution of straightforward disaster mitigation measures Wars have always been about land, but Tata produces Jaguars and Land- lands, India was setting up nearly every one of them pacifists at
such as auditing unsafe structures, conducting mock drills, and how important is that today? It once was, rovers, once British signature vehicles. AIIMS, IITs, IIMs and space heart. When brains and limbs are
identifying localised hazards. The loss of natural water bodies and in our dim past, when horsemen fought Bofors, to nail the issue, does not make scattered randomly over a land that
over territory; acreage was then the guns to fight its neighbours but sells research all of these mock has little intrinsic worth, words cant
wetlands to authorised and unauthorised constructions has worsened
the plight of our cities. Floodplains are overrun, mangroves are lost,
source of wealth and power. them elsewhere for other neighbours to borders but make wealth express the lies of war.
To aggrandise themselves, kingdoms fight. The AK-47 is Russian, but the So next time the bugle blows, catch
the carrying capacity of rivers has shrunk shockingly. Lets reverse in history needed more serfs, more world uses it and some of them are hated and exports; all of these mock borders that sadness in its tone. Above victory
this trend. Amidst tall promises of futuristic smart metropolises, all tribute, more fields, more power. Then terrorists. but make wealth. and defeat, it remembers most of all the
too many Indians are still awaiting just normal functional cities. with colonialism, territory meant raw It is in this context we must place That territorial conquests mattered futility of beautiful, young lives now
material and captive markets. That too is Sushma Swarajs publicised comment less than global market domination was lost. It is this that makes its notes waft
now past tense. If land is a driver of war that while India was setting up beginning to be noticed nearly a century low; the musical counterpart of a

Only Yes Means Yes today it is not on account of its inherent

qualities but because religious and
cultural hate is best expressed through
geography.
AIIMS, IITs, IIMs and space research,
Pakistan was funding terror groups
to conquer Indian lands. Obviously,
India is winning because it has invested
ago. This is why many hoped that World
War I, and, when that failed, then World
War II, would be the war to end all wars.
Which self-respecting medieval knight
mothers weep. But you wont hear it
when the battle is raging. For your ears
to be ready, tempers must soften and
hard hearts tenderise. Otherwise, war
Sex without affirmative consent is rape National boundaries are like the in knowledge, information technology would have thought this way? is bred in the bones.

I
s it that hard to figure out if someone is willingly participating in
a sexual act? If one of the partners has not agreed, and the other
pushes on regardless, it is rape. When the Delhi high court
acquitted Mahmood Farooqui of rape charges, it made very unsettling
Hard selling of fad diets and vegetable juice: Why are we
observations about the unwilling womans no being imperfectly
communicated to the man. It blurred the unequivocal definition of
consent required by the 2013 amendments to rape laws; it shifted
replacing the fun and happiness in food with fear?
the burden back to the victim, who must now make sure the man has Bikram Vohra We are not stupid. Just as we a fraidy cat.
know that smoking is bad for us The same measure can be
registered and processed her refusal.
The release of we also know that processed applied to anything that is
This sets a dangerous precedent for rape cases, a video called meats cannot be good. We also suspect. Add to this protective
allowing them to be cast as a tangle of confusions What the He- know through sheer logic that decision an up in hygiene so
and desires and misunderstandings, weakening the alth and the taking in marbled red meats that your cast-iron stomach is
idea that sex must be an affirmative, conscious and general panic and oil soaked fast foods will not tested because you are
voluntary agreement, all the way. That does not take in its wake supersize us. Nothing surpri- avoiding contaminated road-
about how we are all eating our- sing there. If we overdo fried side foods, stale edibles and
the playfulness or sexiness out of it and make it a
selves into cancer, diabetes and foods and alcohol and eat cream post sell-by products and you
rigid contract it simply means noticing the other early death has gone viral. It has in its many wondrous forms it reduce your risk to 0.5%.
persons reaction, and respecting it. also spawned a few dietary will clog our arteries. Add to that an awareness of
Contrary to the common idea that a complainants word is cousins including one that com- The scaremongers have spurious colourings, injected
enough to prosecute a man for sexual violence, women struggle to pels you to drink only vegetable based their findings, though, on fruits and other imaginative
establish credibility at every step of the investigative and legal juice and all this effort will make American portions. The rest of food adulterations and the risk
process. This hostility still deters women from registering cases or your insides squeaky clean. dwindles even more.
Whats bad for you? Every- Add to the fraction of the
seeing them through. In the Farooqui case, with its observations thing. We are told that bread percentage the grimness and
about the feeble no, the high court has diluted the understanding (the staff of life), salt (of the If i eat a few rashers joylessness of life without your
of consent, and stacked the deck against women who seek justice. earth and worth it), sugar on a holiday morning By the same token it is holiday morning or fry an egg culinary delights and what is
(hi honey) and milk (of human or fry an egg or two on impossible to scientifically or two on toast to go with them, left to enjoy. For years fad diets
kindness) are foisted upon us by evaluate how a single food the skies will not fall. The odds wrecked happiness and tossed
toast to go with them,
Do It Like Xian a gigantic conspiracy of the
pharmaceutical industry, the
egg and dairy industry and the
meat and poultry mafias in
the skies will not fall
the world eats sparingly in
damages the human body. No
one has done any authoritative
study with a dedicated group of
volunteers eating only, shall
would fall to half which is 1%.
There is no gainsaying the
fact that spurious foodstuffs
and lack of a common yardstick
us on this sea of misery. Now, it
is being fine tuned with very
little scientific fact to make us
wallow in calorific guilt. The
India can boost its flagging economy conjunction with government comparison. You know how we say, cheese and figured for quality and safety contribute stress of denial is tangible.
connivance so that it is a win- much you need so if you ignore out how it affects them as to the illnesses listed in these
by boosting the tourism sector win for all ... except the consumer that simple factor there will be a compared to a group being current denouncements. If you
In What the Health the
visuals compare eggs to smoking
Kanti Bajpai who is designated to keel over price to pay. The mountain of given placebos. Therefore the stop eating plump chickens five cigarettes and milk and
and become a statistic. French fries, the dozen bacon premise itself is flawed. which are hormonally enhanced dairy to pure poison. The trick
The economy is in the doldrums. Gone are the days of gloating We are all going to die. Right. rashers, salami, pastrami, etc The 2% risk factor is further that makes sense. If you scratch lies not in scare stories and
about India surpassing China in growth rates and leading There is no running away from in one serving are about the reduced by the difference bet- off dyed fruits and vegetable clever manipulations of the
the world economy. Manufacturing is stagnant in many that solitary reaper. And food is same as what we would consume ween a daily rational intake and or animal products treated mind but in moderate and
areas, employment may have declined (which is quite an a happy element in our lives. as mere mortals in a week. Ergo, an infrequent devouring of any with antibiotics to be made judicious consumption.
achievement) and exports have collapsed even as world trade But we are being so easily the 18% risk is whittled down of these dining table adversaries. meatier and go organic no one You will live longer and be
is revitalising and countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam robbed of that joy. to a little over 2%. If i eat a few rashers on a would accuse you of being happier for it.
are increasing their exports.
Could tourism help boost growth? In 2016, tourism and travel contributed
10% of Indias GDP. The largest part of this was domestic tourism, amounting
dilbert Sacredspace
to about 88%. In hard times domestically, foreign tourism may be the more
dynamic sector. In any case, the government could do much more to increase Sleep Well
both domestic and foreign tourism. India is the seventh-largest tourist economy
globally. Given its riches, natural and manmade, it should be much higher. Sleep, and enough of it, is
My recent trip to Xian, China, suggests there is much India can do to improve
its tourist appeal. Leave aside heavy tourist advertising, improvements in
the prime necessity. Enough
visa issuance and provision of modern infrastructure, there are many micro exercise, and good food are
lessons to be learnt from China. other necessities. But sleep
For one thing, China gets most of its foreign tourists from Asia, almost 70%.
Not surprisingly, it caters to all tastes and pocketbooks. This is reflected in air good sleep, and enough of it
connectivity, cuisine availability, language competencies of guides, types of this is a necessity without
hotel accommodation and cultural preferences.
For a city of 9 million people and a history going back 3,000 years, it is remar-
which you cannot have the
kably modern. It is a big, bustling, commercial centre, which puts Indias first tier exercise of use, nor the food.
cities to shame. This means above standard amenities. It is spanking clean. Street
signs in English are everywhere. Transport is excellent taxis, buses and the metro Edward E Hale
and very cheap. A metro ride within the city was on average Rs 18. Eateries
abound extremely cheap local food to expensive

What Does Itadakimasu Mean, Really?

Western and other cuisines (including Indian).
rebootingindia I ate delicious, cheap local food, with no ill effects.
Xian is of course famous for the terracotta
warriors. The city received 500 million sightseeing visits from domestic and
foreign tourists over 5 years and earned $61 billion in revenue. The warriors Marguerite Theophil Before meals, Itadakimasu is said as a give them a gift, or even when they A modern poet, John Brugaletta,
receive about 1million tourists, about the same as the Taj. The site is beautifully thanks to the plants and animals that receive a free sample of something at has taken the word and concept, and
laid out so that there are virtually no queues. Buying tickets is streamlined in a

I
heard my Japanese friend say gave their lives for the meal youre a counter in a store. expanded and woven it into a beautiful
huge reception centre. It took me 2 minutes to buy a ticket. The site has toilets Itadakimasu before a meal. It about to consume. It also contains At a retreat centre in Thailand, we, poem of gratitude that includes the
within easy reach and they are kept clean. seemed like a before-meal blessing, thanks to all those involved, ranging as a group, collectively said this prayer lines, I have received water, flowing
You need guides in China. Many sites do not have explanatory signage in so when all the dictionary offered was: from the hunter, farmer, grocer, by Thich Nhat Hanh: This food is the and pooled, salt and fresh, cold and hot;
English. My guide spoke fluent English. Conversation with him revealed he had There is no English equivalent for this transporter, seller and the ones in the gift of the whole universe: the earth, the wind off the ocean, among the trees,
been a guide for 20 years. Every year, he must attend classes to learn the latest on phrase, i asked her to tell me what it kitchen who prepared the meal. sky and much hard work. May we live in over wheat fields ...
the terracotta excavations. He was punctual, neatly dressed and cheerful and meant. Itadakimasu, she told me, is a way that makes us worthy to He includes in his litany sea-creatures,
avoided any cloying or annoying intrusions into my conversation with friends. I learnt that more than saying, Lets also an attitude that embraces receive it. May we transform trees, fruit and vegetables in lovely
Every day, he waits his turn to get clients. It is not a free-for-all at the site. eat, the phrase is often translated as I the idea that it is wasteful not our own unskilled states of lines and he ends with: May I never be
Xian and its environs feature many other sites the Shaanxi Museum, the humbly receive, by some, and by to finish what is on your plate. mind and learn to eat with ungrateful for any shelter, any mouthful
North and South Gate, the Drum Tower, the Bell Tower, among others. All are others as I have received from on high. Her parents taught them that if moderation. May we take only of food or sip of water, any friendly
impeccably kept and regulated for tourists. One does have to watch out for pick- Japanese kanji ideograms are open to you are really sincere about foods that nourish us and pre- gesture, and offer of help, any touch of
pockets, touts and dishonest taxi-drivers, but i didnt have a difficult moment. multiple interpretations, but the real that Itadakimasu you said, vent illness. We accept this food understanding.
Finally, Chinese tourists are voracious they want to see everything on connotation may be said to be, Bless all you should eat all your food, so that we may realise the path Gratitude keeps us mindful,
display. This means some jostling and elbowing but never ill-natured. At the the hands of those who cultivated since so many had worked hard of understanding and love. connected and appreciative not only of
Shaanxi Museum, i was amazed to see the numbers and eagerness of the and prepared the food. So much in a just so you could be filled and the We were also encouraged food, but for all the blessings we are
crowd. People were somewhat noisy but quite aware of museum protocol no
touching, no loud talking, no flash photography. Evidently, the government has
single word!
Masami went on to explain that
not go hungry.
Not only do people use the
speaking to keep conversation to a
minimum during the meal;
showered with.

invested in public and civic education. Itadakimasu is also related to the term before a meal, but also tree rather, we were invited to
Follow Marguerite Theophil at
speakingtree.in The Speaking Tree is also
India could outdo China in tourism: it still has an enormous heritage, Buddhist principle of respecting all when they accept something from bring our senses to enjoy the varied available as an 8 page newspaper every
whereas a lot was lost in China through war and modernisation. Both the living things, while helping you remain someone. With the literal translation colours, aromas, textures and flavours Sunday for Rs 3. Book your copy of The
larger and smaller amenities still need considerable attention. Tourism could mindful of the entire process that went being, I humbly receive, this makes and this was truly heightened in the Speaking Tree with your newspaper vendor
contribute to economic growth, but it needs sustained government policies. into bringing the food to the table. perfect sense. People say it when you absence of chatter. or SMS STREE to 58888.