Natural instinct

Man who gave Nature back to Delhi

Who thought that the site of barren mining pits could actually become a treat for the senses. You may want to go there as an escape from the maddening city life and take your children to educate them about our ecological system. This has been made possible by a retired professor at the Delhi University who has not only brought back life to the mining ravaged Aravalis, but has also shown Government the way. NIDHI MITTAL reports

When he came to Delhi 35 years ago, neither did he nor anyone else know the difference he would eventually make to the city. He started off as a professor in Delhi University. Over the years, Dr C R Babu progressed to become the pro Vice-Chancellor before retiring.
But sitting at home was not on the cards of Babu, now Professor Emeritus at the School of Environment Studies in DU. He followed his urge to find a solution to the depleting eco system of the national Capital. At 69, this professor has achieved what the Government had been gasping to do for many years. He has brought back Nature to a city polluted to its roots.
Cut to 1997: Asola and Bhatti areas were nothing but vast stretches of barren lands with no water, plant, birds or animals in sight. The reason? The Aravalis had been exploited for minerals for over 100 years, and life had thus gone out of this once green terrain. Huge mining pits, as deep as 250 feet, were what dominated the site.
Cut to 2009: Same place but with a sea change. Gone were the gaping mud pits, the dirt tracks and the ugly face of mutilated hills. In their place were endless grasslands, lush trees as high as 20 to 30 feet, colourful flowers, restless butterflies, creaking insects, chirping birds and dancing peacocks. Yes, thanks to Babu and his team, a large part of the bare and barren Asola and Bhatti mines are now a wildlife sanctuary.
As the professor — old in health but not in stride or enthusiasm — took one around to show the labour of his love, he insisted that he be known not just as an environmentalist but also as a researcher. You end to grant his wish immediately for it is he who changed how Delhi breathes now, thanks to the one of the three ecological lifelines he has created for the Capital — one being the Asola/Bhatti wildlife sanctuary, the Yamuna biodiversity park and the third being the Aravali biodiversity zone.
Report after report has exposed the political lobbying and business interests in the extraction of minerals, leaving the entire range sapped of everything it was once rich in — magnificence, water, natural vegetation, wildlife and birds.
Clouds of dust, drilling sounds and coughing human machines dominate the sight of a mining pit on which work is still on. Moving on to the one that is now seemingly ‘breathing easy’ as no mean diggers haunt it anymore since it is not left with even an iota more to offer. ‘Seemingly breathing easy’ because though men have left it alone, the deep pit, which was once a part of a high rising hillock and was home to many flora and fauna, frequented by herbivores like the beautiful Nilgai or Blue Bull and deers, and carnivores like leopards, is now struggling for survival.
The hope for a greener future has come from the restoration of a 100-year-old Aravali mining pit, touching Vasant Vihar in New Delhi. Now known as the Aravali Biodiversity Park near the Air India Colony, the serene and green area was a barren land of multiple pits extracted of clay, red stone and other minerals. This was just till four years back, when Former Lt Governor of Delhi asked Prof Babu to restore the pits, so that they can be brought back to their pristine glory.
“Former Lt Gov Vijay Kapoor asked me some five years back if I could develop a Biodiversity Park on a piece of land. I immediately said yes. I was already looking for an opportunity to bring back the lost vegetation to Delhi. Within a week, he called back to say that he has 150 acre land along the river Yamuna upstream. He told me ‘You start developing the park and we will add some more land to it.’ I submitted a plan within weeks which was approved. I then told him about Aravalis and he instantly told me he has 670 acres there. I was excited and saw it as a change-making moment,” recalls Prof Babu.
From the look of it, the park gives an impression that it has been in place for many years and was always inhabited by vegetation and was a dense forest. The extensive grasslands that spread till the eye goes and the trees spread out in a way that they form canopies tell a different story. However, the reality is quite different.
As barren as any other mining pit and inhabited by a big weed called Prosopis Juliflora or Kabuli Keekar, the 670-acre uneven area with many pits bereft of even ground water, presented a bleak picture. But what now one sees is a tropical rainforest, an orchidarium, a fernarium, a butterfly park, a herbal garden, not to mention vast stretches of huge trees, wetlands and grasslands.
All this on the soil that was completely infertile and sodic in nature which meant not even a blade of grass could grow on it.
Prof Babu and his team of scientists developed a technique using which they not only made the soil fertile and have brought back the native vegetation but also attracted huge Government interest, all without further tampering with the topography of the area. That is why the Eco Task Force of the Army is carrying out the restoration works in the Asola and Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuaries, which was also initiated by the same team.
The highly degraded Delhi Aravalis, owing to anthropogenic activites like mining, are spread over nearly 7,770 hectares which is, by law, protected from encroachment and all kinds of developmental activites, and is a declared reserved forest. Most of this area is either barren or invaded by the exotic species Prosopis, seen all over the ridge area.
While explaining the technology, Prof Babu says that the pits are desertified sites and just planting trees would bear no fruits. To make the soil fertile again, microbes have to be introduced to it, along with the germinating seeds. Under natural conditions the plants acquire nutrients from microbes, “so we need microbes, not one but different kinds of them. We isolate and culture them in the laboratory to see how these microbes should be added to the soil or should be brought in close contact with the plants. If we put the microbes in the soil alone and not grow the plant, then they will die. The microbes and plants are closely associated because the plant grows and synthesises food, giving it back to the microbes. The microbes take up the nutrients and give them to the plants. They exist mutually,” explains Prof Babu.
Now when these plants die, they produce litter and this litter then forms food for some other microbes, leading to more plants. This is called the nutrient cycle. In these pits where the land or the soil is dug to a large extent, there is no nutrient cycle. To establish this nutrient cycle, scientists collected different groups of microbes by taking the soil from a forest and then isolated them in a laboratory, cultured them to make them in large numbers, which is in millions. “Then we use a technology in which you take the seed which is germinating and then coat it with a gel in which we have immobilised the microbes. The gel also contains nutrients for microbes to multiply, so that they do not die. These microbes then help the seed in germinating and the plant eventually comes up. That’s a critical step in the restoration of Aravalis,” points out Prof Babu.
He also tells you that the process takes three years and in a cycle of five years one can bring back the original native vegetation. What took them 12 years in bringing up the Asola and Bhatti areas was the fact that they had to develop them into full-fledged forests, natural to all wildlife. Of the entire Delhi Aravali range, Asola and Bhatti sanctuaries form 4,000 hectares of the area. The reason why Asola site was called desertified before restoration was that on the surface there was some soil but beneath that there was a salt pan or a concrete pan which is almost like a stone and no plant can survive in that content.
Bhatti on the other hand was a 100-year-old morum mined pit till 250 feet deep. “We started there with about a two hectare plot and thought of restoring it to the original vegetation consisting of Acacia woodlands used by the wildlife and grasslands inhabited by herbivores,” says Prof Babu. The team selected vegetation like Acacia woodlands and grasslands after studying the first communities of vegetation from all along the Aravalis and how they were vanishing. The group used eight species of Acacia and about 10 to 12 species of grasslands which are brought from different parts of Aravalis. Now the same morum mined pits have been developed into a forest with 40 species of plants and the density of the forest is such that no light reaches the ground.
Prof Babu and other team members insist that the whole idea behind restoring the mining pits is to make them into self-sustaining forest lands. The areas restored by them have been made in a way that they require manual watering in just the first year. After that they maintain themselves, provided the local people keep away from these sites, says Dr Suresh Babu, research scientist, Centre for Excellence Programme, Ministry of Environment and Forest.
He adds that if seeds are sowed in the three monsoon months, namely April, May and June, then even lesser water is required. The technology used to restore the morum mined pits at Bhatti and the desertified site at Asola are simple, cost-effective and provide rural employment. They then ultimately provide a series of ecosytem services and ecological boost to the plant communities. And Prof Babu insists that the cost for such a restoration work is minimal at Rs 70,000 per hectare.
“This is nothing as compared to the Government’s aforestation and deforestation programmes which fail in Haryana, for which even the World Bank has given a huge amount of money. We also have a big project in Orissa where we have restored, in four years, 200 acres of mined area. This is in Pornapani, 40 km from Rourkela. We have also restored one water body which was formed as a result of deep mining. It is about 150 meters deep. There was nothing in that water body, but today we find fishes varying in weight from 2.5 to 3 kg. The local villagers, about 60 in number, harvest fish and earn their living. The mine was used for supplying Limestone to the Rourkela plant. The forest that we have developed is much more richer than the forest found in the neighbouring regions,” says the 69-year-old professor who initiated it all.
The two life-supporting systems — Aravalis and Yamuna — perform a number of ecological functions. However, over a period of time they have depleted, owing to urban development and other anthropogenic activities. “Someone once told me that the wild bust used to roam near the Red Fort but now nothing can be seen. I was also told that there were lions in the Asola and Bhatti areas, we cannot even think of that now. All of them have become extinct,” recalls Prof Babu.
He also insists that the Aravalis is the catchment area of Delhi. The entire recharging of Delhi aquifers is taking place from Aravalis. The proof comes from the fact that all around Aravalis, 80 per cent are deep pits and after rains one never finds even a drop of water. This indicates that all the water goes into the aquifers. The Aravalis extend from Gujarat to Rajasthan to Haryana to Delhi. They spread over a length of 625 km and their width varies from 520 km to 250 km at various places.
Its another important function is that it prevents the spread of Rajastan’s Thar desert into the plains, particularly Delhi. It acts as a physical barrier between Delhi and Rajasthan protecting Gangetic plains. The Aravalis give the area its moisture helping the vegetation and prevents the dust storms from coming in. The dust storms in summers are due to the lack of the green cover on Aravalis, says Prof Babu. If you have a dense natural vegetation it also sets in local clouds resulting in local precipitation.
Going back in history, when the British shifted the Capital from Kolkata to Delhi, the ridge was completely barren. This was during the Mughal times. If one looks at the 1857 photos of Delhi (available in DU), one would find that deforestation had already taken place at that time. The British didn’t want this barren hillock and thought of providing a thick forest cover. They brought a Mexican species from Rajasthan, Kabuli Keekar, and used aerial seeding to broadcast it on the entire ridge. Over a period of 100 years, this Keekar has invaded the ridge and eliminated the native vegetation.
“We expect that 3,000 to 4,000 species of plants existed all along the Aravalis in different forest communities. We decided to bring all these species in our Biodiversity Park and established it into 30 to 40 communities. Today we have 400 species in the form of 25 to 30 communities. Some of the species have reached the canope size too,” says Prof Babu.
One of the pits in the park has been developed into an orchid community. “There was just one native orchid in Delhi. Orchids characteristically require high relative humidity and cool temperature, and that condition can be created in those pits without any extra energy, by growing tree species which will maintain the temperature and 50 to 70 per cent humidity. We have introduced 50 species of orchids and of them 15 have flowered for the first time.
This we developed just for promoting conservation education, and also to conserve those threatened orchids. Similarly there are other groups of plants which require such conditions, they are called ferns. There are some ferns in Delhi but they are all desert ferns. So here we have made a fernarium with 40 species. We have a large number of butterflies too,” says Prof Babu.
Delhi has a total of 74 species of butterfly, most of which are almost extinguished. After the butterfly park was made, the scientists did not bring any butterfly manually. Today, they have spotted all the 74 species there, and all of them have flown in themselves. There are 250 birds in the park. Dr Shah at the park tells you how they have spotted the Black Patridge or Kala Teetar, which had long disappeared from the ridge area. All this owing to the improvement in the habitat.
“Aravalis used to have a large number of herbivores and carnivores including leopards. If I want to bring them back to system, I must have extensive range lands or grasslands. Our grasslands spread over an area of 100 acres. There you find a large number of herbivores now including the Nilgai,” says Prof Babu.

Yellow fever

It’s been an incredible golden run for gold, a vertical climb in prices which crossed Rs 18k per 10 grams. Bad news for jewellery buyers, but good news for investors who sidelined retails to rush to bank counters for gold bonds. RBI, too, bought 200 tonnes of gold from IMF lending wind to speculation that Governments the world over were moving away from the dollar economy. Nidhi Mittal explores the yellow metal spiral

The yellow metal is more precious than ever before. With gold prices in India crossing the 18K per 10 gram mark in the last quarter of this financial year, the time of festivities and weddings, ripples in the retail sector are more than visible. The demand for original zari work on garments going down and costume and gold-plated jewellery replacing the 22-carat ornaments are only some examples of India’s most loved metal going out of the pocket.
Seen as the most reliable source of investment and a must for marriage and festivals, the largest consumer of gold in the world has had a longest association with the yellow metal. New York Times in its article published in 1912 said a large part of the world’s gold that goes to India either is converted into ornaments or is burried under the ground. It said that India withdraws a large part from the monetary stock of the world.
Sir James Wilson KCSI, who served in the Indian Government service for many years, in a comprehensive address delivered before the East India Association of London on June 14, 1911, reported the net imports of gold by India since 1840 at about $1,200,000,000 or one-tenth of world’s production at that time. Till today, India is the largest gold consumer, importing between 700 and 800 tonnes of the metal annually or 20 per cent of the global demand.
The soaring prices of gold may have come as a respite to bewildered investors after the dollar slide through the last year, but it has not gone down well with domestic retail consumers. It is estimated that 15,000 tonnes of gold is privately held in India, more than 25 times as much as the official hoard of 558 tonnes after the Reserve Bank of India’s recent purchase of 200 tonnes from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Gold purchases in Kerala and Tamil Nadu are almost exclusively meant for weddings, but among the relatively more market savvy Gujaratis, Marwaris and other business communities, gold buying is also driven by the metal’s attractiveness as an investment.
Indian consumption of gold, which stood at about 800 tonnes in 2007, could go up to more than 1,200 tonnes this fiscal, say experts. With Kerala alone accounting for more than 20 per cent of the total gold sales of the nation, the skyrocketing gold prices have created a huge sociological problem in the South Indian State where girls will stay at their parental home for a lifetime without getting married if there is no gold to accompany them to the in-laws.
Reports from several temples in Kerala speak about several postponements of marriage bookings in the past three months, the main reason being rise in gold prices.
In the past month, gold ornament sales fell by more than 40 per cent due to the unimaginable rise in the price, jewellers in the Capital say. “If in the last festival season, my business was 100 per cent, this year it has been less than 60 per cent. The marriage season has not come as a respite because gold is just out of reach of a middle class person. People have even stopped buying gold coins, traditionally given away as shagun in marriages. They are moving to lesser expensive options like silver coins. Also, in such times, people prefer buying Hallmark jewellery which is costlier but sure to fetch more money when given away as scrap,” says jeweller Aditya Aggarwal.
Conversely, a 25 to 30 per cent leap is seen at counters of financing companies with more and more customers approach them with ornaments to pledge. Loan amounts per gram of pledge have also gone up considerably, but these vary from banker to banker.
When gold soars, the dollar is usually getting pulverised, says popular columnist. The bullion market is emerging stronger than ever before while the Dollar is seeing a constant downward turn. With the American economy hit hard by the global recession, and dollar losing on reputation and value, gold is the next option Governments and investors are turning to.
The bullion has risen 38 per cent this year while the dollar has dropped 8.5 per cent against a basket of six major currencies. This advancement in gold is more than the MSCI World Index of shares and US Treasuries and is heading for its biggest annual gain since 1979, say the marketmen. The falling dollar owes itself to various key factors, one of the most recent being that the investors are taking the view that Dubai’s debt woes will be contained, reducing safety bids for the greenback. The domestic bullion market witnessed maximum volatility after the Dubai crisis, which drew back stockists and an investment-led demand triggered a burst of buying spree.
The demand for bullion also increased among Governments after the RBI and Mauritius bought the metal in huge bulk from IMF. China and Russia added to their holdings, spurring the fear that the strongest currency so far is losing on its trademark strength. Two hundred tonnes of gold for a staggering Rs 32,000 crore at a time when world economies are struggling to stand up after suffering major financial crisis, created a furore in the bullion market, further boosting the investor sentiment towards the metal.
Analysts say RBI bought gold from IMF not just to shore up its gold holdings but to also declare globally that the nation has arrived “in a big way”. As he swapped his country’s dollars for hard assets, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was blunt: “The economies of the US and Europe have collapsed,” he said.
“India has shown its strength as an emerging economy. The strong emergence of developing nations has put down the strongest currency. Whenever we see a downward trend in dollar market, we simultaneously notice an upward movement in gold prices. There are several factors which have resulted in the soaring prices of gold led in turn by the fall in the value of dollar. With developing economies like India moving ahead at a faster pace, dollar had to go down.
“Then the employment stimulus package pumped into the US economy after the financial crisis has still not got fully into force. The crisis in Dubai has further pushed the dollar. Recently, we saw that all strong foreign currencies were pegged against the Chinese Yuan, because its strengthening by every passing day. This developed a fear in the minds of investors and therewas a general rush towards buying gold which is, by far, the safest mode of investment. Then we saw a trend when gold was being bought even at high prices, which again boosted its global prices. Two factors come out here — one, that gold is a safer investment, and that emerging economies like India have arrived in a more powerful way than ever before in history,” explains Vikas Roshan, executive director of leading auditing firm KPMG.
India, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, all developing nations, have in the last quarter bought more than half the 403.3 metric tonnes of gold that the IMF sold to bolster its balance sheet and boost lending to low-income nations.
Since the collapse of the Bretton Woods monetary agreement in 1973, the world has conducted its trade and paid its bills in dollars — not gold which held considerable importance in the preceding era. This, because America had a strong economy, was a major creditor nation with low debts and had a reputation for fighting inflation and defending the dollar’s value. However, in times to come, as America encouraged the world to collect dollars and dump gold, an unforeseen, dramatic reaction occurred, and dollar started slumping.
Foreign importers began to replace American industry. The US manufacturers were forced out of business or relocated overseas. The US economy changed radically. America evolved from a production-focused economy into a consumption-focused one. It went from being the world’s creditor nation to the world’s largest debtor nation. And, over just the past decade, its currency lost one third of its value.
“So much so that investors now typically look for avenues where they can get out of the dollar depricated situation. And in such times, there’s nothing better than gold. After the global meltdown, central banks have pumped in a lot of liquidity into the system to defreeze financial assets. People now don’t want to hold back the cash and are investing in assets other than the dollar. There are options like real estate which is still very down in the West, crude which is not likely to pick up anytime soon, other metals like aluminum or steel which are not very attractive options. Hence, gold is a hotsell,” says senior economist Sunil Sinha.
With this IMF gold purchase, India is now ranked 11th, up from 14th in September 2009 as per World Gold Council (WGC) statistics. India now has a mammoth gold reserve of 557.7 tonnes which, analysts say, will take it a long way. However, with the soaring prices, the WGC in its Q3 2009 report says that the retail industry is not recovering much. Third quarter demand in India continued to improve from exceptional lows witnessed earlier in the year, but absolute levels of demand remained reasonably weak, says the WGC report.
Jewellery demand, at 111.6 tonnes, was down 42 per cent in Q3 2008, while net retail investment demand, now at 26 tonnes, recorded a decline of 67 per cent over the same period. Total tonnage was down 49 per cent relative to year-earlier levels. “Given that the annual decline in tonnage Q2 2009 was 38 per cent, it may appear logical to conclude that the trend is continuing to deteriorate. However, such an assumption would be misleading, as Q3 2008 was exceptionally strong. A quarter-on-quarter comparison shows a very healthy 26 per cent rebound, but once again, this is somewhat misleading due to seasonal effects. A more appropriate benchmark for comparison would be a “typical” third quarter. If one takes the average level of Q3 tonnage off-take over the five years to Q3 2007 (152 tonnes) and compares Q3 2009 against this average, the decline is a more moderate nine per cent (-5% for jewellery consumption and -25% for investment demand),” explains a source in WGC.
The high prices of gold continued to be the biggest constraint on jewellery demand during Q3 2009, along with poor monsoon, which resulted in low levels of income for the rural community. Furthermore, the southern part of the country suffered a flood which kept buyers at bay. In fact, income growth has not kept up with the sharp rise in the gold price of the last year, and with the cost of living continuing to climb, consumers have compromised by buying lower weights. Whereas consumers buying for a special occasion would, in the past, have had a target weight in mind, a rupee budget has now become more common. The high gold price has also seen a shift into gem set jewellery, costume and imitation jewellery, points out the report.
“Fluctuations in recycling activity of gold are an integral part of the Indian market. Jewellery is sold by weight at a low margin, with consumers paying close to the spot price in rupee terms. Furthermore, many Indian families own significant holdings of gold, most specifically in jewellery form. Consequently, bouts of profit-taking are a relatively logical response to a volatile gold price in a market that has low transaction costs and a very low margin. It is, of course, the volatility in the gold price that primarily drives the fluctuations in both demand and recycling flows,” says the source.
Nowhere globally is the desire to own and accumulate gold stronger than in India. While there has been some dilution of this desire in the less traditional metros like Mumbai and Delhi, these cities account for just 26 million out of a total population of over 1 billion people. The southern and rural parts of India, in particular, are still very traditional, both in their customs and in their love of gold. Kerala alone has more than 6,000 jewellery shops and about 40,000 artisans in the industry. The total number of people employed in the sector could be more than 2,00,000. Thrissur, the Capital of gold trade in Kerala, accounts for more than 3,000 shops.
While price levels are currently acting as a constraint on demand in India, gold will remain a key savings vehicle for consumers and also for Indians in many other parts of the world, experts say. India is a nation of very high savers. “We believe that the effect of a growing Indian population combined with rising per capita incomes will, over a long term, lead to growth in total demand for gold in India,” says the WGC report.
All said, even though gold dominates the economic scene right now, its price rise is not an indicator of an economy doing good or bad. “The rise or fall in gold prices does not affect the economy, but it does indicate inflation. There is such a hue and cry about it because of the lust for the metal in India. The general fascination for gold will keep up the price,” says Roshan.
He, however, adds this not the end of line for dollar though. “We cannot ignore that the US economy has inherent strengths. Even though it is recovering at a slow pace, even a two per cent growth is promising. Having said that, it is possible it may not gain as much strength as earlier because the developing economies are emerging stronger,” says Roshan.
Economist Sunil Sinha seconds this to insist that there is no alternative to dollar. “Dollar will continue to hold ground, but depending on the investor sentiment and global imbalance, it will see a positive or negative movement. Right now it’s a negative movement with worried investors looking for other avenues,” he says.

The Price Drivers

INVESTORS: Rising interest in commodities, including gold, from investment funds in recent years has been a major factor behind the bullion's historic highs. Gold's strong performance has attracted new players and increased inflows of money into the market

WEAK US DOLLAR: The currency market plays a major role in setting the direction of gold, with bullion prices moving in the opposite direction to that of the US dollar. Gold is a popular hedge against currency weakness. A weak US currency also makes dollar-priced gold cheaper for holders of other currencies and vice versa

OIL PRICES: Gold has historically had a strong correlation with crude oil prices, as the metal can be used as a hedge against oil-led inflation. Strength in crude prices also boosts interest in commodities as an asset class

POLITICAL TENSIONS: The precious metal is widely considered a “safe haven”, bought during uncertain times. Major geopolitical events, including bomb blasts, terror attacks and assassinations, can induce price rises. Financial market shocks, which cause other asset prices to drop sharply, can have a similar effect

CENTRAL BANK GOLD RESERVES: Central banks hold gold as part of their reserves. Buying or selling of the metal by banks can influence prices. On August 7, a group of 19 European central banks agreed to renew a pact to limit gold sales, originally signed in 1999 and renewed for a further five years in 2004. Annual sales under the pact are limited to 400 tonnes, down from 500 tonnes in the second agreement, which expired in late September. Sales under the agreement were low in the later years of the second pact, however. Gold sales under the second Central Bank Gold Agreement totalled only 1,883 tonnes, down from 2,000 tonnes under the first agreement

HEDGING: Several years ago when gold prices were languishing at $300 an ounce, producers sold a part of their expected output with a promise to deliver the metal at a future date. But when prices started rising, they suffered losses and there was a move to buyback their hedging positions to fully gain from higher market prices — a practice known as de-hedging. Significant producer de-hedging can boost market sentiment and support gold prices. However, the rate of de-hedging has slowed markedly in recent years as the outstanding global hedgebook shrank

SUPPLY/DEMAND: Supply and demand fundamentals generally do not play a big role in determining gold prices because of huge above-ground stocks, now estimated at around 158,000 tonnes — more than 60 times annual mine production. Gold is not consumed like other commodities. Peak buying seasons in major consuming countries such as India and China exert some influence on the market, but others factors such as the dollar and oil prices carry more weight

Issues got an eight-pack

Madhur Bhandarkar - Film-maker who believes in reality cinema and saw 2009 as a year of true bytes

The Hindi film industry has seen a great revamp in the last three years and the quality of cinema has changed for the good. This year, too, was witness to a mixed bag of films. As a pleasant surprise, films which got critical acclaim also caught the eyeballs.
In fact, you could safely call 2009 a year of issue-based films. There was Jail and then there was Paa. The reason why Indian cinema saw this shift from big banner, traditional blockbusters to socially relevant cinema is that people asked for a change. They didn’t just want to see films with only entertainment value but also wanted some social content in their entertainers. Like I always say, big budget, big banner films may be a hit but they are not necessarily good films, while a small film may not churn out the same amount at Box Office, but it may receive kudos.
To put things into perspective, I would like to give an example of my film Jail. It was a very different film and I am proud to have made it. It is one film that was appreciated by people from all walks of life. Jail was a real film based on the Indian judicial system. It was about people reeling behind bars. Though the film could not generate the kind of response at Box Office I had expected it to, but it made up by generated a huge positive response from audiences.
LS Speaker Meira Kumar and till BJP leader LK Advani loved it and came out with tears in their eyes. Even though the film was made on a small budget, it showed the Indian jail system in its truest form. That is what today’s audiences want.
Going back to 2008, Naseeruddin Shah starer A Wednesday was an impactful movie. Simply made, it successfully tackled the concept of terrorism.
This year closes with Hirani’s 3 Idiots which I am wanting to watch. There has been a lot of buzz around it and fairly so. After all, it is an Aamir Khan film. Paa was also a pathbreaking film and I loved it for its content. So, just like 2008, this year also stands out for its stress on simple experiments, changed mindsets, technical excellence and strong, very strong content.
This was also the year as India got global acclaim through Oscars. The importance of Hollywood in Bollywood cannot be denied. Hollywood has always been the baap of Bollywood and we have always drawn inspiration from it. Indian filmmakers have picked up subjects and ideas from Hollywood. It has always been a part of us and the presence is only increasing by each passing year.
In all, 2009 has been the year of change in Hindi cinema. Films like Rock On and Fashion in 2008 have given viewers that extra something which the 150 TV channels do not give them at home. Audiences have become very ruthless today. After all, with so much entertainment happening at just a flick of a remote, they will come to the multiplex only for an extra edge to their entertainment quotient.
Indeed, Bollywood came a long way. Our films were technically stronger, so much so that they are increasingly reaching out to people in foreign lands too. They watch them for the love of our song and dance sequences, our colour schemes and our bevy of emotions.
Having said that, we are still not equipped enough to make films like Avatar in India. Even though it is two hours and 40 minutes long, the film is a 3D marvel. The imaging is superb and it just takes you to another world of fantasy. Moreover, for a film with such a huge budget ($500 million), we need to understand that Hollywood has a market across the world. English is a universal language which gives these films an edge over us. They also dub all their films in different languages like French, Russian, German etc, which generates a lot of additional revenue.
In that sense, Indian films get limited. All we have is an NRI community and a limited interested foreign crowd. In India itself, there is very less viewership in places like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh etc. Despite being Indian States, the demand for Hindi films is just not there. It’s practically impossible for India to make a film like Avatar which had been on the floor for 12 long years.
Talking about money, the Indian cinema business also saw a slump owing to recession. While 2008 was a good year, 2009 has been much below the expectations. A lot of films tanked at the Box Office, not because they weren’t good content-wise but because of the slowdown. I am positive, however, about 2010 and am keeping my fingers crossed as a lot of good films are awaiting release next year.
2009 also lost on business because of the much-publicised producer-multiplex face-off, owing to which there were no releases for three months. And when the strike was called off, a pile-up happened. There was no breathing space at the multiplexes with films being released in quick succession. For example, when Jail released, it did not open to a good audience but gained on popularity through the word of mouth. People wanted to watch it but the very next week it was out of theatres because there were other releases. Cinema halls just could not hold on to one film for a very long time. Similar was the case with Sankat City which was a great film but by the time people got to know about it, it was nowhere to be seen.
Year 2009 was also the year of young actors like Neil Nitin Mukesh, Ranbir Kapoor, Shahid Kapur and Imran Khan. This new brigade is creating a niche for itself and has made work speak for it. Their performances have been appreciated and I am very happy for them. But that doesn’t mean that there is no place for the likes of SRK or Aamir. When Sanjay Dutt, Sunny Deol, Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff ruled screen space, there came a time for newer generation like Aamir, SRK and Salman, and they all co-existed. So is the case with SRK, Aamir and Ranbir, Neil and Shahid. There is a place for everyone under the sun.

-- As told to Nidhi Mittal

60+ Bloggers’ Park

Most people their age take to leisurely walks and daylong newspaper reading, if that is they are not stuck to the TV. But a distinctly elder population of India has surprisingly gotten addicted to a medium associated more with Gen Y. Nidhi Mittal tells you how the 60 plus men and women have become compulsive bloggers

He shares his travel plans, his journeys far and wide, what goes on at home and with his health, and not to mention, his hard day at work.

She likes to comment on whatever comes her way during the course of the day and things political and social.

He is on a more creative side with mostly poetic expressions pondering over life’s reality and the truths that engulf it.

All this on a forum that’s least private and open to one and all on the worldwide web. The blog. And the set of people one is talking about are no Gen Y’s cool dudes and dudettes. 

One is a 67-year-old brightest star of the world’s largest film industry, other a 61-year-old writer known for her distinct dressing style with a rather strong tinge of sexuality in all that she writes in her books, while the third is a 64-year-old Indian film director/producer who takes home the claim for Academy Award winning period film Elizabeth in 1998.

Amitabh Bachchan, Shobhaa De and Shekhar Kapur are just a few names in the vast list of people who, long after crossing their late middle age, are not only up-to-date with the latest technology, but also addicted to it.

Blogging has been around for quite some time, gaining popularity as a medium where anyone can share their views and reach people from across the world. The medium has shortened the global distance with bringing like-minded people together who love sharing similar thoughts. But it caught hold of the Indian media’s imagination when superstar Amitabh Bachchan was spotted on bigadda.com talking about his daily schedule and generating hundreds of comments from people across the globe.

It all began on April 17, 2008, when for the first time a two-liner by Big B announcing his entry to the ‘blog-world’ generated 452 comments. “This is my blog.. welcome to it and hope we have a pleasant time interacting with each other. I shall start with a few views on my upcoming film Bhootnath.. hope you will give your comments,” was all that he posted. Responders went ga-ga over “how happy and glad” they were to see him on a forum that’s most familiar to them.

But was this ageing star as familiar with this ‘instant interactive forum’? BigB says “No!”. Calling himself a “techno-retard”, the 67-year-old actor adds that he was introduced to the concept by his family almost a year ago, just before he started a blog of his own. 

“For years, people who are fond of the film industry and have liked my work have been wanting to come across a medium through which they can get all the information about me and my family. So we were wondering if we should set up a website loaded with suitable things. Then, it was suggested to me that I should start a blog, which is actually a great medium of expression,” Bachchan said at an event organised to promote his forthcoming film Rann, directed by “maverick” Ram Gopal Varma.

Calling blogging an opportunity to sit across the desk with his fans, virtually, and communicate directly, the actor stresses that he appreciates all kinds of responses from his readers, be it abuses or criticism. 

“Later, I came to know that there is a device called moderator which can filter the comments (read abuses) to my posts, but I decided to not install it as I would like to know all hues of responses,” BigB says.

A day-to-day diary entry by Bachchan made for interesting news stories for both print and electronic media with Hindi news channels lavishly playing his posts accompanied by thrilling graphics.

Be it his relapsing cervical neck pain or his congratulating cricketer MS Dhoni for Team India’s victory — which drew no response from the man in question — each blog that Bachchan writes not only draws hundreds of comments but also makes it to the top of entertainment news pages and slots. Unfazed, the star sticks to what he calls the medium of tomorrow, “more powerful than print and electronic media”.

While Amitabh’s blog is more of a personal account, director/producer Shekhar Kapur’s blog is a pleasure to read for those inclined more towards poetry and life’s philosophy. The man, who spends most part of the year abroad, takes home the credit for critically acclaimed films like Mr India, Bandit Queen and Elizabeth. His creative genius also reflects in his blog shekharkapur.com/blog. 

Sixtyfour-year-old Kapur’s last blog entry on May 3 titled Solitary Confinement is poem about how one should release the ego from the prison of mind and body. He says: 

“For the ego can exist 
only in finite possibilities 
needing to enclose itself
in a part of the universe
walled off from the rest of creation
and from within that prison
to show itself off
yearning to be recognized, 
to be individualized
to be admired 
and from within that prison
to be loved!”

Though his absence from India could not generate any response from Kapur about his addiction to his blog which he updates almost everyday, the poetic responses to his blogs show how like-minded people connect through this forum. Kapur’s blogs are a reflection of his need for a calm evening, his sense of appreciation of nature and enjoyment of a little girl’s innocent laughter, rather than his age.

It’s hard to believe that the stylish saree-clad writer Shobhaa De would also fall in this age category of bloggers, but she does and her blogs again defy the age-factor. She’s uptight with today’s ‘lingo’ and claims to be the biggest fan of this medium.

“I’ll be only half-joking if I say that I am the future of blogging. I love the medium. You are talking to a fan. I see blogging growing into a separate space which throws up great talent. I would say traditional publishers better watch out! They have got competition,” says De.

The zeal that the 61-year-old author shows once you start talking about her blog shobhaade.blogspot.com shows how addicted she is to it, though she confesses that she was a techno-phobic “till I discovered an entirely new and seductive universe — cyberspace. Today, I am a techno-victim! I cannot imagine life without my laptop. It is almost a body part,” she asserts.

From Priyanka Gandhi’s style to brother Rahul’s dimples, from voting mumbo-jumbo to thrilling IPL, De’s keyboard hasn’t missed anything. “I am a blog addict. I go into withdrawal if, for any reason, I can’t blog on a particular day. Blogging is my new high. I love the instant connectivity it provides. I have a really lively, opinionated forum. I also use the blog to promote causes I believe in. The response is tremendous,” she says.

Promotion of their projects is one reason why these ageing celebrities initially became members of the ‘bloggers’ park’. Amitabh started his blog to promote his film Bhootnath, while De did so to reach the masses while launching her book Superstar India.

Political personalities like LK Advani and Lalu Prasad Yadav too came aboard to promote their poll prospects, especially among the young voters.

Other avid bloggers are ex-supercop Kiran Bedi, director Sudhir Mishra, former cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Nana Patekar, but most of them have lost track of it over time. 

Then there is this fast increasing number of ‘veteran’ bloggers who don’t have a celebrity status, but have been hooked on to this medium for a significant period of time and are a rage among the blogging community.

One such blogger is Jyotsna Kamat, a PhD from Bangalore. She is 73 years old and has been blogging since 2002. At the start of the conversation, the septuagenarian is quick to confess, rather candidly, that she is not computer savvy. “I don’t like it. I am an old-fashioned, pen and paper person. I prefer to write and receive letters,” she says. 

Kamat started blogging as a rehabilitation process after the loss of her husband who was a writer. She was inspired by her son and daughter-in-law who live in the US.

In the introduction to her blog kamat.com/jyotsna.blog, she writes: “I only have a vague idea of what a blog is, and I am not so sure how this will be received by our patrons. But I wish to share with you my experiences of my long career as a broadcaster in India, my studies of history, and excerpts from ancient Indian literature. I am sure that this is the world’s most low tech blog, written on paper, typed by a third person (mostly my daughter-in-law), and proof-read on paper.”

The reason why she’s sticking to blogging is the reach it gives her all over the world.

Kamat says that the reason why people her age are not up-to-date with technology is because it isolates humans from their surroundings and nature. 

“Then, the technology changes so fast that it becomes difficult for older people to keep up with it. Older technology like the radio, pen or a typewriter don’t require a relearning process,” she explains.

But the responses that the posts on her website generate regularly instill her old bones with a fresh zeal to write as much as she can. On the other hand, she also thanks the modern day technology for helping her stay in constant touch with her children and concludes the conversation by quipping that there are more blogs now than the number of people in the world, “which explains the popularity of the medium.”