Coolpad 'Note 6'. Pic courtesy/Twitter

Chinese handset maker Coolpad launched 'Note 6', an offline exclusive product in India on Tuesday. Two of the most notable features of Note 6 are 5.5-inch HD display and 8MP+5MP dual front cameras. The company in a statement said that smartphone will be available from Tuesday in 32GB and 64GB internal storage variants with 4GB RAM for Rs 8,999 and Rs 9,999 respectively.

Note 6 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 chipset, backed by 4,070 mAh battery and runs on Android 7.1 Nougat Operating System (OS). "Coolpad 'Note 6' will offer a great value for money smartphone for Indian customers," said Syed Tajuddin, CEO, Coolpad India.

"We are also planning to introduce more aggressive offline devices in the next few months to expand in the offline market through our retails partners and multi-brand outlets," Tajuddin added.

Coolpad "Note 6" will be available at over 300 multi-brand stores across eight states including Delhi-NCR, Telangana and Maharashtra.

(Edited by mid-day online desk, with inputs from IANS)

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San Francisco: Facebook-owned WhatsApp is rolling out its "Restrict Group" for all iOS, Android and Windows Phone users -- a feature that gives the group administrator powers to restrict other members from sending text messages, photographs, videos, GIFs, documents or voice messages in case the admin thinks so.

According to WABetaInfo, a popular fan site that tests new WhatsApp features early, you need to update your WhatsApp version to the 2.18.132 Android update in order to remotely receive the activation of the feature.

The "Restrict Group" feature, first spotted in last December, adds "Privacy settings" in the group.

"All participants can normally edit the group description, icon and subject, but finally the administrator can restrict this feature today, preventing no-administrators to modify the group description," the website said.

This action can be managed in the Admin Settings, a new option located in Group Info that's visible to the administrator only.

In Admin Settings, the administrator can restrict who can change the group info.

Administrators can keep sharing media and chatting as normal as they restrict other members.

Once restricted, other members will simply have to read their messages and will not be able to respond.

They will have to use the "Message Admin" button to post a message or share media to the group. The message will need to be approved by the administrator before going through to the rest of the group.

In October, reports said administrators on WhatsApp groups will soon be able to choose if other participants can modify the subject of the group, its icon and its description.

With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, WhatsApp is available in more than 50 different languages around the world and in 10 Indian languages.

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San Francisco: To help small and large businesses reach out to 1.3 billion people who use Messenger every month, Facebook has launched an Augmented Reality (AR) tool for them. With this tool, the businesses can leverage the "Camera Effects Platform" to easily integrate AR into their Messenger experience, bringing the virtual and physical worlds one step closer together.

"When a person interacts with your business in Messenger, you can prompt them to open the camera, which will be pre-populated with filters and AR effects that are specific to your brand," David Marcus, Vice President of Messaging Products, said in a blog post on Tuesday.

From there, people can share the image or video to their story or in a group or one-to conversation or they can simply save it to their camera roll.

"To date, there are over 300,000 active bots on Messenger, and over 8 billion messages are exchanged between people and businesses each month -- that's 4 times the amount of messages exchanged since just last year," Marcus informed as Facebook began its annual two-day F8 Developers' Conference in San Jose on Tuesday.

"Today, there are 200,000 developers actively building experiences, forging connections between people and the brands they love and bringing real value to their everyday lives," the post added.

To begin with, ASUS, Kia, Nike and Sephora will launch AR effects for their Messenger experiences.

Facebook also announced that buyers and sellers in its Marketplace will be able to communicate across languages with "M Translations".

"Now when people connected through Marketplace receive a message in a language that is different from their default language in Messenger, M will ask them if they want to translate the message.

"This will help drive commerce between buyers and sellers despite language barriers. At launch, translations from English to Spanish (and vice-versa) will be available in Marketplace conversations taking place in the US," the post further said.

Facebook will gradually roll out "M suggestions for translations" in additional languages and countries.

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Xiaomi India on Wednesday announced the launch of "Mi Music" and "Mi Video" to offer value-added Internet services in India.

"With the launch of these two apps 'Mi Music' and 'Mi Video', we hope to serve millions of Xiaomi smartphone users with a better user experience through enhanced Internet services," Manu Jain, Vice President, Xiaomi and Managing Director, Xiaomi India, said in a statement.

"Mi Music" is a pre-installed music app which offers an integrated music streaming service along with the ability to store offline music and has nearly seven million daily active users in India, the statement said.

"Mi Video" is a pre-installed video app that provides integrated video streaming across platforms.

"Mi Video" content is currently powered by Hungama Play, SonyLiv and Voot. It offers more than 500,000 hours of content with nearly 80 per cent free content, the statement added.

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More than a quarter of India's population or 337 million people would use a smartphone in 2018 -- a 16 per cent growth which is the highest rate of any country in the world -- market research company eMarketer said on Thursday.

Since its last forecast, eMarketer increased its estimate for the smartphone audience in India by more than 31 million people.

This uptick is thanks to the growth in smartphone usage in urban areas, where affordable smartphones are becoming widely available, the research firm said in a statement.

"India still faces technological challenges that are holding back mass smartphone adoption. "Mobile Internet speeds are among the slowest in the world, around two-thirds of the population still lives in rural areas and feature phones are by no means obsolete," said Chris Bendtsen, Senior Forecasting Analyst, eMarketer.

Advertisers can still be optimistic about the future.

"Smartphones are getting cheaper, mobile data prices have fallen and urbanisation continues. Over the next four years, as speeds and rural reach improve, eMarketer expects the smartphone audience to reach close to half a billion users," Bendtsen noted.

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San Francisco: Facebook has announced a new tool for website owners and developers that will alert them about phishing attacks on their platforms. "We are extending the capabilities of our 'Certificate Transparency Monitoring' tool to make it easier for developers to learn about new domains that are maliciously created to implement phishing attacks," security engineer David Huang and software engineers Bartosz Niemczura and Amy Xu said in a blog post late on Wednesday.

Phishing websites try to trick people into revealing their passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information.

The tool, announced during the F8 annual developer conference in San Jose, alerts website owners of these scams so that they can take action to protect their domain and the people who use their websites.

"Certificate Transparency Logs" are designed to keep a record of all valid security certificates issued by publicly-trusted Certificate Authorities.

"We have been using these logs to monitor certificates issued for domains owned by Facebook and have created tools to help developers take advantage of the same approach," the post said.

Using these tools, developers can learn about certificates that are mis-issued for the domains they control.

"We are extending the capabilities of our tool to send alerts when certificates are issued for potential phishing domains," the post added.

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Popular image and video-sharing platform, Instagram, on Thursday, announced new ways to share content on 'Stories', connect with friends over videos, and discover new interests on 'Explore'. The platform also announced measures to protect Instagrammers from bullies.

Here are the changes:

Sharing to Stories

From a sticker of one's new favourite song on Spotify to action shots from GoPro, it's now easy to share what one is up to or how they are feeling by posting directly to Instagram Stories from other apps. More apps will be adding the sharing to Stories feature soon.

Just tap the share button in the Spotify or GoPro app and the content is pulled directly into the Instagram camera. From there one can edit and add to their story or send it via Direct. One does not need to connect their Instagram account to other apps in order to share to Stories.

Camera effects platform for Instagram

Face filters, text styles and stickers help turn casual moments into experiences one can't wait to share. Instagram is now unlocking the ability for third parties to design unique, interactive camera experiences for their followers.

That means that one can turn any video into an NBA dunkcam or add a cloud of hearts and Pomeranians to fluff up their photo.

Further, more fun creative effects from one's favourite accounts are coming soon, including Ariana Grande, Baby Ariel, Liza Koshy, Vogue, and Buzzfeed.

Video Chat

More than 100 million Instagrammers watch or share on Live every day. But the community sometimes also wants to experience real-time video in a smaller group.

In the coming weeks, Instagram will bring video chat to its platform and give friends a new way to spend time together - even when they aren't actually together.

To start a video chat, simply tap the new camera icon at the top of a Direct thread.

One can chat one-on-one or with a small group ¿ and they can keep the conversation going for as long as they like. Further, one can also minimise the video and continue the chat while doing other things on Instagram.

Video chat is testing now and will roll out globally soon.

The New Explore

People come to Explore every day to discover new ideas, people, and experiences. And now the redesigned Explore makes discovery even easier.

It will still be personalised, but the content will now be organised into topic channels so that one can browse across their interests and go deeper into any area they like.

The new Explore will be rolling out over the coming weeks.

Further, Instagram will filter bullying comments intended to harass or upset people on the platform.

In 2017, Instagram had announced an offensive comment filter, which would automatically hide toxic and divisive comments, particularly those aimed at at-risk groups.

This new filter hides comments containing attacks on a person's appearance or character, as well as threats to a person's well-being or health.

The bullying filter is on for the global community and can be disabled in the Comment Controls center in the app.

The new filter will also alert Instagram to repeated problems so that the company can take action.

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Instagram has introduced a feature that allows users to make payments. The Facebook-owned photo-sharing app will now allow users to add their credit or debit card with their profile and set up a security pin. They can make purchases within the photo-sharing service and make payments without having to leave the site, Cnet reported.

Payments is the next big thing for tech giants who are looking at retaining users in the form of customers by offering them a one-stop destination for all their needs, including social, photos, and now e-commerce. The new native payments feature is currently available through limited partners and businesses on Instagram.

(Edited by mid-day online desk, with inputs from ANI)

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New Delhi: Fasten your seat-belts - and log on. You may soon be able to call people up, send office emails, check Facebook as well as watch instant videos while air-borne, according to a proposal approved by the Telecom Commission allowing air travellers in India to access in-flight mobile and internet services.

Passengers, used to being told by the crew to switch of all electronic devices, have been wondering how the system would work. PTI answers some frequently asked questions.

What is in-flight internet technology?
In-flight connectivity systems primarily use two kinds of technology. In the first, an onboard antenna picks up signals from the nearest tower on the ground. The connection will remain seamless up to a certain altitude unless the plane passes over an area without ground towers.

In the second scenario, satellites beam signals directly to antennas installed on the airline. This is more effective when the airline is passing over a water body compared with ATG (air-to-ground)-based networks which use satellites to beam the signal first to a transmitter on the ground and then to the antennas on the airline.

What happens next?
The data is transmitted to a personal electronic device such as a smartphone or a laptop through an onboard router, which is connected to the plane's antenna. The antenna transmits the signals, through satellites, to a ground station, which redirects the traffic to a billing server that calculates the data consumption.

In case the internet services through onboard WiFi are permitted to be used only in flight/airplane mode, the plane's antenna will link to terrestrial Internet services provided by telecom service providers. When the aircraft has climbed to 3,000 metres, normally five minutes after take-off, the antenna will switch to satellite-based services. This will ensure continuity in the Internet services to passengers and prevent cross-interference between terrestrial and satellite networks. The airlines may depend on the services of either foreign satellites or ISRO's indigenous GPS-aided geo-augmented navigation system (GAGAN) for the purpose.

GAGAN was jointly developed by ISRO and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) with a view to assisting aircraft in accurate landing. The GAGAN signal is being broadcast through two Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites - GSAT8 and GSAT10.

What are the challenges?
For the technology to function, airlines and service providers will have to put a server on the flight along with the equipment to convert satellite signals into data packets. They will also have to add the equipment to re-orient the antenna to face the satellite so the reception quality is not affected.

Interruptions, when the airline moves from the range of one satellite to another, are bound to happen. In general, in-flight WiFi is expected to be slower than on the ground. However, latest technologies may change that scenario.

Will users have to pay more?
Airline passengers may have to bear the initial cost of installing antennae on aircraft. It would be easier for airlines to have the equipment installed on the new aircraft rather than taking planes out of service for retrofitting. The additional costs could find a way into ticket fares, unless the airlines, despite rising jet fuel prices, decide to bear the costs themselves.The high cost of installing equipment for full-service carriers could discourage low-cost carriers.  Foreign airlines that service Indian airports or use Indian airspace may offer in-flight connectivity much before domestic carriers do so because some of them are already providing such services globally.

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As data security concerns on Facebook and WhatsApp loom large, Twitter is reportedly working on a 'Secret' encrypted messages feature which could make the microblogging platform safer for sensitive communications.

With this feature, Twitter is expected to roll out options about encrypted messaging like starting a secret conversation and viewing both sides of the conversation for encryption keys to verify a secure connection, TechCrunch reported on Monday.

The encrypted Direct Message (DM) option was first spotted inside Twitter for APK that contains codes for unreleased features that companies are testing.

Instant messaging app WhatsApp uses "end-to-end encryption" in all conversations. This can be opted into Messenger.

End-to-end encrypted messages are secured with a lock and only the sender and recipient have the special key needed to unlock and read them.

For added protection, every message sent has its own unique lock and key. No one can intercept the communications.

Last week, WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum quit reportedly "after clashing with its parent, Facebook, over the popular messaging service's strategy and Facebook's attempts to use its personal data and weaken its encryption".

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California: A year after introducing the ability to send or request money on Android app, Gmail is finally extending its pay friends feature to its iOS users.

As part of the new update version 5.0.180422, iOS users will be able to send and request money from Gmail, Cnet reports.

In addition to that, iOS users will also be able to snooze emails. The feature makes the email disappear for a while and then show up later as a fresh email.

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Washington: Twitter is reportedly testing a new feature on its Android app that makes messaging secure with end-to-end encryption.

Called 'Secret Conversation', the feature is expected to be available in the conversation info section in direct messaging of the Twitter app on Android, Mashable reports.

As users seek more security, end-to-end encryption has become a new mandate for messaging apps. The technology makes it difficult for snoopers to access or intercept messages which are exchanged between two parties.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden had asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for such a feature on the platform a year ago. It remains to be seen when the end-to-end encryption is officially rolled out.

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Popular instant messaging platform, WhatsApp, has rolled out a new feature that allows users to view content from Facebook and Instagram within the app. The update is expected to increase user engagement in the messaging platform.

The latest update has been rolled out for select iOs users. WhatsApp support will allow users to play Instagram and Facebook videos within the app, without exiting the chat. Presently, a user who receives videos or images from Facebook, Instagram or any such app would be redirected to these apps to view the content. However, this is set to change with the new update, reports The Verge.

The latest update also introduced the ability to add and revoke admin privileges from users in a group chat. It empowers admins to edit the subject, description, and icon of a chat that is already underway. In November 2017, WhatsApp rolled out an update through which one can view YouTube videos directly inside the messaging app, in picture-in-picture mode.

If a YouTube link has been sent on a conversation, then users can directly view the video through the link on WhatsApp itself, as it will no longer be re-directed to YouTube. Instead, the YouTube clip will appear within a small floating window on your screen, thus implying that you can watch YouTube videos and message at the same time.

On a related note, the update is also expected to be rolled out to Android users in the coming weeks.

(Edited by mid-day online desk, with inputs from ANI)

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Popular photo and video sharing app, Instagram, rolled out an interesting "call-to-action buttons" for businesses on Wednesday. With the help of this feature, Instagram users can now book tickets, order food, make appointments and reservations from the app itself. 

With "Instagram Direct" and by adding these buttons to their profile, businesses would help customers connect with the third-party partners from the platform.

"Starting today, businesses will have a better way to manage their messages. Users will be able to see important new customer messages in the main 'Direct' inbox, instead of in the pending folder," the company said in a blog post.

"Users will also be able to star and filter conversations to come back to messages they would want to follow up on. Additionally, in the coming weeks we'll begin testing quick replies so that you can easily respond to common questions," the company said.

According to Instagram, over 200 million users visit a business profile every day and over 150 million people have conversations with businesses through Instagram's "Direct" every month. The Facebook-owned app plans to expand this list to cover partners across all countries aiming to help businesses have more opportunities to connect and communicate with their customers.

(Edited by mid-day online desk, with inputs from IANS)

Digital Transformation with 5G – 2nd 5G India 2018 International Conference & Exhibition. The conference will be held on May 17 and 18, 2018 at The Leela, Mumbai

Bharat Exhibitions is organising the 2nd edition of the 5G India 2018 International Conference and Exhibition, bringing together India’s telecom industry leaders, policymakers and telecom analysts to discuss how 5G will enable the future ushering in a new India. The conference to be held on May 17 and 18 at The Leela, Mumbai will focus on issues and opportunities related to the deployment of 5G and high-speed digital applications that will drive cross-industry applications and spur digital transformation and connectivity to catalyze growth.

With 5G promising to bring about a sea change in the digital ecosystem by servicing more industries through one architecture, the conference will address the tremendous growth that promises to take place in the next few years to revolutionize the Indian Data market and help India to emerge as a qualitative internet market as against a quantitative one. Leading experts will speak about the challenges and opportunities that operators and technology providers will face in the transformation of mobile broadband to 5G.

The event will witness the 5G Demo by various organization (BSNL, Reliance Jio, Intel, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bombay). The conference will include sessions and panel discussions on what will it take for India to emerge as one amongst the leaders in standardization for 5G technologies and applications, enabling the positive use of Artificial Intelligence for all, global perspectives on 5G, preparing for 5G, trends and drivers shaping 5G, spectrum and technology for 5G and a CXO Round Table on Digital Transformation with 5G.

Shri Manoj Sinha, Hon’ble Minister of Communications (Independent Charge) and Minister of State for Railways, Govt. of India will be the Chief Guest, Smt. Aruna Sundararajan, IAS, Chairman, TC & Secretary (Telecom), Department of Telecommunications, Govt. of India and Mr. Malcolm Johnson, Deputy Secretary-General, ITU will be the Guests of Honour, Introductory Address by Mr. Adrian Scrase, CTO, ETSI and Keynote will be deliver by Shri Anupam Shrivastava, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. 5G India 2018 International Conference and Exhibition is being supported by the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Govt. of India and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Govt. of India. With Broadband India Forum as the Knowledge Partner, the conference is also being supported by the industry associations including 3GPP, TSDSI, CEWiT India, COAI and TAIPA.

With plenary sessions, technical tracks in an innovative show formats and international case studies, the agenda will include visionary presentations from 30+ speakers across the globe including Mr. Klaus Pendl, First Counsellor – ICT, Delegation of the European Union to India, Mr. Sebastien Soriano, Chairman, ARCEP France, Mr. Daniel Brower, Vice President, Program, Deutsche Telekom, Mr. Julius Knapp, CTO, FCC USA and Dr. Wu Yong, Senior Standards Expert, 3GPP as well as Senior Spokesperson from BSNL, INTEL, Google, Savitri Telecom Services, Syniverse, Keysight Technologies, UTStarcom, Cambium Networks, CSG International, Rohde & Schwarz, Commscope, Infineon and Siae Microelettronica.

About Bharat Exhibitions

In a world where technology is erasing borders, it is indeed ironical that professionals find it increasingly difficult to maintain peer to peer contact on regular basis. Bharat Exhibitions fills in this space by managing and hosting some of India’s premier Telecom & IT events. We own niche and prestigious conference properties in the new generation technology arena such as 100 Smart Cities India, Cloud & Network Virtualisation India, 5G India, Data Centre India, Broadband Tech India, Smart-Sustainable Cities Technology & Innovation Summit, Cyber Security India, SMC Technology India and Telecom CXO Summit. We have a simple mission: Establish & deliver contacts that create value for your business.

For further details, please visit http://www.bharatexhibitions.com

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Telecommunications service provider Ericsson on Thursday introduced a new category of radio products called Street Macro in India to enable a smooth evolution from 4G to 5G.

Street Macro is a new site type that addresses the need for operators to grow in cities with limited available radio locations.

The company also launched new radio products that support "Massive MIMO" technology to simplify use for wider 5G adoption.

"Operators today are looking at ways and means to increase network capacity, especially in urban areas. Ericsson's Street Macro adds a new layer in the network layer to boost capacity enabling service providers to cater to the growing demands of data users," Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, Ericsson India, told reporters here.

According to Ericsson's new economic study of enhanced mobile broadband, evolution to 5G will enable 10 times lower cost per gigabyte than current 4G networks.

To help operators capture growth opportunities presented by new 5G use cases, Ericsson has expanded its 5G Core System offering with new capabilities to support 5G New Radio (NR) standard and also enhanced its Distributed Cloud solution.

The announcement came on the sidelines of Ericsson's annual technology roadshow in India, where the company recreated a "Do Zone" to showcase the highlights from Mobile World Congress 2018.

To date Ericsson has signed 39 memorandums of understanding with service providers for trials, the company said.

In a bid to deliver transparency in technology and stay ahead of ethical pitfalls, Google has said that its Artificial Intelligence (AI) calling system "Duplex" would now identify itself while making appointments.

Following the launch of the "Duplex" system, which lets AI mimic a human voice to make appointments and book tables, among other functions, a widespread outcry over the ethical dilemmas were raised by tech critics.

Google clarified to The Verge that the experimental system would have a "disclosure built-in" that means that whenever Duplex gets involved in some type of verbal communication with a human at the other end, it would identify that the human is talking to an AI.

"We understand and value the discussion around Google Duplex, as we have said from the beginning, transparency in the technology is important," a Google spokesperson was quoted as saying.

"We are designing this feature with disclosure built-in, and we will make sure the system is appropriately identified. What we showed at I/O was an early technology demo, and we look forward to incorporating feedback as we develop this into a product," the spokesperson added.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai introduced Duplex earlier this week in the company's annual developer's conference Google I/O and demonstrated how the AI system could book an appointment at a salon and a table at a restaurant.

In the demo, the Google Assistant sounded like a human. It used Google DeepMind's new WaveNet audio-generation technique and other advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to replicate human speech patterns.

However, tech critics raised questions on the morality of the technology saying it was developed without proper oversight or regulation.

According to tech critic Zeynep Tufekci, the demo was "horrifying" and the initial positive audience reaction at I/O was evidence that "Silicon Valley is ethically lost, rudderless and has not learned a thing".

Google had originally said in a blog post written by engineers Yaniv Leviathan and Yossi Matias that "it's important to us that users and businesses have a good experience with this service and transparency is a key part of that".

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Aiming to disrupt India's mid-segment smartphone market, Samsung is set to launch four new smartphones -- two each in Galaxy "A" and Galaxy "J" series -- this month.

The upcoming Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6+ smartphones could be priced between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000 while the devices in Galaxy "J" series could cost customers Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000, industry sources told IANS on Friday.

Two of the four smartphones in the upcoming line-up would come with dual camera set-up, the sources added.

All of them will be made at the company's Noida facility. The smartphones will feature Samsung's super AMOLED "Infinity Display" -- bezel-less screen that creates an immersive viewing experience.

Notably, Samsung's flagship smartphones such as Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy S9 series feature the "Infinity Display". Now, with the upcoming devices, the display feature would be introduced at lower price points in the Indian market.

The South Korean giant first introduced the "Infinity Display" in Galaxy S8 series in 2017.

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Microsoft Surface Pro 4

After receiving complaints regarding a screen flicker defect in some Surface Pro 4 devices, Microsoft has offered to replace the eligible devices free of charge.

The faulty devices qualified for replacement should be up to three years from the time of original purchase, Microsoft Support said in a blog post late Friday.

"We will ship you a replacement device as soon as you return your existing device. Typically, it will take 5-8 business days for you to receive an exchange device from the date that you ship your current device back to us," the post added.

Users that have already paid for a screen-replacement will get a refund.

In February, Microsoft had said that it was monitoring the situation.

The tech giant has clarified that the replaced devices will be refurbished.

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Microsoft

The fast-emerging field of Artificial Intelligence, which has suddenly caught the attention of the IT industry and the governments across the world, is facing a large skills shortage, a top Microsoft official has said.

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also facing the challenge of appropriate use of data, group programme manager of Microsoft Learning Matt Winkler told PTI.

"There is a pretty large skills shortage. Lots of folks are talking about it (AI). A lot of folks are very, very excited about it and then they want to go and make that real. And when they go to make that real, there's a really large skills shortage," Winkler said.

That's why it's so exciting to be trying to bring these technologies to more developers because it's going to bring more people into the mix, he said. Winkler said the second challenge is really around data.

"How do you get the data in the right shape? How do you prepare the data? Because all of the AI in the world is based on data, and so what makes it interesting is the data that you have, the data that your business has, that what you understand about your customers. So how do you most effectively use that data to go and produce models," he said.

Then within kind of any individual product project, one of the key challenges is the same thing that the industry has seen with software, which is, if one tries and do too much, the project gets much harder.

"And so we'll often times see failed projects, which are the result of trying to create just the most amazing thing having done nothing," he said.

At the recently concluded developers conference ¿ Build 2018 ¿ Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella talked about how to make AI accessible for everyone.

"Our guidance to a lot of customers to pick a domain and pick a used case where you have a high, high-quality data and that it is really well understood. Start there, get some wins with that and then start expanding the use cases so far," Winkler said.

Microsoft is partnering with multiple players in both the private and governmental sectors to use AI for public good.

"Absolutely, AI is being used for public good. For instance, it is being used in school districts in order to predict drop-out rates in India.

"We see a ton of healthcare applications: patient re-admission rates is very very popular one. We have seen medical image analysis. We are doing some really interesting work doing diabetes prediction through scans of retinas," Winkler said.
Microsoft is working with the Snow Leopard Trust, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation of the snow leopard and parts of Nepal and India to analyse in real time the presence of snow leopards.

"So it's fundamentally changed the way they do their research," he said, adding that the Microsoft is working with three-four other conservation agencies doing similar things.

"For a lot of the customers, what AI is enabling is not just an incremental... but It's something they fundamentally couldn't do before. So it really does introduce a step change for the things that they want to do in their business," Winkler added.

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One97 Communications Limited, the firm that owns digital payment major, Paytm, announced the unification of bank transfers for its customers with the new 'My Payments' feature on its app.

This will enable Paytm users to make recurring, high-value payment and other monthly expenses in an instant. Using the Paytm app, bank transfers can be done from and to any bank account, making it easier for customers to make payments at zero charge, a facility which even non-KYC Paytm users can avail.

With this new addition to its multilingual app, Paytm is aiming to process Rs 60,000 crore in monthly bank transfers alone by the end of this year. The company is also planning to invest Rs. 5000 crore in its core business, expecting to increase the number of transactions from one billion to two billion this year.

"We have now simplified these payments with 'My Payments' and are expecting six-fold growth owing to this rapid shift in consumer behavior in favor of going cashless. Our users understand that Paytm is more than just a digital wallet company and we will continue adding more such customer-centric features while educating users about the convenience they can experience by using Paytm every day," said Paytm Senior Vice President, Deepak Abbot.

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Targeted at millennials, Chinese smartphone maker OPPO on Tuesday debuted its sub-brand "Realme 1" smartphone in India for Rs 8,990 (3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage model).

The 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage variant is priced at Rs 13,990.

The smartphone comes with the world's first 12-nm Artificial Intelligence-based MediaTek Helio P60 chipset with "AI shot" technology.

"Realme 1 is focused at young online consumers and is primed to be a market disruptor with a stylish design," Madhav Seth, Chief Executive Officer, Realme India, said in a statement.

The device will be available on Amazon India, starting May 25, in diamond black and solar red colour variants.

A third variant with 4GB RAM and 64GB onboard storage, in moonlight silver and diamond black colours for Rs 10,990 will go on sale in June.

Realme users will have access to over 500 OPPO service centres across the country with guaranteed 90 per cent repair cases resolved within an hour.

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New Delhi: Instant messaging platform WhatsApp announced the rollout of a number of new features for group chats, in a bid to make the platform more interactive and engaging. Among the new features is group descriptions, wherein a short blurb will appear under the group info tab that allows users to set the purpose, guidelines, or topics for the group.

Furthermore, when a new member joins a group, the description will show up at the top of the chat.

In a move to give group administrators more authority, WhatsApp introduced a new control that will allow the former to restrict who can change the group's subject, icon, and description. Admins can also remove admin permissions of other group participants, while group creators can no longer be removed from the group they started.

Among other features, WhatsApp also introduced a 'group catch up' option, whereby a user, who has been away from a group chat, can quickly catch up on messages that mention or reply to them by tapping on a new @ button that appears at the bottom right corner of the chat.

Group participants can now search for anyone in a group by using the search option on the group info page. WhatsApp also introduced protection controls so users can't be repeatedly added to groups they've left. The new features are being rolled out for Android and iPhone users globally.

Representational picture

In India, gaming is considered as a hobby and was less than inclined towards gaming from the get- go. But the scenario is slowling changing. Looking at the growth of the industry over the years, we have finally come to a point where families have started being supportive of this career choice. Rather than opting for a 9-to-5 job, more and more gamers have started taking their careers seriously and are transitioning into professional esports athletes and streamers.

So what is gaming? Gaming is a form of entertainment which is consumed via interaction, participation and viewership. It encompasses PC gaming, mobile gaming and console gaming and is multi-billion dollar industry globally. This industry comprises of gamers who can be a casual or an enthusiast, an amateur or a professional, a player or a viewer. Gaming can be as simple as picking up your mobile and launching some birds at hostile pigs in a castle, or as complex as dedicating years to learning and mastering a game and competing against other similarly dedicated players globally with millions of dollars at stake.

The term 'esports' seem new but the concept isn't. Esports is the part of gaming that’s competitive, where various genres of games are played competitively against other players, on different platforms. From fighting against your friend at the local arcade with a barrage of virtual punches and kicks to being seated together and connected to 100s of other gamers and being the last person alive in a perilous deserted island. Esports is as old as gaming is. The only difference we see nowadays, is the higher stakes and the dedication gamers put in to reach the top. With prize pools running in the millions and a loyal audience who travel halfway across the globe to watch their teams play, esports has become a global phenomenon with major brands investing heavily in the industry and corporations building stadiums larger than conventional sports stadiums.

Professional athletes train their body and mind, regularly to stay at the best of conditions and are supported with the state-of-the-art facilities and a salary for playing their game. Another term people might be unfamiliar with is "video game live streaming”. Streaming is a form of online video broadcast on specialised platforms where you play games and entertain your viewers. A viewer might be engrossed by your playstyle or your witty humour. There can be thousands of players watching you at a point of time and cheering for you. Streaming has become a full-time job for a lot of people with them earning a comfortable six-figure income monthly by just regularly entertaining their viewers. Brands sponsor these streamers to advertise and endorse their products on their stream.

The global gaming industry is still growing at a rapid pace with a valuation of $108.9 billion and a YoY growth of 7.8% in 2017. The Asia Pacific region contributes to 47% of this with India ranked 17 th globally valued at $818 million with an 11.14% CAGR. Gaming in India is still nascent with a lot of scope for growth and recognition. Esports plays a huge part in gaming with $696 million market and whopping 385.5 million viewers watching their favourite teams and players fight for glory. That’s thrice as many subscribers Netflix has.

So how far has India come? India is slowly catching up with the rest of the world. We have 253.2 million gamers in India with 81% of them in the age group of 16 – 30. We have professional teams in India who compete globally against other teams. We have people who have taken up streaming as their jobs. Rather than pursuing a regular career like your average John and Jane, we have emerging brave souls who want to stand out and make their dreams come true. And the space is filled with brands who want to work hand in hand with these people, empowering and enabling such a career into reality.

Insight of target audience by COBX games

Gaming in India has been given a boost in the recent years with the advent of 4G and FTTH. Prices have grown more competitive which has helped not only companies but also gamers across India. We have seen a spike in mobile gaming with 4G being introduced in India and will play a major role in the industry. FTTH, which is already being deployed in tier-1 cities, provides high-speed internet connection over optical fibre directly to your home from the ISP which has increased the quality of service. In tier-2 cities, gaming cafés and colleges act as hotspots for gamers and most tournaments are hosted in these colleges, due to the presence of stable infrastructure which, in turn, promotes the growth of gaming.

Esports is on the rise in India with multiple tournaments being announced with unprecedented prize pools. Esports is dynamically changing the industry with numerous brands joining in and helping the space flourish. Monthly tournaments provide a scope for professional gamers to sustain a living and also provides growth to multiple domains attached to esports like cosplayers, shoutcasters, and analysts and so on. From small tournaments in cafés and college labs to huge events filled with gamers, esports has come a long way in India. 2018 saw numerous companies invest heavily in esports by announcing multiple tournaments with prize pools of over Rs 1 crore.

Mujahid Rupani, Co-founder & C.E.O of COBX Gaming says, "We are also expecting an increase in VR and AR gaming in India. VR gears are being readily accessible to people and families are opting in for the virtual reality experience. Mobile phones are growing powerful every day and proving to be effective AR devices. New games are being launched every day which take advantage of augmented reality and taking use experience to a whole new level. Mobile gaming is also on the rise in India due to the ease of entry and affordable and stable internet connection. With the amount of time people invest on mobiles, a lot of developers are shifting their focus to mobile games and catering to a big chunk of gamers who prefer mobiles over expensive PCs and consoles as their gaming gear. With the number of game development studies in our country, the next big title might be from India."

With the ecosystem growing and evolving every year, the future for gaming in India is bright. Gaming in India is an incipient industry and has a long way to go. We hope to see more professional players, more streamers and more parents supporting their kid’s dream. There was a time when you would idolise a sportsperson, the day is here when kids idolise their favourite professional gamer or streamer. We have a generation of parents who are gamers too and encourage their kids and help them balance gaming along with other life priorities. We hope to see more companies and brands invest their time and resource in the gaming industry and maybe one day, a kid who wants to grow up and be a professional gamer.

Also Read: Hrithik Roshan: Gaming In India Gaining Exponential Popularity

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Facebook has rolled out new updates in its Stories feature that are available for the users in India first and will reach the global users later.

One such update is "Voice Posts" that will let users share their thoughts via audio to their friends and families.

"Voice posts lets you share in the moment without having to share a photo or video. This could also help people who can't necessarily write in the language they want to share in," Connor Hayes, Director of Product Management, Facebook Stories, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

People will now be able to save the photos and videos they capture through the Facebook camera, where only they can see them when they log into their Facebook account.

"This allows people to save the photos and videos they capture without taking up space on their phone," the post read.

It can also be used to save photos you might want to share later, so you don't have to edit or post them while you're out with your friends and instead enjoy the moment and share them later.

"In the coming weeks we're rolling out an archive for people to save the stories most important to them. After a photo disappears from your story, you can find it in your story archive - a place only you can see. You can always choose to not save them," said the post.

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Keeping up with the promise made at its I/O Developer Conference last week, Google has now officially rolled out its "Google News" for iOS, the media reported.

The new Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered app is designed with machine-learning technology to make news finding, analysing and fact-checking, crisp and to-the-point, Engadget reported on Wednesday.

"Google News" comes with three options, "For You, "Full Coverage" and "Newsstand," to help users find news of relevance based on their reading habits, let them have an in-depth read of a topic and give access to users to subscribe to a publication and view its content.

Additionally, the app comes with a "favorites section" for users to star topics across entertainment, news and academia and save stories for pocket-style reading later.

The newly launched "Google News" has replaced the previous "Google Play Newsstand" launched on iOS in 2014 as a news and magazine subscription hub.

Illustration/Amit Bandre

New Delhi: On an average, a college student in India checks his mobile phone over 150 times a day, according to a study conducted by Aligarh Muslim University and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).

The research, titled "Smartphone Dependency, Hedonism and Purchase Behaviour: Implications for Digital India Initiatives", has been conducted in 20 central universities, where 200 students each were interviewed.

"Anxiety and fear of missing out on information make university students check their mobile devices as many as 150 times a day on an average, an activity which can have adverse effects on the students' health as well as academics. "Only 26 per cent of the respondents said they use smartphones primarily to make calls. The remaining respondents use smartphones for other purposes such as accessing social networking sites, Google searches and for entertainment such as watching movies," said Mohammed Naved Khan, the Project Director.

At least 14 per cent of the students use smartphones for three hours or less in a day while around 63 per cent of them use it for four to seven hours daily.

"It came as a shock to us that around 23 per cent (of students) use the devices for more than eight hours a day," Khan added.

According to the study, eighty per cent of the students own a mobile phone and most of them prefer smartphones owing to convenience in the installation of applications, host of features, and ease of use and also work as affordable substitutes for a computer. The study conducted by researchers at AMU has been funded by the ICSSR with an aim to understand various facets of smartphone dependency and addiction among college-going students.

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A law firm has filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple alleging that MacBook and MacBook Pro's "butterfly" keyboard design is "prone to fail".

According to a report in Forbes, Apple was hit with the lawsuit over the design and functionality of its "butterfly" keyboard system after a string of complaints that alleged defects in the keyboard's design.

Law firm Girard Gibbs filed the lawsuit on behalf of two MacBook Pro owners after nearly 25,000 people signed a petition requesting Apple to address the problem.

The owners of these devices have complained that the "butterfly" mechanism under each key causes keys to stick and fail.

The lawsuit also takes issue with Apple's repair process for faulty keyboards, saying it doesn't permanently fix problems during the repair process.

Apple first introduced its "butterfly" keyboard with the 12-inch MacBook three years ago.

Apple claims that when a user strikes a key on this keyboard, it goes down and bounces back with a crisp motion -- unlike the traditional scissor mechanism.

This is not the first time Apple has been sued for its products. Earlier this year, it was sued for deliberately making iPhones slower.

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Surgeons are developing a new smartphone-based tool that can detect urethral or urine blockage, potentially making it easier for patients to test themselves for the condition from the comfort of their own homes.

The novel technique could take high-speed photography which could capture subtle differences between a normal steady stream of liquid and a stream of liquid with an obstruction.

Urethral strictures are a slowing or blocking of the natural flow of urine due to an injury or infection. It is normally diagnosed by uroflowmetry, a test administered at a physician's office.

"The problem is that patient follow-up after we treat this condition is very poor," said Matthew Gretzer, Associate Professor at the University of Arizona in the US.

"But we need patients to come back to our clinic for a uroflow test to determine if the obstruction is still present," he added.

In order to test Gretzer's hypothesis on high-speed photography, the team created a model of a urethral structure using tubing hooked to a saline bag that could drain through.

Saline fluid was passed through the tubing with and without blockages, created using 3D printed strictures,placed within the tubing. High-speed photography captured both the regular and blocked stream of liquid exiting the tube.

Gretzer contended that photos can be a medium to diagnose blockages and he hopes that patients could send him these images to analyse and make the diagnosis. He plans to create a mobile app which can be downloaded by the patients.

"All patients would need to do is take high-speed images of their urine flow using a strobe light," Gretzer said.

"Strobe light apps are readily available right now for people to use on their phones".

According to the researchers, as fluid exits an opening, a natural breakpoint occurs where the liquid stream forms droplets, but with obstructions in place, it changes.

The results showed that by analysing photos, they could measure the length to this point of droplet formation. This length then directly related to the presence of an obstruction in the tube.

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Of India's 31 chief ministers at this point, 11 have criminal cases against them, and eight have 'serious' cases that include rioting and murder. Illustration/Ravi Jadhav

I urge you to spend a few minutes on Google and look for Indian politicians convicted of crimes. I don't recommend you search for politicians 'accused' of crimes, because that may leave you with very little time to do anything else for the rest of the week. I also warn you against looking for politicians convicted of corruption, or politicians disqualified from office, because both those lists are incredibly short and may depress you.

Also, read a little about the Association for Democratic Reforms, established in 1999 by a group of professors from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, to examine the criminal, financial and educational background of candidates contesting elections. To spend a little time at its website, where it publishes reports analysing elections and their contestants, is to expose oneself to just how awful the people claiming to represent us really are.

A week ago, for instance, the ADR published an analysis of MPs and MLAs with declared cases related to crimes against women. Apparently, out of 1,580 (that's 33 per cent) of MPs/MLAs analysed with declared criminal cases, 45 MPs and 3 MLAs have declared cases related to crimes against women. 327 candidates who had declared cases related to crimes against women were given tickets by recognised political parties. A number of candidates even contested in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections, and Maharashtra had the highest number of these gifted representatives. The website also carries a preliminary analysis of candidates announced by major political parties for the Karnataka 2018 Assembly elections, and shows that these parties continue to give tickets to candidates with serious cases.

Here's another thing that ought to concern us but no longer does, presumably because we are inured to information of this sort: Of India's 31 chief ministers at this point, 11 have criminal cases registered against them, and eight have 'serious' criminal cases that include 'voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means', 'rioting', and even murder.

It's easy to see why politicians with a criminal record are more likely to be elected than those who haven't seen the inside of a jail, of course. People who don't commit crimes don't have access to illicit funds, which means they simply can't afford to bribe voters. It's also why the government of our country overturned a Supreme Court ruling demanding the disqualification of any politician convicted for crimes punishable with more than two years in jail. According to the men and women who supposedly represent us, it is more important to maintain political alliances and stay in power than it is to prevent criminals from taking charge of our collective future.

We live in an era where transparency does not exist, where we have no access to information about why some men and women are mysteriously chosen to represent a majority, and where politicians are encouraged to avoid being answerable to their countrymen. We are kept in the dark about why some projects are initiated and others ignored, why deals that don't make sense to anyone with common sense are approved at our expense, and even why our streets are named after people none of us have ever heard of. It's also why no political party has taken concrete steps to encourage the brightest and best among us to run for office. It's also why qualified government officials are often shunted out, because our leaders need minions, not people capable of independent thought. This is why we live in a time where it is always the worst that rise to power the fastest, then dictate terms for the rest of us.

Children ought to aspire to a life of public service because ours is a country that has, at least on paper, always placed the common good above all. Our forefathers sacrificed everything they had to create a country that no longer works for its poorest citizens. The reason why these statistics ought to matter is the kind of message the world's largest democracy is sending to its youngest members. In America, young people are encouraged to nurture the belief that they can be President some day. We probably don't encourage our children to aim for those high offices because we recognise that they may need to have a criminal bent of mind in order to make it.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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Illustration/Uday Mohite

Oh, wretched irony, that President Ram Nath Kovind — whom BJP president Amit Shah unabashedly introduced as a Dalit when nominating him as a Presidential candidate — should himself introduce a caste system, where it never existed before: India's august National Film Awards. The President informed the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) three weeks earlier that he would leave the award function in an hour. But the winners were informed only a day earlier, that the President would give away only 11 of the approximately 137 awards at the 65th National Film Awards; the rest would be given away by Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani, and Minister of State Rajyavardhan Rathore. As the award winners' invitations stated that they would receive the award from the President of India, they wrote to the DFF about a breach of trust, "65 years of tradition was being overturned in a jiffy," and nearly 55 winners boycotted the function.

Nothing spoke of the sordidness of this prestigious event as that photograph with just two disturbed award winners, in a hall full of empty chairs. The names of the 30 award winners who protested were not even announced. It is heartbreaking that a number of award winners, including Fahadh Faasil, who won Best Supporting Actor for Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum, and Parvathy, who won Special Mention for Take Off, both in Malayalam, returned home without their National Awards. We are proud the National Awards still go to those truly deserving them, mostly. Bollywood, which usually hogs the limelight, is shown its true place in Indian cinema at the National Film Awards. Malayalam cinema won 11 major awards, Hindi cinema only eight in comparison; Bengali and Assamese cinema won five each; Marathi cinema won four; Tamil and Telugu cinema won three each.

The President, who is 72, gave no reasons for his self-styled, one-hour Cinderella rule. If he had medical issues, he could reasonably have declined, or split the awards into two sessions.

I have had the honour of attending four National Film Awards — once as an award winner, and thrice on the National Film Award Jury, in 2008, 2011 and 2014. Bungling and uncertainty are a given. I had won the National Award for Best Film Critic for 1998, but received the award only in 2000, because of unstable governments. As I'm usually at the Berlin Film Festival in February, I had asked the DFF about likely dates since October, but they said they would know only at the last minute. I was at the Berlin Film Festival when I was swiftly summoned to New Delhi, so my parents Indu Shedde and S Rammohan went to New Delhi, and my mother received the National Award on my behalf from President KR Narayanan.

On the other hand, Ramendra Naresh, a Dalit student who topped the MCA programme at the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, refused to accept his gold medal from President Kovind at the convocation scheduled last December, to protest against the growing atrocities against Dalits. Along with all this year's award-winners, I applaud Naresh as well.

Meenakshi Shedde is South Asia Consultant to the Berlin Film Festival, award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. Reach her at meenakshishedde@gmail.com

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Illustration/Ravi Jadhav

For years, every time I've gone to a beauty parlour, yaniki, what fancy folks now call salon, one of the ladies there will ask me in that characteristic beautician tone — yaniki, terrorism masked as concern — "eyebrows nahin karaate ho?" (don't you 'do' — thread and shape — your eyebrows?). Depending on my confidence levels (usually low, an unavoidable side effect of entering a beauty parlour) my 'no' might be uttered with giggling diffidence, false hauteur, or bland deflection. The response of the beauty parlour lady is always the same — "accha?", yaniki, "fine, be that way." It's on your head. Don't come crying to me afterwards. I toh have done my due diligence by asking." Sometimes, feeling a little bold, I would ingratiatingly say, "The natural shape is pretty nice na, so why get into one more jhamela." The beautician will give that sweeping, sarcastic glance at my eyebrows and say, "Haan, vaise toh it's fine", yaniki, pity and disdain, bechari thinks natural is a thing.

This has been a consistent question, of course, but as any random or regular beauty parlour visitor knows, there are others, spoken in a special voice designed to decimate your ego and turn you into a trembling supplicant, begging for beauty treatments. "Last clean up kab kiya tha?" (When's the last time you had a facial?). "Feets ko bleach nahin kara na? Bahut tanning ho gayi hai." (Don't bleach your feet? They're very tanned).

It doesn't matter if you by-hearted The Beauty Myth when you were 15, you will be engulfed by that doomful self-hate and self-doubt start, like a seventh grader in the principal's office. The crushing stereotypes of advertising are laughable wannabes compared to the beauty parlour interrogation.

These questions derive part of their potency from the fact that you are trapped in electric chair type furniture, usually with a giant plastic bib tied around you as if you still cannot be trusted to eat properly, leave alone look presentable, and several other people getting their eyebrows done, or doing others' eyebrows around, who will come to a cinematic halt and stare at you when you admit that you are not one of them.

This potency is only slightly reduced by the advent of app-based home beautician services. To the usual litany of questions they also add, "Ma'am, braazil karalo na, sab karate hain" (Ma'am, everyone gets a Brazilian wax now). You can answer coldly or pretend to be immersed in your phone, like teenagers do with parents. But dude, these are young women who magically produce footstools and pedicure tubs from a backpack. They are not so easily daunted.
With the passage of time, the questions have dwindled. I've relaxed slowly into the truth that as you approach the out-point of the conventional marriageable age zone, the beautician, like the world, starts to expect less conformity from you. The eyebrow question now comes at me only once in every five times.

It was obviously too good to be true. Last week as I submitted to the plastic bib, the beauty parlour lady looked at me with that familiar intent look. "Hair colouring nahin karate?" she asked, checking out my now no longer tentative greys. "Nahin," I said, stoically, preparing for a couple of decades of this now.

Paromita Vohra is an award-winning Mumbai-based filmmaker, writer and curator working with fiction and non-fiction. Reach her at www.parodevipictures.com

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An injured Kashmiri is rushed to SMHS Hospital in Srinagar after he was hit by bullets in a clash with Indian security forces on May 6. Pic/AFP

Last week at a lunch, I met a senior minister in the J&K government. He belonged to the People's Democratic Party, which used to represent "soft separatism" in Kashmir but, in 2015, formed a government in coalition with the pseudo-nationalist BJP. The PDP has since then lost its support base. "It does not mean the National Conference has picked up that support," the minister said, referring to the Valley's pre-eminent pro-India party: "only some of it". None of that lost support has drifted to national parties like Congress or BJP. One wonders where that support has gone.

One clue is in the ground situation in the Valley, characterised by unrelenting violence. South Kashmir's Shopian district is a warzone; just yesterday, five civilians were killed and five militants shot dead there. An assistant professor at Kashmir University who had joined militancy a mere 36 hours earlier was among those killed. Imagine what it must take to drive an academic to pick up a gun. Every week is like this, and behind the casualty figures is the suffocating atmosphere of clampdowns on entire villages, the security forces' scorched earth policy by burning houses, the unending detention of the political resistance leadership, the military's omnipresence, the curfews, the strikes, the disappearances, and the corpses. No wonder Kashmir is called an "open prison". Ramzan, next week, may bring some respite.

"The difference between now and the '90s," the minister said, referring to when the insurgency first emerged, "is that in those days, when one boy was killed, ten others stood to take his place. Now, when a boy is killed, 30,000 people immediately gather to protest his killing and mourn his martyrdom."

One may wonder where the government figures in all this. In J&K, due to its long-festering separatism and the Pakistan factor, the Centre manages security matters under a "unified command". This makes sense for border management and counter-insurgency operations. Yet it often collides with the local police, under the state government, particularly when the armed forces commit crimes. The state police often have to step back, and the consequence has been deleterious; this was evidenced recently when, after the rape-murder of a nomadic child in Kathua, supporters of the accused expressed disbelief in the local police's professional investigation.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti seems to have all but given up. Her ministers are living it up, some making frequent foreign trips. The BJP reshuffled its part of the coalition, and surprisingly, the minister said, it's a better lot this time. This may be a moot point because nobody expects the government to last beyond 2018. "It will be over a few months before the general election," the minister says. "Mehbooba wants out but needs a reason to walk out of the coalition." The same might be true of the BJP, though one can't imagine it giving up power in J&K, hard-won after so many years.

The Centre is unconcerned by the daily reports of violence and more violence. It suits Delhi's hardline "iron fist" policy. It is sitting back and watching the war of attrition against Kashmiris. BJP general secretary Ram Madhav has publicly said: India tried various approaches in Kashmir but now it is the RSS's turn. Which, starkly put, is to hold the territory even if all residents disappear in the process.

The minister pointed out that Governor NN Vohra's term - at ten years he's the longest serving in J&K - runs out by July. Governor Vohra got his second term by default because of the talent deficit in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's team. If he weren't well into his 80s, he might have defaulted his way into remaining this time also. His time has seen the emergence of a "new insurgency", highlighted by violent summers like that of 2010, 2012 and, of course, 2016, when thousands were injured by pellets. Some say that 2016's disturbances are still continuing.

It is difficult to say that Vohra has been a successful governor, but perhaps it's better to let him stay than to replace him with an RSS man. "At this point, what more harm can an RSS man do," the minister said. "Maybe they can replace him with Yashwant Sinha," he says, referring to the former finance minister who recently left the BJP. Sinha has visited J&K since September 2016 and shown empathy. He has been a thorn in the government's side, however, publicly pointing out its economic mismanagement. Modi brooks no dissidence, and even though the best way to quieten Sinha might be such an appointment, it's unlikely to happen.

That, in a nutshell, is the current Kashmir story. Degradation and violence, while the metaphorical Nero in Delhi plays his fiddle. Except in the legend, it was Nero himself who had Rome set on fire.

Aditya Sinha's new book will be out in May. He tweets @autumnshade Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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Representation Pic/AFP

My mother died at 84, on September 1, 2015. I was two oceans away, settling my son into his new university life in Montréal. Back in Mumbai, my two sisters and brother did what had to be done. Relatives were notified, last rites performed, and the body taken to the electric crematorium where we'd interred my father decades ago.

Cremation is a sombre moment. The tears have almost dried up, the words have been said. After years of watching a slow decline, death is not a surprise. So they stood there, my siblings, in the crematorium manager's office, to receive the warm earthen pot with the ashes of the woman who had made us everything we were.

Waiting with them was a fellow, a crematorium worker, blase about yet another death but eager for the customary tip. He made some money-seeking sounds, and my sister, distracted, pressed a Rs 1,000 note into his hand. We normally get Rs 2,000, he murmured. She gave him a second note. He still hung around, and then leaned forward to whisper. Apparently, a senior officer of the crematorium would drop by to see how things were going. It was normal, she was told, to give him Rs 3,000.

My sister, never at a loss for fire, asked him what he had done to merit that sum. It was the tradition, she was told. Haggling over a tip seemed the wrong action for the moment, so she gave him the money. But when she reached home, she Internetted out the email address of BMC's erstwhile municipal commissioner, explaining in plain, unfettered English that he was paying a salary to a staff of flesh-eating vultures who feasted off the grief of Mumbai's bereaved.

To her astonishment, within hours, she had received an invitation to meet with the man himself, three days away. A strange thing happened the following morning. The crematorium's manager and his money-grubbing workers, who had sought and received 'tips', showed up at our house. The envelope they handed over contained all the money they had extorted.

"Please take your tips back, madam," they beseeched my sister. "Just kindly cancel that appointment you have with the municipal commissioner." "Ah, no, I didn't make that appointment, so I cannot be the one who cancels it," said my sister. When she went to the Andheri office that issues death certificates, her name triggered an immediate flutter of interest. Apparently her letter to the commissioner was all the news that day. Many employees congratulated her for standing up to the crematorium's predators. At the BMC three days later, there were more surprises. The manager and key staff of that particular crematorium had been invited and were sitting in the outer room with hangdog looks. The commissioner wasted no time with them.

"You are accused of soliciting and extorting exorbitant tips from grief-stricken family members in the moment of their greatest grief — in return for doing a job that you are already paid to do," he said. "Please sign here, and here and here." He pushed letters of confession towards each of them, and they signed without a murmur. "These letters will be photocopied and mailed to every crematorium worker in Maharashtra, as an object lesson," he said.

They looked at their shoes wretchedly. "That's not all," he continued. "You are all hereby suspended from your jobs for a period of four months. This too will be made known to all your colleagues." He paused. "You may go now," he said, ending the meeting. Mumbai has surprised me in the past with its compassion. I remember during the biblical floods of 2005, when 1,094 people died and thousands were stranded in their cars, householders came out with coffee, tea and hot breakfast for those stranded souls as dawn broke.

But there is a dark underbelly to Mumbai, and it is predatory, ruthless, and astute. In 1996, I wrote in mid-day about a schoolboy, Murtuza, hit by a lamppost too close as he hung out of a train approaching Chembur. The wheels ran over both his legs. He was rushed to Sion Hospital, where he died despite all efforts.

But when his parents came to collect the body from the morgue, they found a leg missing. None of the ward boys seemed to know where it was. Eventually, it was whispered that the leg might be miraculously 'found' if a certain amount was paid to a ward boy. And so it was. That was 1996. Living in distant Bangkok, where too I'm certain corruption smiles, but in more sophisticated ways, I hear often that in the new India of the Modi raj, there is less tolerance for everyday corruption. Moments like this make me believe they may be right.

Here, viewed from there. C Y Gopinath, in Bangkok, throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai, the city that raised him. You can reach him at cygopi@gmail.com Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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The recent frenzy over supposed cracks in the Kemps Corner bridge - the country's first-ever flyover - has been proved to be an overreaction, but also brings to light the power that WhatsApp has to spread misinformation and paranoia.

This paper yesterday reported that thousands of app users had received a picture of a fissure in a portion of the bridge, with claims that the flyover was in danger of collapsing. The viral photo sparked widespread panic; so much so, that the civic commissioner was drawn into the Kemps Corner frenzy. There was a post from a young politician seeking to reassure the public. The 86-year-old architect of the bridge also gave a statement to assuage fears and calm outrage bubbling on WhatsApp.

Through the days, more rumours came in, stating that the bridge was falling and traffic had been diverted. One can imagine the mental state of a motorist about to drive onto the bridge, if they were to glance at WhatsApp and spot the alarmist message. The rapid-fire messages sparked fear and anger. Reassurance, on the other hand, was much slower to come.

This shows just how important it is that we filter messages on WhatsApp, and not forward blindly. In this 'quick click' age, it takes just the push of a button to spread fear. Thankfully, the bridge fall phobia had no major repercussions, but it does bring to mind other times when WhatsApp messages have started and stoked the fires of a frenzied crisis.

Each of us has a responsibility to verify, or at least use some discretion, before pressing the forward button. There is no race where one has to be first to pass on information. In fact, there is merit in holding back, cross-checking, and then forwarding only if there is credibility in the message. In this instant age, let's not fall for anymore half-baked stories.

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Yesterday, this paper carried a front page report about a Malad resident called Abhijit Mukharji, 25, who was arrested for stalking a 26-year-old woman for eight years. The accused was released on bail five days after the woman lodged a complaint against him. While the court granted bail on strict restrictions, senior officers from the Mumbai Crime Branch have said they will be reviewing the case.

To elaborate, the crime branch arrested Mukharji, who worked for a famous search engine company, on May 3 and remanded in police custody till May 6. This man stalked the woman, hacked into her Tinder account and wiped out all the 'likes' on her account.

While there are restrictions put on the stalker, it is surprising that bail has been granted within five days, for harassment that went on for eight years. The report states that he had even met the woman in Mumbai. Post the meeting, where his conversation rang warning bells for the woman, he started threatening her and warning her not to talk to anybody else because he loved her. She finally filed a complaint.

Let us give stalking the seriousness it deserves. Very often, it is dismissed as casual or harmless. Women who are often told by people that they are imagining there is a stalker. Their fears and concerns are trivialised and they may also be accused to exaggerating the harassment or their discomfort with the stalking.

Making excuses for stalking, like he thought she was someone else, or that he was drunk and did not know he was stalking, are also inexcusable. Online stalking is dangerous and can escalate very quickly to offline situations. Stalking is harassment. It is a crime. It can lead to a dangerous obsession. Treat it with the gravitas it deserves and shut down stalking through severe punishment.

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It is the first weekend in Matheran and we hope to see a number of visitors sporting helmets while horse riding. The paper had reported about how a Mumbai resident had donated a sizeable number of helmets to the hill station, after a little girl suffered head injuries after falling from a horse in Matheran.

Horse owners have also bought helmets and will be providing it to the tourists while horse riding. We appreciate that a start has been made towards ensuring safety for riders. Yet, one hopes that the helmet rule does not run parallel with the helmet rule for bikers in the city. Here, we see that constant vigilance is needed to ensure that bikers wear a helmet. Police nakabandis are set up to catch those riding without a helmet and fines are imposed for the same. One should not need a supervisory body to ensure that riders actually wear a helmet. Horse owners need to be held accountable if their horses are being ridden by visitors without a helmet.

Tourists must understand that the rule is made in the interests of their safety. Good counsel needs to prevail and common sense must rule. Having said that, visitors must go slowly on horses. They should refuse to ride if there is no dedicated helper who will walk along with the animal. Wear closed footwear when you are riding as sandals and slippers are hazardous, especially when mounting a horse, and in case your feet slip out of the stirrup. Parents need to see that their child is with a helper who is in control of the animal.

Matheran horse owners want better roads, which is out of the control of visitors. Tourists and hordes of Mumbaikars who believe if-it-is-May-it-must-be-Matheran should take onus for their safety as far as possible. Wearing a helmet is a good beginning.

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The saddest thing is how the people responsible for moral policing are allowed to get away with it. Representational Image

I didn't watch the viral video featuring that young couple being abused and attacked by commuters on the Kolkata metro. I knew it would only upset me, like so many videos populating a million WhatsApp groups now do with depressing regularity. I also expected the faux outrage, followed by young men and women hugging each other publicly in acts of defiance to be documented for their Facebook pages.

That this didn't raise eyebrows a few hours after the furore died down is proof of how insensitive we have all become towards any attack on perceived acts of love. We live in a city that once routinely saw couples being attacked on Valentine's Day until the regressive folk responsible for the attacks realised it didn't get them brownie points. We also live in a city where couples holding hands have to deal with thousands of people eyeing them warily, as if the act of holding another human being's hand is alien to our culture. That this is the same culture that gave birth to the sculptures of Khajuraho is lost on millions of our countrymen who scan the streets for acts of intimacy that make them uncomfortable.

In 2015, a young man was stripped and brutally assaulted in public by right-wing activists in Mangalore who had a problem with him being in the company of a girl with different religious beliefs. They couldn't stand the idea of two young people choosing to ignore something as inane as religion in order to find a human connection. That same year, another young man in Kerala was beaten to death by a mob after being found in the house of a woman. To put this into perspective, there were a lot of people offended by what two adults were doing in the privacy of their own homes.

There's a streak of misogyny that runs through these attacks, too, of course, as anyone who remembers the 2009 attack on a pub in Mangalore will attest to. Young men and women were drinking alcohol, which, according to the clowns who routinely become spokespersons for our culture, was an insult to traditional Indian values. It's interesting how all these values involve men making decisions on behalf of women, worrying about their morality, taking it upon themselves to decide how women ought to behave in public for their own good.

What happened to the 13 couples and 35 other young men and women who were rounded up by the Mumbai police a couple of years ago following raids at hotels? They were all consenting adults who had simply checked into several hotels in Madh Island and Aksa. How can a supposedly civilised country justify the idea of policemen knocking on doors and taking couples into custody for choosing to spend time in a room together?

How do we reconcile something as barbaric and regressive as an 'anti-Romeo' squad? How do we make sense of people claiming to be offended by men and women kissing? How do people doing what evolution compels them to do offend other people? How do we explain to visitors that we live in a country where it's perfectly okay for policemen to ignore criminals and spend time patrolling public spaces in order to prevent men from being anywhere near women? And if this is how authorities believe they are protecting women from sexual harassment, what does that say about how millions of Indian men are taught to behave around women?

The saddest thing about these incidents is how the people responsible for them are allowed to get away with it. There aren't even slaps on the wrists, let alone repercussions that lead to any genuine change. People believe it's perfectly okay to harass a couple for hugging in public because they know that a mob can get away with murder. It's also why mobs do get away with murder so often in the world's largest democracy.

People who have problems with couples indulging in public displays of affection probably behave the way they do because they have never received much affection themselves. If you want to leave this country a better place than the way you found it, please do the right thing and hug your children, partners and loved ones more often. Also, please do it in public.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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Jagadamb refers to the ancestral deity Tulja Bhavani whose shrine sits in the mid-size city of Tuljapur in Osmanabad district. But, in present-day Maharashtra, the term Jagadamb rises above the geographical address. It is an embodiment of the feisty street-fighting youth, belonging to the Marathas or other backward castes, who owe their allegiance to a goddess who was also the motivation for Maharashtra's most-revered Chhatrapati Shivaji. Flashed on hooded T-shirts and pullovers, 'Jagadamb' has emerged topmost among the potent watchwords currently dominating popular discourse. Online sales and offline retail purchases across the state speak for the all-seasons connect of Jagadamb, which has takers irrespective of commemorative days and morcha schedules.

Abhijit Tarphe, a Dadar-based calligraphy artist, creates tees that occupy the fun space between political discourse, street lingo and social commentary. Pic/Ashish Raje

Apparel carrying longer mantras of Maratha loyalty — Ek Maratha Lakh Maratha, Hoy Maratha and Amhi Shivrayanche Sainik — have enjoyed cyclical demand, corresponding with the calendar of the 58 silent marches held last year. As the anecdote goes, Maratha T-shirts are in a "politically dormant" state at the moment. But fiery speaker (at the Maratha Kranti Morcha) and advocate from Aurangabad, Swati Nakhate Patil, feels T-shirts are effective communication tools. "What better reminder of the time when we took to the streets for reservations and equal terms? The identifiable catch lines recap our journey so far." T-shirt messages, she thinks, help in creating a family of volunteers. She'd know considering she is head of the Akka Foundation which has initiated a reform movement against socials ills like dowry and superstition among the Marathas. The foundation's signature T-shirt, wears a generic slogan – Sarvansathi Sarva Kahi – which indicates a wider fight for everyone's rights.

Swati Nakhate Patil, seen here with volunteers wearing their signature tee with the slogan, Sarvansathi Sarva Kahi. She heads the Akka Foundation which is fighting against socials ills. She has been one of the main speakers at the Maratha Kranti Morcha over the last one year

"The Marāthās" is a collective term referring to an Indo Aryan group of Hindus, Marathi-speaking castes of warriors and peasants who created an empire, covering a major part of India. They are not alone in the fight for rights. Another rights movement that's currently finding a reflection on T-shirts through creative slogans, photographs and graphic designs concerns the Lingayat community. They are seeking legal recognition as a religion distinct from Hinduism. Inspired by the success of their counterparts in Karnataka, the Lingayats in Maharashtra (some of whom have thronged Mantralaya too) are pressing for their religious minority status on T-shirts, which sing paeans to 12th century social reformer, philosopher and statesman Basaveshwara.

The Killa brand of tees focuses on Maratha pride associated with Chhatrapati Shivaji, and his various forts

He rejected temple worship by replacing it with direct worship of Shiva in the form of the Ishtalinga necklace, the image of the linga set in a silver casket, to be worn at all times close to the heart. Little wonder that both, Basaveshwara and the Shiv linga prominently feature on the T-shirts. As a professor of history and a keen observer of progressive movement slogans, Satara-based Amrut Salunkhe points out an interesting contradiction in the Lingayat factions. Not all sub-sects recognise Basava as the founder, but they don't seem to mind the T-shirt — available in Kannada and Marathi typography — carrying the phrase, Jai Vishwaguru Dharmsansthapak Basaveshwar! "The dissident factions have not yet come up with a counter icon. At this point, two different T-shirt creatives wouldn't have helped in lobbying for the larger Lingayat brotherhood," Salunkhe feels.

Theme T-shirts honouring the men of letters in the Marathi cultural world have been in currency for two decades; a recent manifestation was seen during a death anniversary of late Namdeo Dhasal whose fans wore the poet-ideologue's world view on a memorial T-shirt. The Bharatiya brand made use of faces of popular litterateurs like PL Deshpande and Narayan Surve, just as it made good use of the Marathi Abhiman Geet, and distributed T-shirts on Ashadi Ekadashi, Holi and Ganesh Chaturthi. They fashioned kid-centric lyrical sequence tees on monsoon joys too. Bharatiya has now extended its T-shirt ideation to Hindi and is soon to come up with Tamil messages. Their fare was earlier vended at literary summits, before it grew popular online, somewhat in the provincial cosmos where the Killa T-shirts thrived. Designed by Malvan-based artist and JJ School of Applied Art alumnus Arun Amberkar, Killa garments focus on the fortresses built by Chhatrapati Shivaji. The iconic rajmudra (official signature) T-shirt has been a hit for over a decade. Amberkar calls the line "lovingly crafted, wearable and usable slivers of history."

Dadar-based calligraphy artist Abhijit Tarphe feels customised tees are a fun zone for current affairs to find a rightful space. His T-shirts displayed apt word play (Sonu, tuza mazhyavar bharvasa nay ka?) when RJ Mallishka had attacked the BMC. He captures the Mumbai commuter spirit in the line, Mili to BEST, Nahi Toh Next.
Tarphe also has a range of occasion-based T-shirts like the tricolour-filled Independence Day special or Gokulashtami's Aya Makhan Chor creative. It is another story that T-shirts for Gokulashtami and Holi usually are gifted by political party leaders, chiefly Shiv Sena Shakha Pramukhs.

Jai Bhim T-shirts as a community-building tool have worked well over the years, not just for the April 14 Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti or the December 6 Mahaparinirvan Din. The apparel also comes in handy for Buddha Jayanti and during any political rally Dalit groups organise. This year, a Goregaon-based youth association, designed a special T-shirt declaring Mazhi Chaityabhoomi, Swacchabhoomi (My clean Chaityabhoomi). It served two political purposes; an affirmation of the Swacch Bharat mantra, challenging the stereotypical notion of Dalits arriving from rural Maharashtra who converge at Dadar's Shivaji Park Chaityabhoomi and litter.

T-shirt messaging extends to a range of causes — Separate Vidarbha; Who Killed Judge Loya?; Make (Women Safe) in India; Rape Roko; India Against Corruption; Donate Eyes; Pinkathon run against breast cancer. It has also been used to add cohesion to groups (I am with Anna Hazare; Desh Me Narendra/ Pradesh Me Devendra) or merely declare strength (Dr B R Ambedkar: King Number 1) or sport a vibe (Dude Please, Thane is not Bombay!/ Delhi is about Mera Baap Kaun Hai, Mumbai is about Who I am). T-shirts can help start a conversation, from the polite to the political.

Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre is a culture columnist in search of the sub-text. You can reach her at sumedha.raikar@gmail.com

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Illustration/Devdutt Pattanaik

In the beginning, people said homosexuality is unnatural. Then scientists showed them that hundreds of species of animals do indulge in homosexuality. So people started saying homosexuality may be natural, but it is best restricted to animals. Amongst humans, it is a social disease. This unscientific understanding is popularised by many religious leaders, who are clueless about science, though they insist that the Vedas/Quran/Agama/Tripitaka/Talmud are essentially scientific.

These religious leaders fall into two categories. The first category is the 'liberal' guru who says sex is great for spirituality, provided it is heterosexual. The second category is the 'conservative' guru who says sex is not great for spirituality, and if you must indulge in it, do it for babies.

A gay man heard how a broad-minded Indian guru presented sexuality as an integral part of spirituality, and so decided to read a bit more of the guru's writings. He was suitably impressed, there was a lot of talk of how exploring sexual desires authentically enhances spiritual growth. But then came the horror! When the guru spoke of sexuality, he was referring only to heterosexuality and was essentially promoting orgies as a tool to liberate yourself. He saw homosexuality as a social disease resulting from heterosexuality being suppressed when men are locked with men in monasteries and prisons and women are locked with women in nunneries. This was his fantasy, which he marketed as mystical knowledge of the East!

A lesbian woman came upon a guru who gave her a sympathetic ear, and who confidently asserted that ancient mystical sages (all male, of course) had revealed to him that natural sexual activity is for making babies only, and that pleasure is just nature's way of incentivising you to make more babies. It is the human perversion to bypass the baby-making and focus on pleasure. Such value placed on pleasure comes from stress, hormones, and a lack of spiritual grounding. He insisted that homosexuality is a social pathology, not a natural physiology. She could stay a single woman if she did not wish to be a man's wife, but she had to engineer her life towards spirituality rather than sexuality if she sought fulfilment and happiness. Her libido, he insisted, was in dire need of fixing!

Most of these gurus do oppose the criminalising of homosexuality, and so appear to be modern. However, they do see homosexuality as a deviance (or its Sanskrit equivalent), or a 'fluidity' that needs explanation, management and re-alignment. They mirror the homophobia directed at queer people (pandakas, napunsakas) that we find in ancient monastic orders such as Buddhism and Jainism. Their discomfort with queerness is similar to their well-disguised discomfort with gender equality: 'Women are as good as men, provided they put the man's needs first.' Essentially, these gurus preach qualified equality, where their personal comfort zone (heterosexuality, celibacy, masculinity) remains privileged.

It is important to recognise gurus as political figures. They are today clearly political vote banks, with a vast number of followers who do whatever the guru tells them to do. Hence the power of their spiritual discourses to influence social and political direction needs to be acknowledged.

We must also recognise the power of followers over gurus. Gurus are expected to be superhuman, and 'pure and pious'. We don't mind them dancing to Bollywood songs or playing golf. But if they were to talk too much in favour of sex and pleasure, we will see them as less than spiritual. In our hearts, many of us are convinced spirituality is an adversary of sexuality. We see Shiva who burnt Kama to ash. We refuse to see Shiva who was enchanted by Kamakshi and Mohini.

The author writes and lectures on the relevance of mythology in modern times. Reach him at devdutt@devdutt.com

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Illustration/Uday Mohite

Believe it or not, exciting things are happening in Konkani cinema. I am familiar with Indian films in at least 10-12 languages, but it was a real discovery watching the best Konkani films on the jury of the 9th Goa State Film Festival Awards, that was given last week. To know who the top Konkani stars are, what subjects interest them — the church often looms large. The Best Film (Konkani) went to Nilesh Karamunge’s Mahaprayan (The Last Journey), Best Director (Konkani) to Rajiv Shinde’s K Sera Sera (Ghodpachem Ghoddtelem, Whatever Will Be Will Be), and Best Film (Marathi) to Sainath Parab's Disha (Direction). Mahaprayan was a real discovery, of which more anon. K Sera Sera, which swept nine awards, told two parallel stories of an ambitious career woman and a retired man, struggling to keep his family together, starring actor-producer Rajesh Pednekar and Palomi Ghosh. It had rich technical and acting credits, some ‘imported’ from outside Goa. Sadly, Miransha Naik’s powerful Juze was not in competition, but Nilesh Malkar’s Soul Curry smartly ‘imported’ Bollywood star Jackie Shroff for wider appeal. Shroff even dubbed for himself in Konkani and won a Special Jury Award for Best Actor.

Mahaprayan is one of those rare films, that makes a powerful social critique while accomplishing an amazing technical feat: the whole 83 minute-film is a single take, shot by Sameer Bhaskar. What’s more, it is the debut feature of an ex-army man, Nilesh Karamunge. Inspired by a real incident in Odisha, the film is about Tulsidas (Dhananjay Amonkar) who, unable to afford a hearse to take his dead wife from the hospital to his distant village for cremation, walks home all the way, carrying her corpse on his shoulders, accompanied by his young daughter Kaalika (Aarya Ghare). The pair meet many people who refuse to help — hospital staff, passengers in a bus, the police, and when a kind forest official finally helps them, the media pounces on him for ‘misusing’ a government jeep. The crew did many rehearsals, shooting in real time as they walked 3.5 km in the noonday sun. The film is a scathing attack on the government and our society. The charming and mature Aarya Ghare, just nine, won Best Actress.

Mahaprayan vaults to one of the year's most gratifying discoveries in Indian cinema, its accomplishments far exceeding its modesty and flaws. K Sera Sera is a polished work, given Konkani cinema’s constraints. And let's get some perspective here: while most regional Indian cinemas started in the 1920s or earlier, the first Konkani film, Mogacho Anvddo, was released only in 1950. The Hindi and Tamil industries make, on average, 250-350 feature films a year, but the fledgeling Konkani industry makes barely five to seven features a year. And there is no doubt that Konkani cinema got kick-started since the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) was held in Goa since 2004, and the locals were consistently exposed to world cinema. And look what it's offering now — you do a double take.

Meenakshi Shedde is South Asia Consultant to the Berlin Film Festival, award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. Reach her at meenakshishedde@gmail.com.

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Illustration/RAVI JADHAV

Concern is sometimes a mask for control. This is interestingly true when it comes to films that are concerned about the situation of women. If these "concerned" films attract censorship, then they control even more subversively. They become imbued with a revolutionary halo, becoming an urgent cause to be supported, a badge of honour, not a film that tells us deep truths about our lives.

The film Nude arrived on a white horse, after a similar symbolic battle. It's very title had disturbed the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It traces the journey of Yamuna after she leaves her village and her brutish husband and becomes a nude model in the JJ School of Arts, with her aunt's help, going on to sit for some famous artists. She has a parallel journey, from shame to pride in work, which is shown minimally. But in the end, she alienates her son and feels defeated and hopeless.

Nude has it's good points — the interesting subject, the strong performances from Kalaynee Mulay and Chhaya Kadam in the main roles, tiny flashes of earthy humour.

But on the whole, it is a plodding work of bad faith and a strangely colonial mindset. Here is a film in which the two main characters are women, which should be evidence of concern and interest in women. Yet they are given hardly any interiority or room to be more than an example of social issues. That's because many such films are not about the characters. They are really about establishing the filmmaker as a noble and high-minded being who will uplift women.

There are only three types of people in the film. There is the poor woman who needs saving from her own men; poor men, who are portrayed as bestial or passive; and bhadralok middle-class artists who are noble and pious with the higher purpose of art. The point is taken, that, cruel or benign, to all of them the woman is an instrument. But this is unfortunately as true of the filmmakers who bring no irony to looking at this 'higher purpose'. Why are there no middle-class women in the film? There are some token women art students — but they never speak, nor is there a single shot of a woman art student drawing a nude.

This absence further prevents any complications in the story of class, caste and gender relations. Complications about what it means to draw a naked woman, exalt her as Devi or pure spirit (the body is the garment of the spirit as one character says unctuously) to serve other people's higher purpose for a paltry pay. To the artist, the model is just a body. To the filmmaker, too, the woman is mostly a victim, a sufferer in search of a saviour.

In such films, women can never truly free themselves from circumstances. They are imprisoned in dead-end film narratives forever to serve the purpose of saviour-filmmakers in films like Nude, Pink and even Lipstick Under My Burkha. Why would filmmakers conceive of different meanings of women's lives, which point to a certain liberation, when these upliftment projects accrue such rewards and privileges? It is only when we, the audience decline to be grateful for this self-serving false realism, that we can hope for stories more true to the complexities of our lives.

Paromita Vohra is an award-winning Mumbai-based filmmaker, writer and curator working with fiction and non-fiction. Reach her at www.parodevipictures.com

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In the two days of staged photographs, there is not one photo of Modi hugging Xi, his trademark personalised diplomacy of forcibly embracing other leaders. Pic/AP

One of the better things during the Karnataka Assembly election, no matter who emerges the single largest party tomorrow, was Congress president Rahul Gandhi's press conference in Bangalore. You may not have seen it on TV. It is on YouTube, however. Rahul again comes across in a light different to the whispers about him during the past two decades, proving how it was all the doing of a well-oiled BJP machine. My favourite part was Rahul's take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Wuhan in central China for an "informal" summit with President Xi Jinping.

Here's what he said:
"I expected the PM to go to China as the leader of our country [and] speak to them about Doklam... He didn't say a word. [He] had a conversation with the Chinese President with no agenda. Are you telling me there's no agenda? There is an agenda, it's called Doklam; there is an agenda, it's called the Maldives; there is an agenda, it's called Nepal... The agenda is that we're surrounded on all sides; it's pretty clear. But you guys don't like to raise that, I don't know why.

"Our foreign policy has been completely decimated. And it's because the PM views foreign policy as an individual exercise. He's of the impression that he can go have a conversation with the president of China, or he can go have a conversation with the president of Nepal, and everything will magically happen.

"The PM needs to carry his own people with him. Are there any conversations going on with the finance minister, with the defence minister about this type of strategy? No. It's a one-man show."

Briefly: China tried to seize the Doklam plateau in Bhutan last year but after a 73-day standoff against our troops, it backed down. It has reportedly since built an infrastructure leading to Doklam. In the Maldives, China is displacing India: President Abdulla Gameen last year welcomed three Chinese warships, and last month hosted the Pakistan army chief. In Nepal, despite Modi's visit this weekend to promote Janakpur, Sita's birthplace, as a religious tourism spot, the Nepalese have drifted from us after India's five-month blockade in 2015 - we were pushing for greater political inclusion of the Madhesis. Modi is a villain for the Nepalese, as evident on social media.

China has seized advantage of India's pathetic neighbourhood behaviour, and, as Rahul said, has India surrounded. No wonder many think Modi went to beg Xi to keep relations calm in the run-up to the 2019 parliamentary election. That Modi's governance is election-oriented is no secret. Will the Chinese will play ball? When the two-day "informal" summit ended, the Indian side issued a statement and reportedly urged the Chinese to issue their own. Compare the two and you see a difference: while India mentioned a strategic direction to our respective armies to avoid tension on the Line of Actual Control, China only said the armies would follow past protocols. Joint statements are never easy, but individual statements are a piece of cake.

Modi had to supplicate himself because he cannot afford to go into the 2019 election after a showdown with China. Even a short skirmish will humiliate India. Unlike tension on the Line of Control with Pakistan, which benefits Modi since it can be dovetailed into communal rhetoric, tension with China gives Modi no benefit. Modi cannot help but humour China.

The Chinese were amenable to being humoured since they have now what they wanted in Doklam. China nowadays also wants to be seen as a responsible global power: hence it has nudged North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un into meeting his South Korean counterpart and, next month, with Donald Trump. China has also reached out to Japan, with whom relations are more complicated than with India.

Mainly, it was because Modi agreed to humiliate the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader who has lived in India since 1959. India prohibited its ministers from attending a Dalai Lama function (ironically, to thank India) and asked him to shift it from Delhi to his base in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh. It was an insult; worse, he privately expressed the fear that he might be expelled.

The Chinese gave us time but they did not give Modi a hug. In the two days of staged photographs, there is not one photo of Modi hugging Xi, his trademark personalised diplomacy of forcibly embracing other leaders. Rahul Gandhi is right: Modi has decimated India's foreign policy. It's too bad that this and other aspects of his press conference were ignored by the TV media. But then, after Gujarat, Karnataka has been good practice for him. Modi's obsession with the 2019 election means that governance will suffer, so Rahul will get more occasions to show the public his mettle.

Aditya Sinha's next book, The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace, co-written with a former RAW chief and a former ISI chief, is out next week. He tweets @autumnshade Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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While women sit devoutly, the male attitude has tended to be: let us spray. Representation pic

Bangkok's malls have thousands of people. And people tend to pee, which is partly why they're called peeple. So malls have dozens of men's and women's toilets. Being Bangkok, city of fragrances and aroma oils, they really hate bad smells, so the lavatories generally smell like boudoirs.

In a hurry recently, and finding all the cubicles in the Men's occupied, I looked left and right, then darted into the Women's toilet, which happened to be woman-free at that moment, and locked myself into a booth there. Man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Emerging, visibly relieved, I noticed two things: there were no cleaning ladies in the women's toilet; and there was no pee smell there either.

The adjacent men's toilet had two cleaners toiling away with mops and buckets of perfumed disinfectants, but you could also detect the fouler odour they were masking: the stink of uric acid and ammonia from male piss. While women sit devoutly, the male attitude has tended to be: let us spray. I know, I know. We don't talk about such things in polite society. It's like the 13th floor in a skyscraper: you can't get rid of it, but you pretend it's not there. Never say "I would like to urinate, be right back". Better go with, umm, Have to see a man about a dog, or Going to make the bladder gladder, or Excuse me while I drain the dragon. Or, if a lady, Pardon me while I take a quick tinkle.

Say it how you wish, amigo, but here's the bottom line - India has fewer malls than Bangkok, but billions more, erm, happy pissers to whom the world is a urinal. Urinary odors were so much a part of childhood that I always assumed that toilets would always smell like, well, toilets. And it's true - a men's toilet in Chicago or Piccadilly will reek just like one of the 71 million apparently built so far by the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan.

What can I say? Piss smells. But Bill Gates, who loves poking his nose where things don't smell right, commissioned a worldwide study and found that usage of freshly minted toilets slopes off after six months. Respondents cited "dirty and smelly toilets" as reasons why they preferred the fields. Gates started the Reinvent the Toilet initiative in 2011, and began working with Firmenich, a Swiss company that makes bad smells better. They identified the four stinky molecules in toilets as indole, butyric acid, p-cresol and dimethyl tri-sulfide, and came up with a fragrance that blocks the nose's receptors that detect these. You could be up s**t creek, so to speak, and not smell a thing.

Like pretending the 13th floor doesn't exist even as you pass it. But you know me. The man with the humble opinion. While Gates would like to block your nose, I think I'd like to block the stink itself. After all, women seem to have it figured out - they sit when they tinkle, so they don't sprinkle. So - men should stand to pee why?

Toledo University's 18-month study found three causes of toilet odors - Missing the target. Face it, not all men are born snipers. The average Indian pissoir is haloed by a wet ring of failed attempts to hit the superbowl.

Uric acid, from men who pissed, but missed and dribbled on floors and walls (and their own shoes) instead, causing smelly bacteria build-up. Splashes - even when the target has been successfully met, a fine aerosol of uric acid lands on nearby surfaces. Urine in the cracks: Urine is absorbed into grout, ponging over time. I'd add poorly paid municipal cleaners and maybe a faint inherited attitude that only untouchables clean toilets. Splashing a bucket of water in a Swachh Shauchalay only spreads the urine evenly across the floor.

Research from the Dutch Leiden University Medical Centre says sitting down to pee helped men suffering from lower urinary tract disease symptoms to pee with greater force.

The stand-up guy activates a host of discreet muscles in the pelvis and spine, which prevent proper urination. More acute in public toilets where certain muscles might be clenched to suppress nether blasts while peeing.

As always, I didn't think of it first. In 2012, the Swedish Left party of Sormland Country Council put forward a motion that all male employees should sit down like well brought up girls when open their sluice gates. Taiwan and Japan have begun advising their men to sit down to pee - or else. And since a real man is clean, courteous, considerate and utterly lazy, a squat over the pot should suit him right to a, well, P. Believe me, I'm a recent convert. Want better reasons? Listen to Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm. http://tinyurl.com/ycqa6q3g

Here, viewed from there. C Y Gopinath, in Bangkok, throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai, the city that raised him. You can reach him at cygopi@gmail.com Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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Controversy and fracas is heating up over sugar imported from Pakistan. Reports have emerged about an NCP MLA from Thane district and party activists tearing sugar bags stored in a godown in Navi Mumbai. The MLA, who represents Kalwa-Mumbra constituency, said hundreds of NCP activists raided the godown, located in Dahisar Mori area of the satellite town of Mumbai, and tore the bags containing the imported sugar.

This comes on the heels of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which had already opposed the sale and distribution of imported sugar. MNS leaders from Navi Mumbai visited wholesale traders in the Vashi agriculture produce market committee (APMC), and warned them against the distribution of sugar.

While sentiment and belief is one thing, we hope that these sugar raids will not disrupt the ordinary person's life or schedule. Every political party has a right to credo and action, but it should not come at the cost of citizens.

The relevant party and its workers can hold a peaceful protest outside these godowns if they so desire, to raise awareness. They could also put up their resistance on social media and create awareness about why they oppose the Pakistani sugar. Do voice your opposition, do give vent to your anger or ire and do reinstate your stand. That is your right as citizens of a democracy.

Yet, one must always do so with a respect for people and violence should play no part in these protests. Beware of political shenanigans, which aim to capture eyeballs, rather than espouse the party line or philosophy. Actions like this must not snowball into confrontations with innocent people caught in the crosshairs.

Say no to Pakistani sugar if you wish, but do not disrupt daily life. Respect the law and the people, otherwise you fear losing sight of your cause in a spiral of violence and hooliganism.

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QSQT - perhaps the first Hindi film to be referred to by its abbreviated title - finished 30 years of its release this week

If you think about it, the reason the girl (Juhi Chawla) can't be with the boy (Aamir Khan) in Mansoor Khan's directorial debut Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) - path-breaking romance for its time - is rather simple. Years ago, the boy's father had killed the girl's uncle. This is because the uncle had impregnated the boy's aunt, but forced to marry someone else - abetting her suicide.

Now, why this uncle and aunt couldn't get together isn't quite clear in this adaptation of Romeo And Juliet. Unlike the couple in Sairat (2016), both belonged to rich, neighbouring families, from the same (Rajput) caste. The thorn in their backsides was the khadoos patriarch (Goga Kapoor). He enjoyed the sole right to decide who his son (and later his grand-daughter) would marry. Also, that girl had slept with his son out of wedlock.

For a movie mirroring such rigid, patriarchal values, it's amazing that it remains, up until 2018, a rare occasion where the heroine (Juhi) falls for first, and actively chases the hero (Aamir) - a sign of ultimate gender equality (to my mind), making it one of the most feministic films I know. QSQT - perhaps the first Hindi film to be referred to by its abbreviated title - finished 30 years of its release this week. Aamir, who also shared writing credit for the movie, organised a special screening with cast and crew to mark and discuss the moment.

I just saw QSQT myself, after several years, to observe with much relief that the film hasn't aged much (certainly not as much as humans have, since), although it's not as young as the all-time favourite, Mansoor's Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander (1992), which still looks as fresh as last Friday's catch.

One of the things that Mansoor revealed after the QSQT screening, which is rather ironic given the film's subject, were the constant creative differences/fights he would have with his late father, producer-writer Nasir Husain, during the making, making others worry if they could ever move on. That way, QSQT is full of ironies.

To begin with, for a 2-hour, 43-minute movie, there are only four-and-a-half songs. This, coming from Nasir, king of Bollywood musicals, who produced, among other great soundtracks, the 10-minute-plus medley in Hum Kisise Kum Naheen (1977; best piece of music ever).

Once, being told that a track in QSQT had been composed, while it hadn't been, Nasir decided to hop over to the studio of music composer sons of Chitragupta, Anand-Milind, giving them only a 15-minute heads up. In that interim, Anand-Milind came up with the song, Aye Mere Hum Safar.

Don't know if the pressures were equally high throughout, for I recently discovered the track, Return To Alamo (1977) by The Shadows, which even by Bollywood's liberal standards for 'inspiration', seems shockingly lifted, note for note, even tempo intact, for the number Akele Hain Toh Kya Gham Hai. The only stroke of genius being that a war-cry has been turned into a romantic melody!

In 1995, Mansoor and Aamir teamed up to unofficially remake Kramer Vs Kramer (1979), even picking up scenes from the original, while one of the main songs was copied from The Godfather score. I once asked Aamir if he thought this was a complete, creative low. He didn't agree.

What young Mansoor, and indeed Aamir, did with one foot firmly on traditions and family customs/values, and the other on relatively modern sensibilities/outlook with QSQT, is take baby steps out of the shadows of the veteran Nasir Husain. This is very similar to how the Barjatyas' reticent scion Sooraj, 25, made his directorial debut with Salman Khan in Maine Pyar Kiya (MPK, 1989), and Yash Chopra's son Aditya, 24, smartly, gently pushed the mainstream bar with Shah Rukh Khan in his first film, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ, 1995).

Together, with soft romances involving hardened parents, the three newbie Khans invaded Bollywood, gradually extricating it from the '80s 'Angry Young Man' hangover, rape-avenger actioners, and family melodramas driven by baffling sensibilities of the money-making, assembly line movies, adapted from the South. QSQT, originally titled Nafrat Ke Waaris, was as much 10 years ahead of its time, as comforting for mainstream audiences from 20 years before. I remember older family members (and teenage girls alike) being struck by Aamir and Juhi, who were formally "introduced" in the film, although Aamir had earlier already starred in Ketan Mehta's Holi (1984).

Leading up to QSQT's release, a hoarding teaser campaign had been launched across Mumbai (and perhaps other cities), with just the question, "Who's Aamir Khan? Ask the girl next door!" The billboards turned into QSQT's posters upon the film's release. Yup, it's been 30 frickin' years. Of course, we know who's Aamir Khan. What film-buffs have always been curious about ever since, and for good reason, is what's he up to next! We always inevitably remember his last film. Which is why, I suspect, QSQT, unlike MPK, DDLJ, if you think about it, hasn't actually got its due.

Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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The desire to stream his speeding stunt live on social media cost a 20-year-old engineering student his life, while his cousin, who accompanied him, is battling for his life in hospital. He had stolen the keys to his uncle's car. This report highlighted once again that social media distractions and driving are a lethal mix.

The police have identified the deceased as Shivam Prakash Jadhav from Kharadwadi in Pimpri. He died on the spot. His cousin Hrishikesh Vilas Pawar, 22, was cited as critical and undergoing treatment in a Pimpri Chinchwad-based private hospital.A senior police officer was quoted in the report as saying that the car was speeding at 120 kmph. The passenger was streaming live on Instagram when the driver asked him to show the speedometer. Later, he lost control of the car, and it rammed into a grid separator.

The thrill of speed coupled with the thrill of likes, adulation and congratulatory messages is so potent that there can never be enough said about desisting from using social media while driving. Even earphones are a no-no when driving because your hands may be free, but the mind is elsewhere on the conversation and your focus and attention is compromised.

Here, we also had another factor thrown into the tragic cocktail. The driver was speeding. It was the passenger who was streaming live on Instagram, but the driver's attention was compromised as he was distracted by Instagram. It was evident that the young men were on a suicide mission unknown to them.

Let there be more awareness and we want to see a blitzkrieg on social media how it is not cool to drive and be on social media at the same time. Speed should be similarly panned. Youngsters, this is so not cool. Losing a life for some likes? Certainly not.

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The Roman Forum in the center of Rome. Pic Courtesy/Rosalyn D'mello

I did not account for what now seems like the inevitable consequence of so much travel: the blurring of existential categories that define my raison d'etre as I continue my Italian sojourn. What am I first, writer, tourist, traveller or pilgrim? To which of these vocations do I owe my primary allegiance?

Starting out in the northern region of Bolzano, within which I somehow managed to ensconce myself, thanks to my residency at Eau&Gaz, within exactly 30 days I have found myself in the deep south - the autonomous Mediterranean island of Sicily; a lived repository of continuous histories dating two millennia. I accessed the regions of Tuscany, Veneto, Neapolitan and Lazio through my explorations of Firenze, Venezia, Napoli and Roma, before taking a flight to Palermo, from where I am transcribing this dispatch. By the time you will have read this, I will already have returned to Roma where I will spend another night before I make my way to Ortona and Assisi, thereby initiating the more pilgrim end of my travel. I am deeply aware that I now have less than two weeks left in Italy, and I am struggling (really, really struggling) to make sense of everything I have encountered through my witness. How to distil the vast everything-ness of my recent realities into bottled significance; something that is easier to swallow, digest, imbibe, share?

I was grateful to land in Palermo; grateful to have found a cheap flight that got me here from Rome in under an hour, grateful to avoid what would otherwise have been a 14-hour journey. But, mostly, I discovered I was grateful to be in a city that felt like the opposite of Rome; un-pretentious, unabashed about its past, non-ostentatious and aesthetically more austere. Here I felt I could allow my body to recover from the sensual assault of the spectacle that is that city of grand beauty, magnificence, un-mindful excess. No guide I'd perused had prepared me for my sensory dyslexia, particularly on the perceptual front, like the difficulty I would experience in simply focussing my gaze.

As a sightseeing tourist, one is mentally prepared to encounter a monument; a spectacle; a historic site. In Rome, however, you are condemned to stumble upon multiple. You walk into a street and your eyes rest first on a fountain, then naturally zoom out to witness the larger frame, except you spot, next door, an opulent church façade, and across from it another, but perhaps from another century altogether, and for a moment you feel like you're experiencing a glitch in a time-travelling machine. You walk later at night to catch your bus back to your Airbnb and come upon a vast excavation site bearing just a two-paragraph description and you empathise with the historians and archaeologists who seem themselves to be struggling with this excess; this dense populace of relic, debris, pagan vestige and Catholic worship sites.

Each night my feet, exhausted and overwhelmed from walking, cried themselves to sleep as my mind, unable to still my still-restless body, tried to make sense of what I'd seen, thought, remembered, and referenced: the Sistine Chapel, the wonders of Bernini, the cinematic odes by Fellini, Rosselini, Passolini and Sorrentino; and the more obscure works of writers like Malcolm Lowry. I had to re-read one of his protagonist's visit to the Keats and Shelley Memorial Museum next to the Spanish Steps as I sat by the side of The Pantheon, after having been to that museum, and in preparation for the next day's visit to the Non-Catholic cemetery containing both poets' tombs. Had I not had the sense of mind to seek solace in relatively more obscure churches and smaller chapels, both to escape the madding crowd of tourists and to offer my body an indulgent moment of pause, I'm sure I would have been defeated by that city.

It was the only reason why, despite being drained of all energy, I could make one final schlep towards the Coliseum and also convince Mona to meet me there. After a very leisurely stroll at what felt like perfect timing, when the final rays of the sun hit the millennia-old façade, we found a corner to park ourselves for a while. I couldn't help, but show her a clip from Sorrentino's The Great Beauty; of Sister Maria on the balcony of the protagonist's home in front of the Coliseum, gathering the flamingos in the thick of night, then blowing into the air to gesture at them to fly away. I felt as though I'd finally 'got' Sorrentino's film, despite having seen it a while ago. I had to come to Rome to solve its mystery.

I cannot shake off this lingering feeling that something beyond my own free will is designing my itinerary, is customising each imprint my feet make. Whether I am either or interchangeably a writer, tourist, traveller or pilgrim has become inconsequential. All that matters now is that I willingly surrender in order to be remade.

Deliberating on the life and times of Everywoman, Rosalyn D'Mello is a reputable art critic and the author of A Handbook For My Lover. She tweets @RosaParx Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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The BMC has claimed to be monsoon-ready this year, but it’s highly unlikely that the city roads will be pothole-free. File Pic

I like waiting for the BMC to issue proclamations of all kinds based on whatever mystical tests it uses instead of science. It will tell us when the rains are expected, for instance, then promptly issue a new date 24 hours before the original one, citing fresh new information that has probably been sent to its meteorologists via WhatsApp. It will talk about how much water will be collected in our lakes and rivers, then revise that figure every three weeks depending on what percentage of water cuts it can announce for free publicity. I suspect a lot of BMC employees spend their days simply dreaming up new statements to issue, because doing this is a lot easier than completing any actual work.

The good news is, it claims to be monsoon-ready this year. Yes, it claimed to be monsoon-ready last year, too, and the year before, and the decade before, but why should that stop it from issuing a new press release about how it is definitely monsoon-ready this year? If it doesn't issue these statements, how is it supposed to justify the thousands of crores that are poured into our streets and mysteriously vanish before touching the asphalt?

This year's statement says that only 522 roads continue to remain dug up in the city. This presumably does not include the street outside your home or mine, or any street you pass over the next week, because finding a street that isn't dug up in Mumbai is almost like finding proof that our ministers have actually been to school. Apparently, completing road repair and renovation work in the city is definitely the target, which isn't surprising because it has been the target since man first set foot on the Moon. I assume this doesn't include the roads that have been torn apart for the Metro, of course, because the chances of them being smooth and pothole-free in your lifetime or mine are a billion to one.

The Andheri-SEEPZ line of the Metro runs just outside Andheri station towards Versova. The street it tore up and demolished over a decade ago has yet to recover. It has turned into an unofficial market, with commuters now long used to the idea of going around in a wide circle in order to hit SV Road. One can't help, but use that as a benchmark when thinking about what the city will look like when the current Metro projects are finally complete, a century from now.

Our civic body - I use those words loosely, of course - has reportedly prepared a plan of completing work on 1,106 roads in several categories during the financial year 2018-19, with roads classifieds into categories of project roads, priority 2 and priority 3 roads. This must have taken them a few months, because everyone knows how important the task of naming plans or renaming roads is, and how these discussions can go on late into the afternoon. Project roads are easy to spot because they exist in various states of disrepair all around us, but it's hard to figure out the difference between priority 2 and priority 3 roads. In a city that is home to millions of commuters an hour, one would assume all roads are a priority, but that is clearly not the case.

Project roads are also supposed to undergo complete reconstruction, which is BMC-speak for 'we are going to tear them down and start again, and use your taxes to do it a few more times'. The statement didn't just talk about the future though; it also claimed that work on 879 roads was completed by the end of April. Chew on that when you dislocate your shoulder in a rickshaw on your next trip.

I'm pretty sure the fault lies with us. We are the ones who prevent the BMC from focusing on more important things like memorial plaques and compel it to waste valuable time and money on insignificant issues like pothole-free, monsoon-ready roads. If you care about your city and respect the BMC, you should do the right thing and avoid the roads. Work online instead of at an office, chat with friends and relatives via video calls, and educate your children with the help of YouTube videos. Don't use roads until the pesky monsoons are over. Stay at home instead.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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A day after this paper published a report about a couple who has been left in limbo because a financial institute has misplaced their Sale Deed or Sale of Agreement papers, there have been a few readers who have written in claiming that they experienced a similar situation. They, too, had a harrowing story to tell.

According to our report, an Andheri couple who had taken a loan from a financial institution years ago to buy a home and were paying it off over years, finished paying their loan. They asked the institute to return their documents and that is when they learnt that the Sale of Agreement has been misplaced. Their nightmare began, but it has been months the paper has not been found and they have subsequently been unable to sell a home on the outskirts of the city because buyers are wary of buying a home without the original Sale Deed.

Finance institutes cannot afford to misplace such important documents. Institutes might have misplaced the documents while shifting or the file has been lost when being transferred from one centre to another.

If this happens, and from the responses we learn that this is unfortunately not very rare, it is the organisation's responsibility to give the affected a way out. There has to be a redressal mechanism. If the true copy of the document does not work for certain people, the institute has to step in and provide them a solution.

They need to be held liable and accountable. You cannot expect the affected people, who are already suffering considerably and have also spent time and money, to do all this on their own. Those who have erred cannot wash their hands off the matter. They need to be there with the people, whose papers they have irresponsibly, though inadvertently, misplaced, right till the bitter end.

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