Our Life, Our Times :: 41 :: Sindhu brings home the gold

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Yes, it took the third outing for her to do it. PV Sindhu made it to the finals of the World Badminton Federation championships twice before but lost it virtually at the last moment. This time at Basle in Switzerland, however, it was different. She just sailed through against Nozomi Okuhara, a former nemesis of her, beating her in straight sets 21-7, 21-7. It is Nozomi who had disrupted her dream of being the World Champion in 2017. But this time Sindhu came well prepared, garnered enough confidence from her win against TT Ying, the former World No.1, in the quarter finals

On the court Sindhu appeared relaxed and whenever the occasion demanded she made a placement or just smashed her way through. She did not entertain any long rallies as in 2017 when against Nozomi there was 73-shot rally. This time it was more simple keeping her opponent on the lines and use the smashes when she got the shuttle lobbed on to her. The longest rally this time was of around only 22 shots. While her stamina has improved the changed strategy to concentrate on the lines and the corners paid off. The strategy to shun long tiring rallies also brought home the dividends.

Sindhu has been making it to the finals of several tournaments but somehow was unable to convert them into wins. Probably the reasons were either not quite appropriate strategy or lack of stamina. She had been groomed and coached for quite a few years by Pulella Gopichand, a player of distinction who had won years ago the coveted All England Badminton Championship. But one thought Sindhu needed to change tacks and move on. Defeats in the finals of several tournaments must have been heart-breaking and must have acted as confidence busters. What was needed a strategy to win and quite appropriately the authorities brought in one Miss Kim, an East Asian. That seems to have made the difference.

The difference was palpable It was the same Nozomi, if a little more experienced, though of the same age as Sindhu. She is well known as a singles specialist and is known for her speed, agility and endurance. None of that was visible on Sunday at Basle. She many a times could not decipher Sindhu’s deceptive returns (probably a new weapon in her armoury) and several times Nozomi was floored literally by Sindhu’s returns. She seemed to have somehow lost her agility. In fact, Sindhu was more agile and played to her plan leaving Nozomi in distress on several occasions. The score line indicates complete superiority over her adversary. Probably all this and much more was because of the induction of her new coach who apparently advised Sindhu to shun long rallies, instilling in her a killer instinct. In this final Sindhu used far more smashes than perhaps in any earlier tournaments.

Tall by Indian standards and athletically built, Sindhu can reign over World Badminton for many years if properly handled. That, of course, is for Badminton Association of India ro work out. Sindhu is a precious asset for the country; she needs to be conserved and intelligently taken care of.

Our Life, Our Times :: 14 :: Disputing Darwin's theory of evolution

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Thank God the Junior HRD Minister has been ticked off by his senior colleague. He seemed to have become too big for his boots and indulged in making statements that were utter drivel. Satya Pal Singh was a late entrant in the Union Cabinet and was appointed the Minister of State in the Department of Human Resources Development. Before becoming an MP he was an Indian Police Service officer and had worked as Commissioner of Police, Mumbai. He had also worked as Commissioner at Pune and Nagpur, two big and problematic cities of the state of Maharashtra

To recount his brilliant findings, he had claimed that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution was all scientifically wrong. The claim that Man had evolved from apes was not proved as none has ever seen a monkey transforming into a human. “Since (the time) man is seen on earth he has always been man. Nobody, including our ancestors, in written  or oral (sic), said that they saw an ape turning into a man”.  Unfortunately, it was not very clearly reported about what his views were about man’s evolution. He, probably, was aiming at his own theory based on Vedic and/or Puranic theology.

He was, apparently, planning a seminar to prove that Charles Darwin was wrong and his theory should not be taught in schools and colleges. While making the statement he also claimed that he had acquired a degree of doctor of philosophy in Chemistry from the Delhi University and, therefore, he, presumably, thought he knew what he was talking about. Thankfully, he did not claim that he also cleared the Civil Services Examinations and qualified for the Indian Police Service which made him all the more eligible to reject Darwin’s theory of evolution that has been accepted by the scientific community over the last century and a half.

No wonder his statement evoked violent reactions from the scientists of the country. About 2000 scientists from major scientific institutions, such as Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, IIT Mumbai, Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Sciences etc. condemned the minister’s remarks. “There is no scientific dispute about the basic facts of evolution”, they said. They also said that it would be a retrograde step to remove the theory of evolution from the curriculum of schools and colleges.

Mercifully, the senior minister Prakash Jawdekar squelched Singh’s plans well in time. Otherwise the latter would have got together some malleable and friendly scientific folk to propound some views contrarian to those of Darwin and made fools of themselves among the scientific community in India and abroad bringing bad name to Indian Science.

How could one ever think of contesting what Charles Darwin propounded in his Theories of Evolution and Natural Selection beats me. Darwin did what all he did by a laborious process. For instance, he went off, much against his father’s wishes, on a voyage in the early part of the 19^th Century of around five years and meticulously collected his specimens of rocks and fossils from the coasts of South America, interested as he was in geology and natural sciences. Darwin is regarded as a giant of modern science, a naturalist to the core whose theories have been proved in modern times by several investigators in England and elsewhere. SP Singh, despite his Ph.D. in Chemistry, can stand nowhere near Darwin much less contest the latter’s pronouncements.

SP Singh’s views are in close proximity to those held in Islam. Best of educated Muslims, including Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, the Oxford educated late skipper of the Indian cricket team, reject Darwin’s theory. Pataudi had once said that Islam does not believe that Man had descended from monkeys and so he, too, couldn’t accept the proposition. They perhaps believe that everything in the universe, including Man was created by Allah.

The very comment of Singh that none has ever witnessed a monkey transforming into a man indicates he has not understood the scheme of things as Darwin saw and comprehended before theorizing about Evolution. Evolution, as the very word suggests, is not an instant process as Singh would like it to be. It is a slow and gradual process that has an indefinite future and may continue till eternity. The earth itself with all its components has evolved over millions or billions of years. Man, for example, in all probability, is not completely evolved yet and could continue to evolve and, with efflux of time, may become a creature far superior to what he is today. Who knows? Not you and I, nor SP Singh!   

Our Life, Our Times :: 13 :: Denims catch India's fancy

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Denims today have become items of universal wear in India. These seem to have become favourites of every one – whether a billionaire or a lowly workman, urban socialite or a rustic plebian. The differences, if any, will be only in the quality of the cloth or its design and stitching - the basic material however remaining the same, the fabric.

 It is amazing to contemplate the way the things have changed over the last few decades in regard to the usage of denims. In urban India or in its rural hinterland denims have won general favour and acceptance so much so that a retired judge of a high court, while talking of her tenure as a chief justice, made a mention of how she prohibited the staff  from coming to work in denims. It is not unusual to find workers coming to work in government offices in denims. Even in villages denims have become the favourite daily wear, most probably because of its amenability to rough and regular use.

A recent report, however, indicated that the demand for the cloth in the country did not build up in the manner it was expected. Sometime back the demand had strengthened and to meet that new capacity for manufacture of the cloth was added. New mills came up but they are functioning only up to 60 or 70% of their capacity on account of a shortfall in off-take of the fabric. One wonders whether it is a case of shrinking demand or over-capacity in the sector that has pulled down the production. It is well known that we have what is known as a herd mentality. Maybe tat was the reason that more than necessary number of mills came up flooding the market. Denim manufacturers had a flourishing run ever since Kasturbhai Lalbhai group’s Arvind Mills pioneered its manufacture in India. Today Arvind Mills with its capacity of more than 100 million metres per annum is one of the leading manufacturers of denim in the world. It even varies the quality according to the needs of its designers who are based both, in India as well as abroad.

When we were young we knew that the cowboys of the US wore “jeans” – the word that was used for special trousers made for them of denims. They would ride horses wearing them. In fact, their entire outfit including the shirt used to be made of denims. In the wild-west movies actors like John Wayne and those of his ilk would always be in denims with guns sticking out of their holsters that would be within their easy grasp enabling them to be “fast guns”. Their hulk with a muscular and hungry look decked up in denims topped by a Stetson and other accoutrements, made them exude muscle power and toughness that sometimes made even the sheriff in the movie squirm before them.

While today boys and girls wear denims to colleges, or, for that matter, every and anywhere, we had no such luck in our times. Sixty-odd years ago jeans were scarce in India, more so in the backwaters of Gwalior where I was growing up. Once, however, I happened to see my friend Anand’s older brother Jagat Bamroo, a class mate of my sister wearing jeans in the college. I gave it a good look and was impressed by the indigo of the warp and the bold stitches in red along the seams and for the bold patched hip-pockets. The bottom cuffs were turned up like those of the trousers of yore revealing the whites of the weft. That was my introduction to “cowboy jeans” but I did not get into one till much later in life when the cloth started flowing out of the Indian mills.

Denim can be used for all kinds of dresses, particularly for women. While in men’s wear denims find use in making of trousers, shirts, jerkins, fashionable caps, etc., in the area of women’s wear sky is the limit for its usage. Women use it for “jeans”, skirts, shorts, jerseys, dungarees, caps and even shoes or sandals. In India it is used for designing women’s “kurtas” and “kurties”. Fashionistas let lose their imagination and have a field day in designing dresses for their clientele and every year new designs flood the market. Already, the fashion trends for 2018 are in the print media for women to choose from to suit their sartorial tastes and the mix that is there in their wardrobes.

Denims come in different varieties. There are crushed denims or stone washed or acid washed denims or even marble denims – each is used by the designers according to the fancy of the fashionista. Then the designers go further up and add value to the garments by working on them with embroidery or patch work and such like. Some go much farther and add laces to the hems to give them a formal or celebrity look. Those who have stacks of money go and get diamonds studded to various parts of their dresses and they do so even with shoes made out of denims. Then there are others who make fashion statements out of ripped or frayed jeans. Some ripped jeans are so weird that a substantial part of legs around the thighs and knees remain uncovered.

The burgeoning population of India’s shanties or what are known as “JJ colonies” have not missed out on denims. One would find boys and girls emerging from them wearing whatever is trending. If it is the current body-hugging skinny denims, they have it and love to flaunt them. A whole new system of marketing has emerged to cater to the demands from this unlikely source. Used clothes markets, or markets that deal in indifferently stitched material or even duplicates of popular brands – all are oriented to cater to this genre of clientele. Some from this clientele are quite choosy as I have known people from these sections who would not be satisfied unless a pair of trousers carried a sticker of a well-known brand on its back pocket.

Denims have thus firmly established themselves in the imagination of Indian youth whether in the metros or in the back-yards of rural India. The traditional “dhoties or pyjamas” of ordinary people have yielded place to garments made out of denim. It is amazing how a fabric originating in France in the 19^th Century that somehow getting purchase in far away United States in its ranching days has firmly established its authority world over and, more so, over India. If Indians take home something as their own, none would be able to compete with them, generally, because of sheer numbers. No wonder, out of the 700 million metres of the fabric produced world over 100 million are produced in India, feeding the ever-escalating demand from what would seem to be the Rising India.

*Photo from internet

26^th December 2017