Ford reaches deal to sell Jaguar and Land Rover for $2.3 billion

By Heather Timmons

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

NEW DELHI: Tata Motors, part of India's fast-growing Tata Group, is buying Jaguar and Land Rover from beleaguered Ford Motor for $2.3 billion.

The purchase price is more than the market expected, but still about half what Ford originally paid for the brands several years ago. The long-awaited deal, which was announced Wednesday, also carries a painful payout for Ford. After the transaction closes, which is expected midyear, Ford will give Tata $600 million to make up for shortfalls in the two brands' pension plans.

Tata Group, one of India's largest conglomerates, has been on an overseas acquisition spree in recent years, buying up everything from tea and coffee companies to steel manufacturers. Other Indian companies are also eyeing overseas acquisitions as a weak dollar, coupled with strong domestic growth, make takeovers attractive, particularly in the United States.

When Tata does deals, it rarely changes the character of the company that it buys over the near term. Ratan Tata, the chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Motors, reiterated that strategy on Wednesday, saying the Tata Group "will endeavor to preserve and build on their heritage and competitiveness" of the two brands, while "keeping their identities intact." No changes are expected to employment terms for the approximately 16,000 employees of Jaguard and Land Rover.

Ford is in the midst of a painful overhaul, shedding costly units and workers in the United States. The Ford chief executive and president, Alan Mulally, said in a statement he was confident that Jaguar and Land Rover would thrive under their new owners.

"Now, it is time for Ford to concentrate on integrating the Ford brand globally, as we implement our plan to create a strong Ford Motor Company that delivers profitable growth for all," he said.

Ford has lost $15 billion in the past two years.

Ford will continue to provide some components, including power trains, to Jaguar and Land Rover, which are built in Britain, as well as some research and development support. Ford's finance arm, Ford Motor Credit, will continue to provide financing to Jaguar and Land Rover dealers and customers for up to 12 months.

Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/26/business/26tata.php

In most species, faithfulness is a fantasy

You can accuse the disgraced ex-governor Eliot Spitzer of many things in his decision to flout the law by soliciting the services of a pricey prostitute: hypocrisy, egomania, sophomoric impulsiveness and self-indulgence, delusional ineptitude and boneheadedness. But one trait decidedly not on display in Spitzer's splashy act of whole-life catabolism was originality.

It's all been done before, every snickering bit of it, and not just by powerful "risk-taking" alpha men who may or may not be enriched for the hormone testosterone. It's been done by many other creatures, tens of thousands of other species, by male and female representatives of every taxonomic twig on the great tree of life. Sexual promiscuity is rampant throughout nature, and true faithfulness a fond fantasy. Oh, there are plenty of animals in which males and females team up to raise young, as we do, that form "pair bonds" of impressive endurance and apparent mutual affection, spending hours reaffirming their partnership by snuggling together like prairie voles or singing hooty, doo-wop love songs like gibbons, or dancing goofily like blue-footed boobies.

Yet as biologists have discovered through the application of DNA paternity tests to the offspring of these bonded pairs, social monogamy is very rarely accompanied by sexual, or genetic, monogamy. Assay the kids in a given brood, whether of birds, voles, lesser apes, foxes or any other pair-bonding species, and anywhere from 10 to 70 percent will prove to have been sired by somebody other than the resident male.

As David Barash, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle, put it with Cole Porter flair: Infants have their infancy; adults, adultery. Barash, who wrote "The Myth of Monogamy" with his psychiatrist-wife, Judith Eve Lipton, cited a scene from the movie "Heartburn" in which a Nora Ephronesque character complains to her father about her husband's philanderings and the father quips that if she'd wanted fidelity, she should have married a swan. Fat lot of good that would have done her, Barash said: we now know that swans can cheat, too. Instead, the heroine might have considered union with Diplozoon paradoxum, a flatworm that lives in gills of freshwater fish. "Males and females meet each other as adolescents, and their bodies literally fuse together, whereupon they remain faithful until death," Barash said. "That's the only species I know of in which there seems to be 100 percent monogamy." And where the only hearts burned belong to the unlucky host fish.

Even the "oldest profession" that figured so prominently in Spitzer's demise is old news. Nonhuman beings have been shown to pay for sex, too. Reporting in the journal Animal Behaviour, researchers from Adam Mickiewicz University and the University of South Bohemia described transactions among great grey shrikes, elegant raptorlike birds with silver capes, white bellies and black tails that, like 90 percent of bird species, form pair bonds to breed. A male shrike provisions his mate with so-called nuptial gifts: rodents, lizards, small birds or large insects that he impales on sticks. But when the male shrike hankers after extracurricular sex, he will offer a would-be mistress an even bigger kebab than the ones he gives to his wife — for the richer the offering, the researchers found, the greater the chance that the female will agree to a fly-by-night fling.

In another recent report from the lubricious annals of Animal Behaviour entitled "Payment for sex in a macaque mating market," Michael Gumert of Hiram College described his two-year study of a group of longtailed macaques that live near the Rimba ecotourist lodge in the Tanjung Puting National Park of Indonesia. Gumert determined that male macaques pay for sex with that all-important, multipurpose primate currency, grooming. He saw that, whereas females groomed males and other females for social and political reasons — to affirm a friendship or make nice to a dominant — and mothers groomed their young to soothe and clean them, when an adult male spent time picking parasites from an adult female's hide, he expected compensation in the form of copulation, or at the very least a close genital inspection. About 89 percent of the male-grooming-female episodes observed, Gumert said in an interview from Singapore, where he is on the faculty of Nanyang Technological University, "were directed toward sexually active females" with whom the males had a chance of mating.

Significantly, males adjust their grooming behavior in a distinctly economic fashion, paying a higher or lower price depending on the availability and quality of the merchandise and competition from other buyers. "What led me to think of grooming as a form of payment was seeing how it changed across different market conditions," Gumert said. "When there were fewer females around, the male would groom longer, and when there were lots of females, the grooming times went down." Males also groomed females of high rank considerably longer than they did low-status females with nary a diamond to their page.

Commonplace though adultery may be, and as avidly as animals engage in it when given the opportunity, nobody seems to approve of it in others, and humans are hardly the only species that will rise up in outrage against wantonness real or perceived. Most female baboons have lost half an ear here, a swatch of pelt there, to the jealous fury of their much larger and toothier mates. Among scarab beetles, males and females generally pair up to start a family, jointly gathering dung and rolling and patting it into the rich brood balls in which the female deposits her fertilized eggs. The male may on occasion try to attract an extra female or two — but he does so at his peril. In one experiment with postmatrimonial scarabs, the female beetle was kept tethered in the vicinity of her mate, who quickly seized the opportunity to pheromonally broadcast for fresh faces. Upon being released from bondage, the female dashed over and knocked the male flat on his back. "She'd roll him right into the ball of dung," Barash said, "which seemed altogether appropriate."

In the case of the territorial red-backed salamander, males and females alike are inclined to zealous partner policing and will punish partners they believe to have strayed: with threat displays, mouth nips and throat bites, and most coldblooded of all, a withdrawal of affection, a refusal to engage. Be warned, you big lounge lizard: it could happen to you.

Source:http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=11209673

As Turmoil Subsides, Tourism in Nepal Surges

By SETH SHERWOOD

AS morning crowds of sari-clad women and mustached men packed the busy streets of Katmandu on the first day of December, The Himalayan Times, an English-language daily newspaper, trumpeted a staggering discovery.

“Yeti Footprints Found at Khumbu,” declared the headline in bold type. An article explained that an expedition had come across a mammoth five-toed footprint buried in the ice near the base camp for Mount Everest. After a long period without a credible sighting, the elusive creature seemed to have suddenly reappeared.

In fact, it was hardly the only reappearance to celebrate. All over Katmandu that week, from trekking agencies to curry houses, some almost equally prized specimens were leaving tracks after years of scarcity: foreign travelers. According to the Nepal Tourism Board, December capped a banner year, with air arrivals up 27 percent over the 2006 total. Overall, 2007 welcomed some 360,000 foreign air travelers to the country, making it the most successful year for tourism since 2000.

For a poor but picturesque country that was nearly pulled apart by a decade of bloodshed and political turmoil — which witnessed some 13,000 deaths from a Maoist insurrection, the bizarre murder of most of the royal family by the crown prince, the seizure of absolute power by a subsequent king and the resulting pro-democracy riots — the numbers are heartening indeed.

They owe much to the calmed political situation. The civilian government has been restored, the Maoists have signed a peace treaty, and democratic elections are scheduled for later this year. As a result, several airlines resumed service or began new routes to Katmandu last year. Hotels report surges in bookings. And the streets of the city where raging protests once flared are again humming with bicycle rickshaws, sacred cows and beat-up taxis ferrying international visitors to the numerous World Heritage Sites in and around the capital city.

“We had planned to come a couple of years ago, but the political unrest made it impossible,” said Christa Hoyal, from Utah, as she lunched at the Katmandu Guest House with her traveling companion, Liz Tanner, also from Utah. A copy of The Himalayan Times with the yeti article on the front lay next to them. “But when things settled down,” she said, “we rebooked our tickets and came over.”

So far, Ms. Hoyal said, they had ridden elephants on safari in Royal Chitwan National Park and explored Katmandu’s centuries-old Hindu shrines and former royal palaces.

“There have been no concerns at all in terms of personal safety,” she said.

For others who have canceled or deferred journeys to Katmandu, the good news is that the troubled decade did nothing to harm the city’s age-old appeals.

THE snowcapped Himalayas, visible on clear days, soar eternally upward. Impervious to the vicissitudes of politics and trends, Katmandu’s artisans continue to produce rich carpets, yak-wool clothing, wood sculptures and thangka paintings. Day after day, crowds still await the appearance of the Kumari — a Nepali child considered to be the incarnation of a deity — below her mansion’s window in the city’s iconic Durbar Square.

And while the city might not be the mythical Shangri-La — crumbling buildings, rusted-out vehicles, emaciated dogs and impoverished families fill the poorly drained streets — the ancient religions of Hinduism and Buddhism do much to infuse meaning and color into the landscape. For more than anything else, Katmandu’s twin faiths make the city one of the planet’s most powerful magnets for spiritual seekers and philosophic souls.

In myriad guises and manifestations, each threads itself through daily life: the vermilion anointments on the foreheads of clerks and laborers; the wreaths of marigolds hanging from motorcycle handlebars; the prayer beads wrapped around wrists and necks; the colorful pictures of Shiva painted on huge exhaust-spewing trucks; the temples that draw worshipers from all over the world.

On an evening in late November, the scent of smoldering incense mingled with the stench of burning garbage as dusk settled over the massive stupa of Boudhanath. Resembling a gold pyramid propped on a mammoth white dome, the stupa is the center of Buddhist worship in Katmandu.

Around its base, hundreds of Tibetan and Nepali worshipers walked in a ritual clockwise circuit, spinning prayer wheels and muttering chants. A couple of dozen Westerners, many of them dressed in the colorful fabrics and hammered metal jewelry sold in nearby shops, also joined the human tide. Some were students at the White Monastery, one of the 30-odd Buddhist monasteries tucked into the predominantly Tibetan neighborhood. Some were on more private and more personal missions to Katmandu.

“A friend of mine died in Fiji while he was scuba diving,” said Mark Daddario, an American traveler from Southern California, as he watched the slow-moving pageant. “He was wearing some of my equipment when it happened.

“I have some of his ashes with me on this trip,” he continued, explaining that he had quit his job as a beer salesman to make time for the journey, which was also to include India and Southeast Asia. “I’ve been depositing them at monasteries all over the country.”

High above, painted atop the stupa, the huge, disembodied eyes of the Buddha gazed downward at the procession. Was Mr. Daddario at all concerned about visiting a remote nation that, until recently, tourists had largely avoided?

Mr. Daddario shook his head and smiled.

“My mom is probably worried about me,” he said, “but she knows that I’m on my fourth passport.”

A few days later, a diverse crowd of Nepalis and foreigners milled among the Ganesh and Shiva shrines in the temple complex of Pashupatinath, the holiest spot of Hindu ground in Katmandu. Situated along the banks of the Bagmati River, a tributary of India’s sacred Ganges, the assemblage of time-eater stone statues and buildings suggests a Nepalese version of Angkor Wat.

As hordes of brown monkeys scuttled over the stones, the human throngs peered at an unfolding spectacle along the riverbank. Several large cremation platforms — known as ghats — began to crackle with flames and billow with smoke and ash. Many of the bodies could still be perceived, like shadows, within the roaring orange blazes. Next to one of the ghats, a Nepali family lay out the stiffened body of a white-haired woman on rock slab and began to wrap it in an orange sheet.

“The conception of death is amazingly different here,” remarked Sean Speers, from San Francisco, as he watched the scene. Nearby, a group of sadhus — Hindu holy men — with painted faces and limbs coated in white ash were chatting with Mr. Speers’s girlfriend.

Mr. Speers said he had come to Nepal to visit his girlfriend, a fellow San Franciscan who was living in a rural village, and to trek to the base camp of Mount Everest.

“But a big draw for me was also just to meet the Nepali people,” Mr. Speers added, motioning to the sadhus. “I have to say, they’ve been delightful.”

As night arrived on the first day of December and news of the yeti footprint spread though the city, thousands of young Nepalis and scores of Westerners packed the lanes of the Thamel neighborhood for the fifth annual Tuborg Project: Peace, an outdoor music festival. On a series of stages, D.J.’s and bands played loud sets, sending music reverberating through the district’s tightly packed guest houses, bars, ethnic restaurants and handicraft shops.

For years, as the Maoist insurgency gained steam and political tensions mounted, no neighborhood suffered as much from the tourism drop-off as Thamel. On this night, however, the many foreign faces and accents in the streets gave the promise of better times ahead.

After the final set, a Nepali M.C. took the stage and addressed the crowd in English. “Remember, tonight is for peace!” he yelled to the sea of waving hands. Green shafts of laser light streaked overhead in the sky. He paused, then shouted, “We’re all happier with peace, right?”

His words echoed through the streets and faded into the night. But judging from the burst of cheers that followed, the message clearly lingered.

VISITOR INFORMATION

HOW TO GET THERE

There are no direct flights between the United States and Katmandu. For certain dates in April, Qatar Airways (www.qatarairways.com) offers flights from Newark airport to Katmandu, with a stop in the Qatari capital of Doha, from about $1,600.

WHERE TO STAY

In the busy Thamel entertainment district, the Katmandu Guest House (977-1-470-0800; www.ktmgh.com) has standard doubles from $25 per day. Doubles with air-conditioning from $50. A stone’s throw from the iconic Buddhist stupa of Boudhanath, Pal Rabten Khansar Guest House (www.sakyatharig.org.np) has very simple double rooms from 900 rupees ($13.39 at 67.2 Nepalese rupees to the dollar).

WHERE TO EAT

Outfitted with a pleasant roof deck, Third Eye Restaurant on the main drag in Thamel does very good Indian and Nepali foods, such as nan, kebabs, curries and fruit lassis. Around 1,000 rupees for a three-course meal for two people. Overlooking the Boudhanath stupa, the Stupa View Restaurant (977-1-448-0262) serves momos (Tibetan dumplings), pizzas and pasta with yak cheese. A three-course meal for two people is also around 1,000 rupees.

WHERE TO SHOP

The Thamel district teems with shops selling all manner of handmade Buddha statues, woven fabrics, ritual masks and yak woolens. Small but worth tracking down, Best Tea and Spices Shop (across from the Hotel Garuda in Thamel; 977-1-470-0505) sells spicy Nepali masala tea (250 rupees a box), jasmine tea (200 rupees a box), Darjeeling tea (200 rupees a box) and more.

Just inside the Boudhanath Gate, dozens of small shops sell Tibetan and Nepali woodwork, instruments, carpets, clothing and jewelry. Tibet Furniture (977-1-207-3412; www.tibetfurniture.com) is a trove of painted wooden doors, carved chests and fine metalwork.

Source:http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/travel/23Next.html?pagewanted=print

36 hours in new Delhi

By Somini Sengupta

Friday, March 21, 2008

A seat of power for more than a thousand years, the city-state of Delhi is a survivor of conquest and change. The Lodi and Mughal dynasties ruled this area, as did the British, until it was again transformed by the refugees of partition. Today, new money has conquered the region, which includes New Delhi, the capital of a rapidly changing India. Spiraling rents have put a Swarovski shop where a small independent bookshop once stood, and in the same market, a shop called It's All About Bling sells spangly earrings. Thankfully, much of the remarkable history has survived, allowing the visitor to travel easily through the accordion pleats of time.

Friday

4 p.m. 1) SUNSET TOMB

This is a city of ruins and none is more elegantly preserved than Humayun's Tomb, a precursor to the Taj Mahal and an early example of Mughal architecture. Built in the 1560s for Humayun, the second Mughal emperor, the domed mausoleum has an elaborate garden, potted with red sandstone tombs, gates and a mosque (admission is 250 rupees for foreigners, about $6 at 41 rupees to the dollar). Savor it at the golden end of the day.

6 p.m. 2) ART NOW

The new prosperity has spawned a thriving contemporary art scene. Several galleries are within a 15-minute ride into South Delhi, and new exhibitions usually open on Fridays. The Neeti Bagh neighborhood has Nature Morte (A-1 Neeti Bagh; 91-11-4174-0215; www.naturemorte.com) and Talwar Gallery (C-84 Neeti Bagh; 91-11-4605-0307; www.talwargallery.com). Nearby, Defence Colony offers Aryan Art Gallery (D-25 Defence Colony; 91-11-4155-1277; www.aryanartgallery.com) and Vadehra Art Gallery (D-40 Defence Colony; 91-11-2461-5368; www.vadehraart.com). Palette is on the top floor of a house in Golf Links (14 Golf Links; 91-11-4174-3034; www.paletteartgallery.com). Consult TimeOut Delhi and other local magazines for listings.

8 p.m. 3) ART OF THE PALATE

To continue the sensory overload, head to Basant Lok Market, a buzzing middle-class shopping center in Vasant Vihar, in the southwest sector, whose star attraction is the restaurant Punjabi by Nature (11 Basant Lok Market; 91-11-5151-6665; www.punjabibynature.in). Everything about this place is loud and large, including the food. Try the vodka gol gappa aperitif: crispy shells filled with a spiced vodka shot and popped into the mouth whole for a hot, boozy explosion. Carnivores: Try the tandoor-roasted lamb or the fish tikka. Vegetarians must make do with overspiced, tandoor roasted broccoli. For mellower non-Punjabi fare, head to the Defence Colony market and prepare to stand in line with Delhi chowhounds at Swagath (14 Defence Colony market; 91-11-2433-7538; www.swagath.in), for southern seafood dishes. Not to be missed: squid in butter garlic sauce and Chettinad-style prawns. Dinner for two runs about 2,000 rupees, at either restaurant (not counting the vodka gol gappas).

10 p.m. 4) ICE CREAM RUN

For dessert, go to one of dozens of ice cream vendors in front of India Gate, where balloons, cotton candy and the cool night air provide an evening picnic.

Saturday

8 a.m. 5) OLD GLORY

Take a taxi to the 17th-century Red Fort and Jama Masjid mosque early, when they are most
glorious. Then give yourself the rest of the morning to take in the uninterrupted life of the walled city of Emperor Shah Jahan, also known as Old Delhi. Every street is a world unto its own, devoted to auto parts or wedding cards or freshly roasted spices. One of the liveliest is Kinari Bazaar, a crafters' paradise bursting with haberdasheries, bead shops and vendors of bright red wedding turbans, alongside crumbling mansions. This is also a portrait of the head-load economy of old India, with porters ferrying everything from saris to bananas on their heads.

1 p.m. 6) TRANS-DELHI EXPRESS

The chaos of the old city dissolves in the spick-and-span Chandni Chowk station of the Delhi Metro. Eight minutes and 8 rupees later, you are at Rajiv Chowk station, in the city's modern heart, Connaught Place. Retail chains are fast taking over the early 20th-century colonnades, though several independent bookshops, jewelers and gun dealers — and several lunch options — remain. Few beat the buffet at the 1911 Restaurant in the Imperial Hotel (Janpath; 91-11-2334-1234; www.theimperialindia.com). For 3,000 rupees for two, you can choose from warm calamari, crisp rucola and tiramisù. For unusual regional dishes, try the Mosaic (M 45/1 Connaught Place; 91-11-2341-6842). Dishes include Bengal shrimp steamed in coconut and tart South Indian spinach with rice. Lunch for two, 800 rupees.

3 p.m. 7) SITAR SHOPPING

To walk off your feast, try shopping. For table linens, quilts or kurtis, there's Fabindia (B-28 Connaught Place, Inner Circle; 91-11-4151-3371; www.fabindia.com) and Soma (K-44 Connaught Place; 91-11-2341-6003; www.somashop.com) opposite the PVR Cinema. Boho chic is the specialty of People Tree (8 Regal Building, Parliament Street; 91-11-2334-0699; www.peopletreeonline.com), and a few steps away, the legendary A. Godin & Company (1 Regal Building, Parliament Street; 91-11-2336-2809) sells sitars and tablas. Keep walking down Parliament Street, past a sprawling observatory called Jantar Mantar, to the city's public soapbox. When Parliament is in session, groups line up to protest along this street, whether college students opposed to affirmative action or farmers aggrieved by loan sharks.

5 p.m. 8) FASHION ROW

If you want to go upmarket, head to the Lodi Colony main market to check out two of India's most innovative designers: the understated Rajesh Pratap Singh and the overstated Manish Arora. Singh (9 Lodi Colony Main Market; www.pratap.ws) offers a muted palette, and his cuts are lean and clean — maybe too lean if you happen to have hips. Men's shirts and women's blouses start around 6,000 rupees. Manish Arora (3 Lodi Colony Main Market; 91-11-2464-8898; www.manisharora.ws) is cheeky and loud; a black velvet tunic appliquéd with tiny clock parts goes for just under 10,000 rupees. If you would rather explore Indian crafts, skip the designer row in favor of Dilli Haat (C-126 Naraina Industrial Area; www.dillihaat.com), an outdoor bazaar where artisans peddle everything from hand-knitted socks to Madhubani-style paintings.

8 p.m. 9) UPMARKET TASTES

The young, rich and restless have many more watering holes than ever before. Smoke House Grill (Vipps Center, Masjid Moth; 91-11-4143-5530) occupies two floors in the Greater Kailash II neighborhood, and its gimmick is smoked food. For vegetarians, the offerings include smoked artichoke ravioli; for others, smoked chicken and fennel soup, or prawn and calamari ajilo with a warm, subtle red pepper bite. If you want a proper dinner, book a table upstairs. Dinner for two is around 5,000 rupees. The bar menu downstairs is limited, unless you intend to gorge on apple mojitos (350 rupees) and admire D.J. Cheenu.

11 p.m. 10) POOLSIDE COCKTAILS

For a nightcap, you could head across the dark courtyard to Kuki (E-7 Masjid Moth Complex; 91-11-2922-5241), a tony disco where the cover charge ranges from zero to 2,000 rupees a couple, and on Fridays and Saturdays, "gents" without arm candy are turned away. Better value is the shimmering poolside bar Aqua, at the Park Hotel (15 Parliament Street; 91-11-2374-3000; newdelhi.theparkhotels.com). A disco ball hovers by the pool and admission is free.

Sunday

9 a.m. 11) YOGI RETREAT

The city's pièce de résistance, also its green lung, is Lodhi Gardens, a free, quiet sanctuary for parakeets and lovers. Early mornings are for yogis saluting the sun, influential bureaucrats on power walks and chipmunks and doves drinking from the same puddle. There are also 100-plus species of trees and tombs dating back to the 1400s. For breakfast and a morning paper, walk over to ChokoLa (36 Khan Market; 91-11-4175-7570), a lovely café at the Khan Market with still-lousy service. For one last kebab fix, it's worth dawdling until Khan Chacha, a stall inside the market, opens its shutters (75 Khan Market, Middle Lane; 91-98106-71103). The specialty is the kathi roll, stuffed with chicken, mutton or paneer and is arguably the tastiest memento of this new old city.

THE BASICS

Continental (www.continental.com) and Air India (www.airindia.com) fly direct from the New York City area to New Delhi, with fares in mid-April starting about $1,000. The Indira Gandhi International Airport (www.newdelhiairport.in) is undergoing a major overhaul, so be prepared for more chaos than usual.

Hotel rates have lately shot through the roof. If you're ready to splurge, stay at the ultra-modern Park Hotel in Connaught Place (15 Parliament Street; 91-11-2374-3000; newdelhi.theparkhotels.com). It has a poolside bar and modern rooms normally from 16,000 rupees, about $390 at 41 rupees to the dollar, but with discounts online.

Thikana (A-7 Gulmohar Park; 91-11-4604-1569; www.thikanadelhi.com) is a new, elegant bed-and-breakfast with modern fittings and home-cooked meals on demand. Doubles start at 4,500 rupees. The one drawback is the location: it sits along a traffic-choked artery.

The 18-room 27 Jor Bagh (27 Jor Bagh; 91-11-2469-8475; www.jorbagh27.com) is basic to the point of sterile, but it is across the street from Lodhi Gardens and the Book Shop (13/7 Jor Bagh Market; 91-11-2469-7102), perhaps the coziest book store in the country. Doubles start at 3,500 rupees.

Through all the changes, New Delhi remains a city of contrasts, so gird yourself for wrenching scenes of destitution. Charities that work with children include: Childline (www.childlineindia.org.in), Butterflies (www.butterflieschildrights.org) and Child Rights and You (www.cry.org)



Source: http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=11317206

Greenway: The power to charm

By H. D. S. Greenway

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The power to charm

As Americans struggle to choose their candidates to replace President George W. Bush, there is no lack of argument as to what qualities a president should have. Enter Harvard University's Joseph Nye, who introduced "soft power" into the English language some 20 years ago. In his new book, "The Powers to Lead," he deconstructs just what it takes.

There are many qualities of leadership of course, which Nye examines, but what struck my eye in this political season was his discussion of "charisma." It comes from the Greek for "divine gift, or gift of grace," and those so gifted include, in Nye's eye, Mahatma Gandhi, Adolf Hitler, Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Benito Mussolini, Tony Blair, Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela, Osama bin Laden, Jack Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, Joan of Arc and Eva Peron.

Charisma can be a great source power - the power to persuade rather than force - but then soft power itself can be put to evil use. Hitler came to power through free elections, after all, and his speeches brought his audiences to a frenzy. And bin Laden spreads his lethal mischief by persuasion rather than coercion.

"Does charisma originate in the individual, in the followers, or in the situation?" Nye asks. The answer seems to be all three. Sigmund Freud thought charismatic leaders represented the return of the primal father. The sociologist Max Weber argued that charisma represented an ideal that is only approximated in reality, and that charisma grew out of the relationship between the leader and his or her followers. Therefore charisma lasts "only as long as it receives recognition, and is able to satisfy the follower . . ."

Winston Churchill's charisma was not universally recognized until his country was in a desperate war. But he had an innate gift of oratory that served him well. As John Kennedy said, Churchill took the English language and marched it off to war. Yet, when the war was nearly over, the British public voted him out of office. Worse yet, he lost to Clement Attlee, a modest man who had much to be modest about, as Churchill said, probably the least charismatic politician of his generation.

In time people can grow tired of charisma, especially if they begin to think it masks character faults. As Tory politician Michael Portillo said of Tony Blair: "What he was able to accomplish was largely due to his charisma . . ." At one time he was the master of spin, but "by now it is hard to find anyone who believes a word he says."

Nye doesn't address the current political debate, but in today's race it seems to be Barack Obama who drew the charisma card. Like Reagan and Kennedy he seems to come up with the words that inspire, much to the annoyance of Hillary Clinton who is forever wonkish. Her husband seems able to coast on charisma, but she seems doomed to impress rather than inspire.

As for John McCain, there can be a kind of charisma in a candidate's record. That was true of Dwight Eisenhower, who would not otherwise have been considered charismatic. Then there are the nonverbal elements of charisma. Nye points to academic studies that show that a handsome man enjoys an edge over an ugly rival. For a woman the advantage is even greater. Focus groups could predict the winners when shown images of candidates in unfamiliar elections. Predictions became less accurate when images were accompanied by the sound of their voices.

The journalist Martha Gellhorn once wrote, in 1946, that she could tell that Indonesia's Sukarno was a great orator "by watching his hands and following his voice and the eyes and faces of the children. One could feel his power," she wrote, even though she couldn't understand a word that he said. "One remembered Hitler."

Yet charisma for one ethnic or linguistic group can be anathema for another. Hitler's undoubted magnetism might not have worked on Italians. And Mussolini's operatic style would have seemed hilarious had he tried it on the British. But then the British never produced a Verdi, a Donizetti, nor a Rossini. Who knows, Obama might be boring in Burma, while Clinton might be electrifying in Beijing.

H. D. S. Greenway's column appears regularly in The Boston Globe.

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Investment banker becomes best-selling author in India

HONG KONG: Until about four years ago, Chetan Bhagat was an investment banker who was distinguished from the suited phalanx of his colleagues in this city's crowded financial district only by his secret hobby.

While others planned weekend excursions on the golf course, Bhagat, then employed by Goldman Sachs, indulged a passion for writing, laboring in his private time on a racy and comedic little novel about life on the campus of an elite college in his native India.

In the early morning before going to the office he would work on draft after draft of the book, trying to get it right. He did 15 drafts in all. He almost gave up when publishers kept turning him down.

Today, Bhagat is still an investment banker, now with Deutsche Bank. But he has also become the biggest-selling English-language novelist ever in India.

His story of campus life, "Five Point Someone," published in 2004, and a later novel about a call center, sold a combined one million copies. Only the autobiography of the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi has sold more.

Less than three days after the release in 2005 of "One Night @ the Call Center," another slim comedy about love and life in India's ubiquitous call centers, the entire print-run of 50,000 copies was sold, setting a record for the country's fastest-selling book.

Bhagat, who wrote his novels while living in Hong Kong, has difficulty explaining why a 35-year-old investment banker writing in his spare time has had such phenomenal success in reaching an audience of mainly middle-class Indians in their 20s. The books, which are deliberately sentimental in the tradition of Bollywood filmmaking, are priced like an Indian movie ticket - just 100 rupees, or $2.46 - and have won little praise as literature.

One reviewer in The Times of India concluded a review of "One Night @ the Call Center" with the suggestion: "Time to hang up, Mr. Bhagat?"

"The book critics, they all hate me," said Bhagat in an interview here.

But Bhagat has touched a nerve with young Indian readers and acquired almost cult status, and this undoubtedly says a great deal about their tastes, attitudes and hopes. Bhagat might not be another Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie or Arundhati Roy, but he has authentic claims to being one of the voices of a generation of middle-class Indian youth facing the choices and frustrations that come with the prospect of growing wealth.

"I think people really took to the books mainly because there is a lot of social comment in there," said Bhagat. "It's garbed as comedy. The plot structure is like Bollywood, because that is what my audience has been used to."

Bhagat's choice of subjects for his first two books - life at a highly competitive Indian Institute of Technology and at a call center - allowed him to explore some perennial themes: the pressures, many of them parental, to get into a top school, earn high grades, get a good job and find the right partner, while still taking time to enjoy one's youth. His argument is that for the current generation of young Indians those pressures are greater than ever before.

He described the country's current young generation as "more gutsy" than their parents, and as interesting as the generation that led India to independence in 1947.

But the competition among them is severe. Bhagat said only 1 out of 700 applicants now gets into the Indian Institute of Management that he attended in Ahmedabad, compared with 1 in 200 when he applied in 1995. That experience and his undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi are the inspiration for "Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT," the title an allusion to the struggle his three main characters have with low grades.

The pressures to succeed are part of what is making India a vibrant, fast-changing economy and society, Bhagat said. But he added: "Competition has its limits. Some of it is good and some of it is harmful." A message of "Five Point Someone" is that poor grades and happiness are not mutually exclusive.

This month, after more than 10 years in Hong Kong, Bhagat moved with his wife, also a banker, and their 3-year-old twin sons back to India, where he is a director in Deutsche Bank's distressed-assets team in Mumbai. When he left India with an MBA to start a banking career in Hong Kong, just before the 1997 Asian economic crisis, there were fewer opportunities at home even for graduates of the best schools.

Bhagat now wants to be a part of the historic changes taking place as India awakens to its potential.

Still, he sees a lot wrong with the model of economic success, particularly from the perspective of the country's youth. His "One Night @ the Call Center," which is being made into a Bollywood film entitled "Hello," is, beyond its story line about frustrated office romance, a critique of a nation climbing to prosperity by answering phone calls from American consumers.

Millions of Indians might have lifted their incomes by doing call center work. But the jobs are dead ends, said Bhagat, and no well-to-do parents want their daughter to marry a call center worker.

"Is this the best we can offer to India's young generation?" he asked. "If call centers are so great and brought riches to the country, like the government says, why aren't they marrying their daughters off to a call center guy?"

With each new book, Bhagat is attempting to toughen his social criticism. He has just finished writing "Three Mistakes of My Life" - a pun of sorts, this being his third novel. But this time he is tackling a far more sensitive theme than campus or call center life.

Set in the northeastern state of Gujarat soon after the bloody sectarian riots of 2002, it deals with issues of tolerance and the confusion Bhagat maintains that young Indians feel about religious values.

"India is a very religious country, and older people have extreme views on religion," he said. "Young people are not able to relate to it."

True to his form, the story will have a "very modern twist, Bollywood comedy sort of format," he said. "If you read my books they are comedies, but very dark."

The Web chatter and e-mails Bhagat receives about his books suggest that the dark social messages, wrapped in what he described as "quick reads" in the style of the humorous British writer Nick Hornby, have been getting through to his young audience.

But it is a balancing act, Bhagat said. His is an audience that grew up with Bollywood and wants a story that "tugs at the emotions" rather than moralizes or betrays serious literary ambitions. Bhagat said he develops his plots using a computer spread sheet before he sits down to write.

Initially, he did get some literary praise, winning a Publisher's Recognition Award and a Society Young Achievers Award in India in 2005 for "Five Point Someone." But the first flush of critical success has worn off. Ravi Rao, a critic writing in The Times of India, said Bhagat had gone from "candor, easy wit and tight structure" in his first book to "a dud" with his second.

Bhagat and his publisher, Kapish Mehra of the company Rupa, have an easy retort to the critics: The books sell.

"He is not a literary writer," Mehra said. "But, more importantly, he is a successful and popular writer."

Source: http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=11084160