Had they not listened to their hearts and doggedly followed their dreams, a part of them would have always remained unfulfilled. Had they not packed their bags, and driven away, to explore the unknown, down the road less travelled, they would never have known their limits and would've never discovered some of the ultimate road trips around the world.

Any other way of feeding their sense of wanderlust would have perhaps paled in comparison. Sunday Herald spoke to expedition specialists and long-distance travellers who give us the lowdown on what it takes to go on trans-continental road journeys.

Roadies at heart

There are those who dream of travelling the world, and then there are some who go ahead and make it happen. Tushar Agarwal and Sanjay Madan were the first Indians to undertake a world trip in their Toyota Fortuner, covering 90,000 km across six continents and 50 countries. And this, they insisted on doing the old fashioned way. By reading road maps and signages, and of course, rolling down the window and asking for directions. "We didn't use a GPS simply because we wanted to interact with more people and open ourselves to more local experiences along the way," explains Madan, who gave up a successful business in medicine to partner with Agarwal, a software engineer from London.
A chance meeting is what brought them together after they both featured in the Limca Book of Records — Madan for driving in a Tata Nano to Khardung La Pass, one of the highest motorable roads in the world, and Agarwal for having driven from London to Delhi. They realised that they got along like a house on fire, and together decided to go on 'The Great Indian World Trip' in 2013.

A trip that saw them travel through continents and cultures — discovering people, places, languages, food and fun. Right from climbing on top of a pagoda to enjoy the view in Myanmar to trying out kangaroo meat in Australia, from catching the wildebeest migration in Africa to dancing the tango on the streets of Argentina, from witnessing the spectacular northern lights in Alaska, to wearing a kilt in Scotland. Madan and Agarwal have documented all of this and more, in the form of a book and a TV series, with the help of Prasad Deshpande, a filmmaker and dear friend, who travelled with them on the 15-month long journey. The duo also created a Guinness World Record for the longest journey in a foreign country, where they drove 17,107 km in Australia alone.

Similarly, Nidhi Tiwari, who always wanted to be an 'adventurer' for as long as she can remember, made it to the Limca Book of Records for being the first Indian woman to drive from Delhi to London in 2015. A year later, she took things a step further when she embarked on a solo trip to Siberia. A feat no other Indian has attempted, though, for Tiwari, who is an outdoor educator, and someone specialising in off-the-road jeeping as well as long-distance and high-altitude driving, this was just another way of pushing boundaries and continuously testing herself.

She drove 5,080 km in 14 days from Yakutsk, the world's coldest major city, to Magadan and back, on one of the most dangerous roads in the world, the Kolyma highway, also called the Road of Bones. Taking classroom education to a different level, she even kept in touch with 15 Indian schools that had signed up for an educational expedition, where she sent them photos and videos, apart from holding Skype conversations with the students about her experiences on the road.

While some choose to go solo and the others with friends, there are also those who travel with family. Like Punita and Anand Baid, who decided to travel from Bengaluru to Paris with Yash and Dhriti, their two kids. Team L.I.F.E. or the Little Indian Family of Explorers, as they have named themselves, covered 11 countries in 111 days, clocking 22,800 km in their Fiat Linea.

They drove past the Himalayas in Tibet, climbed sand dunes as high as mountains in Western China, visited the world's largest burning crater in Turkmenistan, and swam in the Caspian Sea, amongst other exciting experiences.

Though, as team L.I.F.E. and all the other explorers would agree, journeys of such magnitude often entail a host of challenges, and are fraught with many difficulties. Route planning, visas, insurance, overland permits, logistics — in short, there's mounds of paperwork involved. Once you're on the road, other challenges turn up — like car breakdowns, language barriers, and very importantly, finding vegetarian food, to name a few. However, scoring sponsors and funding for the trip always seem to top the list.

Challenges aplenty

"The world trip was almost an impossible one to pull off. We never had enough funds and finding sponsors was difficult," says Agarwal. "There was a time in Australia when we had just about enough money to either put fuel in the car or buy food. So for one week we lived on bread, butter and jam," he recalls.

Tiwari too found out the hard way that sponsors were not easy to come by, "mainly because of the stereotypes associated with women and driving, and also because I wanted to drive solo," she reveals. Funding aside, she faced her real challenge when it came to driving through the Siberian wilderness in her Toyota Land Cruiser on long, empty stretches of roads that are built on permafrost with temperatures falling to -50C or lower. It certainly wasn't a drive for the faint-hearted. She passed through towns where people barely spoke English, surviving mostly on meat — mainly horse, caribou, fish and beef, both raw and frozen. Calling it the toughest expedition of her life, Tiwari says, "Siberia was extreme from the word go and I had to continuously work on myself to keep moving on. It was only post the expedition that I got a chance to process and think about what was nice about the trip."

For the Baids, however, the scariest was when they got stuck at the Nepal-China border during the Nepal earthquake. "We had to sleep in our car for five nights due to broken roads and constant aftershocks which led to rocks and boulders falling from above," recalls Punita.

But the one person who probably had it the hardest is Bharulata Kamble, a British national of Indian origin and a lawyer by profession, who undertook a solo expedition in her BMW X3 from UK to India last year via the Arctic Circle to fulfill a long-standing dream — of driving to India, spreading awareness on educating the girl child.

Her journey is especially inspiring because she undertook it after recovering from a serious car accident and a long bout of post-traumatic stress disorder. For someone who loved driving, Kamble was even terrified of stepping into a car. It took her four-and-a-half years to recover, and a few more to get behind the wheel again. Recalling her experience, she says, "My recovery was a slow and painful journey, but I wanted to fight the anxiety and be the hero of my own life."

She drove with a back support and popped painkillers whenever required, covering 35,383 km across 32 countries in 57 days. Her grit and determination has seen her become the first woman in the world to complete the Arctic Circle expedition.

Kamble's trip was entirely self-funded, but wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all do road trips, and get paid for it? Wouldn't it be your dream job?

Turning passion into a profession Rishad Saam Mehta, a Mumbai-based travel writer, author and photographer, is living that dream. A seasoned traveller, Mehta is a fine example for anyone wanting to make a career out of travelling, mostly road trips and writing. He attributes his love for travel to all the trips taken with his family as a child, and his penchant for 'storytelling' that has seen him contribute to major publications and dailies in the country.

Speaking about his stint with a leading automotive magazine, Autocar India, he says, "For eight years, I worked as their travel correspondent and that made me really proficient in road travel in India and across the world." Since then, Mehta has been invited by tourism departments of various countries to explore self-drive routes and holidays. As for his longest road trip, from Munich to Mumbai, it came as an assignment to test-drive the Audi Q7 and write about the experience. An assignment most of us would willingly give an arm and a leg for!

The trip saw him cover over 20,206 km across nine countries in 58 days without any breakdowns — not even a single flat tire. His most memorable moments "were to take a photograph of me with my Maharashtra-registered car in front of world landmarks like the astronomical clock in Prague, St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, the Great Wall in China, India Gate in Delhi, the Taj Mahal in Agra and VT Station in Mumbai." Mehta is also an avid biker, has written two books on his travels across the country, and is associated with a company called MotoRover in Pune, which takes people on self-ride motorcycling trips to unusual destinations like Kyrgyzstan.

Similarly, Madan and Agarwal have set up Adventures Overland, a cross-country expedition company, in Gurgaon. Even as you are reading this, they are gearing up for a self-drive road trip with a convoy of 14 cars, where they are taking a group of people from Delhi to London, including a 72 year-old man and his nine-year-old granddaughter.

As for Tiwari, setting up Women Beyond Boundaries (WBB) came as a natural extension of her thoughts, for she believes that "mobility is critical for a woman to feel empowered." WBB conducts training courses in extreme overland driving for both men and women. Currently they have planned an expedition to Spiti in April to practice extreme driving skills in the rugged Himalayan terrain. Based in Bengaluru, the Baids too have set up Overland Stories to share their personal experiences from their trip to Paris. They also offer private consultations for those interested in undertaking similar expeditions. Anand, especially advises parents "to travel with their children often and for as long as possible. It will undoubtedly remain your best parenting decision," he says.

Life lessons learnt

No journey is complete without us having learnt some valuable life lessons on the way. As for our road-trippers, everyone unanimously agrees that the world is not such a bad place after all. Kamble's good experiences with the locals in Russia and China made her realise that most issues stem out of political differences between countries. The Baids wholeheartedly agree with her, recalling the incident when the Chinese army provided them with food and other essentials during the Nepal earthquake.

Agarwal adds, "People went out of their way to arrange food, fuel and accommodation for us. If we had enough funds from the beginning, our world trip wouldn't have been so special." As for Madan, he urges everyone to always try the regional cuisine, for he believes that, "Food is the easiest way to connect with people and it helps you forge friendships for life."

Travel not only helps us appreciate and learn from another culture, but it also teaches us to stop rushing through life, learn to live in the moment, and be one with nature. As Anand puts it, "The world is beyond beautiful, and no amount of HD and high-tech imagery can replace the oneness of being with nature, and in it." Mehta adds, "In a world where everything comes to us electronically, or is home-delivered, it is all the more important to include adventure in our lives. It makes for a life better lived."

So, for those of you who've been longing for that road trip, do so now. It doesn't matter how far you go, for when you look back, all that will seem to matter is — that you did.

Bon Voyage!

These are that breed of artistes who aren't on television, aren't on films, they don't need any media except their houses, rooms, their own television sets, their own cameras, and they do some amazing stuff."

That was Bollywood Baadshah Shah Rukh Khan talking to a motley of millennial and Gen Z, at the 2014 YouTube fan fest about a bunch of young men along with him on stage. Nothing new about SRK talking to his audience. But what surprised the slightly older or the 30-plus in the audience was the excitement, screaming and cheering that went up cutting his sentence in the middle when a girl in white loose T-shirt, red cap, red sneakers came from behind him on the stage. Even the Baadshah had to step back to acknowledge her popularity. (The video is still on YouTube)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JO6x9Xn6CsM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[see from 7.09 onwards]

That was Lilly Singh, a Canadian with Indian parentage. All of 28 years old, Lilly is known to her fans as IISuperwomanII, is the new star who, as SRK said, is neither on TV nor on films. In the last three years, her fan base too has doubled. And she isn't the only one who is more popular than the Khan triumvirate of Bollywood, or for that matter, even pop music sensations like Justin Bieber, Zayn Malik, Selena Gomez and their ilk.

There are other stars who the youngsters around the globe swear by. Stars like Liza Koshy, Ryan Higa, Tyler Oakley, David Dobrik and many others from the West. In India, we have innumerable names, and every day new names get added to the list. The gang of AIB-All India Bakchod (Tanmay Bhat, Rohan Joshi, Gursimran Khamba, Ashish Shakya), EIC-East India Comedy (Kunal Rao, Sorab Pant, Sapan Verma, Sahil Shah, Azeem Banatwalla et al), Abish Mathew, Zakir Khan, Karan Talwar, Anisha Rickshawali, Kenneth Sebastian, Kunal Kamra, Sahil Khattar, Bhuvan Bam, Sanjay Thumma, Nisha Madhulika, Sanam Puri, Shruti Anand, Dr Vikram Yadav, and the list is endless.

The new breed of stars are very ordinary folks — students, homemakers, musicians, tech professionals, teachers, beauticians, chefs, medical professionals or any others one can think of. They have completely succeeded in enthralling millions of people across the world. The medium they use to reach people is the Internet and video sharing websites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and others which are collectively called the social media. They are known as YouTubers, vloggers etc.

They're all in it
In fact, the social media can easily be labelled as the parallel universe of entertainment. Within a span of a decade, it has become the baap of all entertainment, or the Goliath of all amusement. Every millennial swears by it and each one of them from Jhumri Telaiya to Delhi, or from Timbuktu to LA, are on to it, and talking about it.

And the best part is that none of the current social media stars knew that their one innocuous video or tweet would catapult them into a whorl of popularity.

Karan Talwar, known by the name of Bollywood Gandu on social media, who is more popular on Twitter, started tweeting with irritation by the nadir the Bollywood films had reached. He was wondering as to why there was such a stoic silence from the audience. "Today everyone has become a critique. Six years ago, when I first tweeted about the film I Hate Luv Storys, there was no one and I got about 120 tweets within a couple of hours, and none of them were from my friends' circle. I was pleasantly surprised and thus started my saga on Twitter," recalls Karan. Today, he has more than 1.83 million followers on Twitter, and on Instagram the number is 61.6k, and about 1.15 million likes on Facebook.

Similar accidental venture into this medium is by another comedian Anisha Dixit, a YouTuber, who is better known as Rickshawali. The particular name as her life on social media started in an autorickshaw in Mumbai. Anisha, who was born and brought up in Germany, after studying acting in Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in LA, had come to Mumbai to get a foothold in the Hindi film industry.

"Had done several rounds of studios, auditions etc. Did some theatre work also. But it was a no-good breakthrough. Then in November 2013, I was in a rickshaw going from Andheri (a suburb in Mumbai) to meet a friend. I had a brainwave of making that rickshaw with colourful pink interiors as my backdrop, my iPhone as my video camera, and started talking about the film Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela. I casually uploaded it on YouTube. The kind of response I got baffled me, and so here I am, a YouTuber," says the chirpy Anisha who, within three years, has nearly two lakh subscribers on YouTube, 1.74 lakh likes on Facebook, and nearly 7k followers on Twitter.

Imagine the humungous number of followers of these stars. Lilly Singh has 11 million YouTube subscribers with 1.7 billion viewers, and her channel IISuperwomanII is in the top 100 most subscribed. The 28-year-old was ranked 3rd on the Forbes list of world's highest paid YouTube stars in 2016 by Forbes, reportedly earning $7.5 million that year. And to think that she is only six years old on YouTube! And here we have the sensational Tanmay Bhat, who has more than 4.5 lakh likes on Facebook, and his gang of AIB has 2.9 million likes and 6.72 lakh followers. In fact, in 2016, the gang was ranked 82 by Forbes India's top earning celebrities list, and 73rd in the fame rank. And they are just three years old in the business. In fact, most Indian YouTubers and vloggers are about three years old in the 'art'.

Nothing but the truth
In an earlier interview, 29-year-old Tanmay had said, "Nothing changes by these rankings. I literally got yelled at by my Mom for not getting my haircut." That may be so in their personal life, but, for the outside world, these social media stars are the icons!

What makes these stars sensational is that they aren't hampered by any dictates from anyone. They can and do take on any subject under the Sun — sex, parent troubles, films, politics, education, society, gender, law, food, fashion and any other subject that actually touches the youth of today. They make candid statements, tongue-in-cheek, and use the jargon of the youth or the Gen Z, which is the population between 13 and 18 years old, and millennials under 25 years of age! So, in a video, the usage of words like F**k, Chu***a, Teri M***i etc are regular. In fact, while viewing the videos, though the staid and plus-40s might get offended initially, later on one will realise that it's the language the youth uses today. Cuss words are regularly and harmlessly used. (One hopes parents of this age group get used to hearing these words without getting scandalised or offended).

These stars also dress casually like any ordinary teenager — jeans, T's, loosely hanging sleeves-rolled shirts, sneakers etc. Even if they wear jackets, it's very casual — they wear it over a T rather than on a shirt with rolled-up sleeves. The youth relate to this. The vloggers talk straight to the camera, making the viewer feel as though they are personally talking to every individual.

Vijay Nair, the CEO of OML (Only Much Louder) Entertainment, which manages a maximum number of stand-up comedians, musicians, storytellers and their social media accounts in India, feels that just getting traffic, increased tweets and likes isn't enough. "Anybody can have their own YouTube channel, post a video and tweet. It's easy to become a one-time sensation. But to sustain popularity, there has to be substance in what they are talking about. It has to be relevant, should touch a chord. Only then can one survive on social media and make a career out of it," says the man who heads a multi-crore business organisation.

In his early 30s, Nair knows the pulse of the youth as he himself started his career at the age of 18, after dropping out of college and started managing well-known music bands. "I go by my gut feeling. I know what the youth, the Gen Z, is thinking, and we at OML recognise people who can deliver this," he says. He feels that as long as the smartphones get smarter, and the Internet flourishes, the popularity of the parallel universe of entertainment will not subside.

And it's not only the entertainment industry of comedians, musicians and their ilk that is getting famous. Cooking videos are the second-most popular videos viewed on YouTube. Especially newlyweds, who have zero knowledge of cooking, hungrily latch on to these vloggers who become their lifesavers in their in-laws' homes.

When Noida-based Nisha Madhulika uploaded her first video in 2011, she never realised that she would become one of the most sought after cooks for vegetarian dishes on YouTube. At 56 years of age, dressed like any normal homemaker, talking in simple Hindi, and cooking in a kitchen that looks like one's own kitchen without any exotic gadgets or décor, she is perhaps the oldest YouTube sensation. She has uploaded nearly 1,200 cooking videos. She is also one of the very few who doesn't take any sponsors or advertisers on her channel. In 2016, she was clubbed as one among the top 10 Indian YouTubers.

Then there is the Moradabad-based Dr Vikram Yadav. While studying for his MBBS, he realised he and his other friends depended a lot for information on the Net. After graduation, he decided to help others get this information easily. So he started uploading videos of the information he had gathered, the problems he encountered while handling a case, and the treatment he had administered. That got him unimaginable responses. So now he uploads a minimum of two videos a week — Sunday and Wednesday — and has 3 lakh subscribers for his YouTube channel titled Medical and Educational Videos.

The question, how and how much money these social media stars make?

According to Aditya Gupta, co-founder of iGenero, an interaction social media agency which helps brands find their feet on the web, on mobile, and on digital media, "Consumers of television, films, print media etc are getting tired of advertisements. This is forcing brands to be more creative. So they have started latching on to social media stars. A clever Twitter handler will use a name of the brand without being blatant about it, and he or she gets paid depending on their popularity on the social media."

He says people get paid anything between Rs 50 and Rs 20,00,000 per tweet, depending on the popularity of the social media star. A YouTuber might get paid more for the use of brands in their video.

Rickshawali says, "I charge according to the work the sponsor or the brand is doing. If it's for a good cause, like women's empowerment, children's health and education, I might do it free. But if it's just the use of brands to go with my name, then I charge accordingly."

Bollywood Gandu says, "When brands started approaching me to use their names for a payment, initially I was a bit surprised. Then I found that it was good money! It was like bonus money. I certainly wasn't saying no!" Brands that use his name are Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm, Cadbury etc. They sometimes ask him to hashtag or use pre-written messages in his tweets.

Komal Lath of Tute Consultancy helps brands reach their target, zeroes in on the YouTubers or Twitter handlers whose name could help the particular brands. "We identify these people for our brands and do the negotiations with their managers for them to use our brands either in their tweets or videos."

So the new parallel universe entertainers make money while we get entertained almost at no cost, sitting in the privacy of our homes, while travelling, in office, or anywhere, as long as we are glued to our smartphones, and are hooked to the Net!

The theme for the next photo feature is SEASON IN THE SUN. Submit your entry (one per person) with your name, a caption, & information about where you have taken the photo, to
sundaydh@gmail.com latest by April 10, 2017.

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If you are wondering how to escape the sweltering summer heat, here are our picks of six hill getaways spread across the country. Some of them were originally summer capitals of Indian princedoms and summer headquarters for the British.

The British built resorts to which they could escape for rest and recuperation. Soon they became summer capitals of the governors, and later, popular summertime destinations. Tucked far away from the hustle and bustle of the cities, these hill stations offer a medley of salubrious weather, stunning landscape, outdoor pursuits, and a slice of history. You'll find a potpourri of vacations to choose a memorable getaway. So pack your bags and retreat to the cooler climes of these hill stations.

Matheran, a walker's paradise
If you want to give your eyes and ears some rest, your feet some exercise, and shed some weight in a few days, all you have to do is head to Matheran, the only pedestrian hill station in Asia. Vehicular traffic is prohibited, which accounts for the healthy, clean and unpolluted environment. In this walker's paradise, you can trudge along the red-gravel kutcha road, or the tiny railway track, or hire horses to navigate you to the 38 designated lookout points bearing those exotic English names and a peculiar charm.

Matheran is an undulating hilltop cloaked in shady trees and ringed by walking trails leading to several vantage points from where one can have stunning views of the cliffs, plains, grassy glades and the mountain range. One can hike one's way through wooded pathways winding through towering evergreen trees, ferns and wild flowers to see the green carpeted slopes and cliffs and the whorls of haze, blue mist swirling down the mountains into the gorges from these points.

From Porcupine Point, one can see the dramatic sunset and hear one's own voice thrown back at Echo Point; Louisa Point flaunts a beautiful plateau and the ruins of the Prabhal Fort. The Hart Point offers you a view of the night lights of Mumbai. You can reach the valley below Tree Hill, down the path known as 'Shivaji's Ladder'. It is so called because the Maratha leader is said to have used it. From Panorama Point, you can get a bird's-eye view of Neral town, and on a clear day, even as far as Mumbai in the west. Round off your trip with a visit to the main bazaar. Shop around for touristy knick-knacks and sip cups of piping hot masala chai over nibbles of vada pav.

Wayanad, Malabar's gem
If you go to Wayanad district scouting for a place called Wayanad, you are likely to be disillusioned! There is no place by that name. Interestingly, though the district is called Wayanad, unlike Kerala's other district headquarters, this one is not named after the district. Wayanad in local parlance means paddy country, but there is hardly any trace of paddy here. Keeping the district headquarters Kalpetta as the base, explore the myriad tourist attractions of the district.

If you have a flair for history, visit the pre-historic Edakkal Caves formed out of a strange disposition of three massive boulders on the crest of Ambukuthimala, a hill near Sultan Bathery. For the laid-back, there are mist-cloaked, undulating hillsides swathed in spice plantations, hedged by lush rainforests, rushing rivulets, and sparkling cascades that stun the eyes with their varying shades of green. Take a boat ride in the freshwater Pookode Lake near Lakkidi. This placid lake gets its name from the myriads of white and mauve water lilies that grow within.

For a whiff of raw adventure, take the nine-kilometre trek through the dense forests to Pakshipathalam, a grotto of caves crafted by nature millions of years ago in Brahmagiri Hills, climb up Chembra Peak, the tallest summit in this region, pitch a tent, or go island-hopping to Kuruva Dweep, a 950-acre maze of islets.

The ancient Mahavishnu Temple at Thirunelly, set against the backdrop of the towering Brahmagiri Hills, is a big draw for those of a religious persuasion. A ritual dip in the Papanasini river, flowing downhill, will wash away one's worldly sins. There's also the Sultan Bathery Jain Temple, which was Tipu Sultan's ammunition dump. The town derives its name from that use. Culminate your sojourn with a visit to Tholpetty and Muthanga wildlife sanctuaries, which form part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.

In tea country, Munnar
With its sprawling tea plantations, rolling hills, sparkling waterfalls, picture-postcard hamlets and undulating valleys of lush greenery, Munnar has all the makings of an idyllic holiday destination. If you want to delve into the history of tea tradition in the High Ranges, just walk into India's first tea museum set in an over-a-century-old tea estate of the Kanan Devan Hills Produce Co.

The drives out of Munnar through some of the far-flung tea estates are pretty interesting, especially the one leading to the dams of Mattupetty, Kundale, and also to Top Station, perched precariously on a precipitous ridge in Tamil Nadu, three kilometres from the inter-state border. This idyllic spot has stupendous views of the Tamil Nadu plains and the edge of the Western Ghats. En route, scream your lungs out at the Echo Point and take a cruise in the picturesque backwaters of the Mattupetty Dam, flanked by steep hills and dense woods, and you are sure to catch glimpses of wild elephants quenching their thirst on the far side.

Munnar's allure lies in its proximity to a host of attractions like Kolukkumalai, acclaimed to be 'the highest tea plantation in the country' churning 'the most flavoursome tea in the market'. Within driving distance is the Eravikulam National Park where you can spot the endangered Nilgiri Tahr gambolling freely on the slopes within touching distance. It plays host to the 8841-ft Anaimudi, the highest peak south of the Himalayas, and also shelters the exotic and endangered Neelakurinji plant which covers the hills with its mauve blossoms once in 12 years. In the vicinity of this tea town is Kerala's largest natural sandalwood plantation in Marayoor and Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary where you can spot the endangered star tortoises basking in the sun, and the giant grizzled squirrel, the star attraction of the sanctuary.

Cool, cool Coonoor
If you want to skip 'Snooty Ooty' and give its regular tourist attractions a miss, head off the beaten path tracks to Coonoor. From Mettupalayam, hop on to the tiny toy train (1899-built Nilgiri Mountain Railway train, a UNESCO World Heritage Site) which chugs through the middle of small hill hamlets, providing a scenic thrill around every bend. The wheezing and whistle screeches of the train echo across the valley, as it pushes the carriages forward, across ravines, through tunnels, bridges and hugging mountain slopes, and passing rushing streams and sparkling waterfalls and toy-like stations with quaint names like Adderley, Hill Grove, Runnymede and Ketti, where Shah Rukh Khan gyrated to 'Chaiyya, Chaiyya' atop a train.

Head to the cooler reaches of Upper Coonoor, which are still quiet and peaceful. Visit the lovely Botanical Gardens of Sim's Park, which feature more than 1,000 plant species. The drives out of Coonoor are refreshing with the towering eucalyptus and cinchona trees rising from the slopes, their mingled fragrance teasing the senses. Lamb's Rock, a sheer precipice which drops down several hundred metres into the heart of dense jungle, provides a stunning view of the Coimbatore plains. From Dolphin's Nose, a rock resembling a dolphin's snout, you can see Catherine Falls, a silver cascade, on a clear day. Don't miss 'Sixth Mile' and 'Ninth Mile', designated film shooting areas which have been immortalised in many a Bollywood dance sequence.

The drive from Kotagiri to Kodanad, past sprawling tea plantations, rolling hills, arch-shaped, thatched barrel-vaulted Toda temples, and undulating valleys of lush greenery, is exhilarating. Claimed to be the smallest and oldest of the trio of hill resorts in the Nilgiris, Kotagiri is now a tea plantation territory, and the region offers splendid walks.

From Kodanad Viewpoint (6,400 ft, near Kotagiri), the views of Rangaswamy Pillar and Peak are simply awesome. The stunning view of the Moyar river snaking its way and emptying into the Bhavani Sagar Dam will remain vividly etched in your memory.

Manali, an alpine getaway
Located at the northern end of the Kulu Valley, at the confluence of the Beas and Manalsu rivers, this alpine getaway is synonymous with streams and bird song, scenic landscape and snowcapped mountains, ancient Hindu temples and Tibetan monasteries. It has currently metamorphosed from a backpacker's jaunt to a flamboyant destination. For adrenaline junkies, there's a gamut of breathtaking adventure sports and outdoor activities like trekking, white water rafting and skiing in this great outdoors destination.

According to legends, the name Manali is derived from Manu, the abode of Manu, who came here for the renewal of life after the great deluge.

Visit the several Tibetan monasteries bang in the heart of the town. Stop by the handicraft centre if you wish to pick up thangka paintings and handwoven carpets. If you want to 'see' and 'touch' snow for the first time, head to Snow Point, the closest point to Manali with ample snow. You can build your snowman, hurl your buddies with snowballs, and amble around in snow shoes.

Explore on foot the nearby hamlets of Old Manali and Vashisht. Admire the laid-back charm of old wood-and-stone houses, visit the old market and relish a delicious meal at a riverside café. Try the pan-fried trout with lemon and garlic, or the wood-oven-baked trout with roasted almond sauce. Stop by the little hamlet of Vashisht located on the left bank of the Beas on the northern side of the valley. It is renowned for its hot springs, temples and stone houses. Soak yourself in the sulphurous hot water springs and experience the magic.

A grassy path leads to the Hidimba Temple, which was featured in Mani Ratnam's Roja. It stands tall among the stately deodars in a clearing in the dense forest. The temple has a four-tiered pagoda-shaped roof, and a carved doorway that is embellished with figures of Hindu gods and symbols.

Shillong, Scotland of the East
Located in Khasi Hills, Shillong is a three-hour drive from Guwahati. With its old world charm and lingering echoes of the British Raj, spectacular sunrises, pine-covered hills, green lakes, polo ground, championship golf course, Victorian bungalows, churches, singing brooks and crashing cascades, Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, earned the sobriquet 'Scotland of the East'. The British influence is discernible in the names of the waterfalls which abound here. Picnics, boating and day-long hikes are punctuated with leisurely shopping. Attend the concerts in Shillong, which has a vibrant music scene, and don't forget to try out the roadside momos.

Start with a visit to Umiam Lake, better-known as Barapani (big water), which sets the mood for a lovely destination ahead. One can hire boats to splash around the placid lake created as part of a hydroelectric project. The Don Bosco Museum of Indigenous North East Culture, a truly amazing repository of information on the entire North Eastern states, is worth a peek.

If you need more enervating exercises, there is the Shillong Peak to climb with its summit of 1,965 metres, affording a splendid view of the city and its outlying environs on a clear day. In the evening, the city lights below glitter and twinkle like a giant Christmas tree. Shillong and its environs resonate with the sound of thundering waterfalls that hurtle down the hill slopes, spraying its surroundings with a delicate mist of water. Mawsmai Falls, Elephant Falls, Bishop Falls, Spread Eagle Falls, Sweet Falls, Crinoline Falls and Beadon Falls are the well-known ones.

Explore the Mawsmai Caves, an atmospheric system of caves and tunnels filled with stalagmites and stalactites. Stop by Nartiang, the summer capital of the Jaintia kings. Take a look at the incredible collection of monoliths and standing stones raised by these kings.

The year 1972 was a year of milestone UN conferences. June that year saw the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, the gathering that gave us World Environment Day. Five months later, in November 1972, the General Conference of UNESCO adopted the Convention concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage. This was the conference that gave rise to World Heritage Sites (WHS), places that are deemed 'irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration', as UNESCO eloquently put it. These are monuments, sites or landscapes that have Outstanding Universal Value — cultural and/or natural significance that 'is so exceptional as to transcend national boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity'.

India ratified the Convention in 1977, and in 1983, got the first set of sites inscribed on the World Heritage Site list — the Ajanta and Ellora caves, Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort.
That was then. Today, there are 35 sites in India that have been declared World Heritage.

WHS is a much sought after status. It instantly leads to greater visibility worldwide, leading to an influx of heritage tourists from around the world. What were once little known and scarcely visited monuments or sites, often in remote areas, are suddenly catapulted onto the world stage when they are inscribed on the WHS list.

Dr SVP Halakatti, who retired as director of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), points out that an important benefit is that the site gets better-protected. WHS managers can draw on technical expertise from UNESCO and other international bodies to better-conserve and manage the site. Additionally, WHS norms are stringent. "Ensuring that the site meets these norms raises the bar on conservation of the site," he says.

Hampi provides a great example of this. In the late 1900s, when local authorities began building a bridge across the Tungabhadra, UNESCO reacted by placing Hampi on the list of WHS in danger. The bridge, they averred, would ruin the ambience of the site, dominate the vista, and take away from the natural grandeur of the boulders and ruins. UNESCO recommended shifting the bridge elsewhere. Construction halted and eventually, in 2009, the bridge collapsed on its own. But meanwhile, the incident spurred the setting up of a Hampi World Heritage Area Management Authority which now guides, advises and oversees development in the site and its surroundings. Later, a similar management body was set up in the WHS of Champaner in Gujarat. These management bodies involve all the stakeholders, and so lead to a better management of the site.

Basket of hopefuls
It's no wonder then that everyone wants to get onto the WHS bandwagon. Currently, we have 44 sites that are on the Tentative List. These are a basket of hopefuls that the country presents to UNESCO, with the intention of nominating them sometime to be inscribed on the WHS List. In other words, they are thought to have Outstanding Universal Value, besides meeting at least one of the 10 qualifying criteria for being declared a WHS. There is no bypassing some time on the Tentative List since only a site that is already on the Tentative List can be nominated for the WHS List.

Even a cursory glance at India's WHSes-in-waiting brings out the incredible diversity, multiculturalism and depth in our history and heritage. These sites span a time period from 3000 BC to the mid-1900s. Though they all have outstanding value, in the absence of the coveted WHS tag, many of them are still a little off the tourist track, which makes them must-see places.

The Harappan site of Dholavira in Gujarat is decidedly remote and not on most tourists' to-do lists. Getting to Dholavira means traversing mile after mile of vast brown lands, relieved only occasionally by the sight of women in typically colourful Gujarati attire. After hours of emptiness, you reach the bewitching, glistening, salt-encrusted Rann of Kutch which again stretches as far as the eye can see. And finally, there on an island in the middle of this gleaming white, long-dried sea lies Dholavira, a fortified city dating from at least 3000 BC. It is an amazing example of how sagacity, foresight and planning can help you thrive even in the most inhospitable climates. Check dams across two seasonal rivers nearby channelled water into a series of inter-connected reservoirs which girdled the city. Within the citadel, even the water that fell on the fort walls was collected and channelled to be stored in another set of interconnected reservoirs. One of the must-dos in Dholavira is to enter the underground stormwater drain, easily six feet high and comfortable enough to walk through. And of course, you can see examples of the well-planned sewage system of the Harappans that we have all heard of. This evidence of elaborate and meticulously-thought-out water management by the Harappans is one of Dholavira's Outstanding Universal Values, the other being its town planning.
Archaeologists believe the raison d'etre of Lothal, near Baroda, was its dockyard. During the excavations at the site in the 1950s, archaeologist S R Rao, the lead excavator, found a large tank, measuring 217m x 26m, on the northern end of the town. Following the discovery of inlets and outlets in two of the walls, he postulated that the structure was a dockyard: boats would have entered here from channels that connected it to the rivers nearby.This makes Lothal the only Harappan-period port town known so far, which is why it was added to the Tentative List in 2014.

Besides these ancient Harappan cities, the Tentative List also has the three living cities of Ahmedabad, Delhi and Jaipur. In 2011, the Historic City of Ahmedabad was added to the Tentative List primarily on the strength of its pols, its communities, and its traditional wooden architecture. A year later, the many-layered city of Delhi found a place on the Tentative List for its unique cultural landscape, a product of the amalgamation of several cultures. Jaipur was added in 2015 for being an example of 18th century town planning. There's more to Lothal than the tank, of course. You can wander around the 3,000-year-old settlement, potter about the remains of ancient houses and workshops, or imagine yourself a trader in one of Lothal's once-bustling old warehouses.

An eye for detail
A settlement of a very different sort is the cluster of villages in Chettinad which was included in the Tentative List in 2014. These villages showcase the urban design and architecture typical of the Natukottai Chettiars. These Chettiars were Tamil merchants who, in the mid-1800s, ran thriving businesses in Singapore, Malaysia and elsewhere in the Far East. With their fortunes, they built flamboyant houses in their hometowns in Chettinad. These opulent mansions are characterised by a unique combination of European designs and Tamil vernacular sensibilities. Though several have been lost in the recent past, enough jaw-dropping examples of the distinctive Chettinad mansions still survive to make a trip there well worth your while.

Far further south of Chettinad and at the far end of the spectrum from it in terms of style and colour is the palace in the tiny town of Padmanabhapuram. Padmanabhapuram was once the capital of the old Travancore State and its palace is one of India's oldest and best surviving examples of traditional wooden architecture. Though it is now in Tamil Nadu, the palace is maintained and managed by the Kerala Department of Archaeology. The beginnings of the palace date to the 1590s. The last additions were made in 1800s. Understated and elegant, every feature in the palace — from the glossy black floors to the wooden slatted corridors, from the medicinal wooden bed to the polished metal mirrors — can draw a sigh of admiration (or envy!) from the visitor. This palace was added to the Tentative List in 2014.

The temples of Bishnupur have been on the Tentative List since 1998. Built in the 1600s with brick, laterite and terracotta, most of the temples are in a style specific to the region. A few, like the Rasmanch Temple, are in a style all of their own. Built on a square, laterite plinth, the temple has a colonnade of arches topped with a series of jharokha-like roofs out of which arises a pyramidal superstructure that at first seems straight out of Teotihuacan — quirky, unusual, and certainly of universal value. The temples that were built here a few years after the Rasmancha took on a wholly different avatar: they came alive with terracotta panels on their outer walls depicting hunting scenes, dancing, and of course, scenes from the puranas, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Make a beeline to Bishnupur, for you will not see such terracotta creations anywhere else in the country.
While every site on the Tentative List is unique, none is perhaps quite as unique as the island of Majuli in Assam. This, the world's largest river island and India's only island district, lies in the middle of the mighty Brahmaputra. The ever-shifting river has created a network of smaller islands that encircle Majuli, like stationary satellites. Majuli itself is a mosaic of green rice fields interlaced with water channels, all incredibly scenic. But being in the middle of the restless river means parts of the island are washed away every monsoon. Apart from its geography, Majuli is also unique for its villages and settlement patterns, such as its stilt-supported houses for example — clear responses of people to the dynamic and unpredictable environment they live in. Majuli was added to the Tentative List in 2004. Some scholars believe it will disappear in a few decades, having already been whittled down by the river from 1,200 sq km in the 1800s to about 800 sq km today.

In this, our 70th year of independence, perhaps you could visit some of the sites connected with our freedom struggle. In 2014, a plethora of sites from all over the country, all connected with the freedom movement, were added to the Tentative List. They include ashrams associated with Mahatma Gandhi; routes along the Dandi March; places where the flag Satyagraha took place, including Shivapura near Maddur; and places associated with the Quit India Movement, among others. In a world that was and is rife with wars and violence, we fail to realise just how rare a mass movement the freedom struggle was. One of the most poignant places where you can get a peek at the non-violent yet steely character of the struggle is Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, where Gandhiji stayed from 1917 to 1930. This was the crucible for many of his ideas including on ahimsa, physical labour and education. The 36-acre ashram preserves the house where Gandhiji and Ba lived, the little hut where Vinoba Bhave lived, and the guest house where visitors stayed. It is quite a moving experience to imagine Gandhiji meeting other leaders of the freedom movement in the small front room of his house, discussing and charting the course of the struggle even as he continued spinning on his charkha.

So, what next for these 44 sites on the Tentative List? The Archaeological Survey of India, the designated nodal agency that liaises with UNESCO, believes all these sites are worthy of being declared WHS. But the recent UNESCO guidelines mandate that only two sites can be sent up for nomination by any country each year, and further, that at least one of these must be a natural or cultural site. This means that some of these sites might have to wait a long time before they acquire that coveted status of being a World Heritage Site.

Often referred to as the 'Father of Indian Modern Art', Raja Ravi Varma (April 29, 1848 — October 2, 1906) was immensely popular in his lifetime. Such was the sway of the largely self-taught painter from Kerala that in 1894, when a set of his works travelled from Baroda to Bombay, lines upon lines of people reportedly filed through the exhibition halls.

In a career spanning three-and-a-half decades, Ravi Varma supposedly created close to 2,000 paintings. He also produced countless editions of oleographs, which adorn millions of Indian homes to this day — either in original form or reworked/fake versions.

Ravi Varma's reputation was principally built on a series of delicately detailed portraits of the rich and the regal; and his new brand of mythological paintings which were later repeated in his iconic oleographs. He enjoyed royal patronage; and was courted, among others, by the Maharajas of Travancore and Mysore, Baroda and Udaipur. The famous 'Ravi Varma style' became a source of inspiration for many artists during and after his time.

While his paintings were principally made for the rich elite, his inexpensive oleographs of Hindu legends reached even the commonest of common people of the country. Rabindranath Tagore was among those who witnessed and recorded this phenomenon: "During my childhood when Ravi Varma's age arrived in Bengal, reproductions of the European paintings on the walls were promptly replaced with the oleographs of his work".

Historians have recognised that Ravi Varma's most interesting innovation lay in the choice of themes; giving gods and goddesses a human face; and physically freezing mythological scenes. "He was adding a new dimension of portrayals of traditional narrative," observes artist and art critic Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh. "These were 'flesh and blood' divinities... The new realistic avatars of the goddesses met with such an overwhelming response that their earlier forms disappeared from public memory."

Over time, Ravi Varma's work was also being linked to the notion of nationalism. Sister Nivedita, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, praised him for "the urge to feel and act patriotically and bring painting to the service of Swadeshi and Nationalism." In 1907, a year after his death, the monthly magazine Modern Review hailed him as "the greatest artist of modern India, a nation builder who showed the moral courage of a gifted 'high-born' in taking up the 'degrading profession of painting'."

An eventful life

Ravi Varma has been subject to several biographies by noted authors and historians. That he was born into an aristocratic family in the erstwhile Travancore state; showed an early interest in drawing by scribbling on palace walls; and drew the attention of his uncle who recognised his talent, are all part of an oft-repeated narrative.

As interesting was the exceptional bondage and lifelong partnership between Ravi Varma and his youngest brother, C Raja Varma, which was broken only by the latter's death. Ravi Varma's marriage to the sister of the Maharani of Travancore in 1866 lasted all of 25 years, but was frequently interrupted by his long absences when the brothers set out on their nationwide trips.

A major turning point came when Ravi Varma was invited to Baroda in 1881 as a State guest by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad and painted many portraits of the Maharaja and his family. Seven years later, the Varma brothers returned to Baroda to paint 14 Puranic works for the royal family. In the meantime, Ravi Varma's reputation had soared: as colonial India's finest Indian artist; as a pioneer in employing human models to illustrate Hindu gods and goddesses; and as a skilful trendsetter who fused European academic techniques with Indian sensibilities.

Historians have vividly described how the artist's growing interest in painting subjects from Indian mythology resulted in his setting up the Ravi Varma Lithographic Press in Bombay with imported German machinery and German technicians. It is this press (later moved to Lonavla) which produced a wide array of copies of his paintings, primarily of Hindu gods and goddesses, and reached the homes of tens of thousands of Indian homes. In due course, however, its operations became financially unwieldy, forcing Ravi Varma to sell the press to his trusted German technician Fritz Schleicher. (The press continued successfully until a devastating fire destroyed the whole factory in 1972).

Ravi Varma continued to receive royal patronage and travelled widely, but suffered a great personal tragedy when his brother, confidante and fellow traveller died in 1904. It was, according to many, a blow from which the famed artist never really recovered. One version says that Ravi Varma had planned to accept sanyasa when he turned 60 in 1908. But he did not survive to see that happen. A worsening diabetes took its toll and the painter of many gods and goddesses succumbed on October 2, 1906, aged 58 years, drawing curtains to an eventful life.

A cultural icon

It is interesting to see how more than 110 years after his death, Ravi Varma's name remains active in public memory or discourse. For millions of his present-day admirers, Raja Ravi Varma is, and will always be, an undisputed cultural icon. "His work has this special quality of timelessness," says Bharani Thirumal Rukmini Bayi Varma, his great-great-granddaughter, and the driving force behind the Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation.

Ravi Varma's works feature in important events and exhibits even today. Books and novels on his life and art are routinely dished out by publishers. An occasional film too comes by. Fakes of his work appear; and disputes on authenticity of his paintings reach the courts for settlement.

Chroniclers have recorded that Ravi Varma's popularity did dip following his death. The works of the erstwhile 'Painter Prince' had already begun gathering not-so-respectful titles like 'bazaar art' and 'Indian kitsch'. In the 1950s, growing interest in modern art affected his reputation further. But Ravi Varma bounced back into public domain, especially after a major exhibition of his works was curated by painter A Ramachandran and art conservator Rupika Chawla at the National Museum, New Delhi in 1993.

Last year, an exhibition titled 'Raja Ravi Varma: Royal Lithography and Legacy' was organised by the Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Bengaluru. The show, which ran for six weeks, attracted unprecedented viewership. "Forget the opening night when it was a virtual chock-a-block of cheering fans of Ravi Varma; even on other days, hundreds of visitors thronged the galleries of NGMA," recalls Ganesh Shivaswamy, a trustee of the Foundation and curator of the show.

In the art market, Ravi Varma is an undisputed star. For the discerning collector, it is often said, there is no greater thrill than a chance to own a canvas by Ravi Varma. "In 1979, the Indian government declared Ravi Varma to be a National Art Treasure and prevented the export of his paintings from India," observes international auction house, Sotheby's. "So it is incredibly rare for his works to ever come up at auction internationally."

Last month, the highlight of Sotheby's New York auction (March 16, 2017) was his Untitled (Damayanti). The 28¾ x 20¾ inch oil on canvas showed the protagonist princess in a glimmering sari, pining in the moonlight for her lover. Ravi Varma, who was known to combine the classic Indian mythology with European realism, supposedly used a photograph of a European performance of The Feast of Roses, L'inamorata (1900) to re-imagine a scene from the Sanskrit play. The painting came with an estimate of 500,000 — 700,000 USD, but went under the hammer for a staggering USD 1,692,500, or Rs 11.9 crore.

Exactly a year ago, another oil painting by Ravi Varma, Untitled (Portrait of a Young Woman in Russet and Crimson Sari) had sold for $586,000 in Sotheby's auction (New York / March 15, 2016), almost doubling its high estimate. In November 2016, at Pundole's art auction in Mumbai, Ravi Varma's 'Radha in the Moonlight' (1890 / 57 ½ x 41 ½ inch) sold for no less than Rs 20 crore!

Share of criticism

While there has never been a dearth of die-hard admirers, Ravi Varma's art has also had its share of criticism and controversy during his lifetime and thereafter. He was even taken to Bombay court and tried on charges of obscenity, for offending public morality and hurting the religious and cultural sentiments of people by painting Indian mythological characters in allegedly indecent ways. The artist fought the case successfully and was eventually absolved of the charges. (Ketan Mehta's feature film, Rang Rasiya (2014), re-enacts the court case).

Beyond the courts, Ravi Varma faced derisive critics on the question of aesthetics. Historian and philosopher Ananda Coomaraswamy reportedly accused that his work was nothing more than a "superficial study of Indian life... too mannered, too Hindu, too literal, too melodramatic." For artist M F Husain, Ravi Varma's prints were "the worst kind of calendar art", and the goddesses, "Italian women in saris".

Several historians feel that printing of oleographs was Ravi Varma's real undoing. They say that it ensured his quick slide from neoclassical to kitsch; and eventually led to his downfall, both financially and creatively. "In many ways, this one move towards mass production both made and unmade 'the modern' artist," observes academic Tapti Guha-Thakurta.

"While it turned his model of Indian art into a mass phenomenon (the staple of a new popular picture trade), it also signalled Ravi Varma's fall from grace — his banishment from the canons of 'high art' and 'modernity' in Indian art history. The first of our new creed of modern Indian artists was lost to the mass market, largely a victim of his own success..."

Master painter's influence...

Ravi Varma remains one of Indian art's most intriguing figures to inspire contemporary artists, photographers and filmmakers. "The impact of Ravi Varma upon what is contemporary Indian art is immense," says Deepanjana Pal, author of 'The Painter: A Life Of Ravi Varma'. "His influence on the kitsch style is obvious, and artists like Pushpamala N have referenced him directly in a lot of their work."

Bengaluru-based Pushpamala, whose works have been described as 'performance photography' has, among others, reworked three Ravi Varma popular paintings (Lady In The Moonlight, Lakshmi and Returning From The Tank), posing herself as the main protagonist. In one of his works, American artist and photographer Waswo X Waswo too has replaced a Ravi Varma's Lakshmi with his own suit-clad self.

His Karnataka connection

Ravi Varma's connection with the Mysore State (now Karnataka) had started way back in 1870. As a young man of 22, he is said to have undertaken a pilgrimage to Kollur Mookambika Temple to perform a long 41-day propitiation and seek the blessings of the goddess for his artistic journey.

Later on, Ravi Varma's connection with Mysore State was strengthened when his art was highly appreciated by the Mysore Maharaja and other royals. In 1885, he was invited by Maharaja Chamarajendra Wodeyar to produce portraits of the royal family. He was treated with exceptional kindness and respect by the Maharaja and his staff. Almost two decades later, he was commissioned to paint nine mythological paintings for the Jaganmohan Palace, Mysore.

Just a year before his death, Ravi Varma had accompanied the Maharaja of Mysore and the Prince of Wales to witness the famous Khedda in the forests. Among his very last paintings were those made on Khedda operations; one of the paintings shows huge tents of the royal entourage with a motor car in the foreground.

Back to the present

On a bright and sunny afternoon last month, this writer visited Thiruvananthapuram's Sree Chitra Gallery which houses, among others, a collection of more than 40 original paintings of Raja Ravi Varma. Set amidst swaying trees and green lawns, the gallery is quite welcoming, but has few visitors. The general condition of the paintings is quite okay, but the congested and rather insipid display definitely begs overhauling. There are no information boards; even basic facts such as the medium, size and dates of paintings are absent.

In 2005, a team of specialists supposedly came from the National Museum, New Delhi and undertook the restoration of 43 Raja Ravi Varma's paintings. The restoration team's suggestion to maintain better micro-climatic conditions in the gallery has apparently not been acted upon. The superintendent of the gallery is friendly, but confesses to space and other constraints. Non-Malayalis are likely to face problems conversing with the gallery staff. But it is here that one gets to see a range of Ravi Varma's brightly coloured paintings with a low-priced entry ticket.

Later, sipping tea in the adjoining canteen, Nemom Pushparaj, vice-chairman of Kerala Lalithakala Academy, has his take on the artist. "It is easy to criticise Ravi Varma's art, but one must understand that he lived in a totally different era," says Pushparaj, who has authored a biography on Ravi Varma in Malayalam. "Instead of enjoying their riches and whiling away their time, Ravi Varma and his brother Raja Varma chose to dedicate their lives to art... Looking at the vast array of works and conditions in which they were produced and disseminated, I feel that their contribution to Indian art is immense. Ravi Varma suffered personal tragedies, humiliation and financial trauma, yet his commitment to art never diminished. He needs to be seen and appreciated for his energy, artistic vision and insight, by us, as well as future generations."

Open to interpretations

Ravi Varma is, however, not an undisputed hero in Thiruvananthapuram today. "Artworks must be open to multiple interpretations," says noted contemporary artist N N Rimzon. "They must provoke an intellectual thought or trigger a spiritual experience in the viewer and not be static objects. Ravi Varma's works do not do that. They are all too obvious, too simplistic, and even boring. He was a good portrait artist, but when one looks at the complete body of work, you do not get the feeling that he evolved like, for instance, a miniature artist did, by using traditional motifs and ideas, but presenting them in a wonderfully evolved aesthetic."

Artist A S Sajith, currently the principal of the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, seems to agree. "There are two sides to Ravi Varma," observes Sajith. "One has to respect how liberated he was for his times, and also for his entrepreneurial spirit. The fact that he persisted with his art and was a pioneer in some ways has to be acknowledged and admired. But when it comes to his paintings, one cannot be as generous. When we apply clinical standards and objectively evaluate his work (as we would do for any other artist), Ravi Varma falls short in many ways. He did not fully explore the immense possibilities that were available to him, but stuck to a kind of formulaic and mechanical way of making art. That is why one clearly feels a lack of depth and understanding in his work.

After seeing a few works, one can become disinterested, rather than feeling thrilled." So, what would Sajith tell his students about Ravi Varma? "I would like my students to study and understand Ravi Varma honestly, without any preconceptions; and form their own ideas and impressions without getting swayed by popular sentiments." And what about conserving Ravi Varma's works? "I am all for preserving his works for posterity," says Sajith emphatically. "Irrespective of one's opinion on his aesthetics and creativeness, it is vital that all his existing works must be well-maintained and made available to students as well as researchers and academics. There are still many aspects of his work which are to be studied and researched."

Tracing the roots

Kilimanoor is a small and quiet village about 45 km from Thiruvananthapuram; and the birthplace of Ravi Varma. Biju Rama Varma, a descendant of Raja Ravi Varma's family and secretary of the Kilimanoor Palace Trust, looks after the palace which includes a spacious hall which was once Ravi Varma's studio. "This place is very sacred for us," he says reverentially. "In this very hall over 100 images were painted by the master. His spirit still lingers here." Strange as it may seem, there is not a single original painting of Ravi Varma in sight. "All his original works from the palace were donated to Sree Chitra Gallery."

An accomplished classical musician, 48-year-old Biju is a long-term resident of the Kilimanoor palace. "I have had extraordinary experiences watching visitors who come from all parts of the country, particularly Maharashtra and Gujarat. Many of them stand in silence with closed eyes and folded hands, as if they've entered a temple. I have seen Maharashtrian families collecting small portions of soil and even fallen leaves here. They tell me that those collections would be placed in their puja rooms along with other idols for worship. Such is their devotion!"

Biju is happy that Ravi Varma's paintings have been declared as national treasures, but feels that more could be done. "Even the British took notice and awarded Kaisar-i-Hind Gold Medal way back in 1904. We, the Ravi Varma family, plan to petition the central government to recognise his extraordinary contribution to Indian art and bestow the prestigious Bharat Ratna on him."

Before bidding goodbye, Biju takes this writer on a mini tour of the palace and its surrounding areas explaining the historical significance. The last stop is the modest memorial of Raja Ravi Varma, set up not long ago in the very place where the painter was cremated in 1906. Tucked away in a corner, and away from the main building, the granite cenotaph is speckled with fallen leaves. Standing before it, I wonder how the legacy of Ravi Varma would pan out in the coming years — particularly when a recharged 'religious' and 'nationalistic' fervour seems slowly but surely taking centre stage in public discourse these days.

Ravi Varma in today's times

There are several organisations and institutions working to promote Raja Ravi Varma's work. Among them is one set up by Kilimanoor's Biju Rama Varma and his family members. "The Raja Ravi Varma International Foundation for Art and Culture (RIFAC) wants to be the umbrella organisation to promote Ravi Varma and his art. In the long term, we feel that this palace should house a permanent art gallery, which was one of his unfulfilled dreams. Also, we have a vision that this palace and surroundings should create a Santiniketan kind of artists' village and atmosphere where not only painters and artists, but also scholars, researchers, musicians and performers should come and let out their creative juices."

In Bengaluru, the Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation was established in 2015 by Bharani Thirunal Rukmini Bayi Varma, the great-great-grand daughter of Raja Ravi Varma, along with gallerist Gitanjali Maini, lawyer Ganesh Shivaswamy, and visual artist Jay Varma. The motto of the foundation is Knowledge, Appreciation and Preservation. It has plans to enter diversified areas such as promotion research; art authentication; and international cooperation.

India has enthusiastically started shopping for factory-produced goods. Till not very long ago, India had largely purchased forest-produced products. Almost every item of necessity was shaped out of nature.

Consider the charpoy or cot, for instance. It was made with bamboo/wood and natural-fibre ropes like coconut or jute. Garden chairs and stools were created with sarkanda/moonj grass. Footmats were made with coir, while sisal grass was turned into rugs and table mats.

The madur kathi reed from Bengal was woven into exquisite feather-light chattai (mat), as was korai grass in Tamil Nadu. The broom came from the flower of the amilso, or Thysanolaena maxima, growing on the hills of Meghalaya. And if you wanted flowers and pictures for decoration or wedding requisites (as the topor or headgear used in Bengal and Orissa), the sholapith reed was at hand to craft it.

The most essential of all belongings, cloth, came from nature too, be it from the cotton shrub or the silkworm. Examples are many, and these reflect sustainable living, wherein renewable natural resources were used to fashion items of daily use without harming the environment.

As a society, we proudly claim to have inched towards the path of industrial development, but along the way, we seem to have forgotten that progress needs to be gentle yet progressive. We have become a society where the market dictates terms to us. Where success is measured by flaunting more, and where big gets bigger.

This is the typical outcome of a consumerist economy. It creates an ecosystem where we begin consuming more than required. Social media, television and advertising blitzkrieg subtly impress upon brand consciousness and give birth to the desire to possess. Facilities like personal loans and EMIs let us make purchases beyond what the wallet allows.

High disposable incomes play their part too. Peer pressure adds itself to the list and we begin living up to a certain image we have formed about ourselves for the eyes of the society. We get sucked into the culture of overconsumption and find it difficult to wriggle out of it. What gets affected by this is the environment around us, but we remain oblivious to that fact.

Realisation on this score has begun creeping in and the discerning citizen is making a conscious effort to change gears. Organic living is the buzzword these days. It's all about slowing down, pondering over your actions and the effect they will have on the environment. In a way, it's about going back to how it all began.

Its focus is on undoing the harms and channelising energies to create better surroundings. The thought has caught on and slow living is being appreciated. It's an urban concept, yes, but it's begun bringing about a change in the mindset of the rush-hour crowd.

Under the weather

What do you think is affecting Planet Earth the most? The warning signals are all around us. The answer is climate change. Global temperature has sharply risen in the past 25 years. If the current trend continues, the earth could be sizzling soon. Natural calamities will be the backlash by a planet under dire stress. The effect of ecological imbalance is visible all around us.

Bengaluru, for instance, is an indicator of the times to come. An army officer hailing from Delhi, who was posted to the city in the mid-70s, never fails in recalling an episode where he needed to buy a fan for an outstation project. He could not get one in Bengaluru as the city had never felt the need for it. He mentions the city being a prize posting in those days on account of its salubrious weather and genteel living. He got a shocker when he visited it after decades, last year. "I had to use an air conditioner the whole day. That's when the truth about global warming hit me hard," he says.

There is a social-media message doing the rounds these days, which is meant in jest, but ably captures what changes we should be bringing about in daily living. It says: Dear Sun. It's 42C outside. Please go to settings>display>brightness and lower your brightness. Please, it's too hot to handle!

The Sun replies: I have not changed any settings. Please go to your settings and 1) Increase the number of trees, 2) Reduce carbon emissions levels, 3) Reduce concrete jungles, 4) Increase the number of lakes. Basically, switch to human mode.

Pause, play, stop

Slow living is a lifestyle shift of thinking globally but acting locally. It's about doing what you can at an individual level and influencing the society around you with your actions.

The changes can begin from your home. In case you want to invest in a house, choose a residential project that has an eco-friendly concept and ensures that you can check the boxes for attributes like: harnessing of solar energy, harvesting of rainwater, optimum use of locally available building material, a design that allows natural light into the house and minimises the use of electric heating or cooling.

Your present home may not have the above-mentioned features, but you can still adopt a green way of living. Begin by taking small steps in conserving natural resources like water. At a friend's house in Kerala, the kitchen drain water is directed towards the garden.

A colleague who lives in a flat doesn't discard the water used to clean the floor mops, instead uses it to water her potted plants. Indeed, every aspect at home can be rethought with a view to minimise carbon footprints. In interior decor, for instance, natural fibres like cotton, tassar and jute as well as handloom and natural vegetable-dyed textiles can be employed for upholstery and linen.

In the kitchen, don't get rid of the plastic vegetable basket, but buy a bamboo one the next time the need arises. By opting for local weaves, fabric and handicraft in your daily life, you will also be assisting in the promotion and sustenance of traditional skills.

The four R's

Should you want to view a remarkable natural lifestyle of a couple in today's times, tune into At Home with Venetia in Kyoto on NHK World TV. One of the most popular telly shows in Japan, a country very conscious about organic living, it takes you inside the home of Venetia Stanley-Smith, a British lady who has been in Japan for over 40 years. Married to a local, they set up home in the Ohara district of Kyoto a decade-plus back, with the thought of living among nature.

They invest in a century-old house, which is renovated and brought to life in keeping with the true character of eco-friendly construction in the area. Every element in that house and garden blends in with nature. For daily chores, Venetia goes to the extent of making her own chemical-free detergents and using traditional pots & pans and old-fashioned cane baskets. She prefers walking for her purchases rather than taking an automobile. She grows herbs and uses them in her cooking and to make medicines. Influenced by her, many Japanese families have shifted around Ohara to live a more handcrafted life.

Venetia follows the organic living mantra of four R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Replenish. It sounds straightforward, and is actually quite easy to follow. Incidentally, it is a thought not alien to Indians. We have always reused and recycled. So how does one get back to doing this? All you need to do is recall what your mothers and grandmothers did. Simple measures like using a cotton shopping bag for supplies, saying no to plastic packing as far as possible, reusing glass bottles, grinding spices at home, opting for newspaper bags for your provisions, offering surplus carrybags to vegetable vendors, hailing the kabadiwala for disposing of unusable items... can all make a difference.

Consumerism cajoles us into throwing a working product and replacing it with an upgraded version of the same. Next time you're tempted to do that, ask yourself whether you truly need a replacement. If it has a minor defect, can it be repaired? Even in the developed West, where once items went into the bin in the blink of an eye, people are beginning to realise that continuing with the same is not such a bad idea. Repair Cafe was a concept developed in 2009 in Amsterdam.

It was meant for people to come together and fix mechanical, electronic and other items instead of discarding them. It was felt MNCs were deliberately designing products with a short life span, forcing a consumer to buy new more often. Today, there are over a thousand Repair Cafes the world over as it's always satisfying to do something yourself. Online videos are a useful resource in this effort.

Managing waste

By opting for such measures, you also make a small contribution towards garbage management, which is an enormous challenge at the national level. Have you heard about the zero-waste woman? She is New York-based Lauren Singer who could put four years of garbage into a small jar. How did she do it? By simply saying no to plastic packaging, changing her eating habits, and going the extra mile to pick and choose products and services that were eco-friendly. By changing her lifestyle, she had "prevented thousands of pounds of trash going to landfill". She believed "one person can make a difference, it's just having a desire to do so".

Urban waste piles raising stink outside our township limits is not an uncommon sight. In order to reduce methane and carbon dioxide emissions generated through the usual waste disposal systems, recycling is what's required. Compost plants for biodegradable waste have been set up in many cities, but every citizen can help by consciously producing less garbage, just as Singer did.

You can make a small start today itself by beginning with your kitchen waste, which can go into a pit in the backyard, or into a terracotta composter. Over time it will turn into bio-manure, a complete natural nourishment for the soil in your garden or for potted plants.
Sowing & eating right

Food choices are a way of caring for the environment and your health. The spotlight has rightly been turned on organic food. Organic farming emits far fewer greenhouse gases than regular cultivation, so it's a great initiative to back. However, it's not enough to merely consume organic food, which includes not just chemical-free vegetables, but also free-range poultry and meat. Attention needs to be paid on sowing it right too. Many indigenous seeds have disappeared as the tendency has shifted to disease-resistant hybrid growing. The need of the hour is to deliberate on preserving native seeds, which are more suitable to our climatic conditions.

Eating the correct way is as important as the food on your plate. The 'slow food' concept initially emerged as a reaction to fast food and the fat-carbohydrate it was pumping into our systems. The movement lays emphasis on the traditional way of eating. That effectively means consuming seasonal locally grown food, using more whole cereals and unrefined oils, less packaged foods, and most importantly, sitting down, observing, and having a meal in a relaxed manner.

Why are we being made to think of taking measures in saving environment? It was never the case a few decades back. The reason is simple: we want more but give back less. This doesn't mean we need to live a minimalist life, or go out and buy a charpoy, but as consumers we do need to curb overindulgence and encourage initiatives that stop the plundering of our green wealth.

Let's take a look at Japan's lifestyle initiative once more. It's called Shinrin-yoku or forest bathing. It means healing yourself by being washed by the atmosphere of the forest and its silence. The therapy was developed in Japan decades back and has become an important aspect of healthcare in the country. Slow living is all about this: incorporating nature into your lives. What are you waiting for? The planet needs an embrace from you.

While her fellow students at the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi were busy drawing up blueprints for erecting new buildings, Aishwarya Tipnis was always more interested in restoring and reusing the old ones. A Master's degree in European Urban Conservation from the University of Dundee in Scotland further strengthened her resolve to work towards the preservation and conservation of historic buildings.

After all, "Heritage is an integral part of our identity and it would be foolish to let it crumble or fade away," believes this spirited conservation architect who has pioneered several urban conservation and building restoration projects in the country. She also adds, "In today's day and age, heritage and culture in general must remain relevant to all, not just artists and experts." Sunday Herald got her talking about two of her projects, which received the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation last year.

One of them happens to be the 18th century Maratha citadel, the Mahidpur Fort in rural Madhya Pradesh, located on the banks of River Kshipra, about 50 km from Ujjain. While not much remains of the original construction, it is still home to a small community that lives amongst the remnants of the medieval fort. Till about a few years ago, before any conservation efforts were initiated, it stood in a dilapidated condition — vandalised and almost on the verge of collapse. The building construction activity for the largest Jain temple in the region further posed a threat to the fort, as the ruins were being dismantled for the expansion of the temple and its activities.

The fort, or Qila, as it is popularly known amongst the locals, does not fall on any popular tourist trail due to its remote location and the lack of awareness about its historical past. We, perhaps, wouldn't have heard about it if it wasn't for the initiative undertaken by the Department of State Archaeology, Government of Madhya Pradesh, and the World Monuments Fund, New York.

Unknown to many, the town of Mahidpur is one of great importance. It was once a prosperous trading town on the Dakshinapatha trade route, but more importantly, it marks the site of the decisive Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817-18), also known as the battle of Mahidpur, that was fought between the British East India Company and the Maratha Holkars. It is said that the Marathas were almost on the verge of winning, when they were betrayed by one of their own generals, which led to their defeat. And ultimately, it resulted in the fall of the Maratha Empire and the subjugation of central India by the British.

Mahidpur is also believed to have great archaeological potential as several excavations have already been undertaken by the Archaeological Survey of India, which have led to the discovery of remains dating back to the Chalcolithic period. It thus became imperative to initiate a plan to preserve the remains of the fort.

The protection and conservation efforts made by Tipnis and her team involved the structural stabilisation and restoration of the walls and the bastions. All of it, which happened in a methodical manner, spanning over a period of two-and-half years, included the documentation and mapping process, a careful assessment of the condition of the archaeological remains, and on-site supervision of the execution of the works.

However, it wasn't as easy as it sounds. Apart from the remote location the architect's team worked in, language too posed a problem. "The challenge was to distill the ideas in the simplest way and explain it to the local contractor for implementation," says Tipnis. At the same time, she adds, "Although challenging at various levels, finding accommodation in the village and working within the constraints of the site helped us in building trust with the local community. Initially they were extremely wary of what we were doing, but as time progressed, they came to help out, engaged themselves, and offered suggestions on how things could be practically done." In the process, many unemployed youth were trained in building crafts, which in turn provided them with a vocation for a sustainable future.

According to Tipnis, "A cultural heritage resource is not a liability, and if restored with care, and with a vision, it can do wonders to enhance the image of a place." Mahidpur Fort has proved to be a fine example of this belief. "The success of the project and its impact on the community can be gauged by the fact that other similar communities have now expressed interest to the local government to restore their living, unprotected monuments.

The Qila has now become a local tourist attraction and every member of the community is aware of its historical importance," reveals Tipnis. Even the Jain Temple Trust now considers the fort as an asset and not just old ruins that can be broken down for expansion. Now the locals have another reason to be proud of — Mahidpur Fort is the first recipient of the UNESCO Award of Merit, for Cultural Heritage Conservation, in Madhya Pradesh.

The other project that received a similar award is the Doon School, a premier educational institute in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, established in 1935. Tipnis and her team worked on the structural stabilisation of the main building, its facade restoration, and the introduction of a pilot for a 'smart classroom' within the historic building. What is commendable is that even though the state of Uttarakhand or the city of Dehradun does not have any statutory legislation for protecting heritage buildings and sites, the school took on the restoration project without any government funding.

To this, Tipnis says, "It is a rare example in India where a comprehensive conservation and restoration project for an unlisted historic building has been undertaken, primarily for the love of its heritage, by its own community." Summing up, she adds, "The project has gone on to demonstrate via practice that intelligent design and sensitive solutions can make a historic building relevant to contemporary times. It is a benchmark for many other unlisted historic buildings across India that demand to be conserved rather than being razed to oblivion."


St. Olav's Church

The city of Kolkata develops linearly along River Hoogly in eastern India. Heading north from Kolkata for an hour-and-a-half along River Hooghly would lead you to the pre-colonial town of Serampore on the West Bank of the river. Known as Frederichsnagore during the mid-17th to 18th century Danish colonial period in India, Serampore is now a part of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority.

Serampore is home to many historical buildings dated to this period, especially St. Olav's Church built in 1806, bearing the monogram of the Danish King Christian VII. The church, locally known as the Danish church, is owned by the Calcutta Diocesan Trust Association, and is headed by the Bishop of Kolkata. The architectural conservation work carried out on the church was recently awarded an 'Award of Distinction' at the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards 2016.

The Lutheran church was initiated by Ole Big, the head of the Danish Trading Post of 18th century Serampore.

The church plan was drawn by the British church builder Robert Armstrong. The nave was completed in 1806, while the portico and the bell tower were added later in 1821. The church's architectural features are very similar to British churches of this period and closely resemble the neoclassical St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London.

The neoclassical church design has a pediment that is supported by four sets of Ionic twin columns that form the entrance portico. This is followed by a straightforward, three-aisle, rectangular plan intercepted by columns periodically, which is approached through a set of broad steps. This rectangular structure is topped by a bell tower that has a clock on its external surface.

Periodic neglect had dilapidated many features of the 211-year-old church. The wooden members of the roof had given away due to dampness and an attack of white ants. The church had also suffered from constant exposure to dampness and misguided conservation works like cement plastering.


Conservation work

The main intent for the conservation of the church was to reclaim the space as one that could be beneficial to the community. The significant location of the church provided a space for cultural and public activities, irrespective of religion. While the Danish Ministry of Culture supported the conservation work financially, the principal conservation work was done by Architect Manish Chakraborti of Continuity Architects in Kolkata. The preliminary step taken by the architect was to initiate an emergency shelter over the building to protect the interiors of the building from exposure to the outside environment. The next was to arrest the rising dampness in the building.

The conservation work was carried by meticulously repairing only the parts of the building that were vulnerable. This is a philosophy that British historian William Morris from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) stresses upon. Original material was reused where possible, and materials and paints were carefully chosen to integrate with the older material.

Chakraborti attributes the success of the project to careful budgeting. For instance, instead of investing in heavy waterproofing material to arrest the dampness of the building, site drainage issues were attended to, and the money thus saved was kept for future maintenance requirements. The scaffolding was designed specifically to be cost-efficient and more productive for the conservation process. Even the plastering was done in parts and layers, only where it was necessary. Flemming Aalund, consultant architect from the National Museum of Denmark, paid two visits a year to consult on the project. The interior of the church has been updated with better sound and lighting in such a manner that the authenticity of the architecture is not compromised upon.


The recognition

The Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation specifically supports local communities and the private sector in protecting their heritage, highlighting the importantance of local communities in safeguarding heritage.

India is a treasure trove of heritage structures. Often, privately owned heritage structures suffer hugely due to management issues and lack of funds. "In the field of architectural conservation in India today, ingenuity in architectural work is important and restoration is neither elitist nor for the privileged. It can be an economically viable option," says Chakraborti.

According to him, the conservation of the church has not only increased the footfall for the church, but has also brought the community together. India offers many such opportunities, and Chakraborti has other exciting projects on hand, like the renovation of a dilapidated tavern in Serampore into a coffee house, which will be called the Danish Tavern.

The restoration of St. Olav's Church will be showcased at the prestigious Best in Heritage conference in Dubrovnik this September.

The theme for the next photo feature is 'BACK TO BASICS'. Submit your entry (one per person) with your name, a caption, & information about where you have taken the photo, to sundaydh@gmail.com latest by May 22, 2017.

File size should at least be 500 KB. The subject line for the mail is 'My Take'

Let's begin by taking a small quiz:
1) Name three Hindi film superstars of 2007-17
Ans: Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan

2) Name three super-successful films of 2007-17
Ans: Dangal, Sultan, Raees

3) Top box office collections of 2007-17:
Ans: Rs 7.30 billion (Dangal, budget Rs 0.70 billion), Rs 5.84 billion (Sultan, budget Rs 0.70 billion), Rs 2.71 billion (Raees, budget Rs 0.85 billion).

So, who is ruling the tinsel town of Hindi film industry? The three Khans — Mr Perfectionist Aamir Khan, Bhaijaan Salman Khan and the Baadshah Shah Rukh Khan! And none of them is in the prime of his youth. They are all 50-plus of age and year after year they are going with guns blazing at every box office in both domestic and international markets.

With this kind of assured and sustained returns on their investments, why would any film producer, financier, distributor or even cinema theatre owner experiment with other stars? Which other organisation or market can assure such huge returns in such short periods of time? In the current scenario, who else evokes this kind of faith and unshakable trust?

And this hasn't been happening with only the above-mentioned three films. In the last decade, they have given us films like 3 Idiots, Dhoom 3, Ghajini, PK (Aamir Khan), Wanted, Kick, Dabangg, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Sultan (Salman Khan) and My Name is Khan, Happy New Year, Dilwale, Fan, Raees, Chennai Express (Shah Rukh Khan). Earnings of Rs 100 crore per film have become passé. Now their films earn in billions.

Leading with dedication
In the entire last decade, the reigning triumvirate has become a money-making machine. You put a mere Re 1 in any of these three machines, and you are sure to get a minimum of Rs 100 back. That is the star power, attraction, magnetism and charisma they wield on the lovers of Hindi cinema. The latest news is that Dangal, which Aamir Khan has acted in and produced, released in 7,000 theatres in China and grossed more than Rs 20 crore on its opening day!

"The main reason behind their success is their hard work, sincerity and eagerness to do the best for every film," explains Ramesh Taurani, managing director, TIPS Industries Ltd, a pioneer in the production and distribution of music for more than three decades now. It is also into film production and distribution now.
"Presently, their films get a bumper opening. What more does a film distributor want?" asks Shyam Shroff, industry veteran, film-maker and founder-director of the three-decade-old Shringar Films. Shringar Films is a big name in film distribution, on-screen programming and film marketing. It was among the handful which laid the foundation of the multiplex chain of Fame Cinema. It produced Filmistaan, recipient of the Indian Government's National Film Award.

Raj Malik, vice-president (distribution) at Cinestaan Film Company, says, "Over the years, the Khans have built a certain level of credibility. Consumers (viewers) like them. They are quality entertainers. They make good movies. And all of them have become film producers and have their own production houses. So they know how a film works and what needs to be done. They have become box office machines."
The entire Hindi film industry, which is actually known as the 'matlabi duniya', and famous for backbiting, seems to make an exception when it comes to talking about the Khans. Everyone has only good words about the trio.

"Besides the money, what makes them superior is the way they conduct themselves. Over the years, they maintain relationships. They are always helpful, strictly follow the film's schedule, are highly committed to completing their films on time, and actively participate in the promotion of the film," explains P K Gupta, general manager at Rajshri Productions. Salman's relation with the Rajshri Productions family goes back to his debut film Maine Pyar Kiya. Since then they have made films like Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, Hum Saath-Saath Hain and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.

Even in the list of Forbes India (2016), the Khans get top billing. SRK topped the list, followed by Salman, and Aamir was listed 14th as in that accounting year, Dangal had not yet been released. In the past five years, the Khans have together shared over Rs 8 billion only in ticket money and accounted for the sale of hundreds of millions of tickets a year. On an average, each of their films in this period has made over Rs 3.5 billion. Jointly, they hold the record of nine out of 10 highest grossers in the history of Hindi cinema.
Every co-star has a good word about them. Actor Amrita Rao, who acted with Shah Rukh Khan in the Farah Khan-directed Main Hoon Na, says, "Once the initial ice breaks, the Khans are very friendly and helpful on the shoot. The reason for their popularity is their willingness to move with the times. They keep themselves relevant with the new generation, be it their fitness mantra, their language or attire. If you have seen Shah Rukh sir interacting with AIB (All India Bakchod), a group of stand-up comedians, all aged below 30 years, you will know what I'm saying. He talks their lingo, dresses like them, and can discuss any topic of interest with the young."

Taurani elaborates, "Khans are superstars because they choose their films very carefully. They have become very selective now, especially in the last 10 years. They have delivered blockbusters and that's the sole reason their popularity has reached this level." Way back in the 1990s, when TIPS got into film production, Salman had acted in their first two films, Auzaar and Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai. The good vibes continue even today.

It's not just the industry that goes gaga over them, even film lovers are crazy about them. In fact, their popularity has reached such a high point that the maiden wish of most tourists flocking Mumbai is either to see Mannat or Galaxy, the residential address of Shah Rukh and Salman respectively. Years ago, it used to be Pratiksha, the home of the legendary Amitabh Bachchan. At any given time of the year, if you visit Bandstand in Bandra, an upscale Mumbai suburb, you're likely to see scores of people clicking selfies with Mannat or Galaxy in the background. During the stars' birthdays, police have to be called to manage the fans milling around their houses. Remember the last shot of Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Fan? Thousands of fans are shown at the gate of Mannat with Shah Rukh waving at them from the gates of his bungalow. It's not a filmy shot. It's a regular scene. Same is the scene in front of Salman Khan's residence.

One can analyse the phenomenon in any way one wants to. Even post the normal retirement age of Hindi film heroes, they seem ageless and continue to rule the industry. The combined force of the youth brigade, including the likes of Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Sushant Singh Rajput, Varun Dhawan, Shahid Kapoor, or even the slightly older Hrithik Roshan isn't able to dethrone the Khans. In fact, several films of Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn and Hrithik Roshan are doing really well, but they can't reach the heights of popularity of the Khans. Roshan's last film, Kaabil, got into problems as distributors didn't give the Roshans as many screens as they gave for SRK's Raees, which released simultaneously.

Jatin Shah, owner of the 75-year-old Shri Shivaji Talkies at Talegaon near Pune, says, "Usually, there is no clash of big-star films, but when Raees and Kaabil were released on the same day, we had to opt for Raees. Our theatre, started by my grandfather, is still single-screen. Multiplexes can easily show as many films as they want to and rake in the moolah. At the end of the day, commerce decides for us, and Shah Rukh is a bigger draw."

All this adulation hasn't come in easily. They didn't become superstars overnight. They have struggled, faced flops and flak from the industry, and also from their fans. SRK was criticised for his mannerisms, Salman for his tryst with the law, and Aamir for his highhandedness. But they learnt their lessons. It has taken them time, real hard work, perfect strategising and great adaptation to the changing times. They made a niche for their names, enhanced their plus points, and camouflaged their negative points.

The selling point
Each Khan has his own sales pitch. With Aamir, it started with the bland dialogue in Dil Chahta Hai, "Perfectionist ko improve karna mushkil hota hai!" That was way back in 2001. Sixteen years since that dialogue, the tag of Mr Perfectionist is associated with him. In an interview for one of Mumbai's tabloids, versatile actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui had remarked, "Aamir Khan is a perfectionist. To work with him, one has to be a perfectionist too!"

Aamir has been super-selective with his films, and the film Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001), which got nominated for the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film, changed his entire image. Winner of Padma Shri (2003) and Padma Bhushan (2010) awards, he changed his track of the usual boy-meets-girl films to theme-based ones like Taare Zameen Par, PK, Ghajini, Fanaa, Rang De Basanti and the latest, Dangal.

His image got an unprecedented boost when he produced and anchored the talk show Satyamev Jayate, telecast on Star Plus. Following the talk show, his fans have started to believe that 'Aamir can do no wrong!'

Then there is Salman Khan. Though continuously embroiled in legal issues, the man's aura doesn't seem to diminish. Every film of his gets the biggest opening all over the world. A profit of Rs 100 crore per film is passé for this actor. His last film, Sultan, grossed Rs 6 billion only at the box office, and is still raking in the moolah.

The romancing-fighting-dancing hero, who considers himself as an actor with no acting skills, continues to be a charmer when it comes to box office returns. The industry and his fans believe in his helping nature. 'When in need, go to bhai' is the conviction of people. In 2007, he started an NGO, Being Human, which works for the education and healthcare of the underprivileged.

SRK, who was a stark outsider to the industry (both Salman and Aamir belong to blue-blooded families in the film industry), came into notice by playing negative roles — Baazigar, Darr, Anjaam. But his acting prowess soon gave him a strong foothold. He blossomed as a typical romantic hero and became famous for wooing his women with his arms spread wide. But he brought a different attitude to the industry. His wit, charm, respect for women, and love for his family came as a whiff of fresh air to an outsider who had misplaced impressions of the industry.

Shah Rukh personifies intelligence. Latest is his TED talk at Vancouver, Canada. It was highly appreciated, and has since gone viral. His interviews are tongue-in-cheek, and he says the same things again and again, but in such a different way that one ends up reading the whole interview. He is very active on social media with his Twitter remarks, his podcasts and his interaction with the youth. He brought in the shrewd business aspect when he started his own company, Red Chillies Entertainment. He is estimated to be worth more than US $600 million and is considered to be one of the richest actors in the world. And to top this, he is known for his acting skills — 14 Filmfare awards, tied with the legendary Dilip Kumar with eight best actor awards, the Padma Shri by the Government of India, and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and Legion d'Honneur by the Government of France.

With a business acumen
Besides all these plus points, the Khans are also shrewd business people. "They only select stories which are considered safe, and are unwilling to take projects which can be risky for the production houses. Exceptions like Fan (SRK) and Talaash (Aamir) are very rare. They opt for big production houses which spend lavishly in making goodlooking films and are also generous when it comes to promoting and marketing them. These films get spoken and written about so much by the media before their release that people feel guilty if they do not watch them," enlightens the well-known trade expert Amar Solanki, who has been analysing and talking about films for over four decades now.

Helping them are the changing storylines. Till the end of the era of Rishi Kapoors, Govindas and even Amitabh Bachchan, films dealt only with romance. As Rishi Kapoor once said, "I got tired of flaunting colourful cardigans and singing duets in the Alps!" Along with him, the audience too was tired of these themes. But now in his second innings, Rishi Kapoor has become more popular. Ten years ago, no one would have thought of making films like Dangal, Fan, Dear Zindagi, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Rockstar, Phillauri, Lunchbox, Pink, Kapoor and Sons etc. In fact, it's the new kind of films that has given a new lease to older stars like Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan.

But to dethrone the tornado of the three super-Khans, age has to step in, only then can the younger lot dream of ruling the Hindi film industry!

ShilokMukkati, bright-eyed with kajal and expressive, couldn't be happier or busier these days. She, at 21 years, holds the reins of a community radio programme (Colourful Kamanabillu) that listens to the voices and stories of the LGBTQ community.

A native of Coorg and an Arts undergraduate, her footing's in this city, her home and haven where she writes verses in Kannada, dances, hangs out with friends and lives freely with the choice of her identity as a transwoman. But Shilok swears that until a few years back, even the term LGBTQ hadn't entered her life, and to go back in time is to recall a lifetime of experiences packed within those few years.
This is her story…

"In my childhood, I didn't dwell much on the responsibilities that went with the identities of being a boy and a girl.

I helped mom in the kitchen and liked to dress up during festivities; I also played sports with guys. But several people often advised me to be more like a boy and pointed out what I did was a girl's job! But for me, it was just helping out mom.

When I went to watch films, I aspired to be like the heroine; playing house with my cousin sister felt more comfortable and natural.

When I was asked to dance as Shiva, I preferred to play Parvati because I was more graceful and just couldn't pull off masculine dance moves.

I certainly knew what I liked more as years went on. As my femininity was out there, people began to correct my behaviour to suit their idea of the two well-known gender identities.

Such instances conditioned my mind to think that since I was assigned to be a male, I should.

At the high school I went to in a Coorg village, abuses came and chances for self-expression vanished. When many girls were given the stage to speak, I wasn't considered because I was this 'feminine boy' who wouldn't be any good. But I was so confident about my voice.

When I walked to high school, I thought I was entering hell. But my pre-university days were a game changer.

Because I was never given any attention so far, I wanted that now from my teachers and students. I assumed that my voice and my mannerisms made me vulnerable to people's abuse. I made up my mind to indulge and succeed in academics so I wouldn't be an easy target. This meant visiting the always-shut library to read books, and watching English films to learn pronunciation. And I aced many presentations and was appreciated.

At home, there was time and space for introspection and finding myself. My parents, both government employees, were very busy people. If I complained to my mom about my schoolmates teasing me, she hoped I would sort out the problems myself. They didn't like to encourage me with attention because in my family circles I was already labelled as a spoiled kid.

Bengaluru days
"As a typical village boy, I stood for the first time in Bengaluru. I had decided to move out from my parents' house as I sought independence, and I knew this would change my life. I was 17. Here I was, in the city with huge buildings, with none for support, and a college full of new faces.

Surely the college seniors would rag me, I believed. From my side, I didn't want to give them a chance to humiliate me and I decided to put on the mask of a man. Although I was comfortable being a woman, I was a transphobic myself! I feared abuse from people in response to my coming out as a transwoman.

However, on the first day of college, when I saw a handsome boy in my class, all my preparations of acting like a man fell flat! At college, not one person questioned my identity. My seniors were super-sweet. Here I began to behave like myself. People were accepting of me. I began to write poems and even found that the other students and teachers listened when I narrated them. They were interested in what I had to say! I began to dance.

It was also in this city that I, for the first time, confidently said I am a woman. I loved growing up in this supportive environment. And I have been in love with this city ever since.

Personally, I know some transphobic and homophobic friends who have changed, who have accepted me now. When I came out as a transwoman to my parents, my mom assumed I was just influenced by the show I'm hosting. I understand her,because for her, it must have been like giving birth to another child.

Well, acceptance is going to take time, but society's definitely changing for the better. I like to say that my identity is not only being a transwoman... I'm a person made of so many influences. It's easy to get stuck with identity politics, unfortunately.

In the end, we die. So respect humanity while we are here. That's what's important. We have a beautiful gift: to love one another, to think. And we should celebrate that. Why complicate matters?"

(As told to Shruthi Srinath)