MUWCIT IMES

INTRA- MUWCI

GLOBAL NEWS

SPORTS

CREATIVITY AND FICTION

ART AND CULTURE

INDIAN NEWS

PHOTOGRAPHY

EDITOR’S NOTEWell, we’re very, very late.

We were already very late by the end of last term, when we were nearly ready to pub-lish, but it is quite ridiculous to have slipped into January without a sign of the first issue. a number of reasons for this delay, ranging from the team’s overburdened schedules to lazy forgetful-ness and the occasional ditching of responsibility, but perhaps primary among them is the excessive perfectionism of the editor. I (as usual) quite failed to find the balance between good product and punctuality, and indulged in endless feedback-and-rewrite loops which used up the whole term.

This does, however, mean that many of the articles in this issue have had a great deal of hard work put into them. I hope you appreciate this.

I hope, in addition – quite disconnectedly – that you had a valuable first/third term. We left our three and a piece months with exhausted shoulders and a great weariness of skin, but I believe we went some way towards building our home. The term saw a phenome-nal amount of dedication from many sides; much of this seeped into the cracks of an ineffec-tive system, but some came to vivid fruition. Let us celebrate, in retrospect, its sweaty entirety.

However, a niggling question about this home-building: did we grow too serious? In some ways, it is apparent that we have a lot more serious thinking to do – about our ethical positions, social relations, actions and language. In others, however, perhaps we are in real need of spontaneity and random delight. Might we expect, this term, jazz nights overlooking the valley behind Cage, a circus on li-brary lawn, violin sonatas amongst the bombay sandwiches at snack, drinks in the fairy-lit summery evening pool? I, for one, am often guilty of forgetting that there is a great deal more substance to ‘com-munity’ than a cool respect for others’ theoretical rights. Let’s add warmth to the ridge while we can.

And here, our love. Read well.Safieh Kabir

THE NEW TEAMSAFIEH

NUMAYA

SHRUTI

ROHAN

AINHOA

RITWIKA

MARIA JIMENA

MARIE

SAEESH

PRYIAMVADA

HENOK

XUHAN

ABIZAR

ANANYA

LAERKE

LEILA

MANSHI

THERESE

VANISHA

EDITOR

SECTION-HEAD: INTRA-MUWCI

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SECTION-HEAD: INDIAN NEWS

SECTION-HEAD: ARTS AND CULTURE

SECTION-HEAD: CREATIVITY & FICTION

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

CARTOONIST

ILLUSTRATOR

PHOTOGRAPHER

PHOTOGRAPHER

WRITER

WRITER

WRITER

WRITER

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WRITER

College Assembly Is A subdIvIsIon of the IllumInAtI

This term began with the materialisation of a revolutionary idea – the College Assem-bly. The body, lacking definition and called upon in every second situation to step in and lead the way, has collected mystery and mistrust as the term progressed. Many will now tell you that the Assembly is power-hungry, elitist and seeks to take over the MUWCI we know.

The truth is, MUWCI functions on a short-term memory circuit. Despite the presence of individuals who have watched and shaped the hill through generations, our collective memory stretches, at most, three years into the past, to the legends of our second years’ second years. Our understanding of events thus tends to lack historical context and ho-listic analysis. We wish to counteract this state of affairs. We wish to provide the missing his-torical lens; to detach ourselves from present emotional confusion, analyse our current po-litical system as a response to historical de-mands, and arrive, perhaps, at a conclusion as to why we should give a shit in the first place.

The revolutionary element of College Assembly is its formal decision-making power. MUWCI has seen various models of student governance, but it appears that the Assembly is the first real dissolution of the talk-do administration-stu-dent body dichotomy. In the first many years of MUWCI’s existence, there was no formal-ized student government at all. Alumnus Ma-ria Charles (Batch of 2002), remembers College Meetings and Student Meetings as the primary forums for students’ issues and concerns to be

heard by the then Head of College. “There was a push-back to the idea of having a few students speak on behalf of everyone, and we had this young idealistic idea that we should be able to come together and discuss everything face to face,” she says. 2010 – 2011 witnessed the be-ginnings of a system in the form of the Student Council, but this was, according to its founder, Miika Korja, intentionally un-bureaucratic and therefore limited in mandate. Elected Student Council representatives were supposed to sit in on faculty and administration meetings as observers, represent student opinions when called upon and convey information about the meetings back to the student body. This al-lowed the student body some access to the ad-ministration and information and institutional representation of voice, but little assurance that voiced demands would be fulfilled. The Community Forum – a phenomenon which falls within our memory circuit – replaced the Council in the year 2011-2012, with a wider mandate and significantly smaller constituen-cies. Advisor groups elected representatives to the Forum who ‘were strictly bound to merely communicate the opinions expressed [in their groups]’, says Elias Tuomaala (Batch of 2014).

By: Ida LærkeJonassen Hass and Therese Mikkelsen Osvoll

And so, when Community Forum dissolved and College Assembly was conceptualised (partly by Cyrus), its structure involved the empowerment of a small representative group. The format of College Assembly allows elected representatives full voting powers on adminis-trative committees for the first time in MUWCI history, but it also requires that the student and faculty bodies trust a small group of people to take decisions on their behalf. This prioritises giving the community effective and efficient power over distributing this power equally throughout the community. It is worth nothing that the Assembly was created in the context of last year’s events, which involved a (melo)dra-matically furious expression of the first trend – demand for transparency, accountability, and greater community power in decision-mak-ing, with the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) as symbolic cause, like Wada 5 had been be-fore. Calls for decentralising decision-making were directed primarily at the administration.

What, then, you might ask, is left for the rest of us to do in this system except trust? Well, for one thing, engage. Few forms of governance can function without community participation, and there are many reasons student governance is important in a place like MUWCI. Cyrus pro-vides us with a few. Firstly, he argues that ideas and decisions are better when most stakehold-ers are involved – and students are definitely stakeholders. He argued further that this form of inclusive thinking will benefit the entire col-lege, and that whether or not the ideas presented add to the quality of the final decision, it is im-portant that students are involved because they want to be involved, as it gives them a sense of

empowerment. Steven Lukes, a political and social theorist at NYU, calls this visible or First Face power: the power of being ‘seated at the ta-ble’ (i.e. having a voice in the discussions). This idea of power is important to take into account at MUWCI, especially in the light of last year’s turmoil. Finally, Cyrus suggests that student gov-ernance is educational for the students. It gives hands-on experience in conflict-resolution, de-cision-making, and general knowledge on how to deal with certain administrational situations.

Our engagement must make best use of the positive elements of the current system – one must speak more loudly, so that a representa-tive can listen, one must ask questions, read minutes, attend meetings and make demands. It should also, however, include critical, con-structive evaluation. If anything, history tells us that College Assembly, though an impres-sive improvement on the past, is likely to be only a stage in MUWCI’s evolution of govern-ance. One can predict, both by historical trend and current empirical evidence, that the com-munity will eventually demand decentralisa-tion of power, but the direction of progres-sion from this stage will depend on the active identification and solution of problems. This is not a pessimistic conclusion. We do not neces-sarily have to aim for permanence; the chaotic and re-inventive processes of establishing new structures and re-envisioning governance al-low us to explore who we are as leaders and as followers. It might seem discouraging to know your hard work is likely to be discarded by coming generations, but would it not be sadder still if the playground of MUWCI were tamed?

The Forum, which met after every second college meeting to convert ideas into formal proposals for the administration, was intended to enable more systematic, egalitarian representation and increase the likelihood of impact on policy, but still had no power to implement their proposals. There are two contradicting trends to this in-creasing institutionalisation of ’voice’. On the one hand, there has been a growing demand for a student government which can ensure ac-countability and transparency in administrative processes and efficiently translate student de-mands into policies, and on the other hand, an anarchist rejection of the concentration of pow-er in any students’ hands. The Student Council was established in response to frustration with lack of administrative transparency – symbol-ised strongly by the decision to construct Wada 5, which was taken without giving students time to have a say in the matter. But it broke down due to a loss of legitimacy as a representative body, which Elias attributed to the system posi-tioning some students above others and turning the voting process into a popularity contest. The structure of Community Forum was intended to avoid the problems of the Student Council, but in attempting to simultaneously increase the student body’s influence on decision-mak-ing and allow this influence to remain equally

distributed among all students, it accomplished neither. Some found the Community Forum too elitist because only Advisor Group representa-tives were allowed to speak, and some found the process of making decisions too slow – and in-deed, the Forum’s principle of arriving at com-plete consensus sometimes held single propos-als in discussion for months. ‘Troublingly,’ Elias comments, ‘these two opinions often came from the same people; it remains a mystery to me how opening up the discussion to another 200 peo-ple would not have led to further inefficiency.’’

Cyrus Vakil, Deputy Head of College and long-time observer of MUWCI’s political system, is in approximate agreement. He acknowledges that while a system like College Meeting where all individuals can raise their voices is good at some levels, it is not the best space for efficient or effective decision-making. He used the UN General Assembly as an analogy for former MUWCI governments, explaining that a big forum where everyone can raise their voices is beneficial, but does not necessarily function as a good and efficient decision-making body. Col-lege Meeting is a good forum when wanting to be heard, but it is too large to be efficient for dis-cussion and reviewing decisions, and becomes even less efficient as the student body grows.

The post-Cold War era has been swamped with discussions on the futility of war and the dehuman-izing nature of violence, but alternatives to bloodshed have, despite being theorised, not been put into practice. ‘Occupy Central with Love and Peace’, is a non-violent protest group based in Hong Kong, but its work exceeds far beyond its immediate motives. It is an ideological revolution. It ma-terialises the concept of peace, giving it shape and structure, and makes real the ideal of non-vio-lent protest. It is a greatly undermined and underrated movement that needs its voice to be heard.

The Umbrella Revolution: Success or Failure?

Occupy Central is a group that protests peace-fully by organising a sit-in at the Central dis-trict (financial sector) of Hong Kong. It is led mainly by student demonstrators. Umbrellas, torches and tents characterise the movement; it has been nicknamed the ‘Umbrella Revo-lution’. Tens of thousands of protestors have stood strong with these symbolic objects as protection against tear gas and pepper spray used by armed police, who barge ruthlessly through barricades. Seeing the resemblance of the government response to the broad-based movement for democracy to the 1989 Tianan-men Square Massacre, when deployed Chinese troops killed hundreds/thousands of protestors (death tolls vary), instils fear in many people.

The movement arose from decades of political turmoil. In 1898, China handed Hong Kong to the British under a 99-year lease in order to maintain a political relationship with them. After 99 years, in 1997, when Hong Kong was back in Chinese hands, it was promised a large degree of autonomy, political and economic freedom, and retention of its capitalist system under the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ policy

of China. In 2008, the Chinese government caved to Hong Kong demands for universal suffrage, and promised a democratic govern-ment to Hong Kong by 2017. Presently, there is a pro-Beijing committee in Hong Kong, which elects the highest organ of state power (the Chief Executive). However, China plans to re-place this undemocratic structure with anoth-er undemocratic system. The members of the Chief Executive will now be elected directly by the people of Hong Kong, but electoral can-didates must be approved by at least half of a pro-Beijing nominating committee. Benny Tai, a law professor at Hong Kong University, was enraged by the undemocratic democracy be-ing proposed, and initiated Occupy Central.

Occupy Central is criticised on many differ-ent grounds. It is believed that China would never accede to the demands of a few chil-dren banging their fists on the ground for democracy, as it would affect their interna-tional respect and position. A well-developed, sophisticated proposition by a group of well-dressed, educated and distinguished men would be better entertained by the Chinese,

and would make them open to discus-sion. The protest needs rational discussions and dialogues, not passion and idealism.

It is also argued that the protest smells increas-ingly of a larger capitalist incursion through foreign intervention. WikiLeaks and other alternative media sources have highlighted the open involvement of the United States of America through an organisation called NED (National Endowment of Democracy) and its subsidiary, NDI (National Democratic Insti-tute). The NDI website suggests a long-term U.S. directive behind the movement for democ-racy in Hong Kong – ‘Between 1997 and 2011, NDI conducted a series of missions to Hong Kong to consider the development of Hong Kong’s election framework, the status of au-tonomy, rule of law and civil liberties, and the prospects for and challenges to democratiza-tion.’ This criticism, at its roots, implies that the protest is a farce. It is a U.S. state stratagem to establish a regime controlled by, or at least sym-pathetic to, the U.S. government, and thus un-dermine the Chinese communist government.

Another view opposing the movement is that the protest is meaningless and futile. There is no unifying motive to the struggle. Everyone has different needs – some economic, some political, and some humanitarian, and the only common factor is their anti-government stance. As a result, the protests are more anti

than pro, and no meaningful reforms have been demanded of the government. Even if freedom is attained in such a manner, it may not be in the best interests of the people of Hong Kong. Breaking a law to request better governance is a paradox, and building a system of governance on this paradox is problematic. The Chinese government will not condone the movement because of the illegal form of protest chosen, so when the smoke of present international recognition fades, the fire itself will die out.

Lastly, it is claimed that the protest is not non-violent. Blocking the movement of peo-ple and goods is a form of passive violence. In a recent discussion, my communist friend claimed that it is synonymous to imprisoning a person without physically harming him/her.

These are relevant, but unconvincing argu-ments. The ‘distinguished’ men spoken about have no reason to protest. Hong Kong’s wealth is largely concentrated in the hands of a busi-ness elite, specifically a real-estate elite, who are benefited by, and therefore the main support-ers of, the Beijing regime. The Occupy Cen-tral protests are lead by middle-class students anxious about stagnant wages and the dearth of opportunities, and supported by the work-ing class, with an eye towards social redistri-bution. These sections of society do not have access to formal fora for negotiations, and so have resorted to the street as a political forum.

Lines of students, eyes blinded by clouds of tear gas, stand firm while facing off with the riot police...By: Abizar Bagarswala

The cited ‘ulterior capitalist motive’ of the protest effectively curtains all of Hong Kong’s pleas and masks the protest as an ideological conflict between capitalism and communism. It implies that a protest is defined by U.S. involvement. Even if the capitalist world does support the move-ment, that should not be a reason to deem Hong Kong’s protest irrelevant. This inter-pretation is a desperate imposition of Cold War dynamics on an indigenous move-ment, and entirely disregards Hong Kong’s history of struggle for democracy, and its traditional use of protest as a medium of expression (as in 1989, 2003 and 2012).

The claim that the protest is meaning-less and futile is a self-fulfilling prophesy: public and influential speculation about the end of a struggle causes, to some ex-tent, the materialisation of the speculated end. Advocating the futility of a strug-gle is a way media and its controllers en-

sure that the struggle remains futile. If mainstream media casts the protest as effec-tive, ground-breaking and revolutionary, it is

likely to catalyse much more powerful in-ternational support and pressure on Bei-

jing to meet Occupy Central’s demands. A progression towards realisation is then likely

to refine what is now a raw call for democra-cy into a more policy-specific set of demands.

Finally, the accusation of violence loses some of its meaning when contextualised in today’s bru-tal world – the first six months of ISIS produced over 5,500 deaths, according to The Guard-ian, and the Washington Post names over 2000 dead in Gaza by August, 2014. The Umbrella Revolution is as physically peaceful as it gets.

However, there is a more valid criticism: that the real violence of the protest is indirect and misdi-rected. The protests block the movement of peo-ple and goods in the financial district and hence

damage Hong Kong’s financial sector and transpor-tation system. Businessmen are put off by this act of intransigence. Economic instability discourages foreign investment. The education of the youth suf-fers as students spend months in the streets instead of classrooms. In the end, the citizens of Hong Kong are damaged more than the government of China.

However, although acceptance of this argument deems Occupy Central not only ineffective, but also harmful, I evaluate the success of the move-ment on different grounds. The ideology of the revolution extends beyond democracy to a be-lief in peace and non-violent methods of change. As such, even if the dream of democracy is not fulfilled, the evasion of physical violence is a sig-nificant victory: a milestone towards establish-ing peaceful protests and non-violent struggles. Until further notice, therefore, we should ap-plaud the synchrony and choreography it takes to make protests so beautiful in this bloody world.

Just ‘Appease’ PrizeOn the 10th of October the Nobel Peace Prize community was proud to announce the win-ners of 2014 – Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai. The theme for this year was ‘protect-ing children’ and hence the founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Children Movement) along with one of the most prominent child ac-tivists in the world humbly accepted the honor.

Kailash Satyarthi is the founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, which works passionately towards freeing children from bonded labor, as well as the current chairperson and one of the founders of the Global March in 1998. BBA has rescued over 80,000 children so far and the Global March became the fasted conven-tion to be ratified by 177 out of 185 countries in the International Labor Organization in 2013.

Malala Yousafzai, who has recently become an inspiration to the entire world, is a seventeen-year child activist who was shot point-blank for speaking out against the Taliban in Pakistan and survived the encounter. This experience did not deter her; instead it fueled the fire in her to further propagate education for girls and wom-en. She has been spoken at UN conferences and has become an icon of change across the globe.

Both recipients of the prize seem to have con-tributed commendably to the society around them. However, although Mr. Satyarthi is widely acknowledged as a suitable choice, there is a lot of controversy as to whether the Nobel Peace Prize was the best accolade to ap-preciate Malala’s work. The official criteria for a Nobel Peace Prize (‘those who have done

By: Ananya Gupta

the most or the best work for fraternity be-tween nations, for the abolition or reduc-tion of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”) have been criticised as too narrow to encompass a twenty-first century understanding of vio-lence, which extends beyond direct inter-national conflict between states to intra-na-tional and structural forces. However, even with a broadening of criteria, it is question-able whether Malala’s efforts fit the Nobel bill.

She has ‘co-founded’ the Malala Fund, which ‘invests in early stage or small organizations that are led by local leaders’ and aims to ‘am-plify’ young girls’ voices, and ‘advocate’ inter-national, national and local policy changes to promote girls’ education. She has donated thousands of dollars (won in a World Chil-dren’s Prize) to school-building in Gaza, and personally advocated girls’ education at mul-tiple conferences. However, although Malala is an extraordinarily courageous seventeen-year-old, and her stands on the propagation of education are a very good start to world peace, there is no particularly innovative quality to her work that might differentiate it from that of hundreds of education activ-ists worldwide. Further, it seems unlikely that Malala, a teenager in high school, is the real decision-maker and creator of strategy for the Malala Fund, as opposed to Eason Jordan, the Director of Operations and Communications, PJ Kadzick, the Programme Coordinator, and the three members of the advisory board, one of whom is a former U.S. ambassador.

It appears, then, that the Norwegian Nobel Committee has chosen Malala for her value as a symbol. It is worth asking, then: what does she symbolise? If it is a child’s courage in the face of mindless violence, why is no

one publicising and venerating Nabila Reh-man? This 9-year-old girl living with her fam-ily in northern Pakistan became a victim of one the CIA’s ‘predator’ aircraft that patrol the skies. 7 children were injured and Na-bila watched her grandmother die in front of her. When she and her family overcame all trying obstacles and reached Washing-ton to demand an explanation for their loss, only 5 out of the 430 expected representatives bothered to attend the congressional hear-ing, and they offered little but stony silence.

Why are thousands of girls like Nabila, who face injustice, ignored even if they manage to speak up against it? One begins to con-sider the possibility that they are left invis-ible because they do not represent the west in a good light. A child who has been shot by the Taliban is a convenient symbol from the American point of view – she sparks precisely the kind of public emotional re-sponse that justifies American military in-tervention in places like northern Pakistan. Nabila’s story, on the other hand, vividly il-lustrates the problematic nature of these poli-cies, and could provoke unwanted questions.

There are two issues here: the depleting stand-ards we expect from the winners, and the politi-cal manipulation of public attention. If indeed Malala’s qualifications are apt for this laurel, then I believe Nabila and every other person who has faced similar oppression and spoken up against it deserves the same audience, mass media and attention as Malala has received. This hypocrisy and these double standards, which powerful political and economic entities in our global community often intentionally shroud, should be brought into the limelight.

gar. I would, however, make the case that a great deal more could have been done to send a message that the new government will not tol-erate such violence. Surely Modi, who was so determined to reach out to every Indian dur-ing his election campaign that he had Modi-holograms deliver speeches at locations where he could not be personally present, should have publicly condemned those involved.

His silence is particularly shocking because he is directly associated with these violent events. When Modi’s own party men speak so arrogantly about issues like inter-religion marriages, going so far as to call it ‘Love Jihad’, or call India’s ace female tennis player ‘Pakistan’s daughter-in-law’, or when the Shiv Sena, a member of the Sangh-Parivar and affiliated with the BJP at the time, are part of the mob that murdered the Muslim tech engineer, it is important that the Prime Minister stands up and asserts loudly that these forms of violence are unacceptable. Modi’s silence allows fringe right-wing groups to gain confidence, in the belief that the centre either approves or is

indifferent to their activities. Modi’s critics now say “I told you so” with bitter disappointment.Arguably, I am being too hard on Modi. His si-lence could arise from a desire to walk the walk rather than talk the talk now that he has taken office. However, striding towards development is not stopping Modi from being hyper-active on social media and talking about a gazillion other issues that he considers important. Sandip Roy says in his article in Firstpost: “One word from Modi could end the controversy but he choos-es to tweet about what he told the World Bank President about cleaning the Ganga instead.”Modi is shielding himself from meaningful questions from the media and shying away from his duty to the nation and its minorities. At least, ‘Maun’-mohan Singh was silent about everything; Modi seems to choose his silences. If Modi continues to lose his voice in the face of Muslim blood, I would begin to worry. Without hindrance, the fringe elements and the stray par-ty ministers, if not the BJP or the government, will continue with this trend and lead the nation into an endless cycle of intolerance and violence.

Why Has The Modi -We covered the pre-election debates, but what is the controversial

leader doing now that he’s won?

There was no escaping the banners, speeches, talk shows and even holograms of Narendra Modi, the charismatic and efficient leader that the country couldn’t do without. When the results did come out, many were delighted with the BJP being voted into power. Others were wary, apprehensive that the BJP, given their history, would assist the country’s descent into extreme nationalism, communal tension and violence. Five months after the elections, these concerns may be proving valid. Though it is hard to directly link the recent outbursts of com-munalism to the government, what should trouble us is the Prime Minister’s silence. He con-sistently fails to reassure the frightened minorities that they are an integral part of the nation.

Throughout the election campaign, the almost non-existent opposition to Modi tried its weak best to portray Modi and the BJP as Hindu nationalists who would further Hindu-Muslim com- munal tensions and violence. They repeatedly cited the 2002 riots in Gujarat, when Modi was (the allegedly negligent) Chief Minister of the state. Modi and his supporters vehemently denied these accusa- tions. They assured the average voter that he was deeply concerned for the country’s social fabric, and was, indeed, going to rescue it from the Congress’ corrupt, self-indulgent pin- cers. Some went so far as to state that the BJP was firing “a Modi missile” to fight commu- nalism and corruption in the country. These words were enough for the middle-class Hindu voter, otherwise averse to voting for a party linked to commu- nalism. However, they did lit-tle to convince most minorities, es- pecially Muslims, who were, at the very least, sceptical that a party so long linked with Hindu nationalism would seriously tackle the issue of communalism and make the Indian democracy a more safe and inclusive space.

These fears were only inflamed when small bonfires of communal violence ignited in the months after the BJP came to power – first with the killing of a Muslim tech engineer by a mob of Hindu nationalists in Pune and then with riots in the town of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. Both these states have histories of communal tension and strong regional parties.

I would not argue that the BJP was behind the murder in Pune or the riots in Muzaffarna

Missile Gone Quiet?

Though it is hard to directly link

the recent outbursts of com-munalism to the government, what should trouble us is the

Prime Minister’s silence.

Cartoon by: Saeesh

Camus, Sartre and now Modiano - A ReviewKundera, Roth and Murakami were some of the names that were resounding hard for the Nobel Price this year. The three have been nominated and been on the final list for so many years that all the literary critics were sure that one of them would finally get the prestigious award. I thought that Kundera –although I feel a personal attach-ment to Roth – was going to get it this time. His last novel, which appeared after fourteen years of silence, La fête de l’insignifiance (2014), captures the essence of the human existence.

However all the bets failed when the Swed-ish Academy announced that Patrik Modiano, the French narrator of the Nazi occupation, won the prize. Peter Englund, the secretary of the Swedish Academy, which awards the prize, called Modiano “a Marcel Proust of our time”. Anne Ghisoli, director of a Paris bookstore, calls Modiano “a master of writing on memo-ry and occupation”, and “chronicler of Paris, its streets, its past and its present.” Modiano has published about 30 works rose to promi-nence in 1968 with his novel, “La Place de l’Étoile.” One of his novels, “Missing Person,” won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1978, but he is not widely known outside France.

I would claim, however, that a comparison to Proust is a slight exaggeration, and also not very good criticism, considering that almost anyone has been able to finish reading his most impor-tant work, unlike Proust’s. In addition, even Englund admits that Modiano’s works are “al-ways variations of the same thing, about mem-ory, about loss, about identity, about seeking.”

I tend to be sceptical about the Academy’s deci-sions in general. If you want proof that my scep-ticism is valid, read Viaje a la Alcarria by the Nobel Prize-winning Spanish author, Camilo Jose Cela. It is worse than an upset stomach. I had not, however, considered investigating Modiano until a friend of mine recommended Modiano’s Dans le café de la jeunesseperdue, and I decided to give the short novel a try and decide for myself if he deserved the Nobel Prize.

Dans le café de la jeunesseperdue places us in ’60s Paris. A group of young people without much future meet at the Café le Condé, locat-ed in the bohemian Rive Gauche (Left Bank). One day, among the regulars, Louki, a girl barely twenty years of age, appears. Louki is a mysterious character. Modiano gives the read-ers little hints about the girl through the four narrators in the novel: a young regular stu-dent, a middle-aged detective investigating Louki, Louki´s ex-partner and Louki herself. The interesting thing about the novel, apart from the slow and melancholic tone that me-anders through its pages, the delinquent choice of a nostalgic writer, is Modiano’s method of characterisation. He catches characters for a short time frame in the story and after reveal-ing a few details, allows them to wander out of sight. This narrative “tiptoeing” allows the reader to participate actively in the book, es-pecially in Louki´s characterisation. When the four different characters speak about her, each with his own perspective, each a little bit in love with her, the reader is given the space to complete the biography of this mysterious girl.

By: Ainhoa Orensanz

The setting of the book is also a factor to consider – the legendary Paris-sixties, shortly before the rev-olution of May ’68. The reader goes through the pages like a flâneur strolling through a city that no longer exists, watching the people, observing the windows and facades.

I want to continue with the author, but I fear that his literary obsessions with memory and the recon-struction of old Paris will only cause the same for-mula to be repeated in his other novels. As he said in an interview, “I have always felt like I’ve been writing the same book for the past 45 years”, and maybe this is one of the reasons why he doesn’t deserve the award.

I Speak, therefore…am I?It’s funny how, when I started writing this article, I could not find the right words. I speak four different languages. What can I say to people from so many different countries so that they all understand me? What language shall I use? I frantically search for words and phrases, for a way to express my identity.

Each language has an inherent cultural identity. Our ancestors had customs, traditions and lifestyles which were particular to their region, and methods of communication developed around these prac-tices. As a result, the structures and lexicons of regional languages are intrinsically linked to the cul-tures or histories of those areas. The Portuguese word “saudade”, for example, has no direct equivalent in English. The concept encapsulated in the word, of a melancholic nostalgia and residual love for something that is absent and may never return, arises from the Portuguese history of “the beloved [man] who has left [the woman] to go to war or on crusades or on voyages of discovery and conquest overseas”. It has gained different connotations of longing for the homeland and nostalgia for former glory with the various historical events of mass-migration and the fall of the Portuguese empire. The word allows the expression of a unique cultural experience; its absence from the English lexicon prevents a Portuguese speaker from articulating this aspect of their identity while speaking English.

Perhaps this is why bilinguals seem like two completely different people in two different languages. They have no difficulty articulating an idea in either language, but the ideas they choose to express vary, and this is additionally reflected in their tones, the expressions on their face, the softness or excitement in their voice. Non-native speakers, whose expression is hampered, often find that they are almost lacking in identity when speaking in a foreign language. Their incomplete knowledge of lexicon and structure means that they do not have full access to the cultural identity encompassed by that language.

In addition, separation from our native language may cause us to disconnect from our cultural identity. Replacing a native language with a non-native language means being limited to a half-learned foreign cultural identity. Post-colonial societies are the best examples of this phenom-enon. The British colonized India, the Portuguese colonized Brazil; English is now the medium of upper to middle class education in India, and most Brazilians consider Portuguese their first language. This is a political shuffling – the coloniser’s language is elevated to the status of either of-ficial or elite language, and so becomes the language of the powerful, while indigenous languages are relegated to a lower status and therefore excluded from mainstream or intellectual discourse.As a result, portions of both populations are required to communicate in a language which, firstly, is isolated from their local cultural history, and secondly, they cannot attain confidence of style and nuance in. They become cultural refugees: displaced from an indigenous cultural heritage, but also unable to fully integrate into or accurately replicate what is essentially foreign.

The Portuguese word “saudade”, for exam-

ple, has no direct equivalent in English. The concept encapsulated

in the word, of a melancholic nostalgia and residual love for something that is

absent and may never return, arises from the Portuguese history of “the beloved [man] who has left [the woman] to go

to war or on crusades or on voyag-es of discovery and conquest

overseas”.

Kabir, a famous Urdu/Hindi poet, wrote:

Mala ferat jug bhaya, Fira na man ka fer,Kar ka manka dar de, Man ka manka fer:

No matter how hard one tries or one is forced to hold on to something which cannot make one feel, no matter how valuable or precious it is, one will fail to do so, because the heart wants what the heart wants, and the mind speaks what the mind wants to speak. Maybe we should re-think our faith in English as a global uni-fier. While it bridges gaps of com-munication between individuals, com-pelled use seems to create problematic gaps within each individual’s fragile identity.

By: Vanisha Sampat

The legend of Diwali

As a little kid at the age of 6, I remem-ber sitting in my grandmother’s lap on the night of the Amavasya, enveloped in her new golden saree, asking her why was it that we called this specific moonless night “Diwali”? She laughed and went on to tell the tale of the tri-umph of the great warrior Rama, over the ten-headed demon king Ravana. Thousands of years ago, in the city of Ayodhya, there was a wise and good king named Dasaratha who ruled along with his three queens and four princes.The eldest of the princes, Rama, with his beautiful wife Sita on his side, was destined to take the throne. As the kingdom rejoiced and prepared for the coronation of their new king, one of Dasaratha’s wives, Kaikeyi, saw in this celebration a sense of injustice; a bias. She felt that her son would be overshadowed, by his elder siblings, and thus approached Dashratha and asked two boons of him. First, that Rama be exiled from Ayodhya for 14 years and second, that her son, Bharata take the throne instead. Having once promised Kaikeyi that he would fulfill any three of her wishes, Dasratha help-lessly exiled Rama, his most beloved son, and as Rama walked towards exile with his loving Sita and loyal brother Laxman at his side, Dasratha walked

towards the ultimate exile; Death. Rama, Sita and Laxman lived a sim-plistic life in the forest, till Sita’s beauty caught the eye of the De-mon King of Lanka, Ravana, who wanted to make her his wife.Fuelled by this desire, Ravana isolated Sita, and abducted her and flew her to Lanka on his chariot, with nothing but Sita’s fallen scarf left behind to track her. Desperate to find his Sita, Rama en-listed the help of the king of mon-keys, Sugreev, who tracked the scent of Sita’s scarf, and aided Rama in building a bridge from Southern India to Lanka to get the monkey army across, to fight for Sita’s return. Rama and Ravana faced each oth-er on the battlefield, and Rama, with a single arrow shot to the gut, slayed the ferocious demon, bring-ing peace to Lanka and his heart as he was finally united with Sita. Victorious, Rama returned to Ayo-dhyaon a moonless night. The lo-cals, wanting to light up his path, lit candles, oil lamps and diyas, illu-minating the atmosphere with hope and prosperity, marking the begin-ning of the festival of lights; Diwali.

By: Mansi Hitesh

And as I looked around the corner, I saw her feet.

And I heard the words in my head, “delicate, snow-coated, angel-like feet”, so clear that they felt like an ethereal pres-ence in the room. And I took one step forward. And an-other. And I didn’t dare look up, no, not again. And I ap-proached her more, one heavy second at a time. And another. And I came close to her. And I felt an urge to look up, no, not again. And the urge grew to a need, a need I tried to re-sist, but my neck set on fire, soon my whole body followed, no, not again, please, let this moment last a little longer, no, don’t look up. But I did.

Again.

The sunlight tiptoed into my room filtered by the shuffling leaves hanging in front of the window, casting the same shadows and shades of green as every day I could remember. Time would have seemed per-fectly still if not for the short, dying gasps of wind gently ca-ressing my face, as if to comfort me through an afternightmare, which wasn’t at all true, but was pretty far-off from false

too. I pondered for a few mo-ments whether I had dreamt of that while sleeping or while awake, eventually realizing that it made no difference. I stared at the ceiling, but could have just as well been staring at anything else. “Delicate, snow-coated, angel-like feet”. Feet I knew so well. Feet I had seen as I looked around the corner for so many times, both in dream-ing and in wakefulness, and in both situations just as vivid, just as delicate. I let out a sigh.

“This is so beautiful.”

The grass underneath me was soft and moist. I took a deep breath, and the air smelled like pinewood. I knew where I was. I opened my eyes and looked to my left, and there she laid, her eyes shining more brightly than the very stars that put up the spectacle she so awe-strickenly admired. She lifted her hand and traced the hunter, very slowly, dipping her fingertip in the blackness at each of the three gems in his belt. I looked up and then back at her and oh, was I right, Alpha and Beta Orionis couldn’t even come close to the beauty I could con-template right by my side, smil-ing so sweetly, so childishly. I

leaned in and kissed her softly on the cheek, colored ruby by the cold, the harsh, unforgiv-ing wind. We stood there for a long time, and the sky began to turn pink. She said “We should get going”, and I said sure. She got up, and a quarter meter from my face, I could see her feet. You’ve got nice feet, I said, “Feet?”, she asked, Yes, feet. You’ve got such delicate feet.

Delicate, snow-coated, angel-like feet.

I opened my eyes and I could see no shades of green on my wall, as there was no more sun-light for the leaves to filter. The wind had stopped blowing. I got up and started walking slowly towards my bedroom door. I made my way down the stairs, one heavy step at a time. At the base of the stairs was the corridor, and through the memories on the wall I walked, and walked, the pas-sage seemed to stretch it-self forever. Eventually I got to the end and turned right.

And as I looked around the corner, I saw her feet.

- Lucas

And as I looked around the corner, I saw her feet.

Her feet have an I D E N T I T Y the identity of an escapist, the identity of a quitter.

After investing two weeks of vision investigating the movements of her corpse, I was certain that she was about to walk out of the sliding doors of the cafeteria and make her way to her corner newly lit by cheap fairy lights from Paud that she bought with the money left after buying her weekly dose of booze.

I’m at a point where her presence makes me feel tense. I think it’s because of the conversation we had last night, the conversation we shouldn’t have had, the conversation I regret.

Also, I’m anxious to the point of hysteria. I quickly realign my line of sight to the food on my plate and remove all possibilities of eye contact. I feel her presence pause just outside the cafeteria. I control the urge to look up. So I look at her feet instead. The view is pixelated and hazy - I am trying too hard to focus from the corner of my eye. Her feet briefly point in my direction and I can feel her gaze upon my body. But her right ankle turns and her left foot loses contact with the ground and she hurriedly walks away.

Her feet have an I D E N T I T Y the identity of an escapist, the identity of a quitter.

- Adityajit

CHALLENGE WINNERS!

Shanti a dropLast Year Today

But Shanti is dead. She died a year ago when I was here and she was there and her stom-ach burst, or maybe her heart, and I boarded a train to Pondicherry. As I stared out onto the dark train tracks, which rats populated like ants, Shanti stared out into a dark hallway. In the cage next to her was a little chihuahua with matted fur and a soiled bandage on her ear. I imagine that the chihuahua was was making pitiful noises over and over and over. Shan-ti must have turned her head the other way around. She must have been going crazy. As I boarded a train to Pondicherry, and took my first breath of India wanderlust, Shanti took her last. Her stomach burst, or maybe her heart.

We’ve arrived in Pondicherry. An Israeli fam-ily asks me if I have a dog, “Yes,” I answer, “She has fur the color of cold coffee and soft, gen-tle eyes that look like they’re rimmed in kohl. She sleeps in the recycling bin under my father’s desk, but it’s so small that she has to squeeze herself into it, like toothpaste. It’s ridiculous because we bought her a bed— a pediatri-cian-recommended mattress at that. She pre-fers, though, the whispers of felled papers.”

The Israeli family smiles. They laugh. And all seems to be well.

In the garden of my parent’s home, we cull avocados from a obstinate avocado tree. We have basil growing in pitiful circles, and capsi-cum desperately reaching for some sun. There is one circular plot in which nothing grows

at all and all there is is blown away soil and pieces of wrapping paper flown in, and a few sticks and brambles. But in the soil to the left in which Shanti is buried, the roots of a wa-ter apple tree have taken hold. And the tree is growing. Its branches skim the sky. It seems to be laughing. I stare at this water apple tree of-ten— the only success of my parent’s garden.

And then, I begin to read under this water apple tree. As its branches grow stronger, my mind is filled with stories and happenings that take me away. And then, I begin to daydream under this water apple tree. I can sit there for hours and watch how the leaves of the opposite shrub oc-casional filter sunlight in just the right way, so that a few beams land on my face and I feel I am being revered. There are times when ants fall onto my sweater. And I watch how they squig-gle around to orient themselves. Then, I blow softly on their back, and watch as they freeze completely. The world is still, with my breath.

When I go back to the place on the hill with all those people and things and happenings, I feel like a have water apple tree sap running through my blood. Perhaps it’s the whispers of a gentle dog, whose stomach burst, or may-be her heart, through the soft bark of a water apple tree, through my skin, softly into me.

- Leila Faulstich Hon

‘Drop, drop and drop’ they say,That ego on the ground,But nose in the air! Chin up! Keep pride safe and sound.

‘Drop, drop and drop’ they say,Anger to the floor,But fight with passion, dear childFor what you stand for.

Drop, drop and drop, they sayIntelligence is an unattainable abyss,Your grades are appalling though,They sneer, scold and hiss.

Masses of contradictions,Nonchalant hypocrisy,They dictate the same beliefs,Shrouded in diplomacy.

May I drop, drop and drop, I shout,Drop out of the shackles you place,Maybe falling is the answer,To find some breathing space.

I dropDropDrop Meditate and reflect,And find myself on a clear planeElevated in retrospect.

-Ananya Gupta

introduction to stories

just go for it

Saeesh Mangwani

I once met a young boy from a village who took me for a stroll back in time to the fields and smiles of his childhood. I heard tales of his family and fowl, of mis-chief with friends out on moonlit nights, of comic capers involving bullocks and hens. I listened in curious happiness as we traversed the knolls of his memories.

A magical aura emanates from tales shared and imagined. A story allows us – if we are watching closely enough – a glimpse into the mind of the venerable entity who has de-cided to share. Stories are magnificent creations: fraught with vulnerability, but fueled by the desire to share with one another. They break down walls, foster relationships, fill with emotion and have the potential to capture the ideas and knowledge of whole generations. We witness lands distant and unknown in our time here at MUWCI through the stories that we encounter. Each narrative is a captivating view through a keyhole into an individual’s life. Look?

Shruti Subramanium

I’m with a group of friends protesting along with about half the city’s youth against the newly implemented education system in my country based on “revo-lutionary ideals.” I stand there for hours screaming and shouting our discon-tent. Then, a loud siren screeches and everything goes silent in its reverberations.

I can’t see much over the crowd but I feel a distress growing in the forefronts. Why are people running away? Why are the uniformed men pointing guns at us, emerging out of the periph-eries of the crowd? Everyone starts to run and I prepare myself to do the same. But..I can’t move. My shoulder is thrown back. I’m on the ground and there are feet filling my vision. Be-fore they can run over me, there are arms pulling me up. I don’t even feel my shoulder as we run. The faces, then, are blurs. Hair whips, and there are car lights, and nothing is really con-crete until I’m sitting at home, and someone is pulling the rubber bullet out of my shoulder.

The wound doesn’t hurt, but my anger throbs. Anger at how I took a bul-let for simply expressing my disagreement. At how a state would react violent-ly to an unarmed group of people who were demonstrating their unhappiness by right.

Is this the cost someone pays for being against something in my country? If this is true, I sup-pose one always loses something in the bargain—but that’s where passion is truly reflected.

the downfall of the red devils

some very highly rated and expensive players. City managed to beat United to the title in 2012 and have been strong contenders for it ever since. Man U tried to fight back at the beginning of this season by spending a staggering £145,500,000 on Herrera, Shaw, Blind, Rojo and Di Maria which makes their bad form even more unjusti-fiable. The two teams went head to head on the 2nd of November this season, as expected, City beat United by one goal to nil. United fielded the combined most expensive premier league team ever at £241 million and still lost, which is ironic because we often hear United fans saying “City ruin football with their money”.

The footballing reason why United have been dropping points this season is pretty obvious: their defence has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. They are scoring goals thanks to a star studded attack composed of Van Persie, Rooney and the recently acquired Di Maria and Falcao but these goals mean little when they concede more than they score. They have let in 14 goals in 11 matches.This is unsurprising, as their vet-eran defenders Ferdinand, Evra and Vidic all left at the end of last season; Van Gaal tried to replace them with Shaw, Rojo and Blind but they lack the experience that their predecessors had. United seem to be proving the saying that good strikers win games, but good defenders win leagues. If they want to turn their season around, they will have to invest in 2 or 3 decent

centre-backs in the January transfer window.

For all those who don’t support United, it has been quite amusing to see how quickly they fell from grace. Man U fans vow that they will be back to the top soon, but this seems un-likely unless Van Gaal gets sacked or some major changes are made in the dressing room.

Henok Pankhurst

For the past twenty-five years, Manchester Unit-ed F.C. has been one of the most successful foot-ball clubs in English football, if not the world. Based at Old Trafford in Greater Manchester, Man U have won 20 league titles – more than any other club. They have also been success-ful in other English tournaments such as the Football Association’s Cup, the League Cup and the Community Shield. Man U’s success isn’t only restricted to English football: they have won 3 European cups, one UEFA Cup Win-ners’ Cup, one UEFA Super Cup, one Intercon-tinental Cup, and one FIFA Club World Cup.

They have had some of the most talented foot-ball players of all time playing for them: Eric Cantona, David Beckham, George Best, Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney became household names by playing for the Red Devils. Their prominence is largely attributed to Sir Alex Ferguson, who managed the club from 1986 to 2013. The Scotsman has won manager of the year the most times in British Football History. It was a relief to all football fans who don’t support United to see him step down.

So why is such a big club sitting eight in the premier league when they have finished in the top 3 for the past 24 years? They have fallen be-low much smaller clubs like Southampton and West Ham. Why did they fail to qualify for the Champion’s league for the first time in 19 years?

The main reason is Sir Alex’s retirement in 2013. His successor, David Moyes, wasn’t able to maintain the quality of football that the fans had grown accustomed to. They finished 7th the year after they won the league under Fer-gie. Moyes got sacked, to the fans delight, at the end of his first season. Some say he wasn’t giv-en enough time. He was replaced by Louis Van Gaal who managed the Netherlands in the 2014 Fifa World Cup. He hasn’t been up to scratch either, his team suffered a humiliating 4 – 0 league cup exit to Mk Dons who are two divi-sions lower. Unacceptable by the club’s stand-ards. They also suffered defeats from Swansea city and Leicester city earlier in the season, two clubs that they were expected to beat.

Along with Fergie, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes retired recently, they made 672 and 500 ap-pearances respectively for the club. They were both essential pieces in Man U’s midfield over the years and will be dearly missed by the fans.

Another reason for their downfall could be the rise of their rivals Manchester City. The other Manchester club didn’t pose a threat to United in recent years until the club was bought by Abu Dhabi-based Abu Dhabi United Group Invest-ment and Development Limited with a deal worth a reported £200 million. They provided the club with a ridiculous high spending budget which enabled them to rebuild their squad with

Photos by: Xuhan & Henok