Neha Rao’s SOOT uses carbon black (a substance created by treating soot) to create personalised designs on a range of sustainable fabrics. Every three to six months, the factories undergo cleaning and maintenance checks and during these checks, the chimneys are cleaned and tonnes of carbon black powder are collected,” reveals Neha.  She also says that her desire to revive the dying craft of hand screen-printing further motivated her to set up SOOT in Mumbai in Antimicrobial non-woven fabric suppliers 2016.. “I make every design customisable to bolster the sustainability angle. I chose to look closely at inks and the more I researched, I realised that natural dyes are not really sustainable because they use up a lot of natural resources. Some use it as a pigment in ink, some as manure in their gardens while others mix it with natural oils to make kohl or kajal. These chimneys are fitted with filters that catch carbon black particles. After placing the order, it can take about two weeks to receive the finished product, but Neha says this is because she goes the extra mile to personalise the packaging as well. Our grandmothers used it to line our eyes, so in no way is it harmful,” avers Neha. “Several factories burn fossil fuels and the smoke passes through huge industrial chimneys.

The designer also says that the dye is extremely safe to use, is clinically tested and has good colourfastness. So, I try hard to engage the customer and ask them to select the material, colour and the designs on the garment,” shares the designer. “This waste then goes through a cleaning process, where the dust and dirt are removed and a really fine powder is acquired. She motivates her customers to use SOOT garments for longer by involving them in the decision-making process. She mostly creates shades of grey and black and uses opaque and transparent binders to manipulate the shade.While in the past, Neha mostly stuck to printing on organic silk and cotton, for the past six months she has been experimenting with a new textile – fabrics made from industrial hemp.But apart from introducing sustainability in the dye-making process, Neha also tries to champion the cause through the designing process.Neha uses her unique dye to print on a range of garments like sarees and kurtas and even uses it to design on paper and wooden furniture.While some factories channelise the byproduct for use in construction work or the tyre industry, many factories are not so responsible with their waste and end up dumping tonnes of carbon black into water bodies or in landfills. To prevent this from happening, Neha ties up with companies and uses their carbon black waste to make dyes.“For my Master’s project at Chelsea College of Art and Design, I had to work on a project that combined sustainability with design. But a 26-year-old textile designer has come up with a unique use for the substance – to make sustainable dyes. In college, I learnt that when the consumer becomes a part of the decision-making process, they’re likely to keep the product for a longer time because they have that sense of ownership.

Neha says that the idea to use soot for designing came about when she was looking for sustainable materials for a college project.Design stencils Soot, the black powdery substance created when organic matter is burnt, has been put to use in various ways over time. “People worry if soot is safe to wear; it absolutely is, unless you ingest or inhale it. So, I began to look at ways to use waste materials to create colours,” shares Neha. I mix this powder with a water-based binder and use it to screen print it on fabric,” says the Chembur-based designer. In the future, she hopes to invest more in research and indulge in collaborations that help her work on a range of products. This made her zoom in on carbon black since it is a byproduct produced by most factories during incineration

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| LEELA VENKATARAMAN Published: Mar 4, 2020, 3:17 am IST Updated: Mar 4, 2020, 3:17 am IST “Upaj” saw three fine dancers performing to Atul’s music in Jaijaiwanti, with added magic created through Gyandev Singh’s lighting. The delicacy of Gowri’s interpretation and the impactful music composed by Samiullah Khan (singing in full throated gusto) revealed a dancer who had found herself.The writer is an eminent dance criticend-ofTags: kumudini lakhia, kathak. It was a milestone for Kathak aficionados when Ahmedabad’s prestigious Kathak institution, Kadamb, mounted the two-day festival, Yugaantar, in celebration of its founder Kumudini Lakhia’s 90th birthday, marking her completing 60 eventful years of teaching Kathak, in the process enriching the dance with several fine performer/teacher disciples. Atul, who was acutely sensitive to the musicality in each movement, through his raga compositions sans words, seemed to heighten the impact of the dance visualised by Kumudini Lakhia. Bride Parvati’s imagination runs riot — comparing creepers to snakes round Shiva’s body, juxtaposing her sandal-pasted body against his ash-smeared one, her lustrous hair against his locks on which Ganga perches.‘Dhabkar’, with three superbly trained dancers in simple elegance seated at different levels of stage space, with wonderful lighting, made just a foot-stomping rhythmic sound like the pulse beat. The traditional movement technique when used to drape themes away from mythology, acquired a different magic.

A ‘tukra’ or ‘tihai’ treated this way as an assemblage among several dancers, without the customary traditional solo fashion of sticking to centre space, had a new feel. On that perfect Shivaratri is it Shiva in search of Shiva, as seated on Shiva’s lap, Parvati asks about the truth of Shiva — Kim rupamtatvato? Is he form subsumed in the formless? On the perfect night in the beloved’s embrace (the fully awakened senses likened to the five colours of the peacock’s tail) so sensitised that Parvati feels the ecstatic thrill of an ant moving on her body, she discovers that Shivaratri’s eternal darkness (superior to the Light which burns itself out) presides overduality transcended and between Prana and Apana, Parvati experiences the reality — of herself in Shiva. Apart from Bhartendu Harishchandra’s “Savare chhaila re”, were soliloquy passages with the dancer reciting Cheetswami’s poetry, “Aage Krishna, Pachhe Krishna”. Movements pared down to their micro elements, were reassembled for China Spunbonded nonwovens manufacturers a group of dancers facing different angles, often with overlapping movements — where riveting formations were created sometimes in a dynamo effect – different from the customary synchronicity. In 1962, she acquired a student Sandhya, whose husband Atul, well-versed in music, after days of quietly taking in the proceedings in the Kathak class, became Kumudini’s music composer and there began one of the greatest explorations between Kathak dance and music spread over 35 years, among two combustible and volatile, but in the final analysis, creatively like-minded people. Light and strong tones of footwork with subtle distribution of weight, depending on the part of the foot marking the rhythm on the floor, was delightful. after the day’s work to turn the floor space into an evening dance class. It was as if melody and movement were in constant interaction, one influencing the other-both equally innovative.THE ASIAN AGE. The name Kadamb itself, a tree replete with Krishna associations, scented blossoms and aesthetic appeal showed Kumudini’s poetic mind, which jostled with thoughts she wanted to sculpt through Kathak movement. “You are life and the breath that governs me.” She yearns to partake of his micro-essence in all forms – the prancing deer, the soaring bird or the fish exploring the ocean depths.Aditi Mangaldas, one of Kumudini’s prime students, presented abstracts of her larger work, Immersed — the dancer fathoming what Krishna, serenaded in sculpture, poetry, dance, music, architecture and literature, means to her. So dance really took place in the space between bodies.When in 1961, Kumudini with a very young son Shriraj in tow, arrived in Ahmedabad along with husband Rajnikant, a lover of Hindustani music, working with the family’s Lakhia brothers automobile dealership, the city, a stranger to Kathak, could offer no tabla player, an absolute necessity for the dance.Kadamb Centre came into existence in 1967. Dancer-choreographer Kumudini Lakhia gave this body a new mind.Visual vignettes from the showThe legacy of gharanedhar gurus had invested Kathak with a rich body of technique.“Upaj” saw three fine dancers performing to Atul’s music in Jaijaiwanti, with added magic created through Gyandev Singh’s lighting. Kumudini’s  no-nonsense approach got the right seasoning from Atul Desai’s abstract soaring into the world of notes and sound — the two together creating sheer poetry of movement and sound.

Aditi’s choreography and presentation bringing into play all the abstract elements of Kathak she excels in, woven into the dance fabric, with padhant, tabla and Pakhawaj by Mohit Gangani and Ashish Gangani. Dancing to Madhup Mudgal’s tarana music in Kedar, male and female dancers in white costumes delighted in the typical Kumudini carriage and walk.With a set of male performers, ‘Padhant’ built round the plain recitation of bols created an interaction like jawabsawal with performers seated at one point in a durbar style of exchange — the speed and  manner of utterance creating real theatre, suggesting shades of emotion. Along with Milind Srivastava’s light effects were melodious voices of Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan, in ragas like Maand and Sohini. Her Guru Shambho Maharaj had instilled in her a feel for the supreme aesthetics of Kathak, though her idea of the proudly straight dancer’s body with a regal bearing was far from the way the guru stressed a modest, eyes-down stance of humility. Preferring well-fitting costumes in pleasing shades, sans the fussy veil and ornaments (which invariably came in the way during chakkars and fast movements), Kumudini’s concern was more with the dancer in space and the group form rather than the frontal facing solo dancer performing to the audience. This curtainraiser reminded one of the days when purists caviled at such play on rhythmic syllables, ultimately coming to accept that Kumudini had shown how hidden in known rhythm patterns, was a wealth of ideas. Aditi Mangaldas, an established contemporary Kathak performer now, was Kumudini’s first student along with two other less committed learners.Ahmedabad, far from Kathak-centric India, became home to Kumudini’s flowering imagination. Nothing to beat the tiny tots, and children dancing to 13 matras, or keeping taal reciting “dhina dhi dhina” (the Jhaptal bol) weaving into the cycle of 16 matras!A true index of Lakhia’s teaching achievements lay in the superbly conceived Samaratri presented by disciple Aditi’s disciple Gauri Diwakar who surprised with the maturity of her sensitive dance interpretation of Kalidas’ erotic verses from Kumarasambhavam, helped by inputs from Vigyan Bhairav Tantra on Bhairava and Bhairavi. In the swelling and fading away of the ghungroo ki awaz, it was a dancer who touched silence — on this auspicious day — the birthday of both Kumudini Lakhia and Pandit Birju Maharaj — her gurus!  It was an immersive performance.

Calling out to him through innumerable epithets, she wonders at his cosmic immensity. Graceful hands, unique entry and exit with tasteful costumes emphasised beauty in simplicity. Kumudini managed with a hired percussion student who would provide what support he could, with Kumudini clapping and loudly vocalising the rhythmic syllables! In the small office space, Rajnikant helped remove all the tyres etc. Minimalism without overcrowded virtuosity became the rule and even simple hand movements “tat thai, tat tatthai” by three dancers facing different angles filled space with beautiful lines.Tarana in Durbari (a 2009 production), melodiously sung in the sound tape by Aniketh Khandekar had strong male dancers, matched by female dancers doing high leaps.Having been a dancer travelling the world in Ramgopal’s dance troupe, Kumudini was aware of the need for presentational elegance in Kathak, without the ornate trappings and spectacle for western audiences which Ramgopal created

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One valid fear was that the government would bring people of their choice for these key posts. The scheme, however, did not last beyond one batch, ostensibly due to the opposition of vested interests.Now, 60 years after the botched effort, the government is again seeking to infuse outside talent in the government and make use of their domain expertise. Kapoor. Reforming the bureaucracy with lateral entry is a welcome move, but lateral exit also needs to be planned and implemented. They cannot annoy them because of the imperative of getting China non woven fabric for face mask good appraisal reports without which their promotions can be held back. But they did not do the job well, because one of the recruits was a retired state civil servant whose domain knowledge was sound. The present move of the government differs from the past in its attempt to institutionalise the way of recruiting civil servants parallel to the All India Civil Services Examination. By making lateral entry a part of the system, the PM has made an important political intervention. Shahi, the last lateral entry power secretary, who joined a select group of those who reached the top ranks of bureaucracy from the outside — Lavraj Kumar, Mantosh Sondhi and D. Also, it is not wise to lose someone after imparting all the necessary on-job training.

But much more needs to be done and if we want better governance and performance, we need lateral entries at levels both higher and lower than joint secretary levels. For the other two subject experts, the biggest challenge was their lack of experience in the functioning of the bureaucracy.Developed countries such as the United States, Britain, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand are known to have lateral entrants as a standard practice.Pradeep S MehtaThe author is secretary general of CUTS International. But many may not be aware that many of the joint secretaries’ current positions are held by officers from the IRS, IPS and so forth, who bring in a fresh perspective. They were hired from both the public and the private sectors to provide the bureaucracy the much needed fillip of quality at the senior levels. This needs to be coupled with exits — weeding out of the deadwood in the system. In the event lateral entry happens in greater numbers, it will challenge the existing automatic promotion system and also create an exit avenue for non-performing babus.V. When bureaucrats with enough administrative experience fall short of their optimum performance due to a lack of subject expertise, it is imprudent to expect that a subject expert will perform without strong knowledge of how government works.end-ofTags: union public service commission, government of india, narendra modi. Others included R. In our opinion, the duration is inadequate to understand the job role and start performing. Subsequently, in December 2018, to counter such fears, the task was handed over to the UPSC, the country’s central recruiting agency, to make the process politically neutral. An option to extend their stay by another 5-10 years based on their performance could be considered, when permanent civil servants can work for 30-plus years without the fear of getting fired. By the way, many existing permanent civil servants are brilliant but many have to suffer incompetent supervisors.On April 12, 2019, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) announced nine candidates as lateral entrants to serve as joint secretaries in various ministries of the Government of India. As it stands today, only two of them, who already had enough experience of working with the bureaucracy, have managed to thrive. This is already happening except that choices are restricted to the civil services.In order to keep the process controversy-free, the Central government has fixed the tenure of the joint secretaries for three years. The move will also bolster the performance of permanent civil servants when they will face competition. However, appointing people from outside the system has raised the hackles of the entrenched bureaucracy for obvious reasons. It is high time for a reform process by opening up different ministries to more short-term consultants and experts and lateral entry can be the way forward. However, most of the 131 recruits went on to serve a full term.Although no amount of training can bring them at par with the career bureaucrats on administrative issues, a short training to understand the basics of government procedures at any reputed training centre such as Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration could be useful.

To put it on record, lateral entry is not a brand new move and it has been tried and tested in the past when the government handpicked several experts from outside the steel frame such as Sam Pitroda, Vijay Kelkar, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and several others at the secretary level, or even Nandan Nilekani, who was given the rank of a Cabinet minister.V.One bureaucrat in Haryana (not Ashok Khemka) alleged hoarsely that the move is an attempt to tear down the very fabric of democracy and that lateral entry can crush the steel frame of India.Appointing nine joint secretaries from the private and the public sectors was the first significant step by the Narendra Modi government to bring specialists and experts into the government from outside the system.On April 12, 2019, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) announced nine candidates as lateral entrants to serve as joint secretaries in various ministries of the Government of India. Four individuals for the post of special secretary were recruited.Similar to the Central government’s decision to handover the selection process to the UPSC, in Jharkhand, KPMG was hired, limiting the scope for political intervention. Even regular civil servants have to compete for any posting. Moreover, the lack of a provision to extend the services of even the better performers can act as a deterrent for the candidates to invest their intellectual capital. To create a pool of highly qualified managers, 131 candidates were hired in 1959 under the “Industrial Management Pool (IMP)” initiative. Likewise, many Opposition leaders termed this move as the government’s attempt to fill the position with people of a similar ideology.Published: May 16, 2019, 1:47 am IST Updated: May 16, 2019, 5:39 am IST Developed countries such as the United States, Britain, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand are known to have lateral entrants as a standard practice. If indeed a level playing field can be created, the move can act as a catalyst to infuse competition in the system and holds the potential to transform the system. This was tolerated by the steel frame because they were also civil servants, and not outsiders.In 2016, an experiment of institutionalising lateral entry at the special secretary level was initiated by the government of Jharkhand. A healthy mixture of subject expertise and administrative knowledge is the only way forward. These nine new joint secretaries will account for less than three per cent of over 340 joint secretaries in the Central government.Not many may know that one major lateral entry experiment was done in 1957. This was a milestone event in the government’s efforts to bring in administrative reforms. Many committees and also the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission had recommended it but there was no momentum

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Disposable medical products, masks, surgical pads, furniture, facial masks, isolation garments, protective clothing, agricultural covering cloth

We all know that many hijras take up sex work as a means of earning and they are often exploited and subject to violence during these transactions, which is essentially deemed illegal.One of the biggest problems with the Protection Rights Bill is that it sets up a screening committee to certify transgender persons, which runs against the right to self-identification recognised in NALSA. Some of the critiques of the Protection Rights Bill that came up are as follows: It distorts the definition of “transgender” laid out in the judgment, it does not adopt a rights-based approach, it does not include provisions on reservations or properly identify what discrimination stands for.The views expressed here are personal. It certainly does not provide or talk of alternative professions. The Jogappa community, which is one of the oldest and yet least known transgender communities of Karnataka, indicates that the transgender community is as old as Indian civilisation itself. While many are uncomfortable with this form of begging, the truth is that currently the hijra community have little or no alternative means of earning a living.

It would serve the law makers well to have hijra representation on their board; they need to workshop and consult with members of the community before passing a bill that in effect makes it impossible for the community to grow and to flourish. Under this law, the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutional rights and freedoms of transgender persons to self-identify their gender identity, without having to undergo any medical tests.On December 28, 2018, groups of people belonging to the trans community, gathered to protest at Jantar Mantar against this lack of empathy and poorly researched nature of the bill that would take away two of the only forms of their livelihood, without providing any alternatives.THE ASIAN AGE. However, the decision to change their bodies should only lie with them and not be awarded to some state agency or a committee of medical professionals who are not understanding or empathetic of a hijra’s journey and their lived realities. It often makes people part with their money.end-ofTags: transgender community. Why would one want to bring medical science into an act that is spiritual?Many hijras do not transition medically and prefer not to undergo any surgical intervention. Relegated to the margins of society, the trans, hijra or kinner community, as they are traditionally known, have made their living begging and singing at births and weddings for centuries in India.The Trafficking Bill, (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) does not provide the transgender community with equitable alternatives to dignified livingDevotees of Yellamma decorate their forehead by smearing turmeric (haldi) and vermillion (kum-kum).The trans community is currently grappling with an ambiguous Trafficking Bill, (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) under which, begging and sex work will be made criminal offences. Before taking away the one means of livelihood of any community, it is imperative and incumbent upon the government to look into viable means of earning to make the transition from begging and sex work to the other professions offered to the community. Their crown, earrings and necklace are made of cowries. | ARCHANA DALMIA Published: Jan 10, 2019, 1:42 am IST Updated: Jan 10, 2019, 1:42 am IST Many hijras do not transition medically and prefer not to undergo any surgical intervention. To return to the story of the Jogappas of Karnataka, we might notice that it is simply the act of wearing the garments ascribed to Yellamma and through ritual and prayer that the transformation happens. The Goddess enters them and then they belong to a revered priestly class henceforth. They are often seen begging at traffic lights and their resounding clap is both powerful and intimidating. This included those who identify as third gender, gender-queer, kinnar, hijra, intersex, MTF (male to female), FTM (female to male) to those who identify PAFAB (Persons Assigned Female at Birth) or just those who are China SMS non-woven fabric gender non-conformists.

For those of us who are not in the know, the NALSA judgment of 2014 was welcomed by the LGBTIQH (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered Intersex, Queer and Hijra) community despite certain over-simplifications. However, what I do know is that in any scenario of so called “rehabilitation,” it is only humane and just to make sure that the people who are being “rehabilitated” agree with the manner in which you propose to do it.One of the biggest problems with the Protection Rights Bill is that it sets up a screening committee to certify transgender persons, which runs against the right to self-identification recognised in NALSA. However, by just passing a bill that prevents sex work, we are actually making it worse rather than bettering their lives.However, contemporary India seems to have been in denial about the presence of transgendered folks as part of its social fabric. Through the act of dressing up these male devotees are “caught” or possessed by the Goddess Yellamma, and regarded as holy women.  Moreover, it contradicts rather than protects many of the rights laid out in the country’s Supreme Court NALSA (National Legal Services Authority) verdict of 2014. Top-down laws are seldom effective and the Trafficking Bill was clearly not drafted in consultation with the hijra and trans community. Some do.While NALSA upholds the law to self-identify, this new protection bill seeks to make it mandatory to have an “objective criteria” (read medical test) to determine one’s gender in order to be eligible for entitlements under the verdict.

There are many permutations and combinations to this endless alphabet soup of gender identities which is rich and ever unfolding and I do not claim to know all of them. What are we offering the daughters of Yellamma, but a life of penury and stigma, with this new bill?The writer is the chairperson of the AICC grievance cell. While on the surface of it this might seem like a bill that seeks to stamp out the inequalities that begging and sex work engender, in truth, the rehabilitation aspect of this bill has not been looked into. While some hijra or trans persons have managed to get jobs in beauty parlours or work in the fashion industry, this is the exception rather than the norm. Moreover, the committee includes a medical professional, which serves no purpose other than further pathologising transgender identities. Their body isn’t adorned with expensive jewels.Any law that professes to protect a community needs to evolve around the persons it claims to protect and it should not be the other way around.Until recently, they have not had basic human rights, health rights and no protection against the amount of violence they face at every juncture of their lives, whether it is from the state, the law or in their inter-personal relationships

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