Iconic India - Part 1

ICONIC INDIA

What most defines Indianness? The quintessential dhaba or the iconic seals from the Indus Valley Civiilisation, the Ganga or the Taj Mahal by the banks of the Yamuna, Nehru me collective thinking but jackets or Gandhi topis, the Lux beauty queen commercials or the revolutionary Nirma television ad? Team BS came together for som ended up squabbling in Amartya Sen’s argumentative mode over the merits off their own and others’ inclusions. From among hundreds, we edited down to the very few choices our pages could accommodate. As a result, several meritorious icons were dropped, leading to heartbreaks and not a little unhappiness in the office. We are sure you will find your own reasons to be upset over our selection, but we hope you agree that these final ones on our list are worthy icons of Indiaanness. Have a happy new year.

Per fectly designed Charkha To Gandhi, mill cloth represented colonial rule and the un-Indian domination of the village by the city. Therefore, Gandhi and many of his followers spun their charkhas daily to turn raw cotton into khadi — which became the uniform of the post-Independence politician. On the tiranga, the charkha of the Congress flag was replaced by the dharma chakra.

Almost the first lesson on Indian design will point you to the lota, the small water pitcher or pot, made of brass, copper, silver or, now, steel. It’s existed for millennia, performs a number of functions, and with its perfect contours and easy portability, is touted as the most perfect example ever of form and function. Beat that 21st century designers!

Dance with me, baby

Uncommonly common Long before there was middle-class activism, or alternate cinema, there was R K Laxman’s “common man”, the dhoti-clad, slightly befuddled Indian everyman, at the receiving end of our corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, stoic, long-suffering but brightening up our day in a pocket cartoon that has proved as habit forming as the morning cuppa.

The outsourcing mantra

Calling Sher oo... …or Bhaloo, Maghu, Bhuriya, among the most ubiquitous of names for that most ubiquitous of beings — the Indian stray. Shunned by most, but fed by a few

kind-hearted souls, the street dog across the country is resoundingly similar, often brushed aside as a mongrel,

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) was an economic reality that happened a decade back, opening employment avenues for millions of young graduates. It has today evolved into a sophisticated industry that generates revenues of around $12.5 billion (last year), employing slightly over 700,000 employees. Despite battling a gloomy economic outlook, the Indian BPO industry is on track to reach $73-75 billion in revenues by 2010.

but actually a pedigree that is uniquely its own.

Four-and-a-half thousand years back, the Mohenjodaro dancing girl symbolised the epitome of clean, minimal design in a civilisation that was at its peak. Scholars are still trying to understand what led to the abandonment of the Indus Valley settlements — and why later Indians gave up on austerity to embrace the full-blown voluptuousness of Khajuraho.

An Indian monument

Dabbawalla & Co The Mumbai dabbawallas have not only enthralled Britain’s Prince Charles but also taught Sir Richard Branson a thing or two about service with a smile. Well-chronicled for their network and trustworthiness and rated Six Sigma performance for the precision of delivery by Forbes magazine, the Dabbawalla Association’s error rate surpasses the benchmark that blue-chip telecom and IT companies have set for their products.

W ah! Taj It’s the white elephant that wasn’t: the Taj has been called, with superb sentimentality, “a teardrop on the cheek of time”, a monument to love and so on. Many myths surround its creation, such as that its architects and craftsmen had to forfeit their hands or eyes so as never to outdo themselves. Some iconic moments attend its present, like the 1992 portrait of Diana alone in front of the Taj. It’s a huge tourist magnet, one of the so-called Seven Wonders of the World, the root of all the many Taj-based brand names, and by far the most recognisable symbol of India.

Writes photographer Raghubir Singh in A Way Into India: “...It has become a metaphor for modern India, for independent India. Lizard-like, it has shed its colonial coating of Morris Oxford to don Hindustani colours. Unlike the Oxford don, tweed, thick-cut marmalade and an English breakfast of kippers and herring, it was never a British monument but it is an Indian one.” No one disagrees.