Luxury became democratic as mall rats burrowed and labels burgeoned
By Kanika Gahlaut
The success of a successful leader is measured in terms of his ability to choose his successors. In politics, insecurity forces many politicians to opt for relatively harmless colleagues to run empires on their behalf. For the Congress, mauled by popular anger, it was yet another round of chorus on Dynastic Consolidation. Regional parties were as usual singing paeans to their undisputed leaders, be it Laloo Prasad Yadav or Mulayam Singh Yadav.
But for the BJP, 2003 marked the beginning of putting in place a Gen Next to take over from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his deputy Lal Krishna Advani, whenever the need arises. For the first time since Independence, the BJP has been able to spot and promote over a dozen leaders under-60 who would be in a position to lead the party not only in their states but at the Centre as well. Some are hardcore saffronites, others the darlings of the non-voting-yet, opinion-moulding-upper-class elite. But all of them have a cosmopolitan character. It was a unique social engineering exercise keeping in view the next big battle, General Elections 2004. In the absence of any aggressive and innovative Opposition strategy, it was indeed a Golden Year for the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, the vigour in the electoral field matched by good governance and political stability.
It is no accident that all five BJP chief ministers in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Goa and Chhattisgarh are between 45 and 55 years, that half of BJP's Cabinet ministers are under 60, and that 60 per cent of the party's National Executive under President M. Venkaiah Naidu is under 55. It is not just age that makes the ruling party look younger, even while it is led by a 79-year-old prime minister. Over the past 12 months, the Sangh Parivar has deliberately put in place younger people drawn from various social, economic and gender groups. If Narendra Modi and Uma Bharati represent both backward and hard-edged Hindutva, Union Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje bring upper-caste loyalty to the ruling party. Sushma Swaraj, an emotionally charged orator, has established herself as an undisputed icon for women voters. And Arun Jaitley, a Brahmin and unofficial spokesperson for all the chief ministers, party president and the Government, has left his adversaries behind because of his articulation and ability to use his acumen to demolish political opponents. Shahnawaz Hussain, at 34 the baby of the Cabinet, is the youngest Sunni Muslim to acquire this elite status-he is also the second Muslim from Bihar to have become a Union minister. The year also reinforced both the organisational and electoral skills of Pramod Mahajan, who was able to snatch a difficult state like Rajasthan from the well-entrenched Congress.
An ideologically led party could not afford to anoint Gen Next without making sure that all its political inheritors swore by its basic commitment irrespective of their region or caste. It made sure that its future leadership would adopt the new economic mantra of development without shedding its saffron moorings. So both Bharati and Modi settled down to deliver development soon after taking over because their Hindutva credentials were never in doubt. Those like Rajnath Singh, Raje, Mahajan, the new Delhi BJP chief Harshavardhan, Karnataka party unit chief Ananth Kumar and Naidu have been drawn from Sangh Parivar organisations. Both Vajpayee and Advani made structural changes-with an ideological continuity. But they have failed at least in one area. Gen Next is more concerned about its own promotion. For the first time in the BJP, individuals are placing themselves above institutions. If the leadership had thought of encouraging healthy competition within its new band of leaders, it has not achieved that purpose. It has instead given birth to lethal individual rivalries-individuals and not the party are being feted for electoral victories. If not contained, it may well spell disaster.
THE NEW COOL
SHOES: Gucci is out, Berluti is in BUBBLY: Dom Perignon is here and everywhere but Krug and Kristal are still out there FURNITURE: Raseel Gujral is home-grown chic. The way to buy furniture is from a catalogue CIGARS: The ordinary Cohibas can be puffed at a Chetan Seth do, what one needs to buy are Limited Edition Cohibas (not available at cigar lounges) CUFF LINKS: Those from Tiffany are out, in are those from Longmire DIARIES: Palm Pilots are now used by junior executives, the top boss carries a red-coloured Smythson TRAVEL: Bangkok is for the hoi polloi, being seen at a cultural holiday with a small (and socially right) set of people is in ART: Husain is in too many drawing rooms, an Amrita Sher-Gil counts.
Launching Ladies
PARTY-HEARTY: Ramona Garware (centre) and friends
Public memory this year proved to be just about as short as Queenie Dhody's Cavalli hemlines. How else could Bina Ramani-former Tamarind Court queen whose social life suffered a beating when one of her parties ended with a murder in the backyard-reinvent herself as the official party girl for international brands such as Christian Dior? As local and foreign brands identified socialites to validate the lifestyle their labels were meant to symbolise, the ladies who lunched swiftly became the ladies who launched. So it came to be that partying found a higher purpose this year, with Ramona Garware officially throwing a bash for an international watch brand (only for the host to disappear half-way through the bash and end up in another nightclub) and, Nafisa Ali, when not baiting Narendra Modi as a social worker, deftly cooing to Matthew Hayden as she threw the Foster's party for the Australian cricketer. While professional escorts have never managed social acceptability, professional hosts managed to gain legitimacy. Ramani and her ilk consider this a valid occupation-"I like throwing parties, and I am good at doing it," shrugs Ramani-but there are some voices of dissent. Take Gayatri Devi, who agreed to be the ambassador for a local jewellery brand. But when the brand sent out invitations in her name for the launch, the Maharani drew the line. "I did not invite anybody to dinner," she is said to have sniffed. However, with celebrities bumping up their prices-how many can afford Sachin Tendulkar and Shah Rukh Khan-it was left to the Manolo set to bravely go where no one else went. From pubs to watches, liquor to lifestyles, every brand found its beneficiary.
A-Z OF FITNESS
A: Ananda spa; Atkins diet B: Buddhist chants, Botox instead of silicon implants; bokchoy instead of spinach; body mass index C: Catch Clear water instead of Bisleri D: Detox diet E: Energy enhancers F: Feng Shui bamboo G: Garlic for selenium, the hottest new active nutrient H: High-fibre cereal I: Iyengar yoga (as opposed to ashtanga yoga) J: Juicy Couture track-suits (as worn by J-Lo) K: Kiwi fruit L: Latin dance classes M: Male mastectomy, memory pills instead of chyawanprash N: Non-invasive vasectomy O: Oxygen therapy P: Prunes for digestion Q: Quentin Tarantino killer films for catharsis of any negative chi R: Rocket salad; red wine S: Spin cycling T: Treadmill with TV U: Ultra-violet protection glasses V: Vigorelle (female viagra) W: Workouts condensed in 15-minute packages X: Xtra zing with honey instead of cane sugar Y: Yoghurt Z: Zzzz... restorative sleep
Thinking Pink
Fuchsia may or may not be the hottest colour, but society had a distinct pink tinge to it this year. Homosexuality became hot with creative types across the board. The increasingly popular Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin has a lean, mean designer with the stereotypical "teapot" and even a scene in a gay bar. Saif Ali Khan and Shah Rukh Khan took boy-bonding to edgy limits in the hit Kal Ho Naa Ho and the metrosexual male became the most abused term in the history of trendy words-with chest cleavage becoming the new must-flaunt for kurta-clad men.What's more, in the year that Bhupen Khakhar, the original Indian gay artist, passed away, his cause hit the front pages of tabloids at the India Fashion Week. Homosexuality tumbled out of the closet and on to the runway. Manish Arora led the pink parade with his men in fuchsia flooding the catwalk, their T-shirts adorned by a black-and-white print of two men in an embrace. A quiet outing, this was offset by the flamboyance of Aki Narula, who sent on his runway two models who locked lips and tongues. As the behenji designers cried wolf and contemplated taking the issue of "sensationalism" to the Fashion Design Council of India, there was no prudence in pink this year.
G O L D E N P U M P K I N O F T H E Y E A R
ARUN NAYAR
Arm Dandy
Fuchsia may or may not be the hottest colour, but society had a distinct pink tinge to it this year. Homosexuality became hot with creative types across the board. The increasingly popular Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin has a lean, mean designer with the stereotypical "teapot" and even a scene in a gay bar. Saif Ali Khan and Shah Rukh Khan took boy-bonding to edgy limits in the hit Kal Ho Naa Ho and the metrosexual male became the most abused term in the history of trendy words-with chest cleavage becoming the new must-flaunt for kurta-clad men.What's more, in the year that Bhupen Khakhar, the original Indian gay artist, passed away, his cause hit the front pages of tabloids at the India Fashion Week. Homosexuality tumbled out of the closet and on to the runway. Manish Arora led the pink parade with his men in fuchsia flooding the catwalk, their T-shirts adorned by a black-and-white print of two men in an embrace. A quiet outing, this was offset by the flamboyance of Aki Narula, who sent on his runway two models who locked lips and tongues. As the behenji designers cried wolf and contemplated taking the issue of "sensationalism" to the Fashion Design Council of India, there was no prudence in pink this year.
G I L T T R I P
For Fame's Sake
Pulitzer Prize-winning Jhumpa Lahiri was the Indian answer to Monica Ali, but with an Italian journalist husband and a newborn baby, she was much more attractive. She was also over there, as in America. And in between talking about Italian architecture and a Bengali upbringing, she proved not only that she was pretty literary but also that she had a second book in her with the highly acclaimed The Namesake. Arundhati Roy, please note.
GUEST COLUMN: PRASOON JOSHI
The New Consumer
Even though many of us believe that we are moving towards globalisation hence standardisation, I feel that social change is not so simple. The juxtaposition of various cultures will result in a more complex society. That said, it was a great year for advertising. The need to understand and connect with the changing Indian consumer was top of the mind for our industry. It is not that the Indian consumer has not gone through change earlier, but it is the speed at which he is changing that is astonishing. By the time you read the books and theories on consumer behaviour, the consumer has moved on. So there is a greater need to be in constant touch with his life. I saw a new consumer emerging. There was no longer the leeway to take the higher ground and talk down or show a way up. The need for communication that talked more eye to eye and one to one was felt more strongly than before. It is more about a consumer who will not necessarily enjoy it when you talk to him in his own dialect but a consumer who will say "you speak the way you do, I will speak my way and let's talk". It is a more confident-with-himself consumer. At the same time, we must recognise that we are still in the "pupa" stage and undergoing transformation. So while "consumerism" in the form of "greed" (the hook in Kaun Banega Crorepati) is more than apparent, it still has to be couched in layers of vidya or knowledge to be acceptable in India. Maybe our world will be constantly transforming because fusion is much faster. Societies are more fluid. Things are not going to settle into one identifiable entity. This understanding really helped me in my creativity, especially in advertising. For example, the "Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola" series. A myth that this campaign exploded was that the Indian youth could be reached only through lifestyle advertising. The "Paanch" or "Nepali Gurkha" ad was equally popular with both the trendy urban and the curious rural youth. It made it clear that the Indian youth is no longer rebellious. He is confident of successfully creating a world which will be able to contain both-his desire and his tradition. The need of the hour is to strip the trappings of this so-called consumer and find the person underneath. Only then will communication be truly successful. So that's what 2003 brought-new lessons and opening up of more windows. I am holding a live wire in my hand, living the change every minute and loving it.
The author is national creative director, McCann-Erickson India, and maker of the 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola' ads.
Hitting A New Low
BACK TO THE FUTURE: Fashion bared, dared and lounged in 2003
Call it bum cleavage or the crack epidemic, but low-rise jeans have just about said and shown all they could. Hopefully fashion will grow up in the new year. Also a boo to the Foreign Navel Force invading our nightclubs, with Russian, Belgian and Czech belly-dancers, and the whole business of lounging.
CURRENT ISSUE JANUARY 05, 2004
Index 
SHOES: Gucci is out, Berluti is in 
