India Abroad January 10, 2014 A5 PEOPLE
Amother with a little boy on her hip. A sari wrapped draped over her head. The child and the woman —
with the face of a girl and the hands of an
old woman of unfortunate circumstances
— peering through the rain-dappled window of a rented car. A perfect shot.
‘The whole thing lasted maybe three seconds, and I’m not even sure they could see
me, photographer Steve McCurry tells The
Washington Post about that picture shot
two decades ago at a stop light in what
was then Bombay. ‘It’s one of these
serendipitous unplanned accidents of
life… Sometimes these are the greatest
pictures and you need to be prepared and
ready.’
He adds, ‘I knew I took a picture that
was a powerful portrait, but things are
flowing around you and everybody’s talking and there’s dust and noise and you’re
not in a perfect situation. You just hope
that you’re in focus and the moment was
right, but you don’t really know until you
get back and look at the film — which, in
this case, was like two months later.’
The image is played out across two
pages in National Geographic: Around the
World in 125 Years, a limited-edition
release to mark the DC-based exploration
society's century-and-a-quarter anniversary, and Taschen, the international publishing house.
It is among 900 images spread across
1,500 pages, ‘covering everything from
Easter Island to Ethiopia,’ And if your
pockets are deep enough to pay the $499
tab, this three-volume, this 43-lb collection is a must have.
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When Vivek Ranadive bought the Sacramento Kings in 2013, fans aw him as a savior. After all he
promised to keep their beloved team — it
hasn’t made the playoffs in seven years
but has such a strong fan base that it set
a Guinness Record for crowd noise three
times in a single game in December 2013
— in town for at least 35 years.
Only a few realized what the Silicon
Valley entrepreneur could do. He was the
man who digitized Wall Street in the
1980s, and Wired says, ‘He wants to do
the same with a franchise in disarray. His
ambitious plan to use technology and
data to reboot the Kings also could
remake the league. He calls it NBA 3.0, a
complete rethinking of how fans interact
with and follow the game, especially in
Ranadive, the story goes, ‘hadn’t even touched a basketball until 2009, when he decided
to coach a team of players with almost as little experience with the game as him. But what
Ranadive didn’t know about basketball he made up for with data, relying upon mathematics, an algorithm and probability. By his analysis, the team shouldn’t waste time practicing
dribbling, passing or even shooting. It should focus on defense and get the other team to
turn the ball over. It worked. The team won every regular season game before falling in the
And now he wants to hook the world.
‘Ranadive isn’t interested in making the Kings popular in Sacramento, or California, or
even the United States,’ says Wired. ‘He wants them popular everywhere. Ranadive is con-
vinced the team’s — and the league’s — greatest growth lies abroad, particularly in India,
and that technology will drive it. To that end, the Kings have broadcast games on Indian
television and launched a team Web site with content written entirely in Hindi. The goal is
to make the Kings a global brand, much like the Chicago Bulls were under Michael Jordan.’
‘Ihave spent more than a decade of my professional career
on international televi-
sion, my face visible to
millions each day. Yet I
have spent a lifetime hid-
ing,’ Zain Verjee said last
week.
The Indian-origin journalist — who began her
career at CNN in 2000
as an anchor in Atlanta,
covered Kenya and now
anchors the Europe
morning show for CNN
International from
London — shared her
secret this month.
She opened up on CNN
about her battle with pso-
riasis, a disease that ‘can
consist of raised, inflamed skin patches cov-
ered by silvery flakes of dead skin cells or
scales.’
She writes, without hiding, about the rav-
ages of the disease since she was 8 — hiding
from the mirror; cowering away from close
friendships; hitting rock
bottom; getting pulled out
of it by her mother, who
never gave up; taking a
stranger’s advice to try to a
holistic healing clinic in
Africa; slowly overpower-
ing the disease and that
wonderful moment of tri-
umph…
‘After my transforma-
tion, my family takes me
to Mombasa, on the
Kenyan coast. I don’t
dread it for the first time
in my life.’
‘I have a new bikini,
dark blue with a yellow
rim. I have never worn
one. It is so soft. It feels
feminine. I have never felt
like a woman the way I do
when I put it on. I see all my curves in a dif-
ferent light. The mirror is not my enemy
any longer.’
Verjee’s psoriasis went into remission 10
years ago, but by opening up, she has surely
given hope to many.
The inspiring Zain
Zain Verjee COURTES Y: CNN
Vivek Ranadive’s Sacramento Kings signed a
partnership with The Krrish Group, an Indian real
estate company, last month.
Basketball 3.0
THEARON W HENDERSON/GE TT Y IMAGES
INA FASSBENDER/REU TERS
Steve McCurry took what is considered the most
famous National Geographic image ever — the
1985 cover photograph of Sharbat Gula, or The
Afghan Girl, in the background.
McCurry’s Bombay
