Wondering whether rompers will look chic on you or whether you should settle for tank-tops? Can’t decide between loafers, canvas shoes and flip-flops? Well, this season if you want to style yourself well and learn about all the latest fashion trends, Soha Ali Khan and Aki Narula will be there to help you out.

Soha and Aki are coming together for a new reality show where they will be seen giving precious advice to contestants on fashion and style.

After the successful hair makeover show Be Blunt with Adhuna Akhtar, TLC is now ready to offer its audience the Indian edition of the international makeover series What Not to Wear.

What Not to Wear-India will have actor Soha Ali Khan, known for her smart dressing sense, sharing the stage with acclaimed fashion designer Aki Narula. As hosts of the show they both hope to use their fashion experience to take 13 contestants on a journey from drab to fab.

Thirteen women from various walks of life, who have been nominated by their family and friends, will be guided by Soha and Aki to style themselves up. Valuable tips will be given to them so that they can give their wardrobe a complete makeover. Each episode becomes a personal journey of women reinventing themselves with new found vigour, as they bid adieu to clothing items from their wardrobe they never should have worn in the first place.

Commenting on her new show, Soha Ali Khan said, “I am excited to be part of TLC; one of my favourite channels. What Not to Wear-India is an extremely interesting makeover series that beautifully captures the emotional, psychological and physical journeys of women to style enlightenment. We hope that viewers enjoy the show as much as we enjoyed making it.”

Rahul Johri, senior vice president and general manager - South Asia, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, said, “Hosted by amazing personalities and experts Soha Ali Khan and Aki Narula, What Not to Wear-India would activate a new wave of style change and become the new benchmark in lifestyle programming.” 

Hosting his first television series, Aki Narula is an excited man. In an email interview, the celebrity designer shares his excitement.

1. Why What Not to Wear-India ? What made you agree to be a part of this show?

AKI: I am a huge fan of this style-based show that happens in the US. Rachel Zoe, she is a celebrity stylist in Hollywood. And then she started doing this whole 24 hour-to-one week activities, reality TV, all of that happening with her. So I was very excited to do something and I was very sure that I wanted to do TV, but I wanted to do something where I could use my experience, my sense of fashion, my sense of style, and my experience of the last 13 years, part of the fashion and film industry. So, I think that’s when I got a call and I was very excited because I wanted to put it to good use as opposed to just looking very pretty and sexy and giving points across the table.

2. In your show you will be changing the wardrobe of 13 contestants, but tell us what clothing and colour dominates your wardrobe?

AKI: I think my style has definitely evolved a lot more. I think it’s very confident. I think I am dressing totally, totally, 100 per cent for myself now. I wear mostly blacks, grays, beige, and whites. Whatever little hint of colour that you’ve seen may be a blue or something, it’s just been for What Not to Wear, to add a little bit of colour to it. Given the choice I’d much rather wear only black through the year.

3. Your style statement?

AKI: Quirky, out of the box, sense of humor, very laid back, and very sexy.

4. You seem to enjoy designing for Ranbir Kapoor, considering that you have worked with him in films like Bachna Ae Haseeno, Rockstar and now Barfi. Other than Ranbir, which actor/actress do you like designing for?

AKI: I think all of them are fabulous. Yeah. I have worked with all the actresses today in the industry, pretty much all of them other than Sonam Kapoor who I think is superbly stylish. And I think they are very stylish not just onscreen because their style is to help you, but a stylist can actually give you anything to wear, it’s just the way they carry clothes, which is absolutely amazing. Kareena Kapoor is my hot favourite. Whether it’s a sari or a salwar kameez or a pair of really, really tiny denim shorts in Tashan or like Dolce & Gabbana, out in Kambakth Ishq. I think she is fantastic. And I think couple of the men need makeovers. I think the women are quite sorted.

5. Some fashion tips for this autumn/winter.

AKI:  White malmal shirt, lots of printed salwar, well- fitted jeans and silver oxidized jewellery.

What Not to Wear-India will air every night on TLC at 10 pm, starting from September 3. Watch Soha and Aki change the way participants’ look and feel about themselves. Style experts Soha and Aki do not sugar coat their comments when participants forget the ‘rules’ of shopping and style-appropriate dressing. All this adds up to the unveiling of the restyled woman to friends, family and colleagues who nominated them.

Guwahati, the gateway to the Northeast region of India, has a sizeable population which is homeless and living on the streets. A number of such people suffer from mental illness. Discarded by families and wandering further and further away from home, their real selves are lost under layers of dirt. Many have lost their sense of dignity or ability to care anymore. They are generally avoided by most people.

Often people are unaware of what to do when they see a mentally ill person on the street. They term the person as paagal or ‘loose in the head’ and let them rot till they perish. Yes, this is the ground reality in our country. Especially, if one is from lower socio-economic class, mental illness is synonymous to death. But, at Navachetana shelter home, these mentally-ill, abandoned women get a new lease of life.

I visited Navachetana for a charity with the members of the Assam Forest Officers’ Wives Welfare Society. It is a project of Ashadeep, a rehabilitation home that cares for the women who are wandering on the streets of Guwahati.  Located at Panjabari, Guwahati, Navachetana provides psychiatric and medical services as well as social rehabilitation to mentally ill destitute women. The moment we entered through the iron gate of the shelter home, we found a completely different world. There, we met groups of women as well as girls who were in their early teens. Few of them lay basking in the sun staring aimlessly into the vast open sky. A young woman was walking restlessly inside her room. Another group (showing good sign of progress after treatment), were sitting on the floor and separating rice from dal from a mixture. This was done in order to taste their mental ability whether they could differentiate between rice and dal. With a Namaskar, each one of them told us their names. I asked them whether they could sing and dance. Some of them loved singing and dancing to the tune of latest hits. They started singing and dancing Bihu. It was strange for me as I never thought that these ill-fated homeless women could sing with confidence and melody.

Each woman at Navachetana has gone through some pain in their life. Everyone had such deep rooted scars in their lives that it was hard to fathom that how much they have actually survived.  I met a young girl who was a victim of rape by her own alcoholic father. Another inmate was forced into prostitution by her fraud husband. The trauma of such an ordeal took its toll on their lives. Their behaviour gradually became abnormal and they finally ended up on the streets. Radha (name changed to maintain privacy of the individual), a widow of a well-off business man from a respectable family, allegedly had to face misbehaviour and torture at the hands of her in-laws after her husband’s death. This subsequently gave her severe mental trauma, forcing her to live in the streets of Guwahati.  There were around fifteen inmates in the shelter home and fifteen different stories to hear.

After rescuing such ill-treated women from the streets of Guwahati ,with the help of their rescue team, Ashadeep cleans them up and offers them a therapy at Navachetana as the functions of their body and mind are severely affected resulting in disturbances in individual and social functioning. Their personal appearance and biological functions are also severely affected. What they see, hear or feel are different from what those around them experience. They undergo strange experiences like hearing voices or seeing things (hallucination), which others around them cannot hear or see. They also express certain strong false beliefs (delusion ).The psychiatric interventions at Navachetana, helps them in regaining their mental health. A monthly growth chart is maintained and the disability level assessed and gauged with the ‘Idea Scale’. After 15/20 days, they show a sign of progress, recover sufficiently and after a few months stay or so in the shelter home, the inmates are reunited with their families. This apart, Ashadeep also teaches basic skills to earn ones living through vocational occupation, thus empowering them with an identity as they return back to the society they belong. They are taught to eat, dress, clean, work; manage expenses etc, under a secured atmosphere. The inmates are never given a chance to realize that they are ill. They do not understand their misfortune. The warden and all other staff of Navachetana have happily accepted them as special individuals who deserve careful treatment. Their efforts to treat and rehabilitate these socially excluded women has helped to develop the organization into a full-fledged society of mental health. Being primarily supported by the Rata Tata Trust Fund, the shelter home undertakes painstaking efforts in helping these ill-fated women to lead a dignified life.

The sources that help in identifying and bringing these women to the shelter home constitute the police, public or the staff themselves. With the first rescue made from Bora Service area of Guwahati in 2005, the total number of homeless women admitted to the Navachetana Home up to March 2010, has been 268, out of whom, 221 have been re-integrated with their families or have shifted elsewhere. At the time of re-union, Ashadeep provides a month’s supply of medication and counsel the families on management skills.

 This visit left a lasting impression on my mind. It has changed my perspective about life in totality. When others moved on with their daily chores, indifferent to what was happening to fellow human-beings; Ashadeep stops to provide shelter to these women. People consider such people to be dangerous or to be laughed at, but only when one interacts with these people can they can see what underlies their fate. Navachetana means a new life or a new spirit of living and true to the name, the way the inmates are taken care of and finally reunited with their families, is indeed a beginning of new  life for this marginalized and vulnerable section in our society.

Threats to Deepor Beel:

From the view point of maintaining the ecological balance of the environment, Deepor Beel can be termed as the lungs of Guwahati. Like the lungs of the human body, Deepor Beel has been performing the same function in the city for all these years. The garbage polluted water, gas released by the decaying garbage in the marshy lands are taken by this water body, thereby  playing a pivotal role in saving the city from artificial floods. But it is no longer in a position to continue performing the task. The main reason for this being the various activities of human beings which have vitrified the environment of the beel and caused reduction in the carrying capacity of the water body.

The new railway tracks laid towards the eastern and southern boundaries of this Beel have divided it into two parts and taking advantage of the tracks, people are trying to grab the land of the Beel.

Industrial estates, brick kilns and earth-cutting in the northern and western side of the Beel have added to the level of pollution.

Boragaon, located adjacent to the northern bank of the Beel is the dumping ground for all garbage in the city of Guwahati. This has not only polluted the environment but has also polluted the entire areas.

The high grounds on the banks of the Beel have been encroached by people for accommodation, cultivation and business and this has resulted in the shrinkage of area and change in the environment.

The wanton killing of birds and animals in and around the Beel have also added to the decline in the natural balance of the environment.

Catching of fish without any specific guidelines has resulted in the extinction of a number of fish varieties in the Beel.

Opportunities:

Deepar Beel was declared a Reserved Area in 2008 under the Preservation of Wild Animals Act of Government of Assam. As a result, encroachment of land within the demarcated area or any other activity, including fishing has been declared illegal and punishable under law. This declaration has worried the people of the nearby areas who used to earn their livelihood by fishing in the Beel for decades. They  complain that the Government, by this Act has prevented them from earning their livelihood as they are unable to fish independently now after the Act. They have joined hands to oppose this anti-people (according to them) Act of the Government tooth and nail. According to them, the bonafied local people who have been earning their livelihood by fishing for generation should be permitted to fish as they are not causing any harm to the water body. They say they are rather helping in the conservation of the Beel. The Government however, is not quite prepared to listen to their arguments or study their proposal and inclined to implement the Act to discourage any illegal fishing.

At this juncture, there is a confrontation between the Government and the fishing community as result of which, the Government is not in a position to initiate any steps towards preservation of the Beel and is sitting as a mute spectator, citing legal bindings.

Observing this imbroglio, five Rotary clubs of Guwahati, anmely Guwahati, Guwahati West, Guwahati East, Gauhati South and Dispur Club jointly conducted few meetings with stakeholders that is, the fishermen groups whose livelihood depended on fishing in the Beel to understand the problem and gauge the depth of the issue as well as their attitude. After these ground works, a scientific seminar was held on  December 19, 2010 at the local NEDFI House auditorium under the aegis of Rotary clubs with direct collaboration of Assam Science & Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC) where internationally acclaimed environmental technocrafts from Northeast, Odisha and Bengal participated. Dr Ajit Kumar Patnaik, IFS, Chief Executive of the Chilika Lake Development Authority, Odisha, Environment specialist Dr Dhrubajyoti Ghosh from Kolkata, Th Ibobi Singh, Director of the Loktak Lake Development Corporation of Manipur, city-based specialist Dr Parimal Bhattacharyya and many other concerned persons presented their viewpoints in the day-long seminar which was inaugurated by the Chief Secretary to the Government of Assam, Naba Kumar Das. Representatives of the fishing community of the Beel too attended the seminar to express their views and concerns. Based on the discussions in the seminar, the following resolutions were adopted:

a) The boundaries of the Deepor Beel wetland system in its status as a Ramsar site need to be clearly delineated and demarcated as determined by GPS (as has been done in case of the Chilika Lake).

b) Solid waste dumping within the wetland needs to be discontinued immediately and alternative site should be provided for dumping.

c) Vital information on bio-diversity, water quality of the wetland with relevant parameters and their progressive degeneration should be disseminated appropriately through high impact visual media as a continued mass public awareness campaign.

d) Eco-Tourism: The wetland with its rich biological resources, particularly avifauna holds immense potential for development of economic activities through eco-tourism. However, the critical aspect of ecological sustainability would need careful consideration while planning such activities.

1) No major construction should be permitted within and in the immediate vicinity of the wetland system in the process of developing the eco-tourism infrastructure.

2) A few natural trails can be identified in the Garbhanga RF.

3) Specific sites should be identified for bird watching. No boats, except for its limited use for scientific purposes should be permitted for bird watching. Boats disturb avifauna.

4) It is imperative that the elephant corridors are maintained at all cost, adopting innovative technology as required.

e) The wetland should be cleared of all encroachments which are seriously hindering the movement of wildlife and natural processes of the eco-system. Allotment of land in recent times for various purposes, which are potential threats to the conservation of Ramsar Site and Wild Life sanctuary, should be re-examined and may be reversed in the larger interest of conservation. No further allotment of land for the purpose of building industries, institutions or residential settlement should be permitted.

f) The drainage basin of wetland should be delineated and it should be managed on a micro-watershed basis.

g) A detailed hydrological study should be conducted for restoration of flow through choked streams (Basistha, Bahini, Bharalu and Khanajan etc.) for circulation and flushing of Deepor Beel. This calls for immediate attention. An empowered authority should be created exclusively for restoration and management of this Ramsar Site which may be called Deepor Beel Development (Conservation & Management) Authority, in similar line as the Chilika Development Authority or Loktak Development Authority. It should have adequate representation of all stake holders. It is heartening to note that the Government is keen on constituting a Management and Conservation Authority, exclusively for Deepor Beel.

h)    The Deepor Beel Development Authority should have appropriate legal arms and manpower for implementation of the action plan. The conservation and management action plan, drawn on the basis of participatory paradigm and public hearing model, will have to be made available on public domain.

i) All the concerned departments and agencies, which are stakeholders in the Ramsar Site, should follow the unified Conservation and Management Action Plan.

j) Remarkable quality of research and field studies conducted by different departments, local groups and agencies should provide a continuous database for this wetland for which they may be provided adequate financial and scientific support.

k) The Rotary club of Guwahati would be only too happy to participate and to offer their services in working hand in hand with the Government and the Development Authority for development of the wetland.

The above noted proposals were passed over to the Chief Secretary of Assam, Naba Kumar Das on May 12, 2011 by a representative committee of all the five Rotary Clubs. On the basis of the proposal, if the Government initiates any move and if those among the populace who love the Beel and would like it to be conserved for posterity, extend their whole-hearted support, it can be hoped that the future of this famous wetland is promising.

(Translated by Prashanta Goswami from author’s Assamese article “Ramsar Khetra: Sankat aru Sambhavana”

Data source: Souvenir of Scientific Seminar on Deepor Beel held on 19th December, 2010 at  Guwahati.)