Brunch 01 03 2015

WEEKLY MAGAZINE, MARCH 1, 2015 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times

ANAITA SHROFF ADAJANIA Stylist

ABHIJAT JOSHI Screenwriter

GEETA KAPOOR Choreographer

MUKESH CHHABRA Casting Director

MITHOON Music Composer

They spot heroes among strugglers, turn heroines into style icons, create stories, moves and tunes you’ll never forget.

And yet, few know who they are. Meet Bollywood’s...

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BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

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The Big Picture

by Ajay Aggarwal

Balam Pichkari...

Vrindavan, 14 March 2014: This is a photograph of a folk dancer with the Vrindavan widows, who were banished by their families and abandoned at the temple town where Krishna was born. Many of them lived bleak lives, clad in white. Sulabh, an NGO, now organises celebrations at the century-old Meera Sahbhagini Ashram to literally add colour to their lives, if only just for Holi.

Here’s wishing you a happy Holi, dear readers. Make sure you’re pink and green and absolutely happy this Friday!

by Saudamini Jain

n That Old Monk rum is available in TetraPak. n The A Bad Girl poster which just went viral.

n Medium.com. Blog here, if you don’t already. n Mother Teresa. And you must never let anyone tell you otherwise.

11 yrs of grt journalism 11 yrs of grt hardwork 11 yrs of sheer brilliance Happy 11TH Birthday @ HTBrunch May it always prosper :) – @iluvakki

motivate Things that up on a e ak me to w yMorning: #LazySunda TBrunch #H of A copy 6 – @unmani2

Thank you for the Readers’ ers’ Special in today’s Brunch. unch. It motivated and inspired ed me – Swati Ghulyani

This week’s issue of Brunch was amazing.

The best stories are always about ordinary people doing extraordinary things – Snigdha

Congrats on a beautifully compiled cover story. And the line “After ter all, you ou can’t crowdsource ce the story of your ur life, can you ?”

– @SadScribe

Loved today’s issue. Something extraordinary to look for in all of us. You guys definitely make my Sundays better :D – @Medha_Bansal

Find Hindustan Times Brunch on Facebook or tweet to @HTBrunch or

Cover image: AMIT DAVE, ARIJIT SEN, SATISH BATE Cover design:

PAYAL DIGHE KARKHANIS

EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Aasheesh Sharma, Rachel Lopez, Aastha Atray Banan, Veenu Singh, Satarupa Paul, Saudamini Jain, Asad Ali, Nihit Bhave, Atisha Jain

MARCH 1, 2015

Coffee with the HT Coffee Machine We’re not entirely sure how to begin to explain this rather perplexing, but also endearing, occurence. But our Delhi office coffee machine decided to join Twitter last week. No, really, he goes by the handle @HTCoffeeMachine. This is no ordinary contraption, mind you. Until recently, he was the most abused – and used – appliance in the newsroom. After the printer, of course (but that’s another story).

Now, however, he is our hero.

Within a week of his existence, he had 500 followers, which is kind of a big deal when you realise that this is, after all, an inanimate object.

So we decided to interview the celebrity of the week (why a room full of journalists didn’t think of this first, we know not). Perhaps because he is rather high maintenance? He wanted to be on the Brunch cover. And he wanted to be styled for a shoot. And agreed to an email interview only after a conversation with his PR team. (He has fans now, you see).

You’re going to love this, because really, he’s super smart and witty.

What keeps you up at night?

A guilty conscience. Sometimes, I run out of coffee by noon and pump out mugs of dark brown boiling water What did one coffee machine say to another?

“What’s up, brew?” h/t @JairajSinghR How many journalists come to you to nurse a hangover every day?

I don’t keep track of how many but I do work overtime during appraisal season.

Does our disdain for your middlebrow brew bother you?

Stuff You Said Last Sunday You or shall I say your readers, took me to emotional roller co an aster ride today. Just wo w!

– @esh_atd

by Saudamini Jain

I just fell off my chair spotting an article on DXing in today’s issue of HT Brunch, didn’t imagine in my wildest dream that DXing will be featured in HT !!

– Alokesh Gupta rnings my Sunday mo er You have made mb me re ill St .

11 yrs amazing since shwarya on cover! – Ai th wi ue iss st Fir @drPrashaant

PHOTO TWEET OF THE WEEK: Bought 15 copies of @ HTBrunch.

Will send them to friends in Assam – @JitendraJain_

Well, there’s a Dunkin’ downstairs and a Starbucks round the corner but nothing beats free coffee, does it?

What’s the newsroom like at 7 am?

Like someone had a wild party the night before, only with printer paper instead of alcohol.

What is this we hear about you and Ms Water Cooler?

h/t refers to hat tip. Here’s tipping a hat to Jerry who loves coffee and puns.

(Random observation: all super things come out of Adarsh Baalak, the ideal boy) n That DDLJ is still playing at Maratha Mandir. I’m not sure why it matters so much, but I’m glad that it does

n The annoying jingle for an antiseptic liquid.

It made us want to hurt someone n DIY drones. Such inspiration! #Sarcasm n Telling us not to cuss during the match n Ranbir Kapoor using a crisp as a hypnosis pendulum. No, seriously. A Potato Chip n That Phoolon Ka Taaron Ka has now been destoyed for us, forever *Dear admen, thank you for ruining the World Cup for us. #TakeItBack

SHOVE IT

LOVE IT

On The Brunch Radar

A Very Important Interview

That’s too long a story for 140 characters.

Maybe we can talk about it over coffee sometime?

Special Sunday tip for Brunch readers There’s no such thing as a free brunch. Oh wait…

The views expressed by the coffee machine are personal.

DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor, Design), Monica Gupta, Payal Dighe Karkhanis, Ajay Aggarwal

Drop us a line at: brunchletters@hindustantimes.com or to 18-20 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001

FOR ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT National – Sanchita Tyagi: sanchita.tyagi@hindustantimes.com North – Siddarth Chopra: siddarth.chopra@hindustantimes.com North – Shaila Thakur: shaila.thakur@hindustantimes.com West – Karishma Makhija: karishma.makhija@hindustantimes.com South – Sharbani Ghosh: sharbani.ghosh@hindustantimes.com

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WELLNESS

MIND BODY SOUL SHIKHA SHARMA

For any worries related to unplanned pregnancy: Write to us at consumercare@piramal.com or call us at 1800-22-0502 (toll free) or sms ICAN to 56070 Website: www.i-canhelp.in

3. Dear Doctor, I am 37 and have two kids. After a very long time my husband and I got intimate and we did not use any protection. I am now worried about unwanted pregnancy. Please help me what to do? This is a very awkward situation me and I feel ashamed to discuss with anyone.

It is quite common to feel uncomfortable discussing your intimate life with others. Please do not worry. If the unprotected intercourse happened not more than 72 hours ago, then we suggest that you consume an emergency contraceptive pill at the earliest. This will help to avoid pregnancy. However, if more than 72 hours have passed since the act, then you would need to consult a gynecologist. For future precaution, it is advisable to use protection like condom or regular contraceptive pill and have a safe and protected intercourse.

Queries answered by Dr Nirmala Rao MBBS, MD, DPM; a well known psychiatrist who heads Mumbai based Aavishkar - a multifaceted team of expert doctors and health professionals. Aavishkar has a comprehensive approach to mental and physical health, with an emphasis scan this QR code to visit website on counselling and psychotherapy.

Supported by:

If you’re lactoseintolerant or in need of protein, try soy milk

T

HOUGH IT’S widely used in China and Japan, India hasn’t cared much for soy milk so far.

Perhaps that’s because soy milk is not really dairy. It is the liquid form of the soy bean, made by heating and pureeing. The trypsin inhibitors that exist in the raw bean are neutralised via heat treatment.

This makes soy milk digestible and palatable.

need to balance their meals with vegetarian options. n Good for nerves and bones: A deficiency of B vitamins leads to a burning sensation in the hands and soles of the feet. Vitamin B-rich soy milk can help alleviate this problem, particularly when supplemented with other Vitamin B-rich foods like fruits. Natural soy bean does have calcium, but unfortunately, the calcium is bound to the bean’s fibres and hence is not available for absorption by the human body. However, soy milk products are fortified with calcium.

NUTRITIONAL VALUE Soy beans contain minerals and vitamins like sodium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron and the Vitamin B group NOT FOR EVERYONE (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, n Some people may be intoleretc). They also have sevant to soy products, eral amino acids that so be careful if you’ve together make soy – BUILD IT UP never tried them uniquely among plants For a shot of protein, before. The intolerance – a complete protein. athletes usually turn to shows in uneasiness soy milk and allergies.

HEALTH BENEFITS n In some cases, n Good for the soy products give rise to lactose intolerant: Soy constipation, gas and milk does not contain indigestion. lactose, a kind of n Children under sugar that needs five years old certain enzymes to should not be given be digestible. As we soy products. grow, many of us n Women with lose these enzymes cancer, specially and feel gassy and oestrogen-related bloated for a few hours cancer, should avoid after drinking milk. This soy products. makes soy milk a good n People with liver replacement for dairy. problems or kidney n Source of protein: For failure should consult menopausal women their physicians before and vegetarians who consuming soy products. predominantly eat flour n People suffering from and potatoes, soy milk thyroid problems should can be highly benefialso avoid soy products. cial. Athletes drink soy milk when they ask@drshikha.com MORE ON THE WEB For more columns by Dr Shikha Sharma and other wellness stories, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch MARCH 1, 2015

Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK

2. Dear Doctor, we recently got married and we wish to delay pregnancy by five years. I am 28 years old now, so am wondering if our decision to delay pregnancy is correct? Will I be able to conceive normally at 33?

It is indeed a good decision to take about family planning keeping work commitments, personal space and financial stability in mind. There are millions of women these days who conceive their first child post 30. However, you also need to be aware that fertility slowly decreases post the age of 35. You can delay pregnancy for as long as you wish by using suitable and safe contraceptive

options such as condoms or regular contraceptive pills.

Kindly consult a gynaecologist and understand more about birth control methods.

MediaMedic ICH/Q&A/0301

1. Dear Doctor, after taking an emergency contraceptive pill my first period was on time but my second month period was delayed by 6 days. Is it normal? Can I be sure that I am not pregnant?

I am extremely worried.

Sometimes there can be a slight fluctuation in the normal monthly cycle .Please do not worry as you had your periods last month. This indicates that conception has not occurred.

Kindly consult a gynaecologist if your period cycle continues to be irregular in the coming months.

THE MILK THAT ISN’T

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COVER STORY

ACES Behind Y

The FACES

OU WALK into the theatre, settle in your seat, make sure the viewing angle is right and (hopefully) turn off your phones.

Through all of this, you miss the opening credits with names of designers, writers, makeup artists, choreographers, singers, editors, and many more crew who make the magic happen.

Earlier, people behind the scenes usually remained just there, and never got due credit.

But it’s an exciting time for cinema. Every cog in the wheel gets attention and every team member gets his turn under the spotlight.

A bunch of them, like screenwriter Abhijat Joshi, choreographer Geeta Kapoor, fashion

Meet the trendsetters and star-makers who remain in the shadows, while bringing to light some of Bollywood’s biggest success stories

by Nihit Bhave

stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania, music composer Mithoon and casting director Mukesh Chhabra tell Brunch that it’s a glorious time for people who are mostly in the green room. nihit.bhave@hindustantimes.com Follow @misterbistar on Twitter

Abhijat Joshi: The writer who helps breathe life into Rajkumar Hirani’s stories The team created India’s biggest box office hits - Lage Raho Munnabhai, 3 Idiots and PK

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ecently, when PK crossed the `300-crore mark at the box office, everyone from Aamir Khan to director Rajkumar Hirani and Anushka Sharma to producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra gave interviews and each one was touted as the next big genius. But one man – he had co-written the movie – stood silently on the sidelines. Writer Abhijat Joshi, who has been Raju Hirani’s creative collaborator for the last 10 years, rarely steps into the spotlight. He has remained in the shadows while his films have broken box office records and emerged as contemporary classics. He was unheard of after Lage Raho Munnabhai in 2006, and his name got lost in the Chetan Bhagat-Aamir Khan war of words over writing credits for 3 Idiots in 2009.

But being the centre of attention was never really the plan.

“The best thing about being a writer in Bollywood is that you get to communicate with an entire

nation in one go,” he says, having written movies that have been simultaneously entertaining and socially relevant. While Lage Raho… left people with the beautiful concept of a Jaadu Ki Jhappi (a hug that solved petty issues), 3 Idiots underscored the discrepancies in our education system and PK told viewers to think more about blind faiths. “Cinema lets you cut across class and regional barriers,” Joshi observes. “I’m glad that I get to write without dumbing down my concepts or having to over-explain.”

A crucial part of this success is his seamless partnership with Hirani. Both of them are the best examples of the very target audiences that they write for – simple, introspective, unassuming commoners. “Raju and I realised early on that our thought processes were similar,” Joshi says. “We’re both from small towns – I’m from Ahmedabad and he’s from Nagpur – our fathers were

The first person I seek advice and ad approval from is my appro y collaborator Abhijat Joshi - Raju Hirani MARCH 1, 2015

Photo: AMIT DAVE

twitter.com/HTBrunch both rationalists who brought us up to believe that we could achieve anything, we’ve grown up watching the same kind of wholesome films and we aren’t fans of arthouse cinema. So when we collaborated, we instantly knew that we wanted to make films that had something to say, while being entertaining.”

They even have a fool proof way out when they disagree over a particular scene. “There are some parameters that we keep in mind while writing,” he says. “The idea we’re working on has to be unique, and our scenes either have to evoke laughter, sadness or have some drama. You’ll never see a scene from us where a car is pointlessly driving up to a gate or a doorbell is being rung. We immediately scrap those dead moments.” Eventually a scene has to work for Hirani, Joshi believes, since he’s the one shooting it with 300 people on a set.

Sometimes the challenge is to not give in to the temptation by adding a song or letting the scene run longer because the actor is performing well. “We try to follow Ingmar Bergman’s three commandments,” he says. “The first is that a filmmaker has to entertain

SIDEKICK SUPREME Hirani and Joshi have not only given us larger-than-life heroes like PK and Munnabhai, but they’ve also created memorable supporting characters CHATUR: Omi Vaidya’s famous chamatkari speech from 3 Idiots launched his career as a comedic actor CIRCUIT: Arshad Warsi’s career got a reboot after he played the loveable Circuit.

JAGAT JANANI: Anushka Sharma delivered a performance that was completely different from her previous bubbly roles. his viewers at any cost. The second is that he/she must not sell their soul while trying to entertain, and the third is that he/she must treat each film like it’s their last.”

It’s people’s reactions to his films that make everything worthwhile. “I still get letters from people who appreciated Lage Raho Munnabhai and 3 Idiots,” he says, smiling. “And knowing that you were able to influence someone’s life to a small degree is a better feeling than winning awards.”

As far as fame and recognition go, Joshi has realised that he doesn’t want to get distracted by trying to put himself out there.

“I’ve realised that it’s better to just focus on work,” he says. “A Raju Hirani film requires a lot out of you, so every missed opportunity comes back to haunt me. It’s better to go into my zone until I’m satisfied with my work.” He misses family events and important meetings in the bargain, but makes up for them once his films hit the marquee.

Joshi doesn’t feel the need to venture into other areas of filmmaking. “When writers aren’t appreciated for their work, I think there’s a natural temptation to go on and direct films,” he says.

“They may try to seek recognition elsewhere.” But Joshi is more than satisfied in this role of a screenwriter. He used to be a professor of English at an American college, but has even cut down on his teaching time to focus on films.

“The people I work with are fair in sharing credit,” he says. “Nobody had a clue about the writer after Lage Raho Munnabhai, but after PK, I’ve received more than what I deserved.”

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Geeta Kapoor: The choreographer who makes Farah Khan’s moves pop

Together they have designed steps for some of the most popular item songs

D

espite a solid collaboration of over 20 years with Farah Khan, choreographer Geeta Kapoor has remained dutifully second-in-command and away from media glare. The only time Kapoor remembers being envious of her mentor? An obscure incident from way back when she hadn’t even started dancing professionally.

Before she became the mostsought-after choreographer of Bollywood, Farah Khan had her own dance group in the 1980s. The group used to perform at various film events.

“One of my friends used to be part of Ms Khan’s team,” Kapoor says. “One day, my father and I happened to be at their rehearsals. He was mighty impressed by Ms Khan’s moves and started praising her. I was very young, so I got all flustered and to prove a point to him, learnt the whole dance routine by myself.”

As luck would have it, some time later, a girl from the same dance group had taken ill during a show. The organisers found out that Kapoor knew the whole dance routine. “They asked me to replace that girl and that’s how I landed my first dance assignment,” Kapoor recalls. “Later, I found out that the girl I had replaced was Farah Khan herself !” Kapoor was merely 15 years old at the time, and her performance impressed Khan so much that she was asked to join the group.

Over the years, Kapoor has emerged as a mediator between Khan and her dance troupe. “She was very short-tempered,” Kapoor says. “So I was the one who toned it down, moderated her comments, and passed them on to her dancers.

This way, we avoided big blow-outs during rehearsals.”

Even when Kapoor took up solo film assignments, Khan stood by her. “Very few people in the industry encourage producers to work with their protégés,” Kapoor says. “And Ms Khan is

MARCH 1, 2015

one of them. Her style of working is very straightforward and clean.

That is something I’ve always tried to imbibe.” Kapoor proudly mentions that her mentor has, time and again, raised the issue of fair salaries for extras in songs.

Unlike Khan, who demands a kind of liveliness in dance moves, Kapoor has over the years established herself with subtle choreography in many songs, like those from Asoka and Ghajini. “No matter how intricate a step is,” Kapoor says, laughing, “Ms Khan always wants it to be high on energy!

Whereas people come to me when they want soulful moves.”

Subtlety may be

Geeta has been my best dancer!

Once you see her do the steps, they never look as good on the heroines - Farah Khan

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COVER STORY her forte, but it’s the masala dance moves that have established her reputation. “You can do all the concept-based songs you want, but those will never translate to fame,” she concedes. “Most choreographers gain accolades when they do item songs like Chikni Chameli or Sheila Ki Jawaani.”

For what it is worth, Kapoor is happy that technicians like her have started getting credit for their work. “Earlier, you didn’t even get

a van unless you were Saroj Khan or Farah Khan,” she says. “They said cast and crew in one breath, but the crew bit was never taken seriously. People have started looking at us in a new light now. There are categories for technical awards these days.”

However, Kapoor is secretly happy that she isn’t in the limelight all the time. “I get extremely nervous in front of the camera. I get tongue-tied and can’t remem-

ber anything I’m supposed to do,” she says. The only exception she has made has been for the reality show, Dance India Dance.

“The show had no script and required no acting.

So I reluctantly took it up!”

BESTSELLING ITEMS Geeta Kapoor and Farah Khan have collaborated on many item songs (From left) Deepika’s belly dance song, Lovely; Madhuri’s dance comeback in Ghagra; Katrina’s iconic Sheila Ki Jawaani

Mukesh Chhabra: The casting director who discovered actors like Rajkummar Rao and Sushant Singh Rajput He has cast big blockbusters and also given the indie industry some of its best acting talents

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eople have no idea how much effort goes into finding a talented actor, says Mukesh Chhabra, who has cast Badlapur, Haider, Ugly, Highway and Jai Ho in the last one year.

“Sometimes a film has Salman Khan or Ranbir Kapoor, but then there are films like Kai Po Che!, where you have to start from scratch. I still remember how difficult it was to convince director Abhishek Kapoor to cast Sushant Singh

Rajput, who had come from TV. I pushed for Rajkummar Rao because he was an undiscovered talent, and I literally picked Amit Sadh out of a line of Bollywood aspirants who were waiting to audition for some role. That’s how Kai Po Che! was put together.”

Sitting in his office, you can’t miss the big signboard behind his desk, with Thank You notes and messages from his finds. There are notes from Sushant Singh Rajput, Rajkummar Rao, Swara Bhaskar,

Mukesh has given gi me two of my most impactful films, Kai Po Che! and Shahid - Rajkummar Rao Photo: SATISH BATE

MARCH 1, 2015

Huma Qureshi and Vineet Kumar among others. “This is what really matters,” says Chhabra, who did the casting for Gangs of Wasseypur too. “These people still remember my contribution to their career; they drop in unannounced and chat with me for hours.”

Chhabra has doggedly worked towards giving Bollywood some of today’s biggest acting talents.

“I rely on instinct more than anything else,” he says. “I just get a feeling whether an actor will be able to pull off what the script requires. But even after that, you’ve to figure out whether they will adapt to a particular accent required by the film, whether they have chemistry with other actors, whether their dates match the film’s schedule, and so on.”

The quest for a good actor has taken him to places unknown and led to horrific experiences. “I spotted a child doing wheelies with his bicycle at a traffic signal,” he recalls. “I wanted him for Chillar Party, so we followed him home.

Since it looked suspicious, his mother thought that we were there to kidnap him!” But he believes these are the hoops one has to jump through, to find a diamond in the rough.

Chhabra is also an acting coach and has conducted workshops with Sidharth Malhotra and Shraddha Kapoor for Ek Villain, Aditya Roy Kapoor for Aashiqui 2, Imran Khan and Kangana Ranaut for the upcoming film Katti Batti.

“I’ve never received complaints,” he says. “But if a movie fails because of the actors, I take the blame. There are times when I feel I could’ve pushed the actors more.”

Chhabra is happy with the way the industry has credited him.

“Anurag Kashyap, Imtiaz Ali and Vikas Bahl have even put my name on their films’ posters, which is rare for a casting director,” he says. “And when it comes to actors, I feel a sense of fatherly pride towards Rajkummar when he wins a National Award, or Sushant, when he bags a big film.”

However, when his mother asks him why he doesn’t win any awards for Best Casting, Chhabra tells her that he hopes they add the category to awards shows soon. “Production designers, costume designers and make-up artists put their hearts into a film,” he says. “All of them are getting recognition, and I believe the spotlight will soon fall on casting directors too.”

CHOSEN BY CHHABRA

Mukesh Chhabra has found some of today’s best actors

SUSHANT: Was cast by Chhabra in Kai Po Che!

RICHA: Was cast as a 40+ woman by Chhabra

HUMA: Was Chhabra’s find for Gangs of Wasseypur 2

VINEET: Rose to fame after Chhabra cast him in Ugly

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COVER STORY

twitter.com/HTBrunch

Mithoon: The composer behind the chartbusters in several Bhatt films

If the soundtracks of Aashiqui 2 and Murder 2 are so hummable, it is because of this composer

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hen Atif Aslam shot to fame with the superhit song, Woh Lamhe (from Zeher) in 2005, not many people knew that the creative genius who collaborated with him on the song was a 19-year-old composer Mithoon Sharma. “The Bhatts had a tune but didn’t know how to bet-

ter it,” Mithoon recalls. “I worked on it for two days, and when they heard it, they liked it so much that they gave credit to me, a collegegoing boy!”

Mithoon then composed songs for other Bhatt films – Murder 2, Jism 2 and Aashiqui 2 – giving a new musical identity to the banPhoto: ARIJIT SEN

ner. Coming from a musical family (his father is the music conductor Naresh Sharma), he always knew that he wanted to be a Bollywood composer. “At 15, I was hanging out at Nadeem-Shravan’s studios,” he says. “I received training and great exposure because of my father’s goodwill there.”

His music has not only added greatly to films’ promotions but also to box-office collections, in a country where people still watch films in theatres just for the songs.

Today, the pressure to deliver hit songs has shifted from Bhatts’ banner to Mithoon. “It’s not like my listeners won’t expect anything if it isn’t a Bhatt film,” he says.

“All my albums have become independently popular, so the pressure is on me now.”

While most of Mithoon’s songs have caught on in a big way, people have often credited the actor Emraan

MITHOON’S GREATEST HITS The composer, just 30, already has these hits under his belt TUM HI HO: This song from Aashiqui 2 won most Best Song awards and has around 43 million hits on YouTube PHIR MOHABBAT: This Murder 2 song marked Mithoon’s return to the Bhatt banner after a 5-year hiatus WOH LAMHE: Mithoon’s breakout song from Zeher Hashmi for their cult appeal. “It bothers my studio team and my friends when people say that all Emraan Hashmi songs are great,” he says. “While it doesn’t bother me, people should anyway try and find out who the people behind a successful song are.”

However, he believes that technicians are in a much better position today. “It’ll be helpful if actors start talking about people who are behind the scenes,” he says. “Stars have a lot of power.”

Being a rec recluse is Mithoon’s strength. He will lose his uniqueness if he becomes part of the flock – Mahesh Bhatt

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Anaita Shroff Adajania: The stylist who transformed Deepika into a style icon

After Cocktail, the actor-stylist duo has come up with some stunning, cutting edge looks, wowing fashion critics of Bollywood

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he year 2013 proved to be great for Deepika Padukone. The awkward starlet suddenly had five blockbusters and there was a sudden, visible change in her personal style. She was touted as the next big fashion icon and continues getting various titles from fashion magazines.

The woman behind this transformation was ace fashion stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania, who wanted to give Deepika a fresh look starting with her husband Homi Adajania’s film, Cocktail. “We had started off with

Anaita has redefined fashion for me and given me looks that are relatable yet aspirational - Deepika Padukone

safe looks,” she says. “But Cocktail gave us a character with whom we could push the envelope. After that, we knew Deepika could carry off anything. We have no barriers now; we’ve done classic, grunge, rock, minimalism and full-on glamorous looks.”

Adajania has also styled Katrina Kaif, Sonam Kapoor, Bipasha Basu and Aishwarya Rai for various films, but there are a few points that she keeps in mind while styling Deepika. “I work very instinctively, keeping Deepika at the forefront,” she says. “And then the look has to be appropriate for the event.”

Adajania’s work has made Deepika both a serious style contender and target of the selfappointed fashion critics, but the stylist sees it as a good thing. “The weight of the opinion varies based on each person’s credibility,” she says. “With social media, the response to one’s work is immediate so it keeps me on my toes.”

She believes that the young crop of actors is far more ex-

perimental with looks. “The challenge is to create a strong individual style identity for each one of them,” she states.

Actresses usually walk away with compliments for the looks she puts together, but Adajania Adajania says styled most of them Deepika for are “easy with a screening praise” for her of Finding work, so she Fanny isn’t worried about getting credit. And as far as the strategy for styling Deepika goes, she says that they’ve grown as a team and become fearless about trying new looks.

Deepika’s stunning look at the Umang Police Show 2015 got Adajania lots of accolades

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indulge

Mixing it Up

In Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible (2010), Amrut was rated the third-best whisky in the world (the famous brands were rated lower in the list)

Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK

India is making wines and whiskies that are the envy of the world; and behind them are stories of creativity, fraternity and good old-fashioned ingenuity

LET’S TOAST TO THAT!

Vir Sanghvi

rude drink SINGLE ORIGINS

Amrut whisky is the brainchild of NR Jagdale who inherited a distillery from his father and set out to go beyond low-priced liquor

E

VEN THOSE of us who are extremely proud of India’s tradition of food and drink will pause a little before daring to sing the praises of our domestic whiskies. And as for Indian wine, the general rule has been that the greater the hype, the festivals, the concerts, etc, the more likely it is to taste like the effluent excreted by a cat.

When it comes to whisky, it is not hard to see what the problem is. As you probably know, the term IMFL (for Indian Made Foreign Liquor: how is that for an oxymoron?) applies to alcohol (whisky, gin, vodka, etc) that is usually made from a neutral spirit, which is then flavoured to make it taste of whisky or gin or whatever. Most times, the spirit itself comes from molasses or sugar.

Because so much of our whisky is bogus, we have consistently run into problems with the European Union and other international bodies, which object when we label our spirits ‘vodka’ or ‘whisky’ or whatever. (We have retaliated with a non-tariff barrier that makes it hard for anyone to import liquor into India unless they list every ingredient in the bottle on the label – but that’s another story for another time.)

At some intuitive level, Indians have always been

MARCH 1, 2015

suspicious of our own whisky, which is why Scotch is so popular in India. So you will imagine my surprise when I began hearing the praises of an Indian whisky called Amrut in the international press. The Amrut guys eventually wrote to me asking if I would like to visit their distillery, and egged on by my whisky-loving friends, I accepted their invitation.

But even I, who had heard good things about Amrut, was startled to learn of the awards the whisky had received when I read about it before leaving for Bangalore. In the 2010 edition of Jim Murray’s authoritative Whisky Bible, Amrut was rated the third-best whisky in the world (all the famous malt whisky brands you and I have heard of were listed much lower down in the list). Murray himself told the press that Amrut was “as good or even better than 95 per cent of the Scotch single malts you will find”. In Ian Baxton’s 101 Whiskies To Try Before You Die, Amrut was the only Indian brand to feature. And so on.

What intrigued me about Amrut when I got to the Bangalore distillery was how much of a family-run small business it still is. The whisky is the brainchild of NR Jagdale who inherited a distillery from his father and set out to go beyond low-priced liquor, which is still the breadand-butter product for most Indian companies (including Amrut).

Amrut had been making malt whisky (from grain) for years and blending it with other whisky to create blends.

But from the 1990s onwards, when Seagram’s, United Distillers and other big liquor names of that era entered the market and started importing blended Scotch, Indian preferences changed to lighter, lower-malt whiskies. So Amrut changed the formulas for its own whiskies, as nobody seemed to want too much malt.

The malts kept collecting in Amrut’s distillery until Jagdale had the idea of bottling them as a single malt.

He sent his son, who was studying in Britain, to pubs in Scotland to ask what they thought of the whisky. The response was nearly always the same. People loved the whisky till they discovered it came from India. At that stage, they lost interest.

The Jagdales, along with Ashok Chokalingam who was at university with the younger Jagdale and joined the company once the malt was launched, had no success in selling their whisky for three years. Then, in a scene straight out of an Indian film, they gathered by the Mahatma Gandhi statue in central London to decide what to do next. Inspired perhaps by the Mahatma’s spirit (though, given the great man’s opposition to all spirits, there are several shades of

17

irony involved!), they decided to make one last stab.

Fortunately, whisky experts started appreciating their product and bit by bit, the Scots came around. One Amrut brand was even launched in Scotland. The senior Jagdale had always been proud of his basic whisky but he had also begun to import peat to create a smoky, peaty whisky.

Then, one day, sitting at his vacation home in Ooty, he had an idea: why not combine the two? He did and the new blend, Amrut Fusion, with its balance of regular single malt and peated malt has become Amrut’s signature whisky.

So far Amrut has focused on the West (the whisky is not available in Delhi) but the Jagdales have finally decided to go national. They say that Amrut will be sold all over India by the end of the year. Unusually for a man in such a competitive business, Jagdale says that other distilleries are also sitting on stocks of very good malt whisky. Amrut may have been the pioneer. But should the Indian whisky industry choose to, it can go beyond the disgusting IMFL image, he insists.

Perhaps. But till then, at least we have Amrut.

Long-time readers of this column will have noticed a gradual change in my attitude to Indian wine. I had a soft spot for Grover in the early days but since then, I’ve treated most Indian wine as undrinkable. It got to the stage where I even described a best-selling brand as ‘crap’ and then apologised because one should never fall into the trap of wine snobbery. I may think that a particular brand survives only on hype and makes truly disgusting wine. But who am I to judge? Even if everyone I know who loves wine won’t go anywhere near the stuff, that doesn’t mean that other people are wrong to enjoy it.

But, over the last year, ever since I discovered the Fratelli Sette, I’ve moderated my views. It is the wine I drink at home. I enjoy the Fratelli zero-dosage sparkling Chenin and their Sangiovese goes very well with Italian food.

Last week I finally went to Akluj in Sholapur district of Maharashtra (a three-hour drive from Poona) to visit the Fratelli vineyards. There are many ways of looking at wine

but I cling to the old-fashioned view that it is an agricultural product. The best wines come from houses that grow their own grapes at their own vineyards because they understand the soil. You can, of course, buy grapes from the market and make wine but I stick to the French view that only a farmer who has seen the grapes grow can make extraordinary wine.

I think that it is this devotion to the soil (rather than to bulk-purchased grapes or to Chilean wine you rebottle here under your own label) that makes Fratelli my favourite Indian wine. The winery is a joint enterprise between two Maratha brothers, two Italian brothers, and the Sekhri brothers of Delhi. (Fratelli means brothers in Italian.) But the key here is probably the wine-maker Piero Masi, a silent Tuscan who sometimes seems to prefer his grapes to other human beings.

It is Piero’s understanding of the soil and his sense of what grapes grow best at which particular spot in the estate, that makes the wines so perfect. I went through the vineyards (they have about 200 acres or so) with him and he explained (in his laconic way) why one spot was suited to the Chenin Blanc that went into the sparkling wine and why another vineyard grew better Chenin for the still white wine.

As anyone in the wine business will tell you, Fratelli has been the big success story at the quality end of the wine business. Piero makes an individual blend for ITC Hotels (to go with spicier food), had created another one for Konkan Café (spicy but different), an Italian-style wine for Maritime (at the Taj Land’s End) and has now created the house wine for all of Taj Group. He is the go-to guy for anybody who cares about fine wine (or understands it) in India.

The teaming with the Sekhris has worked because Kapil, the brother who looks after the wine business, is so passionate about wine that he has given Piero a free hand. The Sekhris are a well-known rich Delhi family and one hotelier told me that after years of seeing the Sekhris blow up lakhs at his hotel, he was startled to see Kapil come in through the staff entrance to pitch his wines.

I asked Kapil about it.

Yes, he said, when I go as a customer, I behave like a customer. But when I go to sell wine, I’m just another vendor and behave like one.

Two classy guys – NK Jagdale and Kapil Sekhri – and two products that make India proud.

Fratelli is the wine I drink at home. I enjoy the zero-dosage sparkling Chenin

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Last week I finally went to Akluj in Sholapur, Maharashtra to visit Fratelli. The winery (above and left) is a joint enterprise between two Maratha brothers, two Italian brothers, and the Sekhri brothers of Delhi

SECRET INGREDIENT

The key at Fratelli is probably the wine-maker Piero Masi, a silent Tuscan who sometimes seems to prefer his grapes to other human beings

MORE ON THE WEB For more columns by Vir Sanghvi, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch The views expressed by the columnist are personal Photo: FRATELLI VINEYARDS

MARCH 1, 2015

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Photo: GETTY IMAGES

A NeoN HoNeybeAr O Father John Misty’s album I Love You, Honeybear is not gooey but intimate and compelling.

And Phosphorescent’s Live at the Music Hall will hook you

F THE ALBUMS that are on heavy-duty rotation on my playlist now, one is called I Love You, Honeybear. It is by American folk singer and songwriter Father John Misty (aka Joshua Tillman). If the word ‘honeybear’ makes you think this album is a soppy set of gooey love songs, let me just tell you that I’m unable to reproduce here the first sentence of the lyrics to the first song, which has the same title as the album – I Love You, Honeybear. Not only because much of the sharply intelligent lyrics on this album will certainly not conform to Pahlaj Nihalani's norms (although there is hardly a cuss word in them) but also because Brunch is a family magazine and we have to show some self-restraint. Suffice it to say that the set of 11 songs by Father John Misty who’s a veteran of Seattle's folk rock band Fleet Foxes (he used to play drums for them) are raw, unabashedly intimate and can seem self-confessional.

That’s because Father John Misty’s second album (the first was called Fear Fun) is a kind of concept album that appears to be themed on his own life.

In I Love You, Honeybear, the songs talk about several facets and experiences from Tillman’s life. Love and relationships occur as topics frequently, and many of the songs

Sanjoy Narayan

download central have references to his relationship with his wife, including details that may seem too intimate. But there’s also satire, self-loathing, anger and cynicism. Father John Misty has a compelling voice and listening to some of his lyrics gives the feeling that you’re privy to things that are extremely personal and candid. A few songs, however, go in other directions. Bored in the USA (which may well be inspired

by Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA), for instance, is a harsh critique of white middle-class Americans.

Besides the words, the music on I Love You, Honeybear – strings, some electronics but also a lot of acoustic guitar – has been infectious enough for me to put the album on repeat more than a few times.

The other album on frequent rotation on my list is by Phosphorescent, which is a moniker used by another singer-songwriter, Matthew Houck. Phosphores-

SOUNDS OF FRESH

Phosphorescent’s Live at the Music Hall has a classic live album feel: the crowd’s yelping; lively interactions; fun introductions of band members; and an uptempo vibe

MARCH 1, 2015

AN INTIMATE SET

The songs in Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear, are about love and relationships. But there’s also satire, self-loathing, anger and cynicism cent’s sound is genre defying. Is it country? Is it folk? Or is it indie rock? Maybe it is a bit of all of those. I first heard Phosphorescent’s music in 2013 when I chanced upon an album titled Muchacho, which in Spanish means a young man. There was nothing Spanish about the album, though, and only when I read the back-story did I realise that the name might have had something to do with Houck’s trip to Mexico. Muchacho had a thematic character to it: the album opened and closed with songs that were like incantations. Like an intricate embroidered rug, the music was evocative, vibrant and multi-layered: slickly produced with strings, horns, piano, guitars and so on. Muchacho soon became a go-to album for me. Its songs like the epic Song for Zula or the brooding anthem, A New Anhedonia, have the memorability of good rock songs. And Houck's vocals – he has a voice that is fragile and often seems to be on the verge of cracking – add a special trademark to Phosphorescent's music.

Then, just a few weeks back, there was a new release

by Phosphorescent: Live at the Music Hall. Culled from performances at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York, the 94-minute album has all the Muchacho songs performed live – many of them in delectably jammy, extended form – as well as some new tunes. Live at the Music Hall has a classic live album feel: the crowd’s yelping; the lively interactions that Houck has with the audience; the fun introductions of band members; and more importantly, the uptempo vibe. Often bands churn out a live album by rote after releasing one that has been recorded in the studio, aiming to stretch the returns from the same material as much as possible. That exercise usually turns out to be a trying experience for listeners. Phosphorescent’s new album is not like that: the performances have an exuberant freshness in them; the music is a bit improvisational and loose and the overall effect more spontaneous than on Muchacho. If you’ve heard the studio album, you’ll enjoy the live album; but if you haven’t ever heard Phosphorescence then the live album will most likely hook you.

Download Central appears every fortnight

MORE ON THE WEB To give feedback, stream or download the music mentioned in this column, go to blogs.hindustantimes. com/download-central. Write to Sanjoy at sanjoy. narayan@hindustantimes.com . Follow @ SanjoyNarayan on Twitter

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All GeAred Up For The iCAr After changing the way you look at music, artwork, phones and notebooks, Apple is all set to take you for a ride

Y

OU’VE LISTENED to music on an Apple product, you’ve created documents and artwork on one too.

You’ve stood in line at 12 at night to buy a phone with the famous bitten apple logo, you’ve used their tablets to FaceTime with your grandma. You’ve marvelled at how thin their Macbook Air line of notebooks is and you’re waiting with bated breath for the Apple Watch.

Now it’s time for you to drive an Apple product.

APPLE’S NEXT VENTURE

They may not make TV screens, they may get into the music system business and they surely won’t be conjuring up an Apple 3D printer – but an upcoming Apple Automobile is almost guaranteed. In the last few days, Apple has been poaching people from the electric car battery business and the automobile design business. There are rumours that the Apple car division already has 200 people and that they’ve

Rajiv Makhni

techilicious MORE ON THE WEB For more Techilicious columns, log on to hindustantimes.com/ brunch. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at twitter. com/RajivMakhni The views expressed by the columnist are personal

been at it for a while now. Also, some new patents and trademarks seem to be popping up from Apple that can only make sense in a car. So, let’s put it this way. If Apple isn’t going to make an Apple Car soon, they are really wasting a lot of serious time, effort, money and people.

Yet, to a lot of people, Apple making a car seems outlandish. With so many more things that they can get into in the consumer electronic space – why would they get into one of the toughest businesses in the world and a category they know nothing about? One word answer: Tesla!

TESLAING THE AUTO WORLD

A TECH UTOPIA

A car with incredible design, fantastic gadgetry and the first car iOS is just child’s play for Apple

Tesla has taken the traditional, conventional and very tightly controlled automobile business and blasted it to

MARKET LEADER

Tesla created the first designed electric-battery-powered car bits. They’ve done to the car world what Apple did to the portable music and smartphone world. Tesla has come into an industry that makes mincemeat of all newcomers, and flipped it around so dramatically that the shreds of flesh are now hanging on the other side. Tesla has come into a segment with a bang, dramatically improved it, made it beautiful, aspirational, consumer friendly and broken every rule of the game. Exactly what Apple does too. Tesla is called the Apple of the car world, and now Apple wants its title back.

WHAT TESLA DOES DIFFERENTLY

Tesla created the first true electric-battery-powered car that people wanted. It didn’t look like a klunky nerd nightmare (take a look at the Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius or the Chevy Volt – in the quest to make them futuristic looking, they ended up making them very weird and very ugly). Unlike the competition, Tesla cars could go upwards of 200 miles on a single charge (there’s a psychological stress term for electric cars which can only go short distances: ‘range anxiety’). Tesla is the first company that sells its cars direct to customers, thus eliminating the middleman and the entire nexus of car dealers (many advantages to this – better pricing, one-on-one contact with the customer, fantastic education for the buyer and none of the malpractices that car dealers bring to the table).

Shockingly, Tesla operates their service centres as a non-profit part of the business (totally opposite of the industry norm, where car dealers make most of their profit overcharging on service and spare parts). Tesla also picks up your car from your house when you need it serviced and the person who comes to pick it up drives in on a loaner Tesla car which he gives you to use while the car is at your own repair shop. Like I said, this is a company that has broken every rule of the automobile industry. And the traditional car companies hate Tesla for it.

THE ICAR COMETH

So, what will Apple bring to the road that Tesla hasn’t? Actually they don’t need to bring anything very different. For Apple, it’s always been about timing and this is the perfect time. Apple doesn’t have to start from scratch, people are ready for a car from a non-traditional car maker, the technology is ready for the first 300-mile-range car for a price that makes sense for most buyers and the car is fast moving towards becoming a large electronic appliance rather than a mechanical beast. An Apple car with incredible design, fantastic gadgetry inside, with the first car iOS that talks to all Apple products and has some nifty never-seen-before features would be child’s play for the world’s most cash rich company.

Tesla and a few other companies are already filing law suits against Apple for luring away critical people from them. A strong rumour that Apple is about to buy out one of the biggest traditional car manufacturers is also picking up steam. Thus, it seems the day may not be far away when you line up at 12 at night to pick up your first iCar. Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3

MARCH 1, 2015

Picture Perfect We all like to exert control over our image, so why blame celebrities for their love of airbrushing?

I

T SEEMS to be an immutable rule of this Internet age that if there is an embarrassing photo (or video) lurking some place in the virtual world, someone somewhere will find a way to leak it. And it is just as inevitable that these photos (or videos) will go ‘viral’; as in people all over the world will be clicking on them to view what was most certainly not meant for their eyes. Then, the chatter on social media will swirl out of control as everyone with a smartphone tries to out-smart the next guy with his one-liners. Columnists like myself will tut-tut about what voyeurs we have become (after taking a good look at the photos/videos, obviously; it’s research, don’t you know?). And then, we will move on effortlessly to the next such ‘scandal’.

And so, after Jennifer Lawrence – whose naked pictures, which she sent to her then-boyfriend, went spectacularly viral a few months ago – it was the turn of Cindy Crawford and Beyoncé to suffer the ignominy of a ‘leak’ recently. And to add insult to considerable injury, unlike Jennifer who looked like a Greek goddess in her naked selfies, Cindy and Beyoncé looked nothing like their usual selves in the photos that have probably been viewed a few billion times over by now.

Actually, that’s not quite true. Let’s put it this way, instead. Cindy and Beyoncé looked exactly like their usual

Seema Goswami

spectator THAT'S A LEAK

Jennifer Lawrence's naked pictures, which she sent to her then-boyfriend, went spectacularly viral a few months ago

selves – but without the benefit of photoshopping, airbrushing and sundry other techniques that glossy magazines and advertising agencies use to make women look picture perfect.

So, like any other 48-year-old mother of two, Cindy – posing in black lingerie, fur coat and stylish hat – had a few stretch marks along her stomach while her thighs had a faint suggestion of cellulite to them.

But that was nothing compared to poor old Bey, who had to contend with photos that showed a crop of acne under heavilypancaked skin.

So far, so normal. That is what women look like, once they have lived a little (and pushed out a sprog or two). And acne could strike any of us any time (though it usually does just before an important party or, yes, a photo shoot). So, what was

INGLORIOUSLY UNTOUCHED

Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK

Cindy Crawford (right) and Beyonce Knowles (extreme right) looked nothing like their usual selves in their leaked photos that have been viewed a few billion times over Photos: GETTY IMAGES

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the big deal about these photos being leaked on the Net? Nothing at all, really.

And yet, when I looked at the pictures I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the subjects. It is one thing to voluntarily release unflattering (relatively, of course, these ladies couldn’t look anything but gorgeous if they tried) photographs of yourself, either with a view to showing the world that nobody is as flawless as their public personas may suggest or to help other women who are struggling against the tyranny of perfection. But it is quite another to have such pictures released without your consent or even your knowledge, to have the control you exerted over your image for decades wrested away in a matter of seconds.

It is brave to release images of yourself to show the reality behind those glamour pictures that infest the media.

But it is a violation to have pictures that show the ‘real’ you – or, for that matter, any pictures at all – released without your permission.

This is as true of celebrities as it is of ordinary folk like you and me. Which of us can say, hand to heart, that we haven’t done a bit of ‘work’ on pictures before posting them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, or whatever other social media site we use? We all delete unflattering pictures the moment after they are taken. We all use photoshopping and airbrushing apps to the extent our skills allow. And rare is the picture that makes the cut without the judicious application of a filter or two. If a friend or family member tags us with an unflattering picture, we untag ourselves immediately and then harangue them to take the picture down (NOW, if you please!). And if they don’t, unpleasantness usually follows.

That’s the kind of control we exert on our image in the public domain. And that’s when we are not even public figures.

So, if we feel betrayed when ‘unauthorised’ pictures of us make it to social media, how do you think celebrities like Cindy Crawford and Beyoncé – whose careers are predicated, in whole and in part, on how they look – feel when their unretouched images are released and become the subject of public debate.

The truth is that none of us is happy to show her real face to the world. We don’t leave the house unless we have our ‘face’ on; the one we display to the world, with the help of concealers, eyeliners, lipstick, and maybe just the lightest touch of foundation. We bleach, we wax, we tweeze, we pluck, in an effort to improve on Nature’s work. Some of us even go so far as to use Botox, fillers, and other cosmetic procedures to keep the ravages of age at bay.

Nobody looks as good as they do in their Facebook profile pictures or their Twitter DPs (or indeed, in their column pictures!).

And that’s fine. It is our inalienable right to present our best faces to the world. And each of us has the right to control our own image, both in the private and public domain.

So, why deny Cindy and Beyoncé the control that we take for granted?

MORE ON THE WEB For more SPECTATOR columns by Seema Goswami, log on to hindustantimes.com/ brunch. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ seemagoswami. Write to her at seema_ ht@rediffmail.com The views expressed by the columnist are personal

MARCH 1, 2015

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CULTURE CURRY Artists tend to attract other artists. Imagine having two equally powerful creative forces living under the same roof. Get to know Jayasri Burman and Paresh Maity in PART ONE of the HT BRUNCH FOUR-PART SERIES ON ARTIST POWER COUPLES

The Fine Balance An understated sculptor and artist meets a flamboyant bon vivant – it’s a union made in biennale heaven

by Amisha Chowbey

C

reativity takes courage, said Henri Matisse, the famous French painter, because it amounts to an exposure of your innermost thoughts and desires.

So imagine having two equally powerful creative forces living under the same roof. You’d need courage squared!

WHO ARE THEY?

Paresh Maity was awarded the Padma Shri last year for his contribution to Indian art and he’s experimented with all sorts of media – watercolours, acrylic on canvas, photography and sculptures.

He’s hard to miss at an art event: dressed in a coat with embroidered palettes, paintbrushes, birds and what not. Or sometimes perhaps a stole and a pendant.

Maity’s art is almost everywhere: in posh homes, once on the menu cards for Masala Art (Taj Palace, New Delhi), and now on an almost 850 foot-long mural at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, possibly the biggest mural in the world.

Jayasri Burman is an enigma: a homemaker on the side and a brilliant thematic artist by profession. Using bright watercolours as a base and pen on the surface, she makes patterns to create the female figure in all its glory, representing goddesses in various forms, strong in colour and content.

Her works attract collectors and she is known in art circles as a brilliant host and generally happy soul. In 2007, her paintings appeared as a series on stamps to commemorate International Women’s Day. When she’s not travelling, you’ll find Jayasri at her studio in her home in the heart of Delhi.

With paintbrushes holding her hair in place, pen in hand, she draws, intricately and carefully, on a painted surface, sewing together disconnected portions of her incomplete works. “I have never spent a day away from work, even if it’s only doodling in a sketchbook on the go,” she says.

“Creativity really never stops.”

HOME STUDIO

Both Paresh and Jayasri are passionate about decoarting their living spaces MARCH 1, 2015

Photo: SUBRATA BISWAS

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THE WORKS OF CUPID

They’ve got all the makings of a star couple – love for their canvases, quirkiness in everything they do, and a value to their signatures. It’s easy to spot Paresh in a crowd. At home, however, he’s the spectator, and Jayasri’s the one who steers him through.

They met as young artists at exhibitions and through common friends. “Paresh has always been a charmer,” says Jayasri.

“When he walked into my life, he brought with him a burst of happiness. And when my father first met him, he was mesmerised, praising his work so much that I used to get jealous.”

Paresh, on the other hand has little to say of their first few encounters.

There’s a power in balance, or as Jayasri calls it “shakti”, that needs to exist to maintain harmony in the relationship. In this case, their love is based on similarities rather than differences. They love the same food, the same colour and share ideologies, but do keep a safe distance from each other’s work. Paresh believes that the key to sharing a life with another artist comes from mutual respect for individuality and curiosity about each other’s outlook.

sculptures take up the space off the walls. Together, they complement each other and create a harmony that’s hard to miss.

Jayasri leads me to the puja room that she has carefully decorated; one of her paintings of a goddess provides a perfect backdrop for the room. The couple’s passion for decorating their home goes back to the days when they lived more modestly. “Even when we didn’t have much, we used to be very excited about getting even a small new showpiece,” says Paresh.

Born in a small town called Tamluk (90 km south of Kolkata), Paresh was the typical restless student.

When other children went for tuitions, he’d concentrate on making Durga idols, doodling, or just whiling his time away. When he was 10, he ran away from home. But education always chased him, and ultimately landed him with almost nine years of formal schooling in painting.

A master in huge watercolour works, he shifted to Delhi to make it his home. “I was in Hyderabad when I heard about opportunities in Delhi and it gave me motivation to roll almost 25 large watercolour works and travel with them for two days, leaving everything else behind,” he says.

Jayasri comes from a family that has strong relations with art though she was more inclined towards writing and reciting poetry. But she was destined to be an artist, equally strong with her detailed canvases and sculptures.

“Anything can betray you, except skills that you take on with passion, working all day and night,” she says. “Even in the days when we didn’t have much, we never thought of where it would lead us. The enthusiasm to work is the same though everything around us has changed.”

When they met, they were beginners in the world of art.

Through the years, they have seen their share of ups and downs, but have stuck together and continue to help each other – with minimal intervention. Now they’ve left visible impressions on Indian art.

“Paresh has always been a charmer,” says Jayasri, “when he walked into my life, he brought with him a burst of happiness”

HOLDING ON TO TRADITIONS

As you stroll through their spacious house with its high ceilings, airy staircase and large bay windows, you feel the strong Bengali traditions that have followed them all the way to New Delhi.

Large works by Paresh take centrestage, whereas Jayasri’s

YIN AND YANG What he loves about her “That she keeps the family knit together.”

What she loves about him “His immense positivity and how he’s happy all the time.”

Little pleasures that make them a team They always make it a point to lunch together; the best-served dish will always be a special kind of homecooked maach (fish).

MARCH 1, 2015

brunchletters@hindustantimes.com

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PEOPLE

Photo: SUBRATA BISWAS

Finding Laxmi Your gender may be the most obvious part of your body, but as transgender activist Laxmi says in her autobiography, you have to be true to your soul

by Veenu Singh

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all me Laxmi,” she says, sensing my confusion over how to address her. Laxmi looks gorgeous, dressed in a green-gold saree, with perfect makeup and manicured nails.

Her full name is Laxminarayan Tripathi. But the young man, born in a Brahmin household in Thane, chose to assert his true sexuality, and became Laxmi, a hijra.

Today, 36-year-old Laxmi is a celebrity. She’s a well-known dancer with her own dance school, she’s been on TV shows like Sach Ka Saamna and Bigg Boss, and she was the first transgender person to represent Asia-Pacific at the United Nations in 2008. Her autobiography, Me Hijra, Me Laxmi (I Am Hijra, I Am Laxmi) was released at the just concluded World Book Fair in Delhi.

Published originally in Marathi in 2012, the book has now been translated into English by Oxford University Press. It tells Laxmi’s poignant story of taunts, sexual abuse and emotional turmoil while growing up, to the point where she is now: a champion of the transgender cause.

explained how the book could change perspectives on transgenders. “Everybody sees this beautifully decked-up Laxmi, without realising that I had to struggle for it.” After the book was published, the Maharashtra government added a chapter on transgenders to the state welfare policy.

DANCE OF LIFE

Laxmi, the eldest son of the family, was a frail, asthmatic child. He was one of only three of his seven siblings to survive. Because he was so delicate, he couldn’t play with the other boys, so he began to turn inward. But he was not shy: whenever his school organised a function, Laxmi danced. “The stage had a hypnotic effect on me and I would dance myself to a frenzy,” she says. “The stage was like an oasis in the desert of ill health.”

But Laxmi’s flamboyance on stage made some people very uncomfortable. “In patriarchal, misogynistic cultures such as ours, dancing is seen as a womanly pursuit,” explains Laxmi in the book. “So I was teased and called a homo and a chakka.” The boy’s mannerisms were feminine, and this marked him out for sexual assault at the age of seven. His abusers were all known to him. They were his relatives and their friends.

“Many things in our society are fake,” says Laxmi. “Men have the liberty to do anything. I believe that it’s femininity that is abused, whether you are a woman or not.”

Physically and emotionally traumatised by the time he was in class 4, Laxmi turned to gay activist Ashok Row Kavi for advice, and was consoled when the older man explained that it wasn’t that Laxmi was abnormal. The world around him was abnormal. But it also

‘I tell every woman that she should love herself.

Though I’m in a relationship, I still love myself more’

TALK ABOUT IT

“The original book in Marathi was written by journalist Vaishali Rode who worked with Mahanagar, a Mumbai newspaper,” says Laxmi. “Her husband, Pramod, worked with the Mumbai Districts Aids Control Society and had been of great help to me. So when Vaishali initially requested me for an interview for their Diwali issue, I couldn’t say no. She was an extremely sweet person, quiet and shy. Then one day she said she wanted to write my biography.”

Just about 30 years old at the time, Laxmi initially refused, but was persuaded to agree when Rode

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helped that not everyone Laxmi came across was nasty. Many people were understanding.

WOMEN: FIND YOURSELVES

By the time Laxmi joined Mithibai College, he had an established dance school. And it was through dressing up for performances, that Laxmi truly understood his gender identity. “I really enjoyed dressing like a woman,” she says. “I never thought I would do makeup, but, now makeup is Laxmi. Every morning when I get up, the first thing I do is my makeup and even my chelas make fun of me.” She wants to write a book about the men in her life both in English and Marathi. “In English I want to call it either The Red Lipstick (her favourite lip colour) or The Chastity Belt: Men In My Life,” reveals Laxmi with a laugh.

At home, Laxmi behaved like the dutiful eldest son. This didn’t stop neighbours from gossiping, but Laxmi’s late father once told a journalist: “No parent has to bother about what their child is

THE REAL CRUSADER

Laxmi’s sole mission now is to fight for a life of dignity for transgenders doing in the bedroom. My child is just a normal child. For me, Laxminarayan Tripathi will always be my son.”

But cross-dressing wasn’t enough. Inside, Laxmi had always felt like a woman, though he didn’t understand why. And then one day, he met the brother of a friend who was a hijra. “I realised that I yearned to be like that,” says Laxmi. “And once I decided, it seemed like a big burden was taken off my back.”

The decision had its repercussions, but Laxmi’s family stood by her. In her personal life, Laxmi is in a relationship with a man and the mother of two adopted boys.

“I tell every woman, love yourself so much, it should be like an unconditional love,” says Laxmi.

“Even though I’m in a relationship, I still love myself more.” veenus@hindustantimes.com Follow @VeenuSingh12 on Twitter

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Murakami For March

On the Brunch bookshelf: Murakami short stories you can read online, some Japanese detective fiction and a little bit of magic

Presenting, the Brunch Book Challenge The idea is to motivate you to read, by putting a number on it: 30 books in 2015. Just keep us posted on Twitter, tagging @HTBrunch using the hashtag #BrunchBookChallenge

All The World’s A Freak Show

You Can Keep Guessing

Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

The Last Illusion by Porochista Khakpour

Malice by Keigo Hagashino

This is a collection of six short stories, published last year in Japan.

In each of these, the protagonist is a man without a woman. There is no translated version yet – a pity because it is so very fashionable to read Murakami. But three of these stories are available on the New Yorker web site.

Yesterday is about a relationship that could never be (“That’s what we all do: endlessly take the long way around”). In Scheherazade, a man is confined to his house, and a woman visits him twice a week to bring food and supplies, “each time they had sex, she told Habara a strange and gripping story afterward”.

And the newest, Kino, is about a quiet, middle-aged man who buries his feelings when his marriage falls apart – when he becomes a man without a woman – and opens a small neighbourhood bar. Murakami’s tropes – cats, snakes and jazz – make appearances, of course, so the story means different things to different people. But ultimately, it’s about how essential it is to face your emotions, to feel. And it reminds you that, “memories can be useful.” .

– by Saudamini Jain

The century is turning, there is a frenzy over Y2K and the World Trade Center is still standing tall.

In her second book, Iranian American novelist Porochista Khakpour reimagines the 9/11 era through the story of Zal – a ‘human catastrophe’ in a world hurtling towards catastrophe.

Born in a rural Iranian village, pale of skin and hair, Zal is deemed a “white demon” by his mother and confined to a birdcage. He takes on the habits of pet birds around him. Years later, he is rescued and introduced into the First World: New York. Here he meets the anorexic Asiya, who has premonitions that the world is going to end. And he makes the acquaintance of illusionist Bran Silber.

But will NYC accept Zal or will the Bird Boy still be a “freak”? Will Silber help him realise his dream of flying?

And will he finally discover his humanness in Asiya’s arms? And can love not convert the most “feral” of beings?

Dark, witty, painfully forthright, and downright original, this is a coming-of-age story, of magic and modern American neurosis, of characters who’ll break your heart, of heartbreak and of love itself – lots of it.

– by Satarupa Paul

You have probably not heard of Keigo Higashino. Neither had I. He is, I found, a young, bestselling detective fiction writer from Japan.

When you read this genre, it’s only human instinct to fish around for hints in the story from the very first chapter. But here, simplicity seeps through style and into the plot and into the characters, making any educated guess seem like a horribly ill-informed conjecture – which, of course, is a good thing.

Without revealing too much, or confusing you with the Japanese names, here’s the plot: a bestselling novelist has been murdered. His childhood friend discovers his body.

There are many possibilities of who the killer could be, and you begin to follow the clues. But this is not a whodunit, and before you know it, detective Kyochiro Kaga solves the mystery. However, there’s still a fair amount left. Because in this book, hunting down intent is the real game, more than the act of murder itself: what made the killer do it? What phase of the killer’s life gave birth to the malice that resulted in the murder? It will keep you guessing.

– by Asad Ali

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TRAVEL

Riding On The Roof Of The World Traversing the magnificent terrain of Tibet for a two-week, 2,380-km bike expedition is a trip of a lifetime text and photos by Zabeeh Afaque

I

love my job. And I’m not a freak.

Because my job lets me get on a motorbike to explore new terrain at least once every year.

So yes. I’m sorry if you’re jealous, people, but I love my job.

A few months ago, I rode to Ladakh in a group of 100 bikers, part of the Himalayan Odyssey organised by a bike manufacturer.

But this time, I was offered a ride in another league altogether – to Tibet, the roof of the world.

Fifteen of us were set to bike 2,380 kilometres over 14 days, at an average altitude of 4,500 metres above sea level, from Kathmandu in Nepal to Lhasa in Tibet and onwards, negotiating the tough Himalayas and romancing the landscape. We knew it wouldn’t be an easy ride. But no rider worth his bike would ever give up this opportunity. And so off I went.

A STIFF START

The first day in Kathmandu was dedicated to two things – eating

all sorts of momos at Momo Hut in Thamel, and getting our bikes checked at Kathmandu Handle Bar – the bike repairing station-cumbar. We spent the day hanging out, soaking in the spirit of Kathmandu (quite literally in the evening, drinking at the iconic Handle Bar & Restaurant), and mentally preparing ourselves for the tough fortnight ahead.

But nothing could have prepared us for the hurdle nature had set up for us the next day, as we set out for The Last Resort in Kodari, our accommodation for the night. Our route was damaged by a massive landslide, so we had no option but to ride off-road through slushy and slippery terrain. The bikes refused to move, no matter how much power we pumped into them. After just 14 kilometres of the 30-km off-

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The landscape looks like paintings that can’t be translated into words

road ride, we had to put our bikes on a truck and then trek to the plains to take a bus to The Last Resort. Just to get to the next motorable road took us six hours, trekking the upward, almost unwalkable path.

TRANSITING INTO TIBET

The thing about riding into Tibet is that you can never do it alone.

The only visas available for riders are group visas which makes this tour of Tibet a great chance for

EASY RIDERS

Bikers take the India-China Friendship Highway en route Lhasa (top); the terrain outside Kathmandu was arduous (above) bikers to explore its magnificent terrain. The visa process takes a long time. The bikers are checked, so are the papers of the machines and the people riding them. But once that’s done, you are free to explore Tibet and its spectacular canvas of sights. Rugged and dry at some places, lush green at others, the landscape looks like

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FEELING LIKE ROYALTY

The expedition members line up against Lhasa’s majestic Potala Palace (above), the original home of the 14th Dalai Lama

paintings that can’t be translated into words.

The roads inside Tibet are wonderful – smooth as silk and almost empty. The ride was so calm in some places that you almost ran the risk of dozing off on the bike.

On the ride from Nyalam to Tingri, two things stood out for me – riding into the sparkling waterfalls that lash the roads, and the sudden sight of the desert plains of the Tibetan plateau with the proud Shisha Pangma mountain as its backdrop.

Sometimes, while riding through the plateau, the sun shone into your face so hard that you were blinded by its light, and yet it was like riding into a world of golden mystery.

With glimpses of Mount Everest on this stretch, we continued to the mighty mountain pass of Gyatso La and rode through the India-China Friendship highway on our way to Lhasa.

KNOWING VS SEEING

Think of Tibet and you immediately conjure up images of yaks, large tracts of barren land, dragon dance shows, lamas and monasteries. Tibet is that. But it is also much more. And possibly no other place in Tibet embodies that as well as Lhasa. For the outsider, the first stop in the Tibetan capital ought to be the Potala Palace, the original home of the Dalai Lama

GLIMPSES OF LHASA

Fresh produce at a street market in Lhasa (above); people in traditional garb at Potala Palace (extreme right)

that is now a museum and a world heritage site, followed by a host of other monasteries that proudly uphold the Tibetan culture.

But there’s also a very distinct modern side to Lhasa. Huge malls, youngsters in international fashion labels, sports bikes, large cars – Tibet could be any country in the world. Interestingly, the sports bikes from leading international brands are apparently made in China. The same is true for cars – Mercedes, Aston Martin and the like. The fakes aren’t restricted to the roads. I discovered this from

the mechanic at the bike workshop. His iPhone 5S turned out to be a Chinese version of the Apple phone. The fake iPhone 6 was available even before the official launch of the real thing.

This makes Lhasa a great place to shop for branded clothes, sportswear and of course Tibetan kitsch. And, as improbable as it may seem, the nightlife in Tibet is better than in most Indian cities.

There are clubs so vibrant and huge that they could put some Delhi clubs to shame. For an entry fee of `1,800, you can pick up 24 bottles of beer, and then the party just moves from table to table and grows bigger over the night.

The writer’s trip was sponsored

by Royal Enfield

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SURVIVAL KIT What to carry: Besides biking gear, a full face helmet is a must.

Take warm thermals, jackets, a cap, dark glasses and a hydration pack.

Food: The food in Tibet is very bland and even the momos are unlike Indian ones. Yak meat is nice, but obviously not for vegetarians. Carry chocolate and energy bars to keep you going.

The local chocolates and biscuits aren’t bad either. Sometimes, all you get is fruit.

For more information, log on to: www.royalenfield.com/rides/ events/touroftibet zabeeh.afaque@hindustantimes.com Follow @HTBrunch on Twitter

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PERSONAL AGENDA

Photo: RAJ K RAJ

Perizaad Zorabian Actor

BIRTHDAY SUN SIGN PLACE OF BIRTH HOMETOWN FIRST BREAK Scorpio Mumbai Mumbai

October 23

SCHOOL/ COLLEGE

Auxilium Convent High School Mumbai, and the Bernard M Baruch College, New York

HIGH POINT OF YOUR LIFE

Marriage. Finding a best friend for a life partner.

Because of marriage, I experienced motherhood and gathered the courage to be a food entrepreneur

LOW POINT OF YOUR LIFE

When I got malaria and almost lost my baby. I was hospitalised and was being treated for the disease during my first pregnancy

CURRENTLY I AM...

Judging the show Colors Of Youth on MTV and doing theatre MARCH 1, 2015

Joggers’ Park (2003), where I played Victor Banerjee’s love interest

You seem to have come out of hibernation after years.

You are right, my daughter Zaha is seven and my son Zayaan five. Over the last few years, I’ve appeared on TV in spurts, launched a brand of readyto-eat chicken and acted in Feroze Khan’s adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning play Dinner with Friends.

How has Bollywood changed since?

I came in at the time when independent cinema was growing. I was fortunate to work with actors like Victor Banerjee, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi and Mr Bachchan. But over the last few years, the line between arthouse and commercial films has blurred.

What was it like working with Amitabh Bachchan in Ek Ajnabee?

Incredible. I remember this scene, where my daughter dies.

It had my monologue and his reactions. He didn’t have any lines and yet he was adding so much power to the scene.

That’s admirable!

What did they teach you at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute?

At Strasberg, they help declutter your performance.

So, when I work with good directors, it is like a catharsis.

Being on stage is my nirvana.

How do you stay fit despite being in the food business?

Well, having chicken is an occupational hazard. But my husband is my workout buddy.

I work out on my terrace and my fitness goal this year is to acquire a six-pack.

How did you end up marrying a person called Boman Irani, not to be confused with the actor from 3 Idiots?

(Laughs) Boman, the actor, is like a father figure. I happened to be judging an event at the NCPA’s Tata Theatre organised by my husband Boman’s company. My co-judges were Piyush Pandey from advertising and actor Boman Irani! That is where my husband first saw me. We started dating and got married within a year.

Your favourite city in the world is...

It will have to be New York.

During the four years that I spent there doing my MBA, I learnt African dancing and Latin dancing and a lot of my life experiences are linked with that city.

Where do you like to eat out?

In Mumbai, I love Saltwater Café at Bandra. Their John Dory fish is to die for!

my films A FILM YOU’VE SEEN MORE THAN ONCE

Mamma Mia! (2008), because of Meryl Streep’s effortless acting THE MOST OVERRATED FILM

Avatar (2009)

THE MOST VAISA VASOOL FILM

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011)

A MOVIE THAT WAS PART OF YOUR GROWING UP YEARS:

Flashdance (1983).

For the longest time, I wanted to be the dancer that Jennifer Beals played!

THE FIRST MOVIE YOU SAW ON THE BIG SCREEN

The Black Stallion (1979)

Three make-up accessories in your bag at the moment?

Chanel’s Luminaire, a powder that makes the skin glow, a Bobby Brown lipstick and my Mac powder blush.

Which are the three world figures you would want to invite for dinner?

Meryl Streep, because she has six kids and 19 Oscar nominations. Sonia Gandhi as I have been offered roles based on her, twice. I have also played Indira Gandhi in Bandung Sonata. Apart from these, I would love to meet businesswoman Indra Nooyi.

Your idea of romance and love?

When you can put the other person’s needs before your own and not make your partner feel guilty, that is love!

The last line of your biography would read...

“She was brave, she was spontaneous and she lived life to the fullest.”

— Interviewed by Aasheesh Sharma