Brunch 04 01 2015

WEEKLY MAGAZINE, JANUARY 4, 2015 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times

STORMTROOPERS

They were perceived as the minnows of India’s domestic cricket circuit.

Three months back, they fought torrential floods and saw their cricketing infrastructure being decimated. But today, the Jammu and Kashmir team is flying high and smashing reputations

Members of the Jammu and Kashmir Ranji Trophy cricket team look up to captain Parvez Rasool (centre, spinning the ball) for inspiration

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BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

To read Brunch stories (and more) online, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch. To discuss the stories (or give feedback), follow @HTBrunch on Twitter. For everything cool on the Internet, like Hindustan Times Brunch on Facebook. And for videos, check out our channel (youtube.com/HindustanTimesBrunch).

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Ab Tak Aapne Dekha

by Saudamini Jain

NCH BOO K RU

2015? We’re In Back To The Future 2

Read 30 Books In 2015

2015: This is the year Marty McFly travelled to in the 1989 movie.

Does our today live up to yesterday’s idea of tomorrow?

4 JAN 2015

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by Rachel Lopez

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Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK

The Brunch Book Club

ALL E N

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PART- 2 LAST YEAR, WE CHALLENGED YOU TO READ 24 BOOKS. WE’VE UPPED THE ANTE BY SIX. IT’S TIME TO READ MORE WHAT: 30 books in 2015. (It’s not much, it’s two-and-a-half books every month). Read anything you like – a bestseller or something obscure, self-help guides or graphic novels, real books, e-books or just listen to audiobooks.

WHY: Because everybody always wants to be able to read more. Because reading is good for you. Because even if you don’t read much, now is a good time to start. Because this is a new year resolution we’ll help you keep. Because we promise to recommend books, old and new – and send you some too. And because we’ll organise readings and meetings with your favourite writers.

WHERE: On Twitter. Or Facebook. Or Instagram.

HOW: Make sure you tag @HTBrunch (on Twitter and/or Instagram) or

Hindustan Times Brunch (on Facebook) using the hashtag #BrunchBookChallenge and keep us posted. And follow the hashtag too – it’s a great way to meet other booklovers.

Tell us what you’re reading, what you liked and what you didn’t. Suggest, recommend, or quote your favourite books. Post photos – of your books, your bookshelves, your favourite bookstores or anything reading-related.

Sorry – no music this week Download Central is on a break. Sanjoy Narayan is travelling – and your favourite music column will be back in a fortnight!

Oh, ed how I have miss asure of the languid ple runch in the reading @HTB the last few er ov n, winter su for it now! up g kin weeks! Ma #Adios2014 -@Asymmetrica

Entire 2014 flash ed through my eyes Expecting a lot fro ! you guys in the co m year! – @In_sane ming _Saint Find Hindustan Times Brunch on Facebook or tweet to @HTBrunch or

Cover photo: VIPIN KUMAR Cover design:

MONICA GUPTA

A good Sunday is nothing but Brunch copy with hot coffee.. Loved the 2014 rewind..

Great Job! – @ZaidiKashish

The cover page, lovely Looking back at 2014, 201 a fascinating story –@junkkDNA

JANUARY 4, 2015

They Predicted: Engines that would run on used batteries and soda cans.

Now We Have: More cars, batteries and soda cans.

They Predicted: Jaws would still be in cinemas, in instalment 19 and in some kind of 3D. Now We Have: Some kind of 3D, yes, but thankfully no Jaws.

They Predicted: Fresh grocery that popped down from the ceiling. Dehydrated food.

Now We Have: Fresh grocery ordered online. Dehydrated everything – and just as unappetising.

They Predicted: Fax machines for pictures, for everything.

Now We Have: Selfies, Snapchat and selfies on Snapchat.

Also, what’s a fax machine?

On The Brunch Radar

LOVE IT

HT BRUNCH PRESENTS 3RD EDITION

n Airline jokes n Metro ladies’ compartment n Airtel and Net neutrality n “Sex can reduce one’s lifespan,” says a BJP MP n Nathuram Godse

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

They Predicted: That lawyers would be extinct, Elisabeth Shue would be hot, 1980s style would still be cool.

Today We Have: None of the above, and thank God for that!

READERS’ SPECIAL

by Saudamini Jain

SHOVE IT

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

They Predicted: Digital money, video calls, glasses with video in them, voice-activated commands.

Now We Have: Bitcoin, Skype, Google Glass and Siri. But it looks less fun, somehow.

They Predicted: Hoverboards – those skateboards without wheels that floated on air.

Now We Have: Hah! Even the Nikes aren’t auto-lacing yet.

n Brunch blogs – coming soon! n When Harry Met Sally (“Men and women can’t be friends... sex part always gets in the way”) and Maine Pyar Kiya (“Ek ladka aur ek ladki kabhi dost nahi ho sakte”) turned 25 in 2014. But we’re still unsure about platonic friendships n New calendars n Dhoni. Always n Secret Single Behavior (stuff you do when alone) and other Sex And The City references

Stuff You Said Last Sunday

They predicted: Flying cars.

Doc’s last line at the end of the first film was: “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.”

Now We Have: Zilch. Even driverless cars aren’t here yet.

THE EXTRAORDINARY LIVES OF ORDINARY PEOPLE STARRING YOU!

We invite you to be our celebrities for one issue – and get featured in Brunch

What makes you extraordinary? It could be the story of your life (like going from rags to riches). You could’ve done something out of the ordinary (like taking an unconventional decision that took the world on). Or something ordinary but heartwarming (like falling in love for the first time at 55).

Or a quirky hobby (like collecting matchboxes), a curious habit (like learning a new language every year). It could even be some great advice (like making a fully functional robot).

y Extraordinar (adj) l or Very unusuable remarka

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO

Send us a note (not more than 250 words). The best entries will be verified and we’ll interview you

1. It has to be something that has not been written about previously. If it has been featured in any publication before, your entry will be disqualified.

2. Send your entries to brunchletters@ hindustantimes.com with the subject:

RULES OF THE GAME

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

Brunch Readers’ Special 3. It must include your name, age, photo, occupation, address and phone number 4. There must not be any ongoing legal dispute regarding the incident you’re writing to us about.

5. Deadline: You must email us on or before January 4 (Sunday).

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:

NATURAL WAYS TO REDUCE ACID IN YOUR BODY

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

1. Dear Doctor, last month I consumed an emergency contraceptive pill one day before my periods were due and next day I had a scanty flow that lasted for only half a day. Since then I did not have my periods.

Am I pregnant?

Emergency contraceptive pills being hormone pills may cause a slight fluctuation in your period pattern. This may cause an irregular or untimely period, scanty or heavier bleeding than normal, spotting in between periods etc. As you did experience scanty flow for some time, it could have been your actual period.

Please do not worry as this is an expected side- effect of this pill.

Include alkalising foods in your diet for a healthier, better adjusted new year

intercourse altogether and use a proper and reliable contraceptive method.

PART - II

3. Dear Doctor, what if a woman consumes an ECP just for the sake of it, to be safe even though she did not have sex, will it harm the body? Will it cause troubles in future pregnancy?

Emergency contraceptive pills are not known to pose any potential risk in future pregnancies. However, consuming emergency contraceptive pills casually is not recommended.

If unprotected intercourse has not taken place, then please refrain from consuming ECP casually.

MediaMedic ICH/Q&A/0101

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:

GRASS JUICES: Wheat grass and barley grass are excellent sources of minerals and unique enzymes. These are lost in the process of conversion to cereal.

Radiation therapy patients are given wheat grass juice to control the acids created by these therapies. Barley grass controls conditions of severe acidity such as cancers and rheumatoid arthritis.

ALFALFA SPROUTS: Alfalfa seeds go deeper into the HERBS AND MUSHsoil than most plants, ROOMS: The best which means they are mint, peppermint, draw more minerals and reishi and shii and nutrients than take mushrooms. others. This gives MINT TO DO GOOD them great alkalising Regular mint and pepFRUIT: Apples, apriproperties. To sprout permint will both reduce acid in the body cots, banana, coconut Alfalfa seeds, soak water, cherries, berthem for 24-48 hours. ries and oranges all help.

Add the sprouts to salads or a vegetable juice mix.

DRIED FRUITS: Raisins, figs and dates will reduce acids.

LEMONS: We think that lemons are acidic, but after digestion, BENEFITS OF ALKALISING they are actually alkaline. Add a FOODS few drop of the juice to a mix of n Brighter, healthier skin. honey and warm water. n Improvement of inflammatory conditions like arthritis, skin VEGETABLE JUICES: Vegetaallergies, asthma and cholesbles are inherently alkalising, terol deposits. but green leafy vegetables n Reduction of hair fall and like spinach, sarson (mustard postponed greying of hair. greens), kale, cucumber and n Improved liver heath. lettuce have high alkalising n Increased muscle flexibility. properties. Drink a vegetable juice on an empty stomach every day.

ask@drshikha.com (The series is concluded)

MORE ON THE WEB For more columns by Dr Shikha Sharma and other wellness stories, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch JANUARY 4, 2015

Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK, THINKSTOCK

2. Dear Doctor, I have a very short cycle of 21 days and I read online that day 7 is when my ovulation will occur. So if I avoid the first 10 days of my cycle, but after that can I safely enjoy unprotected intercourse?

There should not be any pregnancy risk in these days, right?

Unprotected intercourse is always risky and may lead to an unintended pregnancy.

Hence it is better if you can avoid unprotected

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AST WEEK, we discussed how our food environment makes the pH balance of our bodies more acidic than is good for us. To take care of this problem, we must eat foods that shift the pH balance towards the alkaline side. These are called alkalising foods. Here are the most effective ones:

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COVER STORY

WHERE THERE’S A WILLO

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“Come on Ram! Well played Rasool bhai. Waria, waria (Kashmiri for more, more), keep batting.”

The applause from the Jammu and Kashmir team bench is rising with every over bowled. Ram and Rasool are on the crease and all is fine with the world. A day before the splintered verdict in the state assembly elections – where the Valley and the Jammu region voted contrastingly on divergent lines – was being animatedly discussed in TV studios, an unlikely duo was making its own secular statement with the bat by scoring hundreds against Ranji Trophy heavyweights Vadodara.

Captain Parvez Rasool, 25, the first cricketer from the state to wear India colours, found a spunky ally at the Reliance Cricket Stadium in Jammu native Ram

Dayal Punia, 26, a medium pacer who has spoilt a few batting averages this domestic season. Thanks to centuries by Ram and Rasool, as Jammu and Kashmir put to sword a Vadodara attack that included World Cup 2011 hero Munaf Patel and Yusuf Pathan, they were celebrated as the new giant-killers who can’t be taken lightly in India’s cricket circles any longer.

Three months after torrential rains devastated the Kashmir region in September and the team’s preparation came to an unforeseen halt, the Jammu and Kashmir state team is playing in the hallowed ‘A’ group for the first time in more than 50 years. And the boys are busy upsetting cricket giants.

In the second week of December, after beating Delhi in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the ‘minnows’

JANUARY 4, 2015

handed a resounding four-wicket defeat to 40-time champions Mumbai, followed by beating Vadodara at home. But more than mere statistics, the manner in which this group of doughty cricketers has turned adversity into opportunity is a story worth recounting.

HUNGER FOR LIFE

The September floods, which killed 277 people and swamped close to 390 villages in the state, apart from some areas in Srinagar, challenged the team’s emotional and mental well-being, but they’ve emerged stronger from it.

Opening batsman Shubham Khajuria, 19, was one of the few unlucky cricketers from Jammu caught in Srinagar in the deluge on that fateful September 7 morning. “I was sleeping in my room

at the Batra Hotel at Sonwar, near the Sher-i-Kashmir Cricket Stadium,” says Khajuria, the son of a teacher father and homemaker mom. “I woke up at 8am to see that the ground floor of the hotel was submerged under water. Without any mobile signals, I waited for hours, standing in a queue for a rescue helicopter that would take us to Srinagar airport. During those nightmarish six days, I had to sleep on the road and go without food,” he adds. On the eighth day, just a day after reaching the safety of his home, Khajuria was back for cricket practice.

Perhaps, staying hungry for a week fed Khajuria’s appetite for runs and he made Mumbai pay for it at the Wankhede. He scored 107 in the first innings against the Ranji giants, hitting 12 boundaries

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O W...

In a country united by its obsession for cricket, players from flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir – where the finest willow for bats comes from – go the whole 22 yards and make an impact, both on and off the pitch

by Aasheesh Sharma; photos by Vipin Kumar

HIT THE GROUND RUNNING

Members of the Jammu and Kashmir cricket team warm up before the Ranji Trophy match against Vadodara at the Reliance Stadium

In the second week of December, after beating Delhi in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the ‘minnows’ handed an astonishing four-wicket defeat to 40-time champions Mumbai at the Wankhede and three towering sixes and followed it with a valuable 78 in the second essay, before being caught and bowled by Iqbal Abdulla.

“If you’ve faced tough situations in life, then fielding a few bouncers on the field isn’t so difficult,” philosophises Khajuria, who put on a solid 120-run opening stand against Vadodara.

NOT QUITE CRICKET

Khajuria’s opening partner at the non-striker’s end was Adil Reshi, the team’s highest scorer in the last domestic season. The 25-year-

old left hander, rated highly by spin legend Bishen Singh Bedi, almost lost his zest for batting, along with his cricket kit, during the September sailaab.

Reshi, a resident of Srinagar’s Barbarshah locality, a couple of kilometres away from Lal Chowk, didn’t realise when the waters of the Jhelum had entered the ground floor of his residence. Fearing that all the family belongings – including Reshi’s certificates and mementoes – would be swept away, his mother jumped into the torrent in a desperate attempt to save his

bats, pads and helmet which were floating away before her eyes.

“Aadil pulled her out of the water and was shattered about losing his cricket kit,” recalls journalist Shahana Fatima, the media manager of the team, who stays next door to the Reshis. “So demoralised was the young Aadil with the incident that he told his widowed mother he wasn’t sure whether he would play cricket again, ever,” adds Fatima.

Those who haven’t played the gentleman’s game might not appreciate the sanctity of the cricket kit.

In the same way a soldier values his armaments and a percussionist his drums, a batsman invests enormous emotion into his favourite bat, with which he has scored his first hundred.

A few other members of the Jammu and Kashmir team, such

JANUARY 4, 2015

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN For the first time in their 54-yearold Ranji Trophy history – thanks to their performance last year, where they reached the quarterfinals – the Jammu and Kashmir team has been promoted to Group A in 2014.

These days, the Ranji Trophy includes 27 domestic teams divided into A, B and C groups.

In the past, the 27 teams were classified into Elite 1, Elite 2 and Plate Groups (about 15 teams in the elite groups and 12 in the plate division).

Before the 2012-13 season, the teams competed for separate trophies (Plate and Elite). But now, after playing against each other in preliminary stages during the four-day matches, the best teams from Group A, B and C, graduate to the knockout quarterfinals stage, when the matches are of a longer, five-day duration.

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COVER STORY Photo Courtesy: UMER ASIF/SPORTS UNLIMITED

in hotels near the Dal Lake,” said Rasool.

On the eleventh day, Rasool could establish contact with fast bowler Samiullah Baigh who told him that many of their teammates had been rescued by Indian Army helicopters from hotels in Srinagar’s Boulevard area and airlifted to safety. While medium pacer Ram Dayal and batsman Hardeep Singh were among those stranded at Hotel Shahenshah, batsmen ID Singh and Shubham Khajuria had to be evacuated from Batra Hotel.

THE REDEMPTION

ONE FOR THE ALBUM!

Above: Jammu and Kashmir players celebrate after defeating 40-time champions Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy Group A match at the Wankhede Stadium; Below: Centurions Parvez Rasool and Ram Dayal Punia embrace during their partnership against Vadodara

as wicketkeeper Obaid Omar, who had not been as severely affected as the rest, were involved in rescue operations as they joined NGO workers, going from one flood-hit neighbourhood to another, distributing food packets. “Obaid came along with some of his friends in boats to the Karan Nagar neighbourhood and rescued my family and our neighbours,” says photojournalist Umer Asif, as he focuses his lens on Rasool raising his bat towards his teammates after his hundred against Vadodara.

When the swirling waters of the Jhelum spread outside Srinagar to Bijbehara in Anantnag, 48 kilometres away from the state capital, they caught team captain Parvez Rasool unawares. Rasool stays near Sangam, the hub of the Kashmir willow bat industry.

“The situation during the floods was almost apocalyptic. I, too, was caught at home in Anantnag. Even as I managed to take my bat out of the boot of my car, I was anxious about the whereabouts of my teammates. For 10 days, without any mobile connectivity, doosron se rabta nahin ho raha tha (I could not connect with the other team members). I was worried not just about those who stayed in Srinagar but also the boys from Jammu, who were here to play in a local T20 tournament and were stranded

Former Indian left arm spinner Sunil Joshi succeeded Bishan Singh Bedi as the state’s team coach this year. Before he took over, Joshi was promised a number of fancy upgrades to the existing cricket machinery. Suddenly, after the deluge, he had to start from scratch. The Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium, the only first class cricket venue in the Valley, was among the worst hit. “The first level of the stands was submerged in water.

And paramilitary personnel had set up base in the upper stands,” recalls opener Khajuria.

Without a venue, the team realised it would have to play all its eight Ranji matches away from the state, unlike other teams who revel in home conditions. The onedayers were just weeks away, to be followed by the Ranji challenge.

How did they plan to bounce back?

“We have no control over the vagaries of nature. What was in our hands was to make the best of the circumstances that we were facing,” says coach Joshi, who has won the Ranji Trophy three times as a player with Karnataka.

To begin with, Joshi requested the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association to shift the practice camp to Mohali, to acclimatise the players for the One Day tournament which was to be played in Himachal, followed by a fortnightlong skills camp at Nagpur’s futuristic Raj Singh Dungarpur Institute of Sports. “Those 15 days really helped the team gel together as a unit,” adds the coach.

HOT STREAK

The first assignment for the underdogs was taking on Delhi in the Vijay Hazare trophy, the limited-

Thanks to centuries by Ram and Rasool, the team put to sword a Vadodara attack that included World Cup 2011 hero Munaf Patel JANUARY 4, 2015

11 Photo: GETTY IMAGES

MAKING WAVES The rookies from Jammu and Kashmir who are gaining the respect of their rivals

VALLEY OF FLOODS

The September deluge, which killed 277 people, destroyed the state’s cricketing infrastructure and challenged the team’s preparedness for the domestic season

Realising that Adil Reshi’s family belongings were being swept into the torrent, his mother jumped into the water in an attempt to save his bats, pads and helmet which were floating away before her eyes overs cricket domestic competition involving state teams. The opposition eleven included international players such as Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Mithun Manhas, Unmukt Chand and Ashish Nehra.

Chasing 212, the team upset Delhi, with skipper Rasool top scoring with 74. “It set the tempo for the season. We knew we were on a roll when we followed that up with victories over Services and Haryana.

The win against Mumbai was the icing on the cake,” says Rasool, who was detained wrongfully by the Bangalore Police in 2009 for being a terror suspect. The outrageous charge was subsequently dropped after a forensic investigation cleared his name.

The celebrations after the victory at the Wankhede Stadium were never over-the-top. The team members calmly left the field and later in the evening Khajuria, the top scorer, cut a cake at a modest hotel. Although they had upset the 40-time champions, it wasn’t the first time they had proved the cricket pundits wrong, after all.

Ram Dayal Punia, the man of the match against Vadodara for his 124 not out and his four-wicket haul that helped his team edge out the home team, says the next big

challenge before the team is to be consistent. “We want to prove that we are here to stay among the big boys of Indian cricket. And I think our victory over Mumbai has underlined this,” adds the feisty bowler who took eight wickets against Mumbai.

Many of the players look up to skipper Rasool for inspiration, says batsman Ian Dev Singh, who scored an invaluable 70 against Mumbai in the first innings.

“Parvez bhai is the first from Jammu and Kashmir to play for India. He broke a psychological barrier for players in the state and the misapprehension that nobody from Jammu and Kashmir could play for India. Looking at him, we too feel we can wear the Team India jersey,” says the batsman, who cuts a dapper figure with his spiky hair and designer shades.

The days when the opposition took the Jammu and Kashmir team lightly or when they got intimidated by the reputation of their rivals are history, says Khajuria. “In team meetings, we never discuss whether the opposition is a heavyweight or a minnow. We focus on playing to our strengths and sticking to the roles assigned to us by the coach. I am an opener

in the team, so my job is to give the team a good start by laying the foundation on which the middle order and the tail can consolidate,” adds Khajuria.

The Jammu and Kashmir team is being guided by seasoned coach Sunil Joshi, the third highest wicket taker in the history of the Ranji Trophy (after Rajinder Goel and S Venkatraghavan). But the role of legendary left arm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi can’t be overemphasised, says Rasool. “Our winning streak began under Bedi Sir. With him, we won two matches in the Ranji Trophy. After him, the coaches who succeeded him have consolidated. Last year, when the coach was Abdul Qayoom, we qualified for the quarter-finals after 53 seasons and after Joshi sir has joined, we’ve beaten some big teams. But the one who sparked it off was Bedi sir,” says Rasool.

“Ek jazba jaga diya unhonen. He brought out our SELAF-belief [self-belief],” in an accent reminiscent of the cast of Haider. Take note Vishal Bhardwaj, this is the team to beat in the Indian domestic circuit. J&K have the chutzpah, no pun intended!

Aasheesh.Sharma@hindustantimes.com Follow @Aasheesh74 on Twitter

JANUARY 4, 2015

PARVEZ RASOOL, 25 Part of India’s probables for the World Cup, Rasool is rated as one of the best off-spinners in the country and an explosive batsman. He got his India cap in Bangladesh and has also played in the IPL. RAM DAYAL PUNIA, 26 Selectors were heard inquiring about the bowler who took eight wickets against Mumbai.

Punia, originally a native of Rajasthan, who has shifted to Jammu, followed it up with a century and crucial wickets against Vadodara. He is extremely fit and spin legend Bishan Singh Bedi puts him in the “Kapil Dev mould” SHUBHAM KHAJURIA, 19 The plucky opener scored a strokefilled century and a knock of 78 runs against a Mumbai attack that included Dhawal Kulkarni and Iqbal Abdulla. Coach Joshi perceives him as a future India prospect.

SAMIULLAH BAIGH, 30 The experienced pace bowler took the wickets of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag in the Vijay Hazare trophy and scalped Yusuf Pathan against Vadodara.

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indulge

Photo: HT PHOTOS

Happy New year!

Here’s my wish list for what I would like in 2015

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ES, I KNOW, it is customary to make Christmas wishes and New Year resolutions. But this year, I am going to go all contrary on you and compile a wish list for New Year rather than yet another dreary set of resolutions (that are broken within a month of being made, anyway). So, if you would indulge me just this once, here’s what I would like for 2015. n The certainty that every child who sets off to school in his or her freshly laundered uniform, satchel carelessly slung on the shoulder, gets to come back home alive, dishevelled and dirty, covered with the mud from the schoolyard – not doused in his or her own blood or indeed, the blood of classmates butchered before his or her shocked eyes. n The guarantee that every religion gets a place in the sun in our great country. That everyone – Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi – is allowed to celebrate their festivals without the government muscling in to hijack their day for its own agenda. And that, in keeping with our secular ethos, we take the same pleasure and joy in celebrating each other’s festivals that we do in celebrating our own. n That women finally get what has always been their right: safety in public places. That they can walk the streets without being jostled and jeered at. That they ride in buses, met-

Seema Goswami

spectator ros and trains without being groped. That they can drink in pubs without being leered at or propositioned. That they can take a taxi back home and fall asleep in the back seat, secure in the knowledge that they will not be molested, robbed or raped by the driver. (If you would like this too, then check out a movement called Why Loiter, and do your own bit to make our cities safer for women.) n That the assorted sadhus and sadhvis who litter our political landscape realise that they can only use these honorifics if they actually undertake ‘sadhana’. And that is only possible if they renounce the material world and retreat to the realm of spirituality instead. (If that’s asking for too much, I would quite happily settle for some of them just go-

I WISH FOR A WORLD

Where women finally get what has always been their right: safety in public places.

That they can walk the streets without being jostled and jeered at

We cannot achieve a clean India by posing with a broom in streets strewn with specially procured dirt ing on a ‘maun vrat’ for the next five years or so.) n That religious conversions – no matter which faith is being renounced or embraced – are recognised and respected for what they should be: a genuine change of heart that leads to a change of religion. And that assorted religious bodies – be they Hindu, Muslim or Christian – stop trying to shore up their numbers by resorting to bribes, inducements, money, special favours, or simply, brute force and blackmail. n That we finally call a spade a bloody shovel. Anyone who kills innocents for a political cause is a terrorist, no matter what religion he takes his inspiration from. So, the men who terrorised the city of Mumbai on 26/11 are not ‘gunmen’; they are terrorists. The men who massacred 132 schoolchildren in Peshawar are not ‘Taliban’ (which, rather ironically, translates to students); they are terrorists. The Bodo group which went on a rampage in Assam and killed 78 people are not ‘militants’; they are terrorists.

Let’s not mince our words when it comes to violence on innocents. n The realisation that we cannot achieve a clean India – a Swachh Bharat – by just posing with a broom in streets strewn with specially procured dirt, while the TV cameras zoom in for a close-up.

Sanitation and hygiene are incredibly complex issues. We need to discuss not just how to collect the dirt but also how to dispose of it in an environmentally friendly manner. We need to focus on cleaning not just our cities but also our rivers. But most importantly, we need to work on changing the mindset of our people. Yes, those very people who think nothing of cleaning up their houses and throwing the rubbish on the street outside; those who spit whenever they feel like, wherever they feel like; or those who drive expensive cars but feel no embarrassment in throwing litter out of the window as they speed past. n But most of all, what I really want for 2015, is peace and harmony. Peace between nations. Harmony between religions. Camaraderie between people no matter what their faith or nationality. And an end to the cycle of senseless violence that we have seen in 2014.

I know. It is a very tall order, indeed. And I know at a subliminal level, that I am doomed to disappointment in 12 months time. But how else do you enter a new year, except with a hope and a prayer? And the fervent desire that this time round, things will be much better.

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 Photo: DINODIA

JANUARY 4, 2015

The views expressed by the columnist are personal

twitter.com/HTBrunch

2015: A Top Tech YeAr AwAiTs You

While 2014 was a great year for technology, this year promises more excitement

WITHIN OUR REACH

3D printers will be more popular after the price drop

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FEW CONFESSIONS on what I believe has been a strange internal conflict for the last few days.

By the time you read this, I’ll be on an aircraft to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015. Thus, like it always is, this should have been a curtain raiser for that incredible technology show. It’s not! Also, by the time you read this, 2014 will be but a memory. So, like I always do, I should have written a ‘Best and Worst of 2014’ a week before. I didn’t!

2014 was a great year in technology. Online versus offline gadget retailing became a pitched battle, top-end hardware at rock-bottom pricing became a way of marketing, wearable technology went from the most hyped to the least bought, tablets became a serious headache for manufactures and retailers, laptops made an unexpected but very welcome comeback, smartwatches became the dumbest purchase decision, virtual reality became fun and also got itself a fun name (faceputers), and pretty much all things promised were actually delivered. Thus doing a round-up of what I’d written about every single week seemed like an exercise in futility. And I will report on CES 2015 in detail in the next two weeks anyway, so why waste a whole curtain raiser on it? What I really want to do with the coming of this new year is break away from all this typical cliché

THE OTHER PLAYER

indulge

In terms of smartphones, Gionee’s next flagship could be a game changer their usual missiles (the next iPhones, Samsung Notes, HTC Ones, Sony Xperia Zs, LG G series and a whole lot more of those typical flagships). Samsung will arrive with a backto-the-drawing-board, all-new Galaxy S phone (which has to be a radically new phone, else it’s all over for this series). But the real excitement will come from other players. Gionee’s next flagship could be a game changer. Micromax, with its all-new brand Yu, could redraw some new lines in the mobile phone market. Xiaomi will up its game and its way of selling and OnePlus Two could make most established brands very, very nervous. Google’s Android One may become the catalyst to fuel the next half billion smartphones sold with many new product launches and Spice and Celkon seem best poised to take this forward. Battery life will be the biggest USP of all phones in 2015. Phablets will be the mobile revolution catalysts - they will kill feature phones on one side and tablets on the other.

TOP TECHNOLOGIES OF 2015

The Internet of Things may be a horribly convoluted phrase but in 2015, you’ll start using many gadgets that will make that happen. It’s estimated that by 2018, more than 50 billion devices will talk to each other without human Rajiv Makhni intervention and 2015 will see the start of that. Other things that will reach potential will be 3D printers (huge drop in price, will become very easy WATCH IT! to use), fast high-speed data The Apple Watch will and net neutrality (the launch move to reality and of 4G LTE will make 3G a revive the smartmass-usage product; charg- watch category ing more for Skype or Viber tech round-up writing that is being done all around THE BIG ONE will get shot down [sorry, Airtel]), and Big Data us. How about a real look at some technology The launch of Sam(all our devices will generate more personal data and some gadgets that will truly change our lives sung Gear VR is the big thing to look for and thus those who can analyse it all will rule). this year?

India and China will dominate because of huge TOP GADGETS TO WAIT FOR IN 2015 domestic demands, huge production within and new investWindows 10 may not be a gadget but this all-new OS could ments and acquisitions. Things that won’t hit pay dirt this well be the reason why some really cool gadgets come out year will be robots and artificial intelligence; that’s in 2017. in 2015. The new Microsoft Surface could be the best hybrid Wearable tech will show signs of revival but will need animplementation (if finally Microsoft gets the price right other year to truly fire. Battery-powered cars will move to and finally releases it in India), the Oculus Rift will move mainstream, Tesla Model S leading the way. 4K TVs, laptops from a developer product to a consumer one and it’s going and tablets will get a big boost as 4K media and content will to be a doozy, and the Samsung Gear VR may well be the othfinally appear. er big one here. The new Apple Watch will move to reality 2015 comes with great promise of a great bounty. And and should revive the almost-defunct smartwatch category. whether it will live up to all the expectation will get tested And, at least one company will come out with a fully-flexion the floors of CES 2015. The proof of that pudding will ble screen device. The hype and buzz around Google Glass start next week, right here.

Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of will go lower and Google Glass 2 may get a tepid response.

Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3 The Apple iPad series will get another update but the excitement around it will be at an all-time low. Also, Apple’s iTV (a TV screen) won’t come out in 2015 either and there MORE ON THE WEB may well never be an iTV ever.

For more Techilicious columns, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at twitter.com/RajivMakhni TOP SMARTPHONES TO LOOK FOR IN 2015 The smartphone category is such a critical category that it deserves its own space. The usual suspects will fire The views expressed by the columnist are personal

techilicious NOT HYPE-WORTHY

Google Glass 2 may get a tepid response from consumers

BORN TO LEAD

Battery-powered cars will move to mainstream with Tesla Model S leading the way

JANUARY 4, 2015

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IngredIents Of A VIctOry I

Authenticity, diversity or innovation – what makes a five-star hotel restaurant successful in the Indian food space?

WAS INVITED, a few weeks ago, by the Oberoi chain of hotels to a culinary conclave attended by their top Indian cuisine chefs. As most foodies know, the Oberois have no great tradition of Indian food. (Can you name two famous Indian food chefs from the Oberoi Group? I thought not. Though at least two Michelin-starred chefs – Vineet Bhatia and Atul Kochhar – started out in Oberoi kitchens.)

But now, the Oberoi senses a gap in the market. Because ITC tends to roll out the same restaurant brands (Peshawri, Dum Pukht, Dakshin and Kebabs & Kurries) at its hotels, the Oberoi knows what to expect from the leaders in the Indian food market. And because the Taj Group which did so much for Indian food in the ’70s and ’80s has slowly but surely abandoned that space, the Oberoi senses a clear gap in the market.

So the conclave was an opportunity for the chefs to talk about possible directions the group could take, to watch ex-

Vir Sanghvi

rude food perts from outside cooking authentic dishes from Lucknow, Hyderabad, Old Delhi and Punjabi dhabhas, and to discuss their concerns.

I could have predicted at least one of those concerns.

For years and years, whenever Taj chefs gathered to discuss Indian food, they obsessed about authenticity. When the Taj opened the (now defunct) Apollo Room in Bombay, the group made a conscious decision to move away from Kwality-Volga cuisine and to serve authentic ‘dishes’.

(ITC made a similar decision in 1978 when it opened Mayur at the Maurya.)

But what is authentic Indian cuisine? The Taj took a decision that real Indian food was the stuff we cooked at home and not the kind of thing that appeared on restaurant menus. This made a certain amount of sense at an intuitive level and so all the great Taj Indian restaurants (Haveli, Handi, Karavali, Southern Spice, Konkan Café, The Raintree, etc) were based on home recipes.

However, just because your mother or my aunt makes a dish a certain way, it does not follow that all other versions of the same dish are inauthentic.

In classic French cuisine (which is a court or restaurant cuisine), it is possible to nail down recipes for the mother sauces (Hollandaise, Béchamel, etc) and insist that everyone learns them. But as even the French discovered, this is hard to do with home cooking: there is no one definitive recipe for a cassoulet, for instance.

And given India’s size, the problems are compounded.

How can you have a definitive recipe for sambhar? This is a dish that spans more than one state. Some homes make a different sambhar in the morning and another version

in the evening. And even within a single state – say Tamil Nadu – the recipe for sambhar changes every 20km or so.

Eventually, the Taj decided to welcome diversity. So you can order the same dish at say, the Konkan Café, Southern Spice, or Karavali, and get three different versions. As long as the recipe is properly sourced and each restaurant maintains an internal consistency, nobody really cares. ITC, on the other hand, takes consistency across the chain much more seriously. If you order Dal Bukhara at say, Peshawri in Chennai and it does not taste the same as the original at Delhi’s Bukhara, the chef is in trouble.

I told the Oberoi chefs that it was up to them to decide which approach they preferred. In my view, both are equally valid. ITC has created restaurant brands and values consistency. The Taj opened individual restaurants and allowed each to develop its own character.

But, I also said that it was too easy for hotel chefs to play down their own cooking and get carried away by the claim that only housewives, using ancestral recipes, knew what real Indian food was. I gave the example of the Oberoi chain itself where despite no central policy guidelines, the Indian food was often outstanding. Everybody raves about Amaranta at the Gurgaon Oberoi (which won my award for Best Modern Indian Hotel Restaurant this year) but I’ve had great North Indian food at many Oberoi properties; a wonderful mutton curry at Threesixtyº, a very good room service biryani at the Bombay Oberoi and an excellent Amritsari meal at Threesixtyoneº.

My view on ‘authenticity’ – whatever that means – is that while nobody respects a man who puts gunpowder in his butter chicken, the truth is that all cuisines evolve and new dishes are constantly being created. At present I reckon that Manish Mehrotra, Gaggan Anand and Zorawar Kalra will have more influence on the way that Indian restaurant menus are written than any recipe passed down by your or my grandmother.

I gave them the example of butter chicken itself. As far as we know, tandoori chicken was probably invented in Peshawar as recently as the 1930s. It only became popular after Moti Mahal started serving it in Delhi in the 1950s.

Butter chicken was invented in the 1950s at Moti Mahal as a way of rehydrating leftover chicken tikka and tandoori chicken. When the dish caught on, the same butter chicken sauce found its way into home-style Punjabi dal to create the black dal you see on most restaurant menus. The reason ITC is so careful about the consistency of its Dal Bukhara is because that dish (a refinement of the Moti Mahal version) was actually invented in the kitchen of the Maurya.

Are these dishes inauthentic because my grandmother had never heard of them? Is tandoori chicken any less authentic because it is a restaurant dish that few of us will cook at home?

In fact, all of Indian cuisine was inauthentic at some point in time because so much has changed over the years.

Is the piri piri masala that is the basis of so many Goan dishes not authentic because the Portuguese introduced the piri piri chilli to Goa? (And to their African colonies which is why it turns up in places like Nando’s.)

In fact, all of Indian cuisine was inauthentic at some point in time

JANUARY 4, 2015

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Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK

THE ORIGINS

Butter chicken (above) was invented in the 1950s as a way of rehydrating leftover chicken tikka and tandoori chicken INDIAN CONNECTION

The Scots pride themselves on their Scotch eggs (left) – hard-boiled eggs encased in minced meat. In fact, they probably originated from our own Nargisi kofta

BREAKING THE RULES

Sambhar is a dish that spans more than one state and even within a single state the recipe for sambhar changes every 20kms or so Nor is this true only of Indian cuisine. It is the same with nearly every cuisine. The Scots pride themselves on their Scotch eggs which are hard-boiled eggs, encased in minced meat and then fried after being coated in breadcrumbs. We have something similar in India called a Nargisi kofta and for years and years I believed that it was the Indian adaptation of that Scottish dish. Perhaps some enterprising khansama who was taught to make the dish by his colonial masters decided that he would create a masaledar Indian version, I imagined.

In fact it looks like I got that the wrong way around.

According to Alan Davidson, one of the greatest food historians of the 20th century, the original Nargisi kofta was made in India with keema and eggs and served in a tomato gravy. When British soldiers returned home, they tried to recreate the dish. As time went on, they abandoned the tomato gravy, choosing to use a bottled hot sauce instead. Then, as the dish entered the mainstream, the Brits replaced the spicy keema with sausage meat.

The earliest recipe for this allegedly traditional Scottish dish only turns up in 1826, when it was first called Scotch eggs. (One outlandish theory is that Sir Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe, wrote down the recipe, hence the name

of the dish!) But even that recipe calls for the dish to be eaten hot with gravy. It wasn’t till many decades later that Scotch eggs became a dry dish served cold and sold in petrol stations and supermarkets.

It is for all of these reasons that while I believe that it is important to retain flavours, it is foolish to stick too closely to so-called traditional recipes because what is traditional today was new a few generations ago and what is called authentic today was probably a bastardisation when it was created.

I’m not sure the Oberoi chefs all agreed with me. But I left them with one of their own greatest hits. The single best dish at Amaranta is the bacon fried rice. Because the restaurant’s first chef was a Syrian Christian, most people assumed it was a dish from Kerala. In fact, as executive chef Ravitej Nath explained to us, they made it up in the Amaranta kitchen. And the inspiration did not come from God’s Own Country. According to Ravi, they were playing around at Indianising the flavours of spaghetti carbonara!

So is this terrific Indian dish based on a traditional Italian favourite? Well actually, no. Because spaghetti carbonara is not traditional either. It was only invented after the Second World War. But that’s another story for another column!

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

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STYLE FILE

Black Is The New Red… Or Is It? A black lehenga, a black anarkali and a black cocktail gown. Brides-to-be have a new, rebellious colour palette to choose from. But beware. Your black trousseau may raise some eyebrows

by Satarupa Paul

A

T ONE of the many stalls set up by the biggest fashion designers, at one of the many exhibitions held in the Capital this wedding season, Manika Sharma, 28, walks in confidently. She’s dressed in a pair of casual black jeans and a white chiffon shirt, her hands are painted with deep brown mehendi patterns, and her ring finger sports a big, solid rock. The Delhibased freelance photographer eyes the red, pink, beige lehengas for a moment, almost uninterestedly, even as other would-be-brides flock towards them. “Do you have anything in black?” she asks the stall manager. “Yes ma’am. We do,” he says and fishes out a lehenga in black and gold. “Lovely.” Her eyes shine as she lightly touches the fabric, “I’ll try it on, please.”

EBONY AND IVORY

For Manika and many other modern, independent brides of today, the trousseau selecting decision is increasingly becoming their own. And they are boldly going for what they want. It doesn’t just mean lighter, more comfortable silhouettes, less jewellery, trendy makeup and hairdos anymore. It also means the most unconventional colour palettes for their wedding outfits.

Reds, pinks, fuchsias and oranges are almost passé. Off-whites, beiges, ivories are still ruling the roost, riding on the wave of success from the last few seasons.

And surprise of surprises, a never-before worn colour for a trousseau has sneakily emerged this year – black!

“India is slowly moving away from tradition and accepting

“Black is being used as a canvas for red, orange or gold” – MONISHA JAISING

and embracing the young, strong woman,” says Nikhil Kangana Mehra of the designer duo Ranaut in a Shantanu & Nikhil. “The black crop top contemporary bride, who and lehenga wasn’t even looking at black a

by Anju Modi year or two ago, is now taking a chance. Black is an experiment for us and it may be catching on.” They’ve done a lehenga with a crop top in black and gold and a zip-up saree in black. “Our black anarkali is flying off the shelves already. The good thing about black is that people can wear it every year; it never goes out of fashion.”

“It is being received incredibly well,” agrees designer Anju Modi. She dressed her showstopper Kangana Ranaut at the India Couture Week in a heavy embroidered lehenga and boat-neck crop top in black and gold. “Although traditionally black is considered an inauspicious colour, it is also a classic shade in fashion that signifies elegance.

With more and more brides expanding their colour palette, it isn’t surprising that this otherwise favourite colour is making a notable entry in their trousseau,” Modi says.

Designer Monisha

“Traditionally black is considered inauspicious. But it is also a classic shade in fashion that signifies elegance” – ANJU MODI NUARY 4, 2015 JANUARY

Lisa Haydon in a Monisha Jaising black leather lehenga

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Jaising has also dabbled in the new trend but has some reservations. “No one is really going for stark black though. Black is mostly being used as a canvas or base colour; so if you’re going for a black lehenga, then the choli and dupatta would be red or orange or gold. It’s a brand new trend and it will take some getting used to.”

FEELING BLUE

The reservations – and there are many – are mostly for the fact that in India, as in the West, black is traditionally regarded as an inauspicious colour, reflecting sorrow and ill omen. “Of course, some people from the older generation prefer reds and more celebratory shades due to their conventionality,” says Modi. So even though many in the new brigade may want to rebel and opt for black as wedding wear, the old guard still stands firm against it. “Black will never be accepted in India as bridal wear,” says master couturier Sabyasachi Mukherjee. “Black is something we design for women to wear to other people’s weddings.

If I was to do it as bridal, I would convert it to red,” he says. “Just ruffling feathers for the sake of ruffling them is very immature, and I think a good, secure bride is never going to show signs of insecurity by wearing black. I Deepika mean there’s nothing Padukone more beautiful on in a navy an Indian bride blue Manish than red and gold.

Malhotra Why upset those number norms?”

His contemporary and king of Bollywood

“I’ve only gone as far as navy blue. Navy blue is the new black for me”

– MANISH MALHOTRA

we wedding costumes, Manish Malhotra, a agrees. “I’ve only gone as ffar as navy blue. It is the new bl black for me.” He introduced navy bl couture last year when he blue dr dressed his showstopper Deepika Pa Padukone at the Vogue Wedding Sho in a lehenga of the hue. “It’s Show phenomenall well, I have a doing phenomenally f it. But even that is waiting list for onl meant for sangeets or receponly w tions; no bride will wear it on the we wedding day.”

There is always a difference of opinion when it comes to outra outrageous new trends, but when it comes to b black as bridal wear, the di divide is stark between the old ge generation and the new. Browsing fo a well-fitting sherwani at a for we wedding exhibition, investment bank Amit Tandon says, “A lot banker of taboos are broken regularly.

Th bride’s ensemble has moved The fo forward from traditional colours beig and off-whites. It may soon to beige b be black too.”

GR GREEN LIGHT, GO

Fa Fashion stylist and designer Shr Anaita Shroff Adajania re remembers her own wedding ab about 12 years ago for which she wo a white lace saree with just wore a pair of art deco earrings. “I m hair undone and I felt so had my delica It was almost light and delicate. ether ethereal,” she says.

The idea, she says, is not to we something just because it’s wear nor but to be true to your the norm style “Every bride personality and style. w she is. If you want needs to be who w to wear your hair messy, wear it messy. If you don’t want to sashay ar around in 20 kilos of lehenga, then don If black makes you happy, don’t. sa then so be it,” she says.

“Yes, you al can always compromise a little w and wear black to one of the other functions instead of the main day. functions, do Or tone down the inauspiciousness by wearing traditional gold je jewellery . You wouldn’t want an to upset anyone on your most impor important day, after all.”

For young Shristi Verma and V her mother Vandana, the diktat is cl clear and quite distinct. “She can we black for a cocktail party or wear one of the other parties. But for w the wedding, no, no, absolutely no says the mother. The daughter no,” ch chimes in meekly, “I think it’s oka to wear black even on okay D-da . The grooms wear black D-day sherwanis then why can’t the sherwanis, W bride?” Well, the brides may wear bl black too. Soon. satarupa.paul@hindustantimes.com Follow @satarupapaul on Twitter

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FINE PRINT

Photo: NEW YORK TIMES

acknowledges as one of the high points of Japanese culture.

“But if that’s so, my father’s experiences as a Japanese POW on the Death Railway was one of the low points of Japanese culture. I wanted to write a book about all that this had come to be in my life, because growing up as my father’s son didn’t mean simply that I absorbed his stories or that I reflected on his experience. It was that, to some extent, that experience passes on, as these traumas tend to with human beings.”

Being “a child of the Death Railway” is a strange and potent legacy for the 53-year-old author.

Flanagan hails from “a tiny mining town in the rainforest in an island at the end of the world” and he describes how his experiences “had swelled up inside me and it felt like it was beginning to choke me.

The only way I could make sense of it was to write this book. But I didn’t want it to be a book of judgment or accusation and I felt the best way of doing this novel was to use the forms, tropes and influences of Japanese literature to inform it, because then it would necessarily demand of me that I acknowledge that murder, hate and horror are buried as deep without our heart as beauty, love, kindness and goodness. Often these things are much more closely entwined than we’d care to think, and by naming it The Narrow Road to the Deep North, I wanted to acknowledge that this beauty, this darkness, are both the essence of us as human beings.”

Indeed, the novel has been widely praised for the humanity it gives to Japanese and Korean guards on the Death Railway and is suffused with poetry from west and east. But there’s no denying it also took Flanagan down his own narrow road of private torment during the 12 years it took to write it.

“I didn’t so much write five versions of the novel as write five different novels,” he says. “Each one failed and I would then burn the manuscript, and so the years passed. Then I realised my father was growing old and frail and that, for no logical reason, I needed to finish the book before he died or

I might never finish it. Equally illogically, I recognised that if I didn’t finish it I wasn’t sure if I could ever write another book.”

That he did complete this powerful tale of love, horror and beauty and went on to win the 2014 Man Booker prize with it is still something of a shock, albeit a very welcome one to Flanagan, who says, “I never expected to win, it was such a marvellous shortlist.”

But his Man Booker win in the year it was opened to all writers in English has been celebrated in both his home island and a wider Australia, where Flanagan is as beloved for his passionate advocacy of Tasmania’s forests and for his eloquent stance on social issues as he is for some six internationalaward-winning novels, including his Commonwealth Prize-winning, Gould’s Book of Fish, The Sound of One Hand Clapping and Wanting.

In his acceptance speech too, he revealed to a wider world what his countrymen have long known him to be: an eloquent and generous teller of stories, both on the page and off it. Flanagan, it has to be said, is a man who can disarm you with a single sentence, floor you with a heartfelt aside. Yet he is quick too, to credit his own great love of and facility with words, to his father. “I gained from him this sense of how extraordinary the written word is, how transformative, how it is not separate of life but this most marvellous aspect of life itself, and it was something of that, which I wanted to capture in the novel.”

He is also an eloquent advocate for the novel’s future: “I think what defines us as a species is our ability to define the world though story and novel are perhaps the supreme expression of our capacity for story. When you write a novel you’re actually part of a great spiritual aesthetic and intellectual tradition, and I don’t think those things are so easily destroyed or ended because of that largeness and,” he adds, “because they allow us to come closer to certain truths for which we have very few tools to otherwise comprehend.”

I didn’t so much write five versions of the novel as write five different novels

Of Love And War

It took Richard Flanagan 12 years to write his Man Booker Prize-winning book about a prisoner of war on the Death Railway

by Bron Sibree

A

USTRALIAN NOVELIST Richard Flanagan has always known the words san byaku san ju go, which are the Japanese words for the number 335, his father’s number as a Japanese Prisoner of War (POW). “I’ve never not known them,” says Flanagan, who famously inscribed his 2014 Man Booker Prize-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North with the words ‘For prisoner san byaku san ju go (335)’. His father not only survived as a POW on the Burma-Siam Railway (also called the Death Railway for its horrific living and working conditions, which killed more than one

lakh workers) but lived until the age of 98. Archie Flanagan died on the very same day his son finished the novel, which was hailed by philosopher AC Grayling, chair of the Man Booker judges, as “a magnificent novel of love and war.”

In turns harrowing and poetic, The Narrow Road to the Deep North revolves around the story of surgeon Dorrigo Evans, who is haunted by the memory of a lost love and of his experiences as a POW on the Death Railway. It takes its name from the 17th century travel narrative by the legendary Japanese haiku poet, Basho, a work which Flanagan loves and

JANUARY 4, 2015

brunchletters@hindustantimes.com

BRUNCH DATE

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The Novel Approach Vikram Chandra’s family includes screenwriters, filmmakers, movie critics. But he prefers the printed page, and we couldn’t be happier

He’s just finished reading The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, a historical drama about a young girl trapped in slavery.

Stephen King’s Desperation is on his Kindle, too, but he’s given up on it for now, but says he’ll return to give it another shot.

L

There are also obscure books about the history of mathematics and the mathematicians of the 8th, 9th and 10th century, which he’s sure no one will be interested in.

it was ‘experimental non-fiction’.

Perhaps this is the new image I identify with – an experimental writer [Laughs].

Any pet peeves as a reader?

I’m addicted to plot. I like it when things happen. If all the characters do is go to the supermarket and come back, it’s a bit of a downer. The book needs to have good pace; the narrative has to be moving forward.

If you have too many distractions, you won’t be able to, well, write

Isn’t writing the most romanticised profession?

(Laughs) Yes, that’s true. The reason you cannot make an interesting realistic film about a writer’s life is that then you’d just have to show the person sitting at a desk for hours, writing. Nobody talks about the actual effort that goes into the writing process. It’s a grind. People usually think about the perks after their book comes out. But it’s a boring life. And that’s good! If you have too many distractions, you won’t be able to, well, write.

Vikram Chandra doesn’t stick to a genre while writing and he definitely doesn’t stick to one while reading. Here are the books on his very diverse Kindle: He’s consumed by Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling: A sci-fi novel about an old woman who regains her youth.

by Nihit Bhave ET’S FACE it, Vikram Chandra probably knows more about Mumbai’s underworld than you know about the financial capital above the ground. You’ve probably loved Sacred Games simply because he made the mafia so human, so easy to understand. If Chandra’s book seemed cinematic (and it will soon be a TV series) it may be because it’s in Chandra’s genes.

His mother, Kamna, wrote Prem Rog (1982) and Chandni (1989). His sister, Tanuja, is a filmmaker and screenwriter. And his other sister, Anupama Chopra, is the film critic for the Hindustan Times. Vikram Chandra, however, has largely stayed away from films; the screenwriter for Mission Kashmir (2004) says filmmaking is too “collaborative” for his taste. For readers, this is only a good thing, Chandra has written about Mumbai, magical realism, even computer programmes and coding.

The writer and university professor talked about why trying new things is important.

ON MY BOOKSHELF

Photo: VIJAYANAND GUPTA

You spent nine years researching Sacred Games. Is there room for 900-page, in-depth books these days?

There’s a great pleasure in short bites, the flurry of information day by day, minute by minute is exhilarating. Research has become easier. It’s all there online. But it has resulted in suspicious readers.

We’ve become wary of the source of information because faking it is so easy. I, however, research for the sheer pleasure of it – it gives me a lot of knowledge about a lot of things. I spend a month in some obscure nook and cranny of a subject. It might never show up in my actual work, but it has influenced it in some sense.

Is literary fiction threatened by the pop-fiction tsunami in India?

Most literary fiction writers sound

dissatisfied – they complain about the fact that publishing houses aren’t coming out with enough literary work, or that authors can self-publish so easily now. But I don’t agree. I don’t think the readership for literary novels is decreasing. It’s just that another form of fiction, pop fiction, has suddenly bloomed.

Why didn’t you bank on the character of Sartaj Singh after the people’s response to him in Sacred Games and Love And Longing In Bombay?

I’m not very commercially smart.

I felt like I was done with that character for a while, so I moved on. I’m driven only by curiosity.

So I just move on to the subject that grabs my attention. Mirrored Mind: My Life in Letters and Code (his most recent book) revealed itself to me as I wrote it. I couldn’t describe the book for the longest time. A university colleague said

JANUARY 4, 2015

You aren’t involved in the writing for the miniseries based on Sacred Games. Is it hard to give up control?

Trying to adapt your own work is dangerous. It can drive you crazy.

I’m too close to the subject, so I don’t know if I can re-imagine it for another medium. I just saw Gone Girl and it was fantastic. If you can pull it off to that level, then nothing like it.

How often do you get mistaken for Vikram Chandra (the CEO of NDTV) or Vikram Seth?

All the time! I’ve even received e-mails addressed to Vikram Chandra, asking me to appear on a show. I believe somebody on his show even told him that HIS book Love And Longing In Bombay was good! Generally, people from the West who don’t know a lot about Indian writing are hazy about which Vikram I am.

nihit.bhave@hindustantimes.com Follow @misterbistar on Twitter

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PERSONAL AGENDA

Actor

Nargis Fakhri

BIRTHDAY SUN SIGN PLACE OF BIRTH HOMETOWN SCHOOL/ COLLEGE New York Libra Queens, New York October 20 LOW POINT OF Queens HIGH POINT OF FIRST College, City YOUR LIFE BREAK YOUR LIFE University of Rockstar (2011)

Being able to stay grounded in the Indian film industry

CURRENTLY I AM...

Romancing India with the Microsoft Lumia 535

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Photo: AVINASH GOWARIKAR

Realising that in Bollywood, people who act like your friends are not really your friends

JANUARY 4, 2015

New York

Modelling or acting? Which have you enjoyed doing more?

I guess modelling, as that gives you the freedom of anonymity.

Were you always keen to get into showbiz?

Not at all. I was studying psychology and fine arts.

Getting into acting was purely by chance.

How fond are you of photography?

I wasn’t into it earlier, but now, because of my profession, I’m getting interested. And yes, I am learning all about taking that perfect selfie!

Your favourite place in India is...

Unfortunately, I haven’t travelled much in India. But while shooting for Madras Cafe, we stayed at the Athirapally Falls, which was a beautiful place.

A fictional character you would have loved to play.

I would have loved to play Lucy Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia series.

The best thing about working with Ranbir Kapoor was...

He is an absolutely chilled-out regular guy and a really good actor too.

If you woke up one day and found you had turned into a man, how would you react?

I would say ‘Thank you, God, for answering my prayers!’

Romance or comedy? What do you enjoy more?

I would love to do comedy, but in English.

Define your style.

I like variety. In fact, edgy street wear is what I prefer the most.

A style or an outfit that you were either criticised or praised for a lot.

A see-through dress I wore for an awards night was praised a lot.

Who do you think is a good dancer in Bollywood?

I remember seeing Rekhaji dance on the song Dil Cheez Kya Hai from the film Umrao Jaan (1981) and I was totally mesmerised by it.

Your favourite dance number.

Bang Bang from the movie Bang Bang.

The biggest risk you took.

Agreeing to leave my family and job in New York and come to India to act

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE CO-STAR?

Varun Dhawan

my movies A FILM YOU HAVE SEEN MORE THAN ONCE

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

THE MOST OVERRATED FILM

None that I can think of

THE MOST PAISA VASOOL FILM

Madras Cafe (2013)

A MOVIE THAT WAS A PART OF YOUR GROWING-UP YEARS

Ace Ventura (1994)

THE FIRST MOVIE YOU SAW ON THE BIG SCREEN

Ghostbusters (1984)

in Rockstar. The decision has helped me grow spiritually.

A piece of advice you wish someone had given you ten years ago.

A lesson on how human beings can be quite hurtful, and how something like that shouldn’t leave any bitterness in your heart.

What can you live in?

My own skin.

Your favourite dance style.

Hip-hop and break dancing.

A song that describes your current state of mind.

Louis Armstrong’s Nobody Knows The Troubles I’ve Seen.

Your dream destination.

I want to go on a backpacking tour to South America.

A dessert you really enjoyed.

Gajar ka halwa. I had so much of it when I first came to India and had to bear the consequences too.

Three skincare products you can’t do without.

A heavy-duty moisturiser, a bronzer and a lip gloss.

What’s on your bedside table?

My tarot cards, a Himalayan salt lamp and my crystals.

The last line of your autobiography would read?

“And that’s how she took over the world.”

– Interviewed by Veenu Singh