Brunch 06 10 2013

SHOOT AT SIGHT

AL CI S’ PE ER S AD HY RE RAP OG OT PH

WEEKLY MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 6, 2013 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times

Our readers set out to capture ‘Sunday’. Feast your eyes on the gorgeous photographs that came in

Graffiti at Bandstand, Bandra, Mumbai, shot by Brunch reader Manu Monga

4

B R E A K FA S T O F C H A M P I O N S

hindustantimes.com/brunch

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)

Brunch Opinion

JUST SHAVE IT

MAKING TEA IS AN ART

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY

BALL OF FLUFF

by Shreya Sethuraman

And we wanted to know your story.

So we came up with the Brunch Readers’ Photography Special.

Wondering how these pictures got here? Here’s what happened:

Aashriya Johar, 27, consultant, Gurgaon SUNDAY HANGOVER

HOT NEWS

THE THEME Our association with you is a very Sunday-to-Sunday affair and to know you best, we decided to ask you to interpret your Sunday. And that’s how ‘Sunday’ became the theme.

THE ENTRIES We made announcements asking for entries on Facebook, Twitter and in the magazine, and hundreds of photographs poured in. We spent our days looking at pictures of champis, walks on the beach, the cutest pets ever, the first rays of the morning sun and countless cups of coffee.

SELECTION We shortlisted 150 photographs (it wasn’t easy) Nishita Mohta, 20, student, and then Hindustan Niharika Arora, 18, student, New Delhi New Delhi Times National Photo Editor Gurinder Osan picked the top 10. He laboured over HAPPINESS IS A SPLASH FROM HER HAIR them for days and selected the crème-de-la-crème. We got a crash course on what makes a photo good or bad.

So that’s how they made it to the top 10. But there were some photographs that we instantly loved and couldn’t ignore. So we decided to give them a spread here because they deserve every inch of it.

Dear Reader, thank you so much for your overwhelming response! It made each of us smile several times a day. For those who never sent any, we hope you still enjoy the issue.

The photos are beautiful!

Aakanksha Chitkara, 20, student, New Delhi

That “dehati” is the cool word of the season Smaugasm (oooh, Smaug’s voice in the trailer of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug!)

■ “I can never compete with Khans: Ranbir Kapoor.” Aww, what a cutie!

■ Tina Fey’s Girls parody on Saturday Night Live ■ All those Monday morning Lalu jokes #FodderScam

■

■

■

OCTOBER 6, 2013

EVERYBODY’S HOME TODAY!

Aditya Sinha, 19, student, Delhi BREAKFAST BEGINS WITH BRUNCH?

Khushboo Premi, 27, writer & dubbing director, Mumbai AAJA PYAARE PAAS HUMARE

Varun Dutta Gupta, 20, student, New Delhi

by Saudamini Jain

■

EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Aasheesh Sharma, Rachel Lopez, Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi, Mignonne Dsouza, Veenu Singh, Parul Khanna, Yashica Dutt, Amrah Ashraf, Saudamini Jain, Shreya Sethuraman

Anam Assadi, 18, student, Mumbai

PS: For photos that almost made it, go to hindustantimes.com/brunch or check out our albums on facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch

On The Brunch Radar

Cover design: MONICA GUPTA Cover image: MANU MONGA

Shreyas Pai, 17, student, Mumbai

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

Finding love on Bigg Boss (get eliminated and then get a room!)

Songs with months in their title as your FB status/Tweet ■ That it took five days to suspend Al Qaeda’s Twitter handle ■ Even more photos of Rihanna’s denim thong. Although, it is kind of fascinating ■ Breaking Bad spoilers (when you buffered the finale, you broke a few laws, just FYI) 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 West — Karishma Makhija: karishma.makhija@hindustantimes.com South — Francisco Lobo: francisco.lobo@hindustantimes.com

B R U N C H D AT E

facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch

“Everyone Wants To Consume Fashion” Abraham and Thakore, masters of minimalism, are just as crisp and exacting in their aesthetic beliefs

by Yashica Dutt

D

AVID ABRAHAM and Rakesh Thakore are not very different from the clothes they design. Cool, crisp and sharp, like wet, white walls on a hot summer afternoon. Known for their no-fuss, minimalist women’s wear and home furnishings, (their monochromatic, houndstooth sari is especially high on recall), they’ve recently opened their latest (and now only) store in Delhi – at Moonriver in Defence Colony. Aware of the legendary tales of their punctuality (even for parties that infamously start three hours late), we reached half-an-hour in advance and met them at the café located in the store.

On a sunny morning, over dry cakes, sandwiches and copious amounts of black coffee, they told us about how everyone in fashion needn’t be nasty and how they’ve made their friendship work for over 20 years.

Why just one show a year?

David: Because you need to

have something to say every time you present a show. It needs to have substance.

And you can’t say the same thing again and again.

Your brand style has been consistent, though trends Why such a long fascination with black and white?

A&T: They are both the purest colours and are visually the strongest.

Black and white are high contrast forms that are so clearly modern and architectural. They convey a stark sense of aesthetics, which is so appealing when used together. And also, they photograph the best!

Photo: JASJEET PLAHA, Location courtesy: MOONRIVER CAFE, DEFENCE COLONY

6

change all the time. How do you balance both?

David: Trends are important and

need to be acknowledged but they can’t drive a collection.

Rakesh: The idea is to take a single key piece and incorporate the new trends, be it neon, metallic or floral, by way of accessories.

You started with home furnishings, then designed clothes, and that too in London. Did that worry you?

David: There was no organised

retail in India when we started (in the early ’90s). So we would often go to London with our samples to get buyers and soon we were picked up by the Conran shop in London.

But we weren’t worried, apart from the usual anxieties that come with a new business. We were aware that there was a market for our kind of clothing overseas and we tapped it.

David, you had a Chinese mother and Rakesh, you grew up on a farm in Tanzania. Does it take an outsider’s viewpoint to appreciate our culture?

Rakesh: I would agree, because for

the first few years we worked on what the international buyers expected from us and Indian textiles, handloom were most in demand.

David: Also, our training at the OCTOBER 6, 2013

National Institute of Design (NID) was firmly grounded in textiles.

Ironically, our professor who set the program, Helena Perheentupa, was from Finland. And she insisted that we study and use indigenous embroideries and that’s how our design language got shaped.

NID in the ’80s produced some of the most creative minds of a generation.

What was it like to study there?

David: At that time design wasn’t an accepted profession. Being there gave you a feeling that you were sort of a revolutionary. The teacherstudent ratio was 1:4 and only 20 people were admitted into each batch.

Rakesh: There was no grading for students since it was slightly idealistic. You were encouraged to find your own path and not compete against each other.

What is it about college friendships that they last for years? How do you balance friendship and business?

David: Because in college you prac-

tically spend all your waking moments together and have the time to invest in getting to know each other. There are similar experiences that mould everyone in a similar fashion.

DECADES OLD DESIGNS

David Abraham (left) and Rakesh Thakore (right) have been friends since college

Rakesh: For us, it’s very difficult to

separate work from friendship but we have reached a neat little system over the years where we converse directly and exchange a lot of ideas.

We have developed a common handwriting for the brand, where we both work towards whether a particular piece is ‘A&T’ or not.

Fashion is a club where being nasty is often a prerequisite. But you are among the politest people...

Rakesh: We have never been inter-

ested in behaving like celebrities.

We’d rather be ourselves instead of being awful for no reason. Everyone is trying to do their jobs. We are here talking about our product and you are trying to get a story out of it. We always try to be professional.

David: Fashion is like that the world over. And there’s a deliberate anxiety created around it so as to make it more desirable. Unless you keep people out, you can’t deem those inside as important, so it does act as a differentiator. Even in India, everyone wants to consume fashion, be a part of the events and read about it. yashica.dutt@hindustantimes.com Follow @YashicaDutt on Twitter

8

C O U C H P O TAT O

twitter.com/HTBrunch

The Big Bleep Theory SCENE ONE: The Big Bang Theory.

Howard and Bernadette are to get married, with Sheldon, Leonard, Penny, Raj and Amy in attendance Sheldon (to Leonard): Don’t you feel weird standing here, considering you proposed to Penny and she refused?

(Everybody questions the duo) Raj: Did he go down on one knee?

Leonard: Knock it off. It was an incomplete proposal anyway.

Bernadette: Why was it an incomplete proposal?

Sheldon: He popped it during c*****!

Didn’t catch that last word? It’s ‘coitus’, prissy Sheldon Cooper’s word to describe sex. Of course, even if he had used the word ‘sex’, the channel would have bleeped it out.

SCENE TWO: Grey’s Anatomy.

Dr Meredith Grey is in the middle of a medical check-up Meredith (to Miranda Bailey): I think she may have b***** cancer.

The patient has breast cancer. But the word ‘breast’ is bleeped out as if it were a bad word, even in the medical world. And this is for a show popular in India, where we illuminate national monuments in pink to generate awareness for breast cancer.

SCENE THREE: On the law show Suits. Harvey Specter and his associate Mike Ross are in Specter’s office.

Harvey asks Mike why he couldn’t get an out-of-court settlement.

Mike: Hey! I try all things, I achieve what I can.

Harvey: Did you just quote Moby D**k?

Even mention of Moby Dick, one of the greatest American novels (with no connection to the pejorative term for the male anatomy), is a no-no for Indian TV.

Why does television’s moral police want to control almost everything that you hear on English entertainment channels?

W

by Shreya Sethuraman

HAT’S MAKING English general entertainment channels black out perfectly acceptable words in shows that have been created for general viewing? Some channels bleeped out their own opinion on the matter. Comedy Central and Zee Cafe refused to answer our questions, pleading the sensitive nature of censorship (in effect saying that even discussing what they think should not be talked about, is wrong). Of the channels that did respond to our queries, they had this to say: Kevin Vaz, business head, English channels for STAR Jalsha and Jalsha Movies at STAR India: “Most Indian households have single television sets and families end up watching TV together – hence while airing edgy content, broadcasters have to walk the fine line of attracting young viewers while still not disturbing the older ones.

Younger audiences demand risqué and edgier shows but broadcasters cannot risk offending the conservative viewers or the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.”

Arpit Mankar, AXN Programming Head: “You don’t want your bhabhi to be viewing something derogatory on television. Having said that, since the youth wants more evolved content, it would help if there were separate guidelines for English content”. Mankar explains the decision to bleep out the word ‘beef ’:

OCTOBER 6, 2013

“It depends on what you stand to gain or lose in airing the word. If it doesn’t change the context, it doesn’t matter.”

Saurabh Yagnik, executive vice president and business head, Sony PIX: “Content that comes from Hollywood, though more “global”, largely caters to the culture and beliefs relevant to that society.

Hence it becomes a responsibility of both – the content creators and broadcasters – to choose as well as adapt/ edit content to make it culturally relevant.”

TOUCH ME NOT

The extreme caution adopted by channels goes to show the kind of hold the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry have over them.

The Indian Broadcasting Federation makes it mandatory for channels to run a BCCC ticker before a show or movie so audiences can report inappropriate content. These complaints are then forwarded to the I&B ministry which can respond by levying heavy fines on channels or simply banning them. Comedy Central, for

BLEEP BLEEP

Some commonly bleeped-out words

■ Ass ■ Bang ■ Beef ■ Bitch ■ Breast ■ Cocaine/ Coke ■ Cock ■ Crap ■ Damn ■ Dick ■ Gay/ Lesbian/ Homosexual ■ Horny ■ Nipple ■ Sex ■ Shit ■ Underwear

instance, was banned for 10 days earlier this year for imagery of a man engaged in lewd acts with a female doll. That content may have been offensive to women. But what of beef, cock (when referring to the male fowl), breast, and poor Moby Dick?

The ministry says that this is not their doing. “We have never asked channels to beep these words,” said an official who did not want to be named. “Channels should not take things out of context, they ought to have some common sense.”

HOW BOLD ARE WE?

But an official from the BCCC who also wished to remain anonymous says they receive requests of an entirely different sort from their viewers. “Quite often, we receive complaints from the youth that content needs to be bold,” he said.

“But channels are scared of the law and are thus extra cautious. I agree that we must show all kinds of content on television, but we’re a heavily political and parliamentary country. You cannot do anything about that.”

So, never mind nudity, profanity or aggressive violence. Today’s TV will filter out anything that anyone anywhere decides to deem unfit for the rest of India.

In a world where every complaint is seen as valid and nobody wants to be banned, every word on every show is subject to scrutiny.

Result? You miss punchlines and plot twists that weren’t even designed to offend. And Moby Dick will sadly start to seem dirty. shreya.sethuraman@hindustantimes.com Follow @iconohclast on Twitter

10

C OV E R STO RY

We asked for photos. You went trigger happy. We couldn’t believe our eyes!

The Brunch Readers’ Photography Special is here. And all we can say is...

WHAT A

T

ACROSS THE MALWAN COAST

Vir Nakai (33), entrepreneur and travel writer, Mumbai About the picture: There’s nothing like getting on a bike and heading out of the city to explore the Malwan coastal villages. Of course, there’s the thrill of partying in Goa, but there is so much more to do before you reach there.

The Mumbai to Goa coastline is a dream ride for those who are in love with riding and of course, the sea. It’s an understated place that has a lot to offer. I

SHOT!

HEY SAY a picture is worth a thousand words, that a good image is like poetry, and that truly good photography doesn’t just make you stop and think, but changes you too.

Of the hundreds of entries that flew into our inbox for the Brunch Readers’ Photography Special, several shots made us stop, think and reconsider the nature of life itself.

Our theme was simple: Sunday.

Your interpretations were sometimes idyllic, at others inspiring or just plain fun. So, we saw picturepostcard sunsets, street-side cricket, pretty feet posing for the camera and close-ups of pets.

Picking the top 10 was tough, but our expert judge, Hindustan Times National Photo Editor Gurinder Osan, had his own ground rules: No clichés, no bad compositions, no

shots in which the subjects didn’t know they were being captured.

“It’s not fair,” he says. And those dangling feet? “Done to death!”.

We had an embarrassment of riches. And great stories to accompany them. Here are those we loved. Hope these Sundays brighten your Sunday!

Gurinder Osan Our judge, HT’s National Photo Editor, chose the top 10 pictures

Osan is a photojournalist with more than 20 years’ experience.

Before joining HT in early 2012, he was with the Associated Press for close to a decade. Besides hard news, he has done commercial photography, and trained as a mountaineer to shoot landscapes, particularly in the Himalayas.

On the cover BEHEN, BACHCHAN, BEETLE, Manu Monga (37), marketing executive, Mumbai

About the picture: This was shot on a lazy

Sunday morning. My sister and I were headed for our weekend brunch at Cafe Coffee Day. Though I’ve lived around Mount Mary Steps for many years, this graffiti went unnoticed until that day. This street art is on the road which goes to Bandstand from the Mt Mary Police Chowki. My sister noticed it first and we decided to have an impromptu photo session.

CAMERA USED: iPhone 3GS

JUDGE’S NOTES

The blues are symmetrical. The form of the Beetle aligns with the way Bachchan’s legs are positioned. His hands are relaxed behind his head, and the girl’s hands are behind her back. The posture is on one leg, relaxed – nearly bohemian. She’s not wearing typical sandals. Her smile is bindaas, which goes with the casualness of Bachchan and the Beetle in Bandra!

The Photography Special was put together by Shreya Sethuraman

MORE ON THE WEB: For the photos that almost made it (and what stunning pictures!), log on to hindustantimes.com/ brunch. Or check out our albums on facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch

OCTOBER 6, 2013

JUDGE’S NOTES This picture gives you the feel of Goa, or at least somewhere in the coastal area. The brick walls, the rich greens and red earth. It’s not a stationary bike and the slow shutter speed exaggerates the sense of movement. It’s cloudy.

11

youtube.com/hindustantimesbrunch

LIFE IS A SUNDAY MORNING Aditi Parashar (19), student, Gurgaon took this picture in September last year simply because visually, it offered a completely different side to Goa. CAMERA USED: GoPro

About the picture: After partying until late at her friend’s wedding, my sister passed out in her red velvet gown. When she woke up, she wore those flip-flops, just smiled and said, “This is why I love Sundays. You can pass out in your velvet gown, match it with flip-flops, lazy-fy around and still be so happy about it.”

I just smiled back and said, “Well, if that’s the case, my whole life is a Sunday morning.”

CAMERA USED: Nikon D5100 (18-55 lens)

JUDGE’S NOTES You can almost feel that the ground is wet, it may just be overcast.

Overall, the picture gives one the feeling of being on a nice journey.

The colour palette in this picture is very fresh, including the wooden flooring at the base. The flip-flops are informal, contrasting with the formality of the dress. Even though we don’t see her, she seems like a girl, maybe 13-14, with soft hands. There is a child-like look to them. The picture also reflects a feminine mood. I like the way it has been cropped. You can feel that she’s stretching, even her toes are off the ground! It shows a young person who probably wore the dress and slept in it. The shadow adds to the overall nice mood.

IN MY TREEHOUSE

Kanika Bharadwaj (21), education adviser with Campus France, Delhi About the picture: I took my coffee, my copy of Brunch and my breakfast to my balcony and settled there. While I was sluggishly munching my food, I spotted this furry friend who was probably sharing the same feeling as me. One of relaxation! That’s how Sunday is supposed to make you feel, right?

CAMERA USED: Canon 1100D

JUDGE’S NOTES I like this one as the splayed squirrel reflects the mood of a lazy Sunday. Squirrels are fidgety, not the easiest to capture. What I also like about this photo is that the eyes are pin-sharp.

OCTOBER 6, 2013

EXPERT TIPS “Shoot from your heart. Don’t be one of the herd. Just because you saw a picture on Flickr and liked the way it was shot, doesn’t mean you have to do it too. Expensive equipment is not a prerequisite for good photography. Some of the best pictures have been shot with simple point-and-shoot cameras” – GURINDER OSAN

12

C OV E R STO RY

hindustantimes.com/brunch

MUMBAI’S LIFELINE

Ajit Arujun Kore (19), student, Navi Mumbai About the picture: I shot this picture because, on a Sunday, the train hangers are seen without Mumbaikars’ hands and on weekdays, they are completely hidden. There is chaos all around. So, to see and capture this sort of emptiness was something new and different for me.

CAMERA USED: Canon PowerShot A4000 Shutter speed: 1/60s, F/3.2

JUDGE’S NOTES This is interesting for reasons of symmetry. It’s almost programmed to perfection. But on a normal day this would be chaotic and there’d be a lot of activity. You’re usually shoved in and out of a train! There’s never a dull moment.

But this is unusual. The person has chosen black and white to simplify the form. Perhaps colour may have been distracting. What is exciting is the heart-like shape of the train handles. If you turn it upside down, you can see the shape.

WHEN LIGHT TAKES OVER DARKNESS

Julius Gomes (23), amateur photographer, Mumbai

MY SUNDAY NAP

Rohan Arora (10), student, Noida About the picture: I love to photograph birds in their natural habitat and already have a treasure trove of many bird snaps, some of which are very rare. These include, among others, the Sarus crane, the scavenger vulture and the white-tailed iora. I was fortunate to have caught these owls in deep sleep. I shot this last year when I was on holiday with my parents at the Nehru Island in Fateh Sagar Lake, Udaipur.

CAMERA USED: Canon PowerShot SX50 HS

About the picture: Sunday is the most awaited day of the week. Unlike those who choose to relax, I prefer to spend my Sundays far from the madding crowd that is Mumbai and watch the colourful lights of the city. The bright blue clouded sky from this untouched location shows you how peaceful it is to get away from all that happens in your daily life. Being here eases your stress within seconds. It shows there’s life in the city and peace not very far from it.

CAMERA USED: Nikon D5100 with an 18-55 lens

JUDGE’S NOTES Getting the skyline is an easy part, since Mumbai is fairly active at night. Being a coastal place, there is a lot of humidity, too. So, there’s a certain glow present. The sky has more colours since it’s reflecting the city lights. These boats are moving a little, which explains the ghostly look.

The colours are interesting. Overall, there can be many other variations of capturing this moment. This particular moment happened. Maybe the photographer didn’t think of utilising the best out of this. Maybe this was a happy coincidence rather than a well-thought-out plan.

OCTOBER 6, 2013

JUDGE’S NOTES This is interesting because owls are rare. To find them sleeping in the day time, especially in this position, is nice. Anytime I see a bird other than a crow or a kite, I feel delighted. It makes me feel that there is more diversity than what city life can provide.

EXPERT TIPS “Shoot what you really want to shoot.

Great photographs don’t happen overnight. It’s an evolutionary process. If you are true to what you shoot, every image will have a reflection of you” – GURINDER OSAN

14

C OV E R STO RY

facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch

LET THE LOVE STAY

Ratnadeep (30), supply planner, Navi Mumbai

About the picture: The sun is a symbol of heat and warmth. Sunday is when we must take out time in this perceived fabricated world and share the warmth with our loved ones. I went out on a Sunday with my family and shot this early morning in Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park. I had to wait hours to get the perfect shot and had to be careful not to distract the duo and capture these fabulous creatures at their best.

CAMERA USED: Canon 60D

JUDGE’S NOTES This is one of the most unusual pictures of the lot. Perhaps the only moment that is spontaneous and not constructed.

The interesting thing is the positioning of the beaks. They could be sparring, with their beaks symmetrically crossing each other. Photographically, it’s an interesting moment.

The green is a little overwhelming, though. I would have reduced it in my crop and taken a bit more of the reflection.

THE SERENE WALK OF LIFE

Aditya A Patkar (20), student, Mumbai About the picture: What can be more pleasurable than a long walk along the beach with your loved one? Sundays are best spent at some silent getaways. On a visit to Juhu Chowpatty around the time of sunset, I happened to capture this moment shared by a couple. The very sight relaxed my eyes.

CAMERA USED: Canon 550D

JUDGE’S NOTES Water is so alive by itself – it’s very fluid and dynamic. There’s a certain interaction between the persons walking through the beach. It’s a spontaneous moment shot well by the photographer.

He has kept the act more important than the people. There’s a bit of pink in the reflection, so it’s probably a little after sunset. You can almost feel the sea breeze.

MAKESHIFT LORD’S

Kashish Parpiani (21), student, Navi Mumbai About the picture: For a city whose gears seem eternally in monotonous motion, Sundays bring out the much-constrained lethargy of Mumbai. On one such hot Sunday afternoon, as I cruised past junctions, my eyes scoured for something that would sum up the feel of Sunday. I came across a group of young men playing cricket. Interestingly, it wasn’t a lush green pitch, but an abandoned subway that was conveniently transformed into a cricket stadium.

CAMERA USED: Nikon D90

JUDGE’S NOTES I like everything about this photograph, but I wish the ball was captured in the sunlight. For me this picture is nearly there. The other thing I would have preferred is for the batsman to be little more visible. Right now, he’s getting merged with the background. It’s an interesting place to play – almost like the nets. The light cuts right at the place where he’s batting. So that’s interesting.

OCTOBER 6, 2013

18

WELLNESS

MIND BODY SOUL SHIKHA SHARMA

TRAIN YOUR TASTE BUDS Move towards eating healthier without missing out on flavour

not beTRICKING YOUR MIND cause of Bitter chocolate eaten HETHER IT is memories of mumwhat their after a sweet will taste my’s cooking or the aroma of more bitter than it is stomach coffee, taste and flavour play an imcraves, but portant part in our conditioning. what their taste buds have been missing. The trick lies in retraining There is a lot of interesting rethe taste buds towards new and search being done on flavours and healthy food without compromising the differences between the taste on taste and flavour. buds of children and grown-ups. In the light of the rising incidence of ■ One of the practical ways to begin obesity too, training our taste buds is is to keep the ingredients healthy and becoming an area of interest. Most fresh while adding spices, flavours scientists agree that the body can and condiments to make the food recognise five basic tastes: sweet, delicious. salty, sour, bitter and astringent, ■ The second step is to gradually cut which the taste buds on various down on salt, sugar and oil in the points of our tongue can decipher. food. When one cuts them gradually, Children are born with far more taste the taste buds become more alert to buds than adults, making them more lesser amounts and one begins to ensensitive to tastes. joy the food high on natural flavours.

However, as we grow ■ The third step is to avoid foods older, our taste buds with artificial flavours keep decreasing till they and tastes. Most attain a fixed number foods with artifiin adulthood. cial seasoning Infants display the maxiand flavours are very SPICE OF LIFE mum preference for things strong on the taste Healthy food can be that are slightly sweet and made tasty by adding buds and continuous usually avoid all other spices and flavours use prevents the natutastes. A preference for ral tastes from developsour, bitter and salty foods develops ing. It also dulls the taste buds. as we grow older.

As we move away from There are genetic differences in artificial food to natural sensitivity towards tastes. Some peofood, we’ll see an obviple may have a supersensitive taste, ous increase in taste which makes them better at identifyand discover that the ing different tastes and flavours. food is more satisfyWhile taste depends upon the tongue ing and delicious. and receptors, flavour is the result of the combination of taste and aroma. ask@drshikha.com Although taste bud preferences are inherited to an extent, a large part also depends upon a person’s training and conditioning. And our taste buds seems to have their own memory – particularly for sweet foods. So, if we eat a piece of bitter chocolate and follow it up with a piece of pineapple pastry, then the pastry seems too sweet. But if we GO NATURAL Foods with artificial eat a piece of flavours dull our natural pastry first and taste receptors bitter chocolate later, then we will find the bitter chocolate far more bitter.

W

LET TASTE BUDS KEEP YOU HEALTHY

Most times, people give up on eating healthy,

PHOTOS: THINKSTOCK

MORE ON THE WEB

For more columns by Dr Shikha Sharma and other wellness stories, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch

OCTOBER 6, 2013

20

indulge

THE GENRE BENDERS

Sanjoy Narayan

Wise Up Ghost And Other Songs is a great mix of British musician Elvis Costello’s cerebral lyrics and American band The Roots’ groovy music

hindustantimes.com/brunch

Photo: DAN HALLMAN/AP

download central

COME TOGETHER, RIGHT NOW

Questlove’s (right) drumming is refreshing and Costello often sings highly literate lyrics the depths of vulgarity a few years back).

Like The Roots, Costello too has never been hugely popular, although most of his nearly 25 albums in a career spanning four decades have met with critical acclaim. It is difficult to pigeon-hole Costello’s music. He has hopped genres – punk rock, pub rock, folk, blues, music hall and so on. Like liquorice, some love his slightly nasal style of vocals; others hate it. But his songs have highly literate lyrics with depth and maturity. He’s what I’d call a musician’s musician. As I did with The Roots’ discography, before I started with Wise Up Ghost, I went back and heard a couple of Costello albums.

Choosing what to pick was difficult given how prolific he has been. But I zeroed in on three – 2002’s When I Was Cruel, a treat both musically and lyrically, 2003’s North, and 2010’s brilliant National Ransom, a record produced by the legendary American musician and producer, T-Bone Burnett.

I know Elvis Costello has albums dating back to 1977 but if you want a quick introduction to his music, I’d recommend When I Was Cruel and National Ransom, especially the latter. North, I’d suggest only to the serious liquorice lovers – Costello sounds whiny and depressing on this album and the music is stripped down to a bare minimum so it makes him feel sound more so (by the way, the liquorice reference I have borrowed from Jerry Garcia who back in the 1970s likened the Grateful Dead’s audience to liquorice lovers!).

H

aving boned up on both – The Roots and Costello – I took a shot at their collaboration, this year’s Wise Up Ghost And Other Songs. Although Costello is known for his genre hopping nature – on National Ransom USICAL COLLABORATIONS rarely get as unexyou will find songs representing everything from old English pected as on the recently released Wise Up Ghost And music hall, folkie ballads, old-fashioned rock, alternative rock, Other Songs. The album is the product of British country and everything in between all of those – on his colmusician Elvis Costello teaming up with America’s laboration with hip-hop’s high priests, The Philadelphia-based hip-hop and R&B band, Roots, he doesn’t exactly do rap. Instead, it is The Roots. The only thing I can find common Costello’s cerebral lyrics and singing, accombetween the two collaborators is that though panied by some super groovy music by The both parties have, respectively, earned oodles Roots makes a really extraordinary collaboraof critical acclaim through their careers, neition. Even though Costello has explored many ther has become as popular as I think they genres in his long career, beginning with punk deserve to be. It’s a pity that more people don’t and pub rock and then going down the folk, listen to either Costello or The Roots even rock, country and even the New Orleans’ route though both are very, very influential musi(check out 2006’s The River In Reverse, a colcal entities. laboration with New Orleans musician Allen Take The Roots. Starting in the late 1980s, Toussaint), teaming up with The Roots has prothe group’s co-frontmen, drummer Questlove duced an album that magically marries gen(or ?uestlove) and Black Thought, have been res that cannot have been more disparate. You among the early innovators of rap and hip- BRIDGING GENRES can listen to Wise Up Ghost for Costello’s lyrics hop music in America, using live music and This is an album that magically marries genres that cannot have (the standouts include the songs, Sugar Won’t jazz and soul-influenced compositions to back been more disparate Work, Tripwire and Stick Out Your Tongue), their spoken lyrics. But although they have which are, as always, never banal; or, you can enjoy the excelinfluenced legions of hip-hop, rap and R&B musicians and lent groove that The Roots (few singers could hope for a better have won a few Grammys, they are not, sadly, massively popbacking band) lay down; or, better still, you could do both. ular. They ought to be. I went back and surfed The Roots cataDownload Central will appear every fortnight logue, beginning with 1994’s Do You Want More?!!!??! to 2004’s The Tipping Point to 2011’s Undun. Every one of those albums is a great listen. The music, particularly Questlove’s fabulous MORE ON THE WEB To give feedback, stream or download the music mentioned drumming, is refreshing and never monotonous as some hipin this column, go to blogs.hindustantimes.com/ hop albums (sorry, Jay-Z, Kanye, Diddy, Li’l Wayne, etc.) can download-central. Write to Sanjoy at get and the lyrics are squeaky clean by contemporary hip-hop sanjoy.narayan@hindustantimes.com standards (which have improved, incidentally, after plumbing

M

OCTOBER 6, 2013

indulge

HOTELS FROM HELL

hindustantimes.com/brunch

You ca n never e ver have a good stay at a hotel. E bad v your na en if m appear e s some V on IP list, a b ad hotel w ill always le you dow t n

Photo: THINKSTOCK

22

Vir Sanghvi

rude hotels

H

ERE IS A story about a hotel I stayed in last week.

I write this in Thailand where I am shooting a new show. As part of the schedule, we went to Koh Chang, one of the most beautiful and relatively undiscovered parts of the country. The production company booked us all into a resort run by a leading Thai chain.

Clearly, the management had been told to accord good treatment to a TV crew that might end up featuring the hotel and, therefore, give it some free publicity. We were tired after an eight-hour journey from the south of Thailand when we checked in and though I was led to what I imagined was one of the hotel’s better suites, I asked if I could have a room instead. The suite was only accessible through a spiral staircase which had got slippery with the rain. No problem, they said. So, I put my bags down in the one-room cottage they shifted me to and we went off to dinner at an open-air buffet restaurant on the property.

The buffet did not look exciting so I asked to see the menu.

No problem, they repeated smilingly. But as the steward arrived to take my order, I noticed with mounting horror that a stray cat had jumped on to the buffet table and was going from one serving dish to the other. Obviously, it was more excited by the buffet than I had been.

I drew the manager’s attention to the rapid conversion of his buffet into cat food. He went and shooed the cat away. Then, he declared he was ready to take my order. But what about the plates that the cat had snuck its mouth into? Wasn’t he going to replace the food? Oh no, he said, he was sure the cat hadn’t eaten very much. With mounting unease, I ordered my meal. I got even more uneasy when I noticed that he was refusing to write anything down. “Oh, don’t worry, I remember,” he assured me.

You can guess what happened. He got the order completely wrong. When I pointed this out, he got aggressive. “Yes, you did order it,” he said angrily. I tried remonstrating and explaining that not only had I not ordered some of the things he thought I had, he had also forgotten to bring two dishes that I had actually asked for.

Finally, somebody senior from the management came along and stopped him and we ate our meal in peace, keeping a watchful eye for any feline diners who might choose to join us.

I returned to my room and tried the DVD player. After failing to get it to work for 20 minutes, I called for help. The technician spent another 10 minutes and gave up. He went off and returned with a new player. This didn’t work either. So, he wandered off to find a third player. And so on. By then, I was ready to sleep anyway.

It must have rained heavily that night because when I woke up I found that the roof had leaked and my handbag, clothes and iPod were all soaked. After I had tried to wipe off the water and set them out to dry, I called room service for a coffee and something to eat. “No sir,” said the lady at the other end. “Our waiters are very busy till 11am. So, we don’t serve anything in the rooms.”

I was already late for a shoot so I threw my wet clothes into a suitcase and checked out. I met two other members of my crew at reception. One of them said that his air-conditioning hadn’t worked and in two rooms, the power had failed for three hours at night. (No generators had kicked in.)

The general manager then arrived, mortified that a TV crew which he had hoped might feature his hotel, was leaving in disgust. What could he do to make up? Would we like a free massage?

We made our excuses and left.

So, what is it that you think went so wrong? By the standards of the hotel industry, we were high-profile guests marked out for special attention because it was important to impress us.

How could they have screwed up so badly? Perhaps if I had taken the luxury villa they originally offered, the roof may not have leaked. But everything else was just an example of utter incompetence. If this is how they treat high-profile guests booked in by TV companies, what happens to the average punter?

I have a theory, which applies equally to restaurants and

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

THE COFFEE SHOP THEORIST

ITC’s Nakul Anand (above) reviews sales figures at coffee shops at his hotels to check whether standards have fallen hotels. It is possible to have a bad experience at a good hotel.

Remember that in the average hotel, 200 different guests have individual experiences every day in rooms and restaurants.

The law of averages suggests that at least some of these guests will be the victims of screw ups. In very good hotels, there will be very few screw ups. But nothing in life is absolutely perfect, so yes, some people will be disappointed. The test of a good hotel is how it makes up for its mistakes.

But, you can never ever have a good stay at a bad hotel. No matter whether your name appears on some VIP list or whether the general manager arrives at the porch to open your car door and greet you at check-in, a bad hotel will always screw up. The staff will be poorly trained (like the guy who refused to write down the order, got it wrong, and then got aggressive), hygiene standards will be poor (God alone knows how many guests found cat whiskers in their green curry), maintenance will suck (the leaking roof), nobody will check the room fittings (the faulty DVD players) and staff will be lazy (the general manager assured me that they do actually serve breakfast in rooms – when the staff can be bothered to). No amount of sucking up can mask sheer incompetence.

So, what do guests do? How do we choose hotels to avoid being subjected to screw up after screw up?

Some people use the Net and check guest comments.

This may work for some of you but in my experience it has never served as a reliable indicator. There has been controversy over the way in which some such advice sites operate but what you need to remember is this: the

I noticed with mounting horror that a stray cat had jumped on the buffet table Photo: GETTY IMAGES

people to whom these comments should matter the most – hotel managements at up-market properties – don’t worry too much about them. The bulk of their business is corporate and corporate clients rarely go on the Internet to complain about service.

Another method is to trust media reviewers. This makes some sense but is subject to an obvious handicap. When I visit a restaurant or a hotel, I am often conscious of not getting the same experience as other guests because I have been recognised. The same, I imagine, is true of other travel and food writers. On the other hand, if I have a really bad experience despite being recognised, then it does tell you something about the calibre of the establishment.

These days, when I am travelling abroad and do not know individual properties well, I tend to rely on the reputations of the big American chains. Not every Starwood property is perfect but I still pick Starwood hotels because the chances of things going wrong are relatively minimal. In recent years, I have been impressed by Hyatt (this column is being written in the excellent Grand Hyatt in Bangkok) where the service and food are consistent.

The only reliable method, of course, is to ask locals. They always know, better than anyone else, what the best hotels in their cities are. They will tell you if standards have dropped or if a hotel is living off a reputation based on past glories. ITC’s Nakul Anand, the most cerebral hotelier I know, always reviews sales figures at coffee shops at his hotels.

His reasoning is that the coffee shop is the hotel’s link with the local community. When coffee shop sales fall, it means that locals are giving up on the hotel. Because Nakul understands numbers better than the rest of us, he has worked out a formula to demonstrate how a drop in coffee shop sales always, but always, leads to a drop in room occupancy with a time lag of a few months.

But of course, there is no surefire prescription.

Sometimes you will have wonderful experiences at cheap, out-of-the-way hotels that nobody has ever heard of. And sometimes the world’s greatest hotels will relieve you of your money and then treat you like dirt. Sadly, that is the way of the world.

PRISTINE PARADISE

Koh Chang is one of the most beautiful parts of Thailand. The production company booked us into a resort run by a leading Thai chain

HIGH STANDARDS

The Grand Hyatt in Bangkok; in recent years, I’ve been impressed by the consistency in service and food at the Hyatt

MORE ON THE WEB

For more columns by Vir Sanghvi, log on to hindustantimes. com/brunch

24

indulge

facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch

DOES THE WORLD NEED A SMARTWATCH?

In a world of smartphones, smartwatches need to carve their own identity if they don’t want to be mere geek-and-nerd devices

I

WAS TEMPTED to go with a clichéd Dick Tracy parable to start this week’s column.

I abandoned it halfway as somehow this all-new hot-off-the-machines category is actually nothing like what ‘Dick’ was purportedly using. While there is a smorgasbord of companies entering this new arena, the vision from almost all of them is remarkably different from that ancient wrist strap-on.

The smartwatch (by the way, adding smart before any product name is getting a little dumb now) as conceived by today’s tech labs is more an add-on device that lives and dies by its relation with your smartphone. And therein lies the biggest problem in this new segment. Let’s first take a look at some of the contenders before we dive into whether this will truly transform into a big business to justify the billion dollar bet that is being taken by almost all the tech titans in this world.

SAMSUNG GALAXY GEAR

The first true missile launched within the smart-strapper business. Fantastic looks coupled with a smart placement of camera, excellent speaker and microphone use, a nice 1.63-inch Amoled colour screen, you can talk right into the watch itself, 4GB on-board memory, about 90 apps at launch and some nifty features makes this a must-have device. It is marred by the fact that it works only with the Note 3 phone right now, a high price (about `22,000) and a battery life that will force you to recharge a second device every night.

Rajiv Makhni

techilicious QUALCOMM TOQ

More concept than a real product right now, rumours suggest that while the first one will be out by late October, at least three companies will take out their own versions within the next three months. This is again a looker. The big deal is that you can take and make calls on this just like on the Gear, a Mirasol 1.55-inch colour display that is always on and yet will give you about five days of battery life, has Android and iOS versions and wireless charging. Price may be a deterrent (it’s rumoured to be as high as the Gear) as will the fact that it doesn’t seem to have a camera on board.

iWATCH

The iWatch from Apple has been on the rumoured ‘release list’ for more than year.

The fact that it is coming seems almost certain as they have created a new ‘wearable division’ within the company and have been poaching people from all the big guys in the business (Nike, Fitbit).

This should be a huge leap in looks and technology with maybe a curved screen, Siri commands, fantastic fitness and health integration and a classy nobutton design. Apple usually waits it out, lets the others make mistakes and then refines, tweaks and produce a product that is simpler but with more realworld usability.

OCTOBER 6, 2013

KREYOS

The brand maybe unknown, but it may have the best product and thought process yet. The Kreyos has great ergonomic prowess, good battery life, can be worn as a watch, clipped on or even hung from your neck, works with Android and iOS and even Windows 8 (where’s the BlackBerry version?), costs about half of the Gear and Toq price, is waterproof, has voice control and gesture control, a gyrometer on top of an accelerometer, you can make and receive calls on it and comes with a lot of built-in fitness apps that don’t need a smartphone. The not-so-good is that it’s a little big, has a black-and-white screen and no touchscreen controls.

PEBBLE

The been-there-done-that product that truly was the first to fire the imagination of the smartwatch crowd. It’s small, thin, very light, has a pretty good battery life, an E Ink display, is priced well and has quite a cult following (many in India have one). Yet, it’s also the reason many are jaded with this category already as it has no callmaking or -receiving capabilities (you can only decline a call), no built-in or standalone apps for fitness. It has almost zero functionality without being paired with a smartphone and has had a shaky start with customer service. A Pebble 2 is rumoured to be around the corner.

GOOGLE WATCH

Now whether this is a Motorola, a Nexus or an LG collaboration, a Google watch will come. Direct indicators are the fact that they bought out a very promising smartwatch company, WIMM Labs, recently. Again, expect this to be able to do everything the others do, work with Google Glasses as a serious wow factor, add a few more bells and whistles and round it all off with a very aggressive price.

SONY SMARTWATCH 2

I have no hesitation in calling the first Sony smartwatch a truly unrefined rushed-tomarket product. Strangely, the second version seems to have similar issues.

While it’s got a great screen, NFC capabilities, photo streaming from phone, some good built-in apps and fitness tracking, it still can’t make or receive calls, looks almost exactly like the previous version (thus big, blocky and square) and is the heaviest of the lot.

WAIT AND WATCH

So, it seems smartwatches will be swooping in from all directions and while a brand new category is always welcome, this one treads a thin red line. If smartwatches remain just a glorified remote control to your phone, then this whole business model will collapse.

A smartwatch will need to carve its own identity, have builtin GPS for true navigation and location services, multiple sensors that track your health above and beyond any fitness tracker, visually log your entire day, look better than any traditional watch to get over the ‘nerd alert’ problem, have a battery life of about 15 days and make sure that the entire world exists on your wrist. Else it will become a geek-and-nerd domain and die a quick death, just like the first digital watches that came in being heralded as the Holy Grail and were soon being sold by street MORE ON THE WEB For previous columns by side vendors by the kilo.

Rajiv Makhni, log on to Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, hindustantimes.com/brun NDTV and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru ch. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at twitter.com/ and Newsnet 3 RajivMakhni

indulge

IT’S MY FAULT Why do women who survive rape end up blaming themselves?

I

SHARP AND SEARING

T’S MY FAULT. That is what the video is titled. And with dry, even dark, humour it tells us about the many ways in which rape is a woman’s fault. She went out alone. She went out with boys. She wore a short skirt. She wore an astronaut suit. She cooked chowmein in the kitchen. Whatever she did, it was her fault that she got raped. The satirical depiction of a social truth – that it is the woman who is always at fault if she gets raped – was sharp, searing, and made the short video (created by Rohan Joshi, G Khamba, Tanmay Bhatt and

The satirical depiction of a social truth – that it is the woman who is always at fault if she gets raped – made It’s My Fault, the video featuring Kalki Koechlin (above), go viral in record time

Seema Goswami

spectator

Photo: GETTYIMAGES

26

Ashish Shakya and starring Kalki Koechlin and Juhi Pande) go viral in record time.

But even as we in India were raising a wry smile at the It’s My Fault video, there was another website making waves in France. Called Je Connais Un Violeur (I Know A Rapist), this invites women to write in anonymously to share their experiences of rape. What is most frightening about this site is that most of the women who write in have been raped by someone they knew well, a brother, a father, a cousin, a neighbour, a boyfriend, a doctor, a colleague. As Pauline, the creator of the site, explains, she wanted to show that rapists are not ‘The Other’ but men we know and interact with every day. And the intention is not to name and shame the men (anonymity extends to the rapists as well) but to allow victims to share their experiences so that they know that they are not alone.

The site makes for very uncomfortable reading even though the more lurid details of the rapes have been edited out.

But what is truly astonishing is how

many of these women still believe that it was somehow their fault that this happened to them. Some feel guilty because they had worn revealing clothes, others blame themselves for having drunk too much that night, others believe they put themselves in dangerous situations.

It’s My Fault…that line plays in their heads incessantly as they relive the experience in their minds (and in their stories on the site).

But then, that seems to be a recurring theme with rape victims. Take the recent memoir of Samantha Geimer, The Girl: A Life In The Shadow of Roman Polanski, which recounts her experience of being raped by the famous film director. Samantha was 13 at the time; Polanski was 43. He gave her champagne, a Quaalude (a sleeping pill), and then raped her. No, it wasn’t just statutory rape because she was a minor. It was rape; she said no, but he went ahead anyway. The second time around, when he realised that she wasn’t on the pill, he sodomised her instead.

And what does Geimer, now 50, say about her 13-year self who was drugged, raped and sodomised by a man more than double her age? “I felt foolish. Gosh, why didn’t I stop this? Why did I drink? Why did I take that pill? What is wrong with me?

And now look what happened?”

In other words, It’s My Fault. Honestly, you begin to wonder, why does the rest of the world need to indulge in victim blaming when the victim is all too willing to do so herself ?

But let’s listen closely. What are these women actually saying? Are they really saying ‘It’s My Fault’? Or is that just a simplistic, even erroneous, interpretation of their statements and feelings?

What if all that these survivors of rape are trying to do is wrest some retrospective control over a situation in which they felt utterly and completely helpless?

What if they are just desperately trying to see what they could have done differently to get a different outcome to the one that left them reeling with shame, anger, and a deep and abiding feeling of loss?

Think about it. These women are not stupid or delusional. They don’t really believe that they invited rape upon themselves by doing a, b, or c. But when you have been left feeling horribly helpless and perfectly powerless, how do you wrestle back some control into your own hands?

You do so by telling yourself that you can prevent something like this from ever happening again by making some different choices.

That is what makes women beat themselves up over what they wore, what they drank, how late they were out, how they made their way back, which man they allowed into their house or indeed, into their lives. Because they are thrashing about, trying to find answers where none exist.

They are flailing in the wind, grasping at straws, struggling to understand why this happened to them. And in that moment, they need to believe that they can stay safe in the future if they learn lessons from what happened.

Do they blame themselves in the process? Of course they do.

But is this victim blaming? Of course not. It is just their way of trying to make sense of a world that seems to have gone completely mad; and of clinging on to their own sanity in the process.

It is their way of transitioning from victim to survivor.

What if all that these survivors are trying to do is wrest some retrospective control over a situation?

RECURRING THEME

The Girl: A Life In The Shadow of Roman Polanski (left), a memoir by Samantha Geimer (far left), recounts her experience of being raped by the famous film director OCTOBER 6, 2013

MORE ON THE WEB

For more SPECTATOR columns by Seema Goswami, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch. Follow @SeemaGoswami on Twitter. Write to her at seema_ht@rediffmail.com

twitter.com/HTBrunch

QUICK BITES

27

The Dark Arts

The girl from Chak De! India gets rave reviews playing a seductress in B.A. Pass

by Aasheesh Sharma

Y

OU MIGHT remember Shilpa Shukla from Chak De! India (2007). She was the ‘bad girl’, the hockey player who tries to entrap Shah Rukh Khan. She first came to critics’ notice, however, in 2004 in Khamosh Pani, in which she played the girlfriend of a boy who becomes a religious radical. In B.A. Pass, her latest release, based on Mohan Sikka’s story from the anthology Delhi Noir, Shukla pushes the envelope. She’s the older woman who seduces a teenager and pushes him into prostitution. The movie has won an array of international awards, including the Prix Du Public (voted best film by the audience) at the inaugural South Asian Film Festival held in Paris. The petite Delhi actress, who graduated in Sociology from Delhi University’s Miranda House, opens up on movies, moods and the psychology of seduction.

How theatre helped her:

While working with Arvind Gaur’s Asmita at college, I learnt a lot of life lessons. Acting on the stage teaches you to kill your ego and observe people. In cinema, observing people and reserving your empathy helps flesh out characters.

OCTOBER 6, 2013

Why Chak De!, and B.A. Pass are special: In Chak

De!, I played Bindiya Naik who was desperate to captain the team. But B.A. Pass had one of the rarest characters that could come my way: Sarika is both seductive and manipulative. Also, the story was set in Delhi, where I’ve stayed for 12 years. Being familiar with her background helped me bring conviction to the character.

Why seductive roles are so, well, seductive: I found Deepa

Sahi’s character in Maya Memsaab really sensual. And loved Rekha’s roles in Kama Sutra and Aastha. She has done some really impressive work and has an enigmatic aura about her.

Who inspires her: I’d love to work

with Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi. I also like Charlize Theron and Hilary Swank and I howled when I saw Kate Winslet’s emotive skills in The Reader.

How success has changed her: I am enjoying all the atten-

tion I am getting. Also, I am reading some scripts, including interesting comedies and action films.

aasheesh.sharma@hindustantimes.com

youtube.com/hindustantimesbrunch

wary of anyone too cheap or too expensive.

■ DO THINK LONG TERM

FIT AND FINE

Pick a trainer who motivates you all through your sessions need different regimens. “But most trainers have only musclebuilding advice and tell everyone to switch to six meals a day,” Almeida says. “A background in physiotherapy is a plus,” says Kumar.

Shrof believes it takes three months to build a rapport between client and trainer, so give it time before you give up. “If you find a good trainer, don’t let them go unless you plateau,” Almeida says.

A good trainer will constantly update their skills and offer something new. But it will also come at a jump in fees. Be prepared to pay for the upgrade – if the trainer you already like keeps getting better, it’s always worth the money. rachel.lopez@hindustantimes.com

■ DO DISCUSS GOALS

How To Pick A Trainer

You can afford one. You think you’ll benefit from one. Here’s how to find the right one

by Rachel Lopez

G

YMMING ON your own can be a pain. You don’t end up going as often as you’d like, the equipment you prefer is never free when you want it, you may not know exactly what you should be doing, and often, the trainers seem to dole out only cookie-cutter advice. A personal trainer sounds like a perfect solution. But picking one who balances your convenience with your requirements can be tricky.

Here’s what to look out for.

■ DO LOOK FOR

CERTIFICATION

“It means the trainer has understood the necessary concepts and is serious about someone else’s fitness,” says A Arun Kumar, head trainer at Snap Fitness.

Unfortunately, India has no standardised course or degree for fitness training, but there are several private local courses and good international ones. Weight-trainers with K-11 certifications are well regarded; yoga enthusiasts should look for ACE (American Council on Exercise) and ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) accreditation. “Check your trainer’s background,” says Neville Almeida, executive director at F2. “Get someone with at least two years’ experience in addition to his certification.”

■ DO GET SOMEONE LIKE-MINDED

“Establish your goals with yourtrainer in your first two sessions,” advises Eefa Shrof, yoga instructor and founder of Superyoga.

Steer clear of yes men who promise rapid weightloss or quick biceps. “Fitness is not just muscle strength, it is also muscle endurance, cardio-vascular endurance, flexibility and body-fat percentage,” Kumar says. “Your regime should focus on all of them.” A good trainer will start with a fitness assessment test before setting targets and will “explain the why before how,” Almeida points out.

Pick a trainer who understands your lifestyle, instead of berating you for liking clubbing or hating Mondays.

■ DO TRACK PROGRESS

Warn your trainer that you’ll expect periodic body-fat testing, blood pressure screening and strength, flexibility and endurance tests. “It will push the trainer to develop safe exercises instead of a single-agenda regime,” Shrof advises.

■ DO TALK MONEY Kumar believes that freshers should ideally charge `3,000 per month for 12 sessions. Almeida finds that you can get a good trainer for `1,500 for the same hours.

Several trainers go upwards of `25,000 for 12 sessions and provide more experienced counselling, upto-date skills and trendy equipment. But be

Not all of us want muscle building or weightloss. Men, women, senior citizens, athletes, marathoners, body builders, new mothers with baby weight, models, CEOs, diabetics and heart patients all

OCTOBER 6, 2013

Photos: THINKSTOCK

WHAT NOT TO DO DON’T hire a drill sergeant Trainers should motivate, not intimidate. Don’t pick one who works you so hard, you’re in pain for days (soreness is normal, but you should be able to get out of bed). Pick one who offers positive reinforcement. Kumar keeps things interesting by texting clients about a surprise workout the next day. Almeida reminds clients about the old clothes they’ll leave behind. Shrof focuses on looking healthy, focused and happy, as a reminder of what can be achieved.

DON’T fall for their biceps “A good physique doesn’t necessarily make for a good trainer,” Kumar warns. Be wary of anyone who offers dietary advice without certification. “Let a nutritionist handle your nutrition,” he adds.

DON’T let their star client roster blind you Shah Rukh’s trainer is not the best guy to address your potbelly. Bipasha’s trainer is not the right person to fix your hormonal weight. “Plus, their priority is often not you, but the stars,” says Almeida.

MORE ON THE WEB

To read more fitness stories, log on to hindustantimes.com /brunch

PERSONAL AGENDA

hindustantimes.com/brunch

Fashion Designer

JJ Valaya BIRTHDAY PLACE OF BIRTH SCHOOL/COLLEGE October 8

Jodhpur, Rajasthan

SUN SIGN

HOMETOWN

Libra

Chandigarh and Delhi

Because my father was in the Army, I changed several schools; Panjab University, NIFT, Delhi

FIRST BREAK

The day I sat on the stairs of NIFT and flipped a coin. Heads, I start my own label. Tails, I get a job. Guess what it was!

HIGH POINT OF YOUR LIFE

Thankfully, there are too many

LOW POINT OF YOUR LIFE

From being an award-winning designer to a complete flop with my first commercial collection. Devastating, yet enlightening

CURRENTLY I AM...

Discovering new things and enjoying photography with the help of the new Nokia Lumia 1020 If you weren’t a designer, you would have been...

A very sad and depressed chartered accountant (I was studying to be one).

What is more satisfying, designing or photography?

I only indulge in things that give me satisfaction. However, the

activity must involve creativity and design.

Why do you prefer black-and-white for your pictures?

We live our life in colour. We see everything in colour. So what we see becomes predictable. Black-and-white creates a sense of mystery.

Someone you definitely want to photograph.

My dream is to photograph the 100 most charismatic people in the world!

What did your wife wear the day you got married?

JJ Valaya couture.

Did you design something especially for her?

Obviously. I’m in the business of bespoke.

Three grooming products you can’t

WHAT IS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS?

People and portraits inspire me. I shot a series of pictures of my tailors and seamstresses wearing one component of a couture piece they had created Picture Courtesy: NOKIA

OCTOBER 6, 2013

do without.

Face wash, comb and a great attitude.

Your idea of a great weekend.

Pure undiluted relaxation.

A dessert that describes you.

An ice cream sundae. Loads of flavours in a very large cup!

If you could ask for any talent/skill, what would it be?

Any ability that allows me to lose weight.

You changed your name from Jagsharan Jit Singh Ahlowalia to JJ Valaya.

Did the name bring you any luck?

The name became a brand!

Tell us one thing nobody knows about you.

There’s a reason nobody knows about it!

The last thing you bought under 10.

A blessing from an old beggar woman.

One piece of advice you wish someone had given you 10 years ago.

Jog, my child, jog!

Your dream destination.

Italy managed to pull a few of my heartstrings but I am still looking to find my utopia.

Your favourite street food.

Countless things in Thailand.

You destress with...

5

must-haves in your wardrobe

Crisp shirts Pocket squares Valaya breeches Nehru jackets

An assortment of cufflinks Meditation, movies and little moments.

The last line of your autobiography would read…

“Now flip to page one again.” I believe that you must read books at least twice.

— Interviewed by Veenu Singh

Photos: THINKSTOCK

30