WEEKLY MAGAZINE, FEBRUARY 8, 2015 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times
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Forget what greeting cards and rom-coms have told you about Valentine’s Day. This year, we’re sharing stories of snug couples and smug singles, each having a blast and making it work. It doesn’t matter which side you’re on; it’s a WIN-WIN! r aska
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BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS
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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).
LLENG
Rajiv Makhni
PACKERS AND MOVERS
Our tech columnist Rajiv Makhni is taking a break today. Techilicious will be back next week. Till then, you can inundate @rajivmakhni with all your geeky queries on Twitter.
(AND LOTS OF BOOKS)
Front Row
We challenged you to read 24 books all through last year. And we promised prizes for lucky winners. Finally, the boxes are packed and couriered, and here’s a little sneak peek at what’s coming your way. Post pics when you get ’em!
by Nihit Bhave
The State-Of-The-Heart Movie Library
Single, dating, mating, or dissipating, whatever your relationship status, there’s a heart-themed movie for you in Hollywood If you’ve finally gotten someone to commit, watch Hearts And Souls with them – the movie where Robert Downey Jr has to be convinced by heavenly angels to stop acting like a jerk, and give in to his feelings.
STEP1: Our friends in publishing – HarperCollins India, Bloomsbury India, Rupa Publications, Aleph Book Company, Penguin Books India, Random House India, Pan Macmillan India and Westland – sent us books. Many, many books
STEP2: We spread them around the office and neatly packed 24 books in each carton, all the while fighting the temptation of keeping some for ourselves STEP3: Oxford Bookstore sent us coffee mugs and reading tealights. We bubblewrapped the cups and sniffed at the scented candles
STEP4: Our fabulous designer Monica Gupta designed posters, coasters and bookmarks. All printed at our glorious press
LOVE IT
Cover design: MONICA GUPTA Cover images: LABONY KAUSHAL, AKSHAY TAMBE, RAJ K RAJ
by Saudamini Jain
n The AIB Roast pulled off n When celebrities lie about their age (which is all the time, as it turns out) n That you no longer just need to be worried about flight safety but also in-flight women’s safety! n Spring fever n That we still can’t take a joke, and file FIRs instead
SHOVE IT
n #BrunchBookChallenge cartons. <Points up> n That we have more than 50,000 followers on Twitter now. Follow @HTBrunch! n The Game of Thrones season 5 trailer. n OnePlus One: the phone that had our staff writer Satarupa Paul swooning n The AIB Roast
If you’ve battled all odds to be in a relationship, Braveheart is the right pick. Mel Gibson yells, “They will never take our freedom” to his comrades. And that reminds you of a similar pact you had with your comrades before you got into said relationship.
If there are societal pressures tearing you apart, The Normal Heart is your movie. Julia Roberts is overlooked by too many hot men busy making out with each other, while the rest of the world hates them with a vengeance.
If you’re gloomy about love lost, pick up a copy of Crazy Heart, where Jeff Bridges is as smooth as the whiskey he drinks, and there’s a generous helping of Collin Farrell and his soothing accent. Indulge in the mush!
STEP5: Everything in the boxes, all stacked up, a little note added, addresses pasted. Off they go!
On The Brunch Radar
If you’re in a new relationship, watch The Heartbreak Kid – the movie about discovering each other’s ugly side, and living with it. It takes Ben Stiller all of 10 minutes to find his new partner annoying. See how long it takes you!
If you think your significant other has another significant other, drop a hint by renting Heartburn. This dialogue – “If you want monogamy, marry a swan” – is sure to leave them tossing and turning with guilt! Plus, there’s Meryl Streep, so that’s always a great watch!
EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Aasheesh Sharma, Rachel Lopez, Aastha Atray Banan, Veenu Singh, Satarupa Paul, Saudamini Jain, Asad Ali, Nihit Bhave, Atisha Jain
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
If you’ve known the pain of longing for someone, pick up the DVD of A Mighty Heart. In the movie, Angelina Jolie goes looking for her missing husband (to a third-world nation, and returns baby-less, mind you), while our own Irrfan Khan lends a helping hand.
Stuff You Said Last Sunday
Today’s @HTBrunch features @ayushmannk ! Kudos to you for attempting #hawaizaada which is soo different!enjoyed it! - @ crazy4fawad
Excellent write riteu up p on Sturrla la Gunnarsson’s documentary Monsoon...eagerl y awaiting its release...and, of cour se, the monsoons :) - @rajatmehra
DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor, Design), Monica Gupta, Payal Dighe Karkhanis, Ajay Aggarwal
Just been through a bad break up? Watch the fantasy film Dragonheart, which made dragon-slaying cool before Game Of Thrones took over. There is much blood and gore and there’s Sean Connery as a talking dragon! What else to pull you out of your funk?
ry on cover sto Loved theout Heroics, h it Hero w ing Ayushman the charmIts time for Khurana. e & determinaconfidencckTheCode - @ tion #Cra junkkDNA
Find Hindustan Times Brunch on Facebook or tweet to @HTBrunch or
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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
11 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR KIDNEYS HEALTHY Your renal glands keep your body clean. Make sure they’re in good shape
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OUR BODY is made up of two-thirds water and it’s the job of your kidneys to maintain your hydration level. Your kidneys also maintain your blood’s electrolyte balance and help flush out toxins from your body. A combination of diet, herbs and good practices will keep them going strong.
MORE ON THE WEB For more columns by Dr Shikha Sharma and other wellness stories, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch FEBRUARY 8, 2015
Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK, THINKSTOCK
your hands with rubber gloves and wear a mask when using sprays. When colouring your hair, drink lots of water to help flush out the chemical pig1. If you don’t drink at least 10 ments. glasses of water a day, your 7. Kidney-healing foods contain urine will become concentratthe rejuvenating B-group ed, which harms your kidneys. vitamins and vitamin C. Eat 2. Drink freshly squeezed lime pomegranates, watermelon and juice diluted with water first papaya. Take probiotics or B12 thing in the morning. Other supplements if you have frekidney-friendly fruit, vegetable quent kidney problems. Cranand herb juices include apple, berries or cranberry juice is a orange, sweetlime, grape, carpopular remedy for frequent rot, beetroot, wheatgrass and kidney problems. parsley. 8. When you need to use the 3. Gokshura, an ayurvedic herbtoilet, do not hold on for too al preparation, is prescribed long. That creates problems in for frequent kidney infections the long run. and problems caused by kidney 9. Avoid innerwear made of synstones. Cystone is good for thetic fabrics. Maintain good kidney stones and Chandrappersonal hygiene. rabha is prescribed for those 10. Supplement your diet with with recurrent kidney problems. calcium-rich ragi and eat lots of (Note: If you don’t modify your fruit and lemon when diet, these ayurvedic you’re consuming an preparations will not KIDNEY FRIENDLY excess of protein. A Watermelon is rich in give any benefits.) protein-heavy diet is electrolytes, and it also 4. Use sprouted kidacidic, and in trying rejuvenates the kidneys ney beans, turmeric to maintain your and garlic as ingredibody’s pH balance, ents when you make soup. the kidneys use 5. Avoid excess tea, cofcalcium from your fee, alcohol and tobacco as bones. they are flushed out by the 11. Eat cooling kidneys and expose foods such as them to a high level coconut water, rice, of acid. watercress, celery, 6. Avoid exposure green vegetables, to chemicals cucumber and mung found in cleaning sprouts. products – protect ask@drshikha.com
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COVER STORY
I AM: o Single o In A Re Do couples have more fun or do singles rule? Are solos reigning supreme or are twosomes taking the cake? Would you rather compromise for company or indulge alone? This year, celebrate Valentine’s Day with a twist, with tales of happiness from those on both sides of the debate by Team Brunch
V/
THE SNUG COUPLE RANNVIJAY SINGHA, actor & TV host, 31; and PRIANKA VOHRA, marketer, 31
“You have to adjust to each other’s lifestyles. That’s how couplehood will survive today”
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annvijay Singha, the only Roadie India loves to love, impressed Prianka Vohra with his dancing skills and his comic timing the first time they met at a friend’s party three years ago. “We were the only two not drinking, so we ended up talking all night,” he says. But it wasn’t until they met again at a Mumbai hotel soon after, in 2011, that they felt an attraction. “It was really funny,” Prianka says. “I’d lived in London all my life, I had no clue who he was. So as people came up to him and asked for pictures, I was laughing, thinking he’d been mistaken for a movie star.” Then she saw him get mobbed in Delhi again and the penny dropped. They got married in April 2014. As couples go, the Singhas are pretty snug. He plays the fool,
The best part abou t being in a relationship is. ..
n We can play games against each other on our phones n Having corny danceoff nights with each other with no one else watching n Being able to binge eat and not worry about getting fat alone n Never having to be alone on a flight or at an airport n We can watch TV sho ws together and then dis cuss them endlessly
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
Photo: LABONY KAUSHAL
teasing her; she basks in the attention, chiding him occasionally. They admit they are still in their honeymoon period; Rannvijay’s work on Roadies and other projects keeps him away for long periods, “so maybe we still aren’t tired of each other,” says Prianka. But they know that marriage needs work. “I am the adventurous one,” admits Rannvijay. “She is the one who makes sure everything is in place.” In an industry and society where marriages often come with expiry dates, both say they were clear when they married that this would be for keeps. “We married our best friend,” says Prianka. As he listens to his wife talk, Rannvijay turns serious: “When you are younger, there are many things to distract you, but as you grow up, you need someone to care about you, no matter what.” It’s clear that to them, being a couple means each makes life comfortable for the other. “He bends over backwards to make sure I have everything I need in a new city,” she says. He adds: “She never complains and stays up to have dinner with me even at midnight. You have to adjust to each other’s lifestyles. That’s how ‘couplehood’ will survive.” Then he puts his head in her lap: “This is what I do at the end of every day. It makes everything worthwhile”. – Aastha Atray Banan
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lationship o H ONESTLY, WE can’t decide. Single people tell us how awesome it is to have the whole bed to themselves (all the pillows too, can you imagine?). Couples, on the other hand, remind us there’s nothing better than a warm cuddle before you nod off. The unattached turn impul-
Awesome
sive holidays and flirting into an art form. The teams-of-two show us how everything is twice as fun with company. Then again, we know couples that bicker and gripe through togetherness and an equal number of lonely hearts whose smiles never meet their eyes. And don’t get us started on sugary Instagrams, man-hating
/S
tweets and Facebook relationship statuses... If Valentine’s Day is all about the celebration of love, how about some stories of people who are making it work and having a blast both with and without a partner? Can you tell which side is winning? brunchletters@hindustantimes.com
THE SMUG SINGLE Photo: ABHIJEET PARKAR
SWARA BHASKAR, actress, 27
“Apart from ballroom dancing, which you technically can’t do alone, there’s nothing a single person can’t do!”
S
wara Bhaskar, single for the last eight months, jokingly blames films for her unreal expectations of men. “Bollywood has ruined me,” she says, laughing. “I told Aditya Chopra that he’d ruined my life, because after Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Raj set the standard very high. I’ve gone through a lot of people looking for Raj. I don’t know whether I came to Bollywood looking for love or for work!” She found one of the two for sure. As for the other, she’s happy that singlehood isn’t the taboo it used to be. “It’s always been okay for men to be single, but I think there’s a lot more acceptance for single women in our society today,” she says. “The media played a big role in portraying singlehood as normal. Now, girls can have a career and a life that doesn’t revolve only around men.” Being single is exciting, she says. “You’re open and receptive to new people and new relationships; there’s always an element of curiosity when you meet new people. It’s a lot of fun. And if you’ve completely given up on relationships and just decided to be with yourself, well that’s awesome too!” If only the rest of society would catch up. “I heard this really offensive acronym for single women: SINBAD. It means Single Income, No Boyfriend, Absolutely
Desperate. I yelled at the person joking about it. He made it worse by saying it wasn’t about me. I told him that wasn’t the point!” Being unattached has nothing to do with being lonely or desperate, she believes. “There are also phases in relationships when you feel like sh*t, and when it gets overbearing,” she says. “Everything has its pros and cons.” Like when she shows up, without a Plus One at wedding receptions and has to put up with aunties looking to pair her off or offer unsolicited advice. “They say, ‘Beta, ab time aa gaya hai, ab shaadi kar lo. Ab toh career bhi set ho gaya hai’. At the last wedding, I was forced to hang out with this friend, who eventually asked me to leave him alone as I was cramping his style’,” Swara recalls. For her, it’s all about being able to be independent. “I don’t characterise my single status just The best part about being by the lack of a man. single is... For me, it is about bea n Shopping is peaceful without ing able to live alone, asking, “Are we done yet?” man have a career and earn n You can flirt guilt-free my income,” she says. n It’s okay to hang out with male ng “Besides, apart from and female friends without havi to justify it to a partner ballroom dancing, n You can keep a toothbrush and which you technically d hairbrush in your bag and spen can’t do alone, there’s the night anywhere safe! nothing a single person n You can drink, misbehave and can’t do!”– make an ass of yourself and not s – Nihit Bhave have to deal with someone else’ embarrassment, just your own hangover
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COVER STORY
THE SNUG COUPLE
V/S
THE SMUG SINGLE
NIKHIL CHINAPA, DJ and VJ, age withheld; and PEARL MIGLANI, DJ, age withheld
SHALMALI KHOLGADE, singer, 27
“Nothing’s as inexplicably comforting as the sight of your life partner”
“Being single is equated with being lonely but couples get lonely too!”
The best part abou t being in a relationship is. ..
n You can share respon sibilities. She drives while he rea ds the map n Having company wh ile listening to old vinyl records n You can be embarras sin cuddly when you travel gly and hold hands while driving n Looking at each oth er knowingly when dancing n Going on adventure trips – we went to Cambodia las t year
F
ifteen years ago, Pearl Miglani phoned her friend, a producer on the show MTV Select, for a chat. What she got instead was the love of her life. Nikhil Chinapa, the show’s host, had grabbed the phone from his producer as a joke. “I was curious about what she looked like because her voice sounded incredible,” Chinapa recalls. “She had this really nice laugh and made interesting conversation.” On the other end of the line, Pearl was similarly smitten. A week later, Nikhil asked Pearl if she’d have dinner with him on his trip to Delhi: “I finally put a face to the voice – and what a gorgeous one it was! We yammered like chatterboxes.” They took a dancing holiday to Barcelona and Ibiza. But their real
test came three years before they got married in 2003, when Pearl was diagnosed with a tumour. “He lay in the hospital bed with me, with the tubes going into me, and wouldn’t let go,” Pearl recalls. “We didn’t know if I’d make it through the surgery.” When she pulled through, he also helped her get back on her feet. Pearl could only use one arm effectively after recovery, so Nikhil assisted on one gig by supplying, literally, a helping hand. Now married for nine years, they are still romantics. But they’re pragmatic too. “Relationships need work; no matter how long a couple have been together,” Nikhil says. “She’s super understanding of my constant travelling and the nature of my job, but isn’t afraid to voice concerns when I take things for granted. We talk about everything – and I mean everything. We don’t just restrict things to small talk and “work”. In fact, we avoid discussing work at home.” Nikhil says that being a couple doesn’t fit any one definition. “This is a relationship between two unique identities – there are general rules about understanding and listening to each other, but to make it work, you’ve got to be able to make up the rules as you stumble along through life together.” And there are great rewards, Pearl says: “There is nothing quite as inexplicably comforting as the sight of your life partner.” – Aastha Atray Banan
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
S
halmali Kholgade, who shot to fame with her lovedup song, Pareshaan from Ishaqzaade, isn’t worrying about her single status one bit. She’s ready to pour all the romance into the mushy Bollywood songs she records, while remaining happily unattached at the same time. “I’ve come across more people who envy the fact that I’m alone, than feel bad for me,” she says. “I get more time for my hobbies this way. I don’t just sing but also love to sketch; I knit whenever my hands are free, learn kathak from a dance teacher and pick up a book at almost every airport.” While there might be a lot of stigmas attached to singlehood, she isn’t ready to give in to the pressures of finding a partner just as yet. “Being single is equated with being lonely but couples get lonely, too,” she says. “We only have ourselves to blame for how we feel at any given time. So I can choose to be single today, and still not get lonely.” The advantages of not being in a relationship are greater, she’s found. “It’s great to allow yourself to feel drawn towards or attracted to someone without having to feel guilty about it. It’s great to do things alone, that you otherwise would have had to ask your partner to do with you; perhaps even against his wishes! I’ve had a blast in the last year, travelling to different countries on work and just renting a bicycle, using public transport and exploring the city on foot on my own.” There’s of course an downside to singlehood: “You have to take care of everything on your own, from the laundry to stocking up your fridge, paying all your bills, servicing your car and even changing a flat tyre. And then there are the over-friendly neighbours who want to get too close,” she says. But those few challenges of living
The best part abou t being single is...
® You can be yourse lf without wondering if it will aff ect you or your partner in any wa y ® You can work long hours and still go out with friends at the end of the day. There are no deadlines! ® You never have the stress of arguing with a partne r ® You get the whole bed to yourself and can sleep dia gonally if you want to! ® You end up spendi ng more on yourself because you don’t have to buy gifts for a partne r
alone in the city aren’t worth settling for someone you don’t love. “It is no use putting yourself through a relationship and settling on a partner who doesn’t tick all your boxes,” she says. “The acceptance of singlehood by society has made it easier for singles today. At the end of the day what matters is what keeps you happy. It’s the best time to understand yourself, your views, your opinions and your preferences.” – Nihit Bhave
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COVER STORY
V/
THE SNUG COUPLE SHIV KARAN SINGH, restaurateur 42; and REEMMA SEN, actress, 33
“Patience is the most essential ingredient for a happy marriage”
T
hey first met at a friend’s party in Mumbai, which ended up with both of them fighting in front of 300 people. But they met again a few times and soon the anger was replaced by something else. Then they surprised everyone by wanting to get married. Then it was their parents’ turn to be angry. Reemma’s mother refused to have her Bengali daughter move to Delhi for a “brash Punjabi Delhi boy”; Shiv’s parents didn’t want a film actress for a daughterin-law. “It was like a Vicky Donor moment,” Reemma recalls. The marriage has been a hit. Three years on, they have a twoyear-old and Reemma says she doesn’t miss films. The man sees the bigger picture too. “Today the majority of people get married
without understanding that it is a lifelong commitment. People lack patience – the most essential ingredient for a happy marriage,” he says. “Reemma takes care of me while giving me space and respect. If she wants to return to acting, I’ll be the first to encourage it.” Neither celebrates Valentine’s Day. When Shiv tried, years ago, to send Reemma flowers on February 14, she immediately called him to say, “Why are you wasting money like that?” Though some issues remain unresolved: “Most fights are about his driving,” Reemma says. “I tell him he goes too fast which, considering he’s been doing this for 20 years, drives him up the wall.” – Veenu Singh
Photo: RAJ K RAJ
The best part abou t being in a relationship is. ..
n Not worrying about dying alone n We can discuss eve ry petty thing with our spouses wit hout worrying that it will be used aga inst us n We take out our fru strations on each other, not let the m fester n We can have babies legitimately! n The endless gossip sessions
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
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/S
THE SMUG SINGLE KISHI ARORA, pastry chef and consultant, 33
“Marriage is not an achievement, a contract, or a thing to fall back on”
I
am a Punjabi, and Punjabis place a lot of emphasis on marriage, but my parents have been pretty chilled out about the fact that I’m happily single at 33. My younger sister has been married for almost eight years, but that doesn’t bother me or anyone at home. The only person who’ll sometimes raise the subject is my father and that too in good humour. My folks tell me to be happy in whatever I do. Even though marriage is not a priority for me (at least not right now as I’m more focused towards expanding my business and I want to travel to a lot, learn new cuisines and just have fun) I’m not averse to the idea. I don’t see it as a contract or an achievement or something to fall back on. I see how marriage has become more of a social thing than a personal thing today – many of my friends are already divorced or in a bad marriage. I don’t want that to happen to me. I need someone I enjoy being with, who won’t stop me from being who I am. I have had boyfriends and dated people; none of them made me want to settle down immediately. This is a good time to be single. Society has changed, so much so that now my relatives say that Kishi has become an example for the younger generation in the family. Spending time by myself is an indulgence I’d never have if I had a partner. I travel when I feel like, watch the movies I want, and am equally happy meeting new people or catching up with friends. But,
t being
The best part abou single is...
bags and go n You can pack your ver you want wherever and whene g as you want and stay on for as lon care of you ter bet e tak nds Frie n you can e, eon som like n If you pretend to t jus , not If t. flir happily son can’t per d rrie ma A be married. t guilt hou wit gle sin pretend to be r career n You can focus on you night at a n You can stay up all married party and make all the r freedom you of s lou jea nds frie
what I enjoy doing most is spending time with my parents and getting pampered by them. I was raised by my grandparents in Delhi while they were in Singapore, so I’m enjoying what I missed. I’m quite a practical person. I don’t believe in this concept of having one special day to profess your love. For me every day is a happy, loving day. Valentine’s Day, though, is the busiest time for business – I’ll be helping people show their love with my cakes and cupcakes. But after that, I will be enjoying a session of Dastangoi! – As told to Veenu Singh
LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVE, BABY Brunch is celebrating singles and couples this week on Twitter. Tweet your pics, with a buddy, a loved one, or just yourself, to @HTBrunch. Let’s show the world that ribbons, teddy bears and pink hearts are so yesterday!
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STYLE FILE
Photos: GETTY IMAGES
American Odishi
ever would be like, ‘Is it okay if I wear these at home?’”
ACROSS THE SEVEN SEAS
Bibhu Mohapatra went from Odisha to NYC, from making outfits out of table cloths to designing for Michelle Obama. Here’s his story by Satarupa Paul
F
ROM THE moment American First Lady Michelle Obama stepped off Air Force One in Delhi two weeks ago, the Indian media tripped over her knee-length dress and matching jacket. The outfit graced the front page of every newspaper, was splashed on TV screens over and over again, has been compared with other ensembles, praised and criticised. Much ado over nothing, you’d say? Not quite. Because somewhere in all that frenzy, the real star of the show shone through: Indian-born, New York-based designer Bibhu Mohapatra is suddenly hot news. I tell him so over the phone. He chuckles appreciatively and says, “It’s heavenly! I feel like my entire family is cheering for me.” His voice is still heavily inflected with Indian tones, his attitude is still that of a small town boy, but his etiquette, aspirations and energy are very first world. “All these years, I never made a conscious effort to speak like an American. In fact, I still wobble my head when I talk,” says the 42-year old fashion designer and chuckles again.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Hailing from Rourkela in Odisha, Bibhu grew up in a modest, middle-class household, with parents who were traditional, yet progressive in their thinking. “I was surrounded by things my mother sewed and I was curious about them. When I was about 12, my mother taught me how to sew on her old machine. In most households, a boy wanting to learn
DEEPLY ROOTED
Bibhu Mohapatra still exudes the attitude of a small-town boy how to sew would be met with criticism, but not in mine.” Bibhu, however, followed a conventional educational path with a Bachelor in Economics from Municipal College, Rourkela. All along though, he remained fascinated by the technicalities of taking something flat, cutting it up and using a sewing machine to make something that one could
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
wear. And all along, he honed his skills by making ‘things’ from old sarees and table cloths for his older sister, who, he claims “wore them out of the sheer kindness of her heart”. “Poor girl, she was so patient!” he says.“I’m so glad that some of those things I made do not exist anymore because those were real atrocities (laughs). My sister who didn’t want to discourage me
Following his graduation, Bibhu enrolled in a Masters programme in Economics at the Utah State University on a partial scholarship and enough money from his father to last him a quarter. “It was my ticket to America. I set off for the US with a suitcase full of clothes and Indian spices, and a heart full of dreams,” he says, melodramatically almost. He had promised himself not to take any more money from his father, and so he set off to find a job on campus. “One day, I saw a posting for a 20 hours-a-week job at the university inn for the post of something called a janitor. I didn’t know what it meant but I applied anyway. During the interview, I kept thinking that maybe I’ll get that computer to sit at. And then my supervisor took me to the janitor’s closet – it was full of brooms and mops,” he laughs. “For the first two weeks, I would lock myself in a room in the middle of all the cleaning, think of my mother and cry. But then I got over it and did it for nine months for the minimum wage of $4.25 an hour. It made me appreciate the saying that no job is small.” During this time, he also took fashion merchandising classes and on a professor’s insistence, applied to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York for a compressed course. New York was a different ball game altogether. After paying for tuition and housing, his student loan left him with $1.75 for food. “I had to have a job or I would have been on the streets.” He printed 20 copies of his resume, walked across 7th Avenue where all the major design houses are based, and dropped them at the offices of Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and other such names – amidst take-away food menus! “Out of those 20, I got two calls. One was for an internship with the house of Halston. I was working non-stop: classes, homework, job, running to factories carrying bolts of fabrics on my shoulders, doing embroidery layouts, cutting, being in the fittings. I was like a kid in a candy shop; I was living my dream.”
NEXT BIG LEAP
On graduating, he joined the design house J Mendel and for the next nine years helped build it from a four-member team to over 20 in the design department alone.
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RAMP ON FIRE
Bibhu used his memory of the palash flower and mixed it with water colour to create this stunning garment
INDIA AND THE WILD WEST
Then in the fall of 2009 during the recession, Bibhu decided to launch his eponymous label Bibhu Mohapatra. “When you start something new, you have to do the groundwork for a few years to establish yourself before it takes off. I thought I might as well do that when the economy was slumping, so by the time it turned around, and I survived, I would be right up there. It worked for me; at a time when no one was launching even a little chai shop, forget a luxury brand, I got a lot of attention.” He has since designed gorgeous couture evening gowns, glamorous cocktail dresses and furs for a clientele he had cultivated while at J Mendel, including Hillary Swank, Jennifer Lopez, Glenn Close, Eva Longoria and more. And of course, Michelle Obama. “The first time she wore one of my creations (to the Jay Leno Show), I showed a photo to my dad. He had seen movie stars and musicians wearing my designs, but for him this was the ultimate moment.”
The First Lady in this Bibhu Mohapatra dress took the Indian media by storm
Bibhu’s creations are edgy, classy, modern and sexy. His techniques are a play of opposites – tailoring with draping, organic versus geometric, florals set off with architectural lines. He draws his inspiration from people and travels, and from his heritage. “Growing up, I took all those beautiful fabrics, the amazing handicrafts and the dazzling combination of colours in jewellery and clothes, for granted. After I left India, all those things became very vivid. Now they make their way into all my collections.” He remembers seeing a flower in the spring time while travelling through Odisha as a kid. “It’s called palash and it’s bright orange-red with a velvety black base. It’s like the whole tree is on fire.” Two seasons ago, he used his memory of that flower and mixed it with water colour to create a stunning garment. Bibhu says it’d be a dream come true to bring his creations to India. “I really miss being in India with my people, whether my family or my friends, and also the food.” For now, in his free time, he’s content with cooking for his friends (including Odiya food), when he’s not watching Bollywood movies or documentaries on India. “During the weekend, I go to my country house in upstate New York, which is this tiny, wooden farmer’s house built in the 1840s.” He goes there not only to process and absorb all the inspirations and ideas he’s had through the week, but also to look after his chickens. “I started with 17 of them, all named after supermodels. Then we had a fox attack, and Naomi Campbell and a few others perished. But Christie (Brinkley), Heidi (Klum), and others are still living and laying eggs,” he says, with the chuckle I’m familiar with now. satarupa.paul@ hindustantimes.com Follow @satarupapaul on Twitter
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CULTURE CANVAS
When Art Goes Places...
One of the most glamorous events in the Indian art circuit, the India Art Fair turned seven this year. A look at some of the artists whose work invited a third glance by Asad Ali, photos by Gurinder Osan
The Threshold Into A Dream
Artist: TV Santhosh Supported by: The Guild
O
ne of Mumbai’s iconic landmarks – the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), formerly Victoria Terminus – lies at an angle of about 30 degrees. TV Santosh’s detailed installation of the city’s famous station has several digital timers (all set differently) attached to it. The project, which took close to two years to complete, serves as a striking reminder of the Mumbai attacks – the timers ticking away eerily on loop. Santosh says, “After 26/11 when I visited the CST, I realised how the meaning of this beautiful structure had changed, and how it had emotionally shaken me. I
wanted to revisit that experience through my work.” Santosh says that the best medium he could think of in the context was a structure intrinsic to the lives of the people who live in the city. He describes the station as a colonial structure that’s like “an ever-pumping heart of the city”. Explaining the tilt, he says, “We lift up something in order to see what is underneath it. It is a metaphorical act of investigating into history to see how violence leads to more violence.” While the work resonated with most people, Santosh adds that “children seemed to understand it faster!”
Serenity Of Desolation
Artist: Veer Munshi Supported by: Popular Prakashan
C
lose to the entrance of the India Art Fair grounds lay a large-scale model of a toppled Kashmiri house: dark in colour with darker interiors (there are no windows to let in light). You can go inside the house from its ‘base’. Inside, on one of the walls,
hang watercolour portraits of 50 local faces. At the other end of the house, video footage of the recent Kashmir floods keeps playing on loop. This is Delhi-based artist Veer Munshi’s interpretation of the floods in Kashmir and its af-
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
termath. Munshi says that often the news of a natural calamity gets drowned in the noise of other news stories that keep happening in a country as large as India. Hence a site specific project like this serves as a good reminder of what the situation still is in Kashmir post the devastating floods that happened in September 2014. The model took about three months – and about 30 workers – to complete; Munshi will use the proceeds from its sale towards helping rehabilitate affected people in the Valley. Explaining how the idea came to him, Munshi says, “Me and some other artists were supposed to visit Kashmir for a wedding. That’s when the floods
happened and all communication broke down... eventually I started drawing portraits of 100 people from the place, all of whom I knew in some measure, and had spent time with in the past.” For the video footage he asked friends and acquaintances for help and put together all the resources into one file. The video that’s projected on the house wall inside, has a window frame around it – to suggest the intimacy of the disaster right at the doorstep of most homes. The collapsed house has another interpretation too: “It also symbolises the houses a lot of Kashmiris left behind... in a way these houses have experienced collapse twice, one was a political fall and the other was a natural fall.” Overall, Munshi says he is happy with the reception he got at the fair. “People have been appreciative mostly. Some though asked me if I brought the house from Kashmir, and how I managed to do it!”
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The Art Of Papilio Demoleus (or how to become The Lemon Butterfly) Artist: Priyanka Choudhary Supported by: Gallery Maskara
E
eew!” went a fetching young lady as artist Priyanka Choudhary started nibbling on the leaves of a potted citrus plant at the India Art Fair. It had to be the most intriguing performance at this year’s fair. Delhi-based artist Choudhary, dressed in a white gown, sat on a high stool facing a citrus plant. And proceeded to eat the leaves one by one till the plant was bare except for the lemons. By the time the performance ended (she ravaged two citrus plants), her dress was stained with green dribble. Once the act was over she walked away quietly. But she had placed a card nearby which asked, “Who in our world becomes a lemon butterfly?” and sought answers from people passing by. Choudhary says that she wanted to explore the theme of invader-invasion and the violence attached with it. And the best example she could think of was the lemon butterfly, also called the “butterfly of death.” She says, “This little caterpillar
is one of the biggest destroyers of citrus plantations globally and a very successful invader. One small creature finishes off a whole plant and when it turns into a butterfly, it quietly flies away!” The correlation between the act of invasion by the insect and invasive behavior in the real world is inevitable. “Which is why some of the answers to the question I had asked were so interesting. One person wrote ‘America’, and someone else wrote ‘Politician’! Yet another person wrote ‘Ego’... for me those were very significant reactions from the public. It showed that despite being a radical act, a lot of people got the point of it,” says Choudhary. Choudhary also says that she had been thinking of this act for a while now but the India Art Fair presented the right platform she needed: “I thought the fair was a very interesting public space suited for this kind of performance.” And how did she prepare? “I do a lot of yoga… and
before the act I go into complete silence, which helps to focus,” says Choudhary, adding that the period immediately after the performance is more difficult, both physically and mentally. “I thought I’d throw up and people
were offering me bins! But surprisingly I didn’t feel the need to throw up at all.” However, she suffered blisters in her mouth from the rather harsh meal but laughs it off saying, “Well, I did manage to digest all the leaves!”
asad.ali@hindustantimes.com Follow @AsadAli1989 on Twitter
20
indulge
A Weekend Away
A new hotel, with luxurious suites, a young staff and hip restaurants, helps continue the tradition of quick, indulgent breaks not too far from home Vir Sanghvi
rude hotels HOT AND CREAMY
The India Room’s cheese soufflé had a tang of paprika in the sauce
I
N SOME prehistoric era (the late 1980s, actually) when I was editor of Sunday magazine, we did a cover story called something like “Out for the Weekend”. The premise of the piece was the then-novel idea that as more and more middle-class Indians owned cars, many families were choosing to simply drive somewhere for the weekend. It was not an original idea. In the Bombay of the early Seventies, many people drove off to Matheran, Lonavala, Mahabaleshwar and other hill stations in the Western Ghats for a break. It is true that those who did go tended to be upper-middle-class or rich, that they took drivers (hill roads can be treacherous) and that the only accommodation available at these hill stations consisted of clubs and relatively modest hotels. But few people I knew went off for a mere weekend. Hill-station breaks usually took a full week or so. When people wanted a weekend break, they went nearby. Hard as this may be to believe now, I’m told that in the 1950s and early 1960s, people drove to Juhu because it seemed so far away from south Bombay. And I remember going to Manori in the 1980s because the journey (involving a ferry ride) seemed romantic and the best hotel there (Manoribel) seemed a world away from the hustle and bustle of Bombay.
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
By the time I moved to Delhi in the 1990s, the culture of driving to Kasauli or Mussoorie was well established. Many people even drove to Jaipur. I never got very enthusiastic about those journeys because I just found them too exhausting. When the Oberois opened the wonderful Wildflower Hall near Simla, I took a plane to Chandigarh and drove there. The hotel was amazing but the drive took too much out of me. I much preferred Raj Vilas, also run by the Oberois, to which you could actually take a flight. When I did drive to Jaipur, I found the journey so tiring that I went back to flying. The only place I did drive to was Agra (where the Oberois had Amar Vilas) because there were no flights. But through it all, I kept wondering, why does nobody build a resort that is near enough Delhi to not make the getting there so painful? It turned out I was not the only one to have that idea. When AB Vajpayee planned his famous summit meeting with Pervez Musharraf, he put his hotelier son-in-law, Ranjan Bhattacharya, in charge of scouting for locations. Bhattacharya was unable to find anywhere (Musharraf ended up at Amar Vilas and the summit moved from Delhi to Agra). Bhattacharya complained to Habib Rehman, then head of ITC Hotels, about the lack of suitable luxury resorts within driving distance of Delhi and Rehman told him that ITC was working on something. What ITC had in mind was a new hotel that was originally called Camp Bharat, but which has now become the chain’s grandest gesture and is called ITC Grand Bharat. The hotel is in Mewat, a short distance from Manesar. As Delhi has expanded, it no longer seems so far out (if you live in Gurgaon you can even drop in for dinner) but its location is secluded enough (through villages and fields) to give you the sense that you are a long way from Delhi (which, of course, you are not.) Now that the Gurgaon highway has improved (and the first toll has gone), it should take just over an hour from central Delhi and about an-hour-and-ahalf from parts of South Delhi where the traffic is bad. That makes it perfect for a weekend, a corporate retreat and, of course (though ITC shies away from saying this), for a
Photo: SAMBIT SAHA
21
CONTINENTAL DRIFT
GOT WEEKEND PLANS?
Heads of Government Meeting. Some of you may know the location. It is where ITC has run the Classic Golf Resort for many years and owns hundreds of acres of land. In fact, when I first heard that they were building a hotel there, I imagined it would be a golf-clubby kind of place. To my surprise, Yogi Deveshwar, the company’s chairman, and Nakul Anand, its executive director in charge of hotels, decided to treat the golf course as a mere add-on. You can play golf if you like. But what Deveshwar and Anand have built is a luxury resort in the Vilas league. And this has no ordinary entry-level rooms; every single guest gets to stay in a suite. I’ve been twice to see the hotel and was invited to stay once when the resort had just about opened (what they call a “soft-opening” in the trade.) Each time I went I was curious because, hard as this is to believe, ITC is the only one of India’s three major hotel companies to have never run a major resort. What, I wondered, would an ITC resort be like? Well, some things were not surprising. The main building was grand (like Chennai’s Grand Chola) and a lot of effort has gone into the food (not necessarily true in the case of most other Indian resorts). And ITC’s characteristic personalised service is as you would expect. But there are many surprising elements. The rooms break with conventional hotel design in that each unit comprises four separate rooms: there is a very comfortable bedroom, a cosy living room, a large dressing room and a huge bathroom. There is also a sit-out where I had breakfast most mornings and some rooms are connected to spacious terraces. There is a huge pool but every room is also linked to a semi-private swimming pool should you not want to make the trek to the main pool. The other surprise is the quality of service. With ITC veteran Anand Rao (the Maurya, Gardenia, Maratha, Windsor etc) in charge, you expect an unusual level of efficiency because that is Rao’s forte. But what you don’t expect is the youthful vigour, enthusiasm and sophistication of the staff. I asked Nakul Anand how he had managed to find such a young team. It turned out that the Grand Bharat is using students from ITC Management School (which Rao also runs) for many key functions. Their style of treating guests is completely different from anything ITC has done before and the guest-interface is fresher and graceful without being obsequious. Levels of enthusiasm and skills are astonishingly high. One young chef came up to me and insisted I try the sashimi his section had prepared (it was great!) and when I asked for an off-menu biryani, they got a 21-year-old student to
make it. It turned out he was the grandson of the great Imtiaz Qureshi. But his biryani was his own: more robust and homestyle than the courtly version his grandfather made famous. ITC hopes to fill Grand Bharat up with people who drive down from Delhi. It is expensive, as you would expect of an all-suite property, but once you factor in the absence of airfare, it actually works out cheaper than say, going to Udaipur. So far at least, that has worked. Despite a low-key opening with very little publicity, occupancies and average room rates have been high. And my guess is that they will have no difficulty getting people from out of town to come and stay either. It is near enough to Gurgaon for anybody who has work there to find it convenient. And why would you stay in an ugly tower block hotel when you could wake up to the sound of birds calling and look out of your window and see the hills and the trees? And most of all I think people will come for the food. Anybody who goes to an ITC hotel and doesn’t get Bukhara-Dum Pukht food goes away disappointed. So Grand Bharat does all the favourites but in the coffee shop. The specialty restaurant, the India Room, is a pet project of my friend Gautam Anand and is an ambitious attempt to recreate the classics of European cooking with a twist. So you’ll get a classic roast lamb – but made with carefully sourced wild mutton. The cheese soufflé will have a tang of paprika in the sauce. The spaghetti carbonara will become a tortellini with the sauce inside each dumpling. And so on. There is a new bistro still to come, authentic Hunan food from expat chef Lie Wen, a new Serai cuisine that ITC is still developing, focusing on the food of the caravanserais that took traders and their goods from India to Iran, which uses such unusual ingredients as preserved lemons. And so the revolution continues: first family trips to the hills; then weekend breaks to places within driving distance. And now, sheer luxury in a rustic setting that is only an hour’s drive away!
I remember going to Manori (top right) in the 1980s because a ferry ride seemed romantic; In the Bombay of the early Seventies, many people drove off to Matheran
Photo: GETTY IMAGES
The Grand Bharat’s specialty restaurant, the India Room, attempts to recreate the classics of European cooking with a twist
As Delhi has expanded, Mewat, near Manesar, no longer seems so far out
MORE ON THE WEB For more columns by Vir Sanghvi, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch The views expressed by the columnist are personal
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
YOUR PALACE AWAITS
The ITC’s Yogi Deveshwar (above) and Nakul Anand have built the Grand Bharat as a luxury resort. No entry-level rooms; every guest gets a suite
22
indulge There’s nothing quite like an election to make politicians show their true colours
Poll Fault T
HE BEST time to observe the idiosyncrasies of Indian politics is in the run-up to an election. So it wasn’t in the least surprising that the election campaign for the Delhi Assembly gave us some fresh insights into the behaviour of that strange creature: the Indian politician. In case you have been (very understandably) hiding underneath your blanket until the electoral coast clears, here’s a brief summary of what we learnt over the last fortnight – or indeed, over the last decade: n Promises, promises: There is nothing that politicians won’t promise in the run-up to an election. Here’s just a random sampling of all the stuff we’ve been dazzled with: `15 lakhs in the bank account of every Indian (our share of all the black money that was going to be brought back
Seema Goswami
spectator MORE ON THE WEB For more SPECTATOR columns by Seema Goswami, log on to hindustantimes.com/ brunch. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ seemagoswami. Write to her at seema_ht@ rediffmail.com The views expressed by the columnist are personal
RESTART
Being exiled from power tends to bring on a powerful bout of ‘introspection’, followed by abject ‘apologies’ to the people for having let them down
to India); free water and electricity; ‘safety kits’ for women which would include pepper spray and whistles; free wi-fi for everyone; free television sets; dowry for your daughters; education loans for your sons; and so on and on and on. n When in doubt, delete: That’s the first thing that entrants to any political party – or those who have defected to another – do. They scour their social media accounts to scratch out all the offensive things they once said about their then-opponents and now-allies. Unfortunately, the Internet has a very long memory; too many people have discovered the art of capturing a screenshot; and television clips tend to live on forever. So good luck with that. n Be still, my beating heart: If the CBI comes calling, then a ‘heart attack’ or, at the very least, ‘palpitations’ are never far behind. The more committed manage to stage a dramatic collapse before the cameras. The more retiring content themselves with looking pale and wan, and exiting their houses on a wheelchair to portray an image of vulnerability. But then, given that their only choice is between jail
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
and a nice hospital bed, who can blame them for that Oscarworthy acting? n It’s cold out there: There’s nothing like a spell in political Siberia to help people discover that they have such a thing as a ‘conscience’. Maybe it’s the icy winds of adversity that strip away those layers of arrogance, corruption and venality, leaving a quivering mass of regret at the core. Or maybe it’s just the desire to bask in the sunshine of public approval. But, whatever the reason, being exiled from the corridors of power tends to bring on a powerful bout of ‘introspection’, followed by abject ‘apologies’ to the people for having let them down. n The law of the letter: You can be sure that if one politician has written an embarrassing letter to another, it is only a matter of time before it mysteriously materialises on the front page of a leading national daily. Both the sender and the receiver will feign incredulity and outrage that such a ‘personal’ missive became public, even though it is amply clear than one or the other must have leaked it. And both will take great pleasure in bashing the media over their ‘intrusive’ ways. As for the media, well, they will devote hours of primetime to ‘debating’ the letter in question: why was it written; who leaked it; who gains; who doesn’t? And each media organisation will claim to be the ‘first’ at ‘breaking’ the story. n I was only following orders: No matter what a politician says or does in the execution of his or her ‘duties’, nothing is ever his or her fault. It is either the media that are blamed for a ‘witchhunt’ or for ‘misquoting’ or ‘quoting out of context’ (this, even when the offending quote has been recorded for posterity on television cameras, and is thus, indisputable). Or the blame is laid at the door of the party ‘high command’, which ‘forced’ its will on the hapless politician in question. What was that you asked? Why didn’t the politician refuse to carry out a flawed order? Ah but you see, he/she hadn’t spent a spell in the political wilderness yet, so he/she was not in touch with his/her conscience (see above). n Nothing is secret; nothing is sacred: If you are planning to stand for election, then be prepared to have every aspect of your life scrutinised. Nothing is off limits. Not your family life, not your medical history, not your business interests, not your bank balance, not your financial assets, and certainly not your service record. So, if you have been fibbing all your life about having towed the Prime Minister’s car, then you will have to come clean on who actually did the towing (and if it turns out that it wasn’t you, who has been dining out on the story for decades on end, then be prepared to be roasted on primetime television). n Lies, damned lies, and opinion polls: It is almost a truism of Indian politics that no political party will be happy with the results of the opinion polls. Those who have been written off will complain that the sample size was too small, and that the questions were loaded against them in the survey. Those who fared better will insist that the numbers don’t really do justice to the massive support they have garnered. And everybody will insist that it’s no point discussing opinion polls, because opinion polls never get it right, even as they discuss them threadbare night after night in television studios. Clearly, if there’s one thing our politicians – across party lines – have in common, it is an irony deficit. Photos: GETTY IMAGES
24
FINE PRINT
British-Chinese writer Jung Chang talks about her bestselling family biography Wild Swan and about her books being banned in China
Photo: GETTY IMAGES
“Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction”
by Saudamini Jain
J
UNG CHANG is the most well-known Chinese writer in the world. But all of her three books are banned in China. Her family memoir Wild Swans was the book of the ’90s, which is to say, everybody read it. This big green book was published just two years after the 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. The average reader was relatively ignorant about China but keenly interested. And here was an account of three generations of Chinese women: Chang’s grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother, a revolutionary; and Chang herself, a former Red Guard who eventually moved to England. It was translated into 37 languages and sold more than 13 million copies. Hillary Clinton called it “an inspiring tale of women who survived every deprivation and political upheaval with their humanity intact.” Martin Amis said it made him feel like a five-year-old, adding, it “has the breadth of the most enduring social history.” In 2005, Chang, along with her Irish historian husband John Halliday, wrote Mao: The Unknown Story, which showed Mao Zedong as one of the most monstrous tyrants of the 20th century. Her most recent book is a biography of Empress Dowager Cixi who controlled China from 1861 to 1908 and is generally considered a cruel despot. The Cixi in Empress Dowager Cixi is a feminist, a visionary and “the greatest woman in Chinese history”. The book, Chang says, began after she found out that Cixi had banned the barbaric custom of feet-binding. That’s the practice of crushing the four smaller toes of a woman’s foot under a stone and then binding them to the bones, so they looked small and dainty.
At 62, Chang is very, very glamorous. You cannot picture her as a peasant, an electrician or a barefoot (untrained) doctor living in China. Or walking around the streets of London in a Mao suit, as she did in the ’70s when she moved to study in the UK. We caught up with her at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival. Excerpts:
How did you start writing?
I started writing Wild Swans in 1988 after my mother had come to stay with me in London. She would tell me stories of her life and of my grandmother. I felt that she really wanted me to understand her. And that gave me the impetus to write the book. I also felt that my mother seemed to know that I had this dream of becoming a writer.
was my father’s insanity. The other was my grandmother’s death. [My] experiences are painful because my family members suffered and I did not. I didn’t go through that trauma.
Moving from China to the UK in 1978 must have been a culture shock. In those days, it was like another planet. Everything was different!
Did you have to deal with racism?
I was 21 when I learnt English. And it shows in my writing
Was it painful to write such a personal narrative?
The most painful part
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
Well, we were still wearing Mao suits. We were quite a sight on the streets! The English I had learnt in China was a direct translation of Chinese into English. So I was going around asking people, “Have you eaten?” – it is a Chinese street greeting. But it was an exciting time, living without restrictions...
Your books are banned in China...
But the regime is doing far worse to other writers, you know, sending them to prison.
You are allowed to visit your sister and mother on condition that you meet no one else...
There is a direct flight from London to Changdu where my mother lives. When she is ill, I wish I could jump into a plane and fly to her. But I can’t, because there is tight control. I can go only once a year and only for two weeks.
In your latest biography, you’ve heaped praise upon Empress Dowager Cixi, who is considered a tyrant... Women rulers always have bad press.
You learnt English late. But that is the language you write in.
I was 21 when I learnt English. And it shows in my writing. It’s not a book by a person whose mother tongue was English. But the most important thing in writing is to form the book in your head. And that has to be done in one language. And so I form my thoughts in English.
Are you never tempted to write fiction?
In the Chinese world, truth is often stranger than fiction. Saudamini.Jain@hindustantimes.com Follow @saudaminijain on Twitter
26
TRAVEL
Everything You Hear About Japan Is...
GILT TRIP
The Kinkaku-ji temple in Kyoto is covered in gold leaf, and impossibly beautiful in every season
...not always true and never entirely false. In between is a country you have to visit to believe
In many ways, my trip started long before I boarded my plane. Those who’d been there, volunteered tips unasked. Those who hadn’t, somehow had advice to offer too. I suppose I know why. Japan is a country physically and culturally so removed from the text and photos by rest of the world, it’s almost a parallel universe. Japanese trends Rachel Lopez mushroom, hold the nation in their grip, and disappear without NE WHOLE week in Jaus knowing (ever heard of bean pan? They only eat sushi! beards, butt-print skirts or bagel How will you survive?” heads?) Its culture is so complex, a “Don’t take cabs! It’s gaijin (an outsider) `18,000 just from the airport.” can get hopelessly “Their toilets are space-age!” entangled in the “Have you read Murakami/ clichés. And if Watched Lost In Translation?” you’re a gaijin “Catch a geisha performance. only for a week, Wait. Do they still have geisha?” like me, it’s “Their trains are so crowded a place best Only they have officers to stuff enjoyed after in people into the comsome homeJapan... partment so the doors work – even ...is it possible to can close.” if it means see a samurai at the “The have weird fashlistening to bus stop (this guy ions. Don’t shop.” endless was in costume in “But have Burger tips. Asakusa, Tokyo) King’s black burger!”
O
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
...ABOUT THAT SUSHI
abound, and burger Only Chief among these will chains like the local Mos in Japan... be about food. If you’re (famous for buns made ...will vending vegetarian and/or machines sell you sushi, with cooked rice) and squeamish, how will Burger King (yes, I had bananas, freshly cooked burgers and even your you manage? Quite that all-black burger horoscope. My fortune from BuzzFeed) ensure well, actually. Tokyo was glowing! alone has Indian vegyou never have to look at etarian buffets, sophistiseaweed or raw fish. cated meatless dinIf fish is what you ners, south Indian and want, Japan’s your north Indian meals. We oyster, your salmon, your lunched at Indian-owned soft-shelled crab and Chatpata in Osaka, where your eel. Make a morning the samosas and curries pilgrimage to Tsukiji, the tasted good enough for us world’s biggest fish marto check if home was really one ket, and take a deep breath international and one local flight for two reasons: a) the variety will away. European-style restaurants boggle the mind, and b) you can
TRAVEL INFO n Japan Airlines operates daily nonstop flights between New Delhi and Tokyo. Air India has flights as well. n One Japanese Yen is approximately equal to 52 paise. n Cherry blossom season in spring and autumn are the best times to visit. Room rates typically double. n Tokyo is the most densely packed city on Earth and hotel rates are per person, not per room. Prepare for
cramped rooms if on a budget. n If you’re travelling across Japan, buy a Japan Rail Pass before you leave India. It lets you travel across all their rail lines in different cities and might save you money. n Most signage is in English. But when using trains in Tokyo, chart out your course before you set out. Locals aren’t always able to help with complicated directions.
TRAVEL
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WORD ON THE STREET
Some things are best expressed in Japanese
NIPPON ON MY MIND
Museum without weeping (you can’t). Walk, eyes-closed, the 20 metres between two Love Stones in Kyoto’s Kiyomizu temple to have a romantic wish granted. Walk through Gion, Kyoto’s former ...SO THERE IS SPACE geisha district, at night, to see Not quite. Much of Japan is painted ladies bow goodbyes to take a deep breath because there’s roomy, but Tokyo is packed their clients ever so elegantly. no fishy smell! I’ve had the freshest tighter than sticky rice But mostly, walk in Tokyo fish of my life – lightly braised in sushi. I marvelled at to see how disciplined mackerel and sliced raw tuna – in the legroom on Japan citizens can be. They say little stalls outside the market . Airlines (Row 26 is the Singapore has the fastest Of course, they eat more than most spacious); I could do walkers, but Tokyoites raw fish. We had buttery, pan-fried the Tango in my room in have got to be the best dumplings in Gion, Kyoto, where Hiroshima. In the capital, behaved. At Shibuya – the they were invented, and crunched however, a budget double world’s busiest crossthrough a tempura meal. A buildroom will have a bed so ing, where some 16 ing in Hiroshima consisted ennarrow, you’ll make baroads intersect – walk, tirely of eateries serving okonomibies without meaning to, briskly with thousands yaki (thick pancake). But sushi is and pay rates you’d have as all traffic lights turn red a religion. One Tokyo supermarket saved for its education. simultaneously to let peohad sushi boxes filling a wall as Regardless, there’s ple cross. Pedestrians Only in long as a Metro platform – all of room to breathe. No swarm into “coming” Japan... which sold out in the time it took one bothers tourists. and “going” streams as ...are the kids more stylish me to finish homestyle stew and Not even if you’re if guided by an invisthan you’ll ever be as salad next door. The Japanese will a lone woman ible policeman. an adult, even in buy sushi from a vending machine. on the train at What will take your traditional garb If a Tokyo restaurant is too tiny night with drunk breath away in Tokyo for seats, they’ll even eat it standmen in the carare the trains themselves. ing up. But then, so did I. riage. Locals are insular, Where NYC’s subways baffle but will gladly help if their users and where Mumbai’s trains ...AND BETWEEN MEALS? responses require simple crush the dignity out of them, You’ll walk off every morsel English. Routes (includTokyo’s 35 routes cover 13 train sightseeing. They’re all sprawled ing train changes) are lines that go overground, underout in Osaka and Hiroshima. They easy to plot before you head ground and in a continuous loop. cover hillsides in Kyoto. Even out. Lunch is cheaper than And they all run unfailingly on hyper-cramped Tokyo finds acres dinner at most places. They time. On the trains – used by eveof room for temples. Walk, have their own Disneyland if ryone from suited CEOs and Only walk, walk up the 16th you’re so inclined, but honestHermès-swathed ladies to in Japan... century Osaka Castle ly, the country is a fairground punk-rocker teens – no ...will you walk out to look out over 21st in itself. And the toilets are phones ring, no voices of the Hiroshima Peace century skyscrapreally space-age: pre-warmed chatter. Everyone Memorial Park and find ers and manicured seats, warm bidets, pressure moves aside automatisouvenirs celebrating the gardens. See if you can controls, music... cally after entering a American flag walk past the Oops! Looks like I have carriage, making half-charred, quite a few tips of my own! room, unasked. half-preserved (This trip was sponsored And officers uniforms of in part by the Japan Nationdon’t shove peochild victims at al Tourist Organisation) ple in anymore. rachel.lopez@hindustantimes.com the Hiroshima More trains have Follow @GreaterBombay on Twitter Peace Memorial now been added.
(Clockwise from top) A standing sushi bar; Tsukiji market deals in container trucks full of fresh fish; Hiroshima is both horrific and humbling; sip from the Kiyomizu fountains for long life, success or love; they eat stews and salads too
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
KUSHINBO: Someone who loves to eat. And who will love the term “Tabehoudai” all you can eat. OMAKASE: “I’ll leave it to you”. This is what to tell the chef if you’re an adventurous omnivore. OMIYAGE: A souvenir for gifting. It’s traditional to bring back a small gift, usually specialty food. HAIKU: Non-rhyming poem. Strictly 17 syllables. Like this one I wrote. KAWAII: Cute. The bright cartoony art that dominates their culture is kawaii. Hello Kitty, who was born in Japan, is so, so kawaii. ARIGATOU: Thank you. This is a nation of compulsive thankers, with six ways of expressing it. This one is the simplest. MOSHI MOSHI: It’s how they answer the phone instead of saying hello. SHINKANSEN: Bullet trains. India and Japan are conducting feasibility studies to start them here. OISHII: Delicious. Even packaged food can be oishii in Japan. OTAKU: Obsessive geek with no life. You can be a gadget otaku, a rail otaku etc. But if you’re a fake, you’re a fotaku! GAMAN: Enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity. This is why they never complain! BIJIN: A beautiful babe. There are many, many of these all across the country. TSUNDOKU: Buying books and not reading them. You know you’re guilty. KINTSUKUROI: The art of filling cracks in ceramic with gold or silver, and apprecialting an object for having been broken. KOI NO YOKAN: The feeling on first meeting that you two will fall in love. Aww. NATSUKASHII: A place or object that evokes fond memories and longing. For me, it’s the tons of matcha tea I lugged home. Oh and if something isn’t funny in Japan, they just call it an AMERICAN JOKE!
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PERSONAL AGENDA
Harsha Bhogle
BIRTHDAY PLACE OF BIRTH SCHOOL/COLLEGE July 19
Hyderabad
SUN SIGN HOMETOWN Cancer
Hyderabad
The Hyderabad Public School, Osmania University College of Technology, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
FIRST BREAK
CURRENTLY I AM... Doing live cricket with Star When I began working with Sports, corporate speaking with my wife Anita and the All India Radio promoting Tourism Australia The broadcaster or commentator who Australia, South Africa and India inspired you to take up commentary. have the best chances, but my Initially, Anant Setalvad at the dark horse is New Zealand. AIR but I really hoped I could You also don the hat of a newspaper be spoken of in the same columnist. What is your mantra for breath as Tony Cozier, who doing well on television? was called the voice of In television, one should always West Indies cricket. stay honest to the game and, How was your match with as a presenter, remember you your wife Anita fixed? are a guest in people’s houses We were classmates at and you must always maintain IIM Ahmedabad. It is the decency that you would as a the best thing to have guest in someone’s house. Also, happened to me. too many people on TV take Tell us about an incident things too seriously. We should in the commentary box never forget it is only a game. that made you laugh. What’s the format that you enjoy A nine-minute commentating for the most: Tests, One YouTube clip where I Day Internationals or T20s? challenged Australian Finally all three are variations commentator Kerry of cricket and I enjoy all three O’Keeffe to have a Naga – they demand different things chilli went viral in Australia. from me. It’s like rock and The crowd began to clap and ghazal. the players turned around to see What’s on your iPod? what was happening. Film music that I grew Eventually I had the up listening to – those THE LAST chilli, but we didn’t BOLLYWOOD were the days of miss a ball. The entire poetry in music. My MOVIE THAT story is told between favourites include YOU ENJOYED Madan Mohan, SD deliveries. WATCHING Which are your favourite Burman, AR Rahman cricket venues? and more recently, The Sydney Cricket Shantanu Moitra. Ground and Your sartorial style? the Himachal I don’t think I have an Pradesh Cricket eye for fashion, it’s Association ground overrated, anyway! at Dharamsala. For all the ties and Which are the four teams jackets I wear, I’m that you think will make it more of a T-shirtto the semifinals of the ICC jeans person. Cricket World Cup 2015? What is special about
3 Idiots (2009)
Photo: GETTY IMAGES
WHAT MAKES AN INDIAPAKISTAN WORLD CUP CONTEST SO SPECIAL?
The pressure from almost everyone. It doesn’t only test your skill but also your temperament.
WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE WORLD CUP MEMORY?
my world cup
Cricket commentator/anchor
It would have to be Dhoni hitting the six in the 2011 World Cup final. IF YOU WERE TO PLAY SELECTOR, WHICH INDIAN PLAYER YOU WOULD PICK TO PLAY IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND AT THE WORLD CUP?
The first player will have to be Virat Kohli and then MS Dhoni. YOUR ADVICE FOR THE INDIAN TEAM AT THE WORLD CUP?
Play with passion. You are already good enough!
the Indian subcontinent’s cricket fans? Unbridled enthusiasm, almost too much of it. What do you think Virat Kohli brings to the table as the new Indian captain in Test matches? A refreshing optimism, a very positive attitude. Of all the former cricketers in the commentary box, who has a natural flair for it? Most of them are excellent. But of the newer ones, Shane Warne has taken to it like he was meant to do it. — Interviewed by Aasheesh Sharma