WEEKLY MAGAZINE, AUGUST 12, 2012 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times
WEEKLY MAGAZINE, AUGUST 12, 2012 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times
years of
FREEDOM Total Recall: With this issue we come to the beginning of our sevenpart journey through the decades Shashi Tharoor on the triumph and tragedy of the Forties
Ten tumultuous years that changed India, forever Black, white and iconic The movies of the age Khurshed Alam Khan on growing up in that eventful time
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Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru at the historic Red Fort
VIR SANGHVI
Stirred up by vodka
RAJIV MAKHNI Hotmail, R.I.P
SEEMA GOSWAMI
Ethics and the media
SANJOY NARAYAN
Sounds like Newport
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W AT C H O U T F O R
inbox LETTER OF THE WEEK! Trick of retrospective vision
READING ASHOK Vajpeyi’s piece (Total Recall, August 5) was like seeing a black and white Films Division newsreel in the pre-cable days. Many say this is the decade when we took decisions in limbo. The glow, as the author stresses, was a trick of retrospective vision. Food and capital felt the pressure of a burgeoning refugee population. What stood out was India’s seeds of industrialism and the great institutions we created. And India continues to progress on the bedrock of this Nehruvian vision. It was indeed the decade of hope as Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy echoed. — CHIRANJIB HALDAR, via email Chiranjib wins a Flipkart voucher worth `2,500. Congrats!
Of mnemonics and the like YOUR COVER story on the prodigies doing amazing mental feats, especially on John Louis, was stupendous (The Shining, August 5). I was inspired to pick up an abandoned book on my bookshelf, Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer (he was the USA Memory Champ 2006). It’s great that kids such as Priyanshi are indulging in such intellectual acts. I wish more kids do the same. — SHAURYADEEP CHOPRA, via email
From the land of Ramanujan... YOUR COVER story (The Shining, August 5) is a great effort to applaud the true geniuses in India who often go unnoticed by the masses. Forget about Spiderman and Batman who exist only in comics, these talents, carrying forward the heritage of Aryabhatta and Ramanujan, are the real super heroes! These wizards, who have made India proud on the world-stage, certainly give us a reason to smile. But it’s ironic that most students suffer from maths phobia. This story will definitely motivate the young to put on their ‘Mathemagic’ caps and puzzling boots! — IVAN MANDAL, via email
What we can learn from the past ASHOK VAJPEYI’S article (The Nehruvian Glow, August 5) reflects his poetic excellence even in English. It mentions the first IITs and the ‘new temples’ – public sectors. Whatever amount of criticism we may heap on our leaders of yesteryears; we are yet to match their excellence of foresight as well as humility. Thank you Brunch, for an excellent Total Recall!
— D ADHIKARI, via email
The best letter gets a Flipkart voucher worth R2,500!! The shopping voucher will reach the winner within seven to 10 working days. In case of any delays, please contact chirag.sharma@hindustantimes.com
AUGUST 12, 2012
12.08.2012 22.07.2012 OUR TRYST WITH DESTINY...
The decade that cemented our resolve to get rid of foreign rule. From the Quit India Movement to the momentous period when people saw the Indian National Flag being hoisted, 1947 was the birth of a new nation and a million hopes. With this, we bid farewell to Total Recall this week!
You would have to be daring to attend secret meetings against the British. KHURSHED ALAM KHAN relives the days when he did it.
The Forties were a decade of triumph and tragedy. SHASHI THAROOR on how a nation exploited for two centuries marched to freedom.
LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch Asha Pole Bang on Seema (Spectator, August 5)!!! Loved your sarcastic ideas...the list could go on and on...with this we can definitely paint India with Gold!! :-). Swapnil Jadhav I always look forward to your articles on the decades gone by. Loved each and every week’s edition. Keep up the good work!
TWEET YOUR HEART OUT twitter.com/HTBrunch @infinityonpause Loved reading Sanjoy Narayan’s review on Gotye in @HTBrunch! Muahaha. @ShenoyAnil @RajivMakhni @HTBrunch I’m in for such energy now devices. Only if we know how much we use, can we plan to save. #freeenergymonitorsindia
BRUNCH ON THE WEB hindustantimes.com/brunch
The Freedom Song How good did freedom actually taste when it was achieved in 1947? See it through our exclusive slideshow of pictures that take you right back when it all started Find out what celebs miss most about India and those who can’t be called Indian. Log on!
The Brunch Blogs This week, read Of Red Lipsticks and Crystal Glasses by Yashica Dutt. On fashion and Hollywood pop culture.
years of
FREEDOM
The Hindi film industry found a firm footing in the ’40s. It made pathbreaking films, expanding horizons. Visit the age of black and white! 20
Personal Agenda Actor Boman Irani would love to travel to the moon
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12 DOWNLOAD CENTRAL Enjoy a variety of musical genres at the Newport Folk Festival 14 RUDE DRINK Do you think you’ve enjoyed the real taste of your vodka? 16 SPECTATOR What the Indian media can learn from its US counterpart 18 TECHILICIOUS Killing off Hotmail may well go down as a brilliant strategy Cover Design: ASHUTOSH SAPRU EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Aasheesh Sharma, Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi, Rachel Lopez, Mignonne Dsouza, Veenu Singh, Parul Khanna Tewari, Yashica Dutt, Amrah Ashraf, Saudamini Jain, Shreya Sethuraman, Manit Moorjani DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor, Design), Monica Gupta, Swati Chakrabarti, Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Singh, Suhas Kale
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T O TA L R E C A L L
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THE DECADE OF TUMULT For many Indians, the pain of Partition tinged the euphoria of freedom in the ’40s
T
HE 1940s WERE, to coin a cliché, a decade of triumph and tragedy. They witnessed two instances of nationalist assertion – the Quit India Movement and the Indian National Army – that ended in failure; both inspired the nation, but the first resulted in the Congress leaders being jailed and their movement driven underground, and the second had no discernible impact on British military might. The same decade saw the country win Independence – a moment of birth that was also an abortion, since freedom came with the horrors of Partition, when East and West Pakistan were hacked off the stooped shoulders of India by the departing British. Before the 1940s were over, India and Pakistan were embroiled in war over Kashmir, whose consequences still affect us today. But they
also saw the extraordinary work of the Constituent Assembly, which in January 1950 gave us the Constitution that laid the foundations for more than six decades of Indian democracy. Reading the debates in the Constituent Assembly, as the founding fathers (and mothers) of India grappled with fundamental questions of the kind of political system they would bequeath to the new nation – and discussed threadbare vital issues of human rights, affirmative action, social uplift and economic development – would be awe-inspiring at the best of times. But to think that these debates happened in the wake of the savagery of Partition, when rioting and murder scarred the land, millions were uprooted from their homes and billions of rupees worth of property were damaged and destroyed, is little
THAT HEADY, HEADY FEELING People celebrate independence from British rule in Calcutta, circa 1947
How far we’ve come: India over the decades
1941 years of
FREEDOM
MALE
24.90
short of astonishing. A nation exploited for two centuries by the British, which had effectively a zero per cent rate of growth throughout the first half of the 20th century, a land riven by religious, regional and caste conflicts, and full of poor, malnourished and diseased people, faced with the enormous political challenge of integrating several hundred “princely states”, came together through its elected representatives to produce, in the soaring majesty of its Constitution, a compelling vision for the future. Four men, alongside dozens of remarkable statesmen, embodied this vision in the 1940s – Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and Ambedkar. Mahatma Gandhi took the issue of freedom to the masses as one of simple right and wrong and gave them a technique to which the British had no response. By abstaining from violence, Gandhi wrested the moral advantage. By breaking the law non-violently, he demonstrated the injustice of the law. By accepting the punishments imposed on him, he confronted his captors with their own brutalisation. By voluntarily imposing suffering upon himself in his hunger strikes, he demonstrated the lengths to which he was prepared to go in defence of what he considered right. He was not alone. Gandhi’s moral rectitude, allied to Jawaharlal Nehru’s political passion, made the perpetuation of British rule an impossibility. Sardar Patel’s firm hand on the administration integrated the nation and established peace and stability. Ambedkar’s erudition and legal acumen helped translate the dreams of a generation into a working legal document that laid the foundations for an enduring democracy. Upon the Mahatma’s assassination in 1948, a year after independence, Nehru, the country’s first Prime Minister, became the keeper of the national flame, the most visible embodiment of India’s struggle for freedom. Gandhi’s death could have led Nehru to assume untrammelled power. Instead, he spent a lifetime immersed in the democratic values Ambedkar had codified, trying to instill the habits of democracy 2011
Crude literacy rate (in percent)
FEMALE
7.30
PERSONS
16.10
AUGUST 12, 2012
MALE
71.22
FEMALE
56.99
PERSONS
64.32
Source: Census 2011
in his people – a disdain for dictators, a respect for parliamentary procedures, an abiding faith in the constitutional system. Till the end of the decade, his staunch ally Patel provided the firm hand on the tiller without which India might yet have split asunder. While the world was disintegrating into fascism, violence and war, Gandhi taught the virtues of truth, non-violence and peace. While the nation reeled from bloodshed and communal carnage, Ambedkar preached the values of constitutionalism and the rule of law. While parochial ambitions threatened national unity, Patel led the nation to a vision of unity and common purpose. While mobs marched the streets baying for revenge, Nehru’s humane and non-sectarian vision inspired India to yearn again for the glory that had once been hers. The principal pillars of Nehru’s legacy – democratic institution-building, staunch pan-Indian secularism, socialist economics at home and a foreign policy of non-alignment – were all integral to a vision of Indianness that sustained the nation for decades. Today, both legacies are fundamentally contested, and many Indians have strayed from the ideals bequeathed to them by Gandhi and Nehru, Ambedkar and Patel. Yet they, in their very different ways, each represented that rare kind of leader who is not diminished by the inadequacies of his followers. The American editor Norman Cousins once asked Nehru what he hoped his legacy to India would be. “Four hundred million people capable of governing themselves,” Nehru replied. The numbers have grown, but the very fact that each day over a billion Indians govern themselves in a pluralist democracy is testimony to the deeds and words of these four men and the giants who accompanied them in the 1940s march to freedom. The views expressed by the author are personal SHASHI THAROOR
The writer, a Lok Sabha MP and former minister, is the author of Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century
1939-45
Number of Indian soldiers who died fighting for the British in WWII
87,032
Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
T O TA L R E C A L L
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REWIND A nation is born 1940
1941
The Muslim League formally adopts the years Lahore Resolution. of Calls for creation of independent states for Muslims
FREEDOM
Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, poet, artist, playwright, novelist is dead
1942
1944
1943
Sir Stafford Cripps comes to India with the Cripps Mission to secure Indian cooperation in WWII
The Congress passes the Quit India Resolution. A nationwide civil disobedience movement begins
One of the worst famines strikes Bengal. An estimated 4 million people die of starvation, malnutrition and disease
1946
1945
The Japanese lay siege to Imphal in an effort to destroy the Allied Forces and invade India. Forced to retreat back to Burma
Subhas Chandra Bose, the leader of INA, is reported dead in a plane crash in Taiwan. Conspiracy theories abound
Officers of INA, Col Prem Kumar Sehgal, Gen Shah Nawaz Khan and Col Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon go on trial at the Red Fort by the British. The nation visibly unites in sympathy
Royal Navy soldiers declare mutiny against the lack of facilities. INA trials fuel the discontent. A coordinated revolt begins
The final part of Total Recall, our special seven-part series: The 1940s
INDEPENDENCE BROUGHT IN A RENEWED UMEED
Listening to Pandit Nehru at midnight on the radio, we all cheered. India was free!
I
in Old Delhi. N THE early 1940s I was studying Disaffection with the British at History at St John’s College in this time was immense, and it was Agra. College life was simple. I only growing. Unemployment was was interested in sports, particuhigh and people struggled for basic larly cricket, and in getting away amenities. Education rates were disfrom classes. But the freedom movemal so they had no choice either – ment was growing and it pervaded you couldn’t find a job unless you each sphere of our lives. Even in were educated and you couldn’t find college we sat and talked about the the money for education because possibilities it would bring for India. you couldn’t find a job. It was a Although many of us supported vicious circle. There was a clear disthe movement, we couldn’t be overly tinction between the well-to-do citivocal about it. Our teachers were zens and the general population. British. Our principal was British. And if you were opposed to the Anti-India sentiment clouded the air British, it only made things worse. and we feared that our support for Pro-British businessmen made vast Gandhi and his troops could get us fortunes and big names for themexpelled. So we did the next best selves, wearing British manufacthing. We secretly went to Congress tured clothes while we rallies and group meettook to khadi. ings. We followed lthough some of us Gandhiji’s instructions were enamoured with and did our part for the the anti-British freedom freedom struggle. struggle, others were not. Gandhi, of course, had And sometimes those invigorated the movement. others included our own With his ideas came a new family. My father was a understanding that we KHURSHED ALAM KHAN supporter of the British should have the right to The author, a forRaj, so I was quite afraid determine our own future of him. I had to be careful – a topic that we discussed mer Union minister of external affairs, so he wouldn’t discover in hushed tones in college was governor of my covert activities in grounds. But first we had Karnataka between the movement. Muslims, to ‘educate the people’, is 1991 and 1999 in particular, had a rough what he said. ‘Tell people time. Most of them weren’t so wellhow to fight the British and build the off and lacked basic education. So nation.’ Of course, I paraphrase. We they were apprehensive about weren’t ready for freedom, and opposing the British regime and wouldn’t succeed unless people were angering an administration already rightly informed. We would get our reeling under mass pressure. assignments through the chain of In 1945 I got married and the only command and hold demonstrations
A
years of
FREEDOM
Total Population
1941
(per square feet)
103
AUGUST 12, 2012
thing on my mind was getting a job. We would take what we could get, as employment opportunities were not ample. So I took up employment in Aurangabad while my wife stayed in Delhi with her father. At this time, my father-in-law, Dr Zakir Hussain, was setting the foundations of the now famous university, Jamia Millia Islamia. Zakir Saheb was an ardent proponent of Indian freedom. Once, when his daughter (my wife) was going to a get-together, he told her, ‘Don’t try to look special with fancy clothes. There will be richer people with better wardrobes. Instead, wear khadi and you will stand out.’ This divide was stark. High culture was available only to those with the money for it. Popular music hadn’t taken a hold in the public. Even films such as Laila Majnu were released, but for entertainment you needed money. In 1947, my first daughter Rehana was born and with her so was a new India, a free India. I had come back to my village Kaimganj in Uttar Pradesh to visit family. I remember sitting around the radio listening to Pandit Nehru’ announcement at midnight. While the rest of the family was not so enthused, I cheered. We all cheered. India was free!
The next day, celebration filled the streets. People chanted the names of Gandhi, Nehru and countless other leaders of the struggle. But the happiness was short-lived. With independence came Partition and communalism reared its ugly head. People were mistaken that when Pakistan had been created, it would be a safe haven. But riots ensued everywhere. There was no formal government and uncertainty gripped us. n Jamia, Zakir Saheb tried to help refugees from Pakistan. They would hear of mobs headed to the locality and would hide in school hostels. Pathans, who had migrated from the North-Western Frontier Province, would patrol the streets at night and shout to scare away the mobs from across the Yamuna. But independence did bring with it a renewed hope, an umeed. We were now a self-determining nation. This was our land and we deserved respect. We had a long way to go but wise and able minds lit the path. All we had to do was follow. The views expressed by the author are personal - As told to Samar Khurshid
I
MORE ON THE WEB
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Exploding numbers: Facts and figures over six decades
Density of Population
318,660,580
THE FREEDOM PARTY People throng to participate in Independence Day celebrations at Raisina Hill. Delhi, circa August 1947
Sex ratio
(females per 1,000 males)
945
Total Population
1,210,193,422
2011
Density of Population (per square feet) 2
382
Sex ratio
(females per 1,000 males)
940
Source: Census 2011
Gramophones or phonographs as they are then called, are the sole source of at-home entertainment along with the crackling strains of All India Radio
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1949
1948
1947 The Independence Act passed by the British Parliament declares division of British India into India and Pakistan
India wins freedom at 12.02 am, August 15. Pakistan gets it at 11.57 pm, August 14
Large-scale segregation of Hindus and Muslims from both sides takes place. Many die in the communal clashes. Hindus and Muslims are massacred. Bodies line the streets
First Kashmir War breaks out between India and Pakistan. India goes to the United Nations. Asks Pakistan to move troops back. Pakistan ignores the mandate. Ceasefire declared two years later
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Gandhi assassinated in Delhi at pointblank range by Nathuram Godse. The Mahatma’s last words are ‘Hey Ram’
India’s Atomic Energy Commission and Department of Scientific Research are set up
The Reserve Bank of India is nationalised
India issues the London Declaration, enabling it to remain in the British Commonwealth, despite being a republic. Birth of modern Commonwealth
New Constitution is adopted by the Indian Constituent Assembly. It comes into effect the following year
THE ’40S – UNCHAINED MELODY
Triumph and tragedy – freedom at midnight and the bloodbath of Partition. The 1940s bring tumult and euphoria in ample doses for the people of India
1942
1948 The Quit India resolution is passed at the Bombay session of the Indian National Congress, sparking off an unprecedented Civil Disobedience movement. Gandhiji issues an urgent ‘Do or Die’ call for independence
The Constituent Assembly, featuring indirectly elected representatives, meets for the first time to frame a constitution for a free India. Its purpose is to feed the starving people and clothe the naked masses
1946
India’s Atomic Energy Commission is set up with Dr Homi J Bhabha as the first chairman. Nehru’s support for science and technology aims to convert India into a modern state that fits well in the nuclear age
1947
1948
Father of the Nation, MAHATMA GANDHI is ASSASSINATED on his way to a prayer meeting. Nehru says, “The light has gone out of our lives”
Captured members of the Indian National Army (INA) are put to trial by the British government at the Red Fort. The nation is angered by this British revenge against Subhash Chandra Bose, who had earlier said that the INA would proclaim India’s independence from the Red Fort
1945
1947
1943
One of the worst famines, the
1948
1947
India attains INDEPENDENCE. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of free India, makes his famous ‘Tryst With Destiny’ speech at the midnight session of the Parliament on August 14. The nation wakes up to a new life
Lord Mountbatten, India’s last British governor-general, announces the PARTITION of the British Indian empire into India and Pakistan. About 10 million Hindus and Muslims are transferred between both nations. Communal riots between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims follow. Cities like Delhi, Lahore, Rawalpindi see large-scale massacres. Refugees pour into India
The first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (second from left) persuades the 500 self governing princely states to join the united India. Using frank diplomacy and the threat of military force, he manages to convince every state except Junagadh, Hyderabad and Kashmir, who later accede to the Indian union
1947
The golden, odourless, tasty Dalda vanaspati ghee captures the nation’s imagination. Lifebuoy soap helps a new generation keep clean
Photo: AP
Balbir Singh (Senior) spearheads India to a hattrick of Olympic gold medals, starting with independent India’s first gold at the London games
Photo: BETTMANN/CORBIS
BENGAL FAMINE
kills between 1.5 and 4 million people and is labelled ‘manmade’ owing to the catastrophic British wartime policies
India and Pakistan fight the FIRST KASHMIR WAR after Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of Kashmir, appeals to the government for military assistance against the Pakistani-backed tribal invasion and accedes to India
AUGUST 12, 2012
Compiled by Yashica Dutt
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T O TA L R E C A L L
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FIRST CUT, FORTIES FOREVER
Sepia memories: Superstars from a golden era ASHOK KUMAR: Having started his career earlier, it was in the ’40s that Kumar attained a superstar status. Especially after his anti-hero turn in Kismet became a mega success
It was the decade when Noor Jehan ruled and Dilip Kumar romanced Devika Rani. The RK banner took off and so did the careers of Rafi, Mukesh, Kishore and Talat... ROTI: A critique on exploitation of the poor, the film dealt 1942 with the flip side of industrialisation. It also featured ghazal legend Begum Akhtar in a lead role
MAHAL: India’s first reincarnation thriller, it launched Lata Mangeshkar and Madhubala into superstardom. Popular track 1949 Aayega Aane Wala flooded AIR stations with multiple requests SHAHEED: A nationalist film set against the background of the freedom struggle, it featured the popular Watan ki Raah Men 1948 Watan Ke Naujawan Shaheed Ho – a 15th August staple even today
BARSAAT: The romantic musical brought together the legendary team of Raj Kapoor-Nargis-ShankerJaikishan-Hasrat Jaipuri-Shailendra
1949
DEVIKA RANI: A huge star of the era, Rani was one of the most powerful women in showbiz. Featured in Bollywood’s first kissing scene, she gave Dilip Kumar his first big break KL SAIGAL: Already a very big movie star then, his untimely death in 1947 gave him a cult status. Young singers such as Mukesh and Kishore imitated his singing style
1941
SIKANDAR: Based on the battle between Sikandar and King Porus, its extravagant battle scenes and Sohrab Modi’s dialogue delivery are remembered even today
NOOR JEHAN: Known as Mallikae-Tarannum, she broke many hearts when she left Bollywood to settle in Pakistan. But she had already made an impact on Lata Mangeshkar, then a budding singer
1949
NEECHA NAGAR: An early example of social realism it was the first Indian film to gain glob1946 al recognition. It shared the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film (Best Film) award at the first Cannes Film Festival
1946 ANDAZ: With a bold storyline, the film, directed by Mehboob Khan, cast Raj Kapoor, Nargis and Dilip Kumar together. The love triangle was a subtle nod to changing man-woman relationships
ANMOL GHADI: Featuring Suraiya and Noor Jehan, the real hero of the film was the music by Naushad. With evergreen hits like Jawaan Hai Mohabbat, Aawaaz De Kahaan Hai, it’s still a fixture on TV
KISMET: One of the biggest hits ever, the bold film featured an unmarried girl who gets pregnant. It built Ashok Kumar’s 1943 reputation as BTown’s first anti-hero
Compiled by Yashica Dutt
How far we’ve come: Life expectancy over the decades (in years)
years of
FREEDOM
MALE
32.4
1941-51 FEMALE
31.7
PERSONS
32.1
MALE
66.08
2001-11 FEMALE
68.33
PERSONS
67.14
Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt of India
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THE SONGS OF NEWPORT
The Newport Folk Festival pushes the envelope when it comes to musical genres
SOUNDS FAMILIAR
Chicago’s rock band, Wilco, kicked off the event. It was apt as Wilco have an affinity for Woody Guthrie’s works
M
ANY NEW musicians can remind you of older (and sometimes more famous) ones. Three years ago, I’d written about the Rhode Island-based alternative folk and blues band, Deer Tick, and mentioned how uncannily Bob Dylanesque their lead singer, John McCauley sounds – so much so that a colleague after hearing them play even dubbed him ‘Baby Dylan’. But they’re not the only ones. Whenever I hear New Jersey’s rockers, The Gaslight Anthem, I’m reminded of Bruce Springsteen – and, in fact, that association is not without basis: The Gaslight Anthem are quite heavily influenced by The Boss; they’ve opened for him; and he’s played with them. More recently, I heard Charles Bradley, who is known as ‘The Screaming Eagle of Soul’ and at 64 has just one album (No Time For Dreaming) to his credit. Bradley has his own style of singing funk, soul and R&B tunes but you can also distinctively discern strong influences of two legends, the late James Brown and the late Otis Redding. Then I read that Bradley began his career as a James Brown mimicker on stage before he found his own groove. Likewise, I find that Megafaun, a young band from the southern US state of North Carolina, often sound a lot like The Grateful Dead (not when that legendary former band’s sound is acid-fuelled and gigantic but when they’re channelling Americana and old folk tunes with just that garnish of psychedelia). There are many such examples of bands sounding like other older bands or musicians and I’m sure everyone can think of several such associations. But this instalment of DC is not about such a phenomenon. All the new bands or musicians that I mentioned (with the exception of The Gaslight Anthem) who seem to be influenced or sound like those older names played a couple of weekends ago at this year’s Newport Folk Festival. The Newport Folk Fest marked its 53rd anniversary this year and in its long history, it has evolved from a small folk musicians’ gathering – of troubadours and balladeers – to an event that has pushed the envelope when it comes to musical genres. The themes have changed too. During the angry early 1960s, the mood was FATHER AND SON
Photo: CC/ ADAM HAMMER
download central
Sanjoy Narayan
Photo: SUSAN BIBEAU
12
This year, the theme was the centennial birth anniversary of American folk music legend, Woody Guthrie (above left; featured in a 1943 picture). His son, Arlo (left; seen in a 2005 photo) performed at the festival AUGUST 12, 2012
BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND
Bob Dylan first performed at Newport as a guest of Joan Baez. In another year, he infamously went electric at Newport, much to the chagrin of folk purists
marked by the protest music of Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. Bob Dylan first performed at Newport as a guest of Baez. Later, of course, in another year, he infamously went electric at Newport much to the chagrin of folk purists. Perhaps that marked in some sense the change in the festival’s attitude towards genres. This year’s fest, much of which you can hear and download for free off the Internet (check the web version of this column for links) was themed around the centennial birth anniversary of American folk music legend, Woody Guthrie. While Guthrie’s son, Arlo, and other family members performed at the festival, it was a festival preview concert by Chicago’s rock band, Wilco, who kicked off the event. It was apt because Wilco have an affinity for Guthrie’s works. They’ve collaborated with singer Billy Bragg on some of Guthrie’s unreleased compositions and have covered several of the late folk singer’s songs. Not surprisingly, their preview set debuted with a Guthrie song, Christ For President. But their set was a superb panoramic journey that spanned 21 songs picked from the beginning of their career in 1994 to the present. You can download the entire Wilco set for free but that wasn’t the only thing worth checking out at Newport this year. There was Charles Bradley’s energetic and exuberant set; Megafaun’s psychfolk session; a Woody Guthrie tribute band, New Multitudes (including, among others My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, and solo artist, Jay Farrar); and Deer Tick, of course, who are almost like local lads at Newport, being from the same state of Rhode Island as the town. Of course, there were other familiar names – tUnE-yArDs (a project by Merrill Garbus, a multi-instrumentalist who loops sounds and sings and plays the ukulele and percussion), Alabama Shakes (the sensational band from, yes, Alabama) and even veterans such as Arlo Guthrie and Jackson Browne. But I discovered a few new bands too: Blind Pilot, a Portland (Oregon) band that had begun as a duo but is now a sextet, played their brand of folk pop, which is always engaging; First Aid Kit, a duo of Swedish sisters who sing in English and who I believe have recorded a single at Jack White’s studio; and Dawes, an LA band that I’d heard before but not seriously and who do a warm blend of rock, folk and country that could make you shortlist them on your to-do list of what to download. To give feedback, stream or download the music mentioned in this column, go to http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/download-central, follow argus48 on Twitter
THE JUKEBOX
A
nimal Collective, the experimental psychedelic band now based in New York, and whose members go by the names of Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Deakin and Geologist, have a new album called Centipede Hz that will come out in September. If you want to check them out, I’d suggest listening to Merriweather Post Pavilion, their 2009 album. Or, their recently launched Internet radio channel at http://www.radio.myanimalhome.net Photo: CC/ DANIEL ARNOLD
indulge Vir Sanghvi
ON THE ROCKS
In East European countries (Russia, Poland etc.) vodka is usually drunk neat from shot glasses
IN
VODKA WE TRUST T
Photos: THINKSTOCK
Have you really been enjoying the taste of vodka all these years? Or have you just enjoyed the alcoholic kick it gives your cocktails?
NOTHING IN PARTICULAR
rude drink
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ALK ABOUT fine wines or obscure Scandinavian liqueurs and most of us will probably look confused. But ask us about vodka and we won’t worry as much. After all, we are familiar with vodka. We have grown up with it. And we drink gallons of the stuff in India: vodka sales have gone up steadily, rising from 4.24 lakh cases in 2001 to 66.13 lakh cases in 2010. That, at least, is how I saw things when Amrit Kiran Singh, who heads Brown-Forman in India, invited me to Delhi’s Megu restaurant to have dinner with Markku Raittinen, the Master Taster at Finlandia vodka. Amrit and Brown-Forman are best known in India because of the success of Jack Daniels. But Finlandia is the company’s other Indian success story. In 2001, when the standard imported vodka market in India stood at 19,000 cases, Absolut accounted for 17,000 of those cases and Finlandia was unknown in our country. Today, Absolut is still the leader (as it is in the American market) but Finlandia has come out of nowhere to pose a strong challenge. The size of the market stood at 59,000 cases in 2010. Absolut sold 27,000 of those but Finlandia had caught up to sell 19,500 cases. Not bad when you start so late. Markku was in India to launch Finlandia’s new premium vodka. He had spoken to editors about the product at lunch and was due to be the star attraction at a party hosted by the designer Suneet Varma for Finlandia the following evening. But dinner was a quiet AUGUST 12, 2012
It does not help to define vodka by ingredients.The truth is, you can make vodka from pretty much anything: grain, potatoes, beetroot or grapes
affair with just us, some of Megu’s signature dishes and a personalised vodka tasting. I started by asking Markku about the definition of vodka. As he tried to explain exactly what vodka was, it rapidly become clear that – even though we think we know what it is – vodka is actually impossible to define. Markku gave me the example of the American government’s definition of vodka: a neutral spirit “without distinctive character, aroma, taste or colour”. So, in order to be legally called vodka in America, the drink should taste of nothing! Nor does it help to define vodka by ingredients. The truth is, you can make vodka from pretty much anything: grain, potatoes, beetroot or grapes. It is not even that difficult to make. According to Markku, vodka-making used to be something of a national pastime in Finland because families would make their own vodka at home. (In India, of course, our local vodka – including foreign brands which have Indian manufacturing operations – is IMFL or industrial alcohol artificially flavoured to taste like vodka; this might explain why so much of it is so foul.) As Markku began talking, I realised how little most of us knew about vodka, even if we had drunk it all our adult lives. Part of the problem is that, until recently at least, most of us have rarely drunk vodka in its pure form. We use it as a base for cocktails and so don’t really have any idea what it should taste like on its own. As it turns out, the key to vodka’s popularity is this very absence of taste and aroma. That makes it the perfect base for many cocktails because its neutral taste does not interfere with other ingredients. When it comes to vodka consumption, there are two entirely different traditions. One is the Eastern European tradition (Russia, Poland etc.) where vodka has long been the national drink. In these countries, vodka is usually drunk neat from shot glasses. This tradition dates back to the Middle Ages and persists to this day. However, this is not the tradition that has been exported to the rest of the world including India. The current global popularity of vodka only dates back to the post Second World War era when American liquor conglomerates sold bland, tasteless vodka to bartenders as a base for Bloody Marys. In those days, a martini was still made with vermouth and gin. But then, the popularity of James Bond’s martinis – made with vodka and shaken not stirred – meant that an entire generation grew up thinking of martinis as vodka cocktails. By the 1970s, vodka had become the drink of choice for young Americans – few of whom drank it neat – and it even outsold whiskey in the US. But there were two problems. The first was:
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if vodka was supposed to be bland and characterless then how were people supposed to tell one vodka from the other? And secondly, if all vodkas were the same, then how could there ever be a premium vodka in the way that there are premium whiskies or premium cognacs? The story of vodka over the last two decades has been a struggle to get around those problems. One obvious solution has been to play the ‘authenticity’ card. In 1972, Pepsi signed a deal with the Russians to import Stolichnaya vodka to the US. The vodka found some takers but was never the success Pepsi had hoped. Another solution has been to rely on marketing. One reason why Absolut is the leader in so many markets is because of the brilliance of its advertising. By turning the bottle into an icon, Absolut appealed to people who did not care about the taste (which the advertising rarely emphasised) but liked the trendy image. A third solution has been to add new tastes to a drink that is essentially tasteless. The idea of a flavoured vodka is not new: they have been flavouring vodka with chilli, bison-grass, honey, pepper, lemon, and God alone knows what else, in Eastern Europe for years. But at the end of the last century, global conglomerates started bottling flavoured vodkas. This expanded the market and today most manufacturers say that flavoured vodkas account for around 15 per cent of their total sales. A fourth solution was to finally create a product that had never before existed: a premium vodka. We probably don’t realise this but most of the so-called prestige vodkas were created not by vodka-makers, but by marketing men as recently as the last decade and a half. Certainly, the idea of a premium vodka that costs double the standard price is relatively new. For instance, Belvedere, which is Polish in origin, only went on sale in the US in 1996. Its closest competitor Grey Goose, which is French, hit the market in 1997. Chopin, a Polish stable-mate of Belvedere, also hit the US market in 1997. Others – Zyr, Turi, or Ciroc – were created in the 21st century. And some heavily-promoted premium vodkas are much less than a decade old. The sudden move towards premium vodkas has foxed traditional manufacturers. Markku told me that at Finlandia, they were justly proud of the quality of their basic vodka. It lacked the marketing muscle of Absolut but it was the best-selling vodka in Eastern Europe where they drank it neat and admired its clean, clear taste. How, they wondered, could they create a premium product when the existing vodka was already so good? Finlandia’s solution has been to
AN EVERYDAY AFFAIR
According to Markku Raittinen, the Master Taster at Finlandia, vodka-making used to be something of a national pastime in Finland add birch wood to the process. They are not sure how it works but their just-launched Finlandia Platinum has a distinctive taste that no other vodka I’ve tried does. I drank it with a little water and then on the rocks. It has a slightly sharp first taste, but then fills your mouth with a rich smoothness and gently warms your throat on its way down. The warmth then lingers in your mouth. Markku says that Finlandia are treating this as an artisanal vodka. The process is less industrial. There is a higher level of human intervention. The vodka is made in small batches. And the bottles themselves are numbered so you can tell when each bottle was made. Markku did a tasting for me with other premium vodkas and though I clearly lack the palate to make an informed judgement, even I could tell that this was a different kind of vodka. But all that brings us back to where we started. By the time I had finished dinner with Markku, I realised how little I know about vodka. Because I’m so used to tasting it in cocktails or with tonic, I’m not sure what it should taste like on its own. Nor am I convinced that premium vodkas – the Grey Goose-Belvedere sort of drink – are worth the price if you are going to use them only in cocktails where their taste is submerged. Heck, I’m not even sure what vodka really is. After dinner I came home and tried Ciroc, which is made from grapes. Was it a vodka? Or was it a grappa? At some tastings, they have disqualified Ciroc saying that isn’t really a vodka though, of course, it conforms to the legal definition. So, if you like quality vodka, try the Finlandia Platinum. But don’t make a Bloody Mary with it. And as the liquid warms your throat, ask yourself: have I really been enjoying the taste of vodka all these years? Or have I just enjoyed the alcoholic kick it gives my cocktails? The answers may surprise you.
The key to vodka’s popularity is the very absence of taste and aroma. That makes it the perfect base for many cocktails
EYE CATCHER
One reason why Absolut is the leader in so many markets is because of the brilliance of its advertising
AUGUST 12, 2012
FINE FLAVOUR
The just-launched Finlandia Platinum has a distinctive taste that no other vodka I’ve tried does
BOND’S MARTINI
The popularity of James Bond’s martinis – made with vodka and shaken not stirred – meant that an entire generation grew up thinking of martinis as vodka cocktails
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Lessons the Indian media can learn from the TV coverage of the Wisconsin gurudwara shooting
FOLLOWING ORDERS
In Wisconsin, all the news channels abided by the diktat that they should not show any footage that gave away the position of the SWAT teams that were preparing to storm the temple
Seema Goswami
Photos: REUTERS
THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE A
LL ACTS of senseless violence are reprehensible, but there is something particularly disturbing about an attack that takes place at a place of worship and targets people at prayer. As the news broke late last Sunday night of a shooting at a gurudwara in Wisconsin, I watched the nightmare unfold live on American TV news channels and via Twitter updates by people who were on site. What has stayed with me since then was the incredible bravery of the president of the gurudwara, Satwant Kaleka, who lost his life in a bid to tackle the gunman; the tragic death of the priest Prakash Singh, who had just moved his wife and son to America; the helpless grief of those who stood outside wondering what had become of their loved ones inside the building; the courage of the policeman who engaged the shooter in an encounter and killed him before he could do any further damage; and the astonishing news that the Sikhs gathered outside had offered food and water to the journalists reporting on the incident as part of their ‘langar sewa’. But as I think back on the whole episode, I am also beginning to appreciate the restraint and tact of the media coverage of the incident. And try as I may, I can’t help but contrast it unfavourably with the way we in the Indian media cover such acts of terrorism. In Wisconsin, there was never any danger of the terrorists getting any tactical advantage from watching the TV news. All the news channels abided by the diktat that they should not show any footage that gave away the position of the SWAT teams that were preparing to storm the temple. The cameras also obediently pulled away from aerial shots of the gurudwara once they were asked by the authorities to do so. And despite all these precautions, they still erred on the side of caution by putting out a delayed feed so that the terrorists didn’t have any real-time information of events unfolding outside. Contrast this with the way in which the Indian news channels covered the events of 26/11 in Mumbai. There were a cluster of TV crews outside the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels giving minute-by-minute coverage of what the security agencies were planning, so that the terrorists only had to turn on a television set to find out what they were up against. Some reporters even gave away the location of where some of the hostages were hiding, thus enabling the terrorists to hunt them down and kill them. Live pictures of every development were beamed all across the world – including Pakistan, giving the terrorists’ handlers a frontrow seat to the carnage. For instance, when
OPEN TO ALL!
During 26/11 in India, TV crews outside the Taj Mahal (above) and Oberoi hotels gave minute-by-minute coverage of what the security agencies were planning the NSG commandoes rappelled down on Chabad House to rescue the hostages, their operation was shown in real time by most TV channels (only a couple had the wisdom to put in a time lag) thus taking away the surprise element that is crucial to any such attack. And then there was the insensitive, even callous treatment of relatives and friends who were waiting outside hoping for news of their loved ones. It couldn’t have been easy having microphones thrust into their faces and asked variations of that old chestnut, “And how are you feeling?” (“Aap ko kaisa lag raha hai.”). In Wisconsin, on the other hand, the loved ones of those inside the gurudwara were corralled away from the site at a safe distance, and the media questioning – when it happened – was both sensitive and sensible. But the pictures that still haunt me from the TV coverage of 26/11 are the ones of the hostages finally emerging from the Oberoi hotel, having been rescued after a hellish night. The moment they came out, the TV cameras were on them, the microphones thrust into their catatonic faces. “Tell us what happened”, “How many people are dead inside?”, “Did you see the terrorists?” Can you even imagine what that feels like? To spend the night wondering whether you are going to survive to see another day, to see your friends and family mowed down in front of you, to finally emerge from that nightmare – and then have to negotiate a bunch of loud, raucous reporters walking all over one another to ask you a bunch of asinine questions. That’s exactly what all those who had been rescued had to encounter the moment they walked free. Contrast this with Wisconsin, where we didn’t even see a glimpse of the hostages. The authorities evacuated them once they had sanitised the gurudwara interiors, but safely out of sight of the cameras. Their traumatised faces were kept out of the press; their privacy was respected by the authorities who did not give out any names; and they did not have to run the gauntlet of a media grilling the moment they walked out. Leave alone the hostages, we didn’t even see close-ups of dead bodies, or screen shots of injured people. And the hospitals refused to release the names of those who were being treated out of respect for their families. In India, the camera crews would have been right outside the emergency room, trying to get in as many gruesome shots as they could for the benefit of their viewers. Yes, there is a lot that is wrong with America – its gun laws, for instance, which allow lunatics access to serious weaponry. But there are some things that it does get right – and its media coverage of such terror attacks, for one, is worth emulating.
spectator
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All news channels in America put out a delayed feed so that the terrorists didn’t have any realtime information
AUGUST 12, 2012
seema_ht@rediffmail.com. Follow Seema on Twitter at twitter.com/seemagoswami
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THE DEATH OF HOTMAIL
Rajiv Makhni IT’S NEW, IT’S CLEAN
The all new Outlook is like a breath of fresh air as it gets most things right, right from the beginning. And you should definitely give it a shot.
techilicious
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Killing off Hotmail may well go down as one of the most brilliant strategies of this decade
T
HE HOTMAIL story was a true fairytale, a feel-good fable that made most of us Indians proud, turned Sabeer Bhatia into a superhero and gave birth to the fact that we all started to dream of becoming ‘online’ billionaires. And now that fairytale is dead! Well, not dead – as in dead and buried; more like the kind where the doctors have announced that it’s still alive, but only due to the life support equipment it’s strapped on. And that they’ll pull the plug soon.
FREE MAIL
Hotmail was the first ‘big thing’ for people to discover what being online could do. It brought free Web-based email to the masses, it levelled the field between individual users and people working in a large company, and it empowered users to exchange much more than just text and words. Having a Hotmail account with your full name was a serious vanity point scorer and even the silly and obscure named ones (I once had a Hotmail account called rajma9812@hotmail.com!) were still quite an asset to have. Hotmail grew from a few thousand to 330 million users in a very short span of time. Hotmail was hot!
HOT GOES COLD
Microsoft has now announced that it will discontinue Hotmail. Kaputed, annihilated, slaughtered and assassinated. In its place is the spanking new state-of-theart mailbox for the next billion users. It’s called outlook.com and this is one more salvo from a very busy Microsoft this year. It’s finally found some success in mobiles, it’s gearing up for its biggest launch ever with Windows 8, it’s upgraded its big cash cow – the Office suite – and it has announced its own Tablet range with the Surface. And yet within all this frenzy of new stuff – the death of Hotmail and the rise of Outlook may well be its biggest move. A super risky manoeuvre with a huge payoff at the end. AUGUST 12, 2012
THE HOT STORY
Why Hotmail is being killed off despite having the largest number of users (Hotmail has about 330 million versus about 300 each for Gmail and Yahoo!) is an intriguing tale of lost opportunities, cut-throat competition and perplexing Microsoft decisions. Faced with Gmail coming in and rewriting the rules, Microsoft responded with monotonously regular patchy add-ons that eventually made Hotmail a very Hot ‘mess’. It still deactivated your account if you didn’t use it for a while, it played catch-up with the amount of space that it gave you, innovations and new services were few and far between and it changed the interface and layout at the drop of a hat. Just revamping Hotmail once more would have been a disaster. The all-new Outlook is like a breath of fresh air as it gets most things right, right from the beginning.
REFRESHING OUTLOOK
The ‘big’ things in Outlook are all quite smart and efficient. From a very clean Metro interface (something that will now be common in Windows across all devices); scheduled auto clean-up that still retains the last mail from a sender; intelligent auto sorting of mails, auto linking with Facebook, Twitter and other social media (for most things, you won’t even have to leave your Outlook page); instant chat integrates it all – including Facebook and other accounts into one space. Skype is part and parcel of it and you don’t need to download a separate app for it. It has instant commands where you hover your mouse and options drop down; great little animations and special effects; deep integration with SkyDrive (instead of attaching large files, just attach a link), import of mails and contacts from all your other mail accounts, a photo-sharing feature that works brilliantly and the big one – you can now attach files as large as 300MB (that is huge!)
RISKY AS HELL
To kill off a brand that is the most successful in its category takes guts. This is a gamble that can backfire massively. There is no guarantee that the 330 million Hotmail users will all move to Outlook as some may veer off to the competition. Yet, if they hadn’t killed off Hotmail completely, Outlook may not have got the mass exodus it needs to make it a huge success. Killing off Hotmail may well go down as one of the most brilliant strategies of this decade. Should you be giving Outlook.com a shot? Absolutely. You’d better hurry though, lest you end up with one more obscure email ID. I sure don’t want a rajma9812@outlook.com! Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, CellGuru and Newsnet 3.Follow Rajiv on Twitter at twitter.com /RajivMakhni
WELLNESS
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MIND BODY SOUL
SHIKHA SHARMA
LET YOURSELF GO T HIS INDEPENDENCE DAY, be free of hairfall and water retention. HAIRFALL No one likes losing hair. Keep your crowning glory looking healthy and shiny. ■ Eat a small bowl of sprouts (moong dal/kala chana) daily. Also, include fresh fruits, raw salads, leafy vegetables, whole grains and curd in your diet. ■ If your scalp is oily, or if you have dandruff, drink plenty of water. Add the juice of a lemon to a glass of water and drink it first thing in the morning. ■ Restrict your consumption of junk food items like burgers, fried chips, cold, spicy and sugary foods, caffeine, carbonated drinks, excessive raw food, tofu and tomatoes as these are respon-
Photos: THINKSTOCK
sible for hair thinning. ■ Eat protein-rich foods like soybean, low-fat cheese, eggs, beans and yoghurt to aid hair growth. HERBS TO REDUCE HAIRFALL ■ Massaging aloe vera gel into the scalp restores its pH balance, and this helps hair grow. ■ Amla, reetha, mahabhringraj oil, triphala, bael, neem and sandalwood aid hair growth. ■ Chamomile is a good herb for oily hair. It also corrects the scalp’s water balance, so that it does not become dry. ■ Chamomile also helps to strengthen and revitalise hair. ■ Brahmi is a wonderful treatment for hair loss as its antioxidant properties allow proper nourishment to reach hair roots and promote hair growth. It also fights dandruff, hair discolouration and split ends. WATER RETENTION Many of us face the recurrent problem of water retention. Whether we retain fluid due to hormonal changes or after eating too much salty food, we
should not try severe measures like medication to fix this problem as a few simple measures are all that you need. ■ Green tea is a safe and natural diuretic. Try herbal diuretics such as jasmine, lemon or chamomile tea. Drink one cup two to four times a day. Alternatively, drink a cup of ginger lemon tea twice daily. ■ Eat low-salt soups, such as brothbased vegetarian soups, which are filling, hydrating and help to release toxins and trapped water. Because canned soups contain high amounts of sodium, opt for homemade clear soups made without thickening agents. ■ Avoid foods like cheese, canned foods, pickles and ketchups that contain substantial amounts of salt. ■ Add more fresh vegetables and fruits to your diet, especially those high in water content, such as celery, cucumbers and watermelon. Foods like apples, asparagus and barley are also natural diuretics. ■ Calcium intake may help women who experience water retention as-
sociated with their menstrual cycle. Vitamin B6 may also alleviate water retention in menopausal women. ■ Limit your use of alcohol and tobacco. They promote fluid retention by increasing dehydration. ■ Water is a natural diuretic, so drinking eight glasses of water daily can help prevent water retention. The water should be consumed evenly throughout the day to help the kidneys efficiently remove the water. HERBS TO REDUCE WATER RETENTION Choose two to four cups of dandelion infusion per day over other diuretics for pre-menstrual bloating. Add four cups of boiling water to 2 tbsp dandelion leaves. Let the leaves soak for five to seven minutes and then strain. Drink one cup of the infusion in the morning and allow the rest to cool before pouring into a glass bottle. ■ Parsley: The leaves of this herb can be used in the form of a tea or in the form of capsules to effectively treat water retention. ■ Other herbs: Jasmine tea, 3 tsp punarnavarisht with 3 tsp of water after meals, 1 tab each of punarnavadi guggul after meals, or 3 tsp dashmoolarisht with equal amount of water after meals. ask@drshikha.com
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PERSONAL AGENDA
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Actor
Boman Irani if i could... I WOULD TRAVEL TO THE MOON
SUN SIGN Sagittarius
BIRTHDAY December 2
HOMETOWN Mumbai
SCHOOL/COLLEGE
St Mary’s ICSE, Mumbai; Wadia College, Pune
FIRST BREAK
Photos: THINKSTOCK
PLAY THE SAXOPHONE
The day I got married and when I became a father
Worked as a waiter at the Taj; in LOW POINT OF YOUR LIFE movies, with Munnabhai MBBS (2003) I never dwell on it
Acting or photography? It’s very difficult to choose, as difficult as choosing between one’s mother and father. What’s the one thing you’d love to capture with your camera? A photograph that epitomises true happiness.
VISIT THE SOUTH POLE
HIGH POINT OF YOUR LIFE
One woman you want to go on a date with. Why only one? But, if given an option I would go out with Meryl Streep. A colour that best describes your life. VIBGYOR. You have worked in a bakery, in theatre, in advertisements and on the big screen. Which has been the closest to your heart? Everything, because it’s all a
CURRENTLY DOING
Promoting Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi and Dulux paints part of a beautiful journey called life. A role you think you were born to play. A paint salesman. Ha ha ha! Describe your typical holiday. A lot of theatre and great food with the family. Your darkest fear. Getting stuck in a closed room alone. What is on your bedside table? Reading glasses and a copy of Mad magazine. What’s your comfort food? Frankies. Most overrated virtue? Being frank. One movie that makes you smile? As Good As It Gets. Three people you’d love to have over to dinner. Johnny Lever, Karan Johar and Abhishek Bachchan. Your last big splurge? Purchasing a Mercedes car for my wife. You have 30 seconds to pack for a trip. What do you take? Lots of fresh underwear. What helps you unwind at the end of the day? Watching a movie. If you could go back in time, where would you go? The era of the Renaissance, because some of the most inspirational people lived at that time and changed the way we live, eat and breathe. The last line of your autobiography will read… And so it all begins!
WHO, ACCORDING TO YOU, IS THE BEST COMEDIAN EVER?
Charlie Chaplin
— Interviewed by Yesha Kotak AUGUST 12, 2012