Hindustantimes Brunch 14 August 2011

WEEKLY MAGAZINE, AUGUST 14, 2011 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times

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OUT ON THE

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STANDS

What goes around does come around.

As it did for the characters of the short story written

by Madhulika Liddle exclusively for Brunch Quarterly. Buy it now!

Myths busted

Set in 19th century Calcutta, the story begins: Oscar Leadbetter, after two months on board ship, followed by a cross-country journey from Bombay to Calcutta, was ushered into his cousin’s presence by a turbaned servant.

I-DAY SPECIAL

We’re Logged On

Being Indian

facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch

Ours is a huge country.

Almost a continent in itself.

Filled with so many cultures.

But as five families, one each from the north, south, east, west and centre, testify, it’s all India. All ours

PHarheen Fatima Loved vir sanghvi’s article on drinking water..

Anat Ananya Until 2day I was a great ‘H2O-holic’.....i kept drinking lots of water through out the day(in order to loose some kilos....actually I m a lil bit overweight)....but after reading today’s Vir Sanghvi’s ‘In Deep Waters’ I had my myth busted :( Anyways thanx to Brunch....at least it would now ease my mom from regularly filling water bottles!!

Rajive Das I was anxious this morning. Our paperwala delivered today's edition of HT late. But without the copy of Brunch......Had to run around on my bike to get a copy... and then.........There was my name in the ‘Perfect Pets’ winners list........My first ever photography award. Thanx HT. Thanx Brunch.

I-DAY SPECIAL

PERSONAL AGENDA

PARVIN DABAS

twitter.com/HTBrunch @Durish DURI Vir Sanghvi’s article on ‘In Deep Waters’ was excellent! A lot of myths & questions were put to rest about packaged drinking water.

@aakash_kumar @RajivMakhni LOL so true. It’s advisable to get off ur phone when at petrol pump to ensure u get the amount of fuel ur paying for @BoL_BLoGGeR If u haven’t read today’s Hindustan Times magazine Brunch then u haven’t enjoyed your Sunday still. I finished it just now.

EAT

— NALIN, via email

INDULGE LIVE

Leave The Kids Alone

Behind The Scenes

Is it necessary for restaurants and hotels to have a back story?

LISTEN

Target Practice

I’m not a fan of movie soundtracks. Wild Target, however, was something else PLAY

Operating System Deathmatch

Take heed: the operating system your phone runs is going to dictate everything

BRUNCH ON THE WEB Check out our weekly bloggers!

hindustantimes.com/brunch POINT, CLICK, SNAP! The HT Brunch Photo Contest

The Weekly Khamba: RJ’s Secret Dossier: Raving, ranting and more. The myth, the icon, the Watch out – he bites avenging force

Pagal Papers: Comic Relief: Incisive insights from Fak- ‘Rezi Vastav’ by comic ing News’ Pagal Patrakar artist Rajneesh Kapoor!

We can’t get enough of your pretty pictures for our contest. However, after a AND month of your enthusiasIT’S A tic response, the contest WRAP! has now come to an end.

We will be announcing the results for ‘Saris’ next week. Keep checking facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch for more!

Turn to page 12 for last week’s winners

And an all-access-pass to your favourite stories from this and past Brunch issues!

Write to brunchletters@hindustantimes.com For marketing and ad-related queries, contact Suresh Tripathi 09818899646

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The actorturned-director talks about his love for water, his baby’s smile and why he hates people with attitude

Calling All Tweeple

@atinmahajan @RajivMakhni excellent article...finally all the myths are cleared..

We need to take a hard look at the overtly sexual depiction of kids in pop culture

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Two Aamir Khan productions show how the country has changed in the past 10 years

— ABHIVEER GERA, via email ONE OF the reasons for your magazine’s popularity is the high quality of tech writing which is superior to any thing else we get to read. And a twopage Techilicious made it perfect, otherwise I am always left wanting more.

Please do keep it to two pages and don’t go back to that measly one page.

Thanks for putting together a feast of great articles to read on a Sunday morning.

Whose India Is It Anyway?

Deepak Kumar did’nt get Brunch today, sold out todays edition

@arun_singh_ Had a very ‘fruity’ lunch and now on to my Brunch. I have developed an emotional connect with this weekly and it’s team. Nice read.

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I SPENT my Sunday afternoon rolling on the floor laughing as I read the mobile myths segment (Mobile Phones: Legends, Lore and Fantasy, 7 August) in your magazine. And not just me, my colleagues at the office did the same too. It’s rare to have a segment that is funny and yet full of great facts. Rajiv Makhni’s comment on using a phone as a remote, and his new myths section at the end was classic! There were at least four facts in the article which I and my colleagues thought were true, but now know to be myths. And learning all this, while laughing uncontrollably, was a new form of education. Thank you Mr Makhni, you are a tech god.

EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Kushalrani Gulab (Deputy Editor); Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi, Mignonne Dsouza, Veenu Singh, Parul Khanna Tewari, Pranav Dixit, Yashica Dutt

DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor Design), Swati Chakrabarti, Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Singh, Saket Misra

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

Watery woes

IN LINE with my way of thinking, I found Vir Sanghvi’s views on the intake of water very sensible (In Deep Waters, 7 August). Despite a lot of coaxing and cajoling by my brother (who guzzles mineral water and suffers from chronic ulcers), I drink water only when I feel the urge – like my father, who used to drink very little water but lived a healthy life for 89 years. In Mumbai, it is advisable to consume less water, for drinking tap water is injurious to health.

— KP RAJAN, Mumbai VIR SANGHVI’S Rude Food has always been a favourite. But last week’s column was too good. In fact, I have been yearning to express my anger about the myth of ‘drink plenty of water’ propagated by so-called health experts.

Thanks, Mr Sanghvi, for giving words to my long-held thoughts on this nonsense of ‘drink plenty of water’. He’s the only writer who has the depth of knowledge to write two full pages on the subject. It was a pleasure to be proven right by someone so competent to write on food and drink.

— MONA JAIN, Delhi

Cover design: Prashant Chaudhary

Being Indian I-DAY SPECIAL

OURS IS A HUGE country. Almost a continent in itself.

Filled with so many cultures. But as five families, one each from the north, south, east, west and centre, testify, it’s all India. All ours PHOTO: UJJAL DEB

IN SHILLONG

The Japanese Wife

by Rahul Karmakar

I

F YOU SNIFF GUJARATI VAGHAAR at 4,900 ft, it is likely wafting in from quarter number L10 in Shillong’s North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) complex. And it will be 39-year-old Caroline Mukhim preparing panchkutiya shaak (fivevegetable curry) to go with khatta-meetha bhaat (sour-sweet rice).

Caroline agrees that Gujarati khana needs a lot of getting used to. The three years she spent in Ahmedabad when her husband Kenneth Pala was transferred there in 1998 made her so accustomed to the cuisine that she often gives her family a Gujarati break from jadoh, a pilaf-like Khasi staple, and dohkhleh (pork) or dohsiar (chicken).

Kenneth, 41, prefers Maharashtrian cuisine; he developed the taste via his local guardians during an earlier stint in Ahmedabad. But food should be relished, not fought over. So the couple and their daughter Alethea, 9, and son Brendon, 8, discovered a ‘middle path’ – south Indian food – thanks to their Tamil neighbour.

Caroline, a doctor in NEHU, and Kenneth,

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a Shillong-based monitoring and evaluation manager at the UN-affiliated International Fund for Agriculture Development, encountered the indigestible while adapting to ‘mainland’ fare. In Gujarat, people would often confuse Shillong with Ceylon. The height was when a nationalised bank manager turned down their home loan application because he thought Caroline was Japanese. “I took a long time convincing him we were as Indian as he was, but I couldn’t buy a flat in Ahmedabad,” says Kenneth. “But there are no hard feelings; as much as other Indians need to be more sensitive about the country’s fringes, the onus is on us to sensitise them.”

The couple attribute their adaptability to their schooling and their liberalism to their families. “Most schools in Shillong don’t allow you to mingle with your own kind during breaks,” says Caroline. Their children have Hindi as their second language and not Khasi because ‘Hindi offers more opportunities’.

Caroline is good in Hindi English, Khasi and Assamese; Kenneth’s Hindi is kaam-chalau and his Gujarati has suffered in 10 years away from the state.

Plus, adds Caroline, “We socialise a lot, vis-

KENNETH PALA & CAROLINE MUKHIM (WITH DAUGHTER ALETHEA AND SON BRENDON) UN OFFICIAL AND DOCTOR, MEGHALAYA

‘THAT WE LIVE IN THE MOST DIVERSE COUNTRY ON EARTH MAKES OUR EXISTENCE ALL THE MORE MEANINGFUL’

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

iting kin, friends and acquaintances.” Socialising adds ‘a bit of music’ to the rhythm of their life.

“Shillong offers that extra bit beyond responsibilities. We drive to Mawphlang (a nature trail in a sacred grove 30 km from Shillong or Umiam (a lake 20 km from Shillong) occasionally. And we make it a point to go on a long vacation at least once a year,” says Kenneth.

Their last trip was to Kerala. “We have gone everywhere except Kashmir and Haryana, but we prefer southern India because the people there are nicer and we freak out on south Indian food,” says Caroline. On a trip to Kolkata, Kenneth was indoctrinated to the world of Hindi films. The family watched 3 Idiots, their first Hindi film together. “We like Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor,” she says.

Caroline and Kenneth are proud to be Khasis as well as Indians. They feel their uniqueness as a matrilineal community enriches India’s multi-ethnic tapestry. “That we live in the most diverse country on earth makes our existence all the more meaningful,” says Kenneth.

Of course Meghalaya has long experienced rebel-imposed boycotts on Independence Day. “But things are changing; a local organisation has been promoting intra-state tourism on that day,” says Kenneth. India has changed too in the last couple of decades.

“Blame it on communication and the change in mindset of the younger generation exposed to globalisation,” he adds. rahul.karmakar@hindustantimes.com

IN BHOPAL

The Modern Day Royals

by Rahul Noronha

I

NDEPENDENCE DAY HOLDS A special meaning for someone belonging to the erstwhile royal families of India.

That’s because while most people were gaining a nation, they were losing theirs.

However, Aruneshwar Saran Singhdeo, who hails from the erstwhile ruling family of Surguja in modern-day Chattisgarh, has a different take on the transition. “It is true that at a personal level, the princes lost a lot in terms of wealth and power at the time of independence,” says the 46-year-old. “But some princes also played a role in fostering democracy, and many of them ended up as political or administrative leaders.”

Since independence, it has been a continuing process of integration for the erstwhile princes. For Arun, his marriage to Sapna, a year younger than him and in some senses his childhood sweetheart, also signified integration. “I come from a Punjabi business family while Arun hails from a princely background. So there was a lot of resistance to our marriage,” explains Sapna.

Arun and Sapna were in the same class at Bhopal’s St Joseph’s Convent for a few years before Arun joined the all-boys

Campion School. Later, she was sent to Simla to do a BA at St Beed’s, while Arun pursued an MA in Economics at the Bhopal School of Social Sciences. They got married in 1988, and have two kids, Aaditeshwar, 21, who is studying engineering in Delhi, and Aishwarya, 17, who is in class 11.

While Surguja smoothly integrated with the Indian Union, Arun’s father took his process of integration into independent India a step further. The late MS Singhdeo was a 1954 batch IAS officer and a former chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh. “He studied at Allahabad University and took the exam after being influenced by his father-in-law, Raja Digvijaya Singh of Jubbal, an ICS officer of the 1942 batch,” says Arun.

Arun is keen to dispel any notion that he was brought up with a sense of entitlement.

“My upbringing was more like a civil servant’s child,” he explains. He’s also proud to point out that, “Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh are like an India within India – there are numerous stories of integration. People who’ve come from other states have always been accepted.” Arun’s ancestors too, came from Palamu in modern day Jharkhand in 902 AD and set up Surguja state.

Arun and Sapna are a regular couple. They love holidaying together, even if, like many

‘MADHYA PRADESH IS LIKE AN INDIA WITHIN INDIA. PEOPLE FROM OTHER STATES ARE ALWAYS ACCEPTED’

ARUNESHWAR AND SAPNA SINGHDEO BUSINESSMAN, MADHYA PRADESH

couples, they disagree about the choice of destination. “My ideal holiday would be a wildlife lodge in Africa, but we haven’t been able to do it,” says Arun ruefully. The ‘compromise’ destination is either the beaches of South East Asia or an urban setting in the US or Europe, he explains.

Within India, the family is much-travelled, having covered almost the entire country except the North East. Their favourite destinations are wildlife reserves, as Arun, besides having a stake in the housing sector, has also diversified in jungle lodges at Kanha and Bandhavgarh. “Himachal and Kashmir are our favourite destinations, and we would like to visit the North East now,” says Arun.

“Though we both love food, cuisine is a major point of disagreement,” says Sapna.

While Arun likes to cook and relishes Indian food, followed only by Chinese, Sapna is fond of eating out and loves seafood. “My favourite restaurant is China Kitchen at the Hyatt, while Arun loves Karim’s at Nizamuddin,” she says.

But the couple have much in common, just like the country they live in. “Both of us like meeting new people,” says Sapna. They also share similar views about the India of the future.

“I think my generation let down the country in some ways. If you speak to old people in the villages – in spite of the apparent prosperity that’s come about in the last few years, people are not happy,” says Arun. “Our next hope is the youth, our children’s generation as they are truly global and independent thinking and will earn India her rightful place.” rahul.noronha@hindustantimes.com

PHOTO: MUJEEB FARUQUI

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

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I-DAY SPECIAL

PHOTO: ANSHUMAN POYREKAR

IN DIU

The Contented Official

by Mahesh Langa

H

E DID A PH.D IN HINDI literature from Punjab University, Chandigarh, and always aspired to teach Hindi poetry in the interiors of Himachal. But fate decided otherwise. Dr Anil Kaushik now finds himself in the former Portuguese colony of Diu, as an assistant director (official language) in the collectorate. Anil attributes this change in his life to fate: “Every moment is pre-decided, so I accept everything that life offers,” he says.

Standing in the magnificent 16th century Diu fort, the 38-year-old native of Haryana explains that his job requires him to train government employees in developing their Hindi language skills. Anil moved to Diu in 1996, when he joined government service, and admits he would never have thought of settling in this former Portuguese colony otherwise. His wife Sushmita is a teacher in a private school, and their only son, nineyear-old Kulshobhan, studies in class 4.

Anil, an avid reader of writers like Premchand, Dinkar and Nirala, feels that Hindi literature is a mirror that reflects Indian life as it is, which no other literary works and

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certainly not anything in English, do. “True India, its people and its life, are reflected in our literature, so I wanted to teach it,” he explains. “I still dream of teaching the novels of Premchand, and the poetry of Dinkar and Nirala in the US if I get a chance.”

However, Diu is not really second-best.

Sipping coffee in his sea-facing government residence, Anil says: “I am thankful to this job which brought me here. Walking in the morning along the serene coastline is an immense pleasure one would never get elsewhere.”

Anil and Sushmita were married in 2000, without meeting each other even once. “He didn’t come to see me as our engagement was decided by our families,” explains Sushmita. “However, after marriage we realised that we share good chemistry. We are content with whatever God has given us,” she adds.

The Kaushiks have not really savoured the joys of travelling to all parts of India, primarily because, come vacations, they return to their hometown every year. “Anil has not taken us to many places,” explains Sushmita.

“But I want to go to Kerala, because I read that it’s one of the 50 most beautiful places in the world.”

ANIL & SUSHMITA KAUSHIK (WITH SON KULSOBHAN) BUREAUCRAT, UNION TERRITORY OF DIU

‘I WAS VERY PROUD WHEN PRESIDENT PRATIBHA PATIL PRAISED MY COMPERING ON HER LAST VISIT HERE’

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

About Diu, she says it’s a wonderful place though a little far-flung and isolated. “I also miss north Indian sweets and sarson da saag, because I grew up eating those in Pinjore,” says Sushmita. However, the Kaushiks make the most of their location when it comes to food. “We eat many different types of vegetables, sugar-laden Gujarati food, and even north Indian sabzis,” says Anil.

Despite being in such an ‘isolated’ place, the couple once had a chance to be upfront in a Bollywood movie. “During the shooting of the movie Aakrosh in Diu, we were asked to sit with actress Bipasha Basu in an icecream parlour,” recalls Sushmita. “But Anil refused because he is very camera shy.” She sighs. “I very much wanted to feature in the shooting but we missed an opportunity to be seen in the film.”

However, there have been other times when the couple has been in the limelight.

Anil is a regular compere at official events like Independence Day, Republic Day or during the visit of state dignitaries. “It was a proud moment for me when President Pratibha Patil praised my compering during her last visit to the union territory last January,” says Anil.

But no matter where they live, the Kaushiks stay positive about India’s future.

“The country has made progress in the last few years but without corruption, the benefits of development will not reach the farflung interiors,” they say. mahesh.langa@hindustantimes.com

IN SRINAGAR

The Committed Indians

by Toufiq Rashid

I

N A STATE WHERE INDEPendence Day for over 20 years has meant empty roads, closed shops and barbed wire, getting people to speak about their love for the country was a Herculean task.

But a quiet couple living in the bylanes of downtown Srinagar have no qualms in stating that ‘a secure future lies with a stable, progressive India’. That’s how Mohammad Altaf, a small-time handicraft entrepreneur, feels.

“India is developing in a way that even America is looking at. Obviously we would want our children to grow up in a place where we feel their future is secure,” says the 41-year-old.

The family is proud to be both Kashmiri and Indian. “The special status of the state is what connects the state more to the rest of the country,” says Altaf’s wife, Rabia. “The solution to the problem has to be found within the Constitution, but if Kashmiri aspirations like restoring the 1953 position are considered, it will bring back everybody’s faith in the greatness of Indian democracy.”

Rabia is also proud that her family are true practising Muslims. While Altaf sports a well-trimmed beard, Rabia doesn’t forget

her veil even while making halwa and wadas in the Kashmiri summers of 30° C. Though these are not traditional iftar snacks, they are what the couple and their two sons, Mohammad Suhaib (12) and Mohd Ilyas (5), break the Ramzan fast with.

The boys, besides liking traditional nonvegetarian Kashmiri dishes, love aloo parathas and chola bhature. “My sons are very Punjabi in their tastes,” says 43-yearold Rabia.

Perhaps that’s because Rabia was a different person before marriage. She was born and bought up in Delhi as Nirupama before converting to Islam in 1989. Rabia’s Kashmiri Pandit family left Kashmir in 1947. “My grandfather, Pandit Parmanand, was the last accountant general of Jammu and Kashmir.

My father was just three when we left Kashmir,” she says.

Rabia came looking for her roots in 1989 as a Youth Congress leader and ended up taking up Islam as a faith. “I didn’t convert at the time of my marriage. I converted long before that,” she explains.

The couple met in Delhi in 1997, fell in love and got married. “I am a businessman and was running my handicraft business in Delhi when we met,” says Altaf. They shifted to Srinagar in 2004. “We wanted to help our

‘WE WILL CELEBRATE INDEPENDENCE DAY WITH A HOLIDAY AND AN INTERFAMILY T20 MATCH’

MOHAMMED & RABIA ALTAF (WITH THEIR SONS MOHAMMAD SUHAIB AND MOHD ILYAS) BUSINESSMAN AND NGO LEADER, JAMMU & KASHMIR

community, which we felt was under a lot of stress,” explains Altaf.

Rabia set up the NGO All India Centre for Rural and Urban Development, and started working with Kashmiri youth. Altaf meanwhile still runs his ancestral business. “He earns money, I spend it in social work,” grins Rabia. “I work with politicians, separatists, and common people, and am producing a document with the help of civil society which we will submit to the government,” she explains.

When the couple is not working, their sons keep them busy. “The older one loves cricket and will soon be participating in the under 14 KPL starting in Kashmir soon,” says the proud father. The younger son however doesn’t care about cricket; he is happy spending hours watching his favourite cartoons – Ben 10 and Chota Bheem.

Meanwhile the family’s connection with the world beyond the PirPanjal range remains strong. In the holidays, the boys will be heading to Delhi to be with their maternal grandparents. “My parents were shocked first by my conversion and then marriage, but they have come around,” says Rabia.

However, the family might not be lucky enough to witness a normal Independence Day for some time. The day will again be marked by a shutdown, curfew, protests, statements, counter-statements and a lot of politics. “We will celebrate with a holiday and an inter-family T20 and cheer for the family’s budding Zaheer Khan,” quips Rabia. toufiq.rashid@hindustantimes.com

PHOTO: JAVEED SHAH

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

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I-DAY SPECIAL

PHOTO: VIVEK R NAIR

IN THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The Happy Travellers

by Ramesh Babu

T

HEY LIVE IN A STATE (Kerala) that almost all Indians dream of visiting. But for Thiruvananthapuram residents Krishna Mohan (30) and Meera Krishna (25), nothing beats the joys of travelling the length and breadth of the country they live in. “Wherever we go, we find our country most beautiful and enchanting – an invisible thread runs through from one corner to the other and that is the beauty of this great country,” they say.

But it isn’t all play and no work for this couple, who love to call themselves backpackers. Hailing from a business family, Krishna Mohan’s first love was jurisprudence. After taking his law degree from Ambedkar Law College, Chennai, he even practised five years at the Madras High Court. But the call of duty forced the eldest of five siblings to don an entrepreneur’s role two years ago – he now runs a sprawling car showroom.

Married to Meera four years ago, the couple has a three-year-old daughter, Shivani.

A BBA from American University in Dubai, Meera also has a business background. She currently helps her father in his realty busi-

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ness and is also one of the directors of a construction firm in Thiruvananthapuram.

No matter how busy their days are, the Krishnas always make time to travel, and to read Paul Theroux, a favourite contemporary travel writer. Besides crisscrossing the country, they have also visited more than a dozen countries.

“To savour different foods, cultures, absorb different styles of architecture and languages, it is something great. It allows you to experiment with something new, meet people and helps you learn more about yourself,” explains Krishna.

But India still holds a special charm for them. “Our country offers the most varied cuisines of any place on the planet, but many are not exposed to its wide varieties and sadly stick to the same dishes,” complains Meera, who is a culinary expert.

She talks about some of her favourites – the Indian Chinese food at Zen in Rajiv Chowk, Delhi, or the yummy seafood on offer at Mahesh Lunch Home in Juhu, Mumbai.

And the foodie couple relish their culinary experiences – whether it is a starred hotel in Europe or a dhaba in Karol Bagh, they both try to experiment with cuisines, besides enjoying their favourite dishes of seafood and kebabs.

KRISHNA MOHAN & MEERA KRISHNA

BUSINESS PEOPLE, KERALA

‘WHEREVER WE GO, INDIA IS ENCHANTING. AN INVISIBLE THREAD RUNS FROM ONE CORNER TO THE OTHER

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

Unlike many people their age, who often show scant respect for the voting process, the Krishnas are ardent fans of democracy.

“They don’t know the value of freedom and free expression, that is why some young people turn their back on it,” they explain.

Krishna has exercised his franchise in all elections. He adds that politics is not a bad word and that it is unfair to place all the blame for all the country’s ills at the doors of politicians. “We have to empower our democracy. It is the duty of every citizen of the country to ensure it,” he says.

Both Krishna and Meera feel the induction of young blood into politics will not solve the nagging problems of the country, instead they favour a proper blend of experience and youth.

“More than age, experience and vision matter,” says Krishna, a fan of former president APJ Abdul Kalam. Whenever he notices an article or report on Kalam, he reads it with the enthusiasm of a 10-year-old, he admits with a chuckle. “I’m really amazed at the way in which he influences youngsters and inspires them,” explains Krishna.

Though the couple does not subscribe to a timeline for the country to become a superpower, they are sure it is inching towards the goal.

“Our population and natural resources are our strength and our economic fundamentals are strong. No doubt the 21st century belongs to us. But of course everyone has to chip in for this,” say the Krishnas. rbabu@hindustantimes.com

POINT, CLICK, SNAP!

J

s of The r e

t! Winn tes

KANIKA SHARMA

oto Con Ph

Brunch T H

udging from your tremendous response to POINT, CLICK, SNAP: The HT Brunch Photo Contest, we’re certain you’re having as much fun posting pictures as we are looking at them. But like all good things, this too must come to an end. So, with the declaration of the winners of last week’s theme of ‘Bazaars’, the photo contest is now over. (Though we will be announcing the results of the ‘Saris’ theme next week.) Hindustan Times National Photo Editor, T Narayan, chose five winning entries for ‘Bazaars’ – Pradeeshraman Raman, Kanika Sharma, Sanjay Kaushal, Santosh Rajgarhia and Rasika Chavan. Congratulations! Please send your addresses to brunchletters@ hindustantimes.com to receive your annual subscription to Brunch Quarterly and become eligible for the grand prize! And the rest, keep checking facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch to know what’s coming next!

POTS AND GRINS A man among his vessels in Kutch

SANJAY KAUSHAL

COLOURS OF LIFE A weekly market comes alive

PRADEESHRAMAN RAMAN FRAMES OF LIFE A typical day at Chor Bazaar in Mumbai

SANTOSH RAJGARHIA

HUES OF FAITH Selling pockets of belief in Haridwar

RASIKA CHAVAN

IN ANTICIPATION Waiting for a buyer at Ajmer’s dargah

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indulge live

| eat | listen | play

Leave The Kids Alone We need to take a long, hard look at the overtly sexualised depiction of children in popular culture

W

HAT WOULD camera – which is all you say if you Thylane was required to saw a fashion do on the pages of Vogue magazine – these girls are perspread featuring a young forming to Hindi film model, draped in a low-cut numbers, with much dress, wearing sky-high heels, pumping of the pelvis posed provocatively on a and thrusting of (noncouch, all sexy red pout and existent) breasts. And tumbling blonde hair? Nothing when they finish, the much I daresay, given that this judges commend them is pretty much par for the on their ‘sexy’ moves and course. their ‘sensuality’.

Except that, in this case, the No, I’m not kidding. model in question is 10 years These are terms that I old. Yes, that’s right. Thylane have heard otherwise Blondeau, the daughter of a sensible adults use to former French footballer and describe the dancing WHOSE BABY IS IT ANYWAY? an actress-TV presenter mothstyle of children on such er, who was featured in the Compared to the West where parents are so protective that they turn near-paranoid when shows, with nobody as it comes to their kids, in India we treat children almost as communal property pages of French Vogue – guestmuch as batting an eyeedited by Tom Ford – is all of lid at the inappropriate10. And yet, there she was, posed like a sex symbol, a latter-day Lolita, ness of it all. In fact, far from objecting, year after year we continin images that would look appropriate only if she was a decade older. ue to dress up our children and present them as objects of desire I’m not sure what the editors at French Vogue were thinking of for every pervert and paedophile who cares to tune in to these when they shot that photo-feature or whether they anticipated the shows. furore that resulted from their publication, but I have to admit that In a sense, I guess, this is the fall-out of our far-more-relaxed attiI find the pictures distasteful, even disturbing. Yes, we know that tude to childhood, as compared to the West where parents are so fashion is all about pushing the boundaries of good taste, but sexprotective that they turn near-paranoid when it comes to their kids. ualising a 10-year-old should surely be beyond the pale.

In India, for better or worse, we treat children almost as commuAnd sure enough, the images have been roundly condemned by nal property. If you find yourself in close proximity with a baby in a everyone from child psychologists to concerned parents, and in lift or an aeroplane, you think nothing of making silly gurgling noisresponse to the controversy, Thylane’s mother has taken down a es and trying to grab its attention. If a child wanders up to you in a Facebook page dedicated to her daughter. restaurant, you say a friendly hello and exchange indulgent smiles But while this is an extreme case, the sexualisation of young chilwith the parents. In fact, complete strangers can come up and coo dren continues apace all around us; and nobody seems to notice, or over our children, pinch their cheeks, say how cute they are, and we even care very much. Go into a store and look at the kind of clothes are just gratified by the attention. We really do believe that because that are being sold for eight to 14-year-olds. Some of them are just we find our kids so adorable, it’s only to be expected that others would as provocative and overtly sexual as those sold to young adults. find them irresistible too. And this belief often blinds us to the fact What’s worse is that so many parents don’t seem to realise that that this ‘attraction’ may sometimes put our kids in danger. they are complicit in the sexualisation of their kids when they dress I am by no means suggesting that we should become as uptight them up in these faux-adult clothes. I was startled the other day to as the West, where every adult who comes in contact with a child see a five-year-old wearing a T-shirt that said “I’m too sexy for my is treated as potential paedophile unless proved otherwise. We don’t shirt...” with the word SEXY spelt out in lurid pink sequins. Her need to go to the other extreme where even parents are forbidden young mother thought that this was hysterical and couldn’t underfrom taking pictures and videos of their kids at school concerts and stand why I would have a problem with that. games for fear that the images may fall into the hands of predators.

But then, we seem to have a sensitivity chip missing when it I know I would hate to live in a society where teachers are scared comes to the depiction of children in popular culture. Tune into to comfort their students by putting an arm around their shoulone of those dance competition-type shows that are targeted at ders for fear of contravening some ‘health and safety’ rule. (Or kids and you’ll know just what I mean. Almost every girl who perwhere you can’t coo over a baby unless you’re on first-name terms forms on these shows is just as provocatively dressed and heavwith the mother.) ily made-up as Thylane Blondeau was in the pages of Vogue. But So while, on the whole, I’m not in favour of banning books, movies instead of lying supine on a couch or pouting dreamily into the or TV programmes, given the overtly sexualised way children are depicted in some of these so-called ‘dance’ or ‘talent’ shows, I think NO ADULT AFFAIR there is a case for taking a long hard look at how our kids are depictJust tune into one of those dance competition-type shows that are targeted ed in popular culture.

PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

spectator

Seema Goswami

at kids. Almost every girl who performs on these shows is just as provocatively dressed and heavily made-up as Thylane Blondeau

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

seema_ht@rediffmail.com. Follow Seema on Twitter at twitter.com/seemagoswami

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Vir Sanghvi

STAMP OF SUCCESS Along with his partner Chris Corbin, Jeremy King (below) has created the greatest English restaurants of the last 30 years

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Behind The Scenes

Is it necessary for restaurants and hotels to have a back story?

Wouldn’t that make for places that were more interesting and different from each other?

A

BACK STORY is an essentially cinematic concept. What it means is that the events you see on screen have a background, a story that explains their provenance, even if we don’t have to confront that back story in the actual plot.

Let’s take an example. Alfred, the butler, is an important part of the Batman legend. In the comics, Alfred Pennyworth has an extensive back story developed over years of Batman and Detective comics. But on the screen, Alfred is a minor character. In the Batman TV show, we did not really care where Alfred came from or what his motivation was.

In the first few Batman movies (the franchise developed by Tim Burton and wrecked by his PHOTO: CC/LONPICMAN successor), Alfred was just a butler.

But then, Christopher Nolan took over the task of re-booting the Batman franchise and cast Michael Caine as Alfred in Batman Begins. Caine – who is a multiple Oscar winner – was not content with playing a butler with no background. So, he created a back story for himself. In his portrayal, Alfred is a former British army soldier from the SAS (an elite commando wing) who took up cooking during difficult postings and who went to work for Dr Thomas Wayne when he retired.

So not only does he understand Bruce Wayne’s motivation, but he also understands the world of violence that Bruce plunges himself into when he decides to become Batman after Thomas Wayne is murdered by a robber. Moreover, because of his SAS background, he can actually help Batman as he goes about his task of fighting crime.

Judging by the interviews Caine gave in the run-up to the release of Batman Begins (there has since been the more successful Dark Knight sequel) nobody, including the director Christopher Nolan, told him to find a back story for his character. He just made it up because he reckoned that nothing made sense without a back story.

I had no idea that the same principles applied to hotels and restaurants till I interviewed Jeremy King a month ago. Jeremy was here for the huge Diageo drinks spectacular that involved journos, restaurateurs, barmen and the like from all over the world but which, curiously, seems to have made little impression on our domestic media even though it has been written about extensively by the international press.

If you are an average reader of Rude Food and have never heard of Jeremy King, then don’t worry, he is not quite Michael Caine yet.

But if you are in the hotel/restaurant business, then you should have some idea of who he is and what he does.

Along with his partner Chris Corbin, Jeremy has created the greatest English restaurants of the last 30 years: The Ivy, Le Caprice, J Sheekey and The Wolseley. Many years ago, Chris Corbin and he 14

CREATING A CONCEPT When they bought the Ivy, it was a great theatre-district standby gone to seed. Jeremy’s job was only to revive the quality of the food and service

A CLASS APART Though the Wolseley remains among London’s most fashionable restaurants and is a celebrity dining room, it is distinguished by excellent service

sold Le Caprice, the Ivy and J Sheekey to pizza entrepreneur Luke Johnson who sold them to Richard Caring, a sharply-dressed, ragtrade tycoon who added Mark Birley’s operations (Annabel’s, George, Harry’s Bar etc.) to his empire, and then added some of his own (the revamped Scotts of Mayfair) to create the UK’s largest chain of upmarket restaurants.

Though Jeremy’s former restaurants are the jewels in Caring’s crown, I don’t think that either Jeremy or Chris Corbin really approve of what Caring is doing to the brands they created. They

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

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PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

PHOTO: CC

are horrified by Caring’s attempts to turn their exrestaurants into global franchises (“the New York Caprice is a disaster,” said Jeremy of the restaurant that Caring runs in partnership with the Taj at the Pierre Hotel) and are horrified by the thought of the Dubai Ivy, the first of many global Ivys.

Though I have been a fan of Jeremy’s restaurants ever since my friend Willy Landels BATMAN TALES AN IMPRESSIVE EXPERIENCE first took me to Le Caprice Michael Caine was not content with Somebody had taken Jeremy King to Bukhara and he thought it was in the 1980s, I believe that the playing a butler with no background an exception: a restaurant in a five-star hotel with soul Wolseley, which he now runs (post the sale of his other restaurants) is far plug into the history, to update the menu better than any of Caring’s restaurants. and cast it as a modern version of the old Though the Wolseley remains among cafe society Caprice.

London’s most fashionable restaurants and When they bought the Ivy, it was a great is a celebrity dining room, it is distinguished theatre-district standby gone to seed. by excellent service.

Jeremy’s job was only to revive the quality At any given time, nearly 30 per cent of of the food and service and to recast it as a the tables cannot be booked in advance and modern theatrical restaurant. (I guess it if you turn up as a walk-in, you have a good helped that he was once manager of Joe chance of getting in. (The other 70 per cent Allen’s, a theatrical restaurant.) are booked weeks ahead.)

J Sheekey was more complicated. It was I asked Jeremy what his principles were. an old fish restaurant at the edge of the theBeing English, he was deliberately vague, atre district that had fallen on bad days. The but here’s what I could gather.

Corbin and King solution was to revive the ■ There will always be gastronomic restausea-food theme (no meat, only the freshest rants that do excellent food (Alain Ducasse fish) and to emphasise the origins of the etc.) at fabulous prices. Remember that you restaurant. Nobody who eats at Sheekey (a restaurateur) are not competing with today will realise that there were many years them. Instead, you are offering really good when the restaurant was dead. It seems like food that is not necessarily Michelin-starred. a buzzing theatrical place that has been QUALITY FOOD ■ According to Jeremy, this means great around for decades. dishes with top-quality ingredients and total At a good restaurant, fish and chips must be made Jeremy is currently working on two with the freshest fish, the frying must be perfect consistency of food. If you serve fish and places. The first is a deli-style restaurant chips for instance, it must be made with the in Aldwych. He has a back story ready. The freshest fish, the frying must be perfect and the chips should be place was created by East European Jews escaping persecution. made with the right potatoes, they should be hand-cut, they must It started out as a cold meat and sandwich place and then became be fried to the right level of crispness and the tartare sauce should a full-scale restaurant. be better than any commercial variety.

None of this is true, of course, so I asked Jeremy why he both■ Service should be warm and regular. Even if you run the Ivy or ered. His answer was that unless a restaurant had a convincing Caprice which have a celebrity clientele (the first time I went to the back story, it failed in the long run.

Caprice, David Bowie was at the next table) you must treat every This was as true of hotels, he said. Chris Corbin and he have guest as a VIP. Nobody should feel like a spectator. “Restaurants are just partnered with the Grosvenor estate to open a new hotel (their not theatre,” he says, “There are no actors and no audience. Everybody first) just off London’s Oxford Street. The building used to house is on par. Everybody gets the same food and same service.” the offices of Avis, the car rental company, so the conversion was ■ Every restaurant must have a back story. If you are, say, Ferran a challenge. But rather than just build a modern hotel, Corbin and Adria opening in London then that’s fine: your food speaks for itself.

King created a back story.

But unless you are a triple Michelin-starred chef who is The hotel was built in the 1920s by a rich American who loved sure that people will come for the food, you must create London. It was the toast of the town. Then, the American owner a restaurant with a back story. went back to the States and the hotel fell on bad times and was Of all of the things that Jeremy said, this was the sold to a modern chain which destroyed its character. Now, Corbin one that intrigued me the most. What did he mean? and King are renovating it to recover its lost lustre.

He gave me the examThis is all made up, of course, and the back story (like Alfred’s ples of his own restauarmy origins in Batman Begins) will not necessarily be shared with guests. So why bother with a back story? rants. Most had a PHOTO: REUTERS Because, says Jeremy, it gives the new owners, the architect, back story of their the designer, the management and the staff an idea of what the own anyway. The hotel should be. They don’t just say, “Let’s convert this office block Caprice was a glamorous into a hotel.” They say “What would the hotel have looked like at cafe society place in the early its peak in the 1920s?” And, while designing the rooms, they ask 20th century. When Chris and themselves, “What would a luxury hotel built in the Jazz Age have Jeremy revived it, all they had to do was to offered its guests?” The back story serves as a reference point for everybody in the same way that Alfred’s back story told Michael CELEBRITY SPOTTING Caine how Alfred would react to any given situation.

The first time I went to the Caprice, Jeremy has been to India before and though I tried to get him David Bowie was at the next table

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

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PHOTO: REUTERS

live |

MAKING OVER A CLASSIC Christopher Nolan took over the task of re-booting the Batman franchise

A PROUD HISTORY Hyderabad’s Falaknuma Palace already has a back story

THE ORIENTAL IN BANGKOK SELLS ITSELF TO EVERYBODY AS A LEGENDARY OLD WORLD ESTABLISHMENT

SUCCESS STRATEGY The Oberoi's Vilas hotels (above) have taken on such genuine historical places as the Lake Palace

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PHOTO: REUTERS

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STAR VALUE If you are Ferran Adria, then that’s fine: your food speaks for itself

to open up on the subject of our restaurants, he was discreet. But he did say that he found most Indian hotel restaurants swish and soulless. The night before we met, somebody had taken him to Bukhara and he thought that was the one exception: a restaurant in a five-star hotel with soul.

I told him that many Indians thought it was old hat and overpriced but he was not convinced. He had no idea that Bukhara had been around since 1978 with roughly the same menu and décor but he thought that fitted in with what he liked about the place when I filled him in on its history. There had to be a back story, he said, in a restaurant that kept packing guests in night after night even though they had to eat on stools and pay high prices.

I thought of Jeremy’s insistence on back stories and it struck me that many hotels did have back stories even if they were largely made up. The Oriental in Bangkok consists of two modern buildings and one tiny period structure (rebuilt in the 1960s anyway after a fire). But because it sells itself to everybody – guests, staff management etc. – as a legendary old world establishment dating back generations, it occupies a special slot. So it is (to a lesser extent, admittedly) with Singapore’s Raffles, which is essentially a shopping mall with a small (largely new) hotel attached. But because it believes in its back story, it seems different from other Singapore hotels (it even has an official historian on its staff).

Indian hotels do not consciously use their back stories. The Grand in Calcutta has a terrific history but it seems largely forgotten. Only now has Bangalore’s magnificent West End woken up to rediscovering its heritage. The Taj Group spent a lot of money in the 1980s and 1990s destroying the great heritage of Madras’s Connemara.

On the other hand, there are successful hotels with made-up back stories. The story of the Vilas properties is – or so I would imagine – that if a modern Maharaja had lots of money and wanted to build a tasteful 21st century palace, he would build a Vilas.

The Oberois sell that back story so convincingly to staff, media and guests that the Vilas hotels have managed to do what nobody ever thought possible: they have taken on such genuine historical places as the Rambagh and the Lake Palace. And because the back story is so well fleshed into the concept, you know what kind of experience you will get at every Vilas even before you get there.

Should Indian hoteliers and restaurateurs think of a back story before they open new properties? It is an interesting idea. Unless a hotel already has a back story (such as Hyderabad’s Falaknuma Palace, for instance), Indian hoteliers are content to focus on the fittings (five feature bathrooms, marble in the lobby, large guest rooms, etc.) and not on the soul. Suppose instead that they gave each hotel a back story before they started building it, wouldn’t that make for hotels that were more interesting and – at the very least – different from each other?

Even existing hotels seem to be crying out for back stories. The ITC Windsor in Bangalore is a 1980s building but it seems to me to be crying out for an Oriental back story that slots the property and motivates the staff. (The Viceroy’s Bangalore residence with rooms for his guests and entourage, perhaps?)

It is an interesting thought. Certainly it has worked for Jeremy.

At his establishments, everything is good but that’s not why people keep coming back.

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

indulge listen Scoring A 70mm Hit live | eat |

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I’m not a fan of movie soundtracks. Wild Target, however, was something else

download central

Sanjoy Narayan

I

KNOW IT’S not a brand new film but have you seen Wild Target? It’s a British ‘action-comedy’, starring Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt. It also has Rupert Grint (he of the Harry Potter series fame) and Rupert Everett. In the film, Nighy is a paid assassin in keeping with his family business (his father was one and his mother wants him to be as good if not better). Blunt is a target that he is assigned to kill but that assignment goes awry and it all roller-coasters into an eccentric, action-filled 98 minutes, which if it were not for the excellent acting by Nighy and Blunt, could have gone steadily downhill because of tired gags and a completely absurd plot.

WORLDY WISE Although it was released last year, I watched Wild Target off a Fishtank Ensemble, one of the bands on Wild Target, are based in California.

DVD only last week and it wasn’t just the stellar performances by Their music has been described as “cross-pollinated gypsy music” Nighy and the greatly talented Blunt that kept my finger off the remote’s stop button. It was also the music. I’m not hugely into tomorrow’s nursery rhyme/ but you’re singing the only words you movie soundtracks and I especially detest the ones that are know/ would you cry if I lie ’til the day…”). But it was the musicians “composed” in entirety by some big name or the other. But on Wild that I hadn’t heard before that made Wild Target’s soundtrack such Target that was not the case. The film was so well held together a great aid to discovering new music. I’d never heard Imelda May – by around 15 tracks (many of them by musicians or bands that were she’s an Irish singer whose new to me) that I seriously confeatured song, Johnny Got a sidered getting the soundtrack Boom Boom, can make you an album or, at least, exploring the instant fan. It’s funny and is music a bit more. replete with double entendres.

The first band on Wild Target Besides, May has a great voice. that made me sit up and listen Sadly, I’ve still not been able to closely was Fishtank Ensemble lay my hands on any of her whose song was called Mehum albums but I shall keep trying.

Mato. Fishtank Ensemble are an Women aren’t the only American band but with heavy singers featured on the Wild eastern European influences.

Target soundtrack but it was Their songs, like the one I heard, yet another woman singeroften have lyrics that are in songwriter, Yael Naim, languages such as Serbian and who impressed me. their music is multicultural – Naim is Israeli but born THE SOUND OF MUSIC flamenco, Roma (gypsy) and even in Paris and her feaaction-comedy Wild and Bill Nighy in the British t Grin ert Rup Japanese folk. Their music is fiery tured song New Soul lda Ime er Emily Blunt, sing Irish ht) a stellar soundtrack. (Rig and high-energy although they use was used by Apple ant fan Target (above). The film has inst an you e mak will film song in the mainly acoustic instruments – viofor its MacBook Air May has a great voice. Her lin, banjolele, flamenco guitar, douad campaign. But Naim (one critic described her as having ble bass and a saw (yes, a saw!). a voice “as rich as molten chocolate”), as I discovered, is Fishtank Ensemble are based in California but their music has multi-lingual and sings in French, Hebrew and English. been described as “cross-pollinated gypsy music”. I’m not a great I tried looking for her last year’s album She Was fan of world music but the multi-ethnic, genre-straddling nature of A Boy but couldn’t get it. I found her Fishtank’s sound led me to search for something more by them. I eponymous second album, which has 13 songs, found Woman in Sin, their third full-length album, and was floored many of them in English, including (surprise!) a by it. It is an eclectic bunch of 12 songs, which demonstrate the cover of Britney Spears’ Toxic. band members’ diverse backgrounds: vocalist Ursula Knudsen is Wild Target isn’t a film that you ought to take a former opera singer; guitarist Doug Smolens’ journey into seriously. After all, it is about the middle-aged scion flamenco territory was via a stint in punk and hard rock; and bass of a family whose business is professional player Djordje Stijepovic played with gypsy bands in Eastern Europe assassination and his target-turned-lover is an in his teens before moving to rock bands. Thanks to Wild Target, attractive audacious thief. It is, as what we would I’d discovered a great band. call in Bombay, a “pure time-pass” film as most And it wasn’t the only one. There were other gems. Of course, there films in the action-comedy genre usually are. But were musicians that we’ve heard before. Such as the Russian-born the bonus clearly is the soundtrack, which led me to but New York-based singer-songwriter Regina Spektor whose catchy discover some fine new musicians.

Hotel Song (“Come in, come in/ Come into my world/ I’ve got to show/ To give feedback, stream or download the music mentioned in Show show you/ Come into my bed/ I’ve got to know/ Know know this column, go to http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/downloadyou”) is on the soundtrack. As is American dream pop duo Beach central, follow argus48 on Twitter or visit our website: House’s lovely song, Wedding Bell (“Humming/you’re humming www.hindustantimes.com/brunch

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

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Take heed: the operating system your phone runs is going to dictate sales, fan following, market share – even survival

techilicious

Rajiv Makhni

JUSTICE DENIED Windows Phone 7 is slick but hasn’t sold like wildfire

W

E’LL START today with a small memory game: close your eyes and imagine your first mobile phone. Think of the shape, size, screen, features and games on it.

Remember how big and heavy it was, how we made do with that little screen and how the most exciting feature other than voice calls was SMS? Now quick, now tell me the name of the operating system. You have no idea, right?

That’s because the OS was immaterial, almost redundant and you really didn’t care which one it was. Each phone brand had its own proprietary user interface; it was tightly closed; no customisation was possible and adding an application was unheard of. We bought a phone and were thrilled that it actually worked.

Today, the OS is omnipotent, all powerful and the single most important criterion for buying a phone. We add and subtract apps at lightning speed. It’s a completely different world from a few years ago and this new world is right in the middle of a great battle.

OS supremacy will dictate phone sales, cult following, market share, momentum and even survival. It’s all very delicately balanced right now and is just a precursor for the mayhem ahead.

WINDOWS PHONE 7

LORD OF THE RING Google’s Android operating system for smartphones has 40 per cent of the market share. Android reigns supreme and will continue to dominate

BLACKBERRY

This is now the dark horse. Those who love them continue to use them like a drug. Yet many are abandoning the platform. Having a Tablet that just didn’t work hasn’t helped. Nor has having strange shenanigans at the top management. They need to move to QNX right away, they need to move off their antiquated looks and form factor and they need to do it now.

Future: BlackBerry needs to bring in one phone that is completely different and radical in look and feel and style and OS. That’s it. Just one. It may not come back to its former glory but there’s enough going for it to be a contender in the future.

ANDROID

5,50,000 new Android phones sold every day. 40 per cent of the smartphone market share. This seems to be a no-brainer. Android reigns supreme and will continue to dominate. Except that it also continues to make mistakes and make bigger ones. There are too many versions and a wildly inconsistent experience on different phones. Version 3.0 for Tablets hasn’t set the market on fire; the app store quality is suspect; economy Android phones really suck and the ecosystem is still chaotic.

Future: Google doesn’t make too many mistakes and doesn’t make them for long.

Android may not become the OS of choice on Tablets but on phones, it’s going to become stronger and stronger. It’s going to take some pretty strange events happening to dislodge them from number one in the future.

It made a big noise; there was huge hype; we got great features; and it looked super pretty! Exit klunky interaction of the old Windows Mobile OS, enter smooth, polished interface – Microsoft was back, baby! And yet, Windows Phone hasn’t sold like wildfire or created a firestorm. As yet. It’s now got the world’s number one manufacturer of phones – Nokia – backing it and Nokia makes great hardware. The might and numbers of Nokia, the clout and money of Microsoft: this could set off a blood-curdling skirmish in the smartphone wars.

Future: Many predict the demise and many predict a number one position in less than two years. Microkia will do very well and bring in fantastic numbers.

Other hardware vendors will then stop Windows Phone production. Nokia will capitalise on this exclusivity and take it even higher. But will it be number one? That’s a toughie.

HIGH AND LOW

iOS

What can I say here that Steve Jobs hasn’t said already? A phone handmade by God himself, with inputs for the iOS and certainly also a role to play in the marketing of the iPhone. Nothing else can justify the cult following and impact this one phone has had on the world. And iOS BlackBerry (left) needs a radical makeover.

SAMSUNG BADA 5 will take this forward. From the iCloud, to Samsung’s Bada OS (right) was clean and simple Before it was actually released, Bada was a wireless sync, to your pirated songs becoming big joke. After all, Samsung is a South Korean hardware maker. Strangely, legal at a fraction of the cost – this is true momentum. they pulled it off. Bada was paired with great hardware and impossi- Future: To become number one, Apple needs to solve the choice probbly low prices. It had an iPhonish, clean layout; the TouchWiz inter- lem. People have different likes and dislikes and just one form factor face was simple; there was good social media integration and great doesn’t cut it. Also, price points are critical to win this OS war. Software games. Yet, chinks in the armour were exposed. The app store was inflexibility and the walled-garden approach will also need to go. Yet, deficient, choices were few and far between, yet, yet – whatever else Apple doom predictors may say – the compathe OS upgrades were slow to come and not ny seems to sell magic in numbers. Number two for sure, number one everyone was getting the upgrade. if it can pull off a non-Appelish, unforeseen move.

Future: With its Android-centric There are others but they all have a slim to no chance. Meego is business model and great success, great as has been proven by the amazing Nokia N9 but it has no venSamsung will have trouble being a dor backing. Symbian is as dead and buried as it can get. And HP doesthree mobile OS-company. Yet, it may n’t seem to be doing very many smart things with Palms webOS. abandon Windows Phone 7 and take For the rest of them, the deathmatch has just begun.

Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV and the anchor of Bada to new heights. It needs to get Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at the app store truly world class to do twitter.com/RajivMakhni that.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

I-DAY SPECIAL

Whose India is it anyway?

YOU CAN SEE HOW RADICALLY THE COUNTRY has changed in just 10 years by watching two blockbuster movies made by Aamir Khan Productions: Lagaan, released in 2001 and 2011’s Delhi Belly

by Jonathan Gil Harris

I

FIRST VISITED INDIA IN THE summer of 2001. I’d fallen in love with an Indian; over the course of the next ten years, thanks to annual visits to Delhi and the south, I fell in love with India too. My relationship with the country has been in some ways typical of any long-term love affair. India has enchanted me, fed me, afforded me a home, taught me a new language; it has also occasionally made me ill. In loving it, I have had to adapt to its many peccadilloes. But adapting is no easy task in love, especially when the object of your affection is itself constantly changing.

My ten-year love affair with India has been book-ended by two blockbuster films produced by the same production house, Aamir Khan Productions: Lagaan (2001) and Delhi Belly (2011). The two films are in certain superficial ways similar. Both are well-made, highly enjoyable entertainments. Both depend in large part on the enormous charisma and bankability of the Aamir Khan “brand” (which includes the actor’s prominently displayed chest). And both tell powerful stories about India. Yet

the two films are also radically different because the stories of India they tell are so very different.

Lagaan was the first Hindi film I saw in India. I had seen others in the US, but only on video in the private comfort of my own house. Nothing had prepared me for the thrill of being part of a large Indian movie audience. I saw Lagaan in July 2001, at the grand but somewhat dilapidated Chanakya cinema in Delhi. The Chanakya seated 1,080 people, though I suspect there were many more in the auditorium that day, crammed willy-nilly into its aisles, landings, and nooks. Tickets for the densely packed front stalls sold for a mere 30 rupees, but my partner and I opted for the sanctuary of the 80-rupee balcony seats.

Even up there, the atmosphere felt reminiscent (as was only appropriate, given the film’s theme) of a sports game. Unlike more restrained cinema audiences in the US, people talked loudly and incessantly throughout the film – to each other, to the characters on the screen. They applauded when Aamir Khan, showing off his well sculpted pectorals, made his first appear-

ance. They hissed at the splendidly villainous, wax-mustachioed Captain Russell (Paul Blackthorne) when he challenged the Champaner villagers to a devil’s wager that, if lost, would result in double lagaan.

They cheered and booed during the cricket game between Aamir Khan’s ragtag team and the local British officers’ side.

And even though the game’s result was never really in doubt, pandemonium erupted in the 30-rupee stalls when Aamir Khan struck the winning six.

I will never forget the sight of people in the stalls stamping and dancing for pure joy as the dastardly Captain Russell lost both the game and his wager.

Lagaan impressed on me how the venue in which a film is screened is a crucial part of

Lagaan dreamed of a united, pluralistic rural India.

By contrast, Delhi Belly is a postpost-colonial film that dreams of a globally connected urban India

Lagaan was made to be screened in venues like the Chanakya cinema. Aamir Khan’s victorious cricket team mirrored its diverse audience

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

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I-DAY SPECIAL its story. The Chanakya cinema may have been located in well-off South Delhi. But its size and ticket prices were designed to accommodate a mixed audience, one consisting of people from many classes and communities. Lagaan was made to be screened in venues just like the Chanakya cinema. Aamir Khan’s victorious cricket team – comprised of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Dalit, supported by men and women, young and old, maharajahs and commoners alike – symbolically mirrored its diverse audience.

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T WAS A DISTORTED MIRROR, of course. Who in the audience could match Aamir Khan’s sublime physique or his irresistibility to all the film’s female characters, both desi (Gracie Singh) and firangi (Rachel Shelley)? And for all the lipservice it paid to India’s diversity, Lagaan presented its non-Hindu characters as isolated individuals: its Muslim, Sikh, and Dalit cricketers did not have families, nor were they seen as part of larger communities. The only fleshed-out community in Lagaan was Hindu: the mandir was Champaner’s spiritual centre, and an entire song was devoted to Lord Krishna and Radha. But Lagaan’s story of India was, for all its omissions and biases, a fundamentally inclusive one. When Aamir Khan told us in the song Mitwa that “yeh dharti apni hai,” his “apni” seemed to embrace every one of us in the auditorium – even a culture-shocked gora like me.

Fast forward 10 years. In the intervening time, the Chanakya cinema has closed and been demolished. Bollywood makes its profits increasingly in those air-conditioned pockets of exclusivity that we call multiplexes. There tickets are R300 or more; the cost of a movie mushrooms further when one factors in the vastly overpriced popcorn and soda available from the concession stands.

There are no cheap front stalls for the poorer sort. As a result, multiplex audiences are more homogenous: overwhelmingly middleclass, often young and fashion-conscious, largely Anglophone. They are as noisy as the Chanakya cinema audience, but not because they are talking back to the characters or erupting in joyous dance. It’s because they are chattering loudly on their mobiles about today’s clothes purchase, tonight’s dinner reservation, or tomorrow’s business meeting. Importantly, multiplexes are often located in huge shopping malls. To reach your movie, you have to walk through a gauntlet of luxury stores selling expensive stuff you don’t really need. The siren call to retail therapy is hard to resist. So is the fantasy that India has somehow become entirely rich and clean: in the mall/multiplex, one does not have to set eyes on a beggar or even a chai-wallah, walk up urine-stained gallis, or deal – God forbid! – with the heat.

This is the climate-controlled environment in and for which Bollywood tells its new stories of India.

How has Aamir Khan Productions responded to the rise of the mall-multiplex?

For 10 years, its brand insignia has been an elegant lower-case “a.” But if the “a” of the company that produced Lagaan stood for the inclusive “apni” of Mitwa, the “a” of the

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Delly Belly’s cool India owns non-Hindi cultures as local fashion statements. Imran Khan’s T-shirt has a slogan in Hindi next to a design of Chinese rice

Aamir Khan Productions that has plains that Tujhko kadar Dhobi Ghat features / Yeh le dekh made Delhi Belly stands for the two middle-class characters nahin thenga mera. Is it too exclusive “adult” of the Indian fascinated by a person one much of a stretch to Censor Board’s rating system.

Aamir Khan has made much of would rarely encounter inside a see these vigorous rejections of the lowly how he successfully lobbied for mall: a dhobi and a poor Delhi Belly to be awarded an Atu as symptomatic of a rating. The film’s marketing camwill to exclusion that Muslim woman paign focused on its adult content, undergirds the entire instiincluding its expletive-laden script and its tution of the mall-multiplex? scatological theme. Both were aptly Lagaan was a postcolonial film that summed up by the slogan “S#!T HAPdreamed of a united, pluralistic rural India.

PENS.” And a minor scandal was generated By contrast, Delhi Belly is a post-postcoloby the double entendre of the song Bhaag nial film that dreams of a globally connectDK Bose. Both slogan and scandal were arted urban India. Yet the film half-recognises fully deployed to create the expectation that that this is a dream available only to a Delhi Belly would be a hip, risqué, bilingualminority of Indians. The opening shot fealy irreverent movie. It wouldn’t be everytures a plane landing at the gleaming one’s cup of tea: instead, it would be a dannew Indira Gandhi International gerous brew designed for a more knowing, airport. The plane passes over cool, and cosmopolitan consumer. In other the heads of three anonymous words, the film brilliantly targeted the exclu- street urchins who gaze up at sive niche audience of the mall-multiplex. it. In that one image, we see the exclusionary world of the mallO IT’S PERHAPS NO SURPRISE multiplex in a nutshell: a costhat, where Lagaan traded in the mopolitan air-conditioned vesinclusive pronoun apni, Delhi Belly sel soars above a rooted poverty revels in the frisson of excluding an inferior that is distant from and invisible tu. Just listen to the lyrics of its most memto it – that in a crucial sense orable songs. In Bhaag DK Bose, we are doesn’t matter anymore. told that Daddy mujhse bola/ Tu galati hai There is no end of meri. And in Jaa Chudail, the singer comsqualor in Delhi

S

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

IN LAGAAN, a dhobi

and a poor Muslim woman might have some agency. In the film Dhobi Ghat, however, they are simply objects of ethnographic curiosity

Belly, as Imran Khan and friends’ filthy Old Delhi flat and its dysfunctional toilet make clear. Despite appearances, this is not the dirt of poverty. It is an aestheticized cosmopolitan dirt, imported from American and British cinema – the grossout movies of the Farrelly Brothers, the grimy London underworld flicks of Guy Ritchie, the toilet-diving fantasies of Danny Boyle. Yet Delhi Belly’s dirt is more than a sign of Indian multiplex culture throwing in its lot with global codes of cinematic cool. What is interesting is how the film makes these codes Indian. It does something similar with the Delhi Belly of its title. Traditionally the preserve of gora tourists, Delhi Belly has become something that a Dilli-wallah can succumb to and make his own – just like the hip English (or Hinglish) which the film’s main characters speak.

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HE COOL INDIA OF DELHI Belly is one that repeatedly takes non-Hindi cultures and owns them as local fashion statements. Just look at Imran Khan’s T-shirts in the film. One boasts a slogan in Hindi next to a graphic design of Chinese rice and chopsticks; another pays homage to Rajnikant. Where Lagaan made cultural diversity the ground from which to battle oppression, Delhi Belly imagines diversity simply as an abundance of cool accoutrements. Old Delhi provides the film not with Muslim characters but with chadors that set up a series of (admittedly hysterical) running gags. Cool things – clothes, food, movies – are the lubricants of a fantasy world that belongs entirely to the mall-multiplex, one from which poverty, cultural difference, and social tension have been airbrushed out of existence.

But Peepli Live, another of Aamir Khan Productions’ films, underlines how, even as the mall-multiplex has changed the way its clientele imagines India, the problem of poverty refuses to go away

This problem haunts Aamir Khan Productions’ other recent movies. Dhobi Ghat (2010) features two middle-class characters – an NRI investment banker turned filmmaker, a bohemian painter – each of whom becomes fascinated with a person one would rarely if ever encounter inside a mall: a dhobi and a poor Muslim woman. In Lagaan, a dhobi and a poor woman might have some agency. In the era of the mall-multiplex, however, they are simply objects of ethnographic curiosity.

But another of Aamir Khan Productions’ films underlines how, even as the mall-multiplex has changed the way its clientele imagines India, the problem of poverty refuses to go away. Plus ça change. Peepli Live (2010) satirises the problem of farmer suicides; like Dhobi Ghat, it features characters who never enter the world of the mall-multiplex. But the film also comments poignantly on the ways in which such people are excluded from the cosmopolitan India which the

mall-multiplex promulgates. Natha (Omkar Das Manipuri), an impoverished farmer who has earned a fleeting media celebrity because of his promise to kill himself, absconds while news crews camped outside his hovel gleefully await his death. In the film’s final image, we glimpse him in the city, working with a construction gang who are building a flyover. That flyover is a powerful metaphor for how urban development seeks to push the underprivileged out of view so we can simply fly over them unobstructed – as we do in the mall-multiplex. Peepli Live’s final image is all the more powerful because it shows how the labour of the dispossessed has been enlisted to build the very machinery that performs their dispossession. In the process, it reminds us that those who are allowed to lay claim to “apni dharti” are getting ever fewer even as India’s malls are getting ever larger. brunchletters@hindustantimes.com

JONATHAN GIL HARRIS is Professor of English at George Washington University in Washington, DC. The author of five books on William Shakespeare’s plays and culture, he is currently spending a year in India researching a new book about European travellers to India in the time of Shakespeare.

PERSONAL AGENDA ACTOR/DIRECTOR

PARVIN DABAS

An alumnus of Hans Raj College, Delhi, Parvin started his career as a model, but soon found himself drawn towards Bollywood. Though he made his debut with the film Dillagi in 1999, it was Monsoon Wedding that catapulted him to stardom. Parvin won critical appreciation for his work in Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara and Khosla Ka Ghosla. He played a small role in My Name Is Khan and now Parvin, who is also an underwater photographer, is all set to make his debut as a director with the forthcoming film Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande One word that describes you best?

Passionate.

Which superhero would you like to be and why?

Batman – he’s the only one who does not actually possess any superpowers but is a selfmade superhero.

If a traffic constable hauls you up, what would you do?

Reach for my wallet.

Your first kiss was…

I’m actually below the drinking age limit.

You are late for work and all the roads are jammed.

Choose a mode of transport: a cycle, a horse or a skateboard. Why?

Cycle. A horse can go crazy and throw you off and a skateboard’s too unstable.

If you could have had a star perform at your wedding, who would it have been and why?

Being underwater.

The colour ‘pink’ for you is…

Masculine.

I would have wanted Rishi Kapoor. I used to be a big fan of his dancing in movies like Karz.

A tune you can’t get out of your head?

Naino wali whiskey!

If you could be born either rich or intelligent, which one would you choose? You can’t say ‘both’.

What did you do with your first pay cheque?

I bought a painting for myself.

The one law you would break if you could get away with it?

The speed limit law.

Intelligent. You can take away the money but not the brains.

What makes your day?

My newborn baby’s smile.

What screws it up?

Hypocrites and people with misplaced attitude.

Do you love Luv Storys?

Yes, I am a romantic at heart.

Your favourite freedom fighter

Choose: Air India or Indian Railways

Indian Railways – they have a much better on-time reputation.

The last time you rode on a bus?

Anna Hazare. He’s definitely fighting a war for freedom and we should all support him.

Love is…

What keeps one going every day.

Bangalore to Pondicherry, 10 years ago, with no leg space, stuck between two drooling kids.

The last movie that made you cry?

Taare Zameen Par.

If you could have chosen your own name, what would you have chosen?

If you were the last person left on earth, what would you do?

Parvin Dabas – wouldn’t want to change a thing.

What is the weirdest thing that ever went into

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Share a secret with us… you can trust us, we’ll only print it!

Since women are from Venus, I will go for that.

You get high on…

THE BORA BORA ISLANDS. ABSOLUTELY STUNNING

An eel. When I think about it, I can still feel the slime.

Earth’s crowded and chock full of trash. Choose another planet.

Slurpy.

A PLACE WHERE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE LOST FOR A MONTH?

your mouth?

LIFE IN THE FAST FOOD LANE: CHOOSE YOUR MENU.

I ONLY GO FOR SALADS, WHICH I FEEL, ARE THE BEST FAST FOOD

HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE AUGUST 14, 2011

Find a good beach to chill on.

— Interviewed by Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi

WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL SEXY?

DAVIDOFF COLOGNE. IT’S BEEN AN ALLTIME FAVOURITE