Brunch 17 08 2014

WEEKLY WEEKLY MAGAZINE, MAGAZINE, AUGUST JUNE 22, 17, 2014 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times

FINDING FANNY 2014

JIA AUR JIA 2014 MUMBAI 125 KM 2014 NH10 2015

With four road movies in the works, Bollywood is finally waking up to the genre. Hop on, because cinema is taking a bold new direction

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BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

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

Om Nom Nom

by Indra Shekhar Singh

STUFF YOU SAID LAST SUNDAY

The Bollywood Food Quiz

Daawat-e-Ishq releases in a few weeks and all that food in the trailer made us wonder about Bollywood's obsession with food. Our clues below each add up to a food-themed song that should get you humming, if not hungry. If you get these right, you'll know what you're going to eat for brunch today. And we will too. Good luck!

1995, straight from the street

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"Walking in my stride, munching on puffed rice – with a girl by my side.

If it bothers you, what can I do?"

1997, this is the stuff that togetherness is made of

The gist of the song: we'll always have potatoes.

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1997, dreams are made of national film awards

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Such an aw eso st home ory on our me cover town belov m ed for th e abs ore than m ence of Bre ade up of Ch ak ampio ns :P fast

After reading the entire article, I so feel like doing a Delhi tour to these places!

Awesome, awesome job! @sahibagursahane

n I was a 14-yearthis article. Whe ycle to witness I could relate to bic his on me k r too nister Jawaold lad, my fathe n of late prime mi rare sight sio es oc pr l era a are the fun s cle cy Bi .

Janpath r Pal har Lal Nehru at ce now. – Surinde Pla t gh au nn Co around

@i_am_

junkie

What a wonderful feature Brunch had this Sunday...

I am going to keep it for my son and grandson..

Thanks once again..

– Nayan Tosh

AWESOME work! I can understand how Trust difficult it must have make Brunch to uch been to click the m o s ry histo e this photographs from rv e s re p fun! Will Hats the same angles. eternity. issue for photograCon e gra th tula tions! to ff ! o d writers – @sunitachadha2 phers an y nk

@shrutsve

"You grew up in castles, you're the ice-cream in the fridge." No, really. We didn't make this up 1999, real wives let their husbands cheat

"Your swagger's nasty.

As is your poison.

Oh, I've got heartburn."

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2003, Rohit Shetty's first cuppa

One entire song about the aphrodisiac nature of coffee, a simple cup of coffee

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the s from picture e g th in h k c it f cli e old w ncept o otes pose th d c ta e x The co n ju a ngle to g. The ry same a triguin d to eve very in s as glue a w ese w I , th g y n new b ti g s intere . Passin o e s w u e o s r h e is t w the forge ord of day, we rga y a r is e v single w N e – t . r city almos places re to ou t they a n ta r o imp

Find Hindustan Times Brunch on Facebook or tweet to @HTBrunch or

THE BRUNCH BOOK CHALLENGE

2006, Shakespeare in the hinterland

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"You're not sweet enough Eventually, it's going to be a problem"

2011, take a Hollywood film, remake badly, then sequel

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Sticky, slippery...

Do you really need clues for this?

ANSWERS: Main Toh Raste Se Ja Raha Tha (Coolie No. 1); Jab Tak Rahega Samose Mein Aloo (Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi ); Strawberry Aankhen (Sapnay); Hai Hai Mirchi (Biwi No. 1); Tere Sang Ek Simple Si Coffee (Zameen); Namak Ishq Ka (Omkara); Cheeni Kum (Cheeni Kum); Jalebi Bai (Double Dhamaal)

Cover design: PAYAL DIGHE KARKHANIS Cover image: THINKSTOCK

EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Aasheesh Sharma, Rachel Lopez, Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi, Veenu Singh, Amrah Ashraf, Satarupa Paul, Saudamini Jain, Asad Ali, Atisha Jain

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2007, actually, a pretty great film

CH B O UN

HOW TO READ HA LLENG 24 S K BOO ) (OR MORE AR E Y E N IN O

OK

On the tongue, saltiness.

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Brunch mad e me go dow n memory la to when I was ne, 15, standing in a queue for a 5-anna ticket at Maj estic Cinema to watch Balr aj Sahni star rer Bhabhi (1957). Good old days! – Ja gdish Saluja

It's simple, really. Just read whatever book sounds interesting. We're not judging, only encouraging our favourite habit.

The idea is to read 24 books in 2014. Tweet your progress tagging @HTBrunch and hashtagging #BrunchBookChallenge.

We'll provide recommendations and now and then, free books!

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

AUGUST 17, 2014

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OOPS!

CORRECTION Last week, the Delhi edition had a typographical mistake. Mughal emperor Humayun won back Delhi in 1555 and not 1955 as printed. We regret the error.

On The Brunch Radar

LOVE IT

n Every single time somebody throws something at someone in the Lok Sabha. Flinging nameplates? Sounds like a party! n That everybody thinks they can write erotica n Chasing buses, successfully n Scruffy men in suits n Those adorable newborn giant panda triplets in China

by Saudamini Jain

n If saying goodbye to Robin Williams didn't break your heart! n That everything SRK does becomes a controversy n Snoozing the alarm that reminds you to drink those eight glasses of water n People who expect an acknowledgement for every email. If it's not a question, why reply? n The Indian cricket team. #Fail

SHOVE IT

Watch out for the 20’s Forever series in Brunch over the coming weeks – Your key to tight & bright skin

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

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COVER STORY

NH10 (2015)

FINDING FANNY (2014)

JAB WE MET (2007)

T

helma: You awake?

Louise: Guess you could call it that; my eyes are open.

Thelma: I’m awake too. I feel awake.

Louise: Good.

Thelma: I feel really awake. I don’t recall ever feeling this awake. You know? Everything looks different now. You feel like that? You feel like you got something to live for now?

Two women trapped in pointless and intellectually stifling lives escape into a world of possibilities as they take to the road in Ridley Scott’s genre-defining 1991 film Thelma & Louise. Feisty and now free, the road for them throws up endless opportunities and numerous dangers for them. It’s hard to forget that last scene as they ‘fly’ over the Grand Canyon in a Ford Thunderbird convertible, their final act of liberation, a decision taken with eyes wide open.

Going all the way back to Homer’s Odyssey, taking in Miguel De Cervantes’s Don Quixote and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road along the way, the journey has long been a metaphor in literature, pop culture and cinema. Over the years, the road movie has become a stand-alone genre – a screenwriting vehicle to represent the coming

, r a C e v Ha f l e s y M d n i F l l i W

n, is ming out soo ema? o c d a ro e th n in w films set o ke for great c a m s y e rn u With four ne jo at lly realising th Jhunjhunwala a n fi d o o w y ll Bo

by Udita

of age (psychological, mental, personal and emotional) of a character or characters.

Think of road movies and the names that immediately spring to mind are Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, It Happened One Night, Duel – there are too many to name.

Over the years, the road movie has spawned sub-genres – the Western, horror, thriller, comedy, romance, action-adventure, gangster and crime, among others. But all the films have common characteristics – the open road, a quest, an escape, a discovery or rediscovery, inner strength or redemption.

For all its success in the West, the exploration of this genre has been relatively limited in Hindi cinema. Bombay To Goa, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Highway have immediate recall.

But with four new films exploring

“TRAVEL MAKES YOU EXPERIENCE, IN A POSITIVE WAY, HOW IRRELEVANT YOU ARE IN THE BIGGER SCHEME OF THINGS” ~ HOMI ADAJANIA, DIRECTOR,

AUGUST 17, 2014

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FINDING FANNY

the open road and its cathartic or frightening possibilities this year, you could wonder: is the road movie coming of age in India?

Because Finding Fanny, Mumbai 125 KM, NH10 and Jia Aur Jia have one thing in common: the message that a journey ends not with a destination, but with destiny.

Homi Adajania, director of FindF ing Fanny, has often spoken of how travel has defined him. “I can tell you from my experi-

BREAKING BARRIERS

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ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA (2011)

MUMBAI 125 KM (2014)

ROAD (2002)

HIGHWAY (2014)

LIFE, DANGER “THE ROAD SERVES AS A METAPHOR FOR ZONE” AND GETTING OUT OF ONE’S COMFORT ~ NAVDEEP SINGH, DIRECTOR OF NH10 ence of being a vagabond for over a decade in my life – travel is the best educator,” he says. “It shreds the security blanket that shrouds you in the comfort of a familiar environment. It changes your world view. It also makes you experience, in a positive way, how small and irrelevant you are in the bigger scheme of things.”

But Adajania is loathe to describe the experiences of five dysfunctional characters in a Dodge automobile searching for Stephanie, which is the story of Finding Fanny, as a road movie. “It isn’t a road movie because I do not see that as a genre. I guess there’s a physical journey that the audience becomes part of and enjoys, a ride that is unknown to the characters as well. It’s also the fun of getting to know characters as they are put into situations which neither they nor the audience can predict.”

Author Marty Rubin famously said, “Travel doesn’t become adventure until you leave yourself behind.” And that’s precisely what

Navdeep Singh, director of NH10, uses the road trip to symbolise.

While he recalls childhood holidays on the road, “feeling warm, safe and cocooned” in the family Fiat, he sums up his film NH10 as a “woman in peril, a road trip gone wrong” story. “The road serves as a metaphor for life, danger and getting out of one’s comfort zone,” says Singh. “The car connotes notions of freedom and mobility.”

That’s a feeling most people can identify with. The open road symbolises a number of things: promise, threats, freedom, fear, change, challenges and space in which to think, to enjoy silences and reflect. As you set out on the road, you put distance between your past and your future. The road offers perspective.

“The road movie narrative gives characters time to peel off layers,” says filmmaker Sanjay Gupta who frequently takes to the road in a car or on a motorcycle.

“It’s a process of self-discovery as you knock off the miles and head towards your destination.”

mo A road movie’s ha characters have endless possibilities of encounters – with places and tha people – that chang may change forev These them forever.

CHANGING GEAR

ROAD MOVIES IN HOLLYWOOD Nebraska (2013)

About a father who believes he’s won a million dollars and a son who drives him to collect it Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

One van, one dysfunctional family, one little girl with a dream

Natural Born Killers (1994)

A couple love each other (and killing) and make a bloody trip of it Midnight Run (1988)

An eventful trip where the hunter becomes the hunted Duel (1971)

An innocent journey somehow turns into a high-octane motorised duel of death

The Blues Brothers (1980)

How do you raise $5,000 for orphans? With a road trip!

Almost Famous (2000)

Assigned to cover a band in the ’70s, one boy learns more than he should AUGUST 17, 2014

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possibilities have been harnessed by filmmakers such as Navdeep Singh, Zoya Akhtar, Imtiaz Ali (Jab We Met, Highway), Dev Benegal (Road, Movie) and Hemant Madhukar (Mumbai 125 KM).

“There’s poetry and passion in the genre,” says Dev Benegal. “A man and a woman. A vehicle. Nature. For me, these raw elements

Thelma and Louise (1991)

Two women flee the futility of their lives, and find, among other things, Brad Pitt!

Easy Rider (1969)

Two hippies in the American Southwest find direction

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COVER STORY THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED, BOLLYWOOD STYLE DIL CHAHTA HAI (2001)

BOMBAY TO GOA (1972)

ROAD, MOVIE (2009) are the essence of cinema.”

Three of Imtiaz Ali’s films (Jab We Met, Rockstar and Highway) have captured journeys and explorations of people and places. His fascination with expeditions began with train journeys between Delhi and Jamshedpur as a student.

“I would look out of the window and it was both exhilarating and confusing,” he had said earlier this year, talking about Highway.

“Those journeys gave me a lot of time to know the people around me. Your imagination starts opening up, and those things find themselves in my stories.”

The freedom to stop anywhere, the excitement of the unexpected and the sense of stillness attract Zoya Akhtar to road trips. After her brother Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai, which begins with three friends driving from Mumbai to Goa, Zoya’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, the story of a group of friends driving through Spain, has

SAEED MIRZA

“BEING ON THE ROAD IS THE BEST WAY TO SEE A COUNTRY, BUT IT CAN ALSO BE VERY LONELY. YOU CAN’T NOT RETURN AFFECTED IN SOME WAY” ~ ZOYA AKHTAR,

EGI DOBARA DIRECTOR, ZINDAGI NA MIL

become the quintessential Bollywood road movie.

“Being on the road is the best way to see a country, but it can also be very lonely. You are stuck in a box for hours, mostly with the same people,” says Akhtar. “You are often left with no choice but to stop speaking and start listening to yourself. There is no road trip from which you don’t return affected in some way.”

While there are films that end in catharsis, others see the road as a point of no return. Movies like Steven Spielberg’s Duel and

CHALO DILLI (2011)

DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAYENGE (1995)

Dominic Sena’s Kalifornia, for example, portray the road as a foreboding place. That’s the feel Hemant Madhukar gives his horror film, Mumbai 125 KM. “At night a run on a highway will either be something you enjoy or be a little afraid of,” he says. “In my film, five friends are caught in an accident on the highway. The question is, will they survive?”

Meanwhile, Jia Aur Jia, which was shot in Sweden, experiments with another under-explored subgenre – the ‘girls on the road’ film.

The only thing Kalki Koechlin and Richa Chadda’s characters have in common is their name. Yet these two unlikely travel companions find themselves on a journey together. “Jia Aur Jia is about living life in the moment,” says Koechlin.

“Road trips help put your life into perspective and help you realise that there’s much more out there than just your problems.”

Apart from the human characters, the mode of transport itself

Road Trips Are Elevating, Enriching The filmmaker on how wanderlust has shaped his work

I've always had a wanderlust. I would make up stories of my travels to Tibet, the Sahara, and Machu Picchu. When I was very young my cousins would come to Bombay on their way abroad and I would discreetly put a pencil into their suitcase so that it would travel.

I had travelled a fair bit before 1993 – to Europe, Asia, Latin American, USA and around India, but the very conscious act of

travelling started in 1993. After the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the riots that followed, I was left with a void inside me. How much more surreal could it get? All my work has been about keeping my ear to the ground and being linked to the ordinary citizen, whether it was Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan, Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai or Nukkad. But suddenly I had no idea of a nation. That’s when I started to travel, for the sake of travelling, without any other agenda.

My wife and I spent 45 days on the road with our driver who is also a reasonably good cook and a damn good mechanic. The only agenda

was to re-see, revisit, retouch, reunderstand and regain faith in our country.

Later, in a show for Doordarshan, I asked ordinary people their take on 50 years of independence. I spent five-and-a-half months on the road, covering about 44,000 kilometres. I have not seen more dramatic skies than in northern Andhra Pradesh bordering Orissa, or the topography of Ladakh and the beautiful coastal belt south from Orissa.

The tragedy of travelling by plane or train is that the choice of where to stop and for how long is not yours. Road trips are elevating and enriching.

- As told to Udita Jhunjhunwala

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often plays a character in the road movie. It was a convertible in ZNMD, a truck in Road, Movie, a Volkswagen microbus in Little Miss Sunshine, a bus in Almost Famous and an SUV in NH10.

“Ther “There must be a reason the vehic vehicle is often retro, classic.

Maybe it’s nostalgia?

But it is a tool that tak takes on a character,” sa says Abhay Deol who acted in both ZNMD and Road, Movie. “An Ambassador is like a friendly old man.

A Porsche 911 a beautiful female sprinter. A truck is a struggling veteran while the convertible is cool and laidback.”

Though you couldn’t say Hindi cinema had road movies in the ’50s and ’60s, songs sung in cars became a conduit for conveying romance, angst and absolution.

“In Bollywood, love stories have often used this device of selfexploration. The road also lends itself to a great soundtrack. Like Thelma & Louise, characters who were dying a little every day, but who got out and lived,” says Gupta.

Author Sam North wrote: “The irony of the road movie is that the weak leave, but only the strong survive.” Another point of view suggests that while on a journey, characters undergo such a transformation, they never really reach the destination, because along the way they’ve become different people. As Dev Benegal says, “The characters in a road movie are not just on a trip of the mind, but also of the soul.”

RIDE TO FREEDOM

brunchletters@hindustantimes.com

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PEOPLE

Out Of The Frame Two days before World Photography y Day, we feature reclusive lensman Sohrab Hura – who has made it to the num prestigious Magnum photo collective

by Asad Ali

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NE ISN’T too far off the mark, especially after ery online searches yield very little, in presuming that Sohrab Hura is an elusive and exclusive photographer. But the Delhi-based lensman, 32, doesn’t think of himself or his body of work as either.

Only the second Indian after the celebrated Raghu Rai to be made a nominee of Magnum Photos – the global photography collective co-founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson – Hura tends to shun the limelight, for reasons you cannot really argue with.

“I just want to concentrate on work,” he says. “I think attention takes away a certain creative energy. The more attention you get, the more comfortable you get, and the more you die inside in some ways.

So it’s not that I have an aversion to the media or to people. It’s just my own protective mechanism. I need to keep going back to my own bubble every now and then.”

Born in Chinsurah, West Bengal, Hura travelled around quite a bit in his childhood, as his father was in the merchant navy. Stability arrived when he joined The Doon School in Dehradun. School was a beautiful experience for him, but Hura avoids its very active alumni network. “These things just make you so comfortable. They offer a safety net of sorts,” he says. “I need to feel a bit of instability in life. That’s the only thing that

IN FOCUS

Sohrab Hura’s pr ior create good work ity at the moment is to . Everything else can wait brings out a certain degree of rawness in whatever I do.”

But shouldn’t “rawness” be a more natural process? Given the way the world is today, says Hura, it has become important for people to create the space which can drive them to do better work. Even if that means consciously inducing instability into one’s circumstances. “Then again, the moment one’s work gains some recognition, that raw instability diminishes to some effect,” he says ruefully. “It’s like the creative process goes down a notch.”

RAW FILES

Life is Elsewhere (2007) has images that have a stark, realistic feel to them AUGUST 17, 2014

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twitter.com/HTBrunch

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Photo: SI EMBU N

CREATIVE CHAOS

Hura’s earliest photographic project was deeply personal fr and stemmed from an ‘unstable’ aspect of his life. His mother was dia diagnosed with schizophrenia wh he was still in school. when Ev Eventually he built a photogr graphic series around this phase of his life, and his mother’s.

Called Sweet Life (2005 to 2014), the first set of images, Life Is Else Elsewhere (2005 to 2011), focused r on his relationship with his mother The second set, Look, it’s mother.

Getting Sunny Outside!!! (2008 to fea 2014), features images from when her health star started to improve.

Else Life Is Elsewhere, says Hura, de helped him develop a voice of his g own, gave him a platform, and significantl most significantly, made him feel secur secure as a cr creative person. wa he craves the In a way, “insta “instability” to ensure ther is no burn-out in there cr his creative process. tha it remains as So that w raw as it did when, colle during college, he first bega shooting with began Nik FM10, a gift his Nikon f from his father.

Though Sweet Life brought Hura recognition, his work is conspicuously absent in the public domain.

Although he has conducted some workshops where participants have had a glimpse of his work, he has consciously stayed away from group/solo shows. Is this an attempt to stand out (or stay away?) from the crowd? To be exclusive?

No, says Hura. “I don’t like the idea of exclusivity anyway.” So why doesn’t he show more of his work? “I think in trying to keep

away from the system, I got so comfortable in my own world that now I’m just happy there. Now I just don’t feel like putting much work out,” he says. “Also, for me the process of creating something has an innocence about it. And once I’ve put out my work, it’s part of the big, bad, dirty world of photos, art, whatever you want to call it, and then it doesn’t belong to me anymore.”

THE CLICHÉ DOESN’T CLICK

Even when he submitted photographs for the Magnum selection, Hura didn’t show them all. Some he was still working on; others he just didn’t want to show because he didn’t want other people’s opinions of those images to affect his own. He sent about 60 photographs to Magnum in May this year after Olivia Arthur, a British documentary photographer and Magnum member, nominated him. And Hura is still in the process of submitting his work. One of his recent projects is called The Song of Sparrows in a Hundred Days of Summer (2013 to ongoing).

Shot in the village of Pati in Madhya Pradesh, the project explores the idea of summer heat in a rural setting.

Among contemporary photographers, Hura appreciates American lensman Daniel Gordon and South Africa’s Mikhael Subotzky. In fact, he says he’s jealous of them. “They do very unique, striking work,” he says. And in India, he admires Asmita Parelkar, Sumit Dayal and the veteran photographer Swapan Parekh. It was Parekh who reminded Hura, then 25, who had just returned from photographing the Kumbh Mela, that creativity can sometimes become a cliché. “Swapan had just come back from the World Press Photo contest,” recalls Hura.

“He said, ‘F**k, it was so embarrassing. Everyone from India sent photos of the Kumbh Mela. Even in the sports section!’ I felt really embarrassed as well.”

That memory has stayed with him still, but he is glad he’s been through such phases, trying to push creative boundaries, even if the results seem trite. The point is to keep pushing. That’s what Hura has done. And that’s what he promises to keep doing.

The more attention you get, the more comfortable you get, and the more you die inside in some ways

asad.ali@hindustantimes.com

AUGUST 17, 2014

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indulge

Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK, THINKSTOCK

The eclecTic TasTes Of india Pan-Indian cuisine is in the process of evolving.

Here’s a list of the most common dishes found across restaurants in the country

W

E KEEP telling foreigners that there is no such thing as ‘Indian’ food. India is a subcontinent, we say, with as much gastronomic variety as Europe. So India has a family of cuisines, some of them similar to each other and some entirely different. So yes, tandoori chicken may well be the most famous Indian dish in the world, but it is a north Indian restaurant creation which nobody really eats at home.

But the more I’ve travelled around India in the last two or three years, the more convinced I’ve become that – at the restaurant level, at least – a pan-Indian cuisine is in the process of evolving. At picturesque resorts in Kerala, for instance, I’m always appalled to find butter chicken on the menu. When I complain to the chefs about ignoring one of India’s greatest cuisines (Malayali) in favour of poor renditions of Punjabi restaurant food, the answer is always the same: but this is what people want.

I sat down and compiled a list of what I found to be the most common dishes of pan-Indian restaurant cuisine. Sadly, the south and east get short shrift and it is the north that dominates the menus. It is possible I’ve forgot-

Vir Sanghvi

rude food ten some dishes. If you feel that, then mail us at Brunch or tweet to me directly.

But for what it is worth, here’s my list.

BUTTER CHICKEN: No argument here. You’ll find butter chicken all over India. I’ve seen it on menus in Shillong, in Cochin and Coimbatore. It is the most common restaurant gravy.

TANDOORI FOOD: A tandoor has now become a standard fixture in every medium-sized restaurant kitchen. So the popularity of tandoori dishes has grown to the extent that they are ubiquitous. Oddly enough I find that it is not tandoori chicken that is most ordered, but variations on chicken tikka. Tandoori mutton dishes seem less popular.

NAAN: This is the great Indian restaurant bread. Few places bother to make phulkas any longer. When it comes to parathas, yes, you do find them at many places but I’m not sure they constitute a single pan-Indian dish because there are too many regional variations: the Bihari parathas you find in Calcutta are very different from the Malabar parathas of Kerala, for instance.

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PANEER: Until I went to school in North India, I did not know what paneer was. Gujaratis never ate paneer and it was hard to find in Bombay. But now paneer is ubiquitous. At restaurants in the south, I find variations on paneer makhani, matar paneer, paneer masala and the like regularly featured. My sister-in-law who is the restaurant queen of Ahmedabad, tells me that Gujaratis have now discovered paneer and it is one of the most ordered items on her menu.

BLACK DAL: We eat many dals at home all over India.

But increasingly, I find that people who go to restaurants only order black dal – perhaps they feel they get enough yellow dal at home. This is not the black dal of Punjabi home cooking but the version invented by Moti Mahal and perfected by Bukhara. (On some menus it is even called Dal Bukhara!)

DUM ALOO: Don’t ask me why but I’ve seen this dish on so many south Indian menus and at wedding functions in Gujarat or even West Bengal, where a version of this Kashmiri dish turns up.

The explanation I’ve been given is that vegetarians want something rich and heavy when they go out to eat and a simple aloo sabzi does not cut it. Hence this rich potato dish!

BIRYANI: I thought long and hard about including this because biryani has always been a pan-Indian dish. Wherever you find a Muslim community, you’ll find some kind of biryani or pulao. And the biryanis of such Gujarati Muslims as the Bohras differ greatly from the biryanis served at Calcutta’s restaurants which, in turn differ from the Moplah biryanis of Kerala. So even if you do find biryani all over India, does that make it a pan-Indian dish? Or are there just too many variations?

I’m still not sure about the answer to that one. But what I’ve noticed is that restaurants are increasingly moving away from delicious regional biryanis and are trying to create a uniform biryani based on the Dum Pukht recipe with the same style of presentation – a pot with its lid sealed with a roll of dough.

I yield to nobody in my admiration for the Dum Pukht biryani. But it would be a shame if we were to sacrifice the diversity of India’s biryanis and focus on just one version.

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SAMOSA: It is not even Indian in origin – it comes from the sambusak of the Middle East. But Indians have adopted it as our own: the fat Punjabi samosas of the north; the shingara of the east (with a more complex spicing to the filling); the patti samosas of Bombay (smaller, thinner and crisper) and the many variations on these themes that you now find all over the south.

BHELPURI: I’d like to be able to say that the wonderful chaat of UP has travelled to every corner of India but it has not. You get a slight variation in Calcutta (epitomised by the famous puchkas), and you find it all over the North.

But, forget about the South; you don’t even find it in Bombay.

What has travelled is Bhelpuri and the Bombay versions of north Indian chaat: paani puri, dahi batata puri, etc. So, when it comes to chaat, the origin is not Lucknow; it is Chowpatty.

RASGULLA: I feel bad about saying this (and slightly apprehensive) given the domination of angry Bongs on Twitter) but the truth is that Bengali food, though it is one of India’s great cuisines, has simply not travelled.

I thought of including Kosha Mangsho but so few non-Bengalis had even heard of it. Then, I thought about Chingri Malai Curry, which is more ubiquitous. But many South Indians I asked it had no clue what it was.

But nobody can deny that Bengal’s gift to Indian cuisine is the rasgulla. (Sorry, I’m not going to use a Bengali-type spelling). No matter where you go in India you’ll find rasgullas. I once did a TV show on how KC Das perfected the rasgulla and how Europeans introduced Bengalis to the art of splitting milk to create the milk solids that go into their desserts. And it is true: without Bengal India would not have what we call a sweetmeat tradition.

UDUPI SNACKS: Tamilians like to say that the dosa

is their contribution to a pan-Indian cuisine. And of course they are right. But they are also wrong. The masala dosas that so many of us devour at lunchtime in our offices or go to restaurants for are not really Tamilian. They were popularised by restaurateurs from the Udupi region of Karnataka who opened “Udupi eating houses” all over Bombay in the 1950s. They also brought idlis, medu vadas, sambhar and many other dishes to national attention.

I would wager that today there is not a single small town in India where you cannot find a masala dosa. And that is really pan-Indian.

VINDALOO? This is a tough one. Most Indians know what a vindaloo is. (So do most Brits, strangely enough). But can you actually find a Goan-style vindaloo all over India.

Perhaps you can but I’m still not entirely convinced which is why I’ve put a question mark in front of it.

You could argue that Goan fish and prawn curries have become popular all over India. And perhaps they have. But how many restaurants in Delhi would serve a Goan fish curry? And in the South, wouldn’t they prefer their own curries?

But I’m including it anyway because of the fame of the term Vindaloo.

CHICKEN MANCHURIAN: Yes, yes, I know. It is a so-called Chinese dish. But let me ask you two questions. First, is there anywhere in India where you don’t find some kind of Manchurian dish, even if it is Gobhi Manchurian?

Second, wasn’t it invented entirely in India and isn’t it unknown in China?

If you answered ‘yes’ to both questions – which I think you’d have to, then there’s no doubt that Manchurian is one of the great pan-Indian dishes.

Who would have thought it? But then, that’s 21st century India. Full of surprises!

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Across India, the south and east get short shrift and it is the north that dominates the menus

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

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iPhone 6: RumouR RePoRt CaRd L

With the iPhone 6 all set to launch soon, here’s a checklist of what Apple may offer

AST YEAR, around this time, I had done an iPhone 5 report card. I’d taken all the rumours flying around and added my predictions about which ones would finally become reality with the new phone. That report card had done quite well as I got 80 percent of the new iPhone 5S rumours correct. Thus, in a world where sequels tend to do better then the original, here’s my report card on the new about-to-be-released iPhone 6.

glass, impossible to break or crack or scratch Prediction: Apple has been heavily investing into sapphire glass technology and there are tonnes of videos that show no breakage when the glass is thrown onto sharp rocks.

That would mean that this too is true and the iPhone 6 will be indestructible. Unfortunately, I’m calling this one a nogo. This is still nascent technology. Plus, it’s very expensive and will need some more time to go mainstream. Apple does lead from the front when it comes to revolutionary new tech, Rumour: Two new iPhone 6s, one a bit bigger and one thus, maybe one special version of one of the phones may phabletish level have it, but it may not be a standard feature for all phones.

Prediction: The rumours are quite clear on this one. Two Rumour: The classic home button will be replaced new phones will be released and will bump up the screen with a gesture-based lower strip that is all touch size to 4.7 and 5.5 inches respectively. Both will also have a Prediction: Apple does need to shake things up, especially higher resolution than before at 1704x960. I’m calling this on design and control and, the iOS8 is ripe for something an absolute yes. It’s important for Apple to have biggergesture-based. Also, the level of control that a single home display phones as that is what the world is buying and a button gives is becoming woefully inade4-inch has started to look ancient. Also, Apple needs a bigquate. This would be a welcome feature, ger portfolio of phones and choices, thus two screen sizes it will take all other companies back to here will help. The iPhone 5S, at 4 inches, will rethe drawing board and change the enmain a part of the line-up. tire ergonomics of these new phones.

Rumour: The 5.5-inch phone won’t Unfortunately, the Achilles heel for this be released right away as they have dramatic change may well be the rehuge production problems cently introduced fingerprint scanner.

Prediction: Ha Ha. That’s funny not It may not function well if embedded underneath a gesture-based touch strip.

Until the time the whole screen can be made into a fingerprint scanner (you Rajiv Makhni scan by putting your finger anywhere on the screen), this whole gesture-based add-on may just be a pipe dream.

Rumour: What about liquid metal, battery, processor, curved screen, camera and a solar-charging screen?

Prediction: Liquid metal is a no as this technology is still a work in progress. So QUITE A HANDFUL maybe on the iPhone 7. More efficient because of the rumour but the reason Apple’s iPhone 6 may be offered in two display A8 chips on both phones should happen. given to justify it. The probability that options of 4.7 and 5.5 inches respectively and The battery may get a bump up with the 5.5-incher will be made available may have a higher resolution too the 4.7 getting a 2100mAh and the 5.5 a two months after the release of the 2600 mAh battery. A curved screen from 4.7-inch phone will be more a business strategy than due to Apple is a wishlist not a rumour till Apple comes up production screw-ups. Apple wouldn’t want to cannibalise with a foldable iPhone. The optics may get bumped sales of either phone with the other, thus it will first pick up to 11 or 13 megapixels and also get Optical up the initial euphoric sales from the 4.7-incher. Then, once Image Stabilisation. I’m not even going to get into this mad again, have a second surge when they release the 5.5-incher. euphoria about the iPhone 6 coming with solar-charging I’m going with a yes on this one too. front screen as that would make the iPhone super thick.

Rumour: The new phones will no longer go with a Rumour: The iPhone 6 will be much more expensive number after the name, but have cool names like and the bigger 5.5 will hit the price stratosphere iPhone Air and iPhone Air Maxx Prediction: Apple may be a crazy company, but they aren’t Prediction: I love this rumour, not because it’s true but insane! In a world of amazing phones at cheap prices, Apbecause it may just break the monotony of the name-andple’s minimum goal will be to maintain the price line. The number army-style regime that has continued for way too 5.5 maybe a $100 more. long. If Apple breaks it, others will too and that may well Rumour: Apple has to release the iWatch with the new be the end of the confusion of 5S,Vs, S5, S5.5. Also, as these iPhones to lock in the market phones are supposedly super-thin at 6mm, the Air nomenPrediction: It won’t happen as Apple would never dilute clature will be a great PR and marketing tool too. But will it the demand or the market for either the new iPhones or the happen? I’m going with the name of iPhone 6 for the 4.7 and all new iWatch by releasing them together. January 2015 praying for the 5.5 to be called the iPhone Air. may well be iWatch time iPhone Air Maxx? I truly hope none of There you have it. My iPhone 6 rumour report card. us have to live long enough when we How well did I do? All we have to do now is wait for Septemhave Apple coming up with a name ber 9 for you to mark me on it!

Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget like that and that too with two XXs! Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3 Rumour: The new screens will be sapphire

techilicious

MORE ON THE WEB For previous Tech columns, log on to hindustantimes.com/ brunch. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at twitter. com/RajivMakhni The views expressed by the columnist are personal

AHEAD OF THE CURVE?

A curved screen from Apple is more wishlist than rumour

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They WanT a Spoonful of your Soul

Spoon appeals to both indie nerds and classic rock fans. You should listen to its new album They Want My Soul because Spoon, really, should be your band

I

GOING BIG

Spoon deserves a much bigger audience than what it has.

Perhaps, its new album, They Want My Soul, will help do that

F YOU think it is possible for a rock outfit to at once straddle a noise-filled, experimental, post-punk sound as well as a hookladen, melodic, pop one, then Spoon’s your band. Even if you’re not seeking out such genrehopping attributes in your listening fare, Spoon, really, should be your band. Because it is one enduring, nearly two-decade-old band that has received much less attention (outside of the US) than it ought to. And, also because on its eight records, beginning with 1996’s Telephono right up to last week’s They Want My Soul, it’s a band that has never disappointed listeners. Their mu- Photos: NEW YORK TIMES sic might have evolved – they’re not nearly as garage-y as SPOON, THE BAND they were in their very early days and their new album is (Clockwise from top left) Drummer Jim Eno and frontman Britt Daniel polished and has a far more resplendent sound than any are hugely talented musicians. The band also includes guitarist Eric of their others – but pick up any Spoon album and you’re Harvey, bassist Rob Pope and newcomer/keyboardist Alex Fischel (not in the picture collage) likely not to regret it.

But then what’s not to like about a band that has at its core two hugely talented musicians? Frontman singer less minimalistic and more room-filling sound than earlier and guitarist Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno are the Spoon albums but retains the band’s characteristic vocals, founder-drivers of this Austin, Texas band, which began guitar riffs and drums and percussion, all of which makes it a great album.

I put They Want My Soul on repeat for a couple of times; got hooked on a few tracks – Sanjoy Narayan the opener, Rent I Pay (the snare drums grab you instantly), New York Kiss (the groovy electronica urges you to get up and shake a leg) and Outlier (which, I read, was evidently inspired by British singer PJ Harvey’s The Glorious Land; I tried to look for similarities and couldn’t find any) – and then, obsessively, went back and listened to the Spoon back catalogue. Starting with Telephono deceptively as a post-punk act. Spoon’s first full-length, Tel(1996) right up to Transference (2010). If you haven’t heard ephono, was guitar-led and noisy and led many people to Spoon and want a soft landing, I’d recommend starting with liken them to the Pixies, another (if a decade older) influentheir idiotically titled 2007 album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Nothtial American band. But that comparison was short-lived. ing idiotic about the songs on it, including the virulently By the time Spoon launched their second and third albums, infectious You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb. Newbies beware. That they had quite clearly demonstrated that this was a band album may get you hooked to Spoon. with its own trademark.

Now, for a quick jazz interlude. I’m not a very big fan And one of the important traits of that mark is Daniel’s of the genre but I do have my favourite jazz albums. Pianvocals. You couldn’t ask for more perfect vocals – style, atist Keith Jarrett’s Fort Yawuh and his live album, The Köln titude and tone – in a rock band: Daniel has the ideal combiConcert; another live recording from 1953, Jazz At Massey nation of snarls, yelps and growls, while being infectiously Hall featuring the killer quintet of Charlie Parker, Dizzy melodic. If I were asked to nitpick about his songs, I could Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Bud Powell and Max Roach; Miles say the only weakness is in their lyrics, which aren’t the Davis’ Bitches Brew; Thelonious Monk’s It’s Monk’s Time best thing about their music. and a few others. To that list I’ve just added a contemporary But then, who cares about what the lyrics mean in a cheeky ensemble called Mostly Other People Do The Killing. pureblooded rock band like Spoon? Their 20-year tenure A New York City quartet, MOPDTK offer a modern has been a dream run. Rarely have their albums let you twist on different styles of jazz through the ages, not withdown and, because of their ability to appeal to both, indie out some satire and a hint of wickedness. They take bebop nerds and classic rock fans, they’ve always been successful, and mix it up with the avant-garde; they start a track that although I think they deserve a much bigger audience than seems to be of a smooth, easy listening kind and then turn what they have. Perhaps the new album’s smarter (albeit it into a massively improvised jam. I have just one album of a bit synth-y) sound will help do that. They Want My Soul theirs – last year’s Slippery Rock! – and I think it’s rekindled enlists a big-name producer (David Fridmann, who has my urge to explore jazz a bit more. Let’s see what happens. worked with bands such as MGMT and Flaming Lips), has a Download Central appears every fortnight

download central

NYC AND ALL THAT JAZZ

Mostly Other People Do The Killing’s 2013 album, Slippery Rock!, has rekindled my urge to explore jazz a bit more

AUGUST 17, 2014

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Wear Your attitude

And anything you damn well please… that’s the whole point of personal style

W

HEN I WAS growing up, there was an infallible way to tell when a woman had gotten married. She gave up on childish things like frocks and dresses, put away her jeans and skirts, and adopted the salwar-kameez or the sari as her uniform of choice. Okay, perhaps it wasn’t always by choice. Sometimes it was dictated by conservative in-laws, on occasion it was the husband who didn’t want her to dress ‘Western’ now that she was married, and at times it was just unspoken societal pressure. That was how married women were supposed to look: all wrapped up decorously in a sari, or a salwar-kameez at a push. And most married women complied, no matter what their private feelings on the matter.

I am happy to report, however, that this is no longer the case. Marriage no longer spells the end

Seema Goswami

spectator Photos: THINKSTOCK

DRESS CODE

Nobody looks on with shock/ horror if a married woman accessorises her chuda with tight jeans or a short skirt

of edgy or even sexy dressing. Women, or at least urban women of a certain class, can continue to wear what they like even after they have that ring on that finger (or the mangalsutra around the neck). Nobody looks on with shock/horror if a married woman accessorises her chuda with tight jeans or a short skirt. In fact, nobody so much as bats an eyelid.

Never was this brought home to me more forcibly than when my newly wedded niece was taken shopping by her mother-in-law.

My niece gravitated towards the churidar-kurtas, thinking this was an appropriate choice given that mum-in-law was paying. But even as she was riffling through them, she felt an urgent tug on her shoulder.

It was her mother-in-law, who had found an outfit she thought would look amazing on her new daughter-inlaw. It was a short, sleeveless, patterned dress with a halter neck.

But it’s not just young, newly married wom-

Today, women can continue to wear what they like even after they have that ring on that finger AUGUST 17, 2014

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en who are dressing differently these days, eschewing conservative choices for more modern ones. It is women of all ages, all social classes, all shapes and sizes, and from all over the country. It is no longer unusual to see a young mother in a short dress or even a grandmother in trousers.

Jeans have become a great equaliser, being worn by women young and old, with every body type, from all income brackets, and from every region.

In my case, I have made quite the opposite journey. In my teenage years, I could not wait to get into the sari. Even the act of draping it in front of a full-length mirror made me feel ineffably grown-up. As a young professional in my first job, the sari’s natural grace and elegance helped me negotiate the new and tricky world of the workplace from within the security of its folds. It made me look like and act like a responsible adult even when deep down inside I didn’t really feel like one. The perfect camouflage, in fact, for faking it until I finally made it.

Now that I can class myself as a ‘woman of a certain age’, I still wear the sari. But now it is when I want to have fun and play dress-up, having tired of my everyday uniform of jeans and shirts. And sometimes I treat the sari like a secret weapon in the armoury of my wardrobe, to be deployed when I particularly want to impress. It is pulled out on special occasions, like formal dinners, weddings, or at important professional engagements when I want to feel the same security I felt as a young journalist starting out.

But for the rest of the time, my wardrobe has actually gotten younger as I have gotten older. These days I live in fuss-free, knee-length, crush-proof dresses that I can pull out of my closet (or increasingly, my suitcase) and step into without all that starching and ironing that cotton saris, or even churidar-kurtas, require. There is none of the palaver of figuring out what goes with what, none of that nightmare called colour coordination.

It’s simplified dressing at its best: pull on a dress, slip on a pair of flats, stick on the sunglasses, a slash of eyeliner, a dab of lipstick, and you are good to go.

Did I hear you mention the words ‘mutton dressed as lamb’? Ah yes, I thought so. But you know what, the best part of growing older and becoming comfortable in my skin (not to mention my dress) is that I no longer care what you think of me, my clothes, my sense of style, or for that matter, my bare arms. I will wear what I like, thank you very much. And in the famous words of Rhett Butler, I really don’t give a damn (what you think about it).

And I am rapidly coming around to the view that, no matter what your age, this is the key to personal style: it has to be a personal choice (not made on the basis of the diktats of some fashion magazine); and you have to own it, no matter what other people may think (or say) about it. Feel like wearing a sari? Do it. Want the comfort of a pair of lived-in jeans? Knock yourself out. You’d rather live in a dress? Go right ahead.

There is no one you need to please but yourself.

Tell yourself that the next time you go shopping. It will make things so much simpler.

MORE ON THE WEB For more SPECTATOR columns by Seema Goswami, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/seemagoswami. Write to her at seema_ ht@rediffmail.com The views expressed by the columnist are personal

WELLNESS

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MIND BODY SOUL SHIKHA SHARMA PART- II

TECHNOLOGY AND YOUR WELLBEING Simple devices and smartphone apps can help save your life wherever you may be

A

S HUMANKIND has progressed, it has come up with tools and technology to make work easier.

The field of health has greatly benefitted from this. Technology helps your health practitioner do his job more effeciently and be in places he or she can’t. Here are some ways tech’s making healthcare easy.

DIAGNOSTICS: Blood tests, X-rays, ultrasound machines, ECG machines, bone density machines, eye testing machines and so on, help doctors make diagnoses.

SURGERIES: From lasers to robotic surgeries, a modern operation theatre has helpful specialised equipment.

Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK

IMPLANTS: During a heart surgery, a stent is inserted in the heart to keep the artery unblocked. During a multiple fracture surgery, clips and rods are attached to bones. An artificial lens helps the eye see.

DISTANCE DIAGNOSIS: In remote areas that have no infrastructure, villagers can phone health centres for diagnosis. A basic-level healthcare worker can use simple devices to check a patient’s blood pressure, ECG, photos of a skin disease, blood sugar reading, X-rays and ultrasounds, and then send the reports via mobile phone to a specialised hospital where it is analysed by senior doctors.

And thanks to our smartphones, we have access to all sorts of helpful health-related apps like these:

HEALTHTAP: Great when you need answers from real doctors. A community of 50,000 doctors answer queries.

The app also offers free health tips.

LUMOSITY: A free app designed by neurologists to make your mind sharper!

Scientifically designed games are aimed at working your grey cells.

KIDSDOC: If your child is unwell and you can’t reach a doctor, this app helps decode what your child’s symptoms indicate. It was built using the data gathered from more than 10,000 doctors and nurses.

WHOLE FOODS MARKET: Thousands of recipes from all over the world, including those for special diets.

DRUGS.COM: Prescription confusion?

This app has more information.

SYMPLE: Track your symptoms, and share them with your doctor so your visit is simpler and diagnosis, easier. ask@drshikha.com

(This series is concluded)

MORE ON THE WEB For more columns by Dr Shikha Sharma and other wellness stories, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch AUGUST 17, 2014

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FINE PRINT

The Writer In The Shadows

Photo: THINKSTOCK. Imaging: MONICA GUPTA

He wrote that bestselling novel, the autobiography of that head of state, and those chartbusting lyrics.

But he is invisible and nameless.

Welcome to the secret world of the ghostwriter

by Satarupa Paul

I

T IS 3am. Amit Kumar, 28, is surrounded by research material for a book he’s writing about the temples of Kerala. By day, he’s a journalist. But at night, he’s a writer. Strike that last bit out. By night, Kumar is a ghostwriter.

That doesn’t mean he appears out of nowhere in the middle of the night. It means his work is varied and prolific, yet you never see his name attached to the books, articles, speeches, research papers, and other things he writes. You see someone else’s name instead.

Ghostwriters have existed in the West for centuries. The composer Mozart was one of the earliest: he was paid to ghostwrite music for his wealthy patrons who then took the credit. In the early decades of the 20th century, American composer David Raksin worked as a ghostwriter for Charlie Chaplin, while the latter took the credit for the scores. Former US Presidents John F Kennedy and Ronald Reagan had their memoirs ghostwritten. Pop music sensations from Justin Timberlake to Justin Bieber, Jason Mraz, Chris Brown and T-Pain are believed to have commissioned ghostwriters to write the lyrics for their songs.

In India, however, ghostwriting as a profession has been a fairly recent development. A well-known publisher who prefers to stay anonymous attributes the appearance of this new character to the boom in the publishing scene in India. “The country has been warming up to the concept of writing in English, and a large number of such books are being purchased

now. So I think the financial model is changing to accommodate ghostwriters,” he says.

THEIR WORDS, YOUR COVER

Rituraj Das started ghostwriting in 2008 while he was working as a trainee for a credit card company.

“I had to write eight Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) articles on vacation spots in Florida and was paid a measly sum of `800 for it,” he says. Within the next few months, however, he had found a few more clients and soon quit his full-time job to work as a freelancecum-ghostwriter.

“By 2010, I was working for four or five clients, all of whom were running SEO firms in different niches such as travel, health, news, etc.

I even wrote product descriptions for a sex-toy website,” Das says. Now he mostly ghostwrites blogs and articles with a more journalistic tone, as they pay more. “Right now I work with only two clients, both of whom are ‘guest writers’ for different blogs. And I also ghostwrite product descriptions and blogs for a lingerie site whose customers prefer women writers.

They don’t know that I am a guy.”

Kumar, on the other hand, has ghostwritten business-related articles, academic papers on

panchayats in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, a PhD thesis on ‘Kathak and Patriarchy’ and several nonfiction books on various topics.

It’s mostly non-fiction books that are commissioned to ghostwriters, say publishers. No fiction has been ghostwritten in India so far, or so the publishers claim.

EMULATE, WRITE, REPEAT

So what does it take to be a ghostwriter? Publishing experts say there are three prerequisites: command over the language, good prose, and the ability to understand the style and tone of the person under whose name the work will be published.

“You have to understand that you are writing on behalf of another person, so this is not the best place to voice your opinions,” says Das. Kumar adds, “When you are ghostwriting, you are also expected to edit your own work, so it is imperative to possess decent editing skills. It is also important to know the subject well. For the PhD thesis that I ghostwrote on ‘Kathak and Patriarchy’, I had to read up on the subject thoroughly before taking the assignment.”

Respect for deadlines is a must.

“The clients are mostly middlemen who have deadlines of their own,

Understand the style of the person under whose name the work will be published

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so if you don’t submit your work on time, they can’t either,” says Das. “And you don’t get paid unless your client gets paid. So never miss the deadline.”

BIG BUCKS RAINING

While ghostwriters do all the hardwork of researching, interviewing, writing, editing, it is always someone else who walks away with the credit. Isn’t that tough? “Yes, it is,” says Das. “The stuff I wrote for one of my clients often ended up on well-known sites like Huffington Post, WIRED and Allvoices under the ‘Contributing Author’ section, but obviously it was under somebody else’s name. What actually hurt me was that I hadn’t been told about this. Since then, I’ve always made it a point to ask my clients where the pieces will be published. If they’re not willing to divulge that info, I don’t work with them for long.”

But the pay is reasonably good.

“The main reward is the money,” says Kumar. “I have charged anything between `4,000 and `50,000 for my work.” Das adds, “Short deadlines usually pay higher, so does more writing experience. Academic or technical pieces usually pay more than generic content.

Op-eds pay even higher.”

Money makes other dreams come true, after all. satarupa.paul@hindustantimes.com Follow @satarupapaul on Twitter

VARIETY

twitter.com/HTBrunch

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How The East Was Won

Leave the great debate about Indian culture and Western influences to Parliament. Here are some foreign ideas that India appears to be loving

by Abhilasha Gupta

BABYMOON What it is: This is a vacation taken by first-time parents just before they have a baby — their last vacation without a child to worry about for, say, 18 years (at least that’s what they’d like to believe).

When it began: This concept is so new, even Wikipedia doesn’t have an entry for it!

The Indian context: We’ve only just discovered it. “We organised our first babymoon four years ago, but just five to 10 since then,” says Manjari Verma, cofounder of Broken Compass, a travel curating firm. “We usually suggest a relaxed destination based on the weather and the month of travel.”

PRENUP

Photos: THINKSTOCK

What it is: A prenuptial agreement is a contract that couples sign before they wed. It has provisions for division of property and spousal support in the case of divorce.

When it began: Long ago, with the royalty of ancient Egypt! Much later, very rich people carried on the tradition, and now it’s almost the norm in the West.

The Indian context: “Prenuptial agreements are not recognised in Indian courts,” says VK Singh, a divorce lawyer. “But the first time someone approached me with query for a prenup was in 2009.

Today, five or six couples, both men and women, approach me every month for a prenup,” says Singh. “Mostly, these people have either studied or work abroad or are planning to settle there.”

BACHELORETTE PARTY What it is: Also known as a hen night, it’s an all-girls party to honour the end of the bride-tobe’s single life. It usually involves kinky decor, drinking games and male strippers.

When it began: The term was first coined sometime in the 1990s.

The Indian context: “About 50 per cent of my clients organise bachelorette parties, though they are still mostly restricted to upper-class families,” says Gopika Sethi, of Vivahdreamz, a firm that provides matrimonial services.

These tend to be over the top. “Seeing my nerdy cousin, the bride-to-be, go wild was unexpected fun,” says Snigdha Budhiraja, a literature student.

BABY SHOWER

What it is: In a baby shower, the mother is given gifts to celebrate the expected or recent birth of her child. The affair is mostly restricted to day time and women.

When it began: The idea of a baby shower as we know it today began in the 1980s, primarily only for the first child.

The Indian context: A baby shower is similar to the Hindu tradition of godbharaai. In the former, the guests bring gifts primarily for the newborn baby, but in the latter, gifts can also be brought for the mother.

BREAK-UP PARTY What it is: A party thrown by a couple that has decided to part ways.

When it began: In the West, break-up-party planners have been doing it for years.

The Indian context: When, in Love Aaj Kal (2009), Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone flaunted their break up by throwing a party, it made an impact! The trend is to party the blues away together with your ex. Since the decision is mutual, no one cries. You drink and have fun.

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PERSONAL AGENDA

twitter.com/HTBrunch

Actress

Sarika BIRTHDAY

December 5

SUN SIGN Sagittarius

PLACE OF BIRTH HOMETOWN Mumbai

Mumbai

SCHOOL/COLLEGE

Never went to any. I studied on my own

FIRST BREAK CURRENTLY I AM... my TV LOW POINT Enjoying with Yudh on OF YOUR LIFE debut Sony

Humraaz (1967)

I just let it be

HIGH POINT OF YOUR LIFE

There have been so many high points now, it’s difficult to remember them all

If you weren’t an actress, you would have been...

A lawyer. I’ve always wanted to be one.

Your take on your TV debut?

I think it is a very good decision for two reasons. I’m very happy and comfortable doing it as this is my kind of work, and also the quality of Yudh is very good.

Everyone’s loving it.

And how does it feel to work with Amitabh Bachchan?

His energy, his dedication and his focus on his craft is tremendous. His approach towards things is very different as well. It is really a pleasure to work with him.

What do you think of Bollywood now?

There are lots of good actors today and this is a good time for the industry.

Any advice for them?

I don’t believe in giving advice.

Everyone should be allowed to make their own mistakes and learn from them.

One director you really want to work with.

I have been quite lucky to work with good directors, dir whether they’re new the

A BOOK THAT LEFT AN IMPRESSION ON YOUR MIND.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Photo: SOUMITRA GHOSH

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or established ones.

One classic film you would have loved to be part of.

Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962).

Where do you feel most comfortable?

In a place that is quiet, beautifully lit, and exudes warmth from the people who inhabit it. There also needs to be some good music, like the songs of Bob Marley.

Your idea of a perfect weekend is...

Definitely outside the city, either in the mountains or by the sea with lots of music, friends and my daughters too.

How do you feel about the film careers of your daughters Shruti and Akshara?

I’m quite happy but there is still a long way to go, lots of good movies are happening now.

A dessert that describes you.

I like all of them, especially Indian sweets.

Three things you can’t do without?

My ATM card, a picture of my girls and my house keys.

The best way to handle a crisis is...

To recognise it and be realistic about how to handle it.

Your dream destination.

I love to keep going back to France again and again.

A song that describes your current state of mind.

Main Zindagi Ka Saath Nibhata Chala Gaya from Hum Dono (1961).

Your favourite co-star.

I have worked with some of the finest actors, such as Naseeruddin Shah and Farooq Shaikh.

Your favourite street food.

I love paani puri.

What makes your day?

A few quiet minutes in the morning. I need at least two hours to myself with my tea and the newspapers.

What spoils it?

Any kind of negativity or negative people.

You destress with...

Music, exercise and even cleaning the house.

The last line of your autobiography would read…

I don’t want one. Every life doesn’t need to be read.

AUGUST 17, 2014

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my movies THE FILM YOU HAVE SEEN MORE THAN FIVE TIMES.

Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Padosan (1968), Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983) A FILM THAT WAS A PART OF YOUR CHILDHOOD.

Mughal-e-Azam (1960)

THE MOST PAISA VASOOL FILM.

Padosan, as I really like humour THE MOST OVERRATED FILM.

Avatar (2009)

— Interviewed by Veenu Singh

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