Brunch 21 09 2014

WEEKLY WEEKLY MAGAZINE, MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER JUNE 22, 21, 2014 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times

The daughter of landless labourers from Manipur delivered a sucker punch to poverty and became a five-time world champion. You’ve seen the film.

Now, get to know the real Mary Kom

4

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).

Apples and Oranges

#BRUNCHBOOKCHALLENGE

Backside Story

This Th is an attempt to convert all our ou readers into book lovers. We W challenge you to read re at least 24 books in 2014 – many alr already have! Tweet your progress by h tagging @HTBrunch, using the hashtag #BrunchBookChallenge

The Book Club

by Saudamini Jain

How To Read 24 books in 100 days

There are just 100 days left in 2014. And 100 days is all you need to devour 24 books. Do the math: if you start now, you still have four full days to finish reading each book. Last year, Brunch showed you how to read more. Here’s advice on how to reach your goal: n Read books you want to read: Because not everyone really wants to read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time aka “the most unread book of all time.” Instead, if you like the sound of the trashiest book of the century, read it anyway. n If you don’t fall in love with it within the first 90 pages, drop it: Because you have the rest of your life to revisit the book that got away. n Start with a series: Even a fat one, like George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire aka those Game of Thrones books, won’t take long if you read the books feverishly one after the other (You may want to follow it up with a few novellas. Quick recommendation: Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote). n Read classics or newly released books: The incentive, of course, is that next time people are talking about it, you’ll have something to add.

Sept 9 JLo and Iggy Azalea show off their bare cheeks for the song Booty. Lyrics: “Throw up your hands if you love a big booty!”

POPULARITY

READ 24 BOOKS ) (OR MORE R A E Y IN A

by Junisha Dama

Butts are having a major moment in pop culture. We get to the bottom of it in a neat little graph

Aug 24 At the MTV VMAs, Beyonce’s background dancers show bottoms, Taylor Swift shows off her tiny butt, and Amber Rose’s dress rounds it all off nicely

Aug 18 Marvel announces a new Spider Woman.

Everyone takes offense to her toocurvy behind

Aug 4 Nicki Minaj announces a bootycentric single Anaconda. The poster does better than the song itself.

Ellen Degeneres spoofs it on her show Aug 25 The Emmy displays Sofia Vergara in a tight white gown on a rotating pedestal, playfully patting her shapely rear.

Oh, we get it! She’s the trophy!

Sept 9 Vogue article says, ‘We’re officially in the era of big booty’.

Attributing, among others, Miley Cyrus.

Backlash ensues

Aug India shakes its collective bootiya with Deepika and Arjun. More bum songs in Bollywood: Engine Ki Seeti and Shake That Booty

The best books on the #BrunchBookChallenge this month – a shoutout to you guys!

PYGMALION by George Bernard Shaw Read by @Dsenti_mental The gist: Phonetics professor Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train Eliza Doolittle (a bedraggled flower girl) to pass for a duchess at a London society party. This play inspired the musical My Fair Lady, which inspired the 1964 Audrey Hepburn film of the same name.

VULGARITY

On The Brunch Radar

by Saudamini Jain

LOVE IT

A STUDY IN SCARLET by Arthur Conan Doyle Read by @tijilthakur The gist: This 1887 detective novel is where Doyle introduced the legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr John Watson.

n That super pretty IPS trainee from Kerala whose photo went viral on Facebook n Deepika Padukone n American mommy bloggers n “Cats are stressed because we treat them like dogs” n That goth-looking black burger to be introduced by Burger King in Japan

IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote Read by @suruchiZymon The gist: In 1959, a wealthy farmer and his family were murdered in Holcomb, Kansas – for a mere 40 dollars. Capote interviewed locals, investigators and the killers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith for this nonfiction novel, an account of the murders and the murderers.

HONOUR by Elif Shafak Read by @ChitraAhanthem The gist: Twin girls born in a small Kurdish village – one goes on to live in London in the 1970s, to be killed in the name of honour by her son. The other travels through West Asia, as a midwife.

FAMILY MATTERS by Rohinton Mistry Read by @vishaldtu The gist: Literally, family matters, those of a middle-class Parsi family in Bombay across three generations.

Cover design: MONICA GUPTA Cover image: VIRENDRA SINGH GOSSAIN

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

SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

Such articles (The Case of the Vanishing Armenians) enrich the reading experience immensely. Please keep the intellectual standards of the magazine as high as you always have.

-Saurav Bhattacharyya charyy

n Humans of New York in India. It was so full of promise but turned out to be so meh n Kapil Sharma. Time to join the former funny club? n These PK posters n Updates on Armaan Kohli and Tanishaa’s relationship n NRIs/foreign-returns whining about everything Indian

SHOVE IT

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

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

Stuff You Said Last Sunday ay g the article about It was a pleasure readin s totally unaware wa Indian-Armenians. I in India. Not only did of such a community knowledge, I could my to add icle art the writer wanted to the at wh ise ual vis totally convey. – Azeem

Oh my god!!

Nothing can stop from reading Love me it. Not even my ex it/Shove am you people! Sund s. Love ay ca start without you! nnot ^-^ – Soumya Sadwal Mind blowing.

What a cover story! nch comes up Bru , ek we er aft ek We Congrats. s. ue iss nt llia with bri i rah am @H – Find Hindustan Times Brunch on Facebook or tweet to @HTBrunch or FOR ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT National – Sanchita Tyagi: sanchita.tyagi@hindustantimes.com North – Siddarth Chopra: siddarth.chopra@hindustantimes.com North – Shaila Thakur: shaila.thakur@hindustantimes.com West – Karishma Makhija: karishma.makhija@hindustantimes.com South – Sharbani Ghosh: sharbani.ghosh@hindustantimes.com

6

WELLNESS

MIND BODY SOUL SHIKHA SHARMA

For any worries related to unplanned pregnancy:

FIGHTING DISEASE NATURALLY

Write to us at consumercare@piramal.com or call us at 1800-22-0502 (toll free) or sms ICAN to 56070 Website: www.i-canhelp.in

initiate periods on time.

S e c o n d l y, i f y o u h a d unprotected intercourse in the last month then you must conduct a pregnancy test to check if you have conceived.

Based on the results, consult your local doctor for further advice.

It is normal if you have observed a change in your period pattern, as emergency contraceptive pills may sometimes bring about a temporary change in your menstrual cycle. If it keeps fluctuating or changes drastically, then you need to consult a gynaecologist.

3. Dear Doctor, for how long does the effect of emergency contraceptive pills remain in the body.

Can we have intercourse immediately after taking the pill? Will it still protect f r o m u n w a n t e d pregnancy?

2 . D e a r D o c t o r, m y periods are delayed by 3 days and I did everything like eating papaya, ginger juice, dry fruits etc to get my periods but no respite.

What can I do to get my periods?

Queries answered by Dr Nirmala Rao MBBS, MD, DPM; a well known psychiatrist who heads Mumbai based Aavishkar - a multifaceted team of expert doctors and health professionals. Aavishkar has a comprehensive approach to mental and physical health, with an emphasis scan this QR code to visit website on counselling and psychotherapy.

Supported by:

can be used as food supplements or to preserve and improve the shelf life of food.

Studies on artificial antioxidants show they don’t have any major benefits.

WHAT ARE ANTIOXIDANTS? Compounds that protect DNA WHAT TO EAT from mutation and break down, For beta-carotene and preventing arthritis, GO FRUITY other carotenoids: nerve disorder, heart Apricots, mangoes disease and cancers. and peaches are rich Apricots, asparagus, beetroot, broccoli, They fight pesticides, in beta-carotene melons, carrots, corn, chemicals, artificial capsicum, mangoes, compounds in foods, turnips and leafy vegchemicals in water, etables, peaches, pink radiation, tobacco grapefruit, pumpkin, and air pollution. sweet potato, tomatoes and papaya.

ARE ALL ANTIOXIFor vitamin C: Berries, brocDANTS THE SAME? coli, cauliflower, grapefruit, No. Hundreds, possibly thoukiwi, mango, orange, pasands of substances can act paya, snow peas, sweet potato, as antioxidants. Well-known strawberries, tomatoes, bell ones include vitamin C, vitamin peppers and amla.

E, beta-carotene and other For vitamin E: Broccoli, carrots, carotenoids, selenium, zinc and mustard and turnip greens, manganese. Lesser known ones mangoes, nuts, papaya, include glutathione, coenzyme pumpkin, red peppers, spinach, Q10, lipoic acid, flavonoids, sunflower seeds and flaxseeds. phenols, polyphenols and phyZinc: Oysters, meat, beans, toestrogens. nuts, seafood, whole grains and They can be found in fruits, organic dairy products. vegetables, grains and herbs.

Selenium: Tuna, poultry and But artificial grain products. antioxidants Eat these foods raw or lightly steamed. And eat them KEEP MOVING in their natural form to extract Seafood is rich in Zinc. Steam it lightly, the maximum benefits. ask@drshikha.com don’t overcook MORE ON THE WEB For more columns by Dr Shikha Sharma and other wellness stories, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

Photos: THINKSTOCK

Firstly you need to understand that these so called home remedies are not scientifically proven to

A n e m e r g e n c y contraceptive pill should never be consumed before intercourse because that is not the intended usage of the pill. Though most emergency contraceptive pills are effective for a period of 72 hours post consumption, emergency contraceptive pills should only be consumed only in emergency cases when regular contraception fails.

W

E’VE ALL read about antioxidants, but do you really know much about them? Here’s a primer.

MediaMedic ICH/Q&A/0903

1. Dear Doctor, after taking an emergency contraceptive pill two months back my period cycle has reduced from 31 days to 27 days. I am little worried about it. Is it normal or should I consult a gynaecologist?

Antioxidants protect our DNA from breaking down and mutating.

Here’s more about them

8

COVER STORY

Photo: SATISH BATE

Born in a remote village, MC Mary Kom beat overwhelming odds to win five world boxing championships. Get to know the woman who inspired the biopic

by Saurabh Duggal ragon: The Bruce Lee Story, the 1993 biopic based on the life of the martial arts legend, inspired a teenaged Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom, the daughter of landless agricultural labourers, to pick up combat sport. At that time, her dream was limited to learning the nuances of boxing. But not even in her remotest dreams did she imagine that one day her own life would become the subject of a celebrated Bollywood film as well.

The mother of three sons – seven-year-old twins Khupneivar (nicknamed Nainai) and Rechungvar, and one-year-old Prince – now has her sights set on a medal in the 51kg weight category at the Asian

Games. Speaking to HT Brunch on the sidelines of a training session at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Stadium, India’s best-known woman boxer says she is happy with the way the movie, Mary Kom, has turned out. “It is superbly made and I am happy that because of the film, women’s boxing will finally get its due. People will come to know about the hardships women boxers face in order to win medals for the country,” she says.

Instead of savouring the success of the biopic and accepting invitations to numerous movie premieres, Mary Kom has kept herself away from the razzmatazz and trained hard in isolation. “I am still an active sportsperson and my hunger to achieve more is still

SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

strong. So, I preferred to make the most of the time I had preparing for the Asian Games,” says the pugilist who has managed to spend just four days with her children in the last two months in the run-up to the Games. “Even when I am not at my peak, I am confident of winning. I got the better of my opponent during the trials for the Commonwealth Games. It took 15 minutes for the judges to decide on the winner and the verdict went against me. I was sure I had won that time too, but I decided to stay quiet and reply in my own way at the Asian Games’ trials. So, I trained hard and left no room for discussion. This time around, I won with a margin to spare,” says the feisty boxer triumphantly.

Even before Priyanka Chopra was cast for the lead role in a biographical movie about MC Mary Kom, the Olympic medallist boxer was an established name in India’s sporting circles. Mary Kom’s rise from a remote village in Manipur to a hat-trick of world titles (in 2002, 2005 and 2006) makes for an incredible tale. She continued to

box after her marriage to K Onler Kom, whom she met when he was studying to be a lawyer in Delhi, and won an Olympic medal after motherhood. Her amazing journey motivated filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali to produce a movie about her. It’s perhaps for the first time in the world that a biopic on a major sportsperson’s life has been made while the athlete is still active in the sporting arena. The biopic has further cemented Mary Kom’s celebrity status and made the boxer from Manipur a household name across the country.

At the ongoing Asian Games being held at Incheon, Korea, Mary Kom returns to international competition after her Olympics triumph in August 2012 and after giving birth to her third child in June last year.

SCOPE FOR A SEQUEL

The biopic depicts the struggle behind achieving world glory and Mary Kom’s comeback after giving birth to twins. It ends with the national anthem being played in China after she won gold for the

twitter.com/HTBrunch fourth time at the World Championships in 2008.

The movie opened to mixed reviews and some critics noted the conspicuous absence of the London Olympics triumph from the narrative. Though Bhansali’s Mary Kom has released in 2014, the film stops at 2008. But only a minuscule fraction of the audience comes from a sporting background; for most viewers, the real-life rise of a village girl from obscurity to international fame, that too after motherhood, is enough to keep them riveted. “As per the contract for the biopic, we had given permission to depict her life only till the world championships held in China in 2008. That’s why the London Olympics were not included,” says her husband.

So, will there be a sequel to the movie, portraying Mary Kom’s story after 2008? Surely, her second comeback after motherhood and her Olympic victory make for another adaptation. “When the contract for Mary Kom the movie was signed, at that time, she hadn’t even qualified for the London segment. So, including the London Games in the story was out of the question. But if anybody is willing to make a second part, we are game for it,” says Onler. Tragically, in 2006, his father was assassinated by insurgents and Onler briefly thought about picking up the gun to seek retribution. But his father had been one of a pair of twins and when Mary Kom, too, gave birth to twins, Onler saw it as his father’s rebirth and gradually the feelings of revenge faded away.

9

still remember that before going for the World Championships in 2002 and 2005, I announced that I would sponsor the air tickets from New Delhi to the hometown of the girl who won gold. Mary won the gold on both the occasions and got to fly from Delhi to Imphal.”

TWO STATES

The year 2000, when Mary Kom first stepped into the ring, coincided with a blanket ban on the release of Hindi movies in local theatres, imposed by insurgent groups active in Manipur. Neither has the biopic made on the life of the Manipuri star been shot in her home state, nor has it been screened in theatres there. “Mary Kom is Manipur’s pride. How come people here have to skip a movie based on their star’s life? Everyone here is watching it on pirated CDs,” says L Ibomcha Singh, Mary Kom’s first coach.

Since the insurgency made it impossible to shoot on location at Mary Kom’s native village in Kangathei, Manipur, the scenes showing Mary Kom in her village were shot in Dharamshala, Himachal

Pradesh. The sequences showing her life after marriage to Onler Kom in his village were shot at a hamlet on the outskirts of Manali.

The rest of the biopic has been shot at Mumbai’s Film City, says Ravi Saharan, one of the assistant directors, who also happens to be the son of national women’s chief coach Anup Kumar.

Thanks to his father’s access to the boxing establishment and archives, Saharan could help director Omung Kumar get valuable material and sporting footage for the film.

“I collected old recordings of Mary Kom’s bouts and old photographs from my father. The way Priyanka Chopra gets emotional when the national anthem was played during the World Championships, in the last scene of the movie, is exactly how it was in real life, when Mary became world champion and stood at the top of the podium.

“We got the recording of that moment from my dad. He even helped us with anecdotes about Mary, such as how she keeps the Bible under her pillow when she goes to sleep. Kumar used some of them in the movie,” Saharan reveals.

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

THE POPULAR VOTE

HT Brunch quizzed the celebrated Olympic champion about the key moments from Mary Kom, and whether the celluloid depiction of her life is contrary to real life.

Here’s what she said:

THE AIR CRASH

If you remember, one of the sequences in the film shows Mary Kom as a little girl visiting an air crash site and picking up a boxing glove. An Indian Airlines plane did crash on August 16, 1991, at the Thangjing Ching mountain range near Mary Kom ’s village.

There were no survivors.

But in real life, the crash had nothing to do with her first brush with boxing.

STREET FIGHTS

In the movie, Priyanka Chopra is shown engaging in fights for money. In real life, Mary Kom did get into fights during school. At times they were sparked off by remarks passed by some unruly boys. At others, she fought while standing up for her friends. “I had street fights with boys but I never fought for money,” she says.

FINDING LOVE

There used to be a time when India’s women boxers, including those who had won international medals, were not given their due.

Even an air ticket to fly home from Delhi after winning a gold medal in the World Championships was considered a big incentive for the girls. “The first national camp for women boxers was held at Bangalore in 2001 and the girls travelled by train on sleeper class tickets,” recalls Anup Kumar, the national women’s chief coach in boxing. “I

The movie shows that love blossomed between Mary Kom and Onler Kom after a fight where she was boxing for money in Manipur. She loses the bout and he offers to drop her back after the fight.

But in real life, they met in Delhi after a training session in 2000. After a five-year-long courtship, they got married.

“Mary Kom is Manipur’s pride. How come people here cannot watch a movie based on their star’s life?” asks her first coach L Ibomcha Singh

A CLOSE SHAVE

Priyanka Chopra (right) has boxed like a well-trained athlete in the movie, says Mary Kom SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

In the movie, Priyanka, playing Mary Kom, shaves her head during a training camp. In real life, too, Mary Kom did the same. “While travelling to

10

COVER STORY

twitter.com/HTBrunch Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Photo: SHAKTI YADAV

Bangalore for a camp in May 2001, Mary Kom’s purse and passport were stolen in the train. On the first day, she landed with a shaved head. When asked by the coach why she did so, she replied that somebody had stolen her things. To make sure God punished the culprit, she had shaved her head to symbolise the death of that thief in anticipation.

“I realised that Mary was different from other girls in the camp,” recalls chief coach Anup Kumar.

The Koms, Mary and Onler, pose with their youngest son Prince, who was born in 2013

“In a way Onler is like a mother to my kids,” says Mary Kom. “At times for months I am away from my children and Nainai especially misses me a lot. He starts weeping whenever I call home”

Kom with her twin sons Khupneivar (nicknamed Nainai) and Rechungvar

TRAINING TO BE MARY

To get under the skin of her character, Priyanka Chopra trained for almost six months with professional coaches and national level pugilists who knew Mary Kom well. In the beginning, for two months, Priyanka took boxing lessons from national women’s coach Hemlata Bagdwal. “After the first stint of training, Omung wanted Priyanka to train alongside a player, to understand a boxer’s psychology. So she trained for about four months with national-level boxer Jharna Sanghvi who has been part of many national camps,” says Saharan.

“Priyanka boxed like a welltrained athlete in the movie and nobody can make out whether she is a professional boxer or an actor,” says Mary Kom. “She even visited Manipur and spent two days with me.”

THE MAN BEHIND THE CHAMP

Had it not been for husband Onler Kom’s sacrifices though, Mary Kom wouldn’t have been able to achieve the heights she has risen to. After becoming a mother, Mary Kom’s father dissuaded her from making a comeback, fearing that she might spoil her reputation.

But her husband Onler Kom stood by her, gave up his own ambition of becoming a lawyer and relieved her of the responsibility of taking

care of the kids. “In a way, Onler is like a mother to my kids,” says Mary Kom. “At times I am away from my kids for months and Nainai especially misses me a lot.

He starts weeping whenever I call home. In my absence, Onler also takes care of my academy,” she says. The MC Mary Kom Boxing Academy was launched in Imphal in 2006 to promote local boxing talent in her home state.

THE REEL AND THE REAL

While watching the movie, audiences may wonder just how much of Mary Kom’s life has been spiced up with filmi masala.

“There is no change in my life’s script,” she says. “But yes, little bits of drama have been added.

Who will watch a movie if there is no drama? For instance, I do go to church with my husband and hang out with him. But we don’t sing and there isn’t music running in the background! But you can’t have a Bollywood movie without songs. So I don’t think there should be any problem with the dramatisation, as long as the facts related to my life are not distorted.”

Still, fellow boxers say that a few interesting additions could have been made to the biopic. “In the movie, Kom goes to represent the country directly from Manipur without attending a national

SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

camp,” points out boxer Preeti Singh, one of Mary Kom’s closest friends.

There are many interesting facets to Mary Kom that fans might not be aware of. Her agility and sharp reflexes, for instance, are part of boxing lore. During a national camp at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Stadium in 2002, she killed a snake. During another camp at Hisar, Haryana, she was seen catching squirrels in and around the camp area.

Whenever she finds time, Mary Kom likes to cook for her family.

Although she mostly eats boiled food, she can also whip up fingerlicking fish and rice dishes.

Although most athletes, particularly boxers, are known to be feisty and muscular, Mary Kom has her feminine, girly side.

Also, she is a bit of a fashionista.

She loves tuning in to Fashion TV and taking design inspiration for her clothes from the shows.

Generally, she likes to wear Western ensembles, paint her nails in bright colours and buy cosmetics when she is abroad for tournaments. Mary Kom loves make-up. She says she can do make-up as well as the best Bollywood professionals.

Whatever she does, the fivetime world champion makes a good fist of it! saurabh.duggal@hindustantimes.com

THE HEART OPERATION

The movie shows that Mary Kom’s son gets operated on while she is abroad for the World Championship in 2008. But in real life, the surgery took place in 2011, once she returned home. One of the her twins Khupneivar (Nainai) had a hole in his heart and got operated in Chandigarh. The hole was detected during the Asian Championships in China in 2011. Mary Kom wanted to skip the championship, but played on at her husband’s insistence, and had a very difficult time in China worrying about her child’s health. She went on to win gold and caught the flight home the same night. She reached just in time for the surgery.

COACH IBOMCHA

Rebika Chiru, a national-level boxer, first informed Mary Kom about women’s boxing being introduced at the Sports Authority of India’s Imphal centre.

Just like in the movie, Mary Kom did go to the centre. “I went looking for Ibomcha sir [L Ibomcha Singh] while a training session was on. He told me to wait.

He was ready to take me under his wing, but his contention was that I won’t be able to cope,” she recalls.

12

High Street Calling FASHION FILES PART II

Older designers may rely on bridal collections but young designers have set their sights on the mass market

by Sujata Assomull Sippy

S

AY YOU’RE young, funky, fashion-forward and want an outfit by Masaba Gupta.

But you’re living on a pittance that passes as a first salary. What do you do? Well, you could buy an outfit by Masaba Gupta. Only, the label would read Masaba Lite, because this is the designer’s recently launched affordable second brand, more high street than haute couture.

Gupta is one of several young designers who have taken a look at the market and figured out that there’s a vacuum that needs to be filled. Haute couture is all very well and has its takers, but what the market is yearning for is prêt.

Affordable prêt, that is. This revelation hit 25-year-old Gupta when three college girls walked into her Mumbai store one day, having pooled all their savings to buy a single saree that they would share.

“I realised these girls were my target group in terms of age and I should cater to them,” she says.

“Since I also wanted to expand my line and make my designs more accessible to a wider audience, I launched Masaba Lite, priced between `300 and `7,000.”

Young designers tend to create funky, experimental clothing, which young buyers love.

Such buyers are keen to pick up designerwear provided it’s good quality at affordable prices

WHAT THE FUNK

Anita Dongre’s AND offers high street fashion

FIRST RATE

Gupta’s decision to launch a second, more mass line was a brave one. She could have taken the tried and tested route to better financial prospects by launching a fail-proof bridal line, but that’s not what she wants to do. Her target group is youthful, so Masaba Lite, with fun separates, night wear and accessories, is more appropriate.

Munkee See Munkee Doo, Huemn and Quirkbox all have second lines too, and Yogesh Chaudhary will launch his own mass line next season.

None of these brands is more than a few seasons old, yet each one is confident of success in this new market.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

13

“Prêt is more popular online, and price points need to be slightly lower than they are for brick and mortar stores,” he says.

Both Jabong and Myntra are in talks with designers to launch second lines. “Retail sites are able to take on production which really means you look at a big growth plan,” says Gupta.

SAFETY NET

IN THE LIME-LITE

Masaba Gupta’s second line is for price-conscious clients

Huemn, a four-year-old label started by Lucknow poet Pranav Mishra and Bangalore cartoonist Shyma Shetty, is known for experimenting with patterns. With elegantly quirky designs, its fans include actresses Deepika Padukone and Neha Dhupia. But a label cannot survive on actresses alone, so about six months ago, Huemn launched a more pared-down line called Hue.“I see prêt becoming big business in India,” says Mishra.

“It’s a market boom waiting to happen.”

That’s because young designers tend to create funky, experimental clothing, which young buyers love.

“They’re keen to buy Indian designers, provided they’re offered great designs at good quality, priced to fit their budgets, below `15,000,” says Anita Dongre, one of India’s most commercially successful designers with an estimated turnover of `250 crores thanks to her labels AND and Global Desi.

DOT COM RETAIL

One of the major reasons for young designers taking the high street route is the online push.

With websites like Jabong and Myntra looking at fashion in a serious way, young designers have seen the opportunities.

Jabong’s CEO Arun Chandra Mohan believes young designers are making a sensible decision in starting these second lines because the online market needs them.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

Though Masaba Lite is a capsule collection at the moment, Gupta hopes her second line will become a standalone business alongside her own signature line, Masaba Gupta. “It’s like how Marc Jacobs has Marc by Marc Jacobs,” she says. “It is a great starting point for younger buyers who begin by buying the second line and eventually move up to the main line.”

Delhi-based designer Arjun Saluja thinks the same way. His seven-year-old label Rishta is known for conceptual designs that involve fine fabrics, with prices ranging from `15,000 to `70,000.

But he recently launched his diffusion line, Essentials, that will retail between `7,500 and `28,000.

“The idea was to tap into the everyday market,” Saluja says. “As a concept brand, we need to widen our horizons, so a diffusion line made sense.” With lifestyle stores like Ensemble, Atosa, Neel Sutra and Evoluzione already placing orders, Saluja is hopeful that Essentials, with its dhoti pants, pathani tunics, shalwar pants, bushirts and sarees, will work.

All this is great news for the customer, says Akshita Sekhri, former fashion journalist and now business development consultant to young designer labels such as Yogesh Chaudhary.

“I think senior designers existed at a time when there was little or no presence of online retail and hence are hesitant to put any eggs in that basket,” she says. “Younger designers are much more trusting of the online emergence.”

It’s all very exciting, but going mass is harder than it looks.

Because so much needs to be taken care of, including marketing and production. Also, setting up a high street line is inadvisable unless the main line is already established.

New York’s poster boy of diffusion fashion, Marc Jacobs, launched his second line after almost 15 years in fashion. Perhaps there’s a lesson there.

Sujata Assomull Sippy has been a fashion commentator for almost two decades brunchletters@hindustantimes.com

16

PEOPLE

What Menon Wants Despite great performances, Kay Kay Menon is one of our most underrated actors. But he says he’s happy to just act

by Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi

R

EMEMBER Vishnu Nagre, Amitabh Bachchan’s older son in Sarkar? The man whose lustful eyes could make any woman blush? Or the revolutionary Siddharth Tayabji in Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi? Or even Shilpa Shetty’s philandering husband in Life… In A Metro? Each character played to perfection by Kay Kay Menon. With some powerful performances to his credit, Menon is a force to reckon with.

And yet, Menon remains one of the most underrated actors of Bollywood. Why? “I don’t know.

You’ll have to answer that for me.

I do what I can – act. And my acting gets me the appreciation. But yes, maybe I don’t get the ‘rates’ (laughs). Actually, I never bothered about it much either. I focused on what I was doing,” says Menon.

We recently caught up with the versatile actor for an interaction.

Excerpts from the interview:

You can’t possibly be in the industry and not want to become a star.

My grandfather used to tell me, ‘if you have a trumpet, blow it loud and clear’. I, strangely, could never do that. I’ve always been a sports freak. In sports, unless you perform, no one cares about you.

Nothing but your performance matters. I live by that spirit. So all I do is perform, not talk about it.

You seem happy playing the villain most of the time.

I guess the industry sees the evil in me most of the time. I keep the good parts for the real world (laughs). But really, I don’t go in with any preset notion. All I look

at is the character and its layers.

I can’t be a cardboard cut-out.

Whatever shade the character may be, he needs to have a full-fledged existence.

Theatre, television, films, you’ve done them all...

I first went on stage at the age of nine. I became a sunflower in my school’s Annual Day play. On stage, I felt real and very alive. So while I grew up to go through the ‘conventional’ academic rigour of graduation in Physics and then an MBA, my heart lay in theatre. I pursued it through. My big break came when I joined Naseeruddin Shah’s Motley Theatre Group. I did Gandhi Vs Mahatma with them and toured the world. Then TV happened. I did shows like Pradhanmantri, Rishtey among others and then films started coming in. I am an actor and I’ve enjoyed every bit of every medium.

You have some big projects coming up. Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider and Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet among others…

Yes, and Neeraj Pandey’s Saat Uchchakey. I’ve had the most fascinating experience. Haider is an adaptation of Hamlet. And with Vishal [Bhardwaj] directing it, it goes a notch higher. So it is with Anurag [Kashyap]. These directors understand an actor. And they understand performance. But the film that’s closest to my heart is Saat Uchchakey. It’s shot in Delhi and I’ve worked with actors like Manoj Bajpayee. It’s been a great learning experience. tavishi.rastogi@hindustantimes.com

SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

18

indulge

Will The ‘One MOre Thing’ Succeed?

A

Apart from the iPhone6, the Apple Watch was also launched. Is it worth your time?

PPLE’S POWER to shock and surprise is becoming weaker and weaker. This isn’t entirely a failing of the company or its products (though it is a little of that), but it’s just the way Apple has grown. It’s such a huge company now, with so many people developing the ecosystem around its products, that it’s quite impossible for them to keep anything under wraps anymore. Pictures, specs, features, exactly what they will announce with what name and price – it is known to almost everyone before the awesome event itself. This, combined with the fact that expectations from Apple are always sky high, does lead to serious disappointment after the event is over. Not this time!

Rajiv Makhni

techilicious STIFF COMPETITION

Compared to the Apple Watch, both Samsung’s new Gear S (below) and Motorola’s Moto 360 (bottom) look awesome

The event this time was different in many ways. It was staged at the Flint Center (their most iconic products have been launched there), it was live-streamed to the world (despite huge technical issues, including an intermittent Chinese translation voice-over that got streamed everywhere) and it finally had Tim Cook use Steve Jobs’s legendary phrase “one more thing” for the first time.

The views expressed by the columnist are personal

Surprisingly, the Apple Watch is chunky, comes in two sizes, three finishes (including 18k gold) and multiple strap options too

THE GOOD

Well, it doesn’t start too well. This is a surprisingly chunky product from Apple, and at first glance, reminds you of the iPod Nano with a strap. But after the initial surprise, things become much better. It comes in two sizes, three finishes (including 18k gold) and multiple strap options.

It’s got a great screen and isn’t too big on the wrist. It’s the interface controller that is a bit of a revelation. Apple took the crown of a typical watch, and made that the primary interface controller by loading some sensors into it and giving it a lot of functionality. Apple calls it a digital crown.

The Apple Watch has sapphire glass, a heart-rate sensor, a touchscreen and a force sensor (you can long press for a right click with options), a very sleek wireless charging system, voice control (it’s Siri enabled), has a special button underneath the digital crown to activate a messaging app, has walkie-talkie abilities and can give you voice-guided direction on maps. The interface is completely different, the developer community participation seems robust. Cook himself said that there is no point in just shrinking a phone onto a wrist, and overall it seems Apple got it completely right. But...

THE NOT SO GOOD

The thing was the Apple Watch, and this was one of the first products from Apple in a long time to actually surprise people. Kept tightly under wraps, most people in the know were quite sure that there would be no Apple Watch till a few days before the event. One hint came in form of the large number of invites sent out to the fashion press rather than just the Geek Mob. There weren’t any major spy pictures out there, no leaks on functionality and specs and almost no major chatter. The ‘One More Thing’ moment for Tim Cook had the desired effect. The shock and awe across the world was profound. But beyond the fact that Apple was able to surprise the world, does the Apple Watch have enough to turn around the most dead of all categories?

Yes, there are quite a few big buts here. The design is very unlike what people expect from Apple, as the good looks and cool design touches come more from the straps rather than the thick watch itself. The small dots that you use to trigger apps and other features, seems to be an interface nightmare (the dots become too small if you want many of them on the screen, and endlessly scrolling around that area to get to your app is a terrible idea), battery life seems to be iffy since it wasn’t spoken about at all. The interface requires you to learn new things, and is totally different from the iPhone and iPad. You need an iPhone for the watch to work, which makes this a very expensive proposition to get started with.

One of the biggest features on the watch is the fact that it will replace your credit card and wallet, but this comes at a time when Apple’s security and protection has come under serious scrutiny (iCloud celebrity leaks of nude pictures was the latest one and no, none of my pictures got leaked at all so stop searching for them!) and most importantly the product isn’t ready yet and will only appear sometime early in 2015.

A BIG TASK

COUNTDOWN 2015

TIM COOKS UP A WATCH

MORE ON THE WEB For previous Tech columns, log on to hindustantimes.com/ brunch. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at twitter. com/RajivMakhni

WATCH OUT!

Smartwatches came riding on a wave of euphoria, which was shortlived, as company after company learnt that getting people to strap on one more device on their wrist was almost impossible. Customers just weren’t convinced of the need to wear something that is just a glorified accessory to their phone and pay big bucks for it. If the Apple Watch does become a huge seller, then the market would open up for other players to come swooping in.

Did Apple do enough? Does the first ever non-Steve Jobs curated and conceived product in a long time have what it takes to dramatically turn things around?

SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

This delay at a time when the competition is truly baying for blood with some great second- and third-generation smart watches (Samsung’s standalone new Gear S is awesome as are the Moto 360 and the LG G Watch R) could be serious trouble for the company. Still, this is Apple and people tend to wait for something from them. Plus, Apple has enough time to tweak and perfect it before they get it out. Time will tell (pun intended) if the Apple Watch sets new records in sales or becomes its first major disaster in a long time.

Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3

20

indulge

Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK

Luxembourg Luxe

Vir Sanghvi

rude travel Luxembourg is the story of a country that is small, rich, picturesque, old and confusing – and which has just rediscovered luxury

I

F YOU CAN make sense of European history, then you are a better person than I am. I remember being confounded at school by the complexities of the Schleswig-Holstein question (something to do with a territorial dispute between Germany and Denmark, if I remember correctly) until my teachers told me not to worry about it. Only three people knew the answer to the Schleswig-Holstein question and two of them had forgotten it.

So it was with the regions of Alsace and Lorraine which kept shifting back and forth between France and Germany. These days we think of Alsace mainly in terms of the Riesling and Lorraine only because of the quiche.

But if you had to write a history paper then it was hard to remember whether they were German or French at a specific point in history. (They are French now – or at least I think they are but who the hell knows?)

I was reminded of all this historical confusion when I drove from Frankfurt airport to Luxembourg. Most of us, I am willing to wager, know nothing at all about Luxembourg. We are dimly aware that it is somewhere in Europe and some of us have heard that it is a tax haven but equally, we may very well be confusing it with Liechtenstein

SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

It wasn’t till I got to Luxembourg that I realised how tiny it was – the population is less than that of Karol Bagh

(which is also very small and a tax haven too!)

It wasn’t till I got to Luxembourg that I realised how tiny it was – the population is around half a million or less than the population of Karol Bagh or a north Bombay suburb. The second thing that struck me was how rich it was.

It has the second highest per capita income in the world (around $80,000 per head or so) and is only beaten by Qatar – but that doesn’t really count because the Qataris have oil and the Luxembourgers only have their wits to help them get so rich.

And though there is a fairy-tale quality to its castles, picturesque town squares with street magicians and bands, their famous macaroons and yes, Indian restaurants, there is also an air of great but unflashy wealth about the country.

There is a Grand Duke (Luxembourg is a Duchy) but he is a ceremonial head. Luxembourg is a fully functioning democracy and was one of the founders of the European Union.

Luxembourg borders France, Germany and Belgium so its inhabitants are hard to classify though most speak at least three languages: French, German and their own Luxembourgish. More confusingly, many live in neighbouring countries and drive to work in Luxembourg each day, crossing international borders as you and I would cross a traffic signal.

But then, that’s the strange, confusing and yet very special character of Europe. I was in Luxembourg at the invitation of Nicolas Luc Villeroy, a leading member of one of the two families that own Villeroy & Boch, probably the oldest and best-known family-owned company in the luxury crockery space. Nicolas Luc is French but his family have partnered through the centuries with the Boch family, who are German. Luxembourg is widely regarded as the centre of the family company but their head office is actually only a few miles away – in Germany.

My guess was it suited Villeroy & Boch to be thought of as a Luxembourg company because a Franco-German union could be complicated given that the two countries routinely went to war with each other. But it was even more complicated than that. When Villeroy & Boch was founded in 1748, the French Revolution had yet to take place and modern France, as we know it today, did not exist. Neither for that matter did modern Germany. It took several decades for Mettlach, the village where the Bochs are based, to become part of Germany after the unification. And even Luxembourg owed allegiance to the Austrian empire, so the Boch family had to ask the Austrian emperor for permission to set up their first factory there.

The more I heard about the Villeroy and Boch families (the company is still controlled, like Hermès, by about 50 members of the two families), the more intrigued I became by two questions.

The first was self-evident. This may well be the oldest

21

Photo: VIR SANGHVI

MIXED BAG

Photo: VIR SANGHVI

(Clockwise from extreme left) Street magicians perform at a town square in Luxembourg; a forest at the centre of a meandering river that I was particularly taken with; Michel von Boch, the member of the family who is most fascinated with India; a crockery set from Villeroy and Boch

luxury company in the world to remain in family hands. But how did the two families cope when their countries went to war? The answer was simple enough. They remained close friends personally and dedicated enemies in martial terms.

During both the First and Second World Wars, the Villeroys signed up and fought for France. And the Bochs enlisted in the German army and fought the French.

Through it all, the friendships and the business partnership survived the conflict. In the 1940s, when France was in a bad way (the Germans had occupied the country), the Bochs told their partners, the Villeroys, that nothing had changed and that they would not only continue in business together but that they would take all the precious Villeroy family artefacts and store them in a warehouse in Germany for them.

(Sadly, they chose a warehouse in Dresden, which was later flattened in the worst Allied air raids of the Second World War.) My second question was as obvious. All of us have seen the Villeroy & Boch symbol on plates at the world’s most expensive restaurants. So yes, we know all about the prestige of the firm’s luxury crockery lines.

But those of us who have travelled to Europe will also have seen sinks and bathtubs at fancy establishments which bear the Villeroy & Boch symbol. For instance, last month at the Bristol Hotel in Paris, I was intrigued to see that the plates and the chamber pot in the bathroom were both made by Villeroy & Boch.

Didn’t this cause some confusion?

Nicolas-Luc had obviously thought about this – and he’d heard the same question many times. So he gave me a little history lesson. In the old days, before indoor plumbing, there were no sinks. Instead, at the end of a meal, servants would arrive with a large ceramic bowl.

You would place your hands over the bowl and then they would pour water on them till you were satisfied they were clean.

Villeroy & Boch made the original ceramic bowls and when indoor plumbing arrived, they just played around with the shapes to turn them into sinks – the principle is

exactly the same. So it was with bathtubs. In the days of European aristocracy, Villeroy & Boch and other ceramic-makers would create large tubs into which hot water would be poured. The aristocrat in question would then climb into the tub, splash around a little and declare that he had washed his upper-class body. When plumbing arrived, they just added taps to the tubs. (The same principle applies to WCs but you can use your own imagination.)

Over time, ceramic manufacturers began to segregate the two businesses arguing that people might be embarrassed to eat off a plate that bore the same brand name as their bathtub. But Villeroy & Boch persisted with the traditional practice. After all, they said, the roots were the same – high quality ceramic design.

The area around Mettlach and Luxembourg is known for its stunning countryside and its old schlosses or castles. Nicolas Luc arranged for me to stay at his guesthouse, an old castle that was at least two centuries old and possibly haunted. (Well, aren’t all old castles haunted?)

I was particularly taken with a forest at the centre of a meandering river and was surprised to learn the next day at dinner that it belonged to Michel von Boch, the family member most fascinated by India.

Like some latter day Jean-Louis Dumas, Michel has been to India several times, has taken the photos for a book on the tea gardens of Darjeeling (published by Penguin) and is working on a picture book of Indian railway stations (I’ve promised to help with the writing!) In any case, both families seem very knowledgeable about India – they hoisted the Indian flag the day I visited and Nicolas Luc spent half an hour discussing the origins of the Hindu holy trinity with such depth that I could barely keep up.

But in some ways, that conversation seemed to me to sum up the connections between an old, old family firm in a particularly confusing part of Europe and an old, old culture in a country that foreigners often find confusing – and which has just rediscovered luxury!

I remember being confounded at school by the complexities of the SchleswigHolstein question

SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Nicolas Luc Villeroy is a leading member of one of the two families that make luxury crockery

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

indulge

22

Life, Camera, Boredom

If you photograph every moment as being ‘special’, then soon there will be no ‘special moments’ at all

H

AVE SMARTPHONE; will take pictures. That seems to be the motto everyone lives by these days. So, no moment of our day goes undocumented, no meal is eaten before first being captured on camera, and everyone from pets, children, spouses, friends, lovers, passers-by, get photographed several times in the course of a day. If we are on holiday, things tend to get completely out of hand, as we chronicle every moment as it happens, just to be sure we are not missing out on documenting something really important. And that’s not counting the selfies, the self-portraits we take obsessively, day in and day out.

And it’s not as if these pictures just live on our smartphone memory cards. The process isn’t complete until every image (except the unflattering ones that are deleted instantly) is posted on some social media platform or the other for your friends, family, colleagues, and complete strangers to ‘like’ or ‘favourite’, or respond to with a gushy comment or two.

Seema Goswami

spectator CLICK, UPLOAD, LIKE

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

Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK

If we are on holiday, things tend to get completely out of hand, as we chronicle every moment as it happens

I really have no problem with this. If taking pictures incessantly and sharing them with the world is what rocks your boat, then go right ahead (though I hope you won’t mind if I avert my gaze discreetly). But I do wonder if in this mad race to let no moment go unrecorded, we are losing out on something that all of us deserve: those special moments that are captured on camera and trigger off happy memories every time we see them.

My generation has plenty of those. There are the grainy baby pictures taken by the proud dad in the first flush of parenthood, which still evoke a smile even though

the composition often leaves a lot to be desired and the picture quality has deteriorated over time. There are those photos that freeze-frame our awkward phase as we pose for the school photographer at a Teacher’s Day or Children’s Day function or even at the annual prize-giving ceremony, and which our children giggle at snidely. There are the honeymoon pix, immortalising the fashion of a decade that style forgot, which make us wonder: “Did I really wear that?

What was I thinking?”

But for all their cheerful amateurism, their potential for embarrassment, their sheer cheesiness on occasion, these photos are like a window into a more innocent, happy time, when there were no filters to make everything glow, when realism held its own against fakery and Photoshop.

These pictures still have the power to move us, whether it is to laughter or tears, joy or sorrow. They are little vignettes of our past, which unlock memories that we had thought were lost forever.

Will that pleasure ever be available to Generation Cameraphone? After all, how special can any one memory be if every single one of them is immortalised in a photograph?

If every moment is seen as special, and worthy of being frozen on camera, then is any moment truly special? If you chronicle every living moment does any one moment remain memorable?

The truth is that pictures tend to lose their power and poignancy when there are so many of them that your primary emotion is of being overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

And going by the way everyone tends to go bonkers the moment they get access to a cameraphone, we will all soon be completely swamped by pictures of our every living-breathing moment, lovingly altered by a flattering filter. But none of them will have the ability to truly move us, because while familiarity may not breed contempt it will certainly engender boredom on a colossal scale.

So, we may well be the last generation to have our memories encased in photo albums that are pulled out at family reunions, and laughed and cried over in equal measure. The ones who come after us will have seen it all on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Whathaveyou, and been bored out of their skulls in the process. The last thing they will want is to look at another picture. And if they do look at it, their first instinct will be to mouth ‘like’ and move on, instead of reliving the moment it freeze-frames.

What they will have is gimmicks. A series of selfies shot every day for a period of ten years, put together in a time lapse, to show how a cute little boy/girl grew up into a moody/handsome/sexy grown up. Travel pictures manipulated to show rainbows even when none appeared; landscapes digitally altered to show hues that don’t exist in nature; and of course the wonders of Photoshop applied indiscriminately.

But all this trickery will not be enough to create the immediacy of the photographs of another time, those that were special for being taken only on special occasions, those that had meaning because they captured meaningful events, and those that live on forever because they encapsulate the best moments of our lives.

As for us, I fear that we will soon become a society that misses the wood for the trees. Or, in words that Generation Cameraphone can understand, a society that will miss the images for the hashtags.

The views expressed by the columnist are personal

SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

25

A thriller that doesn’t live up

There can never be enough book recommendations.

But every few weeks, we bring you a selection we think you may like – because it’s always nice to talk about books

Compiled by Saudamini Jain

A dark collection of madness

A likeable protagonist you will forget about

Close Call by Stella Rimington

Passion Flower by Cyrus Mistry

Life or Death by Michael Robotham

This has all the right ingredients to make for a fantastic espionage novel.

1. A protagonist who heads her own counter terrorism unit in the MI5, the UK’s security agency.

2. Jihadist groups regrouping under the Al Qaeda, planning a devastating attack on a football stadium.

3. An ex-intelligence official gone rogue. Yet, Close Call is unspectacular. Set during the Arab Spring, the protagonist Liz Carlyle is told to keep an eye on a shipment of arms from Yemen. The longer Liz stays on the case the more convinced she is that a top official, Jack McManus, is involved – a man she once had an affair with.

Why you should care: The author is a former director of the MI5 and the book rings with intimate knowledge – from banter about suspects to casual chauvinism faced by the protagonist.

Why it fails: It lacks urgency – the second half devoted to administrative procedure, which builds to a distinctly anti-climactic ending. The premise is interesting, but Rimington lets down her readers with her handling of the characters and situations. Read this for the happy ending, not much else

by Jyotsna Raman

Even at first glance, there is something deliciously sinister about Mistry’s first collection of short stories.

Perhaps it is the hardbound ink-black cover. Or the title, Passion Flower, exuding a guarded excitement. Cyrus is better known as Rohinton’s lesserknown brother. But among Indian literati, he’s perhaps more loved. And so this book has been reviewed glowingly many times. Yet, not many have read it. Maybe because its description: “seven stories of derangement”, which are “dark, mysterious and inhabited by characters that walk a thin line between fantasy and reality”, make the book sound intimidating.

In these stories, you will meet the loner Percy, who gets a new lease of life after the death of his overbearing mother; Preeti, who has a sickening urge to kill her newborn; two friends-turned-colleagues and their never-ending display of oneupmanship; Anand, who is consumed by his obsessive search for an elusive species of Passiflora. The characters are ordinary people, the plots made of ordinary lives. This book will leave you with an unsettling realisation, like an epiphany: a certain madness and cruelty exists in us all.

by Satarupa Paul

Audie Palmer is a thorough gentleman, a guy with a golden heart and a past he won’t talk about. He’s also an escaped prisoner on the run.

Ten years ago, Audie was convicted for an armed robbery.

In a coma and unable to testify for himself, he finds himself implicated as a key player in the crime when he wakes up. Bundled off to prison for the next decade, he braves daily prison-yard attacks and murder attempts, only to escape a day before he is to be granted parole.

“Why would a man escape from prison the day before he’s due to be released?” the book’s cover urges you to find out.

And you do. Ploughing through the 430-odd pages, you uncover Audie’s history and the story behind his shocking, daring escape.

The good news: The earnest writing succeeds in eliciting sympathy for the brave, albeit unfortunate hero.

The bad news: This isn’t a particularly original story and therefore, not one that book lovers will appreciate very highly.

Read this if: You like gentlemanly heroes such as Ryan Gosling’s character in Drive.

by Richa

26

PERSONAL AGENDA

Actor

twitter.com/HTBrunch

Hrithik Roshan

BIRTHDAY SUN SIGN PLACE HOMETOWN SCHOOL/COLLEGE FIRST BREAK Bombay Scottish School Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai (2000) OF BIRTH Mumbai Capricorn

January 10

and Sydenham College

Mumbai

LOW POINT OF

HIGH POINT OF YOUR LIFE

YOUR LIFE The release of Kaho Naa…, my first award, When I look back, I label all the birth of my sons and everything that has happened post my surgery, which has brought my low points as strengths, as I have risen from them out strengths in me I didn’t know existed

Have just launched Rado’s DiaMaster collection and am awaiting the release of my new film Bang Bang

my movies

If not an actor you would have been...

Doing something regarding fitness maybe. Not just physical fitness but mental too.

One dance form you want to learn.

In all weddings, I have noticed that there is always a drunken guy who dances like nobody’s business. He is completely out of rhythm but the joy and masti he exudes is fabulous.

The best thing about being an actor.

CURRENTLY I...

A FILM YOU HAVE WATCHED MORE THAN FIVE TIMES

I have seen all of Jerry Lewis and Sylvester Stallone’s films more than ten times THE MOST OVERRATED FILM

That’s beyond my radar THE MOST PAISA VASOOL FILM

That’s going to be Bang Bang (2014) A MOVIE THAT WAS A PART OF YOUR CHILDHOOD

Dead Poets Society (1989)

THE FIRST MOVIES YOU SAW

Superman (1978) and ET (1982)

One thing nobody knows about you.

I don’t have a good memory for names. But I will always remember the emotion that goes with a face. So, I will know exactly how I have to talk or behave with a particular person.

What sports do you like?

I am doing a lot of gymnastics with my sons. My movies have required me to indulge in some sport or the other.

The last line of your autobiography would read...

I think I have a long time to think about that.

— Interviewed by Veenu Singh

ONE FILM OF YOUR DAD’S THAT YOU LOVE.

Koi Mil Gaya (2003) for sure. Also Karan Arjun (1995)

Photo: SAUMYA KHANDELWAL

It truly challenges every single sense. To make other people feel significant, you have to fill yourself with significance too.

If you are down and low and don’t know how to harness your power and rise, you will not be able to interpret a scene.

Is being a star kid an advantage?

Nothing is an advantage and nothing is a disadvantage. It is what you do in a particular situation that creates you.

How firmly do you believe in this: Zindagi na milegi dobara...

Very firmly. For me ‘zindagi na milegi dobara’ is all about exploring facets of your character, your mindset, your spirit and seeing where it leads you. Life can be such a fantastic adventure if you just don’t allow your mind to hold you back.

What is your style sense like?

I have people to style me, I just have to feel comfortable. So my style sense is to be easy in whatever you wear or whoever you are.

Are you a doting father or a strict one?

A father needs to help in every aspect of a child’s growth.

Where you need love, you also need discipline. I will choose doting first if I have a choice, though.