WEEKLY MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 22, 2013 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times
4
B R E A K FA S T O F C H A M P I O N S
hindustantimes.com/brunch
S OTOGRAPHER H P R O F G IN K O BRUNCH IS LO But only for one issue. Apply NOW!
Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK
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)
We’re back with another issue of the Readers’ Special! Earlier this year, we had asked our readers to write You co about one of nine novice, uld be an amate a DS ur, a topics. The best enpictures LR-encyclopa smartphonetries found a place to Specia , the Brunch Re edia... If you lov ting l is for y in Brunch (on Febe taking aders’ P o u h . Send unpub otogra ruary 3). This time theme lished photo us ONE previo phy : Sund graph we’re doing it with usly based ay. T pretatio photographs, which n. Our o he theme is op on the e n n to inte e-man ju Times’ p could be published in rry, H ho will sele to editor Gurin industan the Brunch Reader’s n d io c at e t rm r th fo O in e is s b th a t e n ou Photography Special. we’ll pu st photos an *Entries with d blish the pted m! Email your entry will not be acce (a
Phot
UST SEND US*: THINGS YOU M tiple otograph (mul sed ■ ONE ph ba ) ed ct je re be entries will ‘Sunday’. e em th e th on long caption and a ■ A short raph og ot ph e th description of u shot it). yo hy w d an (how used. of the camera ■ Details ess, me, age, addr ■ Your na n and a sio es of pr r, phone numbe . u) yo e of selfie (a pictur
Readers ography ’ Spec ial
long with the left) to hindus additional info tantimesbrunch rmation we ha ve asked you fo @gmail.com on r – look or before Sept You can click th ember 24 (Tue e photograph sday) with any devic your smartpho e – a DSLR, an ne, a tablet, or old point-and-s any other sort hoot camera, of camera. All good!
Over the last week, our inbox has been flooded with gorgeous photographs. Two more days to go! Send your entry now. You could be featured in Brunch!
Rules of the Game
Brunch Opinion
by Rachel Lopez
STAND UP AND STOP
Okay, stand-up comics, we’ve heard all your Indian jokes before. Here are the clichés you need to retire “So, what’s with that head-nod thing” Nothing dude, it means chalega. It means yes and no. It’s fine. “So, Apu on The Simpsons...” That show is 20 years old. As is the joke. “So, the Indian kids on the spelling bee...”: N-O-B-O-D-Y C-A-R-E-S “So, your movies have, what 28 songs?” They do. Does your routine have 28 new jokes we can hear? “So, you’re 30 and still live with your mother....”: Yeah, and I had freshly cooked meal today. What did you pull out of the freezer? “So, are, like, all of you in the audience techies or something?”: Yes we are. And we’re taking over your jobs, so suck it. “It took me three hours by plane and four hours in traffic after that”: Yawn. We took four hours to come see you too, and it wasn’t worth it.
On The Brunch Radar
by Saudamini Jain
The frog that photobombed NASA Shiv Visvanathan’s Lalitha effect ■ Ali Fazal (the hottie from Fukrey) gets a cameo in Fast and Furious 7 ■ Nisha Pahuja’s documentary, The World Before Her. Watch the trailer! ■ Fairy Tales for Twenty-Somethings to be a book: Alice in Tumblr-land: And Other Fairy Tales for a New Generation by Tim Manley
SHOVE IT
■ ■
LOVE IT
That Raghuram Rajan brought the “sex back to sensex”. What the…? ■ If Bieber plays Robin in Man of Steel 2 ■ Whatshername singing Happy Birthday for NaMo (DON’T name the inspiration) ■ When your life resembles a sitcom ■ The putrid blend of racism and and geographical oblivion when Indian-American Nina Davuluri became Miss America ■
The Bollywood screen mommy is just as epic as her offspring. Her unending love for her beta and his unwavering loyalty to his ma is the stuff that wonderfully memorable dialogues are made of (it’s also what real life is made of; all desi boys are mummy’s boys). Aur agar tumne ma ka doodh peeya hai, then go try some of these on your mom! EST Dee U O R MOTHER’S PATIENCE NG wa Y Vijay: Aaj mere paas gadi r NG TI Birju: Tu mujhe OMM M hai, bangla hai, paisa Y Prem: Ye fark M Y nahin maar sakti. Tu hai…tumhaare paas kya hai?
by Shaoli Rudra
TENSE MA WAL , IN I AD
STALKER-ISH MUM Rahul: *must wag finger* Aeh Ma…mere aane se pehle tumhe hamesha kaise pata chal jaata hai?
Vijay: Jisne pachchees saal se apni ma ko thoda thoda marte dekha ho, use maut se kya darr? Salim: Woh aapka doodh jo khoon bankar meri raghon mein ji raha hai, kahiye toh woh sab aapki kadmon mein baha doon. Mu gha l-E-Azam, 1960
Drop us a line at:
brunchletters@ hindustantimes.com or to 18-20 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001
Mummy: Tu ek din jaroor hero banega, mere raja! Ye mera dil kehta hai…ek ma ka dil! Om Prakash Makhija: Arre bhaad mein gaya ‘ma ka dil’, ma! Kyunki iss naam ke saath iss janam mein toh main hero nahin ban sakta. Bas junior artist ki naukri karte karte mar jaoonga main! an Om Sh
m, 2007
THE
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor, Design), Monica Gupta, Swati Chakrabarti, Payal Dighe Karkhanis, Rakesh Kumar, Ajay Aggarwal
7
EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Aasheesh Sharma, Rachel Lopez, Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi, Mignonne Dsouza, Veenu Singh, Parul Khanna, Yashica Dutt, Amrah Ashraf, Saudamini Jain, Shreya Sethuraman
Bharat: Zameen toh ma hoti hai... aur ma ke tukde nahi kiye jaate. Upk ar, 1967
, 199
TH
Bor Captain d Bhairon Singh: Hum to kisi ki dharti par nazar tak nahi daalte! Par itne nalayak bacche bhi nahi hai saabji, ki koi hamari dharti ma par nazar daale aur hum chup-chaap dekhte rahe.
AT
er
Dostana, 2008
Sam: Ma….. Ma: *SLAP SLAP SLAP* Na main tujhe itni chhoot deti…na tu aisi galtiyaan karta… (pyar) itna andhaa bhi nahin hota ki ladka aur ladki mein farak hi na dikhai de! Sam: Maaa... meri baat toh sun lo, maaaa
N DIA FEEL ER I ING TH O M
THE USU AL
SU
SPECTS “Ma mujh e “Ma, tum aashirwad do” h aaj BA FIRaare aashirwaad se ST class gaya!” mein pass main ho “Ma mujh e villain’s n teri kasam…main a (i badla loo me) se pitaji ke kh nsert nga” oon ka
ti O
S
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, 2001
MUMMY, I’M GAY!
Cover design: SWATI CHAKRABARTI Cover illustrations: SIDDHANTH JUMDE based on photography by SATISH BATE and SANJEEV VERMA
BL
IT ALL ON MA
E LIN
A CR
ING AM
, 1978 hul ris
T
ZY
Ku
7
195 Mot her India,
Guru: Ravi: Mere paas ma hai! Yahi toh tamanna thi ki mujhe bhi maarne wali koi ma ho, jo daant kar mujhe chaanta maare aur ro kar mujhe seene se laga de. Itne badnaseeb hai woh log, ma, jinhe ma ka pyaar nahin milta.
nahin toh aur kya hai, ma? Sautelapan Vivek bhaiyya ne nahin, tumne nibhaya hai! Mamta: *SLAP* a Hu m Sa Saat h H a th
in, 1999 an a Mah , 1983
TES
meri ma hai! Radha: Mein pehle ek aurat hoon. *BOOM*
ch Hota Hai, 1998
Rahul: Ma woh hai jo humko itna pyaar karti hai ki kabhi kabhi hum khud uss pyaar ko samajh nahin paate hai. Ma woh hai jo humko ehsaas dilati hai ki hum kitne acche hai… ki humse accha koi nahin. Ma woh hai jiski khushi humari hansi se hai, jiska dukh humare dukh se hai. Ma woh hai jiske bina hum ji nahin sakte. Ma sab h Kuc kuch hai.
SPECIAL MENTION
just because it’s such an epic line…so what if the mummy says it?
“Mere Karan Arjun Aayenge!” Karan Arjun, 1995
FOR ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT National — Sanchita Tyagi: sanchita.tyagi@hindustantimes.com North — Siddarth Chopra: siddarth.chopra@hindustantimes.com West — Karishma Makhija: karishma.makhija@hindustantimes.com South — Francisco Lobo: francisco.lobo@hindustantimes.com
75
E MAAAA FIN .( DE
RKS) MA
, 19
10
ST RO
MUM’S THE WORD
B R U N C H D AT E
facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch
MEMORIES CAME RUSHING WITH THE RAIN
Meet The Bandhgala Boy
Texting On Stone: As a young boy, I would spend a lot of time with my grandmother, who frequently sat in the zenana with a large paandaan, along with the other ladies of the house. They were always surrounded by the ittar wala, sari wala or someone else with wares. I’d often see a guy come running
design students later.
You love electronics and pursued robotics before design. How do science and design come together? Photo: RAJ K RAJ, Location courtesy: SMOKE HOUSE DELI, KHAN MARKET
6
The ambassador of the Jodhpur jacket, Raghavendra Rathore is also royalty who scraped paint to sustain himself through college by Yashica Dutt
H
E IS ONE of the few good men of Indian fashion: respectful, courteous and ever so polite. His big eyes embody an innate, dignified sense of calm, which often finds its way into his clothes. Raghavendra Rathore, who recently returned to the ramp with the India Bridal Fashion Week after three years, met us for lunch on a beautiful, rainy afternoon at the Smoke House Deli at Khan Market. Over smoked chicken, cheese burgers and not-so-innocent mojitos, he revealed how he put himself through Parsons The New School of Design, New York (selling a $300 car for $7,000 by fixing it himself). And how his early childhood spent in the zenana section of his ancestral palace in Jodhpur gave him the sense of colour and appreciation for the finer things in life.
After completing 25 years in the industry, like many of your peers, how
much has Indian fashion changed?
From being just a hobby, it’s become an industry, which is moving in the right direction. The same happened in Paris and New York about 20-30 years ago. Today, fashion is only accessed through boutiques and specific outlets but once retail gets organised and designers are able to reach 150 or more stores in the country, their brand strength will become visible.
How do you see brand Raghavendra Rathore, mostly synonymous with bandhgalas, that you even patented?
The brand aims to fill up the space which has a value of heritage and some sense of pride. Our clothes aren’t revolutionary or fashionable. They stem from the traditional wardrobe that once existed and to take ownership of that genre was important for us. We are all about being classic. We patented our unique style of tailoring, so it can act as an accurate reference for
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
My passion still lies with gadgets and electronics. If you give me a task, I approach it from a technical point of view, which helps with design because I know what’s inside the gadget. Like with Apple, Steve Jobs managed to radically change the surface of the product based on its inside. It’s crucial to understand the bone structure so you can repair the skin. Science gives you a logical approach to thinking. Leonardo Da Vinci was a scientist and an artist, who used the art of science and art of design to create most desirable products. Even Anish Kapoor uses science intensively in his works of design.
Your went to Mayo, Ajmer, after your school got bombed. How did that experience change you?
with a covered slate in his hand. It would contain messages from my grandfather, which my grandmother would read and then respond to on the same slate. The messenger would keep running back and forth all day, carrying these messages like SMSes. It’s still one of my most vivid memories.
anything. So my approach became more ad hoc and spontaneous. It also made me realise that everything has a shelf life. If you have an idea and you don’t execute it, it will expire, if you don’t care for loved ones in your family, then they’ll soon disappear.
Before studying in the US, you had mostly lived in Rajasthan. How was New York in the ’80s different from Jodhpur in the ’80s? And how did working at Oscar De La Renta and DKNY change you as a designer?
There was an excess of everything. Back then we didn’t have STD booths in Jodhpur. We used to place a trunk call and the operator would hand the phone to you at eight in the evening. So, it was a bit of a culture shock. But it was a really honest place and very grid oriented and I fit in really well there because of my technical abilities. New York was very dangerous in those days with people getting mugged all the time and the atmosphere was very unsafe. In fact my design college, Parsons, was located on 5th Avenue, which was a hellhole back then. But my interactions with this other New York didn’t happen so much. I got a great job with (Oscar) De La Renta immediately, which showed me how fashion is about people. His emphasis on who sat in the front row during shows was huge and the plan was drawn like an army battle plan. I was assisting the clothing designer then and one of my jobs among others was to bring the celebrities from the reception to the studio before the show. And I met everyone from Carla Bruni to Jackie O, you name it, they were there. yashica.dutt@hindustantimes.com Follow @YashicaDutt on twitter
His latest collection brought finely tailored men’s clothes back in fashion
It was during the IndoPak war in 1971 and I was four or five at that time. I remember standing on our roof in Jodhpur and seeing my school go up in flames. Around 105 bombs were dropped that night. Soon after, I was sent to study in a boarding school (Mayo), which gave not only an incredible assessment of my own skills and strengths but also shaped my character and gave me an understanding of the India I was going to grow up in. It was the best judgment system to see where you stood in the competitive arena of life. That incident showed me early about how insecurities can be created overnight. That nothing is done by the book and you have no control over
8
B R AT PA C K
twitter.com/HTBrunch
Why Daddy Can’t Be Your Buddy
As a parent, there must be a power differential with your children
by Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi
D
ad, pass the ball!” hollers a teenager as he misses the catch and it bounces to the other side of the apartment complex. “Come and get it, beta,” says the father, while chilling with his own friends over cans of beer. “What the f*#%, dad? Why can’t you just throw it?” shouts the teenager irritably from the other side of the ground. “Okay, don’t get bugged. You kids have no stamina,” laughs the father as he throws the ball back. Just another day in the lives of new age urban parents. “It’s cool to be friends with our kids. Talk their language and be one of them,” says architect Arun Bakshi, father of an 11-yearold boy.
need to adhere to the “cool” definitions of their kids to be accepted.
WATCH IT, DUDE!
Host of the parenting TV series, The Tara Sharma Show, Tara Sharma says the idea of being friends with your kids might be brilliant in theory, but it needs close monitoring in practice. “There is no defined line. So obviously, going overboard is a huge possibility,” she says. Sharma feels it may be a good idea to be a little more “chilled out” with your children. But there has to be a certain non-negotiable code of conduct for the child at home and outside.
Many children say they find over-friendly parents quite embarrassing
WE ARE FRIENDS!
This sentiment, popular with many parents, to be friends with their kids, seems to be going beyond ‘friending’ their kids on Facebook or following them on Twitter. Today’s parents hang out with their teens, watch the same Twilight films, dress in the same skinny jeans, dance to Lady Gaga numbers and even go clubbing with them. While all this may appear extremely cool, experts call it treading dangerous waters. “I don’t think it has anything to do with being cool. In fact, if you ask most of the kids, they find their parents’ friendly attitude rather embarrassing,” says Delhi-based child and adolescent psychologist Dr Animesh Dey. The urgency to be “in their kids’ clique” stems from a need to be appreciated by the child, adds Dr Dey. The parents tend to feel that since they are from a different generation, they
IT’S A CRUEL, CRUEL WORLD
Till a decade back, the rules of parenting were governed by what one saw and learnt from our parents. But now, the Internet, celebrity lifestyles, innumerable books (of uneven quality) and just a lot of hearsay and peer pressure
is what influences our approach to parenting. “It no longer is how ‘I’ was brought up. It is how ‘so and so’ is bringing up their kid. And how popular is the other’s child even if he seems an overtly smartalecky, brash teenager with little sense of propriety,” says Delhi University sociologist Naintara Mehta. So even as experts feel it is progressive to move with the times, it is necessary to do some filtering. “This depends on your upbringing,” says Tara Sharma.
1
3
4 SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
NEW RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
DON’T REALLY BE A BUDDY When parents try to become a friend to the child and forget that someone has to be in charge of the family, the situation degenerates into chaos. It makes the kid feel uneasy. Don’t try to be a buddy. Be an understanding parent. HEAR THEM OUT Put down the iPhone, close the laptop, stop multi-tasking and listen very carefully to what is and isn’t being said by your child. It may not be the most intelligent conversation, but it makes the child feel that he/she is being heard. DON’T BE CONDESCENDING Don’t talk down to them. Children being younger than adults anyway are defensive at the outset of a discussion. When patronising language is added to this, it infuriates them. Respect a child’s intelligence. Also, please mind your language when with them. They learn what they see and hear. TALK YOUR AGE Children are sharp and whenever they hear someone misusing hip slang, they assume that the person is either pretending to be hip or lying to them. It’s tough to keep up with the nuances in presentday kids’ slang and trying to “talk their language” does nothing but erode respect.
2
Photo: IMAGEDB
She adds, “Gone are the days of parents whose mere presence in the room could send shivers down the spine. So don’t do that. But ensure you don’t let go too much. You should never be at the same level as your kid. You need to maintain a power differential!”
5
DRAW THE LINES In spite of what they say, children want and need limits and they need parents who are consistent in enforcement. Whether it is bedtimes, television or video games or curfews for teenagers, reasonable rules that are understood by all parties give children a comfort zone. DON’T COMPARE KIDS To friends, siblings, anybody! No two people are exactly alike in talent, size, mood or intelligence. A parent who says, “Why can’t you be more like (pick a sibling or some goody-two-shoes friend)?” is disrespecting the uniqueness of the child. Don’t ever do it. DON’T SAY, “WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE” Children know that whatever went on decades ago, is largely irrelevant now. In that sense, they are logical. When a child hears the words “when I was your age,” he/she immediately knows whatever words follow will have little or no relation to the world in which they live now. BE NICE, IT HELPS This holds true not just for kids but for you, too. Don’t be mean to your children or to others. Your kids are watching you.
6 7
8
tavishi.rastogi@hindustantimes.com
10
C OV E R STO RY
With new comics, new platforms, new audiences and new money pumping into comedy, India’s laughing stock is full and overflowing. See how your world is getting funnier by Amrah Ashraf
Illustrations: SHUTTERSTOCK
AVE YOU seen the number of people who fight to sit in the first row of a stand-up night just so that they can be picked on?” Tom Course, director of creative and technical and programming at Mumbai’s Canvas Laugh Factory, can’t keep the amazement out of his voice. “We get phone calls from people requesting to be made fun of. Who would’ve thought? India does have a sense of humour!” It’s been less than a decade since the big explosion in Indian comedy (TV shows, international stand-up acts, local artists and social media) happened but already the quiet chuckle has grown into a full-throated LOL. The Canvas Factory audiences, once shy of being heckled, now actively seek out chances to be ridiculed. India is testing its funny bone online, live, in music and on TV. Open-mic nights are full of budding comics testing their material. “It’s the new cool thing,” states Daniel Fernandes, stand-up comedian and founder of the comedy production house Microphone Entertainment. “Earlier, being in a band was the cool thing to do. Now, it’s being a comedian.” Such is our appetite for humour that two weeks ago, Google directed YouTube to start a Comedy Week especially for India. Between September 5 and 12, a channel streamed hilarious compilations of the best Indian comedy: movie clips, stand-up highlights, scenes from TV, regional-language humour and just in case you’d laughed at it before, new videos too. “Seven out
of 10 searches on the site are for comedy content,” says Sandeep Menon, director marketing, Google India. “It made sense to curate some of the best comedy content for audiences. We just want to make India laugh more.”
Not that we need the push. Apparently everything’s making us laugh now. Fernandes says people have grown past slapstick and mimicry. “Today, the audience laughs at stuff they can relate to. They want someone to say ‘My boss sucks’ or ‘My folks need a life’.” We laugh at things that worry us (surely you’ve seen the NaMo-Onam tweets when NaMo for PM began trending). We laugh at things that piss us off (heard the one about Sreesanth and the towels?).We laugh at things that make us sad (rising onion prices have spawned slogans like “Gift your fiancee an onion instead of a sapphire”). We laugh at things that make us happy (Dhoni for PM after he won us the World Cup and the Champions Trophy). We’re also laughing hardest about sex, which is understandable, seeing as we’re not talking about it.
We’re willing to laugh at ourselves a lot more too. “We love aping the West and they have managed to teach us some tolerance,” says Arunav Sengupta, founder of The Viral Fever, whose original comedy content for the Web has fans in Bollywood. “People have been drip-fed on Bill
Hicks, Russell Peters, Comedy Central and Saturday Night Live. Not only do they want to create content like that, the audience learns to laugh like them as well.” In stand-up, banal Delhi versus Bombay gags, regional stereotyping and gender bashing is old hat, for both performer and viewer. “Stand-up has become a lot more news-driven,” Fernandes says. “For instance, when I learnt that the maximum number of tourists in Goa are Gujaratis, I was shocked. So I created a whole set around it.” And comics are bandying together for maximum humorous effect. All India Bakchod (Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba) do an entire sketch about sex. East India Comedy’s show, Comedy News Network, parodies Indian news shows. Vir Das’ Weirdass Company band, Alien Chutney, does musicals.
“Three years ago, you wouldn’t have been able to pay your bills from club shows alone. Comedy was a hobby,” says Fernandes. “Today stand-up is a legitimate profession.” But there’s a catch. Before you can make a couple of lakhs for a show, you need to be a viable comic and that takes time and effort (oh, and you need to be consistently funny). “If you can do a 30-minute or more set to an auditorium full of uncles, aunties, grandpas and yuppies, then you get to make the bucks,” Fernandes points out. “If you can keep them hooked for so long, you deserve it!” amrah.ashraf@hindustantimes.com Follow Amrah Ashraf on Twitter @hippyhu
S ’ O H W K O LO ! w o n y n n u f
Photo: SATISH BATE
Because the extempore specialist has never learnt a joke in his life. Because he can take digs at KJo and get away with it. Because SRK thinks he’s funny. Because we like a pretty face that can also make us laugh. anish Paul, madcap host of the last two seasons of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and several TV award ceremonies, is making us crack up
A teacher who’s also a stand-up comedian. She is also 477th in the line for the Mittal steel fortune. So be nice.
Because she reminds us of Tina Fey and Kirsten Wiig. Because Kajol, Sonam Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and Manish Malhotra have been the butt of her jokes and they still love her. t’s fashionable for people to say that Indians are
funny.” But he is careful, even on an impromptu set. “It’s easy to be rude and offend people in the guise of good humour. But I keep a check on my lines. Because what I think is funny might hurt someone.” Does that mean Indians are still incapable of taking a joke? “That’s rubbish!” he exclaims. “Indians love to laugh. We laugh at almost everything. But comedy does not give you the license to humiliate.” Still, his digs at Karan Johar are pretty audacious; no fumble is left un-lampooned. “There are two reasons I get away with it. One, Karan knows I’d never say something that would leave him redfaced on TV,” says Paul. “Two, when I pick on someone (in good humour of course), I also pick on myself. Balancing the funnies is serious business.”
L U A P H S I MANOST & ACTOR TV H
very prudish and don’t like to laugh. I don’t believe that at all,” says Aditi Mittal. “They love to laugh. Just don’t make them feel like they are a part of the problem. We love to point at the other dude.” Mittal or her oft-deployed alterego Dr Mrs Lutchuke (an elderly Maharashtrian sex-specialist!) is known for her straight-faced humour. Mrs Lutchuke speaks in a Marathi accent and asks men to not treat women “like radio-knobs” during foreplay. “We are so closemouthed about sex. At at least this way, I get to probe people in the least offensive manner,” she says. Mittal believes that while Indians are laughers, not all
l L A T T I M I T I D A IAnN MeEdDia pP cCoOm
StTaAnNdD-uU
Photo: MICKEY VIRUS
A typical Delhiite who wouldn’t let the lady pay, loves puns, hates sexist jokes and once got his mother to write ‘Mard’ on his chest because he loved Amitabh Bachchan.
with his off-the-cuff punchlines. But he doesn’t think he’s funny. “People often ask me how I come up with witty one-liners and I say ‘I don’t know’ because I really don’t know,” he says. “My wit is observational. I like asking questions and my questions are so damn stupid, people are forced to laugh.” Those wry observations and silly questions have changed TV hosting. Paul is known for ditching the script and going extempore: “Jhalak’s scriptwriter, Siddharth Dey has given up. He knows the script is just a floor map for me. I’ll pick on people’s mannerisms, clothes or one wrong step and take off. Mechanical hosting is passé. Even audiences don’t find it
11
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
our mirth comes from being amused. “We laugh when we’re nervous, clueless, embarrassed or bored. Sometime we laugh because everyone else is laughing,” she says. Mittal once did a short set about Sonam Kapoor while Kapoor was in the audience. “I called her an ostrich. But she just sat there, laughed loudly,” she says. “It could’ve been any kind of laughter – embarrassed or nervous – but she laughed. That’s kind of where India is today. We can take a joke.” Still, she tweaks her material to her crowd: “You can’t make a sanitary napkin joke in front of 50 male CEOs. It’s just going to make them uncomfortable.” But she’s out there talking about taboos just the same. “Taking a dig at censorship is my favourite thing. People love it.”
12
C OV E R STO RY
A lonely advertising guy who’s scared of crowds.
Photo: HT PHOTO
His tweets have pissed off Deepak Chopra, Sonam Kapoor, Sreesanth and Tusshar Kapoor. But his 20,000 followers are amused. ave we finally learnt to laugh at ourselves? Of course not,” says Srinivas Rao aka @14_yr_old_Etard. “Try joking about our million Gods or Bharatiya sanskriti.” It’s all pretty hypocritical, he finds. “We
o a R s a v i n i r S on Twitter,
Funny guy d_Etard @14_yr_ol
Because last year, he wrote a post called ‘I thought Clitoris was a Greek God’. Because if you are a married man, you have to read his Husband series. And if you're south Indian, read his Life In North India posts. was not a popular kid. I’d spend sleepless nights wondering why my classic Dravidian looks, complete with greasy hair, were not charming the girls,” says Rajan who prefers to be called Jammy. “All the ajjis and
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
won’t laugh at certain things because deep down inside we feel our culture requires us to be offended instead.” Rao’s style can be summed up in a popular tweet: “Sarcasm is like electricity; half the villages in India are yet to get it.” And he understands that comic progress, like India’s development, is slow-moving. “We have only recently learnt to laugh,” he says. “But at least we are laughing more than our parents.” His tweets draw from the everyday and the everything. “Seventy per cent of them come from simply paying too much attention to the least interesting parts of my life.” Rao once tweeted about how unfair it is that beggars at traffic signals ignore two-wheelers to peep into cars with tinted glass. “That’s so classist of them!” he’d said, turning our social hierarchy on its head. “I joke about my vulnerabilities. I think it makes people forget their own issues and laugh at me.”
see the humour. And if he can laugh at me, he will.” But what truly inspires him is India, its idiosyncrasies, moods, regions, people on railway stations and “the crazy peeps”. “India is your best subject and your best audience,” says the writer who’s lived in Canada and London. “We laugh at every Sardar joke, gender stereotype and profanity. Cackling is second nature to Indians.” But we should be bolder than we are, he thinks. “Now anyone can take jibes anonymously on Twitter or blogs. Even when a comedian takes a jibe at Sharad Pawar, he knows social media is backing him.”
Rao has all the makings of a standup comedian, except the desire to be one. He finds it too daunting to face an audience. “Just because you know how to swim, doesn’t mean you have to cross the English Channel,” he says. “If you make a bad joke on stage, your audience can boo you off and your career is pretty much over. But on Twitter, a bad joke is quickly forgotten. Plus, you always have the choice of being anonymous.” He loves his anonymity. He even put up a fuss to get photographed for this story (we convinced him, of course) and he refuses to reveal how old he is: “Believe me, I’m 14.” He’s not!
n a j a R V d Jamgsghere, Ouch My Toe Blo
ion of For the evolut wood, comedy in Bolly turn to page 24
Photo: SANJEEV VERMA
A corporate guy who’s made a running joke of his life and his conversations with his wife.
ammas loved how slick my hair was!” Eventually, Jammy figured that his Tam-Bram charm could be applied to a younger demographic with more romantic results, and started a blog. Ouch My Toe mines, exaggerates and twists reality to make a joke. He recently had a blog post about ice after sipping on his whiskey. He wrote that ice has no will to live, no motivation at all. As a bachelor, his umpteen failed attempts with women were more tragic than comic. Now married, his everyday banter with his wife offers great fodder for humour. “A couple of days ago, I asked my wife why she didn’t kiss me before leaving for work,” he says. “She said the last time you asked me that, we had a son.” Jammy believes this is what makes his blog popular. “The moment the reader can relate to my life, he will
hindustantimes.com/brunch
14
WELLNESS
MIND BODY SOUL For any worries related to unplanned pregnancy: 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
1. My pregnancy test was positive and we do not want to have this baby right now. Please suggest what we can do to abort the baby without being hospitalized. Please help us as we are very anxious. An unplanned pregnancy can upset your whole life. It is important that you remain calm now. If the pregnancy is in the early stages, then it can be terminated with the help of pills. This procedure requires you to go to a gynecologist, but does not need hospitalization. Do not take any step without doctor's supervision, as unsupervised abortion can be life-threatening and may affect future pregnancy chances. In future, ensure that you use protection such as condoms while having sex or use contraceptive pills as advised by your gynaecologist. Also, in such situations, the support of your partner is important. Talk to him and enroll him to support you through this situation. 2. Dear Doctor, my periods are delayed by few days this month. Last month I had unprotected sex with my husband on 9th day of cycle which is my safe day. Do you think I should have taken an ECP? Is there anything for me to worry or it is normal to have delayed periods? Firstly, you need to know that not using contraception because you feel it is a 'safe day' of the cycle is very risky. You can easily miscalculate the safe days since they keep varying month to month. Simple factors such as
stress, working in shifts or traveling, can cause your safe days to shift putting you at risk of pregnancy in case of unprotected intercourse. The current delay in your period can also be due to several lifestyle related factors. I suggest you wait till seven days have passed from your period due date. If you do not get your period by then, conduct a pregnancy test. In case, you get a positive result, please consult a gynecologist. Always remember to have protected sex. In case if you have unprotected or unplanned sex inadvertently, then taking an emergency contraceptive pill within 72 hours of unprotected sex can help you prevent a pregnancy. However, do note that emergency contraceptive pill should be used only in emergency. 3. Dear Doctor, my girlfriend and I indulged in unprotected sex and later she took an emergency contraceptive pill. After few days of taking it she is complaining about suffering from cold and cough and she says she feels asthmatic. Is it a side effect of the pill? Emergency contraceptive pills are not known to cause severe respiratory disturbances. The side effects of emergency contraceptive pills typically are nausea, headache, abdominal pain and temporarily disturbed menstrual cycle. Your girlfriend’s cold and cough could be due to other reasons such as change in weather or some infection. Suggest you to please consult a doctor for this immediately.
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:
SHIKHA SHARMA
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
PART TWO
How you nibble and what you keep on your plate is a mirror to your personality
T
HESE EATING patterns are linked to personality types and are easy to spot.
INDISCRIMINATE EATERS This personality type is constantly munching. He or she likes to eat out of boredom or just to distract the mind. Many indiscriminate eaters are rushed for time, overwhelmed by life and addicted to convenience. In such personalities, emotions like boredom and fear can function as triggers. Junk food is the comfort food they seek in stressful conditions. EXPERIMENTAL EATERS They’re excited about sampling different cuisines, will do well in creative positions because they are willing to go against the grain. Such people can be passionate and take risks. The drawback is that when they get busy – taking care of others or get professionally occupied – they might neglect their own needs and just eat whatever happens to be available.
SMALL SERVINGS ONLY
Those who eat in small portions are task-oriented
FRUGAL EATERS Those who prefer few flavours on the plate are likely to be taskoriented and methodical in their approach. But they are less flexible when it comes to deviating from what they are used to.
THE GRAZERS They always carry a small pack of snacks along. They are the first to get full. Even as others are finishing appetisers and looking at the main course, they’ll announce they can’t eat anymore. Such people are usually gifted communicators. Many grazers have a sweet tooth but they tend to EVERYTHING GOES Those who mix and consume sweets only in match foods could have small quantities.
SLOW EATERS Those who dine slowly prefer the comfort of routine. They make it a point trouble prioritising of savouring each ONE-BIG-MEAL EATERS morsel, indicating that they make Such people usually skip breakthe most of every experience. fast and binge on coffee, sugary They are more likely to listen to biscuits and unhealthy snacks. their body signals earlier than Their hunger levels go up dramatiothers. cally after 4pm. Then they eat whatever is available. They may FAST EATERS lose their temper when they don’t Those who finish food before see others as passionate about everyone else tend to put other work as they are. things before themselves. But ask@drshikha.com they excel at finishing projects. (THE SERIES IS CONCLUDED) MIX-AND-MATCH EATERS MINDLESS People who mix more than one EATERS type of food can take on a great They look at junk deal of responsibility, but might food as comfort food have trouble prioritising. He or in stress she could have trouble concentrating on a task. Photos: THINKSTOCK
MORE ON THE WEB
For more columns by Dr Shikha Sharma and other wellness stories, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
18
indulge
facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch
LONDON’S IN TOWN
With San Lorenzo opening its first overseas outpost in Bombay, a slice of London history has been transplanted to India. But it’s not the only London restaurant that has an outlet here
M
ANY PEOPLE regard London as the gastronomic capital of the world. I love many London restaurants but I think New York has a stronger claim to that title. When you go to a New York restaurant you feel like you are in New York, eating with real new Yorkers. But London has become two cities. There’s the real London and then there’s a make-believe London full of the world’s rich, a dismal collection of tax-exiles, tourists and expatriates. This London is the world’s most expensive theme park with hideously overpriced shops and rubbish restaurants that cater to Euro-trash and eagerly seek Russian cash. There was a different London once. When I was growing up there, the Swinging Sixties were just ending and the world’s billionaires were still restricting themselves to Beirut, Gstaad,
Vir Sanghvi
rude food
Cote d’Azur. So London was fresh and vibrant with all the energy of a city that had just learned how to break free from the shackles of the British class system. The reigning cuisine was Italian or perhaps, Brit-Italian. For decades, dining out in London had involved expensive meals in formal restaurants that served over-elaborate French cuisine. But even in the Fifties, when men still had to wear ties to restaurants and women were not allowed in if they wore trousers, the waiters at these restaurants were nearly always Italian. The change began when the Italian waiters rebelled against their employers, threw off their formal uniforms and opened casual restaurants serving the sort of Italian food Brits had never tried before. The pioneers were a couple of former waiters called Mario Cassandro and Franco Lagattolla who opened what must have been the most influential British restaurant of the 20th century, La Terrazza. Mario and Franco revolutionised British dining and their empire soon expanded to include many restaurants (Trattoo, Tiberio etc). Then, their waiters started their own restaurants. Alvaro Maccioni started Alvaro, Aretusa and eventually La Famiglia, Mario Paggetti started Mr Chow and then Signor Sassi and Scalini. Sandro Tobi started Sale e Pepe and Sandrini. Many of these restaurants still flourish today but none ever became as successful as San Lorenzo. The restaurant was opened by Lorenzo Berni, a former steward on cruise lines who had later become the manager of the La Taverna Spaghetti Garden restaurant. His wife Mara worked in the original Pizza Express. Lorenzo and Mara opened San Lorenzo in Beauchamp Place, with wipe-clean plastic tablecloths, waiters with no uniforms and northern Italian cooking from Mara’s native Piedmont. At first, only visiting Italians came, including such film directors as Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Luchino Visconti. But when Sophia Loren dropped in the place acquired a certain cachet. Peter Sellers brought Princess Margaret and by the Seventies San Lorenzo was the preserve of a set of well-connected Brits, jet-set celebrities and royalty. Integral to its appeal was the informality. Mara would hug and kiss regulars and it became the one place in London where high-profile people could relax. San Lorenzo should have been finished by the Eighties but the Bernis were able to attract a new generation of celebrities. The key of their continuing success was Mara’s friendship with Princess Diana who became a regular. The gossip columns speculated that Diana would meet her lovers in Mara’s apartment but these stories were never confirmed. The rejuvenated San Lorenzo continued to attract crowds because, in some senses, it never moved with the times. Mara was still there to greet guests. The restaurant accepted no credit cards. And though the waiter-led Italian restaurants of old had been
OLD WORLD CHARM
It’s nice to think that with San Lorenzo, the spirit of Sixties London is alive, well and living in Bandra SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
19
SETTING HIGH STANDARDS
Yauatcha, the dim sum house which earned a Michelin star, has been successfully cloned in Bombay’s Bandra-Kurla complex replaced in London by trendy chef-driven places such as the River Café, San Lorenzo kept its regulars. Mara died a few years ago so I was intrigued when I heard that San Lorenzo would open its first overseas outpost at the Taj Land’s End in Bombay. I ate there twice last week and though I was nostalgic for such old favourites of the original San Lorenzo such as the Bagna Cauda and wished they had not destroyed the Escalope Milanese by making it with chicken, it was still nice to think that the spirit of Sixties London was alive and well and living in Bandra. My only suggestion is that they make it less Taj and more San Lorenzo. I would love more informal service and a more casual atmosphere. At any rate, you should go and try it. San Lorenzo is a slice of living history transplanted to a new country. These days, of course, London restaurants tend to be more high gloss. Richard Caring has taken The Ivy and Le Caprice around the world. Zuma is a global brand. And Hakkasan flourishes in Bombay as a glamorous place for the partying rich. My favourite of the Hakkasan Group restaurants has always been Yauatcha, the dim sum house which earned a Michelin star and has been successfully cloned in Bombay’s BandraKurla complex. (A Bangalore branch opens soon and Delhi is next.) But a stone’s throw from the original Yauatcha in London is Ping Pong on Great Marlborough Street. I’ve never been there but because I sometimes stay at the Courthouse Hotel opposite it, I’ve been struck by the queues outside the door on Saturday night. As Ping Pong also does dim sum, why don’t people just go to Yauatcha a short distance away, I have wondered. Friends in the restaurant business explained it to me. While Yauatcha aims for Michelin starquality dim sums, Ping Pong is cheap and cheerful. The dim sums are made in a central commissary somewhere (Taiwan? Who knows?), frozen and then sent to Ping Pong branches everywhere. All the chef has to do is to microwave the damn things and they are ready in minutes. Now, Ping Pong has opened its first Indian branch. Once again, it is a stone’s throw from Yauatcha in Bombay’s Bandra Kurla. And it serves more or less the same menu as Yauatcha. The comparisons are inevitable. But in terms of ambience and concept, it struck me as being less like Yauatcha and more like the Taiwanese Din Tai Fung dim sum chain with a décor that channelled the
first Hakkasan in Hanway Place. The restaurant was large but service was efficient, with Dennis Chelai Wu, formerly of the Grand Hyatt, effortlessly running the show. The food, though, was another matter. I ordered the chilly squid, a chicken bun, a chicken puff and seafood siu mai. All of it was pretty dismal and yes, it had been made in another country, many many days ago, frozen and then shipped to Bombay. I don’t know if the restaurant has a chef but I guess a large oven is all it needs. Still, the room was nearly full and people were enjoying themselves. So I guess there is a market that doesn’t care about cuisine. But, just to be sure, I wandered across to Yauatcha and ordered exactly the same menu. This time the food was freshly made and as for quality, there was simply no comparison. The surprise, though, was in the pricing. The chicken bun was the same price at both Yauatcha and Ping Pong (`275). Yauatcha did not do a seafood siu mai but the nearest equivalent, the chicken and prawn siu mai was `295 to Ping Pong’s `350 for the seafood siu mai. The chicken puff at Ping Pong was `352 while at Yauatcha it was `270. Even allowing for variations in portion size, Ping Pong is roughly the same price as Yauatcha. Why do they need to charge so much money for frozen ready-meals? Perhaps their microwave is very expensive. That leaves one other London restaurant. Ciro’s Pomodoro has opened in Delhi’s Greater Kailash. I went for lunch last week and the room was empty except for one table where a guy was talking on the phone. The waiting staff spoke no English which is fine by me, but may be a mistake if Ciro’s wants to sell itself as a London brand. Eventually, the guy who was on the phone got up. He turned out to be the manager. He asked if we were okay, returned to his table and resumed making his calls. While I waited for my pizza, I looked around the deserted room. The main point of decoration appeared to be scores of photos of a little guy with a gap-toothed smile posing with various celebrities. I assume this was the eponymous Ciro but the overall effect was as though a midget had broken into a lesser-known branch of Madame Tussauds and posed with every wax figure he could find. The pizza, when it came, was okay, no better or no worse than something ordered from Pizza Hut. But nobody I know will pay over a thousand rupees for a mushroom pizza and two Diet Cokes in an empty restaurant. Unless, of course, they are fans of Madame Tussauds.
The pizza at Ciro in Delhi was okay, no better or no worse than something ordered from Pizza Hut
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
THE PIONEERS
A couple of former waiters, Mario Cassandro (below left) and Franco Lagattolla (below right) opened what must have been the most influential British restaurant of the 20th century, La Terrazza (above)
Photos: GETTY IMAGES
LUCKY BOND
The key to San Lorenzo’s continuing success was Mara’s (the owner’s wife) friendship with Princess Diana, who became a regular
MORE ON THE WEB
For more columns by Vir Sanghvi, log on to hindustantimes. com/brunch
20
indulge
THE SHOW MUST GO ON…
What is it about Indians that we are never ready or willing to retire?
Photos: GETTY IMAGES
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner at the next Presidential poll, is said to be past the age of being a player. She will be 69 in 2016
Neither Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (left), 80, nor L K Advani (far left), 85, are ready to walk into the sunset yet
that this is not just about politics in particular but about our character in general. There seems to be something about the Indian psyche that just cannot contemplate the VER THE last few decades, thought of retirement. politics has become a young Take our cricket stars, for man’s game in the West. Tony instance. None of them wants Blair was 43 when he became to go out in a blaze of glory. Prime Minister of Britain. Bill Clinton Instead, they stick around as was marginally older at 46 when he was the magic fizzles out bit by bit inaugurated as President of the United and there’s nothing left but States of America. Barack Obama, the sheer weariness as we see next Democratic President of the US them hovering at the edges, was 47 when he was sworn in. David mere shadows of the stars Cameron was 43 when he took over as Prime Minister of a they once were. Yes, I know, you’re thinking of Sourav Ganguly, Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in the UK. who took years to retire: first from one-day cricket, then Test Small wonder then, that some doubts have been expressed cricket, then first class cricket and finally the IPL (I am a bit about whether Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner at hazy on the details; it all took so, so long). But even the great the next Presidential poll, is past the age of being a player. She Sachin Tendulkar is playing to much the same strategy, rolling will be 69 in 2016, and if she wins two terms, she will be 77 by out his retirement plan in slow motion, as everyone speculates as to whether his 200th Test will actually be his last. If Sachin or even Sourav had been Australian, Seema Goswami they would have retired at the peak of their game, not when their fans were getting piqued by their lack of performance. Adam Gilchrist retired from Test cricket when he was still on top form. Ricky Ponting said goodbye to his Test career the moment his performance started flagging. But not so our Indian stars. They hold on for dear mercy, squeezing in one more series, one more tournament, one more endorsement deal… the time she is ready to retire. And that, say politMovie stars are no different, really. I am not ical observers, is simply too old. suggesting that they need to retire from acting Contrast this with Indian politics. Our two-time as they age, but surely it is not too much to ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh turns 81 this that they recuse themselves from playing the September, so you could be forgiven for thinking young, romantic lead – especially when the girls that retirement would be on his mind. Not a bit of they are harassing into submission could pass it. As he recently declared in one of his all-toooff as their daughters? But no, the audience is rare interactions with the press, he is not ready expected to suspend its disbelief as 40-something to call it a day quite yet. If the UPA won the next actors try and pass themselves off as college kids. General Election, he would be happy to serve under So, what accounts for this peculiarly Indian INNINGS NOT OVER the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. disinclination to move on? Why do our politiIf Sachin Tendulkar and But why blame Manmohan Singh alone? At a cians, our movie stars, our cricketing superSourav Ganguly had been Ausvenerable 86 this November, L K Advani is still not heroes, all cling on for dear life, having to be tralian, they would have retired ready to walk into the sunset. Having suffered from dragged away from centre-stage kicking and at the peak of their game the ‘always the bridesmaid, never the bride’ synscreaming? drome through his last few decades in politics, Advani I have to confess that I am baffled. This is the country that wants one last chance to walk down the aisle as the main gave us the concept of four stages of human life. Brahmacharya: attraction. And even though the BJP has announced when a man leaves home to be educated and leads a celibate Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, life. Grihasta: when he marries, starts a family and assumes Advani persists in hanging around the fringes just in his worldly responsibilities in the world of Maya (illusion). case opportunity for that final fling at power presVanasprastha: when he renounces the world to live like a herents itself. mit. And finally Sanyasa: when he concentrates on spiritual Yes, I know that attitudes to age – and the respect matters in an attempt to attain Moksha (freedom from the cycle accorded to it – are very different in India than of rebirth). they are in the West. There, they equate youth Alas, in the India of today, nobody is willing to let go. And with vigour and value it accordingly. Here, we Maya trumps Moksha every time. see an equivalence between age and wisdom and venerate both. But even so, nursing political ambiMORE ON THE WEB For more SPECTATOR columns by Seema Goswami, log on tions at the grand old age of 80+ is beginning to to hindustantimes.com/ brunch. Follow @SeemaGoswami seem a little absurd to most of us. on Twitter. Write to her at seema_ht@rediffmail.com But the more I think about it, it seems to me
O
spectator
TOO OLD TO RUN!
STILL IN THE RACE
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
22
indulge
TASTE OF NEW APPLES The ‘C’ in the iPhone 5c could stand for cunning, canny or crafty
T
HIS IS a follow-up to my ‘I know it all and yet got some things wrong’ column on predictions on the two new iPhones. The reason for writing this one isn’t that I am gloating or have been humbled by how much I got wrong, but because Apple’s announcements have left most people dazed and confused. A cheap Apple for all had been the buzz for months before the event. A critical business decision for the tech titan, a new weapon in its quest for getting a bigger market share, an iPhone for countries like India and China, where the average smartphones sells for less than half of Apple’s flagship phone – it was impossible for Apple to continue without a mass-market product and thus an economical iPhone was almost assured.
Rajiv Makhni
techilicious ‘C’ FOR CHEAP? SEE FOR YOURSELF
DESIGN DEBACLE
The happy round cutouts in the cover trim the legendary iPhone inscription at the back into ‘hon’ MORE ON THE WEB
For previous columns by Rajiv Makhni, log on to hindustantimes. com/brunch. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at Twitter.com/Rajiv Makhni
And an economical iPhone did come: in the shape of the iPhone 5c. But only certificate holders from the Apple fanboy army could really term it as an economical iPhone. For the rest of us, the iPhone 5c is a bright and happy phone that comes in five colours – white, blue, green, yellow and pink. It’s got an A6 chip, a 4-inch retina display and an 8-megapixel camera. Think of it as an iPhone 5 in a plastic body or as one particular company, which thousands of individuals have been quick in pointing out – a Nokia Lumia running iOS! Apple also introduced some colourful cases for the 5c priced at $30 each. While they go very well with the new geometric design ethos of the OS, these cases also represent Apple’s first unforgivable design debacle (see image) where the happy round cutouts turn the legendary iPhone inscription at the back into ‘hon’. I don’t think Steve Jobs, with his eye for perfection, would have let something like this pass. Still, there’s no denying the fact that this is an attractive phone that will appeal to the youngsters. Till you hit them with the price. The unlocked iPhone 5c 16GB is priced at $549, which would roughly translate to about `36,000 and by the time you add in duties and taxes, it’ll hit about `40,000. And that isn’t in the economy category for any country and any person!
‘S’ VERSUS ‘C’
In fact, in China, the market Apple truly needs to get big sales numbers from, it’s even more expensive. Thus it seems that the iPhone 5c is a much awaited new addition to the iPhone portfolio, but a new addition without a clear thought or purpose. After all, it’s priced at just a $100 less than the vastly superior
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
iPhone 5s and if someone has that kind of money, they may as well splurge on the 5s. But embedded deep within the iPhone 5c and its bizarre pricing may well be a very superior business model for the long run. But before I get into that, let’s take a quick look at the iPhone 5s.
‘S’ FOR SUPERIOR
This is the phone that carries forward the classic legacy of a premium iPhone, the all metal 5s. And now it’s also out in two new colours – gold and space gray. Apple also ups the ante with a powerful new A7 chip which HUES THAT? is claimed as the first 64-bit chip to ever power The iPhone 5c is a a phone. Also added on is a new motion bright and happy processor, M7 that continuously monitors phone that comes data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and in five colours compass for better data output to fitness and others apps. While the camera continues to be 8-megapixel, Apple has gone the HTC way by adorning it with larger pixels as well as a wider aperture. There is also a dual LED flash to give even skin tones and textures. And of course, the killer feature and why almost every major Apple fan will immediately upgrade is the home button or more importantly, what lies underneath it. Apple believes that your fingerprint is the perfect password and has embedded a fingerprint scanner under the home button. But as this is Apple and whenever they do something new, they generate controversy. Let me address the one buzzing all over the Net. Will Apple now have your fingerprints in its database and can that be misused? The simple answer to that is no! Your fingerprints remain locally on your phone, they are not transmitted to Apple or on the Net or to any database. Think of it as a simple, easy and very cool way of unlocking your phone. Thus, at just $100 more, the iPhone 5s seems to be a no-brainer to buy and the iPhone 5c seems to be dead on arrival. Conventional wisdom would say that, but Apple is anything but conventional.
SMART STRATEGY?
According to me, the iPhone 5c is Apple’s smart way of getting in an economy phone without losing the premium cult status tag that they have so carefully cultivated. The 5c will become the phone that will come to countries like India and China with PRICE UNWISE a service provider subsidised busiThe 5c is attractive but ness model. Think of it as a cross wait till you check the price between 12 interest-free EMIs (something that has taken off like a rocket in India) and some discounting by your network provider. Thus the `40,000 iPhone 5c can be bought for `6,500 (about $99, same as the USA price) plus `2,500 per month added to your mobile phone bill with further subsidies if your usage goes above a certain amount. You get an iPhone at an economy price, your service provider get a great customer with high billing, Apple sells a tonne of these and still doesn’t get associated with cheap products, and everybody wins. Many have tried to guess what the ‘C’ in iPhone 5c really stands for. Many came up with cheap, China or even colour. If Apple truly follows the above business model, then maybe the only words that the ‘C’ could stand for would be cunning, canny and crafty! Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3
indulge
hindustantimes.com/brunch
HARD AS NAILS?
American band Nine Inch Nails, known for its aggressive and angry sound, has mellowed over the years
I
T ALL began with a short conversation we were having in the car about the Laura Marling album, Once I Was An Eagle. I said I rather liked it. And indeed I had. Marling made her debut album at 18. That was five years ago, which means she is just 23 now but on this year’s Once I Was An Eagle, she sounds so incredibly mature. My daughter’s understated response to that was what can best be described as “meh”. Marling was good, she said, but clearly she wasn’t as enthused by this new album. What then, I asked, was she listening to? The new Nine Inch Nails record, Hesitation Marks, she replied with much more enthusiasm than what she had shown for Marling. I hadn’t heard Nine Inch Nails (NIN) in years. In fact, I don’t think I had dipped into their repertoire (or rather Trent Reznor’s, since much of their studio albums are akin to being his solo work – meticulously layered industrial music where electronic blends with rock) after the late 1990s. I was a bit surprised as well, because when I first heard The Downward
Sanjoy Narayan
download central Spiral, arguably NIN’s best and most shockingly angry record in 1994, my daughter was certainly around but aged around zero in years. And now she was digging NIN. Then again I’m no longer surprised by my kids’ taste in music. The younger one, who is not yet 10, likes to do homework with The Beatles in the background and her favourite T-shirt is the one with a Yellow Submarine motif. Anyway, I got hold of Hesitation Marks. It isn’t anything like The Downward Spiral. Of course it has the trademark industrial sound, right from the default first full track, Copy of A, a lively hook-laden tune that urges you to tap your foot, bob your head and well, even dance. Contrast that with the angry, opening track on The Downward Spiral, whose first notes I always thought sound like Reznor either beating himself or getting someone to flagellate him. That opening number, Mr. Self Destruct, set the tone for The Downward Spiral, a record that when you first listen to can shake you up with its distorted noise and aggressively violent lyrics, all layered with electronic beats but also strangely combining to make it at the same time very melodic. If you try to buy The Downward Spiral in the Indian iTunes store (I had to because my 20-year-old tapes are dead and buried), you’ll only get it without one of the songs, Closer. Is it
Photos: GETTY IMAGES
LOOK BACK IN ANGER
Trent Reznor (left) is the driving force of the band Nine Inch Nails; his best and most shockingly angry record is The Downward Spiral (below right). But on the new album Hesitation Marks (below left), he sounds happy
MATURE TALENT
British musician Laura Marling is like a young Joni Mitchell; Once I Was An Eagle (right) is her new album because the lyrics of Closer are particularly graphic? I wonder. Copy of A sets the tone for the rest of Hesitation Marks, an album that couldn’t be more different and yet similar to The Downward Spiral. Reznor is no longer angry, screaming, loud and self-destructive. Incredibly, he even sounds happy, albeit a tad bemused. My favourite song on the album is Satellite, which builds up, layer by layer, to perfection as does Disappointed, another great track. There are the odd ones too on the album, like Everything, whose pop brightness is out of sorts with the rest. After two listens to the 14 tracks (technically the first track is Eater of Dreams, a 52-second composition), I realised what had happened. Reznor, now 48, had grown up. No longer was he the angry, young man of the 1990s but, as he sings on Copy of A, he’s “just a copy of a copy of a copy/Everything I say has come before…” It’s a great transition. And, for me, it offers a good opportunity to revisit NIN’s discography – the seven studio albums that came before Hesitation Marks (the last one, The Slip, was out five years ago) and gauge how this very talented musician has changed, beginning with 1989’s Pretty Hate Machine to his latest. On Hesitation Marks, there are surprise bonuses. You’ll find Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham doing fret duty on a few tracks besides NIN’s familiar collaborators such as Alessandro Cortini on the synthesizer, and Pino Palladino on the bass, Palladino being John Entwistle’s replacement in the iconic British rock band, The Who. But Nine Inch Nails is all about Reznor, a perfectionist and musician of many parts. Even when NIN went on a break after 2008’s The Slip, Reznor stayed active. He started another band, How To Destroy Angels with his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and worked on film soundtracks. One of them, The Social Network, got him an Oscar. To get back to what I began with, while it is hard to imagine NIN fans grooving to Laura Marling’s new album, Once I Was An Eagle, it is lovely. Recorded around the time the young British indie folk singer decided to relocate to the US and was also possibly getting over a broken relationship, it is like a themed concept album. And it’s brilliant. Marling, whose songs belie her age, reminds me of a young Joni Mitchell. A very contemporary Joni Mitchell. Download Central will appear every fortnight
MORE ON THE WEB
To give feedback, stream or download the music mentioned in this column, go to blogs.hindustantimes.com/ download-central. Write to Sanjoy at sanjoy.narayan@hindustantimes.com
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
23
24
REEL WORLD SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT
David Dhawan’s Chashme Baddoor (2013), a remake of Sai Paranjpye’s Chashme Buddoor (1981), follows the same plot but completely goes haywire in its execution. An exception to the rule?
From crass to clever, gory to gleeful, slapstick to slick, the Bollywood comedy has come of age by Aparna Pednekar ■ A thief with memory loss issues gets nagged by his loud and double-crossing wife. ■ Three cuss-happy roommates have bowel problems. ■ A linguistically-challenged housewife begins reclaiming her self-esteem.
W
HO’D HAVE thought there’d come a point when Bollywood audiences would laugh along to storylines like these? Yet, Ghanchakkar, Delhi Belly and English Vinglish, and Bollywood’s new crop of funny films have proved that filmmakers and viewers now take comedy seriously. Our comic film history is shrouded in the silly. The 1930s and ’40s gave us Ghory and Dixit (India’s Laurel and Hardy), we had Mehmood and Johnny Walker in the ’50s and ’60s. Comedy went mainstream with heroes like Kishore Kumar, a legacy carried into the ’70s by Amitabh Bachchan’s killer comic timing in Amar Akbar Anthony and Chupke Chupke. Bachchan’s own sarcastic one-liners as Buddhadeb Gupta in the 2007 rom-com Cheeni Kum best defines how the genre has evolved.
Funny Business
ing partner Krishna DK) is contributing handsomely to the comicscape with genre-busting films like 99, Shor in the City and Go Goa Gone. “Even if it’s a slasher comedy, it should be realistic. You have to buy it.” He strongly believes that Indian audiences’ tastes are changing and they are now more receptive to subtle, layered humour.
LAUGHING FROM MEMORY
Ask any film fan to name their favourite comedy and
WHO’S LAUGHING NOW?
How do you know comedy has changed today? Simple: the comic relief is no longer the relief, it’s blended seamlessly into the plot. We’ve weaned ourselves off the need for a separate actor to ham between the scenes (we’re looking at you, Kader Khan!). Realistic, situational humour is the name of the game for filmmakers like Dibakar Banerjee (Khosla Ka Ghosla!) and Gauri Shinde (English Vinglish), to Habib Faisal (Do Dooni Chaar) and Maneesh Sharma (Band Baaja Baaraat). “I like humour that is natural, not forced,” says Raj Nidimoru, who (along with his writing-direct-
they’ll likely mention the NFDCproduced 1983 satire Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. No film has managed to garner such an enormous following, perhaps because dark comedy is so hard to pull off. Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli [Live], described by UK’s The Guardian as a ‘satirical gem with a juicy vulgar streak’, was critically acclaimed. But Vishal Bharawaj’s esoteric Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola, populated by pink talking buffaloes amongst other oddities, largely missed the mark.
In contrast, light quirky comedies go down much easier at the box office. Drama specialist Raj Kumar Gupta (he made Aamir and No One Killed Jessica) pulled off Ghanchakkar with a deadpan, amnesiac Emraan Hashmi in floral pyjamas, and Vidya Balan, as an over-the-top Punjabi housewife who turns into a murder suspect mid-film. The often absurd thriller culminated in a wildly-layered climax, a novelty in Bollywood. Gupta says he could have given audiences what they expected, eliciting an “Arre, mujhe to pata tha ye hone wala hai” or he could have done something new. He chose the latter. It paid off when he saw people clapping during the blood-splattered climax, at once gory, befuddling and hilarious.
AND STARRING... A COMEDIAN!
A PAIR TO REMEMBER
Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh also evolved with this genre, from Rafoo Chakkar (1975) to Do Dooni Chaar (2010) SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
The past few years have thrown up an exceptional bunch of actors who are as fabulous at drama as they are at comedy. Pitobash Tripathy (Shor in the City), Deepak Dobriyal (Tanu Weds Manu, Omkaara) and Richa Chadda (Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and Fukrey) have had us notice them precisely because they did more than deliver their punchlines and leave. Even as boy du jour Ranbir Kapoor moves from naughty simpleton in Barfi! to exaggerated tapori in the upcoming Besharam, powerhouse performers like Irrfan
facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch
BAND OF BOYS
The three friends in Delhi Belly (2011) resort, quite literally, to toilet humour to elicit laughs, but still keep the humour cool. Much like the trio of Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), who mined community cliches but kept it classy
Khan and Manoj Bajpayee are bringing a light-hearted, quirky touch to films like Paan Singh Tomar and Gangs of Wasseypur. Then there’s the funnyman who does almost nothing else, like the very busy stand-up comedian and actor Vir Das. “The space in Bollywood for a leading comic man – like Adam Sandler or Ben Stiller – is wide open,” he says. “Studios are willing to put money on us.” He should know. Das is currently in the middle of several films, ranging from the ridiculous to path-breaking. There’s Saax Ki Dukaan (a “super sex hero film’), the rom-com Amit Sahani Ki List, Santa & Banta (a big fat Punjabi funny film, as the name suggests) and Golu Pappu, a children’s film in which “Kunal Roy Kapoor and I are trying to redeem ourselves after Delhi Belly”. And unlike his predecessors, none of these roles is an excuse to ham. “Just because
Boman and I are doing this Punjabi laugh-outloud comedy, Santa & Banta, it doesn’t mean we will not layer our performances, never mind if anyone gets it or not.”
KEEPING IT COOL
That beloved genre – the slapstick comedy – is also getting a makeover, thanks to game changers like Akshat Verma, who wrote Delhi Belly, and is currently directing his first film, a dark comic thriller set in Mumbai. With Delhi Belly, Verma did what no David Dhawan or Anees Bazmi film could do – make vulgar, profane toilet humour rolling cool. The trick to successful physical comedy, says Verma, is to know how much to dial it up.
Assuming the average moviegoer is an idiot savant is a bit unfair
“Physical comedy, done with a certain seriousness, works to great effect. There’s a deadpan humour to it; when the performer is not in on the joke himself. That lack of awareness is really funny, instead of someone telling a joke and having to go ‘wink-wink’ to sink it in” Varma also believes that the onecomic-fits-all theory no longer applies to Indian audiences, and assuming that average moviegoer is an “idiot savant” is a bit unfair. “We have a great sense of humour across the board. You can’t survive in India if you
My, how we’ve changed! THEN: Govinda, the
undisputed comic superstar of the ’90s, getting wolf-whistles for his pelvic thrusts and double entendre. NOW: Saif Ali Khan (who incidentally debuted in the ’90s with forgettable roles and floppy hair) redefining 40-plus leading star cool as a trigger-happy Russian – “I keel ded peepul” – mafioso. Even Shah Rukh Khan takes cool digs at his age and hamming romantic style in Chennai Express.
THEN: Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee’s sweet bhadralok sensibilities gave us delightful comedies like Chupke Chupke, Golmaal, Chhoti Si Baat and Khatta Meetha. Sai Paranjpye found humour in everyday India with witty hits like Katha and Chashme Baddoor NOW: Renaissance Bengali babu Dibakar Banerjee gently evokes the struggles and small triumphs of ordinary people like us in Khosla Ka Ghosla, then turns up the kitsch with hits like Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! We’re also looking at what Gauri Shinde has to offer us next, after heartwarmingly funny moments in English Vinglish.
THEN: The Johnnys
(Walker in the ’50s and Lever in the ’80s) gave leading men competition in terms of screen presence. Of the most respected character artists, Utpal Dutt could evoke laughter with a mere widening of his beady, expressive eyes and a well placed ‘Achcha?’ NOW: Could anybody tolerate Sanjay Dutt in the Munnabhai series without Arshad Warsi’s comic genius as a foil? After seeing Boman Irani ham away his prodigious talent in Housefull 2 and the like, we’re waiting to see a filmmaker tap into his hidden pool of deadpan humour again.
THEN: Amol
Palekar as the adorable middle-class man of the masses, fumbling while wooing his love and faking a twin brother with gentle mirth and pots of giggles. NOW: Emraan Hashmi as the perennially sour aam janta fellow, copulating minus a condom, sticking knives into his nether regions and bumbling through his miseries while we cackle at his expense.
WHERE ARE OUR FUNNY GIRLS?
As far back as the ’50s, tragedy queen Meena Kumari did a few light-hearted turns in and as Miss Mary with Gemini Ganeshan, and in Azad with Dilip Kumar. Over the decades, heroines from Madhubala and Hema Malini to Madhuri Dixit have been successful with comedy. Rekha and Juhi Chawla were consummate comediennes. But the Hawa Hawaai of them all remains Sridevi, who took Mr India and Chaalbaaz chortling all the way to the bank. It seems like Vidya Balan or Deepika Padukone may inherit the Mirthful Empress crown. But that we have to choose from just two is certainly not funny.
don’t have a sense of humour.” He does, however, admit that urban audiences are more receptive to experimentation within genres because we have better access to what’s making waves internationally and in niche circles. Verma’s personal pick of great comedy ranges from Billy Wilder, Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers and Woody Allen to legendary shows like Fawlty Towers and “now cerebral, now stupidly physical” Monty Python. He is equally in awe of the work of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Sai Paranjpye. Nidimoru is a huge fan of the twisted humour of Fargo and Pulp Fiction, which he describes as “amazingly brutal but so funny”. At the same time, he cites Ram Gopal Varma’s earlier films as good examples of comedy at unexpected places – in an action flick like Shiva or a thriller like the Sridevi-Venkatesh quirky film Kshanam Kshanam. This year, Nidimoru and DK introduced Bollywood to an unusual beast, a zombie comedy. “We took a risk with Go Goa Gone even when people kept asking us if the audience was ready,” he recalls. “But we had to see a theatre erupt when the zombies attack, to know we had the reaction we were gunning for” he grins. The pair is currently working on Happy Ending, a twisted romcom – another difficult genre to pull off – starring Saif Ali Khan and Ileana D’Cruz. One thing’s for certain, it will have a happy ending like no other. brunchletters@hindustantimes.com
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
25
26
PEOPLE
twitter.com/HTBrunch
Memories Of A Master
Prabuddha Dasgupta, the reclusive lensman who also epitomised the glamour of the Eighties, died last year. But his photographs remain a powerful testament to his prodigious talent
FRAMES OF NOSTALGIA
A History graduate from Hindu College, Dasgupta began as a copywriter with the advertising agency Everest. He took up the camera full-time in the late ’80s and shot to fame in 1996 with Women, his controversial book of portraits and nudes of urban Indian women. Prabuddha might have been known as the master of the monochrome, but there was a dichotomy in his public persona and the man who was doted upon by the glitterati. He was a recluse on one hand and a caring father-figure to young lensmen on the other. Writer
“I want to have a long string of images, held together by grace, because grace is that indefinable, non-rational, non-linear word that I am looking for”
DISCLAIMER: THIS IMAGE IS A PICTORIAL REPRESENTATION AND WE DO NOT PROMOTE SMOKING.
O
NE OF THE best-known Indian photographers in the world, Prabuddha Dasgupta is the inspiration behind the theme of this year’s Delhi Photo Festival. In August 2012, the 55-year-old fashion photographer died in Alibaug, Maharashtra, following a heart attack. The previous year, at the first edition of the festival organised by Dinesh Khanna and Prashant Panjiar of the Nazar Foundation, Dasgupta had addressed a packed house of photographers, models, designers and enthusiasts. “I want to have a long string of images held together by grace, because grace is that indefinable, non-rational, non-linear word that I am looking for,” Prabuddha had said. Khanna says he had promised to hold a workshop for young photographers in 2013. It is fitting then that this year’s festival, which begins on September 27, has ‘Grace’ as its theme, as a tribute to Prabuddha.
by Aasheesh Sharma
PRABUDDHA DASGUPTA
The theme for the Delhi Photo Festival 2013 (Septemer 29October 11) is ‘Grace’– as a tribute to Prabuddha Dasgupta
William Dalrymple, who worked with him on Edge of Faith, a photo book on Goa’s Catholic community, says he represented the irreverence of Delhi in the ’80s. “Rohit Khosla and Rohit Bal, along with Prabuddha, invented glamour in India. I felt glamorous just being with him.”
IN THE GREY ZONE...
Prabuddha worked closely with the first wave of Indian supermodels such as Madhu Sapre, Feroze Gujral and Mehr Jesia. His shot of Gujral for Suneet Varma (see pix, right) won him the Yves Saint Laurent grant for photography in 1991. But Prabuddha’s elder brother Pradeep, a seasoned advertising
photographer, says his personal life was disconnected from the glitzy world of fashion. “The Prabuddha I grew up with didn’t like to socialise,” he says. “If you are working in advertising, it is imperative that you hang out with people and pretend to have a great time. But at the core, he was not an extrovert.” Fashion designer Suneet Varma was part of Prabuddha’s inner circle. “In many ways, he was like my older brother. I smoked my first cigarette with him. My first drink, a rum and Coke, was on the terrace of his home.” As Varma’s rapport with Prabuddha grew, they shared their most intimate emotions, he says. “When my father passed away, Prabuddha came over and for
weeks on end, I shared with him the grief I felt. He was privy to some of my biggest personal secrets including being in a relationship with my partner for many years,” the designer adds. Varma describes Prabuddha as “nurturing and loving.” It is this side of the photographer, someone who went out of his way to encourage youngsters, which finds resonance with leading fashion photographer Tarun Khiwal, who apprenticed with him for two years. “I discarded all the notions I had about photography,” Khiwal says. “Prabuddha taught me to engage with my subjects at a deeper level.”
WHAT LIES BENEATH…
All three of Prabuddha’s photo books – themed on women, Ladakh and Goa – were lauded for their sweep of imagery and stunning images, barring a review in a newsweekly where journalistauthor Raj Kamal Jha wrote that the nudes in Women didn’t look intimate and were simply “chewing gum for the eyes.” David Davidar, who was the head of Penguin India when its imprint Viking Books published Women, says Prabuddha brought an unusual quality to his photographs. It is a quality Mehr Jesia-Rampal, one of India’s original supermodels, attests to. “He had the knack of bringing out the woman in me.” His style of working was unhurried and relaxed, says Madhu Sapre, regarded as one of the first international faces of Indian fashion along with models Shyamolie Verma and Mehr Jesia. “The first time we shot together, he wanted
THE PRABUDDHA I KNEW: India’s biggest models, publishers, authors and designers on the man and his work “Prabuddha had the knack of bringing out the sense of the woman in me. Before him, photographers had just treated me like an effervescent girl” MEHR JESIA-RAMPAL, former beauty queen, supermodel
“His last book was the opposite of all that the magazines that featured his work promised. It didn’t have beauty or sex or youth”
WILLIAM DALRYMPLE, who wrote in Edge of Faith, Prabuddha’s photo book on Goa
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
“He was like my older brother. He was privy to some of my most personal secrets – including being in a relationship with my partner for many years” SUNEET VARMA, fashion designer
“Prabuddha was the best photographer I have worked with, ever” MADHU SAPRE, former Miss India and supermodel
Photos Copyright: THE ESTATE OF PRABUDDHA DASGUPTA
THOSE HEADY, HEADY DAYS...
Feroze Gujral and Suneet Varma in the shoot that won Prabuddha Dasgupta the Yves Saint Laurent grant for photography in 1991 my look to be dramatic but not overly made-up,” recalls Sapre. Sapre went on to do a number of unforgettable shoots with him, including a shoe commercial featuring a python, fellow model Milind Soman and little else, which generated much sound and fury. “At the time we shot the campaign, I was dating Milind. The agency said they needed an athletic couple for a classy campaign on the lines of those shot by world-renowned photographer Bruce Weber. I went ahead in good faith. But Pramod Navalkar politicised the issue and I ended up being embroiled in court cases,” says Sapre. Some of the happiest times the brothers Dasgupta spent together were on holidays taken together in hippie joints such as Nepal and Manali. Losing a brother is something Pradeep is still struggling to come to terms with. “My moment of grief was of my own making. I always took the elder brother’s role
“The photos were so interesting I felt they would go beyond the appeal that is reserved for a book of nude photography” DAVID DAVIDAR, founder Aleph Book Company, who published Prabuddha’s first book
very seriously,” he says. “I was critical of a lot of stuff he was doing. My regret is that I could have let that be and treated him on an equal footing as a person. We would have been closer.”
THINGS FALL APART...
The father of two daughters, Prabuddha separated from his wife Tania and began dating Lakshmi Menon, a supermodel 15 years younger to him. A few years back, he moved in with his ‘long-time muse’. Dalrymple says he loved the time he spent interviewing people for Edge of Faith and staying in the modest three-room flat that Prabuddha shared in north Goa with Lakshmi. Prabuddha’s last book was very different from the sort of work he was associated with, adds Dalrymple. “It didn’t promise beauty or sex or youth. It was about Goa’s old people and traditions. It was about the decay and melancholy ..., where you get a constant feeling that something is falling apart.” During his lifetime, Prabuddha touched innumerable lives. It is a measure of his appeal that the country’s best-known models, publishers, authors and designers were keen to be part of a story that revisits his remarkable legacy. aasheesh.sharma@hindustantimes.com
MORE ON THE WEB
For the complete story, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
PERSONAL AGENDA
hindustantimes.com/brunch
Actor and Stand-Up Comic
A FILM YOU’VE WATCHED MORE THAN FIVE TIMES.
Kramer vs. Kramer
my movies
28
THE MOST PAISA VASOOL FILM.
Cyrus Broacha
Debbie Does Dallas
A MOVIE THAT WAS PART OF CHILDHOOD.
The Exorcist
THE FIRST MOVIE YOU SAW ON BIG SCREEN
You wrote a book about Indian men, why not one on Indian women? Mumbai Mumbai August 7 Leo A play with Hosi That’s because an average Vasunia called woman doesn’t exist. They’re COLLEGE CURRENTLY I AM… Brighton Beach all above average. St Xavier’s College, Mumbai On YouTube’s Comedy Week Memoirs What tickles your funny bone? Old people. HIGH POINT OF YOUR LIFE LOW POINT OF YOUR LIFE One week of your life you wish that When school ended forever When college began! wasn’t. When I was stuck in Chennai at You feature on YouTube’s Comedy thing that starts with ‘Three the time of the tsunami in Week. Is this a sign of change? men walk in to a bar’. I’m okay 2004. That and also the first The change has been about with two men, though. week of my marriage. taking fatter people to smaller Who’s funnier, you or your kids? Who do you think is funnier on TV: screens. That’s what my chanMy kids, for sure! Arnab Goswami or Kapil nel, Being Cyrus, is all about on Suntan lotion or fairTHE GADGET YOU Sharma? YouTube Comedy Week. And ness cream, which Arnab Goswami – LOVE TO FLAUNT it’s a sign of money. People at would you pick? he’s not only funnier YouTube have promised me It all depends on but prettier too. that soon. The reach will wipe where to apply. An international standout all other media. And the Upper body – up comic you look up to money could become obscene. fairness cream; or admire. Although they did add that this lower body – suntan Kim Jong Il. The could take anywhere between lotion. dearly departed two and 327 years. How did you react leader of North What exotic pet would you like to when you first saw Korea. Photo: THINKSTOCK keep in your house? yourself on TV? Five musts in your A silverback gorilla. I was ashamed. I still am. wardrobe. What’s the one joke you are sick of Is it true that you are not email savvy A torch, a hook, two jockhearing? and your mother types your columns? straps and a handkerchief. All the blonde jokes and anyAbsolutely. Your idea of a great weekend.
BIRTHDAY SUN SIGN PLACE OF BIRTH HOME TOWN FIRST BREAK
The remote control
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
Maa
THE MOST OVERRATED FILM
ET
Monday holiday. Three grooming products you absolutely swear by. My finger, my saliva and sunglasses. One thing nobody knows about you. My weight is 93.77kg. Your fitness funda. If the lift is not working, wait for the mechanic. Your dream destination Navi Mumbai. You are distressed with... The lack of short pants worn in India! The last line of your autobiography would read… “I am not coming back unless there are more girls.” — Interviewed by Veenu Singh