WEEKLY MAGAZINE, APRIL 27, 2014 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times
MOHUN BAGAN ATHLETIC CLUB
The barefoot footballers who gave a body blow to British imperialists
THE GREAT GAMA MAJOR DHYAN CHAND
The triple hockey Olympic gold winner who punctured Hitler’s false Nazi pride
Sports champions from pre-Independence India, icons of our struggle against colonialism, will soon have Bollywood biopics made on them. We trace their incredible life stories
The wrestler who became world champion in 1910
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BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS
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On The Brunch Radar
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WHAT IF THESE FILMS ENDED DIFFERENTLY?
So your favourite movie is 95 per cent perfect. Bas agar woh ending mein gadbad nahin karte, then it would be the most beautiful thing, ever! We know you’ve thought it. Now we’re saying it. We imagine what could have been if these films had ended just that little bit differently
ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA: Remember how in the film, Natasha (Kalki) was suspicious ki Laila aur Kabir (Katrina and Abhay) ke beech mein kuch chal raha hai? Well, we think it might have been a good idea! Katrina would be better off marrying Abhay in the end of ZNMD. Transformation/ realisation/common sense would hit her on the road trip and suddenly she’d see that Abhay was the most sensible of the three: acchi naukri, cute and unlike that Krrish wala fellow: NOT WHINY! Made for each other! After all, woh imaaratein banata hai, aur woh un imaaraton mein baith ke beautiful lag sakti hai. YE JAWAANI HAI DEEWANI: What’s the worst that could happen? Aditi (Kalki) could have decided to ditch the engineer and run away with Avi (Aditya Roy Kapur) as she always wanted to. But that would be quite pointless, no? Considering the entire second half of the movie is the shaadi, it would just be ridiculous. BUT WHAT IF Aditi and Naina (Kalki and Deepika) had discovered that they were more than just best friends! Think of what a super good looking yet quirky fun couple they would make! We’d want to do brunch with them every weekend! COCKTAIL: Actually the whole movie was a lie. What really happened is that these two clever gorgeous supermodels were simply stringing the despo middle aged ‘stud’ uncle along. This was the newest episode of Bakra. Dilli jaake they pointed out the hidden camera to Saif bhaiyya saying, “Haha ullu banaya”. And he thought he had to choose between THEM?! Have you seen them?!
ENGLISH VINGLISH: This is a no-brainer. Your husband doesn’t respect you and your daughter is a beast. Cute French chef declares his love for you and your food. What do you do? Cut your losses and run away with Frenchie!!! And on the way out, give that rude daughter of yours one tight whack. “Zor ka chaanta bachpan mein lagaya hota toh yeh naubat nahin aati” [Disclaimer: We do not support child abuse. We only joke about it. Never hit your children, not even if your mummy smacked you every now and then but you still turned out okay]. Anyway, Shashi (Sridevi) and Frenchie would move back to France where all the English they learnt will be forgotten. They could start an Indo-French fusion bistro which would most definitely win a Michelin star. GO GOA GONE: It was bound to happen. After a lifetime of being a Russo Haryanvi, Saif is unable to kill a beautiful zombie lass and falls in love with her instead. They get married and raise a lovely zuman (zombie-human) family together, resulting in the sequel Go Goa Gone 2: Zombies Have Feelings Too! CHENNAI EXPRESS: In an alternate universe, Thangaballi squashes Rahul (Shah Rukh, d’oh!) like a bug. (Who was expecting anything else?!) Meenamma (Deepika) realises that the halwai is useless (as her daddy had told her) and agrees to marry Thangaballi. She kicks him in her sleep happily ever after. Or more realistically, too much mithai eating gives Meenamma diabetes. She divorces the halwai, goes back home, takes over daddy’s business and becomes the region’s first female don. Hey, she’s an independent career woman after all!
The Classic Edition SHOLAY: What if…Jai was actually Thakur’s illegitimate child? And he only got to know this after Jai’s death when a tattoo saying “Mera baap Thakur hai” was revealed? Would the loudest ‘Naaaaahhhiiiiiiinnnnnnn’ in Hindi film history have been screamed then? What if…? Think about it.
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APRIL 27, 2014
Cover illustration and design: MALAY KARMAKAR
Photo: HT PHOTOS
QUEEN: Everybody’s saying it. There was but one thing wrong with the ending of Queen and that was the absence of Oleksander. Such cuteness and those loving glances should have been reciprocated in kind. Nice, concerned about the state of the world and so good looking? WIN! Here is how we think it should have gone down: She should have asked him to come back with her and if he said no, shoved him in her backpack and dragged his beautiful behind back to Rajouri. No two ways about it. Then she should have taken him out for sweet corn soup and sung Russia Thumakda. Rani and Oleksander forever. Mother-Father swear!
n Kannan Gill and Kalyan Rath’s
Pretentious Movie Reviews. Funniest videos we’ve seen this year! n The trailer of Hateship Loveship, adapted from Alice Munro’s short story Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage n Biting into the first alphonso of the season. Om nom nom n Kanna Keep Calm. Well done Lowe Lintas & Partners! n Justice Gorla Rohini, first woman chief justice of the Delhi High Court
by Saudamini Jain n That idiotic study which says men with beards don’t get any action. And they linked it all to evolution. What the...? n When people who haven’t read a full book in their entire lives post tearful odes to Márquez n When Arpita Khan is in the news (she’s Salman’s sister and dating some chap nobody’s heard of) n The pathetic selection of books at most chain bookstores. n Forcing people to watch videos of your toddler doing stuff all toddlers do
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THE BRUNCH BOOK CHALLENGE
HOW TO Th Brunch Book Challenge is an @HTBrunch initiative to get The READ 24 readers to read at least 24 books in 2014. Read anything you BOOKS (OR re like, just keep us posted. Tweet your progress to @HTBrunch lik MORE) IN with the hashtag h #BrunchBookChallenge ONE YEAR
The Book Club
by Rachel Lopez
Real Men Read Chick Lit THE BOOK: When Hari Met His Saali by Harsh Warrdhan THE GIST: Boy meets girl. Girl thinks boy is perfect putty to mould. Boy falls for girl’s sister ONE-LINE REVIEW: The book will show you that sometimes, it’s not that he’s/she’s all wrong for you. It’s that you’re looking at life all wrong... READ IT IF YOU LIKE: Chick lit that sees the man’s point of view too.
CAUTION: There are lots of references to current trends and events. Read now or never. BEST LINE: “One loved me but wanted to change me. When I changed and became what she wanted, the other had issues with it. What kind of a man should I be?”
Stuff You Said Last Sunday Sund
ted I wasn’t really captiva by the previous few edi ay tions of Brunch but tod l was a really nice, wel oyed compiled edition. I enj reading about the IAS the ghettos in Delhi and ar accounts of Ravish Kum y, and Bhupendra Chaube what perhaps because I like that they bring to the plate, . being Indian Journalism aj Baj eet Pun -
Delhi’s village IAS the m s was prehen ost coms authen ive and about tic article our liv es! So nostalg ic you so !!! Thank so muc h – Prati k Dham .. al
Thank you for the Sun day y dose @HT TBrunch gr gre eat at stories, y’all! Kudos! :) – @RimshaB
Psst, send us an email, find us on Facebook or tweet to @HTBrunch
EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Aasheesh Sharma, Rachel Lopez, Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi, Veenu Singh, Parul Khanna, Yashica Dutt, Amrah Ashraf, Saudamini Jain
DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor, Design), Monica Gupta, Swati Chakrabarti, Payal Dighe Karkhanis, Rakesh Kumar, Ajay Aggarwal
Drop us a line at: brunchletters@hindustantimes. com or to 18-20 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001
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Wishful Thinking
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WELLNESS
MIND BODY SOUL SHIKHA SHARMA
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. Dear doctor, my wife vomited after 5 hours of taking an emergency contraceptive pill. We both are worried now. Should I ask her to consume another pill or the last pill would have worked? Emergency contraceptive pill takes few hours to start its action after consumption. If you are sure that your wife vomited after 5 hours, then the pill may have probably started its action. Hence, your wife need not consume another pill. Since these pills are hormone based pills, some women may feel nauseous if they consume them on empty stomach. 2. Dear doctor, my wife recently underwent an abortion due to ectopic p r e g n a n c y. S h e i s s o traumatised by the event that she does not let me come close to her. Please help me. How should I pacify her? I feel very sad and fearful myself for our loss. Your sufferings are completely natural and understandable. Millions of couples who go through an abortion due to various reasons, experience this pain. Please relax and do not worry. Give her a little time and space. We suggest that you talk to her to get her out of her trauma and wait a little time till she is mentally prepared to have any kind of sexual contact.
You and she can also visit your gynaecologist to gain a better understanding of ectopic pregnancy and her future reproductive health. These discussions may also prove to be fruitful in equipping help her to deal with her current situation. 3. I am planning to get intimate with my partner. Can you please list out the possible side effects after taking an emergency contraceptive pill? I am little nervous about taking it. If you are planning to get intimate with your partner then we strongly recommend using regular protection like condom or regular contraceptive pills as advised by a local gynaecologist. . Emergency contraceptive pills are meant to be used only as back-up contraceptive option in events when regular contraception was missed or had failed. One should never plan to take an emergency contraceptive pill. Though as per existing knowledge, occasional consumption of these pills does not cause any major long term side effects. This medication is not meant to be consumed as frequently as it has a high level of hormones. Some of the commonly reported symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, irregular spotting between periods and fluctuations in menstrual cycle.
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:
If you’re recovering from illness or surgery, your meals should help get you back on your feet too
or trouble in the lungs. Food for patients should be pitta in taasir and drying. n Avoid rice, bananas, cold drinks, refined flour, fried foods, butter and lassi. OST PEOPLE view n Instead, serve soups rich in nutrition in terms black pepper (which reduces of special meals for phlegm), turmeric (fights children, dieters and athletes. infection), ginger ( a Many forget that convalesnatural antibiotic). cents require special care n Steam treatto bounce back ments help deto normalcy too. congest the nasal Increased research passage. in post-surgical n Choose high-protein, nutrition will eventulow-fat foods like moong, ally help patients recover chana, soya, steamed faster and better. corn, pomegranate, apBREATHE EASY BROKEN BONES ple, and sweet lime. Black pepper helps The actual healing reduce phlegm n For those coming out begins the moment the of pneumonia, ensure injury has occurred. that the meals include protein First, the body creates clots for tissue repair. to minimise blood loss, then it STOMACH TROUBLES brings the healing components Always start with the liver. It to the point of injury, then the is the seat of metabolism and bones begin to generate cells helps remove toxins from the that multiply to fuse the bone. body. If the liver is troubled, So the body needs: here’s what to do: n Calcium (to build bones n Drink plenty of fluids to reand blood acids); potassium plenish the electrolytes. Brown (to maintain the acid–base sugar and rock salt are known balance, help blood clot, and to be the best combination. In grow bones); zinc (helps skin case of an emergency, a sachet regenerate); vitamins, chromiof oral rehydration um (to manage insulin) system also helps. and protein for muscle ENERGY BOOST High-protein chickpea n Have a turmeric injury, bone building will keep you going decoction to fight and energy. infection, a ginger COUGHING decoction to aid UP A STORM digestion, and Infections in the a peppermint upper respiradecoction to treat tory tract manifest flatulence. as a cold, cough ask@drshikha.com
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Photos: THINKSTOCK
MORE ON THE WEB For more columns by Dr Shikha Sharma and other wellness stories, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch APRIL 27, 2014
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COVER STORY
The First Action Heroes They became symbols of nationalism when we were fighting for Independence. Three movie projects put the spotlight back on Indian sports’ original icons by Aasheesh Sharma
Hockey’s Original He-Man
The Making Of The Magical Major Dhyan Chand Legend
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Suraiya fan who loved going on shikar. A hockey magician who conjured up scoring opportunities at will. And a patriot who turned down an offer the Führer thought he couldn’t refuse. Major Dhyan Chand was all this and then some. Now the exciting life and times of the champion are the subject of a biopic being produced by Walkwater Media’s Pooja Shetty, and directed by ad filmmaker Rohit Vaid, who makes his Bollywood debut. Sports historian K Arumugam, who runs the NGO One Thousand Hockey Legs, says Dhyan Chand was world hockey’s first He-Man. “Scoring a hat-trick of goals against Germany in an Olympics organised by Adolf Hitler has no parallel,” says Arumugam. For a moment, leave the encomiums aside. Mull over some hard facts about the hockey magician. He won an Olympic gold medal for the country in three successive Olympics – Amsterdam (1928), Los Angeles (1932) and Berlin (1936). And India never lost an international match that he played in. Ask his son, two-time Olympian Ashok Dhyan Chand, about his father and he grows nostalgic about a time when athletes played purely for the passion of the game, far removed from today’s six-figure salaries and extravagant leagues. “In 1956, we shifted to our ancestral home in Jhansi. Despite retirement from international hockey, Babuji had to work for a living since we were not financially strong. His income was used up in raising our large joint family,” recounts Ashok, who played in the centre-forward position like his illustrious father and scored the winning goal against Pakistan in the World Cup final of 1975. The brightest of Dhyan
Chand’s hockey memories, recalls Ashok, came during what came to be known as the ‘Nazi Olympics.’
Hitler and Hockey
At the Berlin Olympics, 1936, Adolf Hitler wanted to reinforce the myth about ‘Aryan’ racial superiority and physical prowess. In the hockey final against India, with the Führer in the audience, the Germans were all charged up. At half time, India was hanging on to a slender one-goal lead. “The Germans played a physical match and my father lost one tooth in a particularly hard tackle. In those days, no substitutions were allowed,” says Ashok. In the second half, the Indians played as if their lives depended on it. The team hammered in seven goals, including Dhyan Chand’s hat-trick. A stunned Hitler sat in the stands as if a cat had got his tongue. After the match, says Ashok, even as the Indian team was celebrating, the close to 50,000-strong crowd of German fans left the stadium in silence. Subsequently, Hitler offered a colonel’s rank to Dhyan Chand, provided he took up German citizenship, says Ashok. “But Babuji politely declined, saying that he was first and foremost an Indian.”
The Doting Dad
As a child, Ashok remembers how hundreds of strangers kept pouring into their Jhansi home to meet his father. “Our mother liked to read out newspaper articles about Babuji to us.” In his leisure hours, Dhyan Chand was fond of watching Hindi movies, says Ashok. “He admired movie stars Ashok Kumar and Madhubala. But he had a special place in his heart for singing star Suraiya whose life-size portrait
APRIL 27, 2014
hung in our Meerut home for years. Also, as was true for most soldiers of that time, Babuji was a passionate hunter. He liked to go on shikar in the forests near Meerut,” recalls Ashok. Although Dhyan Chand wasn’t a natural extrovert, he had his own ways of displaying affection, says Ashok. “When he came home to Jhansi on annual leave, he’d go out in the evening with his friends and on the way back, get us rabri in a large mitti ka bartan. Since many of us had fallen asleep by then, he used to wake us up and feed us rabri with a spoon with his own hands,” says his misty-eyed son. Thirty five years after Dhyan Chand’s death, his fame is still growing. Ashok recalls a visit to New Zealand, when he was part of the Indian hockey team. “We were at a restaurant in Auckland. The owner approached us and asked us whether we were from India. On confirmation she remarked, “Oh, I know Dhyan Chand!” My father had visited New Zealand in 1935. Sixty years after that, the lady, who would have been a child then, still remembered all the goals he had scored. When she realised I was Dhyan Chand’s son, she gave me an enormous hug.” Ashok says his father’s indomitable spirit and simplicity are his most valuable legacy. “He was a superstar who rode a bicycle to work even after winning Olympic gold medals. Even if the opposition targeted him (Babuji’s nose was broken many times), he never cribbed about it. He used to say: ‘Khiladi woh hai jo maar nahin khaye’. When others were sleeping in the barracks or playing cards, he used to practise alone. In my time, I followed these life lessons and they always helped me bounce back from tough times,” says Ashok.
COVER STORY
On The Trail Of Gama the Great
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He makes goals like we score runs, said Donald Bradman... In Vienna, a statue of Dhyan Chand was built with four hands because people couldn’t believe a player could play so well with just two. Known as a wizard for his outstanding ball control, the centre forward left defenders flat-footed. His birthday, August 29, is celebrated as National Sports Day
n times when spin doctors routinely anoint ordinary sportsmen as ‘great’, one exceptionally brilliant Indian wrestler can truly lay claim to the mantle. Over his long career he earned other sobriquets: Rustam-E-Zamana, the Lion of Punjab, a champion who died undefeated: the legend of Gama was built in the mud-pit akharas of the country. Actor-filmmaker Parmeet Sethi, who is directing a biopic on him featuring John Abraham, says Gama is wrestling’s forgotten hero. Joseph S Alter, professor of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of The Wrestler’s Body: Identity and Ideology in North India, says Gama embodied strength and self-determination in the years when India was struggling for independence. For more than a century, before Sushil Kumar proved India’s mettle to the world at the London Olympics in 2010, Gama’s exploits were drilled into the minds of young wrestlers, says Satpal Singh, coach of two-time Olympic medallist Sushil and Yogeshwar Dutt.
Daanv Pech Dude
In his classic book Strong Men Over The Years, which traces the history of Indian wrestling, author S Muzumdar observes that the art of Indian wrestling has many legends but no history. Gama’s biographical details are no different. Gama’s journey, part fact-part legend, begins in the bylanes of Amritsar in 1882. His father Mohammad Aziz, a renowned wrestler himself, dreamt of training his son Ghulam Mohammed aka Gama. Unfortunately, Aziz passed away when Gama was just five. The responsibility of teaching the intricacies of daanv pench fell on his uncle Ida Pahalwan. Displaying promise at a very young age, Gama found the patronage of Bhawani Singh, ruler of the princely state of Datia in Madhya Pradesh. Gama’s regimen of diet, exercise and practice, which included thousands of dand (jack-knife pushups) and baithaks (deep knee bends) was the envy of grapplers worldwide. In his heyday, or so goes the legend, Gama’s everyday meals included six chickens, 10 litres of
Photo: CORBIS
Even Bruce Lee was inspired by him... Reports say martial arts legend Bruce Lee read articles about Gama’s exercise regime and incorporated some of them, such as the Cat Stretch (an Indian version of the push-up) into his own routine
milk, half a litre of ghee and lavish quantities of almonds crushed into a strength tonic.
Golden Hour
According to Ratan Patodi, editor of the Bharatiya Kushti Patrika, Gama’s hour of glory came when he beat Stanislaus Zbyszko, one of the finest Greco-Roman style wrestlers of all time. In 1910, having beaten many other Indian wrestlers in Gwalior, Bhopal, Datia, Amritsar, Lahore and Baroda, Gama set sail for England for an international competition. “Once he reached London, weighing just 88 kilos, Gama realised he couldn’t qualify for a championship that allowed only heavyweights. So, his manager decided to throw an outrageous challenge,” says Patodi. “Gama offered £5 to any wrestler who could spend just five minutes with him in the ring,” recounts Patodi. The stage was set for the match of the century between then European champion Zbyszko and his Indian challenger. Gama’s power and lightning moves caught Zbyszko by surprise. The latter stayed in a defensive posture for three hours and the match had to be postponed, to be resumed the following day. But Zbyszko failed to turn up and Gama was presented the title of Rustam-E-Zamana. When he returned home, Gama
Gama has inspired the concept and look for the character Darun Mister, in the video game series Street Fighter EX. The character, with his trademark moustache, bears an uncanny resemblance to Gama
was hailed as a hero. But he wasn’t happy. The most satisfying feeling for a wrestler is when he has his rival’s back touching the ground. In wrestling parlance, it is known as aasman dikhana. Gama hadn’t been able to show Zbyszko the sky. He achieved that in 1928, when the Maharaja of Patiala organised a rematch between Gama and his Polish adversary. Thirsting for revenge, Zbyszko had been training hard for years. Still, he lasted less than a minute. Gama floored him in 49 seconds flat. The victory was hailed as a symbol of resurgent Indian nationalism. After Partition, Gama settled in Pakistan. In 1960, he died owing to high blood pressure and asthma. But his legend lives on in the subcontinent’s akharas. Joseph Alter calls Gama the original son of the soil. “Since his success is linked closely to his ability to wrestle in the earth, consume litre upon litre of ghee, kilo upon kilo of badam and yakhni, and do thousands of dand-bethak every day, Gama’s legacy will be one of masculine nostalgia.”
APRIL 27, 2014
Photo courtesy: THE HINDU
The Pahalwan From Punjab
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SEASON OF BIOPICS
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Why Bollywood is seeking inspiration from the real stories of yesteryear sporting icons
Stick Wizard
Aarti Shetty, Walkwater Media’s creative director, on their movie on Dhyan Chand
Photo courtesy: MOHUN BAGAN FOOTBALL CLUB
Th exploded They xploded the myth that Englishmen were th unbeatable...
Barefoot In Bengal
When We Beat The British At Their Game
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f Shah Rukh Khan had to give a pep talk to 11 barefoot ‘natives’ taking on a team of fierce professional firangi football players, he might have said: “Pachas minute! The next 50 minutes will turn you into Indian football’s first action heroes.” But in hindsight, few of the 80,000 fans thronging the Calcutta Cricket and Football Club maidan to watch the Indian Football Association (IFA) Shield final on July 29, 1911 would have had any inkling about how the triumph would go on to inspire generations of Indians. For the record, Mohun Bagan beat the East Yorkshire Regiment 2-1, igniting Bengal’s love affair with football. Now the magic of the victory is being recreated in a movie being directed by Shoojit Sircar where John Abraham plays Sibdas Bhaduri, the winning captain. We all know that football fascinates Bengalis like no other sport does. Of course, most aficionados have heard the saying by Swami Vivekananda: “You’ll be nearer to heaven playing football than studying the Bhagavad Gita.” But when a Bengali insists that the 1911 IFA victory triggered an avalanche of ferment that made the British shift the capital from Calcutta to Delhi within months of the loss, you’d better not argue with him. In the days of the Raj, football in Bengal was played only by British personnel, says Kolkata-based
football historian Subranshu Roy. “Only one local team was allowed in the IFA Shield,” adds Roy, who is doing a PhD on football at Jadavpur University.
Day of reckoning
For the final between Mohun Bagan and the East Yorkshire Regiment, thousands flocked to the Calcutta Maidan. Since many in the audience were away from the action, people in the front rows communicated the score by flying kites. That evening, the sky above Calcutta turned green and maroon (the hues of the Bagan jersey) as hundreds of kites flew proudly, declaring that the colonialists had been beaten at their own game. The 1911 victory came three years after the execution of Khudiram Bose and six years after Bengal’s partition. In his acclaimed book Stories from Indian Football, senior sports journalist Jaydeep Basu says Bagan’s triumph created an unprecedented stir in the people’s psyche. “For the Bengalees, it was like taking revenge for all the injustice they had been subjected to since Robert Clive wrested their country in the Battle of Plassey in a treacherous manner,” he writes in the book.
Religion No Bar
Football expert Novy Kapadia, author of Kick-Off! The Football Fanatic’s Essential 2014 Guide, says
APRIL 27, 2014
For the football final, fans came from as far as Assam and Bihar. East Indian Railway ran a train from Burdwan to Howrah as well as a special steamer service The Englishman newspaper wrote: “Mohun Bagan has succeeded in what the Congress and the Swadeshiwallas failed to do: explode the myth that the Britishers are unbeatable in any sphere of life.”
the win was the first ever for an Indian team against any international opponent. “So it cut across religious affiliations. Members of the Muslim Sporting Club went to the Bagan tent to congratulate them that night. The Urdu newspaper The Mussalman wrote, ‘Members of the Muslim Sporting Club were ... rolling on the ground with joyous excitement on the victory of their Hindu brethren.’” In a paper on sports as the catalyst of nationalism in colonial India, in the journal Quarterly Review of Historical Studies, Professor Sumit Mukerji from West Bengal’s University of Kalyani avers that the myth that the Bengalis were lacking in martial quality stood exploded with the triumph. At the time it happened, the victory, adds sports historian Boria Majumdar, symbolised the brand of nationalism being practised in Bengal. “Given the revolutionary terrorism spreading in the state from 1905 leading up to the capital being shifted from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911, the victory was the best way to spread the message of moderate nationalism, without their boots on,” says Majumdar. aasheesh.sharma@hindustantimes.com Follow @aasheesh74 on Twitter
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Indian hockey’s greatest legend will soon be seen on celluloid, says Aarti Shetty. “Films based on real life heroes, which have inspirational content, generate a lot of interest among the audience,” says Shetty. The producers chose Dhyan Chand because they were impressed by his larger-than-life persona. “He had an amazing life and we have a team of people researching every aspect. Writer Ila Bedi Dutta (of Agneepath fame) is writing the story while ad filmmaker Rohit Vaid, who has been closely following the life of Major Dhyan Chand, will direct it. We agreed to go ahead with the project after getting clearances from his family.”
Mat-Man Returns Parmeet Sethi on directing John Abraham as Gama
Four years after Badmaash Company, actor-filmmaker Parmeet Sethi is donning the director’s cap for a biopic on the life of Gama Pahalwan. “I was looking to make something that would be a step higher than my last, a commercial film. I thought of looking at real life stories of forgotten heroes and began reading about them. While doing my research, I came across the story of Gama, who was such a fabulous wrestler, but today, unfortunately, no one knows much about the achievements of this great man.” After researching the man and working on the script, Sethi narrated the idea to producer John Abraham, who immediately agreed not just to produce the film but also to play the title role. Calling the project a pleasure and a challenge, Sethi wants to make the film look as authentic as possible.
Going for Goal
Shoojit Sircar, director, 1911, on the magic of Mohun Bagan Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar, who has worked with actorproducer John Abraham on Vicky Donor and Madras Café is now hoping for a hat-trick with a film on football. Written by Soumik Sen, who has also directed the gritty Gulaab Gang, the story centres on the legendary barefoot members of the Mohun Bagan football team. “The National Library in Kolkata is a great resource for research on the subject,” says Sen. Sircar says the film will be set against the backdrop of the nationalist movement that had gripped Bengal at that time. “Football was more than a game at that point in history. I’ll devote a considerable portion of the film to the sentiments of patriotism that the victory evoked.” —Veenu Singh
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But Malala has also been criticised as being the West’s “PR machinery”.
‘I was captivated by Malala from the moment I met her’
Malala is standing up for education for girls and boys. There are 60 million children not in school at the moment. I can’t see why what she’s standing up for should be controversial. I find it sad that people respond like that.
Are you and Malala close – have you become somewhat of a mentor over the months?
Christina Lamb, the British journalist who co-wrote I Am Malala, the memoir of Malala Yousafzai, talks about the 16-year-old hero by Saudamini Jain
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ALALA YOUSAFZAI is the bravest girl in the whole world – and also possibly the most famous. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last year (and has been awarded several international honours), she campaigns for women’s education worldwide and celebrities fawn all over her. Her memoir, I Am Malala, published last year was an instant bestseller. It began in 2009. Malala, then an 11-year-old schoolgirl in Pakistan’s Swat Valley began writing a blog about being a schoolgirl in Swat (where girls’ education was banned and which had become a Taliban stronghold) for BBC Urdu. After her BBC diary ended, she continued to speak up – often on television – advocating women’s education. Until one day, in October 2012, Malala was shot by a Talib in her school bus. She and her family moved to England, where she was treated for her injuries (her skull was reconstructed and her hearing restored). And she became a world-renowned activist. Back in 2009, journalist Christina Lamb (a British foreign correspondent, known for her extensive coverage of Pakistan and Afghanistan) had interviewed Malala’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, a peace activist and educationist in Swat. “At the time, I Photo: GETTY IMAGES
BRUNCH DATE
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knew nothing about Malala,” she said. When she was contacted to do the book, Lamb was hesitant. “But I was completely captivated by her from the moment I met her,” she said. We met Christina Lamb at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai last month to talk about what it was like hearing Malala. Excerpts from the interview:
What was interviewing Malala like?
It’s rare to have the opportunity to sit with one girl, one family and just listen to their story of what it was like as the Taliban moved into their area and started taking over, killing people and coming closer and closer. And hearing Malala describe the fear of going to school when girls’ schools were banned and going secretly, books hidden under her shawl, wondering every moment if somebody was going jump out. It was
incredibly chilling and compelling. We did interviews over a period of months at her house in Birmingham. I stayed with her and her family. And she was only 15; but those 15 years had been a time of tremendous change in Pakistan [Musharraf taking over, the effects of the 9/11 attack, Taliban’s incursion into Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto’s assassination]. And I was very familiar with that change because I’d gone back and forth in those years. But to see it through a child’s eyes growing up and how the country was changing was very interesting. I also went to Pakistan and talked to people at her school, in her village, saw her old house and met her friends.
So what made her different from her friends – other girls in the Swat?
When I went to her school in Pakistan, the girls in her class were all very eloquent and opinionated. One of them said to me, “We could have all been Malalas but our parents would have never let us speak, not publicly anyway, like she did.”
(Laughs) I’m not sure Malala needs a mentor. She very much knows her own her mind. We became very close. She talked to me about most intimate things. She and her family have become good friends of me and my family. It was one of the nicest things – not only did we have a book but I have a lifelong friendship. Yes, she comes from a very different background. But she’s very unusual and very open and interested in everything. She’d gone to an English medium school, read lots of English books and so she was well-aware of the culture outside and I had spent more of my adult life in Pakistan than in my own country and so I understood her culture, and where she was coming from.
She has been receiving so much global attention, has that affected her in any way?
One of the amazing things about Malala is that though she’s always got tremendous global attention (gifts from celebrities and heads of state she’s met), she seems, so far, completely unaffected... She’s from a very close family. Her brothers tease her – her youngest brother says to her, “You know, what have you actually done?”
What are you working on next?
I’m doing another book on Afghanistan – how we got into this situation. I covered the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan in ’89 and I never imagined I’d be covering another withdrawal (of my own country).
Her Story Touched Every Heart ■ In 2012, Madonna dedicated her song Human Nature to Malala at a concert ■ Bono sent Malala an iPod loaded with his songs (But Malala, a Justin Bieber fan, had no idea who U2 were!)
■ Last July, Beyoncé instagrammed a photo wishing Malala a happy birthday ■ Last November, Lady Gaga wished that Glamour magazine’s cover that month, which featured her, had been
APRIL 27, 2014
Saudamini.jain@hindustantimes.com Follow @SaudaminiJain on twitter
devoted to Malala instead ■ This month, celebrities including Selena Gomez and Orlando Bloom recited Malala’s story for the We Are Silent campaign to fight extremism and oppression ■ The United Nations has declared November 10 ‘Malala Day’ worldwide.
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The Boss Is Back L Bruce Springsteen’s new album, American Beauty, with its classic rock and roll flavour, is just what you need if you’ve been stressed at work
AST WEEK, in the middle of a particularly hectic phase at work, Bruce Springsteen came to my aid. Just as long hours and frayed tempers were threatening to take their toll on my sanity came the announcement that the Boss was dropping a new EP with four never-before-released songs. The EP’s called American Beauty (I know that the use of that title could seem like blasphemy to many Deadheads, but never mind). As I write this, one single from American Beauty has been streaming all over the Internet. It’s called Hurry Up Sundown and it’s a classic rock and roll track, upbeat, lyrically direct and quintessentially Springsteen-esque: just what the doctor ordered if you’ve been stressed out at work. By the time you read this, Springsteen’s new EP would be out (it’s a vinyl-only launch but I’m pretty sure the ripped tracks are on a site near you!) and if Hurry Up Sundown is any indicator, it’s an album that is a must-have. Here’s a snatch of the lyrics on the single that I heard: It’s the end of another working day/Come on and pack your blues away/Change your clothes; we’ll go for a ride/To the other side. No prizes for guessing why that song took care of my work-related stress. Springsteen has played every instrument on the new studio album. It is a straightforward rock album, except for the drums, on which he has enlisted John Freese, sessions drummer who’s played on two American
Sanjoy Narayan
download central WORKING-CLASS STORIES
The Hold Steady’s (above) music has a bar-room feel and a penchant for stories about the lives of working class characters, as heard on their latest album, Teeth Dreams
bands — Devo and Nine Inch Nails. American Beauty will be a Springsteen record that the Boss’s legions of fans around the world will be looking forward to, particularly since it has new previously unreleased songs. Last January’s High Hopes was a good album but all of the songs on it were either outtakes or new versions of old Bruce Springsteen songs and, in a way, a bit underwhelming. American Beauty promises to be quite different. Springsteen’s brand of American Heartland rock, with its classic sound and lyrics that are simple and direct, has been a big hit with large audiences, but especially with the blue-collar strata, a demographic that is also the core for another more contemporary band, The Hold Steady. The band from Brooklyn has a bar-room feel to its music and a penchant for story-telling about the lives, travails and tribulations of working class characters. After listening to the single new track from Springsteen, which did a lot for my stress but not enough, I turned to The Hold Steady’s latest album, Teeth Dreams: 10 songs; gritty lyrics made grittier by frontman Craig Finn’s vocals and his trademark narrative style of singing; and the seedy characters and hairy situations that familiarly pop up in the songs. The Brooklyn band references Minneapolis in most of its albums, perhaps because Finn is originally from Minnesota and spent his formative years there. The Hold Steady has a catalogue of six studio albums of which I like 2005’s Separation Sunday the most. That’s where I got acquainted
APRIL 27, 2014
FROM THE HOUSE OF BOSS
American Beauty (left) will be a Springsteen record that the Boss’s legions of fans around the world will be looking forward to, particularly since it has new previously unreleased songs with Finn’s cast of unsavoury, druggy and delinquent characters and the stories that swirled involving them. Finn’s vocals are something that need getting used to and I’ve come across people who’ve tried and given up. But, speaking for myself, in his rough-edged, nasally-delivered style there is something rather appealing. On the new album, Finn doesn’t spring any major surprises. He and his band stick to what works for them — songs about intriguing characters and what they’re up to. On Big Cig, the lyrics begin with She says she always smoked cigarettes/ Ever since she was seven/She always likes the big ones best/You get more for your money. And then goes on to: Some nights she’s a scientist/She pulls me into experiments/Squeezes hard and/ Charts the forward progress. You get the drift. But amidst The Hold Steady’s boozy sound and edgy lyrics, which actually are the best things about their music, you can find other gems. On Teeth Dreams, I found myself listening a lot to Almost Everything, which, among other things talks about, well, band life: The bus it rolled up into Franklin at dawn and everything seemed super slo-mo/ The Waffle House waitress that asked us we were Pink Floyd/ Sat in the back of the theater just drinking and talking/ About movies and Krishna and hardcore and Jesus and joy. Nice and stress-busting. Download Central appears 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
Photo: THINKSTOCK
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The ‘New’ Social NeTwork How to share a secret without anyone knowing where it is coming from
The views expressed by the columnist are personal
BARE IT ALL
Another app, Yik Yak, lets you share your secrets
HAVE YOU HEARD?
Secret is an app that has made sharing anonymous secrets into a true art form
app screen. The app also eschews a user interface for a vertical scrolling feed that has secrets pouring in from your friends and friends of friends. You’ll read them, be shocked and awed, but not know who the secret is from. Each secret has its “Nike abandons the Fuelband Fitness Tracker and lays off own look and artwork and a heart and commost of its people from its hardware division” ment icon. Like it and it’ll spread to others in your network, they’ll like it and it will HE NEWS is shocking but what is even more shockmove to their network of friends and the ing is that I knew about this almost 20 days before secret will spread across the world. Pretty it made the headlines. It wasn’t from a friend who much real life without a face and a name to it. worked at Nike, nor any of my contacts in Silicon WHAT IT REALLY IS Do remember, this isn’t suddenly going to become your very own personal WikiLeaks, cusValley; it came on a social app from a friend who told me tomised for you with amazing secrets pouring in. Anyabout it secretly. The only difference: I didn’t know who that one can post anything and the anonymity helps boost the friend was! This was the ultimate way to tell a big secret – quantity of things people post. Thus you’ll start off with a nameless, unidentified and completely invisible. healthy dose of just gossipy, salacious stuff. Also, as it’s deA NEW WORLD Welcome to the anonymous network, a pendent on your friends putting in things, Secret right now works best if a large set of your friends have it installed. But slowly, it’ll pick up pace and Rajiv Makhni have all the juicy stuff lined up for you as you use it for a while. PLAYING DEVIL’S ADVOCATE So, let’s get the one part out of the way that I know I’m going to get flamed for. Am I advocating and promoting an app which may be a breeding ground for malicious personal attacks, unfounded rumours and offensive comments? Well, if the kind of people that talk about stuff like that are people new world that is taking the world by storm. you call your friends, maybe a rumour-spreadAnd the app that is spearheading this new ing app is not your biggest problem! On a seriway of communicating is Secret. On this ous note, the app has quite a few safeguards app, a few days ago, had popped up the inforbuilt in including filtering, asking you to be mation that the Fuelband division was going think before you post if you use someone’s to shut down as Nike was getting out of the name and a very strict offensive flagging policy. fitness tracker business. Just like any outlandSecret is a robust environment that replicates a ish secret told to you by an anonymous source, real slice of life. David Byttow, one of the people I had dismissed it as purple smoke blown up by behind the app, calls it a “masquerade ball, where some disgruntled competitor. But lo and behold, you know who is there and who is on the list, but no it actually happened! And with that came new one can see faces”. respect for what may well be the next revolution MORE APPS THAT CAN DO THE SAME: Secret GHOST in social networking. has become quite addictive, a huge hit all over the HUMAN NATURE We all have things pent up with- WHISPERER world and has already been the source of numerin, we all have information that is too hot to not tell Whisper, like ous leaks, undisclosed facts and previews to what Secret, works others. And we all have gossip that must be set free would become the headline a few days later. It has on the whole for it to spread its wings and soar. But we don’t let anonymity angle brought back people who had gone off Facebook all this out. We keep it within as we cannot afford to and other social networks, and has people scrolling have our name associated with it. That’s where techfuriously at lunch breaks and coffee shops. Secret nology, a slightly malicious bent of mind, good coding and isn’t the only app that can achieve this singular anonymity anonymous networking apps come in. Here’s why the next magic, there are others like Whisper and Yik Yak that also big thing in tech may well be an app that has made sharing do almost the same thing but execute it differently. It’s beanonymous secrets into a true art form. come such a epidemic that a few weeks ago when the Secret RADICALLY DIFFERENT Secret is an app that seems to servers were down, a lot of people didn’t know what to do have been designed from the ground-up by people who truly with their day. I would urge you to install each of them and know how secret sharing works in the real world. Download give them a try. After all, I need more people on my invisible the app and it doesn’t ask you to assign yourself a usernetwork to bring in more juicy stuff. It’s also a great outlet name or handle, as there isn’t one for anybody. You don’t for all those things festering inside you and a great escape friend anyone, you don’t follow anyone and you don’t invite for all those things you really know. anyone. The app looks up your contact list and builds your Let the secret sharing begin. As we know, Suzanne Colnetwork, except they don’t know it and neither do you. lins, the author of the Hunger Games trilogy, wrote, “Some It’s all very hush-hush by design as no one is really supsecrets are too delicious not to share”. Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget posed to tell the others that they use Secret. That’s pretty Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3 much it. Right after, secrets will start appearing on your
T
techilicious
MORE ON THE WEB For previous Tech columns, log on to hindustantimes.com/ brunch. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at twitter. com/RajivMakhni
twitter.com/HTBrunch
APRIL 27, 2014
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Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK AND THINKSTOCK
TO EACH HIS OWN
The spicy tom yum is the most commonly ordered soup at Thai restaurants all over the world
Soup Kitchen Vir Sanghvi
rude food Most Indians order sweet corn soup at a Chinese restaurant and tom yum in a Thai place. But while the former is not a real Chinese dish, the latter is a genuine, authentic Thai soup
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MORE ON THE WEB For more columns by Vir Sanghvi, log on to hindustantimes. com/brunch The views expressed by the columnist are personal
HAT SOUP do you order when you go to a Chinese restaurant? And what do you order at a Thai restaurant? Don’t think too hard about this one because I suspect I already know the answer. Something like 90 per cent of all Indians order some variation of sweet corn soup when they go to a Chinese restaurant. If they are vegetarians, then it is plain sweet corn. If they fancy themselves as gourmets, then it’s sweet corn soup with crab meat. And if they are Punjabis, they order sweet corn soup with chicken. The pattern at Thai restaurants is nearly as predictable. Almost everyone who goes to a Thai place orders the same soup: tom yum. This hot, sour and spicy soup is such a favourite that it also allows for many variations. Vegetarians can order the mushroom version. (Actually, vegetarians should not be ordering tom yum soup at all but we will come to that later.) Sophisticates can order the version with prawns, which is probably the most common expression of the soup. And yes, there is a chicken version for people who are not feeling particularly adventurous. But while it is tempting to talk about tom yum and sweet corn in the same breath, there is actually one important
APRIL 27, 2014
difference: tom yum is a real Thai soup. You will find delicious variations on the same basic theme in different parts of Thailand. It is also the most commonly ordered soup at Thai restaurants all over the world. In fact, the flavour of tom yum (‘chilli-lime’ in chef speak) has become a metaphor for the distinctive nature of Thai cuisine. You will find tom yum flavoured potato chips at many American grocery stores and tom yum flavoured peanuts make a great accompaniment to drinks. The sweet corn soup we have in India, on the other hand, is not a real Chinese soup. Oh yes, there is a sweet corn soup in the south-west of China but it is not really anything like the version we get here. In fact, sweet corn soup as we know it is one of those made-up dishes (like American chop suey) that was created in the early part of the twentieth century when poor Chinese immigrants to the US opened little restaurants serving inexpensive meals. They used sweet corn – a new-world vegetable which is not native to China – because it cost very little and was easy to find in America. The taste of sweet corn was a familiar one for most Americans so it made Chinese food seem less alien to their palates. When did sweet corn soup reach India and why did it become so popular? I have asked many of the old restaurateurs why they put it on their menus but have failed to get any satisfactory answers. All they will say is that it was always a restaurant dish, one the Chinese community in Calcutta or Bombay never really ate at home. My theory is that the first Chinese restaurants in India had very little to do with real Chinese cuisine. They simply followed the lead of AmericanChinese restaurants. The American-Chinese had devised their own menus taking the principles of Cantonese cooking, throwing out most of the high-cost meats, simplifying the flavours and focusing on noodles, vegetables and rice because they were cheap and filling. (That accounts for the global popularity of chop suey, chow mein or fried rice). Corn is not native to India either. But, even in the 1940s, it was easy enough to buy cans of sweet corn kernels. So Calcutta’s Chinese community probably improvised on the original American-Chinese recipe by making a simple soup out of canned corn. The point of the soup anyway, was that it had very little flavour. Guests were encouraged to add soy sauce, chilli sauce and even chopped green chillies in vinegar according to their own tastes. Part of the fun of ordering sweet corn soup was to get a thick golden broth
FAMILIAR TASTE
Poor Chinese immigrants used sweet corn at their little restaurants because it cost very little and was easy to find in America
hindustantimes.com/brunch
at the table and to then, like some hungry Picasso, change the colour by adding black (soy sauce), red (chilli sauce) or whatever. When the soup was served with chicken or crab, all that the chef did was add a little pre-boiled shredded chicken breast or crab meat to the bowl of soup before it went out of the kitchen. The tom yum story is not so simple. It is to Thai food what chicken curry is to India. Every region has its own variations. The flavours can vary: in the north it is much spicier than elsewhere. So can the ingredients. In the south, near the Andaman Sea, it is common to put large prawns into the soup. And the herbs that are an integral part of the taste also vary from region to region depending on the local produce. At any good Thai restaurant, they will make tom yum from scratch. The classic recipe requires you (skip this para if you are a strict vegetarian) to take the brains out of the prawns and to gently sauté them to give the soup its base. These days however partly for reasons of convenience and partly because of the yuck factor, most chefs just make a prawn stock. Once that’s done, they add the complex mixture of spices and herbs (garlic, makroot leaves, lemon grass, Thai galangal etc) that gives the soup its distinctive taste. At many restaurants, however, they can’t be bothered to make the soup from scratch. Instead they fall back on ready made tom yum pastes or stock cubes. This may sound horrifying, but the truth is that even in Thailand more and more people are depending on store-bought pastes, masalas and cubes for their cooking. If they want classic Thai cuisine with freshly ground pastes then they go out to restaurants. So there is nothing wrong with using a readymade paste or a cube. Speaking for myself, I make tom yum at home all the time. I use a readymade stock cube, but instead of adding water I add a light stock of fish or chicken made with cubes. Then I put in whatever I can find: stalks of lemon grass, garlic cloves, dried makroot leaves, mushrooms, galangal, prawns, chicken etc. The great thing about doing vegetable shopping in India these days is that all of these ingredients are readily available. They will probably cancel my Thai visa after they read this, but I find that even if you put unusual ingredients (chopped asparagus, baby corn, even sliced Chinese sausage!) the basic flavour of tom yum is so strong is that it works with everything. Which leaves us with the vegetarian problem. In Thailand even those vegetarians who will not eat fish do not object if fish flavourings are used: fish stock, oyster sauce, fish sauce etc. Most Thai food does not get its saltiness from salt. Instead Thais prefer nam pla, a sauce made from fish which can be a little smelly on its own but is delicious when you add it to food. The problem is that nearly every
readymade Thai paste or cube will have some nam pla in it. Vegetarians don’t always notice (but then they don’t notice that Worcester sauce is made with anchovies either and that every Bloody Mary is non-vegetarian by definition) but it is nearly impossible to find pre-packaged vegetarian Thai food. I asked Ananda Solomon what he did at Thai Pavilion. Naturally, he makes all his own pastes from scratch and no cubes or packets are allowed into his kitchen. Ananda says that if you are a passionate cook then real tom yum is easy enough to make. As for vegetarians, he doesn’t see the problem. At Thai Pavilion they don’t use fish sauce for vegetarians but rely on soy. For his tom yum, he uses a vegetarian stock instead of the prawn stock that is normally part of the dish. I got Ananda to give me his tom yum recipe but I guess you can find similar recipes on the net. What you won’t find however is his secret vegetable stock recipe, which I finally prised out of him. Use it and you will never miss a meat or fish stock again when you make Asian food. As for sweet corn soup, I won’t waste your time with a recipe. (How would it go anyway? “Open one can of sweet corn...). It is easy enough to order sweet corn soup from any takeaway. It is such a basic dish that whether you eat it at your neighbourhood Chinese dhaba or at the House of Ming, there won’t be much difference in quality. So if you like cooking, challenge yourself. Make a good tom yum instead!
Tom yum is to Thai food what chicken curry is to India. Every region has its variations
Vegetable Stock For Tom Yum
1500 ml water, 100 gm onion, 100 gm carrots, 50 gm tomatoes, 4 green chillies, leftover coriander, makroot leaves strings, stalks of makroot, 100 gm of white raddish
In a pot let all the above ingredients simmer for an hour, strain and use as required.
Tom Yum Goong (Central Plains)
1300 gm prawns/shrimps, shelled and deveined (with shell reserved), 1000 ml of water, 4
garlic cloves minced, 6 kaffir lime leaves, 4 thinly sliced galangal (ginger), 50 ml fish sauce (nam pla), 3 stalks lemon grass/citronella sliced thin, 30 gm straw mushrooms, 4 shallots sliced, 4 Thai chilli peppers, 60 ml lime juice, 30 gm black chilli paste, 20 gm chopped coriander. n Rinse the prawn shells and place them in a
pot with water. Heat to boil on a slow flame and strain the stock.
n Add garlic, lime leaves, galangal, fish
sauce and lemon grass to the stock, then add the shallots and chili pepper. Cook for about five minutes. n Add the shrimp/prawns to the soup, simmer. Remove from stove, add lemon juice, black chilli paste and coriander leaves and serve. Recipes courtesy: Ananda Soloman, Thai Pavilion, Mumbai
APRIL 27, 2014
SUIT YOUR TASTE!
The point of the sweet corn soup was that it had very little flavour. Guests were encouraged to add soy sauce, chilli sauce and even chopped green chillies in vinegar according to their own tastes
CHEAP AND FILLING
The American-Chinese devised their own menus taking the principles of Cantonese cooking, throwing out most of the high cost meats, simplifying the flavours and focusing on noodles (above), vegetables and rice (below)
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Photos: GETTY IMAGES
The SubSTance Of STyle A How do some people get to be so stylish, without even trying?
S YOU may have noticed, last week HT City gave out its annual Style Awards. The list was eclectic as always, ranging from artists (Anjolie Ela Menon), politicians (Jay Panda and his wife, Jaggi), television producers (Ekta Kapoor), TV anchors (Shereen Bhan), advertising professionals (Swapan Seth), film stars (Akshay Kumar, Sharmila Tagore) to a police officer (Hargovinder ‘Harry’ Singh Dhaliwal). But what united all of the recipients was one single theme: none of them could understand why he/she had been chosen for a style award in the first place! All of them expressed themselves with varying degrees of bemusement (and some bewilderment). I don’t even possess a single designer garment, said one. I never ever go shopping for clothes; my mother does all my shopping for me, said another. I live in my jeans; my clothes are made by my local darzi; I wear chappals all the time; the disclaimers
Seema Goswami
spectator
MY FAVOURITE
Arvind Kejriwal has singlehandedly popularised the Gandhi topi and muffler look
MORE ON THE WEB For more SPECTATOR columns by Seema Goswami, log on to hindustantimes.com/ brunch. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ seemagoswami. Write to her at seema_ ht@ rediffmail.com The views expressed by the columnist are personal
came loud and fast, tripping over one another as each awardee tried to explain why they didn’t deserve a style award (but were very happy to receive it all the same). As I sat listening, all I could think of was that these modest denials showed such a fundamental misunderstanding of what constitutes style. But first off, let’s establish what style is most assuredly not about: ■ It is not about wearing designer clothes. Any idiot can walk into a designer store and buy up everything in sight (and alas, too many do just that) in the hope that it will make them look stylish. It won’t. They will just look like people who have too much money and not enough confidence in their own taste (hence the top-to-toe designer labels). ■ It is not about being a slave to the seasonal diktats of high fashion. All that establishes is that you have money to burn and time to spare. After all, how else could you update your wardrobe every three-four months, changing your look as often as shops change their window dressing? But remaining au fait with the trends is not all it takes to remain trendy. ■ It is not about buying expensive things. You can buy the latest It Bag, pile on the jew-
AGEING WITH GRACE
Meryl Streep has cracked the code of how an actress of a certain age should dress APRIL 27, 2014
Photo: NEW YORK TIMES
THEY DO IT RIGHT!
Deepika Padukone (right) wears her clothes rather than allowing them to wear her and Shah Rukh Khan (left) can even make man cleavage work ellery, slip into the priciest shoes in the market, flaunt the flashiest sunglasses. But unless you have a good eye and a good idea of what works for you, style will always escape you. You may look fashionable but you won’t look stylish. So, what does style consist of ? What makes a person truly stylish? Well, let me count the ways. ■ The confidence to be completely comfortable in his/her own skin. We all know people like this in our own lives. They can slip on a simple white kurta-pyjama and an indigo-dyed dupatta, accessorise with Kolhapuri chappals and a jhola, and look more perfectly put together than that woman in a designer salwar kameez and a Louis Vuitton bag. These are the kind of people who can rock a pair of blue jeans, exude glamour in a simple cotton sari, and look as elegant in sportswear as they do in formal togs. ■ The ability to ignore fashion when it is doing you no favours. Jeggings may be all the rage, but if your legs are not your best feature, you may be better off in a crinkled skirt. Crop tops may be ‘in’ but if your stomach is ‘out’ it may be wise to step away from that shelf. If in doubt, try it on and stand in front of the mirror. If the question, “Does my bum/stomach look big in this?” pops into your head, the outfit is not for you. ■ The knowledge of what works for you; and to work with it. ■ The talent to create a strong individual look, and stick with it through thick and thin. So, who qualifies as stylish in accordance with the criteria listed above? Or, to put it another way, who would win the Style Award if I were the only one making the decisions? Well, the entire list is too long to fit here but these are some names that would surely feature: Meryl Streep, who has cracked the code of how an actress of a certain age should dress; Christina Hendricks, who makes the most of her curves without worrying about what the stick insects of the fashion world are up to; Deepika Padukone, who wears her clothes rather than allowing them to wear her; Shah Rukh Khan, who can even make man cleavage work; Omar Abdullah, who can look beyond the usual politician staple of khadi kurta-pyjama. And how could I forget my own personal favourite: Arvind Kejriwal, who has single-handedly popularised the Gandhi-topi-and-muffler look. Long may his version of air-hostess chic rule!
VARIETY
Don’t FEAR The Sun
Sunscreen is not a cosmetic, it’s your shield against damage, ageing and even cancer – but only if you use it right, say experts by Sonali Shah
B
Y NOW, you probably know you should be using sunscreen. But here’s what’s worrying dermatologists – most Indians aren’t using sunscreen right. As brownskinned Indians, we’re already at an advantage. The high content of the pigment melanin in our cells protects us from ultra-violet radiation better than white skin.
Our skins, at least for the darker among us, are less likely to show cancer-indicating melanomas over time. But sun exposure still puts us at risk for sunburn, tan, freckles, premature wrinkles and patchy pigmentation. So we still need sunscreen. This includes men too; their skin is just as vulnerable. Here’s how to do it right...
Photo: IMAGESBAZAAR
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WHAT TO BUY
THE NUMBERS GAME: MORE ISN’T BETTER No, higher SPF is not better. “Sunscreen with SPF 15 or 30 is only marginally different from that with SPF 90 or 100,” says Dr Apratim Goel, dermatologist and laser surgeon at Mumbai’s Cutis Skin Studio. “While SPF 15 blocks a whopping 93 per cent of UV radiation, you’d be surprised to know that SPF 30 blocks 97 per cent, and SPF 50, 98.”
Most customers fall for the higher number indicated on the bottle – a marketing phenomenon known as SPF creep – and end up paying more for only a marginal increase in protection. “The ideal SPF for Indian skin is 26,” Goel says. “I recommend using a sunscreen with SPF 30, as we usually end up applying less than required.”
WHAT ABOUT SUNSCREEN + SPF MAKEUP?
While higher SPF isn’t much better, combining two products in the hope of better protection doesn’t work either. So if your sunscreen already has SPF 30, an added
layer of makeup, which advertises SPF 15 doesn’t mean a combined protection of 45. It just means that the protection in your makeup is redundant.
FOLLOW IT TO THE LETTER, TO UVA++ There’s still one instance when you should believe the marketing. SPF is only an indicator for UVB (shortwave), not UVA (longwave), another component that is more
harmful. “So a sunscreen that contains UVA++ is good to use, and one with TPI [Tan Protection Index, which also protects against tanning] is better.”
HOW TO USE YOUR SUNSCREEN sunscreen a daily habit not just for the summer but all year round – even the monsoon. “You can’t see the sun in the monsoon, but the sun can see you!” says Dr Swati Shrivastava, a dermatologist at VLCC.
WHEN YOU SHOULD APPLY IT Dr Goel recommends making sunscreen a part of your morning routine. “Store the bottle in your bathroom and apply it out of habit each morning after a shower – that’s what I do,” Dr Goel says.
This ensures not only that you’ve put some on each day, but also that you give the cream ample time to settle as most sunscreens need about 15 minutes on the skin before they can get to work.
THE CORRECT WAY TO REPLENISH
Because the effects of one application of sunscreen typically last for two to three hours, most doctors also recommend that you reapply often, particularly if you plan to be out in the sun for long periods. “If you’re in a dusty area, first wipe off the existing cream
with cleansing wipes and only then reapply,” says Dr Goel. “Otherwise you end up pushing the dust further into the skin, blocking the pores.” Use up the product within the expiry date, as most sunscreens lose their power to fight UV rays after a period of time.
USE OTHER LAYERS OF PROTECTION TOO
Along with sunscreen, Dr Shrivastava also recommends simple physical blocks which form an opaque layer over your body. Think umbrellas, sun-coats, scarves, hats and full-sleeved
garments. The American Skin Cancer foundation says that a standard white T-shirt offers about SPF 7, but darker colours, being more opaque, are better at keeping UV rays out.
NO SUNSCREEN? HERE’S A QUICK FIX If you’ve run out of cream and need to step out, just reach for your talcum powder. “Talc contains zinc and zinc is also protection,” says Dr Shrivastava. “On days you miss
the sunscreen, simply dust your face and arms with talc, or apply make-up, as that too is a protective layer over the skin.” brunchletters@hindustantimes.com
DEFENCE AGENT HOW MUCH: The size of your fingertip is the right amount of sunscreen on the face for a single application. But there’s no such thing as too much sunscreen. IN THE POOL: Water dissolves sunscreen in 20 minutes, so reapply accordingly, or, recommends Dr
Goel, apply sunscreen one hour prior to entering the pool. WHICH TYPE: Gel sunscreens are better absorbed in the skin and are ideal for swimmers and on acne-prone skin.
THE RIGHT ROUTINE
It’s not what you use, it’s also how you use it. Most dermatologists recommend you apply liberally over all areas of skin that will be exposed to sunlight – overlooked areas like the ears and the back of the neck included. And make
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TRAVEL
W
HERE IS Taiwan? Don’t look for it at teatime, munching khari biscuits over the Reader’s Digest World Atlas as I did the summer I was 11. All it takes is one spilled crumb to cover the island just off the south-east coast of China, hiding it from view, making you wonder if it even exists. Taiwan is seriously tiny. At 36,193 square kilometres, it is smaller than the NCR and less than four per cent the area of China. It has its own constitution, president, armed forces, flag, anthem and currency. But the UN (including India) sees Taiwan as a part of China. Taiwan’s official name is Republic of China. I visited Taiwan for only a week, but it was enough to tell the difference. If China is like a dramatic, sometimes disagreeable, monologue; Taiwan is like a well-crafted tweet – newer and as complex, but poetic in its brevity. And the Taiwanese are nothing like their insular (often sullen) cousins from the mainland.
Treasure Island Tiny Taiwan is big on surprises. And a warm-hearted, industrious population is the biggest one of them all by Rachel Lopez
SEE AND BE SEEN
Of course, if you’re young and female, you’re already at an advantage. In smaller cities like Puli, Nantou and Hualien, you’re as much a thing of wonder to Taiwan as Taiwan is to you. Octogenarian uncles will do a slow 180-degree turn to keep you in their line of sight as you walk past on the street. Middle-aged women at grocery stores in Kaohsiung who speak no English will eloquently gesture that you have a pretty face. Teens at trendy shops in Taipei’s Shilin market will smilingly check out what you’re wearing too. It’s easy to be a visitor here. English-language signs are everywhere, though some are a little odd – one plaque placed at a viewing platform at Taroko National Park simply said ‘Beware Of ’. Not that the Taiwanese are paranoid. Every hotel, domestic airport and train sta-
ALL HEART
Older local folk find you as much an object of fascination as you find them
HIGH AND MIGHTY
Taiwan doesn’t seem so tiny when you view it from the top of the Taipei 101 building (left); at the mighty canyons of Taroko National Park, the world appears similarly vast and wonderful
TRIBE AND TESTED
Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK
tion we visited had password-free Wi-Fi. But when someone on our tour realised, minutes into a highspeed train journey, that they’d forgotten their DSLR at the platform, response was swift. One phone call was all it took for the authorities to retrieve the camera and have it delivered to our destination. Perhaps Taiwan’s low-key, high-performance nature, so atypical of island cultures elsewhere (think Jamaica, Sri Lanka or
TRAVEL INFO n Taiwan’s currency is the NTD or New Taiwan Dollar (one NTD is roughly `2). Carry USD and convert when you land. n The country is 2.5 hours ahead of India. Sunrise and sunset are earlier, so dinner is usually done with by 6.30pm. n Direct flights are available from Delhi. China Airlines offers the most regular service.
APRIL 27, 2014
even Goa) comes from its history. Taiwan was the first overseas territory for the Japanese, who occupied it between 1895 and 1945. They brought in improved industry, public works, and modern culture. By 1949, when nationalists (under Chiang Kai-shek) fled Communist rule in China to establish a government in exile in Taiwan, it was no sleepy little coastal town.
HERE AND THERE
The Japanese legacy lingers in the older infrastructure, sushi at morning markets, Japanese cars, hot-spring resorts and an abiding love for Hello Kitty. At the lobby store of a posh hotel we stayed at, designer-clad women took selfies with a gigantic version of the iconic cat. The hotel also has Hello Kitty-themed suites, Taoyuan airport has a Hello Kitty waiting lounge, and a local airline operates
Taiwan’s 14 recognised indigenous tribes make up two per cent of the population. Some archaeologists believe Taiwan to be the northernmost boundary of Austronesia, considering its indigenous people share a bloodline and cultural similarities with native peoples in Hawaaii, New Zealand, Malaysia and Indonesia. We met Lalan Unak of the Amis tribe (whose name for itself is Pangcha) for questions, a demo of traditional fishing methods and aboriginal songs at the Vata’an Cultural and Historical Studio. His Pangcha way of life seems pretty interesting. The tribe is matrilineal – women inherit and play the dominant role in public life. They also choose their own husbands at marriage festivals at which single men hang sling bags from one shoulder, those who’ve wed before carry it crossbody. “If a woman likes a man, she grabs his bag,” Unak says. What’s in it? “Love!” A woman can abandon her man too, “if he is lazy, gluttonous or sick” he adds. Want to move there yet?
themed international flights. Taiwan’s Chinese side shines bright too. Its National Palace Museum ranks among the top five in the world and, at 6,96,000 ancient artefacts and artworks, holds more Chinese treasures than the mainland. Locals speak Mandarin (in a Taiwanese accent) and brew smoky-flavoured oolong tea.
Photo: THINKSTOCK
SHOW AND TELL
Some things, however, are distinctly Taiwanese. Like the Taroko National Park, with its white marble gorge, river rapids gushing below and miles of tunnels hand-hewn by workers so as to not disturb the mountains. Put on your hard hat and walk – the cliffsides and the sight of water’s slow triumph over rock are truly astounding. At Sun Moon Lake in Nantou, two water bodies so named because one is circular and the other
is crescent-shaped, newlyweds drop in from around the world for a photo op (often in full bridal costume) in the picturesque setting. But Taiwan seems most distinctive when you’ve had some distance – about half-a-kilometre into the sky. Ride 91 floors up in the world’s fastest elevator and look out from the observatory of Taipei 101, one of the world’s tallest buildings. The country below you is neither China nor Japan. It’s just a vast and wonderful nation going about its day, hoping not to be buried under a crumb of khari again. rachel.lopez@hindustantimes.com Follow @GreaterBombay on Twitter The writer’s trip was sponsored by the Taiwan Tourism Authority
TAIWAN AT THE TABLE Taipei, New Taipei City, Taichung and Taoyuan have a few Indian restaurants and places serving halalapproved cuisine. Indian food is often at hotel buffets too. But if you have any dietary restrictions, it’s best to check with restaurants ahead of your visit. If you’re an omnivore, like me, Taiwan is pure delight. We didn’t have a single dull meal over our week-long stay. Much of the cuisine is that of Chinese Minnan immigrants. Expect lots of greens (stirfried with meats and seafood, not as a vegetarian dish), brothy soups and stews and very little rice. Chicken dishes are widely available. n If you do eat pork, don’t miss the chance. Taiwan’s pig-rearing skills are legendary – they once exported pork to Japan – and they make delicately flavoured dishes out of pork belly, the knuckles, ears, liver, even the blood, which is mixed with sticky rice to form cakes. n If you can, try Taipei’s much-loved beef noodle soup. The clear broth and braised versions both have loyal supporters in the capital. n Morning markets make for good food trails. At one at Kaohsiung, we found fried dumplings, sushi, fresh fruit, shaved ice with syrups and oyster omelettes. Also, lottery tickets! n If you’re on the highways, stop for sugarcane juice. The Taiwanese roast their cane before extraction, giving the juice a wonderful caramelised flavour. n Plenty of places serve home-style food. In Jiji, try He Fong (pronounced Her Fung) and near Taroko National Park, head to Lan Lan Seafood for wok-tossed
APRIL 27, 2014
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betel shoot, pork and shrimp. n In Hualien, famous for pork won ton soup, Daiji Bianshi (Dai’s Dumpling House) serves the kind that will change your life. The broth is silky, the dumplings meaty. Chinese military leader Chiang Kai Shek’s son loved it. n Everybody is obsessed with pineapple cake, bite-sized pastries stuffed with pineapple pulp or jam. Sunny Hills in Jiji is famous for theirs. n Din Tai Fung, Taiwan’s Michelin-star brand, is where soup-filled dim sum was invented. Don’t pop the scalding thing in your mouth. Pick one up gracefully with a soup spoon, spear with chopstick so soup oozes out to cool. Then eat. n Hakka-style food (squid with bean curd, spring onion rice, and noodles with pork) is served at Ya-Zhou Hakka in Puli. At Taipei’s Ningxia Night Market, barbecued beef, hog hoof rice and fried eel are bestselling delicacies. n Kwang Fu Hong Wa Wu seems less like a mouthful after an aboriginal Amis meal there. Big portions of braised pork belly, sea-salt crusted smoked local fish, wild rice and crunchy noodles are on the menu. Try to meet the owner, Na Kaaw, an Amis witch doctor and sculptor whose woodworks act as talismans for childless couples. n Overlooking New Taipei city is Marshal Zen Garden, an oasis of calm and onetime residence of Chinese hero Zhang Xueliang. Equally zen is their Young Marshal set meal, with modern plating and very clean flavours.
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PERSONAL AGENDA
twitter.com/HTBrunch
Actor
Manish Paul If you weren’t an actor, you would have been… I can’t think of anything else. The best thing about working in TV. The time I get to spend on the shooting floor. And the worst. The long working hours and telecast date problems. Madhuri Dixit or Kirron Kher, who do you admire more? I can’t decide. I love them both. A Punjabi quirk you have. Whenever I’m happy, I start singing Punjabi songs. Which actor will make the perfect prime minister of India? Aamir Khan. If you could star opposite someone in a romantic film, who would it be? Priyanka Chopra or Katrina Kaif. A classic film you wish you were a part of. Deewar (1975). An international TV show you would like to host. The Jay Leno Show. Your favourite stand-up comedian. Bharti Singh is very good. The biggest risk you’ve ever taken. Moving out of my parents’ house in Delhi and shifting base to Mumbai. A piece of advice you wish someone had given you 10 years ago. Eat healthy and exercise. One is as important as the other. A song that currently defines your state of mind. Tera dhyaan kidhar hai, yeh tera hero idhar hai.
Your favourite hangout in Delhi. Big Chill in Khan Market. What’s the craziest thing a fan has done for you? A female fan used to send me gifts every day for over a month. Has a man ever hit on you? No, mankind has been kind! If you could wake up next to someone, who would it be? Angelina Jolie. I wonder if she’s jolly in the morning. If you could insure one part of your body, what would it be? My mouth, because I love talking and eating. Your favourite street food. Pav bhaji. The stupidest question you’ve been asked. Once a guy in the loo walked up to me and asked me, “Aap yahan kya kar rahe hain?” What makes your day? A good workout. What spoils it? When I have nothing to do the whole day. Your strategy in a crisis. I listen to music. Your biggest fear. I am very scared of losing my loved ones. The last line of your autobiography would read… “Enjoy every moment... Kal ho na ho....”
A FILM YOU HAVE SEEN MORE THAN FIVE TIMES.
The Twilight series
my movies
Most of Bachchan sir’s films like Deewar and Agneepath (1990)
THE MOST PAISA VASOOL FILM.
3 Idiots (2009)
THE MOST OVERRATED FILM.
BIRTHDAY SUN SIGN PLACE OF HOMETOWN SCHOOL/COLLEGE BIRTH Delhi College of Vocational Leo
August 3
— Interviewed by Veenu Singh
THE FIRST FILM YOU WATCHED ON THE BIG SCREEN.
I think it was Ram Lakhan (1989) A FILM THAT WAS A PART OF YOUR GROWING YEARS.
Agneepath (1990) APRIL 27, 2014
FIRST BREAK
Mumbai
Studies, University of Delhi
HIGH POINT OF LOW POINT CURRENTLY I AM... OF YOUR LIFE Wrapping up my second YOUR LIFE
Winning the Best Dr Morepan’s Sunday Tango on Debut award for Star Plus (2002) Mickey Virus from Amitabh Bachchan
When I sat at home film, Tere Bin Laden 2 with no work in 2008
THE SEXIEST ACTRESS.
Deepika Padukone