WEEKLY MAGAZINE, JANUARY 29, 2012 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times
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I N
T H I S
INDULGE
HOP ON / HOP OFF: TRAVELS ON THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY
EAT
PLAY
Trend Lines: CES 2012
Where is the big, beautiful, mindnumbing showcase of technology pointing us to this year? LISTEN
In Other Words
The quirky, insightful lyrics from The Magnetic Fields and Leonard Cohen have me hooked
POWDER ROOM
Blooming Cheek
facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch
LIVE
The New Celebrity Circuit
Cold winter winds give you a natural glow – but cosmetics can make it better
Taha Ansari Vir Sanghvi’s article was amazing !!! he has exposed all the ugly truths of those luxury brands he is absolutley a wise and prudent person!
When the A-list drops into India, where does it go? WELLNESS
Net Gain (Or Loss)
Neha Sharma I like HT Brunch very much a Sunday is delightful with your magazine and persnol agenda is so excellent ! really awesome HT Brunch. Nikhil Hirani one thing is funny that on HT Cafe you guys criticize celebs about fashion on HT Brunch you empathize with them and get to know their point of view on the pressure to look good Rajeev Sharma Reading Brunch makes makes my Sunday but still need more sections. Please add on a new section related to the auto mobiles especially after the Auto Expos which were held in both cities of Delhi and Mumbai.
Calling All Tweeple twitter.com/HTBrunch @suba_tweets der r many lik MrShastri wo dont charge wid simple customary belief dat dey r imparting knwledge as service @iratrivedi @optandon @VirSanghvi It is a mad race of one up show business. Craftsmanship is of no consequence to them as only brand matters.
Online health information can be useful – but it could also be wrong
Usual snuggle-up-with-a-quiltand-a-book routine getting to you? Ditch both and head to the great outdoors to live it up
BRUNCH ON THE WEB A MARRIAGE OF (UN)EQUALS
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OOPS!
Thank you for pointing it out. We apologise for the error!
Celebs wanted
Where exactly?
Have you seen our Brunch Quarterly photoshoot with Vidya Balan yet? Log on for this and an all-access pass to your favourite stories from this and previous Brunch Quarterly issues.
Write to brunchletters@hindustantimes.com For marketing and ad-related queries, contact suresh.tripathi@hindustantimes.com
— MUKUND TORO, via email
— SURABHI GROVER, via email
hindustantimes.com/brunch
Are you ready to whip out your camera and turn into that professional photographer you always wanted to be? Then you need to read these tips guarded zealously by the pros. And get ready for all the ‘likes’ on Facebook. Read the whole story on the Brunch website!
@Ari_S84 @iratrivedi great article. Completely agree with your take on astrology and psychiatry.
I WOULD like to point out that in your last cover story (The Great White Hope, January 22), the writer got some facts wrong. Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kendall didn’t tie the knot when she acted in his production 36 Chowringhee Lane (as your story mentioned) but much before that. During the production of this film, they were already happily married and even had three children.
Read the complete story online!
The actor and TV show host reveals his most irrational fear and what he answers to clichéd questions!
Strife is inevitable when one partner in a relationship is better looking than the other. And that’s what our exclusive-for-web story deals with this time. While friends and relatives pass judgements, does it really matter what our partner looks like? Log on to read more!
@paavani The 15 Jan @virsanghvi Article in asked a good Qs- what you want: industrial manufactured luxury brands vs craftsmanship?
@Mittermaniac Though I don’t believe in them, cover story on occult sciences was an interesting read!
E X C L U S IV E STO RY !
Error calling
OUT OF THE DARKROOM, INTO THE LIGHT!
Hussain Kuwajerwala
Your Moment Under The Sun
Amy Jackson
IN THE last issue of Brunch, when you had interviewed Yana Gupta and Advaita Kala (Your Body Is In Your Head, January 15) Yana was quoted as saying that she can acquire a flat stomach by relying only on the therapy of acupuncture. I think that if you can get her to write an article for Brunch on how exactly one can do this, you will become the highest selling Sunday newspaper in the history of Indian publishing! On a more serious note, I thought the conversation was extremely entertaining and thought-provoking. I am sure it inspired confidence among women of many different sizes. Could you please make such celebrity interactions a regular part of the Brunch magazine? Keep up the good work!
PERSONAL AGENDA
CITY SLICKERS
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What’s Cooking, Bombay?
Bombay seems to be catching up with Delhi in terms of eating places
You can be online 24*7 but can you live your life depending only on the Internet? Or can you live without it completely? Author Palash Krishna Mehrotra finds out
We’re Logged On
I S S U E
EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Kushalrani Gulab (Deputy Editor); Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi, Mignonne Dsouza, Veenu Singh, Parul Khanna Tewari, Pranav Dixit, Yashica Dutt, Amrah Ashraf
THIS IS regarding the cover story that you had published listing the new breed of restaurateurs emerging in Delhi and Mumbai (What’s Cooking?, December 8). I thought it was quite an entertaining read. It feels good to see that the people you mentioned are doing exactly what they want to, and doing it well! Although, I would have really appreciated it if you had included where exactly the restaurants covered in the story are located in the cities of Mumbai and Delhi. — SONAKSHI AGARWAL , via email
DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor Design), Swati Chakrabarti, Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Singh, Saket Misra, Suhas Kale, Shailendra Mirgal
HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE JANUARY 29, 2012
Cover design: Ashutosh Sapru Cover photo courtesy: Thinkstock
Powder Room
BLOOMING CHEEK N
ATURALLY PINK cheeks. That’s one fallout of one of the sharpest winters we’ve ever had, and we think that’s really cool. But let’s not believe that cold winds alone can transform us into radiant, glowing beings. All of us could do with a little cosmetic help. Because the party season is not quite over yet, but winter will soon be through. And we’ve got to go with the glow. “Great skin will have its own glow, but not all of us are lucky enough have it,” says Avleen Khokhar, national training and communication manager at JAFRA Ruchi cosmetics. “So it’s important to use a base that covers all imperfections smoothly.” This season, dress your face for the day in minimal or nude makeup, which means a flawless complexion (with a little help from your base), contoured cheeks and skincoloured lips, says Shveta Bhatia, beauty expert at Revlon. “For a more special occasion wear brown or pink eyeshadow, and light red tints on your lips,” Bhatia suggests. In the evenings, though, jewel tones are in, says Jonas Wramell, Oriflame’s global artistic director. “While red lips continue to be a big hit this season, other colours like coral, chocolate and burgundy are also hot for the lips,” he says. “And to get the trendy party pout, apply lipstick over a lipliner and go for it.” To balance the strong colours on your lips, your eyes must make an imapct too, adds Wramell. “So use a subtle shimmer shade over your eyelids and apply lots of mascara to get the fluttering eyelashes effect. That’s very hot this season.” Bold eyebrows are the most innovative makeup trend this time. “Contour them, but leave the rest of your makeup light, don’t even use mascara,” says Khokhar. “Create a perfect natural complexion with a bit of concealer and foundation. For perfect eyebrows, take a brow pencil and contour the upper line. Brown solid shadow will help you fill in any nude spots and the dramatic look is ready.” And then there are your cheeks. Let the cold winds blow. Or else highlight them with shimmery rouge, says Wramell.
Sure, cold winter winds give you a natural glow – but cosmetics can make it better by Veenu Singh SATIN TOUCH: Bright colours look good on the nails too
BRING THEM TO LIGHT: Bronzing pearls add shimmer to your cheeks
GO WITH THE GLOW: An all over shimmer will make you look radiant
JEWEL OF INDIA: Red lips are hot – and so are other bright shades
DRAMA QUEEN: Use mascara and flutter your lashes
BRILLIANT!: Perk up your lips with bright lip gloss
HOW TO LOOK YOUR BEST The body basics
■ Choose a good moisturiser and apply your makeup over it, so that it lasts for a long time. ■ Opt for a powder foundation over liquid. ■ Use a lot of mascara. Big, bold eyes are in this season. ■ Avoid red and pink if you tend to get skin redness in winter. ■ Avoid hues of yellow, beige as these tone down the complexion. ■ Use a finishing powder on top to make sure that your makeup remains perfect, especially if you will be exposed to the cold weather.
The colour palette
Stick to Mother Nature’s autumn colour palette: reds, oranges, browns, rusts, and yellows. At the same time, jewel tones add a rich and interesting twist to the traditional autumn colour scheme, so mix them with metallics – gold, copper, bronze.
(Courtesy: Shveta Bhatia, Revlon) GLAM GAL: Mix metallics with red, orange, brown and rust for filmstar eyes
veenus@hindustantimes.com
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HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE JANUARY 29, 2012
Written in tone
Every woman should know the colours that suit her best. And those colours will generally be based on her skin tone. Is it cool or is it warm? Get this right and you’ll have men falling over themselves to gaze into your eyes. Because colours change everything.
So what’s your skin tone?
Simply look at the underside of your arm. If your veins appear bluish, you are cool toned. If they appear greenish, you are warm toned. Cool tone colours include ‘jewel tones’ – blues, greens, pinks, purple and blue-based reds. Warm tone hues include ‘earth tones’ – yellows, oranges, yellowish greens and orange based reds. (Courtesy: Avleen Khokhar, JAFRA Ruchi)
COVER STORY
HOP ON / HOP OFF:
TRAVELS ON THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY You can be online 24*7 but can you live your life entirely on the Internet? Or can you live without it altogether? Author
Palash Krishna Mehrotra attempts to learn the answers to both questions
A
FRIEND CALLS and says she wants to come over. I make time for her; she rings my doorbell at the designated hour. She makes herself comfortable in my study, and gets down to thumbing her BlackBerry. Every once in a while she looks up, asks a perfunctory question, “What’s happening?”, then gets back to her BBM. Another friend calls, says he’s in the vicinity, asks if he can drop in for a bit. Sure, man. He walks in, opens his Dell laptop, asks me if I have a Wi-fi connection, wants to know the password. After a while, I realise my friends are using my study like an Internet café. You don’t want to be in your house alone, so you hang at someone else’s. But you don’t stop what you’re doing. You are still very much online. Screw the person whose room you’re in. Feeling at a loose end, I too get online and begin surfing the web. Three people together in a room, the tap-tap of keys, no conversation. Welcome to socialising in the real world, 2012 style. In the beginning there was the telephone. Or, in the beginning, there was one telephone for the entire building. In the eighties, a landline connection was a rare commodity, and whoever had one was meant to share it with their neighbours. By the time I went to college in 1994-95, my parents and I were onto something called hybrid mail, a CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
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S PART of the research for the piece, my editor wanted me to spend a couple of days online, as much as was possible. I was supposed to stay home and see how far I could go without stepping outside. The Internet is useful but only to a certain extent. It’s fairly useless without a credit card, and since millions of middle class Indians don’t have one, its influence is limited. I used to have a card, then I thought I’d lost it until I found it lying under my bed. By then, I’d blocked it. For some reason, my bank refuses to issue me a new card, and so I’m without one
YOU CAN USE THE INTERNET FOR EVERYTHING YOU WANT, BUT THEN YOU ITCH TO GET OUT AND WALK for the last three years. I couldn’t do much buying online. I found myself using the phone more, both for vegetables and groceries. The vegetable vendor came home with his pushcart (he has a mobile phone) but charged double. I itched to get to the nearest fixed
HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE JANUARY 29, 2012
price Safal store. I called for groceries and our man sent everything but the wrong sizes and brands, so I got Real OJ instead of Tropicana, a four-pack of Odonil instead of the single piece I’d asked for, a large bottle of Pepsi instead of the small PET bottle of Thums Up. I itched to walk into a supermarket and choose what I wanted myself. Indians don’t really use the Net for buying daily essentials. Shopping for luxuries and comforts is another matter. We use it
A Sip Of Fresh Air: The writer spent time totally off the Internet, and was forced to explore the city
Weaving A Tangled Web: Palash spent a couple of days at home, relying only on his Net and phone connection for errands
PHOTOS: AJAY AGGARWAL
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when we are shopping for a life partner or the home of our dreams. A friend of mine made a neat packet setting up a website for a company selling shoes online. My flatmate blows up most his pay packet buying these shoes online. He’s tied to the office desk for ten hours a day, and spends the rest of his time commuting from south Delhi to Gurgaon and back. Apart from the time constraint, I think he also finds it soothing to shop. I can imagine him having a spat with his boss or girlfriend, then getting online and buying a new pair of moccasins to soothe his jangled nerves.
Y EDITOR also wanted me to go offline for 48 hours and see what that felt like. As it happened, the circumstances so conspired that I was offline for much longer – and not because I engineered it. For one, I was in Dehradun by then. Electricity and the Internet are erratic in small towns. One usually gets one thing at a time – when the electricity comes back after three hours, there is no Internet and vice versa. One calls the local BSNL man, “Bhaiya, Net down hai kya?” “Ha ji, sir. Abhi hum lage hue hai. Shaam tak theek ho jayega.” It’s worse during the monsoon when I was once told, “Ye to baarish ke baad hi theek hoga.” You can forget about living your life online, all the time, in such circumstances. You can do so but only intermittently. And you really appreciate it when the Net or the electricity comes back.
As it happened, I experienced an all systems failure in Dehradun while writing this piece. The power cable of my MacBook stopped working and I couldn’t buy a new one in Doon. The Internet settings on my phone went awry so I couldn’t access the Net, and then, to add to the misery, the broadband cable somehow got cut, so that there wasn’t any Internet for four days. To round it off beautifully, I also managed to lose my debit card. It snowed in Doon after sixty years – there was so much rain and hail, that the TataSky dish stopped receiving the signal. I was cut off from the world; I had no money in my pocket (I’d left my cheque book in Delhi and the bank wouldn’t let me draw money without it); all I could do was sit in the darkness and wait for the power to come back. I
I WAS SUPPOSED TO GO OFFLINE FOR 48 HOURS AND SEE WHAT IT WAS LIKE; I ENDED UP OFFLINE FOR MUCH LONGER was left with the distinct feeling that my limbs had been amputated. But for how long can one sit in the dark twiddling one’s thumbs? I took out my battered old 800 and took it for a spin in the mountains (since I was having a run of bad luck the coolant leaked but I managed to get it fixed). I parked at a sweet spot, overlooking the valley, lit a cigarette, and said Boom Shankar. At night, a friend joined me; we found a ledge jutting out over the city, and had a beer each, and admired the glittering lights. In the morning I was itching to write so I went and bought some pencils – Faber-Castell/ Ole-Grip/ Superdark. I picked up my Moleskine and drove out to a beautiful Tibetan restaurant called the Orchard that faces a hill and a stream. I wrote there the entire afternoon. I sharpened a pencil after many years and watched with pleasure as the transparent plastic cap filled up with perfect shavings. I actually wrote better this way. With the laptop, I’d sit down to write with noble intention, and then decide to check out Facebook, read articles on Arts and Letters Daily, surf some porn, why not? Anything to avoid writing. But the humble pencil doesn’t come loaded with distractions. All one can do is chew one end and that, if anything, aids the writing process. I found myself sketching funny faces
HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE JANUARY 29, 2012
in my notebook. I felt I was back in school. It was a good feeling. Once I was back in the house, it was a different story. It’s a beautiful old house, a crumbling colonial bungalow that dates back a hundred years. There’s a big garden both front and back, and I spent long moments admiring the trees: jamun, amla, mango, litchi, guava, pomegranate. I browsed the library at home, and read a bit, but after a day of writing in my Moleskine I felt sick of words. The house seemed strangely dead without the gadgetry that I am used to – laptop, phone, the Internet, television. I thought I saw the ghost of the Englishman from whom my great grandfather had bought the house. He was laughing at my helplessness. I felt the silence eating into me. I heard the wind susurrate through the dark trees, and the hail came noisily down on the tin roof. I felt spooked and lonely. I went to bed early. Gradually, things returned to ‘normal’. The cable was back and I could watch Parenthood on Zee Café. Skype was back and I could talk to the mystery girl in Noida again. The email was back on my phone, and I could be in touch with my editors again. It was good to be switched off for a few days but it was a bit too much as well. Technology seemed to return to the house its very soul, a soul which had wandered off into the green mountains the past few days. The empty shell of the house was, once again, suffused with blinking lights and bleeping sounds. It had, once again, become the living, breathing organism that it was earlier. It was technology which helped the old house regain its old self.
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COVER STORY In the eighties, a landline connection was rare and whoever had one was meant to share it with neighbours. In the 2000s, I regularly Skyped my agent who lived abroad for three years before I ever met him in person
PHOTOS: THINKSTOCK
I’d grown up in socialist India when one wrote love letters longhand, and inter-city romances were conducted over snail mail. The letters would often be in several installments
My first experience of email was in the winter of 1998, when an American friend taught me the Hotmail ropes CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8
service provided by the postal department. You went to the post office and typed your letter on their computer. It would be transmitted over satellite in an instant; the post office would then deliver it to your doorstep. It seemed like a miracle at the time, for unlike with a telegram, one didn’t have to write curtailed messages but could send proper letters. My first experience of email was in Oxford in the winter of 1998. I’d just arrived to read for a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and Laura Provinzino, my American tutorial partner, taught me the Hotmail ropes. I still remember how astonished I was when I sent off my first email – a click of the button was all it took. It was astonishing because by then I was in my early twenties; I’d grown up in socialist India when one wrote love letters longhand, and inter-city romances were conducted over snail mail. The letters would often be in several installments, each installment lovingly licked and sealed in a separate envelope. Often, owing to the vagaries of the postal department, you would get part three first, then part one, with part two coming a belated last. This was love at its staggered, laggard, haphazard best, as it should be. It took me some time to get used to email. Initially, I’d treat emails like letters, which meant I wouldn’t answer them instantly. I’d wait for the weekend and then answer them ‘properly’, i.e. instead of sending
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always perceived it as a bit of a threat. Culturally, it’s translated into a gain for us: we have access to their magazines and journals; books and music; movies and TV shows. All they have access to are the Khan Sisters. I’m so dependent on technology To say that technology rules our that I often don’t leave my house lives now is to state the obvious. for days, except maybe to use the Much of this change has taken place ATM. I feel disoriented at times – in the last decade. I experienced it I’m in one physical space, but I’m first hand when I sold the proposal mentally always somewhere else. of my new book to a publisher four One consumes so much of other years ago: my agent, Kevin, was in people’s lives, one takes so many London, the publishers, Rupa, were rides on the information superhighin Daryaganj, and I was in the way, that it can leave us feeling foothills of the empty. I often Himalayas. We feel my sense of couldn’t have self slipping NOWADAYS, ONE OFTEN done it without away. MEETS PEOPLE ONLINE the Internet. I Nowadays, wouldn’t come one often meets FIRST. THE PHYSICAL face-to-face with people online MEETING MIGHT NOT Kevin until three first. The physiTAKE PLACE FOR years later; still, cal meeting MONTHS. WORK AND when I met him, might not take I felt I knew him PLAY AND ROMANCE ARE place for well. I’d seen picmonths. Work RESIDENT IN THE MAGIC tures of him and and play and BOX THAT IS THE LAPTOP romance are his family on the Internet, and resident in the we’d Skype regularly. Even though magic box that is the laptop. When we’d never met, Kevin said he felt I finish writing for the day, I might closer to me as a friend than to spend hours chatting with a girl many in his native London, and I I’ve never met. She’s in Noida and felt the same. He helped me with I’m in GK or Dehradun, and the the proposal, even though he’d Internet is a cheap and convenient never been to India – such is the way to communicate. While chatpower of the Internet and globalisating, one is forced to hunker down tion. There are times though when I to one’s essential self, one’s soulfeel if globalisation means as much voice as it were, without the disto the West as it does to us. They’ve tractions of a face-to-face meeting short replies I’d write a longish letter. The craft of letter writing was still fresh in my mind; the craft of email writing – if something like it exists – was still to be learnt, internalised.
HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE JANUARY 29, 2012
where one often responds to superficialities – a person’s looks and mannerisms, rather than the person inside, who the person really is. I had this odd experience once though, when I chatted plenty with a girl – both on the phone and the Internet, but when we finally met it was one of the most awkward moments of my life, and probably hers too. We just didn’t know what to say to each other. Anonymous familiarity online didn’t translate into a real world comfort zone. Then again, it’s impossible to do without technology. When I lose my debit card and place a request for a new one, how will I know that the replacement has arrived in my branch? Only when the bank sends me a text message; I’d be lost without my phone. The other night I drunkenly punched in the wrong password into my Gmail account, more than the number of times it’s allowed. My account was disabled. I was prompted by the site to message Google and they activated it in sixty seconds. So we need technology to fix technology. The role of humans has been minimised. Bye bye linesman. We’ve surely come a long way; I am reminded of the time when the novelist Allan Seally would chase his linesman in Dehradun with a toy camera, pretending to be a journo. The idea was to scare him enough so that he wouldn’t tamper with the wires for the sake of a bribe.
The writer’s new book The Butterfly Generation was released earlier this month
indulge eat
| play | listen | live
PERFECT RECIPE The Pithaud Cake at the Westin was their standout dish
Vir Sanghvi
rude food
IN PARTNERSHIP Chef Ajay Chopra and his chef de cuisine Amit Suri at the Westin, have gone the modern Indian route with a few molecular touches
What’s Cooking, Bombay? I have inclined to the view that the food in Delhi is better than in Bombay. But now, after visiting four new eating places in that city, Bombay seems to be catching up
NEW GEN Westin, Bombay, is sophisticated, well designed and international in its conception
O
TRUE TO TASTE At the Westin, the kakori kabab with a mint sphere was reasonable, and came with the most amazing frozen yoghurt foam (above left). The compressed fruit chaat (above right) preserved the flavours of the original dish
VER THE last several years I have inclined to the view that the food in Delhi is better than the food in Bombay. As a Bombay person, it breaks my heart to admit this but the truth is that somewhere along the way Delhi became the city with the sophisticated cuisine while Bombay became the place with the most happening bars and night spots. This is fine if you are a barfly or a habitué of clubs but if, like me, it’s food you’re after, then you’re much better off in Delhi where nearly every cuisine – with the exception of coastal Indian (but even that’s changing with places like Swagath and Zambar) – is well represented. But Bombay seems to be catching up. Last week I went to four new (well, newish, at any rate) restaurants in the city and was impressed by the standard of food.
JUDGING BY
THAT ONE MEAL IN BOMBAY HAKKASAN, I HAVE TO SAY THAT THE KITCHEN IS ON TOP FORM
The first of these was the new Yauatcha which has just opened in the Bandra-Kurla complex on the ground and first floor of a fancy building. Yauatcha was the brainchild of British-Chinese restaurateur Alan Yau. Following the success of the first Hakkasan (in Hanway Place in London) Yau opened a dimsum teahouse in Soho (the restaurant’s name derives from the phrase ‘Yau at tea’) which combined green teas, high quality patisserie and great dimsum. While Hakkasan was madly glamorous, Yauatcha was more relaxed. The dimsum were excellent and it soon became one of my favourite restaurants in London. Then, Yau sold out to an Abu Dhabi group which has taken his restaurant concepts international. So far at least, the group has concentrated on cloning Hakkasan. The Bombay Yauatcha is only the world’s second Yauatcha though perhaps there will be more branches in the future. First things first: the restaurant looks amazing. It is cool and sophisticated and much better designed than the original which squeezes too many covers into a basement below the main tea room. The food is fine but I think it’s still a work in progress. The dimsum, which should have been the highlight of the menu, were good without being great. The stir fries (especially a pork belly dish) were brilliant but that’s not supposed to be the point of Yauatcha. There were service issues. Waiters got my order wrong. Staff seemed confused and conducted hasty consultations within earshot of guests and the restaurant looked like it still had to find its rhythm. Not that it matters: Yauatcha is the hottest ticket in Bombay and has been packed out ever since it opened. The next day, following my dinner at Yauatcha, I thought I would
HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE JANUARY 29, 2012
indulge check out the Bombay Hakkasan which must now be nearly a year old. I went for the opening but was reluctant to judge it on the basis of that meal because the entire global Hakkasan team, from the corporate chefs to the company’s chief executive, were in town. This time I sneaked in before Kishor Bajaj who is the India franchisee, could find out I was there and the food was astonishingly good. The stir fries, in particular, were perfect and each dish had spent exactly the right amount of time in the wok. I’ve heard mixed reports about Hakkasan – perhaps because people are jealous of its success as a glamorous restaurant for the rich and famous - but judging by that one meal I have to say that the kitchen is on top form. And I went for a late lunch when the restaurant had emptied and the main chef had probably gone home. Both Hakkasan and Yauatcha are branches of global chains. Amadeus at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Nariman Point, on the other hand, is an entirely Indian enterprise with an Indian chef and no foreign pedigree. The space used to be Rangoli, run by the Taj group for many years and then it became Sidewok, with food by the Taj and service by somebody else. The food was fine but the service was blatantly imitative of the TGIF style. I stopped going after the waiters abandoned their stations, gathered at the centre of the restaurant and did a little Moulin Rouge-style dance. I was told that this was a ‘cheer’ and part of the dining experience. Thanks, but I’ll take my experiences elsewhere. Amadeus opened a few months ago and though the waiters do not perform ‘cheers,’ it is not a particularly cheerful restaurant. I thought there were serious lighting issues which needed to be pro-
FINDING ITS WAY The Bombay Yauatcha (above) looks amazing. It is cool and sophisticated and much better designed than the London original. The dimsum (left), were good without being great
fessionally addressed and the room was curiously soulless. Some tables for two, hidden behind pillars, were claustrophobia-inducing. Service was amateurish. The two north eastern girls at reception had no clue how to greet guests or allocate tables (one helpfully wore a badge that said ‘Trainee’) and seemed to operate independently of the service staff. Unfortunately I was recognised from the moment I walked in, so three waiters positioned themselves around my table, watching grimly in case I decided to make a run for it. But the food made up for all this. The restaurant has a huge menu of Spanish-influenced dishes, most of which were very good. I liked the lamb meatballs (though the foie gras sauce was needlessly poncy), the patatas bravas were fine if a little under-salted, a dish of spinach and cheese encased in pastry was light and the ribs were juicy. The stand-out dishes were a coca (like a Spanish pizza) with chorizo and a pork paella. I ate nearly the whole menu (in your interests, dear reader) so my bill of R4,700 for two (without alcohol) should not be taken as representative. My guess is that if you order a bottle of wine (and they have many reasonably priced options even if the waiters don’t
AMADEUS
MUST HAVE The stand-out dishes at Amadeus were a coca with chorizo (right) and a pork paella
AMADEUS AT
PHOTO: KUNAL PATIL
know anything about the wines on the list) and nibble at a coca, you can eat relatively cheaply. And if you’re still hungry you can have one of the excellent paellas. The best meal I had in Bombay however was not in south Bombay or even in some fancy, glamorous restaurant. It was in the faraway suburb of Goregaon at the new Westin hotel. The nearest I’ve got to this area before is when I’ve shot at Film City (the hotel is ideally located for the studios in that complex) but that was before the Westin was built. I liked the hotel. It makes no claims to be anything other than a business hotel but it is clearly designed to be part of a later generation than the other Starwood properties in India. It was well designed, sophisticated and seemed international in its conception. Even the staff were outstanding. I was served at the coffee shop by the assistant manager Harish Kinnauri who was previously at the Grand Hyatt and both, the depth of his knowledge and the style of his service, left the staff of other Bombay restaurants far behind. I did not eat from the regular menu so do not treat this as a review. But I did eat extremely well from one of the special menus that executive chef Ajay Chopra (he’s the bearded one from MasterChef India) offers guests who book in advance. Ajay and his chef de cuisine Amit Suri have gone the modern Indian route with a few molecular touches. I started with a compressed fruit chaat which despite the scientific frippery, preserved the flavours of the original dish. There followed a reasonable (if somewhat fat-free) kakori kabab with a mint sphere (they’re keen on spherification in that kitchen) and the most amazing frozen yoghurt foam. More was to follow: a dum ki machhli and a tender juicy raan presented within a mille fuille. The stand-out dish was a Pithaud Cake which took the traditional Pithaud (in Bombay they would probably compare it to a khamand dhokla) and used it to suck up the flavours of delicious masala green peas. Who would have thought it? A decade ago it would have been unthinkable to have a meal of this calibre in Goregaon. And a chef as famous as Ajay now is would never have ventured this far and would have stuck to some south Bombay hotel. It’s a sign of how much the city has changed and of how even the distant suburbs have now come of age. The Westin does well because there seems to be a lot of money in Goregaon. And unlike other hotels it has resisted the temptation to appeal to the lowest common denominator and has maintained the international standards of the chain. There are still places that I need to go to in Bombay before I can come to any definitive conclusions on the Bombay versus Delhi gastronomic battle. But as of now, let’s just say that Bombay has surprised me. And made me proud.
HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE
JANUARY 29, 2012
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THE NCPA IN NARIMAN POINT IS AN ENTIRELY INDIAN ENTERPRISE WITH AN INDIAN CHEF
EATING BIG Yauatcha was the brainchild of British-Chinese restaurateur Alan Yau
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Trend Lines: CES 2012 Where is the big, beautiful, mind-numbing showcase of technology pointing us to this year?
GROWING UP With outstanding battery life and fantastic ergonomics, Tablets have matured
techilicious
Rajiv Makhni
POWER CYCLE You will be able to control the new breed of washing machines via your smartphone
BEND AND TWIST The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga might be the smartest hybrid on the planet yet
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OUR DAYS, 5,000 companies, 20,000 new products, 1.861 million sq ft net, 1,53,000 attendees. And poor little me to cover it all on my own. CES (Consumer Electronics Show, Los Angeles) is a big, beautiful and mind-numbing showcase of all that the rest of the year will throw up from the world of tech. It’s also where you see clear lines and trends as to where technology will go. This week, let’s look at the new direction this mammoth event has pointed us towards. Next week, we’ll do a two-page photo spread of the best and worst gadgets of CES 2012.
TV: THE CENTRE OF OUR UNIVERSE – AGAIN
THE BIG SMALL SCREEN Very soon, the smart TV, not the smartphone will be the God device
SMART DEVICES: EVERYTHING TALKS TO EVERYTHING
A washing machine controlled by a smartphone 20 km away; a refrigerator that mails you a shopping list as soon as you enter a grocery store; a microwave that connects to your phone and gives you step-by-step video to cook the perfect dish; and a robotic vacuum cleaner that glides out of its enclosure and starts work as soon as you leave the house and sends you messages of cleaning up progress on your phone. It’s a world where machines talk to machines – intelligently and for a reason. Verdict: It’s a little unnerving to see it happen but machines and appliances are getting smarter and will make life very easy for us. A very lazy future awaits us.
From being one of four screens, TV came back to being the main one – and with bang. Apps that made sense for a large screen hanging on a wall; true connectivity to the Internet for real features; the CAMERAS: THE NEW OPTICAL WONDERS end of the remote control and the start of voice, gesture and face The camera phones made standalone cameras look quite foolish for control; making 1080P look bad with 4K and even 8K (mindblowing a while. Now the standalone cameras seem to be rising from the surreal clarity) resolution; glassless 3D that turned a gimmick into ashes. They can already do what a camera phone does – but now a must-have; and OLED finally moving from they’ve pushed the boundaries further. All of them have hit fantastic optical refinement, have pushed expensive, overblown hype to something we all will megapixel capabilities to the hilt, are WiFibe able to buy and bring home. Verdict: While I’m not really sold on this whole enabled and some are 3G ready too. They can do voice and gesture control thing, the rest is all automatic backups to a computer, post instantly to solid. Once we have 4K OLED Glassless 3D TVs Twitter or Facebook, upload to Picasa and do inwith full wireless Net connectivity and smart camera editing and special effects. But the new apps, the TV will be the God device and not the killer feature is a remote screen control. Use a smartphone. TVs are back and how! BACK ON TRACK smartphone or Tablet as your control screen, put Standalone cameras, a seemingly your camera in a faraway location, control zoom, ULTRABOOKS: ULTRAEXPLOSIVE dead category, is innovating afresh exposure, brightness and framing and even take the This was rumoured to be the year of the Ultrabook picture from your remote screen. Now which cambut it turned out to be far more than that. With more than 50 new era phone can do that? models, Ultrabooks dominated in design, features, material usage Verdict: It’s good to see innovation coming from a dead categoand showed maximum innovation. From transformer-like ry. Camera phones, what will you do next? Ultrabooks to morphing ones, from powerhouses to 22-hour battery life wizards and from thin, knife blade-like designs to pure yoga THE REAL WINNERS OF CES 2012 (we’re talking about the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga, of course!), the (AND THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW IT) Ultrabook had the crowds, the buzz and the demand. Two companies came out as the real winners of the event. Verdict: Ultrabooks are killing it and will dominate the Microsoft, which has said it won’t even be there next year and computing space for a long, long time. Netbooks, it may well be Apple which wasn’t there at all. Microsoft won hands down as time to pack up your small bags and move to redundant city. Ultrabooks proved how important Windows as an operating system was and how it still dominates this space. Windows Phone devices TABLETS AND SMARTPHONES: and the OS had the biggest crowds around it and some of the best phones came from there. The Windows 8 demo had the whole of MATURITY AND REFINEMENT Both of them grew up and showed a level of true sophistication in CES salivating. Apple, because almost anything and everything ease of use and operations. While the quest for thinnest and light- that any company at CES did was to either compete with Apple est continued (Huawei and Toshiba won), it wasn’t about a single (iPhone killer, iPad killer, MacBook Air killer) or to add on to Apple killer feature anymore. Each new device in each category matured (the largest space was an iLounge for Apple accessories). and blossomed into a powerhouse device that truly put the user Verdict: Apple and Microsoft are being solidly foolish if they first. Outstanding battery life, great utilities built in, fantastic plan not to be there in 2013. Cook, Ballmer, wake up and smell ergonomics, true ecosystem and flawless performance were the the CES. hallmarks here. Those were the trends, now for the real meat. Next week, all the Verdict: It’s getting difficult to distinguish between what a gadgets and devices that rocked and socked at CES 2012. The best small Tablet or a large smartphone can do. But boy, do they and the worst. Coming up: two pages of pure tech heaven! both do amazing things. Any manufacturer that tries to sell a Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV and the anchor of Gadget device based on a single ‘cool’ feature will die a gory death. Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at twitter.com/RajivMakhni
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HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE JANUARY 29, 2012
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Sanjoy Narayan
LONG TIMER Old Ideas will be Leonard Cohen’s twelfth album in a 45year career
In Other Words
The quirky, insightful lyrics from The Magnetic Fields’ and Leonard Cohen’s upcoming albums have me hooked
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T’S BEEN just three weeks into the New Year and already I’m getting impatient waiting to listen to two albums that are expected to be released shortly. The first one promises to be a fun one by a band that is a master of technology and pop music, The Magnetic Fields. You may or may not have heard them before but if you haven’t, you could start with their three-volume masterpiece of an album titled 69 Love Songs as you wait for their new album called Love at the Bottom of the Sea. The 69 Love Songs album is not painfully dreary as the title may suggest but is fun-filled with songs that are rarely more than three minutes long (many are in the one to two-minute range and some of them last even less than a minute) and have, for example, names such as Fido, Your Leash is Too Long, The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be, A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off and How Fucking Romantic. The Magnetic Fields are all about their frontman, vocalist and song-writer Stephin Merritt whose lyrics and a raw bass voice adds the zing to the band’s sound. On 69 Love Songs, which dates back to 1999 by the way, the music is uncharacteristically minimalist and acoustic but The Magnetic Fields are usually what you’d likely call a synth-pop band. Anyway, the reason why I’m looking forward to their new album, Love at the Bottom of the Sea, which doesn’t come out till March, is because I heard an early release of one of the tracks from that album. It’s called Andrew in Drag and here are some of the lyrics: A pity she does not exist/A shame he’s not a fag/The only girl I ever loved was/Andrew in drag./ There is no hope of love for me/ From here on I’m a stag/The only girl I’ll ever love is/Andrew in drag. It gets even more hilarious as it goes along: So stick him in a dress and/He’s the only boy I’d shag/The only boy I’d anything is/ Andrew in drag. The song’s out on various websites officially for streaming as a teaser to the album. Listening to it is obviously much better than just reading the lyrics. I’m betting that the lyrics of the rest of the songs on the new album from The Magnetic Fields – it’s out only in March, though – will be as good and quirky as this one. Speaking of lyrics brings me to the other album that I’m looking forward to this year. PHOTO: REUTERS
NORTH POLE The Magnetic Fields (above) are all about their frontman, vocalist and songwriter Stephin Merritt (centre) whose lyrics and a raw bass voice add zing
TWICE AS NICE The Magnetic Fields have a new album, Love at the Bottom of Sea, coming out in March (left). On 69 Love Songs, the music is uncharacteristically minimal
And, from what I’ve learned, I may not have to wait for long. The album is Old Ideas and it is by Leonard Cohen. To be released next Tuesday (January 31), Old Ideas will be Cohen’s 12th album in a career as a singer and songwriter that spans 45 years. At 77, Cohen is like a sage. He is, after all, ordained as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk. But you could argue that he always sounded like a sage. In 1967, when his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, was released, Cohen was already 33, a mature age for a debutant by popular music standards. As in the case of The Magnetic Fields’ new album, I have heard just one song off Cohen’s new one. The song is called Going Home and the lyrics show that even in his late seventies the poet-songwriter still retains his deeply sensitive voice and writes incredibly great poetry. I heard Going Home off a curious source – not the usual gaggle of mp3 blogs that I trawl but on the The New Yorker magazine’s website. The magazine’s latest issue publishes Going Home as a poem and the song is streamed on its website. Here’s a snatch from the lyrics: I love to speak with Leonard/ He’s a sportsman and a shepherd/ He’s a lazy bastard/ Living in a suit/ But he does what I tell him/ Even though it isn’t welcome/ He will never have the freedom/ To refuse/ He will speak these words of wisdom/ Like a sage, a man of vision/ Though he knows he’s really nothing/ But the brief elaboration of a tube. Exactly. I also thought those words by Cohen seemed very autobiographical. Can’t wait to listen to the album. To give feedback, stream or download the music mentioned in this column, go to http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/ download-central, follow argus48 on Twitter or visit our website:www.hindustantimes.com/brunch
HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE JANUARY 29, 2012
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indulge ON A MISSION Tom Cruise was shadowed by his MI 4 co-star Anil Kapoor during his recent visit
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The New Celebrity Circuit When the A-list drops into India, where does it go?
MUST DO! You clearly don’t rate as a bonafide celebrity unless Parmeshwar Godrej throws a party for you
STARSHIP OPRAH The Winfrey whirlwind started in Mumbai and then tore through the rest of India with a breathless intensity
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DANCING BOYS Hugh Jackman danced with Shah Rukh Khan at an event when he visited Mumbai
Y THE time you read this, the great starship Oprah will have quite the rage as visiting celebrities vie with one another to visit the departed our shores after getting a taste of India (‘it’s life ‘real’ India (you know, the one that featured in Slumdog Millionaire). Gayle, but not as we know it’). The Winfrey whirlwind startCue, trips to deprived neighbourhoods, shanty towns, orphanages, ed in Mumbai and then tore through the rest of India with crowded railway stations, even sleepy villages. The entire entourage a breathless intensity. Oprah partied with Bollywood, was serenaded descends on the chosen spot, wearing horrified expressions, SPF facby children, went shopping in quirky little stores, stopped by a temtor 50 sunblock and baseball caps, clutching bottles of mineral water in their sanitised hands and trying very hard not to inhale. Some go ple, attended a literary festival, and even managed to squeeze in some back home and write cheques to assuage their guilt, others just wash paparazzi-bashing (quite literally, as her bodyguards manhandled the away the grime under the power showers in their 5-star hotel and media entourage waiting to greet her in Vrindavan). move on to the next stop. But while nobody got a real sense of what Oprah Winfrey is all about Those whose sensibilities are not quite up to all this hard-core stuff, – except that she is an expert manipulator of her own image – by the get their ‘slice of Indian life’ stuff from the temples. Ever since the end of her visit one thing was clear: India now has a new celebrity cirBeatles fetched up at Rishikesh to stay at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s cuit in place. Sure, the old delights still feature and Oprah dutifully ashram in the ’60s to learn a bit of transcendental meditation (and a dropped by to be photographed open-mouthed at the Taj Mahal in spot of levitation while they were at it) India has been the favoured Agra, but there is a brand-new itinerary in place for visiting celebs. destination of spirituality junkies. Pushkar, which has the only Brahma First up is Bollywood. It is now a truth universally acknowledged temple in India, is a favourite stop as are some of the more famous that any A-list visitor to India has to hook up with some Indian film shrines in south India like Tirupati. star or the other. Hugh Jackman danced with Shah Rukh Khan at an But the recent success of Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Eat Pray Love event when he visited Mumbai. Tom Cruise was shadowed by his MI 4 co-star Anil Kapoor during his recent and its movie version featuring Julia Roberts has visit. And Oprah’s first stop in Mumbai was given a fresh fillip to this industry. Now, there is a at the Bachchan residence where she new influx of celebrities descending on India, keen GOOD LORD! renewed her acquaintance with Aishwarya to find themselves through fasting, meditation and The Dalai Lama (below) and Abhishek (who have appeared on her some light chanting. Madonna was seen at the is an irresistible draw show) and met their new-born daughter. Nathdwara shrine in Rajasthan, Mick Jagger is for all those newlyNext up is Parmeshwar Godrej. You said to be a regular visitor to temples in and around minted Buddhists in clearly don’t rate as a bonafide celebrity Jaipur and Udaipur, and Oprah herself put in an Hollywood unless Parmesh throws a party for you. appearance at the Ma Dham in Vrindavan to film And her guest list is pretty eclectic taking the widows (without permission, as it turned out, in everyone from Imran Khan and Jennifer but that – as they say – is another story). Saunders to Richard Gere and now – yes, On the scenic front, too, things have changed. THE MUMBAI SHOW that’s right – Oprah Winfrey. The beach Rajasthan is still a great draw, but the celebs are If there is a celebrity in shimmers, the champagne flows , the stars increasingly plumbing for small, off-the-beaten town, then Gregory shine bright and the conversation sparkles path, family-run properties like Deogarh over the David Roberts (above) as Mumbai’s A list queues up to have its big hotel chains. Goa is now officially passé. Kerala won’t be far behind picture taken with the guest of honour. is where it’s at, with the backwaters scoring effortAnd then, there’s Gregory David Roberts lessly over the beaches. And Dharamsala is the SAILING NEW of Shantaram fame, who is to Mumbai what new Rishikesh, with the Dalai Lama proving to be SEAS Mother Teresa was once to Calcutta. If an irresistible draw to all those newly-minted Kerala is now there is a celebrity in town, then Roberts Buddhists in Hollywood with Richard Gere (yes, where it’s at, won’t be far behind, organising a visit to him again!) leading the way. with the backthe Mumbai slums that featured so promiYes, there is a new celebrity circuit in India now. waters scoring nently in his book. Madonna and Oprah And once Oprah airs that India special on her cable effortlessly were only the latest celebrities to have been network, I’m guessing that it’s going to get a tad over the given the grand tour, but you can be sure crowded. beaches that they won’t be the last. seema_ht@rediffmail.com. Follow Seema on Twitter at In fact, poverty tourism itself has become twitter.com/seemagoswami PHOTOS: REUTERS
spectator
Seema Goswami
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HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE
JANUARY 29, 2012
Wellness
MIND BODY SOUL SHIKHA SHARMA
The learning curve
NET GAIN (OR LOSS)
I
have been trying to understand the lifestyles and eating habits of young people. This is the age when most people have high energy levels and possess good appetites. They are also independent in their choice of foods, which means they eat a lot of fast food. Common problems affecting young people include acne, dull skin, hair problems, digestive problems, lack of concentration and poor memory, headaches, weight issues and stress. Both the body and the mind need the correct prescription so young people can function at their best.
Online health information can be useful – but it could also be wrong by Dr Vikram Jaggi
THE POSITIVES ■ A smart and savvy patient can very quickly look up the information that he/she is seeking. ■ This info is usually very up to date. ■ If this matches with what has been told by the doctor, it is a great relief to the patient. ■ I see many asthma patients. Asthma requires a lot of precautions to be taken by the patient. All these are easily available on the Net. It saves the doctor-patient time. The time that a patient has with a doctor is usually 10-20 minutes. I often give patients links to good websites where this kind of info is available. THE NEGATIVES ■ CYBERCHONDRIACS: Many patients, some of whom already have a hypochondriac streak, become more paranoid by incessantly looking up disease and drug-related issues on the Net. Drugs can have possible side effects. These are listed on the Net. By going over this list, such patients either worry excessively or simply stop taking the medicine – both with bad USE THE NET WITH REASON ■ Visit reliable sites. Urls ending with .edu (education – usually universities or hospitals), .org (organisation – usually NGOs) or .gov (government sites) are likely to be
PHOTOS: THINKSTOCK
T
HE BREADTH and depth of the information on the Net is breathtaking! Recent data from an insurance company from India reveals that more than one third Indians (39 per cent) go online for health information. Just like everything else in life, this too has its pros and cons.
consequences. Sometimes patients look up symptoms to self diagnose their condition. If they have a chronic cough, the list of possible causes from the Net would invariably include lung cancer – and they convince themselves that that’s what they have. ■ CRANKS: The Net is full of cranks! A crank, to me, is a person who first makes an opinion, and looks for facts to fit his thesis. Examples: ‘drinking ginger and honey cured my asthma.’ ■ HOAXES: Some medical hoaxes are meant to scare. Example: drinking water from plastic bottles can cause cancer, infected needles stuck in cinema hall seats can transmit HIV etc. Others give false hope. Example: A detailed concoction to cure diabetes, complete with the name of the doctor who did this ‘research’. Deeper digging revealed that no such doctor exists. Many websites quote dubious studies or data. I am surprised at the number of intelligent people who fall for these.
reliable. Sites ending with .com are commercial sites. ■ Be sceptical of sites that offer to cure chronic diseases. ■ Be sceptical of sites with too many patient stories of miracles. ■ Verify the info with your doctor. A good doctor will clarify things for you. If he consistent-
Dr Jaggi is medical director, Asthma Chest Allergy Centre, New Delhi
ly disregards this, maybe it is time to change your doctor! ■ Forums are good places to learn about a condition via people who are in the same boat as you. But beware: many seemingly independent forums are managed by interested drug companies.
Solutions for the mind
The mind at this age is enthusiastic but tends to react adversely to even the slightest of unpleasant situations. The person’s wishes and desires (some personal, some imposed by parents, peers and society) play on her or his mind. So pranayams would help calm the mind, actively relax the temper and get the mind to move in a positive direction. At this age, music is like a balm. Listening to music or playing it channelises energies in a positive and constructive fashion. Sports and games help students vent out their frustrations in a focused way, and also help build a healthy physique. Many girls tend to diet to lose weight but do not achieve their proper figure. Plus, they suffer from low blood pressure and low energy because of the complete lack of physical exercise in their life. And sports builds team spirit. No one can be an achiever without being a good team player. This needs to be learnt early. Creative pursuits like photography, theatre and so on give people special gifts which could either become a career later, or help in other fields. Creative expression is also de-stressing, creates personal satisfaction and generates self worth.
Solutions for the body
For great skin and hair, make a juice of carrot, beetroot, ginger, celery / green vegetables, five tulsi leaves, barley grass or wheatgrass and tomato and drink it every day with rock salt. Eat uncooked sprouts five times a week, dressed with a teaspoon each of honey and lime juice and salt. Eat unrefined food four times a week in the form of vegetable dalia or vegetable brown rice poha, oat upma, brown rice idlis, boiled corn and barley salad, ragi dosa and jowar and bajra rotis when they are in season. For protein, vegetarians may have grilled paneer, sprouts, soya milk and tofu, and non-vegetarians should eat grilled fish or chicken and boiled eggs. Non-vegetarians should note that 60 per cent of their diets should be vegetarian. ask@drshikha.com
Variety
Smartphones have done more than allow us to write emails on the fly. Their cameras have turned hordes of aim-shoot-and-get-wobblypictures people into wannabe photography pros by Pooja Biraia
A
Out of the darkroom,
INTO THE LIGHT
RAKESH
HRUSHIKESH
YEAR AGO, on a gloomy winter morning just before dawn, a 35-year-old man stumbled through the ravines in a jungle in Jharkhand, carrying nothing but a lantern and a DSLR camera. When he got to the Maitron Dam, he knelt at the edge, whipped out his camera, adjusted the lens and clicked what he claims was “an astonishing picture of the snake-infested waters.” The snakes didn’t scare graphic designer Rakesh Singh. The thought that he might not get the photograph he’d mentally framed over months, did. Singh isn’t a professional photographer. He’s just SONSURKAR an enthusiastic amateur who takes his hobby very seriously. So seriously that he is more than just willing to invest time, effort and amounts of money into his pastime. He is actually driven to do so. “In order to make the yellow What’s new about this, of the sunflower stand out, I sprinkled water on it and you may ask. There have shielded it from sunlight usalways been passionate ing thin butter paper.” photography hobbyists This 30-year-old call centre executive and there always will be. specialises in abstract photography That’s true, but in the last couple of years, the sheer number of people looking at photography as their the confidence to SINGH medium of creative expression has gone ballistic. take up photography And, like Singh, for most of them, this is not just a as a serious hobby. hobby. It’s a deeply involving occupation. And Mulchand Dedhia, 25, founder BLAME IT ON TECHNOLOGY of the Mumbai “The seriousness with which people are pursuing Weekend Shoots photography now has never been seen before,” (MWS) photography says Dabboo Ratnani, celebrity photographer. club, started shooting Taken at 4 am at Maithon That’s the fallout of several factors, all of which on a Nokia 6600 cell Dam, my main objective fall back on one word – technology. Digital camphone with a was to capture the serenity eras have turned hordes of aim-shoot-and-get1.3 megapixel VGA of the water and the reflecwobbly-pictures people into wannabe pros. camera. tions of the trees. “Now you can shoot thousands of pictures with“Smartphones are This 35-year-old Delhi businessman out having to plan each shot or bother about the making more and has spent R1.75 lakh on his passion exhaustion of a film roll,”says Ratnani. “You can more people passee what you’re shooting and improve it instantly.” sionate about photography as these phones So thousands of people are willing at least to come with cameras that yield an image quality try and take great pictures, and once even one that rivals that of point-and-shoot cameras,” says fantastic frame is achieved, the bug begins to bite. fashion photographer Atul Kasbekar. “But smartTwo other factors have added to the growing phones can’t replace actual high-end cameras.” photo fascination – smartphones with super camThat’s something that any amateur photograeras and websites like Facebook, Flickr and pher worth her or his megapixels knows, so it’s no Picasa where photos can be uploaded and comsurprise when Anshul Jha, manager, Canon Image mented upon. Lounge, Gurgaon, says: “In the past few years, For instance, Hrushikesh Sonsurkar’s tryst with we’ve observed that most people who’ve shown a photography began when he used the 3.6 megapixel keen interest in photography have been ones who camera on his phone, uploaded the pictures on started shooting on their smartphones.” Facebook and got a positive response from his And photo-sharing apps such as Apple’s friends. Mobile photography as he calls it, gave him Instagram have taken the hobby to a new level
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altogether. Says Vikram Bawa, celebrity photographer, “Instagram reaffirms the fact that anyone with a creative streak can get into photography.”
GETTING IN FOCUS
If the photography bug has really bitten deep, the amateur photographer doesn’t want to remain totally self-taught. She or he really wants to learn. And if anything truly shows the mega interest that photography has aroused in a previously photo illiterate nation, it’s the number of photography clubs and workshops on offer. Every weekend, cities all over India witness
HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE JANUARY 29, 2012
Photo Flashes
DR SHARIKA
PRABHUDESAI
THREE FUNDAMENTAL RULES OF PHOTOGRAPHY Celebrity photographer Vikram Bawa says: “First, know your camera in your sleep (because if you waste time in getting your settings right, your shot will be gone before you know it). Second, plan your shot in advance (even if it is 30 seconds before you shoot) and third, learn your compositions – practice with one scene, and re-create it in different ways to hone your skills.”
I shot this picture at home, in natural light and for added effect, I adjusted the camera aperture to get the right amount of exposure.
HOW ABOUT KNOWING YOUR EQUIPMENT?
This dentist loves reading online tutorials and books on photography
Deepankar Arora, who’s spent almost R2.5 lakh on his camera equipment in the past two years, says: “The basic rule for an amateur photographer must always be to buy a cheap body and expensive lens, as it is the lens which actually takes the picture.”
AND WHAT ABOUT THE ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPHS?
Fashion photographer Atul Kasbekar says: “A photograph is only as good as the photographer. I know a lot of people with kick-ass equipment but below average images, and others with a reasonably decent camera but amazing shots. Just like no typewriter ever writes a novel by itself, no camera takes a photo by itself.”
DEEPANKAR
ARORA
ASHU
MITTAL
groups of enthusiasts equipped with DSLRs who meet to shoot and discuss pictures, walking around I wanted to capture the slow the city for pracpace of life in this Rajasthani tical classes in village and the contrast of the photographic the background against the art. For instance, man’s complexion in Mumbai, Breaking Rules, a This Adobe executive’s forte is still life, and clicking pictures of her daughter school of photography for amateurs, conducts five-weekend workshops, with a focus on outdoor photography within city limits. “We’ve been to the Global Vipassana Pagoda at Gorai, taken a closeup of the Haji Ali Maula, paraded the streets of Chor Bazaar, shot in local train compartments and actually captured the pulse of the city,” says Kaushik Chakravarty, 35, organiser of Breaking Rules and a freelance photographer. So how does learning happen while you shoot? “We are taught the basics of operating the camera and applying different techniques for different shots, then we analyse and critique each other’s works, and that’s how we learn,” says Dr Sharika Prabhudesai, 38, ENT surgeon, who was gifted a photography workshop by her husband. As word spreads, photography clubs can become huge, says Dedhia. “We started as a small commu-
nity of likeminded people in 2008, and by the end of this year, we expect membership to cross 5,000.” The majoriI was bowled over by ty of MWS memPangong Lake, and my aim bers are fulltime was to capture birds in flight, while keeping the working profeswater in the background. sionals, who cheerfully turn up for a This Delhiite is passionate about taking pictures on backpacking trips. 7.30 am shoot on a Sunday morning, often travelling from places closer to Pune than Mumbai. Other groups move beyond city limits, organising holidays that expose amateurs to different kinds of photography. Trips to Click, for instance, founded last August by Chirag Patel, 24, a film editor and audio-visual consultant turned photographer, conducted its first photo tour in Leh-Ladakh in September 2011 for seven days, followed by a trip to the Pushkar Mela in Rajasthan for five days. “We had a fantastic response from amateur photographers across the country,” says Patel. “People love photography tours and the market for it is booming.” Camera brands like Canon and Nikon conduct workshops and tours for amateurs too, and also invite submissions by amateur photographers for
IF ANYTHING SHOWS
THE MEGA INTEREST PHOTOGRAPHY HAS AROUSED, IT’S THE NUMBER OF WORKSHOPS ON OFFER
online photo contests. “Ninety-five per cent of the participants are amateurs who are passionate about photography,” says Jha. “A few years ago, we used to organise eight to 10 sessions a month. Now the number has grown to 16-20 a month.”
WIDE ANGLE VIEW
There’s no denying that photography is an expensive hobby. Still, you can gauge the level of involvement with any hobby by the amount of money its devotees are willing to spend on it. Deepankar Arora’s family thought he was crazy when he invested his first pay cheque two years ago in a Nikon D 90 that cost R80,000. “Then I purchased another lens for R98,000,” says the 30year-old operations management and logistics executive from Delhi, sounding not at all sheepish. And Ashu Mittal, 31, mother of two and an employee at Adobe, sacrificed all her other indulgences for her camera. “I graduated from my first R30,000 SLR to my latest one for R80,000 and have been adding lenses, which means I’ve spent more than R2 lakh as of now,” she says. “That means I don’t spend much on clothes and other things, but that’s fine. I have no vanity. I just lust for anything even remotely related to photography.” Not many people can afford these extravagances and in fact, they don’t have to, says Jha. “Good quality digital cameras are available for between R8,000 and R25,000, which work very well for an amateur,” he says. And those old manual cameras that clutter up closets can still be used today. When his friend tried to sell a manual SLR Yashica FX7 to the kabadiwala, Husain Shaikh, 35, bought it instead. “It’s a priceless treasure and and I use it for black and white street photography,” says Shaikh. “These manual cameras are amazingly precise, don’t cost much and get you to deliberate upon each shot. I’m gonna be with my manual for a long, long time.”
HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE JANUARY 29, 2012
pooja.biraia@hindustantimes.com
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How to be a shooting star Freelance photographer Natasha Hemrajani has shot all sorts of pictures from people to wildlife to stills. Here’s her advice on getting the best shots – always
PORTRAITS
A good portrait is a perfect blend of lighting, moment, mood and emotion. A flattering angle for face portraiture is usually slightly over the shoulder, with the face turned towards the camera lens. It is said that the eyes are windows to the soul and a good portrait should capture some of that mystery and magic in the human eye. Sometimes shooting in monochrome can add starkness to the features of the human face.
LANDSCAPE
Pay attention to the quality of your light. Often, light from the golden hour, i.e. around sunrise and sunset, is the most magical to shoot in. Frame your shot in a way that allows the viewer’s eye to travel within the photograph, thereby adding a ‘being there’ quality. Work with a foreground and a background to avoid making the final picture look flat.
When shooting an inanimate subject, tighter framing and varying depths of field add a persuasive quality to the final image. Concentrate on working with a background that does not take away from your subject. A shallower aperture value will enhance the main subject in the foreground while allowing for a pleasant blur in the background.
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Expert photographer Dinesh Khanna on how to best capture Delhi’s camera-friendly spots SHOPPING MALLS: Remember to take permission before you start snapping pictures in a mall. Also make sure you carry the smallest camera possible. You don’t want to attract too much attention. Clicking pictures in a mall is all about regular people juxtaposed against swanky objects, for example an old man in an Imagine store. The choice of lens is up to you. If you’re looking to capture pure emotions then use a telephoto zoom lens (200-300mm) but if you’re looking to capture mall architecture then the super wide-angle lens (16-24mm) is your best bet. But never use a flash. It will kill your picture. MEHRAULI: I feel Mehrauli makes for a very interesting subject. The architecture is worth clicking. Remember to carry a wide-angle lens for this. Preferable time would be early morning to capture the sunlight falling on the monuments. Again, remember to not use a flash.
TRAVEL
STILL LIFE
Extra exposure
The essence of travel photography is capturing a place along with its culture, flavour, quirks and people. It may be impossible to fit all these attributes in one single image but aim for it. Good travel photography is a mix of still life, portraits, landscapes and moments.
WILD LIFE
Sometimes, the more interesting picture is one that says something about the animal in its habitat, as in the case of this deer in its denuded forest. While the most captivating picture may be the eyes of an animal looking back at you, sometimes catching the animal when it’s unaware of your presence can also be a powerful picture. Think about the animal you are shooting and take your time. Capture it at the right moment.
HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE JANUARY 29, 2012
RAILWAY STATIONS: I feel railways stations are really interesting. The hustle bustle of a station is worth capturing. The best way obviously is to become one with the crowd. Click from a distance using a tele lens (200mm). You can also experiment with multiple exposure, but you would need a tripod for that. DILLI HAAT: The energy of Dilli Haat is palpable. Imagine the colours and contrasts you can capture with your camera. A wide angle 16-24mm lens can give you a graphic shot, which is highly recommended. JAMA MASJID: Head there at the crack of dawn or late evening. The light is perfect for photography at that time. Carry both your telephoto and wide angle lenses – it gives you the option to play around a little. I also suggest you walk through the area and shoot people (with a wide-angle lens), instead of trying to focus on one thing.
(As told to Amrah Ashraf)
Heritage walks
City Slickers
T
ucked away inside the city you live in is a hidden city: from sampling gastronomic delights to discovering a structure you always drove past and wondered what it must have looked like ages back, there’s a lot you can discover. Himanshu Verma’s Flower Walks that take you through the flower markets of Delhi are pretty popular. Brunch recommends Delhi: 14 Historic Walks by Swapna Liddle (Tranquebar Press) and the forthcoming Mind the Gap: Walking Delhi with the Metro by Wilson John (Amaryllis Publishing House).
Avian Adventures
H
ook up with the birdbrains (sorry, couldn’t resist!) in your neighbourhood and go feather-spotting in the wild!
Pack a Picnic W
ho says grown-ups can’t picnic? If you miss the feel of soft grass under your head, the blue sky above and the impromptu Frisbee matches of your childhood, this is the best way to relive them. Choose a quiet place to relax, listen to music or read. Have kids? A visit to the zoo, bird sanctuary or an amusement park should do the trick.
The Perfect Picnic Planner
Finger food works best. Think sandwiches, cherry tomatoes, cold roast chicken, boiled eggs and candy. Remember, picnics are meant to be stress free, so simple works best. Slip bottles of water inside the freezer, then pack them inside the picnic cooler. They’ll keep foods fresh as they thaw.
To keep things festive and colourful, carry soft quilts and blankets for lunch in the shade. Make sure they’re cosy enough for the post-lunch siesta. A Kindle is a great device to bring with you if you plan to have a quiet read but don’t want to lug around tomes. Smartphone users, carry an extra battery pack with you. Those suckers don’t even last a day.
YOUR MOMENT UNDER THE SUN
Usual snuggle-up-with-a-quilt-and-a-book routine getting to you? This January ditch both, dress warm and head to the great outdoors to live it up by Prachi Raturi Misra
N
OW THAT you’ve had time enough to feel like an icicle this winter, it’s time to slip into those walking shoes, plan family picnics, catch up with old friends over lunches that stretch to evening coffees or simply sit back with a book and soak the comforting winter sun. This is the time to thaw – so let us help you out.
Brunch Up
(you knew this was coming!)
B
runch is perfect if you wake up feeling like you need to go through the day at your own pace. Rustle up some tasty grub, let the wine do its magic and don’t forget dessert. That and great company. Don’t stress over the menu. Rustle up stuff you will enjoy making. Fruit bowls, eggs, sausages are simple and tasty options. Don’t forget the sangrias! If you hate cooking, consider hosting a potluck brunch (you could just arrange the drinks!). Don’t invite more guests than you can handle. A brunch is a lazy, languorous affair, not a noisy party.
The Best Brunch Tips Ever
CELEB SPEAK
N OYO N I K A C H AT T E R J E E , M O D E L “I sit out a lot in the garden and love to go for morning walks in winters. My husband and I often take our daughter to Hauz Khas or Lodhi Gardens for picnics.I enjoy winters in a simple and sweet way.”
Get adventurous
T
his is the time of the year when your energy levels peak, the sky is good and the weather is clear – so rough it out, we say! If you like mixing adventure with some learning, how about cycling? Anusha Subramanian, an adventure enthusiast and regular trekker counts cycling as one of her favourite winter activities. “Some days it does get hot but now even at noon you have cool breeze so you get less tired.” You could also consider rock climbing. Most cities have artificial walls to help you practice your skills. If, however, you’d rather be on real rocks, look for a rock climbing club in your city. Dhauj (Haryana) and Ramanagram (Bengaluru) are great options.
M O H N I S H B E H L , AC TO R “Since Mumbai has no winter I love going to colder places like Leh, Ladakh and Rohtang Pass. I once went skiing in winter and really, really enjoyed it!”
PRAHLAD KAKKAR, AD GURU “I enjoy deep sea diving in Lakshadweep as it is cold there and underwater diving in warm water feels great. Some people like having sex in winter to make it all warm and cosy. Opt to make out in the open and enjoy the fun of constantly checking to ensure no one is watching you.”
HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE JANUARY 29, 2012
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PERSONALAGENDA AGENDA PERSONAL
Sun sign Hometown
Occupation
School/college Birthday Fatima High School /
Aashirwaad on Zee
Libra
October 12
Actor, anchor and dancer
Mumbai
Jai Hind College, Mumbai
Which character from Sholay do you most resemble and why?
HUSSAIN KUWAJERWALA
First break
I think I resemble Veeru. Like him, I’m carefree and fun loving.
One song that describes your current state of mind? Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Jaane Jahan Main Nachoongi.
The last line of your autobiography would read…
If a spaceship landed in your backyard, what would you do?
...This was the way I lived.
How would you explain Twitter to your grandmother? I’d say, ‘It’s a cheaper way of being in touch with the world.’
The one place where you would never get yourself tattooed? Where it hurts the most.
I would really hope that Jadoo was inside it so he could help make me a superhero too.
The most clichéd answer you’ve ever given in an interview? To the question, ‘What are you looking for in your role?’, my usual response is, “Something that is
HOW MANY PAIRS OF BLUE JEANS DO YOU HAVE?
PHOTOS: THINKSTOCK
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I ONLY WEAR BLUE JEANS BUT HAVE LOST COUNT OF THEM
High point of your life What are you doing currently? Playing the lead in the musical Low point of your life Zangoora showcasing at the
Winning Nach Baliye
Losing my dad at an early age
Kingdom Of Dreams
very different and challenging.”
heat and losing all the flab.
Your most irrational fear…
The one lie you got away with?
You wouldn’t be caught dead wearing…
What is the last thing you bought for under `10?
...I’m out having lunch somewhere and my credit cards don’t work and I have no cash. Nothing. I’m surely going to be wearing something at least.
If you were given a chance to remake the movie Kites, what would you do? I would make sure that it flies this time.
Where did you spend last summer?
Right here in Delhi, sweating it out in the
WHAT WILL WE FIND IN YOUR FRIDGE RIGHT NOW?
LOTS OF FRUIT, CHICKEN AND CHOCOLATE
HINDUSTAN TIMES WEEKLY MAGAZINE JANUARY 29, 2012
Small white lies like, “I sent a reply to your message long time back. Didn’t you get it?”
I had a cup of cutting chai.
What’s the biggest surprise you’ve ever given your wife? I took her on a surprise trip to the Maldives, her favourite destination.
— Interviewed by Veenu Singh
IF YOU WERE AN ICECREAM, WHAT FLAVOUR WOULD YOU BE?
VANILLA – LIGHT AND NICE