Hindustantimes Brunch 31 March 2013

WEEKLY MAGAZINE, MARCH 31, 2013 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times

Bollywood’s powerhouse performer on love, life and the movies

indulge

VIR SANGHVI

A chain reaction in India

SANJOY NARAYAN Angling for Trout

SEEMA GOSWAMI

Do you play Net nanny?

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B R E A K FA S T O F C H A M P I O N S

hindustantimes.com/brunch

Pssst: Techilicious is tech-ing a break this week.

Rajiv Makhni will be back next Sunday.

Apples and Oranges

by Amrah Ashraf

On The Brunch Radar

LOVE IT SHOVE IT Lootera, the trailer ■

Irrfan and I

by Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi

H

Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK AND THINKSTOCK

ot all right, but I didn’t think Irrfan would be fun. He seems so intimidating on screen. So Natasha Hemrajani, the photographer, and I were all set to use our charm to make this ‘serious, brooding’ man pose. But Irrfan walked down the stairs of his beautiful Madh Island home with a captivating smile and said, “I am ready. What do you want me to do?” He climbed a ladder, ran into the sea, and even jumped into the pool. And we were on! Shot after shot was sheer perfection. We had four hours of uninhibited Irrfan, all to ourselves.

Here’s a picture of him and me. Go on, turn green!

Free Gyaan

Some film remakes actually impress, others just leave us stressed. See which is which at hindustantimes.com/brunch. Until then, here’s a preview

Then

Now

Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam: The innocence of love and deep-seated passion for Choti Bahu made the film special.

Agneepath: “Poora naam, Vijay Dinanath Chauhan!” The audience went hysterical.

Don: AB’s don was the real deal – cases full of money, long cars and arm candy like Zeenat.

Devdas: Dilip Kumar’s was iconic.

Shah Rukh’s was the lover every girl pined for.

Sholay: Jai, Veeru, Gabbar, Basanti, Thakur and Dhanno… You know the drill.

Umrao Jaan: Rekha stole the show in this movie. Her mujras, nakhras and adayein left everyone speechless.

Gol Maal: Two names you need to remember: Ramprasad Dashrathprasad Sharma and Bhavani Shankar. Eeeesh!

Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster: There are guns, gaalis and a lot of gangster-baazi. And now a sequel of the remake. Too much, you think?

Agneepath: History repeats itself.

But this time, the seetis were reserved for Kancha Cheena and Rauf Lala.

Don: SRK’s character stuttered and overacted.

Even the girls were boring.

Dev.D: Well, Devdas gave up on dhoti for extra-low jeans, alcohol for crack, and love for lust. Not bad.

Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag: Ram Gopal Varma ki aaaarrrggghhh! Do we need to say more?

Umrao Jaan: Aishwarya Rai tried really hard and so did JP Dutta. The audience didn’t care. No one watched the movie. Epic fail!

Bol Bachchan: They claim that Bol Bachchan is the official remake of Gol Maal. In the filmmaker’s head maybe!

Make plans for Monday evening – meet some friends, party, make merry. So you have something to look forward to!

(Poonam Saxena, the big boss, thinks the blues aren’t an excuse to not finish work on time.

Aasheesh Sharma likes to squeeze in a film with the wife, without the kids)

Get a grip, now. Brunch staffers tell you what makes them so cheerful on Mondays Just have an awesome Sunday evening so you wake up with a smile (thanks to the good memories) on Monday – that feeling lasts the whole day (Spend some time with Mignonne Dsouza and you’ll be smiling anyway)

Cover image: NATASHA HEMRAJANI Cover design: MONICA GUPTA Location: IRRFAN’S HOME, MUMBAI

Once in a while, just take an off on a Monday. A break from routine will destress you (If Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi doesn’t show up tomorrow, we’ll know why)

by Shreya Sethuraman

The Harlem Shake

Yes, it’s a bit old now. But we’re still on the lookout for another fun version. We bring you the basics. You can’t do it by yourself. You need some head gear, a mask, or not even that. Just move it!

Even if you choose to touch your Step 1: Someone’s got to start toes constantly. shaking from side to side. They Step 3: Everybody, join in! The could be reading, in a queue, at Harlem Shake has begun. Jump the bus stop, wherever. Just up and down, shake from side to start shaking. side, pirouette on your toes...

Step 2: Pretend not to notice Step 4: Make a video and for about 15 seconds. Then jump upload it on YouTube. in. Now you could do any step.

Spend a perfect Sunday.

Snooze till sundown, eat some chaloo Chinese food, read an old book, gobble down leftovers, and pass out again!

(Amrah Ashraf has made a habit of passing out.

She’s currently overdosing on multivitamins to last all week)

Read a strip of Calvin and Hobbes every half hour at work. Bill Watterson makes everything better (Shreya Sethuraman shares a Calvin and Hobbes strip on her Facebook page every Monday. She also has a lot of imaginary friends)

Call it stormy Monday but Tuesday is just as bad. All you need is some good music (Saudamini Jain whines about everything. It’s her idea of being fun)

EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Aasheesh Sharma, Rachel Lopez, Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi, Mignonne Dsouza, Veenu Singh, Parul Khanna, Yashica Dutt, Amrah Ashraf, Saudamini Jain, Shreya Sethuraman, Manit Moorjani

MARCH 31, 2013

Step-by-Step Guide to

If you’ve bought a new outfit, accessories or cosmetics during the week, debut it on Monday. That way you have an incentive to get out of bed.

(Rachel Lopez always has new make-up to try on. Veenu Singh is up at dawn to send her kids to school. And yet manages to do her nails)

Finish your pending work on Sunday so you go to work on Monday with no worries. Best way to start a week!

(Manit Moorjani is full of great advice. He just never follows it)

Jackky Bhagnani’s Gangnam Style (or any style, really) ■ Tuxedo T-shirts ■ Spring cleaning ■ Visa application forms ■ Looking for a roommate

■

Frank Ocean as a model ■ Hotel rooms ■ “Balam pitchkari, jo tune mujhe maari. Toh seedhi saadhi chhori sharaabi ho gayi.”

■ Bright sneakers

■

Old wine, new Bollywood bottle

Brunch Opinion

by Saudamini Jain

Bunk work on Friday or Saturday. One long weekend and you will be raring to go to work on Monday (For Parul Khanna, employment is only a means to an end. She works all day so she can party all night)

Watch back-to-back episodes of your favourite TV shows all of Sunday night. It’ll be Monday morning before you know it (Yashica Dutt watches every English show on TV. She also flips through Hindi drama and grumbles about it all week)

DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor, Design), Monica Gupta, Swati Chakrabarti, Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Singh

Drop us a line at: brunchletters@

hindustantimes.com or to 18-20 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001

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LIFE OF IRRFAN

He is Hindi cinema’s best known name in Hollywood. And with the National Award for Paan Singh Tomar under his belt, Irrfan is pushing new boundaries

by Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi photographs by Natasha Hemrajani

T

HERE WAS something about kite flying that always fascinated actor Irrfan. He was struck by the dizzy heights a free-flowing kite would reach in the vast open sky. The way a mere piece of paper could trace its way in uncharted territory would keep him spellbound. “I loved the sense of freedom that the kite experienced. Inherently, I was dying to experience the same, in every sense of the word,” says Irrfan, as he sits down on the comfortable lounger at his Mediterranean-style Madh Island home. The white walls,

big open balconies and glass doors reflect his mindset. Nooks and corners are bathed in bright blues.

Fuchsia is set against black and white photos of his childhood, parents, wife and two sons.

“My mother was always very scared.

But I was very sure that I wanted to fly… Just like the kite,” says Irrfan as he rolls up a cigarette, takes a deep puff and continues looking across at the distant sea. “I wasn’t one to be tied down by lines, boundaries and discipline. It was very important for me to be free.

In character and in action...”

...Your attitude seems to translate into your actions, because the kind of work you do does not conform to any given rules.

How can it? That is not my mindset.

In fact, I hate routine and discipline. I think it ties a person down completely. I also hated school. I wanted to get out of it the minute I walked in. So much so that today I don’t even like going to a gym. Running on the treadmill bores me. I liked playing – any sport or game. And I was good at most of them.

Paan Singh Tomar. Your award winning performance with all that running you did... did it need extensive training?

I trained of course. You just can’t run a hurdle race. There are some technicalities that you must understand.

You have to reduce the distance between your feet and the hurdle and you can’t adjust your steps only when you’re close to the hurdle, so you have to maintain a rhythm.

I started my training three months before we started shooting. The coach came, taught me the basics, then went off. I practised on my own, then he came back. And so on. We had planned to shoot the running scenes at intervals. But it so happened that all of them got shot together. So, for nearly a month, I was just running day and night.

But given your profession, is there any escaping the gym routine?

True, there isn’t. But I don’t do it regularly. I get into gym mode only if I am playing a character that requires a body type like that. Like when I did The Warrior [a film by British-Indian filmmaker Asif Kapadia, in which Irrfan played the central character of a warrior in Rajasthan] in 2001 or recently Paan Singh Tomar. But not on a regular basis.

When did you realise you wanted to act?

Oh! When I was very young. I think I was in Class 10 when I first saw a film. I knew then that I wanted to act.

But I couldn’t share this with anyone.

MARCH 31, 2013

Irrfan relaxes on the sea-facing, sunlit terrace of his Madh Island home No one would take me seriously. I was thin, extremely shy and had a voice like a woman. It took me nearly a year and a half to even tell my best friend about my deep desires. Poor him! On the face of it, he encouraged me but knowing my family, he knew I was in deep s***. (Laughs)

Your family wouldn’t have approved?

Absolutely not. Cinema was looked down upon at my home. Though it’s much better today. In fact, we weren’t allowed to watch films for the longest time. It was considered a frivolous, naachne-gaane-walon ka profession.

No one really took it seriously. I had to lie to go and watch a film. In fact, it

took a great deal of story-telling. I had to go to great lengths to explain my absence from the house for three hours. I remember once I even cut myself on my hands and feet just to distract my parents’ attention after I had gone to watch a film.

Even today, after the National Award, my mother’s first reaction was: “Okay, so you seem sorted for now, what of the future?” All I could say was: “Ji, uska bhi jugad kar raha hun.” [I am working towards it].

Judging by your independent mindset, it seems like you had an interesting family...

My family was a strange mix. We lived in Jaipur. The value system and

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I love being in love. It makes you sensitive. I look for romance, humour and wit even in the most serious roles waste it on bidis. In fact, Sutapa liked playing the caretaker.

culture is traditional and conventional but my family isn’t fanatically conservative. My mother never did purdah.

My father and her – in a small place like Tonk in Rajasthan – would roam about in an open jeep. Ma came from a high profile family of hakims and my father was a nawab. They had seen some glorious times but then fell on hard days. My father never believed in bookish knowledge. He didn’t insist on academics, my mother did. It was important for her. For dad, learning a craft and perfecting it was more important. So it was a strange mix. Films were taboo. But they didn’t raise an eyebrow when I decided to marry a Hindu Bengali girl.

Really, you mean there was no drama?

No. It wasn’t filmi at all. In fact Sutapa [his wife] and I often joke that the response from both families was too thanda! I knew her parents well and would often go to their house in Chittaranjan Park in Delhi. Both her parents and brother loved me unconditionally. There was a lot of affection and regard. So they were rather happy when we decided to marry. My mother, on the other hand, was a bit apprehensive but once she met Sutapa, she was fine. She believed I was too much of a vagabond and kept worrying that I would dump Sutapa.

She would keep telling me, “Usko dhokha mat de diyo!”

You met Sutapa at the National School Of Drama (NSD), right?

Yes, we were classmates. She was this studious, smart, English-speaking, skirt-and jeans-clad, hep Dilliwali and I was the backbencher vagabond from the cow belt. We hero-worshipped Mithun Chakraborty and she talked Robert De Niro. But we were friends. We talked, argued, hated each other, but we also missed each other and watched each other’s back. She was poor in drawing, so I’d often do her art work and take money for my bidis and chai from her. We couldn’t afford cigarettes. I would save only 25 paise from my scholarship money and couldn’t MARCH 31, 2013

Your time at the NSD was a turning point in your life, wasn’t it?

Completely. It was a game-changer for me. My father had passed away around the same time and being the eldest of four children, it was obviously supposed to be my responsibility to get the family in order. But I knew that my life in Jaipur was over and done with. I was desperate to get out at any cost. I couldn’t do any more of the useless evenings with friends, the idle gossip, the looking at girls and general waste of time.

My admission to NSD was like my ticket to freedom. Ma wasn’t too happy. It was only after I convinced her that it was a proper course with classes and a curriculum that she let me go. The only lie that I told her was that once done, I would come back to Jaipur and become a theatre professor or some such. That was a possibility for sure, but it wasn’t ever in my mind. My goal was very clear. It was films and only films.

But truly, NSD was my first flight!

I was free for the first time. I was learning what I wanted to. There were no questions, no answers, no restrictions, no timings, no lies, no excuses. I loved it. The only thing that I didn’t ever understand was how anyone could put a method to feeling. For me, good or realistic acting was only possible if there was an emotional connect with the character. And no school can teach you to feel emotion. Either you have it or you don’t.

You were sure you wanted to do films.

But was it difficult to get that first break?

Actually no. My first film Salaam Bombay [1988] just happened. I was still in my final year of NSD when Mira [Nair] came and cast me in the film. And then it just started. In fact, I came to Mumbai only when filmmaker Govind Nihalani called me and wanted me to do some plays.

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Why did you move to TV then?

Do you remember the kind of films that were made in the ’90s? It was the worst period for Hindi cinema. VCRs had come in and the middle class had stopped going to the theatres. Movies were being made only for the frontstall audiences. And as we were entering films, parallel cinema was breathing its last. So what was the option? It may not have been my first choice but I can’t deny that TV gave me a great high. People still talk about Banegi Apni Baat and Chandrakanta. I experienced stardom for the first time with these two serials.

Till Haasil and The Warrior happened...

Those two films were again turning points. Asif [Kapadia, film director] had seen some of my work and gave me The Warrior. It was only after the film premiered in New York that I realised the magnitude of the whole thing. It had a strange effect on people. In London, people came out of the theatres and said they felt cleansed. The media went crazy. All they talked about was my presence.

For the first time I became aware of a thing called screen presence and that I had it.

The India appeal though still eluded me till Haasil in 2003. Tigmanshu [Dhulia, film director] and I were in NSD together. We are friends first. It was his first film and a life changer for me. Haasil got me my first brush with stardom in films. I wasn’t the hero. I was the villain in the film but I won awards and was recognised as an actor in Hindi films.

But life didn’t change much, did it?

No. In fact, my wait for a good role, a call from a big director kept increasing. I would wait endlessly for that one phone call. People would see me on TV or in some films, appreciate me, but it never translated into big films. I was desperate. I was even ready to play a side villain’s sidekick.

But that too didn’t happen. And I could never go and ask for work. I was too shy and found it very humiliating to ask people for a job.

Do you feel you were underrated?

Initially maybe. But I realised I was a certain type. I wasn’t your quintessential hero. I was more an actor and

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The only reason I keep doing Hollywood films is because they awaken the actor in you Hindi cinema didn’t really have scripts, roles or films to cast me adequately. We didn’t make such films then. Now it’s changing. This is not the peak, we’ll come to that in a few years. I have done some great films, Maqbool, Saat Khoon Maaf, Billu Barber, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Rog... And of course Paan Singh Tomar... But they came at intervals. Now there are some great directors who have different sensibilities. People like Anurag Basu, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Milan Luthria, Vishal Bhardwaj, they are ready to push the envelope, and that is what we need.

You are India’s best known name in Hollywood...

Thank God and yes, touch wood, I am in an enviable position there. But that is again perhaps because directors in Hollywood are ready to take the risk.

Be it Asif Kapadia, [The Warrior], Michael Winterbottom [A Mighty Heart], Danny Boyle [Slumdog Millionaire] or even Ang Lee [Life of Pi], each one of them was ready to play with the character. They don’t cast you in the same mould. The Warrior gave me screen presence. In The Namesake [2006] my character was supposed to be almost invisible.

The only reason I keep doing Hollywood films is because they awaken the actor in you. There is no money there. It’s only the feel.

No money?

No. One, they don’t pay very well.

Two, they take more than half of it in taxes. And the kind of time they demand, you can do 10 films in India in that time. But the experience as an actor is unparalleled.

Did you think Paan Singh Tomar would do so well?

Of course not. We believed in the film.

But no one else did. Why do you think MARCH 31, 2013

it was in the cans for four years? But every film comes with its own destiny.

All through when we were making the film, it kept encountering hurdles but every time, it worked its way out.

Slumdog Millionaire had the same thing. The original studio refused to sell it. They decided to take it out in DVDs. Danny Boyle panicked, took the film to Toronto, 200 people from Fox Searchlight saw the film and wanted it immediately. It was released only in one theatre in New York but then it started rolling and crossed $300 million.

Even in The Namesake, it was supposed to be Gogol’s film [the lead protagonist]. My character of Ashok Ganguly was a side track. But the film ended up being Ganguly’s film. Could we have predicted it or planned it?

You believe in destiny?

Yes, I feel life has a design for you.

You can’t change it. So there are two ways: either try and figure out what, how, when, why, life, death; or just believe that you are living a free life.

You can romance life better this way.

Are you a romantic?

Hard core. I am a very passionate, romantic man. I love being in love. It makes you sensitive. I look for romance, humour and wit even in the most serious roles. In fact I hate being serious. I keep trying to put in witty one-liners in my dialogues.

Unfortunately, no one has really given me a role like that. Life In A... Metro was the only film where I experimented with humour. I also did Dil Kabaddi but it didn’t work that well.

So is that your next avatar?

Well, I am waiting. Let’s see what life has in store for me. I know I want to do an action-romantic film. But I have to wait for a good script to be written and a good director who will cast me.

Life is transient... I am living every moment. tavishi.rastogi@hindustantimes.com

MORE ON THE WEB For more EXCLUSIVE pictures and sound bites of Irrfan, log on to hindustantimes. com/brunch.

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I SPY

Seema Goswami

Is it ever a good idea to snoop on your children?

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I’M LOOKING AT YOU, KID

Spying by parents can teach kids a valuable lesson – nothing you post on the Internet is ever private

Photos: THINKSTOCK

MORE ON THE WEB

For more SPECTATOR columns by Seema Goswami, log on to hindustantimes.com/ Brunch. Follow @SeemaGoswami on Twitter. Write to her at seema_ht@ rediffmail.com

T IS A scary time to be the parent of teenager.

You don’t just have to cope with the ready availability of drinks and drugs, though that is hard enough. With the virtual mainstreaming of porn (available to anyone at the click of a mouse) sex is also a danger zone. Sexting, or sending sexually explicit pictures via phone texts, is rampant among the teenage population. Peer pressure forces kids to become sexual players long before they are ready for sex at an emotional level. Sexual predators lurk in chat rooms and social media sites to prey on the young and the vulnerable. And the real world is scarcely safer, with reports of rapes and molestations coming in every day.

Combine this with the natural inclination of all kids to turn into monosyllabic creatures of mystery as soon as they hit puberty and you have a huge problem. Just when your children seem to be most vulnerable, their world is closed to you. And the only way to get even a glimpse is (not to put too fine a point on it) by snooping.

The good news is that spying on your kids has never been easier. You can use the GPS on their mobiles to track their whereabouts throughout the day. There are apps that will allow you to monitor their online activity – which sites they visited, what software they downloaded, etc – without their being any the wiser. And you can lurk in the corner to check out what they are posting on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram (or get someone else to do the lurking for you).

But just because something is easy, should you do it? And what will you do with the information you glean? There is no way you can use it without admitting that you have been spying. And once you admit that, what will the repercussions on your relationship with your kids be? Will they ever forgive you for invading their privacy? Will they ever trust you again, given that trust goes both ways? What if they rebel against this helicopter parenting and become even more secretive than before? Given their competitive advantage in matters of technology, this is one battle you may never win.

Yet, there is no denying that our children are vulnerable on the Net. Cyber-bullying is rampant, and is sometimes so ferocious that it leads kids to kill themselves. Girls as young as 13 are pressured into sending ‘sexy’ pictures of themselves to their boyfriends; who then circulate them among their friends when the ‘relationship’ ends. And you only have to read reports about the Steubenville rape to see how Instagram, Twitter and other social networks are used to humiliate and shame.

So, when it comes right down to it, would you spy on your teenag-

spectator

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In Modern Family, Claire Dunphy joins Facebook to snoop on her daughters. But she’s left red-faced when her embarrassing college photo is posted by a friend

er? And does it ever turn out well?

Well, the jury is out on that one. I know parents who predicate their relationship with their teenage kids on trust and allow them their space. They respect the boundaries their kids put up and their children respond by being open and sharing their lives with them. But this hands-off attitude doesn’t work for everyone – and may even be downright dangerous for some.

On the other extreme, there are parents who believe that knowledge is power and maintain a constant surveillance on their kids. And while their kids may stay safe as a consequence, their relationship with their children does not exactly flourish. The kids resent the constant interference; and the implication that they are not to be trusted.

So what is a parent to do? It’s a tough one. You can’t really abdicate all responsibility for keeping your kids safe on the grounds that they are entitled to their privacy. On the other hand, you don’t want to be so intrusive that they shut themselves off from you forever. It is a fine line that separates caring from smothering; and parents will find themselves on the wrong side of it one time or another.

But the perils of prying work both ways. In one of my favourite episodes of Modern Family, Claire Dunphy joins Facebook and badgers her two teenage daughters into accepting her friend request in the hope of keeping tabs on their lives.

But the tables are turned when an embarrassing photo of Claire – in her wild college days – is posted on Facebook by one of her old friends. It is Claire who is left red-faced as she tries (and fails) to delete the image.

There is a lesson for us all there. Just as there is some stuff you don’t want your kids to know about you, there is some stuff that your kids don’t want to share with you. It’s all a part of growing up, becoming their own person, inhabiting their own world. And whether it is real life or the virtual world, you have to learn to let go.

That said, I have to admit that spying by parents can teach kids a valuable lesson: that nothing you post on the Internet, no matter how well you monitor your privacy settings, is ever private. Each photo, Facebook post or tweet will live on forever in the ether. The only way to keep things really private is to keep them off the Net. But to the delight of spying parents everywhere, that’s one thing Generation Next seems incapable of doing.

Cyber-bullying is rampant, and is sometimes so ferocious that it leads kids to kill themselves

MARCH 31, 2013

THE JOKE’S ON YOU, MOM

indulge

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

India was largely immune to the trend of the world’s most famous restaurants opening in different countries. Now that seems to be changing

I PRIVATE BOOTH

San Lorenzo really sprang to fame when Mara Berni (wife of the eponymous Lorenzo) took Princess Diana (below) under her wing, and served as her confidante

Vir Sanghvi

rude food

THE WORLD’S COMING OVER

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

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WAS A little surprised to hear that the legendary London restaurant San Lorenzo is opening an outpost in Bombay. Surprised because San Lorenzo is such a London institution that it is hard to think of it opening anywhere else.

San Lorenzo was initially part of the trattoria boom that characterised the Swinging Sixties in London and the eponymous Lorenzo belonged to a generation of expatriate Italians (Mario, Franco, Alvaro etc.) who taught the English how to love spaghetti. Since its earliest days, San Lorenzo was a celebrity hang-out, famous for attracting the Joan Collins kind of star. But it really sprang to fame when Mara Berni (wife of the eponymous Lorenzo) took Princess Diana under her wing, serving as a confidante and (according to some biographies of the Princess), even providing a discreet place for the People’s Princess to engage in amorous liaisons with lots of the People.

San Lorenzo will open in a few months time at the Taj Lands End, in the space formerly occupied by the late, lamented Pure, and though there will always be those who would have preferred a more contemporary kind of Italian restaurant rather than a Sixties/Seventies London hang-out, I am of the view that San Lorenzo may work in Bandra. After all, Le Cirque, which, in many ways, is the San Lorenzo of New York (without the movie stars but with the addition of the King of Spain) has been a spectacular success at the Delhi Leela.

The opening of San Lorenzo and the triumph of Le Cirque tell us that the international restaurant brands have finally arrived in India. This is a global phenomenon. At the top end of the market, the world’s most famous chefs and restaurants (Alain Ducasse, Nobu, Joël Robuchon, Pierre Gagnaire, Zuma, Petite Maison, Cut etc.) have become ubiquitous, opening up in different cities all over the world. So far, at least, India was largely immune to this trend. But things now seem to be changing.

The first phase of the change came when hotels began asking foreign collaborators for expertise. When the Taj’s Raymond Bickson failed to persuade Nobu to open in India, he approached Masaharu Morimoto, the former executive chef of the New York Nobu instead. Morimoto provided the expertise for the two Wasabi restaurants the Taj runs so successfully in Bombay and Delhi.

And now we’re into a phase where stand-alone entrepreneurs are tying up with foreign restaurants. I ate last week at the Bombay Hakkasan and the food was as good as it is in London though I suspect that the restaurant does not get the numbers it needs to replicate the buzz of the London operation because people regard it as too expensive. (Which is not entirely fair: its average check of MARCH 31, 2013

`2,300 puts it below the Megus and Le Cirques and possibly even Wasabi. It is not cheap by any standards. But it’s not much more expensive than hotel restaurants).

Kishore Bajaj, who runs Hakkasan, also operates the parent company’s other brand, Yauatcha, in Bombay’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) and the massive popularity of that restaurant means there will soon be Yauatchas in Bangalore (at 1 MG Road Mall) and in Delhi (at Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj).

I am not sure exactly how many other upmarket brands will come to India in the near future but I know of at least one other London restaurant (Italian) that is considering opening here. And my friend Jai Mehta has brought London’s famous Pizza Metro Pizza to Bandra in Bombay.

At the middle level, however, the action is hotting up. I gather that the Ping Pong chain (very popular abroad, though frozen dim sum is not my scene) will open here. At least one Thai chain will open outlets by the end of the year. The last time I went to Ambience Mall in Vasant Kunj, I was startled to see that not only was Chili’s (which does American hamburger-chilli-concarne-type food at a basic level) jam-packed but there were also huge queues at both entrances.

DESI STILL RULES

Reasonably priced south Indian fast food chains like Sagar which serve dosas (left) etc will always outperform a Western chain because they use fresh ingredients

Photo: THINKSTOCK

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THEY ARE ALL FLOCKING HERE

San Lorenzo (left), about to open soon in Bombay, was initially part of the trattoria boom that characterised the Swinging Sixties in London; If Starbucks (above) can maintain its high standards, then its domestic rivals may be in big trouble I’ve been to Chili’s and I can see why it works but I’m not sure about all the other mid-level offerings. Also at Ambience is La Tagliatella, a brand owned, as far as I can tell, by a company based in Warsaw (yes, in Poland) which aims to serve pizza-pasta-type Italian food. The day I went, the service was excellent but the food was truly dire: a pizza with the consistency of a wet towel, a bolognese sauce that tasted only of industrial tomato puree, served with pasta that had had the consistency of mush, etc.

It had about the same relationship to real Italian food as a Bangladeshi curry house in a small town in Scotland has to real Indian food. Why would anyone want to go to a restaurant with table service to eat pizzas that are this bad when you can just go to the food court at Ambience and get a pizza at the Amici counter which is a million times better?

But I don’t want to be too judgmental. Perhaps I went on an off day. Or maybe this is how Polish people like their Italian food. And who knows, maybe Delhi’s Punjabis will also like this kind of thing. (Not on the night I went though: Zambar, Chili’s and nearly everywhere else was doing much better.)

On the other hand, the foreign entrants in the fast food/counter service sector seem to be flourishing. I went to the Bombay Starbucks (the one behind the Taj) and found a first-rate operation with good value pricing, a great ambience and efficient counter service. If Starbucks can maintain this standard then its domestic rivals may be in big trouble.

I haven’t been to Nando’s in India either (not my scene) but the opening of the Delhi outlet elicited near hysteria so my guess is that as far as fast food is concerned, it is only a matter of time before the foreign brands come to dominate the market. Even the midlevel sector will follow the experience of Chili’s rather than La Tagliatella, I suspect.

Where does that leave Indian restaurants? Will our own home-grown restaurants be edged out by foreign brands? Personally, I don’t think so – at least not in the sector that depends on chefs and cooks rather than industrial packs of pasta sauce and cooking-by-manual. And that holds good across the market. A reasonably priced operation like Delhi’s south Indian fast-food chain, Sagar, will always outperform a Western chain

because it relies on fresh ingredients and skillful cooks, not on microwaves and pre-packaged frozen dishes.

At the top end of the market, as long as we empower young chefs and give them the freedom to create their own menus, restaurants run by Indian chefs will always have the edge over branches of foreign restaurants. The best Oriental meal I’ve had in a long time was at the Pan Asian in Madras (at the Grand Chola), where an array of brilliant young chefs turned out the most amazing Japanese, Chinese and Korean dishes. All the chefs were Indian. And yet the dishes were entirely authentic.

Or perhaps the answer lies in more collaborations.

When Sergi Arola, the Michelin two-star chef from Spain was here to open his Bombay operation at the JW Marriott some months ago, I had written about the excellence of his food. But, I wondered, given that Arola was sending a single young chef (Manuel Olveira) who spoke very little English and that the restaurant would really be run by Marriott chefs, could his high standards possibly be maintained?

I went back to Arola a fortnight ago and found that Manuel had learned a little more English and that he worked in perfect harmony with the Indian chefs.

Perhaps it is because Himanshu Taneja, the JW chef, is so committed to excellence, but the restaurant’s kitchen ran like a welloiled machine. And the food was to die for: fried Arabian Sea langoustines, roast suckling pig, pork carpaccio, prawns in garlic and olive oil, Arola’s signature version of patatas bravas, rice with Spanish cheese, an amaretto foam that had the texture of air and a wonderfully rich Crema Catalana.

It was, without any exaggeration, the best European meal I have eaten in Bombay – since the last time I went to Arola, that is. I liked it so much that I went back the next night and ordered all the dishes in the menu that I had missed the first time around.

Not one dish was a dud. And the best part of Arola is that you don’t have to sit down to a proper meal. You can drink and eat wonderful tapas all evening.

So perhaps that is the future: lots of successful foreign brands with rigid SOPs at the middle and lower ends of the market, but much more variety at the top: clones of London and New York restaurants coexisting with innovative Indian-born restaurants and successful collaborations between Indian and foreign talent like Arola. Plus, restaurants at all price levels run by real chefs and cooks who make authentic food with fresh ingredients and genuine passion will flourish.

Every way you look at it, the future tastes delicious.

The frenzy over Nando’s in Delhi shows that soon foreign brands will dominate the fast food market

BIG BITES

Chili’s in Delhi’s Ambience Mall does American style hamburger-chilli-con-carne-type food at a basic level

MARCH 31, 2013

SMOOTH OPERATOR

Himanshu Taneja, the JW Marriott chef (above) runs Arola’s kitchen like a well-oiled machine and served me the best European meal I have eaten in Bombay

NEW YORK TO INDIA

Taj’s Raymond Bickson (above) approached Masaharu Morimoto, the former executive chef of the New York Nobu, to provide the expertise for the Wasabi restaurants

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THE JUKEBOX

HE’S THE MAN

Walter Trout is a top-notch blues guitarist

Sanjoy Narayan

CATCH THIS TROUT

There’s something about great blues guitar riffs that’s addictive. I can listen to good blues for hours and not be bored. Walter Trout’s music is like that

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FANS IN ALL PLACES

A song on The Outsider, Trout’s 2008 album, is about Sanjay Dutt. Dutt is apparently a huge Trout fan

PON HEARING from my friend Hemant that he was listening to a lot of Walter Trout, I rummaged in my hard drives and CD shelves to bring out my old copies of albums by one of the most fret-searing blues guitarists that I’ve heard.

I hadn’t heard Trout in a long time. And what came up first was the two-disc live album from 2000, Live Trout, on which Trout plays with his band The Free Radicals (the band’s now just called Walter Trout).

My friend Hemant is a person whose recommendations I follow blindly. And whenever I do so, I realise how good an idea it is to do so. Back in the day, Hemant introduced me to Phish, a band that at that time (we’re talking about the early 1990s) I hadn’t heard of; Hemant was the one who dropped on my lap a copy of Ágætis byrjun by Iceland’s now famous Sigur Rós more than 10 years back, long before they became celebrated post-rockers who everyone is now talking about. But then Hemant is usually ahead of the curve when it comes to anything. Secretly, I’m a little envious of him. He lives on an island; restores old Merc sedans; is an outstanding cook; and shoots films for a living. So, when he MARCH 31, 2013

t last year’s South By Southwest (SXSW), the annual music, film and interactive festival held in Austin, Texas, the keynote Foo address was by Bruce Fighter’s Springsteen. This year, it frontman was by Foo Fighters’ Dave frontman, film-maker and Grohl former bandmate of Kurt Cobain in Nirvana, Dave Grohl. He spoke on why and how he chose to become a musician and what inspired and continues to inspire him. Set aside 60 minutes and catch the video online.

mentioned that he was listening to a lot of Trout, I decided to do the same.

Walter Trout is a top-notch blues guitarist who started his musical career as a sideman – with John Lee Hooker; being the guitarist for Canned Heat; and even being part of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.

Thereafter, he embarked on a solo career, forming his own band, which has to its credit several albums.

Significantly, Trout has played in India thrice, the latest being this February when he appeared at the Mahindra Blues festival.

I began my re-listening of Trout with the two live discs. They have together 14 tracks on them, with Trout also doing lead vocal duties but, more important, with his trademark scorching style of playing the blues guitar. There’s never a dull moment on Live Trout, whether he’s playing short tunes such as Livin’ Every Day (a shade over five minutes) or Serve Me Right To Suffer (which clocks in at nearly 11 minutes). There’s something about great blues guitar riffs – despite the genre’s cyclical form – that is addictive.

I can listen to a good blues guitarist for hours on end and not be bored. Trout’s music is like that.

After spinning Live Trout multiple times, I wanted more. So, I headed off to look for his tracks while with John Mayall’s band, The Bluesbreakers. On iTunes, I found an album called Blues Breaker

by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers that features Trout on the guitar.

Trout’s guitar on the 12 tracks on that album aren’t as fire-inducing as they are on his solo albums but still, as a complement to the vocals and harmonica of the British blues godfather (Mayall, who’s nearly 80 now, has mentored guitarists such as Eric Clapton, former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, Jane’s Addiction’s and former Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Dave Navarro, Trout, of course, Fleetwood Mac’s John McVie, besides many more), Trout’s lead guitar riffs stand out. There is an 11-minute version of a Mayall staple, Room to Move, on the album where, six minutes into the song, Trout leaps out and shows his pure genius.

A few hours after grooving to Trout’s live album and then the Mayall one on which he features, I stumbled upon a surprise and a coincidence. This was on the morning of March 21. Still on a Trout fix, I’d just bought The Outsider, Trout’s album from 2008. The penultimate song on the album, I saw, is called Sanjay. Intrigued, I clicked on it and found that it was about Sanjay Dutt. I kid you not.

Walter Trout was singing about how a good man had got a bad rap, referring to the Bollywood actor. Minutes later my phone, in day job mode, alerted me to Dutt’s sentencing by the Supreme Court: he’d have to spend three-and-a-half years in prison. Bewildered by the coincidence, I did some checking to find that Dutt is a huge Trout fan and, quite obviously, the two know each other. Well, what can I say, except that it’s a small world?

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WELLNESS

MIND BODY SOUL SHIKHA SHARMA

SVELTE? NO SWEAT Weight-loss secrets from Paris and Tokyo

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N AN AGE when obesity has become a global issue, it can be useful to study the eating habits of women who seem to maintain a svelte figure despite what they eat.

All of us might have heard the statement: “I am fat because of my bone structure,” some time or the other. But Japanese and French women, who carry off their enviable figures without dieting or gymming, seem to be exceptions.

So what are their secrets?

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL Eating many delicacies but in small portions is the hallmark of French culture

oil, making it one of the healthiest cuisines. Chefs there revel in preserving the natural taste and EAT LIKE THE JAPANESE flavour of food. Miso and many Most Japanese women are slim not soya delicacies are on the menus, just because of their DNA. It is the providing them with a healthy country’s culture and lifestyle that source of protein. gives Japanese women their fabuNever say fry: Steaming and lous figures. Put a Japanese girl in grilling in natural, healthy oils are the United States and sure enough, the preferred styles of cooking in she will begin to bloat Japan. They are wary of much more than her Most frying their food and counterparts in Japan.

Japanese have dairy foods and Eat fresh: This is a products in very common habit among don’t consider dairy meagre quantities. most Japanese people.

Eat just enough: In eating They perceive food as culture, having packaged Japanese something to be cooked an unfit body is not and eaten fresh. The foods as considered desirable.

Japanese are not the Hara hachibun me (eat proper meals ones to eat out of a till you are 80 per cent packet. Despite the full) is popular advice strides they’ve made in the packgiven to young women to moderate aging industry, most Japanese their eating habits. don’t consider eating packaged foods as proper meals. A typical BE FIT LIKE THE FRENCH Japanese family will always eat French women take delight in freshly cooked meals. wearing fashionable clothes and Shun the snacks: They like to have there can be considerable pressure proper meals. It is very rare for the in a woman’s life to ensure that Japanese to eat on the go, while she stays svelte and fashionable driving or walking in a mall. no matter what her age is.

Soup it up: Standard Japanese Eat without guilt: While eating, cuisine will always women should savour the food. have lots of Eating with guilt can lead to green vegetaunhealthy eating practices and bles, soups weight gain. Pleasure eating is and steamed obviously not packaged foods. So, food. Most nonFrench women rarely eat fast food vegetarian dishor junk food and most French cuies consist of sine is made of fresh ingredients. seafood and are Bite right: Small portions are the cooked with hallmark of French eating. Eating almost no many delicacies in small quantities

FLAKING IT Most non-vegetarian dishes in Japan consist of seafood cooked in less oil

is intrinsic to the culture.

Walk the talk: French women do not need to gym as they are on their feet all the time.

Eat on time: Close to 60 per cent of food eaten by French women is eaten by 3 pm, and late-night eating is not the accepted thing.

ask@drshikha.com

Photos: THINKSTOCK

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MARCH 31, 2013

VA R I E T Y

hindustantimes.com/brunch

The IPL Skipper Wars

RICKY PONTING VS MS DHONI The Kangaroos are still smarting from the series loss to India.

Mumbai Indians have legends such as Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting in their dugout, but then MS Dhoni, captain of Chennai Super Kings, always relishes the prospect of upstaging an Australian captain. And Mahi’s record in the previous editions of the league has been in the same orbit as his helicopter shots. What say, mate?

Come April 3, nine feisty captains will try to outgun their foes. The pecking order

by Aasheesh Sharma

ADAM GILCHRIST VS YUVRAJ SINGH Former Australian great Gilchrist can demolish the best of bowling attacks. Like Gilly, Yuvi can hit most bowlers out of the park, too. Ask Stuart Broad.

So, what will be more entertaining than the sight of local boy Yuvraj hitting Kings XI Punjab bowlers at Mohali? There’s a twist in the tale: Yuvi’s wearing Pune Warriors colours this time around. Jatt’s the way, we like it.

RAHUL DRAVID VS VIRAT KOHLI It’s a fight between two handsome cricketers who’ve been anointed Mr Dependable. Former Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Dravid has become The Great Wall of Jaipur in this edition of the Indian Premier League. And Kohli, with a vote of confidence from the Challengers’ management, is clearly the King of Good Times this time round. Will Deepika Padukone be cheering from the stands?

MAHELA JAYAWARDENE VS KUMAR SANGAKKARA Both seasoned performers are former skippers of Sri Lanka who have moved on to focus on their batting while relinquishing the ODI and Test captaincy to Angelo Mathews. Sangakkara has the challenging task of leading Sunrisers, IPL’s newest team, even as Jayawardene would like to lead Delhi Daredevils to their first ever victory.

Aakraman!

GAUTAM GAMBHIR VS HIS DETRACTORS In 2012, Gambhir had a dream IPL. This year, axed from the Indian XI, the captain of defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders has a point (or two) to prove to his critics.

Shah Rukh will be watching, so will we! aasheesh.sharma@hindustantimes.com

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VA R I E T Y

The Changing Parent Trap

Many 20-and-30-yearolds are now moving out of their parents’ homes – but living in the same city. Here’s why

Photo: RAJ K RA J

by Saudamini Jain

T

HERE’S THIS thing about being Indian and there’s this thing about family. And both these things are inexorably linked – bursting at the seams with emotion, commotion and intervention. It’s all about loving your parents (and living with them too). The latter, though, is negotiable. Welcome to the post-familial Indian family.

Devna Soni, a law student, decided to move closer to college after she got a part-time job. “You’ve been driving down for years,” argued her parents. But Soni says she couldn’t possibly spend “two hours of my time” on the road every day.

Besides, she always wanted to live on her own. But solo life is hard. It’s the middle of an exam week and “the motor is messed up! There’s NO water! And the maid is such a !@#$%^! You’ve got to be physically present to get her to do anything right.” Isn’t it easier to just live at home? “No way!” she exclaims. It’s a small price to pay for freedom.

Living at home would be cheaper too. Her parents are paying the bills – R15,000 a month. Devna covers the rest with her earnings, “It’s not like they’re paying for my extravagances.

They’re covering the basics,” she says matter-of-factly.

REASONABLE MOVE?

Like Soni, many young people are moving out of their parents’ houses to live on their own – in the same city. They say they don’t just want their space anymore, they need their space – literally. Some of them are inspired by friends who have moved from small towns and merrily live the single, solo life in the big city.

But the official reason they give their parents is usually the same: “I want to reduce the time and effort spent on travelling to work.”

Another obvious inspiration for these young people is films, TV and

books – all featuring young, working city boys or girls living in a matchbox, trying to make it big. Coming back home to mummy-daddy doesn’t really fit into this idea of cool.

But this really isn’t a Western phenomenon, says Delhi University professor Malashri Lal, who edited the anthology The Indian Family in Transition. “In small towns, young people always had to leave the family to make a living. Now it is happening within the city because the metropolis is becoming the megalopolis.” Bigger city, newer rules.

It would have been cheaper for her parents to just buy her a new car and pay for the petrol. They’re now pitching in R15,000 for her bills, every month. She covers the rest with her salary. It’s a small price to pay for freedom Filmmaker Karan Johar, who works with a lot of young people, has noticed this new trend. In fact, he says, a lot of parents are choosing to move out. “Retired parents move to suburbs like Vashi while the young kids stay in the city – Bandra, Juhu. They meet on weekends,” he says. Family has always meant a great deal to Johar, so does he think

The best lessons are on television. Not Hindi shows, please – nobody wants HOW THAT kind of drama in their family. Here’s what you should watch:

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our 20-something-year-old girls trying to make it in New York City. Hannah (Lena Dunham) is a jobless writer, Marnie is an art-gallery assistant-turned-hostess, Jessa is a free spirit and Shoshanna is a prudist student with daddy’s money. The show is

HOW TO LIVE ON YOUR OWN HBO’s Girls

halfway through its second season, but it only takes the first episode to realise how difficult it is to survive on your own in the big, bad city (and how much fun). Take cues from Hannah, no salary, no handouts from Papa. That’s a hard life.

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our living at home can be pretty darn awful for the parental units too! Oh, the drama! But just like this Australian show, living at home has its sweet moments.

Julie and Dave Rafter were going to finally have the house to themselves, except the family starts trickling back in. Nathan and his wife Sammy are trying to save money by moving back in.

Rachel’s boyfriend is an abusive junkie. She’s a mess and back home.

And Ben? Well. He only moved next door.

There’s oodles of drama. It’s an Indian situation by default.

You’ll realise your family isn’t the only oddball.

TO LIVE WITH THE FOLKS Packed to the Rafters, Star World

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In Hindi films, there are only about three reasons for somebody to move out of their parents’ house PYAAR/BHAAG KE SHAADI A la Bobby, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak or even Ishaqzaade (they move into a brothel!)

You’ve got to be young and in love. And very, very stupid

this arrangement works? “I think it makes them grow closer and connect more emotionally,” he says.

“But we’re so oversensitive as a community, we take this [moving out] as an emotional insult.”

Still, Johar believes that we’re in the midst of great change. “It’s becoming ‘your money is your money, my money is my money’ between parents and kids. Teens today are very ambitious – which is a great thing!”

But is moving out the only way to secure one’s space and freedom?

“Living with your parents won’t stop you from doing anything! Young people are forever lying to their parents!” says Manju Kapur, author of Home and Difficult Daughters, with a laugh.

And Indian parents can never completely stop nagging even when their children move out. The real reason, she says is that, “there’s a great deal of unhappiness in families.” Simply put, “If you want your children to live with you, you’ve got to give them more freedom.”

“MUJHE AAPKI DAULAT, SHAUHRAT, AISHOAARAAM KI ZINDAGI NAHI CHAHIYE” This is usually combined with the pyaar. Rich boy meets poor girl, gets disillusioned with papa ke paise. Remember Sharaabi? Maine Pyar Kiya? Saathiya?

THE IDEOLOGICAL FIGHT WITH THE PARENTAL UNITS We really, really liked Wake up Sid. But then, Ranbir moves right back in.

1. Find a house (make sure the landlords don’t impose curfew), find a responsible roommate.

We really need new movies! Is Bollywood listening?

2. Drop a hint to the parents.

Complain about the traffic, the distance to work and the long hours

reason young people choose to move out. And it has to do with sex. Most Indian parents still don’t acknowledge the fact that their 20-something kids may be sexually active, which is another reason they desperately need their own space.

Psychoanalyst Dr Vinita Kshetrapal, associate professor at Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University, says that young people opt to move out “in search of an identity which includes sexual exploration.” Mark Mathews (24, but name changed because his parents don’t know he’s sexually active), admits that if he had still been living with his parents, he’d probably “crash at other people’s houses all the time”.

Luckily, his parents are in Delhi and he works in Gurgaon. So his girlfriend can come over whenever she wants.

“Parents don’t admit their 20somethings kids may be sexually active”

A NEW NESTING INSTINCT

At 28, filmmaker Shawn Arranha (now 35) decided he no longer wanted to be questioned about his life. So he moved out of the family home in Bandra to settle in Andheri.

“Families don’t understand work pressure,” he explains. “They’ll call 10 times a day,” he says. “They worry about you eating the right food. But you’ve got deadlines and it’s very difficult to bridge the gap. So you either give in to your family or deal with your professional life, which inevitably goes down the drain.”

Arranha also claims his relationship with his parents has only improved since he moved. “Now when I go home, I get pampered a lot and it’s a great feeling,” he says.

There’s another, less acknowledged

APRON-STRING THEORY

Parents are also going through a prolonged midlife crisis of their own. They have devoted their life to their children and so don’t understand this defiant need for individualism. But it passes, says Dr Sameer Malhotra, who heads

the department of mental health and behavioural sciences at Max Hospital, Saket. “Parents usually go through a phase of depression but are comforted by the fact that their child is learning to be independent,” he says.

Ironically, it’s not independence at all. Jasmine Kaur (name changed), 24, who works at a consulting firm says that with domestic help, keeping house isn’t as hard. “There is the odd time when you Google ‘how to make khichdi’, but whenever I want pampering, I just go back home!”

Journalist Shibani Bedi, 26, lugs laundry home every weekend – “Bedsheets, jeans, you know, all the bigger clothes” – and returns with tonnes of food.

Look closely, and most solo dwellers don’t seem like such heroes. Their new little rentals are little more than a halfway home. But that’s all right, says psychoanalyst Kshetrapal. “Complete independence is a myth. One will always be dependent on some human beings.”

And it gives parents a sense of purpose. Everybody’s happy.

“Family will always expect you to not work too much and lead a healthier lifestyle. It’s because they love you,” he says. “When you’re on your own, it’s upto you to eat healthy. And you always manage,” he adds.

3. Wait a week. Drop another hint.

This time, make it about learning to manage your own affairs.

4. Always break it to them gently with the prefix: “I don’t know if I’ll be able to manage on my own but...”

Parents love it when their kids take up a challenge.

5. Make sure you have enough cash for rent, getting around, utilities, groceries, clothes, enough to splurge on occasional wild nights and also find money to save.

6. Don’t let your friends crash over all the time or you’ll be the idiot cleaning up the mess.

7. Remember, laundry takes time! All the best!

MORE ON THE WEB For a first-hand account of moving out, log on to

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saudamini.jain@hindustantimes.com

BRAMANIAN Photo: VIDYA SU

MARCH 31, 2013

PERSONAL AGENDA

Author BIRTHDAY

April 15, 1940

SUN SIGN Aries

Jeffrey Archer

HOMETOWN

London and Cambridge

PLACE OF BIRTH London

twitter.com/HTBrunch

SCHOOL/ COLLEGE

FIRST BREAK

Wellington School; Not a Penny More, Not A Brasenose Penny Less College, Oxford

YOUR BEST KEPT SECRET.

LOW POINT OF YOUR LIFE Death, whenever it comes

HIGH POINT OF YOUR LIFE

Running for England in 1966

CURRENTLY I AM ...

Promoting my latest novel, Best Kept Secret

What are you reading right now?

The Hundred Year Old Man [Jonas Jonasson] A book you wish you’d written?

A Tale Of Two Cities [Charles Dickens].

A book that instantly put you to sleep.

James Joyce’s Ulysses.

A book that kept you up all night?

Life of Pi [Yann Martel].

What would you say to someone who doesn’t like to read?

You’re missing a lot of fun.

Physical books or e-books.

Physical books.

The oddest place that inspiration has struck you.

On a bus.

The funniest thing a fan has said to you.

“My grandmother loves your books”.

What would we find on your bedside table?

A photo of my wife, Mary, and a pile of books.

What about India reminds you most of the UK? Cricket.

I’m in love with Audrey Hepburn

Photo: KALPAK PATHAK

LAST WORD

IN LIFE, WHAT IS THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT?

Don’t get caught

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO TELL THE INDIAN PRESIDENT?

I’d like to be minister of transport THE LAST TIME YOU FOUND YOURSELF A PENNY LESS.

On a train to London

The craziest rumour you have heard about yourself.

That I won a gold medal at the Olympics.

Describe India in five words.

Tomorrow, calm, kind, dignified, readers.

Is it harder to be a writer or an MP? An MP. What did you do with your first pay cheque?

Spent it on a painting.

A book you would rewrite.

Kane and Abel.

Advice to an aspiring writer.

Work, work, work.

The craziest thing you’ve done for your wife.

Marry her!

If life had a backspace button, what would you delete?

Nothing.

What is the one thing you can’t help splurging on?

Art. Your favourite gadget.

A watch.

The hardest thing about being a writer?

The loneliness.

— Interviewed by Mignonne Dsouza

MARCH 31, 2013

Photo: THINKSTOCK

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